Barn Talk - How To Start A Successful Skilled Trades Business From Scratch W/Matthew Roder

Episode Date: July 2, 2022

Welcome to Barn Talk,  Today we’ve got a good one for you. Our guest today is an example of the kind of hustling and determination that gives us hope. We’re going to dive into the backstory of this young skilled trades business owner and try to pull out a few nuggets that you can apply to your own endeavors. But first, we ask that you pay the fee and SHARE THE SHOW! Go Support Matt & Roder Epoxy 👇🏻  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/roderepoxy Number: 319-461-8162 Barn Talk Merch! 👇🏻 https://www.thislldo.co/ SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST ➱ https://bit.ly/3a7r3nR SUBSCRIBE TO THIS’LL DO FARM ➱ https://bit.ly/2X8g45c SUBSCRIBE TO BARN TALK CLIPS ➱ https://bit.ly/3BlZnqq LISTEN ON: SPOTIFY ➱ https://open.spotify.com/show/3icVr4KWq4eUDl7Oy60YMY ITUNES ➱ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/barn-talk/id1574395049 Follow Behind The Scenes👇🏻 ● This’ll Do Farm Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/30KPBNk ● Barn Talk TikTok ➱ https://bit.ly/3qciekS ● Sawyer’s Instagram  ➱ https://bit.ly/3BtX0n4 ● Tork’s Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/3LGZJxS ------------------------------- ***PLEASE NOTE*** Barn Talk is a significant break from the typical content viewers have come to expect from This’ll Do Farm. Please be advised that we will be exploring a wide variety of topics (some adult-themed) and our younger viewers (and their parents) should be advised that some topics will be for mature audiences only. ⚠NO FINANCIAL ADVICE / DISCLAIMER⚠ The Information discussed and shared on Barn Talk is provided for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, without any express or implied warranty of any kind, including warranties of accuracy, completeness, or success for any particular purpose. The Information contained in or provided from or through this podcast is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, investment advice, trading advice, or any other advice. The Information on this podcast and provided from or through our content is general in nature and is not specific to you, the user or anyone else. You should not make any decision, financial, investment, trading or otherwise, based on any of the information presented on this podcast without undertaking independent due diligence and consultation with a professional, professional broker or financial advisory. Understand that you are using any and all Information available on or through this website at your own risk. RISK STATEMENT– The trading of Bitcoins, alternative cryptocurrencies, NFTs, individual stocks, etc. has potential rewards, and it also has potential risks involved. Trading may not be suitable for all people. Anyone wishing to invest should seek his or her own independent financial or professional advice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What made you want to go out on your own? What made you to decide to go out, go out? Well, during this time with Dennis, my mom got really sick. She ended up getting cancer. And when I was there, it was like, hey, I need time to go back and forth to go home to, you know, see her, be with her and all that. Anyways, I was kind of in the talks of, like, saying, hey, I'm pretty good at what I do. You know, I've worked my way up to this. I'm doing well.

I'm thinking about starting my own company. I come back to Washington area and hopefully get up in the whole Southeast Iowa part. They're like, yeah, you should, you know, you should do that. My mom was the, she was huge, you know, she wanted me to do it so bad and all that. And so that's really what drove me back home. She ended up passing away

before I was able to start my company. But I just really wanted her to, you know, see, see what I was doing. and I wanted to make her proud, basically. My mom was a big factor in starting the company on my own. I told her I was interested in it. She was all for it. And so I said, I'm going to go do it, you know.

And it's something I wanted. It wasn't fully just because I wanted to make her proud, but it was something that I wanted to do. All of the food we eat and much of the clothing we wear comes from plants and animals that are raised on farms. Farms are different in type, in size, and even in name. Welcome to Barn Talk. What happens at the barn?

Stays at the barn. Until now, we're going to let it all out for you guys. Today, we got a good one. Our guest today is an example of the kind of hustling and determination that gives us hope. We're going to dive into the backstory of this young business owner and try to pull out a few nuggets that you can apply in your own endeavors. But first, pay the fee. If you guys get any value from the show, share it out with your friends, coworkers, family, employees, whatever. We're trying to grow this thing, do some good in this world.

And the ticket to admission to watch or listen to the show is just sharing it if you get any value. We don't run ads for the show. We don't run ads to promote the show. It's all organic and that's the way we kind of like to do things. So share it out. Also leave a review on Spotify or Apple. That also helps us out a lot. So we're up to 200 on Spotify, 220 on Spotify and like 108 on Apple.

So we see those. We appreciate every single one of you guys that are doing that too. that's growing helps us out so you want to market update i do i think everybody does oh i tell you what i'm kind of bushed out i had a long day yesterday i i went to the uh isu swine day and i had to speak and it was very it's draining when you're the last person you go to a deal where there's speakers all day and then you're the last person to speak and so you have all this angst build up and then when you're done i mean you're practically exhausted by the time you start just if you're like me because you get nervous. And I was awfully nervous and I don't know why I was

nervous because it was really simple and I had a pretty short speech to do. But anyway, it was a good time and I thank you for the people at ISU for taking pity on me. But I fit their budget. That was the main. I think that was the main deal. I fit their budget for a speaker. So I know my place in the world. Today's market update. I'm leaving oil in here because energy prices are a big. deal. So oil doesn't change a whole lot though. It's $109 a barrel. Corn's cut, dropped back a little bit, but I'll tell you what, I was driving north yesterday, and the crops don't look that good when you get to Northern Iowa. Up around the Ames area, I saw a field of beans that was just barely out of the ground. So I think they've been a lot wetter than we are down here. And the crop report came out,

and I think it was the corn was pretty good, but if we don't get some rain around, southeast Iowa, it's going to start looking tough pretty fast. Anyway, corn's about $750 locally right now. Beans, 672, this is an odd one. So today, beans are 672 at Meekers on the Illinois side, and they're 672 at ADM and Burlington. So same price, so you can make no money by driving across the bridge. That doesn't happen very often. Bean meal's 470 tons, so I did get the price on bean meal because last week we were talking about feed prices. and a friend of the show, Sutton, he updated me. Yeah, I think.

That's right. Sutton, that's his name. He keeps tabs on all things feed related. And he told me that hog feed, finished hog feed, and I'm assuming this is like fat hog feed, not nursery feed because it's a little higher. $365 a ton. So that tells you. And I should be able to tell you off the top of my head how many ton of feed it takes

to, or how many pounds of feet it takes to feed a pig. Well, I'm assuming it's like 800, 900 pounds, because if it's a 3 to 1 ratio, I don't want to do math, it's too early. Wheat, 868, hogs are $109, so they're dropped, but it's because it went to a new month. Cattles 133, Tesla, back down, 673. Bye, bye, bye. Ethereum, $1,050. Bitcoin was working up. 22,000 and they knocked her back down 19,000. Bye, bye, bye. And I threw MP materials in there. So MP materials is near and dear to my heart. It stands for Mountain Pass, which is the name of the mine that they own. So it is the only rare earth mineral mine in North America. So all the crap that goes into magnets and a lot of stuff that goes in, trace minerals that go in batteries.

and I can't remember what else, maybe computer chips. About 70% of that comes from China, which is not a good thing when you think about all the national defense products that need magnets and lasers. Oh yeah, that's the other thing. A lot of stuff goes into making lasers. Anyway, Mountain Pass is the only mine in North America, and it got bought and it went public, and they're expanded it.

And I think long-term MP Materials is going to be a very valuable company. So there's your little tidbit. This is not financial advice. Sawyer was already pot. He was ready to jump on that because... I was just going to ask you, is this financial advice? Yeah. Sawyer...

You are on top of it. Sawyer doesn't even take my financial advice, so you shouldn't either. This is just my own personally. I am in MP materials a little bit. I won't lie. Maybe next week... I'm about that stock, too. Same here.

Maybe next week we'll have some other oddball deal to talk about. Feel better now that you got that? Oh, hey, I do have a shameless plug I want to do. So yesterday, at Swine Day, one of the main reasons I wanted to go there is because they had Peter Zion speak. And Peter Zion is a geopolitical analyst, I think, is his claim to fame. And he does a lot with demographics and geography and, like, the availability of energy resources within different parts of the world. And he has a brand new book out. And it's called The End of the World is Just the

beginning. And it's his fourth book. And he was nice enough. He was nice enough. He was nice enough. to sign my book. So thank you, Peter, for that. Shameless plug, because I'm trying to get him to come on the podcast, so I'm going to send him this clip and make him feel guilty. But heck of a nice guy, and if you want to be, if you want to not be able to sleep at night for a few days, just listen to one of his, he's been on all kinds of podcasts. He's been, I think he's been on Rogan.

I'm not 100% sure on that, but he's been on Pomp. He's been on Anthony Pompheanos deal, and a few other people have had him on. and smart, smart guy. And he has a different worldview than most people. And it's good for some people. It's not good for some others. So anyway, I think that's it.

I think I've got enough. I've gone far enough. Do you have coffee this morning? Oh, you bet I did. A whole pot of it. I'm trying to get to your level right now. Yeah, well, you're about... I'm drinking my coffee.

Sawyer is about five cups behind. I was thinking mimoses this morning or something. Yeah. Well, yeah, this almost should be a hangover edition because the boys went boating yesterday. Yeah, I went boating or my good buddy went, took us all out, and I drank too much. I had a little too much fun. I could tell it was when I got the first words out of Sawyer you can always tell because it's a deep. Yeah.

Very short syllable words when Sawyer's not at his best. All right. So we're going to get into it, folks. We got an awesome guest on here. This is a good buddy of mine that I've been friends with for a long, long time, grew up with him. And kind of just, we're kind of doing this thing, entrepreneurship a little bit together. We kind of went on our own path. And we're going to get in all of that nitty-gritty stuff today. But really good friend of the show, listens to the show. Good friend of mine. He's been a family friend for a long time. He's came to our house. Hell, I can't even tell you how many times. So it's awesome. I'm going to have a friend on the show, get a meet a friend of mine. And, yeah, so we're going to get into it. Matt Roder, welcome to the show. Welcome to Barn Talk. Thank you. Glad to be here, finally.

You know? Yeah. We're talking about this for like a year. A couple months now or maybe longer. Longer. I know we've been trying to schedule and we're just like, ah, can't do it this week. Can't do it this week. Matt's played a few hands of poker at the Barn Talk table,

but he's never had the microphones on. for a yeah well that's the funny thing so i've had friends up here and we've been drinking and playing poker or something and not for any money but just for fun just for fun and uh we just turn these mics on because the podcast stuff's up here so we'll just turn the mics on we'll just act like we're having a podcast playing poker it's kind of fun we're actually thinking we should just post this yeah you should just record it that would be get into some good conversations and that would be pretty good actually. This isn't Matt's first rodeo on these mics, but first live shot. We could throw out an audio-only version of that sometimes. Yeah, that'd be funny. I don't know. I think people, some people's

ears would start bleeding. Well, we'd have to make, we'd have to put a disclaimer on it. All right, Matt. So tell the people what you do as far as what you're doing now, what your company is, and, you know, shout out, shout yourself out a little bit. So my company is called rotor epoxy. Um, what we do is a lot of garage floors, full flake systems, metallics, stain and seals, just concrete coatings is what it is. It's not specifically just concrete. You can go over wood, you know, stuff like that, but concrete garages, patios, basements. That's my main thing that I'm doing right now. Nice. How in the, okay, where can people find you first? Big thing right now is Facebook. If you just get on Facebook and type in rotor epoxy,

all my all my work is up on there you kind of get to get to know who we are got a lot of pictures of my brother helps me out he does great work shout out to Kyle but um it just shows we really want to get the customers to know who we are so we got a lot of stuff of Kyle and I both on the on the Facebook and got a call button or something that people can hit yep yep people can reach out you can just Google it as well and it will our information comes up and just has the call button email we'll put all of matt stuff in the link in the description if you're the description if you guys want to check it out facebook his number all that stuff so if you want to get your floor done or whatever shout out to matt give him a call by tomorrow

there'll be some jackass out there that's got a got a name rotor epoxy with one extra r trying to steal your google searches rotten bastards that's all right that's all right that's right Ah, okay. So, you, this is what you're doing, and you kind of, you worked for somebody else that was doing this before you went out on your own. Correct. But let's back the truck up. Okay. So when you were, when you were at the age where you were trying to decide, what am I going to do, did you wake up one morning go, you know what?

I bet you I could make a bunch of money epoxy in basement floors. So what was your thought process? Like, what did you, how did you think your time after high school? What was your plan? Just tell them the fucking story, man. Just say, how the hell did you get to where you are now? It's kind of a long, short story. I mean, that's why we've got this podcast.

Right, right. So it was all started out in high school. I was, um, wasn't a big fan of school, you know, but whatever. Anyways, I just got a part-time job at Fairway, the grocery store here in town. And I started working in the meat department. I think I was, it was 16 years old. I want to say 16. And back in the meat department, you can't use any of the equipment or the, you know,

the saws or anything like that if you're below the age of 18. So I remember being younger because I'd always have to ask some of the older guys back there to hey can you come slice four pieces of cheese for this customer because i wasn't able to use it and they get so mad at me and you know but anyways started out um started out back there and going through high school i wasn't a fan of school like i said and didn't really care to go off to college but um my mom and dad kind of told me hey just go try it out you know like to see you go go to school and all that. Anyways, so I go off, I go to Hawkeye Community College up in Waterloo as I'm working for Fairway.

So I got transferred up to Waterloo so they were able to give me a job at Fairway while I was still up there. Actually, I was working in Cedar Falls but going to school in Waterloo. So Hawkeye Community College and University of Northern Iowa kind of had a deal where you can live in the dorms at U.N.I. and then still go to Hawkeye. Anyways, was working up there. And at the time, sorry to cut you off,

but at the time, you were kind of banking on Faraway. Correct. So when I got up there, I realized school. Really wasn't. I hated it. You know,

so I'm like, well, Fairway is a good, you know, you can work your way up in Fairway and make a really good living. Yeah. A damn good living.

Six-figure job. But the hours were getting to me. You know, I would, I'd go in at 11 o'clock. on a Saturday, 11 o'clock in the morning on a Saturday, and have to work till 2 in the morning because you close, you know, so you'd work like 11 to 4, 5 to 9 is when they close, but people don't realize on Saturdays when you close, you have to clean out the case, so we make sure all the

meat was good and put it in the back in the fridge, and then you power washing out the meat case and you're there for an extra two, three hours at night. And just, it just being a, just being a college kid you know you're in a college town and you're working saturday night till one a m it's like this it's really got on me and i'll also say in high school always matt has always worked really really hard you've always worked yeah it's you've always and when you were at fairway in high school it was the same thing you worked a lot right and it it was awesome to see obviously it's a we respect the shit out of it but it took up a lot of my time yeah um but anyways i my man up in Cedar Falls was really good and there was actually assistant manager at the same

same store well in Cedar Falls they built a new store while I was up there and I was able to go transfer to that store and help open it and all that and you know get it going. Then my time in Cedar Falls, Waterloo wasn't my best. Didn't really care for it. Didn't people up there just support for me, you know, school wasn't for me. So I was talking to my parents saying, hey, school sucks and all that. And they're like, well, why'd you try go living with your buddy over in Des Moines, transfer over at DMAC? So I'm like, okay.

So I go over to DMAC and get done with my first semester there, living with my buddies, my buddies. And anyways, I found out that all my credits from Hawkeye didn't really transfer into DMAC very well because there were two different programs. and I found out that I had to go do another year. Retake. Right. And in the meantime, at this point, I'm working full-time for Fairway in Ankeny now

because I got transferred there to be able to still have a job and go to school. So I'm going full-time, school and work. And I realize that not all my credits transferred over, so they're like, hey, you're going to have to take another year of school. And I'm just like, I'm done. I couldn't do it anymore. I went home to mom and dad, and they were supportive of it.

You know, they're just like, okay, what are you going to do? You know what I mean? I'm like, well, Fairway's not working out for me either at this time. I'm just kind of tired. I'm burned out of it, you know, working. I was there for two and a half, three years, I think,

16 to 19, so three years. Yeah, and you were, they wanted, I mean, you, I remember you telling us, I mean, you could have probably worked your way up pretty, Yeah, I was talking with supervisors, and there was a nice gentleman from around here that is a vice president of Fairway. So I was talking with him, and he was very motivated. Fairway's growing at the time. They need employees, and I probably could have got my own store being a manager by this time now.

You know, being 22 and having my own store would have been awesome, you know, making six figures a year. But the workload was a lot. You know, people think, oh, you're just working at a grocery store, you know, but it's a lot of work. So, I mean, dealing with all the customers is tough. And, you know, I want that, I want that rabbi. And then you reach far up in the case, which is fine. I totally understand. But anyways, just kind of got burned out of the Fairway deal.

So while I'm working at Fairway in Anakeney, this guy walks up. He's ordering pork chops. I like him already. Yeah, big Iowa that cut pork chops. So I remember it to the stay because I had just filled in like four rows of these pork chops and we're having a deal on them. And he comes up and he says, I'll take like six of those. I'm like, all right, fine.

I'm trying to look for a new job at this time as well. Keep that in mind. And he kind of wanders off and he realizes, wow, that was super cheap. So he comes back, he's like, I want all of them. Give me everything you got. I'm like, everything. Like even in the back, he's like everything. I'm like, all right, give me some time and I'll do it.

anyway, I see he's standing there because he's done grocery shopping. We start talking. And I see his logo right up here on his chest. And I just asked, hey, what do you do? You know? And he's like, well, I own my own epoxy company. Like, what's epoxy? You know, I wasn't very educated. And I had no idea. And he's like, oh, we do garage floors and basements and patios and some commercial stuff and all that. And I was like, you're hiring? And he's like, you want a job? I'm a job. I'm I'm like, yeah, I'm, you know, as we're open in Fairway, my manager's like right behind me and he's like listening into this conversation. And I'm like, yeah, I'll take your name and number and I'll call you tomorrow. And he's like, okay, you know, so he writes down his name and number, hands it to me,

and then I go get chewed out in the back by my manager, right, at Fairway. But anyways, what did he say? Well, he's just like, you know, you, you, you're good. at what you do here you can go a long ways and fairway you know it'd be a shame if you left here and did all that and i'm like sorry man i just i can't do it anymore my heart's not in it yeah i'm not i don't love it so and was the indicator to ask him what he does because he bought all the freaking pork chops does that just not happen very usually that's a sign of intelligence no not necessarily i was just i seen i honestly i just seen the logo on his shirt i don't know what Joe, you know, he seemed like, hey, I could work with this guy, you know.

Anyways, he just had this logo and that's what drove me to ask him. Do you think that, so not to stop you again, but Fairway, what do you think your biggest takeaway as far as skill-wise? What did you gain from Fairway? Definitely customer service. Having, you know, some, in the Incony, it's very rich, preppy area, you know, So sometimes there's people, they ask, they will receive. Very specific about what they want. Exactly.

Exactly. So sometimes they can come off a little harsh. Yeah. But just the way of dealing with people, the small talk that you can get into, just really making those little connections with everyday people where they go in grocery shopping. And every time they come to the meat counter, they're like, oh, I want to go to that one. Yeah. I want to go to him because.

I know him. He talks to me. Yeah, I know him. He talks to me. We get along well. Yeah, that's another thing that I think you have really down really well as people skills. Having that three years of just talking to people. I mean, you've always had really good people skills, but I think that I even gave it to you even more. And that's something that's a lacking nowadays and young guys out there because we don't communicate. You know, kids are always on their phones now.

You don't go and get out. It's rare to find kids that actually have people skills in hell. Do you know what? Do you know what it really drove me? When I went off to college and didn't know anybody, we'd get in the elevator and everyone would just hop on their phone and not look at you and not pay attention to who you are. And it's like, how rude.

I'm standing right here. Yeah. So I would speak up. I'd be like, hey, how's it going, guys, you know? And I met a lot of people just doing that. In the elevator. You know, just kind of giving that first impression where it's like, are you going to talk to me or not, you know?

And I just think it's more rude not to say anything. than to say something, you know, it's, but anyways, yeah, so I was working at Fairway and, uh, Dennis, this is his name, he came up to me and I asked him, he gave me his phone number and everything and I said, I'll call you tomorrow. So, um, the next day, I call him and he's, yeah, I'll call you later, you know, like, he seemed busy. He didn't really care. He wasn't expecting it. Right. Yes. So I'm like, okay, fine. Well, day went by, and I didn't hear a phone call back. So I said, I'm calling him again. And I called him. He's like, man, you're really interested in this, aren't you? I'm like, yeah, I'm trying to get out of fairway. I want something different, you know, I want this. You know? And he said, all right, meet me at the shop and we'll talk. And anyways, I get to the shop. He's not there. So I call him again and be like, hey, Dennis, I'm at the shop. I'm at the shop. I'm here for an interview or whatever you wanted to call it.

It wasn't really an interview, just kind of a meet and greet, I guess. He's like, oh, man, you're actually showed up, you're there, you know. And he, so he meets me in the shop and I talked to him. I talked to him and he gave me the chance, you know. He said, yeah, I'll give you the job and all that. So it just kind of took off from there. And just the little connection that you made at Fairway. Yeah, paid off.

that guy, I owe him a lot because I wouldn't be where I am if it weren't for him today. Yeah, I'll also say that, and I've told you this many times, and I've excused, if you guys hear a little bit of a background noise, I think it just started raining. And so if you hear a little bit of, it's the rain on top of the roof of the barn. It's the Lord's smiling on us. Yeah, so just bear with us there. It might stop. It might not. So we're just going to keep on, keeping on. But one thing, and I've told you this before, Matt, is, I don't think you, I mean, I think you, I think you, give yourself credit on that story, but you took the initiative the whole way on that whole thing. Like, you asked him about the job. You had to call him three times to make sure that you get the job.

You know how many people just give up after like once? Oh, he didn't answer. I'm not going to call him. Right. You know? And it's just a testament. You're, you're, it was, you were resilient and you wanted it and you went after it. And there's so many people that just would have quit. Yeah. And I think it's very telling. his reaction to when you called, when you called him and you were at the shop, and he said, oh, shit, you actually showed up. It makes you wonder how many kids, how many people have called him about talking to him about a job and then never shown up to where he was like, eh, I don't know if the kid's going to show up or not. And he, he just looked at me as like a meathead, you know, in Fairway. You know, he didn't expect, you know, it's concrete work. It's not,

it's not easy. So when you go and he sees a young guy and, you know, I'm sure. sure his he wasn't thinking wow this guy's going to be he's actually going to stick around and be worth of shit yeah he's he's thinking oh it's just another young guy saw my logo and see maybe seen my trailer around town or something and wants a job and then when he finds out how hard it is he probably ain't going to pan out yeah and then i i told them i said i only want because i was i was going to school and i said i only want like 20 hours a week because i was working full time for Fairway and I, you know, I'm still focusing on school trying to get done with that and everything. But I told them I only want 20, 25 hours a week and all that.

And anyways, I picked up on it fast. And he's like, I need you. Like, I need you big time. So you got the job. Yeah, I did. Yeah. He said, all right, you're hired. Let's do this.

And I quit Fairway on my birthday, my 19th birthday. And then I started the following Monday for Dennis. Hensley Concrete Coatings up in Incany. So what was the learning curve like on that? Because you didn't know anything about it. Yeah. So he had a guy working with him for him at the time. He only had one employee when I showed up.

And very quiet, quiet guy. He's hard to talk to when he first meet him, you know? So this is kind of funny too. But Dennis warned me, he said, you know, he might not talk to you much, but just pay attention to what he does and learn from how he does things, and then you do it. I'm like, okay, whatever. So go to the first job, and I'm with him,

and he's not really talking to me. I'm trying to start conversation. So the first day was rough because he was a quiet guy, really, and didn't talk to me and just didn't show me how to do anything. He just did it. I'm like, okay. So then I would just do things that I think I should be doing. you know i see him i see him cleaning out cracks and with a little five and one tool and

i'm like okay i'll grab one and you know just kind of mimic what he's doing but um anyways after a couple days i finally got tired of him not talking to me and i said Clint um i'm gonna keep trying to talk to you as much as i can and you're gonna talk to me is what i said and you're gonna teach me how to do this and i was nice about it you know i didn't come off mean but i'm like I got to have you talk to me if I'm going to be with you all day. And he's like, huh, all right. You know, and then, you know, and he's like, maybe you're not that bad. So then I still talk to him to this day. And he didn't stick around. He was maybe there maybe there a year when I was there. So he didn't stick around the whole time I was there. But I still talk to him to this day. And he's a great guy.

And he warms up to you. He was just quiet at first, you know, which is fine. Well, I think he was just, he had to respect you. Yeah. Well, and, you don't know how many how many people he had that they had hired that didn't pan out and stick around he wasn't going to waste his time exactly that happens a lot you get people that have a job for a while that know something and i i witnessed that with fairway you know you get a high school kid come in and he's like oh i don't want to cut meat i don't want to deal with this and then two weeks later he's gone so i did i did understand why he was quiet and all that but yeah he's a great guy still talk to him to this day. So I'm working for Dennis at this time and okay well just fast forward.

I end up getting this part time 20 hours a week and he's like hey I could really use you all that. So at this time he's paying me pretty well starting out. You know and I'm like you know I could I can go off on my own. I don't need school to have this. So I ended up not going back to school after I found out after your credits didn't exactly and that really pissed me off and I just said I'm done. You I was going to do my two years, get out, and I did my two years, and I said I needed to do another one. I'm just like, no, not for me. Can't do this anymore. So I go home to mom and dad, and they were like, what are you going to do?

You know, I'm like, well, I met this guy. I'm going to go work for him. You're like, you sure? Dad was, dad seemed a little disappointed because my dad's a school teacher. He's a shop teacher at the high school, and he's like, you know, you need to go to school. You need to get a degree and all that. Anyways, he wasn't, like, disappointed. He'd just like, you know.

You sure, you know, very protective, I guess, is what you want to say. And my mom was just like, hey, if that's what you want to do. I mean, you got to be happy. Go do it. I'm like, perfect, you know. So she was very supportive of it. And so was dad. He loved it.

He loved that I was working with my hands and getting into a trade and stuff like that. And anyway, so I quit school, started working for Dennis full time, getting 40, 50, 60, sometimes 70 hours a week. You know, it ended up, we got busy fast. So I started out with Dennis and when he was small, it was very, very small. So I was able to see when I started from the time I left, I was able to see him go from like 200K a year in sales to 1.2 million within the three, three and a half years I was there with him. So I was there for the whole thing and was able to see him grow. So started, you know, I worked my way up from just a little part-time to ended up being a foreman slash salesman.

That's what's set on my business card, but I was more of just a foreman. Yeah. So you were running jobs. Right. I was a crew leader, basically. So I'd go to the job and I would have two guys with me or one guy or three guys at one point. And we all worked together very well. You know, sometimes you had your ups and downs with working with people and all that.

What's your advice to somebody that's working a job like that and they want to move up in the ranks? Like, what'd you do? What'd you do to move up in that company? I asked a million questions. I wanted to know everything about the epoxy. I ended up falling in love with what it was. I love the fact that you could turn just an ordinary garage, concrete garage, and put a nice colored flake, epoxy flake system on the floor,

and it changed the whole look of the garage. And I found that out right away. So I just was asking millions of questions, hey, what should I do here? Why don't we do this? I was given ideas, and my own ideas turned into being like, hey, that's the way we're going to do things now because that's a great idea that, you know,

that's what makes the floor look better and stuff like that. So really it was just put your head down and go, you know, ask questions, be eager to learn, be eager to just act like you want to be there, really, is what I got from it. And that was with anything, even when I was with Fairway, you know, I ended up having my own night to close where you had to be full time to be able to do that. And I was doing that as a part-time employee in high school. I'd have my own night to close and have people older than me, you know, kind of... Telling them what to do. Right. Yeah, I was kind of the boss of them, if that's what you want to say. But yeah, just being eager to learn is really the main thing that you

need to do to be able to work your way up. Yeah, a lot of people say, if you're going to do something, do it the best you possibly can. And even if you're a fry cooker at McDonald's, cook the best fucking fries you possibly can because if everyone's common on how good those fries are, people are going to take notice. It's also just a self-awareness thing, I guess, a self-ego thing. It's like, man, you look at it like, I half-assed that one. It's like, well, why? Why? Why? Why? you do that it's i i just couldn't get myself to be like not doing the best that i could i guess that's my mindset's like everything that i do i want to have it be the best that it can be um well you treated your job like you were an owner like you had skin in the game right but you treat every floor

like it's my own yeah and to this day that's kind of the way that i in my own company that i own now it's i you know my brother's working for me and i i tell him like when you come into a job site you treat it like it's your own floor. What'd you want? You know, if you get a little epoxy up on the wall. I said, we're not here painting the walls. We're here, we're here epoxy in the floor. I'm like, would you want that in your house or in your garage, you know? We got to clean it up then. You know, I can't have that. So I'm not, I'm not like a tight, you know, I'm not a freak about it, but it's also like, come on, you know, you want it to be nice for him. Treat it like it's your own. Yeah. That's how you get more business. So you moved up in the ranks.

You got, so it seems like soon you get more pay, you get more hours, more pay. Yep. You're up at the top. Overtime was nice. Overtime. So what made you want to go out on your own? What made you to decide to go out, go out? Well, during this time with Dennis, my mom got really sick.

She ended up getting cancer. And when I was there, it was like, hey, I need time to go back and forth to go home to, you know, see her, be with her and all that. and anyways, I was kind of in the talks of like saying, hey, I'm pretty good at what I do. You know, I've worked my way up to this. I'm doing well. I'm thinking about starting my own company. You know, I come back to Washington area and hopefully get up in the, you know, whole southeast Iowa part. And they're like, yeah, you should, you know, you should do that. My mom was the, she was huge, you know, she wanted me to do it so bad and all that. And so that's really what drove me back home. she ended up passing away before I was able to start my company,

but I just really wanted her to, you know, see, see what I was doing. And I wanted to make her proud, basically. Yeah, and correct me if I'm wrong, but you were lucky in the fact that the guy you were working for wasn't, right. He was supportive of it. He wasn't the dick about it. Yeah, he, when my mom got really bad,

you know, hospice came in and stuff. He actually gave me like two whole weeks when I was home with my, you know, during her passing and stuff. He gave me a whole two weeks home with her. And he paid me the whole time. And granted, I was hourly, you know, so he didn't have to pay me. Yeah, I wasn't on a salary job. I was just hourly.

So, and he was nice enough. And I got a lot of respect for Dennis. And like I said, I wouldn't be where I am without him. So he did help me out and gave me a lot of time off to be able to go home and see my family and be with them during the hard time. Yeah, it was very nice of him to still be able to pay me while I was gone and just be there for me. You know, it wasn't just the pay aspect.

It was calling me every day, hey, how's she doing? Hey, we're thinking of you. You know, he sent flowers to the funeral and, you know, everything. It really just showed the kind of man that he was of just not only being the boss, but being a mentor. and just being a straight up good guy. Yeah. So, yeah, it was very nice of him.

So my mom was a big factor in starting the company on my own. I told her I was interested in it. She was all for it. And so I said, I'm going to go do it, you know. And it's something I wanted. It wasn't fully just because I wanted to make her proud, but it was something that I wanted to do. You saw the potential of it.

Right. I seen how well my boss Dennis did for himself. And he was very, granted, I'll backtrack. When I ended up leaving Dennis, he threw a little going away party for me and stuff. And after the party, I stayed back and talked to him. And he said, Matt, if you don't go start your own company down there, I'm going to come find you. And then he says, and you don't want that. And so he was very, very supportive.

He says, you love what you do. Go start it. go changes the way of your life. You know, he was paying me good. Don't get me wrong. There was nowhere else I could go to get paid. Right. That being in that industry.

But he said, go do it. Yeah. Do you think that's super important when you're trying to make those big decisions is having people in your circle? Like, it just sounds like your mom, Dennis. I know our friend group. We have a really tight niche friend group. It's not just an ordinary friend group where you go mess around.

It's like, hey, I got this idea or this is how we can better ourselves. And it's not just, hey, I'm doing this. I'm doing this. I'm doing that. It's, man, so happy for you that you're doing that. Here's some advice that I've experienced. Maybe you can put it into this. And I am that our friend group means the world to me.

Without our friend group, it'd be tough to do what I do because it's a, it's a risk to go out and start your own company and so you know how it is you your path is totally different it's totally different it's not the ordinary thing and having friends by your side being like oh you can do it you know you don't need school for it you don't need to go you know that's that's huge to have people on your side and want you to win yeah yeah go ahead so not to interrupt but i'm going to interrupt so this is a good this is a good for you older people out there this is a good parent this is a good parent advice for you. So Sawyer and his friends group and Matt, they have come a long ways. So when your kids are young, I used to have a saying that all of them together are dumber than any of them by themselves.

Because when they would be at our house, I would go to the top of the stairs that leads down to the basement. And I would just sit there. And they didn't know I was there. And I would just listen. I'm just finding the sound out. I would just listen to them. and the freaking ideas that they would come up with of stuff to do. Some of it deviant stuff, but just like ideas. They had these ideas, and I can't even think of any off the top of my head, but I would just sit there and I would shake my head, and then I would have to get up because I'd almost start laughing out loud,

and I would tell Trish, I'm like, those guys, I mean, it's bad enough. Some of the shit they come up on their own, but when they're together, I said, it's just, it's insanity. But that, I'm convinced that that relationship that you all had and your ability to just spitball stuff, you guys still all do that today. And now it's evolved to you support each other and you feed off each other and you give

each other advice. And the beginning of that was clear back then. And so, you know, if you wind back the clock, I didn't really do anything to encourage that. But you didn't kill it either. I didn't kill it either. And, you know, as a parent, if you can, if your friend, if your kids got a group of friends and they're, you know, they're dreaming up silly crap, silly crap. Don't stomp that. Let it go.

And if anything, you know, if, unless they're the kind of group, sometimes when a parent shows up, they all shut up and they don't say anything. But if they, you know, if you can be encouraging to that, good things will come up. Yeah, I mean, good. To an extent, if they're dreaming of shit like, how to burn the school down. Yeah, then you probably should step in and kill that. Full disclaimer, I'm not. If it's like we did one time when we were in, I don't know, middle school, we had the bright idea to raise chickens. Oh.

Oh, yeah. And we went out and raised chickens. But, you know, we talk about this to the, about that to this day about how, entrepreneur that really was though yeah when we were like 12 i don't want we were 13 14 and we were i mean that was a dumb idea we learned really real quick that was stupid as hell we didn't have any of the feet you know it was just dumb dumb dude liked it no i didn't kill it i let him do it we learned and you didn't kill our spirit so yeah how many chickens did we get up i don't know i thought it was like 60 chickens i don't know but i know that it was to sell eggs to all the people in our local town here

Yeah. But it did. Couldn't compete with the old fair way. No. No. No. Stupid. So stupid.

But yeah, no, I was going to talk on what Matt said, and that was a good point, Dad. It's so, it's so important to have people in your circle that don't, that leave their ego at the door and can give you honest feedback and support your wins. And then, you know, they support you and you support them with no. Because there's a lot of time. you talk to get people and you say what you're doing and they don't give a shit and they don't say anything they kind of act like they care but they don't because they ask they ask what are you up to my days you know it's like well I'm doing this and then they try to one up you what I love about what we do and what our friend group is when you tell me something about the success to your business I don't

take it as like a personal attack on my ego that hey Matt's succeeding and I need to one up him now with what I do. It's like, sweet. I'm happy for you, dude. Here's, that's awesome. That's a good way of saying that. Like yesterday, you had a really good sales call with a guy that asked your really hard question. You went through the whole scenario with Kyawa and I, and we were like, dude, that was a good answer. You answered that like perfectly. He put me on the spot, Torque. Yeah, he put him on the spot. And I was like, that was perfect. People do that. And that's so rare. If you can find a friend group like that that leaves their ego at the door. And I came to you guys and told you that because it's like, hey, I ended up selling the job.

But what would have you said? I want your intake on what I could have said better or which way I should have taken that instead. Because I value their opinion. And the thing about our friend group is if I come to them and I say, hey, I got this idea, blah, blah, blah. if they don't like it. Like if they'll be, I mean, they're honest. They're saying, hey, if you do it, I think you should go this route instead of what you're saying.

And then it makes you just change. Your gears are just turning the entire time. So it's, it's nice to have that feedback where good or bad, not what you're expecting. None of us get mad at each other about it. They're like, huh, I didn't think of it that way. Yeah. Maybe I should look into it more and think about it better.

Yeah, it's so valuable. And it's so hard to find. I mean, our friend group's pretty, the people that I talk business with is small, small group. Matt's one of those people. Kyle is one of those people. Uh, you know, my family's one of those people. Chips, one of those people. But other than that, you can't talk business with everybody. You can't dream with everybody. Because either they'll shoot down your dreams or they won't leave their ego at the door. Exactly. They get mad and they get jealous. jealous and feel like that you're trying to come on as a you could just genuinely be asking them and how could I do this better and they take it the wrong way and so I'll say that to anyone out there you see it in my business ventures mass business ventures having people in your circle that tell you do it dude you got all the pieces do it we're here to support you that goes so far oh yeah goes so far because when I was telling you guys I was on the fence about starting the business or not because it's like I'm making a good living where you're working for this guy. And it's pretty risky. And you guys are like, do it. Do it. Like come back

around here to Washington. Just better yourself, man. What's the worst that's happening? And it's nice. I'm a young guy. So if it doesn't work out, it's not looking like it won't work out. Right. If it doesn't for some reason work out, I still have time to get back on my feet and do something else. So that was the big factor of, I think, I think you told me that. It's like, hey, you're young. If it doesn't work out, then you got the rest of your life to fix it and do something else. I always say, what are you going to regret on your death pit? Right. Are you going to regret this by not, if you don't do this, are you going to regret it and be in your death pet one day or in the nursing home thinking with all your thoughts? Man, I wish I would have done this or wish I would have done that.

I always do that when I'm trying to make a decision. Am I going to regret this when I'm in the nursing home with all my thoughts? Yeah. And if you are, do the damn thing. Especially when you're young. It's a good easy way to... I mean, it is because regret is horrible. I don't want to regret anything. I mean... I'm with you on that. So, okay.

Sorry, we went on a little bit of tangent there. No, I think it's good. That's what makes podcasting good. So you went out on your own. Dennis was awesome. Go ahead. Dennis was awesome. You made the decision.

You decided, all right, I'm going to do this. Yeah. What was the hardest step in that process? or if you can say one thing because I'm sure a lot you were starting from scratch so the hardest thing was probably just getting started pulling the trigger exactly it's just like all right I'm here now I mean I've got to do it um and being in a smaller town word spreads fast so I got right away I got some pretty good business you know I didn't really lack um trying to go out and find it I just made a big Facebook post and it blew up because all my friends shared it and everything like that.

So the hardest part was realizing how much money it takes. I went and got a small little business loan to buy equipment and stuff like that. And I had some money saved up. So a lot of it just came right out of my own pocket without taking a loan out or anything, which I think is a way to do it if you can. I mean, you don't want to, right. You don't want to take a loan out if you don't have to. But, yeah, so the artist thing was just realizing how much money you really have to spend to go do a floor, you know, that comes out of your pocket at first to do that.

You know, one of my first floors was about, I mean, it was a huge, it was a big floor. So, I mean, I think at my own pocket, I spent like three grand on materials, you know, and then you go and you make a little bit profit on this other job. to be able to pay that off and then I also then hopefully everybody pays you on time exactly right so it's that's the hardest honestly the hardest part is just having the money to be able to start it yeah tell them the story about because I remember you told me there was a day where you it was like a day that you said to yourself I made the right decision this is what I did the right thing by starting this business and there was a day where you were like you were just so so hype that you did this. What, tell them that. So, because you were a little, you know,

you got it going, but you were still were a little like, man, did I, did I, did I, did I, did I, because you were saying all, did I do the right thing. I was only doing like one or two, you know, one, one, one garage every a week, two weeks, you know, all that. And, um, we made that big Facebook post and it blew up like over 20,000 people seen the, I mean, that's like three sizes of Washington. Yeah, right. So it just blew up and my phone was ringing off the hook. I couldn't get off. And I was on it until 9, 10 o'clock at night, people calling me, emailing me, messaging me. And I had about two or three months booked out of work. And right then I'm like, all right, that's some good money that's going to be coming

in. I think I made the right decision. So then that was, when I was up until 10 o'clock, receiving phone calls and emails is when I was like, okay. I did it. You did that. You made the right choice. I established something, you know. Yeah. So just talk a little bit about,

you're just, talk a little bit about the epoxy business. You don't have to talk a ton about it, but I mean, if you want to get in the nitty, gritty details, you came a little bit. No,

I think what people would be curious of, like, everybody's seen these floors. Everybody, if you don't have a garage floor that's been epoxy. Yeah, what's the benefits? Yeah. Sure.

benefit of it is really saving the concrete concrete's expensive and it's hard work to get done and everything and um so it's for one it gives an aesthetic look so um it it come into your garage you got a nice motorcycle or you got a nice vehicle sitting in there it it keeps it more clean you don't get the concrete dust flying everywhere um it's uv stable so it doesn't yellow or amber over time it's all chemical resistant. So if you were to spill oil or you can oil leak in your car, you can go get a paper towel and just wipe it right up. So there's a lot of benefits to it of saving the concrete, scratch resistant, slip resistant. So I don't know if you guys ever, if your floor ever sweats during the Yeah, mine does terrible. And you walk out there and it's slick, right? This just saves that.

I mean, this, the flake that's in the floor, it's a full flake. So the whole floor is just full of this flake. It has texture to it. so you're not slipping and falling. That's a really big sales point. Because a lot of people, during the winter, they come in and they have the salt and snow. Snow on their car, and it melts off when they pull in the garage. I think it's really slick. And then that salt eats away concrete.

Well, if you have an epoxy floor, it's all chemical resistance. So it saves your concrete, and then you just squeegee and power wash it out. Yeah, so what's the process like? How long does it take from the time somebody, you should from the time you show up how long is it take to do an average two car garage um it takes really it takes probably six hours so you can do the whole thing in one day no no so it's a two-day process so i come in there and i grind down the four um patch all the cracks the spas if there's concrete you know that's chipping up and stuff i'll patch it with an epoxy substance that i have and um

then you you lay down the the epoxy at a thickness five 5 millimeter, 10 millimeter thickness, and then you broadcast the flake into it. Then you got a lot of dry. And we broadcast the flake till the epoxy can't take anymore. So when I leave the first day, it looks like it's messy, it's clumpy because there's just piles of flake everywhere. Some customers are like, oh, man, this is not what I wanted.

And I make sure I go tell them that. And I say, hey, tomorrow we will be back to clean up all the loose extra flake that's not bonded to the floor and then we'll put the the clear top coat polysparthic on top and it'll be a nice shiny slick or sleek looking for yeah yeah so it's only like it's it's technically a two-day process because you have to wait for dry time but um we are on the floor for three hours one day two hours and next or three hours and i mean just kind of depending on the size of the floor and yeah um so really i can do two three garages start two or three garages one day, and then the next day come back and finish those three

garages. And that's, I mean, that's the goal. Right, right. I want to be able to do six, seven, eight garages a week. So as you grow, if the intention is to grow, like, would the same crew, are you thinking that is it better to have the same crew that starts a garage, finish a garage, or do you have, is it better to have guys that prep a floor? So we were talking about this at my old company with Hensley.

He was in the talks of maybe having a prep crew and a finishing crew. It never ended up being that way. But the way I would do it, I think it's if I were, you know, when I grow and I have more than one crew out there, I will have one crew on one job from start to finish. Yeah, just have them do everything. Right. Because it'd be hard for somebody to prep the four that's there knows where to, you know. And it's not hard. to look at the garage and where you need to go.

You know, it's essentially painting the floor. Right. But it's just the fact where these guys are already here, well, I can get these guys started over here. Yeah, and they'll learn everything. That's the other thing. Right. They can learn how to do it all.

I don't want these guys just to know how to prep the floor. And these guys know how to finish. Because if something, if a guy fault, yeah. Because let's say I get a 30,000 square foot building. Right. I can't just have two or three guys on that job. You got to have all hands on deck. Exactly.

So I need everyone, I would need, Everyone needs to know how to do everything. Yeah. So I kind of want to ask you a two-part question. So you went on this route that's completely different route than what most kids do. You went out on your own. You started working and went into the trades essentially. Right.

And how long have you been in business, rotor epoxy? About four months. If you don't mind me asking, what's your sales up to this point so far? I've had total sales done about six. 62,000. 62,000 and four months. Correct. Do you think that this route is the more,

that more young people are going to start going down this route, and do you think it's the better route versus college nowadays? Well, we always talk about our generation, you know. Not a lot of people are up for, it's hard to have people go out new labor. You know, it's a lot of people like to sit on the desk, which is fine. You can make a lot of money working from home or being a computer, guy, you know, but I think if you're eager to go out and do stuff and work with your hands,

I definitely think trade is the way to go. I don't think people got the stigma of you have to go to college to be successful. You have to go get a, go to school, get a good job. Get a degree, get a good job. Exactly. And you just, you don't. I'm not saying I'm a very wealthy guy by any means, but I look at Dennis, who's a very good motivational role model, you know, very motivating guy where he didn't go to school and he has a company that's doing when I left was $1.2 million in a year and he's going to exceed that this year it's learning that skill that's so needed yeah that's so valuable yeah and it's yeah and it's not it's not just that I mean there aren't enough plumbers there aren't enough electricians there aren't enough dirt guys doing

dirt work. There's not enough anything. But you know, when we were in school, every teacher pushed you to go, go get a degree, go to college, go do this. It's like, I remember so vividly, I'll remember the day I die. There was, I told my teacher that I was going to just go into farming and start farming. And they were telling me, Sawyer, you got to, you got to go to college, just get a degree, just in case, just in case, get a degree, just in case, you got a backup plan. And I'll never forget it. I'll never forget it. And I was like, no, I'm not. I'm not doing it. I'm going to do this. They just pushed it so hard on you. But then they went to a degree. And granted, granted, got to have teachers. I think they deserve to be paid more. Yeah, I agree. I do. But I also think it shouldn't be

so damn easy to become a teacher either. We need better teachers. Right. If you want to be a paid more, you need to be a better, because I'm not going to, I'm not going to sit here and lie. There are some teachers out there that don't have any business teaching. No, I've had teachers like that. I agree. and I'm not going to name names, but that's the truth. There are some really good teachers, though. But what I was getting at is, sorry, I went on a little tangent. Don't hold that. But I'm serious.

No, but I agree with you. But what I was getting at is, you know, I didn't get a degree. I didn't come back and teach her. I didn't go get an office job or something like that. I didn't go waste my money on college. And I'm doing better than, I'm doing better than some teachers. teachers are doing. You know, I'm doing better than some people that are get at a, or 60, 65, 70, 80 grand in debt from college and go get an office job. It can start now at 35, 40 grand a year. It's like,

yeah. And here's the other thing. You took, you took money out. You took a business loan out. Right. To get this thing going. Right. But you put your money into something that's going to give you return. Yeah. Instantly. Right. You go take the student loans out. You're not seeing that return. for years. You got to at least wait four years to go into the workforce unless you do even more college. And even then, and then Sally Mae is going to be your best friend for like 10 years. Yeah. And even then, you got to pay down that debt long, long, long time. You started this business and you already are like churning money. You're going to have this. I mean, my sales this year have way exceeded what my loan was. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, in all honesty, I could, you know, next week.

I could go pay off that loan, but it's there for cushion. Yeah, it's there if you need it. Exactly. So, but it's, yeah, and the bank had no, I literally, I walked into the local bank, didn't make a meeting. I said, hey, I'm just kind of interested in starting a business. I'd like to talk to somebody about getting a small business loan. They sent me right over to the president of the bank, and she asked what my idea was,

and she said, okay, here you go. I think they are craving young people. It was, it was the easiest thing I've had to do. with the banking. And that's what we've talked about this so many times. It is so important for young people, wherever you end up settling, you need to have a relationship with a local bank. I don't care if you, I don't care if you borrow money to start with, but you need to know a banker at a bank, have a relationship with them, have them know who you are. I mean, I walk into the bank and they're like, oh, hey, Matt, how's it going, you know? I know them by name. And you wouldn't get that

if you went to Bank of America or you went to Wells Fargo or Bank of the West or whoever the hell. That's the power. Sir, can I help you? Yeah, that's the power of having local bank, having people that because they're invested in you because you're investing in the local community. And that's, it's important. Yeah, I mean, the underlining reason I brought that question up and asked you that was I just feel like we're heading to a time that there's going to be so much demand needed for

trades for people to do work with their hands and if you are a young girl guy out there that wants to work with their hands or is interested in it matt is a testament to somebody that knew nothing about a trade didn't go to trade school went to a guy that's doing the thing that he ended up now is doing for himself learned everything about that business and now is succeeding on his own because he just took the bull by the horns. Yeah. He basically, so you started working for him three years ago. Two and a half, three years ago. Yeah. Yeah. So basically he gave, you've given yourself a degree. A college, a trade school education. Right. Is what you did. Right. You asked the questions. You learned the business. I didn't pay for it. Right. He paid you to teach. You got paid to learn a trade.

Exactly. And that's a difference. Yeah. And that's powerful. And the hard thing with my business is, it's not a need like every other trade. You know, you need plumbers, you need electricians. Mine is a want. It is. It's a want people, but in today's society, people want their houses to look good. And a garage has become just another room in the house. It's like a living room part two is what it is. There's shomes. People have, people have bars in there, they have TVs up there. They have, you know, like sometimes full kitchen. You know what I mean? Or if you're a guy that just likes working on your car. Right. It's still just, is important because you spend that much time out there.

Exactly. It's seriously just another room of the house where you spend a lot of time out in your garage today. What you were talking about, about need for this. So, yeah, I was just going to say, I encourage anybody out there that's got that interest. This is a really good path that you could go down if you find the right person and show some freaking initiative. That's all I'm saying. If you show you got some grit, you're going to take initiative, you're going to work hard, you're going to eager to learn. You're going to ask the questions that need to be asked. You can make it. You can succeed. Yeah. It's not just, when I started working for Dennis, I had no intention of starting my own business. None, because he was treating me very well. But even if you don't want to start your own business,

it's going to go work for a trade. You can still make a great living. I mean, I know people that work for their linemen. They work for Lyon Energy here in town that do very well for themselves. They don't own it. You know, they just, they work hard, they get the job done, and they get rewarded. Yep. So along your lines, what you're talking about, the need for these people. Yesterday, when Zion was talking, he had a statistic that I want to say by 2025, because the demographics, so the baby boomers are retiring. And your generation is a lot smaller.

and the generation coming into the workforce, a lot smaller. By 2025, the difference between that generation and the generation coming in, we're going to be 400,000 workers short. So when you talk about supply chain, part of that is everybody's like, can't find anybody to work, can't find any to work. And the easy thing that we say, and I say this, is, well, hell, nobody wants to work. And that's part of it. But part of it is, physically, there's going to be 400,000 fewer people looking for a job than people retiring and by 2030 it will be 700,000. And then it's like, it's like 15 years before the next generation comes that's bigger than the one retiring, which we're one of the few countries in the world where our demographics kind of go like this.

Most developed countries, the demographics go like this. In other words, it used to always be that at the top of your pyramid, you had a few people that were old because people didn't live very long. And it was just a constant V, inverted V, because there was always more people at the bottom because people had lots of kids because kids are cheap labor. And there was always more kids. So there was always more people coming. That's the whole Ponzi scheme of Social Security. The idea of Social Security was, well, it's easy. We're going to have the young people pay some money in to take care of the old people because there's always going to be less old people and there's always going to be more young people coming in. Well, guess what? That didn't

happen. Everybody moved off the farms and you don't need 10 kids when you don't have any hay to bail. And so people started having less kids. Well, now then, most developed countries, it's the other way. And so there are not enough people coming into the workforce to take these jobs. And I say all that to say the essential things that have got to get done in a society to run, which is the plumbing, the electrical, all of the trades, there are not going to be enough people to do that. So those trades are going to pay incredibly well. So if you are somebody... And it's not like, the other thing is, there's a lot of guys that are your age, you're one of these people. Do it yourself. My generation, there's not a lot of guys that even know how to do it yourself. So even that's going to go

down too. Yeah. So you're going to, those people are going to need, they're going to need a plumber. They're not even going to attempt to know themselves. No. And the other great thing about it is exactly what you ran into. And Dennis isn't it, he's not an old, he's not that old guy, is he? Dennis is early 30s? Yeah. He's a young guy. He's a young guy. But so many plumbers, electricians, etc. that I talked to that are my age, if they had somebody that was like you that asked a lot of questions and actually called them when they were at the shop wanting that job interview, they would fall all over themselves to teach that kid everything they knew to get them up to speed. Like, they want to teach the next generation. They want to show people how to do it. So that's another, that's another thing

that I could say is like, from my experience, not knowing anything how to do this epoxy work, if you, if something doesn't have to like interest you, if you want to go make good money and just try it out, I mean, you don't have to know how to do a plumbing. You don't know how, or electrical work. You don't have to, you don't have to know how to do the trade work. They will teach you. Yeah.

And pay it while you're learning. Don't be afraid to, yeah, just because you don't know how to do or you don't know anything about electrical work, they will teach you and they'll make sure that you're safe about it. Think back.

What is one thing that you wish somebody would have taught you or told you growing up that you didn't know, that you wish you knew now, or you wish you would have, learn growing up. Honestly, what to do with money. I'm not going to sit here and say I'm a wealthy man again. I mean, nothing like that. But when you have leftover money, what do I do with it? You just let it sit in your savings account or do you go invest it? And honestly, listen into the Barn Talk show. You guys have not, I know you don't give out. It's not financial advice. I know you don't give out financial

advice or anything, but I take that in. And it's, you know, I take that in. And it's, you guys, you guys have, you guys, It's like, huh, I will think about, hey, I have an extra 20 bucks at the end of the week that I could throw into Tesla or started a Roth IRA, you know, something like that. So, really, it's just the kind of thing of like, hey, when you do kind of see some success, what do you do with it? You know, how do I make more? Yeah, make that money work for you. I was never, yeah, I never got taught anything about, you know, you go get a job, receive a paycheck. You go buy a nice house. to go get a new car, you know, something like,

becoming a consumer. Right. Because that's what they want. They want you become a consumer. That's what I was taught. No, yeah. I would agree on that. They don't teach you shit in school.

No, no. You don't learn anything about money. And money, let's be honest, ladies and gentlemen, is such an essential part of living on this planet. You have to make money to live. And if you want, I always say, if you want a 1% life,

you got to do what 99% of people don't do. Right. And that comes down to financial literacy. Literacy. Knowing what to do with your money to make you more money is so essential to getting to that, the dream life you want. Essentially, I mean, it is. And I never got taught how to pay a bill. I never got taught how to go get a loan, what I need to take to go get a loan.

It's almost like they want you to stay broke. Well, they want you. They want you to be a conundice. Consumer. All righty, folks. Well, this is a little different. This looks a little weird. This is truly a father-of-son podcast here.

We got our two hosts, one shot. What the hell's going on? You might be thinking. Five minutes later. We had some technical difficulties. These freaking cameras, I tell you what. I think one of our cameras is having an overheating problem. And so it shut off at about an hour and six minutes in.

So if you had any black screen of torque talking and you couldn't see his pretty face, just know that we got on top of it as soon as we could, and now we're here, and we're going to share a shot the rest of the rest of this episode, because we're not going to mess around with that camera. Fuck that camera right now. I'm pissed off about it. With my stellar editing skills, you, most of you won't even notice that we had any hiccups at all, other than the fact that now you realize how small I really am compared to my youngest son. You've got to be a self-starter. I mean, you've got to be motivated to run your own business.

Because at the end of the day, it's just like people always make the example. When you go to college, the difference when you go to college is nobody's there to make you get out of bed and actually go to school. And that stumps a few kids. But when you start your own business, you got to return the calls. You got to get up every day. You got to hook onto that trailer and go. So what motivates you? What keeps you headed down the tracks?

Oh, man. Really, it's just, you know, Sawyer and our friend group talk about this all the time, but it's the generational wealth. I want, Sawyer says this all the time. He wants his grandkids, his grandkids to know who he was. So leaving that legacy behind would be awesome. It would be huge for me saying, hey, Grandpa Matt and Grandpa Kyle, or Uncle Kyle went off to. together and started this company and killed it. And I'm here today because of what they did. You know, so that that's a big thing that drives me. Also, it's just the self-awareness,

self-confidence of myself where it's like, you know, I want to do good. I want to be able to go and, hey, want to go on vacation, you know, to my wife someday. I want to go to Hawaii for the week and just make that decision, you know. It's not just money motivation, you know. I'm not just money hungry all the time. It's just the fact of you can't have your own freedom of having your own business. You get to choose your hours. You get to choose how much you want to do, what you want to do. So just that aspect of being able to go go do what you want to do and love what you do every day really motivates me to get up and get after it. What is your, what's some advice that you would give to some guy out there,

a girl out there that wants to start their own business. Do it. Do it. Do it. That easy. You know? Learn as you go. Right.

Yeah. I don't know everything about business. Business side? Man, that's tough. I mean, that's not my bread and butter. My bread and butter is going and laying epoxy out on the floor.

The business side of things is tough. So really learn the quick books or whatever you're going to use for, your financial side of the business, that's a huge, huge part. You don't want taxes to come in at the end of the year and not have enough money to pay that in or all that. But honestly, just go do it because if you don't, you regret it. If I never started my own business in 30 years, 20 years down the road, if I was still working for Dennis, making a good living, I would have been like, what could have it been? if I would have started it.

And if I never did, I would regret it. So just don't regret it. If best advice for you is just do it. Figure it out and learn as you go. If it's what you want, do it. So all work and no play makes a very dull boy. So what do you like doing when you aren't working? Well, I actually spoiled myself a few months back.

I was working really hard with Dennis and all that and saved up some money, so I went about a four-wheeler. So four-wheel-in is really fun for me. I like to do that. I love to fish. Being out on the lake, on a boat, you know, being with friends, drinking some brews. That's really what I enjoy doing. My dad actually, he teaches in the summer or teaches in the school time. And then in the summer, he runs his own lawn care business type thing.

and so if I'm not working on epoxy, I'm out mowing with dad. And I do it's, I enjoy it. It's something to get me close with my dad and something that we do together. Kind of like how you guys do the podcast and farm together. It's, I go mow lawns with my dad. Nice. Yeah, being out of friends, fishing, four-wheeling, you know, that's what I like to do. What's the, what is the favorite rotary epoxy,

uh, uh, fast food? or gas station lunch. Quickstar. Quickstar is the best. What's your favorite item? Oh, man. What's your go-to lunch? The Bosco sticks from Quickstar or nuts.

I like those. Yeah. I want to walk through that sales call from the other day that we talked about yesterday. Because I think it's just a really good, you handled it so well. And, you know, the question was a hard question that you got from a customer. and I would kind of, I kind of want to just talk it, talk it through with people because, I don't know, I was, when you asked, when you said that question, I in my own head was like, man, I don't even know what I would say. And so I think it's just a good teachable moment for people out there. Um, so I, I went up Monday to do an estimate, Iowa City, um, for this gentleman. And he went his garage floor done and gave him an estimate, gave him a bed. Well, yesterday, he actually, called me and he said hey i got another bid from another company up here um it was the exact same price of your bed versus theirs was the exact same price um you guys explained the process of being

the same you're grind the floor you'll put a polysparic top coat on it all all the shenanigans and he said why should i choose you instead of him that has been in business for six seven years and you, you're a new guy doing this. And then he kind of stirred off and said, how new are you? So right then and there, I was kind of like, well, he knows from the other business that I'm new because they probably told them, hey, he's a newer guy. I don't know if I'd go with him because we've been around for six, seven years. So right then and there, I know that that company is kind of aware of me.

I'd like to think. And so he asked me, and then he kind of asked about, my background where I was with Hensley and all that, so I told him the kind of the story and whatever. But so then he said, why should I go with you rather than this, this other company that's been around? And I kind of used starting my own company and being small to my advantage here. I said, you know, with this other company, they're established and they have people that are working for them. And I said, they're just there kind of to collect a paycheck.

They're there to work hard and, you know, do the floor and everything, but they're there to collect the paycheck and the owner won't be on the floor. And then I came back with me. If you come with me, the owner of rotor epoxy will be on your floor the entire time and we go in there and we treat it like it's our own. I think, and he ended up choosing me. He went with me, so I got the job, but he, I think he kind of noticed I was a younger guy starting out, and I think he kind of wanted to help out as well. He liked the fact that the younger, because he was an older guy. So he liked the fact that a young generation kid is coming in and trying to make a living, you know. So I think you put that into a factor of why he chose me. I think that's a great answer. I think that was the

best answer you could have given is that the owner is going to be on your floor. Right. I mean, that's. And it just came out of me. You know, I didn't. Yeah, you didn't skip a beat. No, I didn't miss a beat, sorry. Right. I didn't. I was under pressure and I just said it. I don't know what urged me to say it. I think it's just the experience of being around. At my old job, you know, being around my boss making sales and kind of picking up on what he's saying because he's a very successful guy. So like it that kind of comes back to ask questions, be aware of what's going on and, you know, be eager to learn. So those little tactics that my boss did, I'm kind of putting that into my own spin and wheel things. Yeah, I think that's great.

It's always, it's always interesting. I think you had the job because I don't think that guy would have called you. I think that the fact that he called you, and that's something to keep in mind, when you get a call like that, that guy was looking for a reason to go with you. He just wanted you to make him feel better about the decision that he'd already made. And you gave him the right answer. I hope so. I mean, he decided to go with me.

So I got that job coming up now. So what's the, what's the future? What's your, what's your goal? What's your goal five years from now? Where do you want, where do you want to be? I want an office up in the Iowa City, North Liberty, Tiffin area. Excuse me. I want an office up there or a shop or something like that.

And I don't want to live up there. I'm not a big fan of the big city, but a lot of work is in the big city and the developing areas such as Tiffin and North Liberty. and, you know, new homes are going up every day. So the whole goal is to just broaden the company, make it bigger, having a specific location where people can come in and have like a own personal showroom that they can come see and choose colors and what they want.

Yep, that's a good goal to have. Yeah. I don't think it's unrealistic either, you know. So it's something where I feel like, I can reach that goal and do that. I don't think it's an unrealistic goal. No, I think you're spot on. I think that you can go as far as you want to take it.

I was going to ask or just say, another cool thing that Matt has that your old boss doesn't really have up in his area is, you know, we were talking about this before you started your company, but we need, there's a bunch of ag guys out here in southeast Iowa. We all got these hog bars. barns and we got these feeder pads and these slats that need epoxy to rebuild the concrete and make them good so that our stuff lasts and i know you don't have a ton experience with that but you're

going to learn you said you're going to start learning how to do it yeah and i'm just saying there's a lot of hog farmers on this show or the listen to the show and farmers listen to the show and if you got hog barns or you're a cattle guy or you got some concrete work that needs patched eventually i think matt's going to be able to do that too so and i don't know what couple months you're going to come and epoxy you have my feeder pads up in my place. I got my distributor that I get all my product from has done this before. So he's actually, when we decide to do yours,

he's going to come down with me and help me out, be on the job site and kind of walk me through how to do it. So even though that I started my own company, I'm still learning. There are still things to learn in this epoxy business. So this is a side where I haven't been a part of, but I really want to. I really want to get into it, especially being in the area that we are. I think it's a great opportunity to really great way to broaden your company even

right right right and grow it and expand it and I think it'd be a great great opportunity for me to do that. Yeah and so that's also going to be probably documented on this will do farm YouTube channel if you're not following. We'll probably show the whole process of epoxy and our feeder pad so if you're a farmer out there that needs some epoxy and you want to see that it'll probably be on the channel in a couple months so but what's uh what's your favorite barbecue meat to smoke i know hey you forgot that out of your hobbies you love smoking meat man you're a grill master uh yeah it's something that another thing that my dad got me into he's big into it so trigger love the trigger pellet grills easy so easy it is easy in there flip the switch put to the temp you want go inside prep your meat get it on the grill

smoker, smoke it. So are you a brisket guy or what's your, what's your, what's the best? What do you like the best? I love brisket. Don't get me wrong, but I really like a nice pooled pork sandwich. Oh gosh, he's buttering us up. No, no, no, no. Yeah, it is hard to be.

Yeah, if you can get a good, a good pulled pork sandwich that has the, has that nice crust on it on the ends, but nice and tender on the inside, I mean. So what do you use for a binder? Talk dirty to me. Well, yeah. Making my mouth water. Or do you use a binder? I do use a binder.

You not want to say, is it a secret? Well, I think you know. I'll tell you what. I'll tell you mine. I know what yours is. Okay. I know what yours is. Okay.

I did start off with just the mustard. Yep. I did. And then I kind of started mixing, um, wash your sister sauce. You know? And kind of combined both of those to, you know, that it gets a kind of a smoky flavor. But then you gave me an idea. Yeah.

Because you were talking to me and I was like, hmm. In communities across Canada, hourly Amazon employees earn an average of over $24.50 an hour. Employees also have the opportunity to grow their skills and their paycheck by enrolling in free skills training programs for in-demand fields, like software development and information technology. Technology. Learn more at aboutamazon.ca. Chick-fil-a sauce. Chick-fil-a sauce. Yeah, so I didn't know if you wanted to give it out. Oh, no, that's fine.

Yeah, so I saw, and I didn't come up with it. I saw a guy on TikTok that used it and swore by it. So, and we had a bottle of chick-fil-a sauce, and I like it. It makes the world of difference. It does, because it has that, like, tangy barbecue flavor with it. So you can actually kind of taste it when you smoke it, even if you smoke it, even if you smoke it for 12 hours but yeah i agree yeah that's my new that's my go-to now is the the chick-fil-a sauce yeah no you can't beat it i've kind of gotten uh i've kind of gone to just doing old pork

pork but i like the pork loins yeah i do too oh ribs ribs are probably the best thing that i smoke on the grill are my ribs yeah i just don't do them much because i don't i don't know to me it's too much work. I get it. But I haven't done many. I kind of gotten out of doing brisket because when I started brisket's kind of like the end all be all like, oh yeah, brisket. And it is good, but gosh, dang, you got to really plan ahead and you got to think about, okay, well. Who are you feeding? Exactly. And gosh, it takes so darn long. And at the end of the day, pork butt, it still takes a while, but it's easier and it's you can you can bag it freeze it whatever and it's there's forever yeah what about your favorite blackstone item because you got a you got a blackstone flat top right

that was a new that was a new purchase was the blackstone yeah what's what's your favorite things to do on there because i know you're you got you love that damn thing phillies are cool in there philly cheese steaks really cheese steaks are fun um i love doing breakfast on there i do a nice breakfast bagel sandwich with hash browns, eggs, bacon on a bagel bun. And I got a secret sauce for that. Maybe I can tell you off camera. You, yeah, from my friends, our other friends, Matt and I have that we share, you were kind of like the grill master up it in Ames because you were living up there while you're doing

concrete for Hensley. And so you were kind of still living with the boys up there. and you know you were working and shit but you would fire up the breakfast you would make all the breakfast sunday morning after uh night out on the town you know had some buddies like mad you awake you know want to go to the store quick and grab some eggs and bacon and fire up the the griddle like yeah let's go you know yeah it was kind of the kind of the guy to wake up the next morning and have breakfast made for everybody hey that's an important important job yeah yeah you're practicing for when you have kids yeah there was there was one time oh

you know my roommates at the time give me shit to this day we're we were out at the bar it was like 801 day so up in ames 801 day you start drinking at 801 in the morning and it's it's the day before the saturday before classes start anyways you know you start drinking at 8 o'1 the morning and then by time it's 10 o'clock at the bar you know 10 at 10 at night at the bar after drinking all day and um I'm going around saying, hey, breakfast at my house tomorrow. I got a Blackstone. Breakfast at my house tomorrow. Be there, you know.

So we wake up Sunday morning. There's like 25 people at our house. And everyone's like, what the hell, you know? And everyone's looking at me because they're like, you invited them. You know, you were going around last night saying, hey, breakfast at my place, come. So I ended up cooking for like 25 people. And by the time I was done cooking, I went to go get. get my own breakfast and there was like two eggs left. That was it. Hardly got to eat.

So it was my fault. My fault. It's a good way to like people to like you. I guess. Yeah. What's your favorite beer? Alcoholic beverage. Oh, man, dude. You had to pick one. I just go with the trusty old Bushlight. Bushlight. You had some Arnold Palmer's on the. Yeah, yesterday in the boat. They had these spiked Arnold Palmer. Holy shit. Those are dangerous. Half lemonade, half iced tea. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that was good. I recommend if you.

My brother, my brother Kyle told me to go get those. He says they're perfect on the boat. I'm like, all right. I tried one and I was like, it tastes just like tea. Yeah. Just like an Arnold.

You have no idea there's alcohol in that. No way. Deadly. It's deadly. Matt, it was an absolute pleasure to have you on. We're going to have you on again because you're a friend of the show

and we want to follow your success with rotor epoxy. If you guys want to get any epoxy work done or you just want to support our guy here, go. in the description. Go like his Facebook page. Give him a call if you need some business. Leave a review. Leave a review on Google. Leave a review on Facebook. Just help him out any way you can. He's a friend of the show. He's a friend of ours. He's a hard ass working dude. He's a good with people.

He's trying to make a living. He's a young hustler. So support him. Go support him, guys. Thanks, sir. All right. So with that being said, guys, we appreciate all the support. Love you guys. Thanks for every, thanks for all. Thanks for all the reviews. Pay the fee. We'll see you back. here next Friday.