Good News York by Growth Mode Content - GNY EP.50 | Feat. Rick Austin & Danny Tripodi!

Episode Date: June 5, 2025

Celebrating 50 Episodes with Butler Fence and Nintendo Switch Launch Night In this milestone 50th episode of Good News York, hosted by Matt Masur and his co-host, they celebrate with special guest Rick Austin from Butler Fence. Rick shares the history and success story of his family-run fence business which has been serving the Syracuse area for over 50 years. The hosts and Rick discuss various fence types, business strategies, and the challenges of running a long-term successful enterprise. Additionally, the hosts open mystery Funko Pops to celebrate their 50th episode and Danny shares his adventure of securing a new Nintendo Switch on launch night. 00:00 Introduction and 50th Episode Celebration 01:27 Special Guest: Rick Austin from Butler Fence 02:32 The History of Butler Fence 04:55 Rick's Broadcasting Background and Family Business 06:25 Butler Fence's Reputation and Marketing 08:28 Challenges and Techniques in Fence Installation 16:09 Types of Fences and Material Trends 20:42 Commercial vs. Residential Fencing 30:43 Composite Fencing Trends 31:28 Home Improvement Shows Influence 31:35 DIY Fencing Disasters 32:17 Fencing Pricing Explained 33:21 Contacting Butler Fence 34:51 Celebrating the 50th Episode 37:01 Funko Pop Grab Bag Reveal 42:51 Danny's Nintendo Switch Adventure 51:32 Closing Remarks and Future Plans

You're listening to a podcast right now, driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own podcast is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads just like this. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start your new podcast for free today at RSS.com. You're listening to a podcast right now. Driving, working out, walking the dog.

If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and hundreds more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads like this. Even with just 10 listeners a month. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your website. Start free at RSS.com Hey folks, welcome to Good News, York.

As always, I am your host, Matt Major from Growth Mode Tech, and joined by my goofy friend here. I'm not even going to make fun of you today because we got something. Yeah, that's why I'm excited. Special. That's why I'm dancing. See the balloons.

I am not 50, by the way. You're not? No, I feel like that's, as I was leading those in, I thought this was this was. Yeah, I'm going to, people are going to think I'm older than I am. No, it's our 50. 50th episode. That's awesome.

We don't, maybe at the 100th episode, we'll get a sound effect for that. I can't believe this. Yeah. And also, that's a funny premise. I didn't realize you, that's usually what these. You walk through the store with a 50 balloon. They're going to be like, oh, that guy just turned 50. I mean, my wife did pick him up for us.

So technically, they're going to be like, oh, here's her husband turned 50. That's exciting, man. We made it. 50 episodes. We have. And, you know, as we talked about yesterday, we got half a million views. Yeah. Not long ago, impressions on all of our content that came straight from here.

And our strategy is working. Yeah, our strategy is working. And we have a special guest here today. We do. Who probably didn't know he was coming on the 50th episode, Mr. Rick Austin from Butler Fence. Woohoo. Thanks for having me, guys. How are you, Rick?

For coming, man. He's like, you remember the old commercial at the drugstore? You're the 100th customer. Yeah, yeah. We should have a confetti. Yeah, we're not rich enough for that yet. We are very happy to have you. Yeah, we're very happy to have you

and that you get to share the 50th episode with us. I feel honestly blessed, and I was hoping it was my 50th birthday once in me because I wouldn't go into time warp and go back 13 years. I get you. I've been 28 for like 10 years, man. It's great. You could actually pass for it.

Oh, stop it. Sure. Oil of Oleg. Rick is from Butler Fence. Yeah, man. And he's going to tell us a little bit about what they do, but I'm going to tell you what. You've seen what they do because they have been

business for so long that I think everything in Syracuse has been surrounded by Rick. Over 50 years. That's incredible. See? 50 years. That's actually what the balloons were for. There you go. We knew is what it was.

That's what it was. Rick, tell us your story. How did Butler Fence come to be and how are we getting here today? So back in the day, my father was, had a nice job over at Bristol at the time. and had some side businesses, side hustles, he owned some property. So a lot of his buddies would come to him for certain loans. One of his buddies could put up fence. And my father kind of found out if I loan this guy the money for the material,

he would do these jobs on his off time. And I was making a profit off him working and doing this for him. And so he kind of got into it kind of as, a side hustle. I see. Burnett Park Zoo was being built in like 71. And he went out to the bid and thought, hey, this would be a pretty big job for me at the time. He met a man at the time named Larry Butler, who had just started his own little business. They realized that the job's a little big for both of us.

They bid it together. And honestly, voila, they got the job. my father retired like within a year or two from Bristol and honestly you know basically was the chief person he kind of bought Larry out fairly quickly and wow and but but he kept the name sure we kept the name because kind of had a good little slogan why not say the butler did it and my I love that that's my kind of my kind of tagline there that's great and my dad was very much into being one of these incognito. I mean, he used to drive. I mean, he had a Cadillac in the garage. He drove like a beat-up Chevy Impala because he didn't want, he was the king of Burnett Ave, as I used to call it.

A lot of little pubs on Burnett Ave. And he was the king. Sure. And didn't want really his buddies to know he'd really hit the big time, whatever, big time. Yeah, yeah. Big time for sure. But so that's kind of how it started. So I've been doing this. since I was old enough to go in the warehouse, probably too young to be in the warehouse. I'm like 10, 11 years old, picking parts, sweeping floors, cutting boards, and that's kind of all I've known. I did go away to college, and honestly, inspired to do what you guys do. I mean, I went to school out in New Mexico and majored in broadcasting. We used to have a live broadcast with, we were like a PBS station.

If you've seen what the movie was it, Landman, that whole series out there in West Texas. Yeah, yeah. We're about an hour from that in the eastern New Mexico plains, really, down near Clovis. And so it was a farm country. So our little college had like a 90-mile radius of PBS. It was where those people got their news back.

back in the, I'm going to date myself late 70s. Sure. I was in college a long, long, long time ago. And unfortunately, I mean, I had a face made for whatever. I really didn't go as far as I thought I would do in that, you know. And honestly, I always knew my family had the business. And so I came right back from college and just kind of took over the business. Wow.

Yeah, well, the good news is, though, now you can, you know, You know, you can start your own podcast or your own production of any sort. You know, the technology is in all of our hands now. And you've made a great living doing Butler. We could not do what you do. I can tell you that. And, you know, I mentioned you've probably seen their stuff around. You've probably also even seen kind of their headquarters as well without maybe realizing it.

They are on the end of state fair boulevard, right? Before you get on the highway, you're like, what's over there if I were to keep going? That's where Rick is. But also right along 690, right by the water, they have a beautiful display of a bunch of their different fences and a huge sign that the billboard guys would kill you for that space. I've seen that. Yeah. Okay, okay. Incredible spot there that I can't imagine doesn't drive some business for you from time to time.

I literally have not spent a dollar on, I mean, back in the day it was yellow pages or whatever, phone books, all that stuff. Radio, I don't spend a dollar. I mean, I've got to do whatever you guys help me with. Sure. Got a little place to get a, we kind of do very well out in the Fairmount, Camillas. If you're coming in from Fulton, Oswego, a lot of people come by. One of my daughters majored in marketing, and she was showing me this video. And she was like, do you realize the subliminal people might not know they need a fence,

but they pass you a hundred times a month. Yeah. And eventually when it comes. up and so we do we do very well and I'm not I'm not going to lie well and you also got those and I mean we got one right on the property right next here that I look at every day when we come in you got those nice little signs on on a lot of the fences that say Butler right there and that that branding is all over town which is awesome I if my if my my middle name wasn't put a sign on it I don't know what it is because every job that goes out I tell the guys I don't care if it's repair I don't care if it's a gate I don't care if it's a corner post sure once we do

that fence that's our fence. I don't care who did it before. Get our name. I mean, you guys all may, I don't have to spend the money so I can pay you guys the money. Sure. I mean, I think the biggest thing for me are, and my brother's involved too. I don't want to despair my brother and I are partners in this. But I think our guys kind of like, I mean, it's a tough job. Sure. I mean, not everyone wants to dig holes for a living. Right. But we have a really good relationship with the guys. I mean, we are not of the, you know, you got to get this done. We are of the compassion, like do your best, you know, make some progress. Yeah.

And if it takes an extra day, I want it done the right way. Sure. Do it like it's at your house. You know, don't have to ask me how to do it. I'm not on the site. Make it look like you would want it at your house. That's right. And do the best you can.

And then, and honestly, we do a lot of, I mean, we do like 600 fences a year. year. So over 50 years, we've got, you know, quite a few things out there. And, you know, whatever, I don't get a lot of callbacks. I've got a good rating with the BBB. That's one of those things that I love to, just as a business guy, to look at, you know, you talk about a niche. Yeah. Everybody's got buildings. You know, you're putting up a house, you're putting up whatever, and these are all different pieces. And the fact that they can take just one piece of that massive puzzle and build a great business for half a century is incredible. Yeah.

And I'll tell you what, you have an incredible reputation around town. So I think we passed this on to Victoria in your office at one time. But I'm in a group for business professionals locally, and we got signed of a forum on Facebook where they ask questions and things. And somebody one day says, hey, I bought this new commercial property. I've got to put some stuff around my parking lot. Who do you recommend? And I was like, oh, I'm going to jump into the comments and say, Butler.

And before I got there, every comment, Butler, Butler, Butler. And I was just, it was incredibly impressive because you can just tell that the, you know, just the reputation around town. And there are other companies that do it. And, you know, usually in those interactions, you see somebody dominates, but there's a couple call-outs to the rant. 100%. That's huge. And it was like, you know what, these guys definitely have the reputation that is great. and we're happy to work with you as we have for a while.

I give you a lot of credit for that because we live in an age now where it's hard to maintain a perfect reputation because there's social media and people embellish and people can say what they want. And he's right. When I was looking you up because I knew you were coming on the show, I mean, everything was ACEs, man. And I wanted to tell you, you are a real man because let me tell you,

I had a neighbor who decided he was going to put in his own fence. Okay. we collectively there's like five or six of us that are friends on the block guys and we have our own text group we all individually got invited throughout the days he was like I need help

this was no joke we're talking digging oh yeah and then putting man like Rocky when he was training for Ivan Drago like just putting in these wooden posts and pillars into the ground that is that is real deal grunt work is did he do it the old school way Or do you guys still do it that way?

Are there now machines? I mean, I'll touch from the 70s to, I mean, we still do it that way on occasion. There's certainly job sites that you cannot get machinery into. I mean, nowadays, we do have small hydraulic equipment, and we've got bigger hydraulic equipment, and we can get to more jobs, and then you just end up going back and seeding out yards and stuff. But, and there's, I mean, if there's an existing fence, and I only have to replace two posts, I'm not bringing equipment in.

You're doing it the old-fashioned way. You're bringing a hard bar. And the funny thing is, I look at you guys that shook both your hands, and you could certainly do the work, but believe it or not, I've got guys half your size, like little toothpick guys that they weigh 150 pounds. One of my guys weigh, he's like 6'1, 135 pounds.

He's never, I mean, I don't know what he'd, but he can put up a stinking fence. Yeah. I mean, and he will work his butt off, you know, whatever he's got to do to get it in. And it's, listen, I'm amazed. I'm amazed. My neighbor said, and he's an immigrant from China, okay,

and now he's a professor at Ithaca College, I think. He said it was the hardest work he's ever done in his life. He's like, I had no idea. While you hire professionals. Right. All the more reason to call Butler fence. A hundred percent. You said you had five, five kids?

five. Is this, are you passing it down to, are they in the business yet or are they going to be? So my middle son, my oldest son was for a few years. His girlfriend's got a great job and they've moved a few times. And so he did it for a while. He did it for like 10 years. And I thought it, you know, he was the lead horse to do it. But, you know, you're listening to a podcast right now, driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're in a podcast, chances are you have something to say with RSS.com, starting your own podcast is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads just like this.

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If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start free at RSS.com. His new girlfriend who we love. That'll happen. Yeah, so they're relocating down near Poughkeepsie as we speak. But she's got a great job, and he found something different in a different field. Sure. But my middle son is really my number one salesman now. Oh, wow.

And he's been doing it for about five years. He'll be 30 this year. He's just a natural. I mean, he's honestly, I feel like he's my mini-me. He just... That's great. But he's twice as good as I. I mean, it's like, dude, you are killed.

I don't think he knows how good he's killing it as far as sales go. But I don't pay him enough to make him, no. I believe me, I'm doing like my father did the carrot, you know, in front of the horse type thing. Sure. He does. You can do that with you. And then my youngest son is still in the trenches. So he's working and he's out in the field.

He has his own truck and he runs his own crew. Wow. But we kind of teach all the boys, you know, this is before you get in the office, you're doing this for X number of years. Yeah. And I have plans in one or two years he'll be ready to move on in. That's great. And then both my daughters were smart. Honestly, I really wanted my youngest daughter to really run the business.

Gotcha. The other one got her dot. She was going to be in the medical field and she's incredible. But the other one who was into marketing, I'm like, Bryn, you should. But you run these boys, let them just do the sales. You, I mean. Sure. But she moved to Brooklyn as well to be near her sister.

And they, you know. If she's into marketing, though, I'll tell you what. She's going to have no shortage of great opportunities there. She was home a couple days ago, and she showed me her computer what she manages, like some. Wow. I'm like, I can't even fath. Yeah. You know, you said your son is like, well.

world's better at it than you are. And I just was talking about how, you know, I have a daughter, an older daughter, and then our second kid is my son. We have a boy. And he just turned, he's about to turn six. And I'm going through this thing that,

you know, you prepare for different things when you're a dad, you know, like, you're like, I know this is coming. What I didn't expect to come was, he is so much fucking cooler than I was already at six years old.

Yeah. And he's already more athletic. And it's like this, this mix of, pride and joy and then just sadness and jealousy. And so I know what you're going through when you're like, look at my boy, he's better at this than I am. I don't know how to handle it, but you'll be happy. For sure.

It does make you proud. That's for sure. Rick, let's talk a little bit about fences. So obviously there's a bunch of different types. What's kind of common? What's in trend? Are we still doing the wooden with the curve? Are we doing all vinyl?

you know, what's a lot of it. What people doing? Vinyl is about 50-50 now with wood. Wow. About. You know, some people love vinyl. Some people, you know, don't, but it is definitely, it's more mainstream. Listen, I mean, not to talk politics or anything, but with the tariffs and my cedar

comes out of Canada. Wow. It's valid. My cedar just went up 17%. Wow. And that's a real number. I hate to, you know, even be, but. What's going on, man?

I'm a small business and, you know, so now, and it's funny because vinyl really so far is withheld, you know, all those, you know, price increases. Aluminum's up quite honestly 14%. Steels up 22%. Wow. And so those are all, but vinyl has held steady. Gotcha. So now all of a sudden my senior and my vinyl are, if it wasn't for Gates,

They would be dollar for dollar at this point, at least for the basic, like a dog ear cedar fence. With the vinyl, you still put sort of a wooden post? No wood. There is no wood. It's a hollow vinyl five-by-five post. And it's actually made to go a little bit with a high win. But ours is very heavy duty. I mean, there's, listen, I'm not going to get into what I sell in the competition, but mine's better, people.

Clearly. And, you know, I want something good. I don't want to callbacks. I'll pay a little more for it. But it's a good wall thickness. On the gates, they do get an aluminum insert. So that whole five inch is actually an aluminum post, which gets sleeved with vinyl, but no wood. So now you don't have to worry about your wood.

You don't have to worry about it deteriorating. That fence, if done right, should last 50 plus years. Is it for the installer side? Is it any quicker or longer to install that versus wood? So the post installation, because these are big holes, and there's no cheating on the vinyl. So the installation typically of the post takes definitely longer than it does on wood. I see. But now, vice versa, the finish, the vinyl pops in kind of like a Lego game at the end.

So that, if you set it correctly and take that a little extra time, the finish is much easier. The wood, you're carrying out the wood, and we do it all stick built. Very little panels, so that way we can follow nothing in Syracuse or central New York's flat. So this way you can foul grades better, you know, make a nicer looking fence. I wasn't even thinking about that. That's got to be an interesting challenge, right? Keep the top at the same point, but the... You're trying to, right, at least flow with the yard.

And, you know, if a yard dips, you kind of have to dip with it a little bit, but you try to take that out. And it's, listen, it's kind of artwork. Yeah. Yes. And I've got like, again, we've been doing this a long time, but my average, I run 10 trucks right now, except for my one son who's 25. My other nine guys that are running my crews have been doing this 20 plus. I mean, I've got a couple of guys over 30 years with them. Wow.

You know. I mean, that says something. So they really do some beautiful work and they know the terrain. They know how to lay it out ahead of time. They've seen every, you know, challenge. Not that there's not always, you know, there's challenges. Sure. Again, I always defer to them and just always say.

Yeah. However, whatever is the best way. And best way is not always the quickest way. Sure. You know, but it's. Well, that goes back to your neighbor story of why you use professionals. Yeah. And he was on a hill.

And I've got one of my foreman, Mark, who just loves to come in. And I love him. I mean, he's just very in tune with, you know, I mean, he's, he's, he's a piece. But he'll come in and it'll just start giving me these waving and arm motions. Yeah. Yeah, he's into it. And so, yeah, people underappreciate what they do. Not us.

You know, and then we do a lot of chain link to, now commercially. So the way my brother and I split up our business, he's more blue kind. However it turned out. You know, he's kind of more blue collar. He's more into the putting the fence together. I was always more into the bookworm part and the, and taking care of the numbers for the company. So we split the business up similarly.

I run the residential and he runs the commercial. Gotcha. So commercially, which is, you know, roughly 50, you know, at least 50% are bent, 90% of that or 80% is chain link. Gotcha. Eight foot chain link, six foot chain link. barn wires, big slide gates, prison work, highway work, all sorts of stuff. So he and my, and we're really truly a family business.

Our cousin is our other main estimator who, I mean, our mom, I mean, him and his sister are like my brother, you know, pseudo brother and sister, you know, because the four of us all grew up really close together. So he's worked for us for 20 plus years. So it's my brother and him run our commercial. Me and my son Nick run the residential. And is there is there a so let's say you're talking to a client. I got to ask this. Is there is there a type of fence where you go, they say, I want this type of fence and you're like, yes, that's the easiest.

Or they're like, I want this type of fence. And you're like, oh boy. Both. Yeah. So what's what's the hardest and what's the? Well, chain link is the easiest. Okay. That's what I would have my money on.

We could only do chain link and just run the business on 100% chain link, I would because there's really, it goes up really quick and generally speak. And the margins on it are, you know, pretty good. Yeah. But all that said, I mean, certain it's not so much the type of fence because I can do a fence on the hill or whatever. Right. But it's the hill. It's like, you want me to put the fence there? Right.

It's not even the type of fence. It's more where you want. The site itself, yeah. I mean, we just did. I mean, I love these street names. Old Quarry Road. It's like, what do you think you're going to hit when you get to Old Corrie Road? Right.

And this is that. It's a real street up there in the DeWitt, Fayneville area. A lot of big shots live out. I mean, it's very nice, very prestigious. But they literally have, I mean, because I've done some fences, a sheer wall, I mean, where there's a cliff there. Yeah. And certain people are buying homes realizing, holy crap, for 40 years,

Mr. and Mrs. Smith never put a fence there. And I'm putting a fence there. So I just did something like that, just like last week. I sent an extra crew on it. I'm going, guys, you're going to have to, and first of all, it's way back in this property. Yeah.

It's way, way in the back. So you've got to do a lot of walking. Could not bring literally any equipment. Oh. That's the worst. have handheld jack hammers, like battery driven. So we brought, you know, let's get, brought a few of those out. And I heard we had a jackhammer roughly half the holes.

Otherwise, these guys, I'm telling you, I've really got, stay with me, I've got the greatest guys. That's awesome. I mean, they didn't quit on me on that job. In fact, they were at day ahead because I gave them an extra day. They're like one day. That's awesome. Do you guys do strictly just installation or do you do any sort of repair at all. We do tons of repairs.

Do you? Okay. Good to know. And a lot of what we do in wood and protect, listen, I love wood because wood as a light, you know, Chain Lake will last, if you really want it, it's going to last 50 plus years. Wow. I mean, you know, we,

you know, same with the vinyl, same with the ornamental aluminum. Wood as a shelf life. I love wood. I mean, it means business. Sure. It's like keep on buying wood, because so I mean again we've been doing this 50 odd years I myself been doing it almost 40 I've seen certain customers six seven times or I mean it's like my phone yeah my wife's like

why don't you delete those people I'm like I said you never know when they call and I get calls to this day you know hey Rick you still doing fencing it's like yeah you kidding me it's like I'm doing it till I dropped we had a we had a wooden the old classic wooden picket fence at our last house that we lived in and we were right off of a kind of a highway um and i every two seats it was a great fence but every two seasons you know after winter i'd have to paint it you know but it was a beautiful fence so that i guess that's the only problem with wood you do the final now and you never have to do exactly exactly but certain people i mean honestly when my wife and i moved to our new place that we're in now my immediate reaction was i mean we got a couple acres i

I just had one neighbor. I just wanted to do a straight line of fence. And I threw up some vinyl. And then since then, we bought, we got a Frenchie who is literally like, our kids are all older, pretty much out of the house. It's like, well, we needed something to. Empty nest. You know.

So we got him. And all of a sudden, it's like, all right, crap, I got to put a fence up because this guy is nuts. Yeah. So, and I did wood on most of my other part of my property. And it's like, all right. And she's, it's driving her crazy. She goes, I cannot have two days.

different fences in my yard. That makes sense. So, and I live out in the woods and the woods. So there are a lot of situations, I think, that wood looks more natural. Absolutely. You know. What's the key? Just using the right kind of stain to pull along the life?

Personally, so I'd like just let it go natural. Really? That's the way I like to do it. Like unstained? Unstained, just let it go. Okay. It's going to turn gray. I think that's part of the charm.

You're listening to a podcast right now. Driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and hundreds more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads like this. Even with just 10 listeners a month. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast,

this is your sign. Start free at RSS.com. Yeah. Gives it like a rustic. Because what you do, like you mentioned, once you start that process, you're, and honestly, you've got to stick with it.

You've got to stick with that. And I love, honestly, when people do it too, sorry people, I hope. But if you do it too soon, you actually seal the moisture into these factors. Yeah, you got to. And it rots quicker. Right.

You're supposed to live it, like, let it go for a year Every on on. Yeah, when we had a new deck, same thing. It was like let the wood go for a year and warp and do what it's got to do. So many people don't even after we tell them and they're so anxious. It's like it. We just did it in June or July. You can't be putting something on this September.

No, you got a way to year. And people then are like, oh, it didn't last for 25 films because yeah, you. Yeah, you sealed all the destroyed. Yeah. So those, you know, I don't like those conversations, but it does. You know. It happens. You can only lead a horse to water.

That's it. You can't make a drink it. Yeah, primarily it's chain link, wood, vinyl, aluminum. But on the commercial side, we do guard rail. We do flag poles. We do... Do you do electric fences? We don't really do farm-type fences.

Right. For that, there's actually one or two guys that's kind of all they do. Wow, there's a niche within the niche. See? You could be an electric fence business. There's IT guys. specialize in farms. They do nothing, but make Wi-Fi work all over the outdoor space.

That's kind of fun, honestly. That's a whole conversation we need to have. That's wild. Rick, we're almost out of time, but I want to ask you one quick question, especially since you talked about the residential side and your dog, is there anything special you need to do if folks say I really want to protect from an animal that might be trying to dig under fences and things like that? Do you go above and beyond to kind of seal things off, or what do you do?

Certain people do request that. I mean, not as much as they did in the past. I mean, listen, certain animals. So we don't really do that very often. Gotcha. I mean, we just don't. I mean, but our fences are tight to the ground and it's going to keep. And like I tell everybody, nine out of ten people that are doing a fence at some point

are going to have an animal. Either they want to keep their animal in, and that could even be a child. But, you know, they were going to keep something in. Danny. And keep, you know, other people, you know, out. So privacy is, I mean, back in the 70s, 80s, chain link was, you know, people just wanted a fence. Yep. Now everybody, you know, listen, they, they call them these people farms, you know, they wipe out every tree.

Sure. And they build these developments. And everyone's, you know, fairly on top of each other. Yeah. And, I mean, I just see, chich, ching, ching. Remember when they used to do the slats in the chain link? Yes. Remember?

And that, yes, they used to put, and very commercial, you know, where they put the privacy slats. They used to be diagonal. Oh, oh, oh, oh, like the green. Yeah. Yeah. It would be the first thing the kids walking by would break and snap off. And that's not very, you know, and I see it all the time still as far as most, you know, more people are getting rid of those. Sure, sure.

Still up. Around the pool, like if you had a pool, a lot of the people that had pools would have those. His chain link was primary. I mean, that was it in the 90s. vinyl at that point. Yeah. And wood was basket weed. There wasn't much choice on wood.

I mean, I feel like we brought this stick-built thing here to Syracuse. That's awesome. Where I went to a few trade shows instead of people using panels, they're all selling one-by-sixes. I'm like, well, that's going to work for us because I'm just had a teacher- There's composite decking, but I never really thought. Is there composite fencing? There's very expensive.

It's not. Well, during the pandemic, we did our deck, and we were going to do a wood deck, just re, you know, That was when wood was a billion dollars. We did composite because composite was cheaper than the lumber during the pandemic. So which ended up in the long run, now we have a deck that's going to, you know, last longer. Those days are probably gone. But they do have composite fencing. They do.

It's very, you know. And people are going more with the colors, the dark browns. They want, you know, and that stuff, you know, I mean, if my fences say 50 bucks a running foot, that stuff's like 50% higher. Wow. that color. But more and more people, I kind of always said Syracuse is kind of a Chevy market. Yeah. It's just, you know, it's not about, you know, we're not, it's very simple, you know, fairly, but there's, even though you don't, there's, people are holding on their homes now.

So, their value just all went up 50 to 100. Sure. They're not going to move. And they've got a little maybe extra money and they're putting it. Time to make it look even prettier. Yeah. Yep. For sure.

And now with all these homes. improvement shows you see all the beauty that you can do and there are certainly fences that can beautify your home and the one thing that drives me more nuts than anything is going into these areas where you're talking for 500,000-dollar homes all gorgeous and I see a POS Home Depot vinyl. Oh yeah they tried to do themselves and it's just it must drive you nuts I's like I could have made this a showcase instead I'm like so you see them strap the panels to the roof of their SUV. Yeah, yeah.

At the Home Depot parking lot. Like you mentioned, they have no idea what they're getting into. Those are probably only half the depth they're supposed to be. Yeah, it seems simple, right? Yeah, we just build it around and where we go? You know, before we go, we want you to hit the plugs, anything you want to plug, but I got to ask, do you genuine, do most fencing companies or yourself, do you charge by square foot? Is that how the pricing works?

It's not really that way. It's material. There are, right. It's material. because really, I mean, I have a panel price and a post price and a gate price. Okay. And then a labor price. Now, obviously, a guy that's doing 50 feet versus 250 feet, I can discount that accordingly.

50 feet, I don't really have a lot of room on that. So if you did a per foot thing, you know, so it is kind of a sliding scale. Yeah, it makes sense. You're talking about, you know, you go 50 feet straight up a hill like you're talking about. That's a different, different ball game. Three-day job versus a one or something, you know. So the salesman, you know, and I've got one or, you know, two of my competitors love to do that online thing. And I'm thinking, I can't imagine what their guys are going through without anyone getting their eyes on that.

Yeah. Not every job is a flat piece of paper. Sure. Most often they're not. That's incredible. Well, old-fashioned. What, so Rick Austin, Butler Fence. What's the best way for folks to get home?

Yeah. Well, our website is, well, if you have an inquire, I guess it's sales, s-a-l-S-L-E-S-A-L-S at ButlerFence.com. Easy enough. Send your picture, send a request. Or just call our number. Debbie has been with me for, Debbie won't go. Debbie's, I'm not supposed to say her age, but she's well. 50.

Well, yes. She's been 50 for almost 20 years now. Wow. And she just loves to come in. And she's been the face of my place for, you know, 40-odd years. I love that. So give her a call at 315-4-22-8-4-10. And she'll get one of the guys scheduled to come out either.

I still do two or three estimates a day just to get out of the office. So once in a while, you even get the owner out there. And people are always the phase. Yeah, they really are. do you know you got a real it's the same way as like you go you go to a restaurant and you like to see the owner come out and talk to the tables you know it's kind of cool so you're the best rick thank you so much for coming guys thanks for having me this has been this has been great rick we really appreciate it for sure uh we will definitely have you back uh and anytime you got something interesting to

going on or or uh promotion anything like that we're more than happy to help spread the word so rick austin butler fence we will be back because we are going to celebrate our 50th episode and I think Danny's going to come on, talk about the new Nintendo Switch that came out. Yeah, we got some surprises. We got some nerd stuff. It'll be a good... It's Good News York brought to you by Ads on the Go. Get Ads on the Go.com.

It'll actually be worth sticking around beyond the guest. Dot com? Dot org? Yeah, no, dot com. Ads on the go. I did it. Get ads on the go. That's it.

Dot com. We'll be back. And we're back. Oh, we're on? Oh, we're on. He never stopped recording. Oh, hey, buddy. Oh, hey, look.

He's here. This is weird. You guys, I'm freaking out. Yeah, he's been transported. Our man, Danny. It's fitting that he's here. Barely awake because he spent all his time last night in multiple nerd lines to get a new game system. We're going to talk about that in a minute.

But first, we got to celebrate the big 5-0. The 50th episode. No one here is 50 years old. I just want to just. I still make that very clear. But we're at the 50th episode. This is exciting. And, you know...

We've been at this technically, like, what, four months-ish? Yeah, that's a lot of episodes. It is. I'm really happy. I have to say I want to thank both of you because none of this would happen without you. And, Danny, you don't get enough credit. You're always behind the scenes.

I'm glad you're sitting here to talk about the switch, but more importantly, so people can see your beautiful face. Yeah. Because you do produce the show for us, and you do an amazing job, and at growth mode content. an amazing job as well. We still don't know what your job title is, whatever you do. But it's awesome and we love you. So this is great, guys. He's the head, Ginger, in charge.

Yeah, what's going on with this? Because now I'm getting excited. I was at the local comic book store, larger than life. Shout out to them. I got a great retro GameCon event, I think, coming up sometime soon. They're not paying me to say that, so I should shut up. But anyway, as I was shopping around looking for a couple of things, and I'll tell you specifically why later, I ran into these grab bags. They got these grab bags and I'm going to tell you they're themed Do we grab them? They are Funko Pops, right? But these are gifts

for you two fellows to celebrate our 50th. Hold on. But it'll also be fun to see what's in the bag. Funko pops? That's a form of bobblehead and you know what I love bobbleheads. I was trying to decide who gets what. And you know what? I've decided

I'm going to leave it up to you fellas. So, I got 80s classics. Okay. And television. I love all of that. Who wants which one? Oh, fuck.

You have to fight each other to the death. I feel like the easy answer. Danny's 10 years younger than us, so I feel like I should take the 80s classics, but I do love television. Solid logic. Danny, what do you think? I'm guessing.

I'm going to let you have a strong... I guess my assumption was 80s classics could potentially 80s classics TV, but it doesn't actually say that, so it's the mystery. All right, you know what? I'll take 80s classics. All right.

Danny, how do you feel about it? Unless you... How do you want... How do you want to... Television, buddy? That's fine with it. We can do, like, deal or no deal.

Do you want to switch briefcases? I'll give you one last chance to switch briefcase. Okay. All right. And let's do this. There's a few of these things in each bag. So let's open them and we'll take them one by one.

And since you got to pick, Danny, you reveal the first prize in this magical grab bag. That's so exciting. Larger than... Shout out to Funko and ads on the go. GNY sponsored by Ads on the Go. All right, here we go.

The first one in the television grab bag. If I can get it out here, there we go. You got Elaine from SciencePet. Holy shit. That's awesome. That's awesome. You're acting like you're surprised. You bought them.

Bro, I bought them like this. I don't know what the fuck's in it. Oh, you didn't pick them out? No, they're just like this on the shelf. Oh, holy shit. Oh, this has just got way cooler. All I know about it is that theme that they wrote on the bag. I was like, Matt had time to do this?

Yeah. I literally grabbed it as an impulse item next to the register. That's, because I was like, that's a really good acting. You were like, no way! And I was like, dude, you bought him. It's funny that you thought that I knew it was in there. I did. Well, I don't know.

Let's see. You pop one out. Let's see what you got. Yep. Oh, my God, this is so fun. I'll pop one out. I'll pop one out. Never mind.

What do we got from the 80s classics? Webster. I don't know who that is. I thought it was. Masters of the universe. Oh, I did used to watch Web. He, man. I did watch it. Why don't I remember?

I fucking love him in. I don't remember Web Store either. At first I got excited, I thought it was Webster from the TV show. The little kid? What you're talking about, Willis? Yeah, well, that's, see, Webster always gets looped in with different strokes. Webster had the clock that he could go in and the other, the dummy. Yeah. Okay. But it's not him. It's Web Store.

Okay. Listen, I'm not complaining. All right, all right. And I love, I love Team. Danny, what's number two in the bag? Webster. Webster. Skeletor, right? This is a bit of a deep cut.

Oh, what? I don't know if you're familiar with Black Mirror. Yes. But we have Robert Daly. Oh! Which episode? Yeah. Black Mirror.

Oh, my God. What? I don't want to spoil it for anybody, but it hasn't want it. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. Black Mirror. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You find out at the end, like, the weird twist is he's like programmed this Star Trek episode with his coworkers, and he's in a simulation and stuff like that. I feel like I need to watch this. I've never seen this. Black Mirror's good. Very niche, but great, great episode. Awesome. I knew who he was.

Solid Funko Pot. All right, here we go. What do you got? Number two for Mike. Jared from Subway? Get the fuck out of it. I'm kidding. I'm fucking kidding. That was 90s.

Was that? Super collector side. This is, no. The chick from G. The Baron. I loved G.I. Joe. What? And listen, on Saturday mornings in the 80s,

little Mikey got made fun of because he stopped watching G.I. Joe because Gem and the hologram started at the same time, and I liked watching that better. Of course you... But... But this is great. G.I. Joe. Come on. Go Joe.

Yeah. Go Joe. All right, this last one. Knowing us half the battle. This one is probably... Well, I don't know. You're damn right. It's pretty iconic, but this one is... Fun Run Dwight. Get the fuck out of here.

I'm going to slit your throat for that. You got a Dwight? I will slit your throat for that. The other options are kind of crazy. You got Fun Run Andy and Michael with a check, the big deck. Oh, my God. I don't know if the cameras will be able to pick up. That's awesome.

Fun run, Dwight. That's incredible. I don't know what my third one is, but I am wildly jealous of that. That's incredible. See? I know. You picked. Well, it's just because I thought you wouldn't know any of them.

Young lad. Ironically, I think. That was the cheaper bag, right? Really? Cheaper than the other one. Never mind. Holy shit. Holy shit.

What is it? Fucking Michelangelo. No way. Ninja turtles, dude. I loved the Ninja turtles. Ghostbusters, Ninja Turtles. G.I. Joe, Masters of the Universe. Dude, I could kiss you right now.

Please don't. I won't. That's outstanding. That is, this is a good, this was a good batch. There you go, fellas. Matt, thank you. Happy 50th episode, fellas.

We didn't get you anything. it's okay here have septor danie's gonna give me that web store right no wow I don't know what to say other than thank you dude

this is great 50th G.I. Joe Ninja Turtles so let's uh with that being said let's take two minutes and talk about Danny's video game adventure

yeah dude what you were you were fucking in it it started you left work early for this yesterday I did I left work early so I managed to get over to the game stop at three and I was like, oh, this isn't bad.

There's no line out the door. You messaged yesterday. You're like, whoa, I thought it was going to be way more than this. When I got inside, it was all the way, they'd like went all the way deep back and they had, I was like 47th out of 50 people were there to like get a switch. And, yeah, waited in that line for probably an hour and a half, paid for it in full at like three or four o'clock, 430,

and went home, did some work. and then came back. I ended up falling asleep, and luckily I sent an alarm because I know myself, but I woke up and was like, I'm just going to go back to bed. I could just go and get it tomorrow. I was like, you know what?

I'm up now. So I went, 1201. They opened up their doors, but they were only letting in five people at a time. So that took forever. I think I got over, or got through it by like 1.30 in the morning. Gotcha.

And then from there, one of our pre-orders fell through for retro game con so we needed a switch for the convention oh so i decided i'm in that marshals plaza over in dewitt shout out to them i went over to the best by there's like 150 people standing outside they're just surrounding the front of the building it was like a zombie apocalypse but with nerds indistinguishable same one side is for people who pre-ordered the other side goes out to the the the weeds it was like uh what's the a league of their not a league of their own league of their own. There's no crying

in baseball. No, the... Feel the dreams. Feel the dreams. I felt like I was going to go to the cornfield. They have to wait in line for the switch. But yeah, so I waited there. You paid some kid to cut the line and... No, it was crazy. So I showed up. You would have. And there was this older woman with her son and she

was like, oh yeah, you missed out. They're sold out. And I was like, son of a... And she was like, oh, I'm just kidding with you. So everybody to the... Hilarious. Had a little piece of paper. So you knocked some kids' mama. Yeah. Great joke, lady. Yeah, so I waited in line there and probably at 2.30, I got handed a sheet of paper that was like, this will guarantee that you have a switch console.

And what was crazy was I was the end of the line for the longest time. And then probably like 3.30 in the morning. More people were showing up. People must have been calling other people to tell them like, hey, wake your ass up. nuts. So I got home around 4.30 and then went to bed and woke up... My God. And you haven't even played the thing yet. No, I turned it on, plugged everything in. Made sure it worked. Yeah, made sure the screen wasn't busted.

That was a thing this morning. People, game stops, certain game stops, I think, in Long Island, they stapled the number to the box, and it went through and pierced the screen. So there's like two or three cases of people. Can you imagine after all that coming home and... And it's an expensive device. You're spending $500.

I feel like a guy from Nintendo is going to show up to that store and just start bobbing. Do people go all out for these and like dress up, cosplay? Or is it just you're waiting in life? I mean. Maybe in bigger cities. So here, I'll show, I'll share this. Our buddy, Phil Farta, in the stage time trivia crew, actually hosted a party at a game stop location out in the Utica area. That's brilliant.

I love that. I absolutely love that. So my retro gamecon friends were making fun of me last. night because I'll kick their ass. Somebody in the discord shared this wide shot that they were there in line and I happened to be in there and we'll share this with my face. It looks like footage of like we're looking for this man. I was miserable.

There was a person behind me. This was only at 12.05 in the morning. I had just like had woken up. Were you drinking or anything? No, I was just probably. He would have been happier. there was a guy behind me with a speaker blasting video game music, like super loud. So that person caught it just at the moment where I turned around and was like,

you got to be kidding me, right? Yeah, I mean, it says it all on your face. You literally look like a, just like a fugitive on the run in that picture. I was going to be. Wanted for questioning. Right, right. You're playing music. Don't be that guy.

So I'm not going to make you demonstrate the things since you haven't played it, but I'd love to, you know, next week after you've gone. Yeah, we need to review. I love a full review of the device, what you love, what you don't love. Real quick question, what will be your first game? What are you going to try to play first? Oh, great question. Probably Mario Kart.

Okay. That's what game bundled with it. I'll probably play Mario Kart. I love that. And it's a brand new for this platform Mario Kart? I don't know if you're familiar with it, but the Switch didn't have its own Mario Kart. Gotcha. It was a rebrand.

of the Mario Kart that was released on the Wii So it was Mario Kart 8 then on the Switch It was Mario Kart 8 deluxe Yeah, they added... I was... Yoshi was my guy in Mario Kart. Who was your character? Princess?

Yeah. You strike me as a... Uh-huh. I'm a big Luigi fan. Luigi was good. He was probably my second choice. I usually go Mario. You just go straight up Mario?

Classic. Can't go wrong. It's a mean Mario. It's a me, Mario. It's on the thing, you know? Of course. He should be the winner. Right.

So like the iPhone, a lot of times people that are in line to get the new iPhones, they know kind of some of the feature. Do you know any of the features that are a little different than the last switch offhand? Yeah, so there's a big performance jump. The Switch originally released in 2017, so we've gone, what, seven years without a new concept. It's a long way in technology development. Yeah, and it's honestly not the most up-to-date thing. Like it doesn't compare to an Xbox series X or a playoff.

PlayStation 5 it's more comparable to like a PlayStation 4 but that is the same time yeah you're comparing something that I can take with me yeah wherever you got us be yeah you know is the screen is it is it is the the console or the piece of it stuff is it heavier bigger smaller yeah so the screen is a little bit bigger I believe it's like seven but it's light something yeah it's very light the materials that they're made out of yeah I should have brought it with you don't I'm kidding you didn't get any sleep it's not your fault The materials are very well-made. It's a very well-made device.

It is crazy. You let me hold it, and I was like, I don't. Is this still something that you're going to do a lot of docking it and playing it on the big screen, or is it going to be more handheld? I think so. You know, when I first got the switch in 2017, I remember I was leaving my job to go work at the Mets, and it was that week that I was leaving there. So I just brought it in and would play it at my desk while I was taking phone calls for people.

in a call center. That's phenomenal. Hey, you know, might as well take advantage of it. But other than that, I feel like that was the only time that I really used it. That's awesome. That's awesome. Listen, I'm going to make you one offer before we go. And I don't want you to feel obligated.

You know, we got tape running. I will trade you. Oh, geez. I will trade you these two for the Dwight. The CHO is pretty appealing. It's also a number seven. Fairness. I feel like is that?

I'm not a big funco pop guy, so you've got to tell me the numbers on these, is this sequential for all funco pops? Here's the thing. I claim to be a bobblehead guy, as you know. I have like, series. Yeah. I have 50 bobbleheads at home at this point. I'm expanding. I don't usually do funco.

I'm more of a traditional bobblehead guy. It doesn't mean I don't like the funco. No, I got it. So I don't know much about the numbers, but I'm assuming it is, it's part of a series. I'm just one, because they're all widely different. I didn't know if literally they just started at one with every one they make and they increment. Yeah, I'll make that trade Were you really?

Yeah Oh man I thought you were gonna tell me To go F myself No, it's all right I'll take web store Are you sure But he's trying to look like a good guy on tape

Web store Yeah as soon as we cut He's gonna be like Give me that back fuck head This is awesome Oh I'm so happy dude That's awesome Nice

GNY 50th episode Good news Happiness positivity Miccholando Dwight Michaelangelo Web store Yeah

We got a The Danny tripod In the new switch What an episode, man. Rick from Butler Fence. Rick from Butler Fence. What a cool guy he was. He was cool.

Yeah, we are Good News York, brought to you by Ads on the Go. Get Ads on the Go.com. Yeah, shout out to Zach. You're going to start seeing us everywhere on the side of Zach's incredible three-sided video screen truck. I saw him yesterday, by the way. He was driving. In the truck? Yeah, he was driving around.

I was like, oh, man, I was trying to see if we already had an ad yet. But, yeah. Luckily, we didn't go with our faces because that could be jarring. Right. You know, no offense to any of us, but there was a memo from the highway department that sort of banned that for hazard sake. Faces? O ours specifically. Oh, oh, our.

Well, then that makes more sense. They got wind that we might be on a billboard. Yeah, they were like, we can't have this. It's actually why we don't have any on $6.90 right now. That's correct. In any case, folks, it's been good news, York. I love each and every one of you, except for that one guy. You're a fuck, you don't know it.

But I really. That guy. you for like sharing subscribing uh don't stop because we sure as hell aren't this is uh we're enjoying celebrating 50 but man we are so we're honestly in our infancy of of where we're going and what's happening listen man i thank you for everybody who's been along the ride this has been a dream so far uh so i got to thank you and you Amanda everybody that works here even on the IT side growth mode tech to growth mode content this has been a dream gig so far and more importantly we have to thank the people listening and watching because without you this this what are we doing here we're

talking to ourselves which we do enough of we sound like the PBS telethon now yes we could do it can we do a 24 hour telethon like the old jerry lewis i don't know what i did this all right peace out bye