Stay Tranquilo - From Leaving School to Running a Multi-Million Dollar Company w/ Pallets?? - Stay Tranquilo Podcast

Episode Date: November 5, 2024

In the newest episode of the Stay Tranquilo Podcast, powered by Stay Tranquilo Network, we're joined by Christian Lesteiro of Tropical Pallets, a multi-million dollar pallet company for consumer goods. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

When did you get involved in the business? Freshly year of college. Freshment year of college, I was in an art class. I was already working, and I got a PO, and that PO would profit me more than what the tuition was for the year. So I was like, I'm in this art class. I'm like, what the fuck am I doing here? I'm seeing this fucking order come in.

I was like, I called my dad. I was like, yeah, I can't do this. Yeah. I was like, I'm going to work, Big Doc. And then that's when I left, and my dad's like, yeah, you want to come to work? All right, you're going north every day. I was like, perfect. Say less.

It's fine with me. Yeah, it's better than sitting in that art clash. So I went north every day for three years. Immocally, South Bay, Cluston, Belgrade, Moorhaven, LaBelle, bowling, rune, visit all those spots, and then come back. Most of the time, people were like, how old are you? Like 20, 21, they're like, get the fuck out of my office. I was like, okay, all right, yes, sir.

And then that's one thing I learned was how to be polite up north. So it was no after, no after no. And then one guy, name is Danny Chapman. It's like, son, sit here, sit. He's like, grab a shirt. He goes, you come here every fucking day. And I tell you, no. You have balls.

I was like, yes, sir? Thank you. How do you say this? And he goes, listen, I'm buying pallets from this guy. Bring me one load. If this load is better than this guys, I'll buy a second load from you. And it worked, and that was the first produce guy I ever got. And then from there, it bottomed because they started seeing my palettes coming in.

And then all these produce guys are in a little area together. So they all see my palettes coming in. Oh, those look palettes. They look good. All right, cool. And that's just how it's right. What is going on, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Stay Tranquilo podcast.

We're here with Christian Estado at Tropical Pallets. As you could see, there are a lot of palettes around here. So this is going to be an interesting one. It's different, you know. We do like highlighting a lot of business owners and kind of like industry leaders, but never have I ever done something like this. So I'm going to ask a ton of questions just because I honestly am not very familiar with the space. I know pallets are essential to pretty much everything in the import-export business.

So definitely want to get into a lot of that. But before we get into that, if you can just introduce yourself to people. I'm Christian Lestado. I went to Columbus with Andre, 2013. 11 years ago. Yeah, crazy. Yeah, been doing this for about 10 years. That's pretty much it.

Family-owned business. We've been here for 40 years, Hispanic-owned. And yeah, that's pretty much what we do. So you said family-owned business, so your dad started the business. My dad and my grandfather. And your grandfather. They did it together.

They were, it's a crazy story, but moral story is they did a favor for another guy that was local. And my dad was a truck driver with my grandfather. They were moving query rocks in Miami in the medley area. And one day this guy called my dad. He left down the street. street and he's like, hey, I needed you to take a load to Tropicana. My dad's like, yeah, sure, whatever. First load, whatever, my dad takes it over there. The guy from Tropicana is like, man,

I hate your boss. My dad's like, what are you talking about? He's like, I hate your boss. And the guy was from Costa Rica. My dad lived in Costa Rica for a year. And when he was like, whatever, they started a good relationship. And the next thing you know, the guy's like, here's X amount of money, start your own pallet company. And that's how that story started. Holy shit. So the guy that your dad was delivering to basically gave him cash to start. Yeah, Tropicana gave my dad. Oh, it's Trappacana. Yeah.

And then that's how that story started. And then we were doing business with Trapecanna until 20, I think 2005. And what was your, what was your grandfather doing at the time? He was still doing the Quarry Rock stuff. And then my dad's like, go, get over here. I need help. And that's how they kept going. And my grandfather passed away in 2015.

Yeah, 2015. And then it's been me and my dad ever since. That's crazy. So when Tropocana gives your dad this money, did he have any experience in this? With trucks, he did. With trucks, he did. Pallets, no clue. The guy is like, here's a sample, copy it, go.

And we need all of your inventory. And it worked for them. That's crazy. At that time, Tropicana was probably one of the biggest pallet purchasers in the country. And then little by little, they know once that crop from Florida got infected, then they started importing oranges, and then that was getting over from there. Damn. So, yeah, Tropicana is not the biggest importer of orange.

in the world. And where do they get their oranges from? I've heard Brazil. Okay. I don't know if it's Brazil, but... But I heard something the other day that oranges here in the state of Florida are... It's still a thing. But they're having a problem with that right now.

Yeah, because it's infected. All that land's infected from way back in the day, even that area of Immocalee, North Florida, Central Florida, all that land's gotten turned over so many times now that it's starting to get affected, all that toxins that we throw into it. And that's the main problem that's happening in Florida now. Okay. So that's where the vegetables, I tell people all the time, don't pie. from Florida. I can't say that, but don't buy it from Florida because it's so toxic.

All those stuff is so bad for you because they're spraying all hours of the day. And then now what's happened is all those infections that have gone through it. My dad's in the background there just eating shit. He's lurking. Yeah, he's lurking. He's always fucking lurking. But yeah, but that's why when we say organic, it's really organic. Got you.

So when people say it, it's because there's a reason behind it. They have to pass certain inspections. They have to do certain things with the, you know, FDA and all that stuff. Yeah. Okay. So what year was it when you guys started? 84.

Now, at this point, you guys have multiple locations. You were telling me, right? And the business has really kind of evolved. Yeah, we did Durrell in 2002. We had Miami Gardens open up in 2005, but that's an inventory station. And then we just purchased now a land in Cluston, and that's probably down the road,

but the next project now. They're doing now over there on airport, airport station, where they're building warehouse. is kind of like what we have here in Miami. Okay. That area, and then that's what they're going to do over there, which is the next growth.

And our idea was to go nationwide with it. Okay. So I want to get into, like, the overall process of what, you know, kind of like what a day-to-day looks like here, right? Day-to-day. You, like, one, where the hell do these pallets come from, right? And then we can just kind of go down the evolution from there. All right.

So think of distribution centers, big box stores. They have these sites, off-site, different across the world. They receive product. That product goes to their stores. Once that palette is empty, goes back to the distribution center where we grab them. Okay. That we will now repair it, grade it,

and then sell it to whoever's selling it to them. So it's a big circle. Think of it as this cup. I bought it from Publix. I sell to Solo Cup. I don't, but I sell to Solo Cup. Solo Cup sells it to Publix. I pick it up from Publix.

And it just keeps going in circles. And when you pick it up from, for example, a Publix, right? Are they just giving it to you? No. That's all contract. Yeah. Everything, everything that we do here is one of the big things that I changed was we're not seasonal anymore. We're not the flower companies anymore. We're all year round. And that was one of the big changes that we had to implement early on because it's guaranteed. It's guaranteed business all year round. It's guaranteed palates coming in, which then you can guarantee to your customers. You guarantee inventory. That's gold in what we do. Right. So if you can guarantee X amount of pallets for X amount of time, that's now you can create a budget behind that. You can create a plan behind that. And that's what customers want. And, And then you start building relationships on that. And I'm sweating profusely.

Holy fuck. And you're in the, in the warehouses. We're right in the thick of it. Yeah. But you kind of, you brought up something there that I thought that I think is interesting, right? You said that, you know, having like that consistency with, you know, with the distributors and with all the products that you work with. Did you guys see that there was an opportunity where, like, these distribution companies were having a problem finding the pallet so that. They would never, the problem, the problem was where our industry lacked was trust and respect.

There's a lot of mom and pop companies in the country that were like, yeah, we're on the way. We're on the way with your load. Load never shows up. And the lies in this industry were a lot, a lot. So where I came in, my dad doesn't speak a lot of English. So my dad's like, go north. I was like, all right, sorry going north. And then they actually started trusting me.

And then next thing you know, all right, year after year, we're starting to grow. And then that's where we started booming. And then when COVID hit, that's when we really boomed. And a lot of industries boomed, but it was our industry started to see the light. And the light was, okay, if you do things right and you have people that trust you, and then my employees trust us, and then that's when it starts having a domino effect that it did. Do you think that the other mom and pop shops that were doing this and their reason that they weren't able to build that trust was just because they couldn't match the inventory? So they would almost like promise like, hey, we'll get these pallets to you.

But then all of a sudden they're like, shit, we didn't get the pallets. So I can't fulfill it. That's one of the problems. Doing contracts, now you're having guaranteed palettes coming in. When you have guaranteed palettes coming in, it opens up all kinds of doors. So then you can go after companies that say, hey, I'm going to buy a thousand pallets from you. Guarantee it. Most of the people can't.

We could. And that's when we started shutting that light. And then now you start guaranteeing things. Guaranteeing a price for a year in this industry is big. Yeah. Because now a company can budget. All right, I'm going to spend $1,000 on a pallet. Great.

That's fine. We can budget for that. It was so variable for such a long time that people didn't know. And how were you able to get those relationships with like the publics of the world to get those contracts? So the trust. The trust again. Just hey, this is what we're going to do. Regardless of price, this is what we have sold.

And then just basically you front load. Like a swap almost. Exactly. It was a swap. It was a front loading on, hey, we have this already sold. We're going to do it this way. Yeah, because they know that you have the relationships with, you know, the larger brands that they're selling their products.

And so if you're the one that's able to facilitate it, exactly. And that was when it really started like, I'm not going to say who, but a lot of these companies where we started talking, hey, we're doing it with them. Oh, wait, we're doing it with them. Oh, it's working. It's a snowball effect. Exactly. And we kept our margins fair during COVID.

So we showed that trust back to the clients. And then when that started happening, then that's when it really started kicking down. And it was very, very, very stressful. But it was, it needed to happen. Yeah. I needed to happen and we're grateful it did. And so I want to go back into like from the, I guess, like, seat to sales, like what they say, right? So when you get these, some of these things are beat up, right?

And then you have to, you have your guys basically bringing them back to life. Correct. So we were, these are called cores, right there. Where are they called? Cores. Okay. Core minds, but cores and the guys come in in the morning, they repair, sort. The sorting part is a hard part.

The sorting part, there's such thin differentials that anybody can make a mistake. So then we have two guys quality checking that. And then once that goes, then it goes out the door. And what does quality check look like? Intense. Yeah? Intense stuff because at the end of the day, they're working on production. Anytime you have X amount of people working on a production line,

adrenaline is involved. And then you go back into the sports of it. So you have to deal with now people working on adrenaline and people working on salaries. So it's literally a clashing of two heads. And I'm in the middle. So sometimes it's not easy. And sometimes it's,

Interesting. It gets pretty intense here. But moral stories, we can't, we don't, we're not anything without them. Yeah. And then vice versa. And they know that. The guys outside know that and the guys inside know that. So it's all about trust. And they're, so how many guys do you guys employ here? Employee right now? In total, we have 52 heads. Damn, that's crazy. That's insane. So they're fixing, then basically placing onto the side where they're quality checking. They're quality checking. Once they get quality checked, then they're ready to go. And then. you guys are not loading any product on the pallets. No, we're just empty pallets. People call here all the time. Do you guys sell pallets of clothes? Nope, we do not. Yeah. But we're not like that.

That's a whole other monster. That's a whole other industry that I don't want to get involved in. Yeah. But that's pretty much what we do. And then there's the specialty pallets. There's the heat treating of pallets. There's so many different things that go into that outside of the normal stuff that we already do. And then there's a logistics part of it, which is another head on its own because you got-

The truck drivers, do you outsource that? Is that through? So from Miami to Orlando, we do it on our own trucks. And then outside, anything that I can do outside of the 10-hour range for a driver, all outsource. So that your dad obviously was a big catalyst for the business and kind of growing it from the ground up. And that's a crazy story, how it all kind of unfolded it.

I give him credit to do what he's going to do without speaking English. That's what, which is crazy. Which is wild to me because I've gone to these places and I'll ask him. I'm like, you guys actually have spoken? And like real words were actually spoken. And he just starts laughing and goes, yeah, I just put a price on the business card, gave it to him and left. And I was like, whatever fucking worked for you, man.

If it works, it works. Until this day, I go, I don't know how you did it. But it's a common thing with, usually these family-owned businesses, right? You know, a parent, a grandparent kind of is the inception of it. But it comes to the next generation to really kind of take it to that next level. Yeah, where my dad was good at was the selling part of it. where my grandfather was an OG was the production side of them. And I got more of my grandfather's side than my dad's side.

The selling part, I'm not really, like, I'm not outgoing as much as my dad is. My dad could talk to a pole for fucking nine hours. But the production side of it, the brute of it, I learned from my grandfather. And my grandfather, you look like Kevin Koston from Yellowstone. Exactly like that motherfucker. My grandfather would be like, yeah, you guys want to fight? All right, finish up. We're fighting outside after.

And he was like that. Nobody would ever do it to him. Of course, yeah. But we were like, you got scared. And, bro, he was just like that. Like, I would open on Christmas. Wouldn't do anything. But he just wanted to know that the gates were open on Christmas Day

because nobody was opening on Christmas Day. I was like, you're a psychopath. You're not well. But he was just one of one. You guys are Cuban, right? Yeah. My dad and my grandfather, they had to move to Coast. I'm going to botch this story because every time I hear it, I fuck it up.

But they moved from Cuba to Costa Rica, Costa Rica to Jersey. They spent one winter in Jersey like, fuck this. And they came down here. Maybe wrong, but what I have, what I have understood of that. Do you know why Costa Rica at that time? I don't know exactly.

I think at that time, there was asylum over there for them. Oh, okay. I don't know. But then I know my grandmother's sister brought them from Costa Rica to Jersey. And then they're like, no, no. Yeah, no shot on this. This is not it. I lived in the warmth my whole life and then I can't.

I wouldn't be able to do it. You tell me to move to Jersey right now. I'd be like, you can go fly the biggest fucking cut. I'm not. I'm not going to do it. Well, that, I mean, my mom, so my grandma, same thing. She didn't go to Costa Rica first, but they went to New York. Yeah, a lot of people went from Costa Rica or Spain.

I forget what it's called. The Peter Pan? What was that? Peter Pan. Well, Peter Pan was the initiative, but there was something in New York. Can't believe I can't remember the name of it right now. Which was like the big immigration hub. Something along those lines, yeah.

But that's where all the immigration was going on at the time. So that's where you kind of had to go to kind of plug yourself in. And then from there, you can kind of make that decision. But my grandparents lasted, I think, like 10 years there. And then the same thing. Yeah, I couldn't do it. I wouldn't wish the cold on my worst. Absolutely not.

Especially, like, knowing what I know now to work or go to school or do any normal day-to-day in the snow? I'm like, uh-uh. When did you get involved in the business? Freshman year of college. Freshment of year of college, I was in an art class. And I was already working, and I got a PO, and that PO would profit me more than what the tuition was for the year. And I was like, what the fuck am I doing here?

I have nothing bad to talk about college. Right, yeah. My opinion, my opinion, entrepreneur should be, you're not going to learn, you'll learn a lot, but you're not going to learn most of it in school. So I was like, I'm in this art class. I'm like, what the fuck am I doing here? I'm seeing this fucking order come in. I was like, I called my dad.

I was like, yeah, I can't do this. Yeah. I was like, I'm going to work, Big Doug. And then that's when I left, and my dad's like, yeah, you want to come to work? All right, you're going north every day. I was like, perfect. Say less. So it's fine with me.

Yeah, it's better than sitting in that art clash. So I went north every day for three years. Every single day. When you say north, like where were you going? Immocally, South Bay, Cluston, Belgrade, Moorhaven, LaBelle, Lakeland, Bartow, man, any, any... You'd get in a car, drive, visit all those spots, and then come back. Most of the time, people were like, how old are you? like 20-21.

They're like, get the fuck out of my office. I was like, okay, all right, yes, sir. And then that's one thing I learned was how to be polite up north. And that's a different breed on its own. It's the, yes, sir, don't look at their faces. Like, you got to like know how to maneuver that. And then after a year of just getting no, it was no after no after no.

And then one guy, the name is Danny Chapman. It's like, son, sit here, sit. He's like, grab a chair. He goes, you come here every fucking day. And I tell you, no. You have balls. I was like, yes, sir, thank you. How do you say this?

And he goes, listen, I'm buying pals from this guy. Bring me one load. If this load is better than this guys, I'll buy a second load from you. And then this was in February, there's the beginning of, you know, produce season, vegetables. If you do good by these first two loads, then I'll keep buying for me. I was like, okay. He goes, pricing is important. I was like, where do I need to be?

And he's like, I can't tell you that. You got to figure it out. I was like, fucking shit. All right, let's figure it out. So I started doing like in the entire three-hour car right back. I'm doing math in my head. I'm like, all right, all right, where do I got to be? Where do I think these people?

And I started calling everybody that I knew already. I'm like, where are these people at market wise? And they're like, at this price. I was like, I'm just going to shoot from the hip here and let's go. And it worked. And that was the first produce guy ever got. And then from there, it bottomed because they started seeing my palates coming in. And then all these produce guys are in a little area together.

So they all see my pallets coming in. Oh, those look palates. They look good. All right. All right, cool. And that's just how it kept going. And the quality of the palettes obviously is extremely important

because why? Was something that was happening with other pallets where they were like breaking and then the investment that you put in on like So if you notice most of our palates are inside.

Most of the pallet companies in the country have the palettes outside. So they get weathered. We have it as well. Of course. We rotate them. So like we have a certain period of time there's a certain amount of days

that we have to have to then circulate. Got it. And once they circulates, then out they go. But it was that that little math that it took us about three years to fine tune, and we have to have it out that exactly for 47 days.

Exactly 47. 48th day, it's too much. If there's, I mean, it goes into rain schedules. How did you guys figure out that timeline? On the 48th day, Mollstar is creating. It's as simple as that. On the 48th day 48, this shit keeps breaking. So if after a round of inches of rain, it varies at days.

But on average, it's either 46.2 to 47.4, something like that. And do you have an effect? Like, obviously, being in Miami, there's a ton of, humidity, right? But we have like our seasonal changes like rainy summers, right? So now is a good time, which is why we start stocking up now. Okay. I mean, we're about two weeks away from the start of produce season in South Florida. So once we start down here, then I'll bring down everything from the 441 site and then we just keep going north from there. Okay. That's just this big ass fucker. It's crazy. It's a big ass cycle. It's insane. It's a big ass cycle. It's what it is. So kind of going

back to your grandfather and your dad, what would you say is the biggest lesson that you've learned from them, one on the business side, but two also, just like on the personal side. The personal side, my grandfather showed me, just fucking work, dog. Nobody gives a flying fuck about you. Nobody gives a shit what you have to say, just head down to work.

And everybody can base their opinion on you, that's fine. My dad's side is work harder than everybody else, but work intelligently. My grandfather was just brute, just fucking get at it. My dad was like, yeah, work, yeah, working fine, but think while you're doing. doing it. And so it was just a hybrid of both. And then my dad was very, very, very good of just being a chameleon with everybody. Just getting along with everybody. He still does. Like I can

fucking... It's a great skill, man. He could talk to a fucking cat if he wants to. Yeah. He could sit there and he was like talking to the cat for fucking hours. But where he was really good at was talking to people in the flour industry, talking to people in the produce industry, in South Florida, just normal business owners and then building a relationship on that. That's where he's at his best. So just hearing those conversations over a period of time and then hearing my grandfather I've probably talked to the employees for a period of time. It was like, how do you guys work together? Is what I've always said.

How do you guys work together? And they're like, it's fucking works. Like, what do you want it to be? And then that's when I've learned that just keep going. Just keep going. And that's... Do you think your dad just, like, I'm sure at one point he had to think, like, do I try to learn English a little bit better?

Because there's the other side of it. Listen, I'm not going to sit here and say that he hasn't tried, he has. Yeah. But at the end of the day, in Miami... Right, you can get... Exactly. You get away with murder. You get away with murder down here if you speak Spanish.

So, like, everybody in South Florida would speak Spanish. Especially in this industry, in this space. Correct. So it's really where he struggled was in Central Florida, building a relationship with Central Florida for a longer period of time. Yeah, he could do a quick deal here and there, but it wasn't the solution. And that's where I came into the picture, basically. And that's where I really took over.

And I don't think he stepped foot in Lakeland ever since. But he definitely trusts me when it comes down to building those relationships. He knows that. Okay. And then you got to deal with shit like that. Exactly. I was going to say that's standard operating procedure right there. That's standard, bro.

I should hear, Miami. You get those fucking psyched ass. So that's actually a good kind of segue into that. What is it like dealing like with that? Bro, patience, dude. Bro, you know when you're working in Miami, like, how can I put this like the most politically correct way? Like, you're dealing with.

Craziness. It's madness. You're dealing with a certain standard of quality of people. How that? How is that like? I actually said this example the other day. Imagine a Columbus teacher. I was telling my nephew.

Imagine a Columbus teacher having to deal with 30 kids in class. That's a great way to put it, bro. Same exact shit. That's a great way to put it. Same exact way. You've got to have the patience. You've got to have like a second layer of not giving a fuck. Yeah.

That's another way of looking at it. Yeah. But the patients, they test me, buddy. That's his second day you got into a car accident today. No. Yeah. And he's laughing. It wasn't his fault.

It wasn't his fault. But like, still, like, it's a shot. that you got to deal with. He calls me. He's like, hey, do an accident that hangs up. I was like, dude, seriously? And I had to thank God I have, I think God I have cameras and GPS and the trucks. I was like, is this guy psycho? It's a psychopath. Just, I just, I just, the shit that you hear, you know, this shit that, like, I tell people all the time, the shit that I hear here, man, I can build anything after this.

Because, dude, you can sit here and just piss yourself in my office for half a day. Because just the phone calls is hilarious. All my friends that hear me on the phone, they're like, that's not well. And then the 250 phone call that we get in a day, but outside of that, it's not too bad. Yeah. The last thing I kind of want to ask you, and then we can get into some other,

I want to get into a little bit of Columbus talk, but where do you see, like, yourself after this? Obviously, you've been working. Do you see yourself for the next 10, 15 years like continuing to develop this business, or do you see? I've always said that when I start having kids, I'll probably take, not a backseat, but slow down a little bit.

And I'm not saying I just want to be a parent that's going to be present. And that's important to me. Because that was the one thing. I'm not saying my dad did what he could. But I want to be present for when my kids have baseball practice or when they have a game or whatever.

That was one of the things that, unfortunately, if I want to grow continuously, then you go into the part where I'm going to bring in partners into it. If I'm going to build a place in the middle of the United States, I'm not going to be traveling in the middle of the United States every fucking day.

So, you know, building the right people, building relationships, that's now. And then now the next step in my career is, you know, having places outside of Florida, then you've got to have the partnerships. You've got to have those relationships now come back and fruitioned into what you wanted it to be. Yeah. And then that's where I think we're going to be headed to shortly.

That's exciting then. I mean, not about the kid part, but we'll see. But, yeah, no, at the end of the day, the relationship is what in anything, really. I don't care what you do in what industry you're in, the relationship's important. And that's bare minimum of what you have to do in a business. No, 100%. And you can't do, I can't do anything here without the people that I have.

And they trust me and as much as I trust them. And like, I tell them, you guys rely on me to be at my best every single day. Because at the end of the day, if I'm not at my best, you guys can't take food home. And that is a bear of bad news if I'm not at my best.

Exactly. So I carry that. It trickles down. Yeah, and I carry that weight on me every single day because I want the best for them. And they know that I want the best for them. And that's a good point because I feel that. Yeah.

How do you personally, I guess, like manage that, right? Like, you're, you know, you're up there on the top and you know that your employees kind of rally around your energy, you know, the way that everything's kind of going in the business. So how do you kind of manage that? Bringing them in on decisions. Hey, this is what's going on. What do you guys think? Being real with people, being truthful with your employees is, I think the most important thing that we can have. Because at the end of the day, if I could just say, I can just walk around here, just like, hey, do this, do that, do this, but you're not doing anything. So showing them the right steps, showing them from A to Z is going to allow you to one, take a step back and keep doing on the other stuff you got to be doing, but it also puts them entitled to what they want.

And I go, you guys work. You guys are going to get paid. If you guys don't work, you're going to get paid. So it's a safe thing with me. If you guys aren't working, I'm not getting paid either. So we've got to figure that out. And just putting that trust onto them helped a lot because my dad wasn't like that. My grandfather wasn't like that.

They're hard sticklers, hey, you got to do this, you got to do that, you got to this. I get here in the morning, hey, this is your daily responsibilities. Get to it, buddy. And they're like, yep, we got it. And they know why. The why is the important. The why is understanding, okay, we have to do this because of this. So if a truck's not ready on time, there's a reason behind it.

And the reason is you're being an idiot. So it just sit like that, then the domino effect. And then this business, the domino effect is large. Absolutely. So one mistake from a bandsaw. can affect the entire production line for a day. So it's... I guess what's the biggest, like, shit show that's ever happened?

Shit show was... My birthday is June 29th, and there is the end of watermelon season is July 4th. So, at least from Florida and Georgia standpoint, and July, I think, I don't know what day it was, but it was the 27th, I know that. We had loaded 35 trucks in five hours. And the line was from this door

all the way down to 12th half. and that was madness because we had cops out here telling us hey you guys can't park here and we're like yo we're going we're going we're going so I had fuck it was a shit show

we had like seven trucks loading at one time it was madness and then those trucks had to get there four days prior or fourth of July so then they had to load watermelons on it and then back out to the stores before July 4th so that is stressful when you have a PO

when you have a PO or in a timeline it's tough and those guys aren't organized as we are So, like, yeah, we want 20,000 pallets. You have 48 hours. Hold on a second. Right. Because once it's in the truck, you don't really have much control.

I can't control it. I can't control it. A tire can break. A trailer can pop. Who knows? But it's so many factors that go into it and all it is is being prepared. That's all you can do. That's the best you can do.

Exactly. So, like, Mr. Linsky, what was this saying? Failing to prepare is preparing to fail? Yep. Yeah, that's what it was. We're actually going to get Linsky on in a couple weeks. And I think that's a good segue into the next topic of the conversation. Columbus for four years, played baseball, four years at Columbus.

Tell us a little bit of your life at Columbus and what... Columbus was the first place that told me the reality of life. You suck. Simple. You fucking suck. Simple. I'm like, all right, cool. So I will always be grateful for everybody that I ever dealt with there.

From Trujillo to Linsky to Webb, everybody there, I give them a lot of credit for telling me the truth. I will never, ever bash anybody. for telling me the truth, period. And I learned that there. It was all my entire life. Hey, you're good at this. Oh, you're good at that.

Hey, great, you're good at this. Right. All the praise, all the praise. Yeah, you're a kid. I mean, granted, I get it. But at Columbus, I take credit because my parents wanted to send me to La Salle. Because my sisters went there. And they liked it, whatever.

I was like, no. I went to Columbus and I saw it and Webb always said it. You're not going to be on varsity as a freshman. I was like, and then I went to a game. I was like, I saw Lobo and Hobby Salas. And I was like, yeah, okay. I get it. I get it.

I fully understand now, but I give credit to Webb a lot. And he was the first guy to tell me, fight and work for what you have. And I'll never take away that from anybody. He did always instill that in everybody. And everybody. And I get it. Like, people don't like hearing the truth. I fully understand.

You're so used to some things just being handed to you on a platter. Especially like, you know, especially like grade school, middle school. Like you have a, you know, you have maybe a certain level talent, but the pool is like, this fucking big, you know? And the moment you open that up a little bit and you're like, okay, yeah, like maybe I'm not good at all. Exactly. So, and then you get to the pool of Columbus, which is even smaller on there.

So I'll never, I will never regret ever telling my parents, I don't want to go there. I want to go to Columbus. I will never, ever regret that decision because, and there's a lot of coaches at Columbus, they're like, keep working. Yeah. Keep going. Keep going. And they push and they push the right way.

And I'll never, I'll never take that away from them. Because Columbus did teach me that lesson. It's true. You got to fucking work. You got to fucking work. You got to work your fucking ass off. Exactly. Yeah.

And I'll never, I'll never, ever take that away from that school. I look back at those years and I'm like, bro. Like, you know, obviously it's private school, right? So it has like that stigma. But like you said, it's not your traditional, just like, here you go. Everything's there. It's like, you, we'll give you the tools to succeed, but you got to figure it the shit out. You know, if not, like, my nephew's there now.

My nephew's there now. He's like, what the fuck is this shit? Yeah. So, like, I get it. Like, it's, and then you get those models and you bring it to business, you bring it to your personal life. And that's, that's great, really, what we've learned. I mean, yeah, you've learned the grade, the school part and all that stuff, that's fine. But the camaraderie, you don't ever, I don't care where you are.

The only people that can actually voice their opinion is Belin. That's it. And most of our friends are from Belan and vice versa. As much as shit, we talk to them. Yeah, exactly. And they talk to us, at the end of the day, we're the same fucking people. And that pool, that very short pool of people that we have between Belan and Columbus, we all have the same thing in common. We come from a brotherhood, and I don't think anybody can say that that's the same thing.

No, it's not. I mean, you see it. I've brought people into Columbus that, one, I've maybe never heard about it or, you know, I've heard about it, but they haven't experienced it. And the moment they see it, they're like, yo, this is crazy. Yeah. You know, it's like, one, how do you know everybody? I'm like, dude, this is just, this is who it is. This is what they, and when you're at Columbus, you always would hear about it, right?

Correct. The teachers would talk about it. Alumni would talk about it. Who was the one that said it, that our freshman orientation, look to your left, look to your right? When you graduate, they're not going to be there? I don't know who said it now, but I'll never forget. I'll never forget that. And I remember I looked to my left and I looked to my right.

And when we graduated, they said it again, look to your left and look to your right. And I was like, holy shit, it's a different person. And I was like, damn, they were right. And there's a reason behind it. And I get it. And like, not everybody's cut out for that. And that's okay. Exactly.

And whoever it is, more power to you. And it's crazy. All the people that left Columbus to this day say, I regret it. I regret it so much. You know, because they want, whether they want to go chase it for the sports or they chase it for academics, girls, whatever the hell it was. They were... That their opinions, but...

Exactly. Everyone had something that they said. And they wean you out. It's almost like a version of hazing that goes on in the beginning, right? Because they tell you, this is what it is. You're either going to do it or you're not. And if you don't...

Get out. Then by all mean, but they breed a certain level of... There's a certain level of excellence, for sure, but it's more like it's like Columbus's version of excellence. You learn to compete. Let's be realistic about it. You learn to compete. And you learn to love to compete.

And I come here to work and I fucking love compete. And I'd be like, that's why I say it. You take one, I take five. I dare you because I love to compete. And if I can't take five, you bet your ass I'm going to get six at least. So it's just, that's the way I run it because I have to be like that.

I have to be like that because it's in my blood. And my blood, I don't say it started from middle school, I say it started there. My life changed there, period. And for the better. I'm not going to stay here and say I didn't. All my friends all excelled there. So everybody that I see after I graduate,

have excelled. Yeah. And you look at where I think Fortune 500 CEO, that came out of Columbus. It's like more than Harvard, more than Yale, more than, I don't know what other Ivy League schools, that tells you that you don't want necessarily

have to be the smartest guy. You don't have to, you know, be the most skilled guy. But if you build this level of like, it's like, I think it's more like your personality and just the way that you carry yourself on a day-to-day basis, like you said, that competitive aspect, that hard work ethic,

those two things alone will just take you so, much further than everybody else. You're not, may not be the most skilled. You're not, you may not be the most intelligent, but guess what? You're going to outwork them. You're going to bridge your relationships and you're going to kind of, it's not like finessing, but you're going to, you're going to find a way. And I think that's the biggest thing. Like one door closed, like how many times did you get rejected when you were first selling, right? No, I can't hear Miami. I till this day, don't like selling palates in my home. Yeah. One, the just, the concept of business people have in central Florida and it changes everywhere.

And one of the unique parts of what I do is that I see how everybody runs a business differently. I've seen what's failed and I've seen what's exceeded. So I kind of have an idea of when somebody's doing the same decisions that somebody has failed already, I can see it now from a mile away. And that's something that comes with time, that comes with experiences. And that's okay. And I'm still learning. Of course. I'm the first one to say like, prove me wrong.

I got told people here all the time. Prove me wrong. I want you to prove me wrong. Why? I'm going to learn from it. And that's just the way that I have to run this business. So prove me wrong. I have it on a whiteboard there.

Prove me wrong. That's dope. Because I need you to. I want you to because that's what's going to make me better. As simple as that. And I learned that from Columbus. Prove me wrong, motherfucker. I dare you.

Because the reality is that everybody will come up with an idea that's better than yours. Everybody will. Or they'll grab your idea, tweak it a little bit away. That's beneficial to the market or whatever that may be. This industry is really fucking tough to tweak anything because it's a fucking pallet. At the end of the day, it's a pallet. Everybody's going to sell a pallet. Everybody can sell a pallet.

It's just your trust. and your relationship with people, that's once going to separate you from everybody else. Yeah, absolutely. And I learned that again from Columbus. Yeah, Columbus. For people that are listening that may not even know what Columbus is, just look it up because it is become a...

It's bigger now. It's become like an institution that is like, you can't even recognize it. I walked in, our 10-year reunion, I walked in. I was like, what the fuck is this place? And then now it's even bigger and it's keep growing. Well, think about it. When we got there was Moss Building, that was like brand new.

And everyone was like, holy shit. And here we are 10, 11 years later. And it's like three new buildings, baseball fields, turf, double story clubhouse now. Because when we were there, it was the one story. And like, that was fucking sick.

Yeah, that was. And nobody had a locker room like our locker. Nobody had a field like our, nobody has a field like we have our field. And then it just continues to evolve. And there's plans for it to continue to evolve. So Columbus will, like you said, forever,

have like a special place in my heart. And my goal is obviously to send my kids there assuming that one, I can and that I'm here, but it's a great place and it doesn't still a certain character. No, and it's funny because when you see people that are older than us, 10, 15, 20 years older than us, they have their kids that went to Columbus. And then you have a conversation with anybody and everybody that went to Columbus. You can be anywhere.

You wear a Columbus polo. Somebody will catch you. Dude, I've been in an airport, like in another city and someone has stopped me. Yeah. I was in Fort Pierce, Florida, visiting a lettuce farm. And one of their logistics guy went to Columbus. And I go, What the fuck are you doing here?

And he's like, yeah, just stop working here. I was like, perfect. That door opened because of Columbus. And I'll never, like, I'll never take that for granted. I'll forever and always appreciate what Columbus has done for me specifically. Absolutely. And the doors and it's open. Because it opens more doors than it closes, in my opinion.

And you can't beat that. It's a powerful network. And we're both grateful. He's a Columbus grad too, and I mean, it's a never-ending circle, and you really never know what doors it'll open and what opportunities are. All my best friends went to Columbus. My family members is now going to Columbus, well, one family member, but even in-laws are going to Columbus or went to Columbus. So that's a unique experience that we all have that one thing in common. And I think that's something that will never, and my wife hates it because she talks about it.

She's like, yeah, they're so annoying. I know. I know. I'm sorry. But they just don't get it. Yeah, they don't. But that's fine, too. Like, I don't know.

There's no reason for that to get it. I don't need you guys to get it. You can explain it the best you can, and they'll still be like, I still get it. I'm yet to find somebody that can describe it to a third party best. Yeah. I can't. I'm yet to find one. And the way that I say is, it's a frat house in high school.

Yeah, that's usually how I describe it. But it's not. Exactly. I'm yet to find somebody. That's actually, when I get Lindykeke on the pod, that's a question I'm going to ask them. If you're going to, if you could describe Columbus to someone that has no idea about what Columbus is, how would you describe it? That is a great question to ask. He probably would be the perfect person. That man made me fall in the world war with two history. Dude, that class is

I went to Louisiana and I went to the museum because of him. Yep. Just because of him. All right. I didn't give a shit about it. Me and Brian went to the museum and we were like little kids like at the museum because you recognize everything from that class. He taught it probably how no other teacher would teach World War II, yet we digested it probably better than anybody. I can watch a documentary, and I can start spitballing facts, and my wife's like, that is obnoxious. Yeah, it sucks.

Sitting that class, you would have done the same thing. Exactly. Like, I was literally in Spain a few weeks ago, and I saw a bunker. I was with Brian, and our children came out of us, the Columbus kid came out of us, and we walked to the fucking bunker, and then we started searching.

That bunker happened at this time, around World War II. And Brzezinski opened a can of worms with me. I can tell you that. But I love that place, man. That place is... And every time I go back, you hear a different story. And it's great.

It's one of the best places in, I think, in the United States. But I appreciate you, dude, for putting this together. And... Thanks for coming, bud. Educating me about Pallas and hopefully educating more people about... Like, I knew how big of a fucking industry this shit was, because it's an essential... You know, part of, like we were saying in the beginning,

like you're food. Everything that we consume on a daily basis is... From shampoos to foods, like you were saying, like everything goes on a palette. So it's essential and I appreciate you for doing this. It's a good time. Absolutely.