Ep. 93 : Host Dr. Ryan Sauers interviews guest: CEO Gyner Ozgul: RAFTRx

Dr. Ryan Sauers hosts the Community Connections show. It brings you positive stories and encouraging news from top leaders in various sectors of communities nationwide, along with super insights and timely discussions.

Listen to episode 93 of the Community Connections Podcast, featuring special guest CEO Gyner Ozgul. This episode is encouraging and insightful, sharing life and business lessons from Gyner that we can all be inspired by and learn from.

He is also an outstanding businessperson, husband, and father, and he encourages and leads his companies with a focus on great leadership. 

 *****Also, you can watch the TV/video show of this at-> https://youtu.be/T8gPk_aWqr4?feature=shared

***For more info on Gyner Ozgul visit -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/gynerozgul/   or... https://raftrxroofing.com/exec-bios/

For more information about future show guests or sponsorship opportunities, please contact Ryan@ryansauers.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Hello again everyone. It is time for another episode of the Community Connection Show. The show that brings you positive stories and encouraging news as we interview top leaders in every sector of the community. And now here is your host, national speaker and best-selling author, Ryan Sowers.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Hello again, everybody, and welcome to another community connection show with Ryan Sowers. I'm super excited today to have my friend Gener Osgall. He is the CEO of Raptor X on the show with me. Gener, how are you doing, my friend? Good, Ryan. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. I'm so excited to have you here. Uh you and I were just talking, uh we'll get into it more about the importance before we go on the air of being authentic. So what you see is what you get, folks. What you see is what you get. But you know, again, you got so much we want to talk about in this 30-minute show. Let's just start off for the people who don't know you about who you are and your background.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

Um let's do a quick version of the background.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Quick okay, yeah, yeah. Yes, exactly. Yep, we'll do the quick version.

SPEAKER_02 1:09

Yeah, quick version. Um my parents are both immigrants, so I'm a first generation. I always say that to people. Um and you know, I grew up in uh a little town called Summit, southwest of Chicago. Um, so my dad uh for the first half of his career was a line cook, and for the second half of his career was a was a general carpentry guy in the factory. So um, you know, that that had a lot of impression on me as a kid in terms of work ethic and you know how you think about family and how you position yourself. Um you know, kind of grew up in that neighborhood, went the whole public school route just like a lot of people in America. So I'm no no different than anyone else. Um but you know, I had an opportunity. Um, I started a little local Burger King job three blocks from my house. And 11 years later, my first career, I ended up leaving as a regional director of operations. So, you know, wow. If you would ask the 16-year-old me, you know, am I gonna make a career out of this thing? I would have said, I'm nuts. I'm just trying to get enough money to go see the movies, um, maybe take someone out on a date. I don't I didn't really need, I wasn't really thinking long term as a 16-year-old. Um and you know, I met a lot of great people in those days and they had an impression of me and I learned a lot about PL management and people management in my quick service restaurant days. And then fast forward in 2003, I joined a company called Ecolab who owned a business called GCS. I was a branch manager for them in Chicago, and just the short of that story was GCS was a platform at the time that Ecolab was trying to build for commercial kitchen repair. So very high-skilled tradesmen, um, all W-2 tradesmen that work in commercial kitchens. So stadiums, hospitals, universities, restaurants, and everywhere you see a commercial kitchen and or HVAC and refrigeration, these were the guys, right? So they're very skilled. I spent a total of 21 years in that industry, um, culminating with that industry being sold out of Ecolab in 2017 uh into private equity, where I'd been for eight plus years now. And um, you know, that business became a business called Smart Care Solutions. Now you can look them up on the internet, but very successful business, much larger with 1200 technicians now. Um, I left there as the C president and CEO of that business and then joined Raftor X last year, uh actually in the end of last year, December, as the CEO of Raftor X, which is an up-and-coming platform that does residential insurance-based re-roofing. So, yes, I am in the roofing space.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

Well, congratulations. Uh and you know, us getting in each other know each other has been awesome. So, you know, it's funny, um, you talked about those Burger King days. There's nothing probably that tests you by fire uh more than the restaurant or the uh being behind a register. I was a Chick-fil-A guy in the early days. I think I should have stayed on. I would have uh I would have done quite well. But you know, it's it's it's the real deal, you know. And you what you started, you said when you were 15, 16, like I did, probably never whatever you ended up with. That's that's a great career path, a lot of work ethic there.

SPEAKER_02 4:14

Yeah, there's a funny little story there. Um, and I'll make it short. I got hired as a 15-year-old, then got fired two months later as a 15-year-old because they didn't allow 15-year-olds anymore, and then got hired two months after that when I turned 16 back. So um, so only time I've been fired in a job, but it was very impactful for me as a kid. And uh what I what I also will say about that is I agree with you. You know, it's it's a lot of hours, it's a commitment in the restaurant field. You learn a lot about people management in those businesses. I mean, the the turnover in the restaurant industry is well over 100%.

SPEAKER_03 4:52

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:53

So, you know, most people don't know that or recognize how difficult it is to hire, retain, and retrain people on a consistent basis. Yeah. So it taught me a lot in a lot of patience.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

Well, the early days of Chick-fil-A, when Chick-fil-A uh was just in Atlanta in the malls, whatever, um, I learned quickly when I wasn't doing what I was supposed to do. They made me go back and peel lemons and and and uh wash the wash the dishes. So I quickly learned um, you know, you either do what you're supposed to and exceed or uh not, you know, exactly. But well, tell tell me a little bit about this. Um, you know, everybody sees the title CEO. Uh everybody says CEO and thinks different things, but we'll we'll kind of pivot a little bit to this. But what is your overall leadership philosophy that drives you as a human, as a person, as a CEO?

SPEAKER_02 5:41

I lead with being a human, always. Um the title, the title is important in certain scenarios, right? If I'm if I'm talking to bankers or investors, there's a you know, the title is a necessity in terms of validity of the conversation you're gonna have with a group of people, right? In general, I don't feel like the title has that much meaning to me at least. So I can't speak for other CEOs, so this is this isn't me taking a shot. What's more important is the leadership style of connecting with the people that you work with and giving them a vision and an understanding of where you want a business to go, right? And then starting to deliver on it is really important. That's my leadership style. So I and I'm a I'm a game of three guys. If you've ever heard like the the top three priority rules, I try really hard to keep it in like threes because I think there's good to have narrow focus so people all align to a common vision. So you'll see that in my leadership style. You'll see a very personal approach. I don't, you know, I don't believe in hierarchies where I can't talk to people in the organization. As a matter of fact, when I've had people report into me who who say things like, Well, you know, I'd really like you to tell me before you talk to Joe, like, no, I want to have access to whoever I want to have access to.

SPEAKER_01 6:59

100%.

SPEAKER_02 7:00

You shouldn't be worried about it because I don't believe in retribution, right? So if they tell me something about you that I don't agree with, I may coach you, but I'm not gonna like hold you accountable for that. And the flip side of the coin is I want them to feel like I'm accessible, right? I don't want this title to be this invisible barrier that people don't feel they have accessibility with me on. I just that's not something um I enjoy.

SPEAKER_01 7:26

So how did the, you know, you were, I think you're saying you were uh CEO or present COO before. Did that help you a little bit coming into the CEO role of just being a little bit in that role?

SPEAKER_02 7:37

Yeah, I mean that that role, operations roles are are all about people and process, right? And what you learn when you're managing, you know, we had I think 1,200 technicians and probably a couple hundred support staff in that. I don't know the exact numbers, but it's it was a big piece, right? And as you get larger, your accessibility becomes a problem, right? Uh, just giving you a sense, when we were growing up until about 600 technicians, I would run write personal birthday cards for our technicians every month, right? Um, I couldn't do it after that because it got bigger than me. Um, and the guys would always joke around uh with me about that. But I, you know, that was really it had a lot of lasting impressions. So to ask your question, absolutely, it prepared me, right? I think the experience I got there in terms of process orientation, how to talk to people, how to talk to owners, right? I'm in a private equity-backed platform build, and talking to owners and navigating the whole idea of what it takes from go to you know, successful entrepreneurial-based businesses to a platform build, you know, I I wouldn't have had that experience if I didn't have that role.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

So it's fair to say, I mean, you know, I know I agree with this, but so every experience you, as listeners or listening, you've gone through in your life has kind of prepared you for this moment.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

Yes, it totally is. And, you know, I I always, when I was younger, I had a little bit of that chip on my shoulder, like, oh, experience doesn't mean nothing. I am, I am, you know, I let me put my let me put my heavy coat on and I'll show you guys how smart I am. You know, I when people told me that experience was like the biggest thing that helps your success in your career, I agree with that now. And in and really where that comes from, Ryan, is like the failures I've had in my career have been detrimental to my success in the future because I learned from them, but also they've made me a better person. Yeah, right. And you just don't get that enough earlier in your life, right? You know, I I won't poke fun at it, but you know what? If the worst thing that happens to you in high school is you get a D, right? Yeah, I mean your your your weekend's ruined, or maybe you go to like, you know, maybe you're in detention or something like that. But man, when you when you have a a role where you know you have a failure that you had a process you put in place and it just didn't work and you impacted people's lives, like it changes you as a person. And I would say it makes you a better person because you you figure out what you can't do going forward.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

Yeah, you know, and I was just uh the piggyback on the gainer. I was thinking the other day, every time I see now at another uh what you saw, another birthday, another uh gift of uh I appreciate the birthday wish. Um you know, I I I now go back through my mental inventory and say, you know, I I've seen something like this in the past. You know, you you draw from it, like I think what you're saying, and go, so you you have your peak performance powers, but you also have that wisdom that I too at a younger age thought, ah, that's overrated. Well, it's not really. I mean, I think you can wisdom's a powerful thing if you use it correctly.

SPEAKER_02 10:44

No, wisdom is a powerful thing if you use it correctly, right? And um I'd say that the most important thing to me was the human forward aspect, which I probably didn't learn until like my mid-30s with a lot of coaching, right? Um, and you know, look, coaches, therapists, they're all good things, by the way. Just make sure you listen. Yeah, I always tell people that like don't go into it with a skeptical view. Like, understand that coaches and therapists are usually really good independents who don't know that much about you and they give you very unfiltered feedback and you should take it. Um, but yeah, I mean the idea of leaning forward with being human first, like it's it's a very powerful approach in leadership.

SPEAKER_01 11:27

You and I spoke a little bit one time. Uh we were talking about authenticity. And you know, we I I I'm not gonna put words in your mouth, but in my opinion, I'm gonna try not to do it, you can't fake authentic leadership.

SPEAKER_02 11:40

No.

SPEAKER_01 11:40

I mean, you mean you've let a lot of people, whatever your title's been over the years, you've probably seen people that try to maybe put on airs of that, and then the the real deal, but I d do you agree? I mean, there's no faking of that, people can see through it.

SPEAKER_02 11:54

No, um, they they definitely can see through it. I'll give you an example. Like when COVID happened a number of years ago, and setting side all the political least for a second, at the time, a majority of us believed there was an issue there, right? Um, but you know, my last business had our worst, we were something like 60% down year on year revenue, like just because COVID, the restaurant space just got de like decimated for a period of time. And you know, we had to get everybody in the company on the phone and we made hard decisions then, and we were very authentic about it. We just said, look, we are at this point in time in the in the history of our business, this is more about keeping the business running in a healthy manner than it is about people's feelings or anything else. Because at this point, we don't know where this thing is headed, and you know, that means, yeah, some people may lose their job. We don't like it. Um, but you know, we we have to think about the good of the overall business and the thousands of families that we are gonna keep employed, right? So there that authentic piece became detrimental. And I remember up to a year, year and a half later, I get on, you know, I do monthly town halls with those team with those teams, and they would just say to me, Hey, you know, what inning they they had this baseball analogy, what inning are we in? You know, it was like sixth inning, seventh inning. You know, what they wanted to is like, are we almost back to normal? Right. Um, and you know, that if I wasn't authentic with them, they would have never trusted me in the process as we were making those changes.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

Isn't it powerful though, as a leader? I I think you and I share so much in common that when you're just flat out transparent and human uh and telling people not what they want to hear or what do you want them to, you know, fly, but just saying here's where we are, we can either come together, it's not perfect, that really the people that embrace that become such blood loyal ambassadors for your organization.

SPEAKER_02 13:52

Yeah, that's absolutely right. Because when they when they believe that you're a human being, when they believe that you're being authentic, um, and to some extent there's a last piece that which is the vulnerability of it. Like, hey, when you make mistakes, just admit it. Yeah. Don't don't hide behind them. Don't try to make excuses for them. Make a mistake and move on. Right? You're the the human part making mistakes comes with it. Just be willing to fess up to it and be willing to make it right.

SPEAKER_01 14:21

You know, you know, you know, I was I was gonna say, I didn't mean to cut you off there. I was gonna say I have this saying, if it goes back probably to my 30s, it's longer a problem sits, the worse it gets. And when you make a if you just sit around and keep talking about it, but you know, America as a whole is a very forgiving society. If you jump on it and transparently say, hey, I I screwed up. But just to me, it's when you start making excuses and stuff, it just no matter what business or thing you do, people start to really question it.

SPEAKER_02 14:48

Yeah, I always tell people, um, there's a difference between being uh in in authenticity and honesty, right? Um there's a difference between being tactful and being like trying to placate people, right? The ones that try to placate, they get themselves into a little bit of a trick bag, right? Because they're trying to create a narrative to smooth out a mistake or a problem. I say don't do that at all. Just you know, just be upfront with them and be tactful, right? This happened, it was on me, or this portion of it was on me. Here's what I'm doing to make it right. And I want you guys to know that, right?

SPEAKER_01 15:29

Love it. Love it. Um, well, let me ask you a question. So, you know, what would you tell? I'm just gonna drop back again to your background, somebody who wants to be a CEO one day, whatever, whatever industry. You know, they want to be a top executive or whatever, they're listening to you now. What do you what would you tell those guys, you know, 30 years ago when we were, you know, getting detention or getting the D in high school? You know, hey, here's what's important, man. You know, here's what you should really think about if you could tell Meyer your younger self.

SPEAKER_02 15:57

Yeah. Um two things. One is learn how to manage people really, really well. Like spend the time, understand, even the hard ones. Because the hard ones teach you something, right? Um, but the people part of this, if you're gonna be a CEO or any title you aspire to be as a leader, let's just say setting titles aside, the the ability to manage people and lead them is important, but that comes from the foundation of being a people person and really trying to understand how people think and work and how collaboration works and things like that, right? The second piece is honestly um what I learned in my restaurant days, which is like you gotta really understand a PL and how it works and spend the time, right? Because when you understand the PL and how it works, you can ask the right questions to influence the direction of the business and the strategy, right? But when you put a strategy in place that doesn't connect with the PL or your people, you really have a strategy with no foundation, right? So, like really understand your people, really understand your PL. If you if you get those two foundational skills, you can be very successful as a leader.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

It's like direction, alignment, commitment, you know. Uh something I always say, but that alignment between the two, as I hear you saying, you can't create a strategy with your people that doesn't exist if you're if you're losing more money than you're making, or vice versa, that that's it's all out of alignment, right? That's right.

SPEAKER_02 17:27

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 17:28

So that's good advice. Uh now, in the trends of your newest endeavor, now you've come into the roofing and exterior industry and with a plethora of experience to apply to it, uh come into it uh in in a kind of a new way and applying new things. What's your been your take? You came in what December and you've kind of come in, and what's been your philosophy here of this new endeavor?

SPEAKER_02 17:52

Yeah, is I is uh I can talk a lot better about it now than I did. I'll just I'll say that out loud. There you go. A few folks who talked to me seven months ago said, aha, see, I knew you would get there.

SPEAKER_01 18:04

That's why I wait, that's why I waited for the prime minute.

SPEAKER_02 18:07

Um what I'd say is, you know, when I was uh like being into this, this is a highly fragmented space, right? You got hundreds, if not thousands, of highly successful entrepreneurs really understand roofing. And whether they be in commercial or or residential, if they're in insurance or retail, like you know, some combination of those four buckets, like there's highly competent people who are very successful and they have figured out their equation in this space, right? With that, what I'd say a gap in the space has been like no one's really thinking about how you put together a platform well in this space and what's it going to take. And like, I'm not, hey, I'm not, I want to caveat that I haven't figured it out. I'm just saying there's an opportunity there. Right. So just like, so as I'm talking here, I want the audience to understand this isn't me speaking from the top of the hill. It's me saying there's there's something there that you know I want to poke at. And and for me, it comes back to one of the first things I said to the team after I met them was there's something very powerful in doing the roof of a home, right? It's typically the biggest investment that people have in their lives, right? Because if you think about it, I think roughly I heard somewhere like 80% of Americans that have less than $4,000 in their bank accounts, right? So if they're living in a home, that's typically their biggest investment. So the roof is gonna be key, right? And then underneath that, there's an emotional connection they have to that roof, right? Which is, hey, do I really want the people that live in this home with me that I love very much to have water dripping on their head, right? And I'm using that to be illustrative, right? Right. But also honest, right? I mean, it's it's the thing that garners the emotion of security that a roof brings to a home, right? So being able to build a platform, which is kind of where I started, and tying that back to that mission of why are roofs important to people, like if you can bring those things, two things together, I think there's gonna be something special in this industry.

SPEAKER_01 20:13

Yeah. And I think what you're seeing is um, you know, I'd say what you're saying is you see opportunities in it. Every time I open my mouth and say something like that, people are like, what is it? I'm like, I'm still working. I don't know exactly the formula, but I I see it, you know, I see it. And um, so coming in uh with Raftor X and and a slew of uh companies affiliated with it, has it been fun kind of as new just to try to meet all the people and put all the pieces together and you know build what's already been a great start for so many companies?

SPEAKER_02 20:43

Yeah, it's been it's been fun because there's a lot of great experience in these businesses, right? And they've been very warm. Look, there's also been challenges, right? I just don't want people to think everything's fun because it's been challenging at times, right? Um, but what I have found is there are more people in this industry willing to help and educate than there are now. And because of that, it is fun, and it shows the opportunity that exists to go do something different.

SPEAKER_01 21:11

Yeah, so so you have Raptor X, just for our audience to follow, there's a bunch of different affiliated companies serving a lot of the US, correct?

SPEAKER_02 21:20

That is. So Raptor X is currently five companies. Um Perimeter in the Southeast, which is kind of uh Georgia up through Kentucky and Tennessee, and uh South Carolina, sorry, guys. Um Humboldt, who's in the Carolinas and eastern Georgia, uh Regal, who is also kind of in the same space as Perimeter, pretty much. Um our Blue Hammer team, which is down in Texas, and then we have Mills Roofing and Siding, which is up in uh Michigan and northern Ohio. So currently five companies. Wow, soon to be more working on it.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

Yeah, but yeah, always for the future.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

Yeah, I gotta have a tease for the future.

SPEAKER_01 22:02

Well, I was looking at the map. I I I you know I have my suspicions of uh the map uh growing, so it's it's impressive to watch and and know so many of the team, it's it's it's really fun to watch. But with saying fun is not always right. You know, when there comes change, change is always not fun. There's there's you know lots of moving parts when you're making changes.

SPEAKER_02 22:22

That's right. There is a lot of moving parts when you're making changes, and some of them aren't easy, right? I think sometimes um one thing I will say from the CEO C is sometimes when difficult changes are made, people look at you like, you know, what's the why behind it? And you know, can you share? And there must be some conspiracy or something going on. And it's like it's sometimes it's just you know, people don't understand it. Sometimes it's just growth, right? Right? It's no different than your teenager who goes off to college, comes back home after college, and decides, hey, you know what, I'm gonna go get an apartment with my friend and try to figure this thing out on my own, right? Right. It's not a conspiracy, it didn't like think ahead to do that. It's it's kind of the evolution of them as a person. And you know, sometimes those changes and those decisions are more that. And actually, I would say it's often that more so than it is something is wrong in air quotes.

SPEAKER_01 23:17

Exactly. I mean, it's a hundred percent. And you know, so with with your, you know, I guess with your team and your different companies and you know, dealing with you know, private equity and a very family-oriented firm like that, your role, you know, when people say, you know, what do you what do you do all day long? You know, Ganner, you know, uh, you know, do you are you on the phone? Are you working with your team? I mean, you know, and I know that's a loaded question, but what how about this? What it what do you feel is the most important two or three things that you do each week?

SPEAKER_02 23:47

I have to keep the team focused on the few strategies we align to. Um, as a leader in the business, it's really hard. It's it's easy for people, including myself, to deviate. Like, here's a new shiny object I should go chase, right? So I have to keep them focused on the strategies that we all agree to. That's like that's one. Two, I have to make sure they resonate with where these businesses started came from, which is usually the people and the customers, like keep them real focused on that. And then the third is like as the leader of the company, I have to think about what's coming. Right. So what's in our future that could be this is where the you know, the the whole thoughts of what are the threats against you, but what are the opportunities for you, and where can you kind of lean in a little bit to do something different? That's the third bucket, right? And you know, managing those three every single day is always a part of my job.

SPEAKER_01 24:43

That's spot on. Well, do you um are there any mantras or books or mentors you've had in your career, videos, whatever that have really made a difference for you?

SPEAKER_02 24:54

Yeah, so you know, I um one of my one of my mentors was uh well, not a mentor, but somebody I really admired. And it's gonna sound cliche, but I'll explain why. So I'm an al Albert Einstein fan. I always have been since since I was a kid. Um as a kid, you just admired his intelligence and his his his knowledge. As an adult, I admired his humanity, which people really don't understand about him. Right? Here's a guy that um if you want to talk conspiracies, was you know, emigrated here from you know Germany in World War II times because he was fearing you know persecution, and um came here and like was brilliant, was told, hey, look, we need you to go work on a nuclear project that you know could help us with energy development for the world, and then ended up having it become a weapon which he was unaware of, and you know, is is primarily used for you know Hiroshima, right? So and he lived with that guilt for a really long time. And you know, I read a number of books on him, and you know, one thing that I took away from that from him was you know, as a human being, he recognized that intelligence wasn't everything because although he was smart scientifically speaking, he wasn't smart enough to see that he was being taken advantage of, right? And that cost him something. So that that for me was like the human side of it really impacted me as I read that, right? Um, in terms of like self-help books, I I read them all the time. I have a stack of them here. Um, if if I would you know quote one that I really liked, um, there's an author called I'm Looking Down and I want to make sure I get it right. It's uh by Max James. It's called the Harder You Fall, the the Higher You Bounce. Um I want to make sure I say it right. Um, and he tells a really unique story about himself. And I like books like this because they're not so much self-help books, they're more they teach you about somebody and how they got to be successful.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 27:08

And um in all his failures in life and how each one of those kind of was a build for him to get to where he was. You know, he's very successful now as an author and a coach. Um, but he goes through a lot of his history to do that. Um, I recommended a book to actually a few of our workers last week, and they said, you know, I I don't necessarily I've done a lot of the covey stuff over the years, and you know, I'm a Dale Carnegie graduate and all those blinking words. But you know, I guess as I've gotten older, I really look for those books that says, hey, I really want to understand somebody who's a human being like me and like what their journey was and how they got to be successful. That impacts me more than somebody who's going to tell me a theory of how I should be successful.

SPEAKER_01 27:51

You know, it's funny you said that is I went probably when I was in my 30s and I got on this kick, I started reading presidential authorized biographies. Like the, I mean, I started going way back to, you know, Truman and FDR. My whole process, not just understanding them, but all the people they interacted with and how how those dynamics still are very much the same if you just take out the technology and stuff in 2024. Uh, people thought I was crazy, but because you know, like you, you've done the seven habits and all the kind of stuff, but you can learn a lot by people's stories or are people who are the top of their craft, top athletes, top, you know, it it's the falling down and getting back up and falling down and getting back up. So um I like that one. I'll have to check that book out.

SPEAKER_02 28:32

Yeah, it is. It's a it's a good book. I met the author a number of years back. Uh, he signed my book. Um, he happened to be at a conference. I just enjoyed it. I enjoyed his conversation and he sat and talked to me for 10 minutes. He didn't have to, by the way. Yeah, um, I was just somebody in the audience and we talked for a little while and gave me an authored book. It was super interesting. I read it and it's uh it really resonated with me.

SPEAKER_01 28:54

All right. Well, I'm gonna check it out. All right, we got a few minutes left. So what are you what are you at this point uh most thankful or proud of in your life? I mean, I know your family is important to you as well.

SPEAKER_02 29:02

Yeah, well, my family, right? So I I failed to mention that in my story.

SPEAKER_01 29:06

That's why I was like, I forgot to ask you that.

SPEAKER_02 29:08

Right. Um, you know, I have a wife and two kids. Um, both my sons are, you know, um, yeah, both my sons are adults, I would say, one more than the other. Um, just like everybody else. But you know, my my eldest son chose the route of you know, blue-collar worker. He's a union custodian in high school, and I'm very proud of him. That's what he wanted to do, right? It there's no pressure from dad to do what dad did or follow dad's journey, right? And my younger son is going to be a sophomore in college and runs D2 track and field. And obviously he didn't get it from this physique, so you know that's on him. I give him a lot of credence from it, but you know, that's really important to me. Family is important, and it's important because you know, we spend a lot of when you're successful, you spend a lot of time away from home. And when I say time away from home, it's not always physically, sometimes it's just mentally, right? And um, it's important that when you are home, that there's a presence that you have and you pay attention to the people that are important to you because they deserve that because they also have the tolerance and patience that enables your success.

SPEAKER_01 30:12

Yeah, I've been my wife and kids have called me out a number of times, especially when I was a little bit younger, of being on the phone. You can be in the same room, but not be present.

SPEAKER_02 30:20

Yes, that's right.

SPEAKER_01 30:20

You know, so people like I'm I'm here. Like, we're not you're not mentally here. You're you're you're looking at your phone or replying to a text, and and so, you know, working to set those boundaries, I think you're saying is very key. But no, I know how important your family was, so I don't want to let that pass up. No, of course. Um, all right, so we've got a few minutes left. Uh, what's what's a quick fun fact about you that most people wouldn't know?

SPEAKER_02 30:43

I speak three languages. Oh, wow. Um, I grew up uh my my dad is Turkish and my mom is uh Albanian, but she comes via the old Yugoslavia because that's where she lives. Um and uh I didn't know this till I was older, but my dad insisted in the first you know five years of myself and my sister's life that we speak the other two languages at home. Because he said, you know, I knew once you guys were in school, it was often reading, right? On English. So I had this little window to put these languages in your head. And um, you know, it was really impactful for me. So, you know, the ability to be a multilingual person. A lot of people, maybe they can guess it because of my name sometimes, but um, sometimes they can't because I don't have an accent or anything like that. Um, but yeah, multilingual.

SPEAKER_01 31:31

Well, that's that's fantastic. Uh, I love it. I love it. All right. So as we kind of come to the end here, Giner, um, what what anything else that I failed to ask you that uh you want to share for our audience as we kind of come to the end?

SPEAKER_02 31:45

Yeah, like, you know, what I would say to the audience is like I I always I'm in the private equity world, right? And people hear the good and the bad and the news media and all this other stuff. Um I always say to them, you know, private equity is no different than any other business, whether that be family, corporate, private equity, there's always gonna be good and there's always gonna be bad, right? And it's always easier to report on the bad.

SPEAKER_01 32:12

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:13

Um and you know, it's important that you recognize that there's a lot of success stories out there. Um and working with a good partner like the one we have, uh, there's an enablement there that they give you to go drive success differently and personally and build a really great business. Because I tell my my team all the time great business is more important to me than scale or anything else I'm gonna do. Um, so you know, if I boil the ocean on the tangibility of that, my Google five star review is gonna be always more important to me than anything else, right? And uh so I just I always tell people, like, when you hear the private equity, it's not the boogeyman, right? Go online. There's very successful ones out there. You know, there's ones like Work Capital and based in Atlanta, actually, that brought, you know, uh a fast food restaurant like Arby's kind of from the brink to, you know, we all talk about we have the meats now, right? Yeah. So uh they've done there's there's good ones out there too. And uh know that, you know, spend a little bit of time to understand where the good ones are and and the good they bring.

SPEAKER_01 33:22

Well, man, uh we could go on forever. And like I said, we may have to do a sequel to this now. Like in a year when uh all the uh plans develop, we'll just have to have an update of what the heck's going on. But with that in time, and you, you know, your three, your three things you're gonna work on today. And now you've inspired me. I got a book to read, I've got uh three things to focus on. But no, againer, I really appreciate you coming on the community connection show. Um great knowledge. And uh everybody can find everything under Raptor X for all the companies. You know, just Google it. R-A-F-T-R-X.

SPEAKER_02 33:54

That's right. No E. No E.

SPEAKER_01 33:57

No E. All right. Well, uh Gainer, again, thanks for coming on, my friend, and I'm gonna close this out.

SPEAKER_02 34:01

Thank you. I appreciate it, Ryan.

SPEAKER_01 34:03

Absolutely. Well, folks, you've been listening to another community connection show with Ryan Sauers special guest, Gainer Osgill, CEO, Rap Direct with us today. We'll see you again next time.

SPEAKER_00 34:20

This has been the Community Connection Show with Ryan Sowers. Stay on the lookout for new or fast shows with community leaders wherever you listen to your podcast. And if you want to see the video interview of any show, visit community connections TV.com. Thanks for tuning in, everyone, and we will see you next time.