Hoosier Daddy

This week, we welcomed Doyle Bedee from Autoglass Replacement & Repair to our BRAND NEW studio setup to talk about what it means to be a man, an entrepreneur, and a great father - and more!
Check out Doyle's business here: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100092421318506

Transcript

Welcome to this edition of the Hoel Roofing and Remodeling podcast! Today is the first day in our new set up.

So shout out to Adam for getting this set up. And, today our guest is Doyle with auto repair, auto glass replacement and repair. There you go. So, I'm gonna let him introduce himself, but I'm going to start with a quick story. I'm all about small business here. Like, I love talking to entrepreneurs. love supporting entrepreneurs, small business.

And, we had three vehicles here at the office that needed new glass. And I just told, office manager Elly. I'm like, Elly, just get with Safelite, get them out here. And I gave her the details and they sent over a quote, and they were going to charge me a trip charge for every single vehicle. And I was like, Elly, call them, let them know, like, hey, I'll have my shop open.

I can do all three in the same day, all that. And they're like, oh, we can't guarantee the same person will do all of them. And I'm like, this is stupid. And, you know, like our phones do like it or not, it's listening to me. And all of a sudden an ad for yours pops up. So I'm messaging you message back that night and you're like, oh yeah, man, I can do it.

And, you know, so I was trying to count the other day in prep for this podcast. I think you've done like 8 or 9, seven, I believe. Okay, okay. Yep. Seven. Yeah. Well, well that one you did it 8 or 9 actually, because you've, you know, through your channels, you brought some people in besides yourself, but I think it's been at least 5 or 6 of just your own vehicles and a few others from people.

00:01:41:04 - 00:01:57:32
Unknown 
Yeah. So, I mean, it's just, he came in and knocked out of the park on the first set, and then my dad and the good buddy needed some work done. And then I swear, right after you did that first set, the day after some, I pulled it. Hey, boss. a rock hit my windshield. I was like, gosh darn it.

So. But so that's that's, that's kind of how we met. But go ahead, introduce yourself, your family, and then we'll talk some business for a minute, buddy. Sure. So my name is Doyle Bedee, I operate a company, Autoglass Replacement & Repair. I've been doing auto glass for about nine, ten years now. I really enjoy what I do. I take a lot of pride in it.

I really like that it's hands on, and I really like that there's a degree of craftsmanship to it. it's not such a tedious job that, you know, you have to, like, walk on pins and needles, but there's a certain level of craftsmanship that just gives me pride in the work. and that's one thing I feel like is really lacking in my industry.

There's a lot of, you know, it's an old it's not a new job. You know, people have been putting glass in cars since they've been around. So the process is a change. But there's a lot of older people in the market who aren't using the newest technology. and along with, you know, pride in my labor, I really like the technology.

There's a lot of tools out here now that are just specifically made for removing windows from cars, and it minimizes the damage. It minimizes the wear and tear on me. it's just all around great. but I just launched my business within the last few years. the ball is really starting to pick up steam this year.

It's really starting to take off. schedules full Monday through Friday. It's fantastic. My biggest pride in, opening my own business is the ability to give people good deals. like you said on Safelite, they want to charge you. They want to nickel and dime you for every single thing, like one stop. But they're going to give you three mobile charges.

That's crazy. What's fantastic about me is I only have to cover myself and provide for my family, which brings my overhead significantly lower than some of these high end companies, which makes it to where I can give you a great deal. So you're going to save money, you're going to get absolute great work that you're going to get comparable to any of these other top tier companies.

And I'm also going to make what I need to provide for my family. So it's winning all the way around. and the other thing that, you know, I really get excited about is just being a name in the community. you know, I'm 31, so until the last two years, I've just been a guy who lives in Columbus, Indiana, you know?

But over the last couple years now, I'm starting to have a name. People know there's a guy. I have a guy who does glass. He does great work. He's an even better person. so I like that, you know, I can start being recognized in my community as somebody who's providing something instead of just existing in the ecosystem.

Tell me about your, your family bud. so I have two little boys and a, fiancé. we just, started building our family within the last four years. My oldest is four year old, is a four year old, and my youngest is two. They are, a rambunctious little tag team of boys. I, I love it, though.

I don't remember what the old show was, but there was, like, they used to call these two little brothers the Bruise brothers, and they would just roughhouse all the time. And I absolutely love that. I was kind of a wild child growing up. I was the one out of three siblings. I was the one who was getting talked to from my parents.

I was the one who was home late. I was the one showing up with broken bones and cuts and bruises, and they're like, why do you think you can fly from a ceiling fan? And I'm like, you never know. You got to find out. Well, and and just going to get me on my soapbox, but I believe that the problem in this country is a lack of men.

It's a lack of men stepping up. and I think for a boy to get to be a man, he has to be a boy. He has to tear shit up. He's got it. You know, literally me and my wife was just having this conversation. Nobody calls CPS on me if you hear this story. But yeah. So the other day, I brought we've got this Polaris gator.

It's got doors on it. I brought it in here to spray some weeds at the office, run down to this house that we're working on, that we need to spray some weeds. And it's a flip house. And my skid loader was here. I was like, man, I'd really like to haul this killer home in a trailer. I looked at my boy and he's nine.

I said, hey, will you drive that gator home and just follow me? Yeah. It's like, oh yeah. So we headed home. I guess I just went ahead and called my wife about five minutes out because I'm like, I’m just going to warn Emily right now. And she like at first she didn’t totally understand what I said. And I was finally I was like, we are literally he's driving the gator on the road behind me.

The skid loaders in my trailer pulled by my truck. And then when we got close, I let him pull in front of me when we went to turn on our road. And I mean, he's a boy, so he just floored it. And then he looked up. My wife's out by the mailbox because we just built a house, and we finally just put a mailbox up a couple of weeks ago.

So she's to do the the flowers and stuff around it. And thankfully, my mother in law showed up literally about four minutes later. I think she saved, she saved everybody’s lives that night. But my boy is like, he loves it. And me and my wife and I had this conversation last night and I was like, no.

She's like, well, I just feel like you think that I'm the overprotective mom. I said, you are, and that's okay. That's your job. Yeah, but I'm the dad and it's okay for me to encourage. I mean, my nine year old will run a skid loader, and if you didn't look in it, you think a grown man's in there running it like, you know, and I just I'm also a huge component of like, you got to give kids responsibility.

Like, you know, when we grow up, when we move out on our own and we had to pay the electric bill, we shut the stupid electric off or we shut the light switch off. You know how many times your kids leave the door open and you're like, hey, I'm not trying to cool the outside. Yeah. You know. Yeah.

But I mean, I just love I just love hearing boys be boys because we we need that in this world. Like we, I don't know, we need to throw the cell phones and the iPads away for these kids and this, like, let them like, let them run with their imagination. Like, yeah my boy, I just I mean, he's running with me today.

Ran to an adjuster meeting with me. He's just he's he soaks it all in and he's always telling stories about when we did this or we did that. And half the time I'm like, I got to back them up. I'm like, what are we talking about? You're talking about when you did this one thing, he said, oh, well, we were at this place, you know.

So no, that is that is awesome. Now two boys. Good luck. Because my one boy sometimes, he's always tearing, you know, something up and getting his sisters into something, so. But, you know, that's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, we really like it. we definitely have the roles. Like, you were just saying my fiance, he's definitely, like, the cuddler and the overprotective one.

And I'm the one over here. I. Yeah, I actively encourage them to get a little risky, dude. Like, if it's something that like, worst case scenario is you're falling maybe a couple feet. Give it a shot, dude. Like, I need you to know what repercussions are before you get to an adult size and you start doing some crazy stuff.

Like really crazy stuff like, if you flop out of the gator when you're going four miles an hour. Cool. That's not going to be too bad. But, let's not do it at 60 when you get your first car, you know, like I need you to be scared later. So literally, the place we bought, we're fixing it up out at the old barn.

There's the old, sickle bar, and that's the cutter bar that's in, like, a combine. Okay, when they cut beans and wheat, it just moves back and forth. Okay, well, at the last people that owned it, they just threw them out right there on the ground. And my son, we've probably picked 100 of them up. I swear. But my son had one, and my wife tripped over it in his bedroom that night when she went in to make sure that he was, you know, asleep and alright.

And she came out in the hallway just holding this sickle bar in there and a bad. The crazy thing is, if it was new, it'd be sharp. It it probably hurt you. And I just start laughing, because he had it in his room, he was wanting to keep it, like, you know. So my boys always wanting to, like, bring rocks and crap in the house.

And the one day, my boy and, my oldest girl were telling me they were. My daughter was telling me she was taking rocks to school because her and her friends were were trading rocks. And I just started laughing because when I was a kid, we traded, like, you know, trading cards and crap like that here my kids are trading rocks.

And then they found one that, you know, look like a crystal. And my son's like, dad, that's that's a diamond that's got to be worth a couple thousand dollars. And I'm just laugh. I'm like, but it's it's not, it's not really worth anything. So. But yeah. No, that's that is awesome. so are you full time doing this now?

Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. Because when we met. Yeah. I think you're still driving for Amazon a couple days. Yeah, I was kind of fizzling out of my, other employments, but now I'm full steam. Fully independent. Yep. Awesome. Nope. No plans on looking back. Oh, someone's going to have to lasso me and yank me back into a work force if I'm going to turn back.

Man, once you once you cross that line, there's just it's it's yeah, there's there's no turning back. So let's, talk a little bit about, I mean, a little more of your. Why, like, you kind of got into it a little bit where you're like, you want you want to be. You want to be part of the community.

You want to give back. And the one thing that we talk a lot about around here is like your legacy. Like what? What is your legacy. You know, how you're serving your customers because you know you can do good quality business. It doesn't matter if you're a roofer, if you're auto glass guy, if you're an auto mechanic, like, we need quality people.

And I always tell people this, like, go do what what you're called to do. Because like, if you're called to be an auto glass guy, please go do it and do it with respect and craftsmanship because we need that. We don't need 150 more roofers if you're meant to do something else, you know, because I have a I have a camera.

Say, I had that kind of conversation with a lot of people that we interview, like, make sure you're doing like what you want to do because, like, you're going to put your heart and passion in it. And you know, when it when it runs late on a Saturday, like if you hate your job, then you're going to be like, oh, this I hate doing glass, right?

Yeah. It's going to be one day. You're loving it. It's like, you know what? I get to get up every day. I get to drive to Rushville, or I get to drive to wherever and replace some auto glass. So, yeah, I guess tell a little bit more about your why and like, why you actually started the company and, you know, maybe a mentor story or something like that.

So it actually has absolutely nothing to do with auto glass. I kind of just fell into it. I've always been a big, self independent person. That's probably one of the core fundamentals of just who I am. I've always just been big on providing things for yourself, seeking knowledge yourself. and just, you know, relying on yourself first before anything else.

now it's totally fine to accept help. I even encourage it. You'll get so much farther, probably tremendously faster than my stubborn head will, because I want to teach myself something instead of just letting someone teach me. You know what I mean? But I'm a huge, self independent person. so, like, my biggest hobby was I got into gardening, growing vegetables and stuff.

I just thought it was really cool that I can provide all this stuff for myself with nobody else doing anything. And I just, you know, see the joy of growing these plants. so self independence has always been the thing we spoke earlier about me wanting to get property, at my next home. That's because I want to be able to have livestock.

I would like to be able to have some form of livestock to provide meat, chickens for eggs. Once again, back to gardening. but then for my career, self independence. That's what led me to wanting to be an entrepreneur so much. Now what? Really, you know, fortified that in my plans was being in the workforce, being somebody who's not incompetent, somebody who's not lazy.

I am a tremendous I don't mean like to my own horn, but I'm made I'm a top choice employee for good companies, and I just company after company after company. You just see, you're a cog in the wheel and you're just getting blown by, you're just getting, you know, worked like a dog and you're not getting even a thank you for it so slowly through the chain.

I just it's definitely idolized, you know, being an entrepreneur. before I got into Autoglass, I was in the tree service. That's another company or another industry that there's a lot of people who start their own businesses in that because it doesn't take too high of a degree to get in the doorway. so I went through business, their business, their business, they're either bad owners, drug problems in that industry tremendously.

A lot of people next to me is just literally snorting meth off the bench seat of the work truck. I was I was getting ready to joke. And so you just kind of go do it. Felons. There's no oh, you're hiring a felon. You're it's spot on. My wife's aunt hired a tree trimmer. And somebody that I knew knew them.

And she's like, let me see your insurance certificate. Yeah. And, the tree had fallen on the garage. They got that part off. We fix the garage, and we end up putting the metal roof back on the garage. And we had one extra piece of metal. And it was. Since it was family, I was like, hey, Aunt Pam, do you mind if we just leave that here just so nothing happens?

Them tree trimmers dropping onto the roof and then say the roof was damaged. The panel when we put it up there. So we swapped it out. It wasn't a big deal, but that guy, literally the second day, he would not show her certificate insurance to have it. He didn't have it and she threw him off the job and she paid him like he was halfway done.

She paid him half of it. And I was like, you're you're a kind person, you know? Barry. So yeah. Barry, when we, So I my last hurrah in that industry was I actually met up with this guy from California who was a legitimate arborist. He was big into technical stuff. So he had all this crazy gear, man, this guy could, like, walk around on air on ropes.

It was insane. so I buddied up with him because he was somebody who cared and, like, really enjoyed his craft. and we he ended up starting his own thing. He didn't quite, mentally prepare himself for, you know, what could happen within the first year of opening a business. So he ended up shutting his doors, unfortunately.

But in our time there, we did come across a job where somebody had Domino chained six pine trees down that somebody had as a as a privacy fence, essentially right on their property between the neighbors. Dude immediately packed up and just gone, deleted his Facebook page, forwarded every block, the numbers, all that. So we always used to joke about how, if you pick up somebody else's job, you should get half their fee stacked on top of our clean up mess.

Because now we got to deal with all this extra. Yeah. Okay, so this is. I'm kind of a squirrel here, so you're gonna have to bear with me. So there was a sign right outside of Edinburg that a guy had made, and it was a tree trimmer. Had ripped him off, and. Oh. And. Oh, do you remember seeing that sign?

What? I used to know this dude, I didn't understand what the sign was for the longest time. And then finally, years later, I found out that's what happened on. So you thought a limb tree service? Yeah, whatever. It was, like Eddie Caswell or something similar, I don't recall. I do, I know exactly what you're talking about. That sign, he was right there on 31.

It was like this guy took my money and didn't finish or something like that. Yep. And I mean, like, so like, I mean, I hate to say it in tree and contracting. I don't care if it's tree trimming, roofing. Like if you show up, you know, like you're so far ahead of the competition or just communicate. Because that was another thing on like, you know, how many times people will ask us, who do you recommend for a tree trimming?

I've since, found a couple that we can we can recommend, you know, but there's several that it's like, nope. Like you better like, because I'm always I always tell the guys, like, you got to watch who you recommend, because when they don't show up, that gives us a black eye. Then they're like, oh, I wonder. Or next time I call it, well, you know.

So yeah. No, that's, So when did you realize that, like, you were made to be an entrepreneur? I mean, I always had the idea in the back of my head, you know, just because, you know, you you're if you're in the company long enough, you start to see, you know, everything's great for, like the first year when you get a new job somewhere.

And then after about a year, you start like looking around, you're like, okay, I can see what's wrong here. So, so he just after doing it, I realized, you know, I'm like, there's a lot of boneheaded mistakes that are going on that would just be eliminated if I was the guy doing it start to finish. Right? You know, so I, one of the collision centers for hire people, because then when they start doing bonehead mistakes, it is going to be the longest interview of my life.

And I don't know if I ever will. Honestly. Yeah, I might camp out at me and just call it. It's great. Like, it just it shows a lot in yourself, you know, when you hire people and it's like, okay, you just got it. You got to communicate, clear and make sure, you know, what, you know, whatever that looks like.

But I remember when I was in high school, me and my brother was working for a dairy farmer. I have no idea what y'all do, but I am, And, My dad wanted me to start brown hay, so. I mean, baled hay and, ran a roofing company. Probably the two jobs that each. That they own.

The hens. Yeah. Square brown. even worse, that, you know, the rain tin either make you look real good or screwy pretty quick, you know, yeah. So, small squares. Me and my wife got married in July. The next summer, we small square, about 8000 bales together, and we both had full time jobs. That wasn't baling hay.

and we did most of it ourselves because I had enough wagons. I could put a bunch on wagons and every once a while to get some help, you know? Yeah, to unload it. however, like, I knew that I was going to be an entrepreneur. And it's funny because, I mean, we've done some stew, like, I don't say stupid stuff, but, like, we used to have videos we sold in the hood of Indy.

Like, I'd carry my pistol in my hip and not even try to conceal it like I wanted people to see, know this big white guy had a gun, like, you know, and they were like, they weren't any, like, weird movies or anything. They were just older movies that you could buy real cheap. And, there was a system and process there, and, we did that for a couple of years, and then, it was the, the probably the funniest one we've ever done.

And sometimes when we're, like, wondering why we're still doing what we're doing, if we're half crazy for, you know, taking on this entrepreneur journey. So I decided to help, fix up like, do the work for, like, foreclosed homes and then, like, they sent over, like, this pay sheet that they pay you, and it's like they're it's pennies.

Like, if a professional yard landscape company is going to charge $95 to mow a yard, they're going to pay about $23. And I'm not exaggerating like it's nothing. And we go down to this one house. It needs like a tarp put on this roof and a few other things. And we get there. And like, this house should just honestly just probably be like, torn.

Torn down. Yeah, throw a match on it. And, so my son is a baby. I'm selling roofing for a different company on that at this. At that time, I wasn't working for myself, and me and my wife went down and my boy was a baby. And the first job we took was like hour and a half south, like in the middle of nowhere.

It probably 30, 45 minutes south of even Columbus. And, there's a fecal removal that they pay for dollars. And yes, somebody had shit in the toilet when no water in the house. And that was part of what was to be done. And like, I'm on the phone with this lady, like going over stuff that we can get done that day with a straight face.

She's like, yeah, there's a fecal fecal removal for $4. You can bill for it today. If me and my wife, we like, we get to like belly roll, laugh laughing. So I know we talk about that sometimes because the way she said it, like like she just said it like we're talking about looking for the candy bar.

Let her go. You know what I mean? Like, you know, and, Yeah, we laugh, and sometimes we share that story around the team because, like, they see the success that we've had, the team that we built. And it's like, no, guys like, you don't realize literally what we've done to make paid money. We didn't do the fecal removal.

Just for the record. and I called the lady. I said, yeah, this is the same for me. But I knew that I wanted to be an entrepreneur. and kudos to my dad. Before side hustles were cool, you know, he said, have an 8 to 5 job and do a side hustle. And I've watched my dad feed cattle for my entire life.

You know, he thoroughly enjoys feeding out cattle, selling, you know, freezer bags to customers and stuff like that. but I just it was in me to, like, have, like, I had to work for myself and I had to, I had to do it full time. Like it. The side hustle just wasn't going to work, you know, for me.

And and I didn't have a clue. I was like, you joke, and you say that and we'll. I'll let you share how you got in the auto glass industry. I answer the ad, a Craigslist ad for a sales position. So, be 13 years married by the time this goes live. here, technically in a week. Exactly. Oh, wow.

It's 13 years. Yeah. Be 13. You married my beautiful bride. And, we, I found Dave Ramsey on the radio, like, 15 years ago. And, you know, growing up, my dad, raised me when I was two, my dad and biological mom split, bankruptcy, divorced, all that kind of stuff. you know, not sure what caused what the the bankruptcy calls a divorce or the divorce to cause the bankruptcy, but anyway, so, when I got it, I always heard my dad say, I'll never bail forward to retire.

So when I got out of college, I asked the first company I worked for, like, hey, I want to get in your retirement. There's like, you can't, you're too young. It was based out of Ohio and you had to be 21 to contribute to retirement. I'm like, okay. And I was like, oh my gosh, can we use you as a poster child?

I'm like, okay. You know, anyway, so fast forward, I'm like, I'm listening to Dave. And we just before I met my wife, I was like, all right, I'm going to pay my debt off. I'm not living in debt because that's what caused my dad bankruptcy, you know? And, so I meet my now wife, and I was just like, I just had the time.

I was almost 24. Yeah, I was back. I was 23. I was like, hey, I've. I kind of know what I want. Like, I hate to say it, like, I watch my dad and I love my dad, but we can either go down the exact path our parents did or we can. We're very intentional. I feel like I'm like, okay, I'm not going to make that mistake.

So like one thing I wanted was I wanted the wife that would work together with our money and like, build something, you know? And, so I was pretty, like, direct with my now wife, like, when we started dating, I'm like, hey, I'm going to do this Dave Ramsey thing. That's how we're going to live, you know? And she's like, okay, yeah, I've heard of him.

And so I followed him and then I started reading books like crazy because, you know, he says the average millionaire reads 12 bucks a year. I want to be a millionaire like I was. Yeah. I was wanting to be in business. I wanted to get rich. Okay. and I think every young 20 year old that wants to be in business thinks it's all at some point, you.

Yeah. And then you become a business owner and you realize you're rich in headaches. But now, but so fast forward a little bit. I'm listening, and I'm like, okay, I'm going to go get a straight commission sales job. So if I work my butt off, like, literally my family tree can change. We've paid off all of our debt, all that kind of stuff.

So I answered a Craigslist ad for roofing sales. Go sit down with the guy. George Fitzgerald is actually an episode with me and him talking, great guy, friend, mentor, you know, father figure. and, we're sat down. He's talking about pain. It's trade commission. Like you sell roof, you make money, you don't sell a roof.

You don't make money. Like there's no net sales. There's no boss here, you know, and he's, like, going, like there is a small training package, you know, training pay. After you complete 2 or 3 weeks, you make like 400 bucks or 600 bucks, I gotta I ain't worried about it. He looked at me. I was like, we got money saved.

I've got, you know, my house has paid for. He's like Dave Ramsey. I was like, yep. And he was going through his debt, his debt free journey, with, with, you know, paying off debt, instant connection. I was like, we shook on it. I said, I'll start. I call my wife. I mean, my son is literally like three months old at this time, okay?

She's a stay at home mom. I was like, hey, I'm going to take this job. She's like, okay. And, fortunately, that was in the fall. I wait till spring to start because I started, like, doing math. I'm like, wait a second, this is October. We're in Indiana. Like, yeah, how do how do you sell roofs in January?

He's like, well, you really don't. I was like, why don't I keep my full time job? And so it worked out perfect. We bought a house because I told her I was like, we're going to buy a house, we're going to pay cash for it. And I know people are like, oh, do what? Like, how much money do you have to save?

There was a house just just outside of Rushville. They had, they listed it in a fall and it said, price to sell. And I knew the realtor that had listed it. I went to school with her kids, rode the bus with their kids. So I shot her text and I was like, hey, how how much for that house?

And, she's like, it's under contract. Like, okay. So she turned around and she said, three months later, she sent me text. Are you still interested in a house? And I was like, what's wrong with it? And she's like, because I, we'd set a goal. We were paying cash for a house. Like there was no, I'll.

I'll borrow 20,000 or 50,000 if I have to, like, we're going to do it. And I mean, at this point, we're still ballin. Hey, my wife's still cleaning. And she had. Oh, my wife had always clean houses or there used to be, a commercial property that she cleaned and stuff like that, you know, and would turn around and so.

She's like, oh, it's a USDA loan. I'm like, oh, let me guess. There's a bunch of, like, red tape together. And she goes, yeah, she said, my buyer told me to find some I can actually buy it, find a cash buyer. And I was like, all right. And I said, this house started the hundred 15,000 was originally listed, I think it was down the maybe it started like 125.

I was down like 115 or 105. I was like willing to pay 65,000 cash. We can close on Friday. And she said, don't ever take it as this fine. And she made on the offer and it came back at 80,000. We didn't have $80,000. So I literally sold the hay baler that I had for $50,000. And like me and my wife were literally like writing down, like, okay, they they owe me.

I haven't billed for cleaning for this month. This person owes me. Like, we literally wrote out, like I had this person owe me $400 every day, and this person owed me $180 on hay. So I'm like, I'm sending the text message like, hey, can we get settled up? And like, we. And then my little brother was buying our old house and he had a little bit of money saved up, and I knew he did.

So I called him and I was like, hey bro. Anyway, you'll go ahead and pay me like 2500 of the house so I can close on mine. He was like, oh yeah, absolutely. And so that was that was kind of cool because like, we did it, it it closed out. Then I went to go start you know, selling roofing.

So it was like the joke is in the roofing space. Nobody chooses roofing. Roofing chooses you, you know. So but like it was, it's a whole spectrum of business that people. I didn't know anything about an asphalt shingle in 2006, 2015 when I answer that, Craigslist ad. Right. You know, and like I said, I mean, I still talk to George, text him every week.

you know, I'm still a mentor of mine, even in North Carolina. So what what was your how did you how did you end up in the autoglass business? so I, I really I answered in the in indeed ad what drove a little a little not as creepy as, you know, Craigslist people are probably like, oh, no, I think that's pretty cool that you even got to do that on Craigslist.

I mean, in my short time of Craigslist, life left. I mean, I bought and sold some things on there, but definitely never answered, like any odd job ads or anything like that. That's kind of cool, really. You end up murdered now? Yeah, that's that was kind of the gist. By the time we I was old enough for that, they were like, no, you never go to the jobs.

But I got into it because I wanted to find a similar job structure to tree service. You know, I, back to being a, you know, a good employee. I didn't need managed. Yep. So I like the job. Now that I had worked in tree service, a job where you didn't necessarily have direct management, you know, you just go out and do your job.

Well, nobody says anything to you. So autoglass is the same way. you know, you just roll up to your shop, you get your 4 or 5 windshields, whatever your job like that is that day, and then you're just off you go. You know, I love customer service, so I get to talk to different people, even though it's the same job.

The location changes. So it's pretty fun. I get to learn things. Random stuff that happened just on the job site. meet new people, see what they're into. One interesting one that sticks out to me just because I'm a plant person. Did a windshield for this lady, had over 200 varieties of tulips in her property. It was absolutely crazy.

They were literally they circled her house like some diagram, and each one had its own individual placard that told you exactly what species of tulip it was, would tell you when it would bloom. And she didn't look at any of these rocks. I would just ask about the color, this one, and she would just go and just tell me every bit of information about this variety of tulip.

So just fun little things like that. I ran to a dude who bred wolves. Yep. Now, is that legal? Oh my gosh. Well, don't mention his name or where it was located. I think it was legal. He was telling it highly regulated, like he had like 12ft fences or something like that. Like it should not be involved.

But whether they knew or not, I'm not sure. But I've heard of other people doing this besides this guy. but he had it very secure. It was like double fenced. Well, yeah. And like very tall fences. And these things were like, I'm usually like, this dog's going to have to rip my arm off to scare me. Yeah.

I did not want to get close to these ones. Like, they just looked like a whole nother level of canine that you're like. So what did I do with him? Just look at him. I mean, that guy was friendly. He was friendly with them because, you know, he was like the alpha because he's like the one who takes care of him, all that type of stuff.

But, you know, they respected him. They respected him. But he was like, yeah, you you're not going in there. Probably is. Like he fear him at all. No. He would go up to the fence and well it was double. He was on the inside. But they would come up to him and stuff like that. But I wasn't sure.

I like I said, I'm usually a dog person, but they were just massive dudes. Massive. And just because it's a wolf hybrid, I was just like, I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. But yeah, you see some interesting things. but that's really what got me in the glass was really just how everything kind of changes constantly. But it's, you know, always the same in a way.

the industry has changed a good bit with safety systems has started to show up. So technology has become a, an integral role in the, in the position. everything actually coming out now is factory standard, almost with some sort of camera in it, which will need calibration after every time you replace the glass. and that's just because it can change the viewing angle of that camera.

Now, you know, a millimeter right here could be ten, 20ft up. That way. You know, it's a huge difference when you get away from the car. so it's very important that you calibrate those now with today's models. there are still a lot of old things I have known of that I've been doing a lot of classics.

That's something I really like, because those are people who take the utmost pride in their work. So if I get to do work on someone's car, who they're going to absolutely go tell people all about that they don't even want to hear, you know what I mean? That that's exciting for me. I had a really fun one the other day.

I got to do a piece of ag equipment. Finally. Yep. I've been doing this a long time. Never once touched a piece of agricultural equipment, but I did a combine a couple weeks back. Yep, we had to use a forklift to get the windshield up because it was 14ft in the air. It was a three piece glass because, you know, they're so high up.

They have to have a small little viewing window so you can see down to the ground. Right. So I had to it was quite a job. and they all three parts fit in in one seam of, of urethane all the way around. so I, it was just quite the complex job. That was really fun outside of your normal just, you know, replace and put a new windshield in.

I wish I have known you back in the fall when I busted out the glass and my many excavator, but, well, now I know that might be bolted. A lot of construction equipment bolted. Yeah. and that's actually an avenue I would love to get in. That's a dying trade. Cutting glass. Yeah. there's a lot of people that I've only met.

Like, seriously, two guys maybe that even know how to cut glass in the Indianapolis market of glass. now, I obviously don't know everybody, but there's only two guys I know that's ever charged anybody to do it. and they can basically name their rates because there's so little people doing it now. but I would love to learn that.

You just need to. That's one thing. I'm not going to teach myself. just because you have to buy big sheets of glass, you know, and I don't want to just try to learn it and offer $200 slab of glass and just ruin it. Another $200. We're going to, you know, I'll let a professional teach me that one.

So, they make they make, you know, they make like proprietary AdWords for tools for it now. But, for the guys that I've talked to, they're like, yeah, dude, you still just go and score it, heat it up a smidge and just crack it. It's just all precise measurements. And I'll be honest with you, dude, that's not my forte.

That's why I like auto glass. There's enough craftsmanship, but it's not so fine tuned that I'm, like, stressing about it because I'm the person who can. I can man, I can. Like, if we're gonna build a doghouse, I will give you a perfect blueprint when it comes to putting these pieces together. You're like, that's a dog house. Know, like it was supposed to be.

I don't know, like I just when it comes to that fine tune to stuff, I'm not the guy. But with glass, there's enough. Like, it's not so tedious that I'm really good at it. You know what? earlier, before I think he hit record, you're talking about, like, that struggle of just, like, getting started in auto glass. Well, a business like, you know, just business in general, you know?

because I, I've known people for years. Tell me they're going to start. Well, I want to start my own company. Yeah. And then they just they don't never did, you know. So like, what was that? What was that story with you? Because, I mean, this is fresh. When you decided that you were going full time into this to forget the Amazon delivery stuff.

well, I like to tell my friends and family that I am recklessly fearless in this aspect because, I mean, I always make the joke, what am I going to do, get another job? Yeah, yeah, I'm going to go back to working for somebody. You know, I'm going to lose some time. Yep. You know, but I've always been the person who takes pride myself.

I just really wanted to get out and see if I could do it myself. be I'm a long term planner. I'm a person who really sits and thinks about something. Because if I just try to go right at it, I do the wrong move every time. And I'm always a hindsight 2020 person where I'm like, you dummy, if you just thought about this, this is the way better out to go.

So I've really slow rolled this whole process. You know, I really opened up my these two years old. Okay. and I did everything proper straight out the gate. Everything was to the tee. LLC ensured all the paperwork's done right. I'm not going to be somebody who totaled somebody car on accident. And then I go M.I.A. And that's just my career's gone.

Like, no way. Not me. and I take too much pride in myself any way to ever be that situation. so I, you know, up until a little over two months ago, I'd had a job, I had a 40 hour job. I was, you know, pins and needles trying to get to things on every hour I possibly could.

I was working weekends and I really let that, you know, let my recognition build up until I was really confident at a point that I could launch, just because, you know, I do have a family to provide for. I do pay most of the, income through the house. So it's not like I really had a big safety net.

So, you know, I built up a safety net to where if things were a little grim for some time, we'd be okay. but I also purposely waited until I got to that point where I had to choose. You know, it's like I'm either working for someone else or I'm working for me. I can't do both at this point.

It's got to the point. So what? So what was that? what was that like? Switch where you're like, okay, this is it. it was a couple weeks consistently of me just freaking out and not being able to get to my customers because of my obligations to their customers. So that's really what made the switch, man, I, I spoke to a gentleman and I hope to get him on the podcast one day.

Mr.. Dan Griffey, and family friend, for 30 plus years, just just a phenomenal man. Phenomenal dad, phenomenal Grant Paul, phenomenal business owner. and, I was talking to him one day. I was like, hey, Dan, I need your advice. And he's like, so what's the worst that's going to happen? It's like, what do you mean?

It's like, well, what's the worst that's going to happen? I'm like, I guess I could say I'm I'll start selling on roofs and not sell anything. He's like, so then what would you do? I'm like, try harder. And he goes, well, worst case, you'd have to go work for somebody else, right? Again, I was like, yeah, he's like, would I hire you?

I was like, well, hell yeah, I sold $1 million and rose for a company. The last company I worked for like, yeah, they'll hire me. I was like, I self generated most of that. And he goes, so what the hell are you waiting on? Yeah, it was like, we just want to procrastinate. I mean, fortunately for us, my wife had given me a number that had to be in the bank, and we disagree on what that number was.

Now, it's been a few years since we had that conversation, so. But I believe it wasn't where she said it had to be. And, literally one day I was like, and I mean, my youngest son, Riley, five, like, this is when we officially launched it full time. She was she was nursing or she was within two weeks old and we were sitting on the couch and I was like, I, I'm, I'm tired of this.

I'm over this for myself. And she said, let's go, let's do it. Then I was like, oh, crap. Like my wife just called my shit out. Like, I have to go do it, you know? so and very thankful for, you know, her encouragement and her belief because, you know, one thing that I've learned in businesses, like, there's days that we go home that we don't believe in ourselves and our spouse or a significant other.

That's when I had to look us in the eyes. And you had to feel like, okay, oh, wow. Like, they they do believe me. Or, you know, very similar. Like you, I went home to some young kids and I was like, damn. Like, do I want them to see dad fail, you know? or do I want them to see, you know, like what?

What what can dad do with this? And, you know, I'm going to encourage you that if you're meant to add team members and grow your business, to grow through that pain because you're kind of in a comfort zone where it's easy not to deal with problems from somebody else. Like. But what opportunity, what other young, young man that has a young family that you provide a job to, that they can actually care and know that you care about them, that it's just not some big corporation, you know, and there's nothing wrong with big corporations.

It's just, you know, they dehumanize stuff. And then it's like, okay, don't forget that there's a human being. He's not just a number. He's not just a guy that can replace 14 glass windows for us this week. Like he has a family. He has dreams, he has fears, you know, and that's something that a small business can give a team member.

You can't give them the benefits of a big corporation. But I've come to find out as a business owner that a lot more people care more about, like the environment and like what? Like believing in, you know, believing in you and not safelite or not some big national brand. Like I said, I'm not beating up the national brands like they have a place in the market, you know, however, you know, there's there's always going to be I seen something say somebody said one day there's always going to be entrepreneurs in the United States if there's garages.

Yeah, absolutely. You know, I mean, we worked I was just telling somebody this yesterday like we we used to with our first sales guys used to come to our house and we'd write checks at the kitchen island for commissions and, you know, going over jobs like there wasn't an office, there wasn't a podcast studio, you know? So, I just want to encourage that just because, like, you just never I mean, that's more impact, more impact on families.

And I always say this, like, with with my legacy, like, I want your kids to be affected by me for my encouragement that don't they may never know my name. And that's okay. Like, if, you know, if dad grows a bigger business or whatever that looks like due to encouragement or input from something like that. Yeah. You know, like, yeah, like Ellie's, Ellie's little ones.

They know my name. you know, there's people jonathans little ones that work for me like, they they know my name, you know, and, you know, however like that, that's the fun part for me being in business, of just encouraging and just seeing, seeing that success. I mean, everybody wants to see the image, watching it radiate through them.

I mean, everybody wants to because like, there's this we enjoy it like, you know, and then like you're going to know somebody that I don't know. It's just, do I get jacked up talking to, entrepreneurs like, I love it? I've got a text message I missed from a guy that, he he does a dumpster business. And it was so fun because, like, we he called me, he's like, hey, we got a mutual friend.

I'm like, yeah. And he's like, hey, man, do you ever need dumpsters? And I'm like, most of the time, not. I was like, we got four dump trailers. And he turned, told me what he was doing. I was like, hey, bro, like, let's jump on the podcast. And he was so freaking nervous. And he had a blast, you know?

and now sometimes he just texted me a business question while we've been on the podcast, you know, like, that's awesome for me. Like, just to be able to respond and to encourage because he's he's busy, you know. Yeah. and his, his business has taken off and it's like, you got to take that first step, like, because you can't change a hundred windows, you can't change six or 8 or 10 for me without doing the first one, you know.

Yeah. And you know how that looks. So like, I guess do you have any you have any final thoughts? you know. As I leave it hanging in and a weird, awkward pause.

I was just thinking of something you touched on a second ago. Let me try bringing back, you know, is, Oh. Is the, talking about small business compared to big companies? I was thinking about that earlier today. About. Because, you know, you'll hear my dog in the background sometimes if I'm at the house to do a quote for you, if you call me in the evenings, you probably hear two little loud boys running around.

And I apologize all the time to people, but I don't ever mean it because I actually think that's a great thing. I think we've lost that a lot. You know, I really think that relationship between the people, your service provider is just diminished completely. You know, it is just a corporate, you know, business is just some number you call, you know what I mean?

I think there is something, you know, little stuff like that is nice. You know, just to build that, that rapport with somebody, even if you just need me to come put a new windshield in, you know, it's just nice to have that extra level of, of, like, depth that this is an actual person doing something for me or, you know, like when you're when your boys get a little older.

Because I know at their age, that wouldn't be good to take them around glass. I could only imagine, what my boy would, but like for get them to experience to go to go watch dad work. you know, and like, I try to use it as a teachable moment with my kids, all the time. I mean, I love our particular business because if I'm out meeting customers looking at a roofing or siding project like we're outside anyways, so my kids can just run around and have fun and like, they still get to spend time with with dad.

Yeah. You know, because one time that I feel like the Amish community has done well is the apprenticeship stuff, like where their kids are working with them, you know, and, I always joke and ask my dad if he was Amish growing up for him. when we were growing up, for as much as he worked as kids.

But but there is there's memories there, you know? And like the whole let my boy drive the gator like you imagine the stories he's going to tell his buddies at school when he goes back in the fall, like, oh, like to have the gator, you know, 47 mile an hour or whatever, you know, like there's really only like eight.

Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Absolutely. But he's just going to like, but like how cool and how fun is that. And then, you know, and then that just like I said, that's just that that right there just shows like I don't know man. There's there's so many teachable moments that you can't you can't, you can't find in a textbook. You can't they can't teach that at school.

Yeah. but what about, you know, what about you starting this one of your boys takes it over in 20 years. That'd be fantastic, right? You know what I mean? Like, then the story is like, hey, I'm second generation, and, you know, my dad was working 90 hours a week before we decided that, hey, we're going to we're going to do this full time.

You know, like I said, it's just, you know, and it is a small business, you know, it is the human in corporations could keep it more humanized if they would step back and, like, look at it to be like, you know, and I'm, I'm a proponent of systems and processes, you know, but yeah, like you said, like it's you they call you in your, you know, there's a kid screaming, running in the background or, you know, that kind of stuff.

So no, that's that's awesome. I always I like the expression I've got a glass guy, right now. You it's, that's interchangeable with anything. You know, it's got a roof guy. Yep. Yeah. I like that phrase. You know, I like that you have a go to person, right? You know, that you can rely on. Right. That's the important part.

Right. Is you can rely on them like you were safelite sounded pretty unreliable. You're going to send a mixture of people. You know, it's kind of odd. I just seen him down here on the way in, but then I talk to people all the time like I didn't call. I get customers just because I answered the phone. Yeah, I like you're the only one who answered the phone.

I'm like, well, why wouldn't I, right? Like you called me, right? Right. Well, and I mean, no, and you're right, you know, and, yeah, it's just like you said, like it's just you showed up and like, I mean, that literally turn into how many ever how many ever jobs. Yeah, right. I was like, just change, you know?

And and our entire goal for the podcast, our entire marketing, a lot of our marketing is like, you know, we do a lot of small business spotlights, I believe, Adam's already done one for you. You know, like, we really want to help promote other small businesses, like, it's not, you know, the old Zig Ziglar quote, if you help enough people, you'll never have to worry about money.

Yeah. So if you put enough glass in cars, you'll never have to worry about money. Heck of a whole bunch of other small businesses, you know, literally, a good friend of mine that helped me on my, build my house. he's helped me off doing electrical work on flip houses for 4 or 5 years now.

And he finally launched his business full time suite. and like, you know, there's been a couple times I'm like, bro, make sure you do this. Make sure you don't beat me in. But, like, let me help you, you know? But it's cool to see him. I just talked to him on the way down here. I want to get him behind the microphone.

He'll be a little bit of a hard pull to get here, but I'm sure I'll get him one day. You know, it's just like I said, man, it's just, it's it's a lot of fun what we get to do. and it's just, you know, it's it's it's it's always refreshing to me when I see somebody that actually cares about their job.

Like, I was trying to make a return to Lowe's the other day, and the people that I was dealing with, it was like, I cared more about their job than they did, and they were getting paid for it, you know? So it's just, now it's it's it's awesome. So, what we'll do here at the end?

Adam will add a link here so we can, you know, help promote you. So I guess real quick, like, what is your service area and what do you focus on? So just so if any of our listeners, if we can connect you with somebody that needs some help. Absolutely. it's a win win situation. Oh, I can handle any glass on the car.

Windshields, bad glasses, door glasses, small little vent glasses. I fully recap. Oh, I'm fully capable of doing calibration, so if you have a static one or dynamic, those are the two main kinds. I can facilitate both of those. I really like to do RNAi work. So if you're a DIY enthusiast, if you own a body shop, I really like to take parts out that you need to complete your work, and then we'll reinstall that part after it.

So things are set so things are done properly. and I like that because that's the type of quality I like to take in my work. So especially for shops that take really high quality in their work, they need a guy like me who's going to make sure that part comes out a usable be quick, in a timely manner, because their production or my speed is their speed, you know, if they're handicapped, waiting for something to, you know, in a ten step process, it's important.

So I really like to do that because not only does that facilitate a business owner, but it also facilitates their customers. Who's going to get that car back faster? And, I don't know if you guys have more than one vehicle. I rely on mine to be a work van and a family van. So if that thing goes down, I'm going to want it back pretty quick.

So I like to try to facilitate that for other people. As far as my work area, I cover the greater 65 South work area. So anywhere from about mid Indianapolis all the way down to about Scottsburg. we'll cover along 65 and then about east west side. We'll look in probably maybe as far as Martinsville and then about as far east as Rushville.

Here's one about the outskirts of where I go. and then over to like Brookville, though for you know, exceptions, things like that. I teased them and said that on two Saturdays a month, you can just open my shop and use it and I'm dead serious, like, oh, we'll do. It's been pretty great. It's covered. It's heated any, any time.

So, so all your vehicles, all your cars. Trucks. Yeah. Yeah. There's I can do like I said, I've even dabbled with agricultural equipment now, so if I can see a way to do it, I don't see why I can't, you know, and I'm very honest person. If I don't see a good way to do something or I don't recommend the work that you're interested in doing, I will tell you, I'm not interested in getting anybody's dollar if they don't get anything out of it.

yeah, because I called you about, truck glass and stuff like that. Yeah, but we we had some conversation, and I just. You were. You shot me straight on that. Yeah, I'll tell you exactly. I mean, I have nothing to gain, right? You know, very much appreciate it. So, guys, check them out. if you need, hopefully you don't need glass replace, but I always say if, you know, I, I appreciate your time coming up here.

I appreciate the service that you've provided for me and some of my customers. And, if, Doyle can help you out with any auto glass, ag equipment, glass, whatever it looks like, give them a call. You won't be disappointed. Thank you. Sir, you're very welcome. Oh, another thing I know. I take glass out for derby cards.

I've done a couple of those. I know it's kind of the fair season. So in case anybody's trying to get a car ready for a heat in, fair, let me know. We'll take all your glass out pretty quick, and you won't have to vacuum your whole garage out. Usually they just smash them to pieces. But, you know, we can keep it clean and do it quick.

Okay. Thank you. Sir. Yeah. You're welcome.