28 Years in the Military → Starting Over at 49

What do you do after 28 years in the military… when you have to start over?

In this episode of the Hoel Truth Podcast, Billy shares his journey from joining the Army at 18, serving through deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, and eventually retiring — only to begin a completely new chapter in life and career at 49.

Billy talks about what military life is really like, the toll it takes on your body and family, and the perspective it gives you on service, leadership, and what actually matters. He also opens up about becoming a father again later in life, making up for lost time with his kids, and building a new life in Indiana after years of moving around the world.

This conversation is about more than the military — it’s about starting over, finding purpose, and redefining success in a new season of life.

- About Hoel Roofing & Remodeling -

Hoel Roofing & Remodeling serves homeowners across Central & East-Central Indiana, helping with roofing, siding, gutters, windows, doors, and exterior remodeling.

We believe great companies are built by people with strong character, real-life experience, and a commitment to serving others — both on and off the job.

📞 Call: 765-561-4023
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Transcript

Hey, Billy, what's the life motto that you live by?

You know, after 28 years in the military? You serve in the military. And I think, a motto that I live by service.

Service to other service to my family. Service to my community. You know, that's that's what you do. You're you're serving a greater good. And when you're in the military, or at least you you want to be, and then as you proceed through the ranks, you're serving others beneath you. And that's kind of, you know, what we provide here is a service to the community.

Yeah. I think that's probably the most important thing.

Welcome to this edition of the Hoel Truth Podcast, as we continue our series on sales reps.

Got Mister Billy sitting here with me. So, Billy, take a minute. Introduce yourself. Tell us about your family. Your beautiful wife and your kiddos. Yeah.

So, my name is Billy Dillon, 49 years old. Recent transplant to Indiana. Retired out of the military in 2023, after 28 years of service. My wife, Lindsay, she's a teacher.

She's been a teacher for, about 13 years now. She's the, work based learning director out of the Whitewater Career Center. We got a three year old that, keeps us busy. Keeps me young.

But, yeah, that's me. Well, you got a few older kids, right? Yeah, I do, I have a 25 year old, a 24 year old and a 17 year old, daughter.

Sun son. My daughter lives in Colorado. She's recently married, to Kenny Royle. And, my next son, 24. He works in construction. And then I have a 17 year old is going to graduate next year. Yep. I got the honor to meet the 17 year old. He's up around Christmas. Good, good young man there.

So quite a bit taller than me. I always wonder, you know? So, kind of talk that journey, you know, 28 years in the military, like, seriously. Thank you. Because, you know, as we're, we're as we're in this mess with Iran and all that, like, you know, it's to me, I've never been in the military and never really had any family like, close to me.

Like, I know distance relatives, you know, but like, I also just appreciate the opportunity to live in a free country, to be able to operate a business. So, you know, thank you for your service. What may like a little bit of that story, why you got it in the military. You know, maybe some cool things that you got to do while you were there.

Yeah. Excuse me. Yeah.

I joined the army when I was 18. Wasn't sure if I wanted to do it full time, so I joined the reserves. I come from a family that's got a lot of military, and. And my dad was in the army during Vietnam. My grandfather was in the army during, both of both my grandfathers were in the army during World War two.

One in the Navy, one in the Air Force. So it's kind of something I always wanted to do as part of the Top Gun Generation, you know? So 1985, Top Gun came out. Everybody wanted to be a pilot in the Navy. Do all the cool guy stuff. So in 1995, I joined the reserves, you know, through basic and, basically advanced individual training.

Excuse me. And then kind of just worked in, you know, my first wife, we had kids, and I was trying to figure things out. In early 2001, I started, looking at the options to go active duty. You know, I worked at a environmental company. Almost died on the job. My, my boss that was working, that they did die on the job.

So it was kind of a life changing thing. I was like, man, if I'm going to die on the job, at least military gives you a gun. You can fight back. So in early 2001, I started looking at going active duty. I was told no, because, you know, going from reserved active duty was very hard at that time.

They had hard numbers. It was a smaller army at the time. And then, September 11th happened and my phone was ringing off the hook. You know, they were like, hey, you still want to go back to do this? Yeah, I want to do that. So, I was given the opportunity to look at, different job.

I was classically trained as a mechanic, but, they were like, hey, what do you want to do to, you know, what are my options? So you can do anything you want, but you're going to have to wait for school day, and then, you know, you'll have to go through that school and then you can go wherever I wanted to go as soon as possible.

So they said, okay, if you stay mechanic, you can go, anywhere you want right now. So, I was pretty ready to get out of Louisiana at the time. And, they said, you know, Europe was an option. That's a great spot on the globe. I think you're on spot in Germany came up. So, I had to do a transition period for about 90 days.

And then in February of 2002, I was in Germany, and then the rest was history after that, several deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. You know, it wasn't illustrious by any stretch of the imagination. You know, a lot of hard work and a lot of time away from, you know, family and friends. It's obviously dangerous anytime you're deployed, no matter what your skill set is, what you're doing, you don't have to be special forces or, combat arms just to see combat.

You know, it's all around you. I really hope we don't put boots on the ground in Iran. It's kind of like the older you get, the more educated you get about some of the things and some of the reasons that we're doing some of the things that we're doing overseas, you kind of get jaded a little bit, you know, I don't want to see anybody else.

Time Foreign Wars, that's just kind of where I'm at. With that, it's just one of those things to think it's we should probably focus our energy on the United States. Okay, so. But yeah, got to do a bunch of cool stuff. In 2007, I was deployed to, to Iraq, and, time I was married, my wife was also a service member.

And, you know, I was going to reenlist for three more years in the Army, and they were like, you know, what do you want to do for your reenlistment? Because anytime you reenlist, it's a big deal. You know, they want you to stay. And so, you know, you can kind of request where you want to re-enlist and all that kind of stuff.

And I said I wanted to reenlist that, based or excuse me, the base where my wife was in Iraq. So they flew me in, you know, on a helicopter, and you got to land, reenlist, do my whole thing, and then fly back to the base that I was staying at. So I thought that was pretty cool. You know, they use an Army helicopters to fly me somewhere on my request to do a thing that I wanted to do.

And then, you know, so I was, a station for nine years in Germany for five and a half years in El Paso at Fort Bliss, and then, four and a half years at Fort Polk in Louisiana, and then around about my career in Alaska, in, Fairbanks, Alaska, at Fort Wayne. Right.

A lot of people love Alaska. They like, you know, all the scenes of bears catching fish with their face and, you know, like, oh, that's so cool. Or what most people don't know is that southwest Alaska and about eight hours away from where I was, so, so very cold, very dark in the winter, 23 hours of sunlight in summer, you know, but, we're ready to wrap that journey up, you know, retired, 22 years active duty service.

And then decided, you know, I personally won the in-law lottery, like, my in-laws are great. And we had a young son at the time, six months old, when we decided to, get out of the Army and retire. So, could have moved anywhere but decided on, Connersville, east central Indiana, you know, big family, support network, great in-laws, and, couldn't couldn't be happier.

Awesome. So how did you meet? Where did you meet Lindsey and all that? So how did, Yeah. So that was kind of an interesting, transition. I was, recently divorced, and, I was an observer controller training associate at Fort Polk. So basically, all the units in the Army have to do some sort of national training, every so often.

And they either train at 1 or 2 places, the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, or, at the joint. The. I'm gonna mess this up the RTC at, Fort Pullman. Excuse me. And when those units come to training, they have somebody that, you know is assigned to them that watches them and evaluates how they train and gives them pointers.

And, observes trains and coaches. And Lindsey's unit came through, Indiana National Guard and the way that, Army commands are structured. Do you have a company commander, a first sergeant, and then you have, platoon leaders, which are officers. And, Lindsey was the, maintenance platoon leader. And just because of the nature of how the National Guard structured, people are pulled in different directions and sometimes you have to have subordinate leaders, that are more directly in line with the, the troops that they're leading.

So I interacted with her, quite a bit. And, we became friends and, just ended up staying in touch and then, you know, like, say, we're talking all the time, and, you know, we can't we kind of have a long distance relationship already. What do you want to take this, you know, further. And, she said yes.

And, the rest was history. She moved down to, Louisiana in 2019, and we got married that year. How long were you in Louisiana before you came back to, Indiana? I was in Louisiana for four and a half years. She, we left there. She moved up, and we got married in 2019. And then I got orders to go to Alaska in 2020.

So, she left for about a year and some change in, Louisiana. And then we moved. Yeah, we got, we got married in May of some May the 4th, and, Yeah, it was, it was a it was kind of a wild journey. She had never done the active duty spouse or active duty of any kind.

And, that was kind of the decision that led us to Alaska. I was like, let's go do some some real deal Army stuff. You know, let's get out of the the continental United States. We looked at Hawaii. It wasn't available. We weren't quite ready to make that leap, to go back to Europe. You know, that's that's really for.

You know, I'd been there for, I'd been there before for nine years and I wasn't really ready for that. As much as I enjoyed my time in Europe, I didn't want to be that far away from her family. I didn't want to take her away from her family that far. Decided Alaska was available. So we were going to go do that.

Didn't know that that was going to take us that far away from her family. It if you look at it on a map, you know, Alaska. Yeah. It's big, you know, it's kind of disconnected, but they call it the the other island state, you know, for a reason. Because, you're geographically disconnected from everything. You know, flights are expensive into the mainland.

You know, it costs just as much to fly to Hawaii as it would fly to Indiana. So, we did that three year stint there, and I went active duty later in my life. So I was quite a bit older than all of the people that I was leading. And, one of the things I was talking to Chris about, it's hard to explain to a civilian like how the military works in its totality because, you know, I spent 22 years and I don't understand every single time.

But Chris and I were talking at breakfast one time, and he was like, so what? Would you retire? You just want to do something else. And I was like, oh, you. No, no, no, no, no. I was 43 years old. I still had to get up at 5:00 in the morning, drive to a physical training formation, stand there, stretch and then turn right and run five miles the same five miles at the 18 and 19 and 20 year olds were running.

I was 43 years old, you know, so I retired because I got old. I retired because I couldn't keep up anymore, my knees and back and everything. You know, I've had knee surgeries and stuff. So, that's what a lot of, I think the civilian population doesn't understand is like, you can be in the Army at 45, but you're doing everything that that 18, 19, 20 year olds doing all the push ups, all the sit ups, all the running, all the marching, all the everything.

And, you know, that's why the military offers a 20 year retirement. It's because, we aging dog years for the last five years. You know, it's, you know, 43 feels a whole lot like 53. So. Lindsey. So she was just in the reserves, and she National Guard. She's in there. She's still currently in the National Guard.

No, no, no, she got out. The National Guard, in reserves can be called up to do a number of things, and that's whether it's training for deployment. Stateside deployments. We've seen recently National Guard go to Washington, DC and, different states to kind of, quell some of the civilian violence and all that kind of stuff.

And, you know, she wanted to be a mom. She wanted to pursue her, career. And it just it wasn't, it didn't make sense for our family life, you know? So she went ahead and got out, I think 2020 or 2021, she finally put in her, paperwork to to get out. Just, you know, with us trying to pursue a family and everything.

It didn't make sense to for me to retire. And then, you know, now we're missing her for weeks at a time, right? You know, she gets called out to go to, like, you know, Washington or whatever. Plus, it's it's hard to move when you're in the National Guard because you have to be released from that state and then accepted in the other state because they get funding in Indiana for the head count that they have.

When she transferred to Louisiana, it was it was kind of a headache. You know, getting her down in Louisiana, Indiana wanted they wanted her on their books, losing an award credit on their books because they get, you know, paid for that. So it's just kind of a that's another kind of in the shadows thing that people don't think about.

So it was just kind of a it was a headache, you know. So, she got out. She downplays their service, you know, but I give her a hard time, you know, being in the National Guard, being a part timer. But I was a part time work for six years, so, it's just one of those things that you kind of don't know about it unless you dealing with it.

But if she got out, she's a veteran now. But, yeah, she enjoyed her time in. Awesome. So how many more kids, Billy? Zero.

Zero. My three year old. I'll be 64 when he graduated high school. So what's it? One. And you're 49 now? I'm 49. Oh, yeah, I was. I got a birthday coming up, and, I know I want to be 40 pretty, I heard Denise. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I, I chuckled. One day I started doing math. I was like, I think Rylee is going to be 16.

But what is Rylee now? Yeah, I mean, Rylee. No. By the time I'm 49, Rylee will be 16/17, I was like four. Billy's got a three year old like, holy cow. So, because I was talking about our sales teams there, so we got some young guys and young kids. I was like, well, there's Billy. I mean, he fits at least the young kid part about the sales team.

You know, I'm old enough to be all the sales guys at except for Tanner. But I'd be as much older brother. Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean,having a three year old is, you know, I'm learning a lot as even as a as a dad who has a 25, 24 and 17 year old, I'm, I'm still learning a lot because I wasn't there a lot.

Right. You know, I missed a lot of birthdays, missed a lot of time. One of my deployments was 15 months, and my wife at the time, was also we were in the same unit, and, we both deployed to the same place. So, her parents, we we left our son with her parents when he was about 18 months old.

So when we came back, he was three years old, you know? So it was like I missed the first step on that first steps. But a lot of that developmental stuff that happens between a year and a half old and three years old, that I was shocked, you know, with my son now, I was like, oh, I don't remember this.

And I don't know that my wife, you know, ones that she always reminds me, she's like, well, you didn't see it, right? You know, so it's humbling. It's humbling to have three older, much older kids and be like, oh, where is all this? Why is it have, you know, I do all this, you know, head scratching and it's just because I just wasn't there, you know?

So I appreciate this time with him a lot more. Because I missed it before. And that was one of the things that was also one of the things that, Lindsay and I agreed to is like, you know, if we if we have this, this baby and, you know, everything, things are going to slow down.

I'm not going anywhere for a month at a time. I'm not leaving for a year at a time. I probably shouldn't be saying this to you, but I'm not. I'm working as few weekends as possible. Okay? You know, you understand. It's just I want to be there for as much of it as I can, because I missed so much before, you know, all my other kids, they understood they grew up in that life.

This is the only child that I have where he doesn't military. He's just like, oh, you did a thing once, right? You know, sometimes it feels like I've led several lives because, you know, I was a civilian for the first six years of my adult life. And then when active duty. And now I'm in this portion of my life, and it's like, oh, man.

Yeah, that was a different time. You know, my first two kids got to see a taste of the military life. My 17 year old, that's what he was raised in. And now my three year old, he's not going to have really anything to do with the military. So, it's kind of just. I'm in my eras tour. Right.

Well, and, I mean, and it's it's life and, you know, you know, you'll get to be able to do some things with your older kids, that because you are so young, still in their life. Right? Compared to when the little ones, 25, like, you know, he might be pushing you out of the nursing home, you know.

Yeah. Helping me. The soccer game. Yeah. You know, stuff like that. So yeah. Yeah. My daughter, my oldest, you know, she text me on my birthday and it's a happy birthday, old man. You know, like, we get to have those kind of jokey things. Whereas my son, I'm already like, when I was buying soccer stuff the other day, let's put him in soccer.

And the guy at Dunham's was like, are you getting your grandkid started up and whatever? And I was like, oh, he's my son. He's he's my son. I didn't adopt him. He's he's actually my son. And, you know, he was like, oh, sorry. You know, but, it's just kind of that's just kind of what it is.

You know, I choose to grow my beard out. It is gray, right? Right, right. Yeah. I clean shaven. I don't know that I'd look much younger, but, you know, just kind of got to deal with that as it goes. I will be going to, you know, parent teacher meetings with, you know, people in their late 20s. Yep.

And, you know, I'll be 50. I can give everybody life lessons North from the teacher all the way down to the kid. So, I mean, as long as you don't start looking so that they think that Lindsay's your daughter and not your wife, she is aging at exponentially slower than I am.

You cover that one pretty good there. But know she just turned 40. She doesn't look a day over 28. So, there'll be some confusion. Yeah, there will be some confusion. I'm eight years older than her. So, Happy birthday. Really? Though, she turned 41 this year. Awesome. So kind of as we with some of the other guys we've kind of talked about, like, you know, what your favorite product is to sell?

And I know you're newer in this sense, you know, the, the neck, but like, what what is your favorite product to sell? And then also kind of tie in like what is about whole roofing? Because you are, you are in a roofing sales space before here, but you were kind of in the supplementing part. So you've, you've kind of been in the business but but not but not in this role in, in this, in this industry.

Right. So, I'll say a whole a little bit I tell customers this all the time, I did do supplementing. It was soul sucking. I didn't like it very much. Which is why I left, you know, just talking to adjusters all the time. Insurance companies constantly moving the goalposts. And it kind of leads into the answer.

To answer your question is, my favorite thing to sell is what the customer needs. You know, not going in there and trying to give them something that they don't need. Not trying to oversell something, you know, but going in there and evaluating what they're asking for and then giving them the best thing that we offer. And I do I do tell customers that quite often.

I want you to have what you want. You know, if you just if you just want a roof that's going to last, you ten years till you sell your property, then let's see what that looks like. If you, you know, this is your forever home and this is the house that you want to, you know, have until your final days.

Let's look at the best thing that we can put on that house that is going to last you for those years, you know. But let's look at metal. Let's look at, you know, the things that are going to give you that longevity. If you're looking at siding, you know, do you just want a different color or do you want something, do you want Hardy or is it something that, like, you want to be proud of, curb appeal, increase the value of your home?

What do you want? And I think that's kind of my favorite thing about this job is, is getting people the thing that they need, the thing that they want, if it's something they like. I've always wanted a standing seam metal roof. You know, I don't want anything fancy color wise. I just want a black standing seam because I think it's beautiful.

Gonna look good on my home then. Yes, I will give you every option that you have and we can talk about, you know, other things to do. You need gutters. Do you need all this other kind of stuff? You know, if you've got a 900 square foot house and you want standing seam, let's talk about it. If you just want an Oak Ridge, you know, shingle and then we'll talk about that too.

So I don't really have a favorite product, but I enjoy interacting with our customers in a way that they can. They can have what they wanted, you know, whether it's an emergency or it's just something that they want to do. It's kind of where I'm at.

What talk a little bit about Chris. I mean, Chris Britt is, active sales manager, you know, and yeah, she you literally are old enough.

I am old enough to be as stupid to be as dead. And as as an older person, like, kind of kind of talk. What what Chris brings, as a leader, because, you know, like, that's that's respectful to you at your age that you can come in and be under a leader at that age. Because I kind of thought that early on in the business now I'm getting more grace.

I look older than I am and, you know, that kind of stuff. But even early on, like, sometimes I'd go meet with customers and they'd be like, you know, with the name of Bob. Like, it automatically makes you like 55, you know? And then they're like, oh, wait a second, you're the owner. I'm like, yeah, but it's kind of talk a little bit about Chris.

Yeah. So - Chris. There were several reasons that, I was excited to come work here. One, it was a three stage interview process. You know, interviewed, came and talked to you, went and ate dinner with Chris and his wife with, Lindsay and, and then, followed up, had a long talk with Emily and, you know, all that kind of stuff.

That's that's fairly the three stage interview is not rare today, but it's rare when you're doing it with a family owned business. You know, like, sometimes the owner, you know, they're in and they're out. You don't really see them. You guys are really involved in this, used words like systems, refining systems, and that those are military terms.

And whether you knew it or not, they are, that's what you're doing in the military constantly is refining system, seeing what works and what doesn't work. And and one of the things that made me successful in the military is quite often I was never the smartest person in the room, but I knew how to surround myself with the smartest people, and I feel like we do that very well here.

I don't think any one person holds every single ounce of knowledge we have. We have Nick, we have Cody, we have, you know, you, Emily, Ali, at least you know one of the foundations of the company. But Chris in particular has a, he has an ability to slow things down and explain them at a level where you're just starting out or you've been doing this for five years.

If you don't understand something, he can break it down in a way that you're like, oh, okay, that makes sense. And I've told Chris this several times, I'm humble enough to know that I know what I don't know. You know, he knows immensely more than I do, you know, and I can be differential, you know, I've had to do that in the military.

You know, rank has its privileges, they say. But at the same time, you you get it far enough to where you're removed from the, the boots on the ground. And they're always going to do it way more efficiently because their time is more important to them than anything else. Yeah. So that's that's where I leverage Chris the most is like, hey, help me get this to where I'm refining my processes to where I'm better at this in a shorter amount of time so that I can I can be, mindful of the customer's time.

I can be mindful of my time and be mindful of the company's time. You know, I want to get to where I'm not driving out to a house three times and wasting the company gas and doing all this kind of stuff. And, you know, Chris is built for that. You know, he's he's an explainer. He understands things. He he puts it on a level to where even a new guy like me can understand it.

I know all the parts of the roof, but I'm I'm not I don't come from the construction background. But now, you know, I can get up there and, like, basically, what would Chris tell me to do, you know, how would Chris explain this so that I can understand it for myself? So I'm not taking up his time, you know, so it all comes from a place of, like, making yourself better, makes the company better, you know?

And delivers a better product for the customer in the. You know what? So, I mean, you're kind of. Yeah. I mean, you said, like, you know, you're really focused on family time and, you know, that's that's awesome. Like, I've, you know, as a business owner, like there's that balance of like pushing your guys being the most efficient, you know, but also realizing like, hey, you know what, you've got a family you want to be, you know, there's there's nothing wrong with that.

You know, and it was, it was it was kind of ironic because like, the, the successful ones that we've had consistently, we're like them like 20 year old guys that, you know, what I have learned was, you know, I need somebody that's married and got kids because, like, I've had them where they weren't married or had kids and living in their girlfriend's parents basement and didn't work very hard, you know, so like, so there's there's that balance, you know, but then you know what?

There's also a level of you, you gain trust when you walked up to a customer quicker than when Nick was doing this five years ago, because I literally had one customer call me one time was like, hey, just so you know, we had six people out here. And Nick was a, was the most educational of anybody we had.

And, I remember when he pulled up and got out of his truck, I looked at my wife and said, is he even old enough to have a driver's license? So like, you know, so it it is it is fun. For me just to to be able to expand, like I said, like, I, I look at people like you can learn from, like I have zero military experience.

Like I don't understand the military at all. That's why sometimes I ask you random questions about it, just because, like, I had an ex brother in law that was in it, but we didn't really talk that much about it, you know? So like, no, it's funny you say that like that. You're like, no more military terms. I'm just trying to make the business as efficient as possible for a guy like you.

Because, like, one thing that I've learned when people come in, like, it's the frustration of not knowing what to do or how it needs to be done is quality. People want to be held accountable, and quality people want to do it the right way. You know, that's that's that's that's what I've learned, you know, and, you know, you said Lee's such a huge part of this business.

I mean, she is like, I mean, and just, you know, you talk about somebody that's grown a lot with the company and watched us grow. You know, as a company. And now, I mean, she's I mean, she's she she tries to learn so much. And it's so cool to see how much knowledge she has in the construction world.

Now compared to when she started. You know, she was just an eager person willing to work, which is you need that, you know? But she's continued, you know, to grow and, you know, I think she'll be with us here for years here in a couple months. And that's that's, that's that's cool for me, you know, because that's that's my goal.

I want a company that has a lot of veterans here that know what they're doing and like, care because, you know, there's the culture that me and Emily were intentional about. It's to the point now we're getting big enough that you've got to be intentional about it. Adam's got to be intentional about it. Like, Bob and Emily can't control it, you know?

Yeah, she's she's really involved in the day to day with, you know, the production stuff. Emily is me. You never know. Like, I'm really just trying to keep Adam and Chris Antioch all rolling down the track and, you know, and whatnot, and also pitching in to try to help. So what are what are some goals over the next few years?

That, you know, that maybe you have, kind of, you know, just over the next few years. Yeah. Well,

you're talking about, you know, the, the confidence part of it and aging and all that kind of stuff. And, you know, that was kind of one of my struggles when I first started was you know, confidence or competence breeds confidence.

So the more you know about a thing, more.

You know, off handed, you could talk about things, you know, it doesn't become so structured work. I can't get outside of this box because I don't know what I'm talking about. I don't want to say the wrong thing. You want to be, you know, deliberate in the things that you say. And, you know, just yesterday, actually, I had a lady, you know, she was like, well, thank you for, you know, coming out here and actually telling me the why behind things.

You know, she said I had a guy that wouldn't come give me an estimate unless my husband was here. And I was like, okay, well, I appreciate that. You know, but if you have any other questions, you know, just give me a call. I can answer all that kind of stuff. And I didn't have that background before.

Once again, that's where Chris comes in. You know, he taught me to bounce things off you. Ellie, Emily. Nick, Cody, Chris Collins, all those guys. And to give me the confidence in that. I'm telling the right thing, not I don't ever want to say the wrong thing. So that's kind of where my goals are built upon, is being able to go out there with confidence and say these things, obviously this is a business, not a charity.

So, you know, financial security for my family is important to me. You, one of the things that a lot of people don't know about the military is, when you retire or you get out, just in general, they do a pay audit on you so you don't get paid for 45 days. You go. I went from making six figures to one day.

I just didn't have anything deposited into my account. And that that was the first time in 22 years that I sort of was financially insecure for a minute. They, they briefly go over it in briefings and stuff like that. But you, you're like, yeah, whatever. You just give me my paper so I can get out of here and and grow a beard and, you know, be a hippie again, you know, and then you don't get paid.

It's like, oh, no, you're used to getting paid on the first and 15th. So, you know, my goals be the best representative of my brand, which, you know, I have a last name that's important to me as well. Absolutely. Be a brand ambassador for whole, you know, be the best branded ambassador for a whole that I can be.

Excuse me. And then, you know, continue to learn how to be the best father and husband, you know, that I can be, I've done pretty much everything in my life that I've wanted to do. This is just another chapter. This is a small area, you know, small town area. Your name is. It means a lot.

And, you know, I was telling, you know, telling Lindsay, when I first started this, I was like, man, I don't want to be bad at this because I'm going in homes every day, and I don't know anyone a lot of times I'm going to the Kroger. The people that I see are going to be people whose homes I was in.

I don't want them, you know, whispering over to their significant other, their friend, you know, like, oh, that's a guy I didn't really know a whole lot, blah, blah, blah. You know, I want to be like, I want to go in there and they're like, hey, Billy, how's it going? Thanks for, you know, getting getting this figured out.

And, because that's how I'm going to establish my roots here. You know, I'm 49. I'm not, you know, hanging out at the bars and all that kind of stuff. And I didn't graduate from here, so I don't have any lifelong friends. No. I'm here. I'm kind of establishing all of that here, you know? So, I've become friends with the guys that I work with here.

I was in Sydney, before coming up here, with Tanner in Connersville. I saw him over at the, McDonald's off 30 30th Street. So, like, I got time to kill him, go see what he's doing. You know? So my goals are mainly personal, you know, continuing doing things that that enrich my life so that enrich the lives of the people around me.

We recently lost my father in law. So, you know, we've all kind of rallied around my mother in law. Like I said, I won the in-law lottery. So, you know,

all those things are profoundly important to me, you know? So that's kind of what I mean. The older we get, I mean, my dad's semi-retired and he's in here three times a day.

It seems like, you know, and sometimes I want to complain about it, you know? But I'm like, you know what? He's not getting any younger. And the days are limited with him, you know, and, you know, and he's he's chilled way out since I was a kid, you know, but now the one day to one day, he came in here, and was like, I'm sorry, I'm busy today.

And she's like, he's like, oh, I came in here to see Ellie, so. And now him and Adam's always talking, you know? And to me, like, that's I, I, you know, you said like, some of your goals, like husband, father, like, that's the most important goal out there. That's something that I'm working on. Like I'm dealing with with, you know, some of my crap.

So I can be a better husband and father because I've heard Ellie say, man, you're an easier boss to get along with now. And I'm like, well, that's good. I mean, I'm hopeful for time. Yeah, hopefully it's, you know, it's it's from the work being in, you know, at home and that's, that's what I want. Like I said, I want everybody to be successful.

But I also know success looks different for in certain people, you know. And it doesn't just because your, your goals look different than this goal. There's, there's really nothing wrong with that. You know, at the end of the day. So, for me, as long as guys represent us well with character, like, that's, that's the most important part, you know, and that's, that's what to me as well, you know.

But it's weird because I wear, I wear your name on, on my chest and my back, you know. So I'm a I'm aware of that. Yep. You know, that comes up in conversation probably more often than, than you realize, you know, like, people don't necessarily know to like all roofing I've heard called Noelle Roofing that, you know, like, all this kind of stuff.

I'm like, I don't know, it's Bob and Emily whole, you know, it's a family owned business. And oddly enough, that's important to me because I always wanted to be a business owner. I'm just risk averse. So, I was never willing to cash in on my chips and just. Well, we may or may not have a house tomorrow, right?

You know, security is more important to me. So working for a family owned company, you know, I'm kind of vicariously getting that, through you guys. Because that kind of stuff is important to me. You know? It's like we're not guaranteed anything, right? We're not guaranteed anything. You know, this could all be gone tomorrow for you.

For us. You know, like, you see, businesses get shuttered and it's like, wow. Well, now I'm a piece of that, right? I I'm a plank holder. I own a small portion of this because what I do is important to the overall success of the company. And I don't take that lightly. So, you know, yeah, it's being successful.

What is that? I don't know, you know, is it selling a certain amount of something maybe. Right. Maybe not. Right? Maybe not. Maybe. Maybe it's the jobs I don't get because I coach the customer how to get it done a different way. You know, it's quite often, you know, we're in elderly people's homes on a fixed income.

It's just one of them under the roof. And, you know, maybe I tell them, like, hey, I would do this right, you know? And I think that being successful as well, because you help somebody out have, you know, like, I like you said, what is success and being a good person, being a good father, being a good husband as best you can be.

And if you happen to, be financially successful based off of that, so be it. If you really. I just want to thank you for your time. Thank you for everything that you do for for our family, our business, you know, the the whole thing. And, you know, it's just it's it's fun for me for just be on the boat, be around you and your family, you know, like, you know, unfortunately, you did this, you know, lose your father in law.

But when we were at the viewing, that that meant a lot. That meant a lot to your mother in law. Like, it was funny. She's like, oh, really? Yeah. And then Lindsay's like, oh, that's that's missed Mr. Whole. And I'm like, okay, I don't, I don't need to hear that. That's my dad. But you know, your mother in law then was like, oh wow.

Like, you know, and that's, that's the, that's the business that me and Emily want, like caring for our people, you know, you know it. Well. So Chris and Emily under the bus, Christmas services, like I, I can't go first in this line. I was like, I'll go first, guys, you know? So, but it's just it's just, you know, that's Dave Ramsey says, don't miss a birth.

Don't miss a funeral, you know, and there's a lot of truth to that of, like going to support your people. And because, you know, yeah. Like, you know, and and you're in Connersville. So I grew up in Glenwood, so, you know, you're in you're in that spot outside of being in Rushville, like, more people are going to know hole roofing than somebody that's up in Greenfield.

You know, so like you're, you know, it's just it's, you know, it's part of it. Emily's fam family's in Centerville. She's got some encouragers. So, you know, that kind of all just, you know, blends in there. But yeah, seriously, thank you for everything you do for us. We appreciate you, sir. Thank you.