Episode 269 A.D. (after Dan) with Jarrod Twiss

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Right, episode 269 AD after Dan is here. I'm super excited and I am even more excited to have Jared here with us. Jared Twist with Ranch Fence. If you don't know him, I I you you got to get to know him because he's been a huge huge help in everything I've been doing and it almost like a security blanket for me. I reach out to Jared for pretty much anything and everything when it comes to it. So Jared, thank you for uh coming on the very first episode. It does make this a lot easier for me. Yeah, absolutely, man. I'm shoot. I'm excited to be here. I'm uh and it's easy to support you, right, when you uh you're doing good things, dude. You uh whatever. I appreciate it, man. And I know um we go back quite a ways here a couple going on a couple years now and uh you were probably one of our very first members even over at FWA and uh you've just been like I said jumped on from the very beginning. Tell us a little bit about I mean you guys go back almost a good 20 years at Ranch Fence but but your your family and you go back way further than that in the fence industry. So uh tell us a little bit about um you and Ranch Fence and and how all that started. Well, yeah. I mean, similar to you and probably most fence people, u out there, uh, you know, I had, you know, great uncles and grandpas and all that stuff come home from World War II and they started building fence and then, uh, you know, I I grew up on a ranch and, um, built fence whether I wanted to or not. And then uh yeah, you know, I I essentially I wanted to sell almonds is what I actually wanted to do and and we're going to get on this about you too, but yeah, so I wanted to sell almonds out of college and the money was good in this and then, you know, we have kids and then we have to get good at it. And I I actually said this on the other podcast, but yeah, that's that's what my uh history is and here we are. So, I think it is we're coming up on 20 years next year of actually paying taxes and doing, you know, that's awesome. That's awesome. Yeah. I mean, and and and your crew, I mean, if if you haven't met Jared's crew, it is uh let's show you some of them. I don't know if you remember this there. Yeah. Look at that. You I mean, let's count these. I mean, how many people did you bring over to the fence show? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, three, four, 15. Was there was there anybody left building fence in California when you came down here or No, we No, we Yeah, that was fun. That was fun trip. And like I said on the last podcast, too, you can't afford not to send them. is so inexpensive, you know, and I don't want to get into, you know, all of that again and tell the same story, but my god, um, you know, $75 rooms, you know, the flights to Vegas are always cheap because they're subsidized by the casinos. Um, you know, and and you invest in your people. Yeah, we have a really good team. I I'm really proud of them. I'll tell you what, everyone on our team talking about them are they're stretching out of their comfort zone and and they're making mistakes uh because, you know, they don't know the role completely. And I just told them, I said, "You guys, everyone's putting in the effort and putting in the time." I said, "In October, we're going to be twice as good as we are now. So, let's just grind it out, you know, let's get it done uh on this uh this summer and you got a young crew. How do you I mean when when if you if anybody was to ever meet your crew, they are some of the most respectful people, you know, and I don't know if they just if you if you just like warned them all before we met them, but they were some of the coolest and most respectful uh installers I ever met. I mean, it was amazing. How did you do that? How do you find how do you find I mean, we're out here searching. Even at Las Vegas Fence, we're searching for workers. How did you find these guys? And I mean, is it Where do you pull them from? Uh you know what? We have a farm team, a feeder program. And I think I mentioned this once before, but uh it started kind of organically. We're in a rural area. And um so I I when we were growing this business and trying to get it, you know, get better at what we do, I would stay back and load the trucks at night and I got some high school kids. I went to the

Local FFA. We have a a phenomenal uh welding program. As a matter of fact, two years ago, they were the uh our FFA team was the best welding team in the state. And two of those kids on the team work for me. Anyways, we get these kids, they come in, they unload trucks, uh I cuss at them, um they, you know, wash the windows, they fill up the skid steers, they put diesel in and death and all that stuff. And then the beauty of it is you get them as a sophomore, you get them as uh, you know, so they can drive and then it it takes a ton of time and they do a lot of stupid stuff and they break things along the way and it's uh but you know two of uh two of our foremen went through it. We call it the uh the you know my pet project and but anyways yeah we get those guys and we beat on them and love on them and now we got you know single moms coming hey can my son work for you he needs something to do and and you know just a lot of that the best ones are football players and wrestlers because you know they've already been yelled at and ground down to nothing build them back up but you know and then I mean our our two foremen yeah went through the whole program and they are just killing it right now. Yeah. But the other thing is when you take a school kid and throw him in on the uh fence line, he may not know exactly how to do a makeup and he may not know exactly how to uh you know how tight to get the bob wire, whatever, but he damn know if I tell him, hey, you know, go get a wire dog, he knows exactly where it's at on the truck because he's put it away on the truck for the last three years. He he's better at operating the skid steer than some of the new hires we have out in the field because he's moved it around the yard for three years. So there's a huge advantage and they know how we like you know I go out and pick that thing apart and go the chains don't go here this goes there do it right next time and so there I mean there's a a learning curve for them but you've already got a big jump and you know them you know their personality their disc assessment all that stuff. So yeah, and they got friends. I'm sure they're always, hey, you need to make some money this summer. Uh, you know, this is a good place to start. And I and I think we need to get more of that outreach stuff when it comes out to, you know, contacting people right out of high school or college even and letting them know this is a great industry. I mean, you can you can learn to build fence. Next thing you know, you own a fence company and uh you've got some, you know, you've got a couple trucks and it's a good way to it's a good way to feed your family and make a living. And I think sometimes we we we the industry gets looked at like it's a handyman kind of thing, but but it's an actual trade. It's a it's a skilled trade. Well, and not only that, it's a great trade because, uh, you know, I couldn't imagine being a plumber and just being inside all day, you know? I mean, we're outside, we're traveling, we're seeing the sunrise and sometimes the sunset trying to finish up. But, uh, but I mean, it's Yeah, man. I mean, it's a good trade. You're outside doing your thing. that even on the training and stuff and the you know for the fence university stuff we're doing um it's it's easy to develop stuff where you where you got people just sitting in there trying to you know teach fencers to learn from a book and just sitting there and I think we've talked about it before where um you know how do we connect to the fencers and stuff out there. I mean it it's crazy you could bring 10 fencers in and they would rather be out there in the you know outside of our our classroom digging a hole and and learning how to stretch fence than they would sitting in a in an air conditioned room and learning from a book. I think it's just us. Get us to meet in the middle of a field with a generator. We're just as happy as we are inside, you know. And uh I just recently uh heard Mike Rose speak about, you know, this Gen Z is becoming the tool belt generation. They're seeing that you don't have to go into $150,000 in debt for a job that's going to pay you, you know, $50,000 a year. Yeah. So,

Yeah. Yeah. It's changing. I was I was going to ask you and I know someone else mentioned it and I know you're you're you're part of that. The Red Brand Homegrown program. What What is that? It's I know you stay pretty active in that. Uh yeah, you know, honestly, just Red Brand was a big supplier, you know, in our area. Our distributor had it. They had big winter programs and and it's a decent wire. I mean, I'm sure a few people are going to lose their mind when I say, you know what, I'm not I don't care about, you know, all of those debates on high tinsel or whatever, but uh yeah, we just honestly we bought we bought so much red brand, they started sending us some swag and then I got on and u uh filled out some stuff online and became a an installer and stuff like that for I just saw it somewhere and I was like, man, I meant to ask you about it and I figured this was the verdict. Maybe I wasn't supposed to ask about it. I don't know, you know. No, we get we get uh rebates from it. It's just a program for them, you know. They honestly uh we have a really phenomenal office staff. I don't I don't know. I don't Yeah. I don't know. That's not Hey, we we have Go ahead. We're gonna be bringing some cool stuff, too. I want to get I I want to get get with you on I know we're gonna be going out to some of the uh local fence companies in California and around the country. So, we're definitely going to come out and visit you. And um I did want to bring something up um on how we're going to be, you know, going. I know because we've discussed this some of this. Some of this you already know, but uh to let the people that are watching know where we're going with my fence life and and the future and how we're going to try to how we're going to try to get more involved in the industry and um bring some information different than than what everybody's used to seeing. So, um if you don't mind, I'm going to bring Brian back on here. He uh we brought him on as a guest as well. And to give you just everybody just a little taste of what we're going to be doing in some of the future episodes. Let's bring them on. Betty, I'm excited you're here watching our very first episode of My Fence Life since Brian started hosting this thing. Yes, Brian in the third person here. We're going to be bringing you some exciting stuff from around the country at Las Vegas Fence and other fence companies around the country. We're going to show you why we put fence signs on our gates in the shop before they go out in the field. We're going to take you around and show you why we label the ends of our posts with different colors to to to tell you whether it's tubing, structural weight, full weight, why we label our wire, what we got going on in our uh tool bin area over there. It's going to be exciting. We're super glad you're here to watch this. We're going to send this thing inside of you, Brian. Appreciate him letting us have it back. You know, he could really hog the screen sometimes. Don't turn him loose on social media. give us uh give us some insight. I know when I talked to you earlier, you said you had some uh material list or something you you were trying to get knocked out over for the cruise for tomorrow. Uh run us through like a a process of what you do at the end of the day to get ready for tomorrow with your crews and the trucks. Well, you know, we do I mean our business structure is a little different than most people. We don't just turn and flip jobs. you know, a lot of our jobs are a lot bigger and um we've been on one in in San Jose, which is about three hours away, and they're finishing this week. Uh or they'll be about 99% done. But either way, everyone I we sent all the crews there because we had to just get that one knocked out. So, everyone's coming back. So, we are going all over next week uh with two different directions. And so it's, you know, two different material list, truck list, tool list, all the stuff. So I had to get that stuff out the door so these, you know, the shop guys and the guys that stayed back can, you know, start getting all that squared away. You know, we when we send something out, we start it every single time. Uh, you know, we check all the fluids and just double check everything. And, you know, we spend a lot of extra time getting it ready so that, uh,

Logistics it's all done. So I was I had to I had to get them less. So yeah, I know you we were trying to talk and I go, I gotta get off the phone, man. I gotta go. Yeah. So we're we're in full chill right now. I I like that you said that, too, because you know, um this morning there was a huge holdup getting out of the yard because uh we stop every truck, by the way, on the way out, and we have a checklist that you have to go through. And it I think the biggest battle we have sometimes is they don't want to take the tools. And and it it's nothing more frustrating for me than when the crews get out there and they're calling up and they're they're you know, the job's taking longer. they're calling up and they don't have something and it's it's sometimes it's as as silly as a wheelbarrow. They just didn't take a wheelbarrow and and you know if you don't have those checklists and you don't make them take it every single time and stop the truck. And when you said uh and circling back to when you said uh fire up all the equipment, you know, get the generators running, start them up. We don't let a single piece of gas powered equipment leave this yard that didn't get started. And I had um one of my crews who was kind of upset because they already loaded um one of the beavers on the truck. And if once you get that thing all wound up and on the truck and ready to go and and you know I I go I run through my checklist. Did you start that up? And you could see it in their face, right? They they try to stutter a little bit like no man I if you started it up you'd be proud of it. You you wouldn't you just Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So uh we made them uh you know try to start it up then one of them jumped up there and then I don't know if you're familiar with the the beavers. you got to have uh the actual rod in there that pushes that that toggle switch or something in or it won't even it won't even run. So, they were up there for a while pulling on it because they don't want to get it down and then it didn't run. So, then one of them had to run back to the uh shop to grab another one and uh wheel it out and put it on one of the other trucks that was going with them and then of course it wouldn't start again and they're like, "Oh." Then they realized they had to have that rod back in there. So, it was definitely starting equipment's a big deal. I don't know how many times you've had someone call you and say their generator's not running um out on a job site and then it's just it's everything's coming to a halt and you know they can't weld, they can't do anything. So that's that's a big point to get across. Yeah. You know that's a big thing our project manager has anytime we have something like that nuts and bolts aren't on the truck or something silly. Uh, you know, we had LA two weeks ago we sent we have a big side by side to help uh pull some wire and you know, just get around these big job sites. Uh, And, uh, you know, it was leaking oil and then, you know, essentially lost the whole rear main and uh, yeah, so that wasn't good. They use it for one day. So, the project manager has to put that in the issues for our uh, oh, there's old Benji popping in. Anyways, uh you know, the project manager has to put in the issues and we bring it up in our L10 on a Monday morning meeting and we have to dive in and assess it and figure out what happened, who did this, you know, diagnose it and figure out what's going on. So, And it's a lot easier to troubleshoot. It's a lot easier to troubleshoot all those problems um in the shop before you go. I there is you're out there in the field and you're on the radio or you're on the phone. Hey, did you check the oil? Hey, did you do this? Hey, did you do that? This, you know, what could have taken you 10, you know, 10 minutes to fix is now 45 minutes while two people are standing there uh helping him. But I wanted to get over these comments, man. We just have a ton of comments. I know. They It is blowing up, dude. I This is the first time I've seen the comments like this. Really? Yeah. This is awesome. Matt Lowry Jared is a dog. Awesome. I think we got JC Gury in here. They are just Mark and Mary are just amazing. I know you get your signs from them as well, right? Well, dude, you know what's crazy about them is uh they I mean I think I don't know

How long they've been in business, but my family from Southern California has been doing business with them since maybe the 70s. I'm not sure. Maybe the 80s, but yeah, they uh like when we got going and we needed fence signs, I called my cousin. I said, "What are we doing?" And he said, "Yeah, these are the people." And that's the people we've been with the whole time. And uh and I I can't remember when, but we did a reflective sign with them. Gosh, I don't know, maybe 2012, I think I got that sign going. 25 years for me. I probably had three different style signs with them over the last 25 years. And it's just the service is second to none. I mean, they're the type of people you just go around and tell about. I mean, anytime there's a new guy, do you get who you get your signs from? Call call them Mary. And I I think they've been doing even shows and stuff for 40 Mary will have to tune in here and let us know unless that's Mark, but they've been doing them for like 45 50 years they've been doing the shows and uh that's how long it goes back. It was Mary's dad, you know, the very first one, which is probably who we originally were buying our signs from at some point. So, um yeah, it goes it goes a family business goes back a long ways. Let's go through some of these. Uh we got Benji. You already saw. Uh who's this girl? You know this girl? She's a Yeah. Oh, Mrs. K. She's in the other room. Uh let's see. Uh, all things twist. Get it. Oh, that's my lady right there. Yeah. Over 20 years married. Yeah. Looks like my fence life themselves is happy you're here. Look at that. I think that's Susan over there commenting. I appreciate that. What do we got? Mary Lock Gilgore says, "Oh, that's my stepmom." Yeah. Is it? That's got the whole family watching. Well, I just texted her. I said, "Hey, check this out. So yeah, she Anyway, shout out to Mary. I feel like there's some something behind that. What up, Timbo Slice? I feel like there's a story behind that. I don't know. I don't know. Lowry, he's a good guy, though, man. You want you want a a tech guy. That guy is like fast with his thumbs on that on that phone and jamming through stuff and he's a genius on the whole marketing. Yeah. And we'll get back to some of these. We'll get back on some of those. I did want to ask you um since some of the stuff we're going to be getting into on the show um coming up in the in the next episodes and even in between the episodes um how do you handle tools? I mean I tools going out and tools coming in and broken tools and I'm going to ask you this question again after after you watch the next video here. We bring Brian back in here. Exciting episodes. We're talking about my fence life breaking point. We're going to I don't know if you've got any pallets like this sitting around with beat up welders and generators and things like this. Uh stuff that just doesn't work anymore cuz the guys were abusing it. And uh we're going to show you the dos and don'ts and and what you got to do to to get these tools out on the job plates and get them back safe and sound. I'm excited to bring you some of these future episodes to show you what we do at Las Vegas Fence and what a lot of people do at other fence companies as well. Let's just take this back into the studio. Okay, man. I told you he'll hog the screen, man. We got to really control This will turn into the Brian life show real quick. So, circling back to that, what do you do? I mean, it's a problem for all of us. I mean, even with, you know, myself. So, how do you handle a tool, you know, a a $800 core drill or an $800 saw or drill or something that goes out that needs to get back and and make sure that it's it's still working? Well, we've gotten really really good about this lately. Um, but I'll tell you one thing, right? We're you're not dealing with accountants and you're not dealing with pretty electricians that, you know, set up shop in a coffee pot. Like I said in the last podcast, I mean, you're dealing with tough dudes and they're going to be hard on equipment. Um, one of the things that we've done is I've gotten to a point where um, everything gets engraved. Every tool, every single tool gets engraved or welded on. And I

Want one an RF or a ranch fence on it. I want a date. That way when we break something, I go, "Hey, maybe we could have used this more than two and a half months." So, we put a date when it goes into service. And then we also put the truck that it's going on as well. I buy a lot of those tools from SWI. Um, they're expensive, but damn, they're good. And uh you know like right now they're on all the crews are on one job trying just to do a final push to get this damn thing done so we can get going. Well tools are going to get mixed up and so you need you know they need every vehicle every trailer gets a name and a number um and so the tool gets assigned to that with the welded on and you can't really screw it up. My job is to eliminate [ __ ] circle and I just I just try to go and stop make, you know, uh stops in there for things when they get screwed up. But yeah, I'd say date them and label them uh is key and then assign them to a truck and to a person. So yeah. Yeah, we're struggling. I mean, we've gotten to the point where, you know, you want to buy the Milwaukee, the DeWalts, you want to buy them the best tools that are out there and, you know, but you got to almost get indestructible ones. And sometimes I, you know, I get to the point where I'm just tired of buying grinders, tired of buying band saws, so I buy them in bulk at like Harbor Freight or something and where where I don't have to stress out. If one's no good, I'm not sending it down to the shop and getting, you know, paying $150 to to repair a $200 band saw. I'm just throwing it away or, you know, just tossing them out. I'm piling them up and every once in a while someone will come in and buy all my broken tools and things like that. But I like, you know, S SWI. I think you and I need to do a trip to SWI and do a live from uh from Mark's place. That'd be fun, wouldn't it? Yeah, do that. You know, another little little trick hack. We have red electrical tape. I know you're supposed to use the tag out things from OSHA. Yeah, but those, you know, get dusty. Everyone you can everyone has red electrical tape. We tape it around the handle. That means don't use. And we put it in the shop. And I try to stick with one brand of tool, although uh we just switched to US Hammer. So, um, God, I love those. Those are so badass. So, I got a bunch of ready drivers now that, um, I got to cycle out and sell or something. But, yeah, we try to stick with one so we can mix and switch parts if needed and, you know, get by until we get the new one. So, yeah, you know, the US Hammer I ran into um, I think it was Brian over at uh, um, one of a rental show. I was just was it happened to been at South Point where we do our show and it was a rental show going on and I saw him at one of those a booth inside there and I start I remember I we don't pound we don't pound them post we do we pound it with an old um Rhino you know PD what is it 45 or whatever I've had it for 25 years the same one and use an inline oiler and I've never serviced it and we use it on on rental fences and things like that but um out here we we dig and set everything else so we don't use it that often so it lasts forever but I saw that and I'm like man that is one of the coolest looking It it just looked cool is what it did, right? Um I don't know what the the way the steel was, the aluminum. I don't even know what it's made out of, but it was really cool looking. And that's He came to my office, I think the day after that show that he was doing at the the rental show, and he ended up getting a booth. And he pounded a post in, a tost in my yard, and it's still there. I I wish I wouldn't have let him because I can't get it back out. I'm going to have to cut it off or something because it was one of those Tpost with the flanges that goes down, went out past the asphalt. I'm like, you that stuff won't pound here. That thing just drove that thing straight down in the middle of one of these parking spots. I gotta cut it off now, you know. Well, you know where uh he brings those, but he has also the jackhammer attachments for those things. Uh and so, you know, if you're digging holes, sometimes you need that jackhammer. Yeah, he needs I think he's really pushed that in the fence industry. They used to have these things. Um I worked for San Diego Fence like I don't know 30 years ago as a salesman and they

Had this is interesting if you if you didn't know. Um whole different people now. It was been sold out and stuff, but they had like 20 oneman crews. That's it. It was like 20 oneman crews and they would go out there and build fence one. It was a lot of wood fence back then, you know, obviously it was Southern California. And um they had these things called pone jars or something like I wish I'm going to look it up and see if I can remember what they were, but they were like I think they were gas powered um you know, 30 years ago. Gas powered little pone. It was like a rock bar with an with a motor on it. I don't know if you remember seeing those. Yeah, I Yeah, we had one. I think they're Swedish. Uh we had one and um it just didn't have the technology. It didn't hold up. Yeah. This was 30 years ago. So it's changed a little bit. Brian, you talking about Let's Can we shift gears for a second and talk a little bit about you? I I so I don't know if you know it or not, but I snuck around and uh got some of your friends and uh family and I asked I said, "What do I need to know about Brian? And what does the fence world need to know about Brian other than he's the uh black cowboy hat guy that's, you know, mixing it up and shaking everything up and starting fence shows and starting, you know, fence organizations and stuff like that because I mean, you are a real person. You're not just this fence thing and and intense all the time. So, uh, is that cool if we Yeah. Dive. Well, I mean, I'm not just a black the black cowboy hat. I got a brown hat, too. And, uh, you know, I got multiple hats. So, yeah. And if if you don't like these uh questions, you know, or or topics, then uh switch it up, man. Oh, man. I should have had you send I should had you send me these first so Susan could improve my answer. No, that was the best part. Yes. Yeah. We got some old friends of yours and family. So, let's do it. Let's do it. Who'd you talk to first? Who'd you talk to? No, I'm not telling you. So, I told them I I want a good question. So, I told him I said, "Don't I'm not gonna I'm not going to tell you who who's asked the question." Uh, so talk about your fence history, your story. I I know from the first time I heard you on a podcast with Dan, you were talking about being in Alaska, uncles and driving and just give a quick how you got into this and what what the what your story is. Yeah. Well, I mean like a lot of us like you, it's in the blood. I mean it starts young. It actually Alaska is where probably when I was a teenager by the time I got to Alaska, but in my even before that it was um Portland, Oregon. So my uncles own fence companies and uh I didn't really know my father much when I was a kid. So my uncles raised me. It was my mom's two brothers and they both had fence companies either together or separate. It depends on what what parts of my life it was. And fence companies for a family either bring you together or they drive you apart. It's it it's it's a rocky and it's a tough line you cross on a lot of that stuff. So nonetheless, um at times things were great and at times things were the two families fighting two you know what I mean? Things like that. But I was always at one of their fence companies. I mean, I learned to drive by driving one of the fence trucks. And, you know, I think I was probably, you know, 10 or 12 when I was back in 20ft trailers up. And you just it's just it's just what you did. You weren't even, you know, you weren't you weren't intimidated by anything. You were running uh materials and running materials in and out, you know, the job sites from the truck and then you were running the equipment. And back then, we didn't have as much equipment, though. It was a pair of fence pliers and hog ring pliers and we didn't have impact wrenches. But nonetheless, I started um building fence with them, putting my first real real job was putting uh nuts and bolts together. I know if you're a chain link person out there, you know, they come in a box of a hundred and the and the the nuts come in a little bag with the grease in them and you got to put it together and and different companies do it differently. You know, any company I always had or worked for u back when I was a kid, you'd have to put

The nuts on the bolts and somebody would put those in back in the box and that's what the crews would take out and throw in their tool pouch with the nut on them. It was just barely on there. And my first job was like0 50 cents a box or something. I don't remember what it was. And I got real good. I'd grab one, put it together. I put a you know 100 bolts together and I don't know 20 30 seconds it felt like. Right. So it was good money for a first job. So yeah. And then uh my whole family moved to Alaska during uh some of the the the oil booms. There was you know back in the 80s and going into the 90s. And um it was a great time. My uncles own Anchorage Fence up in Alaska. And that was a lot of fun because he used to do a lot of work out at moose research centers and we'd go out there for like two three weeks in a in a trailer. And of course you're a kid, man. This was like a dream. We had four-wheelers, three-wheelers back then, too. Oh, man. It was just And of course, um, fencers I I think it was a maybe they just all seem so massive when you're when you're a kid, right? I just remember them being these I remember their hands I I their hands felt like they were like this long fingers and they were just, you know, they grab a roll of nine gauge, eight foot wire on their shoulder. one guy by himself and they just felt so massive and of course back then my uncle taught me the rule you know you weren't a real fencer until you lost a finger you know and every one of them was missing a finger and right so to this day I still interview people based off of what my uncle told me back then I look when I'm interviewing him across the conference table and I see he's missing a finger I'm like you're good that guy knows how to build fence interview's done he's been around but yeah so then we moved uh you know moved um back over to Oregon and and in California and that's how we ended up here. But so it's been a long it's been a long history of working for fence companies and in the fence industry, you know, it's been fun. Yeah, it's been fun. What about Southern California? How'd you end up there? Um my family ended up moving to Southern California and then um my one of my uncles, the same with an old acreage fence and um there was a big a crash in the oil. I don't a lot of people won't remember this, but if you're in Alaska, it it really hit you really hard because um it was, you know, the oil there was a almost like a crunch in oil and the dividends from people living there went down and it was kind of a a lot of companies, a lot of general contractors went out on a ton of, you know, I was young. We went out owing a lot of people money and stuff. So, we ended up back in California in like the 90s, I think it was. And and then one of my uncles got a job for um San Diego Fence Company. And I just started I was young. I was still like 13, 14. I was right around with him doing sales calls. We had a a van. He had a like a Do you remember the Toyota vans? Those those funny looking Toyota vans. And he built a desk in the back of it. And my job back then was a Thomas Brothers maps. I mean, before GPS. And I would sit and drive him around from appointments to appointments. And he'd be in the back on this makeshift desk and we'd do quotes in the field. And I'd be driving, he'd be yelling at me and uh you know, and that's I that's how I started learning to do sales was by going with him on the sales calls. Yeah. And then just kind of grew and then I eventually got a job. Yeah. So you turned into a salesman there. Before. Yeah. Yeah. For San Diego Fence. So that was my first uh real real sales job. And I'm God that had been 90s, you know. It goes it goes back to then. Yeah. So someone said you got into some uh controls as well. Yep. Yep. Then I started distributing access controls and um that was that was fun. Did that for a while. I mean, I was I think I was doing a million dollars worth of access controls out of my condo and I just had one, you know, one girl would come in there and um we would just drop ship everything and that was it. It was uh you know, it was great. It was uh yeah, I I was probably one of the first people to pioneer some of some of this stuff online. I remember when I first built some of my first websites to sell access controls, my family, everybody said, "You're crazy. Nobody's going to buy a thousand gate operator online." I go, "They will. I promise you." you know, and I was working with some of the manufacturers to uh develop a um

Authorized online. So, some of those programs I helped them with the authorized online dealer basically. So, you had to protect minimum advertised pricing and things like that. So, and that's kind of I you know, then it got really flooded the the whole industry and it would got you know everybody started driving the prices down. I'm like you don't have to, but you know how the markets work. There's always me that says I'll do it for you know for nothing and it just free market. Yeah. Yeah. And then it just it and then I move on. I don't get upset. I just go, "Okay, I'm gonna do something else. I'll just I'll get I'll go back to building fence." You know what? So, uh, you know, talking about your jobs. Talk about your uh someone gave me a story about a retail store that got shut down. A retail store? I guess from Hookah Bar. I I don't know. They just said that I should I should ask you about a retail store that got shut down because a convenience store was was Oh my I know what they're talking about. I must have been like I know I don't know who you talked to. Who was that? You talk to my mom or something about you're going deep, brother. I'm going to be reaching out. We're talking about going back to like my junior high or something, man. I don't know. I I want people to know you other than the crazy black hat. So, let's let's go tell me the story. Oh my gosh. So, that goes back to like Warrington, Oregon. Uh, I must have been in uh junior high. I had to have been. So, I had all these baseball cards that I was collecting back then. Uh, you know, I I didn't know anything about baseball, but I loved the the value of the cards and I was just collecting them and trading them and selling them. So, I wanted I I wanted to start a uh like a store in front of my house that was in my driveway. So, I sold all my baseball cards and collected up a little bit of money and I had a hardware store. This was Warrington, Oregon. Population of like I don't know a thousand people. It was like tiny, right? So, um I I went across the street to a hardware store and I I purchased a a jigsaw. I think it was a jigsaw. What's the little blade that goes out? You don't we don't use them, but you know what I mean when you're just cutting out carving out wood. So, a jigsaw because I wasn't old enough to have a skill saw, right? So, I had to I had to buy the only thing that they would allow me to have was one of these things so I didn't kill myself. So, I bought like a bunch of 2x4s, plywood, and I dragged this plywood across the street because I could barely carry it. And I built this massive store before anybody realized I was doing it. And it was it was probably 16 feet long, 8t wide. Uh it would it had a roof on it. I actually went out and bought a refrigerator. I had a little cash register inside of it. And I stocked this thing. I bought these jars to fill with candy. Back then you could buy candy bars like eight for a dollar if you remember. You know, you you know, not $2 each. You could find like stores that sell them like eight, four, six for a dollar. And I stocked this thing up like it was a convenience store. I had Christmas lights around it and next thing you know I've got lines of people. I was on a busy road stopping and buying stuff um non-stop. And a lemonade stand but on steroids. Yeah. And and Yeah. And I had a door cut in the back of it that it was attached to the garage door. A door cut in the back so I could go and I I my bedroom was in the garage so I would just go in and out through the garage. This this and I cut a hole in the garage door and a hole in mine. So I would be able to close it up at night and things. So, next thing you know, the local convenience store, I was I was getting so much business that they actually filed a complaint with uh like the, you know, I don't know, business license department, and they showed up and they were going to like they were saying I had to shut it down or they were going to um arrest my mom, I heard, or who knows. I was a kid, but yeah. So, I got shut down by like a local 7-Eleven for selling too much stuff alongside the road. So, I don't know who you got that story from. No, we'll talk about it later. That's a good one, man. No, that that was a family member. I I like that. That was It was in your blood from the get-go. Like at that point, they should have

Just taken you out of school and said, "This guy's gonna be an entrepreneur. Let's not waste any more time." I Man, I It was hard to tear that thing down, too, man. It was so massive. Tearing it, you know, tearing it apart was more work than building it. that's cool, man. You should be proud of So, switching gears a little bit, you know, maybe a little bit fun. Can you talk about uh what do we got here? There's I guess when you were dating there's there was some line dancing stories and driving multiple cars every weekend. No, I know who you're talking You were talking to Yadira now. Now I know who you got that story from. that was a gibby. But tell me about that. What's What's it going Are you a line dancing fool from the 90s or what? Oh yeah, man. Oh yeah. Yeah. Dancing all the time. That's how that's how I keep so fit. No, I think she's talk I know what she's talking about. You know, when I met her, um I was down in uh I was down in Newport Beach. I was just visiting down there for a friend's birthday party and she was having it at a salsa bar in Newport and uh Yadira was in there and I remember when she walked in with one of her friends and I just kind of kicked my buddy under the table like we do and I'm like I want that and uh you know just you know the arrogance in us, right? So anyway, she's up there dancing around doing she doing her salsa dancing. a line of guys uh a line of guys at the table trying to ask her to dance uh you know and she happened to sit down next to me at the table behind me and uh and the guys are lined up. I finally turn around because I can't dance. You know what I mean? I finally turn around and I just kind of reach over like this and I'm like, "Hey, I can't ask you to dance, but you want to go to Catalina Island tomorrow. I happen to been down there." And uh she's like, "Yeah, sure." We you know, and I and I I don't even know. I think I was fumbling around. I couldn't even get a number on my phone. So, I just and it had like a tablecloth with uh uh it was paper, so I ripped it off and gave her my number or something. And then I went back and and um cuz I told and we had a little story real quick about I told her, "Yeah, I go Danco dancing all the time. There's a country bar across the street from my house and I go in there and um you know, I just but I was just lying. I just wanted to, you know, see her again." So, yeah. Then I booked a trip to uh Catalina. I went home at like 1:00 in the morning with my buddy and I'm all like, "Man, I got to book these tickets." I told her I was going anyway. So now I got to get these tickets uh to Catalina in the morning. And uh so I'm like at 1:2 in the morning online booking tickets to Catalina Island so her and I can go in the morning. And then um first thing in the morning I get a message. She's like, "I can't go." And I guess her friend told her, "You can't go on no boat with some guy you just met." So, so the next week I was down there uh back in California, but I was renting cars every time I went and I'd rent uh you know, convertible cars, uh whatever I could find, nice cars, and I'd drive down there and and I'd be like, "Hey, I happen to be in town if you want to meet up." And finally, she met up and and then for a while, every you know, every every week or so, I would drive down there in a new a new car. And then, um finally, uh she had to fly up to visit me at this time. Now, we're getting a little further into it. So, she flies up to Las Vegas. This wrap the story up because this is the good part. Yeah. So, she flies into Las Vegas and I pick her up in my 1995 Dodge Durango. But in all fairness, listen, we we've been dating for a little while and it did have a TV in the back, you know. It was one of those fold down. The TV didn't work, but that's not the point. It was leather seats. It had a TV in the back, you know. So that's when she realized I didn't I didn't just drive a convertible Mustangs. I know who that was. So uh talk about So you know I did I did find someone that you know that is pretty uh has a little bit of clout. Um he's one of the main project managers at a casino. Um big casino by the way anyone who's listening. I was like damn. Uh but anyways, he wants to know how you feel about marketing. Uh it sound like he's impressed with what you do and and kind of how you guys got to do business

Together. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think I know who you're talking about. I think you're talking about Joe, but um yeah, it's most likely. But but yeah, you know, um I market a little differently than I Yeah, I market a little differently, I think, than than a lot of people. I um I believe you have to do something different than than what the other fence companies are doing. And I remember um how I met them at Benia and how I started doing work was I sent out a um god almost like a club card almost like a membership card to be a member of Las Vegas fence uh and you get discounts if you uh for like 2% rebates or something for and the card was free to be a member of or not even it was like a like a grocery store card except for fencing. It was it was stupid. So, I I went online all the LinkedIn, Facebook groups, and I found every uh project manager, every contact I could find, and I happened to send him an email. And I remember when I he finally called for a quote because one of the other fence companies didn't show up. And he didn't want a 2% discount. There's no way to even for them to process that at a large corporation like like that, right? But nonetheless, that's how uh that's how I actually met and got the uh the work at Venetian and doing some of the work over there was from doing that. The mailers out like that. That's funny, you know. Yeah. No, he was really impressed with that. And you know what's cool about that is that you just went out and hustled and got it. And that's what that's what uh us entrepreneurs do. You know, it's like, yeah, I like to say, you know, when we're when we're hitting roadblocks and you're fighting someone on something and you're like, Jesus, can we just get this done? I just stop and go, hey, look, there's a million reasons why this isn't going to work. Let's start looking at the reasons why it's gonna work. And that's what you did there, you know. Uh, so this this question is actually from me and I've thought about this and uh I know we've met quite a bit and hung out. Um, and we haven't got to this because we have so many other things we need to talk about, but what I've always wondered about you is so you are all over the place. You got Las Vegas fence, you've got the FWA, you've got the fence show, you're I don't know in Newport Beach all the time, and you're on social media more than any other fence guy. So, can you talk about like who's running what what how much like how many uh what's your imprint on each piece or you know, input? It sounds like you're still doing the fence thing. Yeah. Check the trucks. Yeah, you left out. I probably got ADD, too. I get No, we we all know that. Yeah, we we defense industry learned about your ADD six month or excuse me, 18 months ago. So, I uh I I I'm active in every every single bit of it. So, you're right. Um I my day starts off at, you know, I get up about 5 in the morning. Um, sometimes a little earlier if I got to do some stuff on social media about 5 in the morning and by six o'clock I'm over at Las Vegas Fence and like this morning getting the trucks out making sure I was the one that checked the trucks out and you know and asked them all the questions. Do you have lunch? Do you have this? And and then and then um for the next couple hours we're looking at the work orders and and then I try to transition over back over to some social media stuff that's going on with our our other stuff. And then and I start talking to Susan and we start talking about um the fence show and if booths were sold and then we maybe get with some of our um ambassadors for the the demo days outside and then I um you know and talk about that and then I get with um Melissa on the fence magazine and we kind of go over um this is just kind of just it becomes a natural part of the day and we go over where how you know where's the fence magazine at, who's you know who's who's on the cover, what's going on with that. Um and then um we talked to Brooks and Brooks comes in on the fence university stuff and we're like, "Hey, what do we got going on?" And um by the way, we've got we've got that coming in um 18 17th to the five-day thing going on the week of the 18th. Um some training on that. So we're going to do a five-day training which is going to be the um the same quick start class we've been doing, but then there's going to be three days of of the access

Control side of it. So it kind of flows in. So it'll be more hands-on even than it was before because we're moving it over to this facility where we can actually install some operators outside for the advanced stuff. So, um, and then we we talk about the fence university stuff and then it just, uh, you know, and and then I start getting some updates on the FWA health. And so I stay pretty active, you know, on everything throughout the entire day and and then the night time comes and I try to do dinner with my wife and then um, have her uh, give tell me, you know, what we need to get done and collect and, you know, stuff for the fence company. So, yeah, I mean, to answer your question, I stay active on it all. So, my role is still, you know, is still there on all, you know, it doesn't go away. this podcast now is just gonna get added to it, you know, on top of That's right. Yeah. And and you you brag about my team. I mean, let's talk about your team a little bit. I mean, who's in charge each one of those aspects? Because you can't do it all, right? You got to uh you know, delegate and elevate, right? Yep. Yeah. And I don't put out the magazine anymore. Maybe that first couple um you know, a year how how long's that been going? Little over a year now, right? And um that first couple magazines I would spend weeks on. And now Melissa, which is my daughter that works here, she has taken that and she she's taken it to a whole new level that I wouldn't even be able to do because I'm unable to, you know, to dedicate that much focus to it. So she spends all all, you know, all month on that. And then and that but now it's to the point where other than just quick updates, I don't even look at the magazine anymore because she handles that, you know, till the end and I just do my edits or, you know, review it. But yeah, you're right though. There's a good team behind it because Susan, I couldn't do this without Susan. I mean, the best decision I ever made was having her come on full-time with FWA. What role does she play? She's the executive director for um Fence Workers Association, but she oversees full-time. So, she oversees pretty much everything. And, you know, my go-to answer now to people is, "Hey, email, you know, Susan at fence show." And she'll she'll she'll tell, you know, decide whether they actually need to, you know, it needs to get escalated over back over to me. But a lot of times, she just kind of handles that. But if she didn't, I, you know, it would, it would interfere with the rest of the stuff that I need to work on. And then Lety, I don't think a lot of people, if anybody that does um get a booth or do anything with the fence show, not only is she um the general manager at Las Vegas Fence, she literally is the contact person for a lot of people with their their their booth for the show. So, everything does cross over. Marissa, if you haven't met her, she handles a lot of the um property stuff with the catering and and you know, anything we're dealing with the property for the fence show. So, she really kicks into gear here now um pretty hard or she'll be going seven days a week here soon getting ready for the show. So, there's a lot going on and I think we've assembled a really really good team. You know, there's no doubt. That's awesome. Well, that says something about you. Yeah, they do most of the work. I think I just come on the podcast now at this point, but you know, but my first podcast, ironically, was uh Dan with Dan and Canon and on my fence life. So, man, I just remember Yeah. Yeah. Did you watch that one? Yeah, that was uh I was nervous as hell. I'll tell you a funny story. I don't know if I told you this, but I heard it in the in the pickup when I was running to town maybe to lunch or something. I I don't know. And when I came back to the shop, I went into our office. I said, "Look, buy everyone memberships to this FWA. Get us tickets to the show and see what kind of sponsorship they need." I was like, "This is we need to be in Vegas. I I'm so tired of not it not being in Vegas. I mean, when we started out in 2005, you know, it was in Vegas every other year, third year, whatever it was. That was nice. And then, uh, anyway, so yeah, kudos to you and I appreciate you doing that. Yeah, the property did help a lot too of where it was at. And you know, I

Everybody thought I was crazy, you know, when I when I said I'm going to do the show because we already had the association going. But, um, when I said we're doing the show because I wanted to bring it back, you know, also back over to the West Coast and, you know, hopefully to branch out beyond that. But, um, when I said we needed something else over here for a little bit more, um, action for all of us that can't always make it, you know, around the country. So, um, I went to a lot of places, a lot of the bigger convention halls and the bigger convention centers and, yeah, you can get more space. You can, you know, you can you can do a lot more at those properties. you can get even get some bigger booths and you can do, you know, a lot with them. But it wasn't fitting what I felt the fencers really would would be able to do and they wouldn't be able to bring enough people because now you're talking three $400 hotel rooms instead of $75 rooms and you're talking $15, $20 beers instead of $6 beers and you know that really does you know what just charging for parking alone at $30 $40 a day that changes everything as well. So, I wanted something that, you know, the fence I didn't want them spending their money on the rooms and spending their money on the drink, you know, on on on all that stuff. I want them, you know, the high price drinks. I want them to be able to sit down and enjoy themselves and be able to actually buy a round of drinks. It's a big deal for us guys. I don't think and gals probably too, but I'm just talking about myself. It's a big deal for me to sit down with you and you brought your whole team here and if I was to be able to sit down and buy a round for you guys, but if that round is going to cost $800 or $80, there's a big difference. Yeah. you know, so and me getting to, you know, feel proud to walk up and I think that's, you know, that's another reason we chose that property. So, I think that was a big part of the success of the first show was that property. Yeah. Let me let me pull let me pull up a few more of these comments so we don't forget anybody on this thing. Uh, what do we got? Tim Hudson, what up, dog? Dude, Tim Tim's awesome. That's uh I went back flew back to Magnolia Fence in Texas and Tim and I hung out and uh he Matt Lowry and I are on a peer group every uh other week kind of just uh coaching each other up on getting some commercial work going. So yeah, he's he's a baller. [snorts] Let's check this guy out. Look at this man. Dan Blanc uncens you know I don't think anybody felt he was censored before. So you know I don't he could have just said Dan Blanc podcast. He didn't have to say uncensored. You know what I mean? Huh? Hey Dan. Uh Dan, just uh in honor of beer, bourbon, and business, I got some uh bourbon going on here for you, man. Oh, look like we got the women of FWA on here. Oh my goodness. And that could be one of many. We don't know who that is. Oh, this guy again. Look at this guy. He liked the show much better than that Dan guy. Yeah. Yeah. But we're way better looking. Yeah. Yeah, he's been drinking already. You can tell. And here here's one from here's a bl here's a blast from the past. Canon Johnson. What's up, Canon? One of the OGs right there. Yeah. Michaela, do you know Michaela? Do not. Yeah. Yeah. We'll see her if you come down um to the show. Obviously, you'll meet her at the show next time. She's a really big part of the women of FWA. believe she's doing um and get Susan to nod her head if I can see her. I believe she's handling a lot of the social media as well. So that's why you see her so much. She uh she's been amazing. She's always always amazing helping out. Um JC Yeah, I wanted to fly down there and have this first show live with you. I just uh my daughter's graduating high school this week and just wasn't going to do it. Yeah, JC Giri, man. Everybody loves JC Giri. This is Remember when I was saying Letty in our office? This is our general manager and also the one that handles the contracts on the fence booth. So, she's watching up in the front there. So, um she loves her she's Yeah, she does all the ordering. And uh that's a pile of junk. I'm assuming uh I'm assuming that was Susan because she saw the video when I had all

That stuff in the back. Uh let's see who do we got? Oh, there's Mary answering your question, I think, from uh that's Mary from JC Gertie. Uh yes. Yep. Yeah. 197. Crazy, huh? Yeah. Here's Chris. Uh he's gonna he's I think he's gonna be coming to work for us locally here. Oh, yeah. Nice. Yep. That's actually Joe. That's Joe's uh you talked to Joe obviously from Venetia. That's his kid. Nice. Yeah. So, uh yeah, he's gonna he's um he's amazing guy. He's got a ton of energy. work ethic is, you know, I think he fits in line with a lot of your guys and hopefully we can um bring him in. He's going to go out in the field and learn um learn fencing and then we're going to slowly um work him into helping, you know, I need someone to go open that gate up at 5,00 6 in the morning so I don't have to. So, I want to come in at seven. Yeah. What do we got here? I haven't read it yet. Robert, what's up, man? Dude, purple coaching, man. I I love watching that what he's done with that, man. And it is growing fast, isn't it? You know what I love is um just I shoot I think the other day we were going to dinner and I said stop and there's a big giant purple van. I go I got to send this to Robert. Anytime anytime I see a a purple tennis court in Palm Springs or a purple taxi in Italy, I'm like this is coming to Robert. Dude, I took I found some like grape licorice, like purple licorice, and and I think I posted that and tagged him, too. You can't help it, right? Anything purple now, it's just instant. You go to his place. There's There's purple. What do we got here? Billy Grove. Do you know Billy Grove? Yeah, he's got the gate the gatekeepers podcast. He's also um really big helping us on he's you know one of the demo days ambassadors and he is doing a lot to help with the the fence show stuff as well. So um we were on his show last night me and Susan. Uh let's see. What do we got? Chris, I hope to keep my fingers soon as you lose that finger. Chris, give me a call. You got a job. Who we got? I just don't want to forget anybody on this. I didn't realize there were so many comments in here. I know this has been blowing up though. They all come at Yeah, this is crazy. This is crazy. But anyway, I don't want to keep you on too long. I know you got uh Tell me about your daughter, man. Validictorian, Yeah. You know, I just I'm very humbled uh here recently and I'm just getting like emotional. She um you know, she's straight A. She's one of the valad Victorians. Um she's got accepted to Calpali. She's got over $10,000 of scholarships. So it's every single night this week we had valid Victorian dinner at well she has awards dinner starting here in I think another 30 minutes for just senior awards and then we got graduation and all that stuff. I'm just really proud of her. So yeah, I'm I'm definitely gonna have to sneak out of here in a minute. Yep. Yeah, I figured I was gonna try not to keep you. Yeah, she's uh I'm Yeah, pretty humble. I couldn't ever get her in the fence. Uh yeah, like she didn't want anything to do with this place, but You know, she's also uh twice as smart as I am. Yeah. Yeah. She could she could get a real job, not like us. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And I'm honored. Again, that's I want everybody to know what a big deal it was um for for me to have you on here. I'm honored that you would take a time because I know you've had dinner after dinner because we were talking about you coming out here and stuff. So, for you to be able to take this time and and and and the communication we've had even since over the weekend and you know yesterday and today um for you to take that time in the middle of all the stuff you got going on, I can't thank you enough for that. It means a lot and um you know to have you on for you know the very first guest I have um is is amazing because it does make it uh a lot easier for me. Awesome. Thank you. Let's let's uh let's do it like an

Increment and every you know 10 or 20 or whatever you got going. We'll I'll fly off to Vegas one more time. Yeah. Um so let's wrap this thing up. You got any final thoughts you wanted to say or uh add? Yeah, I'm uh I'm all good for everybody listening. Thank you because I know um it looks like we've got quite a few followers on there still watching and all the comments. Thank you for the comments. Uh this is going to be uh posted everywhere so you can go back and rewatch it. Stay tuned for some of the next episodes. It's going to be a lot more in the field stuff as well. Um, I'm sure Jared will be on some of these next ones, uh, meeting with us out at some other facilities and we got a lot of really cool guests that you may know or may not know. So, uh, stay stay good out there. Keep building that fence. Uh, we will see you on the next show.