Dan Blanc Returns to The Fence Podcast

Hey,

Hey.

Oh man, I don't know why that song jazzes me up every time. It's not even a song. It's just a tune. Uh, today's exciting day. I I wasn't even going to get make everybody wait 10 minutes, 15 minutes, listen to us ramble on before we brought Dan on. Uh, because Dan's here. Come on, Dan. What's up, man? What's happening, guys? Been a while. Yeah, man. It's been ages. I know I talk to you frequently anyway, but uh what's been going on, man? What's How's this uh how's a little bit of freedom you have here from your Wednesday nights? What have you been up to? I [ __ ] love it. The world misses you, though. I got a new schedule, man. Um Brian's like, "You gonna watch the show?" And I'm like, well, I'm sitting at the cigar bar, kickback with some friends. Um, I got a little weekly thing I do every Wednesday now. I leave the office at like um I don't know, 1:30, 2 o'clock, going on over to cigar bar, kick back with a bunch of fellas, and uh we smoke cigars and talk business and just, you know, enjoying it, man. Really enjoying. That didn't change much. That was your normal Wednesday except now you're at a cigar bar. I was supposed to uh meet Dan for cigars like a few weeks back, but Brian called me like two days before he needed to be in Vegas, so I had to cancel. Oh, you were gonna go hang out with Dan? Yeah. So, I mean, you're But man, Dan, what I don't know if I thought this was your little brother at first or something. What's going on, man? I mean, you you were looking fit. Um, dude, I've been steadily working on my uh my health and working on my business. Yeah. I mean, I hate to say it, but I mean, I don't hate to say it, but I hate to say it. You know, when I stopped podcasting and started focusing on my business, the um the business just started doing better than it already was. So, when I go back and look at the numbers, it's like, wait a second, we were doing 30% better than last month, you know? 28% better, 35% better. And then in April, I kind of started checking out after I got back from Connecticut and it went to like 55%. You know, and I was telling um telling Susan and then May it was, you know, 80 something%, you know, June we did [snorts] 155% more. So, wow. In all actuality, man, it's been really good. I've been able to focus on the business and um I'm really focusing on my marketing and just just kicking [ __ ] ass every day and holding no prisoners. Um I'm contrary to popular belief, dude, I'm out there and if you're in my way, I'm going to [ __ ] crush you. Yeah. I don't think anybody ever thought anything otherwise, though. So, what are you at like 36 branches now or something? Didn't you just expand some more? No. Um, I've got the uh the Cington one which we moved as you can see. I got a new office. Bigger bigger bigger space. And um I think Susan, you came to my office, did Oh, no. You haven't been I haven't been to your new office yet. No. Yeah, it's great, man. I got this huge freaking window. I can see the crews coming and going. I can see everything. I I love that. Um uh so we moved my office from one covenant location to another and moved my yard. So now my yard is literally 500 ft away. I can walk out the back door and and in a minute be at my yard. So that's been a big deal being there every morning and being able to, you know, pop in and they're, you know, it's not like, oh, he's across town at the office, you know, now they don't know when I'm going to pull up. So that's been a good thing. And then we've got a um we've got a location in Denim Springs and man, we we're kicking ass out there and I don't even have a Google listing yet. Um it's because of my local service ads. Know we got nearly 500 fivestar reviews. So why get a Google listing when I just added it to my service area and then I pop up first, you know? Um so we're we're killing it out there. I I say I have a location out there, but really it's just a lay down yard. We've got a big huge 12 by6 shed out there with stuff in it. We've got a dumpster there. We wrap the yard with um with Fence King and uh it's just kind of a you know, we're doing a big job out there. We'll get material sent there. So, it's not a full-fledged branch, but it's working its way there. If the numbers keep doing like they're doing,

Um, and I can actually get boots on the ground every day in Denim Springs sitting there, it's it's going to some people are going to feel it. So, you keep trucks at all these locations or you still run trucks out of like one main location and then it depends. Sometimes we'll have uh we keep at least one truck and trailer in denim, you know, so it does come back and forth, but yeah, we're uh we're pretty constant over there, man. So now we're just pretty much just freaking dominating the I12 corridor from Slideel to Denim Springs and 80 mile stretch of interstate. Um there's not much of um of uh up and down of that, you know, on that stretch. You don't go south of the lake. If you go, you got to go across the lake to get into New Orleans. So we just got about a 15 to 20 mile stretch along the entire corridor from Slideel to to Denim Springs, man. So, uh, so is this all one one one big company? You said individual companies each location. I mean, what I mean, right now, we're running two different, um, two different P&Ls on them, but it's still under one company, but I'm running I'm using I've got one card that I use that I buy everything for that Denim Springs location. And then we've split up the salaries a little bit, this and that. So, we're It's not a true P&L, but it's giving me something, you know? Yeah. Look at that. Dan, Dan and Shane about to make a comeback. I feel like we should I feel like Susan need to send Shane a link right now for old time's sake. He's Yeah, man. He's He's probably hustling to connect to the DFW Wi-Fi right now just in case you send it. Oh, man. Poor Shane getting stuck in those airports, huh, man? Poor Shane. Come on. I'm sure he enjoyed himself at the bar. I can I'm sure he enjoys himself everywhere. So anyway, man. But other than that, bro, we just been [ __ ] kicking down doors and taking names. I even have on my voicemail. If you call my phone, I don't know if you call my phone, I sent you the voicemail lately, but it basically just says, "Can't answer the phone right now. I'm too busy kicking in [ __ ] doors and making [ __ ] happen because that's what we do around here." Yeah. That's awesome. Nobody expects anything different. Yeah. Nobody expects anything different from you. Customers don't call my phone. You know, it's friends and family. They talk to all your automated systems. They don't talk to you no more. Yeah. Really? Really? No, seriously. Like the first time I met Dan. Do you remember the first time you met me, Dan? Over phone? Yeah. I was I was checking in at a hotel. No, that is not the first time we met. No, I remember. I was this was back in um 2019 20 no I could look I know I have it in my phone maybe it was 2017 or so you went at SAS yeah I was like brand new at SAS I was practicing my like cold calling skills that's right so um I don't know if I called her or if she called me but called you I was asking questions about gate operators and this and that and um I took a bunch of notes and then when I finally realized who she was years later. I was like, "Hold on a second." I pulled up my notes in my phone and she was like, "You honestly still have that?" And I'm like, "Yep, this is everything we talked about." But you even got me on your automation system. Like you were showing like you had just started like the automated text and like I mean they were amazing. Like I still was getting them for like almost a year. Yeah. I think she bought two fences from you and I think she was living in an apartment. That's how productive things were, right? Man, we're uh the automations are killing it. We're doing a hell of a lot of follow-ups. We're um we're I mean, we're getting jobs from people that, you know, a year, year and a half, you know, out. Sometimes we'll make a task in, you know, next February to put somebody back into the automations because they say next spring they're going to possibly do that project. So, I just make a task on my calendar January

1, go ahead and put them in in a that a certain automation and every 30 days and then they're calling up. Man, I can't believe y'all call me back. So, you're like, you're that important to me. That's why followup is where it's at. If you're not following up, you're not getting the job. Oh, yeah. You'd be amazed the the the jobs you can get and follow up on um with the uh like my assistant the phone's slow. I'm like get in this column and start cold calling. Getting people and she'll easily pick up two or three estimates a week just from doing that when she has the time to do it. Yeah. It's amazing how we only tend to do that when we're slow. And when we're slow all of a sudden we pick up go through all of our old estimates and we pick up two, three, four, five jobs out of it. And if only we did that the entire year long, even when we weren't slow, we'd probably be able to pick up a whole another truck and keep another crew, you know, just off of following up. So, it's uh yeah, it's funny you mentioned that. Susan, though, while we got Dan here, it's not every day that you got the fence king himself sitting on here. Let's pull up some questions. We normally do a a little segment where we uh we read some questions from Fence Industry Only Group on Facebook. And uh just so you know, Dan, I haven't seen him either. So, she's gonna pull up couple random questions. So, let's see. Uh, let's see what she's got for us today. Nathan Fry, top contributor. Hey, Nathan, thank you for that, too. Um, what are you guys using for software? Tracking leads. This is a good one for uh for you, Dan. Uh, tracking leads, quotes, and just overall organizing everything on all your jobs. I've just been using my notes section of my cell phone, and some people are starting to slip through the cracks and I want a better system. Well, heck, we were just talking about that. So, that was a good question to pop up. What are your thoughts, Dan? Uh, I mean, you have to get some type of CRM, man. Everybody out there knows that I'm a big uh Job Nimus guy. Um, but Job Nimus, last I heard, had changed up the way they do things. So, it's kind of an investment to get hooked up with those guys. So, if you don't have the money to do that, and you want something that's affordable and ready to go, and I don't even think they have a contract. It's just monthtomonth. I would go with um Contract Accelerator. Those guys over there um they got a pretty pretty awesome little setup. I like it. I went through and did a demo with them and I was pretty impressed, you know, and for the price, that's what I would do, you know, if you just want to dabble in it and see what's going on. But just just know once you get into it, you're gonna be in into it for a while. Because you're not going to want to let go because you're like, I got all this information in there. That's how they get us, too. I'm the same. I've been using Jobber for I don't know, seems like a decade, and it's even though it doesn't fit everything I want, I don't want to I don't want to let it go because all that information, that data is in there, and it's really hard to uh import, you know, export it and import it into another system because nothing just it just doesn't mesh, right? Yeah. Um I didn't start using a CRM until I hit about 800,000. I was doing everything basically created my own CRM with a with a couple notebooks and I had a highlighting system, you know, okay, this guy paid his deposit, so I'd highlight the date. You know, we set post, I'd highlight his name, right? We completed the job, I'd highlight the address. When they paid me, I'd highlight the total. Um I mean, literally, that's what I was doing in a notebook and I could go back and see what was done, what wasn't done. Yeah. Um, and it's funny, man. I had my new assistant was cleaning out um the storage room and she's like, "What are these planners?" And I'm like, "Well, that's the stone ages, girl." You know? So, that's how I used to do things, man. Oh, wow. And I got so busy I hired somebody when I hit 800,000. And on the iPhone, when you get a voicemail, you can text that voicemail to somebody. Yep. I just would text the voicemails to

Uh Kirsten, my first assistant. She would go ahead listen to them, write them down, do make a list, and then she would scan them and email them to me in the afternoon and then I'd sit down and make calls. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Calling people back, you know, just started setting up systems that worked for me and constantly tweaking them. Constantly twe. We're still tweaking today. You know. Yeah. Yeah. We've never perfected it in a matter of 20 years. We haven't perfected it. like you, we started off with just uh you know those those rack file folder racks and uh we'd have literally racks for each one. Okay, you know uh customer need these were quotes needed to be done quotes that are looked at needed to be bid jobs that were sold that needed material work orders and stuff like this and we just move along a rack system of file folders and everything was just in file folders but I think right now it's a pretty lucky time for someone getting into defense industry because there is so much software options out there that we didn't have when we started. Um, so it's in CRM, it changes your life. I I still use a shitload of spreadsheets, man. I see Chance Roy in the bottom. Chance, that spreadsheet that I shared with you, um, I don't even really use that anymore. We've already tweaked it, built it out, broke it up in some different different ways. But man, I literally can pull up any number that I need to know. You know, um, Zach was saying something today. I was like, "Hey man, we got to get, you know, something done in a certain area." And uh he was like, "Man, do I have to do that?" But I'm like, "Look, that one area, we don't get as many jobs, but the jobs are bigger than everywhere else and the profit margins are bigger than everyone else. So, I need you to go to this area and I need you to do what what needs to be done." You know, so uh he's like, "How do you know that?" And I'm like, "Hold on one second." And you can see I got this computer screen right here. It actually mirrors what I'm looking at right here. He'll go stand over there and I'll be like, "Look at this." Boom, boom, boom, boom. And he's like, "Oh, shit." And I'm like, "Yeah." So, get on top of it. Yeah, I'm with you. I live in Excel. I mean, I I live in Excel. I'm probably in Excel threequarters of the day in front in my computer and it doesn't it doesn't matter how many uh software programs I buy, how many CRM I have, I am in Excel no matter what. I still send my quotes out. And I've yet even software that we're, you know, that we've worked on for years and stuff, I can't seem to be able to find anything that'll get a quote out the same way I want that I've done for so many years in Excel. And maybe it's just because we're so familiar with it, you know, and everything from the drawing modules. And I think I just love Excel. I just love I mean, spreadsheets are the way to go to stuff tracking numbers. I mean, we literally have a spreadsheet from the date the job was sold, who the salesman in is, who the installer was, if it was commercial, residential, you know, drop downs, all the way through their name, their address. We track the zip code, the gross profit margin, and then on the tail end of that is the production. You know, when did it start, when did it end, how many manh hours we had, boom, boom, boom. And, you know, we're we're getting it dialed in really well. Um, I know I could probably do that with a CRM, but then I got to get on the phone and beg and plead someone in in an office somewhere in the United States to make a change so it can do what I want to do when I can just open that spreadsheet and comment on it and get my spreadsheet guy and say, "Hey, I need this by Friday and just get it done." But, but I mean, even with Excel though, like I said, this generation's lucky because uh, you know, a lot of people didn't grow up in Excel like we did. So, um, the software that's out there, it gets them to where we are. uh you know with the decades of experience in Excel without having to go and learn Excel to the level we did. So um kudos to all the software people that came up with stuff. I mean they've got it down you know to they got it down to a nice little system now that we we didn't have that same luxury when we first started out. So I'm

Excited about to see what's you know what's coming up with all that. But um Susan I know you don't just have one question. What's what's the next one? I never do. I never do. So this is this is uh from Robert Grant. Also another top contributor. He said he's been looking for a good handheld augur. Major of the reviews, majority of the reviews I've been seeing on them aren't so great. What's everyone using? I guess handheld auger. Are you talking about just like a one two-man augur? Is that what we're thinking? Yeah, I think so. I don't know. My opinion, he could be talking about two different things. He could be talking about a a one-man argu um the stills or the earthquakes or whatever you can pick up. Um or he could be talking about uh little beavers, you know. I mean, look, man. When I used to have threeman crews, I bought a beaver for $5,000, took a man off the crew, and we did more feet per man per hour with the with the with one less man just because we spent the money on that augur and saved my payroll. And then I was able to take that guy and this guy, put them together, and start another crew. Well, what were you using? Um, I was using uh, honestly, you want to know what I was doing? I was renting the uh, I couldn't find a good augur and um, I mean, it's kind of [ __ ] up what I was doing, but I was doing it. Um, I was renting a from Home Depot and then I'd call them up and say, "Man, somebody stole it off my trailer." And they just bill me out for the payment on the augur, and then I'd use it till it crapped out on me, and then I'd rent another one and from a different store and do it again. [snorts] I'm just tell Hey man, you do what you got to do, right? You know, I think one of the first Well, there's nobody out there that hasn't done some [ __ ] up [ __ ] to get to where they're at. There's just nobody out there that just said it. Yeah. They just don't want to say it. They're too worried about what people think. But yeah, that's what I used to do. In case in case anybody's listening to this on one of the uh one of the streaming audio casts, that was Dan Blanc, not Brian. I haven't done that in a long time though, man. Because I moved on to the stills and then um then we ended up going with Beavers. The stills were great because I had a local guy. The our steel distributor was like a gold star dealer or something and they had a few mechanics in there. So if I had one break, you know, I was buying them, a thousand bucks, you know, I called them throwaways and they would fix them for me right away, get me up and running. And then I went to the Beavers. And then once I went to the beavers, I wasn't turning back. But you know, you can't be a guy doing $100,000 a year and buying a $5,000 Bieber. Right. You know, it might be cheaper for you to uh to rent one. I I don't know. We all got to take baby steps. It's all about you know, stepping stones. What got me here isn't going to get me there. Yep. Yeah. I started out renting them. I mean, when I started up as a child, we all had those before these either the beavers and the groundhogs, everything even came out. It was always those two man augers, you know, with that big old engine right on the top of it just spinning. And you would just have, you remember, you'd always wrap that wrap that leg around it, you know, it'd be all padded or something, and that thing would just be pounding on you, pounding on you, and you'd leave the end of the day out for a long day with a couple bruised up bruises on your legs or something. But that's how we all kind of started back in the 80s and 90s. But then the then the the Groundhog came out, I I don't know if that was before the little beaver or not, but um I was renting tobehind. Yeah, I was No, it wasn't the towbehind. It was the mechanical one. Then they had the hydraulic the tobehind. So I was renting from Ahern local shop the uh mechanical one which was you know wasn't hydraulic so it didn't have reverse or nothing so it would get stuck. But uh I finally my very first augur was I purchased that old beat up used one from Ahern and uh for like 600 bucks or

Something and that was my first first uh augur I ever purchased and then I bought the hydraulic ones the the groundhogs ever since then. And I only tried the beaver um once I got to know you guys. I was uh and I saw how much you guys loved them over, you know, I never saw you guys working on any of the groundhogs. So I went to one of the expos. I think it was a fence tech in um New Orleans, maybe. I think it was the New Orleans one. And I bought two of them off that guy and had them shipped out. And I thought like guys weren't going to like them because I I kind of like the groundhogs myself because I feel like it's it's I don't know, you just a little bit easier to maneuver for me. And it's one man, but I mean everybody loves those beavers, man. They like them. They take that over the groundhog every single time. Man, my guys when I first got them, they were like, "Dude, we gotta tote this thing around." And then once they started using them, they're like, "Okay, so if they call me up and say, "Hey, we're running behind because of roots." They they're in some major ass roots. Yeah, I know that. You know, um somebody just cut down a shitload a line of legustrums and didn't tell us about it, right? and we're digging through all that [ __ ] or we're digging through um uh bamboo, you know. You know, when they hit something big and bad. So, but we're looking at getting a mini. That's next on our list. Um I've got um kind of got into the dumpster world a little bit. So, I've got a a dumpster guy that rents one of the office here. Leases subleas leases one of my offices and we use his dumpsters and um he just got a uh MT100. So, he got an augur and a couple other things and we're kind of testing it out, seeing how it's going to work and utilizing his um his right now to see if it's worth it, you know. I think it is. I just don't know if we have enough work to do it, but this commercial work, it's it's looking like we got to have it. You know, Yeah. We use our skidster attachment, you know, a fulls size skidster. Um not the mini ones, but I mean, the ground is just hard out here. So, you need that that pressure, the down pressure, especially if you're out there and you want to dig a bunch of holes and it's anywhere where the ground, you know, where the ground's going to be a little bit more work. See, I don't do a lot of that rule work. I don't do a lot of, you know, thousand foot runs of fourboard fence where I could use a a sitin skidster, a fullsize skidster. I need to get in people's backyards. And you start bringing that in their backyards, they're like, "What? Oh, you gonna fix my grass? You gonna do this?" Because I see it happen. I see it happen with these tree guys, man. They go in before us and cut stumps out and all this stuff and the yard's torn up and the people all pissed off and I'm just like, man, this this is why we don't have a sit in skid. I just don't have use for it yet. But we're getting there, man. I just don't think there's that much backyard fence here. It's a lot of block wall. So, typically it's going to be going around. If there's any kind of like any any chain link or iron or anything going around a property, it's going to be a little larger property where you can drive, you know, drive around it. And we don't have the landscaping. I mean, heck, next year you're not not even allowed to have grass. So, it's all that desert dirt. So, we're not worried about tearing up uh we're not worried about tearing the the desert landscaping up, you know. Man, you know, you mentioned uh buying that augur from uh the rental company. I bought a few of those, too. Um, but they'll only sell it to you when at a decent price when they've gotten their money out of it. Yep. That's why I had to start doing the Home Depot thing. But anyway, um, so when I had my grass business and we were doing some pressure washing, I literally started that business off of rental equipment, rental pressure washers, rental blowers, weed eaters, all that stuff. And that's that's how I went in All second use stuff. I mean, um, funny story, the guy that I sat down with and started fence king with over a roast bee poboy walked in my door the other day and he was like, "Holy shit." I was like, "Yeah, man. All over Rose B

Pobo." And he was just like, "Golly, what do you got going on here?" But um yeah, I mean when I um and the reason why I said that is because his framer was the one who gave me all my nail guns to start my fence business. Wow. I was using passload framing nails. I didn't framing nails. I didn't know any different, man. It nail the freaking board up, right? So, um that's what I started my business with with nail guns that were given to me. Running 3inch and 2in nails through a freaking framing gun. Yeah. you know, and a pancake air compressor. I'd be using liquid nail guns, man. I'd be out there liquid nailing the boards right under that. Liquid nail guns, huh? Liquid nail guns is what I'd be using. You give me some wood, I wouldn't know what to do. You give me 50 feet of wood fence, man, it would just be a [ __ ] show. I'd never get paid. That's for damn sure, man. Yeah. So, we got more questions. What we got, girl? I didn't I got I got one more. I got one more. Oh, I thought she was done. Uh, nope. So, Dante Wanizo, curious what you guys bonuses are for your installers. Looking to give my guys something that's goalmoney driven. Thank you in advance. All right, Dante. Um, bonuses. We we typically only do them during Christmas time and um I guess it depends if I've already bought a new truck or not. All right. I think we typically do some on Christmas time, you know, if they've been there a full year. That's kind of the rule if you've been there a full year, but we're always pretty lenient. I mean, it's it's hard to give that that new guy, you know, make him sit there while everybody else getting bonuses, so we'll kick a little something, but um not really based off of anything other than how we're doing. I don't know how you do it, Dan. So, we do it two ways. Um, I know there's a lot of negativity out there about Christmas bonuses, but um I I like a Christmas bonus. I used to love getting my Christmas bonus, but then again, I was a guy that did what I was supposed to do every year. You know, so um I I loved it. It was almost like an automatic savings account for me. It helped me get um helped me with help me out get me over that hump at Christmas. And I love them, man. But so we do that. Um, talking with people through the industry, you know, some people do boots. So we give our guys, we buy them all boots every year at Christmas. And I think I'm going to start doing it. I was noticing the other day my guys boots. And I think I'm going to start doing it midsummer, too. So maybe every six months buying them boots. And then we do a uh a review reward system. People wonder why we have so many reviews. There's a few pieces to that puzzle, but one of the pieces is my guys are soliciting them. You know, they're out there telling the homeowner, "Hey, look, you know, I I know you just walked the fence with me and said you loved it, but if you really want to do something, you can go do a review, and if we get a fivestar review on a job, we get a bonus." So, it's a way for you to tip us, and it doesn't cost you anything but a couple minutes. Yeah. So, they're out there soliciting those B those uh reviews. That's one of the ways we do it. There's a couple other things that we do, but you y'all have to figure that out yourself. Um but, uh that's how we're getting our reviews, you know. Um another thing that uh we're doing is is we're doing um production bonuses. So throughout the month, we're tracking, hey, this job's got 17 hours on it uh for two men. So 34 hours. Um you get this done sooner than that, then you get a bonus, you know. Um but they don't like it when it takes longer. So if a job takes longer, we got to have a conversation about it. Whose fault was it? You know, okay, Zach, you didn't figure this right. Dylan, you didn't see that [ __ ] That's why it took as long. You know what I mean? So really what's happening is is not only are the bonus the production bonuses um giving my guys something to drive for, but it's also making everyone better at their job. So

Now the instead of the installers hating the the sales guys because they're like, "Oh, you're just selling it." You know, now they're having conversations. Hey, look, man. when I do this, you need to bid this cuz I want to get my bonus and you're not bidding enough time cuz once it's done, it's done. I don't I don't care who [ __ ] up. No bonuses are going out. Y'all need to figure this [ __ ] out. Y'all get out there and figure it out. Yeah. So, what I got out of that was Zach and Dylan need to step up their game, huh? Yeah. So, it's causing them to look at things differently, you know? And that's another thing, man. Um, you know, Dylan, he hasn't really done any fence work. He's done more sales. So he's been out and he's done a couple fence jobs and he's come back and I'm like now you know what it takes. You know, Zach, he built fence for years for me. So he knows he'll come in my office. He's like, "Look, man. Look at these pitches. I know it's going to they're going to be chopping on this [ __ ] They're going to be doing this or this is going to take that." He's got more of a grasp. Um Dylan does good with it. He's just he needs a little more out there doing it sometimes. So, but he's getting there. And the way we're doing things now, it's causing them to communicate in a positive way instead of a negative way. Yeah. And I think the systems and everything that you do is it creates a good environment for everybody to at least they they start to understand why it's important to finish the jobs, you know, within a timely manner or within the budget that you had for the project and stuff. So, you're setting a good um you're setting a good environment for that. There's no doubt. And I think that's probably probably a good place for them to learn and creating a mo a level of motivation to where they know, well, if I go and do this, I'm going to earn it. You know what I mean? It creates a level of ownership. Well, then the other thing we do, too, is is um say you got a call back on that job and you got to go back three days later to fix something. Well, guess what? It's eaten up the time on the job that you were supposed to be on. It's got to go somewhere. Somebody's got to pay for it. Yep. And you're never afraid to share your knowledge. But speaking of that, um, let's talk about Dan Blanc uncensored. What's the deal with that, man? I mean, when is that when is that coming out with people are waiting, man? I get calls and messages about that. What's the deal with? I go, I don't know. I don't know. I'll check, but uh, reach out to Dan. I've I've had people in my inbox and I've just kind of been, um, I don't know. I've kind of been tight lipped about it. I've been all over the place. And I I think I've had some conversations about this with um with Susan. Um But I mean, to be brutally honest, I'm just kind of sick of it, man. And when I say sick of it, I don't mean of podcasting. I I mean, look, everybody's got a podcast now. How many fence podcasts they got? Um, they got all these fence podcast and 90% of them are doing exactly what Canon and I were doing four years ago, Um, it's nothing new, guys. Hate to bust your bubble, right? Man, it is what it is, you know. You started something, man. I mean, how many times how many times are you gonna uh interview Caleb Roth or Matt Warner or, you know, all these guys that are just making the circuit, right? Um, so I'm just I'm I'm s So anyway, I'm just kind of sick of the whole this whole space that I'm in to be honest with you. I'm fed up with it. I'm fed up with the fins industry and and it's um uh predatory mentality, man. Just it it [ __ ] drives me when you get these people to come to events and pay $1,000 or even $5,000 to go to this [ __ ] event to get sold more [ __ ] [ __ ] right? Oh, man. I'm glad you came. Now you got to buy this. [ __ ] man. I maxed out my credit card. I used deposits from a job that somebody gave me because I thought I was going to come here and get all this knowledge and I got about this much knowledge and I got to spend more money. I'm just tired of that predatory mentality, man. And I just I just can't stand by and not say

Anything about it. So, it's probably best I don't podcast, you know? Um, but, you know, if you're too unaware to realize what's happening, then that means I have a responsibility to point it out. You know what I mean? Well, it's never best if you don't podcast. I think we all uh we need we need we need you out there. We need your opinions and we need you not be afraid to speak up. So I think you you know you have a strong following. You always have and um definitely you know you I know you were talking about branching out beyond you know a lot of your your conversations you have is about business and marketing and stuff that really kind of applies to a lot of other industries as well is just fence. So I think that you know you definitely could reach a larger market. So I think that's what we were all kind of looking looking forward to with the Dan Blanc uncensored. So that was kind of my what's the plans with it? Yeah, it was kind of my my thought and you know I I was dabbling in the concrete world and the alarm world and all this and I don't know man when I started looking at the uh the ROI on it and I started looking at um what maybe my business could have been doing more and then weighing out the money that was coming in from um from uh the podcast world. Yeah, I think the only reason why I stayed in it so long is to finally recoup all the money that we dumped into it. Cuz man, it's not cheap. It's expensive. And it might not be expensive completely when it comes to um tangibles, time, I mean, Susan, you're helping with this show now. How much time does that take? Imagine if you had to manage, you know, 15 people and, you know, 550, 600 jobs, you know, um, you know, run a trade show, right? Right. Manage exhibitors, right? You know what it's like. You know, you do, let's just use 550. You know, we're going to do 550, 600 Finch jobs this year. Let's say we do 600. Easy number. Well, that's 1,200 personalities we had to deal with, husband and wife, most of the time. And then you got the [ __ ] next door. You got to deal with their personalities, right? You got all these personalities to deal with. You're trying to run a business and you're trying to figure out who you going to have as a guest and what are we going to talk about and then you want to make sure that people are tuning in and it's of value to them because they're taking time away from their families, right? So, you dive into it even deeper and then when you start looking at the ROI on it, it's like it just ain't worth You know, when I sat down and broke down the numbers on my spreadsheet, you know, the numbers look great, but then you start deducting all the traveling and all this and this and this and this and you're like, I made 50 grand last year doing this. I mean, definitely don't do it for the money. You definitely don't do podcast for the money. So yeah, but but I feel like you still kind of have a toe in it. Like I've been seeing these everywhere uh updated by, you know, Dan Blanc uncensored. Like what was what what is Killer Keys for kicking ass? Like what was the vision behind this? Well, I think it was just things that come to mind or I'm listening the things that I'm taking in um and I'm scrolling through Facebook and I don't say a whole lot in those groups anymore. Um, but I'll see things and I'll be like, "You know what, man?" And I'll type something up and I'll drop that killer keys for kicking ass and I know they might not get a lot of likes. It might not get a lot of comments, but it's funny. I talked to people and they're like, "Oh man, I saw that today." I was like, "You didn't like it?" No, no, but I read it. It was good. you know, um, so it's just I still want to contribute and be a little raw with it, but you know, maybe that's my way of keeping it alive until I feel like I got to come up with something new. I'm going to dive in and it's just going to be the same old [ __ ] right? And I I need it's got to be something different. It's got to be something new. It's it it's got to be out of all those other

Podcasts. Why do I want to listen to Dan Blondes? Because boom boom boom and I'm going to listen to him tonight or I'm going to listen to him on my way to work or on my way with estimate instead of this other guy or these other guys. So, if I can't if I can't get in there and just kill it and be different, then I'm going to sit back until something comes around and and I'm like, you know what? I can do something with this. So, I think those killer keys for kicking ass are my are going to be my segue into into uh what I do. If I do it, I'm not going to have a single sponsor. It's all going to be on me. So, I don't have any obligations. I you know, I already said whatever the hell I wanted, but um you know, I don't think sponsors stopped you. Yeah. It's not going to be none of that, man. It's going to be raw. It's going to be real. and you're going to know what I'm saying is coming from my heart. And I have a I have a love for young entrepreneurs cuz I was there and I got taken advantage of. Um and I know what it's like to walk up your driveway and go, "Okay, am I paying my house note to my car note this month?" Right. You know, um you know, stuff like that. And I think that's why it bothers me um when these guys are taking advantage of these younger guys and giving them these big dreams and they're so badly want to um they so badly want to make it but to the point to where they're willing to bend their integrity and and and that's that's a problem. You can't come back from that and and I just don't like that man. I don't think they should be put in that position. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, maybe maybe you could do a twist and do it from like the backseat of that new BMW you've been driving around in or something. Huh? Let's hear about the new car. I mean, what? I actually I didn't buy it. Um, man, that son [ __ ] was nice. Was it? That was the best three days of my life. rental cars. Rental cars are the best. I'm actually uh looking at some other things, but I I had to give that one a try. I haven't driven a sedan like that in a long time, and And I always like those long stretched out BMWs. Oh, yeah. So, um they they came and dropped one. Well, we we already have a BMW from the same dealership, so this dealership's insane, man. They'll do anything for you. So, I was like, "Man, I'm looking at this. I can have one in your office tomorrow." I was like, "Uh, okay." Yeah. I think Pepper says she wants to talk about um her new car. Talk about how she never gets to drive You're cruising around in. Um she's driving my truck now, man. I've got a big um I got a big hammock in the back for the dog. So, I leave I leave early, man. Uh, I used to get up at 3:15 and I was at work for like 4:15, but now I'm here for like 5:30 cuz I've kind of gotten my workload down and manageable. Um, so I take her car and she takes my truck every morning and brings the dog. So scouts running around the office all day and um, he's actually laying right there waiting for me so I can leave. So I drive the truck home, she drives it to work. Yeah. Or I hear her birthday's coming up. Yeah, man. her birthday is uh the week of the fence show. So, we're going to be in Vegas and Susan's trying to get me to obligate to other things. And I'm like I I during business hours I'm trying to I'm trying to put my feet in both worlds. I'm trying to get uh get Pepper around Vegas. She's never She went to Vegas last year and she went out one day by herself, but um she never really saw Vegas and it's been years since I did the whole Vegas thing. So, we're gonna uh we're going to go see Vegas while we're there. We're gonna split split our time up, you know. Well, we're renaming the whole show Pepper's Birthday Party. So, yeah, she already thinks she has a birthday month. They were a birthday convention and a birthday city. I'll never hear the end of that [ __ ] Ring Scout to Vegas. Oh, I don't know. Did they let dogs in first?

South Point is pet friendly, too. Is it? Yeah. Well, I mean, it is. They let l all of us fencers in there. I I'll be honest. I Oh my goodness. The internet's breaking over Pepper's birthday. [gasps] I think we'll have to do we're gonna have to do something uh something at the show. We're gonna figure we're gonna have to get her up on stage or something and uh get Elvis or Dan to sing happy birthday to her. Maybe Marilyn Moro. Marilyn. Dude, I don't know if Pepper knows this since Pepper's watching. Um Pep, I don't know if you know this, but my wife number two and I went to Vegas and we got married by uh Elvis just for fun. you really want to know why I said that? So she'll be like, "We're not doing that." You just saved about $10,000 right there. One little comment, right? A Renie cake and Renie people. I'm like, Jesus Christ, all you guys, you got anything planned that you can share with us or is it going to be all just a secret? Everything you got going on? I'm gonna tell you exactly what I told her. I said, "Pl, this is what you need to be doing, and I really think it's very clever um what you're doing, Brian. You're posting things to see while in Vegas." So, I told him, I said, "Look, you just need to scroll through and see what Brian's talking about. Jot it down, and um we're going to spend a Sunday together, you know." Yep. doing what we do on Sundays when on the Sundays that we stay home, you know, and I'm going to be on my MacBook and like, "All right, let's do this. We're going to schedule this, schedule that." She's like, "We don't have any reservations for my birthday for dinner." I'm like, "It's Vegas." Eat any freaking way. I'm not I don't want to be on a time schedule, you know? So, we're flying in Monday night and um we rented a a car through Turo. If uh Shane Kton's listening and Brian Harris, they know about these Toro cars that we rent. But uh we rented a car from Toro. We're going to drive out to Hoover Dam. She's never seen that in the Grand Canyon. And um I wanted to see the old strip. I wanted to go in the old uh what is that? The golden the horseshoe or whatever. Um when you go in and it's like eight foot ceilings in a casino and you're like what the hell? You got those horrible ceilings. smells like stale beer. It's like that's that's Vegas. Yeah, there like horse heads laying around. But um yeah, so I want to take her down to see the old strip. And of course, you know, Bellagio and we're not going to the Tiffany store. Pepper. We have a bunch of those. So yeah, I know, man. It's like the mecca of brands to go shopping. You can't even avoid a Tiffany's here. That's for sure. You're like, I know. We'll just go to this hotel. We'll just see. Oh, there it is. Oh, look at that. So, dude, did you know the guy I don't know this cat's name, but the guy who owns Tag Huer bought Tiffany. So, when you go look at Tag Huer watches now, you're going to see a little hint of that Tiffany blue in places and it looks good. And I was like, man, that kind of looks like Tiffany Blue. And the guy's like, "Well, yes, a lot of people don't know that we bought out the our owner owns a bunch of businesses and he bought out Tag Huer." Yeah. So, um Yeah, man. So, now she is eyeing up this tag and uh because it matches her Tiffany bracelet and [ __ ] It's blue. Well, I just saved a bunch of the blue boxes from when my wife thought I threw them away. So, I just go pick up wherever there's some other place where that, you know, I don't get it because it's the same earring. It's like $1,000 less at this other store. So, I just keep putting in that same blue box and she hasn't noticed yet. I mean, she gets She said it hurts her ear normally sometimes. But, I just I don't know. Maybe it's something something with her, not the earrings. Man, I'm sure you could buy those blue boxes on a on a something. Yeah. Yeah. And save yourself like $10,000 on some earrings. That's a good idea. Those Mickey Moto pearl earrings.

She'll never she'll never know. She'll never know. Mike Pepper. Most people making motor. Yeah. Well, anyway, I'm looking forward I'm looking forward to seeing you guys. I know we got some plans to meet up with you. Um I was talking to Adira. So, um we'll be seeing you out here right when you get right when you get in. Hopefully, I'll be coming picking you guys up at the airport or something. But, um yeah, we well, we got a car, so we're going to jump in it. We're going to roll out to the uh to the I mean to the hotel. And yeah, I'm definitely looking forward to um to uh hanging out and smoking some cigars. Man, did you see that new guy Fierra cigar called the knuckle sandwich that came out? Yeah. And it's box pressed. So um that's my favorite. It's box pressed and um it's so a knuckle sandwich is like a combination of all the scraps from premium cigars. So they take all the scraps of from those and make a cigar. So it's almost like when you go to a steakhouse and they got the beef tips or they got a steak sandwich for lunch because it's all the steak scraps from the night before. So it's a hell of a cigar, man. So I'm going to make sure I bring one for Benji and a couple more. They're not they're not cheap. So um but feel like this is a trick. I feel like you're going to be like, "Hey, do you want a knuckle sandwich or something when you get here?" And then I'm like, "Yeah, man." And all a sudden I'm gonna get socked. So, I'm going to be I'm going to be cautiously optimistic about these knuckle sandwich cigars. I'm just letting you know, man. Did you see uh Benji and I he came down a couple weeks ago and we were smoking at the rooster. Man, we had the best time. It was just him and I um we went and got a bite to eat and we literally I don't even think we ordered a uh an entree. I think we just got an appetizer. We were so ready to get out of there and go relax and we sat in there till like 11:30 at night. They closed at 10:00. They let us stay in there. It's 11:30. Um, and we just smoked and hung out and they vacuumed around us and cleaned up and [sighs] it was we had a hell of a time, man. It was some Benji just moved from Athens, Georgia all the way up to North Georgia, right by um um Blue Mountain or whatever it's called. I don't know. Blue Ridge or I don't know. Anyway, got a beautiful spread that he just bought and he's like, "Man, I need a break from moving." So, we just vegetated, man. We had a great freaking time. That was probably my favorite time in Oklahoma. We all went to that cigar bar. There was that. Me, you, Benji, was it Nathan DS? Um, good old Nate Dog. Yeah. Who Who else was there? Um, I was there. Oh, Susan was there. Susan was there. But that's where you y'all ended up like selling a booth there for the fence. That's right. Yeah. Somebody ended up buying a booth for the fence show. And then and there was two different people there. They got upgraded. Yeah. while we were there. They just happened to been there and they uh was Sasha there. Hey, are you Brian from the Fence Show coming up? I go, yeah. We ended up talking to them. They were local from Vegas, too. Yeah. Yeah, it was crazy, man. Well, we're doing cigars on Thursday, though. Thursday is going to be a big cigar night, I think. Um if we get enough people interested, we're even going to get the shuttle bus going for that. And we're already gonna have a shuttle bus going on um Wednesday out for the Homeland Party. Did you register for that yet? No, I didn't. I didn't. We got to get them over the link. Yeah. You got That's going to be kind of cool. They they literally bought out the entire Stony's Rock and Country. So, uh, the band I saw, which was pretty cool. Um, they got a band, everything going in Okay. that'll be Wednesday over there, the same same, uh, same mall area where this cigar lounge is. So, it' be a good chance to check it out. But Thursday, I've dedicated that entire that entire evening we've got dedicated for all of us to go over and smoke cigars. What What cigar bar you are you are we

Going to? I want to check it out. Triple Crown Cigar Lounge. So, Triple Crown show as well. Yeah. They'll have a booth at the show, too. So, um Oh, really? Y and and demo days. So, man, me and Benji had this great idea. So, you seen the new Dan uh Dan Blonde censored logo, the skeleton with the cigar. Um anyway, if you look on a cigar, guys, it's got a w the the ring on it, the rapper. Says FTG, and that stands for [ __ ] that guy. So, um, Benji and I were gonna get those made and and bring cigars to hand out for the podcast, but no time now. Well, I just I don't know. I just maybe next year. I think that'll be awesome, man, to have that ring on it and bring it to and hand out cigars to everybody, you So, we're looking at that. This is episode What is this episode of My Fence Life, Susan? Episode number what? 297. It's 297. Yes. I know. Last week said 297, but I might have done a little math wrong. Okay, that's that's why I was This week is actually 297. Okay, this is 297 AD AD. So, you took this thing a long ways, man. You pioneered this for all of us. So, um there was a lot of people that helped helped me get to where I was at, man. And I wish Canon would have stayed long enough to enjoy it till the end, but um you know he him and I talked not too long ago and he was like, "Man, I was telling him this and that and he's like, "Now you know what happened to me." He goes, "I didn't miss it. Let me tell you, I didn't miss it." And I'm like, "Yeah, I'm not really missing it either." it's You know, you don't realize um people don't realize that you just think, "Oh, we're just come on for 45 minutes and that's all it takes." But you know, like right after this show, I'll be like going, "Man, I don't have to think about it right now." like I won't think about it Thursday. I won't think about it Friday much and then I'll get into panic mode come the weekend and and then Monday it's all on your stressed out on Monday on your you got to verify somebody's going to come on. It's just it takes over your Monday. Tuesday you're like calling each other saying hey did they verify they're going to be there? Do you have the notes? What are we going to talk about? I mean this literally so that 45 minutes it's amazing how much of your energy it consumes. Well it's not only that man it's the people that call you or get in your inbox afterwards. Yeah. You know, I mean, it's one thing to interview people, right? But it's another thing when you're getting on there spewing out knowledge and and processes and procedures. So, now they're in your inbox and they're blowing it up and, you know, they're calling the office and I mean, it's freaking insane, man. It really is. Freaking insane. I'm not as smart as you, so I I don't share as much valuable information, so my phone doesn't blow up shortly after other than to, you know, they'll just call to tell me to f off. They didn't like something I said or something. But I don't get like questions. They don't want to follow up on my conversations at all. Dude, I get more people hit me up and ask me how much you paid for the podcast. I cannot tell you how many people. And then I've had people say, "Yeah, you know, somebody call me and they're like, "Man, I've heard this. I heard that. I freaking love it, man. I love it. It's so funny. I thought you went out and bought a car. That's all I know." Yeah, that's all I know. I when I first I first saw that I believed it. I thought, "Oh man, I thought you logos on the side or something, you know." I am looking at that uh that Porsche Cayenne uh SUV. Looking at Well, you earned it. You earned it. I mean, this is definitely wouldn't be to 297 without someone like you that uh especially you and Canon that put all that time and energy in and and you should be flattered that everybody else

Is out there, you know, kind of copying what you did because you did it well and you you know, you laid the groundwork so everybody else could and and I you know me, I'm a firm believer I you know, you we could we have room for 30 more podcasts and 30 more associations, 30 more shows. There's there's so much of our industry we're not reaching right now. And every one of us reaches a small bubble within our own little circle. And if we get enough of us together, we're going to reach a a broader part of our industry. Next thing you know, we've got not just the two or 3% that we're always, you know, we've all been connected to these same companies, but now we're talking about five 10% of the industry involved. And that's how we change things. That's how we get, you know, the resources out to everybody and it grows. So, I'm a I'm a believer in in more, man. More and more and more. our industry is so big that we're not even touching it yet, you know, touching it and they can watch they can watch all of our podcasts. Some people don't some people don't like our show. Some people don't like one of the other ones. They're going to find something that that fits them. So, we got to, you know, and I think that's what it's going to take to connect to more people. But kudos to all you guys, man. Um, you and Canon for starting this thing and, you know, everything you got it. And I can't thank you enough for that. And, you know, I know we talked about for a while, but letting me to continue it on is a it's a big deal and I'm honored, flattered. Yeah. I love it, man. I love it. I think you're doing great with it. Keep killing Cool. I will see you um not next week, but the week after. I'm sure I'll be talking to you shortly. But yeah, I got a bunch of boxes here. I'm getting ready to ship to you of all the My Fence Life stuff I got left over. Nice. We're going to have that in the media booth. Um I'm sure you'll be spending a little time in there as well because we're going to be interviewing you live. I'm gonna I'm gonna make you wear a My Fence Life t-shirt or something and walk around and uh I'm gonna I'm gonna tell everybody that I made you give me my money back. my old life so I could get my life back. So anyway, thanks again, Dan. Always good talking to you, man. Um, everybody, thanks for watching. Susan, we all love you, man. You hold this whole thing together for us. You know, you do. Thank you for everything you do. All right, we'll talk to you guys later. Y'all keep on fencing. We'll [snorts] see you. I'm eating animal crackers.