Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: It.
[00:00:02] Speaker B: All right, so we have Fortune's Fool.
[00:00:05] Speaker C: How did that get here?
[00:00:07] Speaker B: It's magic.
[00:00:08] Speaker C: When this happens in the show, it's always amazing to me that our production team and the. The invisible people that you can't see that make things happen.
[00:00:17] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:00:17] Speaker B: So Fortune's fool, this is Prelude, which is their first iteration. Overture is their newest one, which I have not tried yet. And you said you have not as well, not the second.
[00:00:27] Speaker C: I've not either, but.
[00:00:28] Speaker B: But my wife has. She says it's really good. So there you go. So shout out to Dr. Julie and Fortune's Fool.
Thanks for choosing this one.
[00:00:38] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:00:39] Speaker C: That's a healthy pick right there.
[00:00:40] Speaker B: I may not shoot this. I might just. This one.
[00:00:42] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:00:43] Speaker A: All right.
It's good.
[00:00:48] Speaker C: That's okie. I said that at the last. The last bourbon. I. So it's been a while since I've had bourbon.
[00:00:55] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:00:55] Speaker C: So the.
The forefront of the barrel is so much more there for me in a bourbon today than what it used to be.
[00:01:06] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:01:07] Speaker C: Mainly because I. I drink a lot of blancos and repos and a few on yejos, but the. You don't get that same.
[00:01:14] Speaker A: Totally different.
[00:01:15] Speaker C: Oh, it's completely different.
[00:01:16] Speaker A: Full body, caramelly, oaky.
[00:01:19] Speaker B: Like you said, Caramelly is what I hear. Again, Brad knows my tastes are not very refined.
[00:01:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:24] Speaker B: I really can't.
[00:01:24] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:01:25] Speaker A: What does it taste like?
[00:01:26] Speaker B: I hear caramel a lot. No. I can't even pick out oak, to be honest. But this does taste different than the last one we had.
[00:01:33] Speaker C: That was what we talked about before. Oh, okay.
[00:01:35] Speaker A: I got it.
[00:01:36] Speaker C: Smell from the front.
[00:01:38] Speaker B: Oh, I can smell caramel. 100. Smell caramel again.
[00:01:41] Speaker A: It's like candy.
[00:01:44] Speaker C: Now, honestly, that's going to sound weird, but that smells like the. A barn at the county fair. Not in a bad way. Like the. The cedar.
[00:01:52] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, I smell wood, too. Yeah.
[00:01:56] Speaker B: Yeah. All right.
[00:01:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:58] Speaker B: I don't go to many county fairs.
[00:01:59] Speaker C: Well, there was a lot of fun in our county fair. And then. And then smell it from the top.
[00:02:04] Speaker B: I got caramel on the last one, though.
[00:02:06] Speaker C: I got a lot of caramel and vanilla on the top.
[00:02:08] Speaker B: Love me some caramel. So maybe that's why I like this.
[00:02:12] Speaker C: Yeah. See, that's.
That's a lot of different. A lot of different aromas every time. Focus on it.
[00:02:18] Speaker A: Yeah. It's not as refined as tequila. Tequila is more fresh to me.
[00:02:22] Speaker C: I agree with that.
[00:02:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:23] Speaker A: I'm a good. I'm a big bourbon guy, of course.
[00:02:25] Speaker C: But, yeah, with the way that the Way that bourbon. So one of the things that I think is amazing difference from tequila to bourbon is no one would drink a white dog a straight out of the still bourbon.
[00:02:38] Speaker A: Right.
[00:02:38] Speaker C: The flavor of bourbon is. It's a corn mash.
And until you put it in the barrel, the complexities and the flavors come from the barrel.
[00:02:49] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:02:49] Speaker C: Where tequila, you drink a blanco right out of the sill because that gives you that, you know, again, three things. Yeast, water, and agave. Right. It's how you make it. But the flavor has to be a great blanco to make a good or a good reposado.
[00:03:08] Speaker B: Where.
[00:03:08] Speaker C: Where I think the barrel covers up what maybe a not great mash.
[00:03:14] Speaker A: Interesting perspective. Yeah. The barrel has a lot to do with it, in fact.
[00:03:17] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:18] Speaker A: You know, not to bust anybody's bubble, but a lot of people feel if you let bourbon sit around, it just ages and it gets better. No, the moment the bourbon comes out of the barrel, it's done.
[00:03:28] Speaker C: That's the same with wine.
[00:03:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, wine actually ages a little, depending on temperature exposure.
[00:03:34] Speaker C: Come from that barrel. And once you put it in that bot and you seal it.
[00:03:39] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:03:41] Speaker C: Once you breathe it.
[00:03:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:43] Speaker C: Now it can age more and the oxygenation of it, but it's not picking up flavor from that glass.
[00:03:48] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:03:49] Speaker C: Picking up flavor from the barrel.
[00:03:50] Speaker A: Right. And there's ways to cheat a little bit. Have you ever seen the little pieces of stave you can buy?
[00:03:56] Speaker C: There's a bottle I think I gave you.
[00:03:58] Speaker A: Yeah, I thought I gave you one, actually.
[00:04:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:01] Speaker C: Yeah, it is up here. It's.
[00:04:04] Speaker A: So you can buy them in a different. A lot of different places, but. Wolfhead. Oh, wolfhead. Yeah, that's the one. Yeah, I remembered that.
[00:04:10] Speaker B: Of all things.
[00:04:11] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:04:12] Speaker A: And you can buy different kinds of staves. Cherry wood, walnut, oak, whatever you want, just put it in there and it continues the aging process and it's good.
[00:04:19] Speaker C: You know, there's guys that do that with tequila. They buy different staves and they name them, they time them. And there's some bourbon folks that talk about how long they let theirs go. And tequila guys, it's days.
[00:04:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:33] Speaker C: Not weeks. Because of the agave literally works differently with the oaks in the barrels than what a bourbon does. So your flavor changes become too strong if you leave it in the agave too long, like it does in a bourbon. But, yeah, the time frame is much shorter. I just learned some of that.
[00:04:50] Speaker A: It's kind of cool. Yeah, it is very interesting.
[00:04:53] Speaker B: I got a paper question.
[00:04:54] Speaker C: Oh, I'm Glad you do. You know, and also, it's cardboard.
Paper.
[00:04:59] Speaker A: It's paper board.
[00:05:00] Speaker C: Paperboard.
[00:05:01] Speaker A: You were both close.
[00:05:04] Speaker B: So I'm going to assume. And I apologize.
[00:05:08] Speaker C: To assume.
[00:05:09] Speaker B: I apologize if you already answered this, because I kind of think you have, but I'm asking again anyways. You didn't grow up thinking, someday I'm going to work in the paper company. What did you want to be when you were young, Chris, in Engineering. Engineer, yeah.
[00:05:21] Speaker A: So anything to do with engineering, whether it be roads, airfields, buildings, not driving a train. Not driving a train. Ice cream truck, maybe for a little bit.
[00:05:29] Speaker C: But the garbage truck guy, a lot of kids wanted to be.
[00:05:32] Speaker B: Well, I see them all the time.
[00:05:34] Speaker A: Yeah. Anything with an air horn. I just wanted to grab that string and. Oh, okay. Anyways, no, I had. I had no desire to do it at all because, you know, when I was 27, I was like, you know, I gotta do something that.
[00:05:45] Speaker B: That was gonna be part B to that question. I still have another.
So you went into that because essentially you needed a job, family situation, you.
[00:05:55] Speaker A: Know, I skipped that part. That's actually.
So when I. When I got out of the military, I had no intentions on doing anything different than engineering. That's what I did when I was in the military during peacetime, during. I prided myself to be somewhat of a good operator, and I had a good ability to understand projects, planning value, things like that. So I thought, you know what? I'm. I'm really marketable when I get out of the military. These people are going to love my discipline.
[00:06:22] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:06:22] Speaker A: They're going to love the fact that I care. I have attention to detail. They didn't. But I went to. I went to work for a couple of great companies, local companies in Wabash. I don't know if I should mention their names.
[00:06:32] Speaker C: Yeah, go ahead.
[00:06:33] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, Eads and Sons.
[00:06:35] Speaker C: Ah, Terry and Scott. That's a great group.
[00:06:38] Speaker A: Great company. They're, you know, very well known across Indiana and in other locations, I'm sure, too. But anyways, they gave me the opportunity to operate with them. And at the same time I was doing that, I worked for the International Union of Operating Engineers out of Kokomo, and I had just.
[00:06:54] Speaker B: Why wouldn't the international office.
[00:06:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:56] Speaker B: Be in Kokomo?
[00:06:57] Speaker A: Not sure what they called it that. But anyways, big name meant a lot to me. I got a T shirt. Anyways, so I was working with them for a little bit, and I could be in South Bend one day, in Terre Haute the next, and I'm like, You know what? I just did this for 10 years. Do I really want to do this? You know, I got a family. Young family. It's money.
[00:07:14] Speaker B: How many kids at this point?
[00:07:15] Speaker A: Two kids at this point.
[00:07:16] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:07:16] Speaker A: So very young.
[00:07:18] Speaker C: So you were. You are a union operator.
[00:07:20] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:07:21] Speaker C: You realize I was a union bricklayer.
[00:07:26] Speaker B: Is there a handshake?
[00:07:28] Speaker A: Look away?
[00:07:28] Speaker C: Not for us Republicans, there's not.
[00:07:32] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:07:33] Speaker A: Pump the brakes.
[00:07:36] Speaker C: I like.
[00:07:37] Speaker A: Yeah. So I really. Yeah, we better take a drink after that. Sorry, Don.
[00:07:43] Speaker C: I'm not in the union anymore.
[00:07:45] Speaker A: But anyways, so I just, you know, I did that for a little while, and I said, this is nice.
[00:07:49] Speaker C: I didn't know that.
[00:07:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:51] Speaker B: Crazy.
[00:07:51] Speaker A: I did it for. So I did it. I didn't want to let go of the dirt cushion. All right. That's what I called it, you know, because I loved it. Anything to do with that, I loved. And I just couldn't keep traveling like that. So I actually worked at the local paper mill at the same time. I had this job for a period of time before I finally said, you know what? I'm going to cut strings. I think. I think I can do something at this place. And.
[00:08:14] Speaker C: And back in the day, it was called Container, right?
[00:08:16] Speaker A: Container, yeah. It's had a lot of different names. Yeah, no doubt.
[00:08:19] Speaker C: And so how'd you get on? Like, how'd you get hired? Because back when I. When we were that age, that was like a hard hire, very hard place, and hard to get on. Container.
[00:08:27] Speaker A: Well, that's right. Yeah. I'm an engineer.
[00:08:30] Speaker C: Ford Meter box was the other great hire. That's a great place to go to work. Still is today.
[00:08:34] Speaker A: Yep. So funny story.
A lot of people like to hire military people, right. Because they have a level of discipline a lot of times that are different than other people. Right. There's percentages of groups of people. Again, going back to the. Doesn't make you better or worse. Just. That's the thing you have. Right.
[00:08:49] Speaker C: I'm gonna. I'm gonna say if you went and you served, it's especially in the time frame that you served, it said, yeah, you were better.
[00:08:58] Speaker A: It said something right. Saudi was going on Somalia. I was in Haiti. I was all over the place. So that kind of meant something. So there's a better piece there. And Melissa's dad actually worked there for a number of years, too, so I had a little bit of an inside. But even at that, it took me several months before they finally said, let's give this guy a chance. And once I got in there, I remember working for this guy, God rest his soul. I'll say that. I won't mention his name. He passed away. But he looked at me and he says, what are you doing here?
[00:09:26] Speaker C: Now? I got that as a bricklayer. Yeah, yeah.
[00:09:28] Speaker A: He's. This is. This is not your thing. I can tell you don't want to be here. He says, what are you going to do? You know, you need to either do a different job or get out of here. And this is my boss telling me this. And he said, so tell me, what do you want to do? And I said, I want to take your job.
[00:09:41] Speaker C: That's fantastic.
[00:09:42] Speaker A: I want to take. That's the God's honest truth. I told him that, and I said, I'm going to take your job.
[00:09:46] Speaker B: How did he take that?
[00:09:47] Speaker A: He didn't. He just kind of laughed it off, lit another cigarette and walked away.
[00:09:50] Speaker C: I mean, if you ever say that to somebody, they're like, oh, that. Yeah, right? And then they're like, I was that guy. Yeah, most of them were that guy.
[00:09:57] Speaker B: And I mean, ideally, someone hears that, and A, maybe they're inspired by it, and B, I hope their goal is to move beyond the job they're at.
[00:10:08] Speaker C: That's right.
[00:10:09] Speaker B: So, like, hell, yeah. Come on.
[00:10:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:11] Speaker C: Every time that guy is that guy, he's like, yeah, come get it, because I'm going after his job. There you go. That's the thing.
[00:10:17] Speaker A: That's right. And if you're a strong leader, you actually want your people to be that way, right? Absolutely. You want to encourage them, nurture them, and help them grow. For sure. But that's how it happened. You know, the more I sat around, not literally, no. The more I looked around and I watched the process, I just kept on thinking, we're like this all the time. It's up and down, up and down. Nobody really knew what good was because we were either really bad in the middle of the road or really good. And it was just all over the place. And I thought, man, what if we standardize this? What if we said, this is our capability as we sit today, and we build a guideline and rules around that capability, and we bring everybody up to the same level like we were talking earlier. And then we say, all right, that's good. We're operating at a magnificent, magnificent pace. We're making money. We're doing good. And then you look at the bottom line and you say, huh? If I'm not making the amount of money that I should be for this company to grow, what's it going to take for me to get there. Do I have more opportunity with standard work or do I have to make a capital investment to get it to the next level? And that's the journey over and over again. You think about us. If I can say one more thing.
[00:11:21] Speaker B: No, it's fine.
[00:11:22] Speaker A: So when you walk into a business. So the paper board mill and Wabash actually opened up in 1890. Dang, 1890.
[00:11:30] Speaker B: Long time ago.
[00:11:30] Speaker A: One of the paper machines that's producing 260 tons a day of paper, 359 days a year, hasn't had a solid operational upgrade since 1976.
[00:11:43] Speaker C: Isn't that crazy?
[00:11:45] Speaker A: So you think about.
[00:11:46] Speaker C: Oh my gosh.
[00:11:46] Speaker A: So you think about that, right? And this, this machine all by itself has, you know, $80 million a year in sales. So how do you go from what that machine did in 1976 and maintain its sustainable state in 2024?
[00:12:02] Speaker C: That's crazy.
[00:12:03] Speaker A: When they built that machine in 1976, didn't even dream of it.
That's right. And we're still pulling levers, figuring out, figuring out how to do things better today. And it's fun. It's fun. Once you reach that peak, though, you're like engineering.
I was construction.
[00:12:23] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:12:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:24] Speaker C: So, you know, so I don't know a whole lot about the facility, but here's what I remember as a child with a dad that was a fireman in Wabash, Indiana. Right. My dad came home one day and. And he was like, oh, it was a rough day, you know? What do you mean, dad?
[00:12:45] Speaker B: Yeah, right.
[00:12:45] Speaker C: I didn't talk a whole lot. He didn't talk a whole lot. He didn't share a whole lot. He said, well, we spent the day today trying to identify the remains of a guy who fell into one of the pulper. Pulper, yeah, at the plant. And he's like.
Like we found his wallet like that. That was a. I guess like a grinding machine, right?
[00:13:10] Speaker A: Yeah. Takes the paper, mixes water, turns it into like an oatmeal type slurry, and.
[00:13:14] Speaker C: The guy fell or something.
[00:13:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:16] Speaker C: And I remember that as a kid going, yeah, like, huh?
[00:13:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:13:22] Speaker C: You know, as a kid who had a dad fall through the roof of a church on Christmas Eve putting out a fire. Oh my God. You know, I'm like, man, I'm glad you don't work in a dangerous place like that.
But, you know, when a lot of us don't realize the products that we use every day, the product that we're mad about because we have too much of it, Because Amazon delivered everything in a box that we're cutting up. Somebody not only busted their butt and sweat hard to earn a buck, but also, in some cases, literally risked their lives to do what they do. And there's a point where we don't all be thankful enough for the things that happen around us every single day.
[00:14:04] Speaker A: We've become a little bit unconscious to our surroundings, unfortunately.
[00:14:08] Speaker B: A little bit. A lot of it.
[00:14:09] Speaker A: Yeah, it's really sad. I mean, I told a friend of mine that I want to write a book about it. You know, an Unconscious society. And I don't want to draw out the negatives associated with it, but I just want to raise awareness to, hey, this is happening around you today. You can make a difference if you just open your eyes and realize it.
[00:14:24] Speaker C: Negatives can create positive change.
[00:14:26] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. Absolutely.
[00:14:29] Speaker B: Have you ever read.
[00:14:30] Speaker C: Why did you just look at me like that?
[00:14:34] Speaker A: Shut up, Brad.
[00:14:36] Speaker B: You know, rubbing some out of my eye and maybe my eyes open wide. I don't know.
[00:14:41] Speaker C: You look at me like, wow, that idiot said something.
[00:14:43] Speaker A: It was the finger you used to rub. You know what?
[00:14:45] Speaker B: You can put context into whatever you want. Anyway, have you ever read the book Average Sucks?
[00:14:52] Speaker A: I've not.
[00:14:53] Speaker B: Okay, what you said about how your company was doing a lot of this and you tried to create a baseline, and then once your company reaches that baseline, then you got to go above that. That's totally what the book Average Sucks is about.
[00:15:12] Speaker A: I gotta get it.
[00:15:13] Speaker B: Yes, because Emine is totally, you know, people.
The majority of people in the world are average. Okay. And there's really nothing wrong with that. But if you want something to be better, you have to go above that. Well, once you reach the above that, whatever it is, well, now that's your average. So now you have to go above that.
[00:15:33] Speaker A: I love it.
[00:15:33] Speaker B: So why haven't you told.
[00:15:34] Speaker C: I tell you about books all the time. You've never shared that with me.
[00:15:37] Speaker B: A, I haven't finished the book.
[00:15:38] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, sure.
[00:15:39] Speaker B: One of the three books next to my bed. Love it. But B, I mean, it's a very straightforward. I mean, the gentleman runs, you know, workshops and stuff like that, which I've done, but. But yeah, there you go. Average sucks.
[00:15:55] Speaker A: I remember. If I can tell one more story along. Yeah. So I work for a guy.
[00:15:59] Speaker B: You. Chris.
[00:16:00] Speaker A: Amazing. I love it. Special guest.
So I won't mention this guy's name. Maybe I will a little bit later if I have another shot. But this, this guy was a tyrant. One of the most brutal bosses I've ever worked for in my life. But I got him. I got it right. I understood who this guy was and why he was the way he was. A little bit immoral, a little bit unethical, but this guy was hard, fricking core. So I got promoted to superintendent, and the process was wildly out of control. We had some really, really good days where people were clapping hands, high fiving, all this kind of stuff. And the other times, we were on fire sometimes literally. And he says, you're the guy now. Here's your pay. Which was. It was. Which was enough for me to say, okay, I'll be that guy. And I took the job. And he says, what are you going to do? And I said, we're going to take the lowest performing crew in this mill, and we're going to make that person standard.
[00:16:56] Speaker B: Oh, so good.
[00:16:57] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm going to make that.
[00:16:58] Speaker A: And we brought. So I'll give you an example. We have some All Stars all throughout life, but at the mill, we had some All Stars that would come in and be like, I can do so much better than those guys that just left. Let's speed this baby up. Let's make more tons. You know how hard it was to tell those guys, no, slow down. You're gonna run at the same level that the worst people in this mill are running at. And once we're all doing it exactly the same way, we're gonna figure out how we did that, and then let's all come up together. And suddenly things started, you know, mellowing out. It was fun. It was a fun journey. But that guy, the tyrant, he's like, can I use a cuss word?
[00:17:34] Speaker C: Oh, you stupid.
[00:17:37] Speaker A: What are you doing? I heard that a bunch. I heard that a bunch. But it worked and we made money.
[00:17:43] Speaker C: So you know what that just reminded me of is the show the Bear.
[00:17:47] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Great show.
[00:17:49] Speaker C: I know you didn't like it.
[00:17:50] Speaker B: No, that's. That's wrong.
[00:17:52] Speaker C: You did like.
[00:17:52] Speaker B: I'm fine with the Bear.
There's. There's parts of it I don't like. And then there's the classification of it in the comedy category, which I have.
[00:18:02] Speaker C: A huge problem with.
[00:18:04] Speaker B: There isn't a lot of funny stuff anyways. Continue.
[00:18:07] Speaker C: There was one chef that made him feel like an idiot, and he was hard on him and he yelled at him and. But when he. He confronted him in the hallway. In the bathroom.
[00:18:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:20] Speaker C: And he's yelling at him. Yg, who cares?
[00:18:24] Speaker B: Right?
[00:18:24] Speaker C: And he starts to tear up a little bit, and he said, well, look at who you are.
[00:18:31] Speaker A: Right.
[00:18:31] Speaker C: I mean, it's true. I mean, iron sharpens iron, right? I mean, he made him one of the best chefs ever. And there's so many times in life that we're waiting for somebody to pat us on the back. Yeah, right. We want that participation trophy. We want to know we did a good job.
[00:18:48] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:18:49] Speaker C: And when you're the boss, when you're the owner, when you're self employed like yourself, there's nobody to tell you that my dog, I mean, she leans on.
[00:19:03] Speaker B: Me and licks me.
[00:19:04] Speaker C: She doesn't care that if I was a failure.
[00:19:07] Speaker B: Right, sorry, continue.
[00:19:09] Speaker C: But the hard part that I have to remember, as a owner of a company, I have to remember that, you know, I go to closings and I have people tell me, oh, man, you guys did a great job. I love you, you're amazing. And, and we have our, our people even in your position. So you did a great job. But that guy that's doing the everyday work goes home.
He's not reading the Google reviews. Right. So, like the other day, I just, I just. We had the biggest. August was our biggest month of this year.
[00:19:39] Speaker A: It was a really good congratulations to.
[00:19:40] Speaker C: All of our team. And our team worked really hard. I really didn't do much of it.
[00:19:44] Speaker B: Good job, team.
[00:19:44] Speaker C: So I messaged him.
Look, you guys killed it. This was the best month of the year and none of this would have happened. And oh, by the way, there were seven Google reviews of people that said, we did a great job that you guys didn't see. And I said at every closing, listen to tell us how great of a job we did. You guys weren't there, so you need to know how great of a job we did. And there's a transfer from trying to get to that position to letting the people know that work with you to come on up. This is why you're doing a great job too. And, and so how do you on an everyday basis, try to share that with a team of people that are working every day to let them know that I'm not pandering to them, but I want them to know that's a hard thing.
[00:20:30] Speaker A: It's really hard.
[00:20:31] Speaker C: Kissing ass down is much easier than kissing ass up. And how do you do it where it doesn't come off that way?
[00:20:37] Speaker A: You got to rise above the situation. All right? You've got to acknowledge both the, the good or the opportunity in the good, if you will. But in a performance managed operation, you have targets every single day. And we've said that if you don't meet this target, then you didn't make your budget. Right. And if you didn't make your budget, you're not making money for the company. So instantly there's this taboo associated with not meeting a KPI Key performance indicator. Right. But if you want to come down there and plow somebody in the face for doing a bad day or a bad thing or a bad job, yeah. They're going to shut down on you.
[00:21:09] Speaker C: Right.
[00:21:09] Speaker A: First of all, right? Now anybody can go anywhere they want in this world and get a job. Right?
[00:21:14] Speaker C: It's slowing down.
[00:21:16] Speaker A: It's slowing down.
[00:21:16] Speaker C: Tomorrow, Tomorrow we're going to see how.
[00:21:19] Speaker A: Much my E Trade account's going to do something for sure.
[00:21:24] Speaker C: A million lessons two days in a row.
[00:21:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:28] Speaker B: Oh, geez.
[00:21:29] Speaker C: We were supposed to see 8.6, and we're seeing 7.6.
[00:21:33] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:33] Speaker C: A million less than jobs and recorded September 6th.
[00:21:38] Speaker A: But you gotta. You gotta hold people accountable to meeting that standard. But you also want to keep them at a level they can operate at. Right?
[00:21:45] Speaker C: Right.
[00:21:45] Speaker A: There's good constructive discipline. And a lot of people. A lot of time people associate discipline with something bad. Like, you're in trouble. But discipline is the formality of the structure.
[00:21:54] Speaker C: Right?
[00:21:55] Speaker A: This is what you have to do every single day to be successful. Did you do it or did you not? And if you didn't, tell me why. If you didn't meet your target, let's talk about why you didn't meet your target and what we have to do to get you back there. Is it my fault, but nurture your fault? Well, I'm going to tell you that being in a leadership position is always my fault.
[00:22:11] Speaker C: All right?
[00:22:12] Speaker A: Yeah. It's always my fault because I didn't do something right. To nurture the people around me.
[00:22:17] Speaker C: Yeah, that makes sense.
[00:22:18] Speaker A: It's fun, though.
[00:22:19] Speaker B: Okay, now the paper question.
[00:22:20] Speaker A: Oh.
[00:22:23] Speaker B: So technologically, people are using a lot less paper.
So how does that affect your business, potentially, your future?
[00:22:35] Speaker A: Super, super great question. All right, first of all, what we make.
[00:22:40] Speaker B: By the way, my wife is a huge eco nerd, and she is all about not using as much paper as she possibly can. So this question might be for Steph.
[00:22:49] Speaker A: So this is gonna. I hope she's listening. Stephanie. So the paper we make is from 100% recycled products.
[00:22:56] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:22:57] Speaker A: We take.
[00:22:58] Speaker B: Just make it more expensive.
[00:22:59] Speaker A: We.
It's less expensive. Can we turn this off? No.
[00:23:03] Speaker C: Yeah. Vote for the green New deal people.
[00:23:06] Speaker B: Less expensive to make, but more to sell.
[00:23:10] Speaker A: So here's the deal. No, no. It's a very good question. So It's a very green New deal.
[00:23:14] Speaker C: There you go.
[00:23:15] Speaker A: There's an absolute science behind what we do. All right? It's crazy. We couldn't even go down half the path.
It's 100 recycled. So we are taking curbside trash.
[00:23:26] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:23:27] Speaker A: In most cases. Sometimes we're taking waste from a plant that's making boxes. And we're taking a percent of ground fibers, like your cardboard boxes. We're taking a percent of cereal boxes, we're taking a percent of newspaper, and we're mixing that together in the same percentage all the time. Okay?
[00:23:43] Speaker B: So cool.
[00:23:43] Speaker A: These other guys out there, where you see the bright white paper and the dark, dark brown paper, that's virgin paper. And those are the guys that are cutting down trees to make their product. Okay, we cut down no trees.
[00:23:53] Speaker B: Good for you.
[00:23:54] Speaker A: Now, I'll. I'll acknowledge that at some point somebody had to cut down a tree in order for them to make that box. So we could recycle it.
[00:24:01] Speaker B: That's all right.
[00:24:02] Speaker C: Maybe we wouldn't have as many if. We wouldn't have as many wildfires if they cut down a few more trees.
[00:24:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:07] Speaker A: So the got to break the leaves. Yeah.
So I'm just giving round numbers, okay. Because I don't want to, you know, uncover too many secrets or anything like that, but Wabash, for example, is making somewhere north of 160,000 tons a paper a year. And that's a hundred and sixty, 000 tons that would have gone to the landfill. And we took it and turned it into something for, you know, companies across North America.
[00:24:32] Speaker C: That's awesome.
[00:24:33] Speaker A: Yeah. So fun stuff.
[00:24:34] Speaker C: I asked Chris all the time, like, dude, did you have, like, a good day today? He's like, why do you ask me? I had like 11 boxes delivered by him.
Every time I'm cutting up a box.
[00:24:46] Speaker A: I'm like, recycling for Chris. You know what's sad? That's funny. I gotta share something that's sad because I want people to realize this. Okay? So have you ever been by the recycling facility in Wabash, like, over by the funeral? I know you haven't met.
[00:25:00] Speaker C: I know where the landfill is.
[00:25:01] Speaker A: Okay, so Manchester Avenue, it's just a little bit south, west of the landfill entrance.
[00:25:07] Speaker C: Okay. Yeah, yeah.
[00:25:07] Speaker A: They had all these blue hoppers. Hundreds and hundreds, Right. They posted all these great rules. They keep it very clean. And people started taking their TVs there, their dead dogs, whatever, just throwing garbage in there. Right. But before, every single day, people were dropping off recycled material in there that was going to a Good use. But the city had to shut it down because people are just bringing pop cans and junk that belongs in a landfill. So they had to stop it. So if you're serious about recycling, there's ways to do it. Don't throw your trash in there.
[00:25:37] Speaker C: You know, in Indianapolis, there's. There's been a couple of shows about it, actually, and we. We have a place where. Called Mount Comfort Transfer, and it is part of waste management.
And that is an area where recycling trucks dump all of this stuff people put in recycling because they've reached the maximum amount they can take to the recycling facility and then just go to landfill.
[00:26:01] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:26:02] Speaker B: Disappointing.
[00:26:02] Speaker A: Yeah, I've heard that before and I've seen it.
[00:26:05] Speaker C: And then there's also. I've seen several, like, videos. And so you get your recycling out, and you got your trash truck out. So you get your blue trash.
[00:26:15] Speaker B: I've got my recycling bin, and then.
[00:26:17] Speaker C: The company comes through in the truck that picks them up.
Yeah, sure. Putting them all in the same truck. They're paying more for recycling. It's all going to one same spot.
[00:26:28] Speaker A: It happens. Absolutely. It happens.
[00:26:30] Speaker C: Yeah. When you dig into recycling, people are.
[00:26:32] Speaker A: Paying for that, by the way. Yeah.
[00:26:33] Speaker C: They pay extra.
[00:26:33] Speaker A: That's right. Yeah.
[00:26:34] Speaker C: When you dig into what percentage of things actually get recycled, it's. It's a crazy.
[00:26:41] Speaker B: Pretty low.
[00:26:41] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, yeah, please do. And it drives our price up.
[00:26:48] Speaker C: They put them together, recycling plastic and plastic bags. Those get put into bundles, they get put on the boats, they get shipped to other countries and they get incinerated.
[00:26:56] Speaker A: So we. Yeah, we could. We could go down that path for hours. Right.
[00:27:00] Speaker B: My plastic bags have dog in them.
[00:27:04] Speaker A: We can do something with it. Yeah. It's a shame.
[00:27:06] Speaker C: In a boat and they're going way out into the ocean and they're dumping it.
[00:27:09] Speaker A: And when that goes on a boat, it causes my cost to go up. And raw fiber is my highest cost.
[00:27:15] Speaker C: It's crazy.
[00:27:15] Speaker A: It's insane.
[00:27:16] Speaker C: So not. There's not good out there. I mean, there's good out there, but when you see some of the, you know, 60 Minutes did a thing not too long ago on plastic, and you're like, I don't think I'm ever going to recycle that again.
[00:27:28] Speaker B: I mean, for real, right now I'm thinking, why am I paying extra money?
[00:27:31] Speaker C: Electronics.
[00:27:33] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:27:35] Speaker C: You know what they do when you take those to a recycling facility?
[00:27:38] Speaker B: No.
[00:27:38] Speaker C: A lot of times they get sent to third world countries and children and taking them apart. Taking them apart to pull copper and gold and silver out of it. And then they're burning the plastic. You're like.
So I said it to you when we got back from Mexico. Electric cars are going to, you know, fix America. We're going to stop global warming.
[00:27:58] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
[00:27:59] Speaker C: And I drove, I, I flew home from Mexico going, we, we have an infrastructure problem for electric cars in America.
[00:28:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:09] Speaker C: And we, I don't know if everybody knows this or not, but we don't have all the cars.
We have a very small percentage of the cars in the world.
[00:28:17] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:28:18] Speaker C: And we're doing all of these things to fix the globe. Right. We're pay all these extra fees and taxes and all this, you know, and there's some guy in India, you know, that's burning a tire in the back of his.
[00:28:30] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:28:31] Speaker C: China.
[00:28:32] Speaker A: Same way. Same way.
Share the same atmosphere with you.
[00:28:38] Speaker C: You have to drive this electric car.
That's right. Yeah. I was like, there was so many cars in Mexico that aren't meeting any epa.
[00:28:49] Speaker B: There's no way.
[00:28:50] Speaker C: Although Guadalajara, this was crazy. We, we drove to, we flew into Guadalajara. We drove tequila. Hour and a half and tequila was like what you picture Mexico, cobblestone streets and older cars and. But on the drive back note, Tony and I noticed as we were getting closer to Guadalajara, okay, there's a kfc, there's Olive Garden, there's Applebee's, there's a Popeyes. And all of a sudden there was this point where all the cars were brand new. Then there were car dealerships just like here, like in, in districts, you know, oh look, Kia Mercedes, they open on Sunday. I don't know, I didn't pay attention.
[00:29:26] Speaker A: Nobody's.
[00:29:27] Speaker C: All of a sudden we became a three lane freeway with everything being brand new and everything being very America, the homes being very America. And the airport literally is one of the nicest airports we've ever flown into or flown out of ever one. So it, it changes your whole thought process of, you know, a third world country or another country like Mexico. But there were no charging stations anywhere probably.
[00:29:53] Speaker A: And we did see one Tesla anytime soon.
[00:29:56] Speaker C: Oh, wow. And the guy in the Tesla was like going, I hope we make it.
[00:29:59] Speaker A: Yeah. Get his trunk opened up. There's a barbecue grill in the back.
[00:30:02] Speaker C: He's cooking on it like a Honda generator.
[00:30:07] Speaker B: Got an extension cord, just followed.
[00:30:11] Speaker C: It's no problem.
[00:30:14] Speaker B: I got a hundred yards.
[00:30:16] Speaker A: Very nice.
[00:30:17] Speaker C: Holy cow. Well, Chris, I gotta say thanks. I know this is this an hour and a half drive for you to come down here on a weeknight and I know you're busy. I know you work all the time. Because we don't get to see each other ever. And I gotta ask.
[00:30:31] Speaker B: Will you be here for Casino Night?
[00:30:33] Speaker A: I am. Absolutely. Had a great time last year. Took a little bit of money, so. All right, I'll do it.
[00:30:39] Speaker C: He's going to crash here next time.
[00:30:41] Speaker A: I think we all donated back, too. Didn't. Didn't.
[00:30:43] Speaker C: Yeah. Actually, the winner of the 50. 50 donated 100 of it back. And I think we raised, like, $3,000 for a good friend of ours who really needed help. And then.
[00:30:54] Speaker B: Awesome.
[00:30:55] Speaker C: We parlayed that Into, I think, 25, 000 raised in a silent office.
[00:31:01] Speaker A: That was fun.
[00:31:02] Speaker C: The very next Saturday, that.
[00:31:04] Speaker B: That.
[00:31:04] Speaker A: That was fun.
[00:31:05] Speaker C: There's a. There's a guitar that came from. Oh, yeah, yeah.
[00:31:07] Speaker A: We were bidden. He was like, shut up.
[00:31:09] Speaker C: Stop bidding again.
[00:31:10] Speaker A: I remember what you paid for, but we bought everything. There was, like five of us, right. That bought pretty much everything.
[00:31:16] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:31:17] Speaker A: And it went to a good cause.
[00:31:17] Speaker C: Went to a great cause.
[00:31:18] Speaker B: A great.
[00:31:19] Speaker C: A great high school friend that was in need and cool. Love him. And it worked out great. And this. We haven't picked a charity yet for this one. We.
[00:31:26] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:31:27] Speaker C: It was easy for that one because it was a friend.
[00:31:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:30] Speaker C: And we're like, we gotta have a friend. So. But we're gonna. We're gonna come up with the charity and. Okay, the money back to it. So we're really looking forward to it. Same setup coming up. Probably more tequila drinks at the next one.
[00:31:43] Speaker B: I would say a separate tequila tasting station led by.
[00:31:48] Speaker C: Hey, we could do that. I'm actually doing it. I'm doing a tasting September 25th at a tailored Society in Carmel, Indiana.
[00:31:55] Speaker B: I'll be on my cruise.
[00:31:57] Speaker C: I knew you would be.
[00:31:58] Speaker A: Is that what you do? You're a cruise guy all the time?
[00:32:00] Speaker B: We. We do cruise. This is probably my 12th.
[00:32:04] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:32:05] Speaker B: This year.
[00:32:06] Speaker A: Yeah. This year.
[00:32:07] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:32:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:08] Speaker B: My first this year.
[00:32:09] Speaker A: Caribbean type stuff.
[00:32:10] Speaker B: We're going southern Caribbean. Never been there before. So we're hitting Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao.
A lot of cruises, but those are three I've never been to.
[00:32:20] Speaker C: I always thought that was just pronounced caraco.
[00:32:23] Speaker B: Well, there are those who. And I might be pronouncing it wrong.
[00:32:26] Speaker C: No, you're right. It's correct. Matt Braun went there.
[00:32:28] Speaker B: Oh, okay.
[00:32:29] Speaker C: And, I mean, I understand on the phone.
[00:32:32] Speaker B: I understand reading Spanish. Yes. Matt was right here.
[00:32:34] Speaker C: So Matt is the.
[00:32:36] Speaker B: He's not watching. Hi, Matt.
[00:32:38] Speaker C: I'm at.
[00:32:38] Speaker A: Hi, Matt.
[00:32:39] Speaker C: He's the corrector of all Things excellent. And he finds like, I'll turn in a loan. And here's a great example. The property's address was quiet way.
[00:32:50] Speaker B: Huh?
[00:32:50] Speaker C: Right. But the realtor put quite way.
[00:32:54] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:32:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:55] Speaker B: I have a problem with that.
[00:32:56] Speaker C: I docked it with quite way.
Everybody signed all of the documents.
The title company has it as quiet. Right. So all of these people and Matt's like, the address is spelled wrong.
I'm like, do you drive around in your car just pointing out all the. That's wrong. Unfortunately, yes.
So it is pronounced Curacao.
[00:33:21] Speaker A: There you go.
[00:33:22] Speaker B: So anyways, we'll be there. Going with my parents on a eight day, nine day cruise. Something like that. Looking forward to it. Again, like I said, never been there before, so should be good times. And on a cruise line. I've never been. We're going celebrity cruises.
[00:33:36] Speaker A: Oh, okay.
[00:33:38] Speaker C: Hanging out with like Ryan Seacrest or something. He's a celebrity.
[00:33:42] Speaker A: He is. I've seen him.
[00:33:43] Speaker B: I believe that.
[00:33:44] Speaker C: I know he's busy, but he may be on the cruise working there.
[00:33:47] Speaker A: Are you, Brian?
[00:33:48] Speaker B: I might be the celebrity on this cruise. I have no idea.
[00:33:52] Speaker C: That's fantastic. Well, you have a podcast.
[00:33:53] Speaker B: I do.
[00:33:54] Speaker C: Are you going to talk about the podcast on the cruise?
[00:33:58] Speaker B: I. I can almost guarantee at some point it will come up in conversation.
[00:34:02] Speaker C: Okay. Because I. I talk about our podcast everywhere we go.
[00:34:05] Speaker B: I talk about it quite often.
[00:34:06] Speaker C: Yeah. Like it's a. We're not going to get there.
[00:34:10] Speaker B: Can't grow without. Without growth.
[00:34:11] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:34:15] Speaker A: Did you just come up with that?
[00:34:16] Speaker B: I did. I'm gonna put that on a doily.
[00:34:18] Speaker A: Put it on a T shirt.
[00:34:21] Speaker C: I think that's the anti Weight watchers thing.
[00:34:26] Speaker A: Very nice. That was quick.
[00:34:28] Speaker C: The reason they went out of business. The reason Oprah stepped out of Weight Watch.
[00:34:33] Speaker B: Oh.
[00:34:33] Speaker C: All right.
[00:34:34] Speaker B: Well, on that note, thank you for watching once again, Chris. Dude, this was a great episode.
[00:34:40] Speaker C: I think it's one of the best. Yeah.
[00:34:42] Speaker B: Success. Happy hour is a thing now. We'll see you next time. Real estate makes us drink.
[00:34:47] Speaker C: Thanks, guys.
[00:34:47] Speaker B: Cheers.
[00:34:48] Speaker C: It.
