welcome to a scrap life a podcast solely focused on the hustlers Grinders operators and business owners who live and breathe the scrap metal industry every day here is your host Brett eard all right no time like the present let’s get this thing fired up if you haven’t got a cigar my guy Nick is running around with cigars come get one we brought a lot the we’ll hand them out until they’re gone we’re not trying to take that home we would want you guys to have them so I am I’ve been pretty excited about this podcast I I’ve done a few podcasts not a lot but a couple and uh I’ve been wanting to do a podcast with Jay for a long time but we just never been able to make it work but more importantly I have done a podcast with my dad and my mom and and uh I was able to kind of tell the story about our about our business but because the scrap business and I’m not changing it it’s the scrap business to me for now is uh is a fraternity it’s a fraternity of people that some guys

played in the 70s some guys played in the 50s some guys played in the 90s some guys played in the 2000s it’s a it’s a community of people that have relationships it’s multi-generational it’s family business at its core even through the consolidation it’s still family business um so I’m I’m I’m beyond excited i’ I’ve probably jotted down a hundred questions that I’ll never get to but I’m excited for the two of you because you guys go way back and the only reason I know you J is because of my dad Rod so for those of you that don’t know this is my dad rod eart Mr J re benovitz who I’m sure you all know pretty well but thank you guys for uh for taking the time and doing this with me I appreciate it thanks Brett you bet thank you Brett wait to hear Jay talk some more so so wait before before you get before you started and speak about talking know he’s going do you want to do the P you want to ask the questions you want me to ask question I’m hijacking your ask for one second I

I brought something for you all right thank you sir I thank you I appreciate that that’s nice J good job be your your mano yeah so the reason I know how to get done is cuz I was taught how to get done that’s the reality right anybody’s grew up in the in the in the family business that grew up in uh scrapyards doing what we’ve all done at one point or another you were taught how to get done at an early early age um so I’m beyond humble Beyond grateful Beyond I mean I I truly was a guy that started on second base I mean that’s the way it is some people start in The Dugout some people start on first base I start on second base I’m not afraid to admit it but it’s if you it’s not where you start as much as where you finish so maybe you starting The Dugout maybe you start on second base if I end up and I stay on second base that’s on me I’m trying to get home I’m trying to make the lap I’m trying to make the loop I’m trying to score

the only reason I know how to do that is because of my dad and I you could I don’t know where he learned it I would assume from his dad and where his dad learned it we we don’t know but I just I’m I just want to say thank you I appreciate broke yeah didn’t want to disappoint the bank so take us back take us how do how do you two know each other let’s let’s let’s go let’s let’s take the history a little bit John Spiegel are we using that name out loud no johnel he sent me to you because I had a bunch of locomotive engines I needed to sell parts off of ah I I know I don’t know if I would remembered that tidbit I thought it was just me spinning around out there and Sacramento and US crossing paths yeah but uh yeah you hooked me up with the guy that sold all the parts all the parts yeah engines like all scrap things through history you know I had a little time with the locomotives if if you could cut it up and sell parts off it I

probably did it yeah yeah it’s a good lesson yeah then snitcher steel many moons ago yeah before you lost your eye yeah I had two eyes then you got two not just one that works really good so for those those of you guys that don’t know in 1997 uh my dad wanted to my grandfather and uh my grandfather being the kind guy that he was I mean we were scratching you guys were struggling trying to trying to make it make hay nobody had a lot of money there was no money to buy my grandfather out of the business it wasn’t uh it wasn’t there was no savings account that was going to enable him to retire so my mom and dad took a Leap of Faith with a little old company called snitzer steel at the time who had just put a mega Shredder in Portland if I recall and they needed people out there on the streets with small yards that had some ambition that had some hustle to go scrape up tons send some tons to Portland and you were able to hatch that deal with snitzer and we became 50% owned

by snitzer Steel at that point small little family company in Idaho owned by at that time was a privately held company it wasn’t a publicly traded company no it was actually always public was probably back from ’92 actually so it was we just didn’t act like it you know okay right which is good for me by the way so and then that’s that’s kind of where this where the relationship kind of really took took form is that correct correct and we got to be friends and cohorts and uh accomplices no we didn’t have the internet like we had today I mean you had to be friends you had to be on a phone call so between the two of you when when you guys think about the importance of relationships like you said you didn’t have the internet you didn’t have the reach you didn’t have the you know the ability to reach out and touch a thousand people with one social media post events like this kind of became important but one of the one of the most fond memories I have of of being partners with censer steel was not the accounting

was the was the horse R not the horse races but the drag races that you set you set in motion Jay so why you let’s talk about the drag races so so way back when we we used to get together and when uh when I was Liv Sacramento which it’s we used to go to Pomona every year and we’d ride down to the drag races and spend some time and have a barbecue well then I was moving to Tacoma and the barbecue guy and I really good friends so let’s barbecue our way up North and then when we get there there was a racetrack right up there so we’ll have a little party we’ll have a few guys you’ll barbecue we’ll eat we’ll get a little tent it’ll be good well the first year was like 75 people and then we went back to our house and had a barbecue in the backyard perfect next year it was 150 then it was 350 then it was four and change and the thing just got to be a total weekend of golf and drinking and cigar smoking and playing and being together and but it

was neutral ground it was consumers and suppliers and customers and competitors and the cat guy was there and the Lee bear guy was there you know everybody was there Texas Shredder was there and Riverside was there and we all became really good friends and we’d go compete like hell all the time until this weekend where we just go out and thrash it and because we were all in the industry we had so much fun together and you know the first couple years were pretty covert you know I wasn’t sure how the company was going to react and by the end Dr Leonard Schnitzer was coming and the the presidents were coming and we had you know it it just was a great event for people to be together because it’s it’s it’s an industry about knowing one another trusting each other and being able to uh to help one another I only want to add one thing to that if you’ve never experienced Nitro and pine tree smell it’s a must you got to go do it because that’s those drag races are the best right there so so I tell people there are

two things powerful things that I love and I love anything with big horsepower it’s being the guy that gets to push the button in an EA F and for those of you that saw John’s repurpose when he was going to the steel me it’s like John just tell me you want to press the button there is nothing like it’s like controlled lightning you push the button and every hair on your arm stands up and goes it’s and I just love that and the only other one was we’d go to the drag races and we’ bring newbies down by the starting line and it’s two 7,000 horsepower cars side by side it stinks in nthroom methane which I love that smell I thought they should put it in a little bottle so I could spray in the car especially with pine tree yeah yeah people’s eyes are burning they’re dying but you’d bring somebody new and we’d all latch our fingers into the chain link fence and when they hit the throttles on these things and it’s 14,000 horsepower in a fraction of a second it just goes boom and you see them

go like fly back on the ground and we were having a lot of fun can’t hear any anymore yeah what you had to bring your earplugs and then we would rent buses we would we would rent minivans we’d feel those suckers full of cools lights we mob down to the races and then then have a coolers full of cools lights for after the race so cu the line to get out of that thing was bad crazy and man that some of some of the best time but but what I liked about it was like you said it was we would we would be out there competing all day every day I mean but then you could get everybody together and this is before I was in the middle of competing but just knowing the camaraderie that was built at an event like that is similar to an event like this where you get to kind of get everybody together guys here compete you know they’re they’re they’re out there competing against each other but then they get to get together talk some to each other hang out um and reminisce about some good some

good times and I think that’s I I missed those events so you you don’t may not remember I look to you as security I didn’t even have to ask you and the football dudes it’s like people are like what are you going to do it’s like I don’t have to do anything I just have to stand here next to him and look really good I feel very safe at the moment so I I’m going to use this I’m going to use this podcast because I have a a series through the scrap life called generational courage I and I I started hatching on this because there’s a lot of different ways that that family businesses interact and and a lot of ways that family businesses have evolved over over the years and because the scrap business recycling material business whatever you want to call it has evolved over the years is uh is it it’s so family oriented and Jay came from a family business and I I’m I’m curious you know what what there’s a lot of different ways there’s a lot of different paths a person can take in this industry you chose

to leave your family business and go to Schnitzer right did you go straight from your family bus I want to hear the story along the way there yeah let’s let’s hear this let’s hear the the decision making process is interesting to me well it leaving was was hard but it was it was actually just a momentary thing um I want to change as anybody that knows me I go 100 miles an hour I don’t sleep much I got a lot of ideas and I’m always I think things should constantly be changing and I wanted to do all this stuff and my dad very slowly just said to me it’s like that’s wonderful but my company and as long as I’m alive we’re going to do it my way when I’m dead you can do whatever you want but until now it’s mine and just about that time my grandfather walked by and he was just about 100 years old and it’s like I’m never going to make it and I left my you know like all good things with my dad it was you know an event he’s like that’s my car it’s like

here’s a key I bought the boots here’s the boots I left in my socks a car hauler gave me a ride home you know I called Judy my wife at the time and said I’m home she goes what are you sick it’s like no I’m done I quit and I’ve never stepped foot in there again so it was a uh it was a oneandone kind of thing yeah and you know it was kind of like rocking your whole world my grandparents never spoke to me again till the day they died you know you left the company it’s old old school old family you left the family you’re dead to me and uh so it was kind of weird you know it’s it’s leaving family businesses like all family business things are are hard and uh so I went to sell new tractors new to my father meant something less than 50 years old that still Ran So This is these are new Volvo whites and Auto cars and I’m going to and I go in and I got a jacket on and I’m feeling kind of cocky and it was okay till about 6

months later I realized out in the back in the garage in the shop and I’m ripping apart wrecked trucks and we’re selling transmissions and re ends and I’m rebuilding stuff and I’m covered with grease again it’s like I did not go exactly as I thought it was going to so I realized I was back in the strap business and right about then someone approached me to come get involved in run a shredder my my first one in the early 80s had a company called susman and Blumenthal became Aerospace medals but they were in titanium nickel uh and Alloys businesses for Hamilton standards aor a pratton Whitney and all these incredibly Smith and Wesson CT I had guns laying everywhere and and but I knew nothing about that side of the world so it was a very different business and I was there for many years and then I was at an isra event talking about PCB issues that we were having and uh um I met Gary Schnitzer and he says come to the West Coast and that that kind of catapulted us I went home and uh it’s like guess what we’re going

to California it’s like what and we picked up the two kids at three and 5 years old moved to California didn’t no soul and just went out and with with next to nothing because we didn’t have anything which made it really easy um and and it started that 177e plus process there so it was a great run and I look back my dad still 92 so so the moral of the story is did you was it the right decision he’s 92 he still goes to the yard they still do it his way and my brother who’s 68 is still waiting so on his birthday I called him and congratulate and wish him a happy birthday and said and by the way you know my mask right you hang in there another eight 10 years you’re going to be in charge you’re almost there and as you can imagine the reaction so but I think it it it it it’s been a great thing and I don’t begrudge anybody every business is different every family is different it just wasn’t going to be what what Judy and I needed so pops let’s let’s go I

kind of fell asleep there have another TR so tell me the story well you know my your grandpa my dad was never in that great a health so I knew that I could outlive him I mean I probably shouldn’t have a few times but I did but he uh had a couple heart attacks and you know you could see the handwriting on the wall and I wasn’t going to give up the business I mean we went to work after school every day to go make it happen and instead of playing sports or doing anything like that we just went to work and loved every minute of it and I wasn’t going to let that go away cuz he was getting sick and or worse and and if he didn’t I threw a banana pill at his feet I kind of kept my hints going so go ahead go ahead no no so I think it takes courage to do both right like I think it it to walk away yeah it takes courage to walk away and and chart your own path it takes courage to stay in and fight fight it out right

and so I I bring that up because I think in this room in our industry it it doesn’t have to be one way if you sell out because somebody made offered you too much money to stay in there’s nothing wrong with that if you leave because you didn’t have a good a good feeling or you felt like you you you were destined for more there’s nothing wrong with that if you decide you want to stay and build because you you there’s a vision then there’s nothing wrong with that like that’s there’s there’s actually something to be said for for all of them right um I think for me I always knew what I was going to do like there was never there was never a question I always knew I was going to be in the scrap business in one fashion or another whoever would have me I was going to be here and even though we do other stuff like that probably makes more money than being in the scrap business most of the time I still love this industry and I truly believe that you you went and you took a you

left a family business you went at the time C was still a fairly family oriented is business and you then moved to a family business business right and I’m I’m sitting here looking at uh Michael Goldstein because to to go and and move to another family business and and if and and I bring this up because if you’re a family business and your kids don’t have the juice that that it takes or maybe they’re just not ready at the time it’s not a bad thing to to look out on the landscape and see someone that could bring value into the family business you can still keep it family and wait for somebody that’s in a position that can then take that family business and run with it so now looking back you I’m really good at Family businesses just not my own family I keep trying to get adopted nobody will adopt me yeah yeah but I I I think that it takes it takes all kinds you know and I think that’s something I I wanted to bring up because I think it’s super important that it’s it doesn’t have to be one

way or the other something Rod said a couple minutes ago you know they did it and we we all work incredibly hard you know I grew up when I met my wife I work seven days a week she’s like when don’t you take days off it’s like going to do days off why don’t you do days off it’s like CU we’re in the scrap business like why well can’t you take Sundays off it’s like no who’s going to load the trucks she’s like this whole conversation is ridiculous and I didn’t know you know I didn’t know what a regular family was like a regular life was like cuz when you grew up in the yard in the 10 blocks you know you just don’t know what’s outside that 10 blocks and I think Sunday were made for bir burning copper on out in the desert not to not to the best of my recollection but but you know it was and R you know it’s well how did you get there what drives you motivate you it’s like it we all got to eat and you know I was always afraid when I left

my dad you know he kept us starving just because that’s the way he was but you know it’s it’s work harded you don’t know where that next meal or where where your next role and you I’ve had enough things in my career where it looked like everything was going to turn over and get flushed down the toilet in a second so you know you never could stop fretting and you couldn’t stop sweating and you couldn’t stop worrying and you couldn’t take your eye off it and I don’t know you know it was just hard to let go because it all disappears in a minute or I was always afraid that it would disappear I’m still just trying to get to the last two weeks here you know yeah so what do you think Pops what’s what’s your take on the family business you know I don’t know uh I love the way our business is going I mean it’s it’s like it was uh thought out planned out designed but I mean it really wasn’t but it is it looks that way from a succession plan I people talk to me about succession planning

and they say well how did you do it how did you do this and I always say I cuz I have two young boys I got a 14 and a 10 year old boy um they don’t they don’t spend nearly the amount of time at the yards that I spent because that’s what we did every Saturday we we went to work you know even when I was young enough to not work we just I watched college football and or cartoons before college football in my Grandpa’s office and eat two breakfasts yeah eat two breakfasts I was I was a grown boy man I was trying to you know now later in life I realized the reason we had to go on Saturday and Sunday is because my mother wanted us gone yeah didn’t matter what you did just get out of here and go with him yeah but a lot of times my mom was there right cuz my mom was working the office my mom’s here too by the way I got them both to come out um so I that’s all that’s probably one of the reason that’s what all I know

so I think about my kids and they don’t spend nearly the time which maybe they haven’t developed the passion or they won’t develop the passion that I had for it which I’m I’m fine with I mean I I really I’ve kind of come to terms with it in the fact that I don’t know know if they’ll ever want to do do do what I do maybe they’ll want to do storage or Tire they’ll do something right um they got their mom’s brain so they’ll be all right um but I often think about that what does that look like for other people’s families are trying to go through that secession plan but I was lucky because I had a dad that basically kind of gave me the keys to the car and said I’m out of here go figure it out and and I want to bring this up because first car I gave you I had to crush cuz you were a I got I I might have got caught smoking pot um yeah that might that might have happened um but yeah but uh but but I but I I often I often

think about that I’m when I say I start on second base I start on second base because I had someone to give me a chance like I had someone to just say hey go see what you can get done and so not every dad is like that not every dad has the ability to let the rains go and just say yeah let’s just see what happens and and for those of you that do you’re blessed you’re you’re very blessed you you should be very grateful cuz there’s a lot of situations where it it it’s it’s it doesn’t happen and and you guys are the like kind of the ying and the Yang I really look at it and what made me think about getting the two of you on on this podcast together was when you said your dad’s my hero and I was like my dad’s your hero and you and I said why and you you know I I look at what you did R you thought about he said I I’ve got so far I’m going to give it to him I’m going to watch him grow watch him first let

him take it and run you know when I was young I was kicking down doors and knocking things down 100 miles and now that’s why I love listening to him and watching him it’s like I was like hell on wheels and every now and then Judy would say it’s like you know if you’d stop running at 100 miles an hour throwing grenades over your shoulder you might leave a little less destruction behind you but I had no there was no off switch I just didn’t have that and and I look at my dad who’s now in his 90s goes to the yard and still hasn’t quite relinquished that and I’ve seen so many people do it there’s two there’s two forms either you’re I built this business I built my life what are we working for we worked our asses off because we were going to starve to death so we worked really hard to make it and then what do you want to do it’s like well the business is running it’s doing well I’ve got what I need you’re off enjoying your life and he gets to pick up and run the

business and build the same kind of thing and have that pride and growth in the next section my dad chose not to do that I’m going to wait they’re going to wait till he’s dead and then they’re going to start but you know the 40 years between those two events is a lot of time and and you can’t make that back up and it’s a different way and I don’t think you know and I’m not being critical and I’m picking on my family a little because I think it could have been very different if you know 40 years old my dad had said look if you think you can do this go ahead and try it let’s see how it goes let’s do this together go ahead and run with it and see what you going to do it would the business would look so different today and my brother’s lives would be different and my family’s lives would be different and and they didn’t get that chance so I can see what happens if you don’t do it well and then I see what happens and so and so part of this I

talk my hero you know I’m retiring in two weeks because I want to give Michael I want to give the Next Generation the chance to go run this thing I want to get out of your way because if you haven’t noticed when I’m in the room you know I really don’t stop talking and you know my answer is always right so I don’t get the problem but always right that’s her coffee cup so what gave you like what made you cuz your dad was was different than you were to me right and you and I have had this conversation but I I would like for you to just kind of discuss it pops your dad didn’t do for you what you did for me and and what made you look at that differently I’m not so sure that he really did it any different than I did because that’s kind of where I I got it from was him he uh he liked to sit in his office and smoke cigarettes and watch sports and made sure us boys are out there working hard enough to keep him in the lifestyle he was accustomed

to but uh at the end of the day I mean I probably started on with your terminology I probably started on first base I mean it was at least a start we weren’t green filled in anything so he did us right yeah I mean without him we don’t we’re not s you and I aren’t sitting here today right it’s a very different it’s a very different picture and I and I and I feel like that I I’m I’m I’m grateful I’m thankful for that and and I know that it was a different fight at the time because you had a brother in the business and you had yourself in the business and it was it it was a different Dynamic than what I have for people that I don’t I don’t relate to people that have siblings in the business or cousins or because I I don’t have that I I have a sister and she’s a school teacher and she does her thing and and she she’s a damn good school teacher she’s good at what she does um so I I don’t envy that the position of some of some people

that have to fight that battle cuz I believe that’s a whole another that’s a whole another podcast that I know don’t know anything about I think family businesses have challenges on a lot of levels and and all families are different and they’re all dysfunctional one way or the other nothing yeah no no offense don’t believe Instagram yeah it’s not not all rainbows and unicorns and and when you get money and business and future and it’s shifting from generation to generation and I’ve had you know I’ve watched so many people whether it was build businesses we were acquiring or um business I was involved in where you know that that shift you know we grew up you know everybody says when did you start in the industry it’s like well my parents used to tell people they found me in a trunk of a car and and when you’re little you believe that you know and it’s like found me in a trunk of a car and so when did you start I don’t know when they open the trunk but but uh you look at families as you know they started off in the

art and then that generation grows up and then the next Generation you know has it a little bit better and the Next Generation has a little bit better and then they get to go to to college and and then you know some wander off and some stay in and it becomes more complicated and then you know it’s uh it’s growing every generation and as the business grows there’s a point where it says why are we doing are we doing this for our benefit are we doing it because we’re happy and we want to is it providing everything why are we chasing the goals we’re chasing and you really have to have really incredibly hard conversations and you know it it’s it’s and I think you got to have them often and I think you have to it’s really hard to be honest it’s it’s just really hard to be there um so I think families you know and coming from Total family dysfunction I say this with all the goodness in my heart you know they’re all different and I think it takes a lot of work to be in a family business people

go well it’s a family business you got it made it’s like yeah you know maybe your family but you know it’s uh so go ahead pops ah I just agree in 100% I mean what was I mean is it it’s it has to be significantly more challenging when they’re siblings in the business especially if they’re you had to Blindside them yeah stay ahead of them I don’t know creates competition unless you can clearly Define the lanes of everybody’s you know I look at our business now as takes a while to get to likey again yeah exactly I look at our business now as a family business right I mean you know when I when I graduated in 2004 like I’ll back it up a little bit and you guys if you ever heard the podcast you’ve heard these stories before but you know when when I gra when I graduated high school um before I graduated I I was like I want to get in the office I want an office job I want one of them one of that one of that jobs and I was like then go to college like somebody

needs to go to college in our family like go see what it’s about are the stories true is it a is it as good as they say it is right and so I got that encouragement well I need you to play some football get knocked around a little bit Hollow it out so I did I went to college and I came back and like any guy that’s fresh out of college that like that’s 22 and ready to like tear the world down I’m like let’s this family business is great but I want to grow the family business what do I got to do and our first yard we we had kind of found this little yard out in goody Idaho and we at the time we had our calwell facility and a little Feeder yard Mountain Home and I was like I I want to buy that and the first question my dad asked me was who who’s going to run it I remember like it was yesterday who’s going to run it like we already can only split you know Mountain Home call there’s we need who who who else in the family

can run it you know or who else can we and I said I’ll find I’ll find somebody and we end up finding somebody internally and we end up working through it but anytime we and I’m going through it with I got some some Partners in Oregon that are here today and we we’ve built a hell of a business together on the backs of their their hard work and we we were talking about another facility and and the first question I asked him I said who’s going to run it that’s what was asked me and so I’ve recruited my friends I’ve recruited recruited people that iew I view his family and off the backs of who’s going to run it because that’s what you need to build a business you need people to run it so I think that’s the single biggest limit to growth and we and and you know everything we look at we look at businesses well we nobody’s going to stay it’s like we don’t have any people if if if you don’t have good people we don’t want it you know I don’t care how good it is without people

it doesn’t matter but but we were we were I was at dinner last night and it’s like jud’s like what it’s like I think I want to hire this waitress it’s like you know it’s it’s you get a personality you get somebody it’s like this has got some zinc some intellectual curiosity everybody you need people and and I think you you figure out what that spark is in people that they got that little people thing and they’re going to go get it done and they’re a little snippy and a little sassy and it’s like oh I need to harness that you know but but we go from yard to yard and that’s exactly the first question with every place we go who’s going to do who’s going to run it and I think that the the goal around everything and and this is I’m going to rub something really raw here so the problem with family businesses is every business and every ownership and every relationship is about trust and it’s got to be like incredible trust in each other and when sometimes within families it’s hard to get trust because you got the

family thing it’s not like a pure Trust of a a relationship that you’ve structured around the trust you got the family stuff that eats its way in that says well I trust you but I got to get a little squish out of it and and it’s it’s a it’s a hard balance but you like to do business with people you trust yeah you want to spend your time with people you trust you know whether they’re on your team or the other team it’s like I got a bunch of people that I can beete with all the time we trust each other it’s like Jay said that it’s like there’s no goddamn way he said that and you know we we it’s like you call me tell me if somebody tells you I said that cuz but you have to trust the people you surround yourself so I saw you wrinkle your nose up there I I know you well and he said that family business and trust and I saw you like like you just ate a turd you’re and I was like oh no I know there’s something brewing in there on that

yeah so what I learned Family Trust I felt like I was the one bent over all the time but to your point like that’s there’s there’s a lot of Dynamics there that have to be worked through right and I know I mean whether you want to talk about it or not I know that that was a big a big pinch point for for our family business at the time cash driven business some of the Great so so when we were kids at the end of the day we were in the auto parts and the scrap is is many many many years ago and you know everybody that walked up with the part you looked at them you gauged them this is long before you know this is self-surface before self-surface how much money you think he’s got in his pocket and how much you think he knows about cars it’s like and you guess what the part should be and you took his money and you put in your pocket so at the end of the day it’s like it was our money their money my money who’s by so we’d end

up checking each other’s pockets and trying to figure out who is stealing more money from who and it’s like okay this cashing is just not working out quite the distrust that it brings because you know did you get more than I got and you know it comes back I was just talking to somebody about fair I hate the idea of fair you know fair is not such a great word yeah I I I 100% agree I think it’s whoever puts the most work in whoever makes the most happen should get most of the done absolutely I saw that and it was screaming your name what are you doing like and I don’t order anything online it’s like what the how do you do this so how many so Jay as a guy that’s that’s Consolidated and you’re you’re an industry consolidator in my opinion right good bad or indiff look on it however you want to how many of those deals were done because there was no succession plan is it I mean a percent somewh they just didn’t you know they didn’t feel it some there was a variety of reasons but but

to go back what we just talking about most of those deals got done because we were sitting around having a cocktail smoking a cigar and having a conversation that led to you know what if you just kind of like sold me your business and we can just like and most of it’s done on a napkin you know it’s like I can’t tell you how many on it’s like at the bar it’s like and it’s like here take that and think about it but I think that there’s a trust thing I think families get to a point where sometimes the business interferes with the family’s health you know because they start fighting in the family and it’s it’s bad and you know if yeah that’s that’s exactly part of you know that’s part of the the reason that we are in the position that we are well I know that you know I mean I was there when that was going on with you guys and that’s how we got to know each other and you know and and part of what what I think is that you can relate to people that say hey

I’ve got my own screwed up family so if you want to talk about screwed up families I can like lead you down a path that’ll just take forever cocktails will go on for hours but you know the the idea is there’s a point in every business where it says why am I doing it and is it the right thing and do I want to carry the burden what every a lot of the family businesses that we buy and a lot of them are and and I I say this because I’m just facing this as I retire I don’t own this business but I’m retiring for a reason you know when you own that business you’re responsible for every single family every employee and every family that’s underneath you and that burd is really high and you know it’s like why do you sleep why are you so fussy why don’t you would you put the turn the goddamn cameras off it’s like I can’t turn them off and and I can’t because I’m worried all the time that something’s going to go wrong or somebody’s going to get hurt or something’s going to you

know cause this and I look at life you talk about the banana i f that banana peel like my whole life is like it’s going to take one wrong step and I I tell everybody my world is shoots in ladders it takes forever to get up anywhere and then in an instant one stupid comment and you’re right back at the bottom of the hill again and and I I look at my life that way so I fret a lot about and I worry about those families and their health and their future and that is a that is a huge thing so I see some of these guys that are in their 80s that have been carrying this and that weight just crushes them that’s why I think there I think they’re just did you feel that did you feel the weight when you when you were operating everything did you feel that the pressure he’s talking about that well sure you feel it you know but it’s how you handle it right I mean you know that that’s an is you know you know that weight is there you know how it’s going to

affect people when you make a decision whether it’s the decision is going to be right or wrong but it’s still like one of those deals you just got to like you say put your chips at the center of the table and take a chance but uh no I didn’t it’s easy for me to walk away it really is because well but you got somebody to pick up the ball that it’s easier to walk away with somebody to carry the water and you just look at the people that have he’s surrounded himself with I mean they yeah if if you don’t know them take a chance and get to know them cuz I telling you that’s these guys are a rockstar team so it’s easy for me just just to walk away and go to the hills and play on my little piece of equipment and yeah and that’s why I’m excited it’s like it’s it’s it’s I’m set to leave now under a thing that everybody’s in good hands I leave you all in good care you know I I look at I don’t know how the pandemic was for you guys but you

know people are like you don’t know what you’re doing it’s like I absolutely don’t know what I’m doing I have no goddamn idea what I’m doing I’m making it up as I go along government Jack and I like what the you think you know somebody gives a little bit of information and we make a decision it’s like two days later oop wrong so so we were like skitso through the whole thing when I think that when I talk about the generational courage I talk about it from from all levels right the courage on the young the up and cominging generation to fight the fight or go do your thing but I think it takes a lot of it takes a lot of nuts man it takes a lot of courage to to to walk away and believe that the somebody’s going to hold the fort down too I there’s a lot to be said for that well you know in the in the transition period And this is a little tidbit you know now that I’m in the last couple weeks here been transitioning out when I came into Rob and and Rob go

you know he’s a great guy and he says like you come in I’ll take care of your family you take care of mine and it’s been incredible I mean just absolutely fantastic but then I did me and I just like spinning around like a whirling dervish you know like and he and he he stepped back kind of going like and he let me go run at 100 miles an hour and you know I’m like crash to the door figure out what’s on the other side right after you get there and and he let me do that and build the business and grow grow and do things and he’s like are you sure you know what you’re doing it’s like no idea we’re going anyways and and he supported it all the way through and it was such an incredible thing and now now I’m looking at I’m I’m turning to Michael and Jack and the team and I’m like this is little weird stepping back and watching somebody else run well and and but it’s it’s amazing when you can do that you know you say you’re so proud you can watch it you

can see it CU you know they’re on that path but I never I never sto all of a sudden I’m going to not be the guy kicking the door in this is a little weird so just have to find a different door oh yeah that’s I have no doubt you’ll be kicking some doors and it just may not be that that same that same door no I’m going to very quietly go sit out yeah yeah I I don’t I don’t really believe that I I believe that one thing I do believe is I believe relationships are important I this business is built on relationships um um it doesn’t necessarily have to be quote unquote family but I believe that this B this business this industry was built on relationships and that’s why we’re all sitting here today that’s why I was able to I’m able to have some of the conversations that I I can have with you is because of the relationship that he built with you and so I I want to make sure that people understand that the importance of of building those relationships and having those conversations and reaching out

and and and asking people questions most anybody here I guarantee you if you ask them how they did something or why they believe something to be a certain way they’re going to tell you their opinion they’re willing to be honest with you because they want to see other people have success I’ve I’ve only gotten to where I’m at is because I’ve been willing to ask the question I’ve said Hey how do you do that why does that do that like what can I do if I do this most people want to help but you can’t get any help if you don’t ask the question so if you don’t want to do in person send an email send a text get on Linked In do something and and and let let other people help you so I I I love that this you know you just got to be willing to say could you explain this to like a second grader cuz I need you talk to me and explain I don’t understand what you’re talking about I need you to talk to me like think about this whatever it is for dummies CU that’s

where we’re at and if and until I get it you can repeat it 10 times but once I know then I know it but I you know people are afraid to ask and say I don’t know I’m afraid to you know raise my hand it’s like I’m the dumbest Bast some days in the room it’s like just somebody just bring me up to speed do you want to comment on that I was just thinking if you’re going to explain something to me you better do it in like two seconds or I’m going to be off somewhere else I I I will say this though there I just want to go back to it there it’s not easy there were days that my dad and I like God bless my mom like we would be running a business together and not talk to each other for a month and trying to run a business and can you imagine with your dad and not talking for a month and my mom going will you just say hi in the morning and it was over that guy I ain’t doing it I’m not talking to him I

ain’t doing it like he has to come talk to me and then she’d be like come on like you know it’s like two bowls in a and so I I don’t take any of it for granted it’s hard like what we do is hard as family business it’s hard but the the juice is worth to squeeze I promise you if you can find some common ground and you can get over the hump and I and I just want to reiterate that you know I’m I’m super happy I was able to get my dad to come out this is a probably once in a lifetime deal for me but it’s not going to be easy but if it’s nothing that’s good is ever easy so I got to tell you a quick story talk about family not talking when Judy first came on to the scene you know my family is totally dysfunctional I make no bones about it so we had to go to dinner Friday nights if you didn’t go to Friday nights you didn’t get your money on Saturday and you starved to death and that was the way he liked it

so you don’t show up I don’t give your money you don’t eat it was a pretty easy straightforward program so Judy comes to dinner and we had had a really rough family week so we get in the room and we’re all sitting there at the dinner table and nobody is saying a word cuz we haven’t spoke to each other in a very long time and the tension is so tight and it’s she’s like what’s going on it’s like don’t say anything and don’t talk just sit here eat they don’t finish and they’re the same guys and we’ll all go our separate ways and it’ll be fine but if we don’t sit here quietly but it was different that’s what I say about fames the communication in some families you have to able to say look at what’s going on sitting in the room and it’s easy to say it’s incredibly hard to do it’s it’s easy to say you got to be able to talk about it when you get something but you get and it’s usually over something stupid yeah but like you said I’m not giving any ground and I’m not giving

any ground what’s one piece of advice you would give PE F somebody that’s got a son a daughter some family in their business what would what what advice would you give them dad to how to make it work come back on the practical jokes I mean you’re putting grease in the headliner of your hard hat and grease in the fingertips your gloves you shouldn’t do that to them other than that talk to them communicate with them love them cuz it goes away really fast Jay what’s or run it could go either way run run forest go find somebody else’s family I still got a little adoped ption just in case what what would what advice would you give to uh the family business someone that’s and I talk about this cuz I got I’m I’m like looking at Jake right now who took my business partner now Oregon he’s got a son coming up he just graduated college and so he’s a years of probably you know eight years ahead of my son and I’m like watching it CU it’s intriguing to me like the dynamic right because i’ I’ve I’ve been through it

and and I I’m trying to like give him advice and encouragement like this is what worked for me this is what didn’t work for me maybe it works for you maybe it doesn’t but what would you so kind of watching all the different generational shifts I’ve seen with different age gaps cuz that that is different you got to give give them the chance introduce it little bits come on a Saturday spend a day come do something see if it pequs their curiosity but you can’t push them and you can’t you know there is a there is a in some families there’s an expectation this is what you’re going to do you were born bred and raised to do this and like in my family you’re raised to do this if you’re not going to do this you’re dead to me and that’s and that’s one View and the other one is you got opportunities we had to do it because we couldn’t eat the Next Generation got a little better you’ve had an opportunity to go to school find you can do anything you want go figure out what makes you happy and and

give them the chance and sometimes all of a sudden they wander off and then they say you know what I am a little cheed I want to come back and that that then it becomes their idea cuz when it’s your idea it sucks when it’s their idea it’s wonderful and you you know it’s like anything with kids if if it if they come by it naturally it’s great but I think that the the I think it’s about all communication it is incredibly hard to say open communication keep it make sure you can talk about the hardest of hardest things in Judy’s family you could sit down and it didn’t matter whether it was drugs or addiction or anything they would talk about it in my family nobody says a word not a goddamn thing and it’s just a different world yeah you in that old school they don’t talk about you got a problems we just don’t talk about and they’ll go away over time and the new Cent say get it out on the deck and if we’re going to face something let’s face it together and if you need somebody in the

middle but don’t be afraid to address the hard stuff you know the hard stuff is hard stuff for a reason and somebody has to talk about it yeah get it out there get it out in the open I think if if I can if I can reiterate that yeah communicate with each other come up with a plan I I think once we kind of came up with a plan once we kind of once you you and I I remember I remember where we were at we were in downtown Eagle we went to that coffee shop it had been a rough battle my mom was there and we had it out and it was like I can’t do it F you I’m out we’re going to do something different and it but and I that’s what I thought this thing was going and it was like and he came and he said I’m out I’m done how many times did you quit I never quit but I threatened to quit like a zillion I stopped counting yeah it’s like well I quit again burned all the hair offside your head I quit I’m not doing

this anymore but communication is key and I think that that until that point it was we had our good moments we had moments but it was okay how are we going to make this work and I think that was the thing but what intrigues me one of the things about podcas and about this kind of stuff this didn’t happen in our world nobody talked about this stuff we hid and what the is your family doing you we we try not to let anybody hear us talk about it and and we were all like you know is is yours as screwed up as mine is it’s like but but I think that the goal and the takeaway and all the communication that you guys you know anything that happens is like Global in a matter of seconds yeah and I I made a comment on one last week and like with instant my kids are like what the hell did you do it’s like uh um but but I think that when I look at this family and I didn’t have the benefit of my own family my family is the people here I mean

there are so many people that I have relationships with here in this room over 40 plus years and you know you can be anywhere pull into a scrapyard I’ve left that motorcycle at scrapyards all over the country you know i’ I’d run hiy how are you can have a little corner I can PL in and put my charger and I’m going to the airport and and but I have people I count on that I know I can call and say I need something I don’t get something and they’re always there and I think that that is the family my family is here and I have a family of choice because my regular family is totally Looney Tunes it’s it’s just a great ability to be out there and I think this industry welcomes people and shares information and gives support when somebody’s you know when because bad stuff happens you can be the big competitors somebody has a fire or God forbid a fatality and if you haven’t been through any of that you know that’s just uh uh safety has to be Paramount to everybody I’ve witnessed it and I think the people

that have the most success in our industry are the people that are most open they’re the people that are willing to share they’re the people that are willing to help and those are people that have the most success because they have the most relationships and they have the largest Network and I mean it when you say family business like the the guys I work with every day that those are my best friends they’re my family like we have our knockdown drag outs we have like hey we don’t I don’t agree we don’t disagree but at the end of the day like that is your family and that must be you cuz I don’t have any of those problems I never disagree with anybody so you’re never have any of those disagreements hey you’re pretty quiet but I know I know better and I could I could tell you stories and you you would you could probably tell stories uh without a microphone in your face but just know that it’s hard know that it’s it’s it’s challenging but know that you know if the Situation’s right it takes two sides to tango it takes

a younger generation real quick while I’m there the younger generation has so many more options like they don’t have to be in the family business they if they don’t want to they could I mean you could do a lot of different things than you today that you couldn’t do 10 20 years ago so if you’ve got kids know that they have options let them come to you to a certain extent let them go taste The Taste the world right let them go see what’s going on like you said they might come back if they don’t that’s fine there’s guys like alter that’ll buy you so so my kids ask why why did you why did you go in scrap it’s the only thing I know I have no fall black plan I’m a one trick pony this is all I know you’re a burn the ships guy we burn the ships we would have all starved to death if so r i can I ask a question yeah yeah how proud are you and what he’s done with with the business and all the growth and the between the tires and the storage and

the new entities and you know last night we were just uh walking from here to the our little bit nicer place down the road that we’re staying at the Luxor just case you want to know we’re staying at the RIT next door pyramid but I was with all these guys we may have been drinking a tiny bit but yeah when you look at the group of people that he’s surrounded himself with and and he’s and these people are surrounding me I mean I don’t have a single worry in the world and I’m proud you bet I am so you know I I asked because I I watch them and I watch what’s going on and I I’ve changed what what brings happiness and what what wealth is in this business and what family businesses are good for if you can get to that point where your real value comes out of how much you can see the growth and the success of those others and the families you’ve empowered I think that is like incredibly more fulfilling than than you know the money didn’t hurt helps first here yeah but changes my attitude it

does make things a t leads some to indiscretions keeps Mama happy yeah uh but I I uh I know I wash from AF far and I you know my kids chose not to come in this business not but it’s not mine um and then one I got one that’s Graz in the side of it which I think is a riot but uh I I watch Brett come along and I think that’s a fantastic thing and the way he’s taken it and changed where it was you know who would have thought you could do what he’s doing we didn’t have enough money to build one garage let alone a storage facility Well I am where I am because I’ve I had a solid foundation to work off of that’s what it is like I I I truly believe that I’m as lucky as they come I and I I couldn’t thank the two of you more for sitting here I thank all the guys that support me gals that support me doing what I do I can only hope to give it back just as much as they gave to me and so that’s why

I do it that’s why I show what I do that’s why I say this is how I’m doing this is what I’m doing the good the bad the ugly the in between and I just hope that at some point that helps somebody cuz if it does then I feel like we’re winning thank you guys for coming and if you haven’t got a cigar come get one Cheers Cheers Che