right thank you for being here with us this is another episode of dirty scrapped aluminum podcast and man finally finally you’re here um so how are you doing yeah how’s everything going good man it’s good it’s uh just trying to like I said earlier man he’s trying to keep the wheels on the bus we got a lot of moving parts so you know you just uh one day at a time just do what you can do right um let me ask you something because I want to start this knowing you a little bit better I know you are part of a huge family business your grandfather start this business but you are very involved into the recycling industry I mean I can I can see that you are uh involved in uh let’s say several different uh areas areas right of the recycling industry you are on the tire recycling scrap business but also you are a coach you have a master’s degree um uh business but also applied science how you become everything you are right now and how he’s working with a family in the business and it’s a tough industry because

the scrap industry is not easy right so tell me about you and you have a podcast that is amazing I love it you know I I you know for me man here’s the deal I was born to two hard-working parents um my grandfather grandmother two hard-working people and nobody in my family ever went to college no we have my family ever even step foot and I grew up in a scrap yard we had a kind of a little small yard in Caldwell Idaho and eventually we had bought a little Feeder yard in a place called Mountain Home Idaho but I really grew up in Caldwell just small family business you know a half full of employees just people trying to uh to build something um right and so I think I get my just my general work ethic and whatever else just I think it’s kind of in My DNA so I was blessed with two parents that just showed me how to um get up every day and go to work and just put your head down and and go to work and and you know you’ve heard I’ve heard the

saying a thousand times that you know the more I work the luckier I get you know that that’s that’s the truth man it’s you just put your head down you go to work you know you do what you said you’re gonna do and you put the time in and I think for me that’s what it amounts to I’m I’m not any more special than anybody else I I’ve I grew up like a lot of other people just maybe with me maybe I had a little bit less than some people so I had to work a little bit harder I think it was hard working that’s that’s what I know you know is is just get up every day and go put the time in yeah that’s the way man I mean uh I’m a Latin American guy and as you can imagine I’m from Colombia Colombia is still an easy country you know you need to hustle every day right so yeah and and like you um in this business I love this business and how is to grow up in this business with two very hard worker parents and as you said that

being you know teaches you how to wake up every morning and say you know let’s move forward because he’s not easy working with the family I used to have a business with my family back in Colombia and it was it was a little bit complicated it’s not easy right because in some point they are the boss but then they are the parents to and separate that thing is not easy how was for you or how is it because you’re still working with them right yeah so here’s so I retired my parents in 2015. um I watched my dad work with my grandfather um for a lot of years and it was a very tough relationship um my grandfather was a very tough man a very um hard to get along with for some people loving old school man towards his grandkids but he was a very old school tough soul and uh my dad was you know very much a people person very much a uh like a thought idea guy he was an entrepreneurial and how he thought about things and his his dad never really gave him much of an opportunity to

you know to do things his way so I think in 1997 uh my dad got the opportunity to partner with Schnitzer Steele and buy my grandfather out and I can thank you know and in one hand I know my dad had a pretty rough because he had a tough father who it took him a while to give him an opportunity to run the show the way he thought it needed to be ran right I think my grandfather because he made it so difficult on my dad that my dad had then in turn made it a lot easier for me because he recognized where the issue was and my dad and I we have some pretty rough you know goes for a lot of years you know of competing ideas competing thoughts of how things should be done how things should be run and uh but I I I’m I’m blessed Beyond to have a dad and a mom that hey taught me how to work hard but B gave me the opportunity to to bring a lot of people in that I knew a lot of the kids some guys I went to college

with right guys and helped me build the business to where it’s at today because my parents basically my dad included he just said I’m not going to do what my dad did to me to you I’m not gonna I’m not gonna create that environment I’m actually going to let you get in here and do it the way you think it needs to be done and I’m going to support you so man I’m I’m pretty pretty lucky when it comes to it you know great so it’s good yeah because at the end or you decide to become the same thing that your father your father or you decide to become the opposite is is the way that life you know build you it is what it is yeah I’m really happy to to hear that so you are right now running the the business by yourself correct yeah I have one sister and uh she’s a school teacher just like my wife my wife’s a uh third grade school teacher and my sister is a third grade school teacher as well so uh yeah but I’m I’m I don’t have any brothers or sisters or

cousins or you know um in the business or whatever it’s it’s me and to all my friends that I work with every day you know we we build it we get up every day and we we build it together we all kind of put in our uh two cents what we think uh needs to happen we we make group decisions and we we move the ball forward that’s the way man that’s the way you have any any kids I have two young boys I like they’re young they’re 13 and uh my youngest boy just turned 10. so I got two boys um and uh we’ll see someday I don’t know I don’t have a you know I don’t have any expectations for them I do this because I love it man like right I can tell this to people all the time like I I I’m in this industry in the scrap you know and Recycling business because I love it like I’ve always loved it my whole life I knew exactly what I was gonna do my whole life there was never a thought there was never like well maybe I could there’s

other things that interest me but right like but this is my and my day-to-day grind is as much just entrepreneurship right like but my a lot of our businesses are you know kind of formed around the idea of recycling or you know Transportation Logistics stuff like that right and talking about the the recycling industry because I think that I I see that you are involved in a lot of different let’s say uh subgroups of the recycling right the scrap but also tires what is the tougher one because at the end tires I think is I have a customer and they make the full process right from um Reclamation and all the process separate everything actually they have even a Foundry for the for the steel wire it’s a full closed loop process it’s the same as you are doing right now or you stop right before The Foundry we actually are in the process of going all the way to commodity so we’re going all the way to Chrome rubber um we pull the steel out so we have the ability we’ve done Reclamation projects so we have the ability we have

mobile shredders as well so we’ll go on site to a landfill to a you know facility and we’ll shred on site and we’ll get the customer the option you know we can shred here you guys can bury it you know we’ll meet your uh your landfills back um on reduction size or we have uh we’re in the process of bringing that material back to our facility in Idaho and going all the way to Chrome from rubber tdf we we’re excited about the future of tire recycling um it’s adds another component to our business as as a so you’re not really locked into just steel or copper or aluminum or Nick you know a nickel or it gives you another commodity that you can uh focus on um and another opportunity to grow yeah that’s great recycling industry do you think it’s changing a lot because at the end if you compare this United States with Europe or Latin America is totally different in Europe they have I think they’ve been moving into into the green direction right circular economy and alternative energies uh for a long time right now I think United States is

going in the same direction I don’t know if it’s the the best way to do it or not but I think it’s happening right now um how do you feel these changes mostly on the scrap business yeah I believe it recycling is is a big part of the economy and it’s only going to become a bigger part of the economy continue that we bring you know to the table every day now I think that you can take it too far just like anything right um I think you can use when the government starts over subsidizing industry and basically creating and picking winners and losers versus letting the market kind of naturally evolve towards you know understanding that there’s there’s only so many resources available and we have to find ways to you know not only just mine these resources but also Urban minimum and put them back into circulation so I’m a big proponent of recycling obviously but I’m also a big proponent like I think I kind of walked that line of um of government intervention going too far where they are you know just picking who to subsidize and what industries are

subsidized and which industry is not subsidized which that kind of makes me nervous um there’s certain situations where I can appreciate like they’re trying to find alternative sources of energy alternative uh fuels and whatnot but I mean the electric car is like probably the most perfect example of of I think government going too far into an industry that isn’t ready for for that right like I mean you you’re you’re talking about Green economy greenness and and and Renewables that but then if you really did people that really understand it and they start digging into the true cost of of uh to the environment of creating this this battery and what what that all entails and um I think that there’s there’s more to it than just the Optics of we’re doing something green because we throw it in the in the in the blue recycling bin you know there’s a lot more to the back end of it so I think that’s kind of a like it can go a lot of different directions right yeah yeah and totally agree and I mean I’m involved in the business we create solutions for The Foundry

industry and the idea for us obviously is to help foundries to go in or into the mail transformation in a better and most efficient direction right but I totally agree I mean every time you open a window or or or you open the door you are opening a Pandora box in in some ways because it is what it is uh for example uh alternative energies I I love the alternative energies but why we are not using nuclear energy anymore if the cleanest one we know how to do it we know how to use it we have better technology but we are just pushing everything on the side because of the trends and I mean I’m agree but come on we need to understand very well what’s going on right and it’s the same with the recycling industry China for example what do you think about that and everything that is happening right now how is this the globalization because it is happening right now affecting the industry from your point of view because it’s happening yeah I I subscribe to this uh it’s called The Copper journal and a guy by named John gross

puts it out and he’s talking about uh copper consumption by country here this last week and and in it he talks about like how much copper China consumed in in 2000 versus like where how much copper cons is consumed by China in 2022 right in 2023 and it’s I mean it totally flip-flopped right I mean they you know they were like number 13 or 14 on the consuming countries back in 2000 and they’re number one today um I think that that as far as far as China goes in general I mean we’re we’re at the point now as a country and as a world we are uh we’re all heavily intertwined right so it’s it’s there’s we need each other to all be successful right but but at what detriment and at what’s a cost I think we ought to kind of understand you know if you’re shipping all of your copper if all of your refining is going to another country then and you’re not refining any of that material in the United States because of all the red tape and all of the uh you know all the laws that prohibit

you from from doing that I mean you’re kind of at a like a pic you’re in a pickle right like you don’t necessarily want to ship all your Commodities to a second world or third world country to be produced but if your government doesn’t allow you or makes it so cost prohibitive to do that here I mean what do you do as a business owner to to stay alive like if you’re competing with incoming raw materials raw Commodities and you’re not allowed to refine them here or the cost is is too high to do that then you’re in kind of a quantity so I don’t know the answer and I whether it’s China or importing steel from Russia or Ukraine and and as they battle and and their countries get more involved we are in a true globalized world where everything is interconnected one way or the other and I guess that goes on way back to why I dislike you know the any government picking winners and losers and kind of allowing the market to shape and and and Shake itself out really and just let let the real good operators win let

the real innovators innovate and find the capital you know find people to believe in their process find people who believe in their business enough to invest private money to subsidize these you know and then let the real operators win versus you know a guy that’s connected to the government here or to a lobbyist there his company gets funded while your company on the private side is battling against a publicly funded company you’re you’re in a tough spot you know like yeah it’s hard to compete and and I think you know so you know just circle all the way back you know to to China and what’s going on there I think China’s in the same thing that we were doing they were trying to shake out of covid and trying to you know get their country going again and the difference between them and us is we’ve printed a shitload of money and just yeah put it into our economy China does things a little bit differently right I think they subsidize some of these businesses and they subsidize industry and that’s kind of their way of um uh stimulating their economy you know

through their GDP like right they measure their strength of what does their GDP look like this quarter this year how are they going to do that and right now you know whether it’s sending cheap Billet steel to other countries you know and melting steel for for less than it should cost and you know make in hurting industry or whatever I you know it just depends but uh but you know I there’s a lot of different ways to skin the cat I guess right no I’m totally agree with you and I think all this money that is right now into the economy is is a huge mistake for all of us and I and I understand that the government is trying to dry this money out of uh the economy but it’s not easy and well it is what it is right and and this is yeah where we are now stay in that what do you think is the future for the recycling industry in the United States because for me it’s very clear that everyone is going in the same direction but from the basic from the foundation that is the scrap yard

how do you feel it you know I think there’s a lot of upside to the traditional scrap yard I think the I I really goes back to I think the real operators are going to operate and they’re going to have some success you know the it is a true commodity um business it used to be scrap and people are starting to recognize it’s an actual commodity it’s an actual resource that is there which I think will in the future drive you know um outside investment the people that maybe normally wouldn’t have thought they would be invested into the the recycling industry are now starting to come in and say hey this is a real opportunity there’s you know there’s there’s real operators out there that you know if they had a little bit more funding could you know really grab market share right you’ve got a lot of these multi-generational families multi-generational businesses um you have a younger generation um that if they aren’t motivated to carry on the business there’s probably some acquisition some consolidation opportunities um where people are just like yeah that’s not really my my forte um I

don’t really want to be in the describe business or the Recycled you know Iron business or aluminum you know recycling business or whatever it is so I think there is going to be some some acquisition opportunities and maybe some outside funding opportunities which then you know will will create you know a uh you know more in the spotlight industry I guess is for lack of a better term I think that as copper becomes more of a problem um and more of a resource that’s needed like everybody seems to be thinking that it will be more important you know moving forward and if you’re going to Electrify everything Hoppers kind of big piece of that equation oh yeah it is sure is really right for the recycling industry as a whole um and I feel I feel lucky I feel blessed that I like I I was in it I liked it so I get to kind of do something that’s positive at the same time I’m I’m in I have the ability to make money doing it if I do it correctly right so I’m kind of I feel lucky that I get that

that I get that that’s kind of a win oh it is it is it is now I mean this industry is great but I think the pandemic hits uh us in a certain way that allowed us to develop so so many different ways to keep working and keep moving forward and one of those ways is is this right the platforms just open to this industry because I think this industry we have a lot of dinosaurs in this industry right and and I’m doing I am saying this in the in the best way I can do it right we have and we need those old guys for you know the feedback uh mentoring and everything because we want to learn from them that’s that’s right that’s a uh something that we really need but at the end the new generation needs to understand that we need to push this industry forward and I am not from from this country but I love this country I love the opportunity that this country create for everyone and I think I really think that if I need to choose a place to stay it’s going to be United

States I love it now saying that the industry is changing a lot how become uh on the real side your podcast because I I understand you’re starting 2020 right I start the same I start doing something that we call e-experts um back in the 2020 and we started doing some interviews and some podcasts at the shows you know the history show uh show cast Expo we used to go with my camera guy and doing so many different things and you support your podcast you started in 2020 right how this idea just become true you know this is again it’s a good question so I started my first podcast um I had bought a pipe company in Indiana and um it’s what they call re-line material so you would line existing steel pipe with this material and I start a podcast because I I liked I liked the business the the pipe business and I was trying to understand it better and try to Market this kind of unique product to the masses and so I was like I’m gonna start podcasting I’m gonna interview everybody about it that knows a lot about

um this reline material and how to realign existing forwards and pipe and long long story short that was my first podcast even though my true you know like I’ve said in the past like my true my true love is the recycling industry you know I do other businesses and and whatnot that I enjoy and I really think you know I think highly of them but like I was like I’m gonna now well now that I kind of got my feet wet I’m gonna do a podcast about just people in the scrap industry owners operators you know just people in and around involved in that in the industry and and because that’s where my passion was and I think it would show through just the people I got to talk to and now you know moving forward say three more years I’m I’m on a project now in the middle of starting a business that is um with a couple friends of mine that we are teaching people how to build up their brand and build their own podcasts right because I I feel like I’ve I’ve done it I know how it is to

take a small company and grow it and I know with that marketing and that media component can bring to the table and when you talk about dinosaurs in an old school industry and how do we get people aware of what we’re doing it’s more people like you and I out there teaching people showing people the value of having your podcast of um making people aware of your facility and what you’re doing every day and and what you bring to the table and what your business is about um are you a first generation are you a fourth generation you know what you know what what do you specialize in and just how to to do that and I think like for me man like the proof is in the pudding right yourself included like you know people know you then they’re aware of you and understand what you’re doing and right and it’s really just a matter of you taking the time out of your schedule and saying I’m going to commit to a certain amount of hours and whatever to to talk about my industry to talk to my customers to talk to Industry

experts to to do that and I’m not any more special than the next guy like I’m just a guy over in Idaho you know doing what you know I think needs to be done and and something I like to do and so I feel like that that opportunity is out there for a lot of people if they if if they just had a little guidance to show them how to do it right yeah I’m totally agree what is easier from your point of view to build a brand for a company or to build a personal brand in this since you cut out and you say what’s easier is ask the question again what what is easier from your point of view to build a personal brand or to build a company brand because it’s different yes 100 is very different um I believe if you own the business you need to build them together because people need to recognize that you are an owner operator and you are in the middle of your business right you can build them in combination if you’re like an intrapreneur let’s say you work for a larger company

but you’re a big part of that business and you want to be known in your industry as a expert or as somebody that’s knowledgeable about your field right then it’s easier for you to build your personal brand within that business but I would recommend somebody building both in tandem because I want people to know that if you if you have a problem you know if you if you have a problem with one of our companies or you have an opportunity that one of our companies could take advantage of that you can get right to me the decision maker I’ll get you in touch with the people right now and we’ll either help you or will solve your problem or we’ll but we’re going to take care of you and I think then that reflects back on your your company as a whole right and I so as far as easier I mean I mean personal brand you just put the put the get your iPhone out point out your face and go and if you’ve got something we’re saying that people want to listen to you can build it fairly quickly right but um

as a company if you don’t have I mean if there’s nobody there to tell you what you can post and what you can’t post and it’s your deal you run it the way you want to I think you need to do both totally agree and just to get into the end um what is coming from scrap life what what we can expect from the next episodes and by the way the episode with Joe Sac will love it amazing that’s a man amazing guy very tough guy yeah what is coming from your side to feet or to give more feedback for the industry what we can expect you can expect I got I gotta say I got something that I’ve been working on for a while now for probably a couple years and we’re finally gonna bring it to Market here in the next uh couple months and I’m super excited about um I got a couple industry veterans I’m working with that are knowledgeable about how to build brand and how to build your business because I truly believe this Julio the Market’s gonna get tougher I feel like the economy is getting tougher

and and maybe it lasts for a couple months maybe it lasts for a couple years but I’ve been through these Cycles before and I’ve seen the markets get tough and scrap get tough to come by and the one thing that you cannot do is take your foot off the gas of on your marketing because your marketing is what’s going to help you the the market share shrinks now your goal is going to be to get a larger part of that market share on your local level your state level whatever that is and the only way that you get a larger portion of that market share is to for people to be aware that you exist and picking up the phone or shoot you an email and give you a call and the only way they know you exist is if they hear about you they see you that you’ve spent the money to promote your company you spent the money to promote your podcast you spent the money to promote you know your what you’re doing every day and I I tell people it’s all the time the last thing that you should cut

is your marketing budget because that’s what’s going to drive those sales when you need them the most or to drive the opportunity and I only know it just because I’ve lived it and I’ve done it right I don’t want to tell people how to do something that I’ve never done but I really believe that you know not so we we’re building a company it’s called recycled media like I’m gonna we’re gonna teach people how to do it and and I and I and that opportunity exists out there I mean think about our industry how many people are doing podcasts about scrap metal recycling three four five very few right how many recycling companies when you start counting tires scrap wood waste Electronics how many recycling companies are just in the United States alone a lot of those a lot yeah I mean I was twenty thousand fifteen twenty thousand just at least right yep and so they’re the only be four or five podcasts like four or five people promoting literally 15 to 20 something thousand businesses that are focused on recycling in one form or another right right like to me that’s like

mind-boggling right and for me like you you have a like a grand opportunity right now to take a chunk of market share from other people in your area by just being willing to to put yourself out there and being willing to spend a little bit of money to get your your name and your brand out there and eventually you know you’ll wish you would have did it three years ago you know or a year ago because I promise you the guy next to you he’s gonna do it oh yeah if you don’t do it someone will do it yeah you know and and this is very interesting that you’re talking about this because uh I was thinking in the same way we want to like make them like a marketing company that can teach people how to do this as you said I don’t want to teach something that I don’t know how to do it yeah I started this because for me as a Colombian guy when I started this business I’m the business manager of a company we sell furnaces casting lines different type of uh solution for the founder industry

from for aluminum Copper Brass even gold silver steel so many different Metals at the beginning for me was complicated everyone was oh you’re from Colombia oh do you like cocaine or every everyone was like that yeah so for me was complicated I remember one time I was in a show and I was trying to uh explain to a guy some of the opportunities that we can you know put on the table for them with our Solutions and he said you’re a baby and you’re not from here I won’t buy anything from you and I was like damn man what’s going on and then I started putting those aspects on my side to have a well very well-known guy you know be behind me or on my side to put my face there and to make myself known and that happened that guy that told me you’re a baby I sold a couple of million dollars to that guy already because we start doing this without this I couldn’t make it yeah so I really appreciate your your effort your time to that you are making time for being here with us uh I

think people will really appreciate it Brett and man you are an inspiration for all of us believe me it’s amazing thank you for having me on man and like and I tell people this all the time like you know you don’t need me to help you know you don’t need me to help you but there’s a few things that we know that we can help right right and the reality of it is you still have to be willing to do the work right I can tell you all the tricks of the trade you know we can you can you and me could probably sit there and be like do this do this do this do this do this but if you don’t do it it doesn’t matter right and and I I just think guys like yourself man that are out there doing the work and and and putting the themselves out there and saying hey this is me this is what I’m about I’m trying to do I’m trying to trying to do the right thing I’m making good connections I’m putting I’m putting my best foot forward and I think that’s what

we’re all trying to do yep and you’re you’re genuineness eventually shows through right like I tell people all the time like this is me like you know I probably cuss a little bit too much I probably do a little bit differently than other people but if you come and see me on a Tuesday out of the blue it is you’re gonna see the same guy like I’m not gonna change like this is the way I am like I’m not this way for the camera or this way in person like it’s just me and I you’re on on as you build your brand and you build build up your company if you’re just genuine to your to your to who you are into what you’re doing and you’re good to people and you and you and you cheer people on eventually like what goes around comes around and people want to support you and they want to be a part of your business they want to do business with you and that’s what it amounts to I’m thoroughly agree Brad thank you so much for being here with us