S4-178: Happy 4th of July! Steve and Jeremy Interview each other!

Speaker A: This no Jobs podcast episode is brought to you by Top Gun Back Blades.

Speaker B: Are you ready for the best damn right of your life? Give me a hell, give me a gal Stand up right now and give me a hell, give me a G. Stand up right now, get ready to go she ain't moving slow she's taking control Pushing my pedal through the floor I'm back him.

Speaker C: Here we go. Snow Jobs Nation. We are back again, bringing you episode 178 of the Snow Jobs podcast main show powered by Top Gun Back Blades. The best show in snow.

Speaker B: As always.

Speaker C: I'm Steve. I'm talking to the juice box guy, you know who's with me. I'm one of the baddest of all time, one of the best singers, one of the best looking you've ever seen.

Speaker B: Hold my drink.

Speaker C: He is one of the baddest of all time. Jeremy Lindstrom in the house. What is up, brother Steve?

Speaker D: Oh, not a lot.

Speaker C: How we doing? July?

Speaker D: Yeah, happy fourth of July. It was a good time. How about you? Did you work?

Speaker C: Yeah, I worked, I worked. It was a, ah, lot of, A lot of fireworks.

Speaker D: A lot of fireworks in the big city, huh?

Speaker C: It was like a war zone, dude. It sounded like Beirut. Uh, they only, they only lit about 20 buildings on fire with fireworks. It was no big deal.

Speaker D: It was the usual, easy.

Speaker C: Yeah, normal. A normal fourth. That was good, man.

Speaker D: It was good. Normal Saturday.

Speaker C: Yep. How about north, uh, Dakota? There fireworks legal out there? Did you guys burn up half the state?

Speaker D: No, they're legal. Yeah, we just, we just set everything up and.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker D: Ah, there's never, Never really have many issues, but. Yeah, there's. It looks like, yeah, Beirut going off here. But for them, the biggest part of, you know, fireworks around here is everybody picking the garbage up. Otherwise there's usually not. Never really that many issues, so.

Speaker C: Nice.

Speaker D: Not supposed to light them off in town, but everybody does, you know, so.

Speaker C: Well, they were completely legal in New York until about, I don't know, maybe five years ago. And now you can buy everything but the Class 1 stuff, like the big mortars and stuff legally here. But okay, you know, with Pennsylvania being right there, everything's legal in Pennsylvania. It's not far to get the. Get the real good stuff.

Speaker D: Yeah.

Speaker C: Oh, man. Well, I'm glad you had a good fourth of July. I hope everybody out there had a great fourth of July weekend with the family. Got to do some celebrating. Happy 250th birthday, America. And uh, as we said, happy 4th of July to, uh, everybody out there in Snow Jobs Nation. And uh, we hope everybody had a good, happy and safe fourth. Hope you hopefully you guys got uh, to relax a little bit. It's back to work now, Monday. So we're coming off a holiday weekend. We're kicking around an idea what to do get everybody back on track. And um, we didn't want to try and hook up with, with a regular scheduled guest coming off a holiday weekend. That would be a little much to ask. So uh, we figured we'd give you guys something that a lot of people have been asking for in the last uh, three and a half years and that is for Jeremy and I to basically interview ourselves and you know, hear our origins asking basically the same questions that we ask of every guest on here. Uh, so that's what we're going to do. It should be fun and uh, we'll, we'll deep dive into both of our backgrounds in the snow industry for you guys and uh, should be uh, interesting and a lot of fun. But uh, before we do that we're going to hear from team Top Gun as always and we'll come back do a quick week review.

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Speaker C: All right gang, we're back. Thanks to team Top Gun as always. Quick weekend review. Storm Chase in season two continues episode four which is EMI out of Pennsylvania that dropped on Friday going into the holiday weekend. So if you haven't already done so, check it out and that's on YouTube on the Storm Chasing YouTube channel. Storm uh, field day is next up on the event list. That's going to be the 29th and 30th of July uh, out in Mankato, Minnesota. Tickets are on sale currently uh, on the Storm equipment website and I believe they're cutting off the registration date. I believe I saw that somewhere.

Speaker D: Yeah, I uh, think it's this week or something.

Speaker C: So if you haven't gotten your tickets yet for Storm Day you better get them.

Speaker D: All right.

Speaker C: Get them quick. All right, Sean, you hear me? Get your ticket.

Speaker D: He's not going.

Speaker C: He's going. I'm gonna make sure he goes.

Speaker D: He's not, he's not going. He said he wasn't going.

Speaker C: Uh, we got a new event to announce. Actually we were asked to announce an event. August 18th in Story City, Iowa is the snow removal workshop at the EBY showroom hosted by the Iowa Professional Lawn Care Association. If uh, you're interested in this event, you can register for the event at Iowa Lawn Care.org It's $25 for members, $50 for non members. September 16th and 17th is the Pennsylvania two day swing. Uh, 16th is storks plow School, Plow Tech School, uh, which will take you through all things Douglas Dynamics, how to fix what's broken and give uh, yourself a good leg up without having to go into the dealer. And if you're in Pennsylvania for Storks, take the hour and 15 minute ride to Scranton, Pennsylvania and hit SNS Snow and Ice Solutions 6th Annual Snow Show. That'll be on Thursday the 17th and that'll be also the uh, the big Pennsylvania unveiling of the Phantom. They'll have the Phantom there and uh, they'll have the new storm boxes made by Arctic, Arctic, uh, snow and ice products. So uh, that'll be pretty good day. I hear they're going big this year. Tony's going big. So we will see you out there.

Speaker D: Bigger mushrooms or what?

Speaker C: Bigger mushrooms. Much bigger mushrooms. This year, October 1st in Uxbridge, Massachusetts is the third annual Northeast Deicing Solutions deicing day. All right, that's the Morton, uh, Wallace concert.

Speaker D: Morton Wallace, Lainey Spalding and then I think the free semi a Brian giveaways and stuff.

Speaker C: Oh hey, there we go. A semi load of brine.

Speaker D: Love it.

Speaker C: Bring your own semi.

Speaker D: I, I could have, could have heard Patty wrong, but I thought that's what he said.

Speaker C: BYOs, bring your own semi and salt.

Speaker D: No, might supply the water.

Speaker C: Ah, uh, snow jobs. Nationstore.com is your place to get all snow jobs apparel. Oh, what happened?

Speaker D: Well, August 13th we got puts these little thing at Valley Green and Morehead.

Speaker C: Shout it out. There you go. I forgot that I didn't put that on.

Speaker D: Yeah, we're gonna have a one day like Phantom event there too. I think it'd be Turbo Todd. Uh, Phantom's gonna be there and sounds like we might have some wolf loaders there. And uh, yeah, just a little thing in Morehead at Valley Green Shop. August 13th and uh, Phantom. Another phantom reveal party, I think, or day kind of thing. So.

Speaker C: So, I mean, you may. You might as well go to that in August. I mean, the whole North America passes through Fargo. Morehead on vacation in August anyway, so you're out there. You might as well stop in.

Speaker D: Yep. It's a tourist destination for sure. I think Kyle. I want to get a date too. I know. Kyle Martin's having, like, a phantom, uh, day too, in early August. We'll get some dates on that too, so.

Speaker C: Sounds good. All right, well, if you're going to these events, head on over toSnowSnowJobs NationStore.com and get your Snow Jobs apparel to wear loud and proud at all these events you guys are going to that we're announcing for you. All right. Uh, do we. We'll pick a winner next week from, uh, the June sales there.

Speaker D: Yeah, there wasn't many, so we had so much in June.

Speaker C: I can't believe how many people spent 75 to $90 and did not go over a hundred. Yeah, like, come on, we said spend a hundred bucks, you get entered in the contest. Like, why would you stop at 75 or 90?

Speaker D: I think it's like, I think it's between, like, two people life.

Speaker C: Because, like, I think it's like Robert.

Speaker D: I think Robert and then, uh, somebody else, I think is all.

Speaker C: I was seeing the orders come in and I'm like, why would you stop at $75? Like, come on, get something else for the extra 25 and win that 300 suitcase. Like, I can't believe how many people stopped it at 75 to 90 bucks. Like, you were right there.

Speaker D: Oh, well,

Speaker C: uh, the new snow Jobs patch hats are in. Uh, they are very, very good looking. So check them out and, uh, get everything else.

Speaker E: What?

Speaker C: We still got tumblers and stuff?

Speaker D: Yep, yep. Nice, Nice.

Speaker C: All right, cool. Uh, anything else?

Speaker D: Not at the moment, no. I don't think so.

Speaker C: All right, gang, listen, the. The reviews have been coming in. The five star reviews. We really appreciate them. If you haven't already done so, hit Apple podcast for five stars. Hit Spotify for five stars. Keep dropping those reviews, keep dropping those questions. All that stuff helps us keep bringing you what you want.

Speaker D: All right?

Speaker C: So thanks in advance for that. Got anything else before we hit, uh, the commercials?

Speaker D: Oh, we're good.

Speaker C: All right, let's hear from our partners, and we'll be right back. We'll get into it.

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Speaker C: All right guys, we are back so we'll welcome each other back to the show. Jeremy welcome.

Speaker D: How are you, Stephen? How's it going?

Speaker B: Ah.

Speaker C: Uh, so, dude, we're going to get into each other's history in snow here. So how did. How long has it been for you?

Speaker E: How.

Speaker C: When did you first get involved in the snow industry?

Speaker D: 90. Uh, 7.

Speaker C: 97. All right, so you're. Wow. 07. 17. 27. So you're coming up on 30.

Speaker D: Yeah.

Speaker C: And did you always love snow, or was it something you fell into by accident?

Speaker D: I don't know. It's just. I don't know if I love snow. I just loved equipment. So I just started. I mean, back back then, I was watching, uh. I was sitting in my apartment and watching guys do a horseshit job of clearing. Clearing. And I was like, these guys really suck. I can run that equipment way better. So I. So that's. That's kind of how I called the, uh. I just looked in the. I don't know. I don't know how I found him, but I just found the, uh, guy and asked. He needed help. Yeah.

Speaker C: So it came from a. It came from deep down, you know, very typical fiber of Jeremy Lindstrom, that I'm the fucking best operator out there, and I will crush all competition.

Speaker D: Hey, if you don't have confidence, what else do you got?

Speaker C: So if you were looking out your window watching them combine, you would have been like, I can combine better than those guys.

Speaker D: I already do that. So I do that too.

Speaker C: So that's great. And did you. When you were. When you started pushing snow, you know, you're in the machines, which. That's your first love is machines. But did you love pushing snow or what did you get out of it?

Speaker D: Um, I don't know if I loved it, but it was. It was just fun, you know, obviously, just. Just, uh, push. Just running equipment, you know, long hours and, uh, just, uh, you know, getting done, you know, Be proud of your work. When you get done clean a lot, make sure it looks good. So, I mean, back then, we didn't have any of the great stuff we have now. You know, we were pushing the buckets, so.

Speaker C: Yeah, I bet. Yeah. Back in. Yeah. 97. Yeah, it was snow buckets. Well, I wonder if were protects even out yet.

Speaker D: Yeah, they were out. Uh, well, I don't. They're all them, but they're out. I know. A few years later, we got a couple of those. But back then, yeah, we had buckets with, like, uh, like extensions on the buckets. Made them wider, you know, so.

Speaker C: Oh, yeah, the wings. The bucket wings. Yep. I remember that back Then it was all truck plows for me. Like, I, I started at. I guess the first time I ever got to actually plow anything. I was probably like 14. And we had a. We have a large horse farm in the family that my grandfather used to run. And, uh, on that farm you got, I don't know, eight buildings with parking lots and you got, huh, probably a mile of roadway all intertwined. So somebody had to plow all that. And I used to, I used to race my grandfather for either the truck or the tractor, you know, whatever. At some point we had an old Trojan loader. Like typical farm loader. Like the thing leaked oil from everywhere. It was horribly slow and inefficient, but it started every time, even leaking oil. Just kept putting oil in it

Speaker D: because

Speaker C: you couldn't, you couldn't fix those Trojans. They, uh, they. You had to take the whole back end apart to, uh, to fix the main seal on the engine. So the mechanics just kept telling you, hey, just keep checking the oil. It'll be fine. You can't kill this thing. But, uh, yeah, I used to race my grandfather to, uh, to get there so I could have it all cleared by the time he woke up. And he'd be all mad that he didn't get to go out and play, but there would be a lot less damage if I did it. Um, he was notorious for destroying stuff. So, uh.

Speaker D: Because you're the best.

Speaker C: No, I was not the best at all. I was not even close. But, you know, that was a nice place to learn how to do stuff because you learn from failure with nobody watching. Basically like, oh, you know what? I should have angled the other way on that one. Or I should. So it got to. It got some good practice and I decided I really liked it. And uh, then where did I go to next? I started plowing. One of the guys in it was 99, 98 or 99. One of my friends had a company right out of high school, landscape company, and he took on one of these, uh, giant Toll Brothers housing developments that he was responsible for the roadways and the driveways. And he hated doing the driveways. It was too inefficient to do with the truck. So he knew I had a quad with a plow on it. So he called me and offered me a stupid amount of money to come out and plow driveways. And I, I had like 60 driveways. I would do with the, the quad and the plow on it. Made some good money plowing snow. And, you know, I, I would get My done long before they would. And I'd take off like that, say bring the trailer back, get my stuff and drop me off. I'm done. Your driveways are done. And I always kind of knew I wanted to do my own thing though uh, at some point. And then I plowed one I think one year for a brand new, brand new distribution center that opened in town. M massive place, like 2 million square feet between the two buildings. And it was a huge contract when it, the first year it opened. It was ridiculous amounts of equipment and uh, I don't remember if it was Protex or prototype Arctics that they had the first year, but no, it had to be Protex. I remember hitting a manhole cover and almost putting myself through the windshield of the loader. Uh, one of those raised manhole covers. But I did that for a year and uh, I think I kind of after that I got on the job on my a job and I kind of fell off a little bit other than taking care of the stuff for the family property. Um, and then yeah, it was just fell uh, into it by accident. I started having to my father's office building. He had the guy that had been doing it for years and years came from like a. 30 minutes away to plow the thing. And uh, one, one storm he didn't get there. Uh, and they couldn't open. So it, you know, my father called me and said can you get over here and get this done? And uh, I went over there, got it done and I just, you know, why don't I just do. Why are you paying somebody else to do it? You could, you know, I'll start a company and you can pay me. And um, that worked. And before you knew it I had a couple of the surrounding offices that it also took notice of. Hey, these guys, even if it stops snowing at 5am that parking lots black pavement by 7 and then they started saying hey, who are you using? He says oh, my son has a company. And uh, I was able to because I honestly, I fell into it by accident. I honestly really didn't give a shit if I got more customers at that point. So I just uh, gave. I gave very good pricing for that. You know.

Speaker D: You were chucking the truck.

Speaker C: I was chucking the truck. And I gave. No, I mean I gave very good pricing. Like I was, I was always high priced, always because I didn't care if I got them or not. So I'm like if I'm going to do them, I'm going to make a lot of money on it. So I priced accordingly and I got a couple of them and it just kind of within two years I was adding a second truck and I had to get a couple friends to help out and just kind of. I think we went like that from 2010. 2010 we formed the LLC, formed the S Corp and all hands landscaping, snow management was officially born and we were off to the races. And then in 15, 16, I think 16. We started with our first. 16 or 17. We started with our first machine and um, that was a tractor actually with a plow. And then uh, we went the uh, the diness leasing Arctic route in 18 and we were off to the races after that. We were adding skids and loaders every year and we were all arctics all the time.

Speaker D: Nice.

Speaker C: Yup, yup. So, um, when did you. So how long did you work for that original company before Glacier?

Speaker D: Um, probably like 10 years. I like a year into it, there one guy that was there kind of left, so I was put in charge of it. So I ended up running that for. I had a full time job. I would just, you know, do that on the side and stuff, you know, whenever it snowed. It wasn't a big company. We probably had m. I don't know. We have three. When I ended, we probably had like 10 pieces maybe and. But whatever. But uh, maybe something like that. But yeah, it was a smaller company but we did a lot of like schools and strip malls and banks and stuff like that. Nothing, nothing huge, but took a lot of time with equipment we had. So it was like, I say I ran around that and it was pretty fun, you know, good experience and cut to learn the ropes and let me do. He just. He pretty much set his mind. Do what you want to do because he. He'd go and be gone all the time at the lake or whatever else winter. So.

Speaker C: So every. So after a year you're he. Your. Oh, your ridiculous attention to detail, uh, was evident. And they put you in charge after just a year? Yeah, I'm the best.

Speaker D: Well, oh, I had something to do with the other. The other guy left too, that was kind of in charge. But he was, he was a good guy. But I always wanted to do more than him. You know, he was. He's this full time guy so he had to kind of do that on the side and do his, you know, work. For him it was a construction company. So uh. But yeah, I don't know. It was.

Speaker C: Did you grow the company in that 10 years? Did it get bigger or. It stayed the same, basically.

Speaker D: No, I pretty much stay. I had nothing to do with contracts or anything. It was just. Yeah, it was pretty much stayed. Stayed the same. We, we gained a couple accounts here or there, but nothing, nothing huge. So how did it, how did.

Speaker C: And how did Glacier come about?

Speaker D: I, I, um, knew Don and I always told him, you know, if you make me a full time year round job, I'll be there in a minute. And that's what he did. So.

Speaker C: Nice.

Speaker D: So then I jumped, jump shipped and that didn't go over very well at all. He was, the other guy was not, not happy at all. But I left him. I left him. I, I had a good team there. I left him. My, my, you know, my second guy, you know, my guy. I trained underneath me and he ran it for many years after me before he moved out. So he did a great job. So I left them in good hands. So.

Speaker C: And that was, that was part time for you, right?

Speaker D: Yeah, it was just part time. Oh.

Speaker C: So, yeah, they got to understand that when you got a full time.

Speaker D: He didn't understand.

Speaker C: He's.

Speaker D: He's one of those guys, he's a hothead, but he's a, he's a good guy. We get along when I see him. But yeah, he was, he didn't want to talk to me, you know.

Speaker C: Really?

Speaker D: Oh, yeah.

Speaker C: Uh, you got to understand that if, you know, if you're getting something that somebody else can't offer you, you know. Yeah, I would understand that if that happened. I, it has happened actually, for, for some of my younger guys when they move on, you know, they get a full time gig and, uh, it's something they want to do. You wish them well, you know.

Speaker D: Yeah.

Speaker C: And they usually come back if it's snowing at night and they're not working, they'll usually give you a call beforehand, say, hey, you know, you, you need me. This storm. Yes, always. So I don't know if I've ever asked you this question. So when you made the move, how big was Glacier at the time?

Speaker D: Uh, we weren't that, that, I mean, very good sized company, but not nothing like we are now. We're probably a third of the size.

Speaker C: Okay. So you guys, you guys have gotten considerably bigger since you went.

Speaker D: Yeah, definitely, uh, definitely blew up or, you know, not blew up, but, you know, we gained a lot, so. Got more subs, got more equipment. Just kept, kept growing year to year, just get more and more accounts and people are seeing what we can do and they liked our, the work we did.

Speaker C: And so, yeah, Did Fargo grow as well as Glacier grew?

Speaker D: Oh, yeah. Fargo blew up. Yeah, it's just been blowing up, so, yeah, definitely. It's still growing. You know, it's. I mean, we don't have the big industrial sites I wish we had, but, uh, you know, definitely. It's. I mean, it's. It's growing. Oh.

Speaker C: So, yeah, I mean, that.

Speaker E: That's.

Speaker C: That's. That's a big key to success. Being in place, ready to go at the right time when the. When a boom happens and, uh, being able to capitalize and being all that. You guys have all that equipment and stuff that, uh, yeah, you can pretty much handle whatever comes your way now. Cool.

Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, I was. Don was great. He let me take control when I got there, and I was just kind of rolled with it, you know, from there.

Speaker C: So was your. I mean, obviously, as you grew. As Glacier grew when you were there, um, who was responsible for recruiting? Did that fall on both of you, or was that mostly you or.

Speaker D: Pretty much me? Honestly, I've. Yeah, I don't remember Don, really. Bring him. Anybody in, to be honest?

Speaker C: Just trolling college bars looking for, uh, drunk college kids that can run equipment.

Speaker D: Me. Uh. Uh, just a lot of. A lot of buddies. Buddies, buddies, buddies. You know how that goes. And, uh, just a lot of, uh, ads on Facebook, Instagram, um, Craigslist, whatever.

Speaker C: So what is the most annoying question that people ask you when their perspective coming to work for Glacier?

Speaker D: How much I get paid? It's the first. The first question they ask you. I don't even want to deal with them.

Speaker C: Automatic hang up.

Speaker D: I'm like, what's that? What's. You know? I mean, that's all you're worried about? I mean, I know pay is a big part of it, but to me, it's just not something you. The first question you ask somebody, what are you. What are you gonna pay me? I'm like, what are you worth? Can you do anything?

Speaker C: It's a good point. Were you guys. Was Glacier always Arctic before you got there, or. Or was that after, uh, we got there?

Speaker D: We had, like I said, glacier. We got the number three Arctic LD that they made. Was a, um, serial number on it. But, uh, yeah, they had some Arctics, not a lot. Then they protects and avalanches, you know, and then just. Yeah, just a lot of verting blades back then. Yeah, we had. We had a bunch of cages and stuff that. Where we got into some cages for a while and then little.

Speaker C: Everything.

Speaker D: Yeah, a little bit of everything. And I just, you know, I kept pushing arctics and Arctics to Arctics, and, you know, that's a plows. The other plows were great.

Speaker C: That's a big fleet. Standardized.

Speaker D: Oh, definitely, because we do a, uh, you know, a lot of our subcontractors, we. We supply the plows with them, you know.

Speaker C: Oh, that's right. You do.

Speaker D: Yeah. So we just. We buy all the plows, and they just have to, you know, uh, you know, cover anything. They break or they're cutting edges, so.

Speaker C: Plus, don't break, huh? Uh, plus don't break.

Speaker D: Yeah, I've seen a few of them. Pretzels.

Speaker C: Uh, how long. How long would you say once. Once you guys made the decision to standardize and go with Arctics, how long do you think it took to standardize the whole fleet? Oh, you didn't do it all at once. It had to process.

Speaker D: No, it's just a process where, you know, buy. I don't know, three to 10 every year, you know, or something like that, you know, just. Just kind of add. I'd always find deals or, you know, or just say. Just. Just go say, hey, I'd worked a salesman over in the area, and. And they'd give me a good price, and I'd just grab them or, you know, whatever, just like everybody else.

Speaker C: When you got there, how many loaders was glacier running? Do you remember?

Speaker D: Uh, let's see. We're probably just running in house, not counting subs. Uh, probably like 12 to 14, I think it was.

Speaker C: And now you're.

Speaker D: How many, uh, in house, we have 44. I think it is 44, so that's crazy.

Speaker C: And how long? Like, 12 to 14. When you got there, how long did it take before you get. How quickly did you guys grow to 44?

Speaker D: It's been. Take. You know, we grow a few loaders every year, but I would say our. One of our biggest jumps was probably back in, uh, 2018 maybe. Okay. We grew probably another. You know, we think we had, like, 10 that year or something.

Speaker C: Oh, wow.

Speaker D: That's a big jump. It's. Yeah.

Speaker C: Every year, we.

Speaker D: We'd always, you know, grab a couple more compact loaders, and then we get a good deal on some other load. We don't really ever sell anything. We. We have sold some of our older loaders, but we. If we sell them, it seems like we always sell them to some. One of our subs, you know, so they always stay in the fleet, so.

Speaker C: No, that's a good. Good policy. I like it. How many guys are you running now with subs? And everything on a storm. If you call everybody in between glacier,

Speaker D: I'd say we're still. Still close to around 150 pieces. And, um, that's a lot of dudes, guys, and, you know, a lot of subs, so. Or vendor partners, whatever we want to call them. They're. I mean, they're all. They're all definitely do their part, that's for sure. So.

Speaker C: Very cool.

Speaker D: Very cool.

Speaker C: Um, I mean, obviously you guys are glacier. Um, are there a lot of. Are there a lot of commercial snow companies in Fargo or like that are glacier size? Are you guys are by far the biggest?

Speaker D: Ah, there's a lot of companies and commercial, uh, snow guys here, but, yeah, we're by far the biggest. I don't even know who the second fleet would be. Not, you know, they would. They'd be. They'd be quite a ways down from us, which. Yeah, whatever. So does that. They do good work and stuff. We just. Our bigger fleet.

Speaker C: So does that help you guys? You think when, uh, there's new construction, new commercial buildings going up in Fargo that you guys are, you know, like, I don't know the name, everybody knows type deal? Do you think you get a leg up on people?

Speaker D: I don't really think so because we don't do, like. See, I think a lot of guys get the leg up that are the landscapers and stuff because they'll get the landscaping. Then they already got their foot in the door. Uh, so, I mean, we'll get some accounts that, you know, know us and stuff like that, but. And a lot of these guys, you know, we didn't get a shot at them because, you know, we didn't do the landscaping or stuff like that that they can. They can jump in, which is, you know, we don't really. We do a little bit of that, but not, uh, nothing like a lot of these guys do.

Speaker C: So were you guys already blowing snow when you got there?

Speaker D: Or.

Speaker C: Or, uh, is that something they added with you?

Speaker D: No, we did. We started that a few years after I got there. We. I found that snow blast. We. We were trying to figure out something to save clients money, you know, trying to save clients money and be. Be different. We always seem like we were ahead of everybody in town, you know, just kind of ahead of the head of the game. We kind of prided ourselves on being the first to try something or whatever. So very cool.

Speaker C: And you guys are. We've talked about this on the show, but as far as your contracts and stuff, you guys are big T M guys.

Speaker D: Do A lot of T, M, M. We do a lot of seasonals now. Um, yeah, that's pretty much our main ones. I mean, we have like, some stuff that are per inch, but I'd say TM and seasonals are most. Mostly what we do around here.

Speaker C: Very cool. And you are now. You are now using a contracted weather service, correct?

Speaker D: Yeah.

Speaker C: How did Nick do last year? Weather pros?

Speaker D: He did great. Nick. Nick did pretty good. I didn't have too many problems with him.

Speaker C: And you also have true weather, correct for us?

Speaker D: I have true weather. Yep. Yep, yep.

Speaker C: Good for you too, right?

Speaker D: Yep. Yep. I mean, I like. I like contract weather. So, number one, I know those guys personally, so that helps. But I like to just text them on the side and say, I want your gut. I mean, I get the weather forecast.

Speaker C: Exactly.

Speaker D: You do the same thing. I do the same thing. I mean, anybody can do the same thing because they have, I mean, the text line. But I. It's. I just wanna somehow know if there's anything there. Not that they're not telling us anything, but I just like to hound them or whatever you want to say. You know, I'm like, what the happening here?

Speaker C: I do the same exact thing. I'll text Nick and say, dude, I don't care. I don't like this forecast for this reason. Give me your gut. Do you agree? Disagree. And he'll. He'll either say, no, dude, that's what you're get. Or he'll be like, ah. And as soon as he does that, uh, I'll be like, all right, give me your gut. And then I will text Dr. Shannon Burger and I'll say, if it's a big storm coming or it's. Or something that's m. Like kind of a coin flip. I'll just. Mark, what do you got? You know, what's your gut telling you? And he'll. He'll be like, you know, give me five minutes. He'll look at it and, uh, he'll shoot me what he thinks. And usually Mark and Nick, I don't. They read things the same way because what they send is usually in lockstep. So, you know, true weather, they. They were. They were good this last year. Lot of. Lot of storms. They were very good. Um, when I asked Mark for his gut on stuff, he. He gave accurate stuff. And then, uh, same thing with Nick, man. They. They killed it. The weather pros absolutely crushed it this year. I, uh, I don't know if they got anything wrong, honestly. I'm trying to remember. There might have Been one that they were off on where. I mean, everybody was off on the totals, but as far as when they were calling for snow, I think every time they called for snow, we got it, uh, oh, you're going to get three, and we got six. It was that.

Speaker E: That whole.

Speaker C: But everybody was off on the totals this year, so it took them a while to catch up. I think they were seeing, like, what Normally should be 2 to 4, and it was over. Over producing, um, the first half of the winter, everything overproduced.

Speaker D: What they were saying seemed like we always get the dreaded dry slot here.

Speaker C: So, yeah, you guys have had a couple tough years in a row. But, I mean, I see. I remember a couple years ago when we started this. Three and a half years ago, we spoke. We started this podcast in the winter. And the only way I was able to start a snow podcast in the middle of winter is because I wasn't doing. And you guys every freaking night and that you're working. We got the idea to do it. That phone was ringing every night with the. With the glacier chat.

Speaker D: Yeah, it was definitely a good year that year. We haven't really had anything close to that, obviously, since it was two really bad years. Last year was, I'd say, slightly below average, but, you know, close to average. So. Wasn't terrible, wasn't great, but, you know, we made it through.

Speaker C: So I think that year was. We got nine inches in early December, and then we had nothing until February 28th, and then we got 30.

Speaker D: Got hammered.

Speaker C: Yeah, we got 30 inches in 14 days. So we were good after that.

Speaker D: Yeah.

Speaker C: Yeah. But it gave us time to get this started and get it off the ground because, I mean, you were busy as hell, so I was like, I got nothing to do.

Speaker D: Yeah, that was definitely a fun year. That was using a snow cat that year and everything. We were just giving her.

Speaker C: Yup. Getting after it.

Speaker D: Yeah.

Speaker C: Yeah. You guys have. I mean, this has got to be, uh. It's got to be your year.

Speaker D: I've heard nothing. I've heard they're talking about something super El Nino or like a. Like a dry. Really dry winter is what A dry, uh.

Speaker C: I thought super El Nino meant crazy weather.

Speaker D: I don't. I know, I know, I know.

Speaker C: That's what somebody said, that it should be a dry slot winner. But, um, I. I believe I just saw a post Rob made the other day where he was looking at a freaking hurricane bearing down on his apartment in Florida, and he's like, super El Nino in full effect. The crazy, crazy weather is Going to begin, uh, for the next nine months. Uh, like.

Speaker D: I don't know. I've heard it's going to be a dry winter. Everybody's saying get your seasonals. Get your seasonals. Because it could be a bad winter. But who the.

Speaker C: Well, get your seasonals. Just get caps and floors so you're covered.

Speaker D: Got to get caps and floors. Them out, preach them out.

Speaker C: I just talked to. I uh, was in the car for eight and a half hours today and I, I talked to a guy for about an hour and 45 minutes just going over. He wants to put caps and floors in. I, I just went over how we do it and how we play ours out and plan it out and what information we give and, and uh, hopefully that helps. But. Yeah, I mean, I don't know why everybody's not doing caps and floors yet.

Speaker D: It's. You gotta.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker C: Like you can structure it so that you both win every time.

Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, I, I don't know. A lot of love the floors I, that I've seen are too freaking high. I mean, you're taking a lot of risk that I've.

Speaker C: Or, or you know, that that floor is never going to be touched in your market.

Speaker D: I'm talking about my market. Well, it's, it's you guys.

Speaker F: Who knows?

Speaker C: I mean, we don't, yeah. Uh, we don't have the deviation. That's the nice thing about my little slot here, wherever the hell we are. Like I said, you look at our climatology the last 25 years, you're, you're, I think four winters out of the last 25 that we haven't been between 36 and 44 inches. So it's a pretty good. And three out of those four were over, only one was under. So I mean, we're uh. 20 inches is a ridiculously bad winter for us. But if your cap is 19 or below then, or your floor rather is 19 or below, then you're not, uh, you're not too worried about it.

Speaker D: Right?

Speaker C: Just structure them properly and you guys will be.

Speaker D: Yeah, definitely, definitely got to do that.

Speaker C: And that's, I mean we're bit early. We keep ours. We're 70% seasonal and 30% per push. Um, we, we like that ratio. That ratio works for us. It works for our monthly bills and overhead and it also works for, you know, being able to have the, the per push accounts be free. Free and clear profit just above all else. Um, that's. We kind of went 50, 50 for. I think we're 50, 50 for two or three years. And then we started getting into the equipment and then you needed more guaranteed money. So we pushed it to 70%, um, seasonals to pay for the machines, to make sure the machines were going to be paid for, not just for the winter, but for 12 months out of the year because I didn't want to steal green money to pay for white.

Speaker D: Right.

Speaker C: No. So uh, that's how we did it.

Speaker D: I know, I know. You're kind of staying steady. Are you gonna add any more pieces or anything or what?

Speaker C: I would doubt, uh, we might change some pieces, but I don't know that we're gonna get any bigger. I actually, I kind of. Unless, unless a contract falls into our lap that my guys are salivating overdoing because I am, I am going to be doing less and less. I am going to be. It's. I'm retiring from the A job and that'll be done before going into this winter. And I'm doing that almost out of necessity because I'm uh, going to be full time dad and uh, I'm not going to miss any of my kids games. And both of them are playing for two different programs and they travel their asses off and I only have one wife, so somebody's got to take the other one. And um.

Speaker D: I thought you had two wives.

Speaker C: No, one wife. One wife. I don't need two headaches. But no, uh, but I'm gonna be uh, I'm gonna be concentrating on making sure that uh, you know, my kids see way too much of me and get tired of me. And uh, so if I have a contract that falls into our lap and Ed or Danny or Mark is like, dude, we want this, we can knock it out of the park and the money is where we want it to be. That's the only way I could see us basically expanding. Um, but yeah, we're ah, right now we're streamlining. We are, we're going through our properties. You know, we, we've already done it actually, but we've gone through our properties one by one after the banger winner we had last year and we said, hey, what made us the most money with as little expenditure as possible. And believe it or not, it was the smaller properties. It was the small, you know, acre and a half to two acres that we're doing on routes. Uh, we're not marrying three machines and nine guys for seven hours at one site. You're still making good money on those properties, but you're spending a lot more to make that money, you know, I mean three Machines, a truck, sidewalk machines, all that labor, all that fuel. If I can do basically the same or more profit margin with one 321, that's doing six other properties on a route, you know, why would I not do that for, say, a hundred thousand dollars in equipment when, you know, I need $250,000 in equipment to do the bigger site.

Speaker D: Right.

Speaker C: Make the same profit margin. Um, so that's what we. We streamlined a little bit. And, uh, I could see us changing over. If big daddy from. If big daddy John Stark has his way, he's gonna. I gotta lock my lot because he's gonna come take the, uh, skid steers. He's still mad. Yeah, still mad that I have a 19 in my fleet. And it's a great machine. It's never failed us. I want to keep it. Uh, it's only got, you know, maybe it's. It's approaching like a thousand hours now. Uh, and that was the very first machine I think we got from Arctic. It was a 19. We got it in 18. And, um, you know, it's kind of sentimental. That was our first piece that changed our business, that piece. And it's made. It's made us a ton of money. And I don't, you know, I. I don't want to get rid of that original plow and I don't want to get rid of that original skid. And I know, um, keep emotion out of business and sentimentality out of business, but I can kind of. I can afford to keep it if I want to.

Speaker D: Right. So that's good.

Speaker C: Yeah. But we'll see. We'll see. Just going through it goes through snow tires too much. Snow tires are not made to hold up, uh, more than with our unfrozen pavement. We're getting maybe two seasons out of a set of snow tires. We've had the snow wolf ones. Those were the best traction wise. Um, but now we're just buying like, knockoff, you know, whatever they are, blizzards or whatever because they. We're only getting two seasons out of them.

Speaker D: Right.

Speaker C: Uh, but yeah, we might. We might trade some skids out, um, and go with maybe replace two skids with a compact loader, um, or three. Three skids with, uh, two compact loaders. Um, you know, we're still checking out the. We're still doing our due diligence with the wolfs, uh, to see how they work out. And, you know, you can always. I can always call Danes and get another three, two, one if I want.

Speaker D: Yep.

Speaker C: Um, sure. But, yeah, but yeah, it's, I think we're, I think honestly I'm probably where I'm gonna stay. I, I don't think my guys are good where they're at. They can do their blindfolded. Um, they have a good time doing it and honestly they do so much for me. I don't want to kill them. You know, I don't wanna, you know,

Speaker D: you're making decent money and you don't, you know, you know what you got. So why, why stress yourself? You don't have to, you just. Yeah, you do.

Speaker C: I'm at the, I'm, I'm 50, so I mean I'm, I'm looking for, to do other things to. You know, it's, it's. I missed a lot of time doing stuff with my wife, doing stuff with my kids while I was building and uh, trying working full time job, having the full time business and then adding a, what became a full time podcast. You know, certain, certain things go by the wayside and I'm not going to let that happen anymore. So I'm eliminating the one thing. I'm, I'm kind of stepping back and letting the boys handle the other thing. And uh, you know, I'm gonna be full steam ahead with the podcast and I'm uh, gonna be full steam ahead, uh, with dad time.

Speaker D: Perfect. Sounds great.

Speaker C: And I mean there's, there's always, there's not a lot of. We don't, we're, we're developed here. There's not a lot of new properties that are going to come in. There's not a lot of new buildings that are coming in. There's, they're building an apartment complex now that they asked us to look at the plans and give them a ballpark of how much it would be. And I don't want any part of it. Like I just, I'm looking at it with the location and looking how they again, designed by somebody in Florida. No place to stack snow right on Main Street. Like there's no good place. You're gonna have to haul that parking

Speaker D: lot every time, you know what you want and that's, that's good, you know what you need. So uh, that's a lot of guys want to be in that position and that's what you're in.

Speaker C: So that's, I listen to my guys. I mean my guys are, I would put them up against anybody if, if Ed and Danny and uh, and Mark and Eric, if they came and said, hey, we got a no brainer, you know, let's, we're going to take, we want to take this, like, let's make this happen. Then I'll go to work and I'll start doing numbers and, and doing what we do. But um, at this point it's, we're in demand. It's a nice place to be in. Um, we can kind of pick and choose what we want to take and what we don't and we stay in our core little area. And staying in that core area keeps things very simple. Lot less moving parts and you're making a lot more money.

Speaker D: Mhm.

Speaker C: So I'm glad I never stepped outside that. I was tempted a couple times to kind of expand in the last 10 years and kind of blow it up. And I just always, I never wanted to. I, I was always of the mentality, no matter what I was doing, don't bite off more than you can knock out of the park. Like, if there's any doubt in your mind that on your worst day you can't get this done, don't take it. Because it only takes one of those failures to absolutely ruin your fucking reputation forever. I know, I know some of these guys will, they'll fail and then they'll reorganize, uh, you know, under a different name with. Now their wife is the CEO and on the bank statements and for the loans. But that's not my style. It never has been. I, I want to, I, I want a guaranteed win, you know, I don't want to take a chance and, and have a rep ruined because, you know, what's the old saying? Build a thousand bridges. You're, you're not a bridge builder. But I'm not gonna con, I'm not gonna complete that statement. But guys that know it know what I'm talking about.

Speaker D: Mhm.

Speaker C: But did you guys, were you guys doing, uh, were you guys. You guys weren't the liquids. Wasn't even around yet when you started Glacier because you've been there what, 20 years?

Speaker D: Yeah. Pretty close. Yeah. Yep.

Speaker C: So no liquids?

Speaker D: No liquids.

Speaker C: Were you always using treated salt or were you.

Speaker D: Uh. Yeah, we were always. Well, yeah, we're. That's kind of separate us from everybody else. Was. We were using salts, you know, like a, um. Wasn't always a treat. We've always been using this ice slicer. It's not a treated salt, but it's just a hot salt. Hotter salt. Yeah. And it's uh, it. So we've always been using that. So I kind of, you know, everybody around here is using salt and sand forever and ever. And that's What I really liked about us, we, we didn't have any sand. It was all straight salt. So that we kind of changed the industry around him. Um, I mean we changed this whole town how people push snow. I mean people never push snow. We pushed out a flake of snow as you know. Yep. No, Everybody was like 2 inch, 2 inches or whatever. Now, now everybody in town's out at a flake of snow. Everybody's got arctics, everybody's. I mean it was like, you know, just a copycat thing, which is whatever, you know.

Speaker C: I wish I could say we did the same here. Um, yeah, we have two very distinct camps. Uh, we do have guys, um, the younger dudes that want to do it, how we do it and you know, are taking the lead and they're listening and they're doing, you know, they're doing their own thing, but they're taking the, you know, they're taking their lead from how we do stuff, uh, with their pricing, with their equipment. You know, I get calls every couple of days from the local guys and then there's the other camp where they are going to let 10 inches accumulate, uh, if it's a 10 inch storm before they even touch the lot. So it's a stark contrast. You really can get what you, what you pay for around here. Like if you don't give a. About your customers slipping and falling, you can get a cheap guy that'll do it for $2,000 an acre for a seasonal. Um, you know, we have one literally across the street from one of our sites that we. The guys laugh because the guys have pushed six times.

Speaker B: Ah.

Speaker C: On a 10 inch storm. And the lot across the street, the shopping center hasn't been touched.

Speaker D: Mhm.

Speaker C: And it's nothing but hard pack at that point. And I mean the owner of, the owner of the center's got to be okay with it. He knows what he's getting. Yeah.

Speaker D: I don't, I don't understand a lot of places in this town that people, I mean our lots are like, you know, pristine, perfect. And there's some really high traffic places that are complete garbage. I'm like, how do you get away with that? It's like it's, I just don't, I don't understand.

Speaker C: I don't know how you allow it here in New York with the liability, with the way New York is. I mean you're talking about the most frivolous lawsuit state in the 50 and they're looking to hang people. People are taking dives like it's their job I mean, sometimes it is their job actually to take dives. But I don't know how as a contractor that you're either stupid, where you don't understand your own liability, or you think that piece of paper saying you're not liable if a slip fall happens is going to protect you in court. It's not, it's not going to protect you. Not here. So I don't know how they let 10 inches build up and, and the owner's okay with it, the contractor's okay with it. I don't, I don't understand. But yeah, you can. Here. There's two, the younger guys. There are a lot of younger guys in the area that are definitely interested in doing it the right way. They're interested in getting paid the right way. And, uh, and they're, they're growing. They're doing really well. This last winter, Uh, a couple of them, One, um, I got to have on, uh, Johnny Fratelli. Um, he's, uh, he's doing it really well and he's picking, he'll call all the time. Pick my brain. Hey, I got this site possible. Uh, what would you put in here? Um, you know, what am I not thinking about? Can you help me out and just take a look? You know, those are the guys you don't mind helping because if they're pricing it right, they're doing, they're doing their job for all the contractors in the area, keeping it right. And then, you know, hopefully these low ballers, after last winter, I think you got a lot less low ballers out there, especially from what the property managers are sending our way. Like, you know, hey, this list, they all failed blank check. Like, just tell me what it's going to cost.

Speaker D: Yeah, that'd be great if it stayed up like that.

Speaker C: I mean, I don't think you're going to have the consistency that we had last year where we're going to be pushing 21 times. But I think the way Rob's talking, this sets up for our nor' Easters that, okay, we might only. We might have 60 inches and it may come in three storms. You know, I mean, who knows? It's, uh, it's going to be interesting.

Speaker D: We just don't get the storms here that we used to. We don't. We just, as you know, we just get these little clippers, non stop clippers.

Speaker C: And those are tough things. Moisture. You lack the moisture.

Speaker D: Yeah, we don't get those lake effects here. We don't have any lakes to affect.

Speaker C: So if you, if you get Answers. I know, I know. You know, you'd have to, you'd have to ask, but where do you see Glacier going in the next five years? You see a, uh, rapid expansion. You see it staying basically status quo. Where do you see it going?

Speaker D: No, I, I, I see us, um, getting larger, honestly. So I think we're gonna expand, see some more expansion here. I'm, I wouldn't say huge amount, but I, I think there's some things coming down the pipe here that we could probably get our hands on and, and take. And, I mean, I don't know if we're gonna, I don't. If you want to put, you know, acres, how many seats we're going to be pushing, it might, might not be a lot more because we might be losing some bigger concept or going nationals and going for pennies on the dollar, so.

Speaker C: Bye.

Speaker F: Bye.

Speaker D: I'm like, yeah, goodbye. The guys in the offices are kind of worrying about that. I'm like, well, I just don't understand why we, we're worrying about something that we're not going to make money on it.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker D: Just to say we have more square footage is not, that doesn't make sense to me. You know, just, if you got accounts

Speaker C: that are going to nationals, you just let them go.

Speaker D: Yeah, we have plenty of nationals in town and, uh, we, we work with quite a few of them, and a lot of them aren't that bad for us, you know, up here for you leave us alone a little bit. But it's, uh, I just, some of these, they want to go that cheap, have somebody, you know, somebody wants them because it's a certain site, like, go for it. I mean, the liability at those sites and, and how much equipment that takes. I'd rather put that someplace else and make more money.

Speaker C: Yeah, man, I hear you. What do you, I mean, we've talked about this on the show at times, but we'll get it on the record. What, what, for your, for your point of view, what are the biggest issues facing snow management industry today?

Speaker D: Oh, it's definitely, uh, definitely. Like we always say, insurance is crazy. Employees, Employees are hard to come by. You know, I mean, has it gotten

Speaker C: any better for employees in the last two years? Because I've seen it get better here.

Speaker D: You, you say it gets better. I mean, I'm, uh, I'm not saying our employment's bad. I usually find enough guys, but to find enough, because I always hire at least double the guys I need or try to. It's just my guys are, you know, it's different out here because a lot of these guys run equipment and stuff. But a lot of my guys are college kids and stuff like that. And they all go home on weekends or Christmas break. That's when I usually get screwed. You're not. That's where I'm usually, usually, you know, trying to find guys. And that's every time snows, you know, when it's a holiday or a weekend, I got. I can't blame these guys. You know, they're going home or whatever back home. But it's like, you know, it's just consistency of trying to keep the same guys on the same equipment. But, you know, that's part of my job. I gotta, I gotta adapt and train guys and, you know, I gotta just get it done one way or another. And I, I think I'm pretty good at that. I always seem to figure it out.

Speaker C: You always seem to get asses in seats.

Speaker D: I mean, my guys, my, my core guys, they'll bust ass for me. You know, they'll. They do whatever I ask. And I can't stress that enough how great they are. If I lose them, I'm pretty much.

Speaker C: I mean, I think that's anybody. You lose your core guys and you're pretty much. I think that would literally be anybody want to hit some commercials?

Speaker D: Yep. All right, let's just.

Speaker C: Commercials.

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Speaker C: all right, we're back. What else, brother? What else?

Speaker D: You know, I don't have a question for you.

Speaker C: So we're both 50. We both turned 50 in the last year. How long do you see yourself in this industry doing what you're doing?

Speaker D: I'll uh, probably die here.

Speaker C: At what age do you see yourself dying? Because I've already lived longer than I thought.

Speaker D: Same. Hopefully this is it. Hopefully the end of this podcast. It's over.

Speaker C: Oh, don't say that.

Speaker E: That's not.

Speaker D: Hopefully lightning strikes me or something.

Speaker C: That's not funny.

Speaker D: I don't know. It's. I don't, I don't. Honestly, you know, I think about that here and there, but I don't know what else. I. I'm just an antsy guy. I like to be out and about. If it's. There's a storm, I'm usually in it. Whether it's winter storm or if I'm out chasing the. Or looking at, you know, a tornado

Speaker C: or something, you know, so 85 years old. Look for that rascal with the plow on the front.

Speaker D: God, I hope I'm not alive then. Oh, that's doesn't even sound fun.

Speaker C: What's your funniest plowing story of all time?

Speaker D: Oh, uh, dude, I think I've told all my stories about. I'm. I'm knowing I've told all these stories before, but everybody talks about all the people I pick up in town, so I don't know. True. Everybody wants to hear them again. So, um. I don't know, I was just thinking earlier, we're talking about like the beginning. I remember, like, I think this is like, of the first or first couple years at Glacier. We're pushing a pushing apartment complex. It's not really a funny story, but it's, It's a story. And you know, pushing down an aisle of garages, the loaders backing up, pushing down, backing up. Um, you know, some. Somebody's feeding them and there's this minivan. I was driving through and watching this minivan, and there they timed the loader so as soon as the loader was going backwards, they pulled out behind them.

Speaker C: Oh, that'll.

Speaker D: The loader slid into him. And uh, then, of course, they're all. Then they have. Then the cops game stuff. They have people coming out of the apartment saying they were in the van when the, when the guy hit it, you know, because they all want. They all want to, you know, like, that's not, you know, this people are so stupid. Uh, uh, I mean, nobody, nobody got hurting, but it was like I watched this happen. You just, you know, the cop just kind of laughed and was like, yeah, this isn't the first time it's happened like that. So.

Speaker C: Yeah, I've often thought of getting, uh, front and rear facing cameras for the trucks.

Speaker D: And, uh, I would love to have on. I would love to have on all the payloaders, honestly, just to see what the. Good. Because, like, I've said a hundred Times, it's. I'm tired of being blamed for that we didn't do. I'm not saying we don't hit stuff once in a while or whatever, but for stuff that you don't do, that they always say you do.

Speaker C: I found an inexpensive one. I gotta. I. I have it. I just don't have it in my head right now what the name of it is, but it's, uh, it's got a front and rear one, wireless, so you don't have to wire them together. They talk to each other hardwired of the battery, um, but no, you know, no externals. I was thinking of getting one and just giving it a shot and seeing if it. If it would hold up, because you know how these things are, man. Most of them don't hold up. Yeah, you know, it's, uh, it's a. It's a shame, but most of the today does not hold up, especially to snow. You know, you're lucky if you can get it to hold up in normal driving conditions.

Speaker D: Right. Yeah. Oh. What else.

Speaker C: What else you got for me? Anything you want to know that you don't already know?

Speaker D: I think I know everything about you, but, I mean, what's. I mean, we already kind of discussed this. You're kind of on your tail end down. So how long do you plan on doing this? Uh, the old snow game.

Speaker C: I love doing snow. It just like I said, I. All hands only helps me. Um, this show helps a lot of people. So I, I don't. I think that, uh, in order to. I'll. I'll let that all. I'll let all hands go as long as the guys want to do it. Uh, but as soon. As soon as the boys, you know, the main core boys, like you said, as soon as they tell me, yeah, we've had enough and we're looking to, you know, go sleigh riding with our kids in the winter and stuff like that, then, uh, I'm good with, uh. I'm good with wrapping it up. Um, and then just, uh, focusing on what we got going and helping as many people in the industry as possible and keep pushing forward, bringing more and more stuff to the table for everybody.

Speaker D: Um, yeah, I.

Speaker C: So I don't see myself stopping the snow industry at all. I love it. I love what we do. I love, you know, the game. And, uh, I just see maybe my role changing a little bit and not, you know, maybe go out and. And actually plow with people during storms instead of my, My own stuff.

Speaker D: Yeah, I like that. That'd Be fun to do. I mean, just do this and then do that. Yeah, you get the best of both worlds and.

Speaker C: Yeah, exactly.

Speaker D: Not as much stress.

Speaker C: Snow. Mercenaries, like, hey, yeah, who needs a hand? We're, uh, available.

Speaker D: We're just uh, flying and there's some

Speaker C: still jobs pushing there.

Speaker D: I mean this job is personally is. It's a lot of stress. I mean, it is. And people don't. I mean, I'm on call 247 from October through May, you know, May here. And I mean, you're just, There's a lot of nights you don't sleep. Nobody, you know, everybody's, everybody sees the days it doesn't snow. They don't see the nights that you're out there checking lots or trying to find people to fill seats that you might need. You know, it's, it's, it's a, I'm not looking for any pity party here. I'm just saying it's, it's a lot of, a lot of stuff a lot of people don't think about. I mean, the guys in the industry definitely know what it's about. But, you know, a lot of people outside the industry, you know, they see you push snow, you know, what, 20 times, 30 times a year, and they think that's all you do. So.

Speaker C: Yeah, no, it's. But I mean, hopefully we're shedding light on that for people outside the industry and we're just, uh, you know, we're uh, rewarding the guys that are on that are in the industry already because they deserve to be acknowledged for what they do and what they give up and their families as well, what their families give up. You know, you basically give up a regular scheduled broadcast with your father, son, husband, uh, for five months of the year where you don't know. Uh, you know, my wife all the time, she'll ask, hey, um, you know, next Thursday, uh, it's literally Sunday next Thursday. Not this coming one, the following one. Uh, can we do this? This, this. Uh, yeah, I can tell, I can tell you in like seven days when the five day forecast is out, Nick

Speaker D: and Rob and uh, Mark are. Can I go on vacation? I don't know. I mean, that's what sucks. I, I get that every time from, you know, if people want to do something, go somewhere, I'm like, I want to say yes because I want to do it, but I, I can't. Like, and that's what sucks. But that's the game you're in, so. And that gets old after a while too.

Speaker C: Yep. 100. So let me. I'm going down the list here. Ah, equipment I run. I think everybody knows I'm all case sidewalk, uh, machines, all Ventrac SSVs. Uh, we have gotten rid of our last 3,400. Uh, that is up in Maine now representing already outdoor pushers are all arctic. Uh, we have a mishmash of LD8s, LD10s, LD power angle 13s. LD13s. Uh, razorbacks, uh, snow wings. So we got a little everything with, uh, in the arctic family there. Pretty much everything they make plow wise neld family or razorback. We have, um, any icing granular. All granular. Using magic, as we've said. But magic wasn't so magical last year. So if turbo Todd can get it done, I'm, um, hoping to switch to at least, uh, put turbo melt in the, in the playbook and see how it stacks up next to the not so magical magic.

Speaker D: That'd be great. I think it'd be great for you, honestly. So that stuff works pretty good.

Speaker C: Uh, contracted weather service. Yes, weather, uh, pros. Ah, we've had them since they started. Um, also have true weather. Um, they've been great too. Mark's been great. Um, I don't. They're great when they're calling a storm, I don't like their point zero one to one inch. That, that kind of throw. Like, that's an unnecessary text I get. They want to put out a lot of information, but that's the only thing other than that. Therefore, their actual forecasts have been very good. Uh, I don't like the automated texts, but, uh, I understand why they do them. But I like when they, when they make their forecast. That's, you know, that's when they shine.

Speaker D: Um, Um, I like getting the text,

Speaker C: I guess I like getting the text twice a day. But it's. I don't know. I like I said it's. It's kind of. I could do without that. But like I said, their, their forecast, when they make their call, their call is, is good. Their call is legit. And they, they've been on, uh, and that was a busy winner for us last year. That was not an easy winner. You know, they. And I don't care. I'm not one of these guys that's going to call and yell, hey, you told me I was getting two inches. I got three and a half. You know, there are guys out there that do that. I know their names, actually, because the weather guys drives them so fucking crazy. Like, dude, we called snow. We said you got snow coming. What fucking difference does it make if you get two or three? You're pushing it till it's done. Um, and yeah, like I said, I didn't care last year that the first half of the winter, everybody was underselling every storm that came. You know, by the fourth or fifth one, we just assumed it was going to be double what everybody called for. Plan accordingly and push till it's done. Um, what else? Is there a lot of competition for snow? In my area, there is, but not how we do it. Um, I don't think anybody in our area. And like, I. We've had the local guys on here before, right? Like LJ and, you know, Luke.

Speaker D: They all seem good.

Speaker C: Yeah, no, Luke and Fitz, like, they'll tell you how we do snow. Like, as far as companies that do White Glove, like, we do it, there's very few, if any. Um, and I don't think we're in competition with anybody. I honestly, competition would be if. If I had people bidding what I'm bidding and, you know, and they're picking them over me. If I. I've been awarded bids being 20% higher than other people. So I don't see that we have any competition as far as that goes. I'm only in competition with us, with. With ourselves. Like, can we get it? Can we get it done? Um, you know, and, uh, I'm always like, uh, the younger guys in the area, a couple of them, like, well, we're not gonna bid on this because you, you know, that's in your wheelhouse. No, by all means, bid on it. Just be in the right wheelhouse, you know, like, just. That's your zone. No, we don't have a zone. We're not the mob, you know, we just, we. We just take, uh, we take contracts in our tight little area. But I encourage the guys. No, absolutely. Get your pricing in and, you know, if you want to know what it should be at, take a look at this and, you know, we'll help them. Um, how have we grown in the last five. We, uh, grew steady, um, both in complexes and equipment. Last year. We really didn't. We didn't purchase any equipment, um, because we didn't take on any new sites last year, did we? No, I don't think we took on a single new site last year. None of it made sense. Um, we took on a new site mid year, the year before that was a failure on somebody else, and we took that over for premium rate and we kept that. Uh, so that would be the only new site, but it wasn't Totally new. Um, and where do I see us going in the next five years? I see all hands wrapping it up. Honestly, I, I think my guys are getting older. We're, you know, we're not kids anymore. And the kids, the next generation of kids, I, I see them moving on and doing other things like Brandon and the Ninjas. Uh, those guys are great. And you know, they always have a home with us, you know, as long as they want because they've done phenomenal work. But they're all kids that have, you know, this is, I wouldn't say this is a year round profession for most of these guys in this area. Like snow. I think why we're so good is my guys love doing snow and they really, they love doing snow and that's why they're so good at it. Most people around here do snow because they want to keep the green and we don't give a. About the green. I don't want the green at all. Um, but yeah, I, I honestly see all hands probably wrapping up in the next five years because by then I'll be 55 and I'm going to be moved on to another venture. Um, and the uh, next stage and we'll see. Snow jobs is only growing every day. It's only getting bigger and bigger and we'll see what happens with that.

Speaker D: But uh, you know, do this full time.

Speaker C: I mean it almost is. Honestly it's not, it is like a,

Speaker D: it is like another job for sure.

Speaker C: But it's definitely getting there if it's

Speaker D: not already greenbacks to make it.

Speaker C: Yeah, I mean but that's, that's coming too. I mean that, that's, you know, you, you grow your income as you grow your audience and the audience continues to grow. They um, continue to want more from us. So it's become, you know, it's become a full time job and I, I would see. You know, you look at our last eight months. We've put out more episodes in the last eight months than we've ever put out in an eight month period by far. You know you got a lot of specials now. Um, you know you have the uh, the cutting edge episodes by Boss. Uh, you got the Dusting's episodes by Storm. Um, you got the, the Arctic army roll call episodes by Arctic. You know, every, every OEM M seems to want their own special. And that's awesome because it's awesome. It's adding education, it's adding content for the guys out there that are ravenous for anything. Snow jobs that you know, the, the Pain in my ass to DMs, all the time saying, hey, uh, you know, it be great. Five episodes a week.

Speaker D: No, yeah, yeah. Uh, no, it's a great industry, a lot of great people in it. So we just, hopefully we can. I mean, we'll keep doing what we're doing. We're gonna keep a lot of insight and yeah, just, uh, we just want to thank everybody out there for listening to us.

Speaker C: 100%, man. Sky's the limit. I can't believe, you know, our listenership is still growing. I figured we would have plateaued probably a year ago. Um, it is still going up and going up.

Speaker D: It's going to continue to grow. We, we keep putting out good stuff. Everybody says, so that's, that's all that matters. And it's like I say, we're just trying to help the industry and I think that's what we're doing. I mean, everybody just keeps sending your DMs if you got questions on anything. I mean, that's. We're here to try to make the industry better and educate people like, uh.

Speaker C: And neither one of us pretends to know it all, but I guarantee you we know somebody that does know it and we'll put them on with, you know, we'll put them on to answer your question. So that's what. It's great. That's what's great about. Like Jeremy said, this industry is collaborative. At least it is now, thanks to, I think, the show kind, um, of lighting a fire under everybody and telling everybody. You don't have to keep a secret, you know, share and let's all get better together. So, uh, yeah, we're gonna keep banging that drum because it's, it's working for a lot of guys and a lot of guys are, uh, very happy and they've, they've told us what the show's been able to do for him. Not necessarily me and Jeremy, but, you know, the people we have on the show. And uh, we're gonna keep going, to keep going. And the biggest issues for me in snow management industry, um, the nationals, the, the, the no Snow national model, the broker model is broken. Um, we cannot afford to let somebody else take 40 to 60% of the profit off the top of the contract, uh, just to cover an administrative fee where they sent out a couple emails, made a couple phone calls, got, uh, some, some major chain to sign a contract. Not a lot of work involved with that and not 40 to 60%. And there's less and less margin now than ever, uh, to be Had, So that no longer works. And if you guys are still taking jobs from Nationals, uh, knowing full well they're taking 40 to 60% of your money, uh, you know, that's. You're going to have to live with that. That's on you. I mean, a normal broker in any. In any industry, normal brokerage fee, 8 to 15%, that's acceptable. 40 to 60 is not assuming no liability, having no skin in the game. I will never understand that shit. And it's. You're. You're now taking that contract, and it's under your insurance, which is also hard to get. So now when you are not being paid well enough to service that contract well enough, you are now liable for everything that happens. And they're taking 40 to 60% of your money, and they have no skin in the game and no liability. So that would be my biggest issues facing snow management. Although I'm very happy that I keep hearing that. I've. You know, me and Jeremy have made their jobs harder and harder to find contractors to take their first offers. Good for us.

Speaker D: Yeah.

Speaker C: Funny plowing stories. I don't believe. I. I don't know that I have any funny plowing stories. Trying to think

Speaker E: not.

Speaker C: No, no, I really don't. I don't think, uh. I don't think I have any.

Speaker D: That.

Speaker C: Not that I can think of offhand, so. But, uh, yeah, I think we covered everything, right?

Speaker D: I think so. All right, cool, bud, for another good one. So.

Speaker C: Sounds good.

Speaker D: Everybody just reach out. You got any questions. We always try to put stuff out on our socials and. Yeah, any questions. I love the shows where we answer the questions other people, so.

Speaker C: Absolutely.

Speaker D: Or try to. Or get somebody that can.

Speaker C: Uh, we do have some webinars. We do have some web meetings coming up. Uh, we'll get those out as soon

Speaker D: as we schedule them.

Speaker C: We'll get them out to you guys.

Speaker D: Uh, we've had a couple requests for web meetings. Uh, so we're gonna. We're gonna get a couple of those done in the next month. Uh, so as soon as me and Jay figure out what works for us,

Speaker C: we will get it out and then everybody can sign up for them.

Speaker D: Um, anything else, bud? I don't think so, buddy.

Speaker C: All right, let's call it then. All right, I gang. That'll do it. Episode 178 of the Snow Jobs podcast main show is in the books again. Happy 4th of July weekend to all. Hope, uh, you had a great weekend with your families. Hope you hopefully didn't overindulge. Hope everybody was safe and partied responsibly. Uh, everybody have a great week, all right? Be safe out there. Keep pushing.

Speaker B: I'm standing still Defying feed every light, splash every light throw every light we all tonight.