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How A 19‑Year‑Old Sold His Car And Built A Towing Legacy · Towing News Now

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_05: You are on the train to success with April and West Wilburne.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_05: I'm DJ Hamilton, the co-host, better known as the Toad Doctor.
• 0:13
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• 0:22
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• 0:26
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• 0:28
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• 0:30
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• 0:37
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• 0:56
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• 1:08
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• 1:15
  SPEAKER_05: I'm proud to be part of a great team at the American Drone Recovery Institute.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_05: Let's make 2025 our best year ever.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_05: I will turn it to April Lewis.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, DJ, thank you so much for those kind words.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_04: And um uh as always, we do appreciate everything that you bring to us and um and all your words of wisdom.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_04: Today on Towing News Now with the Tony with the American Tony Recovery Institute, we have a very special guest.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_04: He has been on before and he and Wes just completed a class together, so we'll go into some of that too.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_04: But I've got Kevin Goodyear.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_04: Kevin, it's been a it's been a minute, so why don't you reintroduce yourself to those who already those who may not know you and familiar familiarize yourself with people who already do.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_06: Oh, okay.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_06: Um my name's Kevin Goodyear.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_06: Um I own uh Goodyear towing and Eastern Diesel.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_06: We operate out of uh Panano, Florida, South Alabama, Southwest Georgia.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_06: And um we've been in the business for many years, multi-generations, you know.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_04: How many years how many how many years has Goodyear Kevin Goodyear Towing been around?
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_06: Kevin Goodyear Toewing has been around since 1989.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_06: Uh the family started in the business in nineteen sixty-six.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_04: And what was that called at that time when when that started in nineteen sixty six?
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_04: What was it called then?
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_06: You know, I really have no idea.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_06: That was my grandfather's gas station business down on Main Street, Enterprise, Alabama.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_06: It was North Main Gulf, so I'm new at the Okay.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_04: That's good enough for the government, as people say, so it was your great grandfather who started it or your grandfather who started it?
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_06: My grandfather started in in the server station business, which is where what landed us where we are today.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_06: Anyway, you kind of twisted.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_06: My mom we're speaking of grandfather, it's my mom's father.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_06: He on the gas station and my dad was you know, we're near a military base here just like you guys are.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_06: My dad's family had moved to Enterprise Alabama here where um after they retired from the Air Force to get, you know, a civilian job at the military post.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_06: So my dad wound up going to work at my grandfather's gas station, and that's that's how he met my mom and whatnot.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_04: So did your mom work at the gas station then or was she just She did.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_06: She was just a kid in school, but she went up there and you know, kept track of the accounts and stuff like that.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_06: So that's that's where we met her at.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_04: Well that's it that's a begin that's the beginning of the legacy.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_04: It's what they call an origin story.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, they they were just teenagers, you know, and uh so Yeah, that's how that's how we got our got our start in this.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_06: And then you know, later on my dad had a garage business and they had a couple of wreckers, they used pull cars into the garage, that kind of thing.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_06: But you know, we really didn't get in the in the wrecker business, or what I call the wrecker business, you know, until I started doing it in the late eighties.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_06: Uh prior to that in our area, you know, it was always considered a sideline to be honest with you.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_06: Nobody figured you could you could you could do it standalone anyway.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_06: And at that time, Wes and I spoke about this before, but at that time there was a tow truck at every gas station, at every car dealership, every garage had a record.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_06: So there wasn't, you know, it wasn't the uh volume of business that we have today.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_06: Because there was more more people doing that, you know.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_04: But a lot of the starts of some of these towing companies has been around um long the time that your grand your granddad's business or you know, even older than that, most of the times they have started off as a gas station.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_04: And it just it just kind of, you know, went from there one.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_04: So your your um gas station and then it went to auto repair, but towing was all the way through it.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, there was always there was always a a tow truck involved, a service truck involved.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_06: You know, that back in the day, April, that was just that was shop equipment.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_06: That's just something you had to have to serve your customers and they didn't really even want the stuff, but they had to have it.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_04: And uh you know, so for you, gas station, auto repair, and then like you said, the tow truck was basically just equipment.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_04: It was it was the same thing as a wrench for you, but what made you decide that the thing that you were gonna do was towing instead of the other two aspects of what your family had started?
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_06: Well, my my mom and dad decided to to get out of the garage business in the late 80s.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_06: And um to be frank with you, I did not like the garage business that well, so I didn't want to be involved with that.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_06: And um so I just I literally I I had a personal car that I literally sold on a Friday, bought an old used tow truck, and went to work on Monday.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_06: You know, it was a rough deal, but but but that's that's really where where I started was just from selling that car and buying an old used tow truck.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_04: So it seemed like it it seemed like an impulse decision, but I bet you it wasn't.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_04: I bet you had been thinking about that for a little while.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_06: Well, you gotta realize a kid 19 years old where you know my options were you know to try to you know try to figure out a way to muddle through college and do something like that, no way to pay for it, or you know, go to work at the Ford dealership, turning ranches or something like that, you know.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_06: Next option would have been, you know, dumping fries at McDonald's.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_06: So the options sucked.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_06: You know, so it it was really one of them deals where, you know, I I just you know, I just decided I was I was gonna do it, you know, and and and um oh, you know, you gotta realize all these adults and older people and everything else, like you can't make it doing that, yeah, yeah, yeah, this and that, you know.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_06: And and it was it was a challenge.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_06: It was a challenge for a good many years, I can tell you that.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_04: Can imagine, I can imagine.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I think you're kind of like right there, you're in Alabama, but you're close to Georgia and and Florida.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_04: I mean you bought you bought shops there too.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_04: So I don't know.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_06: So we are we are 20 miles from we're 20 miles from Florida State Line, about 40 miles from Georgia State Line.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_06: I mean you could throw a rock at either one and we have terminals in both states in all three states.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_04: And that has to be a ben that has to be a benefit too, but also a nightmare for insurance.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_06: Well, yeah, I know there's challenges with that.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, you know, what you know, we're on the insurance deal, you know, I I I'm a lot of tow outfits, you know, that's that's a struggling point for them right now.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_06: And they're you know, a lot of them are closing closing shop because of it.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_06: But uh, you know, fortunately, fortunately, I I I was able to see the writing on the wall, and uh, this is a subject for another day, but to see writing on the wall and and and get involved, you know, in a captive and and self-insure ourselves to a certain degree so that we don't we don't necessarily have those battles that some of the other tow companies have, and you know, and of course, keeping our safety to where we don't have as many problems either, because you know, loss runs are what drives that insurance problem, you know.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I think that is a good subject for another day, the the captive with the uh self-insured thing.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_04: I do I definitely think that we should have a podcast on that because it's an interesting interesting subject, and I think there's there's more and more it seems like there's more and more companies going that route.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_04: So we definitely will have a podcast on that.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_04: Um what do you see as the future for your for for the towing industry in general and then for for you yourself?
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_04: What how do you when you're looking down the road at all the changes and and the things that are happening?
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_06: What's what I want to see is a is a more you know more professional, more recognized uh by the community, uh by first responders, by police agencies, whatever, as the professionals that we truly are.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_06: And that's gonna take some work on our part because we don't we don't do a very good job of of uh you know of uh of making that of making that work out, you know.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_06: Um we're very good at polishing trucks and we're very good at going to recovering tractor trailers, doing our little stuff.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_06: But you know the the community many times don't even know what we do.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_06: I mean they think we're just out uh you know, towing away cars off the beach or uh from apartment complexes or whatever is toaways, you know, which that's not even a business that we we really engage in.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_06: But you know, the the public's just not aware of what we do.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_06: So um uh there are a little more with this with the slowdown move over awareness and that kind of stuff, but still, you know, they have no idea really what we do, no idea at all.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_04: That's that's very very true.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_04: It we're kind of an afterthought, and it's something if you need if you're broken down on the side of the road, it's not an enjoyable experience either, because you're glad to see us when we come if you're broke down, but the only reason you you're you're thinking of us is because that that incident that's happening.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_04: So I think more community involvement and and maybe even participating with your local fire departments, your local police departments with that down.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_06: And we've been doing that for years and years and years and have a a you know a very good relationship.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_06: Now, you know, I'll hit on that subject uh you know, back in uh back in my dad's back in my dad's time in the business, you know, back when he was driving wrecker in the 70s, you know, many times in in the rural part of the country, uh, you know, he was the jaws of life.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_06: Wow.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_06: You know, a lot of people throughout the country will relate to that that were from that era.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_06: And, you know, um uh uh those wrecker operators back in those days were very, very involved in what we know now as emergency management because uh, you know, they had to be, because you know, the job had to be done, lives had to be saved, and the resources were limited.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_04: That's something to think about too, because it because it really until you said that, Kevin, I it makes sense to me.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_04: You know, that what you said just makes sense to me, but I've never thought about that.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_06: Well that technology come about, you know, I mean I can tell you there's I have my dad's old tow truck from the seventies that restored and taken it around to to the record shows and stuff.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_06: And you know, back then in the 70s, you know, he had a s it there was there was a siren on the on the fender of the truck.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_06: The siren's still there.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_06: We use it in grades and whatnot, but but you know, on the local level, they literally looked at him as an emergency responder.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_06: And um and depended on him for that, you know.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_04: We gotta get back we gotta get back to that.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_04: I think we've we've gotta get back to that.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_04: They don't need us as far as uh emergency response with the late part of it, but they do need us for emergency response response in other aspects.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_06: Well, I was I was gonna say, you know, uh if anybody happened to, I don't remember what month it was in two times last year, we got a featured article in there with that very that very situation where a tractor trailer had turned over on a guardrail, uh in a median, driver was trapped, and this had gone on for several hours, and the fire department was doing everything it could, but they couldn't get the guy out.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_06: They were very reluctant to allow us to use our equipment.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_06: You know, we had two rotators on the scene, we had what what they needed, and so finally uh the um battalion chief came up to me and said, Mr.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_06: Goodyear, do you do you really think you can make that straight lift like that without any movement?
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_06: I said, Yes, sir, I I believe we can.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_06: We tied the winches off and all in such a manner that we brought that chassis straight up, you know, about two or three feet, and they were able to go in there and get that man out.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_06: Within within 20 minutes, he was in a helicopter on the way to Hollywood, and he had been in there for three and a half hours.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_04: And and that's what that's what people don't see.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_06: Uh-huh.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_04: That is what they don't see.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_06: That's right.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_06: That's right.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_06: So we have a very, you know, we have a very unique industry.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_06: It's not like any other industry.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_06: Uh, you know, I brought my children back into the business.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_06: They've been, they went off to college, went doing their thing.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_06: You know, I have a son-in-law that, you know, he's he's pretty educated and and and he came into this and he, you know, he's like, Pop, this is different than anything I've ever been involved with.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_06: I said, Well, yeah, I've been telling you that.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_06: You know, he didn't realize that till he got here and and and seen what we go through.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_06: And I was like, holy cow, you know, I had no idea, you know.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_04: So you brought so you brought your son-in-law up, and this is a family business, and your children are involved.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_04: So let's talk about that for a little while.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_04: Let's let's go into that because a lot of the the industry is mostly built on family, family business is a multi-generational thing, and that's moving a little bit away from that, I think, I think, but not but not like other industries.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_04: I think we're still a very generational um um industry.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_04: Talk about your kids coming back into business.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_06: Well, we like I said, I sent my daughter off to Sanford University in Birmingham back, gosh, 15 years ago.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_06: And um she got her degree, went to work uh as a marketing director at a real estate company in Birmingham, Alabama, which is about 200 miles from me.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_06: And she met her husband, which is my son-in-law now.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_06: He was a uh property manager or whatever, commercial property manager, that that dealt with that company a little bit.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_06: And um so that's how they met.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_06: And uh over the years they had thought maybe they would want to come back to a small town and raise their kids in a small community.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_06: And uh a couple years ago they they called me and uh asked me what I was up to, and I said, Well, I honestly I'm kinda looking for an an exit strategy in a way.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_06: And uh my son-in-law said, Hold that fault, you need to talk to your daughter.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_06: And so I called her, she said, Dad, it's it's crazy.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_06: She said, You know, 'cause we're people of faith, and and uh my daughter said, I just feel like that you know, I feel like the Lord is telling me to move back down there and work for you.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_06: And um she said, I don't even know why.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_06: But it was awfully ironic that I was kind of looking at maybe getting out of the business, and then you know, they they they come in and wiped all that off the charts.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_04: No, well and you and you're not getting out of the business, but you are this is your extra strategy, even if you stay in it for ten, five, ten, twenty years, your extra strategy is that you are you are um handing this over to them little bit by little bit, they will be taking things on and doing things your way and maybe a little bit different too, because i everybody to the table.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_06: And I wanna t I want to touch on that if I can.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_06: You know, when I brought my son-in-law in here, I didn't you can Papa want you to teach me everything about this.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_06: Well, we're not gonna do it that way.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_06: You know, I said I'm I'm I'm part of this 20 group.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_06: And I said, You're you're going to you're going to become my role in this twenty group.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_06: And these towers that are friends of mine from all over the country, they're going to teach you their side of the business too.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_06: That way you've got a good rounded view of it.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_06: Not just Kevin's view, because Kevin's view ain't necessarily per right.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_06: So so you've got a nice rounded view of this.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_06: You see I've done all throughout the country.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_06: That has been a great investment because it it's it's taught him about the business.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_06: Um I pulled him into you know, legislative matters and that kind of stuff that I'm working on and whatnot.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_06: Where he can meet some of the people that that we deal with and whatnot, state government and stuff.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_06: And and he's he's picking that up.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_06: He's learning it.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_06: And um you know, he uh he's a sharp young man, but he's learning learning our learning what our business does.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_04: And it was that's it was very intelligent to bring him into the 20 group too, because like like you said, and sometimes it's perspectives, Kevin.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_04: It's not about what you know, which it is about what you know, but it's other people's perspectives throughout the country too.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_06: So that's a very important thing.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_06: It is, April, and I don't want to ever block someone's ambition, goal, dreams, whatever, by me stepping in and saying, you know, I've tried that a hundred times, that ain't gonna work.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_06: I I I don't want to be that person.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_06: Because they may be able to make something work that I couldn't make work.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_06: Right.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_06: And uh, you know, and so uh I I you know um I've I've I've learned that the the one with the craziest ideas at this place are mi is me.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_06: So I'm not too worried about the children coming up with any crazy ideas because I I've got that cornered.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_04: Well, you did all the crazy things, and that's why you're where you're at now, and now it's just executing it's executing.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_06: Well I've got I've got that garbage cornered, man.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_06: They like that.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_06: There we go.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_06: There we go.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_04: All right.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_04: Well, on that on that uh exciting note, we're gonna go to a break, Kevin, and when we come back, we're gonna talk about the stuff that you and West just did together in your in your um in your own.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_04: All right.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_04: Um we're back here with uh Kevin Goodyear with good with Kevin Goodyear uh from Interpods, Alabama, and I'm gonna ask him about the class that he and Wes just did um in Alabama, which was a great class.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_04: They had a good turnout for it.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_04: I want to ask him what his takeaways were and what maybe he could see in the future that we could add to to this class.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_04: So, Kevin, welcome back from the break.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_06: To be honest, I mean, I don't, you know, Wes always does a great class.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_06: I I uh I'm sure there's always things we could add, but you know, at the end of the day, uh he does a wonderful job.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_06: I uh I enjoyed having him here, enjoyed him having down at my Florida location a couple years ago.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_06: And um, you know, uh we always learn something from it.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_06: The uh the students learn from it.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_06: Um you know, but it's nothing else.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_06: We come together for a weekend and just get back out here on Monday morning and just become better at what we do is for the sure fact that we're investing ourselves.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_04: I think that is I think that is true and the fresh coming back from the weekend.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_04: Um you get back to work and you're excited about maybe you knew everything that you just seen, but it's like like I said, about perspective.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_04: Sometimes the way that you look at doing something and the and the problem is a little bit different.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_06: Now, I gotta be honest with you.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_06: Pretty much now me and Wis, we enjoy.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_06: We enjoy one part of the day.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_06: That's when we get to leave and go eat.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_06: So so so dinner's the big deal.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_04: And it is a big deal.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_04: The food the food down that way is phenomenal and it's uh and and it's fellowship.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, yeah.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_06: I was gonna say that we took some of the some of the students along with us a couple of the nights and had a good time of fellowship and socializing with everybody, and we had people from New York, you know, from from Iowa, you know, from Florida right down the road, from right here 30 miles, you know, a little one-man tow company, 30 miles to the to the wet to the west over here.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_06: He he come and and uh enjoyed the class.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_06: Heck, my my snap-on uh tour truck guy, he he came for the class.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_06: I don't know why, but he did and he he enjoyed it.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_06: He said he just wanted to learn more about the industry and what we do.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_06: But um, but it was it was great.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_06: It always is.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_06: I I uh I enjoy Wes's programs better than seriously better than anyone else's.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, uh for it's the camaraderie, that makes sense.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_04: It's it's yeah, it is the camaraderie.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_04: And I I'm always amazed at how far away when I first I was in the towing industry when I met Wes, it's sort of kind of how I met him.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_04: And then I went on the road with them.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_04: And Wes's teaching methods and his techniques are phenomenal and and second to none in my per my unbiased personal opinion of my husband, okay.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_04: Um but but the thing that always impressed me and always amazed me more than anything and still does, like I'm not less impressed by this than I was the first time I seen it, was how far away people would come to a cloud.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, yeah.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_04: Iowa in New York is quite a distance, it's a little bit more than a car trip away.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_06: But you know, those of us that are hungry for knowledge, we do that.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_06: And and and and we're gonna get the knowledge.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, we're gonna do whatever it takes.
• 26:20
  unknown: Yes.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_06: Because what you gotta realize I'm not I'm not being arrogant here, please don't take it this way.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_06: But I'm sharpening my sword on both sides daily.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_06: I'm fifty I'm fifty-five years old.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_06: You know, we have gosh close to a hundred trucks and nine terminals.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_06: And, you know, I was out all night on a double tractor trailer roller.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_06: And you know, I'm gonna be there with my men as long as I'm able to be there because I enjoy the work.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_04: And and let me ask you a question, Kevin, because when I when I talked to you earlier about doing this podcast, kind of kind of threw it at you last minute, and and you were gracious enough to if give me the time with of your day to do it when I know your time is very precious.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_04: You had just gotten back from doing that double trailer call.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_06: Just walked in the door, yep, sure.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_04: Walked in the door and and within an hour's notice got on the phone with V.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_04: Now, obviously, if the phone would have rang and you'd have had called out to do something else, then we would have had this conversation on a different day, but that shows the lower.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_06: No, we wouldn't.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_06: No, we wouldn't.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_06: I made the point now when I send somebody else.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_06: I can send somebody else.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_06: But I don't I don't have to, but I can't.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_06: And that's that's the beauty of where I'm at, where the people ask me all the time, when you gonna retire?
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_06: When you go move to the beach or move to the lake, and blah blah blah.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_06: I'm like, I'm not.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_06: I go to the beach when I want to go to the lake when I want.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_06: I'm not interested in retiring.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_06: You know, if um you guys hear of me retiring, you're probably gonna re reading an obituary a few days later because I just I only know doing this, I don't know anything else.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_04: And and it's something you probably still enjoy doing.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I know sometimes the day-to-day business part of it's not always the most exciting part, but you are Oh no, no, no.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_06: The toys.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_06: The toys, it's all about the toys.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_06: You know, as a little kid, we had these little talk of toys we played with in the backyard of my grandmother's house, you know.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_06: And you go and we built freeways and interstates, we wrecked trucks, we had wreckers, we had all kinds of stuff.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_06: So now, you know, we just get to go out there and do it with real ones.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_04: And and you're doing it in a way that makes a difference.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_04: At the end of the day, people could think about the industry what they want to think about it.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_04: You are out there to to do a service for for your community.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_06: If there's something I'm not I'm in no way beating my chest on it, but I heard a comment this morning from a customer.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_06: I heard the comment.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_06: It wasn't it wasn't directed at me.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_06: I heard the comment being discussed with an environmental guy.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_06: And the man said they were making a comment about my big my big rotator, one of my big rotators.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_06: I had two there.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_06: And the customer told the guy, he said, that's why I use these people.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_06: They are top notch and first class.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_06: And I realized after the fact that the guy was discussing, not really a competitor, but another towing company.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_06: And my customer was saying, No, no.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_06: We got this handled, this is the way we want.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_06: And so, you know, that that's a that's a compliment, you know.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_04: But once you once you get up there, you're not beating your chest, but once you get up there, you gotta stay up there and you gotta maintain that quality, that level of quality at all at all.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_04: Time that that that's the way to be around.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, safety and and this you know the quality of service.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_06: I was telling someone this morning that you know big companies and everybody that does business with us, they are more concerned about safety than they are anything.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_06: They don't want anything spilt, they don't want anything done unsafe, and they, you know, they will hire the guy that's gonna do it right way before they'll hire the guy that they might get by a little cheaper, just to make sure they avoid any liability.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_06: Because liability is huge.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_06: We're back to the insurance thing.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_06: Liability is huge, it's a big problem, you know.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, for that for that going more inexpensive, it can cost you thousands of dollars on the road if you don't have the right equipment and the right um um the the right folks behind it do knowing what they're doing with it too.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah, you can probably get it done cheaper, but how much does that cost to you on down the road?
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_06: How much is that worth to you?
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_06: You know, you gotta think about that because sometimes, and I've you know, I've done that with vendors, vendors here, you know, where you know the cheaper price wasn't the most positive outcome.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_06: You know, so but uh but at the end of the day, we love Wes coming here, we enjoy him, and uh I um I my real goal in it is to try to help him get to that thousand mark on his classes, you know.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's an exciting thing for us in 2026.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_04: We are gonna reach a thousand.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_04: We're trying to we're trying to map out where that's gonna be out, but that's that's kind of hard to do.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_04: Um we're already getting the classes lined up, so we may be able to hone that in once we see, you know, the structure of it.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_04: But the thousand classes, it's right, it's not that far away, Kevin.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_06: And you know, I've known I've known your husband for like 30 years.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_06: Uh I knew him way, way back, you know, when when they did the the Florida show over there, it's Twin Towers.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_06: It's not long enough.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_06: That was a long time ago.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, you know, so so uh matter of fact, I used to buy these re reproduction memorabilia things from him, you know, like the uh homes ads and stuff.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_06: And um I had a I've got all kinds of that stuff that I got from him over the years.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, he specializes in that too.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, yeah.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, I've he he gave me a little homes patch when he was down here the other day.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_06: He said, Oh, I know you'll love this.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_06: And I yeah, no doubt, I do, buddy.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_06: You can guarantee you that.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_06: Oh.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_04: All right, Kevin.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_04: It has been good having you on for this interview, and we're gonna get you booked on for another one, and that goes so far in uh in between our um our uh conversations.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_04: How about you giving us a good word of Thanksgiving?
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_04: Because this couldn't either air right at Thanksgiving or right before it.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_04: And I think that would just be a good way to end this podcast.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_06: You know, uh, you know, I just I I wish everybody a great Thanksgiving, Christmas season, and um uh I hope everyone's family is is is well and um and happy and uh I just look forward to uh to us growing in this business in the next generations and uh you know regardless of the structure, you know, whether it's big company, you know, I say big companies, whether it's you know, whether it's guys that you know that we we structure ourselves where we own 15 or 20 different towing outfits or whatever, or it's just mom and pops.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_06: It really doesn't matter.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_06: You know either way, we we we are gonna be pushing this industry forward.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_06: And um and that's very exciting.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_06: But uh but I appreciate you guys um letting me come on today.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_06: And uh like I said, I will uh I'll be glad to to close in a prayer if you want to.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_06: Uh yes, sir.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_06: Okay.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_06: That's it.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_04: Let's let's close this out in a in a beautiful prayer.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_06: All right, dear Heavenly Father, I just want to thank you for the opportunity to uh to participate on uh Wes's podcast.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_06: So thank you for Miss April here and for everybody involved in uh in the training organization.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_06: Um Lord God, it just as you bless our industry, the people in our industry.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_06: Just you know, you know, help them in their endeavors and and and you know, just just just help them do the right thing, be honest, be fair, and treat people like they want to be treated.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_06: We just praise you for everything you've given us, all your mighty blessings.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_06: And Lord, we just we just we just allow to serve you and to you know do our best to be a positive to our communities and and to our issues.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_06: Give you all the glory and praise.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_03: Amen.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_03: And that's it, that's a good way to end this podcast.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you so much, Kevin, and uh have a good end of your family.