Attracting Young Talent with Andy Golding

In this week’s episode, I chat to Andy Golding, Chief Strategy Officer & Partner at Kripke Enterprises and incoming ReMA Chair.

This one’s a proper masterclass on attracting young talent, and more importantly, what to do once you’ve got them.

Andy shares how the industry needs to rethink some of its oldest habits if we want to stay relevant. From moving away from the “everyone must start in the yard” mindset, to hiring for specialization and actually trusting people to do what they’re good at.

We also get into how Kripke has built a brand that people genuinely want to be part of — not just customers, but employees too. Because if you want better people in your business, you need to give them something worth joining.

There’s a lot in here for anyone trying to build a stronger team, keep good people, and future-proof their operation.

In this episode, we talk about:

👉 Moving beyond old-school hiring
👉 Marketing as a talent magnet
👉 What attracts young talent
👉 Coaching over managing
👉 Letting people fail safely
👉 Building real culture
👉 And much more!

If you’re trying to build a team, attract better people, or figure out what the next generation actually wants… This is a must-listen.

Born Scrappy.

Brought to you by Buddy.

The only all-in-one platform for buying, selling, and managing scrap metal.

Built for scrappies, by scrappies.



https://www.tradebuddy.io/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/tradewithbuddy/



WHO IS STU KAGAN ANYWAYS?

27 years in the metal recycling game and still learning and growing…

I learnt from the best and worked my way up from yard labourer to Executive Director of Trading and Operations for the largest metal recycler in sub-Saharan Africa. Responsible for 4,500 employees, 85 sites, and the overall profitability of a multi-billion dollar operation.

I brought my breadth and depth of knowledge to bear and co-founded the fastest growing, most-loved, and most awarded metal recycling company in New Zealand.

I thought it was time that tech worked for our industry, so I built THE killer scrap app, Buddy - built for scrappies, by scrappies.

Father of two crazy-awesome boys. Husband to Lisa. Kids rugby coach. YPO member. Founder. Lifelong learner. Mentee. Mentor. Committed Stoic. Aspiring cowboy.

COME SAY HI ON LINKEDIN

https://www.linkedin.com/in/stukagan/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/born-scrappy/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/tradewithbuddy

Transcript

Welcome Back Andy

Why Young Talent Matters

Rethinking Yard Time

Marketing To Recruit

Retail Yard Brand Playbook

Hiring Athletes

Friendships Drive Deals

Onboarding Young Talent

Safe Failure Culture

Celebrating Wins at Work

Locker Room Slack Culture

Best Young and Brightest

Grow Networks Through ReMA

Rebranding the Industry

Business vs the Environment

Getting to Know Andy (a little more)

0:01

The scrap metal recycling industry has always run on hustle, trust, and sharp instincts. This is the podcast for traders and operators who want to get sharper without losing their scrappy edge. I'm Stu Kagan. Bringing you insights and stories from the people shaping the future of our industry. This is born scrappy. Andy Golding, next chair of re Mom, throwing it right out there in the beginning. Welcome back to Born Scrappy. Stu, I appreciate it. I think I'm like 25 or 26 days, so when maybe when this airs, we'll see how far away I really am. But I will tell you, man, it is heating up. I am getting closer and closer to the sun and it's just getting exciting. It's getting exciting and how it is has to do with the convention and everything. It's just, it's heating up. Look, I'll be honest with you, we are really excited. A lot of us follow you on socials and see the personality that you bring to everything you do, which will be a lot about what we talk about today, but we are very interested. No pressure, but we're very interested to see how you bring that into this role. I, I am too. And um, you know, we'll talk a little bit about that, but there's so much that you wanna do and it's such a short time. So I've been really training for this for six years and it seemed like it was just yesterday that I was elected. So I've been really fortunate to work with great people and we have a great staff. Colin was a great mentor, and Gary and Brian, I mean, it's just, I, I, I've just been very, very lucky. Very lucky and just can't wait to dive in head first. Look, Andy, you probably haven't heard this before, but when I think of you, I think of you saying Bolt. Has anybody ever told you that before? And it's purely because of, I think he once said he's trained all his life to race for 10 seconds. Thank you. Six years. It's almost time. It's gonna go before you know it. You know, one of the things, and we're gonna talk about this, that Rema allows you to do when you get elected is travel the world. And like how amazing is that? I've, I have over the past two years been able to travel the world and now I get to do it. And Neil by who's gonna be the incoming chairman when I'm chairman, is gonna travel with me. I mean, it's. It's like, who doesn't wanna be a part of this? It's just such an amazing association. We're so well respected around the world. Anybody that's a member can run and do it'cause I know if I can do it, anybody can do it. Just before we, we started this, we spoke about, I'm, I'm busy writing a book. This isn't a punt for it, but I'm putting a whole chapter on REMA because of how incredible the association has been since I arrived in the us. Um, you know, I've been a part of it for 20 odd years, so I think there's a lot of people out there that don't necessarily know the importance of it. But hold up, we digress. The topic today, today's a masterclass. We've called on you, Andy, to help us through this. The topic is attracting young talent. And letting them lead. Now, this is a super important topic. It comes up on everybody's socials. Whenever you speak to people at, at industry events, they're like, oh shit, I don't have enough people. And, you know, how do we bring the next generation through? So, yeah, I think let's delve straight into it. Andy, if you, if you're ready for it. So. You know, I joined this business 21 years ago. I didn't know much about the business I, whether I said it before. I'll say it real briefly. Matt Kripke and I have known each other our entire lives. If you would've told me he was a shoe salesperson, I would've been sure. So when I was looking for work, I met him. He kind of told me about it, and it pushed all the right buttons in me. I think that I've been able to sell it a little differently than Matt has, uh, or Matt did for me. But when I first started 21 years ago, my two closest friends in the industry, one was 30 years older than me. The other one was 40 years older than me. And you know, those were like my daily call guys. I would call those guys every day. I'd learn from them. But people wonder, well, when we first started, did you want to be surrounded by young people? Sure. I didn't know how. My friends weren't young. I, I didn't know any better, so it's been a great ride and my average age of friends now is, is closer to mine than it, it was industry friends and re regular friends is closer to mine than it was when I first started. I mean, realistically when you first started, you know, I was there at the same time. It, it was an all boys club. I mean, we call it as it is. I don't think there were many people that were sitting around having conversations around the next generation and how do we diversify and bring, you know, more females into the industry, et cetera. That wasn't really a topic. I guess right now, would you say it's, it's more on the radar. How are things changing? How do we follow through instead of it just being a conversation? So one of the things is that, you know, you have to respect the young people that are coming in. And 21 years ago and 25 years ago and 30 years ago, you needed to grind it out in the yard. Okay. You could have been a lawyer, you could have been an accountant, but you know, you weren't worth. Your salt unless you ground it out in the yard. Times are different now, you know, is it helpful to work in a yard and would I ever hire anyone that didn't work in our facility? No, but their people that we are hiring are more specialized. A person that you're hiring for sales, he needs to learn the product. He doesn't need to learn how the full operation works. He just doesn't. I, I've been fortunate enough in my career that I don't know how the full operation works and how to load this and unload that and separate and do all that. I mean, it's not as necessary. Potentially today, especially when your organization is a little bit bigger and you know, if you're hiring in someone who's younger, who's got an accounting degree, I would much rather them be an accountant than work in the yard for two years. You know? Or you have someone with some social media experience, you're going to get more benefit. From that and 30 years ago and 21 years ago, I think that was maybe a little bit more, and I can kind of see it in your eyes. You know, if you really wanna know the industry well, you had to either come out of the yard or work in the yard. Well, this is a very second, third generation business. A lot of the younger people that are coming in are highly educated attorneys are coming in, accountants, engineers, and Sure. Should they do that work? Absolutely. Should that be a five year experience? I don't think so. And if you're talking to someone from Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Ohio State, Michigan, you're not gonna say, Hey, I wanna hire you and have you work in our operations for two years, just so you can touch and feel the material. It's important, but that's not really respecting what their career is. And so I think that's a big change. From back then. Um, and that's how I treat the people. I want'em to be familiar, but I don't think they have to fully embrace it completely. Now, I, I totally agree. I mean, I think if I went back 10 years when I was still in South Africa running that large operation, everybody who joined had to go in the yard for years now, you know, starting a small operation in New Zealand and growing that, but being so in the cold face of every single part of the business. I was always looking for different people. They could spend a week in the yard just to get an idea for what we did. But they were then the best transport dispatcher that I could possibly find. Or it was the best customer success person or a, um, business development manager. They didn't have to be years in. But you said you saw it In my eyes. I mean, that was me many years ago. Uh, and I think it's still a lot of people. I was at dinner, um, I won't say the company. I was at dinner with a group of customers. The accountant, uh, if they watch this, they'll know who it is. The accountant was a nephew and I said, have you worked in the yard at all? Well, the two brothers got literally into a fight at the table because one brother's like, keep'em in the office, and the other brother was like, no, he should be out in the yard. It was one of those nights where things didn't go well. Um, and for the nephew as well, it was, it was pretty bad. Um, but yeah, it's, it's a little old. They definitely know. It's a little, they this thing they definitely know. Yes. And it's not that it's not important, of course it's important, but to tell a college graduate. From a top university, which are the people we should be bringing into our industry, that I want you to do manual labor for a couple of years. If I were that guy, I don't think that would be appealing to me, especially if I had a logistics degree, a social media degree, a marketing degree, or an MBA, an accounting MBA. I just, I don't think that's starting on the right foot and really gonna attract the right people. So Andy, I mean, you've been doing this, I've met the, the younger people coming through Cryp themselves. Yeah. Um, you've built an incredible reputation for. Fun, bold marketing at Kripke. I mean, last time we, on the show you were telling us some incredible April Fool stories that you've done, which, which we don't have to go into right now. But honestly, if anybody sees Andy at a conference, just go and ask him. If you haven't heard some of those, you won't miss this year's. You won't miss this year. Okay. Oh really? Okay. Well, I'm looking forward to we not far. So most people think of marketing though as a tool to attract customers only. How have you intentionally used it? To attract really good young traders who want to be a part of something really exciting. So I think that people wanna be in a place that is in touch. You know, that the, the ownership and the management is young at heart. And, you know, a, a picture tells a thousand words. And I really believe that what we have done is really everything I try to do. I try to brand and with chat GPT and making logos and stuff, it's so easy. To do that now, whether it's the Waffle House, it's so easy to make like a brand. And for me, a brand tells the whole story really quickly, and that's how young people think. They don't wanna sit in front of somebody and have them. Vomit all over them. 25 years of scrap experience. They wanna be brought in, they wanna be told this is cool and they wanna be a part of somewhere that doing good in a fun, active way. That is what attracts, I think, young people to us. And keeps them over the years. I've had two people of like 10 that have left one. It just wasn't right for them and which was okay, and it was a, a short amount of time he was here and the other one got sold a bag of bullshit by somebody else and that, and it didn't even work out. But both great people. Um, so I think that people wanna be around creativity. They wanna be around smarts. They wanna be able to understand things in short order, and I think that's what we can deliver on. Andy, if somebody Googles right now, Crip key, what do you want them to think? What's the vibe you're putting out there? I think creative and smart. We're creative and we're smart. Um, to me, like smarts is the most important thing, uh, because there's no cure for stupid and there's no pill you can take for stupid. There's nothing that you can do for stupid. So I, I want people to think that we're a creative group. And that, um, our presentation is smart and intentional because in reality it is, it's way more intentional than people could imagine. And I mean, the, the important stuff, not maybe the silly kind of stuff. Yeah, of course. That's, that's what I think I want people to think we're smart and creative. There's a lot of people in our industry that listen to this and shrug their shoulders, like, yeah, whatever. Like, they're still skeptical. They still think, you know, marketing is for lifestyle brands. We're not a lifestyle brand. Why should we do it? What have you got to say to those people? So, um, we opened up retail here in 2021, and as we were growing retail, what we determined was our goal was to steal. People that were in the scrap business from other people already doing it. You know, we were trying to steal scrappers to come here instead of going somewhere else. Instead of trying to educate the whole world on what we do. We were trying to steal people to come here. So one of our slogans was you leave with air in your tires and cash in your pocket, kind of speaking the language of if you go to a dumpy place, you'll probably get a hole in your tire. So we spent a lot of time making sure our driveway, but the other thing that we did about, about a year into it was every dollar that we pay you and we do it in$50 increments, we give you a point. So, you know, we, we have our system where you bring in 5,000, you get a certain amount of points, the points can be used for stuff. Thousand points, get you earrings, uh, 500 points, get you a grill, Yetis. So then we went to our customers and we said, how do you like all this stuff? What do you think they said back to us? This is the part that blew my mind. What do you think they said back to us? They said, I think they said it's the reason why we keep coming back. Not exactly sort of here's what they said to us. They said, we want stuff with your name on it. I'm like, you want stuff with our name on it? And it becomes so obvious. And it's the marketing story. They are part of our affinity group. They wanna be associated with us. We do good in the community. We're good people. We treat them fairly. We make them feel welcome when they're here. Where other yards make people feel like criminals when they come in. We make people feel like family. You know, we make people feel warm and happy and we treat people right, so why wouldn't they want to have our brand on them? That's why you do it. If you run a shitty operation, don't do it.'cause no one will want it. Don't do our Exactly. But if you run a good operation, people will wanna be associated with you. People want to affirm that they've made the right choice on where they. Went to recycle. And that was really shocking to me. And that's why you do marketing. That's why you're out in your community. That's why we advertise on the radio. That's why you do that, because people wanna feel good about the choices that they make. Just like luxury brands, people wanna feel good when they see a probe golfer playing with a certain club. They feel a little closer to'em if they play with that club. And we should be thinking in those terms. Our yard isn't dark, isn't dirty, you're not gonna get your tire popped. We're a luxury brand. Why shouldn't we act like one? Why shouldn't we tell people we're one? I, I wanna just jump in and clarify because a lot of people are gonna say, well, still skeptical, and I'll tell you why, because you didn't tell them what the outcome was. Now, I'm assuming'cause of how good Cryp gear is, and I know'cause I've experienced what you've done, which has a great, um, outcome. What is the outcome like? Do you have people other than that they love you guys? Do they keep coming back? Are you making money? So yes, so we have a small retail yard. Most people would consider it a feeder yard. We started it five years ago. Right now we get between 50 and a hundred people a day. We have, on average probably of those 50 to a hundred people. We get maybe six to 10 new customers every single day. So then we take those new customers, we put'em in our system, we put'em in our texting system, and we speak to them about whatever they wanna talk about. We have live texting. You wanna text in something, you have a question. We have a guy here. He is ready to answer it for you. You have a question about a product, snap a picture, send it in. We'll help you out. That brings them into the family and they have a strong affinity to us. They love coming here. They feel safe here. They're treated right here and we have grown, uh. Definitely a pedler business out of nothing by guys that knew nothing about opening a pedler yard. We knew nothing about it, but, but that's the best part. Andy, I'm gonna jump in. Yeah, because if you don't know anything, then you haven't learned. How to do it badly. Like I started this in New Zealand. We built a a, a brand from scratch. There was no such company. We didn't go and buy one. We started a brand within three years it was much quicker. But when we had moved to our main site within three years, the company was doing almost 80% of the Pless scrap in the hole of Auckland. We were doing well over 2 million pounds or a thousand tons of non-ferrous, just an outdoor trade. And that was from. Brand new company, which no one heard anything of. So can you make money on doing something this like this? Absolutely. How was I able to do this? It wasn't me. I had 85 yards in South Africa. Not one of them ran anywhere close to this, but when my wife came in, her first thing was. Why can't we be like McDonald's? Why can't we have a drive through? Why does it have to be dirty? Why are people getting puncture? Why are we treating them badly? Why are we shouting at customers to tell them, go put it down on that scale over there, like we changed everything because she came in with brand new eyes. She was able to not be tainted by all the bad stuff that I had done over 20 years before that. In Ohio, the standards that we have to live by, we have to run their driver's license before they pull into our yard, we have to swipe it. Wow. We take a picture of the scrap before they come into our yard. We take their license plate before they enter our yard, and then when they're there more and more, so we run a professional operation and a good part of it was built on branding. Built on marketing. It's so crystal clear to me how marketing built a business and then how we have kept it by treating people nicely. And as we started talking about when you bring in young people, do you want them to see that you treat your customers poorly? Like why would a young person. Wanna be around that too. Mm-hmm. We would rather lose money on a person coming through our yard than treat them poorly. It's just not good. It's not who we are. And, and really one of the other reasons why I did it was. Neil Vice said to me, he said, why don't you guys open up a retail yard and just treat people the same way that you treat people on the brokerage side? And I'm like, yeah, I sure genius. Yeah, exactly. And that's, but hold on Andy, I need to put a pin in it'cause we, our trains going completely off the tracks. So yes. Loves brand. You're not, can speak about all the time. Let's understand when you're sitting across from a young candidate, right?'cause brand's important, marketing is important, how they see you is important. What signals tell you that this person has what it takes?'cause I have made bad hires. No doubt you have as well. What do you look for? So, um, two things, and I'm, I'm a little bit, I'm torn right now, but for the past five years I've been looking for collegiate athletes because collegiate athletes are open to coaching. Our environment is heavy coaching, not heavy management, heavy coaching, and if you aren't open to be coached, this is not the right place for you. Now what I've also found is collegiate athletes that have sales experience. They're really good. You know, I, I would like agree more of those. And then when you say to young people, I'm looking for collegiate athletes because you're open to coaching, they're like, well, I love to be coached. Alyssa played softball, we've got lacrosse players, we've got soccer players, baseball players. I mean, it's like, it, it seems again like a no-brainer. And people like to, um, know what the goal is. And my goal was collegiate athletes and they wanted to be a, a part of a team and they definitely feel like they're part of a team. I, I have the same response except for a different reason and that's why I'd never heard this before. So in South Africa we had brought into the team many X professional rugby players, so top level rugby players. Um, and the reason why I actually hired them. Was because I believe that professional sportsmen or top tier sportsmen work really hard. They have a work ethic that is. I guess the general population don't really get, of course you get entrepreneurs, you get guys that work super hard, but as a top level sportsman, yes, you eat and sleep what you are doing. So for me, if I could get them to buy in and become a part of a team where they loved it, I believe that would outwork anybody else inside the company and set a new level, and that's why I went up there. Also, I must tell you, Andy. Opened any doors we needed to in sales, like rugby being the top sport in the country. I had an ex South African rugby player who had won a World Cup. He's actually in the movie Invictus, where Nelson Mandela's there and, and Matt Damon wins this rugby World Cup. Who knew Matt Damon was such a good rugby player. But, um, anyway, um, he's in that, um, as one of the players and he could open up any door needed. So. I'm the exact same sportsman, slightly different reason, but I think where we all agree as well is when they're a part of a team, so they rarely push so hard. And, and so I've sort of done something over the past two years, a little bit different, and that was, I have really made goals crystal clear, whereas when I was in the business, the goals weren't always clear. And, and, and then even when I started hiring and I hired Patrick here, who was really my first young trader, I didn't really make his goals completely clear. So at the end of the year, he didn't know if he did really well or didn't do really well. And with athletes, when you show them the goal line, they get it. They may not reach it, but they understand that it's there, and that's also another benefit from this. I'm laughing because in our last episode, I still remember you said when you hire a new trader, you say, just go out, make friends. Don't worry about buying it. So what you're saying is how do you actually assess them? And one of my thing questions are gonna be, I don't understand how you are assessing them, so it makes sense what you're saying. You're actually looking at, you know, maybe that isn't the perfect way of doing things. Well, yeah, yeah. And really in this business, and I know you know this better than anybody. Is, especially now when aluminum, which is our specialty, is$2 a pound. You are not dealing with a lot of strangers. You have to be dealing with your friends. These people have to have some trust in you. Otherwise they're not going to give you$80,000 of their uh, material. It's just not going to happen. So, um, that's why these friendships really matter the most. They go both ways. You know, they go both ways. Hey, I really need this, or Hey, I really need to get rid of this. Can you help me? And that's where we shine and it appears that my team here and it's being managed by um, one of them as well. You know, really have those good friendships. And that's the whole key That's, I think that's the whole key to this business. I mean, I don't doubt that it's an important part of it, which was bringing on, you know, go out there, make friends,'cause those friends are gonna. Set you in a great state in the future. Right. So hugely important. We'll talk a little bit about, um, best young, brightest as well and the importance that that plays. What's the biggest mistake I guess, companies make in the first 90 days of bringing in young talent and, and how do you kind of do it differently? So, um, this is such a good question and I went through this with a friend who, who attempted and, and was somewhat successful to do what we did and they pre-judge. You prejudge everybody. Mm-hmm. You have a lack of patience, and your expectations of performance are too high, too soon. So success cannot be found because you want too much, too fast. And so what I like to do is in the first 90 days, or the first six months, is to find things, and I really don't care what they are. That they can be successful at, that we can celebrate a success because this business takes time. It takes time, especially the brokerage side. It takes time to meet people, to get them to like you, to wanna do business with you, to be educated. So that's what I think, um, a a lot of people, um, do. And the other thing is, is that I encourage failure. You know, why not? We're not going anywhere. You know, I call Crip Enterprises a river. No, no one person is gonna damn up this river. So, you know, I, I want you to do something enough where you can make some mistakes along the way. That's my thought. I guess, um, it, it's hard though because, you know, there's a fine line. Where is that safety net? Where do you interject when somebody's making a mistake? Where don't you, I mean, I'm, I'm really bad in the first 90 days when I bring on somebody because I actually, like I say, go to the deep end and let's, if you sw. And my wife will kill me. She's like, but hold on. How do you expect this 23-year-old to actually know that if you haven't spent your time? And I have exactly what you say, I have preconceived ideas that everybody should just know this because it's just standard. But when somebody is failing, I mean, I usually jump in and start to micromanage, which is the worst thing you can do. When is it that you are like, no, this is a good lesson. Let them learn it. And when is it like. Actually, no, I need to stop this from happening. So I don't have a lot of stop it from happenings. I just, I haven't had that. It happens, or it doesn't, it's not like a slow fall. Um, but if you create an environment where people feel safe and they know they can fail, then they'll ask for help. If you create an environment where they feel like anytime you ask a question, you could just be fired, then they're not gonna ask for help. So really what I'm looking for is for people to get into the deep end. Ask questions for help, um, from the whole team and, and also from the friends they've made along the way.'cause I think that our customers are also great teachers and people love to teach each other in this industry. That's how we have done it. And. Um, and then when stuff gets really, a lot of times in brokerage, it just becomes complex. We have hedging, we have short orders, we have long orders. So unwinding a bunch of stuff is more so where the deep end is than someone buying or selling, you know, a gigantic amount of something that we, you know, make a big mistake on. People probably wouldn't do that. How do you celebrate? So run me through an average Tuesday afternoon, somebody did something great. What does Kripke do? What does it look like at Kripke? So, um, well we've, what does it look like? So, Connor in my office, he is managing our younger traders in our Toledo office. First thing he did was he bought everybody, um, glasses with their initials on it. So, um, and I, I think throughout our office here, I'm looking at it right now. In different drawers. We have different bottles of whatever. So although we don't drink often, but at the end of the month, if we all do what we expected to do, we'll have a celebratory drink. If someone does something extraordinary, of course we have a gong in here. Um, and then on a And the whole it Stop, stop, stop, stop. Yes. Uh, of, of course we have a gong in here. Yes, of course. You can't throw that out there on a conversation like this and think that it's just normal. You think most scrap metal companies have a gong in their office? I, that's a good question. The other thing that we do is we all are on teams, and when you do something, well, sometimes you don't wanna be on teams because. Jealousy of everybody. I mean, it's, it's rough. Someone just put up a deal earlier today and a lot of people say, Hey, congrats. Maybe the, the older guys are writing congrats and the other guys are putting up pictures they found of them when they were kids, you know, eating what they shouldn't be. There's a little bit of the locker roomish thing here. You get a bunch of athletes together and you know, we are busting each other's chops. All the time. And because they have goals that are really clear. Our system also, gosh, our system tracks their goals and our IT guy, Dave Fisher, has taken it to like another level. So if a guy hits their goal, his picture shows up here, and then there's a guide like with Money Fly. I mean, it's just. We have, we're hitting people from all directions and we really are encouraging hitting goals and just having fun. And you know, that's kind of how we do it. Whether it's a Tuesday or a Monday morning or a weekend, it's, it's all the time. It's all the time. And not to belabor it, but you know, one thing that people don't get when they work in this environment is that when they go home, they're exhausted. They say to me after they've been here for six months or so, like, I go home, I'm, I'm like so tired. I'm like, no kidding. You know, this is combat zone and you know, you, you are with your friends and you're talking all the time, and that's the momentum that we're always looking for. It's, um, it's funny you talk about the locker room stuff. So the other day I've got a well sales guy. Most people know John Paul, young guy, um, plays a lot of soccer, looks after himself, eats really healthy. Um, when he drinks, he goes hard, but not too often. Right. You know, trying to look after himself. And, um, the other day he randomly for me here, been at a customer walking around the yard and he phoned me when he got in the car and he said, you know, I'm feeling really ill. I'm like, gosh, what's wrong? You okay? He goes. I just smoked like a whole bunch of cigarettes with the customer, and I'm like, what are you doing? He said, oh, well the customer said it. Do I want a cigarette? So I thought the right thing to do was say yes. So firstly, you can imagine, right? So I'm now this, I'm having a field day. It's like, oh. So if the customer says anything that, I mean, I agree. The customer's always right. But you know, if he wants a cigarette, let him have a cigarette. Anyway, immediately I told the team and there were AI pictures going through our Slack channel of JP having a cigarette in a scrap yard.'cause everybody can, you know, put his face on everything with his arm around a customer having a cigarette in a scrap yard. So I guess the moral of the story is, the other point is if you know JP and you listen to this podcast and you see him at RIMA in Vegas from a cigarette, go outside for a cigarette, he loves a good cigarette. He needs at least two packs a day. So, um, yeah, busy. I mean, that's what young people do, you know, and I don't need to say that young people text. Okay? So like, if you are not on a slack with young people or you are not on, you know, teams or whatever, like you are not communicating with them because that's how they communicate. So, you know, when we started, how do you get young people involved? Well, you have to speak their language. How? Where they speak their language. Yeah. And that isn't necessarily calling them, that's texting and screwing around. We're all in different groups where we screw around with our friends and that's what the young people want too. That that's. That's okay. We're gonna run out time. This could go on all day. So I'm gonna try and get through some of the important questions. Yes. Best young and brightest. We're talking about bringing in the next generation. So best young and brightest. This now has an alumni, a super impressive alumni, guys of chairing committees, um, chapter, um, presidents. When you launched the, did you dare dream that would have this sort of impact or, or even was even you were surprised at the end. I was surprised and I, I'm just so proud of what it has become and, um, the demand for it and people demanding to be a part of it. And really the thing that I'm the most proud of is. When we designed it, we wanted people, and I keep saying this to make friends and there is an educational element that I think matters, but what really matters and where you're really gonna get your education is if you're in Portland and you've got a friend in New Jersey and you can call them and trust what they're going to tell you about a situation that you need some help with. That's worth its weight in gold or a piece of equipment that the guy in New Jersey has that maybe the guy in Portland is looking for that is worth its weight in gold and totally if in this 36 hours that everyone's together, you can make those friends. It's the greatest thing for the industry. And it did exactly what I wanted it to do. I really did. I wanted,'cause once people make friends, then they wanna go to the next meeting. And when they go to the next meeting, they make more friends and then they're involved in Sean Dowd. He was from our first class. The guy's gonna be chairman of Rema. How much better does it get? Jacqueline l. Scar is the president of care. I, I mean, these were. You know the people that were there the first time around, it just doesn't get better than that. If your chapter or your young people wanna do something, or you are a young person watching this and you have an idea, just do it. Just do it. Don't let people get in your way. That's how great stuff comes. Great stuff. A lot of times comes from the bottom up and build it. People will support you. Tell them what you want. Our industry is so incredibly supportive of people that you just have to be clear in what you want and people will follow. They are looking for innovation, they're looking for energy, they're looking for all of those things. Just provide it. People will support you 100%. So is it an option for regions to start to do something similar?'cause you cap it at 50 people. This is a huge industry. It's not really a a, a for the regions to start, but if you are in a region, start your own thing. Start something different. Start something for seniors. Start something for people that are 57, a different type of affinity group. I mean, there's so much stuff to do. S you know, people love to come together and the more people come together. The stronger our association is, the more your business will grow from the friends that you have. You show me someone that's active in rema, I will show you someone whose business has grown from rema. If you're active in Rema and your business hasn't grown from it, you are doing something wrong. See me? I will help you because. Your network, your business should grow. As I tell everybody, we're not the American Red Cross. We're not the cancer society. We want to save lives, of course, by being safe, but we're in the business of making money and of course all of the other things. But we're not here to save to, to give blood. We are for profit businesses, and if you are spending time at Rema, your business should profit from it. So as the incoming chair, and we're gonna just focus on the next generation. You've got a massive platform now and it reaches the entire industry globally. What's the single boldest thing you wanted to do to ship the perception of our industry for the next generation? So earlier in this podcast, I had said to you. Um, look for young people at Harvard. Stanford, MIT mm. And when I say things like that, oh yeah, I'm sure you know. No. Why not? Our industry is built for those people. Why wouldn't we want people from Harvard and mit of course, and um, uh, Ivy League colleges to get involved. We say we're important, we know we're important, we are a, a critical part of the supply chain. Uh, you can't manufacture without us. Where would those people go? We have high tech. I mean, between AI and computer learning and everything that's involved. Where would an MIT. Um, graduate go where were they would go, where, where they should go. So the way to answer the question is, I wanna associate us with the best people in the business, whether it's the Amazons, the Teslas, the General Motors, uh, big companies. Uh, I want our association and our members not to feel like they're some kind of lesser being. And they don't deserve the same type of graduates, employees, um, seat at the table that those big companies have. I wanna associate with those companies. I want our brand to be with those brands also. Do you wanna work for an organization that's associated with the top brands in the world? Well, yeah, of course. And everyone's Snickers and everyone. Laughs, but that's the pride that I have in what we do. I feel like we deserve the best of the best. I feel as though we deserve a seat at those tables, because without us, you're not making cars, you're not getting boxes, there's no trucks to deliver'em. We are the supply chain and we have to get that message clearly across. That message, for example, are we missing a trick here where we're not linking metal recycling and environmental impact? Because there's a lot of people that might be doing their MBA, they might be doing an accounting degree, whatever it could be, but. Somewhere deep inside, they want to do something with an environmental impact. Is there a way or should we be focusing on that at all a bit more? So I hear that often, and when I do bring young people in to talk to them and interview them, they are so jazzed that what we do does. Save natural resources. They love that. They love that they're a part of something that's bigger than themselves. But does that need to be on the forefront? I don't know. You know, are we all tree huggers? Sure. You know, I love trees. You know, trees are great. Um, but, but hold on. But hold on, hold on. So I wanna just jump in because. Yes, I think and, and I am, uh, you know, a capitalist at heart. We need to our businesses to make money. All I'm saying is you said it exactly. When you bring in people for conversations, they're like, wow, we're having that type of impact. This is incredible. They go home, they tell their family. I'm not saying we lead with this. I'm saying if people were aware of that somehow, I don't have the answers, but how do we make them aware that. Not only could you become a commodity trader, head of logistics, a marketing person, and actuarial science. If you want to, as scientists, if you want to go for the big guys that's not working on their statistics and their data, sure you could find any position in our company, but not only is there a place for you like that, but actually you don't even know the environmental impact that we're having. Trying to join those two together. I, I think it's very important. I think the difference for me is, is that I've heard a lot of that story about the environmental impact, and I haven't heard the business case as much. Mm-hmm. I got you. So I'm sort of diving into the business case. Because that really resonates with me and I understand the environmental impact and I probably came through the business, through the environmental impact. But I, I love the business side of our story and anytime you tell that side includes the environmental, uh, highs and lows that, that we come with. So, so that's really, um, okay. Makes a good point. That's one of them. And, um, the other one is just pride in our industry. I'm not embarrassed by what we do. I'm not embarrassed especially about how we do it. Um, and I would welcome anyone to see it. I would encourage anyone to see it because what we do is important and, uh, I'm proud of it and it's, mm-hmm. Big dollars and it's finance. I mean, we're, it's just, there's so much to this that is so cool that anybody should be a part of it and those that are in it, if you're doing it. 90% correctly, you should be like full of pride in what we do and if I could just change some hearts and minds to make us even more prideful of what we do, that's my, maybe that's my platform. I mean, we talk about finance and all these things. I mean, if you're involved in m and a, what an industry to be involved in right now, like the amount of acquisitions emerges and stuff going on right now. So very excited, but I'm not gonna let you talk about that because we are way over time. Got it. Got it. Okay, so I'm sorry, but I'm gonna finish up quickly because we always end with some quick fire questions, but I've asked you already where your favorite place to visit is, et cetera. I'm expecting that hasn't changed. So let's end with these. Tell us something that we don't know about you, Andy. Something that you don't know about me. All right. Um, my closet is really messy. I, I, I'm not great at keeping my closet clean. Um, I hate doing laundry. You know, I'm on social media enough that I. I don't have a lot of secrets. I Maybe I need some more. We didn't know this about you. I don't have a lot. I'm a huge fan of TikTok, but anybody who knows me probably knows that I love watching it. I burn too much time, and I hate getting that report at the end of the week to tell me how many hours a day I you don't. Second job, I don't need. Yes, exactly. I don't need to know. I hear you. Maybe that, but what's the next one? I'm, I'm similar to you with laundry. In fact, I once pulled a hamstring doing the laundry, whether it was strategic or not, not the point. I've never had to do laundry ever again in my house because I got injured once. I should have warmed up. But I'm glad I did it because I haven't had to do it again. That's a true story. Um, lastly, teach me something. Anything. Okay. So I thought about this and, um. Here's my thought for you, okay? At the end of the day, you're the star of your own movie and nobody really gives a shit about your movie. Okay? You're the star and that's it. No one is waiting for buddy to put up a new post. No one is waiting for you to put something on social media. So when you do that, no one really cares. Not you, but anybody, me too. Me especially. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I get you. But the important thing is, and, and the thing that I, I, I try to convey is the way to get around that is frequency. So if you can create some frequency for your brand, you're going to get your message across. If you think that you are gonna put up a post that all your friends are sitting there just waiting by their TikTok, for me to say that I just ate a peanut butter sandwich, nobody cares. But if I say I have a peanut butter sandwich every day for a month. By the end of the month, people are gonna be saying to me, why do you eat so many peanut butter sandwiches? Absolutely. Just, just to put something up once in a while and say, oh, I can't do anything more. That's gonna be too much. You're only kidding yourself because at the end of the day, no one cares about you. And that's, I know that sounds terrible. Let me put it this way. No one cares about you on social media, okay? Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. And so the only way to beat that is frequency. And with frequency, you will win. I'm just gonna tell you, speak for yourself, because I look forward to. Every time I see live from the Waffle House, I sit there waiting all week. I know every Wednesday. I know every Wednesday, right, man, I can't live without it. Don't you agree? Do you agree that frequency is the key? Consistency? 100%. Absolutely. One poster and there is not gonna do it for you. If you want to build a brand, if you wanna do anything where. People to show interest or learn anything will become a part of something like we spoke about earlier with a brand. You need to be consistent. You have to have frequency. Totally agree. Andy, on that note, because we've gone to 50 minutes, which is the longest we've done before, and I'm gonna get shouted at by my wife. Thanks for joining us, Andy. This was lovely in Vegas. Absolutely. Cheers. That's it for this episode of Born Scrappy. If you have any questions, stories, or topics you want us to dig into. Send it my way Until then, keep it scrappy.