Stories That Move

Josh Wildman | The Art of Purposeful Growth

• DreamOn Studios • Season 1 • Episode 16

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What would you do if a life-altering event pointed you towards a path you never intended to take? Josh Wildman, CEO of Wildman Business Group, takes us on a remarkable journey from a career-ending wakeboarding injury to leading a thriving family business. Josh shares his story of embracing marketplace ministry and cultivating a purpose-driven company ethos that extends beyond mere profit. Discover how balancing "gas and brake" dynamics helps maintain a healthy company culture while expanding from one location to seven in just four years.

Josh reflects on the 72-year legacy of Wildman Business Group, sharing how faith and a strong set of core values have been integral to its growth and success. With over 11,000 customers across the Midwest, the company is dedicated to making a meaningful impact both internally and within the community. Josh opens up about learning high-level negotiations and acquisitions, emphasizing the importance of empowering employees through unique cultural initiatives like life coaching and the "Love Works" program.

In our conversation, Josh delves into his personal journey from reluctance to leadership, highlighting how important mentors and a focus on purpose have shaped his path. He offers practical advice on cultivating a work culture that prioritizes life-changing impact and influence. From the evolution of his passion in sports to running a successful business, Josh's insights provide valuable lessons in balancing personal and professional aspirations while nurturing a faith-driven approach to life. Join us to explore the art of fostering a thriving, purpose-driven business that focuses on influence over mere growth.

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Speaker 1:

We've gone from one location to seven locations in just the last four years and so that's been awesome and you're seeing that. But there's a tension in it. There's a tension in that and within culture it's just constantly that importance of living in that tension and that balance of opposites to say how do we make sure culture is healthy but the business is healthy and it's a gas and a brake man of opposites. To say how do we make sure culture's healthy but the business is healthy and it's a gas and a brake man.

Speaker 2:

Welcome back to another episode of Stories that Move brought to you by Dream On Studios. I'm Mason Geiger and, as always, I'm here with my co-host, matt Duhl. Today, we are thrilled to have a conversation with someone who's not only an incredible leader, but also uses his business as a platform to make a meaningful difference.

Speaker 3:

Our guest today is Josh Wildman, the CEO of Wildman Business Group, where he's been leading for over 12 years. Josh is an entrepreneurial-minded leader who's passionate about building healthy cultures, driving personal development and delivering world-class service not just to employees and customers, but also to the broader community.

Speaker 2:

And what makes Josh's story so inspiring is his dedication to using business as a platform for doing good around the globe. His work is a testament to the idea that success in business and making an impact in the world can go hand in hand. We're excited to dive into his journey and learn how he's cultivated a culture of purpose and growth.

Speaker 3:

It's going to be a powerful conversation, so let's jump right in. Please welcome Josh Wildman to Stories that Move. Welcome back to Stories that Move, brought to you by DreamOn Studios. I'm your host, matt Duhl, with me, as always, good friend and business partner, mason Geiger. How are you doing today, mason?

Speaker 2:

So good, so excited for today's conversation with the one and only Josh Wildman.

Speaker 3:

Yes, Josh, so good to have you CEO of Wildman Business Group. Thanks for joining us today.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, great to be here.

Speaker 3:

Awesome. So, to just kick us off, tell us a little bit about yourself and Wildman Business Group, just who you are, what you all are doing in the world, how you're serving people through Wildman yeah absolutely Well at our core.

Speaker 1:

We get dirty things clean and we deliver it back with love. That's like what we like to say, but we're in the people business and the logistics business. We've been really blessed as a family business over the last 72 years. My grandfather started the business. We've been really blessed as a family business over the last 72 years. My grandfather started the business. He didn't want to work for anybody else, he wanted to be an entrepreneur. So he bought himself a job, bought a dry cleaner in 1952 and learned the business from the team that was there. That was in Napanee, indiana, and since then we've grown to service a lot of the Midwest and over 11,000 customers and it's been a lot of fun.

Speaker 1:

We spun off a business I know you guys support with some marketing and content with you the Fan, which David Bozzone was very entrepreneurial with. He was the president there and has just done an amazing job. But at the end of the day, too, we're stewards and so we're a faith-based business and we try to live out our business and our faith in the marketplace and so at the end of the day, that's really what's most important is sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with our team and our customers and trying to live that by example earning the opportunity to share and our customers and trying to live that by example, earning the opportunity to share. Hey, here's why we're different and within that balance of opposites is something we like to call it there's a tension that's fun and exciting and challenging and all of the above so yeah, that's awesome.

Speaker 3:

So you've been in your CEO role for about 12 years now, is that correct?

Speaker 1:

That's correct. Yep 12 years.

Speaker 3:

And how long have you been with the business in total?

Speaker 1:

So 25 years? We were just talking about that. So 25 years. We've grown 25X in 25 years.

Speaker 1:

Wow, it's been a wild ride. Oh man, that's all. God gets all the glory in that and I still look back my all the glory in that and I still look back. My dad is one of the. I know Mason knows my dad really well, a great, great man, and I think about it. He made me CEO when I was 35 and sold the business to myself and my brother-in-laws. I'm like, what was he thinking? What was he thinking? So it definitely had to do with God because, wow, that was some bravery.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, well, god gets the glory, but he definitely you're the tool that he used to grow the business in a huge way. So, yeah, what would you say? Through your time, you've seen just some of the biggest areas of growth.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, I would say God's put in our path One. My dad is just very good when there's a big decision to be made, he makes the right one, because I think he submits it to God in prayer. He also likes risk and so you know, when I started in the company, I was just actually getting ready for our all employee meeting Friday and I remember, standing in our warehouse, our stock room, my dad had just bought another company. He'd tried 11 times to get the loan to buy the other company and had borrowed I think it was $2.7 million. We were only a $4 million business, wow and had no plan, really didn't have the right talent, and I remember I'd been working there about 30 days. I'd gotten two weeks of training for a route position, which normally gets you don't even know what you're doing for about a year, but you get a good six weeks of training and, uh, I'm. I just remember standing there at at 21, 22, going. This place is a mess because I couldn't get an answer, I didn't even know who to go to and I'm going, man, I I don't know what what business should look like, because I've, you know, just getting through school, but I know it's not supposed to be like this.

Speaker 1:

And you know, yet my dad had made that brave decision and and then, too, he made an even bolder decision, you know he, he would talk to you about his, um, his meeting with God at 3 am, somewhere around that same time, where he just woke up and he was praying and just really turned over finances to God, just said, you know, god, it's yours, you know.

Speaker 1:

And at the same time, he made a second commitment and turned over personnel too, and so it was at that time that he, you know God put the right people in our path. That's been. I already mentioned David Bozzone, but Steve Bryant, who ended up being my mentor, joined us as our first outside CEO, non-family CEO, and Steve was a 30-year veteran in our industry and our single plant and $4 million in revenue was, you know that was, he was used to running 20 or 30 of those, and so I got an MBA from an absolute expert in business and in our industry, a real world MBA. And so those are, yeah, god just continued to put the right people in place then, and so and my dad's example of really, you know, really being a steward and having the faith to make bold decisions.

Speaker 2:

So mm-hmm, it's awesome, it's amazing. So when you talk about the 25x and 25 years, was it a gradual or has it been like there's been some key moments that just like really triggered some big growth for you guys?

Speaker 1:

yeah, there's some key moments, so that you know I talk about that a couple different ways. Um, you know, the first couple years there working with with Steve, we had to professionalize the business, bring the two cultures together, put the systems in, really kind of absorb. The deal that my dad had entered into and it was in. Another key moment was in 2005,. I was in a meeting with Steve In 2005,. I was in a meeting with Steve. My dad came in, as he often would, and he had a piece of paper and he sat down and in business it's all about people and cash flow. So if you get those two things figured out, which is not easy things will usually go well.

Speaker 1:

And while we were highly leveraged trying know, highly leveraged trying to grow, grow a business, so we're cash starved. I mean, literally half my job was managing vendors and payroll and just literally to the day, saying how much came in and how much can go out Right. And so I'm sitting there and my dad comes in and he, he challenged us to make a commitment to WCC for their building project. At that time that for us was significant and I literally remember sitting there kind of laughing in my head going, oh, this is going to be an interesting conversation between Steve and my dad, because at that time my dad had started Second Mile Adventures and he wasn't day-to-day I mean he's still owner and still came in occasionally to just share and get an update and see the team.

Speaker 1:

And Steve just said yeah, I think we can do that and I'm going. There's no way we can do that. So we borrowed money from our line of credit to give it away, which is not biblical or anything I would recommend.

Speaker 1:

But what that was was another moment in faith where you know you guys have heard the verse in Malachi 3.10 that just talks about test me in this. Like God says test me in this, bring the whole tithe into the storehouse and see if I don't open up the windows of heaven and just bless you to overwhelming. Just I'm paraphrasing.

Speaker 1:

But you guys know the verse. Well, that verse is one of my life verses now, because I'd just been able to watch that happen and it was like so the growth, like there's a chart, it was like this. And then it was like that and at that same time my brother-in-law and I, drew Scholl he was doing Leaders on Fire I know you guys were working with Drew a lot too we were just kind of starting to get inspired around. We had gone to Global Leadership Summit and, hey, how could we build a culture that's, you know, really trying to do ministry at work, and didn't know what that meant. But came up with God's plan for Wildman about the same time. That's what we called it, which sounds corny. We lost it but, interestingly, over 25 years.

Speaker 1:

I tell this story because, yeah, there's been growth, with revenue and profit and all of those things, profit being first in importance, not in significance. Um, as as my good friend and board member, steve unbreak would would say, you know the combination then of really business excellence and professionalism with purpose. Um, and you know, just that was what we would now call a seven-mile journey. Like that was the initial call and inspiration.

Speaker 1:

So, like my grandfather had laid the foundation, my dad had come along and further expanded that foundation, but it was really positioning the organization for that 25-year period that we've realized so far to say, okay, take this foundation and really grow it with significance and purpose. And so, again, the right people in the right spot and we would go into opportunities where we started to get momentum around organic growth and then the recession happened. And every time we've had a major inflection point the recession being absolutely one of those we doubled down and that bore a whole licensed product company, which is now you the Fan, which is one of the top hard good licensees of the NFL Major League Baseball. So just these opportunities would come when challengers would. We would call that Buffalo culture now, which is we're running into the storm.

Speaker 1:

The herd's going to run into the storm together. We're going to get this figured out and when we come out of the storm, we're going to get through it faster and we're going to be that much stronger. And so that's been our opportunity in COVID. So, pre-COVID 2019, we were about $47 million in revenue. In 2020, we sold an $11 million division and next year we'll do $100 million. So COVID being like the recession, you know, we were all like what is going on, yeah, and we added sales reps, we doubled down, we came together as a team and, you know, exited even stronger. So that's been been been some of our story been awesome.

Speaker 3:

That's incredible and we're going to continue to pick back up on some of the business pieces, but we want to take a minute rewind, go back to your beginnings and talk about what was childhood like for Josh Wildman. Yeah, when are you from originally? What did life look like for you in the early days?

Speaker 1:

So childhood I mean, I grew up in Warsaw, indiana, grew up the oldest of five, five kids, but we always had six or seven. My part of my parents, you know, um, philosophy and life is an open door policy and what's mine is yours, and so we always had lots of people in and out of our house, lots of friends, exchange students, had lots of people in and out of our house, lots of friends, exchange students, all kinds of stuff going on, and it was an active, busy, adventurous life and full of fun. My dad was always really good with just empowering us to go figure things out and explore, but if the doors at the church were open, we were there too. It was very clear this is what we believe and why we believe it, and so all that lived out. So tying the growing up into the family business. So I wanted nothing to do with our family business. One, I did not want to live in Warsaw, indiana and I did not want to work in the laundry business. Live in Warsaw, indiana and I did not want to work in the laundry business.

Speaker 1:

I, you know I'll get into that piece of the story in a little bit with my personal life story, but it seems like too. Any times I say I won't, god says no, that's exactly what we're going to do. And but growing up you know I would go into the plant. You know dad would have us work. You know cleaning out under the ironers, cleaning out what's called the pit which is under the washers, you can imagine. I mean we get dirty things clean. We got lots of dirt and grime and he was teaching us excellence. So my good buddy Steve Marsh and I had the job of doing that every Saturday and he'd make us do it over and over again and I'm like man, I don't want to have anything to do with this when I grow up. This isn't very exciting. So that's kind of a funny segue.

Speaker 1:

But you know, growing up I had the you know, I think probably the all-American, you know experience in middle school and high school as an athlete and was fortunate to do really well with that Met my wife, leslie. Well, I actually knew Leslie when I was 13, and we started dating when we were 17, and we've been together more now than we've been apart. So we celebrated 25 years of marriage last year Awesome. And so married my childhood sweetheart, who's the love of my life, and she just couldn't shake me. But I got a little burned out on sports and Leslie was going to San Diego, california, to play volleyball and I had actually signed to play soccer at Taylor and last minute I was like I'm going to San Diego.

Speaker 1:

I want to learn to surf and I'll do school on the side, but went to Point Loma, nazarene in San Diego, which is, it's, the most beautiful campus in the, I think, in the nation's right on the, the cliffs of the point loma area, and it's some of the best surf in san diego, and so made a lot of good friends love that experience.

Speaker 1:

Um, it was great too because you're getting out of a small town and seeing the world and, yeah, it was a great development experience and so that was a lot of fun and would lead to so it's funny one of my nicknames is the surfing CEO, at least in our industry, because as 18, 19, 20, believe it or not I drove a VW bus and had really long hair and got into a sport called wakeboarding, which I'd always grown up on the lake and was into water skiing and had done a lot of snowboarding.

Speaker 1:

And this was during when X Games was at its peak, when action sports was just rocking, and so wakeboarding was a big deal, and I was fortunate enough to become the semi-pro national champion during my college years and was turning pro. I had gotten all the sponsorships and a job teaching wakeboarding in Florida, leslie and I had gotten married. I was going to relocate to Florida after the pro tour was done for the summer and I needed good health insurance. So I'd asked my dad for that job. Where I was you know, I mentioned standing in the stock room he put me on a route. He knew I was leaving in 90 days. I don't know why he would do that.

Speaker 1:

He must've been that desperate just to get the deliveries made and 30 days into that I broke my leg really bad training and lost the contracts, lost the job opportunity. And here I am in Versailles, indiana, the place I said I didn't want to be.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker 1:

In the business. I said I didn't want to be part of. I said I didn't want to be part of Wow. And so I had a job. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And I was thankful, though, that I had that opportunity to provide for Leslie, and that would lead to just what I would be a calling.

Speaker 1:

Over a number of years on that journey, it would become really just a passion, both for our industry and for how you can live out. My personal motto is to be generous and change lives, and I use my talents to expand Marketplace Ministry, the biggest piece of that being while I'm in the business group, but then I'm also chairman of the board at Truth, at Work, work with C for One, which is a local organization, and so if it has to do with marketplace ministry, I'm in, and because I totally believe that what Billy Graham said around the next great movement of God could very well come from the men and women of the workplace, and so I'm just I'm believing that and doing everything I can to expand that opportunity. So, yeah, but back to the personal life getting you know two boys, and it's kind of a cool God story. So, you know, you feel like God took everything away, or why is this happening? God, this is my passion. I thought this was my dream you know this was going to be my story.

Speaker 1:

And so I have two awesome young men, now Noah's 22. He started his own investment fund. He's doing really well. He's a professional wakeboarder and my son, bo, is 19. He's also a professional wakeboarder. And my son Bo is 19, and he's also a professional wakeboarder and professional wakesurfer.

Speaker 1:

We've had this cool opportunity over the last six years. We spend a lot of time in Florida, so our family splits time in Claremont, orlando, florida area and Warsaw, and so it's cool to see my dreams get lived out through my boys. And you know, we we let them try everything too. I wasn't that father that, like you're going to be wakeboarders. Yeah, we just we like I grew up man, our, our living room was the boat because we just wanted to be outside and have fun. But they played football, they did everything and they landed on that sport. Obviously, older brother kind of paved the way for younger brother, sure, but that's been a ton of fun and, you know, involved there too with an organization called Wake Well, which is like Youth for Christ for Wakeboarders, and work with that organization. So really cool community there too in that sport, and we and they have gotten to see the world through just competing all over which is a lot of fun.

Speaker 2:

So I want to back up a little bit. So whenever injury happens, you break your leg, like what was that season like for you? I mean, you're going from yeah, like you see all this opportunity in front of what you think that your life's gonna look, like you don't wanna have anything to do with the family business, and then now it's like that's the. That becomes like your new like. That's kind of like your watershed moment. What? But like Was it an immediate acceptance of this is what life looks like now, or did you struggle with it for a bit before? You kind of like hey, I'm going to embrace this.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I struggled with it. So I didn't give up as soon as I even too soon I started training again. I'm not too. I think one of my strengths and weaknesses is endurance and just excellence. Like, I will not give up and that can get a little over for you, you know. So you know I worked really hard to get back to where I was, but actually at that time, you know, being in your twenties, you were actually a little old to be turning pro. You know you were competing against 17, 18 year olds that you know had more runway, as it would look like on on the sponsorships and those kind of things.

Speaker 1:

So I spent a whole year rehabbing that injury and working my way back up the ranks and I remember vividly it was. It ended up being about two years later. I was at the national championships and I missed the finals. I got fourth and I remember walking outside the hotel that you know. Now I'm 23, I think I'm going, it's over. Uh, you know, and really you think in your mind it's over.

Speaker 1:

But it was that acceptance at that point of like, hey, this isn't going to be what I'm going to do, and God's opening this other door, and I just seen that in my life. I can look back now and just say God's hand upon me has been so evident, even to the point where physically he would break me to get me to slow down. And I think, listen to him. So I would still go hard with snowboarding and triathlons and whatever. I got to the point where my wife was eight months pregnant with Bo and I ruptured my Achilles playing soccer and I came home and she said no more If you get hurt anymore. So that was a good watershed moment of you got to slow down and you got to live within your limits. But a cool story about the wakeboarding. God's so good he redeems all of that. My boys start competing and so we're going to all these tournaments and well, it's not just the pros, it's men's one, men's two and veterans, which is the over 40 division which is very competitive.

Speaker 1:

And I still have wakeboarded all those years and was coaching the boys and literally the boys were like, dad, you need to compete. And I said, okay, next year I'll, I'll do it. And I ended up winning the nationals and world championships. And now I would get hurt again, season number two, and have to hang up the wakeboard. It's, it's a little hard on on the body, but, uh, you know what, what fun right like to yeah to see that come full circle and just get to do that, which was, yeah, you know, super cool and fun but I don't know.

Speaker 3:

So when you headed out to san diego I'm guessing 18 years old you said you went out to learn to surf. And I mean is is that your first time really truly to surf and to wakeboard and to do all those things? Was that 18?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, 18 was the first time surfing. I think I'd surfed one time before that in Oregon or something, so but wakeboarding like I'd grown up on the lakes and literally wakeboarding was just, it was still what's called a scurf. They were, it was so what's called a scurf. It was so evolving as I was learning it that it was just taking off the pro circuit and was in the X Games and all of those things. So I actually started wakeboarding. I was in San Diego for two years and started wakeboarding. I'd been wakeboarding but got really competitive when I actually moved back to Fort Wayne, indiana, and started competing.

Speaker 1:

At that time Leslie had gotten a volleyball scholarship at Grace and for some reasons, with her family we were relocated back to Indiana and at that point we were serious, we were going to get married, and so it did take off.

Speaker 1:

Take off, I mean, it was like in a 12-month span I went from nobody to national champion, that's, and. But I had a lot of baseline around, having grown up on the lake, and I had a lot of support from some people in in, uh, fort Wayne, indiana that encouraged me to to go for it and um, and so that was a lot of fun, but I did have a baseline there. However, surfing, which is a huge part of my life and my family's life now that would be our favorite thing to do as a family is surf together. I'm really blessed that my parents have a place in Kauai, hawaii, so we get to surf regularly the best waves in the world, and it's fun to go out and rip with my boys and I mean we're talking like the, you know double overhead really yeah, yes yes, so there's nothing we like more than to go to hanalei bay, and when it's really good in the winter, and yeah and surf.

Speaker 1:

so yeah, surfing is a big part of our life and Bo, specifically, is he's not like pro ocean surfer, but he's on any beach that you would go to, he'd be the best surfer out there. It's fun to surf with him.

Speaker 2:

So what was it like being a part of like a sport as it's growing, like as it's evolving, like you're kind of in that like forefront of like wakeboarding that's coming in and so you're yeah, I mean so much of it, I think is like you're almost like you're making the sport what it is, and so it's like how are you like, what was it like? I mean just identifying new tricks, or even like what the board is capable of, what you can do. I mean, boat technology definitely wasn't what it is today. There weren't cable parks, like what. Yeah, what was that like?

Speaker 1:

You know, when you're passionate about something, you just figure stuff out and so it's interesting, you know. So we had a ski night. We had a slalom ski, competition, slalom ski boat. I built what's called a Skylon, which was like an elevated pole system for the boat, because I couldn't afford one. So me and my buddy fabricated that, and I remember specifically when the first twin tip wakeboard came out and it was like I don don't know, I think I learned like 10 tricks in two weeks around. Like this is so different and it's funny.

Speaker 1:

Now I look back I laugh at the boys because they're always like you gotta slam the boat more, dad. It's not, the wake's not big enough. I'm like this thing's up to my waist. Man, we were, and I'll show them a video from when I would ski. They're like how did you even do these things? But it was evolving so quick, like the, the board technology, the boat technology, so, and the tricks were progressing so fast that they would. This is bad, obviously. Internet was just really new, and so now we you know, I can jump online and learn anything in 30 seconds, but you would wait for the release. This is like the old bmx skateboard days of like it's coming out. You know, they, they may. You know, these riders put together a new film and you know I would analyze every second of that, like how did they do that trick?

Speaker 1:

and then go out and work, but that's part of it is that's why I broke my leg. Is you know the, the technology and some of these things were just not you were it. When they say it's an extreme sport, is is, yeah, extreme sport so yeah, yeah, yeah, it's uh but it was fun being kind of on the front edge of all of that.

Speaker 1:

Now you look back and we go to tournaments and people ask me well, are your boys better than you? I'm like, oh my gosh, you know they. Their easiest trick is better than my best trick.

Speaker 2:

So it's pretty cool, yeah. Yeah, it's crazy how it's evolved, yeah.

Speaker 3:

No kidding, that's so cool. Okay, so you find yourself in the stock room at Wildman 21, 22 years old. Seeing this place is a mess. We got to do something about this. Was leadership always on your mind at that point? I mean, were you thinking because now you've had a major change where here's the business I didn't want to be a part of. Now I'm here? Did you quickly start to evolve in your thinking of I think I can have an impact in this place, or what were some of the pieces that kind of led you to that?

Speaker 1:

I wouldn't say I saw myself as a like. I wouldn't have said hey, I want to be a CEO. I think my mentor, steve, saw things in me that he could develop. He was truly a great mentor and coach and he saw what I couldn't see in me.

Speaker 1:

And I had some natural gifts around finance and a work ethic, frankly, that you know, if I get passionate about something I'll work at it until we perfect it and so. But I didn't I would even refer to it as kind of that kind of like an unlikely CEO, because I'm actually introverted by nature and so there's certain characteristics of being the face of the company that don't come naturally. But I embrace the opportunity now I love to have that role. But I wouldn't say I was naturally saying, well, I want that top spot, or, uh, in fact I. I Steve had met with me when I was still wakeboarding and was trying to convince me, hey, this is a better career than wakeboarding and it's like man, I don't, I've had this.

Speaker 1:

It was just talking about it with some people yesterday. I appreciate money, I appreciate what it can do, I appreciate the lifestyle it can give you, I appreciate the good it can create, but I have this really weird disconnect I'm not driven by it or value it. I'm driven by the competitive nature of making it, so we can do good, but I'm not connected to it. So I was always like, no, I'd rather do what I'm passionate about than be in the top spot or make a bunch of money.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah. So what was out of the stockroom? What was next for you, just in terms of career development?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so my next role would actually be. So our controller quit and I found out really quickly why he quit which I had a minor. I was working on a minor in accounting, I had another semester to go and dad's like, hey, can you? I became a firefighter once I was on Gretchen's and he hadn't hired Steve just yet. And he hired Steve at that point Steve had been consulting for him. So they had a relationship but they weren't partnered up. And so first day on the job I realized, like it says on the phone hey, messages are like full. You know, I forget old phone system, right, and I'm like well, I better check the messages.

Speaker 1:

And it took me two hours of writing down notes of vendors saying you need to pay us, you're shut off. And then I'm like I better check the bank accounts. And that was scary. And I went straight to my dad and said not only did I feel like as a service rep, things were messy, like okay, now we have no cash and we owe all this money, and yeah, he you know which?

Speaker 2:

I'm so curious, like whoa, how did Brent respond to? That how did Brent respond to that?

Speaker 1:

like.

Speaker 2:

I'm just trying to visualize this.

Speaker 1:

I think the three o'clock meeting with Gad came. Did I mention? Finances and personnel came somewhere around there. That night. He might tell it a little differently, but I remember panicking and going like I know this isn't good, I don't know what to do about it but, I, know it's not good and I had known Steve enough to say, hey, I really think we got. We need some help, and that's where you know, I think that meeting with God happened.

Speaker 1:

So that was my next step. And then when Steve started, you know he was great again. Like he put me in a two-year management training program where I would literally have the opportunity not just to learn but to do every role.

Speaker 1:

So sales and service and you, you know all the administrative customer service. You know office functions, production. I'd work, did a bunch of projects installing you know new, new systems and equipment. So I got, like you know, I'd been going to school for business in accounting, and then I got, I think, just one of the best internship programs ever, because it was real, where I actually had to sign the deals and it wasn't just go hey, tag along, it was do the work and then being made CEO. Steve made me general manager, I think I was 25. I had no, and I think he went to some of the management team saying go along with this, go along with this, this is going to be okay, make Josh general manager. So. But you know, again he saw in me things I probably didn't see myself.

Speaker 2:

Were there any like key moments as you were going through that kind of management training on that journey that you were like, ooh, I really enjoyed this part. Or were there parts that you were like just gave you a whole different perspective than you thought you'd have going through it?

Speaker 1:

So it's interesting. I mentioned two things. Well, I mentioned three things that I think became the most evident. I really had a natural knack for finance and cash flow and once I was able to understand in the business what's going on, I could connect the knowledge I learned in accounting and it just clicked and so it just came naturally. But I would say, beyond that, I developed very quickly a passion and emotional connection for our customers.

Speaker 1:

Like just, hey, you know, it's super cool, we have 11,000 customers. Our average customer only spends 5,000. We appreciate the 5,000 dollars a year but only spends 5,000 dollars a year with us. But they do like it's the backbone of America because, you know, we get to see how so many things get made and how so many families get provided for and that's just a super, super cool thing and how they rely on us to help them, and so that was natural. And then I had actually told Steve again I was introverted. Hey, you know, this sales section, that's just not me. I'm not gonna, I don't want. I don't know how I said it, but I really don't want to do it and he goes no, you're gonna do it.

Speaker 1:

And I think I was nervous making cold calls and presentations up until about five years ago. So it took me about 20 years to get comfortable and confident with, hey, I'm going to go knock on this door and say, hey, can I sell you some mats and uniforms? And now it's fun. But what I did see in that that was being pushed. Actually I realized, hey, even though it makes me uncomfortable, I can help with the sales and it does.

Speaker 1:

You know, it does help close the deal when your name is the name that's on the business. Say, hey, like if we're promising we're going to do this, we're going to, we're going to follow through. And so I would develop a. You know, now a big portion of my job is we're going through acquisitions, so I'm selling at, you know, a very high level when you're working to partner with a business owner who in many cases has, you know, built this thing from scratch and maybe for 60 years and multiple generations, convincing them that, hey, yes, I'm going to let you take my legacy and move it forward. So that's been interesting. Good question. That's cool.

Speaker 3:

So we had the privilege last year of helping to produce some of the production stuff for your employee day, and so I got to see you on stage, and Drew on stage, just pouring out to your company and the culture pieces were so evident in the ways that you care for your people, Some of the compensation pieces. You're giving away extra vacation days, you are leaning in on coaching opportunities. You talked earlier about people and finances. You figure out those two things. You've got it. When did company culture become a big thing for you all and what were some of those early like? We want to do this for our people.

Speaker 1:

Well, it started in that, what I would call a seven-mile journey. It started in that 2005 area where we got inspired. And then, if you move through the miles, the next mile was actually as we tried to share that with people, realizing our culture wasn't ready for that. And so some rejection of like, what are you talking about? Why don't you just pay us more? You know so some very real like hey, we've got work to do. And what we didn't realize at that same time. The third mile would be just the desert experience. You know you tie that back biblically. Why did the Israelites spend 40 years in the desert? They weren't ready as a people to enter the promised land.

Speaker 1:

They weren't ready for that blessing. And so you got to grow up and the business is maturing. You're maturing as a leader and as a person. So you think about those miles that God takes you through. You can't always see it as you're going through it, and then that fourth mile would be the helpers.

Speaker 1:

So people start to hey, this is cool, they saw what you saw, but they began to see it early on and so you start to get some momentum around that critical mass and culture is when you know, you think about it. What's the root word of culture? It's cult. And that can be unhealthy, certainly, sure, but really, really healthy cultures have you? You can just sense it when you walk in. Like, if I asked you to describe our vision, mission and values, I think you'd pretty accurately describe what we actually have written down. Having spent a day with us, that was always the goal and so, as we work through those different miles, you know where we're at.

Speaker 1:

Right now would really be that momentum phase where, hey, we're taking new territory, we're going through mergers and acquisitions, new states. You know we've gone from one location to seven locations in just the last four years, and so that's been awesome and you're seeing that, but there's a tension in it. That's been awesome and you're seeing that, but there's a tension in it. There's a tension in that and within culture, it's just constantly that importance of living in that tension and that balance of opposites to say how do we make sure culture's healthy but the business is healthy and it's a gas and a break man. We're actually slowing down growth this year because we made such a big acquisition last year that if we keep going, we'll break ourselves, we'll break our people. Wow.

Speaker 1:

And then that will affect lives in a negative way, and we did frame that up so as you evolve it crystallizes. And our purpose at Wildman, which is the most important piece, is to change lives, and we do that by empowering people, and so we've got some programs that don't build culture, but we do some very unique things around what you were describing and we have life coaches, dream managers we have well now have four of those on staff this year, and that's a really interesting when we do programs called Love Works, where our team donates money, we match it, and that's a team members can apply for up to $3,000 twice a year for needs that they might have.

Speaker 1:

So all kinds of unique things that layer upon themselves to really accomplish that purpose of changing lives. And then I mentioned that quote by Billy Graham. What we want to do, then, is grow, not for growth's sake, not for hey, look at us but for influence, to a point that we can scale in our industry and in other workplace cultures. That they go. Man, these guys are doing something pretty cool, and we want to be our speaker actually, at this year's meeting is Movement Mortgage. We look up to them. They're very faith-based, amazing organization that they've been super generous, just saying like, here's what we figured out, you can have it, and we want to help carry that along.

Speaker 1:

So, that's a little bit more about it.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, what's the? What levers or systems do you have in place to sense that we got to put the brakes on, we're going to break or we're going to hurt some people through?

Speaker 2:

this, if we don't.

Speaker 3:

How are you gauging that? So there's seven.

Speaker 1:

KPIs Seven KPIs that I pay attention to. I look at a lot, but seven that matter. Number one is testimony and story. So do you have testimony and story coming out of your organization and if I can't find two or three a week that I go yep, that's it, that's what that's. Tell your story, because that's what we're doing. I think actually you guys attended last year, right? You heard and saw some testimonies right.

Speaker 1:

So, testimony being KPI number one, are they happening? And testimony meaning it's not just a story, it's actually saying I testified that this has changed my life.

Speaker 1:

And we know the ultimate life changes, the life that knows Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior and is connected and growing. And then beyond that, yeah, so you've got the other lovers. So revenue, are you growing? I believe if you're not growing at least 5% a year, you're going to stagnate and then you could potentially go backwards and the flywheel and momentum. It matters Profitability. We talked about profit and purpose. We want to be extremely profitable. We have no problem making money. In fact, we should be the best in our industry because it's how we fuel our purpose. And then I look at customers staying with us. What's our retention? Customer engagement, how do they feel about us? So we measure that. And then the other two levers is you don't have happy customers without happy team members. So are team members staying? Are they engaged? So we do surveying around all of that, we track all of those KPIs. And if you've got happy customers, you've got a happy team, you've got good stories coming out of it and revenue and profit are growing. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

For someone who maybe has a growing business. They're trying to scale. You can use us, for example, trying to build it. What would be some encouragement of like, hey, here's some. As you're building small team, we've got 13 right now. It's like how, how do we start to implement something like that to create a? Take the culture that you build at wildman and bring a little bit of that to dream on so I would recommend two things specifically.

Speaker 1:

If you guys want community and that can be all community takes is two people, and so we got to this part of the I haven't mentioned the book that I'm working on is actually saying okay, there was a lot of rework and challenge in what we've learned and developed, and if we can say like here, it is awesome. So what I would do are really two things. So we have a program called Wild Mentoring. It's actually discipleship, but it's written in an extremely approachable way that you and your team I mean I just came from a wild mentoring session with our executive team and owners so we meet every week during work hours for an hour. This week we were talking about forgiveness. It was beautiful man. We were able to pray for two team members who said I didn't realize it, but I'm having trouble forgiving somebody for something, and it creates intimacy and community and vulnerability and connection.

Speaker 1:

And we got this from Movement, so it's yours, I'll give it to you guys. Just actually go on movementmentoringlive. It's all there for free. And then we could, of course, share how we've started. That I would do that, and then I would go do something purposeful together as a team. So come on one of our vision trips. We donated over 8,000 hours as teams last year at Wildman serving our community. Man, when you go be generous together, it builds a connection and an engagement that you know. And then that team, when you say, hey, it's tight, we need ideas on how we cut costs or we need some customers, yeah, let's go grow revenue, you know that team is going to be like, yep, I'm in, I can do that, and I think the hardest thing is, frankly, that's exciting to me 13 team members, because you can put your arms right around those people.

Speaker 1:

Some of the challenges I've had is I don't know everybody anymore. Like I realize that's okay, 300 team members and I got this from another CEO. He goes. This was really hard. They have 5,000 team members. Now he goes. I realized at a certain point I, at 300, that's about I can know 300 people and I'm going to have to be okay with. I want to get to know you today and I may not even be able to remember your name next time I see you, cause I might not be back to your location for six months. So those are some of the challenges you realize, like when you break 300 people like 50 million and 300 million.

Speaker 1:

50 million and 300 people for our team. That was hard for me and our team. One location to six was hard because you can't put your arms around it and you've got to lead leaders who embody, and you mentioned.

Speaker 1:

Lean in to what you're all about yeah so that's some of what we're working on as a team right now is for our leadership team to to get hey, you got, there's no compromise, you have to be all in or you're not going to make it, as a leader, wild Wildman. And then you got to lean in and get your team to do the same thing, because I can't be there constantly reinforcing the vision. You've got to be me, do it in your own way, but you got to own it in your heart and you got to own it in your soul, and then the team will get it. So that's what? But I would do those things, man. I mean, programs don't build culture, but they're a catalyst to it, man. And you start having that community hour a week and then go on a trip to the DR and get rocked. Wow, mason, we went to the DR.

Speaker 2:

You know what I'm talking about 2014,. Yep, that was an experience, yes, life changer. An experience, yes, life changer, for sure, man. So, josh, what's the future look like for Wildman? What do these next couple of years look like for you guys?

Speaker 1:

So I would say whatever. Again, it's all about not growth for growth's sake, but growth for influence's sake and with purpose as the foundation. So I mean, the vision I'm casting is actually, if God can do 25X in 25 years, can he do 10X in 10 years? So you know, again I hold it loosely Like do we need to be a billion-dollar company? No, but maybe we could be, and why? I think about, like going from a hundred million to 200 million or from 450 employees to a thousand, like God says. You know, cast a plan and a vision that's so big that when it happens, that when it happens, it's very obvious he did it and you didn't.

Speaker 1:

And I'm fortunate to look up to some organizations like Hobby Lobby and Chick-fil-A, who it's like man, getting to know them and getting behind the curtains of what's really going on. Pretty cool, yeah, pretty cool, that's amazing.

Speaker 3:

Well, we appreciate you a ton and you know, as we started dream on studios, there were a few local businesses for us that were on the board that we aspired to be like and to emulate in a lot of ways and and wildman business group is certainly one of those and the ways that you all are generous with the community, with your people, the impact you had, yeah, it's just just something that we aspire to be able to be a part of here at Dream On Studios. So thank you so much for the example that you and your business have made for us and for a lot of people in the community. The impact is amazing.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, yeah, thank you, and to God be the glory in that. And thank you guys for telling stories because, like I said, that number one KPI is testimony, which is story, and you know, the more of those stories can get told, the more we're all encouraged. So thank you for letting me come and talk.

Speaker 3:

Awesome, awesome, appreciate you Cool and talk Awesome, awesome, cool. Well, thank you everybody for listening and we look forward to seeing you next time on Stories that Move. Thank you for joining us for this episode of Stories that Move brought to you by Dream On Studios.

Speaker 2:

Make sure to subscribe so that you don't miss the next episode. And remember, if you or your organization have a story you're eager to share with the world, Dream On Studios is here to bring that story to life.

Speaker 3:

Don't hesitate to reach out. You can find us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook or visit our website at dreamonstudiosio. We understand how overwhelming it can be trying to bring your vision and story to life, but that's why we exist, and we've walked alongside hundreds of clients doing that very thing.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we believe every story has the potential to inspire, to move and to make a difference.

Speaker 3:

Let's make yours heard Until next time, keep moving forward and keep telling those stories that matter.

Speaker 2:

Take care, everyone. We'll see you next time on Stories that Move.