← In The Mix with Marvin Joles
In The Mix with Marvin Joles
Personal Branding for Blue-Collar Pros: Why Authenticity Wins Customers Ep. #19
00:51:46
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Today's episode of in the Mix is powered by Jobber.
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Welcome to in the Mix. Paving the way to insight, education and entertainment in the asphalt industry. Your host, Marvin Joelz, a best of Web Pavement award winner, knows the blacktop community and what it takes to win in this industry. Each episode you'll hear real stories, expert insights and road tested strategies from the people who make up the asphalt world and beyond. Whether you're paving parking lots, ceiling driveways, striping lines, or innovating asphalt tech, this is the podcast for pros who keep the industry rolling. Now here's Marvin.
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Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode. This is in the Mix and if you listen to my previous podcast, not podcast episode, but the previous podcast, BB I was fortunate enough to have our guest on before where we talk about marketing. And why did we talk about marketing? It's pretty much because if you turned on any type of social media stream and typed in asphalt or seal, coating or paving, you would see his company's videos and I'm really excited to have him back. We're here for another conversation. I was fortunate enough to recently visit and see the facility and just kind of see what they all have going on. See the branding and the marketing up close. Very impressive. We talked about having this conversation and as we have become friends now over the last couple years and if you've been around, you know, BB at all, you, you caught a, a glimpse of Jerry. So Jerry, introduce yourself, the business and where you're at, if you would, my friend.
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Marvin, thanks for having me again, man. It's always great getting to see you in person and then shooting a video. So excited to just hang out today. So yeah, my name is Jerry Sevy. I've been in the industry since I was a kid. I've been doing asphalt for a long time. I took some time off from my 20s, pursued a college education, went into corporate sales, worked for Verizon Wireless for a long time and just felt very unfulfilled. So I went out. Like most entrepreneurs, I timed the market perfect. I started in a year, I don't know if you heard of it, it was called Covid. So that was perfect. While my first child, also my wife was pregnant. So never a better time to start a business, right? So I started in 2020. I started putting the framework together of everything and then I started my, officially my business in 2021. So coming into my fourth season and was very blessed, man. I love our market, I love our team. We're growing exponentially. Very blessed. But that's A little bit about me when I started the business, and then my company, Asphalt Authority, Fort Wayne, Indiana.
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That's the ticket, right? Is Covid is when we were like, oh, yeah, here we go. I feel like. I feel like we did a big burst in. In Covid, too. And it was mainly because I think we were reactive to, like, the anxiety of, like, this could be the worst thing ever, right? Because for us, we've been in business a while. So I really doubled down and focused on, like, dude, we're gonna have to double our sales. We're gonna do all these things, you know, just to. Just to maintain, hopefully get by. And to be honest with you, it wasn't that bad. So the repercussions were we had a boatload of work and had to figure out how to do it all right. And it kind of changed our business model for the positive and whatnot. But, you know, I enjoy following what you guys do on Asphalt Authority and, you know, on your Instagram and whatnot, Facebook pages, TikTok, all that stuff. But you got. You do a really good job as well of posting organic material, organic content about your life and whatnot, whether that's LinkedIn or Facebook, Instagram, whatever that is. And I think that when people connect those two things, you're the owner of Asphalt Authority, and you're also Jerry Sebi. You get this blend of, like, you get to see what they do, you get to see their life, and it starts to give a little bit of glimpse of, like, the person running the business. And you don't always get that with businesses in our industry. I'm one of the guys that posts the business. You know, I have the business pages, but I also post my business stuff to my personal page and my personal life to my personal page on Instagram and LinkedIn and everywhere. And it starts to get you to get to know somebody. And that's the goal, really, if. If we're. If we're being candid about business, customers buy from people they know like, and trust. I don't know if I went out with that mindset, but I know that that's what works, and I just naturally do it. I think that's why there's been success. I think that's kind of why your stuff is successful, but it gives us a glimpse into what your life looks like. Could you give us a little bit more of a peek of just, like, what your average day looks like? You know, because we're recording this at 8am My time at 7 your time. If I'm not Mistaken. And what have you done so far? Like you pop your eyes open in bed, then what happens for Jerry Sevy for the day?
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It's a great question. So there's a couple variables that get thrown into my day right now in my life. So one is a 13 month year old baby boy, the other one's a two and a half year old. So obviously it's the off season too. So the, the seasonal difference in my kind of changes a little bit. You know my daily schedule. But there's a couple key things that always go into my day. First, first thing is my relationship with God. My non negotiables are my devotion and prayer. That's something that start the day off with. No matter what I'm doing once I wake up that that's my first thing of the day. And then I'm always going to the gym. I got to get my body right in order for me to go out and lead my people. That's just something that I wake up real early. I get done.
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How early?
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Check how early during the season it's about 5:00am okay. Oh, lift weights. And then I need to get to the shop before the guys get there. Our start time is 7:30. So I get there a little early, hang out with the guys, go over the game plan and then the guys
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are off for the day.
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And then I have my morning meetings with the rest of my ownership team and then we're going over bids estimates like that. Usually out of the office by about 2:30. I also do a lot of running. So I hit a run and then after I'm done running I'm picking up my boys at about 4 o' clock from daycare and then me and my wife get to spend some time together, eat dinner and then I'm working from home in my own my home office and yeah, that's a day for me typically man yeah. My big non negotiables are my spiritual, my spiritual sense, my physical sense and then just making sure I'm there for the guys in the morning. Give a game plan.
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Yeah, man. I. This just started happening last year, my first. So some of the, some of the things that like I started doing in order for that to make it happen was started delegating some of the things that I was doing throughout my day that would have never given me the opportunity to go out and do those type of things. So for example, I. We added a full time office admin, AKA my wife quit her job and now she works full time at a spot authority. We're able to hire more employees, help with some labor, and then we hired an estimator, salesperson who's been phenomenal. Was freed up a lot of bidding process for me.
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So nice.
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This came at a cost, you know. Yeah, cost. Because you know, those are positions, ratting and things like that. Payroll. But it's allowed me to have some freedom to make myself better. So I've worked on myself. The business has got better.
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Yeah, that's what I was gonna say. But not hiring those people is a cost as well. Right? Like imagine, imagine if you were still trying to do all that. There wouldn't be time to come home, spend time with the wife, go to the gym, pick the kids up from daycare. Like there's a, there's a cost no matter what we do, which way we do it. So you said like the last year, you know, your routine, you've been able to kind of keep. Keep how it has been versus the years before when you were building. What's been the biggest challenge this past year? Like, what was like the biggest challenge, if you can remember what it would be. And it doesn't have to be on the asphalt authority side, like just in Jerry Sebb's life. What was the biggest challenge this past year?
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Mine's gonna be work related. We doubled our company's revenue again, year over year. And with that came a whole new personnel, whole new staff. If I'm looking at my first to my second year and the amount of employees that I've been able to keep, there's just things happening, you know, it's been A challenge. We've had newer people we've had to train up. Yeah. Very quickly. Like hyperspeed train.
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Yep.
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Because we're still doing all these jobs. But they got to be performing at a high level because, you know, the quality's got to be there, the efficiency's got to be there.
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Yeah.
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So that's been tough. And that we lost some people in the middle of our season last year. So we had to hire fast, adjust, pivot and contain that level. You know, I think I made a post about it. This is literally no joke. I think in July we did maybe 850, 000 square feet in like 14 days of parking lots back to back to back to back with like two experienced guys, myself and a whole bunch of new guys.
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Dang, dude.
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And it was, it was, it was crazy, man.
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Like sealcoating, crack filling, line striping.
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Like all of it. Yeah. It was just massive parking lot after. It was like what we've geared up for all season. Yeah. That everyone should have been dialed in
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by then
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that had left or been fired or, you know, it is what it is. So that was really hard last year. But we made it through it. We had a great year. We're returning everyone who finished last season with us back this year. Wow.
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Dang, dude.
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Great. Yep. So we're going to be starting this interview is we're doing today is on the 5th of March. So we're going to be returning back to work the 18th of March and everyone's coming back and we've hired two new guys as well.
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So we're really excited about turnover. Employee turnover in our industry has been commonplace and a non stop thing as long as this business, this industry has been going right. Like it just is. But there are ways to mitigate how that happens. Right. And how much it is. I think we've had one year where we. We turned over a lot of guys other that, you know, we didn't. And I think, I hate saying this but Covid probably had a lot to do with that because people were like either yeah, I got to work outside. I need this job, that job, do whatever. But there are ways where you do the best you can. You create a great culture, you create a place where people want to be for multiples of reasons and you're kind of able to overcome it. So is that how you overcame what it was this, this last year with that type of growth? What do you think is the key to how you overcame the stress or the added stress of doubling and having to have an Infrastructure that can support that.
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It's a good question, man.
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How'd you know what to do? And that's the other question. How'd you know what to do?
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Yeah. So two great questions. So I take a lot of pride in what I do. And it's hard for me to sleep some nights thinking about making sure everyone's families are fed. And, you know, that's a big responsibility when you're near the top of the. The triangle of making sure there's enough work, making sure the jobs are getting done, making sure everything's getting paid out. So it's like you just. I have this mentality that's like, gonna get done no matter what. I don't care. The last guy out there doing it myself. I don't care if there's three guys or we got 10 guys out there. The work's got to get done. You have to do it. And it's just one of those things that, like, I love my guys. I care about them. Like, their family is my family. I say it all the time. Like, I'm not responsible for my wife, Leah, and my two boys, William and Harrison. Like, I'm responsible to feed a big, big family. And that comes with a lot of burden and a lot of stress, but also, it's a very fulfilling thing. So that's. That's kind of the why I wake up every morning and I just. I have in my head, like, there's no option to failure. Like, we gotta do this. We gotta get through it. And, you know, so you got sheer
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will right now like that.
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And my. I have a good friend who's a. Like, a mentor of mine, and he always says, you have a hundred percent success rate so far in life, Jerry, of making it till tomorrow. You know that you've never failed once. You're gonna make it till tomorrow, bro. So I always think about that. I'm like, today's rough, you know? Yeah, man. Like, everyone here, like, you have 100 success rates of making it till tomorrow, too. So it's like, you're gonna get through it. So it's just like, what's your appetite for? You know, how hard today is, you know?
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Yeah. Yeah. Well, second question you said, yeah. I asked, how. How do you know? How do you know what to do? Like, how you know what to do? It's.
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It's instinctual, but it's also very methodical at the same time. Just trying to set up people in the right positions just to be successful. I think identifying those personality traits, identifying what people could Be good at identifying what they're bad at, keeping them out of those positions. It's a lot of scrambling. It's a lot of trial narrative. It's a lot of throwing spaghetti against the wall. Just gotta try new things, man.
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I would say it's something that I still struggle with. However, I'm very blessed to be in a position where I can say I'm free from this particular thing. But my family, on both sides of my family, it's almost hereditary. There's a lot of drug and alcohol abuse back. Great grandparents, grandparents, you know, dad, both sides of the family. So I was kind of dealt a deck of cards that said that this is who I would be. This is the peak of what Jerry said could be based off past generations. And that's something I've struggled with for. I would say for my 18th, from 18 to late 20s, just got really, really into drinking. Post college back, you know, how old are you, Jerry? I'm 34. Okay.
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Yep.
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So something where, you know, in college, it's a social thing, it's a fun thing, it's a party thing.
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Yep.
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And when you're doing it all the time, you know, you're building those habits, but you're not thinking about it. And then what had happened was that translated that habit into something that when I had graduated college, it may remain a huge part of my life to the point where it took over my life completely.
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Wow.
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So point where I was 26, 27, just got married. I looked at my wedding photos, and I could hardly recognize myself. I was extremely, you know, out of shape, out of weight. I've gained, I think, £80. Dang, bro.
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Really?
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I was a college athlete. I played college soccer. I was an all American soccer player in high school. And like, people that ran into me, you know, that knew me when I was younger, were like, dude, like, that's crazy, man. Like, what have you been up to? And, you know, I looked in the mirror one day and I was like, this is not who I am. I'm not living up to who I think I can be. You know, all these people have put a label on what they think that I could be.
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Yep.
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You know, how I was living at that point, or how my family members had lived in their lives. But I just, I said, enough is enough, man. I told my wife, I said, you don't have to worry about it anymore. I'm getting sober today. So seven and a half years later, I'm completely sober. God gave me my son, my firstborn son. He was born on my five year sobriety day.
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Dang.
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Really, it's an absolute miracle. Since then, the, the mental clarity, how I feel, man. Like, how I look, how I feel. My motivation levels completely changed. I was able to have two kids, have enough confidence to take care of myself, that I can take care of others.
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Yep.
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Start two businesses, you know, build a house, buy cars, feed other employees. And. And that's all because, you know, I truly believe, you know, God had put that on my heart and he had given me a second chance, man. So I'm here today by his grace.
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So, man, so when, when you were like, hey, enough's enough. I know, I know what the issue is. You and I have a similar story. Because I would imagine, you know, I'm in Wisconsin here, southwest corner, Wisconsin. And with my last name, my family history and everything, I would imagine that a lot of people, when they see me, they're like, this is, this is going to be a repeat. Right. And thankfully, I had the initial, I had the wherewithal to be like, yeah, they're probably gonna think that. And like, I. I have to be above that. Right. Same thing. My 20s, I was like, I have no idea what I'm doing. I want it, but I have no idea how to get there, what to do. And I kind of have that. I. I tell a lot of people that most of the time I outwork my ignorance. I just know, like, if I grind, I can get over the making the mistakes. Like, I can just outwork the mistakes I'm making. And I always take the long way to do stuff not knowing that it's the long way. It's just the very first solution. I see. So I go that route. So we're. We're similar in that regard. But I. I'm. I'm wondering, like, what did the. What did the trend look like? Like, what did that look like? You were working in the cellular communication field, I would imagine, when you were like, hey, I'm done. What happened? Like, you. You like, hey, I'm done. I'm going to be sober. This is. I'm choosing it right now and just not doing it again. How difficult was that to begin with? I'll start with that question. How difficult was that?
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It was really hard because it's hard to change if you're in a negative environment and certainly not saying anything bad about the company I worked for. It was the culture, the environment, the culture that was going on. So there's. It's a sales job, you know, so your typical suit and tie sales job. It's a lot of stuff that I don't have to name is going on there. A lot of things like that. I basically had to step out of that.
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Okay.
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But remain in it. So I've alienated myself to very, very. No outside of work activities. No outings, you know, no smoke breaks, things like that. And it was really, really hard, man. But it was very empowering, too, because as I started to chip away at myself, you know, started becoming very noticeable to people around. Yeah. Like, oh, not drinking right now. It's just a fad or whatever. Oh, it's been a year. That's crazy. Jerry doesn't drink. Oh, it's been two years, you know. Yeah. You know, it doesn't look the same. Jerry's can jump really high and run fast and strong. Yeah. And so it's like kind of like a little bit of a chip on your shoulder mentality, too. Like, kind of empowers you, you know, when you're changing amongst people around you or haven't bought in or, you know, don't see the vision like you do. But, yeah, that's kind of where I was going with that.
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You know what? I just feel like everyone has their own rock bottom.
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Yeah.
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And that's the thing, you know, and the thing is a lot of people who drink or, or abuse drugs and stuff, they look at it like from a very selfish standpoint where they're not hurting others because it's just them. But that type of addiction really does hurt everyone else around them. So until you maybe have someone you love in your life or something really bad happens, let's say you go to jail or rehab or whatever, until someone in your life who really loves you speaks to you, I don't think there is really a way. But maybe that self discovery in that moment, I think that, you know, me and my wife had some deep conversations about it and that's where it really clicked for me.
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Yeah.
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It wasn't just something that was happening that I was doing, that was hurting myself. It was hurting the other people around me. I think that's where you gotta. Those people who are struggling. That's where you have to see that.
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Yeah, that's hard. When you're like, when you, when you tell somebody, you know, I love you, and they're like, oh, you're hurting me doing this.
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Right?
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And it's like, yeah. And that could be not just that. Like, you know, I'm divorced now, but, you know, my wife then would be like, it's business all the time. Like, you don't have any time for me. Like this, this is hurting me. I'm like, well, this is for us though. And you just, you get blind to it sometimes you don't see it because you're not in their shoes, you're not looking at it. And I think there's this thing where I knew that, but I was justifying it. Right. And I think that's where you're like, yeah, some people are like, yeah, they know that things would be a lot better. They could do more than they want to, but. But they say, well, it's not hurting anybody. So they just. You find you figure out a way to justify it. I think you just end up like you said, you have non negotiables. You just got to tell yourself, at some point, you got to look at yourself and be like, dude, this is. I have to do something. Like, I'm lying to myself. I have to do something right. And I did that a lot with therapy. I tell people like, I'm use better help now for therapy. For the longest time, I was like, dude, I don't need therapy. I don't need therapy. But deep down I was like, dude, I don't. I'm not sorting this out correctly. Like, I know I'm not. Or it would look like this would be the finished result. You know, that'd be like if we line striped first and then sealcoated. And it's just did things out of order. It's like, yeah, we're doing it and it kind of looks like something, but that's not really what it's supposed to be. So you learn a lot through a lot of those process, those processes in the grand scheme of life. Like, what has it taught you? What has life taught you up to this point? You're 34. I'm gonna guess you're under way under halfway if you live a nice full life, which is. That's kind of nice. Like, that's kind of a nice sentiment. Now I think about it like, oh, dang, we're not even halfway there. We seem like we're doing okay. Yeah, yeah, that's great. That's great. Like, that's probably the most positive thing that I've said so far today. I guess, granted, I'm a little bit in front of you. I will say that I'm still in my 30s for a little bit longer, but, you know. But what has life taught you, man? Like, you've been able to have life experiences yourself. You're a great observationist. I know that we've been together where you and I have looked at things, and I think I see the whole picture and you'll see something a little bit different and that'll give me some perspective. So I appreciate that, by the way. So that's kind of why I want to ask that question. Like, what has life taught you up to this point?
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I think the biggest takeaway is you can achieve what's your. What's in line through hard work. And a lot of people just see you in a certain moment, or you see someone that's successful and they're like, oh, you know, must be nice. They always say, like, oh, must be nice. But like, hard work will get you there. And it's one of those things that you may not see in the moment, you may not see it for years, but showing up every single day and working hard, you will get there 100%. So life has taught me, nothing's given, everything's earned. No one's gonna save you, no one's gonna do. Put in the work for you. And even if, even if you're giving something, you can still mess that up.
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Oh, dang.
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I see it happen all the time, so. And when you're earning it, you're less likely to mess it up because you
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care more about it.
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So put in the work, keep doing the stuff. That sucks. I hate running. I just ran a 10 mile marathon on Saturday through hills just destroyed me. But I do it for discipline and I do it because it makes me a stronger person. I don't even really like lifting weights that much. I mean, it's. It's just. It's something that is a maintenance thing for me. It's like an oil change or tire reputation. It's like something I need for my life to make me drive smoothly out there.
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Like, that's how I look at it.
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So that's the biggest thing life's taught me, man, is like, just work hard, put in the work.
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Yeah, I blame Instagram and maybe a little bit of Facebook, but mainly Instagram. People are looking for the ozempic of a happy life, right? They're looking like, I'm not. I don't want to do everything it takes. I just want that. I just want the end result. It's like, well, you can't just have it because you want. Don't work like that. Right. At least for the most part. And I get it. There's sometimes where people get lightning in a bottle or have unbelievable fortune or something like that. But for the most part, especially in our industry, like, you got to work at it to have it. People who have seen pictures of us together. You're a lot taller than I. You have a great frame, right? You're a bigger guy. Not like bigger, but just a bigger guy. And all I can think is like, you, your legs and your feet running through the hills and doing all your things. You're like, did shit. I hate this. Which is. Which is funny. And then talking about lifting weights, which gives you that big frame to begin with. But yeah, I think, I think that's it, dude. We're earlier than what I get up Today in order to get everything I need to get done to squeeze our podcast in today. And you just have to do it like there's just, if you want it, you have to.
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I just want like, like for you example, no one, you identified something online in our industry. No one made this content for you. No one made Black Copy. No one made wisco. Yeah, that was all hard work, man. All hard work. You can't duplicate that. You can't buy that. You can't buy the friendships, the networking that you put in throughout the years. It's all earned, nothing giving.
- [29:37]
A
Yeah, yeah. Well that leads me to kind of as we get in closing a little bit, you got two kiddos, the your oldest one, he's on your shoulders quite a bit, I notice. Right. Kind of getting a bird's eye view of the world. I'm now I've never been up that high standing flat footed, so I don't really know. But I think it's a great metaphor as well. I mean that's kind of what you want to do for your children. You want to get to a certain height and then be able to show them what's beyond there and hopefully they take it and do something with it. That great foundation. If you could teach something to your kids that you would just that you know, like if there's one thing you could teach them that you know would sink in and they would apply it to their life, what would it be? If there's one thing you could pass to them and you're like, hey, if you know, I need you to, I want you to know this and understand it and apply it to your life and you will. What would that be, you think? What would that lesson be? One of the biggest challenges in concrete work is control. Control over qual, control over timing and control over cost. Cementech designs and delivers volumetric concrete mixers that are some of the most accurate and technologically advanced in the industry. Their equipment gives contractors real control over schedule, budget and concrete quality, allowing crews to mix exactly what they need when they need it without the waste and limitations of traditional barrel mixers. I've been in the same industry circles as cement tech for years and I've interviewed, interviewed contractors who run their equipment every day. It works, it delivers. If you want to learn more or to find a dealer near you had to cementech.com think where I'm coming.
- [31:21]
B
Like what I'm going to try to explain is like more of just like a stance on what the most important thing I want to teach my boys is like From a. Like a masculinity standpoint. Right. So it's not to be the most intimidating or the strongest or anything like that. It's not to be, you know, a bulldozer or, you know, someone who's gonna go out and take asshole authority to this level or whatever. It's. I want to teach them and model emotional strength and intelligence. Like, it's. How strong are you when shit's gonna hit the fan? Which. It's gonna hit the fan.
- [31:59]
A
Yeah. When are you.
- [32:00]
B
Are you going to be prepared for those moments in your life? When me and your mother pass away? Are you going to be the man to lead the family or to lead the business or something happens to their kids, let's say their kids get sick or they. They, God forbid, lose a spouse or something. I want to prepare them on how they can best handle those situations. So that emotional strength, to me, is the most masculine thing about a man, you know, is how they respond to those situations. So I've only modeled that and be their rock. So when they say, you know, oh, wow, Dad's business went bankrupt, you know, or. Or, you know, grandma died, you know, like, they're looking at dad to see how I handle, like. Like, how am I handling adversity and how am I handling the storm of life?
- [32:49]
A
Yeah.
- [32:50]
B
And I feel like there's a lot of things I can teach them that go into that, you know?
- [32:54]
A
Yeah.
- [32:55]
B
It's things like meditation, prayer, reflection, great, gratitude, kind being, loving. All little things in your life that are gonna help you see the big picture. And it's taking care of yourself, busy eating right. It's exercising, ultimately. But that's the thing for me, man, I think about, like, if we could play the tape back and my kids could watch it, what am I doing right now to set them up for success? Because they're gonna. They're gonna. How are they gonna remember. Yeah.
- [33:28]
A
Yeah. I think. I think you get a new sense of responsibility when that happens, and it makes you make hard choices. You know, it'll be a little candid, you know, having to file for divorce from somebody that you really love to create a better situation, but also be an example of having to make hard choices so that things get better. That's tough, bro. Like, that's tough. Like, there's this example that I wanted to be for Eli, and then that, through a cooperative effort, was wrecked on both sides, Right? So it's like, okay, so this is what I have now. What do I do with that in order to be able to show him this is, this is how you choose to do what's right, right? This is how you choose to be better and come out of the situation, do it better. And that's tough, dude, because that's like, part of me still wants to while out, right? Like, and be satisfied for the moment. But I know that I'm 39. I know in 10 years I'm gonna want that feeling that you described for your children to have for you looking back on your life. I'm gonna want him to have that right. Not, not. Dude, I get it. Even if it was like that, I get it. It was tough. Like, you, I know you, you know, dealt with tough stuff. So you did these things because it was tough. And I don't want that. I want to be like, yeah, you turned your foot in the sand and was like, nah, like we're gonna be tough. I'm also going to be thoughtful. I'm going to be sentimental about these certain things. You know, his mom and I have a great relationship. Like, I can't imagine a relationship being better between a couple people. He and my fiance Nikki, who probably, by the time this comes out in the air, probably won't be my fiance anymore. I imagine she'll be my wife by then. They have a good, really, they have a good relationship. We all have a good relationship. It takes like being a humble man, being able to kind of have some foresight and see what is the best route. Be a well rounded man, right? Like we could be as successful as we want to be and the world be burning around us, you know? You know that. But that doesn't make sense. Like you want a happy life, therefore you have to bounce some stuff back. And if that means me throttling back at West Coat or throttling back BB like I did, in order to bring up the level so that this side is really. Well, that's what you end up having to do. And I think, I think, I think you're hitting the nail on the head of a great thing to make sure your children understand because the world is going to teach them the exact opposite of that for the most part. Right?
- [36:09]
B
Yeah.
- [36:10]
A
They're gonna say, it's okay to do this, it's okay to do that, it's okay to do this, okay, do that. And then they end up just being part of the mold of what's going on, the hamster wheel. So I think that's great, man. And you being 34, how do you learn? How'd you learn that? How'd you learn? Like, that's a great, important thing to leave to your children. How did you, how did you learn that observation?
- [36:31]
B
I've just seen myself on how I responded earlier in my life at some of the hardest times and it was, I crumbled, I self medicated, I would stew on things. I would be extremely anxious to the point where I was sick, I couldn't sleep. And I just knew when I was taking inventory of my life on one of the things I improved on, you know, outwardly, things like maybe my career got better, my business was successful, or I, you know, started to eat better or look better or train better. But I, when I was taking inventory, I said, man, my stress management, my anxiety is still how I internalize things when things go wrong, you know, it's not a healthy thing. It is essentially ruining me from the inside out. So something I really started focusing on was when bad things started to happen, I identified them right away. That way I knew not to be stressful and anxious about it. I would pray about it, I would approach my wife about it. We talk through things and again, just knowing that I've gotten through everything I've ever gone through, go to 100 success rate, and once you break it down like that, man, those problems aren't so big anymore. Yeah, so that was something I knew. I'm like, it's something that I'm sure all men struggle with whether they want to admit it or not. You know, I just know I have to work on that to show up better for my kids when they're older.
- [38:04]
A
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- [39:08]
B
I walked, but because I have a whole thing on that, too.
- [39:12]
A
Yeah, me too. I'm like, where I'm at and what I'm doing is where I'm supposed to be and what I'm supposed to be doing, right? It's like, you have to be okay with that. Otherwise you're going to get stressed out because your. Your business don't look like so and so's. Yours don't look like so and so's. You don't look like this guy. You don't look like that dude. Yours is supposed to be yours. That's. You're learning it, so you're supposed to learn it. But I believe that I'm learning that because I got a young man who. Dude, Eli is light years ahead of where I was because he's been able to be plugged into my life, and I've been able to speak to him. He's been able to witness things. You know, he's been at multiple different places with us at shows and listening to people who I may not listen to that are more successful or have you more experience in life, but that's his path. That's what he's supposed to be walking. I think it's great because, like, I keep going back to the picture of you on the beach with your boy on your shoulders, and I'm like, dude, that's how it's supposed to be. Like, there's so much being said in that photo besides, like, you know, there's so much being said. Like, we could do a whole podcast just on that one photo that you have with your boy on your shoulders. And it's like, that's kind of what I want to leave. If I can live life that way and be able to look at him, I'm good. Like, I'm good. I don't need. I don't need any more stuff, bro. We can buy more stuff. I'm good. I'm good in that realm. I really don't like stuff, to be honest with you. I used to, when I was little. I was little. I guess when I was little. When I was younger, I used to like stuff, and now I kind of have a love hate relationship with stuff, right? But I kind of want to know, like, when you look to the future, what does that look like? What the. What is in your future, Jerry? You could be immediate. It could Be long term. Like what's in your future? More of the same is okay if you love it right now. Right. Like that's, that's fine too. But what does that look like?
- [41:05]
B
Honestly? It's more of the same, A lot more. So we're essentially a startup still, you know what I'm saying? We're a newer company, we've had a lot of success very quickly. But I have kind of a strategic business model that how we've been able to grow so fast. It's very aggressive and when you do a lot of volume, you give up some things, particularly margins and things like that. So future for me looks like the brand being more established, having more market share, allowing us to have a bigger funnel, allowing us to bid more, less competitive jobs, higher margin jobs, ultimately giving us more financial stability and less off season roller coasters. So for me that's not necessarily more work, it's maybe the same or less while making more money. So that's what to be from a business standpoint. Yeah. So what's that gonna make, what's that
- [42:11]
A
gonna do for your life, for Jerry's life? Like that for me, I like, I get that our businesses are a huge part of our life. I know that, I'm not a fool. But we also are human as well. So tell us, tell me a little bit more about that. Yeah.
- [42:26]
B
So me and my wife talk about this all the time. What our plans are for our kids. We don't know if we're going to do Christian school. We don't know if we're going to do home school. We don't know private school. We don't know if we're going to do public school. But we know one thing. We looked at each other a few weeks ago and said we're in this crazy business to enjoy the seasonality of our business. How great to be able to spend winters on two to three months vacation with our family. What percentage of Americans get to live a life like that with their kids until they're 18, until they decide to go to adulthood? Maybe.001%. You know, that's just unreal. So a situation where we really want to take advantage of something like that. So we're praying about it, talking through it. But what that, that's what that would allow for my life. It would give us that more freedom, stability. It would give us the peace of mind of being able to do things for ourselves selfishly. But ultimately if the business gets to that point too, we can really start changing our employees lives. For me is a big thing. There's things that I have put on vision boards of being able to give all of my guys a take home truck, being able to vacations and being able to profit share in the future. Just a whole bunch of really cool stuff that doesn't happen overnight. And you have to make good money to do those type of things. But that's kind of what the future looks like for me. Giving back more to the people at Asphalt Authority, but also building some really badass memories with my kids and my wife right now.
- [43:58]
A
So, yeah, yeah, I think I've done a good job of like one week. Eli and I will be on a Lambo, taking a little bit, and then we come back here and he's got to drive the busted ass Jeep, you know, down to the lot and back. And I'm like, bro, bro, that's gonna be your first vehicle. You know, I think we do a really good job of that. I think, I think, you know, Elizabeth went with me to Guatemala on a mission strip last year, and then we come back here, right? And all of a sudden she realizes like, this house that was kind of an average house is a pretty spectacular place to live, right? So I think doing, being able to do those types of things is great. I think making them work and be in the business and say, you know, Eli knows that if, if we don't come here and do what we do every summer, spring and fall, the rest of it doesn't exist. And he's like, we're pretty fortunate, right, to be able to do what we do. I got, I got a question that's not on the, the list. Sorry, bro, I'm gonna hit you with blindsided one. What is it like having Leah and how does she counter you, like your personality and your trait? Like, how do you guys, you guys work together? What is that like, what is she for you? That's it. That's what I'm leaving it.
- [45:19]
B
She's. She's my rock, man. She's phenomenal at what she does, first and foremost. So Leah's very talented. She's a master's degree. She's a marriage and family therapist from Indiana University. She's very smart, very good social skills, very good at talking to people. So number one, she's the best person to answer our phone, whether that's an escalation, first time customer calling, or dealing with our employees situations. So she's the HR face of the business. She's the person that has to put up with me, you know, at the same time, too so Leah's my rock. She's great. She's phenomenal. And she has her strengths and weaknesses just like I do. So we share an office on purpose, which people are like, that's crazy. But you've seen it.
- [46:08]
A
Yes, I see.
- [46:09]
B
And we just, we just work really well together. It's just something that we're. We're lucky to. Did you know each other?
- [46:16]
A
Did you know, like, you guys would work together when you start, when you're like, hey, we should. We should just work together. Like, did you know that?
- [46:23]
B
Or.
- [46:24]
A
Or you have. You just like, dude, this is a huge blessing. Like, this is great.
- [46:28]
B
It's a great question. My ultimate goal is, yes, I wanted to bring her into the business. Absolutely. When it first started, I didn't think that was going to be a possibility. But once we, I saw it happen and we got our space, I definitely wanted to share an office. I feel like you can save a lot of phone calls, texts, emails by here just blurting something out. So we just. A lot of crap done together and we.
- [46:53]
A
Each other.
- [46:54]
B
I mean, we've been dating and married and together for damn near half our lives. I mean, I was 19 years old, so 15 years now. So we just have a very unique relationship and it's a, you know, it's a lot of give and take, a lot of sacrifice. But I love working with her. It's great.
- [47:14]
A
That's good. That's good to have. You see that sometimes in this industry, right? Like, you see husband and wife teams that work together and whether that's whether it's on the contracting side or whether it's in suppliers or distributors or manufacturers, whatever. You come to our shows, some of the conferences stuff, there's a lot of couples that are husband and wife that are working together. And if not husband, wife, close to husband and wife. I think it, I think sometimes, dude, it just works. Like, you find you, you have what you have, your person, they know you, they know what you need, they know how you're going to react. Sometimes that's great. Sometimes I've seen it, it's not so great. But I think that, I think the key. This is the key and we're going to close with this. I think the key is if you are self, aware, right? If you do meditation, if you do self reflection and you're self aware, it allows you to understand who you are, your triggers, what you need to work on. You work on that. You become who you're supposed to become to where. When you see how they are, where things that would have triggered the old you before that or whatever. You're able to move fluidly, understand how that works, and then create a great atmosphere and situation where everything works. Like, I understand machismo and being macho and whatever and being masculine, but there's also a great part of being soft, being understanding. Understanding how things go that allows things to be more productive. People don't understand that. They think that. Like you said you earlier, there's a bulldozer. Nah, dude, I don't want to be a bulldozer. I'd rather be an excavator. Working around all the marks where we can see where we did diggers hotline and moving just so subtly before you start wrecking stuff by just mashing everything over. Right? So I think that's a great, great. I think that's a great analogy. And I, I knew that I knew the answer to the question already pretty much of you and Leah when I seen you guys desks together. And let also, I'll let everybody know candidly, your guys's desks face each other as well. Right? So. No, there's something to be said for that. I'm just saying I noticed the subtle things, my friend. All right, so, dude, thanks so much for being candid with us. Also, thanks for allowing me to come in and see what goes on at Asphalt Authority there. I know, I know. I pop up randomly and just like, hey, I'm here. And then I'm like, unplug everything from your life. Show me around. But I really thank you for doing that. And we've been fortunate enough to spend a lot of time together. I wish we spent more together actually over the time. But thanks for sharing with us, man. I think it's really important. You're a great example of how to do this right in the industry. Not just the business side, but life side as well. And we, we really appreciate you. To be honest with you, I really
- [50:05]
B
appreciate our friendship, appreciate the platform and the opportunity to share some stuff. I feel the same way about you, bro. It's all. It's all right. Back at you, man.
- [50:14]
A
Where can we follow you at, my friend?
- [50:17]
B
Sure. So I'm on like Facebook and Instagram personally. Shoot me a message. It's G E R Y. My last name is Sevy S C B Y. And my company, obviously Asphalt Authority, you can just type that and you'll find that we're on like tick tock, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, all those good things. LinkedIn. Yeah.
- [50:37]
A
Top 10 top 10 tastiest videos. Mantra for marketing in the industry in my opinion. But you know, but I enjoy all your guys content. Please tell the family I said hi and God bless and we really appreciate you. So for myself here in Wisconsin where it's gray and rainy still, I really appreciate you joining us. And for Jerry in Fort Wayne area, we appreciate you joining us and as always, stay in the mix. Peace.
- [51:09]
B
Thanks for hanging out with us on in the Mix. For more on the world of Blacktop, head over to marvinjols.com and don't forget to follow Marvin on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube for extra content, behind the scenes looks and industry insights. Be sure to follow the podcast so you never miss an episode. And if you got value from today's show, leave us a well worded five star review. It really helps more asphalt pros find us. Catch you next time on IN the Mix.