← The Ops Experts Club Podcast
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- [00:00]
A
Hey, experts listeners, I want to key you into something that we do very special here at OPS Experts Club, and that's a masterclass. We have a free masterclass called Foundations that scale. And the great thing about this masterclass is it's for operation professionals who are growing businesses. One of the most dangerous things you can do as an operator is grow businesses on a foundation that's not stable. So in this particular masterclass, we take apart all of the inside pieces of your team, your tech and how they're using time, and, and we make sure that you're building on a foundation that's stable. So if you want to check out a great masterclass completely for free, go to foundationsthatscale.com. we'll see you there.
- [00:36]
B
Welcome to the Ops Experts Club with Aaron Taran and Savannah. This podcast will take you behind the scenes of some of the finer details of multimillion dollar companies. These ops experts have dealt with operations for scaling companies and well established businesses with anywhere from small to large teams. If you've ever been deep into the details of a major company, then you know how much it takes and these conversations are just for you. Welcome to the Ops Experts Club podcast.
- [01:08]
A
OPS Experts Club. Tarantin, how you doing today, brother?
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C
I'm better now. I got my whoop for the week.
- [01:16]
A
I was wondering, is it because you got my whoop? Because I think, you know, there are a lot of people that stand in line for my whoops.
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D
Yeah, they do.
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C
I. I can see why. I mean, it brings a smile to my face.
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A
Oh, you didn't sell that at all. That. You didn't sell that. And we're not talking about whoops on the band Taren. We're talking about whoops out of my lips. You know what I'm saying? There are a lot of people that stand in line for that kind of nonsense.
- [01:35]
C
Yeah, for sure.
- [01:38]
A
Oh, man. Well, I'm excited to be back with us today, Ops Experts. Thanks for tuning in. Our guest today is a pretty special dude. He's become a really good friend of mine. I met him in Pete Vargas mastermind called the Wellspring. Mark is a young dude, but he's a CEO of a couple of great business out there. Stole structures and horizon structures. What makes his spin a little bit different is he comes from Amish country and he didn't just move there, he's from there. And so I think that he's got some great stuff to share with us. Some great tricks to the craft, tricks to the trade, and some insights from Amish Country. So, Taran, let's. Let's bring to stage our good friend Mark Zuckerberg.
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D
Boom.
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A
There it is. Mark, welcome, man.
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D
Thank you. Great to be here. Thanks for letting me join.
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C
Nice to meet you, Mark.
- [02:25]
A
Yes, yes. So, Mark, you should tell us a little bit about your story, just of solstice structures, horizon structures, maybe like the difference between the two. Like, is it a family business? How did you become CEO? Maybe give us some good origin story because we're excited to hear from you. And here's a young dude, right? Like, are you even 30 yet?
- [02:44]
D
Yes, 32.
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A
Oh, dang it. Just over the threshold. Taryn, how old are you?
- [02:49]
C
35.
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A
There it is. So, I mean, just a little younger than Taren. Way younger than me. Okay, so go ahead, Mark, tell us your story.
- [02:55]
D
Absolutely. So grew up Amish, the youngest of nine. So I've got quite a few siblings. Our family is very entrepreneurial. My dad actually bought the business from Stolzfus, the super popular name in Leicester County. So he bought the business almost 50 years ago. So grew up pretty much in the business. Growing up Amish, loved, like, I loved the heritage. It taught me a lot. My parents are still Amish. None of my siblings are Amish. So kind of just a little bit of how that is. So growing up, my siblings left the Amish. So as a kid, I knew I was going to leave the Amish once I turned 16. So grew up right in Lancaster county, which is kind of the heart of Amish culture or Amish country. Our family was a little bit different. So, like, even though I was Amish, I would have went to like a private Mennonite school. So I got out a little bit more than, you know, most Amish families, but grew up in the business. A lot of the Amish, typically you just go to school till 8th grade. So I went to school till 8th grade and then after that I started working full time. So before that I would typically work around the business in the summer when school was out and loved it. But once eighth grade was over, I pretty much went into full time work. So at 14, I was working full time. So worked in, worked in our company for a couple years in the company. And then once I got my driver's license, I would have left the Amish when I was 16 and got my license, started driving. And then from there it just kind of transitioned to going out in the field doing on site setups. So typically we can drive, you know, six to eight hours from our location here in Pennsylvania and we'll do like on site setups for different buildings. From there, I did that life for about two and a half years. And after having no schedule for two and a half years, you kind of start looking for a schedule. And by what I mean maybe no schedule. Typically work be anywhere from 60, 60 to 80 hours a week. Starting we would start at midnight, we'd drive five, six hours, get to the job site at daylight, and then work a full day and then drive six, six hours back home again. So I loved it. Why I did it. Now looking back, I would want no part of it. But what it did do, it instilled a great work ethic. And that's one of the things that I'll mention for we're blessed to have great work ethic, blessed to have a lot of great team members with amazing work ethic. So work there or worked here from there transitioned from being on the road to wanting more of a schedule. So I moved into the office and from there just kind of went from drafting to sales to kind of behind the scenes. I love operations, so this is perfect. I think, Aaron, you and I talk the same language when it comes to operations. Love figuring out problems, figuring out how to make things work better. Probably one of my. One of the things that I don't do as well is like visionary brainstorming things like that. So love figuring out problems, figuring out solutions, how to make things work better. And then within the last about two years, I took over my brother's spot as CEO of Solstice Structures about five years ago to took over Sea of Horizon Structures. So that's currently where I'm at. I want to explain a little bit of the difference between the two companies. So Stallsu Structures are main locations and.
- [06:55]
A
No, no, you should let us pause you right there because there's too many questions around there. If you give us much more than we can arch artillery. I always talk too much. So you go first, Taryn, and then I'll ask my questions.
- [07:06]
C
I mean that was a great origin story. I mean, it's really cool to see you just working up through the company. Was there a spot ever in there somewhere where you weren't working for this company, you know, the family company? Like you got any experience elsewhere or this was all just built in from this one, you know, company.
- [07:28]
D
This would have been all built in. I would have done some traveling in the meantime. Nothing serious. Maybe a month or two, like in the winter where, you know, I would go to Asia, India, kind of different ministry trips. As far as work itself, I only worked Here.
- [07:48]
A
How did you. How did you. Bro, you're the youngest. Like, how does the youngest work up to the top of the food chain? I feel like, how many brothers and sisters. That's a lot of shoulders and falling backs. You got to climb on and, like, get out of the way to get up to the top. How did. How did you ascend from being the youngest to the spot where the youngest. I feel like you're like a Joseph story. Like, how did you. How did you get all the way to the point where the rest of your brothers and sisters are like, yeah, he's the heir apparent. Like, he seems to be the dude. And then when it comes to CEO, you said you took over for your brother a couple of years ago. In your culture, do you just hold CEO for a window of time and then you would pass it off to somebody else? Or, like, how does. How does, like, legacy work?
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D
So, yeah, so the combination of both. So we have kind of multiple companies. So I'm involved as a partner in two companies, and then there's another company called Zook Cabins that my brother.
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A
Sorry.
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D
Two of my brothers and my dad are partners at my oldest brother. So little backstory. I got five sisters. None of them were involved in the business. I have three brothers, and we're all involved in the business. And. And we have a few different companies. So two of my brothers, my dad, are involved in Zook Cabins. My brother had, like, a syndication business that was his main thing. So we all. We all work together really well, and we all kind of have multiple lanes that we're part of. So it was one of those things where my brother Jonathan, he was the current CEO of Stole Shoes, he was getting pulled towards helping at Zook Caverns as well. So some of his attention was kind of getting diverted, so he wasn't spending as much time here. So that's kind of when I stepped in and took over. So it's all working together. We. We love working together as a family or as brothers. And we figured out that instead of focusing on each other's problems, if we all kind of stay in our own lane and we all do our thing that we're good at. Seems to work out pretty well.
- [09:53]
A
Love that. I wish more businesses and more families actually operated like that. I think there'd be a lot of healthier of a scenario, for sure. Taryn, what do you think about that?
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C
Yeah, I mean, that sounds incredible. Just to get to work with family and in a family business like that and, you know, kind of switching spots with your siblings. And you know, ascending together too, and learning together and feeding off of each other because you got multiple businesses so you can learn from each other too. And it's a pretty unique space to be in.
- [10:23]
A
Love that. Okay, now you can tell us Soltus Horizon, tell us the difference of the two.
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D
So Stolste Structures, what the main difference is. We manufacture and retail at Stultsuse. So we have about a 66,000 square foot shop here where we're building garages, sheds, outdoor living structures, saunas, backyard offices, pretty much any outdoor structure. So we manufacture it and then we're also retail. So we do about 90% direct to the homeowner. Our other company, Verizon Structures, we are a hundred percent retail and do no manufacturing. So what the Amish are really good at is they're really good at building things. And a lot of companies or a lot of Amish companies don't want to retail. So basically at Verizon we are then their retail army. So which allows us to work with different sub shops throughout the US So we have a couple sub shops in, you know, like Wyoming, South Carolina, Kentucky, couple in Pennsylvania. And then it allows us to reach a broader range of the US by working with a different sub shop. So we sell some of the similar products. Horizon is more focused on animal structures like horse barns, dog kennels, chicken coops, more on that space. Stall suits would be more on like the sheds, garages, backyard structures.
- [11:57]
A
So cool. And see, you know, I know like I have some really close friends you and I've talked about them down in Belize. Mennonite community. Obviously a lot of trust and a lot of real willingness to work together because there's so much trust in there. Do you feel like with Horizon that's really what you played on, is like finding these communities throughout the US that are great at making crafts, you know, like great craftsmen, but not necessarily great marketers or retailers. And therefore. But they trust you because of Amish lineage, because of like the culture of like just people that understand that same, that come from that same worldview and therefore there's a better trust for you taking their product to, to market. Do you feel like that's, that's the jam?
- [12:34]
D
100%. And I would say most of the post that not all of the subshots are either Amish or Mennonite. Not like it's not like we don't do business with other people outside of the automation Mennonite. It's just that from the experience that we've had, like the quality, the manufacturing capabilities it's just a lot better. So I think all of our sub shops are either Amish or Midnight.
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A
He's so freaking smart, bro. Way to play both sides of a. Way to build and have some retail and then just to be a retailer and band together all the people where there's just cultural understanding both ways. Right. They understand you and trust you. You understand their craftsmanship and trust them because there's a big piece of that. Right. Cause it's going to be your brand name that gets, like, hurt if their stuff doesn't turn out good. So I think kudos to you, man. That's beautiful. I love both arms of that.
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D
Thank you.
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C
It's cool. And as someone with three horses and 35 chickens, I was browsing through those websites, being like, oh, yeah, I'll take one of those. One of those. I can use two of them.
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D
I love it.
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C
I was drooling a little bit before this call.
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A
As somebody that doesn't have any horses or any chickens, I'm still impressed. So I just want you to know you're impressing both of us.
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D
Hey, we can get you a sauna or a greenhouse or we got something, A pavilion, pergola. You need something.
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A
Oh, man. Taryn, I'll let you take our first set of questions on lessons learned, some of that stuff, and then I'm going to swing around on what makes Mark excited, because he's got some pretty exciting stuff that he gets excited about.
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C
Yeah. So, I mean, I love the idea of kind of being a sub shop and connecting with different people operationally. What probably was the biggest thing you had to solve for to kind of expand that part of the business while not exactly being in charge because you're expanding to other businesses. And so there's things you can't control when, you know, you're feeding work to other people. But you think it was a big roadblock you hit that kind of allowed that to excel to where it is.
- [14:41]
D
A lot of it comes back to what you were saying, Aaron, as far as, like, the trust part of it. It is one of those things. It's kind of interesting to see, like, we can see the retail or, sorry, the manufacturing and retail side of it, and then we also see the retail only side of it. And there's pros and cons to both. One of the, you know, disadvantages of being retailer late is when Covid happened everything like, boom. So then we have, you know, 10 other people that are selling the same exact product that we are. And, you know, obviously the tide, you know, Caused everyone to rise which then increased our lead times. The shops didn't give us as much supply as we would have wanted to because now everyone's asking for supply on the flip. The flip side of the pros are you can have serious growth and not feel the pain as much as if you're manufacturing retail. Like for instance last year Horizon we had about 50% growth and it was very managed manageable because we had six sub shops that we could spread it across. Whereas it's been all retail manufacturing on our end you'd have felt that curves a lot more. And then the trough part played a huge thing in that.
- [16:05]
A
Dude, I love your business model. That's so freaking smart. So creating redundancies so that as you grow you don't necessarily have to worry about how big you're flexing as long as you understand the percentage of opportunity that each one of your sub shops can bear. Or when you need to start finding other sub shops they can start picking up the slack once you re reach capacity. Is that kind of how it works?
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D
And when you look at, when you look at the amount of you know, sales wise we're getting close to the same in both companies. The amount of work that it takes to run stole swoosh versus Horizon is like day and night different. But you know there is. You don't. The margins aren't as good because you're not manufacturing. But it's a whole different.
- [16:47]
A
Whole different bro. You're the Amish Costco bro. You don't need to make high margins. You're able to spread it out like it's so it doesn't become like if you.
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C
Right.
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A
Doesn't it kind of turn into that model at some level where it's like on social side of things it's very much around we build this certain kind of thing and we sell the certain kind of thing. On the horizon side of things there's a lot of things we build and sell and it's a volume play. So it's like the more we sell that's actually how we grow on this side. Whereas on this side there might be a deeper margin in the, in the things that you're building. But on this side it's thinner margin but more numbers. Would you say that's the. That's the comparable from an economics 100% that's great. This does marketing. Do you feel like you have to focus on marketing on one versus the other more than the other? Horizon versus Stolsus or do you feel like you put about the same Amount of marketing into both. And it's probably a different kind of marketing, right? A little bit. Or is it. Do you find the same kind of marketing?
- [17:41]
D
Marketing percentages are similar. One thing that helps Stoltzfoose is because we've been around so long, so we have a lot of repeat business word of mouth. I would say Horizon, we are more nationwide than Stallsus. So Stalsearch is like east coast. Horizon would be more nationwide. The marketing is spread. Spread wider.
- [18:04]
A
Have you ever thought about my friends down in Belize and just being like. Like, it's almost like you could have a whole nother business model where it was like, you're building Stolstein, your retailing horizon, but also you could be going into these countries where Mennonites have spread out and being like, hey, would you like a. Would you like me to teach you our business model so that you could replicate that on a scale here within your own country? Where it's like, like, this is how we do marketing. This is how we retail for multiple sub shops. Because the pain points you're experiencing here, very, very likely they're experiencing in other countries outside of just what you're doing here. And could I get you to buy a house next to me in Mahogany Bay? And then we could be best friends and we could vacation at the same time. That's all I want to know.
- [18:43]
D
Hey, as long as Mahogany Bays in there, I would imagine we could make something worth it.
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A
That's what I'm talking about.
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D
We haven't. We haven't explored out of the country, but it's one of those things where we've definitely talked about it. In the US One of the things that we've talked about is it. So Lancaster is kind of the shed capital of the East Coast. So if you go to North Carolina or Maine, a lot of the buildings that you see there come from Lancaster. It's one of those things where, like, is it worth going into, let's say, Alabama and starting a shop where you have to pay more for materials, you have to pay more for labor, or are we better off building here and shipping?
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A
Yeah.
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D
So. And we've kind of went with the route of building here and shipping because there's so many good resources, so much good labor here in Lancaster. And like, let's say for dog kennels, we'll ship dog kennels all the way from here to California, which seems crazy. At the end of the day, we can ship it. We pay whatever, $30,000 in shipping, depending on the size, and they get A kennel in California, and it's half the price of what it would have cost to build it out there. So that's kind of one of the things that we have to battle between is like, hey, build here and expand, or do we expand into other areas? Love that.
- [20:14]
A
Love that, man. We're running out of time. So, Mark, tell us what you're excited about, because our listeners probably are like, wait, you just freaking blew my mind. You just got into what? We just talking about outbuildings for cattle, and now we're talking about something totally different. So tell us about what we were talking about a little earlier, about what makes you excited right now in business.
- [20:31]
D
Two of the things that I'm excited about, we kind of got into the luxury sauna business. I didn't realize there was a market for this. We're talking a little 8 by 10 sauna. You can buy a kit online for like 6, 7 grand. The ones that we're building, 8 by 10, like 50 grand. So it's a very luxury sauna. Something that I didn't realize there was that much of a market for. What we've seen definitely blew our minds. And I think we're just starting. We had somebody check out. This blew my mind. Somebody checked out, bought asana, paid in full, online, never talked to someone. Total bill was like 49 grand, and put it in the shopping cart, paid in full, done without talking to anyone. That blew my mind. So I think if we can capture that market. Well, I think there's definitely opportunity there.
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A
That's so, so badass. Okay, so what's the other thing that makes you excited?
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D
Other thing? We've gotten into large dog kennels where, like, towns, different shelters. Federal agents feed, like multiple kennels. I. I guess it's. I don't know if it's due to Covid. Everyone got a dog, and now they. The shelters are like, overflowing. So in the last year, we've got maybe three $2 million jobs that came through. So the different towns, different counties that are like, hey, here's an order for $2 million worth of dog kennels. And from what we hear, the demand is out there. So we're trying to figure out how to get in front of more counties, towns, federal agencies that need border patrol dogs, things like that. So two business opportunities. I'm pretty excited about Taryn.
- [22:28]
A
Have we even ever. I feel like he's blowing my brain out. I'm like, what is he. What are we even talking about right now? Like, just such a different Business model, but at the same time. So, like, I think the things Taran probably highlights we could talk about just a minute here as we. As we wrap up at the end. Like, such uniquely simple ideas. Like, I love that what he's doing is. No, no, they've created a niche. This is what they're going after. But they have a very simple way of ABC this how it comes together, and they're staying in that. I think that's something that really stands out to me of like Amish built, going after a certain avatar that's looking for a very certain thing, but also really trying to use all your resources in the best way to bring those products to market. I think that's such a cool. Keep it simple, right? Keep it. Don't. Don't try and offer the world everything. Like, be very specific in what you're going for. Taren, any standouts to you today?
- [23:16]
C
I mean, I always just enjoy, you know, operations is operations wherever you go and wherever you came from. I mean, you know, Mark, you're an insider of this company. It's your sole experience. You didn't. You didn't go out and work for five different businesses for different years. You know, you didn't. You get all these different degrees. You just. You learn from within. And the things you learn apply, you know, across any business. I'm sure as you talk with Aaron and the different clients he's worked with, you know, it all applies no matter where you are or where you learned it from.
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D
Yeah.
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A
Yes. So smart. So smart.
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C
Mark.
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A
Mark, if people wanted to get a hold of you, if people wanted to see the magic that Taryn's drooling about, where do you want them to be looking for? Either Solstice or. Or Horizon. Do you have spots where you want them to be like or if they want to get a hold of you, how do they get ahold of you?
- [24:05]
D
So my email, marketsheds.com pretty simple. You can reach out to us. Yeah. Through our websites. My sheds.com is for STOLSU structures because trust me, people wouldn't know how to spell Stolzu Structures. And then the sauna is Harbor Sorrows.
- [24:25]
A
Awesome. I love it. Dude. Thank you so much for being a guest. I feel like such a young guy, have so much great experience and like, just so bright. I've really loved just getting to know you and becoming good friends. I know not only are you and Pete Vargas's mastermind with you, but we're actually in a pod together, which is just cool. Just to get to know you and get to see way you you love family, to see how much of a growth minded dude you are. I feel like of all the guys that I've met with in Wellspring, you're just so hungry for and realizing, hey, I just want to learn, like who can I sit with and learn, like who can I grow and learn from? And I feel like that's just obviously served you so well and I'm excited to see it continue to serve you in the years to come, man. So thank you for spending some time with us today on the show.
- [25:03]
D
Thank you. I appreciate you all as well. Really.
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A
Yeah. Well, OPS Experts, thanks so much for joining us. Taran Turner, as always, such an honor. You're, you're a noble gentleman and I appreciate you being my co host on the show. And we'll see you guys back here on OPS Experts next week. Thanks so much.
- [25:19]
C
Sure. See ya.
- [25:22]
B
Thank you for tuning in to the OPS Experts Club podcast. New episodes available every week on Spotify, itunes and everywhere you listen to podcasts. If you're curious about how some of the biggest names in entrepreneurship have scaled their businesses to the next level, check out some of our best content on this topic by going to foundationsatscale.com.
- [25:47]
A
Youm.
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B
Can find the link in our bio and do your part to improve as an OPS Expert.