The Small Business Safari

Turning Logs into Luxury: Leroy Hite’s Firewood Revolution

• Chris Lalomia, Alan Wyatt, Leroy Hite • Season 4 • Episode 148

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Leroy Hite of Cutting Edge firewood is revolutionizing the way people experience a firepit and also how to use premium firewood to change the taste of your food. Leroy started in the firewood business and had started like most "FIRWUD4SALE" - After that venture ended, he did a stint in the corporate world until he got the SIGN to start again with a new twist on firewood delivery and experience. The premium service he has started and grown has become an excellent story of ideas to operations to scaling. Give it a listen around the fire! Did you know our amazing voices can go beyond just the microphone? Yes, we have video! Subscribe to our YouTube channel here!

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GOLD NUGGETS:

(11:36) - Entrepreneurship and Firewood Innovation

(30:45) - From Corporate Job to Firewood Business

(36:42) - Entrepreneurial Journey in the Firewood Industry

(47:37) - Revolutionizing the Firewood Industry 

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Leroy’s Links:

Website | www.cuttingedgefirewood.com 

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Book Mentioned: Good To Great

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Previous guests on The Small Business Safari include Dale Cardwell, Amy Lyle, Ben Alexander, Joseph Sission, Jonathan Ellis, Brad Dell, Chris Hanks, C.T. Emerson, Chad Brown, Tracy Moore, Wayne Sherger, David Raymond, Paul Redman, Gabby Meteor, Ryan Dement, Barbara Heil Sonneck, Bryan John, Tom Defore, Rusty Clifton, Duane Johns, Jason Sleeman, Andy Suggs, Chris Michel, Jon Ostenson, Tommy Breedlove, Rocky Lalvani, Amanda Griffey, Spencer Powell, Joe Perrone, David Lupberger, Duane C. Barney, Dave Moerman, Jim Ryerson, Al Mishkoff, Scott Specker, Mike Claudio and more!

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If You Loved This Episode Try These!

• Lessons for Business from Hiking the Appalachian Trail | Jerry Travers

• Turning 23 Years of McDonald's Franchise Ownership to an Entrepreneurial Lifestyle

• Attracting High-Value Clients with Irresistible Marketing Messages | Daniel Den

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Have any questions or comments? Connect with me here!

Speaker 1:

So when you say normal firewood company, it's the crappy little cardboard sign with red letters that says firewood and it's spelled wrong with a number.

Speaker 2:

F-I-R-W-O-O-D. That's right, number four, s-a-l.

Speaker 1:

Right Firewood for sale. I know that company.

Speaker 3:

That's great. So that was your company, genius, all right.

Speaker 1:

So you feel sorry for them, so you want to buy their wood.

Speaker 3:

It's actually you know what You've got to play to your market, bro, because you're like oh, I'm going to get these poor country boys.

Speaker 3:

Welcome to the Small Business Safari where I help guide you to avoid those traps, pitfalls and dangers that lurk when navigating the wild world of small business ownership. I'll share those gold nuggets of information and invite guests to help accelerate your ascent to that mountaintop of success. It's a jungle out there and I want to help you traverse through the levels of owning your own business that can get you bogged down and distract you from hitting your own personal and professional goals. So strap in adventure team and let's take a ride through the safari and get you to the mountaintop. Let's get ready to rock and roll. Everybody's time to chop some wood. Alan, you know that's what we do. When we got to go to work, you got to chop wood. I don't know if you ever heard that, but my, my coach used to say that football is like lala me. You gotta start chopping wood, son. We got to go.

Speaker 3:

Chris is on fire today. I'm on fire today because we are teasing this one up. This is going to be a lot of fun, not your typical uh startup. This is not some it thing. I dreamt it up. But before we get there, this one's way more fun, I think. I think this is going to be a lot more fun too, because it's actually real, it's tangible and uh, again, you're on fire and it's smoking. It's smoking, oh my god. We could keep doing this all day long. You're all right. You're in fuego. I am in fuego, all right. Well, I guess we should get started, although what I do? Gotta give some props to my kid, right?

Speaker 3:

just yeah, I think so yeah yep, so uh, you know, as we go through the journey of life and starting a biz uh, you know, I've been doing it for 16 years. The kid's 22. Now he just graduates from UGA All he ever really knew was either I was gone and then, when I was back, I ran a business. He was telling me that the other day he says I really don't remember much before you started the business that feels good, doesn't it, dad, that I've been?

Speaker 3:

at it for that long? Yeah, of course, he said, but I don't want to do anything with your business, so, um, so the good news is so what's there?

Speaker 1:

a little silver lining on this conversation or is it just more, you know, airing of grievances during his graduation. It really was.

Speaker 3:

Uh, he did say thank you, but uh, what do you mean? But I mean, that's like, it's like no offense.

Speaker 1:

But wait, you can't say that because you're still gonna rip somebody up, but uh was this after you gave him his graduation gift or before uh, so his graduation was gift.

Speaker 3:

Was this huge party we threw for him, uh, this weekend, um, and plus the fact that we put him through four years of school and if he does everything right, we will pay for his law school. So he is going to law school. So there is a bittersweet ending of this because, as, as you know, you need a lawyer.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and now I don't have to pay as much for him. So I got to get him through. So good news is too for me, he's going to trial law. Really that's what he's thinking, I don't know. And then I got my daughter, who's going to be a PA, who was home this weekend and also ripped on my lifestyle and told me I gotta dial it back a little bit. And I said you know.

Speaker 1:

To that I mean, they have the perfect professions to take care of you, I know right, I'm setting myself up for retirement and weight issues and everything else I mean I'm fat, obese, I'm, I'm obese, as we all know. Uh, because that's no, you're solidly overweight. No, no, you're striving for that I'm striving for that.

Speaker 3:

I gotta drop five more. Okay, that's not bad yeah, so I'm getting down there, Right. But yeah, the lady. Well, you're in the obese category. What I'm like, lady, I need to sleep. But they changed the rules. I found that out too. Really. No, not really no, anyway we're back to it.

Speaker 1:

All right, can we get to our guest A couple of days in the holding cell?

Speaker 3:

Probably get you out. That's probably true, you know. Actually, it would drive me out. Leave me out probably be a good thing to do. All right, ladies and gentlemen, we have got to talk about something. This could be so cool. So we got leroy height here, who left corporate america on on his own terms, as I researched and found out so we're going to find out why but started this really cool thing called cutting edge firewood. You're like okay, it's a firewood company. No, it's not, man, it is premium firewood. You're like, right now you're sitting there going no, they're in a market for that. Yeah, no, so I can't wait to get into all this, because, if you say it just like that and uh, we talked to lee right before I got here, he's from the mountains, you know, it's that. Um, you know woods, wood man, or is it no?

Speaker 1:

it is not bite your tongue, I know right. Oh, my god, you're gonna get an edumacation today right, leroy, welcome to the show man.

Speaker 3:

Thank you so much. Glad to be here. All right, let's jump into this. So I gotta start back to the beginning. Um, and that's right, we gotta cheers because I didn't drink enough over the weekend. Let's keep going.

Speaker 1:

Hair of the dog baby tuesday dead air is always so good on a podcast oh, you love it.

Speaker 3:

All right, lock and load everybody, start driving, start listening. Here we go. So, leroy, before you came up with this idea, you were. You went to college. You said, man, I'm gonna do the corporate thing. Uh, did you think you're gonna be an entrepreneur ever?

Speaker 2:

so not till college. So I went to barry and they had an entrepreneurial program while I was there and started a few different businesses, including a different firewood company, which is where I first caught the vision nice, all right.

Speaker 3:

So you tried it out a little bit in college when you were doing a side hustle, going to school doing your thing, barry college, which, which is the distinction of having I don't know, but I know it's like a cruise ship for everybody that went there.

Speaker 2:

I don't know what's that mean, I went there and I don't know what that means. No, I guess not.

Speaker 3:

There we go, esoteric references. It is the largest college in the nation by landmass world world whoa largest campus.

Speaker 1:

so you did you harvest the firewood on campus small, 27 000 acres geez, so that's nice yeah, so berry college was founded.

Speaker 3:

Uh, conjunction with ford family and another person.

Speaker 2:

No, so it was founded by Martha Berry and um, that's why I did that. And uh, uh, she caught the attention of a lot of important people in the country at the time. So, um, teddy Roosevelt at one point visited and was a fan, and um, yeah, henry ford was a fan. So the um, henry ford or ford foundation actually still donates money to the school and he built like basically a castle on campus.

Speaker 3:

So yeah, so that that's why I brought that up, because I'm from detroit originally, and that's why I said ford. And who else? Oh, you mean barry, who they named the college? Yeah, that's why I said Ford, and who else?

Speaker 1:

Oh, you mean Barry, who they named the college. Yeah, that's that Right. All right, so you're at school. You're narcissistic?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that'll lala me a university, you know, funny, you should say that no, all right, I will. I'm short about. Uh see what's going to take a 50 million. I'm about a 49.99999 million away. All right, let's keep going, shall we? Let's dream big, all right. So you went off. So you decided to go to work. Uh, go into corporate world, start working ish yeah, kind of.

Speaker 2:

So. Um, actually did that firewood company a year in school and then a year after school. Um, so, um, two buddies of mine when I was a junior right after I got married um spring break, junior year, um, quite normal um, do you get married in panama city or no?

Speaker 1:

it was planned and everything.

Speaker 2:

Oh wow high school sweetheart, um working at chick-fil-a, um fastest, uh, um drive-through crew, still ever hold the record. How about that, you and your wife? No, I don't know that we actually do, but it wouldn't surprise me if you actually have awards like that.

Speaker 2:

I uh um. We work fast and so we are very critical anytime we go through the drive-thru. Um the uh but uh, um. So two uh buddies of mine um started it and wanted me to run operations, gave me like a small percentage of ownership and, um, we did it. Um, uh, fun rent. A fun random fact uh, um, in 2007, um, when I first started, we um split firewood over the summer, um, which was the worst summer ever. That's when the lake almost completely dried up and holds the all-time record where, in atlanta, there were 10 days where it was above 100 degrees in a row.

Speaker 1:

Um, I can't remember the last time it got above and there was a burn ban, I'm assuming yeah, he's out there, he's out there chopping wood I was chopping and not even thinking about that.

Speaker 2:

But uh, um, so um, did that, sold it the firewood just normal firewood company. Um, and that winter.

Speaker 1:

Um, so when you say normal firewood company, it's the crappy little cardboard sign with red letters says firewood and it's spelled wrong with a number f-i-r-w-o-o-d.

Speaker 2:

That's right number four, s-a-l right firewood for sale.

Speaker 1:

I know that company that's great.

Speaker 3:

So that was your company genius, all right so you feel sorry for them, so you want to buy their wood it's actually you know what you got to play to your market, bro, because you you're like, oh, I'm gonna get these poor country boys on a break and get some money.

Speaker 2:

I don't know if we want to get into that, but I have all those stories that I heard, especially in the early years when I did all the deliveries. But the uh, um, you know the one-legged, uh, the one legged guy that delivered firewood, the guy that forgot to put his uh truck in um park and it rolled and totaled the mercedes so that firewood was actually even that's the most expensive firewood in the world not mine. But uh, um, so we did that and um, we actually bid for kroger. The kroger account for the entire southeast for their bundled firewood and the firewood industry for seven bucks.

Speaker 2:

Yes, the the firewood industry at the time was so advanced that to get the kroger account for the entire southeast I don't remember, I think it's like a thousand stores but um, they gave you a username password, gave you a url and you would log in. It was a reverse bid and whoever put in the lowest number won the account. So three college students won the account for the entire south. Oh my god, with no equipment and no idea what we were doing, how'd that go?

Speaker 3:

surprisingly, no one died, um so we got that going for us. So good news good news gotta look at the right right side is that we won the account for kroger at the lowest bid which nobody ever, has ever, ever, ever gone on to be a millionaire because they were the lowest bidder for everything ever so. But good news nobody news nobody died.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean both. Both the other guys were, uh, finance majors, so they knew if you put numbers into a spreadsheet that that meant it was true, um, so that went great. Um, we bought hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment and, um, and things broke every single day. So I taught myself how to fix them, then taught myself how to use them, the, the equipment. And then, uh, um, we hired a bunch of people on Craigslist, set up a, uh, um, an assembly line and, um, um, we've had like 30, 35 people out there a day using heavy equipment. At one point, um, some equipment was stolen and the police asked for information on our employees. And, uh, um, the next day I look up and 25, 30 cops are walking onto the place and apparently 15 of our employees had outstanding warranties. I asked for a. Uh, I didn't really, but I and I I've thought since I should have asked for like an award Cause I basically did the cops jobs. Yeah, you set a record, you just you collect all the criminals in your County.

Speaker 3:

Doesn't he get like a FOP award? He gets like the police award for finding the most criminals in one spot, cause they're all working with you every day, which let's go back that. Yep good news is nobody died only 15 people got arrested all right, so you guys are off on this venture filling this thing out. How long did this last?

Speaker 2:

so, um, you're in school and then, a year after school, realized we could not keep up with kroger. So, um, we tell them, hey, we can't keep up with Kroger. So, um, we tell them, hey, we can't keep up. Um, and then I sat down at a table and, um, I was like, okay, we have a bunch of firewood.

Speaker 2:

We as a group came up with an idea of making a homemade kiln, and then I came up with a new idea of how to deliver firewood just sitting at a table, staring at a piece of paper for about two hours. And, interestingly, when I started cutting edge firewood, that's how, where I started at but and then continue to improve. But really, what that told me was firewood was incredibly backwards, completely undeveloped. You stare at a piece of paper for two hours and you can completely revolutionize the industry. So what I came up with is buy a truck and trailer what's called a mini skid steer. It's basically looks like a ride behind lawnmower with tracks and you can put forks on the front of it. So what that allowed you to do was carry eight loads of firewood and it would only take about 18 hours to do the deliveries. So you know, easy day compared to, that's 18 hours.

Speaker 3:

It's called easy day. Welcome to entrepreneurship. Right, that's it. They probably didn't say that firewood.

Speaker 2:

No, they did not.

Speaker 3:

They did not. I don't think the academics ever go. Hey, so you want to be an entrepreneur? Right, how many days? And uh, so it's an eight hour day.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, 18, yeah, 18 hour days, my friend because the episode that just dropped this week was the guy who owns a construction company, among other businesses, and he only gives it an hour a week. Remember that one. So well, all right yeah, so he's.

Speaker 3:

He's the other side. Uh, do what I know. We talked to him. Chaz Wolf has three businesses, apparently you have a time management problem. Well, yeah, well, he's the one delivering the firewood. You don't deliver firewood in an hour, bro.

Speaker 1:

I got to get it. I got to eat loads, I got to get into the weeds in this just a little bit.

Speaker 2:

You got to find the wood, yeah, and it has to be dry, yeah I mean, and you're supplying a thousand Kroger stores and then whatever you're doing now, when we were getting Kroger wood that it's better if it has fungus on it and some rot and it won't burn. That's a plus actually.

Speaker 1:

You almost sound like you're joking, but maybe not.

Speaker 3:

I think he knows a little bit more about wood than you do.

Speaker 1:

bud we're going to start talking wood. Are you going to start?

Speaker 3:

making wood jokes. I can't no, not yet. I want to hear more about this. We've got to keep going.

Speaker 1:

I know. That's why I'm asking these questions. We've got to go back to the fact that he's delivering. We've got to go back to. Where does he get in the wood? Where do you get the wood?

Speaker 2:

Well, At the time we were just getting we were getting it from anybody Well, actually we were getting it from loggers. We had a firewood processor, um, and this is 2008. Um, the firewood processor was $150,000 piece of equipment. Um had a circular saw. Um that was a six foot diameter. It would take 50 foot trees and through a bunch of mechanics, um spit out firewood, um things that would just constantly break. And then we had, um a huge. You own that equipment. The company did yeah, yeah, we had that.

Speaker 2:

We rented what's called a knuckle boom loader that would grab the trees off the back of the 18 wheelers and put it on the ground.

Speaker 2:

And then we had what was called a yell 7800 turbo, which they don't make anymore and is the all-time largest um skid steer, which is basically a bobcat. Um, that was a fun um thing to drive. You felt like you were in a mech um, but um, you would pick it that it up and then put it on the firewood processor. And it had a conveyor. It would just spit it, it would go up the conveyor, fall on the up and then put it on the firewood processor. And it had a conveyor. It would just spit it, it would go up the conveyor, fall on the ground and then, when it was time to set up the assembly line, you would dump it onto the conveyor that was on the assembly line and people would stand by and put it in bags, and then somebody would take it and stack it on a pallet, then it would get wrapped and then it would get put in the back of a truck so in theory.

Speaker 1:

So kruger's wood was just green as could be oh it, it.

Speaker 2:

I mean it's terrible now. Then it was a monstrosity. Um, there really were no standards, it was just a brace uh and you could imagine like that's going with the lowest bidder bro. You could like imagine like I'm a firewood company owner and I have five hundred thousand dollars invested in it and I supply kroger year after year, and then some dumb idiot college kids come and outbid me and then just pull the rug out from under me. So of course the firewood industry didn't go anywhere. But, um, so we told them we couldn't do. It came out with a new way the 18 hours. Um, I came up with that. We did it for like a month. Um, with that model Um, and why that was innovative was other before that you would throw the wood in the back of your 1982 F-150 that was semi-rusted out, throw the wheelbarrow on top.

Speaker 2:

You would go do one delivery. It would take 30 minutes to get there, 45 minutes to get there, and then you would wheelbarrow it back and forth. That would take you three hours. And then, um, you would wheelbarrow it back and forth. That would take you three hours and then you would drive back and basically you're looking at like five hours per delivery.

Speaker 1:

And so 120 bucks right and it's.

Speaker 2:

It was at the. It's basically at the point of I think I'm making money and then you have to. You realize you're getting wear and tear on your chainsaw and on your truck and then you realize you're actually losing money, and so that was the innovation and what made me realize, okay, this is an opportunity, because nobody has ever looked at this industry but wife got laid off, and so we shut that down and laid off from where. No, not chick-fil-a, oh, thank god god forbid, they've never laid anybody no, they um.

Speaker 3:

I don't think that all right, so mama was keeping you alive. Yeah, he doesn't have kids at that time?

Speaker 2:

Absolutely yeah, no kids. Um, we, uh, um, um. So we shut that. So we shut that down. Um and um went and worked actually at Chick-fil-A for a year, thought about becoming a opera, opera, um an operator owner at Chick-fil-A yeah.

Speaker 2:

That was not for me for sure. Um, but uh, um, and then um, and during that time, like, I had fancy firewood in the back of my head and I was like, dear God, please get this out of my head. Let me focus on a normal career. Fancy firewood is a weird obsession. Um, but it would not. F three, 50 with the flatbed would come to the drive-thru and I'd be like, oh man, I wish I could have that and deliver some firewood that would deliver a lot of wood right, so they're coming to the chick-fil-a and they're like hey, I need a, uh, spicy chicken.

Speaker 3:

Hey, how much is that 350 full? Can you? How much wood can you put in the back of that truck?

Speaker 1:

that is not a normal man's fantasy. I just want to Right Exactly I don't think it's unmanly. I mean it's manly.

Speaker 3:

It's definitely not a normal man, right Right, because when the chick comes through you're like, hey, baby, can you open your skirt a little bit? Whoa, chris, that's why I've never hired a chick.

Speaker 2:

That's you never worked at chick-fil-a. Exactly. I had impure thoughts.

Speaker 1:

You're going, your thoughts I'm gonna tell chick-fil-a do not hire chris, right, please don't hire me, but, but, but always. You need to go to confession now well, that's yeah, I.

Speaker 3:

It's coming up saturday. Okay, yeah, I go. Yeah, I get it all taken care of, do they?

Speaker 1:

just do everything all week. Block off a big chunk of time for you to come in and unload do?

Speaker 3:

uh, we can't, we, we don't have enough time for that. That's the therapy uh podcast that I'm on, uh, talking about all the work I've had to do to get to where I am today, even the fact that I just got to be able to say that and now we go back to firewood. All right, so he saw the 350. So you still had in the back of your mind you're like I can make this a business because this is the entrepreneur, this is the thing right?

Speaker 3:

is it firewood, firewood? He does. He actually does the sling blade firewood firewood, but he's got. He's got the entrepreneurship. That's the bent. That's the thing, you know. We just got in talking with another guy who talked about, you know, risk tolerance. I don't know if your risk tolerance is going to be high enough for you to start a biz, but you got to have that passion and you've got to keep looking and your optimism. The whole time you're like I know I can make this work, I know I can make this work, I know I can.

Speaker 2:

Everybody's like if you say so crap, I was. I was way too scared to start it. I was like this is such a weird obsession, like firewood, um. But I just like there was just a there's. It was flipping, stuck in the back of my head, um, and it just wouldn't go away. And so I went from chick-fil-a, got a job at enterprise rent-a-car. I could tell you many stories there, but we'd whoa, for hours, time out show.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that's why I was waiting for this, that's all right, I had a little bit of a pit stop there myself, so oh, alan worked at enterprise rent-a-car for 14 years 14 years that.

Speaker 3:

So I saw your profile and I shared that with him right before. I'm like, hey, alan, we're not going to talk about that till we get the podcast because, uh, one of the things we have talked about we've been doing this podcast now for two and a half years, guys. You know we're doing this. You guys been listening to us um, alan cut his teeth at enterprise and one of the things. While we'll talk about it, it was a great experience. You know that. Yeah, absolutely yeah, and you loved it, because they only hire the best of the best and they train the shit out of you to make sure that you can be better and if you're not good, goodbye yeah, it's amazing customer service training, it's amazing sales training, it's amazing leadership training so business boot camp, absolutely it's.

Speaker 1:

So you're 18 hours of cutting firewood. We're like man.

Speaker 2:

I'm saying it's a normal day at enterprise it was a lot better than getting, uh, yelled at, cussed out by that guy with the big red nose that was obviously drunk, because I want to rent him a car, um, and having to make him happy because otherwise my area manager would chew me out yeah, but yeah what, what level did?

Speaker 1:

you get to a regional vice president see, he was a big dog, dude.

Speaker 3:

Hey, now alan was big daddy, that's why we got him on.

Speaker 1:

I was, I was. There's a key. That's the most important word in that sentence there's a reason alan's on the podcast, everybody.

Speaker 3:

If you haven't been doing this for the last two and a half years with us, you probably haven't. Let me just go back it all up. The reason I begged alan to come on this podcast and co-host with me is he is the most successful failed entrepreneur I've ever met by. People continually ask him to come back and talk. He comes back, talks to everybody and of course he he failed. Right, guys, I all failed, I mean most successful failed entrepreneur.

Speaker 2:

Well, I'm the most successful person you've ever met.

Speaker 3:

That's not rich, ah well we're gonna argue at that table. I've had.

Speaker 2:

I've had three people in the public recognize me in the last month just out walking around um and um, like walk up. And you're like are you leaving my height? And I'm like, oh, this is weird, I started a firewood company, yeah, you can't be yelling at me because I don't work on houses.

Speaker 3:

You can yell at Chris, you can't yell at me, and I definitely did not look at your wife like Chris would have. So there's no way you know who I am.

Speaker 1:

But when somebody recognizes him, he probably doesn't cringe like you might.

Speaker 3:

Well, we call it the Pub publics and they call it the kroger thing. And if you're at the grocery store, do you want people, when people come up to you, go? Hey, chris, you're like, yeah, um, yeah, I had a great experience with your guys. Look, oh, thank god yeah the cheeks unclench, everything comes back down because you're wait you're waiting for the.

Speaker 1:

Uh, the grout failed comment or something.

Speaker 3:

Oh yeah, or yeah, and I'm, I'm reaching down for the corner of the cob going. I'm just gonna beat you and if I knock you out then you won't know this. Three for a dollar right now. So so there you go, so obviously very successful. And then back to alan. Uh, so, um, the failed entrepreneur is still here and still rocking, and now is in another business, completely and completely rocking it.

Speaker 1:

That's why I have failed and succeeded in both the corporate and entrepreneurial world.

Speaker 3:

So I've got this mile wide, inch deep thing going on yeah so, but you guys, I love that you guys share the enterprise story, because we talked about this so you learned a lot about for hours so you go to business boot camp, you go to enterprise but you're still looking at. Guy comes in and says, hey, you got a dually. No, you want to that bad maybe.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you want to put firewood on it that and and um you know, people that are successful at um enterprise highly respect them. Um for sure, um, it's a rough, um rough environment. Um, but it uh, um, it's a shark yeah, it's a shark world yeah, it's shark war.

Speaker 3:

I wasn't consulting and but. But I'll tell you, man, iron sharpens, iron sharks are sure you're you shark, I mean you were. You're like it probably raised your game, because that's what happened when I went to consulting. It raises your gate. You're like all. It probably raised your game, because that's what happened to me when I went to consulting. It raises your gate and you're like all these rough edges I had coming out of engineering and being a manufacturing and being a machinist polished the crap and it taught me sales.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely Taught me sales, really taught me how to look at a P and L. Um nice, uh, you might've it. Might've taught you to break rules here and there and really think outside the box in some areas. It's creativity. Creativity and problem solving Creative problem solving. And we're definitely not allowed to repo cars, even though I did repo cars, because otherwise I wouldn't get my commission check.

Speaker 1:

But you got to do what you got. That's the, that's the lesson there. I I just love.

Speaker 3:

If you guys can't see, this is the podcast. Al just gave him the knowing what nod and wink going. You're right, we don't repo cars, but you want your commission check you. Get that car back bro yeah, I love it so you learn.

Speaker 2:

I mean, you get to learn, and you get to learn somebody else's nickel there exactly and it's, it's definitely like if I, if I had to do it all over again and that was the only way to learn it I would do it again and that is the only way you'll carry those lessons for the rest of your life it shapes how you think about business and it makes business really simple in your mind yes, and and I I learned um how to take the camaro and park it around back and hide it, because the branch manager wasn't allowed to get rent that car because he wanted to drive it home that night

Speaker 2:

unless it was the last one on the lot, so I'd make sure every single other one was rented out over the weekend, and then that's what we would take up into the mountains and go hiking. So, um it, it allowed me, yeah, to think outside the box nice, all right so enterprise. The first time I've said this on podcasts you know what, and you know what we're good at.

Speaker 3:

the good news is, yeah, yeah, we got one guy who, uh, he wouldn't come on the podcast until this one guy died. And so now is all the stories are out there, and Paul and I in fact, I just talked to Paul the other month, three weeks ago I talked to him and he was like brother, I've been on so many podcasts and he goes. I still go back and go. You're one of the best, I'm like that's right.

Speaker 3:

But he came on and started telling stories about the old days of home improvement sales, but the mafia had to die before he could tell their stories. So all right, but you're off the hook, so let's keep going. Enterprise.

Speaker 2:

And then you're, you started so from there, um got a job, a respectable job, at georgia pacific downtown atlanta. Um in the wood industry, yeah, actually. So there is a little obsession with wood, absolutely.

Speaker 1:

Go ahead, Chris. Come on, I do too. I mean we're kindred spirits.

Speaker 2:

I'm going to expect to see some orders coming soon, all right, but so I got a job at Georgia Pacific and firewood would not leave my mind. Georgia, pacific and um firewood would not leave my mind. I? Um grew up in a humble means and unincorporated ringle. Georgia. One of eight kids, uh, basically poor um, and I drove a 93 geo prism um five speed with original red prism in the house.

Speaker 3:

I've actually ridden in a prism.

Speaker 1:

Were you driving that car when you met your wife? Oh yeah, oh my God, she's an angel she is.

Speaker 3:

You know, honestly, she is an angel.

Speaker 1:

You could see through that.

Speaker 3:

Have you ever ridden in a prism? Yeah, I swear to God, I think the thing they forgot to put in there were shocks. Yeah, among other things. I mean you walk out. You're like what just happened Either I just had the best massage in my life or or I barely have teeth left. Oh my God, yeah, every single. I mean not a bump, not a crevice, not a you know, that's when you know a woman loves you.

Speaker 3:

And get to the rest of the story. Um, I'm gonna pick you up on my geo prism and we're gonna go to arby's. All right, everybody, you gotta. You can't take a break yet because you gotta listen. Don't forget, go out there, man like us, follow us check this out. Leroy's gotta come back. We gotta hear the rest of the story. So, geo prism, and now you're rocking down in georgia, pacific, in downtown atlanta, respectable job, so got a job there.

Speaker 2:

um, it applied and um, um, they asked me how much, um what I want to make if they offered me the position, and I said 50 would be phenomenal. And they said, great, we'll offer you 60. Um, which doesn't happen too often, but uh, how euphoric were you at that oh my God, yeah, and it was.

Speaker 2:

Was, but it was a weird situation. I didn't looking back on it. Um, they told me they wanted me to come in and change the um culture in this tiny little corner. It was, I don't know, five or six people in this little work area and, um, the next newest person had been there for 15 years and they told me that I was making more than all of them. Um, what I didn't realize when I went in was my immediate boss was also one of them, and also, what I didn't know until after the fact is, the person that wanted me bring me in uh, some executive. I don't know how high up he is. The person that wanted me to bring me in, uh, some executive. I don't know how high up he was, but he moved to a different division about a week after I started, so um two months in. We call that the grenade, bro.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that's the grenade in corporate America. That's a grenade. Hey, leroy, oh good. Hey, grenade. Hey, leroy, oh good. Hey, look at you, oh my god, you're full of optimism and spirit. I love you. You know what? Here's what I want everybody in there is a big pile of shit and you're going to mold my pile of shit or get them out of here and make it work and I know you can do it, no, and a week later go. Hey, um, yeah, I just got promoted over to be a marketing VP, right, good luck with that, lee. Hello.

Speaker 1:

Hello, but you're naive.

Speaker 2:

I'm naive and young and optimistic.

Speaker 2:

First one in the work every morning and last one to leave, and making the big jack, that's right, and the big jack, that's right. And so, two months in that, 93, geoprism, um, with 266 000 miles on it, it, it dies um. And in atlanta it was gonna I don't even remember, but it was gonna cost five thousand dollars to fix it and I sold it for scrap metal for so, and my wife and I had joked for a while that when that car broke down, that I would buy a truck and start the firewood business on the side. So, uh, um, that Saturday wife goes out of town and I had never done this before. I woke up and I fasted and prayed the entire day and by the end of it I was like, okay, I think god's calling me to start this business. Um. So I was like, okay, I'm gonna do it on the side. I got this nice um, chris, have you ever fasted?

Speaker 1:

look at the look on chris's face. Have you ever fasted intentionally? For how long?

Speaker 2:

no way I've been playing. Midnight and 7 am doesn't count, oh shit, dude.

Speaker 3:

That's just wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. No, I wait, I'm waiting to hear this. So because you fasted, you prayed and then you went out and bought a brand new ruby red f350 with a flatbed without her being here. Did you know you?

Speaker 2:

didn't buy that without even.

Speaker 3:

Not even I was waiting for you to say and so I left and I went and bought that truck which she was gone, and like if she stayed with you, bro, that you have just wait, just wait, that's not saying I prayed and fasted, that it was not what came out of it.

Speaker 1:

I'll tell you.

Speaker 3:

A red costco and that number comes back at 750 when I was just going over there for toilet paper. Yeah, and she goes hey, I just saw that. So now that she's retired, right. And I said, hey, everything goes to the business. But I have her on my business card now so she can see all the purchases. So she's over there, cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching, you know thousand dollars later every month. But I go to costco for the office and she goes what's this costco charge for 750? I'm like, oh, really, that's the one you're worried about, girl. Really that after all these years, that's the one all right, so just wait, it's a matter of perspective.

Speaker 2:

It's all right, my wife might be as famous as me, actually, for being the ultimate entrepreneur I think we want her on after would you like?

Speaker 1:

I think I would like to hear her story. Well, what was?

Speaker 3:

it about that? We're not even going to ask after we're going to get her email and find out why the um.

Speaker 2:

So that happens, I decide I'm going to start this business on the side. I have a nice you still have all the equipment right somewhere, nothing you got no he's long gone.

Speaker 3:

He's enterprise now he's at george. I just figured he had like a splitter in the backyard.

Speaker 2:

So for I got nothing. I actually had uh, it's not true, I had several boxes of matches with the logo from the previous company. Okay, a few of those are still in my garage um, I hope that'll go in the museum. Hold those, yeah, hold those exactly so um talk to the wife when she gets home and I'm like I'm gonna start this on the side she's supportive for it. Um, I go into work on monday and they fire me, and so I'm like what what? Yeah, they didn't even know this was what.

Speaker 3:

Nothing, uh, nice, and I'm like oh, you're apparently this is obviously you're a faith-based guy, so I get it. So you went. This is a god thing. Yeah, absolutely. God wants me to do firewood because and yeah, and alan, as the uh son of the minister, you would have to agree a hundred percent and as a catholic guy, I would go. That's a sign and I would like baby. So tell me what you did, because I'm telling you what I would have done by 10 o'clock. I'm at. I'm at the dealer. I've got a three, 50 flatbed red in my name, ruby red.

Speaker 2:

So since we brought up my wife, she actually found a F three, 50 flatbed on Craigslist with the trailer, so got up.

Speaker 1:

Wow, she just got promoted, yep.

Speaker 3:

And, dude, you can't leave.

Speaker 2:

That's true love, oh exactly, oh my god wow, I didn't even actually tell the story of uh when. So we started dating when we were 17 and for my 18th birthday she bought me an xbox and a copy of halo. So I married her.

Speaker 3:

Perfect woman, yeah, exactly wow, you're acting like that's a big deal to you, dude you see your Pong we grew up with Pong. We didn't even have Pong. We grew up with mud. You know what?

Speaker 1:

We grew up, I bought you a Tonka truck. It's the equivalent. Huh, it's the equivalent of a Tonka truck.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, we grew up with.

Speaker 1:

hey, I just made this stick string through it and I'm playing cowboys and indians. No, you can't say that word anymore. Well, that's what we did. We were kids. We're old alan. He said I got, I got it, I got it all right. We, we don't even do that. No, we don't.

Speaker 3:

I've never played halo in my life, you know, actually I tried to play halo once with my kids.

Speaker 2:

I'll try to go through the whole podcast without calling all boomers, because that's very offensive.

Speaker 1:

So I'm not. I'm not offended he'll actually he'll never be offended, but I'm a gen xer so I get offended, oh whatever I played halo once with my son and it lasted 20 minutes and every time I appeared, somebody shot me. I never even got a chance to learn how to use my whatever. Yeah, right, yeah, I'm like have 45 things on their handles. Let me run around a little bit one stick, bro, that's.

Speaker 3:

I had one stick and a button atari, bro. That's all I. And then we had pong in the beginning. I mean we were cutting edge, not to use the word.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I did way to bring it back to fire all right, okay, so you got the truck and trailer all right.

Speaker 3:

So here we go. Monday you're fired and now you're like screw this, I'm like I'm, I'm going.

Speaker 2:

Jeez, apparently, this is happening. I got zero plans in place.

Speaker 3:

He says geez, that's not the word I would use Keepers, keepers. We're getting closer. Let's work down the alphabet a little bit. Let's work up to the real one. It's the F word. Yeah, flippin, oh jeez, oh geez. Oh, my goodness, you know, I'm so flipping. Glad you guys fired me.

Speaker 1:

That's exactly what I would have said I am flipping out of here.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's right. I said the so maxed out seven, eight credit cards, got a personal loan. That's what my financial advisor told me to do. No, just kidding, I really did max out the credit cards and get the personal loan. Um, and that summer I tried to build another homemade kiln. That whole process didn't work out. There's a crazy story that, um, another god thing that I'll try to fast pace it. Um, um, while I was out, of the uh.

Speaker 1:

Um, chris needs more bourbon. Hang on, dude, I can't well, he's going.

Speaker 3:

God man, I'm, I'm all in all right, because this is not holy water, he went homemade he went homemade kill and I'm like dude this is our soldier bourbon, not holy water deep and we're doing so how?

Speaker 2:

I mean I had no idea what had been going on. I hadn't been keeping up with the firewood industry. The New York Times, Fox News didn't keep up with the firewood industry.

Speaker 1:

The fact that you even refer to it as an industry is still blowing my mind. Which is what's cool about it? He made an industry out of an industry that wasn't an industry. He just established that we're seasoned.

Speaker 3:

This kid's going to kill us. He is killing us.

Speaker 1:

He's going to kill this industry bro, are you saying kiln and season?

Speaker 3:

He's killing it.

Speaker 2:

You like how he did that. I did three in a row Out of all the puns you could do. That's like a one out of ten. So hey, so hey, you're on the board, baby, you gotta wait while I was at barry, my, m, my entrepreneurial ember on the largest campus in the world the all.

Speaker 2:

Right back back to the story so while I was gone, there was so get this. How crazy it is. Um, I thought I was going to buy firewood from a guy that had been selling it up in upstate Tennessee. Turned out he had shut down his business.

Speaker 1:

That means went to prison Illegal aliens.

Speaker 2:

There's another joke there about going to prison and firewood industry. I don't know if we'll get to that, but uh, um, the uh um we. So while I was gone, there had been an invasive species, the ash borer beetle, that had entered the united states and the usda and the forestry service teamed up and made all these uh regulations and uh um. And they said and they made it where, um, in order to move firewood greater than I think it was 50 miles, you had to put it in a kiln for three hours and get the internal temperature to 300 to 130 degrees. It was a blessing in disguise, wasn't it Exactly? And that made it so.

Speaker 2:

There was an industry that had kilns and it just so happened that the only supplier in the entire Southeast that could do what I needed happened to be in Atlanta. So I bought. So I found him by coincidence. He sold me firewood, agreed to keep it in the kiln for 48 hours, so much longer than the three hours required. He sold me firewood, agreed to keep it in the kiln for 48 hours, so much longer than the three hours required, and I would go pick it up in my trailer and I had baskets on a pallet and I would use the Toro Dingo, also known as the mini skid steer, that had the forklift on the front of it and um. So first season gets going and um, it takes a few months really to get rolling. Um but um, I'm, once I get busy, working those 18 hour days, driving around and buckhead with a 20 foot gooseneck trailer on the back of a 12 foot bed.

Speaker 2:

Um, got some stories there about going down one ways and having to back up into busy Atlanta streets where they didn't have stops.

Speaker 3:

Nobody gives a shit if you're doing that and they're a peep in and I'm telling you what you want to talk about God and faith. Yeah, it happened All right. I want to know. Yeah, because we got to get to it.

Speaker 1:

What's he doing? No, no, no, talk about the experience today as a customer. I call you up, yep, so I previously. I go to kroger, I pay nine. Yeah, whatever you don't even care.

Speaker 1:

You write that number because you're like, all right, great, I got that number, I get the food it's a and for, just like four pieces of wood that are going to last 12 minutes and smoke out the house. Yeah, so there's got to be a different solution. All of a sudden, I see one of your really cool yard signs. I call it. What happens? Yep, so we.

Speaker 2:

It depends on where you live. If you're in atlanta, chattanooga, nashville, greenville, charlotte or in in between, you can order a box and it gets shipped to you, or you can order our patented rack.

Speaker 2:

The rack is patented. It's airbrushed, comes with a canvas cover and we have a patent on it and it can be moved with a hand truck. We put it wherever you want it. When you reorder, we take the empty one and replace it with another full one. So when I started the business it took me two hours per delivery and that was with the innovation. And now it's about 15 minutes once we show up and it gets delivered with a nice, beautiful truck delivery artisan and a polo, just like I'm dressed now with delivery artisan.

Speaker 3:

Did you hear that delivery artist? Again, he's disrupting an industry. This is the part that you take. Take lessons, everybody right? Because if you're a mechanic, we're all supposed to be greasy. If you're a handyman, you're supposed to be full of paint and caulk and you got stuff all over you, but no, we put the professional image on it. That's why I'm wearing the trusted toolbox outfit as well, and that's how we do it.

Speaker 2:

The first four years, the number one joke I heard and I heard it all the time was wow, you got all your teeth.

Speaker 1:

Solid and you're like, yeah, I've heard that one.

Speaker 3:

So your, your main Metro markets are. Atlanta, charlotte, nashville, nashville.

Speaker 2:

Chattanooga and greenville, and so that's our delivery artist in service, and then we ship to the rest of the country the boxes of firewood cooking wood, pizza wood boxes, and then we also have the ultimate package, which is five of the racks that come, and it comes with a hand truck so the cooking wood is a different animal.

Speaker 3:

Yep, what so that's? Is that a different? It's a different? Price point it's so. It's a a different, it's a different price point.

Speaker 2:

it's, so, it's a, it's, it's the same raw material, it's um, it's just how it's packaged. So we have stuff that's for, like, a big green egg or kamado joe, and then we have stuff that's cut to pizza for pizza ovens. It's really just the size of what you're cooking in, and and that determines the size of the wood. So, for instance, if you're using a small big green egg, you can't put a 16 inch log in it, right. So? So we sell the chunks and then eight inch splits, so what?

Speaker 3:

you've just done is taken, the firewood and that's F I R W? O D for 120 for a cord, delivered, and you know, I may or may not take out your mercedes and he may or may not show up with teeth. And you've turned this into a premium service and so it's working.

Speaker 2:

The way I like to put it that summarizes it a minute and a half is a fire is like a beautiful sunset. There is no one on earth that dislikes it. Take a 95 year old man from Ethiopia, a three-year-old girl from Georgia. They will sit in front of a fire and stare at it. It's universal, it's primal, it's unifying. After a stressful day, I can take a whiskey sitting in front of the fire. I think deep thoughts. Um, blood pressure goes down and my wife can come out and all of a sudden the mood changes. It's romantic. Um three my uh daughters can come out and make s'mores and memories they'll have for a lifetime. Teenagers will put their phones down and talk to their parents around a fire. You're making lifestyle memories, yes, and it can be at the center of a wedding party. And then I make incredible food with our cooking wood. It's not just a heat source, it's an ingredient. So whether it's steaks, pizza or barbecue, it tastes amazing.

Speaker 1:

Shut up, chris, alan. Shut up, chris. I'm listening. Keep going, keep going, leroy.

Speaker 2:

That I love the experience I'm really not offering. I'm not offering a commodity, it's an experience. Experience is made up of three things, so I love that experience. On one side, and before we got into the industry, the industry standard was wood would sit outside for 12 months, rot, literally have mushrooms growing out of it, and the business strategy, the branding, the customer service and that overall customer experience match the product quality of rotting wood.

Speaker 2:

So what I like to compare it to is bottled water. Well, except it would be like going into your backyard getting a bucket and getting water out of a puddle that's muddy, and that's what the industry standard was when we started Skip getting the water out of the well, skip tap water, skip the sunny water, skip Aquafina and went to liquid death or whatever fancy water and a glass bottle you like, and that's what we did with Firewood. But really it's all around the experience, which is made up of three things, which is branding, customer service, product quality. Product quality I've broken down into we want to be better, both aesthetically our products are all beautiful and functionally. They all function better and not just and when I mean better, I mean best in class. Nobody else in the world offers products to the level that we do.

Speaker 3:

All right. So you're're well, you're talking about wood dude, all right, yeah, so how do you do this? So here in atlanta you're processing everything. How do you, what are we doing and how big are you? I mean, let's, let's just talk big revenue right now. What's the big top line number?

Speaker 1:

if you want he may not want to answer that. All right, all right, millions, millions, he's got his doctor. That's all I wanted.

Speaker 3:

That's the number I wanted, because we've all seen it $120 firewood for sale. Get a cord, pretty sure we're the biggest in the world. So he's one million. A little cheers on that.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, hell yeah, let's go. Let's go do it, because I'm telling you, as you're talking, you talked about the experience and what you did and you're revolutionizing a business and you're offering a product. You're right for 95 of the people out there. Hey, the same for you, man, but look, he found the five percent. And I'm telling you, guys, I happen to know some of those five percenters and right now they'll buy it. Right now, they'll buy it. Right now, they'll buy it right now. You know who I'm talking about my NASCAR buddies, my other entrepreneurs here in Atlanta who really love a fire, and the guy sitting here to the right of me who really likes to cook.

Speaker 2:

What neighborhood do you live?

Speaker 3:

in.

Speaker 1:

Yeah yeah, he's making him sound like he's some sort of a beggar. I am, you know, hanging on to his rich next door friend. I'm driving by Geo.

Speaker 3:

Prism, baby Prism at the house. Let's go.

Speaker 1:

So what would you say is the most important of those three for your success? I mean, if you had the quality but you didn't have the service, or you got the service, you didn't have the quality?

Speaker 2:

That depends when you're sitting on a stool, which of the three legs is most important.

Speaker 1:

Oh, come on.

Speaker 3:

Don't get like that with me. You know what that's enterprise, I'm an enterprise. Steel sharpens steel baby. Damn you, leroy. Good answer, all right, let me go back to this. So how the hell are you marketing this? So, all right, cash is king. You got the cash figured out? Yep, you got. You're figuring out the operations. You'll. You'll scale it yep. Now, how the hell are you marketing this? And where are you doing? Because we have seen your signs like plop down, like 2800 got junk, like, hey, you want to? Uh, college hunks. I've seen this sign.

Speaker 1:

It's a good looking sign. It's a great, this sign. It's a good-looking sign it's a great-looking sign. It makes me want to burn something.

Speaker 2:

Best yard sign in town, yeah, it is.

Speaker 1:

I think so. Look at me and I'm jealous. Well, you know you don't have yard signs.

Speaker 3:

I do have yard signs, but I don't do what he does because I don't do guerrilla marketing, because would cheapen the brand, but he is selling way over me. So what else are you doing?

Speaker 2:

you have sales guys out there, no, no. So, guys, we're really, we're d2c, um, e-commerce, um, even in our local deliveries. You can call us, you can text us, you can email us to place an order, but, uh, um but um. Or you can place an order on the website and uh, that's nationwide, that's 48 states right there 48 states.

Speaker 2:

Let's go and um and with that. So people place an order, pay for it and then we schedule a delivery, whether it's we ship via ups, ship via freight or our delivery artisans bring it to your home um, right, so you have a.

Speaker 3:

Uh, so you actually have two businesses, right, you have the main fact you have to source it, manufacture it, and you also have. You have a delivery arm, but you also have an. You also have an installation arm. The way I look at it, because there's really like multiple businesses in one.

Speaker 2:

It's kind of a. It's it's kind of a uh, um, opportunity would be the right way of saying it, because it's an entire industry that was completely undisrupted. So the question is should we focus on that fire butler service, where we bring the fire pit, we bring the firewood, our fire butler burns the wood, makes a big, beautiful fire, your wedding party and um, and then everybody sees the logo. Should we focus on that? No, should we focus?

Speaker 3:

on, hang on, wait, applause, applause. Chris is applausing that. One. A hundred percent, bro. Go the other way. Go away from working in people's houses. Go away, as a guy who's a handyman remodeler, go away, thank you, or should we focus on the cooking wood?

Speaker 2:

that is very inexpensive to ship nationwide and it's a very scalable business. But um, a large box of firewood that cost 149 dollars lasts the average person two years, so the same year retention is really low. Restaurants or we have I won't mention names because I'm saying it like this but we have celebrity chefs that use our stuff and their restaurants do not. So restaurants do not buy Yetis, they buy the Styrofoam cooler. That's why the styrofoam coolers are still in business. Um, so we always have restaurants that buy from us some high-end um, usually um high-end um restaurants around the country that like our specialized wood. Um, but we're definitely vast majority b to c um?

Speaker 1:

is it? Is it all oak or do you have different species?

Speaker 2:

We have premium oak, we have artisanal hickory, we have wild cherry, orchard apple and we have redolent firewood. All those are firewoods.

Speaker 3:

Wait, hang on Last one. What was that one? Yeah, redolent. Redolent. Is that a berry?

Speaker 1:

I don't know what that means know.

Speaker 2:

I'm going back to berry. You know, what's great about having a firewood company is I do what I want, respect my authority, so I come up with names. That is a species that I came up with a branded name before I freaking love it.

Speaker 3:

It's like my, my, all of a sudden Mahi Mahi. Whoever came up with that name and nailed that one has made a mint Mahi Mahi. That's like fish they find in the middle of nowhere. So for cooking wood we have. I literally just had my in-laws say Mahi Mahi and now we're having Mahi Mahi at the end.

Speaker 1:

You should pick your Mahi Mahi over a redolent wood.

Speaker 2:

I don't like I want redolent. Don't advise cooking over redolent, oh really, because it smells like a christmas tree, so oh, it would taste like uh um gin diamond or no? Uh what? No, it would not taste like gin, it would taste like, uh, um, turpentine. Subtle difference like it's a firewood, not a cooking wood. For cooking wood we have um oak, hickory, cherry, pecan, apple, maple and savannah heat all right, leroy, you completely become an expert in this world.

Speaker 3:

And here we are. We're coming to the end of this. We gotta get, we gotta get going. You don't want to know what savannah heat is we're gonna get there, but I do you know, you didn't even. We haven't even gotten to the point. I actually thought her on stage.

Speaker 2:

You haven't even asked about the time that I went to my wife when she was eight months pregnant and I said hey, babe, I know we have two little girls at home and you're eight months pregnant for third. Let's sell our house and invest it in the business.

Speaker 1:

That might be episode two.

Speaker 3:

I think we have to have him back, and I think so. Oh my god, that's a teaser. Hey, everybody, we can't do that on this one. Guys, I know your attention spans are tight.

Speaker 1:

You, we're doing this between drives, we're doing whatever we're doing, all right so you know, not everybody's like you, chris, no, no, some of us really enjoy it, uh sorry what, what, oh, let's go back to it, guys.

Speaker 3:

I know we're going to have to have Leroy back because he's close to us. This has been awesome, just for the record. He's going to come back and he's going to bring us some wood. Live remote in your backyard.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we're going to do it. What's your credit card? I'll have a delivery made.

Speaker 3:

By the time we're done.

Speaker 2:

I've got three cards.

Speaker 3:

I'm going to give you, uh well, actually one credit card and three delivery places, because I've got three friends right now off the bat who love this stuff. So obviously the wood. You figured out a way to offer a premium service. And what is a commodity business, correct? And this is hey, I can clean your house. Hey, I can come be a handyman. No, I figured out a way to do a premium service and it's working. And I'm in the millions, I'm not in the hundreds of thousands. That's right. Let's rock and roll. Let's do this thing. Put that up there. He's going to show it. We're going to put a picture up of his cauldron that he does Leroy it's. How can they find you online? Let's go ahead and get it out there.

Speaker 2:

So first visit cuttingedgefirewoodcom. But I am also on LinkedIn fairly active under Leroy Height.

Speaker 3:

All right, cuttingedgefirewoodcom, you can go anywhere because, by the way, as we talked about we, not only are we worldwide, we are universal, we are enterprise-wide Intergalactic, we are inter-wide Intergalactic, we are intergalactic, we go everywhere. Everybody out here you got to check this firewood out, so what makes it different? I don't know, man, try a sampler.

Speaker 1:

I'm thinking about a gift box of firewood.

Speaker 3:

You're right, just order it up, you know what. Order it up and see if it's different.

Speaker 1:

Maybe it's not for you right, because not everybody can drive a maserati. Do you want to? Not everybody. You know great food and lifetime experiences, yeah, so we got a rock and roll man.

Speaker 3:

Let's get out of here. Let's make this thing happen, guys. Leroy height, cutting edge, firewood, gonna make it happen. You got to go. Huh, he is a man, he is. And the fact that, uh, his wife's still with him, that's pretty cool. All right, guys, keep going up that mountaintop, make it happen. You can do this too. Find out a way. You're not a commodity, you are unique. Let's get out of here, let's go. Cheers everybody.

People on this episode

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Chris Lalomia

Host
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Alan Wyatt

Co-host