Elevate Springfield featuring Bryon Graven: Elevating Through the Power of Attitude, Communication, and 6 Generations at Woares Inc

Summary

In this conversation, Bryon Graven from Wars Inc. shares his journey from being a teacher and coach to working in the landscaping and masonry business. He discusses the history of Woares Inc., the importance of client interactions, and the various types of natural stone they source. Brian also highlights the growing popularity of aquascape features and emphasizes the significance of communication and attitude in both coaching and business. 

Takeaways

• Client interactions are crucial for understanding project needs.
• Natural stone is sourced from various locations across the country.
• Unique colors in natural stone can enhance landscaping projects.
• Aquascape features are becoming increasingly popular in landscaping.
• Effective communication is essential in both coaching and business.
• Adversity in sports can teach resilience and adaptability.
• Water features can enhance outdoor spaces significantly.
• Teamwork and organization are crucial for business success.
• Staying updated with industry trends is essential for growth.
• Social media can be a valuable tool for learning.
• Maintaining a healthy work-life balance is important.
• Family time should be prioritized amidst work commitments.
• Local businesses contribute to community development.
• Effective communication improves customer relationships.
• Personal well-being impacts professional performance.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome to Elevate Springfield, where we will dive into strategies and stories that help you rise to your full potential. Each episode, we'll talk about how you can take intentional steps to elevate your life and your business while making a meaningful impact on those around you. Along the way, we're gonna bring in the change makers from our community that are already elevating. We'll bring the actionable strategies, you bring the discipline and follow through, and together we can elevate Springfield. Alright, let's go, Springfield. Time to 10X your life, your business, all of it. Time to crush those goals, time to get after it. Let's go. You are listening to the Elevate Springfield Podcast. Robert Farrell here, certified 10x coach, speaker, and mentor here to bring you actionable strategies. You bring the discipline and follow through. And together, we're going to Elevate Springfield. We're coming to you again from beautiful downtown Springfield in the Big Dog Construction Studio. Hey, we've got so much going on in Springfield right now. Make sure you are participating. Get out there, network with folks, be a part of the community, support local businesses, support local nonprofits, and let's go, we can all grow together. So, hey, another great episode for you today. We're getting right to our guest after the break. Hey, Springfield, when it comes to reliable, high-quality roofing, you don't want to leave things to chance. That's why you should reach out to Acosta Angeli Ruffing, your local roughing expert serving Springfield and surrounding communities. From quick dependable repairs to full replacement, from residential to commercial, they are your trusted pros. Call them today at 217-993-2748 or visit their website to book your free quote and inspection. Don't wait. A little leak now could lead to major damage later. Trust the local experts, protect your home, and get peace of mind with Acosta Angeli Roofing. And we are back. Joining me in the studio now, Brian Graven from Wars Inc. Brian, how you doing today, man?

SPEAKER_01 2:21

Doing well, man. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_02 2:22

Yeah, appreciate you coming down. A little rainy and nasty out this morning, but hey, appreciate checking everything out. But I'm looking forward to learning more about Wars. But before we do that, let's learn a little bit about Brian. Tell me a little about your background, man.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Yeah, so I've been with Wars for just almost two years. So this will be the third season of our busy season that I'm with the company. So um just always a learning process out there. If you ever come out and take a look at it, you'll you'll understand why with the massive inventory we have. But yeah, I enjoy it. Uh it's a good pace. Uh, we've got a good group of guys we work with, two really good teams, one here in town, and then one over there in Decatur as well. So yeah, it's uh it's a great company to work for. Okay. What'd you do before this? I was a teacher and I was a coach for 17 years. Yeah, it was uh well, you know, southern Illinois for a little bit, central Illinois for some time. Uh we actually just had our third baby in October. So when my second was born, it's just a good time, it's a good transition. You know what I mean? Like family-wise, the amount of well, excuse me, time that you spend away from your family doing that. Coaching basketball, I mean, it's literally there were times with my son I didn't see him for a day, day and a half. You know, I was gone before he got up, and I was home after he went to bed. So when Paul and I were talking about this opportunity, it was just it was a no-brainer. I'm home at the same time every day. I think you know, I'm home about 4 30. Usually my oldest, my son and my daughter were wrestling by, you know, 4 45 every day. So that's what they want to do from the uh coaching and teaching world to the business world. Okay. What made you want to get into teaching? Well, so I was a second generation teacher. Both my parents were teachers, a second generation coach. My dad was a basketball coach, a longtime basketball coach. Just was kind of in the in the blood, you know, in the in the genes, I guess. So I got into that. And then uh, like I said, when this opportunity came up, it just was more time, a little bit better of a schedule. Yeah, they joke you get the three months off in the summer as a teacher, but as a coach, you you do not. You do not know. No, you do not. So just a better, better balance, yeah, better work-life balance. So yeah, I'm really enjoying it. Okay. You played some ball growing up too, right? I did, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm from Auburn. So I played for my dad uh for four years, and then I was uh at Millican University for four years where I played basketball over there.

SPEAKER_03 4:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

And I just transitioned into the coaching thing. So uh yeah, a little basketball in my background. Awesome. You guys have any good runs? Oh, we did. My senior year at Auburn, we made a state and played in the Elite Eight. That was back in the day when there were two classes and you know, you only there were eight teams at the state tournaments. Uh we didn't get that first one, uh, so we went home early, unfortunately. But uh um, and then in college, in college, the CCIW, the the conference that uh Millikant plays in, it's changed a little bit. It's I think it's expanded a little bit since I was there. Um but uh it was always so tough. Uh I don't think we ever finished better than like maybe fourth. No top threes or no conference championships. Well, the the top threes were ranked in the top like you know 10 to 15 in the country every year. Very tough basketball conference, actually football, baseball as well. So um, no great runs in college. Um, but I think uh some of the basketball, some of the adversity I went through basketball actually taught me a lot. So my my junior year, uh I tore my meniscus, couldn't figure out what was wrong with my knee. Doctors bounced around with ideas of what was what was wrong with it. So I struggled from kind of like Christmas on to try to get back. And the same thing my senior year as well. Actually, my other knee. I did my LCL, I strained my LCL so bad I might have been better, better off tearing it. But so my career, I mean, I only played probably three, full years. So it is what it is, man. You know, you like it's kind of teaches you, you know, you can't control things, you can't control everything. Adversity is gonna hit you and like your attitude towards it, how you bounce back from it, or your response is says more about you than actually how you handle it in the moment. So no doubt about it.

SPEAKER_02 5:56

Completely agree there. Any uh main tenets of coaching or teaching that you kind of follow or abide by?

SPEAKER_01 6:03

Um Yeah, I mean your attitude. I was so big on that when I was when I was body language says a lot. You know, that's kind of something I do, you know, carry yourself appropriately. Attitude, you know, you got to show up every day with a good attitude, which is something I'd now take into the business world. Yeah, absolutely. You deal with people all the time, right? With clients and how your attitude, what kind of attitude you have kind of reflects the type of person you are and then whether or not they want to work with you. So I mean that's probably the main one, you know. Uh communication would be one. Any of the guys that would have played for me back in the day would have told you I was I was huge on a loud gym. So now I've taken that into the business world with um constant communication, you know, trying to talk to our clients, trying to make sure, you know, they've got what they need, checking in on them, you know, basically just making sure that if there's any way that I can help to text message and email, a phone call, whatever it is. You kind of get a feel for it too. Like guys are guys like some guys like texts, some guys like emails, some guys for a phone call. So yeah, you just got to learn the best way to communicate with them. But uh uh taking advantage of of everything and anything to communicate with them is huge, too. No, absolutely. Any uh any big runs as a coach? So yeah, um, when I was uh coaching at Moo Zion, we actually got beat by Springfield Landfear in the sectional championship. I can't remember, I think they went on and they were third place that year or something like that. Yeah, uh Yakima Rose's team was a team that got us. So so that was a fun run. And then uh we had uh a couple when I was at Williamsville, we had some good teams, won a regional there. When I was at South County out west of town here, my last year there, we actually got beat by West Central in the regional championship. We had 25 wins, couldn't get out of the regional, and I mean rightfully so, the team that beat us ended up going and winning the state championship.

SPEAKER_02 7:36

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

So I don't know if I've had any great runs, but we've been beaten by some good teams.

SPEAKER_02 7:40

There you go. There you go.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

Now South Can South County, for those who don't know, that's what Franklin, Waverly, no other schools, Alexander's in that district. Uh they actually co-op a little bit for football, baseball for uh with New Berlin, too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:53

Okay. Very cool. So you made the transition over to Wars. Tell us a little bit about Wars.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

Wars is a uh sixth generation company. Uh and whenever I'm at the networking crew meetings and I say we're a sixth generation company, everybody looks at me like I've got it wrong and it's not wrong. So it's it is a sixth generation company.

SPEAKER_02 8:10

I'm surprised too, and I I didn't realize it was that long. I went on your website and looked around and went, man, yeah. Sixth generation.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh I guess 1852, I believe, is the year, and then uh uh was a brick manufacturing company, moved to building supplies, so Wars Builder Supplies, and then uh Wars Inc. in 2014 when Mark and Paul bought it. So Mark or uh Paul actually uh launched the landscape division in 2010, started over in Decatur, then when they moved over here in Springfield to in 2015, Paul then brought that over here as well. So we do have that in both yards, um, which that's the that's my main main niche over there in the company. Uh but uh that the hardscape section that we have or the you know landscaping, boulders, outcropping, whatever you want to call it. Whenever I say hardscape at those meetings, too, people are like, what the heck is hardscape? Right. Um so that's that's my main niche in the company. Mason is our our our big part of the business. Uh masonry work, uh brick, standard CMUs, things like that. But uh uh the hardscapes do make up a good portion of the company as well.

SPEAKER_02 9:07

So that original brick making company was that indicator?

SPEAKER_01 9:10

Yeah, yeah, it was. Yeah, the original indicator, um, they moved to the new location. I can't remember what year they moved there. I think it was in the I think it was in like the 1950s when they moved over to the new location. Uh so yeah, yeah, they I mean they fired them there, Indicator, put them on the railroad, shipped them where they needed to go, and then you know, eventually I think maybe the clay deposits, you know, ran out or something like that. And then from there they just went to distribution.

SPEAKER_02 9:30

Okay. All right. So cool. Yeah, I didn't I didn't realize that that history of the company, that part of the company. I've I've known of what you guys do more recently, but I didn't realize that that's what started the whole thing.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

Yeah, yeah. And uh I mean, it if you look at the website, it's almost, you know, you go to wars.com, it's and you see the timeline or the history of the company, it's I mean, it's surprising, I guess, or shocking, or you know, however you want to describe it. It's a very cool history of the w of the of the company.

SPEAKER_02 9:54

No doubt about it. So are your clients primarily contractors or individuals trying to do some work? A little bit of both.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

Yeah. Um, yeah, I mean, we do deal with a lot of Heartscape contractors or landscaping companies in the in the Springfield area. I will say here in the last two years, we've really started to move west, you know, going as far as Quincy. I mean, we shipped a couple jobs to Missouri last year. Oh wow. I know Decatur, Decatur shipped a couple jobs to Indy, uh, as far as Indianapolis. So with contractor-wise, yeah, it is contractors, but you know, I just had a homeowner come in yesterday and I walked him through the process of doing some, you know, decorative gravel and some some edging and things like that. So it's kind of a mix, you know. And we also do have contractors that will send their customers in to pick product out, look at product. And our website gives you a general idea of what we have, but you really need to come out and take a look. Um the constant thing we hear from from homeowners when they come out is like, well, we thought we knew what we wanted until we saw everything. We saw everything that was available. Exactly, exactly. So yeah, it's just a mix of both. I would say it's more contractors, but there are some homeowners that come out.

SPEAKER_02 10:53

Okay. Well, walk me through that that client that came in, that homeowner, what kind of process do you go through with them when you're talking about their that landscaping project? What do you do? Yeah, so I mean, I start with a lot of questions.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

What's the project? What are you looking to do? From there, you know, start kind of walking them through that process. If they don't have colors in mind or colors picked out, try to try to pull those colors out of them. You know, what colors the house, you know, colors shutters, what colors the front door, what colors your facial, all that stuff. So then that way, uh, when you're going to design, I feel like the the soft scapes, the you know, the flowers, anything that fans up those hardscapes, it's the same thing the contractor's gonna ask them. Then point out, you know, hey, this we do this edging stone, it's gonna pull this out of the siding. We do this decade of gravel, it's gonna pull this out of your your masonry work, you know, whatever. So I I mean I let them lead the conversation, obviously, try to get a feel for where they want to go. But yeah, question, questions is how you start. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

So in terms of like the landscaping side and all of it, do you ever go out and do the work or are you only a supplier? Just a supplier. Okay. I just want to be clear on that.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

No, no back, no backbreaking work. Yeah. No, yeah, we just we do deliver. I mean, that's the one thing I will say that I think we kind of have a an advantage on maybe other companies, you know, in other places is that we will deliver. So we've got two trucks, Boffett's on the back. We'll get it as close as we can to their project. Um, you know, and like I said, I mean, we deliver to Quincy. We do we go as far west as Missouri, as far east as Indiana, north, Peoria, Bloomington, where we go go north quite a ways, south as well. So um, that kind of gives us an advantage. But no, I'm not going anywhere to install edges. I didn't think you guys were, but I just want to make sure I was clear on that. No, no, no. I installed the edge, installed the edging at my own house.

SPEAKER_02 12:28

I mean, but that's that's the extent of that. There you go. Yeah. So all that giant inventory that you have out there, dig in a little bit more on that. Where do you guys source your stone from? What kind of stuff you got out there?

SPEAKER_01 12:38

Uh so natural stone-wise, uh, Arkansas, Missouri, as far east as Pennsylvania. You know, I just did a trip to Halqua Stone up in Wisconsin. We source it from literally all over the country. Concrete products, Teco, Belgard, concrete products, when I say that, don't think poured concrete, think pavers, edging stones, things like that. Um, WAC lighting would be another one that is within the inventory, Aquascapes is another one. But the hardscape side of things, Belden Indicot, you know, that comes out of Ohio, Indiana, you know, if going east again, literally all over the country is where we supply material from.

SPEAKER_02 13:09

So that that natural stone, I just don't know much about it. Where you source it from, I would imagine, matters. There's various colors.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

Yep. Yep. Colors, you know, you're gonna see like um Arkansas, Missouri, you're gonna see like that weathered sandstone, weathered limestone, you know, those beiges, those tans, things like that. And then Wisconsin is kind of unique. You know, you're gonna get those whites and silvers. Um, you're also gonna get like a buff, like a it's almost like uh, it's called Fond du Lac buff is what we call it. So kind of that cream in that white, and then the Chilton, which is hit or miss on whether or not people like it, but it's got a wide range of colors: purples, blues, you know, buffs, silvers, all kinds of different colors, all in the same thing. I hopefully I'm good at describing this, but the Halquist operation, I mean, we I went to five quarries in one day, uh Waukeshaw, uh Wisconsin, and I saw a 12-foot saw cutting stone. Oh wow. I mean, I had to take a picture of it with myself, right? Not too close to it, but close enough to where you could actually get an idea of how how big it was. Right, get the scale of it and everything. Dude, I mean, yeah, it was I showed it to my son, he's like, is that yeah, is that thing real? Like, so uh so yeah, it's the colors obviously do vary, you know. Pennsylvania, you're gonna have some of that deep blue and like the blacks almost like that. Those are aqua blue boulders, but we do have some flagstone from there as well. But that you're gonna get that those really dark, dark blues and blacks and things like that. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:28

What about some of the the pros and cons to different kinds of stone?

SPEAKER_01 14:32

Always natural stone. Always natural stone. I mean, with us being in Illinois with our great weather we have here, you're always gonna have freeze thaws. So there's always gonna be maybe some some splintering or some cracking or some some shedding of of some of that rock. There's just literally it's just a natural stone. I mean, there's nothing we can do about it. And unfortunately, with bit with us being in Illinois, it's gonna happen. It is. Yeah, it is what it is. But always natural stone is what we suggest first. And it also depends on the product, too, or excuse me, on the project. You know, like for example, you're not gonna put natural stone around a pool. Right. Uh get hot real quick, uh, not exactly comfortable. Concrete's uh nice. We there's a new product out there from Rochester Concrete. It's actually called GeoCeramica. We've line's putting some here close to town. It's actually the first project here in town. It's in Rochester. Uh, but anyway, they're putting in a very nice product. Um geo ceramic? Yeah, geo ceramic. It goes down like a paver, very thin, like inch and a quarter, has a uh a porcelain tile on top of it. So no heat, no slip. Yeah, it's great. It's slick. I mean, very kind of a modern look, but not over the top like Chicago. Of course, I say that. This would probably, this is the first project in our area with that with that product for sure. But they've been using it for years in Chicago. Train depots. It's non-slip, doesn't have any heat that gets in there. So train depots, bus depots, things like that. So commercial grade, residential grade, both, you can use it for either. But uh, yeah, that would be the only time you don't really do that, but use natural stone. But other than that, concrete products, that's always okay in our climate. But natural stone edging, you know, things like that, just really it always depends on the project, you know. And and people are like, oh, well, we can't afford natural stone. You can afford natural stone. When you see some of the things that we have out there, I would say we we always keep our pencils sharp to make sure that our prices are very competitive. Natural stone's never outside somebody's budget unless you just, you know, want to make sure that you you you like you have your head, your heart set on concrete. Right. Yeah. Because there is a little more maintenance with natural stone. Oh, sure. Yeah, sure. Okay. What are some of the most unique colors in in the natural stone world? Those aqua aqua blue boulders that we have from Pennsylvania are very unique. Very dense, heavy stone, just the color hues in it. Dark blacks, dark blues, but then I don't know where you might get like a white or like a purple hint just in a small portion of it. The Chilton outcropping, Chilton stone that we have from Wisconsin is very unique. Like I said, it's it's it's so unique. I feel like it's it's a love-hate relationship. Either people love it or they don't want it at all. It's got just such a wide variety of colors between the silvers and the purples and blues. And, you know, there's some outcropping that we're gonna send up to Bloomington for a for a commercial job, and it's Chilton, but it's like it's grays and just grays and like blacks. And then there's a Chilton piece sitting right next to it, and it has grays, blacks, purples, pinks, buffs. I mean, it's just you know, it's all it's natural. So it all depends on how it comes out of the ground. You know, when they pull it out of the ground and they send it to us, it's it is what it is. So however they pull it out of there is what you're gonna get.

SPEAKER_02 17:24

Oh, that's so cool. Yeah, yeah. So with your with your work with contractors and landscape companies, do you act as um somewhat of an advisor on some of those projects when they come in, or do they pretty much come in and say, hey, this is what I'm doing, I'll take this, this, this?

SPEAKER_01 17:38

Yeah, a little bit of both. Yeah. There are some contractors that we work with who will ask questions. So that means we need to be knowledgeable about the product that we're selling. You know, and is and with the wide variety of products that we have, sometimes that's gonna take research on our part. We're talking when you come out, we are basically gonna be a one-stop shop. The only thing that we won't do is like a countertop for outdoor living. But if you're gonna build an outdoor bar, grilling station, ink area, fridge, you can come see us for all of that. Lighting, other features. We carry aquascapes, aquascape ink. So if they come to us with a question, we'll definitely make sure that we help them answer that. Now, there are contractors that just hit me up and say, here's my list of things. Yeah, give me this, this, this, and this, which I'm down for that. I'm always that's okay. I'll take that because that's that's easy. But yeah, if there's ever a question, we're honest. Like, hey, let me do some research on that and I'll get back to you. And there's a lot of products that we have there in the yard, though, that we can just kind of give you that information off the cuff. But I guess it just depends. You know, you just got to roll with the punches. That's where the attitude comes back in, man. I mean, you got to just be ready to grind and and work and get those answers for them, or, or, you know, take their order and make sure that you know you get it right and pay attention to detail. I guess it depends on the contractor, to be honest. Yeah, no doubt about it. So the aqua features, those pretty popular. You guys do a lot of that stuff? Yeah, they're cat they're they're starting to catch a little bit of traction. If anybody doesn't know what that is, Aquascape Inc., Google it. I actually went to a training two years ago up at Aqualand, and you've never seen anything like it. I mean, it's a massive building, the massive rec pond out in front, and a rec pond is literally just a pool made out of natural stone. Waterfalls everywhere, six-foot stacks like urn out in front. I just saw a picture yesterday. I was talking to uh a client that comes in quite a bit that does a lot of aquascapes. They've got a six-foot sphere out there now. So yeah, it is catching traction. And it's not too, it's not too difficult to install. I mean, they've got some kits that a homeowner could actually install themselves, but we are see, we've got some specific contractors in town that that are very talented. You know, because it does take a little bit of a of a of a design, have that right design engine. You know what I mean? Like, because that's that's the one thing when I went up for that training, they're like, oh, we don't want to be cookie cutter. We don't want every water feature to look the same, even if it is something, you know, like a kit, you know, put some decorative gravel and put some different you know things around it to help out. But um, yeah, starting to gain traction. And that was, you know, you talked about knowing your stuff. That's a tough one because that they're like every water feature has a different playbook. There's there's not going to be anything that's exactly the same. So we lean on aquascapes quite a bit. They help us out quite a bit. Great company, easy to work with, is definitely gaining traction in the area.

SPEAKER_02 20:07

Yeah, no, I would imagine that does take a more creative skill set for the person putting that together, rather than just, hey, I'm putting in a patio that's 20 by 10. Correct. That's what it is. That's that's easy, right?

SPEAKER_01 20:18

That the water feature with the natural stone, you know, like you're gonna pick a specific natural stone that you think that you want to complement it, whether that be, you know, whether it's sandstone or whether it's limestone or or whatever it is. But you know, I had a customer who uh over in Jacksonville, uh, Alpine Outdoor Living, they did one, and and he's got that that design eye. And I tell people about this because it's a great example of, or like you know, Ben Taylor Taylor made, they did the uh Dominican Sisters job. We worked on him with that, um, and that was the design element was perfect. Um takes imagination to do that, all that stuff. You know, Austin did the same thing out west in Jacksonville. Um, he came in and you know, I'm doing a pondless waterfall. Here's my run, here's my pitch, all this stuff. He comes back later and he's like, I need a ledge stone. So this dude decided to cut out a piece of the sidewalk and then put a natural stone bridge across his water feature. It's I mean, yeah, search that, find it on Instagram. It's legit. It's it's one of the cooler things I've ever seen done with that. So that's what I'm saying, though. Like those are gaining traction in town, and even in surrounding areas as well. But the design element of those is is very not a challenge, might be the word to use. I just had you've got to have an open mind.

SPEAKER_02 21:25

Yeah. They they turn out so cool too. I know, right?

SPEAKER_01 21:27

They're so awesome. That one that Ben did, or you know, Nob Hill did the Horse Man project, that's an aquascape water feature as well. Um, you've got to be able to have that eye. So with some guys, you know, I've kind of pitched it to them and um, you know, telling them, hey, you know, this is something you could add to your to your bid, to your water, you know, a water feature is very easy to throw in if you, you know, there's plenty of different options, kind of deters them a little bit. You know, they're like, we just don't have that's what I hear. We we don't have the design eye. Right. We we because it's gotta look natural. You don't want it to look cookie cutter, like I said. You don't want it to look like you pulled it out of the way. Yeah, you don't want this manufactured. Thing that you just pulled out of a box, backyard. You could buy that off Amazon. Yeah. You don't want to just throw that in your backyard. So it's yeah, there is a little bit of uh of touch that it's gonna take. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:09

So you said a second ago, six-foot sphere. Are you talking about one? Is that one of those that just has like the water cascading over the sphere?

SPEAKER_01 22:15

Yeah. Yeah. And I had never, the stack slate urn, I had read about it, but then when I went to Aqualand up there two years ago and saw that thing in person, I mean, it doesn't look real, to be honest with you, but it is a very cool element. It's obviously gonna take the the right project to put that in. You got to have the space, you gotta have the the the right touch, the right touches around it. But uh, not seen the sphere in person. Yeah, but the urn I've seen, and it is it's all of six foot. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 22:39

Yeah, that's awesome. So I know like a lot of contractors and everything, they have that pride of when a when a project's done and everything. You guys kind of feel that same thing when you see your pro your product out there, those projects.

SPEAKER_01 22:51

Oh, yeah, absolutely. We do. I think uh, you know, the I took uh took my family past uh Ben's project. It wasn't complete yet. My son wanted to crawl over it, you know, he wanted to climb on it. But uh yeah, I took him past that one. Um I've sure I've showed the picture to uh uh my wife, you know, when Austin completed his project out in Jacksonville, because I just thought that was so cool. So yeah, you absolutely do. You know what I mean? And at the same time, too, like, you know, we talked about checking in with customers and and staying organized. We have customer call sheets. I keep track of all that stuff when I've talked to them last, text messages, emails, whatever it is, you know, what we discussed. So then that way I can stay on top of it. But that relationship, it's almost like you take pride in it because you did have a small hand in it, but you know, those guys are friends too, you know. I mean, like that relationship kind of builds a little bit. You, you know, Austin, I text sometimes on the side, give him a hard time about his Vikings, you know, his football team. He gives me, you know, a hard time. He couldn't that much this year, but the Bears. Um, so yeah, you do take pride in it. You want to see your customers be successful and do a good job. Yeah, no doubt about it. Any other unique projects you guys have had around here that you've seen? I I I am excited about that with that Joe S Ramick one. That's gonna be a little cool. Uh the fact that because I pitched that, I've pitched that to a couple people. Like I had a customer come out and was looking at uh a pool project, and I pitched them that and uh in my pitch was, you know, hey, you'll be the first person, you know, definitely in central Illinois that's gonna have this in their in their in their backyard around the pool. Oh, I don't want to be the test subject. I'm backfired. All right. Uh all right, well, let's go take a look at these concrete pavers again over here. So so yeah, that one will be very cool to see because I've we've kind of been pushing that one a little bit. Because I think once that gains traction in the area, between the the look and then all the positives of of it being non-slip, no heat and all that stuff, I think that's gonna start moving. Yeah, not gonna be the test subject, gonna be the trailblazer. Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_02 24:30

I like that. I'm gonna use that one. Use that one next time. There you go, man. Yeah. So uh how big's your team out at Wars?

SPEAKER_01 24:37

How many folks you got out there? So here in Springfield, we've got our our delivery driver, um, you know, our truck driver, our yard guy, logistics. I basically handle a majority of the landscape, the hardscape side. Artie deals with the Mason side, the residential, and then Paul deals with more of like the commercial and things like that. Over in Decatur, uh, we've got four people over there. I'm our logistics guy, uh, we've got one salesman over there, and then Mark runs the office, and then he does deals with some residential, but mostly commercial. So we've got four over there, and then we've got what, six here? Um, but both good teams. Um, that's we try to reiterate that. I mean, we're a team, we got to work together and make sure things run smoothly between the deliveries, the in-house stuff. Uh and that's again, that's where I think we come back to our organization. I mean, our the system that we use out there to keep track of our sales orders, purchase orders, whatever it is, endless. I mean, literally endless. I mean, we have an update, you know, getting ready to come up that's gonna give us more endless possibilities. So that really helps us. And that's also one of the unique things that we have with our purchasing history. You know, we can track some of those customers that have, you know, a bigger project five years ago, they can come back to us, hey, what'd we do at you know, such and such is place? Yeah. We can look it up for them, you can help them out. Yeah. So that that really helps us. But the the organization of the yard that we've got set up, all that stuff. Our yard guy knows where stuff goes, you know. So when a truck comes in like today, we've got Artie and I were looking early. I think we've got five or six trucks coming in today with material. So he has to know where that stuff goes because somebody can't go out and just, you know, show him exactly where it needs to go, which also helps when guys come out and pick stuff up. You know, we do have it in staging, making sure that, you know, we've got stuff ready to go for when they come to pick it up. But at the same time, too, we do have guys that just run out and get material. Right. So there's times where like I'll get behind, I'll get on a fork truck and move stuff around. But then there's other times where I'm like, I know Tommy can do this twice as fast as I can. I go get him and he, you know, he's phenomenal. I mean, he does a great job. Same thing with our delivery driver, Mike. He does a phenomenal job as well. So if we didn't have the team members we we have, we wouldn't be as good at at what we do. So it takes every one of us to make us be successful for sure.

SPEAKER_02 26:32

No doubt about it. So you mentioned some of your visits to the quarries. I mean, how else do you guys stay up to date on trends and what's going on and things in the industry?

SPEAKER_01 26:41

Yeah. And what's crazy is I know like my background did not really have anything to do with those trends, but it's just something that has kind of always interested me. So, you know, what I do, you know, the quarry runs trainings, you know, went to Aquascapes, I've been to a couple other trainings in St. Louis. Uh, you know, personally, I I literally will just try to follow trends online. And it's crazy how your algorithm catches onto that and then just like pumps. Like, like I don't even know. Uh, we were talking, uh, we had a build for or trying to figure out a build for actually for Dean. He's got a uh Aquascape project he's trying to do. I talked to another customer here in town, and they've done some similar projects in the past. So then here comes the algorithm pushing to some contractor in England. Aquascapes is huge, right? So it's international. So we've got the same project, and I'm learning three different ways to do it, but it's comical how social media can literally just push something at you that you never would have thought you'd seen. You know, I've I've got the subtitles on because this dude's got an English accent, so I can't hardly understand it. But like I'm watching him, how he's doing it, things like that. So trends online, newsletters, newsletters are huge, um, iLandscape newsletter, training videos, you know, um, YouTube is huge. You can literally learn about anything through years, really. Yeah, anything. I mean, but it's it's crazy how um you go down a rabbit hole too. You gotta be careful, right? But you literally can can catch up with trends, help your customers learn how to do things just by doing a little bit of research. It's not that hard. You just gotta have the drive to go do it.

SPEAKER_03 28:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:01

Yeah, YouTube can be great. And I always wonder in the construction industry, too, is it a detriment to people sometimes because they rely too much on a video that's not accurate?

SPEAKER_01 28:10

Or or maybe the other way, like you hire somebody to do it, and then you're like, well, you know, you have a customer say, Well, I watched a YouTube video on that. That's not how you do that.

SPEAKER_03 28:17

Right.

SPEAKER_01 28:17

Let's pump the brakes, you hire them to do the job, let them do the job. But I think you can learn just so much if you're willing to do it, which I think you hear about all the time with like your social media diet or your digital diet or however you want to like you do have to be careful. That's something I try to do because we're constantly on our phones at work, or we're constantly talking to people on our phones, or emails, or you know, picking up the landline or whatever. And I try to be careful when I get home. Like my phone goes on the charger when I get home. You know, so you do I do rely on that for the trends, learning, trying to figure out like the trends like board and batten siding, right? Black fascia, black shutters, the black door. Okay, I know you want this edging stone and you want this decorative gravel, and here's your paver options, like that's gonna look good with that. But I think you got to compartmentalize a little bit too. You can't just dive into your phone and learn about every single trend, right? You know, basically. Um, but yeah, there's so many, there's so much information out there right now to where you can just learn as much as you want.

SPEAKER_02 29:09

So, what year did uh Wars expand over into Springfield? You know, the thought process behind that, just deciding I want to get into a bigger market.

SPEAKER_01 29:18

Yeah, well, I think Paul came back to the company in the mid-2000s, early 2000s, launched the landscape division in 2010. I think they just got to the point to where they but they him and Mark bought the company in 14. I think it was just time to expand. Right. Um, the location that we're at out there on at on Pierless Mine Road. I don't know the background on the history on how they exactly came to realize it was for sale, but it used to be a Midwest block and brick company. So they would actually manufacture concrete block there. We don't do that. Right. Um, but uh they did that's what that used to be. So when that came up for sale, it was just an easy transition. You know, and I think two, we're we our locations are very, they're very good locations for a couple reasons. One, Decatur can service Champagne and the surrounding areas, then get to Indiana relatively easily. Yeah. Um for us, we can go, like I said, we go Bloomington Peoria, we can run down towards St. Louis. Yeah, you can hit that St. Louis markets. Yeah, we can hop on 72 and go west of Quincy. So I think just the locations of them are ideal. So I'm not gonna speak for Mark and Paul. I would assume that's probably had something to do with it. I would imagine. So as we start to, you know, branch out a little bit and get further into different directions, having the locations close enough to where we can, you know, transfer material back and forth, but far enough away to where we can service different areas is huge. Sure.

SPEAKER_02 30:32

So, Brian, we've talked a lot of business stuff. Let's switch over to the personal side. What are some ways you elevate your life personally?

SPEAKER_01 30:37

I think number one, I try to take care of myself. Workouts, it's nothing crazy, just something to make sure that I can honestly keep up with my kids and then uh at the same time too feel good when I get up and go to work. I've got to definitely have the right attitude, like I said earlier, coming to work. And if you just don't feel well about yourself or don't feel good about yourself, I don't feel like you can you can do that. And I it's not like I'm going to the gym for 45 minutes. I've got three little kids, there's no way I can afford to do that. Literally just doing it at home. My wife and I try to do a very good job with our meals, taking care of ourselves through eating correctly. Yeah, I mean, I mean, if you put crappy gas in your car, it's not gonna run very well. I mean, we're no different, right? So um we try to pay attention to that. Um kids are are not finicky eaters, which helps. There are some things that they just won't touch. Like my son will not touch salad, which I think is hilarious because we all, you know, the rest of us all love salad. Yeah. So um, yeah, we just try to do it that way. A lot of family time. I think compartmentalizing, getting out of that work mode, and like I said, putting my phone on the charger and walking away from it for, you know, whether it be an hour or whatever it is, two hours or whatever it is, just getting away from that and just being with being with them, being with family. Um we kind of keep our circle tight and small. You know, we don't we're not ones to go out quite, you know, go out a lot. My wife gives me a hard time. Like I'm kind of a homebody, which I don't mind. But yeah, just those are the things that I would do to to to help then on the business side. Um, yeah, family staying grounded, eating right, taking care of myself. That's that's about it, man. What it's about, man. You ever hit the court anymore out there dunking on folks? Oh, retired, man. Retired. I it's it's funny because people will ask me that and then um uh ask if I want to go play pickup. And I did it for a little bit, um, you know, when I was still coaching, and I ended up rolling my ankle so bad. Yeah, yeah. That that was it. That I mean, my knees, I hopefully my my kids don't get my knees in my ankles because uh constant rolled ankles, constant knee problems. Whenever I was playing, I rolled it. I don't remember how old I was, um, but rolled it and then it was like into May. So if anybody's familiar with high school basketball for June is like another season. Right. So I mean, there was a year that Good Mount Zion team we had, we dude, we played like 30 games in June. Oh, wow. I mean, because you play multiple games in a day, right? Well, then on top of that, I would try to stay involved in the community. We had camps, we had an academy. So I literally had camp for three or four days, and then I had academy for four weeks, like two or three days a week. And then on top of that, doing like golf outings and things like that to just stay within the community. And here I am walking around with a fat ankle for for four or five weeks. So, no, I don't hoop anymore. I'm good. I don't I don't have any desire to. Retired. Yeah, unless you want to count my son and my my middle daughter and I playing on the little tech soup. He'd count that, I guess. But there you go. But no, I mean, I get the the competitive drive taken care of by golfing. Uh, got my son involved. Not trying to give him a shout out to him, but I take him to Brookhills all the time. Oh, they and they they they're good with it too. You know, they love it. Uh they know who he is when we come back in the clubhouse. He used to love his Snickers, but now it's Twix because he figured out he gets two. He gets two at a two for one deal there. He's smart. He's smart. Took my daughter a week or two ago. So I took them both with my brother and one of his buddies, and that was to put it nicely, that was an experience. Yeah. That was an experience. But it was fun. It was fun. Uh, we had a good time. But uh no, I don't got no drive, dude. Yeah, I'm good.

SPEAKER_02 33:56

Well, Brian, so much great stuff today. I always like to close with these last couple of things. Let's give the audience a piece of advice, one on the personal side, one on the professional side to help them elevate their life or business.

SPEAKER_01 34:06

Let's start with the least important, your professional one organization and communication. You literally cannot be organized enough, I feel like. Um now, at the same time, too, I say that I'm I'm not perfect by any means. And there's gonna be no perfect system either. I think you have to find the system that works best for you. And if that means trial and error, trial and error. Because you're gonna make mistakes no matter what. So being as organized as possible, I think, is is is huge. And then the communication side of things, it always makes me laugh how how when we were kids, your communication was walking to somebody's house and knocking on their door and saying, Hey, you know, like, which I saw something the other day, how funny it is that in the 80s and 90s or early 2000s or whatever, you literally would just show up to somebody's house and be like, Hey, you want to go do this? Yeah, exactly. Which now is like uh which Yeah, we'd never do that now. No, heck no. No, no, you're gonna text somebody before you come over just to like see how they're doing or whatever. But it's funny to me how there are so many forms of communication now and people don't utilize them. You know what I mean? Like, like I said, I mean, with our customers, you get a feel for one, who wants to talk on the phone and who doesn't, who wants to text and who doesn't, who wants to email and who doesn't. But then making sure that two, making sure that you either make a mental note of that or update your customer call list to keep track of that, and then making sure that you know what you talked about last time. Right. You know, jotting a note down, whatever it is, you know, whether it's a sales order number, a price quote number, pricing, hey, we priced this, or uh they're looking for this, or whether it's just something as simple as, hey, I checked in with them. I mean, that's what we do and that's what works for us. I think Paul's mentioned to me before how my customer call list is very detailed. That's just the way that I work. Like I just have to write that stuff down. Right. You know, and I do the same thing with a to-do list. So like you've got those notes, apps on your phone. I can't do it. Like, I gotta have it here so I can physically mark it off. Check it off. Check it off the list. You feel like you have accomplished something, right? You do. I would say, you know, organization and communication are huge. Yeah. The attitude thing is is big as well, but I feel like your attitude is almost gonna fli uh reflect those other two. You know, if you've got a good attitude, it's probably because you're well organized and you've been communicating with people. Personally, I think carving out that time for family, you know. I I I literally switched careers because of my family, because of our kids. Um and, you know, God bless my wife for putting up with me for 17 years of constant coaching and teaching. You know, the coaching thing was my passion. I don't think I could have continued to do it how I was doing it, because I was just so into it, whether it was watching film or, you know, like I'd watch a game. Like I might watch the Alni eye game if I was still doing it on Saturday, watch the LI game and see something I like and then rewind it four times. Which now I'm just like, it's almost like a relief. I can just watch it, you know. Exactly. Just be a fan. So carving out that time for family is huge. You know, getting away from your phone, what however that is, you know, putting on your charger, turning it off, whatever, and just finding, you know, finding things to do with your family that you can enjoy. I I do think that taking care of yourself is very important. Um, you know, your diet or you know, we're we're not perfect by any means. Personally, I want to try to get in maybe three or four workouts a week. And it's nothing special. It's, you know, 20, 30 minutes, like your organization, finding a niche that that you enjoy. If you still like to hoop, go do it, man. You know, go get it in, go get it done. If you're retired and an old guy like me, go to the gym and find something to do. But then even if it's not something like that, like the golfing thing, you know, if you like to golf, get out and do that. Just be active, take care of yourself through food consumption the right way, exercising, however that is, just to make yourself feel good. And I I'm not saying you gotta be a homebody, but keeping your circle tight, I think is also very important. You know, staying close to the people that you know you need to, you want to, whatever. I think that's I think that's a big deal. We've got we've got kind of a big family, so that kind of that's what our circle is. You know, my wife's got three sisters and had countless aunts. Sure, you know, so um that circle, that's our circle on that side, and then my mom and my brother and that my family on that side, they're all very close with with my kids. So yeah, that's kind of what we do. We just kind of stay close and stay tight and there you go.

SPEAKER_02 37:58

Take care of it that way. And is there anything we can do community-wide to help all of us here elevate Springfield and the surrounding communities?

SPEAKER_01 38:06

Stay local, man. I think that's huge. I think it's huge. I mean, you know, and I'm not just saying that because we're a locally owned business or I take pride in the company that we have, but I think if we want Springfield to continue to grow and be and be great, like I think it is, yeah, stay local. You know, whether it be a restaurant, whether it be, you know, coming to wars, whether it be clothes or or whatever, do your best to do that. And I'm not saying that, you know, you can't shop elsewhere or do something else, but I mean you're trying to install a backyard patio or an outdoor living area, come see us first, come talk to us. You know, we'll help you out. You know, if it's if it's if we don't have exactly what you're looking for, we're not gonna sell you something you don't want. You know, that's something integrity part of our business is something that we take pride in. You know, we just had a customer in a day or two ago wanting to seal some uh some edging. Um, and he's like, Yeah, he said, you know, we should take this techno seal. This is what the the guy sent us out here to get. I didn't think that's what he wanted, but I double checked for him and did a little bit of research and said, Yeah, that's not what you want. It's actually going to ruin your edging. So I would rather somebody come see us first so we can help you out because we all live here. You know, everybody in our office lives either, you know, 20 minutes away in a surrounding town or we actually live in town. So yeah, come see us, man. Come be local.

SPEAKER_02 39:20

Keep those dollars local, Springfield. That's right. Well, Brian, appreciate you coming down and spending some time with me today, man.

SPEAKER_01 39:25

Appreciate it, man. It was fun. Thanks for having me. It was fun. Remind everybody where they can go to learn more about wars. Go to Wars Inc. or excuse me, wars.com or come see us out at Wars Inc. on the north side of town, 2500 Pierreless Mine Road. Come see us, check us out, come see the yard, come see the water features, the lights, all that stuff. Come check us out. There you go.

SPEAKER_02 39:41

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SPEAKER_00 41:35

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