May 18, 2024 • 26 mins
Terry Andre is the CEO of AmCoat Industrial is the exclusive product supplier of premium Rhino Shield and Floor Shield coating products. Through an exclusive network of independently owned and operated dealer contractors, Rhino Shield and Floor Shield products are marketed, sold, and installed.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
Well, I grew up in NewEngland. I'm a Northerner by birth in
Connecticut and schooled my way a fewplaces. Schooled at the University of Virginia
in Charlesfield, Virginia, back backin the day. Then went to work
at the DuPont Company in chemicals andI was there for four or five years
(00:21):
and went back to graduate school andChicago area in northwestern and I got my
MBA there and settled and got marriedand settled in the Chicago area. I
had our first child. We werethere about seven or eight years and done
in consulting at that point and wentwith one of our clients at the time
and wanted to get into small business, running, growing, owning small businesses,
(00:45):
and that was kind of where thestart of it for me was.
This was in the mid nineties,and moved to the South, Deep South
in Birmingham, Alabama. That's wherethe entrepreneurial moment took me. And so
I spent twelve years in the sportinggood space in golf bags and accessories.
That company was then acquired by ape firm as part of the rollo,
(01:08):
and then I stayed on with thatfirm for a couple more years and then
relocated down here too during that timeto Dustin Florida, which is where our
headquarters is, Panhandle, Florida,beautiful Emerald Coast and on the Gulf of
Mexico. And we've been down heresince nineteen ninety eight and I've been with
(01:29):
this company, am Code Industrial sincetwenty ten as their CEO. All right,
well, we're going to talk alot about Amcode Industrial. But you
and I have a little bit incommon, sir. I'm from Chicago,
so I'm a Rogers Park boy,and also growing up, I was also
here in Northern Virginia during the RalphSampson years, so that we have a
(01:49):
cavinar miss. I know that basketballwas pretty damn good back then. Well
we've rediscovered our basketball route. Yesyou have, Yes you have. I
was at UVA during all four yearsof Ralph Sampson's time there, very cool,
which that's that's a fun trivia forme anyway, And that's when folks
(02:10):
like that stayed three or four years, and he was there all four years,
and that was kind of the beginningof Uba basketball. We've had dallying
in us in football, mostly withmodest success, but we're getting back to
our basketball routes. And I'm aCubs fan, so I like Chicago.
All right, Yeah, that's great. Well I'm a big sports fan too,
so I appreciate you sharing all that. So I want to talk a
(02:34):
lot about your company. We're goingto talk about mission statement and what you
do, and about differentiating yourself fromcompetition if there is any, and some
other cool things. But I wantto it's kind of neat to talk about
the context about how you join acompany because you've had an interesting path here.
You've done a lot of different thingsout there, and that's not unique
to some of the other CEOs andleaders that we talked about. But how
(02:55):
were you introduced to the company?And as I take a look at your
resume, it's impressive and so Iknow why they were interested in you,
But why were you interested in joiningthem? Well, I've you know,
most of my career post consulting hasmy personal mission statement, if you will,
and running and owning businesses has beento take existing businesses and grow them
(03:16):
and realized their full potential, maximizingenterprise value. And that's kind of what
I've done in my career over thelast thirty years. So this one was
kind of my last chapter. Iwas a friend of mine, you know,
a golfing buddy, and you hada great little business, this primary
business called Rhino Shield and you know, it's just he and a friend who
(03:38):
started it. And he said,man, I think we can do a
lot more with this. I knowyour background I happened to be I was
doing working for an accounting firm,heading up there consulting, and he said,
man, do you want to getback into the entrepreneurial space. And
I said, you know, I'mI'm kind of ready. I'm kind of
ready after we'd sold the prior business. And so timing is you known,
business is everything, and he said, hey, I'd like to become my
(04:01):
partner and help me make this thinghappen. And so we grew it almost
four times from where it was whenwe got started. And uh, that's
that's a lot of fun. Ienjoy growing growing businesses. Uh, you
know, growth is growth is fun, right, and so that's that's business.
Mature is sustainability and then the growth. And that's a common theme too,
(04:23):
by making sure that you're stable onyour feet and then growing the company.
So I didn't want to ask youwhen it comes to am CODE Industrial,
just overall, what is your missionstatement? So our mission statement really
is very simple, is to offerthe consumer steady the art, high performance
coding products, particularly in the rhinoshieldcase exterior wall and roof coatings. And
(04:46):
so we're a product company h weoffer, but we offer steady the art,
you know, unmatched in their categoryin terms of performance and durability is
probably our biggest differentiating factor. Allpart of our mission is that we offer
codings that are really unavailable and unmatchedby even the large painting companies, and
(05:10):
we kind of have our niche inthis ultra high performance, ultra highly durable
category. Well, if we coulddo this and just get into the weeds
a little bit terry and kind ofback up a little bit about what you
exactly do. You mentioned rhino shield. But if somebody were to be introduced
to MCODE Industrial for the first timeand you talk about rhino shield, what
would you tell people that you doand who you serve. So we manufacture
(05:31):
and distribute rhinoshield wall coating products.We distribute via a dealer network that's basically
a group of painting contractors. They'rededicated to us, and we're dedicated to
them. We call it exclusivity.It has characteristics of a franchise, but
it's much simpler than that. Verycommon in the building supply home improvement industry
(05:56):
space. So we supply those productsto those deals painting contractors and they market,
sell, and install the product intheir specific geographies. They're trained by
us, they're authorized by us,they're certified by us, so we can
have a say, if you will, in terms of the installation quality that
takes place in the marketplace as well. It's one thing to have a great
(06:17):
product, it's another thing in homeimprovement to have that great product installed in
a high quality fashion. So weinstalled to those folks and then they work
with end consumers all over the countryto make sure that our product is installed
to our specification and that the homeowneror building owner realizes the full potential and
(06:39):
benefit of our product line. Well, let's talk a little bit about what
you're talking about right now, becauseI know that when you're running a company,
the team is everything, especially yourmanagerial staff and people that are high
up that you have to work withregularly, and then getting the message down
to the rest of the staff.And you know I'm speaking specifically of Gerald
Hall. I know he's there withyou, working with you in tandement.
(06:59):
Also there are other people. Canyou talk a little bit about how you
guys work together and the rest ofthe team to get the message across about
your product and then how you marketit and how you educate the consumer out
there. Sure. So we're asmall company. As I said before,
I like working in smaller businesses.You can be nimble. The no bureaucracy.
The only bureaucracy you create is theill biocracy you have is what you
(07:21):
create. And I think we tryand keep it very flat and very discipline
but flexible. So you know,my team I think reflects that they are
self starters. We do have ouryou know, guiding principles and core competencies
and pillars, if you will,the guide us all the way through in
(07:44):
terms of how we deal with ourproducts, how we deal with our dealers,
the success of our dealers, howwe attract and retain you know,
new dealers, so that that guidesour overall management, if you will,
of philosophy in the business. Uh. But we also have some fundamental structure
to it. You know, Geraldheads up our sales and a lot of
(08:05):
our marketing work. You know,we're interesting in that we're not only supporting
marketing efforts for our dealers. Theylook to us to help them with how
they market in their in their geographies. We're also doing our own marketing to
the end consumer. So we're marketingthe Runa Shield name and the Rhona Shield
brand to the consumer marketplace, ifyou will. And so we're kind of
(08:28):
doing a little bit of both,which I think is kind of unique.
You know, many companies are doingone or the other. We're marketing.
We're providing marketing assets and tools toour dealer partners so that they can be
successful when they talk to consumers,maybe at the sales point of the purchase,
but we're also trying to provide themsome you know, overall brand awareness
(08:50):
and umbrella marketing so that when theydo talk to consumers there's some recognition ahead
of time. That makes a lotof sense in terry. I think there's
another common thread that i'd like toask you about. When I talk to
small, medium, large businesses,it's always about that communication and accessibility and
I and I don't want to assumethis, but with a smaller team,
I imagine that your consumers your clientshave really great access to you and the
(09:13):
team, and that makes communication easier, a little bit more streamlined, and
I imagine business works a little bitquicker because of the size of the team.
Would I would I be correcting thatabsolutely, And again those are those
that are I think are uh youknow profiles of small companies ours ours is
for sure. You know many ofour dealers and even some of the consumers.
(09:33):
You know, they they know usby name that they're almost family.
We know particularly our dealer customers,they partners, They they know our family
history, we know theirs. We'rein weddings. I mean, it's a
it's a it's a fun relationship whenyou can get to that level. And
so you bet they call us whenthey have issues. They call us at
(09:54):
home, they call us on theweekends, they call us whenever they need
to uh, they reach us andand us them. And same thing with
consumers when they're asking questions before they'reyou know, kind of committed to a
purchase, they want to feel comfortable. Right. You know, a home
is you know a person typically youknow, someone's largest investment ever, right
(10:16):
is their home is their dwelling.And you know, we talk a lot
about protection and durability and so anythingthat's done to their home, boy,
they sure want to feel comfortable aboutthat, and they want to communicate with
the the many times the end productssupplier and say, hey, I know
what I've heard, but you know, tell me a little bit more.
Can I do this application in thisarea of my house? You know,
(10:39):
I have this kind of sighting asit makes sense and will I be protected?
And is there are there any risksfor me? And we're very transparent
both when we have those one onones, but also you know, in
our online conversations, in our onlinecommunication with people, we feel that transparency
is really important these days. Consumersyou know, almost require it, but
(11:03):
we're way ahead of that. Youknow, we don't do it because it's
required. We do it because it'sthe right thing to do. And quite
frankly, Dennis, a home improvementdoes not have the best reputation sometimes in
terms of everybody who's generally got astory, who's owned a home. They
can tell you a war story abouthow something's gone sideways with either a service
project or a fix it project orremodel project. We don't want to be
(11:26):
that war story that consumers have sowe do everything we can to make sure
that doesn't happen, and then stillcomforter comfort and confidence in working with our
product. Well, Terry, I'mglad you shared all of that, and
you know what really sticks with meis I've talked to leaders and CEOs and
entrepreneurs in this series. The transparency, to your point, has become at
(11:48):
the top of the list for alot of people that are working with businesses.
It doesn't matter what you're doing,but to be honest, upfront and
open with the clients or the consumerswherever you're working with. I think it's
so far in few between nows youkind of alluded to. I think people
really appreciate that, and it soundslike with your business ethics, it's just
ultra important that you roll that way. Well, it is, and we're
(12:09):
doing even more in that direction.You know. Many times, particularly in
home improvement and remodel, the numberone question that someone wants to know about
any product or service is how muchdoes it cost? That's what they want
to know. They're going to doa lot of research, and they know
they need to do some of itbefore that that questions answered. But I
(12:30):
tell you, when they go online. That's the number one question is how
much does it cost? And inmany vendors in our space, they'll answer
that with, well, it depends. Well, we have to come measure
your house, we have to lookat your house, we have to inspect
your house, all of which istrue. But the end of the day,
they want to know, at leastin a ballpark fashion, how much
(12:50):
does it cost? And if yourproduct and your service is what you say
it is, you shouldn't be afraidto say how much it costs. Right,
And some people will say that's notfor me, that's fair, and
that maybe can be a very shortconversation for both of us. Right at
the end of the day, that'sokay. Not every product is for everybody.
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But we are really moving our companyand in terms, as you said,
in terms of our mission and ourvalues is to be transparent using a
program called They Ask You Answer.It's a content marketing system and philosophy,
and we're really paving the way inservice based installs to give people a sense
for how much it is per squarefoot on a range basis, but really
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making sure that oh, well itis more than regular pain. Frankly,
it should be because it's better,and maybe that is or maybe that isn't
in my budget, and if it'snot, okay, but if it is,
well we think it is, thenwe're now off and we're going to
have a deeper conversation about the restof your question. Does that make sense?
I mean, that's really the philosophywe've taken, and many in our
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industry just they don't want to answerthat question. They're afraid to answer that
question. Yeah. Yeah, wehave to come visit you, We have
to spend time with you. Wehave to sit around your kitchen table.
And not everybody wants to sit aroundthe table right, certainly post COVID,
So you know it's a different rolenow. Well, and I'm old enough
to know that old age if youget what you pay for, I kind
of really believe in that. AndI think that that's kind of your point
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too, and without even talking aboutprice point right now, that if you
want a great product and superior product, sometimes you have to pay a little
bit more. And I'm all forthat too. So I'm glad you went
into detail about that. I didwant to ask you about a competition,
and I know with the Rhino Shieldbeing proprietory and itself and its own product,
and without any assumptions on my part, if there's other companies that maybe
(14:43):
do what you do specifically to RhinoShield, how do you differentiate yourself if
there is any competition out there?Terry, Well, we're in what I
would call kind of a micro categorywithin the paint business. I mean,
paint, of course, is amulti billion dollar business, multi billion dollar
global enterprise, right with huge playersthat people know about, whether it's a
(15:03):
Sherwin Williams or a Bear or aBenjamin Moore or PPG. You go on
and on and not huge. Andthen internationally there's domestic suppliers of paint everywhere,
right, and that's that's what wewould call traditional paint. In our
category, this microcategory is what wecall a high build category. Basically,
it's a thicker paint. It's anelast America is that's the category of paint
(15:26):
that it is. And Last Americ'sbeen around a long time. But what
we perfected is the ability to takean elast Americ which started as roof coatings
on a horizontal surface, and wefigured out how can you put that on
in a vertical surface with gravity notworking in your favorite right, so a
rhino shield product installation will be youknow, nine to ten what they call
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mills thick, which is basically avery very thin unit of measure to measure
thickness and paint and traditional latex paintwill probably be one and a half to
maybe two mills thick. So we'regoing to be five to eight times thicker
on the wall and that's what wecall a high build coding and elastomeric falls
into that category. We had abunch of other ingredients to that, core
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of which is a ceramic microsphere,so we call a ceramic elastomeric. But
our primary competition our pain companies,I mean our dealer partners. You know,
they're competing with all those paint companiesI mentioned before. Day in and
day out, we would argue it'sa different it's a different kind of pain.
But at the end of the dayis it is a wall covering,
if you will, a wall coating. And so we compete against those folks
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and we're comfortable doing it. Andagain we have a longevity story. Our
competition is into what I call plannedobsolescence, right, you know, they
know that depending on where you areand the climate and the substrate, which
is you know, the wall surface. They might be in a five to
six year repainting cycle, and aslong as it lasts that long, many
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consumers are happy with that and thenthey hope that they'll buy that brand again.
We're look, we want to breakthat painting cycle and say you don't
have to do that anymore. Youcan have it for twenty five years.
And yes it will be more upfront, but it'll be uh you just do
some quick calculations, you can seethere. So there's advantages economic advantages to
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our products. So it is aOur competition is the major paint companies,
UH and within and they offer somemalastomerics within these categories, but not at
the level that we've We've perfected itwith all the additives to to help with
salt, their corrosion and you bereflectivity and mildew, bio growth, et
cetera. I mean, Last Americs, it's high build is what we do.
(17:38):
And so again kind of that classicniche smaller business working its way around.
We're not we're not trying to popepoke the big bears, you know,
but we we know where we canwe can compete, and we compete
successfully in those areas well. Andto your point, you're staying in your
lane and you're doing it really well. So I kind of got the message
on that one. I did wantto quickly get into the weeds on something
(18:00):
else because I'm a curious guy,and I think for our listeners as they
hear you talk about rhino shield,I always warn you about technology, and
I'll give you an analogy, whetherit's an iPhone when it came out and
I said this is fantastic, howcan they make this better? And they
do? Or this new pen I'musing. It's a great pin, but
next year it's even better. Forsome reason, they've come out with something
(18:22):
new technology that you can write better. When it comes to your industry and
specifically rhino shield, are you atthe level where that's it for or is
there always improvements or is there somethingenvironmental that you're working on or something just
to make the product that much better? How does it all work? Because
I'm so curious about that. Soyou know, a coding obviously is a
(18:42):
chemical formula. Right has got aningredients list and you put these ingredients literally
in a mixing bowl and it mixesit up just like a mixing boom with
a big paddle, and it mixesall the ingredients that you specify in the
right quantities from the right vendors,and within that ingredient lets there are core
elements of that, and one ofthe core elements is what we call a
(19:03):
resin, which is kind of thebackbone raw material of the entire coding.
And we're always looking at what arethe new technology from the vendor communities that
just specialize in providing resins. They'renot providing end products, they're providing the
raw materis, and they're constantly reworkingand upgrading and updating. How long does
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it take to dry? How doesit handle cold weather? How does it
handle moisture that comes through the house. There's natural evaporation that has to happen.
As you from your Chicago days,right, it was warm on the
inside and cold on the outside.Well, that creates a moisture event,
and that moisture has to eventually evaporateotherwise you trap moisture in the house and
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that's a problem. So coatings haveto be able to allow for moisture to
escape, and there's constant evolutions inthat technology to ensure that that happens.
You know, properly within all climates, et cetera. So, uh,
there's R and D you know,constantly going on. We go to all
the you know, the major shows, the coding shows that you and I
might be a tad board with,but folks that are in that space and
(20:11):
the chemical engineering, they get prettyjazz and excited about it. That's why
I have an R and D groupto get excited about that. And they
come back and say, man,Terry, we got all this stuff.
We could do this, and wecan make it work on cedar and redwood
and not just pine. And sowe're constantly tweaking, you know, our
core resident and then even the theadditives I talked about, you know,
how do we make sure if you'rein the southeast where we are here was
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very humid, uh, and there'stree overhangs and shade, you get biogrowth
and all of a sudden, anice you know off white house looks gray
and black and you know it's andit's difficult to get off. Well,
we make sure that the additives weput in that are you know, they're
constantly evolving as well to deal withthe microbes and the biogrowth that happens.
(20:56):
So I could go on, butit's it's constantly looking at our RN to
make sure that when you're a productsfire, that is your business at the
end of the day. Yeah,I'm glad you shared all that, and
that's something I didn't take any considerationabout what region you might live in.
It's a little bit different because ofthe weather. And by the way,
I can confirm about the weather notonly living in Chicago, but my mom
told me stories back in the sixtieswhen I was born that she had to
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walk backwards next to Lake Michigan becauseit was so windy and cold. So
Terry tells the truth about the weatherwhen it comes to Chicago. Yeah,
no, I'd love Chicago. Ilove the Midwest. I love the people
in the Midwest. Boy, theyare down to earth folks, and that
weather is a myrtle level. Itis brutal out there. Well, Terry,
(21:40):
I wanted to do this and Ican't tell you how much I appreciate
your valuable time, and I wantedto give the floor to you for the
last couple of minutes. Just somefinal takeaways not only about Rhino Shield,
but the company overall and the messageyou'd like to leave with our listeners and
the CEOs, the entrepreneurs and thefuture leaders out there a little bit more
about the companies you wrap up yourthoughts. Yeah, I think from an
entrepreneur or leadership standpoint, I getasked, you know, as as you
(22:03):
and I also you certainly speak forme, are kind of, you know,
more towards the finish line than thestarting line in terms of where we
are with our careers. And it'sit's it's fun to talk to the younger
generation, you know about kind ofthey ask and when they're inquisitive, I'm
willing to give them that counsel andadvice. Many many young folks are interested
in getting into small businesses and entrepreneurialendeavors, and I think that's that's wonderful.
(22:29):
So what drives our country, it'sthe spirit of our capitalism is tied
into a small business and small businessgrowth. And but I tell them there's
different elements of that. You canbe a true entrepreneur, have an idea
and a thought and try and nurturethat and and fund that and take that
and scale it, or you canbe many other elements. But you know,
I kind of chose my path whichis taking existing companies and helping them
(22:52):
realize their full potential and and everythingin between. And you know, CEOs
are always looking for folks that youknow't want to help in that growth journey,
in that realizing potential journey. Andwe're looking for problem solvers, not
always problem identifiers. To be kindof blunt about it, right, in
life, we have a lot offolks who are problem identifiers, right,
(23:15):
you know, we've got them allover. My wife identifies my problems all
the time, I hear you.But problem solving is what really differentiates I
think employees and associates in terms ofwhen someone says how can I move up
or how can I advance? Isay, become a better problem solver?
And I will help you do that, okay. And it's a learned trade.
(23:36):
It's a skill that you can developover time and then you will become
amazingly valuable to that business and theCEOs will become amazingly successful with teams that
are filled with problem solvers. Andit comes with experience, but it's also
something that's the skill trait that youcan work with on your own. As
(23:56):
far as the runa shield stories,you can tell we're pretty passionate about it.
We're continuing to grow quite rapidly.We're trying to make sure we can
harness that growth. We know there'sa number of consumers out there this time
of year. We're getting hundreds ofleads a day from customers that want to
hear our story. We talk tothem, or most of a lot of
times our dealers talk to them totry in a new way, basically a
(24:19):
new technology for how do you protectyour home? You have to put something
on the outside of your home inmost cases, even stucco and block a
wall left to its own, onits own, to mother nature with sun
and UV which is even more degradingthan it used to be with climate change
and all the storms that we havenow these days we live in Florida,
(24:42):
we're always looking at tropical disturbances andwhatnot. Well, you sure need a
protective coding on your home and onethat's going to last last a long time.
And we think we're really doing aservice to our customers in many ways,
and our consumers not just offering aproduct. We really do believe in
(25:02):
our mission that we're providing a serviceto people. With those that want to
take a look at us, it'sit's a it's a different way to think
about it, but like like alot of uh, you know, companies
and products out there that bust someparadigms, category killers. That's that's what
we're looking to do, and it'sa it's an exciting journey. Want that's
standing. I can tell your passion. That's always a common thread in this
(25:22):
series too, Terry about the leadersI talk to their passion for what they
do. They might bring a lotof gifts and skills to the table and
leadership, but I always got thatcompliment in my industry. I hired you
for your passion, and I cantell that you have that too, and
I think that's pretty exciting and wereally appreciate this. As we wrap up,
if people want to find out moreabout Rhino Shield and about your company,
what's the website for everybody that theycan check everything out at? Absolutely
(25:45):
Dennis, the the website is uhis rhinoshield dot com through simple, straightforward
and uh. It's a it's avery formative website. It's got videos and
content and you know, lots oflots of ways to learn about our business
and those that are interested even furthercan ask for some more and request quote
(26:07):
in an estimate and talk to someof our local dealers who are knowledgeable about
the product as well. And I'vebeen on it and the smart people that
put it together actually did a nicejob with your website. It's easy to
navigate on there and everything's either read. It's very cool. So give them
my best for putting that together.Hey, Terry, well you're suggesting I
didn't do that right, I don'tknow, did you? No, Hey
(26:30):
Terry, that was a profound guest. That was Yeah. Well, let'sen
give my best to your entire teamand thank you so much for joining us
on CEOs as you know and continuesuccess. Thank you, Dennis, I
appreciate the same to you.
Well, I grew up in NewEngland. I'm a Northerner by birth in
Connecticut and schooled my way a fewplaces. Schooled at the University of Virginia
in Charlesfield, Virginia, back backin the day. Then went to work
at the DuPont Company in chemicals andI was there for four or five years
(00:21):
and went back to graduate school andChicago area in northwestern and I got my
MBA there and settled and got marriedand settled in the Chicago area. I
had our first child. We werethere about seven or eight years and done
in consulting at that point and wentwith one of our clients at the time
and wanted to get into small business, running, growing, owning small businesses,
(00:45):
and that was kind of where thestart of it for me was.
This was in the mid nineties,and moved to the South, Deep South
in Birmingham, Alabama. That's wherethe entrepreneurial moment took me. And so
I spent twelve years in the sportinggood space in golf bags and accessories.
That company was then acquired by ape firm as part of the rollo,
(01:08):
and then I stayed on with thatfirm for a couple more years and then
relocated down here too during that timeto Dustin Florida, which is where our
headquarters is, Panhandle, Florida,beautiful Emerald Coast and on the Gulf of
Mexico. And we've been down heresince nineteen ninety eight and I've been with
(01:29):
this company, am Code Industrial sincetwenty ten as their CEO. All right,
well, we're going to talk alot about Amcode Industrial. But you
and I have a little bit incommon, sir. I'm from Chicago,
so I'm a Rogers Park boy,and also growing up, I was also
here in Northern Virginia during the RalphSampson years, so that we have a
(01:49):
cavinar miss. I know that basketballwas pretty damn good back then. Well
we've rediscovered our basketball route. Yesyou have, Yes you have. I
was at UVA during all four yearsof Ralph Sampson's time there, very cool,
which that's that's a fun trivia forme anyway, And that's when folks
(02:10):
like that stayed three or four years, and he was there all four years,
and that was kind of the beginningof Uba basketball. We've had dallying
in us in football, mostly withmodest success, but we're getting back to
our basketball routes. And I'm aCubs fan, so I like Chicago.
All right, Yeah, that's great. Well I'm a big sports fan too,
so I appreciate you sharing all that. So I want to talk a
(02:34):
lot about your company. We're goingto talk about mission statement and what you
do, and about differentiating yourself fromcompetition if there is any, and some
other cool things. But I wantto it's kind of neat to talk about
the context about how you join acompany because you've had an interesting path here.
You've done a lot of different thingsout there, and that's not unique
to some of the other CEOs andleaders that we talked about. But how
(02:55):
were you introduced to the company?And as I take a look at your
resume, it's impressive and so Iknow why they were interested in you,
But why were you interested in joiningthem? Well, I've you know,
most of my career post consulting hasmy personal mission statement, if you will,
and running and owning businesses has beento take existing businesses and grow them
(03:16):
and realized their full potential, maximizingenterprise value. And that's kind of what
I've done in my career over thelast thirty years. So this one was
kind of my last chapter. Iwas a friend of mine, you know,
a golfing buddy, and you hada great little business, this primary
business called Rhino Shield and you know, it's just he and a friend who
(03:38):
started it. And he said,man, I think we can do a
lot more with this. I knowyour background I happened to be I was
doing working for an accounting firm,heading up there consulting, and he said,
man, do you want to getback into the entrepreneurial space. And
I said, you know, I'mI'm kind of ready. I'm kind of
ready after we'd sold the prior business. And so timing is you known,
business is everything, and he said, hey, I'd like to become my
(04:01):
partner and help me make this thinghappen. And so we grew it almost
four times from where it was whenwe got started. And uh, that's
that's a lot of fun. Ienjoy growing growing businesses. Uh, you
know, growth is growth is fun, right, and so that's that's business.
Mature is sustainability and then the growth. And that's a common theme too,
(04:23):
by making sure that you're stable onyour feet and then growing the company.
So I didn't want to ask youwhen it comes to am CODE Industrial,
just overall, what is your missionstatement? So our mission statement really
is very simple, is to offerthe consumer steady the art, high performance
coding products, particularly in the rhinoshieldcase exterior wall and roof coatings. And
(04:46):
so we're a product company h weoffer, but we offer steady the art,
you know, unmatched in their categoryin terms of performance and durability is
probably our biggest differentiating factor. Allpart of our mission is that we offer
codings that are really unavailable and unmatchedby even the large painting companies, and
(05:10):
we kind of have our niche inthis ultra high performance, ultra highly durable
category. Well, if we coulddo this and just get into the weeds
a little bit terry and kind ofback up a little bit about what you
exactly do. You mentioned rhino shield. But if somebody were to be introduced
to MCODE Industrial for the first timeand you talk about rhino shield, what
would you tell people that you doand who you serve. So we manufacture
(05:31):
and distribute rhinoshield wall coating products.We distribute via a dealer network that's basically
a group of painting contractors. They'rededicated to us, and we're dedicated to
them. We call it exclusivity.It has characteristics of a franchise, but
it's much simpler than that. Verycommon in the building supply home improvement industry
(05:56):
space. So we supply those productsto those deals painting contractors and they market,
sell, and install the product intheir specific geographies. They're trained by
us, they're authorized by us,they're certified by us, so we can
have a say, if you will, in terms of the installation quality that
takes place in the marketplace as well. It's one thing to have a great
(06:17):
product, it's another thing in homeimprovement to have that great product installed in
a high quality fashion. So weinstalled to those folks and then they work
with end consumers all over the countryto make sure that our product is installed
to our specification and that the homeowneror building owner realizes the full potential and
(06:39):
benefit of our product line. Well, let's talk a little bit about what
you're talking about right now, becauseI know that when you're running a company,
the team is everything, especially yourmanagerial staff and people that are high
up that you have to work withregularly, and then getting the message down
to the rest of the staff.And you know I'm speaking specifically of Gerald
Hall. I know he's there withyou, working with you in tandement.
(06:59):
Also there are other people. Canyou talk a little bit about how you
guys work together and the rest ofthe team to get the message across about
your product and then how you marketit and how you educate the consumer out
there. Sure. So we're asmall company. As I said before,
I like working in smaller businesses.You can be nimble. The no bureaucracy.
The only bureaucracy you create is theill biocracy you have is what you
(07:21):
create. And I think we tryand keep it very flat and very discipline
but flexible. So you know,my team I think reflects that they are
self starters. We do have ouryou know, guiding principles and core competencies
and pillars, if you will,the guide us all the way through in
(07:44):
terms of how we deal with ourproducts, how we deal with our dealers,
the success of our dealers, howwe attract and retain you know,
new dealers, so that that guidesour overall management, if you will,
of philosophy in the business. Uh. But we also have some fundamental structure
to it. You know, Geraldheads up our sales and a lot of
(08:05):
our marketing work. You know,we're interesting in that we're not only supporting
marketing efforts for our dealers. Theylook to us to help them with how
they market in their in their geographies. We're also doing our own marketing to
the end consumer. So we're marketingthe Runa Shield name and the Rhona Shield
brand to the consumer marketplace, ifyou will. And so we're kind of
(08:28):
doing a little bit of both,which I think is kind of unique.
You know, many companies are doingone or the other. We're marketing.
We're providing marketing assets and tools toour dealer partners so that they can be
successful when they talk to consumers,maybe at the sales point of the purchase,
but we're also trying to provide themsome you know, overall brand awareness
(08:50):
and umbrella marketing so that when theydo talk to consumers there's some recognition ahead
of time. That makes a lotof sense in terry. I think there's
another common thread that i'd like toask you about. When I talk to
small, medium, large businesses,it's always about that communication and accessibility and
I and I don't want to assumethis, but with a smaller team,
I imagine that your consumers your clientshave really great access to you and the
(09:13):
team, and that makes communication easier, a little bit more streamlined, and
I imagine business works a little bitquicker because of the size of the team.
Would I would I be correcting thatabsolutely, And again those are those
that are I think are uh youknow profiles of small companies ours ours is
for sure. You know many ofour dealers and even some of the consumers.
(09:33):
You know, they they know usby name that they're almost family.
We know particularly our dealer customers,they partners, They they know our family
history, we know theirs. We'rein weddings. I mean, it's a
it's a it's a fun relationship whenyou can get to that level. And
so you bet they call us whenthey have issues. They call us at
(09:54):
home, they call us on theweekends, they call us whenever they need
to uh, they reach us andand us them. And same thing with
consumers when they're asking questions before they'reyou know, kind of committed to a
purchase, they want to feel comfortable. Right. You know, a home
is you know a person typically youknow, someone's largest investment ever, right
(10:16):
is their home is their dwelling.And you know, we talk a lot
about protection and durability and so anythingthat's done to their home, boy,
they sure want to feel comfortable aboutthat, and they want to communicate with
the the many times the end productssupplier and say, hey, I know
what I've heard, but you know, tell me a little bit more.
Can I do this application in thisarea of my house? You know,
(10:39):
I have this kind of sighting asit makes sense and will I be protected?
And is there are there any risksfor me? And we're very transparent
both when we have those one onones, but also you know, in
our online conversations, in our onlinecommunication with people, we feel that transparency
is really important these days. Consumersyou know, almost require it, but
(11:03):
we're way ahead of that. Youknow, we don't do it because it's
required. We do it because it'sthe right thing to do. And quite
frankly, Dennis, a home improvementdoes not have the best reputation sometimes in
terms of everybody who's generally got astory, who's owned a home. They
can tell you a war story abouthow something's gone sideways with either a service
project or a fix it project orremodel project. We don't want to be
(11:26):
that war story that consumers have sowe do everything we can to make sure
that doesn't happen, and then stillcomforter comfort and confidence in working with our
product. Well, Terry, I'mglad you shared all of that, and
you know what really sticks with meis I've talked to leaders and CEOs and
entrepreneurs in this series. The transparency, to your point, has become at
(11:48):
the top of the list for alot of people that are working with businesses.
It doesn't matter what you're doing,but to be honest, upfront and
open with the clients or the consumerswherever you're working with. I think it's
so far in few between nows youkind of alluded to. I think people
really appreciate that, and it soundslike with your business ethics, it's just
ultra important that you roll that way. Well, it is, and we're
(12:09):
doing even more in that direction.You know. Many times, particularly in
home improvement and remodel, the numberone question that someone wants to know about
any product or service is how muchdoes it cost? That's what they want
to know. They're going to doa lot of research, and they know
they need to do some of itbefore that that questions answered. But I
(12:30):
tell you, when they go online. That's the number one question is how
much does it cost? And inmany vendors in our space, they'll answer
that with, well, it depends. Well, we have to come measure
your house, we have to lookat your house, we have to inspect
your house, all of which istrue. But the end of the day,
they want to know, at leastin a ballpark fashion, how much
(12:50):
does it cost? And if yourproduct and your service is what you say
it is, you shouldn't be afraidto say how much it costs. Right,
And some people will say that's notfor me, that's fair, and
that maybe can be a very shortconversation for both of us. Right at
the end of the day, that'sokay. Not every product is for everybody.
(13:11):
But we are really moving our companyand in terms, as you said,
in terms of our mission and ourvalues is to be transparent using a
program called They Ask You Answer.It's a content marketing system and philosophy,
and we're really paving the way inservice based installs to give people a sense
for how much it is per squarefoot on a range basis, but really
(13:35):
making sure that oh, well itis more than regular pain. Frankly,
it should be because it's better,and maybe that is or maybe that isn't
in my budget, and if it'snot, okay, but if it is,
well we think it is, thenwe're now off and we're going to
have a deeper conversation about the restof your question. Does that make sense?
I mean, that's really the philosophywe've taken, and many in our
(13:56):
industry just they don't want to answerthat question. They're afraid to answer that
question. Yeah. Yeah, wehave to come visit you, We have
to spend time with you. Wehave to sit around your kitchen table.
And not everybody wants to sit aroundthe table right, certainly post COVID,
So you know it's a different rolenow. Well, and I'm old enough
to know that old age if youget what you pay for, I kind
of really believe in that. AndI think that that's kind of your point
(14:18):
too, and without even talking aboutprice point right now, that if you
want a great product and superior product, sometimes you have to pay a little
bit more. And I'm all forthat too. So I'm glad you went
into detail about that. I didwant to ask you about a competition,
and I know with the Rhino Shieldbeing proprietory and itself and its own product,
and without any assumptions on my part, if there's other companies that maybe
(14:43):
do what you do specifically to RhinoShield, how do you differentiate yourself if
there is any competition out there?Terry, Well, we're in what I
would call kind of a micro categorywithin the paint business. I mean,
paint, of course, is amulti billion dollar business, multi billion dollar
global enterprise, right with huge playersthat people know about, whether it's a
(15:03):
Sherwin Williams or a Bear or aBenjamin Moore or PPG. You go on
and on and not huge. Andthen internationally there's domestic suppliers of paint everywhere,
right, and that's that's what wewould call traditional paint. In our
category, this microcategory is what wecall a high build category. Basically,
it's a thicker paint. It's anelast America is that's the category of paint
(15:26):
that it is. And Last Americ'sbeen around a long time. But what
we perfected is the ability to takean elast Americ which started as roof coatings
on a horizontal surface, and wefigured out how can you put that on
in a vertical surface with gravity notworking in your favorite right, so a
rhino shield product installation will be youknow, nine to ten what they call
(15:48):
mills thick, which is basically avery very thin unit of measure to measure
thickness and paint and traditional latex paintwill probably be one and a half to
maybe two mills thick. So we'regoing to be five to eight times thicker
on the wall and that's what wecall a high build coding and elastomeric falls
into that category. We had abunch of other ingredients to that, core
(16:11):
of which is a ceramic microsphere,so we call a ceramic elastomeric. But
our primary competition our pain companies,I mean our dealer partners. You know,
they're competing with all those paint companiesI mentioned before. Day in and
day out, we would argue it'sa different it's a different kind of pain.
But at the end of the dayis it is a wall covering,
if you will, a wall coating. And so we compete against those folks
(16:34):
and we're comfortable doing it. Andagain we have a longevity story. Our
competition is into what I call plannedobsolescence, right, you know, they
know that depending on where you areand the climate and the substrate, which
is you know, the wall surface. They might be in a five to
six year repainting cycle, and aslong as it lasts that long, many
(16:55):
consumers are happy with that and thenthey hope that they'll buy that brand again.
We're look, we want to breakthat painting cycle and say you don't
have to do that anymore. Youcan have it for twenty five years.
And yes it will be more upfront, but it'll be uh you just do
some quick calculations, you can seethere. So there's advantages economic advantages to
(17:17):
our products. So it is aOur competition is the major paint companies,
UH and within and they offer somemalastomerics within these categories, but not at
the level that we've We've perfected itwith all the additives to to help with
salt, their corrosion and you bereflectivity and mildew, bio growth, et
cetera. I mean, Last Americs, it's high build is what we do.
(17:38):
And so again kind of that classicniche smaller business working its way around.
We're not we're not trying to popepoke the big bears, you know,
but we we know where we canwe can compete, and we compete
successfully in those areas well. Andto your point, you're staying in your
lane and you're doing it really well. So I kind of got the message
on that one. I did wantto quickly get into the weeds on something
(18:00):
else because I'm a curious guy,and I think for our listeners as they
hear you talk about rhino shield,I always warn you about technology, and
I'll give you an analogy, whetherit's an iPhone when it came out and
I said this is fantastic, howcan they make this better? And they
do? Or this new pen I'musing. It's a great pin, but
next year it's even better. Forsome reason, they've come out with something
(18:22):
new technology that you can write better. When it comes to your industry and
specifically rhino shield, are you atthe level where that's it for or is
there always improvements or is there somethingenvironmental that you're working on or something just
to make the product that much better? How does it all work? Because
I'm so curious about that. Soyou know, a coding obviously is a
(18:42):
chemical formula. Right has got aningredients list and you put these ingredients literally
in a mixing bowl and it mixesit up just like a mixing boom with
a big paddle, and it mixesall the ingredients that you specify in the
right quantities from the right vendors,and within that ingredient lets there are core
elements of that, and one ofthe core elements is what we call a
(19:03):
resin, which is kind of thebackbone raw material of the entire coding.
And we're always looking at what arethe new technology from the vendor communities that
just specialize in providing resins. They'renot providing end products, they're providing the
raw materis, and they're constantly reworkingand upgrading and updating. How long does
(19:26):
it take to dry? How doesit handle cold weather? How does it
handle moisture that comes through the house. There's natural evaporation that has to happen.
As you from your Chicago days,right, it was warm on the
inside and cold on the outside.Well, that creates a moisture event,
and that moisture has to eventually evaporateotherwise you trap moisture in the house and
(19:47):
that's a problem. So coatings haveto be able to allow for moisture to
escape, and there's constant evolutions inthat technology to ensure that that happens.
You know, properly within all climates, et cetera. So, uh,
there's R and D you know,constantly going on. We go to all
the you know, the major shows, the coding shows that you and I
might be a tad board with,but folks that are in that space and
(20:11):
the chemical engineering, they get prettyjazz and excited about it. That's why
I have an R and D groupto get excited about that. And they
come back and say, man,Terry, we got all this stuff.
We could do this, and wecan make it work on cedar and redwood
and not just pine. And sowe're constantly tweaking, you know, our
core resident and then even the theadditives I talked about, you know,
how do we make sure if you'rein the southeast where we are here was
(20:33):
very humid, uh, and there'stree overhangs and shade, you get biogrowth
and all of a sudden, anice you know off white house looks gray
and black and you know it's andit's difficult to get off. Well,
we make sure that the additives weput in that are you know, they're
constantly evolving as well to deal withthe microbes and the biogrowth that happens.
(20:56):
So I could go on, butit's it's constantly looking at our RN to
make sure that when you're a productsfire, that is your business at the
end of the day. Yeah,I'm glad you shared all that, and
that's something I didn't take any considerationabout what region you might live in.
It's a little bit different because ofthe weather. And by the way,
I can confirm about the weather notonly living in Chicago, but my mom
told me stories back in the sixtieswhen I was born that she had to
(21:18):
walk backwards next to Lake Michigan becauseit was so windy and cold. So
Terry tells the truth about the weatherwhen it comes to Chicago. Yeah,
no, I'd love Chicago. Ilove the Midwest. I love the people
in the Midwest. Boy, theyare down to earth folks, and that
weather is a myrtle level. Itis brutal out there. Well, Terry,
(21:40):
I wanted to do this and Ican't tell you how much I appreciate
your valuable time, and I wantedto give the floor to you for the
last couple of minutes. Just somefinal takeaways not only about Rhino Shield,
but the company overall and the messageyou'd like to leave with our listeners and
the CEOs, the entrepreneurs and thefuture leaders out there a little bit more
about the companies you wrap up yourthoughts. Yeah, I think from an
entrepreneur or leadership standpoint, I getasked, you know, as as you
(22:03):
and I also you certainly speak forme, are kind of, you know,
more towards the finish line than thestarting line in terms of where we
are with our careers. And it'sit's it's fun to talk to the younger
generation, you know about kind ofthey ask and when they're inquisitive, I'm
willing to give them that counsel andadvice. Many many young folks are interested
in getting into small businesses and entrepreneurialendeavors, and I think that's that's wonderful.
(22:29):
So what drives our country, it'sthe spirit of our capitalism is tied
into a small business and small businessgrowth. And but I tell them there's
different elements of that. You canbe a true entrepreneur, have an idea
and a thought and try and nurturethat and and fund that and take that
and scale it, or you canbe many other elements. But you know,
I kind of chose my path whichis taking existing companies and helping them
(22:52):
realize their full potential and and everythingin between. And you know, CEOs
are always looking for folks that youknow't want to help in that growth journey,
in that realizing potential journey. Andwe're looking for problem solvers, not
always problem identifiers. To be kindof blunt about it, right, in
life, we have a lot offolks who are problem identifiers, right,
(23:15):
you know, we've got them allover. My wife identifies my problems all
the time, I hear you.But problem solving is what really differentiates I
think employees and associates in terms ofwhen someone says how can I move up
or how can I advance? Isay, become a better problem solver?
And I will help you do that, okay. And it's a learned trade.
(23:36):
It's a skill that you can developover time and then you will become
amazingly valuable to that business and theCEOs will become amazingly successful with teams that
are filled with problem solvers. Andit comes with experience, but it's also
something that's the skill trait that youcan work with on your own. As
(23:56):
far as the runa shield stories,you can tell we're pretty passionate about it.
We're continuing to grow quite rapidly.We're trying to make sure we can
harness that growth. We know there'sa number of consumers out there this time
of year. We're getting hundreds ofleads a day from customers that want to
hear our story. We talk tothem, or most of a lot of
times our dealers talk to them totry in a new way, basically a
(24:19):
new technology for how do you protectyour home? You have to put something
on the outside of your home inmost cases, even stucco and block a
wall left to its own, onits own, to mother nature with sun
and UV which is even more degradingthan it used to be with climate change
and all the storms that we havenow these days we live in Florida,
(24:42):
we're always looking at tropical disturbances andwhatnot. Well, you sure need a
protective coding on your home and onethat's going to last last a long time.
And we think we're really doing aservice to our customers in many ways,
and our consumers not just offering aproduct. We really do believe in
(25:02):
our mission that we're providing a serviceto people. With those that want to
take a look at us, it'sit's a it's a different way to think
about it, but like like alot of uh, you know, companies
and products out there that bust someparadigms, category killers. That's that's what
we're looking to do, and it'sa it's an exciting journey. Want that's
standing. I can tell your passion. That's always a common thread in this
(25:22):
series too, Terry about the leadersI talk to their passion for what they
do. They might bring a lotof gifts and skills to the table and
leadership, but I always got thatcompliment in my industry. I hired you
for your passion, and I cantell that you have that too, and
I think that's pretty exciting and wereally appreciate this. As we wrap up,
if people want to find out moreabout Rhino Shield and about your company,
what's the website for everybody that theycan check everything out at? Absolutely
(25:45):
Dennis, the the website is uhis rhinoshield dot com through simple, straightforward
and uh. It's a it's avery formative website. It's got videos and
content and you know, lots oflots of ways to learn about our business
and those that are interested even furthercan ask for some more and request quote
(26:07):
in an estimate and talk to someof our local dealers who are knowledgeable about
the product as well. And I'vebeen on it and the smart people that
put it together actually did a nicejob with your website. It's easy to
navigate on there and everything's either read. It's very cool. So give them
my best for putting that together.Hey, Terry, well you're suggesting I
didn't do that right, I don'tknow, did you? No, Hey
(26:30):
Terry, that was a profound guest. That was Yeah. Well, let'sen
give my best to your entire teamand thank you so much for joining us
on CEOs as you know and continuesuccess. Thank you, Dennis, I
appreciate the same to you.
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