Building Niche Powerhouses: Leadership, Growth, and Positivity with Scott Hubble

Episode Transcript
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Todd Bertsch (00:10):
Welcome back to the Bolt Podcast.
I'm Todd Bertsch and I'mthrilled to be your guide on
this inspiring journey ofpersonal growth and leadership.
Together with my guests, we'lldive into transformational
stories, uncovering how small,intentional changes can create
massive positive results in yourlife From overcoming challenges
and setting impactful goals tobuilding lasting habits and

(00:33):
living with confidence, healthand positivity.
We'll explore it all and ifyou're ready to embrace a growth
mindset and unlock the bestversion of yourself, then let's
spark that transformation today.
Today's guest is Scott Hubble.
Scott is a self-describedpragmatic, optimist,
forward-failing servant leader,lifetime learner and

(00:55):
practitioner of the mantra thatpeople matter most.
After collecting an accountingdegree, a JD and MBA, Scott made
his mark on the RV industryover the past 17 years with both
Nu Camp and Little Guy.
His expertise lies in managingpeople, processes and technology

(01:16):
, while interpreting marketdynamics and authoring effective
marketing, sales and productstrategies.
And authoring effectivemarketing, sales and product
strategies, he has a proventrack record of turning boutique
companies into nichepowerhouses by identifying
unredeemed opportunities withinthe space through product
distinction and building astrong community.

(01:37):
Scott lives in Berlin, Ohio,with his wife and five children.
Scott, welcome to the BoldPodcast, my friend.

Scott Hubble (01:46):
Thank you very much for having me, todd, it's a
pleasure.

Wow, that is a lot .
That was a mouthful.
You have quite the CV.
I'll say that, wow, a truepassion for academia, right.

Yes, hey, you can never learn too much, right?
And none of us know everything,right?

Right, self-proclaimed lifelong learner
, which a lot of the guests onthe show.
We are big time learners, right, we never stop learning.
It's all about the growth.
So let's talk about youracademic experience, because
it's a lot, and you went througha couple of different phases,
from engineering to accountingto law, and then got your MBA.

(02:27):
Sure.

Yeah, I, you know, I was leaving high school
Wasn't quite sure what I wantedto do.
I had an opportunity to pursuea scholarship at Cedarville
University in electricalengineering, so I redeemed that.
But after about a year Ifigured out I am not an
electrical engineer and in themeantime my parents had moved to
Akron.
So I just moved home and Istarted taking courses at Akron

(02:52):
and went to the College ofBusiness and I needed to declare
a major and again I wasuncertain.
So what I did at that point?
I sought some counsel from myfather.
He's like look, accounting isone of the five professions it's
solid, there's always workthere and I said all right, I'll
be an accountant.
And as I was starting my senioryear, I figured out I don't want

(03:15):
to be an accountant.
But you know, saw the degreethrough and applied for law
school, Went to law school andagain it's like we're watching a
replay, right?
I did the first year, which isthe toughest year of law school,
and I realized I don't want tobe a lawyer.
But I did the next two years,got the degree, but in the

(03:36):
interim I started my MBA andthat's where everything started
hitting for me and I was likethis is easy, this is fun, this
is who I am, this is what I'msupposed to do.
So then I was equipped with allthe degrees and, even though I
wasn't going to practice law orget into the field of
accountancy, it had trained mybrain to think in systematic

(03:58):
ways and apply those processesin the things that I would
encounter down the road.
So it really helped round meout and be prepared for, you
know, the unknown and to pursuelarger things than perhaps I
would have originally.

Yeah, absolutely yeah.
Talk about well-rounded,especially for somebody who's
going to either start their ownbusiness or run a business.
I think it's a good life lessontoo, right?
We have a lot of studentsgetting ready to graduate here
in May and they're probablywondering did I make the right

(04:36):
choice?
You know they're worried aboutgetting their first job.
You know, I think the one thingthat I can see here and correct
me if I'm wrong but you have agenuine curiosity for life and
learning right, and you justkept going until you found
something that felt comfortableto you.
I think that's important inlife.

Absolutely.
You know, not all of us havethe same degree of curiosity,
but I believe that all of us dowant to find something we're
passionate about, and you knowwhether that is obvious to you,
um, or if it's something youneed to go on a journey to
discover one way or the other,don't stop until you find it,
because there's nothing worsethan just, you know, punching in

(05:20):
from nine to five and notreally embracing what you're
doing, right?

Absolutely.
I know earlier when we talkedand I listened to a podcast that
you were on.
This time period in life from18 to 35 was, it seems like a
time where you built some trueresilience, went through some
things?
You want to share some of thattime period and what that was
like and how that really helpedyou build into the leader that

(05:48):
you are today?

Sure, yeah, you know, I think all of us, in one
way or the other, are byproductsof what happens to us or the
choices that we make.
And during that period of time,I encountered a vast number of
trials and I really felt that,in one degree or another, I had
experienced bankruptcy in everyfacet of my life.

(06:13):
Oh, wow, whether it wasfinancially I didn't have two
nickels rubbed together and Iowed a bunch of nickels whether
it was socially, when I wasyounger, and maybe I felt like I
didn't have any real friends.
Whether it was spiritually, andI was just, you know, hey God,

(06:34):
I, I know you're there, but I'mjust sort of playing a game and
I'm, I'm lonely.
You know, I, I think at everyfacet that you looked at, I was
at ground zero at some point,and what that taught me was hey,
look, when you're down, you canreally only look up.

(06:55):
And when you look up, you cansee the blue sky, you can see
the opportunity.
It also teaches you to bemalleable and to roll with life
circumstances and that this tooshall pass.
And you know, the trialshaven't stopped.
Recently, my house burned down.
What?
Yeah, three of my children werediagnosed with autoimmune

(07:16):
diseases and, you know my wife'shad some struggles with health
and but it's funny because we'rejust like, okay, what's next,
what's next?
And you know, a lot of thesethings would cripple people.

Yeah, and it's not that I'm stronger.

It's just that I've had the privilege, um quote
unquote, to go through them andbe developed that resilience
and the ability to bounce backand be elastic develop that
resilience and the ability tobounce back and be elastic.

Wow, oh, there's a lot to unpack there.
Wow, and I'm sorry to hearabout what you had to go through
, unfortunately, and we've allbeen through something, right,
it's just a matter of whatdegree of adversity we've gone
through, and a lot of people onthis show have been through

(08:11):
quite a bit and they'vetransformed.
But you know, we always Ialways talk about just finding
the gift and the opportunity inevery scenario, just being open,
right, there's a gift there.
Hard to find the gift when thehouse burns down or when you're
on life support, but it is there, right, and then turn that into
an opportunity to rebuild a newhome or a fresh start.
Right, a fresh slate.
So, yeah, that's wow.
That's quite a bit.
Going back to childhood.
I understand your father was anFBI agent.

(08:34):
He was, yeah, I was not awareof that when we first spoke.
So, how did that?
That definitely had a majorinfluence on you.
Well, obviously he's yourfather, but, being an FBI agent,
I would have met.
What was that like?

growing up.
So he was not an agent when Iwas, say, you know, 10 to 15
years old.
He was an agent when I wasyounger, so I didn't take in a
lot of, you know, thoseexperiences at that time.
However, the fact when he wasin the Air Force and the FBI and
then he grew up in thehousehold of a Baptist- minister

(09:08):
when you take that combination,here's how it impacted me.
I grew up in an extremely stricthousehold a lot of rules, a lot
of regulations, a lot ofperformance to come up with, so
that helped ingrain a lot ofresponsibility and discipline.
So I don't have any coolstories to share with you, you

(09:32):
know, with respect to him beingan agent, but I do have all that
by-product from the environmentthat he fostered.

Wow, wow, that's crazy.
So let's, let's talk a littlebit about your journey through
your career.
Once you got through collegeand you've got all these degrees
and you've kind of figured outokay, business is my passion and
I can pull all this learningtogether to help me, to help me

(10:08):
take us through these companies.
So you really embrace the RVindustry and what that looked
like, from little guy to newcamp, and then we'll talk about
your new business.

Sure, yeah, I'll back up for a second.
So you know I'm.
I'm leaving college.
I had a host of leadershipexperience.
I was student body president, Ihad all these degrees and I
thought the world would bewaiting for me.
And I stepped out to the worldand I was like all right, guys
fight over me.

Isn't that funny how that works.

Yeah right, crickets, crickets yeah.

That's humbling.

Yeah, it was.
I've had quite a number ofhumbling experiences in my life
and you know they're fantastic.
I've learned to really embracethem.
But instead, what I had to do,I had to pivot Right and I took
a couple jobs that technically Iwould be overqualified for.
I worked for the state of, orthe auditor's office for the
state of Ohio.

(11:00):
I worked for a marketing firmfor a year and the thing that
actually helped open the door topursuing RV is that I started
doing things before work andafter work, and at first it was
sorting packages at FedEx anddelivering pizzas, managing a
pizza shop.
But then it started being likehey, you know what, why don't I

(11:22):
be a little smarter about this?
And a buddy of mine and Istarted doing some marketing
initiatives little small thingsfor small companies.

Like freelance work yeah.

And one day he came to me and he said hey look,
I opened up a conversation witha company called Little Guy
Worldwide and they are theworld's number one distributor
of teardrop trailers and I saidokay, and he said I sold him a
website and I told him thatwe're going to make their web
traffic just explode.
I said, all right, he saidyou're going to make their web

(11:56):
traffic explode.
So that was the door, that wasthe opportunity that we walked
through and, you know,fortunately we were able to make
that happen.
The Internet was sort of thewild west still in that period
of time, you know the 2008period.
Oh yeah, not a lot ofalgorithms in place in social
media SEO.

(12:22):
Yeah, so I just drove trafficlike a madman.
They loved it.
They said what else can you do?
So then I was able to dip in onsome of my skillset, and it was
a very small organization andjust a handful of people, mostly
sales and bookkeeping type.
So I came in with a skillsetthat wasn't there and I was able
to look at.
You know, oh, what are thesemarketing programs?
What's your pricing structurelook like, who's your

(12:43):
manufacturer, what does theproduct look like right now?
And then do some assessments ofthe market, assessments of the
product, assessment of adjacentmarkets, so on and so forth and
what we realized was that theproduct we were receiving was
really just bereft of innovation.
It was bereft of quality, andif we really wanted to take the

(13:04):
next step and be something ofsignificance, we needed to up
the game, and that's when we hadthe one.
I actually had the opportunityto meet a man named Joe Mullet
who owned a company namedPleasant Valley Teardrop
Trailers that was in Sugar Creek, ohio, and I had seen a couple
of his trailers and they werevery retro, great looking, high

(13:27):
quality, and I said this is thetype of manufacturing that we
need in order to take the nextstep.
So we entered into someconversations with him and then
the two companies little guyworldwide and pleasant Valley
teardrop Trailers came togetherinto an agreement for a
manufacturing distributor and itwas a really fun time for me

(13:50):
because I'm being able to do allthese marketing campaigns that
I just loved.
It was fun and driving aFacebook account to over 100,000
followers and feeling goodabout that kind of stuff.
But then learning some of themanufacturing side and I would
work a couple of days down insugar Creek and then a couple of
days up in the Canton area and,um, you know, the business just

(14:14):
exploded.
It just went crazy and thecontract was running out in
around 2017 and the owners ofboth companies really enjoyed
the success.
But I let them know.
I said to guys this is, this isfantastic.
How are we've grown too big tojust stay in the same same

(14:36):
structure because the end useris going to end up footing the
bill for an extra unnecessarylayer.
You guys either need to mergeor one of you buy out the other
one whatever.
An agreement was not able to bereached.
So at that point in time I hadto make a choice.
Do I want to stay at adistributor, where we're

(14:58):
marketing and selling which isfun, but we're not creating, or
would I go on the manufacturingside, where we can create and
innovate and then start freshwith the marketing, the sales,
the customer support?
And that was the option I chose.
And when I chose that, I knewwe needed to have a real name,

(15:23):
not Pleasant Valley TeardropTrailers, because you made
teardrop trailers on PleasantValley.

Road.

But rather, hey, new Camp.
And why New Camp?
Well, it's a new start.
We spelled it N-U with anumlaut on top to tip our hat to
the German heritage of the Amish.
And then camp to basically say,you know what?
We're honoring, the industrythat we're playing in.
And so, you know, a side hustleopened the door to get into

(15:53):
little guy.
And then the little little guysuccess with Pleasant Valley
opened the door to me to stepinto that role which became, you
know, far more encompassingthan what I was in, and we had a
team of 200 people.
We made over 3,700 trailers,created a lot, met a lot of

(16:15):
people.
You know the vision neverstopped and, um, you know that
prepared me for the opportunityto where I'm at today.
So I don't know if you had anyquestions along the way.
I always leave things out.
Yeah, no, there's differentversions of the story.

No, that's great, yeah, and we'll go into kind of
where you're at now.
I love the story.
I think it's very interesting.
I love how it was kind of byhappenchance.
But do you believe in faiththat everything happens for a
reason?
I'm a man of faith, so yeah.

So, even when I'm going through all those
scenarios, I'm like, hey, youknow what Am I going to?
Let my circumstance define meand my circumstance control my
view of God.

Right.

Or do I know something?

more than that Right.

Yeah yeah, right place, right time.
Luck is created.
Right time Luck is createdRight, sometimes ordained Right.

(17:29):
Yeah, absolutely.
And when you came into New Camp, did you analyze it?
No, I wasn't doing all thosethings that I should have been
doing, sure, but growth.

You grew into it.
Yeah, yeah, wow.
And you did that for what?
Eight years, yes, yeah, yeah,okay, best eight years yes, yeah
.

Yeah, okay, best eight years, loved it.
I would always tell people I'vegot the best job on the face of
the planet Dream job, loved it.
And we all have chapters, weall have seasons and it was a
great, great time.

Yeah, that's awesome.
Let's talk a little bit aboutit, because I don't think
everybody knows what a teardroptrailer is.
Right, it's, it's still.
They are somewhat rare, right,only, I don't say only, I mean
it's still manufacturing alittle under 4,000.
Is is a lot locally, but Icamped for a little while and

(18:21):
you didn't see a whole lot ofthem.
When you saw them, you're likeOoh, that's cool.
Yeah, right, they were verydifferent and I and I will say
the design is incredible, theengineering is incredible.
Like these, if you ever get achance, if anyone's interested
in camping or owning a trailer,a small trailer, and I believe
you probably don't need a heavyduty truck to pull these things,

(18:44):
which is the beauty of it youknow one of my early trailers
back when I was younger was aColeman pop-up.
You know that I pulled on my, myCavalier, my Chevy Cavalier,
you know, which looked a littleridiculous but hey, it worked.
I pulled that thing down toFlorida a couple of times but
yeah, I think telling theaudience a little bit about
teardrop and really you know howyou took this, because I think

(19:11):
it was understated that you tooka kind of a dying industry,
right, an underserved industry,and infused new life into it and
made it really successful,which is pretty cool.
And I think you're a guy youlove challenges, right, you walk
into the face of a challengeand you're not afraid, and I

(19:39):
think that's a beautiful thingyou know for people to do.
You know if you can, right, noteverybody can do that, not
everybody is open to risk, butyou were and you went for it.
So, sorry, tell us just alittle bit about Teardrop and
just a little more in depthabout the history and what you
did to that industry.

Sure, like you said, most people don't know
what it is.
I used to say one out of 100people knew what it was.
I certainly wasn't one of the100.
I was one of the 99, right?
I think those numbers areprobably down to maybe one out
of a hundred people knew what itwas.
I certainly wasn't one of thehundred.
I was one of the 99, right?

I think those numbers are probably down to
maybe one out of 50.

Yeah, there's been a lot of education over the
last 15 years, a lot of growthin the space.
When I first came into littleguy, I think they had
distributed 341 units that yearand that was their best year
ever.
And when you looked around attheir competitors quote unquote
it was a bunch of trailers beingbuilt in garages across the
country with no more than about50 or so from any one operation,

(20:34):
so not really a lot ofcompetitors.
Yeah, I would tell you that themarket probably was in that
five to 700 range in terms ofbeing consumed and most of them
were retail direct.
There wasn't anything you knowlike dealers, um, you didn't see
them on RV lots.
So that's really emerged overthe last you know 10 to 15 years

(20:54):
.
You know we were able to togrow that, I think, a lot
organically right Throughcommunity, um, through social
driving.
That and then slowly that wordof mouth building it the right
way with the innovations thatpeople wanted in a high quality
fashion, just really helped getthat rolling.

(21:15):
So a teardrop trailer actuallyoriginated after one of the
world wars where they were usingscrap from, you know, jeeps and
sunken ships and all kinds ofstuff just to get out there in a
cheap way.
So essentially they're calledbet on wheels, a lot of times
Teardrop, because it's sort ofthe shape of a teardrop.

(21:37):
Turn 90 degrees and put a pairof wheels on it, right, you know
?
Really neat, it's absolutelyexploded.
Here I'd say I was telling youaround five to 700 was probably
the ceiling of the market when Ifirst got exposed to it.
And even now in the down marketthe last couple of years in the
RV industry it's been that fourto 5,000 range.

(22:00):
There's been a lot of playerslately.
I will tell you that thedefinition of teardrop trailer
has evolved over the past fiveyears.
So you know, just like in lifeand other areas, the name
teardrop, which was fashionedfrom a shape, no longer hearkens
to the shape, it hearkens tothe size.

(22:20):
So now you've got a bunch ofsquare drop trailers.
So same size, same weight, morecubic feet actually, because
you know they're not slim linedin the back, but that's it's.
You know, tenfold from what itwas, wow and uh, now you do see
them, um, at the general RVs andcamping worlds of the world, in

(22:41):
the world.
So yeah, just a lot of growth.
I think you had.
You had asked another questionin there.

Just the engineering.
The shape is so unique it hasto be right.
Every camper wants the basicnecessities right and to fit
that in there.
Looking at it honestly, I wouldsay how did you do it?
You know, cause I've been inother campers.
Even the little Coleman that Ibought during COVID, it was, you

(23:07):
know, to get everything inthere in a way that you could
sleep comfortably, eat, cook,use a restroom, take a shower.
You know, all those things inthis little tiny teardrop is
interesting to me.

Yeah, and that was an evolution in and of itself.
When I first, you know, saw one, it was you open the door and
there was a floor where they hada trifold mattress and some
overhead cabinetry and a roofvent.
So there wasn't electric, therewasn't even a power fan, and
then there certainly weren'tsome of the things that we ended

(23:41):
up putting in sinks, stoves,fridges.
Eventually, we actually grewthe teardrop into a larger um
you know shape and um we're ableto put in wet baths, so you
could get everything you neededwithin a really small footprint
and then hook it up to your RAV4and take off.

Right, that's cool and they're beautiful.
The craftsmanship Talk a littlebit about that Because that,
like I said, I had a Coleman.
I bought a Coleman camperduring COVID which was
phenomenal.
I think a lot of people did thatand obviously the RV industry

(24:24):
boomed at that time, right, andwhen I was one of those that
added to that boom and thefamily and I traveled, you know,
ohio and it was great just tobe able to get out of the house,
right, we definitely got agreat return on investment on
that.
But we definitely got a greatreturn on investment on that.
But when I get inside, itwasn't really built with quality
.
Honestly, nothing againstColeman.

(24:44):
A lot of the campers are likethis just shoddy.
If you moved one way or bumpedthis, something would fall off.
But when you look at the newcamps, I mean these are wood.
We're talking real wood in thecraftsmanship.
So talk just a little bit aboutthat.
Was that because of the Amishinfluence?
Because we know that they'rewell known for top-notch craft.

So a couple different levels, right.
Those first units that I sawthat were being built out in
Indiana, um, you know they hadwooden floors, wooden sidewalls.
You know, skin the roof withaluminum and skin the sides with
fiberglass, but there werewooden in their infrastructure
and the cabinets were MDF.
Well, when we started workingum down in sugar Creek with the

(25:33):
Amish, you know there is thatfurniture, rich tradition, and
we're going to bring in realwood cabinetry.
And while we started with somewooden walls on the sidewalls
and the floor for theinfrastructure and whatnot, we
also said you know what, we arepeople of integrity and we want

(25:54):
to build with integrity and wewant to build things that last.
And so we started looking atcomposites.
And then, you know, when I leftnew camp, we'd been using cup
composite um sidewalls, floors,roofs for for several years.
So now you're not dealing withthe rot that a lot of the
traditional stick and tins areUm.

(26:15):
So, yeah, you're bringing itand then you're fusing it.
So, right, I can't remember howI used to always say it, but we
would take European designs andfuse it with Amish
craftsmanship.
So we would take all the sleeklines, we take the composite
materials and then we bring inthe beautiful cabinetry and just
make a real premium product.
You know, something to reallybe proud of.

Yeah, boy, yeah, that sounds, that sounds like a
winner right there Combiningthose two.
So, scott, let's, let's talk alittle bit about your leadership
.
So you, in the culture that youbuilt at New Camp, how many
employees did you have when youguys were in kind of your high
time there?

Yeah, we had crested just over 200.

Okay, that's a lot of humans to be responsible for
right.

Yeah, there was a sort of a running joke.
You know that I wanted to knoweverybody's names, but there was
probably a good 30 or 40.
I just didn't know, so it washey, how you doing.
And that's where some of thatleadership comes in, Right,
Because you need to caregenuinely.
And the question is can youcare genuinely if you don't

(27:25):
actually know who they are?
So a little bit of a struggle,a little bit of a balance to
achieve there Something Iabsolutely worked on, but yeah.

How did you build a culture of success?
I know you guys probably wentthrough some, some difficult
times, you know.
How did you build resiliencewith the team?
How did you cultivate a cultureof growth and opportunity?

Yeah, I'd say, first and foremost, I was never
alone.
I guess the patriarch whofounded Pleasant Valley,
teardrop Trailers with JoeMullet, former Amish minister,
just a shepherd's heart, just afantastic guy.
And then, of course, there wasother leaders along the way that
helped supplement the journey.
But one thing that I guess sortof evolved in me over the years

(28:18):
, you know, coming out ofacademia, using my analytical
and assessment tools and thesystems that were provided, you
know I was able to do things,that little guy.
But in those first few years Irealized, you know, something's
more important than the product,cause I was always like, you
know, I had the product, product, product, that's.
That's what's going to win itand what wins it is people.

(28:40):
And it really made me, you know, reflect and develop the idea I
people matter most.
And you know the level of care.
When you tell and show yourpeople that you care, then they
care and now you're caring forthem, they're caring for the

(29:00):
company and you're all caringabout the product because you're
caring about the end user.
And I think that level of careis infectious, right, when you
feel wanted you act in adifferent way, right, the level
of care instills trust, whichthen creates an environment

(29:21):
where there's psychologicalsafety which, um, you know,
really enables or empowersomebody to take the autonomy
that they're granted and to actwith confidence.
So you've heard all thesethings and it really is a domino
effect, and sometimes thedominoes can fall in different
ways.

(29:41):
For me, it was really just ajourney of discovering that
people matter more than profit,than product, than you know
possessions or it doesn't matterwhat it is, you know, life's
about people, they're the driver.
Talk a little about the successLike hey, you know, the success

(30:04):
was, you know, largely in partto the products and the
community.
Well, I always thought it was aproduct and it actually is the
community.
The community can kill things,it can propel things inside.
It's the same.

People can propel the growth.
You're the fuel to the fire.
I might start the fire andpeople start hollering up and
getting warm, but they're theway that I run my business, or
at least I try.
Certainly that was an evolutionover time.
Running a business, a marketingagency, 16 years take a risk or
fail, but being open andlearning from it.
And that's really what I'vedone.

(31:07):
Asking for 360 feedback andreally being genuine and earnest
about it and then taking thatfeedback and taking action.
That's what the employees wantto see A lot of times.
They just want to be heard,they just want to be noticed and
it's it's time, right, it'sit's time.
So how do you devote that time?
And obviously, two 300 peopleyou're not going to be able to.

(31:30):
as much as anybody would want toknow John and Susie and
everybody's name and theirfamily and you know what they
love to do know John and Susieand everybody's name and their
family and what they love to do.
It's just not feasible, right,but the caring piece is feasible
.

Were there any strategies that?

you put into place that related to that caring
piece.

I don't know if I'd call them strategies per se,
but it was.
Yeah, I think I had to be veryintentional with my time.
I would actually get on mycalendar and schedule time to
walk out in the shop.
You know, hey, go visit lineone or go visit the mezzanine,
go visit the repair shop, gohobnob down with the marketing
team.
And you know, authenticity issuper important.

(32:14):
But just because I'mintentionally forcing myself to
go somewhere doesn't mean thatonce I'm there I'm not authentic
, right?
So I think, number one, beingintentional about that, you know
, visiting.
And then the second thing wasreally just sort of like
reinforcing it with myself,reinforcing the idea of people

(32:35):
do matter most.
People do matter most.
And you know, because you cangrab onto do matter, most people
do matter most.
And you know, because you cangrab onto anything and it's
great for a season, and then youfind something new and you grab
onto that and you grab ontothat.
But this is timeless.
It really is so reinforcing thattruth, that eternal truth,
through different voices.
And you know there's servantleadership voices uh, greenleaf

(32:57):
uh.
And you know there's servantleadership voices, greenleaf,
modern.
You know Cynic Maxwell.
And you know, just talking andlearning more about, maybe, the
scientific elements of empathy,where it's not just feeling bad
for somebody or understandingwhat they're going through, but
going that next level and saying, okay, I get it, how can I help
you?
Next level and saying, okay, Iget it, how can I help you?

(33:21):
Like that's the last part ofbeing empathetic that is so
often left out, like beingsympathetic is not anywhere
close.
That's having pity on somebodyor oh, it's too bad but I don't
know.
So reinforcing some of thoseprinciples, just through
different voices and hearing itpackaged in a different way, and
keeping that truth fresh allthe time.

(33:42):
So I was keeping myself honest,you know, to that end.

Yeah, I love it being intentional, scheduling
and really mastering theircalendar and setting aside those
blocks, those chunks of timeand again it's time, but the day
goes by quick and if you don'thave a cadence right, and again

(34:10):
you have to show up in anauthentic way, like you said.
But the first step is justbeing intentional, knowing that
this is important.
Yes, I have 15 other things Ineed to do and I'm sure as CEO,
you wore a lot of hats, butpeople matter most.
I need to go out there, I needto be seen and I need to see my
people and talk with them andlet them know that I care.

(34:33):
So I'm sure that that was ahuge part of the success and I
appreciate that that servantleadership, which, which you
went to school for as well I'minterested to learn more about
the program at Columbia that youwent through right Was that?

Yeah, it was actually Columbia Southern.

Columbia Southern.
Yeah, I wish it was Columbia.
Yeah, sorry.

No, it's fine.
So, like you know, lifetimelearner, what's next, what's
natural, what makes fit sense,the best fit, what can elevate
my thinking?
And I had an opportunity tostart on a doctoral degree, so I
started some of the courseworkand then, as I entered into, you
know, the writing phase, youknow as chapter one, that's when

(35:16):
the house fire started andthat's when my kids got the
diseases and inevitably I wasunable to finish it.
You only have a certain periodof time before the door closes.
But what drew me obviously wasthat, you know, I was in this
environment down in Sugar Creek,ohioio, and my thesis was

(35:37):
actually on, you know, amishmanufacturing and how that, I
guess, played into servantleadership, because I think it's
a different dynamic in anyatmosphere that you go to.
So the principles remain thesame, but how is it accomplished
?
In central ohio, los Angeles,you know El Paso, texas, it can

(36:01):
look differently but beingaccomplished differently.
So no, I was just I was, it wasjust the next natural step for
me to pursue.
And you know I I have beenmulling, you know, is this
something I want to start overwith again?
Or is there something elsethat's related and close,
because, again, I do want tokeep pursuing new knowledge and

(36:23):
new understanding.
But yeah, no, I gave it a goodgo for a few years and I've kept
what I've written Good to lookback on.
But we'll see if I resurrect itor not.
I do like to resurrect things.

You do yeah and good to look back on yeah, but
we'll see if I resurrect it ornot.
I do like to resurrect things.
You do yeah and you do likeunderserved.
It's kind of the I don't knowrocky story, if you will just
starting with little, or nothingand making something great out
of it.
I love that, that sense ofaccomplishment not just coming
in to a winner, but makingsomething a winner.
Speaking of which so you havesome big news to share You're

(37:02):
starting your own business.
Awaken RV.

Yes, yeah.
So you know, several months agoI stepped away from New Camp,
something I honestly thought I'dnever do.
I thought it was just I'm goingto ride into the sunset with
New Camp and live happily everafter.
Funny how that works right yeahit just is, and you know
there's a couple of things there, right?
I woke up one day and I was likeI'm not having fun and that

(37:28):
might sound shallow, but thebottom line is I had, I was just
having a blast for so long, andso I sort of dug into that a
little bit and I was having aconversation with ownership and,
you know, at the end of the dayI just I came to the
realization that there's somethings I want to do that I'm not
going to be able to do here,and so I made the decision to

(37:48):
leave.
And it's funny.
We talked about calendars,right, and you know, have a good
, nice, tight calendar, makesure we get everything
accomplished and have that goodcadence.
Well, the last several monthshave been sort of you know, I
don't know what to call it allover the place Right.
But what I've decided to do issomething that was very similar

(38:10):
in some of the other you know, Iguess previous experiences.
I had started with theteardrops.
I had started with theteardrops, you know, from 500 to
5,000, when we were in it forseveral years.
We pivoted and looked at thetruck camper industry, which had
a very strong community aspectto it and was also very dry, and
so teardrops were sort of justunder the radar.

(38:36):
Truck campers were not, butthey were white and brown and
blocky Excuse me Straight lines,and I was like you know what,
let's liven this thing up, let'sbring in that great cabinetry,
let's bring in the Europeanmodern aesthetics, let's do
everything composite.

(38:56):
So we did that and you know wewent from an absolute nobody to
you know second and thirdlargest truck hamper supplier
there was.
So what I realized was I needto find a new niche and I want
that niche to have thosesimilarities.
I want there to be a cult-likefollowing, I want a strong

(39:20):
community and I want this nicheto have something that's been
unredeemed, something that isjust ripe for going after.
And I was introduced to themolded fiberglass trailer, I
guess industry or niche, andit's the scamps of the world.

(39:43):
The casitas Oliver's thepremium product in the space,
but as I assessed it I saw a lotof vacancies from form to
function and even the financeelement.
Here in the US there was nobodycatering the middle of the
market.
You had Scamp and Casita.
Two companies have been aroundfor decades and basically you

(40:09):
know owning that whole marketselling things between $ and
$40,000.
And then Oliver.
They've been around 17, 18years and they're making a good
deal less but they're premiumproducts.
But they start maybe around 70and go up to $110,000.

(40:32):
That's a huge chunk.
So there's this $40,000 gap andI'm like there's a massive
opportunity.
You don't need to be a rocketscientist to see it right.
And then, looking at the form,a lot of the form are very
capsule and pill-shaped andthey're all white.
And I'm coming from sort ofthese European-inspiredans and

(40:54):
you know, full of windows anddifferent sleek lines and and
there just wasn't any of it andI'm like why not they all have
like a belt line?
Why?
I was like you know what I'mgoing to investigate, that I
want to.
I want to do somethingdifferent in this space.
And then when you look at thefunction, you know I want to

(41:15):
bring something that's just notthere.
So right now, if you look at it, there are trailers from 13
feet to 25 feet.
If you look across all thedifferent suppliers, nobody's
doing anything above 25 feet.
Why?
And then, within the units thatare currently being made,
nobody's offering something likea dry bath or like a beautiful

(41:38):
front picture window thatstretches up onto the roof.
Why?
And frankly, asking why?
And sometimes just out ofcuriosity, right, and sometimes
because I think I might knowsomething but I don't have any
real standing to ask thequestion.
Asking dumb questions hasreally helped me a lot.
So that's why I decided to lookat that niche and pursue it.

(42:05):
So it's been a little bit of ajourney, right.
Once I figured out where Iwanted to go, I had to start,
you know, calling on some of mynetwork and figuring out how am
I getting started?
Along the way, I've come acrossthree different engineers.
One spent a lot of time inEurope, did a large number of

(42:31):
RVs here in the US.
In the early 2000s he startedthe project with me.
He's still, uh, you know,working walking alongside as an
ancillary partner.
You know I was able to dip intosomebody who works at Google.
He's been there for over adecade.
Um worked on the balloonproject and, um, he actually

(42:51):
owns one of the high end fiberfiberglass trailers, the oliver.
He also actually owns a newcamp and that's how I met him,
so he has interesting yeah, andum, you know, avid avid camper
and I just said yeah, let's talk.

What's missing, right, what's?

missing for you.
So then you know, he was big,he was able to provide
tremendous feedback.
And then I had a um.
So then you know, he was ableto provide tremendous feedback.
And then I had a you know, aformer employee of Winnebago,
and he was able to provide a lotof expertise in ways that you
know those gentlemen didn't.
So we had this collective thatwe're able to start with with.

(43:38):
And you know, we, just a coupleof weeks ago, we're able to get
our exterior shell milled out byan aerospace technology firm
down in North Carolina and getit shipped up to our fiberglass
facility, and we're working ongetting that converted into a
mold.
We've got quite a number ofmolds to make after that.
And that's the external mold.
We're going to have an interiorhull as well.
So then there's the interior,and then we're going to have an
interior hull as well.
So then there's the interior,and then we're going to do

(43:59):
something again, somethingthat's not really being done in
the space, and we're going tomake individual components
within the interior mold.
That allows for flexibility.
So now I don't have to own 25different types of molds to
change a floor plan.
I have one mold, but then I canchange the pieces and parts and
this kind of dinette, thesekinds of this kind of bed set up

(44:21):
, so on and so forth.
So a lot of fun there.
Engineering team um, myfiberglass partner is he's
located outside of Fort Wayne,indiana, and then I've started
to form my team here, myproduction team.
You know, we're not buildinganything.
Probably for another month orso we'll we'll get into the

(44:41):
first prototype Um, but I've gotmy finance and compliance guy,
got an operational consultant,and then I've got a ton of
people just cheering me on umformer dealers, suppliers, just
cheering me on um former dealers, suppliers, former partners,
you know stepping up to say youknow what can I do?
So it's, it's been a greatjourney A lot of unknowns, um

(45:04):
again learning a lot new space,but I think that some of the
lessons I've learned over theyears I'll be able to lie and
avoid those pitfalls.
One thing I say is you know,hey, a forward failing observant
leader.
And the thing is, when you fail, fail forward because when you
actually stand up you're alittle further ahead than where
you were, because you've learneda lesson that you didn't know

(45:27):
before.
So I think I'll be able toavoid some of those things that
you know, some of the rockytimes not that they are not
going to come here and there,but learned a lot over 17 years
in this space, so really excitedabout what this is and what
we're going to be able tointroduce.
That's awesome.

Well, first off, congrats.

Well, thank you, you know.

I can see the excitement in your face.
You know it takes me back towhen I started my business.
Face, you know I it takes meback to when I started my
business.
You know, you see a problem andyou have an idea of how to
solve it.
You know, or you see anunderserved market or industry
or an area and you knowgeographically and you're like,
okay, I'm going to go there andI'm going to work my tail off
and create something reallyspecial and hopefully it works

(46:12):
out.
But good for you, if, ifanybody could do this.
If I'm a betting man, which I'mnot, but if I were, I'd put my
dollars on you because you'vebeen in the industry, you love a
challenge, you love learning,you love building a great
culture, you appreciate andrespect the community piece.

(46:32):
I think that's important forsomebody to come into something
new.
It almost reminds me ofSubaru-ish right Probably the
same types of people.
Absolutely, you know you gotta,you gotta be honest, you gotta
be authentic, right the message,the marketing and the product
you know and it sounds likeyou're doing everything the
right way.
And, interesting enough, allthese you know.

(46:54):
I look at your path.
It's been windy right, but it'sled you to this and it sounds
like it's going to be incredible.
What did your wife say?
I'm curious.
You have this very successful,stable job five kids and you
come home and say hey babe, uh,you know, I think I'm gonna, I'm

(47:15):
gonna quit and start my ownthing.
What was that conversation like?

Yeah, um, you know , again, I walked through it, um
, with her.
The same way, I walked throughit with the owner at new camp
and it was, uh, a fewconversations right, and it's
just like, hey, this is what I'mfeeling Really.
Why, what are you going to do?
How are you going to do it?
We can't leave, you know.
You know, and hey, I could goto Indiana.

(47:41):
We're not going to Indiana, weit's Ohio or Florida or nothing.
Oh, you know so you know Istarted creating some guardrails
and you know I don't want touproot my family per se.
I didn't want to go to Indianaper se.
You know just throwing theoptions out there, it's just.
But at the end of the day, she,she put the fear aside and

(48:01):
she's like no, scott, I wantthis for you.
She's like you deserve this.
You know, for everything thatyou've ever done and the way
that you think and the way thatyou care about people, you need
to just start fresh, um, with abrand new thing and make it
happen again.
And um, she, you know she's, uh, a proud wife.

(48:25):
She, you know, I say thathumbly Um, I, I reread some of
the cards she writes me um everynow and again.
Or I see my Facebook memoriesand I see these posts that she's
made you know, I'm so proud ofyou.
You're this and that and allthat kind of stuff and and I
never really let that registeron a day-to-day basis.

(48:45):
But you know, hearkening backon some of those conversations,
you know she was grabbing thepom poms and just saying, hey,
go for it.
So, yeah, I mean it's great,Cause you don't want to fight
your family on something.
You know, look I, I spent allmy time either at work or my
family or with my family.
My hobby is my family, right.
So you know there's gotta beharmony and alignment and we're

(49:09):
going together forward.

Yeah, that's awesome, man.
Good for you.
You gotta have that support athome home.
And when I tell my story, myjourney, my wife is the one that
pushed.
She planted the seed and said,hey, you did this for somebody
else, why don't you do it onyour own?
I believe you can do that andyou know to be an entrepreneur
and to put yourself out thereand your family right, you're

(49:32):
putting food on the table.
You got to have that support.
You got to have that strongfoundation at home.
So I figured that was going tobe the answer, but I wanted to
hear it anyhow, and I love thenotes.
My wife and I joke.
When we first met she would andearly on in the marriage she
would leave me like literalwritten notes.
She's not real tech savvy,which is great, and I've kept

(49:54):
many of them.

And.

I actually have them around in my office so that
every now and then I'll seethem.
I'm like, oh, it's just a nicepiece of inspiration, and we
talk recently and I'm like Imiss those notes.
Feel free to leave me one hereand there.
It doesn't have to be a novel,but I like them.

(50:16):
So it's cool that you recognizethem, appreciate them and go
back and reflect on them,Because they are great pieces of
inspiration, especially as thisjourney is going to take you
into some unknowns, which you'renot afraid of for sure.
So I appreciate just you as aperson, the way that you operate

(50:39):
, and it's funny, like with allthe academia, and the way that
you grew up.
You know you would think thatyou would be this very tight and
calculated person and there isthat analytical side that I can
definitely see.
But uh, you know you're a,you're an optimist, you love
positivity and you love peopleand you're very authentic and I

(50:59):
can just it just oozes through.
I can see that you're just acaring guy.
I'm blessed that we got to meeteach other and have this
conversation and I'm superexcited for you and this journey
and I'm going to be watchingfrom the sidelines and, who
knows, it might be time for meto end up with another camper.
I love, I miss it.
There's a lot to it, it's a wayof life and we needed to buy a

(51:23):
truck and you got to winterizeit and summarize it and store it
somewhere and there's a lot toit, but to get out on your own
and just go, especially we haveso many beautiful national parks
and local parks that havecampers.
I mean the places we went Iprobably would have never gone
had we not had a camper.
And the people, everyone.

(51:44):
It is a very tight-knitcommunity.
Strangers you'll meet tons ofstrangers and some of them
you'll become good friends with.
And there's nothing likesitting around a fire making
s'mores for your kids that theydon't eat.
Right, exactly, you know 15different ingredients and you
know, sweating over the fire andthen take one bite and like I'm

(52:07):
good, I'm going to bed.
But no, this has been greatScott.
Any, any wisdom you want toleave with the audience I know
you're a lifelong learner Issomebody who's young and getting
into management, or haspotential or an opportunity to

(52:28):
get into a leadership role.
Any guidance, advice, staplebooks or podcasts that you would
you want to share?

Yeah, there's so much right.
So I guess I'll give you justtwo things that more recently
for me right?
A friend of mine just came backfrom a leadership summit and he
took a picture of a slide whenit was up there and he said I
saw this and I thought of youand it was.
The answer is always yes untilit is no Right.

(53:01):
So the part of being apragmatic optimist is that it's
not blind hope, it's calculatedrisk and it's pushing through
Right.
But it's always going to be,this is going to work and I'm
going to make it work.
And you keep doing that untilyou hit the dead end and say,
well, I guess it wasn't yes,right, sometimes you'll get that

(53:23):
.
The second one is a bookcreating things that matter, by
David Edwards, and you know he'sa professor, a researcher, a
scientist and at the end of theday he basically is saying hey,
look, you know, when you'recreating and innovating,
creativity is about embracinguncertainty and pursuing

(53:46):
curiosity and challenging thestatus quo.
And you know, doing that for mewas really enabled by, you know
, having all thoseinterdisciplinary studies
coupled with my life experiences.
I wouldn't tell anybody to signup for my life, but it's been

(54:08):
fantastic and it's fashioned me,obviously, into who I am.
So, yeah, I just like embracingthe uncertainty, pursuing
curiosity and challenging thenorm.
That's how you're going tocreate something that matters,
something that lasts, somethingthat brings you passion.

We'll leave it at that.
Alrighty, that was well said.
Thank you, my friend.

Thank you, absolutely no, thank you.

Thank you for listening's my pleasure For show
notes, resources and tosubscribe to the weekly
Motivational Monday newsletter.
Please visit ToddBertsch.
com and don't forget to followus on social media at the Bolt
with Todd B for more inspiration.
Remember, real change doesn'thappen overnight.
Start small, stay consistentand watch as your growth unfolds

(55:12):
.
See you next time.

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