April 9, 2025 • 42 mins
In this episode of the BBB's 'A Heart For Business Lane and Fred speak with Tyler Neidert about his construction business and how he got started. In the second half their guest is Cateri Wilson who started her own home health care company after many years of working for others.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to A Heart for Business. I'm Fred Lafever and
along with Lane Months, President CEO the Better Business Bureau
of Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan, we'll highlight a local
business weekly. You'll discover why these small local business owners
have a passion for what they do and why the
(00:26):
Better Business Bureau has a Heart for Business. Now here's
Lane Months.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well, good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, folks. Thank
you for joining the program today. This is episode nine
of A Heart for Business and this is our first segment.
We have two guests today. As always, the first guest
is Tyler Nider. Am I pronouncing that last name right, Tyler?
That's correct? And of course I'm in the studio with
the legendary Fred la Fever and we are recording from
(00:53):
the WSPD flagship headquarters in downtown Toledo next to mud
Hens Stadium. Thanks everyone for joining. Good morning, good afternoon,
and good evening. Tyler, good morning, guys, Thanks for having me. Yeah,
so thanks for coming on the program. What's the name
of your company?
Speaker 3 (01:07):
My company's night or Construction and you're based out of
where Fort Jennings, Ohio.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Fort Jennings out of Ohio. So you know, this is
a heart for business. So what we're going to talk
about today, Tyler, is your origin story, how you got
into the business, Why you got into the business. You're
going to tell us a little bit about it, and
then you're going to give the listeners some advice when
hiring contractors and remodeling style contractors, as well as some
other things that come up from Fred's questions or my questions.
(01:32):
Are you ready? Are you ready as I'll ever be?
Have you ever done a podcast before?
Speaker 3 (01:36):
I haven't.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Well, then you're not as ready as you'll ever be.
By the time you're done, you'll be a little bit
more ready.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
You fine. All you have to do is all you
have to do is answer the questions. And the first
one is where the hell is?
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Fort Jennings is a tiny little poduc town outside of Lima.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Ah. Okay, so is it between Lima and Solina because
I kind of remember it from my days working radio
in Solina, Ohio.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Oh yeah, it's somewhere in between Lima and Delvs. Okay,
all right, off the beaten path a little.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Do you operate just in that area then, or are
you operating have you spread out?
Speaker 3 (02:12):
We've spread out quite a bit. We cast a pretty
good net. We've been all over to eight to alger Waynsfield,
We've been to Finley quite a bit. We've been to
Saint Mary's and then Ottaville Van Wert. Okay, we're kind
of all over the place.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
So a lot of people don't know. But our Better
Business Bureau territory does cover twenty four Ohio counties, or
excuse me, twenty one counties in Ohio, three in Michigan,
and that gets us south of Hancock County, so down
in the linem area all the counties surrounding out to
the Indiana line. So there's a lot of southern counties
that people don't think about because they think Toledo. But
really we cover more than that. So I'm super happy
(02:49):
to have some of my lower my Southern region businesses.
And that's one reason why I'm so glad to have
you here today.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
I'm happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Now, you name the company after yourself, either that or
you named it after your dad, which is the case.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
But I guess technically named it after myself.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Okay, So are you the did you start it or
did you come from the construction firm somewhere else and
decided at some point I want to do this under
my name.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
I pretty well started this from the ground up. From
the ground up, yeah, from about six years ago. I
started this, and I got into the finished carpentry site
first and then slowly took on as much as I
could when I could. Okay, just kept growing and okay,
So were you working for someone else six years ago?
Speaker 1 (03:32):
No, because you look like a kind of a young guy.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
A little bit.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Yeah, So how old were you when you started this?
Speaker 3 (03:38):
I was twenty four, all right, So well, while you
really are getting started early then yes, I think I
was technically twenty three getting ready to turn twenty four
when I started this.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yeah, I mean, so, how long have you been doing it? Then?
Speaker 1 (03:50):
A total total six years?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
And you're and you say you started out in a differentult.
It's a little bit different now than it was when
you started, correct. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
That's the reason the Facebook page, I guess, is under
night It Woodworks on the name is because originally the
company was night It Woodworks. When I started this six
years ago, I was working a third shift factory job
at night, and then during the day I would go
out and do it trim or cabinets in a home
and then catch a little bit of sleep and go
back to work.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Woodworking is high precision construction, right like, talk about that
a little bit. How did you learn it?
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Experimenting on my own? Basically? That was how I really
got into it. I mean I I read every book
there is.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
You can be honest. You experimented on your customers projects. No, honestly,
I experimented.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
I'm just my dad's just would probably be the better
way to put my house in my dad's house.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Yeah? Why because it seems like such an odd thing.
You know, you get out of high school, you're doing
this job in the factory. But for some reason you
want to do what? Start working with wood?
Speaker 3 (04:56):
I love it, love it, can't get enough of it.
The challenge of it, I said, it's a high precision.
The finish carpentry side of things is very very craftsmen orientedy.
It's a high precision and it's a challenge, and I
love that daily challenge. No home is the same. Every
home is like a snowflake. There's no corner. Not one
corner in every house is the same. Might be forty
(05:18):
six degrees, might be forty five. I was in the
house that was thirty nine degrees, twenty three degrees, oh,
forty degrees. Yeah, all over the place. Nothing's ever the same,
and it's always it's always a unique challenge, a unique
trick that I get it every day I'm doing something new.
I hated factory life. You go in, you do the
same thing over and over. It's monotonous.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
It's mine. Yes.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
So I have met a lot of construction guys. I
was in the field for over two decades. And the
ones that do the finished carpentry, the high craftsmanship, ship,
the cabinets, the finish woodworking, even though they might change focus,
right and we can talk about that later, they never
get it out of their blood. No on Once they're
(05:57):
a high quality, high precision wood worker, it's always where
their heart is is That's still true.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
One hundred percent. I work with a home builder and
I do framing for his home editions, and he always
laughs when he comes in and sees something we're framing,
and he'll see you are a finished carpenter at heart.
I overbuild. I overbuild everything. I overdo everything. I make
it ten times stronger and better it needs to be.
(06:23):
And you know your cuts are probably pretty tight oh yes, yeah, Percyeah.
And we go in and we lay things out and
spend an hour laying out the layout for an addition,
a room edition, even if it's only got two hours
in it. We double check everything and he'll he'll come
in and say, man, you are a finished carpenter.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
You're gonna be that old guy that we had when
I first got her at w MH. His name was Leo,
and he built everything for the radio station when it
came to cabinets and all that kind of stuff, and
he built it to last. And we would always joke
about it how far it was that everything he built
was made out of wood, but it would last. The
CD case that that guy built for me in nineteen
(07:07):
eighty two is still in use today. You can't tear
it apart, you can't take it off the wall. It's
there forever. It's a permanent piece. Is there a satisfaction
in that.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
When you see that finished product and then you see
the look on a customer's face when they see it too,
that's the satisfaction right there. That's that's why we do it,
That's what we love.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
So when we talk about what was the term you used,
fine art, high art.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Well, high precision, high.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Precision, So most people don't know what that is. I know,
I don't know what that means. I'm thinking molding in
the corners and stuff. Give me a rundown of what
we would be talking about in a typical house. What
would that include.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Yeah, A lot of people think you just kind of
go in, you make a measurement, and walk out, cut
it and come back. So we have what it's simplified.
It's just called a miterter finder. But we have a
gauge that we can wrap around the corner and it'll
tell us what that exact degree is and what we
need to set our exact miter at the second part
of that, that's the most important part, is the saw.
(08:08):
Every saul, it doesn't matter who you buy it from,
whether it's a three hundred dollars sell from a box
store or a twelve hundred dollars KPEX festival, every single
one of them out of the box is not set
to be able to meet those miters. You have to
adjust that saul and every morning when we will get
on site and set up our saw, we have to
go through and zero that in. So, whether it's your
vertical ninety or your horizontal ninety, so that way you're
(08:30):
actually cutting that perfect let's say it's a forty three
and a half degree miter we have to make. If
your soul is out as zero, you're never going to
get that perfect miter.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
So am I to assume that not everybody goes through
all that all the time?
Speaker 2 (08:43):
For second, I can tell you from experience not even
so acceptable top acceptable tolerance and the end the listening audience,
the contractors in the audience will understand, but the tool
and die guys, the engineers, and the customers will be
surprised to hear this. If you can get a dollar
bill between the miter joints the forty five degree angle
(09:05):
minor joints around your windows and doors. In other words,
if there's enough of a gap to slip a dollar
bill in there, that's considered reasonable workmanship. Now when you yes, yeah,
so not for cabinets, though not for what Tyler started
his career. Okay, yeah, that's my So the normal remodeler
that doesn't have that background there, guys are going to
put it together. Even if there's a little bit of
(09:26):
a visible gap that's considered acceptable, even if it's not perfect,
not for the woodworkers. Correct, yes, yeah, so.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Do you are you mentoring people as you bring them
into the company also so that they have that same
fine tuned precision mindset that you do percent.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
I absolutely have to do that because I've got some
guys that I fired on that came from other companies
and I've got to I've got to break that old
habit out of them and that dollar bill and bring
them into my way of thinking. And it is a
a long process. I guess It's not something that I'm
gonna be able to do overnight. But I watch everything closely,
(10:05):
and I guide them along the way, and I give
the final okay on everything we do, and if it
ain't right, I'm gonna rip it out.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
So Tyler talk a little bit about that. And we've
talked about this, Fred and I have talked about this
on the program before, but I think it's worth repeating.
How hard or easy is it to find people with
that skill level these days?
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Next to impossible? That would probably be the best way
to put it. I got a great guy I hired
on who came from another company, and I'm slowly kind
of getting him into that mindset and he's doing really
good and taking into it because he kind of he
went to a he went to vantage over in the work,
you know what I mean for carpentry Career Tech school.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
And you know he he shares that love of this work.
You know, he agreed there's nothing else he'd do. So
he has that drive and that passion or the sign
of work like I do.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
So it's not just the skill, because you can teach
the skills, yes, how tom or how to saw all
that kind of stuff. It for you, it sounds like
it's the passion that you're bringing to its attitude mentality. Okay, yeah,
that is that's.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
The most important thing. You need to get up every
day and want to do these challenges because if this
isn't what you want to do, you're never going to
be able to meet my standards. Wow, fair enough, I'm
already resigning. It's not easy work. I mean you go
on uh you open up Facebook and you see these
(11:34):
videos that these guys just going and slapping trim in
and it looks like it's a twenty minute job and
you walk out and with some of the big home
builders that are doing multiple houses, that's kind of that
mentality too.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
You.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Oh, you're just slapping trim and it's not what we do.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
So let's let's change focus a little bit. So you
started the company yourself. You're a relatively young guy, but
you're in your you're in your thirties now, nine twenty nine.
We soon be Yeah, by the way, every month, actually
every decade was a little faster. When you get to
be my age or Fred's age, the decades are only
two years long.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
So you start off young, you're self taught. You do
the finished carpeting, but you can't really and I'm prompting
the question here, you can't really make a living just
doing that, can you. It's tough. It's very tough because
there aren't enough people that can pay and want that
level of quality in their homes. So what does Nier
(12:28):
Construction do now? Besides that? I know you still do that,
but what else?
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Honestly, we're into a little bit of everything now. At
this point, there's such a great need for contractors that
people feel like they can trust. And so when we
finally when we do a job with a client, they
ask me, you know, what do I do for everything?
Whether it is something that I do or not, They
want me to help them get that figured out because
(12:55):
they feel like they can trust me, and they can
and I make sure they can. So I have a
who needs excavation work done, and I have a foundation
excavation guy that I work with a lot, so I
have set up that relationship for her. Well you got
a guy, Yes, I've got the guy, you know. So
we kind of do a little bit of everything, but
(13:15):
as far as our actual scope of work, we mostly
do the framing and then so like on our billboards
and stuff, we say new construction remodeling. Our Facebook page
says new construction remodeling and then premium sighting. So there's
an awesome product that we work with for sightings called
LP Smart Site. It's a wood based product and it
(13:37):
has wood trim, it has wood clap board and batten,
and it's basically finished carpentry on the exterior of the home.
And that's that kind of level of thought and precision
and work has to go into that product to be
able to make it last. Because it does have a
really good warranty and that's why we use it and
back it. But it takes that finished carpentry mentality to
(13:59):
be able to do it. Do it well, so that's
why we got into it.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
So you're not just doing like interior kitchen and bath,
you're doing you're doing additions. We do ye whole room editions. Yeah,
and it's that's very difficult. I mean, and I don't
want to I'm not picking on the new builders. That's
they do a great job too, but remodeling construction is
so much more difficult than new construction. Correct. You have
to be flexible and deal with situations that you don't
(14:23):
you know, things are not plumb, they're not square never.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Yeah, we call it rolling with the punches. That's what
we do every day. That's all we can do. Nothing's
ever the same. And you know, we will have a
print going into these jobs, and for the new addition side,
that print is wonderful. But at the end of the day,
when somebody goes in to measure that house to set
up this print, you're measuring drywall to drywall. And that's
(14:46):
the assumption there is that that's a half inch of drywall. Now,
we've gone into houses before and it was a half
inch of drywall with five eight drywa underneath it. It
was drywall with plaster underneath it. So your measurement. If
there's two walls like that is now an inch inch
and a half off. And that may not sound like
a lot, but at the end of the day, when
you're trying to build something where it is smooth and
the transitions are the same, you know what I mean,
(15:08):
you want to be able to walk in this room
and feel like you're walking into just another room in
your house, not something that was added on.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
It's weird because I've been in houses that were under
reconstruction or remodeling and they were fairly new homes. I mean,
these homes were not even ten years old. And one
of the things I noticed in talking to the guy
who was in remodeling the kitchen of just a ten
year old home was that the cabinets were off.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Oh yeah, there were.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Gaps, And I said, was this like this before? I said, yeah,
they sold it as a new house ten years ago
looking like that, And I just didn't get that that
they weren't doing the kind of work that you're talking about.
And one of the things you said was trust. There's
a story actually on a local TV station right now
of a local company that's being sued in four different
(15:55):
counties in our area for a lot of money, for
taking some payments and not finishing the work at all.
How important is that trust issue then for you down
in your area.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
It's incredibly important and something I'd like to add to
that though. The most important thing is we both have
to trust each other going into this job. It can't
just be a one sided relationship. It's tricky, but keeping
that relationship where we both feel like we can trust
each other and depend upon each other going into this.
If I feel comfortable with you and you feel comfortable
(16:29):
with me, we're going to get through this. We're going
to make a great product and you are going to
be happy with it, and I'm going to be happy
with the end. And that's the most important thing there.
But I mean, there's good contractors out there and there's
a lot of bad contractors out there, and it's so
hard to figure out who is who.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Yeah, well we help better Business Bureau helps, I hope.
So every now and then one does slip past the
goalie and they can be a good company for a
long time. It just does happen, and then they go
off the rails. There's a change in ownership. The sun
takes over, somebody takes over, they don't carry on the
same traditions. But sometimes a bad company gets taken over
and they're better. But it is tough. What would you
(17:07):
tell consumers? So you want the relationship of trust, it
has to be both ways. How can they how can
they tease that out? How can they be sure they're
getting somebody that they can trust because they're working on
their you're working on their home, their most important asset.
What can consumers what can the listening audience do to
(17:28):
make sure they're getting somebody that they can trust.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
I think the most important thing is to trust your gut.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
For one.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
You know, if if you get a bad feeling right away,
if if you're hesitant with that person from the start,
it's only going to get worse. You know, it's just
going to continue.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Because a little voice in your little voice.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
If something's off right away, you know, and they could
be a perfectly good contractor. But again we're getting back
to that. You both have to feel comfortable with each other.
You both have to work good together. Your personalities kind
of have to match. You have to trust each other because,
like you said, this is your home, this is where
you feel safe, this is your biggest asset. Your biggest expense.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Yeah, it's just like picking somebody out to do your
wealth management. Yeah, or to buy a car from. Yep,
you might go to the same dealership, but Joe is
just not a guy you connect with, and Bob and
the same dealership as the guy you actually connect with,
and you end up buying the car from there. But
it's that personal connection that you make. Right.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Do you have a portfolio? Do you show people pictures
of your past work? Facebook? Facebook? Facebook? And what about references?
Should people try to get references from prior customers?
Speaker 3 (18:38):
One hundred percent. I've got references on BBB and i
have references on Facebook. I've got a list of customers
that have gave me their phone number obviously because I've
been work with them and they say, you got someone
on the fence, you haven't called me.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
I mean, slick marketing is helpful. Obviously Slick's not a
great word, but I mean marketing helps businesses. But I
just want to tell you know, encourage the audience. Do
try to get that relationship. Do try to vet with references?
It makes so much of a difference. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Yeah, One thing I want to question you about before
we before we finish this segment. The attitude that you have,
all right, it seems well old fashioned, okay, yeah, you know,
and it also seems small town. So where does all
of this come from?
Speaker 3 (19:25):
I guess I come from an old fashioned style family.
And then obviously I grew up in a very small town,
you know, I did. Yeah, Jennings is small. I was
a class of forty that ended up turning into a
class of thirty and we were the biggest class to
go through school.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
At the time.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
So yeah, class of sixty, I feel you. Yeah, yeah,
really really small town. So but you know, when you
grow up with a handful of people, you know everybody,
and then you're in a small town, you know everybody
and you know everything about everybody, so you get that
(20:00):
you can So when you know everything about everybody, I
guess you know you can trust them, right, Yeah. So
that's why I guess that's so big to me is
getting to know someone so that way you can get
to know me as well, and we can work with
each other, and then you are going to be a
lifelong customer for me, you know, and we can work
with each other for years to come.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
That's the way to do it.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
That's one of the things I liked about Tyler was
he did seem to have that old school attitude about
conducting business and it's not that easy to find, so yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
And it's refreshing. If you want to touch base with them,
they do have a Facebook page. You can go to
Facebook and look up KNIGHTERT Woodworks. All right, KNIGHTERT Woodworks.
If you want to get a hold of it. You
have a phone number that they can call.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Yes, yep, that's on the Facebook page as well.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Okay, you don't remember it off any I.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Call it. Freddy never calls that phone number.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
It's a four one nine six zero five seven three
eight six. That is my cell I carry.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
We know you didn't write that downs, So just go
to Facebook and KNIGHTERT Woodwork.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Tyler, if you want to send me some pictures of
a recent project that you had a good, good experience
with the customer and everything, BBB, we'll do something with
that on our social media. Sounds good. Yeah, we'd love
to have you back sometime later in the year as well. Okay, yeah,
I'd love to be back.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Thanks you. We'll be back with our second segment just
a moment.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Did you know our area has over forty thousand businesses.
Some are old, some are new, but they all have
a story to tell about why they sell, how someone
took a chance once upon a time, someone with a
heart for business. Hi, this is Lane Monts, the host
of the Better Business Bureaus Heart for Business podcast. We
know a thing or two about our area's companies, after all,
we've been keeping tabs on them since nineteen nineteen. Join
(21:43):
me in Toledo radio legend Fred la Fever every week
as our BBB superheroes tell their origin story and share
a few industry secrets along the way. Welcome back everyone,
thanks for sticking with us to the B side. Our
guest today for the second part of this episode of
A Heart for Businesses, Terry Wilson Ka Terry, Welcome to
the program.
Speaker 4 (22:03):
Hello, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Is this your first time in a studio like this,
Yes it is. Well, it's Fred's the King. That's the thing.
You got to remember.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Nothing to be afraid of. Your only talking to Lane
and myself, so it's no big deal.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Welcome, Thank you. Are you nervous.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
I'm okay. I'm somewhere in the middle.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Yeah, you look all right. You look like you're doing okay.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
You'll be fun. You'll get so used to this you
want to fill in for me on Monday morning.
Speaker 4 (22:27):
Oh that sounds fun.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
I have to tell you, the people that are appearing
on the podcast, they're starting to get calls from the
TV stations and radio and they're starting to like appear
in more places. So I hope that happens for you
too if you walk down. So okay, so let's let's
talk a little bit about Terry Wilson and then we'll
talk a little bit about your company. So just tell
the listeners a little bit where you came from and
how you got to where you are today.
Speaker 5 (22:49):
Okay, So it all started when I was nine. I
knew I wanted to become a nurse.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Fred just uh, we're going to need more time.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
So it's such out. It's going to be a long time,
I see already's going all the way back to nine
years when I was born.
Speaker 4 (23:07):
That's when I knew I wanted to take care of
people before a living.
Speaker 5 (23:10):
And so then I graduated high school and by twenty one,
I became an LPN. I did that for three years
and then I became an RIN. I moved out to
Kansas City to go to rin School, graduated from there,
and I did a lot of nursing work. I worked
in nursing homes, hospitals, I see you, mental health hospitals.
(23:31):
I did hospice, and then I finished out in home
care my last nine years. And after that I decided, hey,
I still want to take care of people.
Speaker 4 (23:39):
But now my back hurts.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
That's a lot. You don't look old enough. Maybe that's
just good genetics, and congratulations if it is. But you
don't look old enough to have all that experience.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
So well, thank you. I'm pushing forty.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
So yes, are you pushing it back or pushing it forward?
Speaker 3 (23:56):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (23:56):
I wish I could push it back, but I guess
we're going forward.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Okay. I ate to go all the way back to
the beginning, but most kids at nine, Yeah, I want
to be a firefighter, I want to be a cop.
I want to be a doctor. I want to be
a nurse, and those things all fall by the wayside.
What was it about nine year old Katerry that stuck
to that idea that you wanted to be a nurse.
Were you encouraged by somebody? Heah, there's somebody in your
(24:21):
life that Okay, let's hear that story.
Speaker 5 (24:24):
Yes, so my aunt she became a nurse when I
was five years old, and I stayed with her every weekend.
And then back then they had take your daughter to
work day.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Oh yeah, I remember that.
Speaker 4 (24:34):
I wish they.
Speaker 5 (24:34):
Still had that program. But AnyWho, my mom took me
to her job and where she was a nursing assistant,
and so I watched everybody and she had me taking
care of the patients. I said, I love this. I
want to do this when I grow up.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Oh wow. And I stayed with you with it. Wow.
That see. Now that's unusual because my daughter came with
me to take your daughter to work day and she's
nowhere near.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
For a deal, I did never. I know that all
of us have different motivations and the Lord puts things
in us that are different from person to person. I
have never looked at that situation and said I wanted
to do that. That's why when I hear a story
like that, you know it's real because it doesn't happen
to everyone. You don't have to have that intensive nursing
(25:20):
background to do what you're doing at the healthcare. But
I or the home care. But I got to believe
it's helpful.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
It's very helpful.
Speaker 5 (25:27):
It helped me a lot with the structure because I
was a supervisor since I was twenty one years old,
so I was used to supervising a group of people.
And by the time I was twenty five, I was
running the whole building as the rin So now I'm
used to running a large amount of people. So that
helped me with my staff. So I have fifty staff now,
so it helps me because I've already had that experience.
(25:50):
And then pushing through a lot of paperwork and home care.
I did case management. I had seventy patients and they
all had at least fifty sixty pages.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
It keeps doing really, really well for yourself. So you
obviously went to school for nursing. Did you get some
education also for the business part of it, because a
lot of people say they want to do something, then
they want to start their own company, but they don't
know how to go through the bank, how to go
through insurance, how to go through social security, all those
(26:19):
little pieces you need. How did you manage that?
Speaker 5 (26:22):
I did my own research, So being in nursing school,
they teach you to do research, especially if you want
to go on and be a physician. So you just
learned to do your own research, and that's what I did,
and I learned everything about the business and opened it up.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Folks must be awfully proud of you and your aunt too.
Speaker 5 (26:40):
Yeah, don't tell anybody, but I think I'm the favorite.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
If you're the favorite. I've heard that if you're the favorite,
you know it, right, and so do the siblings, and
so do the others that are not the favorite.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
Yeah, I know it's true.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
So how many years then total have you been doing this?
Speaker 4 (26:59):
Oh my god, so we really go back.
Speaker 5 (27:02):
By the time I graduated high school, I was an
STNA or a nursing assistant.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
At seventeen, we're already yes, wow.
Speaker 5 (27:09):
So I'll be forty in June, so that's about what
twenty two years.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
You know this is being recorded, right, you understand this
once you say that age thing. We would never ask,
but you volunteered it, and now it's in the end
of the ethosphere forever. Yeah. See.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
But forty is a really good example of what people
can do if they put their mind to it. You
got all the education you need, then you put all
that experience under your belt, all the different things, and
then at what point did you say, okay, now I
want my own business.
Speaker 4 (27:45):
When I turned thirty two.
Speaker 5 (27:47):
Well, now, actually, I take it back twenty eight and
I was a single mom and I couldn't do one
hundred hours a week anymore as an RN. And it
really boiled down to I need extra money and my
back is out. That's true, and I said, you know,
I've got to do something. I can't put her in daycare.
I don't trust anybody. I would rather have her side
by side with me in the office. And so that
(28:10):
is where it originated.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Wow, what do you suppose is about you? You said
you were a supervisor at age twenty one? You're supervising
nurses other nurses. Is that correct?
Speaker 4 (28:20):
I was supervising at twenty one nursing.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Assistant nursing assistance.
Speaker 5 (28:23):
By twenty five, I was supervising other LPs because I
was an irina.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
So that's pretty that's pretty young manager. Yeah, what do
you suppose it is about you? That people wanted to
make you the boss? You know, I'm are you bossy?
Speaker 4 (28:39):
I am bossy?
Speaker 1 (28:42):
I got the feeling. I got the feeling with that
left just bossy in a nice.
Speaker 5 (28:46):
Way, but in a very nice way. And then I
always was thorough with my work. I would get my
work done. My boss didn't have to tell me more
than once what they wanted me to do. I was
a very good servant to all my bosses. If they
needed something done, I did that, plus some if somebody
didn't come to work, here, I'm on my way. So
(29:08):
you know, I just was always They're always helpful. So
I think they just trusted me with more word.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
And I would think the other part of that is
because I've always respected bosses who knew how to do
the job that they wanted me to do, you know,
and asked me, Okay, here's what I want you to do,
and I knew that they could do that. They were
never asking me to do more than they thought I could.
Are you like that with your employees?
Speaker 4 (29:32):
Yes, I am.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
I have gone in on many occasions and have relieved
my staff. And it was times that they would come
in and they would say, well, okay, thanks miskis hear
you boy? And I'll say, oh no, do the walkthrough,
make sure I cleaned up, make sure I did my documentation.
Don't just tell me to leave. I had a job
to do. Make sure it's done.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
I like them, man, You've taken a lot of initiatives.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Did they ever call you out on anything?
Speaker 4 (29:57):
I was five minutes later, Oh okay.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
So hate to be the employee in that situation that
has to say something about that.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
So no, I appreciate it. Make me accountable, all.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
The walkthrough stuff and the accountability. Where is that coming
just from your aunt? Is that coming from your folks?
Where did that all? Because not everybody has that. That's
really a tough quality.
Speaker 5 (30:20):
To my mom, I would say she instilled that into me.
She made me accountable. She would tell me about myself.
She would sit me down once a year and have
these long conversations about what I needed to do, how
I need to do it.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
It's my life. I better figure it out, folks.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
That's a three year you're hearing it here first. It's
a new trend going viral. It will hit the internet.
It could become a thing, annual review of your children.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
I like it.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Yeah, I do too. I love it, Fred, Actually I
love it.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
It's like your mom telling you, like Elon Musk, you know,
send me a note, tell me what you did this week.
I can check it out. Now. Have you how old
is your daughter?
Speaker 4 (30:59):
My daughter is alive.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
All right. Have you instituted that same thing with her
yet or does that come a little bit later.
Speaker 5 (31:05):
I've started, Well, she's not as receptive as I am.
I've got to work a little harder.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
She has said, Okay, as has said every parent in
the history of the world about their kids. They're just
not the same as there was when we were. There
is some truth to that.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
I think it is, definitely, definitely.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
So what does your business do. It's called Journey Through
Life Care Services, which leads me open to think that, man,
you're doing a lot of stuff here.
Speaker 5 (31:35):
I've got to tell you the background of that name. First,
my daughter's name is Journey oh and so yes, she
was the first love of my life, and so I
gave the business that name because she was a new
journey to my life and this was too, and so
I just said, you know what, I'm going to incorporate
her in this as well. So that's that part of
the story. But we care for persons with developmental disabilities, okay.
(32:00):
And that's what we specialize.
Speaker 4 (32:01):
In, exclusively done or exclusively okay.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
And you have enough to have fifty employees for.
Speaker 5 (32:07):
That, yes, because they require twenty four to seventh around
the clock here, Yes, So we make sure they get
to their doctor's appointments, We make sure they get their prescriptions,
their medications, grocery shopping, clothes, have to get to work.
Their homes have to be cleaned around the clock. Meals
have to be made, they have to be clean. So
it's like having children almost. You know that you're responsible for,
(32:30):
but the staff that you monitor taking care of your children.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Yeah, And there's a different level on each of your clients.
Some clients are able to do some of those things
on their own, but they need maybe either a reminder. Yes,
other clients, it doesn't matter how many times you remind them,
you still have to go and do the work yourself. Right,
So your staff has got to be pretty open to
just about anything they.
Speaker 5 (32:53):
Do, and we train them well because one thing I
forgot to mention is that I also taught LPN school
for a while, so I'm also a good teacher, so
I teach them. Okay, you know, my clients have mental
illness in conjunction with developmental disabilities. Even though they look
physically able, that doesn't mean that mentally they're capable. So
you still have to jump in and do what you
need to do to take care of them because that's
(33:15):
what we signed up for and that they're are customer.
Without the customer, we have no business. So you make
sure you take care of them to the best of
your abilities, and that's what I teach them.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Is it hard to find people that have that same
you know, chime without philosophy?
Speaker 5 (33:30):
Is it hard? Yes, it's definitely hard. I've been open
for seven years and when I go back to my files,
we have over four hundred employees in the archives.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
Wow, a typical employee last.
Speaker 5 (33:47):
We've had some that's been around since we've been open
old seven years, but I would say, h a year
to two years.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
And then do they just move on because they get
tired of it's got to be an enormous wait on them.
Or are they moving on to start their own businesses
or else, or or.
Speaker 5 (34:05):
They're being terminated because they're not doing.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Out Now you're not ginggling like this when you terminate them,
are you? Oh God, now, teacher face that you use.
Speaker 4 (34:18):
I call it the flat affect.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
No emotion okay.
Speaker 4 (34:22):
Just no emotion at all is what we have to
have with that.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
And it's hard.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
It's hard to picture because you are a pretty lively person.
I'm sure not the first person to mention that you
have a lively effect. You know you're engaged, you're engaging,
but you got to put on the game face, is
what you're saying.
Speaker 5 (34:37):
I do, unfortunately, because my clients come first, and if
I feel they're being mistreated in any kind of way,
I can't have that person working for me or my
staff means allowed to me too. So if you're the
type that is always two and three hours late, I
understand a few minutes traffic, We get that.
Speaker 4 (34:55):
You know, we have grace peries for that.
Speaker 5 (34:57):
But if you are just repeat doing Oconos shows and
calling off, then we will replace you.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
Nothing's worse for staff morale. I bet we can all
agree on this that when there's somebody that's not carrying
their fair share and everybody else. You know, you can
go through a time in life, you got it. Maybe
you're having a relationship problem or a medical problem, and
again the company should have some grace for that. But
there comes a time where people are phoning it in
and the rest of the staff is picking up the load.
It's the most unfair thing I believe a boss or
(35:28):
a leader can do is to ignore that for too long.
It's not fair.
Speaker 4 (35:32):
Yeah, they start to get mad at you.
Speaker 5 (35:34):
And I've experienced that in the beginning, where I would
give more chances and they would. Then my staff would
be upset with me and say, you need to do
something about this, And so we changed our scheduling to
where everybody's prn they pick their own hours.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Well that's nice.
Speaker 5 (35:51):
So if you have to call off, if you make
your own schedules.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
If you have to let them go there, you're just
helping them on their journey through life.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
I like that.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
Yeah, I let's talk about the company's slogan and how
that's going to affect you today.
Speaker 4 (36:09):
Well, you know, I'm always on a journey.
Speaker 5 (36:15):
Honestly, I'm constantly in surveys, right, so this is my
journey through Like, this is something new for me because
I'm not used to the state coming and looking through
all my files and trying to make sure we're doing
everything right with HR and our documentation. And so I
just finished one survey and I did pass with flying colors,
(36:36):
no citations. But then immediately after I got another survey,
which I'm in the middle of now. So it's kind
of making my schedule hectic, something new for me.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Is it because each county has to do there is
at a different time or something. Why do you get
you called surveys? It feels like it's a reviewer of
some sort. You're talking about they called a survey both, yes.
Speaker 5 (36:55):
A review or a survey of how you are keeping
up with documents and keeping up with the rules and
regulations and in the business, to make sure you're doing
everything correctly.
Speaker 4 (37:05):
I guess this is just my year well tough.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
And I've heard from people who run senior homes and
things like that too. There's just so much paperwork. When
you decided to do this, did you realize that you
were going to be buried in paper?
Speaker 5 (37:21):
No, I was thinking, I'm going to be the boss,
so I'm not going to have that much work to
do and.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
I'll just sit all day.
Speaker 4 (37:32):
No, I have the most work to do.
Speaker 5 (37:34):
Honestly, I would say I'm the most busiest person in
the agency.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
Well, yeah, well you're the boss. That's it. That comes
with being the boss. After all these years, all the
different jobs you've had, is this the one that's most
satisfying for you? Or early in your career, was there
something that you can look back on now and say,
you know what, I really wish I could do that
again with my bad without my bad back, because that
really was enjoyable for me.
Speaker 4 (38:00):
I would say, it's all satisfying.
Speaker 5 (38:02):
Of course, the bedside manner I'm going to miss, you know,
that's where I originated with. But I get to take
care of people a different way. I get to take
care of my staff, I get to ensure that my
clients are not being abused mentally, physically, emotionally. I get
to really take care of people differently, so I still
get to do what I love.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
Yeah, you're still on the same path basically caring for people.
You see yourself doing this for a lot longer until now.
Not that you're old or anything, but you mentioned you
know you're turning forty, so I mean, you know, what
are you looking at in five.
Speaker 5 (38:36):
Years to expand? I want to be in Columbus. I
want to be in Dayton, and I want to continue
on doing what I'm doing because I do love it
and I don't really want to. I don't want to
be one of those people that ever retire. I feel
like it ages you.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
And I have retard yet and I'll be turning seventy
four in a couple of months a way, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
Be caring for him. Someday might not.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
I'm still doing it after forty six years, So you
can hang on. You can still hang on for a
little while longer.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
You're out in the bike all the time, in the
good weather you had. So I've heard friends everywhere he's
non stop.
Speaker 4 (39:16):
When you don't stop, right, you use your mind, you
use your body.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
You keep going enough to keep you busy. Besides the
show and the stuff I do with the Toledo Buffalo Soldiers,
it keeps me on the go.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
Because you know what, that energy, that drive, that sense
of belonging, that and the ability to do it in
some measure, it's a gift. Yeah, that's a gift, not
a curse. People talk about retirement and they're counting off
the days. To me, that sounds like the curse. The
gift is being able to keep going and doing things.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Especially especially like with Terry. It's something she obviously loves
to do. It's your passion. That's just why this show
is called a passion for business, hard for business, because
that's where your heart lies, right.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
It is, And Terry is one of the first people
I talked to and I thought, Wow, her story and
the way she explains it does kind of encapsulate the theme.
I want the listening audience to know that, you know,
there are so many businesses out there that really care
about what they're doing, and those are the ones you
want to find. Whether they're in the BBB or not
is irrelevant. Although it's great that we have you, you know,
(40:17):
we love that, but that's the kind of business that
you want to connect with, a local, regional business where
the owner cares and has a voice in what's going
on in the business.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
I love It was important for you to be a
member of the BBB.
Speaker 5 (40:30):
It was I always wanted to do it. I just
got involved this year and I always wanted to, but
for some reason, I told myself, well.
Speaker 4 (40:38):
I have to be better. I have to be better.
Speaker 5 (40:41):
And someone reached out to me one day and said,
someone inquired about your business and we don't have a
good or a bad review, and we.
Speaker 4 (40:48):
Would like to meet with you. And that's how it happens.
Speaker 5 (40:51):
I always wanted to be involved with you should be,
but I just told myself, I want to be the
best that I can be before I sign up.
Speaker 6 (40:58):
Well, that sounds like a match dot com. It's right
in the name better Yeah. Yeah, So we're gonna wrap
up here. The segments almost at an end. There was
one thing you were talking about that's on your dreamless
or wishless something you proposed recently about foster kids. Can
you talk about that.
Speaker 5 (41:16):
Yes, there is a shortage and I hate to bring
this story up. A young girl just was murdered recently,
and I don't want to say her name. I know
it's the delicate subject in the city. But I feel
like if the system right, you know, chop protective services
were called, and maybe if they had more foster parents
available to then maybe they would be more likely to
(41:40):
take some of the kids out of these dangerous situations.
And what I would like to do is have the
government help me fund my staff to take care of them.
Because I have my I can monitor the kids around
the cloud, so essentially I'll be, you know, in charge
of their care. But I could service more kids if
I can have my staff to take care of them.
Speaker 4 (41:59):
I can tell it is ten thirty two.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
So you could take your staff, your experience, your resources,
and you could serve a different population, that's for sure.
So if you're in the government, if you're associated with that,
if you're listening, take heed and maybe give Terry a call. Terry,
we got to wrap it up.
Speaker 4 (42:14):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
I like that idea though.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
Yeah, it's a good idea. It's because you're thinking outside
of the box. Thank you for being on a Heart
for Business and I'll see you soon. All right, bye everybody,
and thanks for joining us. Thanks Fred, take care.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
You've been listening to a Heart for Business sponsored by
the Better Business Bureau. You can follow us on Facebook,
on their website, and you can subscribe and listen every week.
A new show drops every Wednesday on iHeartRadio. It's available
wherever your podcast can be heard.
Welcome to A Heart for Business. I'm Fred Lafever and
along with Lane Months, President CEO the Better Business Bureau
of Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan, we'll highlight a local
business weekly. You'll discover why these small local business owners
have a passion for what they do and why the
(00:26):
Better Business Bureau has a Heart for Business. Now here's
Lane Months.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well, good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, folks. Thank
you for joining the program today. This is episode nine
of A Heart for Business and this is our first segment.
We have two guests today. As always, the first guest
is Tyler Nider. Am I pronouncing that last name right, Tyler?
That's correct? And of course I'm in the studio with
the legendary Fred la Fever and we are recording from
(00:53):
the WSPD flagship headquarters in downtown Toledo next to mud
Hens Stadium. Thanks everyone for joining. Good morning, good afternoon,
and good evening. Tyler, good morning, guys, Thanks for having me. Yeah,
so thanks for coming on the program. What's the name
of your company?
Speaker 3 (01:07):
My company's night or Construction and you're based out of
where Fort Jennings, Ohio.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Fort Jennings out of Ohio. So you know, this is
a heart for business. So what we're going to talk
about today, Tyler, is your origin story, how you got
into the business, Why you got into the business. You're
going to tell us a little bit about it, and
then you're going to give the listeners some advice when
hiring contractors and remodeling style contractors, as well as some
other things that come up from Fred's questions or my questions.
(01:32):
Are you ready? Are you ready as I'll ever be?
Have you ever done a podcast before?
Speaker 3 (01:36):
I haven't.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Well, then you're not as ready as you'll ever be.
By the time you're done, you'll be a little bit
more ready.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
You fine. All you have to do is all you
have to do is answer the questions. And the first
one is where the hell is?
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Fort Jennings is a tiny little poduc town outside of Lima.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Ah. Okay, so is it between Lima and Solina because
I kind of remember it from my days working radio
in Solina, Ohio.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Oh yeah, it's somewhere in between Lima and Delvs. Okay,
all right, off the beaten path a little.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Do you operate just in that area then, or are
you operating have you spread out?
Speaker 3 (02:12):
We've spread out quite a bit. We cast a pretty
good net. We've been all over to eight to alger Waynsfield,
We've been to Finley quite a bit. We've been to
Saint Mary's and then Ottaville Van Wert. Okay, we're kind
of all over the place.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
So a lot of people don't know. But our Better
Business Bureau territory does cover twenty four Ohio counties, or
excuse me, twenty one counties in Ohio, three in Michigan,
and that gets us south of Hancock County, so down
in the linem area all the counties surrounding out to
the Indiana line. So there's a lot of southern counties
that people don't think about because they think Toledo. But
really we cover more than that. So I'm super happy
(02:49):
to have some of my lower my Southern region businesses.
And that's one reason why I'm so glad to have
you here today.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
I'm happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Now, you name the company after yourself, either that or
you named it after your dad, which is the case.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
But I guess technically named it after myself.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Okay, So are you the did you start it or
did you come from the construction firm somewhere else and
decided at some point I want to do this under
my name.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
I pretty well started this from the ground up. From
the ground up, yeah, from about six years ago. I
started this, and I got into the finished carpentry site
first and then slowly took on as much as I
could when I could. Okay, just kept growing and okay,
So were you working for someone else six years ago?
Speaker 1 (03:32):
No, because you look like a kind of a young guy.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
A little bit.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Yeah, So how old were you when you started this?
Speaker 3 (03:38):
I was twenty four, all right, So well, while you
really are getting started early then yes, I think I
was technically twenty three getting ready to turn twenty four
when I started this.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yeah, I mean, so, how long have you been doing it? Then?
Speaker 1 (03:50):
A total total six years?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
And you're and you say you started out in a differentult.
It's a little bit different now than it was when
you started, correct. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
That's the reason the Facebook page, I guess, is under
night It Woodworks on the name is because originally the
company was night It Woodworks. When I started this six
years ago, I was working a third shift factory job
at night, and then during the day I would go
out and do it trim or cabinets in a home
and then catch a little bit of sleep and go
back to work.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Woodworking is high precision construction, right like, talk about that
a little bit. How did you learn it?
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Experimenting on my own? Basically? That was how I really
got into it. I mean I I read every book
there is.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
You can be honest. You experimented on your customers projects. No, honestly,
I experimented.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
I'm just my dad's just would probably be the better
way to put my house in my dad's house.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Yeah? Why because it seems like such an odd thing.
You know, you get out of high school, you're doing
this job in the factory. But for some reason you
want to do what? Start working with wood?
Speaker 3 (04:56):
I love it, love it, can't get enough of it.
The challenge of it, I said, it's a high precision.
The finish carpentry side of things is very very craftsmen orientedy.
It's a high precision and it's a challenge, and I
love that daily challenge. No home is the same. Every
home is like a snowflake. There's no corner. Not one
corner in every house is the same. Might be forty
(05:18):
six degrees, might be forty five. I was in the
house that was thirty nine degrees, twenty three degrees, oh,
forty degrees. Yeah, all over the place. Nothing's ever the same,
and it's always it's always a unique challenge, a unique
trick that I get it every day I'm doing something new.
I hated factory life. You go in, you do the
same thing over and over. It's monotonous.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
It's mine. Yes.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
So I have met a lot of construction guys. I
was in the field for over two decades. And the
ones that do the finished carpentry, the high craftsmanship, ship,
the cabinets, the finish woodworking, even though they might change focus,
right and we can talk about that later, they never
get it out of their blood. No on Once they're
(05:57):
a high quality, high precision wood worker, it's always where
their heart is is That's still true.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
One hundred percent. I work with a home builder and
I do framing for his home editions, and he always
laughs when he comes in and sees something we're framing,
and he'll see you are a finished carpenter at heart.
I overbuild. I overbuild everything. I overdo everything. I make
it ten times stronger and better it needs to be.
(06:23):
And you know your cuts are probably pretty tight oh yes, yeah, Percyeah.
And we go in and we lay things out and
spend an hour laying out the layout for an addition,
a room edition, even if it's only got two hours
in it. We double check everything and he'll he'll come
in and say, man, you are a finished carpenter.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
You're gonna be that old guy that we had when
I first got her at w MH. His name was Leo,
and he built everything for the radio station when it
came to cabinets and all that kind of stuff, and
he built it to last. And we would always joke
about it how far it was that everything he built
was made out of wood, but it would last. The
CD case that that guy built for me in nineteen
(07:07):
eighty two is still in use today. You can't tear
it apart, you can't take it off the wall. It's
there forever. It's a permanent piece. Is there a satisfaction
in that.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
When you see that finished product and then you see
the look on a customer's face when they see it too,
that's the satisfaction right there. That's that's why we do it,
That's what we love.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
So when we talk about what was the term you used,
fine art, high art.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Well, high precision, high.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Precision, So most people don't know what that is. I know,
I don't know what that means. I'm thinking molding in
the corners and stuff. Give me a rundown of what
we would be talking about in a typical house. What
would that include.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Yeah, A lot of people think you just kind of
go in, you make a measurement, and walk out, cut
it and come back. So we have what it's simplified.
It's just called a miterter finder. But we have a
gauge that we can wrap around the corner and it'll
tell us what that exact degree is and what we
need to set our exact miter at the second part
of that, that's the most important part, is the saw.
(08:08):
Every saul, it doesn't matter who you buy it from,
whether it's a three hundred dollars sell from a box
store or a twelve hundred dollars KPEX festival, every single
one of them out of the box is not set
to be able to meet those miters. You have to
adjust that saul and every morning when we will get
on site and set up our saw, we have to
go through and zero that in. So, whether it's your
vertical ninety or your horizontal ninety, so that way you're
(08:30):
actually cutting that perfect let's say it's a forty three
and a half degree miter we have to make. If
your soul is out as zero, you're never going to
get that perfect miter.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
So am I to assume that not everybody goes through
all that all the time?
Speaker 2 (08:43):
For second, I can tell you from experience not even
so acceptable top acceptable tolerance and the end the listening audience,
the contractors in the audience will understand, but the tool
and die guys, the engineers, and the customers will be
surprised to hear this. If you can get a dollar
bill between the miter joints the forty five degree angle
(09:05):
minor joints around your windows and doors. In other words,
if there's enough of a gap to slip a dollar
bill in there, that's considered reasonable workmanship. Now when you yes, yeah,
so not for cabinets, though not for what Tyler started
his career. Okay, yeah, that's my So the normal remodeler
that doesn't have that background there, guys are going to
put it together. Even if there's a little bit of
(09:26):
a visible gap that's considered acceptable, even if it's not perfect,
not for the woodworkers. Correct, yes, yeah, so.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Do you are you mentoring people as you bring them
into the company also so that they have that same
fine tuned precision mindset that you do percent.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
I absolutely have to do that because I've got some
guys that I fired on that came from other companies
and I've got to I've got to break that old
habit out of them and that dollar bill and bring
them into my way of thinking. And it is a
a long process. I guess It's not something that I'm
gonna be able to do overnight. But I watch everything closely,
(10:05):
and I guide them along the way, and I give
the final okay on everything we do, and if it
ain't right, I'm gonna rip it out.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
So Tyler talk a little bit about that. And we've
talked about this, Fred and I have talked about this
on the program before, but I think it's worth repeating.
How hard or easy is it to find people with
that skill level these days?
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Next to impossible? That would probably be the best way
to put it. I got a great guy I hired
on who came from another company, and I'm slowly kind
of getting him into that mindset and he's doing really
good and taking into it because he kind of he
went to a he went to vantage over in the work,
you know what I mean for carpentry Career Tech school.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
And you know he he shares that love of this work.
You know, he agreed there's nothing else he'd do. So
he has that drive and that passion or the sign
of work like I do.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
So it's not just the skill, because you can teach
the skills, yes, how tom or how to saw all
that kind of stuff. It for you, it sounds like
it's the passion that you're bringing to its attitude mentality. Okay, yeah,
that is that's.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
The most important thing. You need to get up every
day and want to do these challenges because if this
isn't what you want to do, you're never going to
be able to meet my standards. Wow, fair enough, I'm
already resigning. It's not easy work. I mean you go
on uh you open up Facebook and you see these
(11:34):
videos that these guys just going and slapping trim in
and it looks like it's a twenty minute job and
you walk out and with some of the big home
builders that are doing multiple houses, that's kind of that
mentality too.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
You.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Oh, you're just slapping trim and it's not what we do.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
So let's let's change focus a little bit. So you
started the company yourself. You're a relatively young guy, but
you're in your you're in your thirties now, nine twenty nine.
We soon be Yeah, by the way, every month, actually
every decade was a little faster. When you get to
be my age or Fred's age, the decades are only
two years long.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
So you start off young, you're self taught. You do
the finished carpeting, but you can't really and I'm prompting
the question here, you can't really make a living just
doing that, can you. It's tough. It's very tough because
there aren't enough people that can pay and want that
level of quality in their homes. So what does Nier
(12:28):
Construction do now? Besides that? I know you still do that,
but what else?
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Honestly, we're into a little bit of everything now. At
this point, there's such a great need for contractors that
people feel like they can trust. And so when we
finally when we do a job with a client, they
ask me, you know, what do I do for everything?
Whether it is something that I do or not, They
want me to help them get that figured out because
(12:55):
they feel like they can trust me, and they can
and I make sure they can. So I have a
who needs excavation work done, and I have a foundation
excavation guy that I work with a lot, so I
have set up that relationship for her. Well you got
a guy, Yes, I've got the guy, you know. So
we kind of do a little bit of everything, but
(13:15):
as far as our actual scope of work, we mostly
do the framing and then so like on our billboards
and stuff, we say new construction remodeling. Our Facebook page
says new construction remodeling and then premium sighting. So there's
an awesome product that we work with for sightings called
LP Smart Site. It's a wood based product and it
(13:37):
has wood trim, it has wood clap board and batten,
and it's basically finished carpentry on the exterior of the home.
And that's that kind of level of thought and precision
and work has to go into that product to be
able to make it last. Because it does have a
really good warranty and that's why we use it and
back it. But it takes that finished carpentry mentality to
(13:59):
be able to do it. Do it well, so that's
why we got into it.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
So you're not just doing like interior kitchen and bath,
you're doing you're doing additions. We do ye whole room editions. Yeah,
and it's that's very difficult. I mean, and I don't
want to I'm not picking on the new builders. That's
they do a great job too, but remodeling construction is
so much more difficult than new construction. Correct. You have
to be flexible and deal with situations that you don't
(14:23):
you know, things are not plumb, they're not square never.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Yeah, we call it rolling with the punches. That's what
we do every day. That's all we can do. Nothing's
ever the same. And you know, we will have a
print going into these jobs, and for the new addition side,
that print is wonderful. But at the end of the day,
when somebody goes in to measure that house to set
up this print, you're measuring drywall to drywall. And that's
(14:46):
the assumption there is that that's a half inch of drywall. Now,
we've gone into houses before and it was a half
inch of drywall with five eight drywa underneath it. It
was drywall with plaster underneath it. So your measurement. If
there's two walls like that is now an inch inch
and a half off. And that may not sound like
a lot, but at the end of the day, when
you're trying to build something where it is smooth and
the transitions are the same, you know what I mean,
(15:08):
you want to be able to walk in this room
and feel like you're walking into just another room in
your house, not something that was added on.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
It's weird because I've been in houses that were under
reconstruction or remodeling and they were fairly new homes. I mean,
these homes were not even ten years old. And one
of the things I noticed in talking to the guy
who was in remodeling the kitchen of just a ten
year old home was that the cabinets were off.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Oh yeah, there were.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Gaps, And I said, was this like this before? I said, yeah,
they sold it as a new house ten years ago
looking like that, And I just didn't get that that
they weren't doing the kind of work that you're talking about.
And one of the things you said was trust. There's
a story actually on a local TV station right now
of a local company that's being sued in four different
(15:55):
counties in our area for a lot of money, for
taking some payments and not finishing the work at all.
How important is that trust issue then for you down
in your area.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
It's incredibly important and something I'd like to add to
that though. The most important thing is we both have
to trust each other going into this job. It can't
just be a one sided relationship. It's tricky, but keeping
that relationship where we both feel like we can trust
each other and depend upon each other going into this.
If I feel comfortable with you and you feel comfortable
(16:29):
with me, we're going to get through this. We're going
to make a great product and you are going to
be happy with it, and I'm going to be happy
with the end. And that's the most important thing there.
But I mean, there's good contractors out there and there's
a lot of bad contractors out there, and it's so
hard to figure out who is who.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Yeah, well we help better Business Bureau helps, I hope.
So every now and then one does slip past the
goalie and they can be a good company for a
long time. It just does happen, and then they go
off the rails. There's a change in ownership. The sun
takes over, somebody takes over, they don't carry on the
same traditions. But sometimes a bad company gets taken over
and they're better. But it is tough. What would you
(17:07):
tell consumers? So you want the relationship of trust, it
has to be both ways. How can they how can
they tease that out? How can they be sure they're
getting somebody that they can trust because they're working on
their you're working on their home, their most important asset.
What can consumers what can the listening audience do to
(17:28):
make sure they're getting somebody that they can trust.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
I think the most important thing is to trust your gut.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
For one.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
You know, if if you get a bad feeling right away,
if if you're hesitant with that person from the start,
it's only going to get worse. You know, it's just
going to continue.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Because a little voice in your little voice.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
If something's off right away, you know, and they could
be a perfectly good contractor. But again we're getting back
to that. You both have to feel comfortable with each other.
You both have to work good together. Your personalities kind
of have to match. You have to trust each other because,
like you said, this is your home, this is where
you feel safe, this is your biggest asset. Your biggest expense.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Yeah, it's just like picking somebody out to do your
wealth management. Yeah, or to buy a car from. Yep,
you might go to the same dealership, but Joe is
just not a guy you connect with, and Bob and
the same dealership as the guy you actually connect with,
and you end up buying the car from there. But
it's that personal connection that you make. Right.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Do you have a portfolio? Do you show people pictures
of your past work? Facebook? Facebook? Facebook? And what about references?
Should people try to get references from prior customers?
Speaker 3 (18:38):
One hundred percent. I've got references on BBB and i
have references on Facebook. I've got a list of customers
that have gave me their phone number obviously because I've
been work with them and they say, you got someone
on the fence, you haven't called me.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
I mean, slick marketing is helpful. Obviously Slick's not a
great word, but I mean marketing helps businesses. But I
just want to tell you know, encourage the audience. Do
try to get that relationship. Do try to vet with references?
It makes so much of a difference. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Yeah, One thing I want to question you about before
we before we finish this segment. The attitude that you have,
all right, it seems well old fashioned, okay, yeah, you know,
and it also seems small town. So where does all
of this come from?
Speaker 3 (19:25):
I guess I come from an old fashioned style family.
And then obviously I grew up in a very small town,
you know, I did. Yeah, Jennings is small. I was
a class of forty that ended up turning into a
class of thirty and we were the biggest class to
go through school.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
At the time.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
So yeah, class of sixty, I feel you. Yeah, yeah,
really really small town. So but you know, when you
grow up with a handful of people, you know everybody,
and then you're in a small town, you know everybody
and you know everything about everybody, so you get that
(20:00):
you can So when you know everything about everybody, I
guess you know you can trust them, right, Yeah. So
that's why I guess that's so big to me is
getting to know someone so that way you can get
to know me as well, and we can work with
each other, and then you are going to be a
lifelong customer for me, you know, and we can work
with each other for years to come.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
That's the way to do it.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
That's one of the things I liked about Tyler was
he did seem to have that old school attitude about
conducting business and it's not that easy to find, so yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
And it's refreshing. If you want to touch base with them,
they do have a Facebook page. You can go to
Facebook and look up KNIGHTERT Woodworks. All right, KNIGHTERT Woodworks.
If you want to get a hold of it. You
have a phone number that they can call.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Yes, yep, that's on the Facebook page as well.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Okay, you don't remember it off any I.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Call it. Freddy never calls that phone number.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
It's a four one nine six zero five seven three
eight six. That is my cell I carry.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
We know you didn't write that downs, So just go
to Facebook and KNIGHTERT Woodwork.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Tyler, if you want to send me some pictures of
a recent project that you had a good, good experience
with the customer and everything, BBB, we'll do something with
that on our social media. Sounds good. Yeah, we'd love
to have you back sometime later in the year as well. Okay, yeah,
I'd love to be back.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Thanks you. We'll be back with our second segment just
a moment.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Did you know our area has over forty thousand businesses.
Some are old, some are new, but they all have
a story to tell about why they sell, how someone
took a chance once upon a time, someone with a
heart for business. Hi, this is Lane Monts, the host
of the Better Business Bureaus Heart for Business podcast. We
know a thing or two about our area's companies, after all,
we've been keeping tabs on them since nineteen nineteen. Join
(21:43):
me in Toledo radio legend Fred la Fever every week
as our BBB superheroes tell their origin story and share
a few industry secrets along the way. Welcome back everyone,
thanks for sticking with us to the B side. Our
guest today for the second part of this episode of
A Heart for Businesses, Terry Wilson Ka Terry, Welcome to
the program.
Speaker 4 (22:03):
Hello, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Is this your first time in a studio like this,
Yes it is. Well, it's Fred's the King. That's the thing.
You got to remember.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Nothing to be afraid of. Your only talking to Lane
and myself, so it's no big deal.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Welcome, Thank you. Are you nervous.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
I'm okay. I'm somewhere in the middle.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Yeah, you look all right. You look like you're doing okay.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
You'll be fun. You'll get so used to this you
want to fill in for me on Monday morning.
Speaker 4 (22:27):
Oh that sounds fun.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
I have to tell you, the people that are appearing
on the podcast, they're starting to get calls from the
TV stations and radio and they're starting to like appear
in more places. So I hope that happens for you
too if you walk down. So okay, so let's let's
talk a little bit about Terry Wilson and then we'll
talk a little bit about your company. So just tell
the listeners a little bit where you came from and
how you got to where you are today.
Speaker 5 (22:49):
Okay, So it all started when I was nine. I
knew I wanted to become a nurse.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Fred just uh, we're going to need more time.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
So it's such out. It's going to be a long time,
I see already's going all the way back to nine
years when I was born.
Speaker 4 (23:07):
That's when I knew I wanted to take care of
people before a living.
Speaker 5 (23:10):
And so then I graduated high school and by twenty one,
I became an LPN. I did that for three years
and then I became an RIN. I moved out to
Kansas City to go to rin School, graduated from there,
and I did a lot of nursing work. I worked
in nursing homes, hospitals, I see you, mental health hospitals.
(23:31):
I did hospice, and then I finished out in home
care my last nine years. And after that I decided, hey,
I still want to take care of people.
Speaker 4 (23:39):
But now my back hurts.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
That's a lot. You don't look old enough. Maybe that's
just good genetics, and congratulations if it is. But you
don't look old enough to have all that experience.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
So well, thank you. I'm pushing forty.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
So yes, are you pushing it back or pushing it forward?
Speaker 3 (23:56):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (23:56):
I wish I could push it back, but I guess
we're going forward.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Okay. I ate to go all the way back to
the beginning, but most kids at nine, Yeah, I want
to be a firefighter, I want to be a cop.
I want to be a doctor. I want to be
a nurse, and those things all fall by the wayside.
What was it about nine year old Katerry that stuck
to that idea that you wanted to be a nurse.
Were you encouraged by somebody? Heah, there's somebody in your
(24:21):
life that Okay, let's hear that story.
Speaker 5 (24:24):
Yes, so my aunt she became a nurse when I
was five years old, and I stayed with her every weekend.
And then back then they had take your daughter to
work day.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Oh yeah, I remember that.
Speaker 4 (24:34):
I wish they.
Speaker 5 (24:34):
Still had that program. But AnyWho, my mom took me
to her job and where she was a nursing assistant,
and so I watched everybody and she had me taking
care of the patients. I said, I love this. I
want to do this when I grow up.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Oh wow. And I stayed with you with it. Wow.
That see. Now that's unusual because my daughter came with
me to take your daughter to work day and she's
nowhere near.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
For a deal, I did never. I know that all
of us have different motivations and the Lord puts things
in us that are different from person to person. I
have never looked at that situation and said I wanted
to do that. That's why when I hear a story
like that, you know it's real because it doesn't happen
to everyone. You don't have to have that intensive nursing
(25:20):
background to do what you're doing at the healthcare. But
I or the home care. But I got to believe
it's helpful.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
It's very helpful.
Speaker 5 (25:27):
It helped me a lot with the structure because I
was a supervisor since I was twenty one years old,
so I was used to supervising a group of people.
And by the time I was twenty five, I was
running the whole building as the rin So now I'm
used to running a large amount of people. So that
helped me with my staff. So I have fifty staff now,
so it helps me because I've already had that experience.
(25:50):
And then pushing through a lot of paperwork and home care.
I did case management. I had seventy patients and they
all had at least fifty sixty pages.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
It keeps doing really, really well for yourself. So you
obviously went to school for nursing. Did you get some
education also for the business part of it, because a
lot of people say they want to do something, then
they want to start their own company, but they don't
know how to go through the bank, how to go
through insurance, how to go through social security, all those
(26:19):
little pieces you need. How did you manage that?
Speaker 5 (26:22):
I did my own research, So being in nursing school,
they teach you to do research, especially if you want
to go on and be a physician. So you just
learned to do your own research, and that's what I did,
and I learned everything about the business and opened it up.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Folks must be awfully proud of you and your aunt too.
Speaker 5 (26:40):
Yeah, don't tell anybody, but I think I'm the favorite.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
If you're the favorite. I've heard that if you're the favorite,
you know it, right, and so do the siblings, and
so do the others that are not the favorite.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
Yeah, I know it's true.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
So how many years then total have you been doing this?
Speaker 4 (26:59):
Oh my god, so we really go back.
Speaker 5 (27:02):
By the time I graduated high school, I was an
STNA or a nursing assistant.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
At seventeen, we're already yes, wow.
Speaker 5 (27:09):
So I'll be forty in June, so that's about what
twenty two years.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
You know this is being recorded, right, you understand this
once you say that age thing. We would never ask,
but you volunteered it, and now it's in the end
of the ethosphere forever. Yeah. See.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
But forty is a really good example of what people
can do if they put their mind to it. You
got all the education you need, then you put all
that experience under your belt, all the different things, and
then at what point did you say, okay, now I
want my own business.
Speaker 4 (27:45):
When I turned thirty two.
Speaker 5 (27:47):
Well, now, actually, I take it back twenty eight and
I was a single mom and I couldn't do one
hundred hours a week anymore as an RN. And it
really boiled down to I need extra money and my
back is out. That's true, and I said, you know,
I've got to do something. I can't put her in daycare.
I don't trust anybody. I would rather have her side
by side with me in the office. And so that
(28:10):
is where it originated.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Wow, what do you suppose is about you? You said
you were a supervisor at age twenty one? You're supervising
nurses other nurses. Is that correct?
Speaker 4 (28:20):
I was supervising at twenty one nursing.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Assistant nursing assistance.
Speaker 5 (28:23):
By twenty five, I was supervising other LPs because I
was an irina.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
So that's pretty that's pretty young manager. Yeah, what do
you suppose it is about you? That people wanted to
make you the boss? You know, I'm are you bossy?
Speaker 4 (28:39):
I am bossy?
Speaker 1 (28:42):
I got the feeling. I got the feeling with that
left just bossy in a nice.
Speaker 5 (28:46):
Way, but in a very nice way. And then I
always was thorough with my work. I would get my
work done. My boss didn't have to tell me more
than once what they wanted me to do. I was
a very good servant to all my bosses. If they
needed something done, I did that, plus some if somebody
didn't come to work, here, I'm on my way. So
(29:08):
you know, I just was always They're always helpful. So
I think they just trusted me with more word.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
And I would think the other part of that is
because I've always respected bosses who knew how to do
the job that they wanted me to do, you know,
and asked me, Okay, here's what I want you to do,
and I knew that they could do that. They were
never asking me to do more than they thought I could.
Are you like that with your employees?
Speaker 4 (29:32):
Yes, I am.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
I have gone in on many occasions and have relieved
my staff. And it was times that they would come
in and they would say, well, okay, thanks miskis hear
you boy? And I'll say, oh no, do the walkthrough,
make sure I cleaned up, make sure I did my documentation.
Don't just tell me to leave. I had a job
to do. Make sure it's done.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
I like them, man, You've taken a lot of initiatives.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Did they ever call you out on anything?
Speaker 4 (29:57):
I was five minutes later, Oh okay.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
So hate to be the employee in that situation that
has to say something about that.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
So no, I appreciate it. Make me accountable, all.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
The walkthrough stuff and the accountability. Where is that coming
just from your aunt? Is that coming from your folks?
Where did that all? Because not everybody has that. That's
really a tough quality.
Speaker 5 (30:20):
To my mom, I would say she instilled that into me.
She made me accountable. She would tell me about myself.
She would sit me down once a year and have
these long conversations about what I needed to do, how
I need to do it.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
It's my life. I better figure it out, folks.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
That's a three year you're hearing it here first. It's
a new trend going viral. It will hit the internet.
It could become a thing, annual review of your children.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
I like it.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Yeah, I do too. I love it, Fred, Actually I
love it.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
It's like your mom telling you, like Elon Musk, you know,
send me a note, tell me what you did this week.
I can check it out. Now. Have you how old
is your daughter?
Speaker 4 (30:59):
My daughter is alive.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
All right. Have you instituted that same thing with her
yet or does that come a little bit later.
Speaker 5 (31:05):
I've started, Well, she's not as receptive as I am.
I've got to work a little harder.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
She has said, Okay, as has said every parent in
the history of the world about their kids. They're just
not the same as there was when we were. There
is some truth to that.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
I think it is, definitely, definitely.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
So what does your business do. It's called Journey Through
Life Care Services, which leads me open to think that, man,
you're doing a lot of stuff here.
Speaker 5 (31:35):
I've got to tell you the background of that name. First,
my daughter's name is Journey oh and so yes, she
was the first love of my life, and so I
gave the business that name because she was a new
journey to my life and this was too, and so
I just said, you know what, I'm going to incorporate
her in this as well. So that's that part of
the story. But we care for persons with developmental disabilities, okay.
(32:00):
And that's what we specialize.
Speaker 4 (32:01):
In, exclusively done or exclusively okay.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
And you have enough to have fifty employees for.
Speaker 5 (32:07):
That, yes, because they require twenty four to seventh around
the clock here, Yes, So we make sure they get
to their doctor's appointments, We make sure they get their prescriptions,
their medications, grocery shopping, clothes, have to get to work.
Their homes have to be cleaned around the clock. Meals
have to be made, they have to be clean. So
it's like having children almost. You know that you're responsible for,
(32:30):
but the staff that you monitor taking care of your children.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Yeah, And there's a different level on each of your clients.
Some clients are able to do some of those things
on their own, but they need maybe either a reminder. Yes,
other clients, it doesn't matter how many times you remind them,
you still have to go and do the work yourself. Right,
So your staff has got to be pretty open to
just about anything they.
Speaker 5 (32:53):
Do, and we train them well because one thing I
forgot to mention is that I also taught LPN school
for a while, so I'm also a good teacher, so
I teach them. Okay, you know, my clients have mental
illness in conjunction with developmental disabilities. Even though they look
physically able, that doesn't mean that mentally they're capable. So
you still have to jump in and do what you
need to do to take care of them because that's
(33:15):
what we signed up for and that they're are customer.
Without the customer, we have no business. So you make
sure you take care of them to the best of
your abilities, and that's what I teach them.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Is it hard to find people that have that same
you know, chime without philosophy?
Speaker 5 (33:30):
Is it hard? Yes, it's definitely hard. I've been open
for seven years and when I go back to my files,
we have over four hundred employees in the archives.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
Wow, a typical employee last.
Speaker 5 (33:47):
We've had some that's been around since we've been open
old seven years, but I would say, h a year
to two years.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
And then do they just move on because they get
tired of it's got to be an enormous wait on them.
Or are they moving on to start their own businesses
or else, or or.
Speaker 5 (34:05):
They're being terminated because they're not doing.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Out Now you're not ginggling like this when you terminate them,
are you? Oh God, now, teacher face that you use.
Speaker 4 (34:18):
I call it the flat affect.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
No emotion okay.
Speaker 4 (34:22):
Just no emotion at all is what we have to
have with that.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
And it's hard.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
It's hard to picture because you are a pretty lively person.
I'm sure not the first person to mention that you
have a lively effect. You know you're engaged, you're engaging,
but you got to put on the game face, is
what you're saying.
Speaker 5 (34:37):
I do, unfortunately, because my clients come first, and if
I feel they're being mistreated in any kind of way,
I can't have that person working for me or my
staff means allowed to me too. So if you're the
type that is always two and three hours late, I
understand a few minutes traffic, We get that.
Speaker 4 (34:55):
You know, we have grace peries for that.
Speaker 5 (34:57):
But if you are just repeat doing Oconos shows and
calling off, then we will replace you.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
Nothing's worse for staff morale. I bet we can all
agree on this that when there's somebody that's not carrying
their fair share and everybody else. You know, you can
go through a time in life, you got it. Maybe
you're having a relationship problem or a medical problem, and
again the company should have some grace for that. But
there comes a time where people are phoning it in
and the rest of the staff is picking up the load.
It's the most unfair thing I believe a boss or
(35:28):
a leader can do is to ignore that for too long.
It's not fair.
Speaker 4 (35:32):
Yeah, they start to get mad at you.
Speaker 5 (35:34):
And I've experienced that in the beginning, where I would
give more chances and they would. Then my staff would
be upset with me and say, you need to do
something about this, And so we changed our scheduling to
where everybody's prn they pick their own hours.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Well that's nice.
Speaker 5 (35:51):
So if you have to call off, if you make
your own schedules.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
If you have to let them go there, you're just
helping them on their journey through life.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
I like that.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
Yeah, I let's talk about the company's slogan and how
that's going to affect you today.
Speaker 4 (36:09):
Well, you know, I'm always on a journey.
Speaker 5 (36:15):
Honestly, I'm constantly in surveys, right, so this is my
journey through Like, this is something new for me because
I'm not used to the state coming and looking through
all my files and trying to make sure we're doing
everything right with HR and our documentation. And so I
just finished one survey and I did pass with flying colors,
(36:36):
no citations. But then immediately after I got another survey,
which I'm in the middle of now. So it's kind
of making my schedule hectic, something new for me.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Is it because each county has to do there is
at a different time or something. Why do you get
you called surveys? It feels like it's a reviewer of
some sort. You're talking about they called a survey both, yes.
Speaker 5 (36:55):
A review or a survey of how you are keeping
up with documents and keeping up with the rules and
regulations and in the business, to make sure you're doing
everything correctly.
Speaker 4 (37:05):
I guess this is just my year well tough.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
And I've heard from people who run senior homes and
things like that too. There's just so much paperwork. When
you decided to do this, did you realize that you
were going to be buried in paper?
Speaker 5 (37:21):
No, I was thinking, I'm going to be the boss,
so I'm not going to have that much work to
do and.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
I'll just sit all day.
Speaker 4 (37:32):
No, I have the most work to do.
Speaker 5 (37:34):
Honestly, I would say I'm the most busiest person in
the agency.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
Well, yeah, well you're the boss. That's it. That comes
with being the boss. After all these years, all the
different jobs you've had, is this the one that's most
satisfying for you? Or early in your career, was there
something that you can look back on now and say,
you know what, I really wish I could do that
again with my bad without my bad back, because that
really was enjoyable for me.
Speaker 4 (38:00):
I would say, it's all satisfying.
Speaker 5 (38:02):
Of course, the bedside manner I'm going to miss, you know,
that's where I originated with. But I get to take
care of people a different way. I get to take
care of my staff, I get to ensure that my
clients are not being abused mentally, physically, emotionally. I get
to really take care of people differently, so I still
get to do what I love.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
Yeah, you're still on the same path basically caring for people.
You see yourself doing this for a lot longer until now.
Not that you're old or anything, but you mentioned you
know you're turning forty, so I mean, you know, what
are you looking at in five.
Speaker 5 (38:36):
Years to expand? I want to be in Columbus. I
want to be in Dayton, and I want to continue
on doing what I'm doing because I do love it
and I don't really want to. I don't want to
be one of those people that ever retire. I feel
like it ages you.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
And I have retard yet and I'll be turning seventy
four in a couple of months a way, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
Be caring for him. Someday might not.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
I'm still doing it after forty six years, So you
can hang on. You can still hang on for a
little while longer.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
You're out in the bike all the time, in the
good weather you had. So I've heard friends everywhere he's
non stop.
Speaker 4 (39:16):
When you don't stop, right, you use your mind, you
use your body.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
You keep going enough to keep you busy. Besides the
show and the stuff I do with the Toledo Buffalo Soldiers,
it keeps me on the go.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
Because you know what, that energy, that drive, that sense
of belonging, that and the ability to do it in
some measure, it's a gift. Yeah, that's a gift, not
a curse. People talk about retirement and they're counting off
the days. To me, that sounds like the curse. The
gift is being able to keep going and doing things.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Especially especially like with Terry. It's something she obviously loves
to do. It's your passion. That's just why this show
is called a passion for business, hard for business, because
that's where your heart lies, right.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
It is, And Terry is one of the first people
I talked to and I thought, Wow, her story and
the way she explains it does kind of encapsulate the theme.
I want the listening audience to know that, you know,
there are so many businesses out there that really care
about what they're doing, and those are the ones you
want to find. Whether they're in the BBB or not
is irrelevant. Although it's great that we have you, you know,
(40:17):
we love that, but that's the kind of business that
you want to connect with, a local, regional business where
the owner cares and has a voice in what's going
on in the business.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
I love It was important for you to be a
member of the BBB.
Speaker 5 (40:30):
It was I always wanted to do it. I just
got involved this year and I always wanted to, but
for some reason, I told myself, well.
Speaker 4 (40:38):
I have to be better. I have to be better.
Speaker 5 (40:41):
And someone reached out to me one day and said,
someone inquired about your business and we don't have a
good or a bad review, and we.
Speaker 4 (40:48):
Would like to meet with you. And that's how it happens.
Speaker 5 (40:51):
I always wanted to be involved with you should be,
but I just told myself, I want to be the
best that I can be before I sign up.
Speaker 6 (40:58):
Well, that sounds like a match dot com. It's right
in the name better Yeah. Yeah, So we're gonna wrap
up here. The segments almost at an end. There was
one thing you were talking about that's on your dreamless
or wishless something you proposed recently about foster kids. Can
you talk about that.
Speaker 5 (41:16):
Yes, there is a shortage and I hate to bring
this story up. A young girl just was murdered recently,
and I don't want to say her name. I know
it's the delicate subject in the city. But I feel
like if the system right, you know, chop protective services
were called, and maybe if they had more foster parents
available to then maybe they would be more likely to
(41:40):
take some of the kids out of these dangerous situations.
And what I would like to do is have the
government help me fund my staff to take care of them.
Because I have my I can monitor the kids around
the cloud, so essentially I'll be, you know, in charge
of their care. But I could service more kids if
I can have my staff to take care of them.
Speaker 4 (41:59):
I can tell it is ten thirty two.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
So you could take your staff, your experience, your resources,
and you could serve a different population, that's for sure.
So if you're in the government, if you're associated with that,
if you're listening, take heed and maybe give Terry a call. Terry,
we got to wrap it up.
Speaker 4 (42:14):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
I like that idea though.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
Yeah, it's a good idea. It's because you're thinking outside
of the box. Thank you for being on a Heart
for Business and I'll see you soon. All right, bye everybody,
and thanks for joining us. Thanks Fred, take care.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
You've been listening to a Heart for Business sponsored by
the Better Business Bureau. You can follow us on Facebook,
on their website, and you can subscribe and listen every week.
A new show drops every Wednesday on iHeartRadio. It's available
wherever your podcast can be heard.
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