Matt Weitzel: 0:00

This episode of the GSE Podcast is brought to you by Fort Brand, not your everyday GSE provider. We go beyond belt loaders and bag tractors, offering towbarless pushbacks, de-icers, and airport maintenance equipment, all available on demand across North America and the UK. Whether you need electric units to support your ESG goals or traditional equipment for today's rant, Fort Brand delivers flexible leasing with the option of full-service maintenance to keep your fleet at peak performance. When you partner with Fort Brand, you get more than equipment. You get expertise, reliability, and a commitment to keeping your operation running smoothly. Visit Fortbrand.com to learn more. This is Patrick Dennison. This is Jake Klein. This is Daniel Burtis. My name is Dean Swabish, and you're listening to the GSE podcast. All right. Well, welcome to another edition of the GSE Podcast. I'm Matt Weitzel, and we are at the Orlando office today, which is going to be the home of the future studio. And if you're a listener of the podcast, I put out a call on LinkedIn a couple weeks ago about sending in some stuff for the shelving units that we're going to have here. We're going to paint this wall. From what I hear, guys, Oshkosh has said that they are going to come over, help me take down this chair rail, paint the wall, put in the shelves. We'll see if they actually do it. But they're here in Orlando, and I trust them. So we'll see. Because I can't do this by myself. I mean, you know, I think everybody's seen me. I can't do stuff like this. I can't paint. I can't take down chair rails. So, but I think Christian from Oshkosh could do the job. So anyway, so we're hoping he's going to come by. But we're videoing today, which is also cool. Last time it didn't work, if you saw my other LinkedIn post about my complete epic fail trying to record, I think we got a total of 18 seconds on that one. I brought in my personal camera for today because we have a very special guest today on the podcast, and that is a Mr. David Dick from Wilcox GSE. And he has joined me today to talk about Wilcox GSE. How's it going? Yeah, I'm doing awesome. Thank you for having me. You have a very good radio voice.

David Dick: 2:39

You really do. Did I is that the reason you wanted to come on? Did I miss my calling? I don't know. I've never done this before. So maybe there's still a chance. I mean, you have the Canadian accent, which is something, but you have a very good, deep, you know, radio voice, which I really enjoy. The Canadian accent, I went to school, university in Niagara on the US side, and they used to make fun of my accent all the time. And I'd be like, You guys have the accent. I don't. So I mean, I don't hear it. I don't know if I say a boot or but I'm sure it will come out. So but no, thank you for for having me. And I was gonna ask you if we call this your studio.

Matt Weitzel: 3:13

Is it what are you what's the name of your yeah, it's really not a studio yet, is it? We're just kind of in a room, but but this will be the future studio.

David Dick: 3:20

I mean it it feels studio, right?

Matt Weitzel: 3:23

Okay, yeah. And we have equipment, so if that's what makes it a studio, then there we are. We're here.

David Dick: 3:28

I like it. No, I'm excited to be here. Thank you very much for the opportunity. And yeah, a little bit nervous, and but I'm I'm excited. This is gonna be fun.

Matt Weitzel: 3:37

Yeah, it's gonna be great. And uh it kind of reminds me, I went to school uh my first year of college. I went to a school in South Bend, Indiana, which is famously known for Notre Dame. I wanted to go to Notre Dame and I couldn't get in. They have very, you know, they they turned down a lot of applicants. So I was like, well, I'm not gonna, I gotta live my dream, right? So I'm gonna still go. I'll just go to Holy Cross, which is where Rudy went. I don't know if you ever saw the movie Rudy. It's a great movie. So Rudy went to Holy Cross for a couple of years before he transferred to Notre Dame. And many people do this, right? So in my dorm room at Holy Cross, I had a guy from Louisiana that is now a famous radio guy, actually. I had a guy from Michigan and a guy from New York, and then me from Kentucky. Okay, so that's how many people come it to this small community college in South Bend, Indiana, because to live fulfill their dream of going to Notre Dame. Okay. So back to your accent story, they would make fun of me about my Kentucky accent. I would have people just come up to me at Holy Cross and just go, I just can you just talk for me because this is hilarious. And I really worked on it. I mean, I don't know if you can tell, I don't know if the listeners can tell, but I used to have a really thick Kentucky accent, and maybe I still have it. I don't know, but I've tried to kill it.

Speaker 1: 4:59

Uh yeah, you have an accent for sure.

Matt Weitzel: 5:01

Yeah, is it really bad? Is it really southern?

David Dick: 5:04

I don't know if it's really southern, but it's there. Okay. I wouldn't say bad. I like your accent. Okay. No, it's yeah, you know through the podcast, listen to it. You know when you speak, you know, I think it's it's definitely you. So okay.

Matt Weitzel: 5:16

It's it's definitely me, whether it's good, bad, or indifferent, right? All right. Well, we are here to to talk a little bit about GSE, but the way that we always start a podcast is how did you get into our GSE industry?

David Dick: 5:31

Yeah, I I think I probably my story is a little bit different from most, where I I still would say that I tell people it's like I'm not a GSE person, I'm not an airline person. It kind of was a fluke, to be honest. So, you know, and I feel again, like it's it's to be able to be here being highlighted a year ago. The ground sport magazine did a an article on me, which was great. So it just all this stuff kind of came out of nowhere. But if I go way back, Wilcox, we've been in business since 1962. My dad bought it in 1980. I started working there when I was 13 years old, so been there my whole life. Full time, I had to look it up this morning because I didn't even know. So 28 years. My first job was cleaning toilets. And if you're, you know, back in the 80s and 90s in a production facility and you know those bathrooms and stuff, it wasn't a pretty job. No, it wasn't pretty at all. So I worked my way through, you know, kind of that after just as a kid, and then after school and summers and sweeping floors and pretty much doing everything in production where the company started and still exists. We have the umbrella company now, Wilcox group of companies, but where it started was Wilcox bodies. So we manufacture truck bodies. So we've been doing that for I guess 63 years now. So I worked through there through production. I was working clean and prep. I pretty much done everything out there. I never painted. Did a little bit of welding, but I'm not a welder, so I experienced it. I got to the point that we had machines, turret press. I don't know, do you know what a turret press is? It's like a big punch press.

Matt Weitzel: 7:16

Okay.

David Dick: 7:16

So I used to program it and run it. My personality is really to push the limits of stuff so I would see how far I could, you know, what type of material I could punch. You know, it's you do quarter inch steel, punch quarter inch steel with you know a half inch or an inch die, it gets pretty loud. It would shake the place. So wow. So I I worked through there, and and I know my dad's gonna hear this afterwards, but I I absolutely hated it. I didn't want to work at Wilcox ever. I went to school, went to college in Canada for law enforcement, and then, like I said, in Niagara Falls, New York, criminology. So got a degree over there. My goal was to be a police officer. And I remember the the moment that I changed my mind. I was just nearing the end of my university career and saw news. And I remembered exactly it was a gentleman in in Ontario, Montreal, sorry, that was two weeks away from retiring, a police officer that pulled somebody over and got shot and killed. And that was for me, it was about helping people, not you know, the the crime side of it and putting myself at risk. And that was the time that I changed my mind of you know, going forward with police. So luckily, you know, walk back to my dad and say, I want a job, and I think he didn't want to give me one. We had a retail store at that time, and this was all to deal with trucking. And so I ran that. He had a kind there's a bunch of we had a bad time during our company that a bunch of our employees left and formed a competitive business against us. So he just plucked me out of a retail store at that time and said, You're running you know the production now. And I didn't know what I was doing. So turned out I was pretty good at visualizing and and seeing the you know numbers and really starting to understand, and I was pulling out things that were just were wrong, and I couldn't highlight it to him. So I I kind discovered that I liked that, and I liked being able to change things. We did custom trucks, or we still do, and pushing limits and having the freedom to be able to do it, and always understood that when I got my job, my my dad always told me he's like, You are the boss's son, and you gotta work harder than everybody else, and that's the truth. And and I do that, and so I know even to today is I had my job because of him, but I I work really hard and I've earned my job to where I am now, so I'm good at what I do. And so he tried with his the the sales team at we were more construction and rail and emergency vehicles, and he tried to get into aviation more on the truck side, but was never able to do it. And I I where the crossover happened for me, where I say it was a complete fluke, and I remember the moment it was probably I'm gonna say maybe 12 years ago. I was in Toronto in an air airplane, I looked outside and I saw a baggage cart and trying to think of ways to you know when I run a company and I have so many employees that are underneath me, and there's so many people that I'm responsible for. So we have 120 employees, but at that they have families, and then there's suppliers. I mean, there's like thousands of people that kind of rely on me to make sure that we're busy. So I like to diversify, right? And I'm I'm looking at a baggage card outside of a uh an aircraft window. And if you know like a service truck, we would manufacture the the body on the back. So if you can picture it, you can picture like a it has doors. So the way we make our service boxes are they're just boxes, so that if it was three boxes, it would literally be three boxes put together, welded, and I'm simplifying it obviously. But so when I looked at a baggage card, I'm like, this is just a box, this is just one compartment of our truck. So why can't we make baggage carts? Right. I believe, like, you know, our our company then was we would say that we manufacture truck bodies, but to me, we cut, we bend, we paint metal, and it just happens to be a truck at the end, it can be anything. So when I'm looking at a box, I'm like, okay, what's a baggage card? We can make that. I had reached out to we were doing vehicles at the time for it was for WestJet, and I didn't have any contacts, and I looked in our system and I found I was like, okay, who's the customer? And I found the gentleman's name, and we had our his email in our system, and I shot him an email, and I was just like, Hey, you know, any way that I can get on the you know RFQs for do a baggage card, because I'd love to be able to do it. And it was immediately I got an email back saying he's like, Do you have a time for a quick phone call? Because I think there's a really big opportunity here. I mean, for me, it's like if I hear really big opportunity, I'm like, all in, right? Let's do this. Oh, yeah, for sure. So he gets on the phone with me and he's like, There's nobody in Canada that manufactures GSE. And he's like, I think you guys would be awesome at it because he knew our equipment and what we do. I was like, and he's like, I'm gonna help you. I'm gonna help you. And I'm like, I know nothing about this stuff. And he's like, I'll help you get through it. So we started with baggage carts, but I don't even think we ever got to a baggage cart because then it was like, Can you do this? Can you do this? And I think the first thing may have been a tire cart and then dollies and whatnot. And it just kind of started. It just started from like an email, and the name didn't even exist yet. Like it was still under Wilcox bodies, and we started building stuff, and airlines now were coming and being like, Oh, you guys are Canadian, you make this stuff, and it's up here, and you know, all the different reasons, exchange rates. And we had an airline come and I noticed that they looked up at our building and it said Wilcox Bodies, and they were like, I could tell them being like, Why are we buying airline equipment from a truck company? Yeah, and that was like my moment where I'm like, Okay, this has got to change, right? So that was nine years ago. So we're still babies in the industry, and so we I created the branding at that point was Wilcox Ground Services.

Matt Weitzel: 12:59

Okay.

David Dick: 13:00

So we still ran it under the full team of Wilcox bodies. We just had another brand just for you know our customers to be like, this makes sense now. As we we progressed down, you know, further down, you know, building stuff. I realized that it was just such a different industry than the trucking industry. That the staff, it was it was hard on them. It was hard on the designers to be able to design the one-off trucks and then high mass quantity products. And we're building trucks that we have trucks that can lift, you have cranes on the the back of them that can lift up to a hundred thousand foot pounds of of weight. So it's like we can do this, right? Like we can make some really strong vehicles and we make things for the airlines, and it just wouldn't last. I was like, what is what's going on here? Like we we know what we're doing, so that it became very clear as like the teams had to separate, and that started being the separation of we got a ground services at the time became a standalone, and bodies became a standalone, so two different different teams. I think it was 2022, so not too long ago. We were getting more because of the the services name in our or part of our name. People thought that we were more of a ground handler. So I was like, okay, that doesn't really make sense. Started looking at the industry, and really, you know, a lot of our competition you look at, there's like reference GSE in the name. So we did the transition from Wilcox Trans Services to Wilcox GSE, and that's where we are today.

Matt Weitzel: 14:28

So yeah, that's a that's a really interesting story. It just reminds me. So when I started at XED, so Fort Brand just recently acquired Exceed, but I was a with XED for nine years. And um, when I started there, XSEED was named XED Aviation Services. The first thing I did when I when I came to XEed, I was like, we have to change the name because everybody's gonna think we're providing aviation services. We're a hundred percent not providing aviation services, right? Like we're we're we're a GSE leasing and rental company, so we need to change. So I ended up they've listened to me, and we got you know, we changed our website name to Exceed GSE. And I mean, GSE is just so much, you know. Everybody knows what GSE is, and especially in this industry, so it makes sense.

David Dick: 15:17

It makes sense, but coming into it where we didn't know anything is like, I don't know. I mean, it sounded pretty cool. Yeah, I didn't even know like brown support equipment was at that time. I mean, it was to the point, and it's it's embarrassing because I was so green in it that I remember that somebody had asked something along the lines of uh a hub and it was either like how many poles or hub had or or tires or something, and I didn't know what he was talking about. I was just like, okay, that's cool, I'll find out. And I had a Google was like, what's up, yeah. Like I had no clue of this stuff. So in a short term or you know, time here in nine years, I've learned a lot. But that's why I still feel that it's like I'm obviously when I say that I don't feel that I'm part of the GSE world, it's it's I I am, I've I've we contribute and we do stuff, but it's I come with an you know an outside of the industry eye. And I think that's been really like the the benefit for me is that I was never involved. It's hard a little bit because we we aren't on the air side, right? Like we're we're here and I can see your back, and you guys have all the equipment and we don't get to see people use it, so it's a little bit harder for us. So you're you're learning from feedback, but it gives us the opportunity to pivot a little bit and do some things a little bit different. See, I feel like we're in a very accepting group, the GSE. Oh, for sure. I love this industry. There's so many nice people. I mean, customers, competitors, is like everybody is kind. And it's that is so true. It's it's a really good industry to be part of. I love it.

Matt Weitzel: 16:46

Yeah, and so are you still doing like the Wilcox bodies and all that kind of stuff? That is still a very thriving business. Yes. Uh it's just that, you know. So, what is your focus then? Like, how do you how do you you know focus your time? Is it 6040? Like, what is it?

David Dick: 17:02

Right now, I've kind of switched, shifted back a little bit more of my time to the body side. More probably we've had a lot of changeover on on personnel. So just you know, teaching and education.

Matt Weitzel: 17:14

So you kind of like try to flux depending on what's going on with each of the businesses.

Speaker 1: 17:18

And our GSC team is pretty strong now. So we had over COVID, obviously, that a lot of people kind of change jobs, and yeah, we had to we had to lay off some people, but we brought everybody back. But some people think right. So so yeah, that they're it's a really strong team now, so I have more ability to focus on the other side a little bit while the GSE is kind of flourishing. So I would say 6040 maybe on the body side right now. Okay, yeah, yeah.

Matt Weitzel: 17:45

But then but then that'll change depending on what's going on and all that kind of stuff. 100%.

David Dick: 17:49

Yeah, yeah, I'm pretty flexible that way.

Matt Weitzel: 17:51

So and then your so the main product lines, let's let's go through them for for Wilcox. So it's dollies. Yeah, right? So LD3, LD7, all that kind of stuff.

David Dick: 18:03

Yeah, so it's all non-powered. Non-powered, okay. So it's non-powered, I guess, equipment and then vehicles. So just the vehicles just made sense because of what we do on the truck side. Yeah, it's a natural fit. But on the we'll look at ground handling equipment, so baggage carts, dollies, LD3s, LD7s, and then on the MRO side, then we'll be doing stairs, prop stands, platforms, things like that.

Matt Weitzel: 18:29

Oh, okay. Yeah, I didn't realize that you all did stairs and all that kind of stuff. So do you all do passenger stairs?

David Dick: 18:36

No packs, no, so all maintenance. So that's been a request. We've had a big request for the passenger stuff. Um honestly, right now it just more is we're we're currently looking into it. It's more of an insurance thing than you know, okay on us of not wanting to do it. So once you get into passenger items, then with insurance, it's just a whole different ballgame. So we've we've stayed away.

Matt Weitzel: 19:02

But it seems like to me that you could do the mobile passenger stairs, they're on a truck.

David Dick: 19:06

Yeah, we could. It ends up being it's just I think it's because you have people on it, right? And there's so many people. So it's just seems like a natural fit, baby. It is, it really is. You know, we're doing stairs, and I tell you that, I think eventually we'll get there. But the truck line is going to keep growing. We do bobtails right now. We do it's funny in Canada we do maintenance platform trucks in states. They don't use them down here. I don't know why, but they would use these as a more of instead of a stair to pull up a you know a 737 and access the door, do maintenance on the truck. So it's like mobile. Yeah. Platform bands. We will be coming out with lav carts and water carts soon. So oh wow, expanding that to the truck side. And and the truck side, I want to like in the word that wants to come out is easy. It's not easy, but it's it's more of a natural fit for us.

Matt Weitzel: 19:53

Yeah, so water and lav would definitely make sense for your for your product offering, I think.

David Dick: 19:57

Yeah, so we have it'll be very soon. LAV Our LAV cart is done, so it's just kind of in testing right now. So we're gonna start off with that kind of concept on the cart side, and then once we have that, we just roll it over to a truck, and it's you know pretty much the same thing, it'll be it'll be no problem. So yeah, we won't be far out on that.

Matt Weitzel: 20:16

So so are you buying trucks for for both businesses, and therefore do you get like a better price because you're you're you're buying in such volume?

David Dick: 20:26

No, it's funny on the the body side, the customers actually supply the the trucks mainly. Okay. So we don't really deal with it. We just we upfit it on the GS side is that they want turnkey. So they're not gonna go out, you know, airline's not gonna go out and buy a bunch of chassis and send them over to West. So we actually buy them on that side. So there's not enough volume right now, but there is once you get into that, there's pooling and there's different ways to do it that you will get potentially better prices. But when you you you're gonna be mainly dealing with like as users of Fords or you know, some of the bigger companies, and when they start giving discounts, like they're talking about.

Matt Weitzel: 21:02

Oh, yeah, you got a thousand. And that's the reason I was asking. But yeah, I see you're not buying the vehicles for for the other business, not not often.

David Dick: 21:12

Yeah, I would say maybe like five percent of the time. Okay, yeah, yeah.

Matt Weitzel: 21:16

And then what kind of trucks are you using? Like, what do you generally do for bobtails?

David Dick: 21:20

F350s or the Dodge 3500s.

Matt Weitzel: 21:22

Okay, and then the customer can choose that.

David Dick: 21:25

Yeah, yeah. Our first one was the RAM, and that was only because of COVID. We couldn't get any Fords, you couldn't get chassis anywhere. Yeah, we built it. We actually prefer building on Rams, and I know everybody has a preference. I talked to a few people last week that don't really like the RAM, but it's a less expensive truck. I feel it's uh it's got a good engine, it's a stronger truck. But Ford's is typically the work truck, is that's the one that people are gonna build on. So there's benefits to both. I mean, Ford, you're gonna have more service, you know, locations that if you need it, but when you come out to the airport, it's not usually leaving, anyways. So but those are the the two trucks that would be reliable that we we pick on right now.

Matt Weitzel: 22:07

But a customer can kind of choose what they want and tell you and then you'll build it for them.

David Dick: 22:11

Yeah. So even on like uh on the maintenance side, we'll have kind of like our standard design, we'll have different options that they can do. So we have a couple different platform sizes or you know, whatever lighting or bottle holders or whatever they need on the inside of it, they can pick and choose and kind of configure it whatever whatever way that they want. Now, if somebody comes, we have customers that do them on like GMs. Okay, we'll build on it. That's fine. So if somebody has something that they want to do it on, we'll do it. We'll we'll recommend certain ones, but you know.

Matt Weitzel: 22:45

I mean, it sounds like that's the advantage you have a shop that can do everything. I mean, and you all have plenty of experience building on on chassis, so it's just not an issue for the guy.

David Dick: 22:54

The truck stuff is not an issue at all.

Matt Weitzel: 22:55

Yeah.

David Dick: 22:56

So the bobtail's a little bit challenging just because there's the shortening of the the chassis versus if it was just a stock, chassis would be so much easier building the body. I think we could probably build one of those bodies in less than a week. Like they're so uncomplicated, it's it's just so basic.

Matt Weitzel: 23:12

It's so is there a learning curve to building that bobtail? What's that? Was there a learning curve on building that bobtail? Like you said, you gotta shorten the chassis, and uh that's not something that's typically done, right?

David Dick: 23:23

Yeah, that's that was like the hardest part. The chassis side, the body is just, and I'm not an engineer, but it's like the offset of the weight to be able to carry up, you know, the amount of pull, and it comes down to the axle rear differentials that it's it's gonna be doing it. So I I should say you asked to is we have the 350, but we're gonna be making another one on a 550 as well.

Matt Weitzel: 23:46

Okay.

David Dick: 23:46

Because just that's been like a request. So but it's that's the body's gonna be the same, I think. It's just gonna be the chassis, it'll be a little bit different.

Matt Weitzel: 23:53

Is there anything that that you had to worry about with weather-wise being in Canada that you all build your trucks a little bit differently because of of inclement weather? Like, do y'all put on different tires, or like are you all thinking about these kinds of things, or are they just so heavy and it just doesn't matter?

David Dick: 24:08

I think it's a weight that there's not really an issue with it. Yeah. So we were looking at doing it in a four by four. Because again, kind of go at the beginning of me being so green is I don't know. So I'll ask them like, why doesn't anybody build these on four by fours? So I think it's a possibility. I have customers that that ask for it, but the I think the difference to be able to do it, there's more challenges to try to get the front axle and the rear axle that customers I mean just don't really don't need it. Right. So I think there's just so much so much weight, change the tires on it, you're fine.

Matt Weitzel: 24:41

Yeah.

David Dick: 24:42

But if it does come out to it that there's a request for a four by four, it's like, let's go for it, right? I mean, that's kind of like my personality. It's like, all right, let's try it. Yeah, let's do it. I mean, when we did the first one, I was just like, man, I was so nervous taking a Dodge Ram, and I'm like, we're cutting this thing in half, right? If it doesn't work, like what's numbers? Like, I know that probably back in the past, like my dad would have been like, there's no way that I'm doing it. And I'm like, well, what's the worst case scenario, right? We take a truck that's 60 grand, cut it in half, and it goes in the garbage, and I'll have to explain it later. But fingers crossed, you know, hope this works. And it worked, right? Hey, there you go. Yeah, and we got we got great feedback from it. People love it. So we're oh it was an opportunity of part of the market that doesn't have a lot of players, and it's where we fit in really well.

Matt Weitzel: 25:26

So it's kind of like well, they're definitely needed, and they're yeah, there isn't a lot of people making bobtails.

David Dick: 25:31

Yeah. It it's we still have the factor of the chassis, though, right? So you're still basing on if Ford or Dodge can or Ram, I guess, can can get us a truck, and it's it it's still an outside factor of it's hard. It makes it you're not just making something from metal and you know, a baggage card that you can just ship out and you can make a lot of people.

Matt Weitzel: 25:49

Yeah, you're very dependent on these people having inventory and stock and then and and how long the lead time is, because if somebody asks you what the lead time is, you have to go and then call and find out, right? Exactly. So much dependent on them.

David Dick: 26:02

Exactly. Like you're probably 12 weeks on a chassis, then you're gonna shorten it, and body's gonna, you know, you're by that time if you don't have them, you're probably 20 weeks out. So we're pre-ordering chassis and we're putting it in our system all the time just to try to shorten that for for customers.

Matt Weitzel: 26:15

Yeah, and that's that was gonna be my next question was uh, do you all inventory anything?

David Dick: 26:19

We do. So again, being part of like, I guess, the like a newer player, you know, we're against some giants out there, and the way that, especially over COVID, the way that we found that that we could get into the industry was to stock product. So people couldn't get any product, people were actually pulling back during COVID. We went the opposite way, so we started building, and during COVID, when it got really busy and nobody could find anything, is we had it. So we ended up right now is we stock product when we have we just sold, for instance, we got rid of all our LD7s, we put another 60 units of our units in into production, and then as we go, is if if there's sales, well, we just keep building behind it. So our lead time is always short, and we try to keep that because we know that the turnaround is sometimes ridiculously tight.

Matt Weitzel: 27:08

I love that. I think that's a fantastic idea, and it seems like such a great idea, especially during COVID. Nobody was doubling down, right? No, and but people still needed equipment. So I bet you got customers that you would have normally it would have taken years to get into whatever customer X, but instead you had it. They were calling around. Oh, call Wilcox, see if they've got it. Oh, I never dealt with them, and then you have it.

David Dick: 27:32

Yep, and I it got our name out there, right? And it got the brand and it worked. I mean, you know, COVID was horrible for the world, but there were certain little things for us that it it helped. So um that's amazing. Yeah, it was a little bit of a different strategy, and we and we continue. Now we've got it's it's such a risk. We were building so many baggage carts, and then the industry switched a little bit, you know, and kind of went from baggage carts at one point to dollies, and then we had a whole bunch of stock, and then you don't have this. So you you it's it's a a little bit of a master plan to try to figure out and predict what's coming and talking to people so you're not building too much of one thing or making sure that you have it when people need it. So again, having Bob Tails, you know, coming in LD7s right now, we have bag baggage carts, and it's kind of like the way that we approach the the market. We put our on a GHI last year, we put on our website, so all our inventory is on there live now. So oh wow, okay. I mean, when I say live, it's still on manual, but we're gonna be attaching it to our system so it'll be fully live. But yeah, so it's all in there so people can see what we have and we can get it out right away.

Matt Weitzel: 28:37

So are you dealing with mainly airlines or mainly ground handlers, or is there a good mix of both? And then you know, what does that look like from a Canadian perspective compared to a US perspective?

David Dick: 28:47

I think probably more ground handlers. Funny enough, there's more that comes down to the states than stays in Canada. I mean, just the size of it down here. You know, there's ten times the amount of people down here than in Canada. So naturally there'll be more that that comes here with the fear of of tariffs. It it hasn't, you know, knock on wood and thank god that it hasn't affected us. So we'd be able to still ship product down here tariff-free and and hopefully it stays that way. Yeah, hopefully. And you know, product coming back across the border is the same. So I would say the majority probably ground handlers and majority probably in the states.

Matt Weitzel: 29:27

Okay. Interesting. But what uh the relationship with WestJet, how you kind of got started, are they still using the Wilcox GSE products?

David Dick: 29:35

Yeah, oh, they use a lot. So every one of their trucks is is Wilcox. We do, they got out of the ground handling side, so they don't self-handle anymore. So we do more of the MRO stuff with them. So a lot of their platforms and stairs and and things, and they will come to us with like tons of different ideas, right? Like, can you do this or will you do this? And of course the answer is always yes. Um but yeah, they've been they've been amazing, and and I have such a loyalty to them for helping us, right? Like I'm just me and my personalities, I don't forget the people that helped me. And they were always I'll always look back and it was like the start started with them, right? And it's it's yeah, they're they've been a really good, and and with other, you know, some of their competitors as well, but they've been great and they they continue to buy, but they probably have man, we just finished, I think, about seven trucks for them. I don't even know how many of our trucks that they have in their fleet now, but awesome going and you land in Toronto and you see all the stuff going around, and it's like, oh, that's all of our equipment. So it's yeah, that is amazing. A kid in a candy store still.

Matt Weitzel: 30:37

Yeah. So what makes your product different than because there's a lot of as you said, there's a lot of non-motorized players in the market. But I think you're the I would say technically, you're pretty much like the first non-motorized person I've had on the podcast. I guess. Yeah. I had Avro on, but they I wouldn't consider them just strictly kind of like a non-motorized person.

David Dick: 30:58

Yeah, they think you aren't either, but motorized stuff as well.

Matt Weitzel: 31:01

But but they do they do a lot more motorized, uh especially than you do. But well, like what would you say, you know, is kind of the difference in in your the Wilcox GSE dollies and in bag carts? Is it just is it a service or or like how you build it, or like what do you think it is?

David Dick: 31:17

Yeah, I think a little bit of everything there. So I figure you're probably gonna ask me this question. So is I'm gonna I'm gonna put it in maybe a way in like this, and and I'm gonna use kind of beer companies as a as an example of funny enough.

Matt Weitzel: 31:32

I oh I love beer companies.

David Dick: 31:33

Go ahead. So so if you if you look at when I when I looked at opportunity and you look at like the big companies, like the you know, the Budweisers or Molson's or whoever it is, is they do a same brand all the time or the same product. And then I'm I'm assuming it's the same down in the States now is that you have all these craft you know companies and these little companies coming that are doing some really amazing stuff because they're listening to what people want and they're changing things, and the big companies can't change as quick, right? And you're starting to see that they are a little bit, but not it's not easy for them. So when I look at like Wilcox, and there's like you brought up Avro is probably the same, and there's some other small companies that are kind of coming, and there's like those big giants that I refer to, and these amazing companies that are out there that as that outsider, I look at it as like they've been doing the, you know, and the feedback we're getting is like, yeah, you this is what we offer, this is the doll we offer, this is the baggage cart. And it's like, well, it's not gonna fit what we need. It's like that's what we offer, take it or leave it. And so I kind of went in, and the approach was like, okay, let's listen. Our customers are gonna tell us what we what they're looking for, and let's adapt our product to that. So we focus on our whole our whole company since '62 has been focusing on quality. That's number one, customer service is number two, and then just kind of listen to customers and you know, safety and building a product that is going to last. So I have it, I really believe is like if you have our our branding on on a product, it's like we stand behind it, right? So when people ask, and then this maybe sounds a little bit conceited, and I don't mean it that way, but it's like, but when you buy your product, you buy me, right? And I'm gonna stay behind it, and I'm gonna be there, and I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna support it and do all those things. So I'm gonna listen. And if you have an opportunity to make it better, our product is better. And and we just released a new dolly at GSE Expo. It's like that dolly and the new design, and not just because it's ours, I'm gonna say it's probably the strongest in the industry, but all of the design changes that we did came from our customers and was you know, we struggle with this, we wish it had this. Your product sucks, you know, right now on this stuff. Can you improve it? I wish you know maintenance is really hard. So we took all that stuff and then we put it into the new one. And then we even at GS GSE Expo, people were asking for other things. So we've already brought that back. So we're gonna kind of you know modify it. So I guess to get back to why us is because we're different, right? And we're listening, and it's we're not just gonna put out the the same product, like a a dolly is a dolly, a baggage cart's a baggage cart, but our baggage cart's a little bit wider, you know, our baggage cart will handle more if there was areas of concern of breakage or whatever. It's like we have engineering that is not our baggage cart has like for instance, we have a rubber isolator in there now, which is gonna help the if you have a front end or rear axle damage, they can unbolt, they can switch out an axle in 20 minutes. First, before it was an eight-hour fix, so we can get the equipment back out quicker. We've got away from any potential points of ripping, any of those things, but it's all like feedback, so and that's gonna keep continuing. So when you partner with us, you're getting a product that we're gonna stand behind, and then with your feedback, we're just gonna keep making it better.

Matt Weitzel: 34:45

Yeah, so you're like a you're like a really nice IPA.

David Dick: 34:49

Yeah, yeah. That's what I'm hearing. Funny enough that I used the the beer analogy and I stopped drinking about two years ago. So he was like, Man, I love craft beer though. So yeah, that's funny.

Matt Weitzel: 35:01

And uh, we were just talking about how my wife was in was in beer and she was one of the in one of the one of the big beer companies. So it's a good analogy.

David Dick: 35:08

Yeah, I thought that was funny because you said that earlier, and I was like, I want to refer to it.

Matt Weitzel: 35:12

This is I'm gonna use this. Yeah, you know what I mean? Yeah, uh, yeah, I like it. No, that's awesome. And so I imagine that yeah, you all have a good service network and you can help out if things do go wrong in the field and all that kind of stuff.

David Dick: 35:23

Yeah, so down here, I mean, we have people that can go anywhere. Yeah. Um, I think like most companies will working with third party down here to be able to expand that. So if there is downtime, then it's very minimal if we can't get our team down. But if if somebody requests us to have team members there, we'll get them there right away. I mean, we know that downtime of our product is downtime for them, it's costing them money, and that's not okay. So, but as we grow, we will, you know, we're we're only in Canada right now, like where our manufacturing is. I am looking at possibilities of manufacturing in the States, and and actually, I was last week, I was talking to a potential customer and they do some maintenance, and I was like, hey, look, it there might be opportunity for us to work with you as you can support us to be able to support you know our customers as well. So yeah, if if you have product and no matter where it is, is if it's our team or somebody else's, it's it will be supported, you know, by us 100%.

Matt Weitzel: 36:21

Yeah, and Fortrand has maintenance shops. So if you ever need anything, beautiful, you you let us know, and we will try to help out.

David Dick: 36:27

Yeah, and then those partnerships are so key, right? And I mean it helps everybody out, and it's it just comes with the whole industry is that you don't want equipment down, right? It's gonna affect like we talked about it. I gotta fly out. So we don't need me, you know, my my plane being delayed because of equipment. So if the more that we can all work together, it it helps everybody. But yeah, yeah, I agree. I think that's a there's a good opportunity there.

Matt Weitzel: 36:52

I think so. Yeah, we we'll we'll talk about it after after this at lunch. But but yeah, so so you kind of become LinkedIn famous as well, so we got to cover that. So uh you come up with some pretty crazy ideas, right?

David Dick: 37:05

Yeah, and again, that was just it just kind of happened. So it's funny, somebody said that it was LinkedIn famous, and I'm I'm just so I just do things and I don't think about it. I think my first one I did was maybe a walk-around of a truck, and I got really good, whatever it was, I don't remember, but I got really good feedback, but just because it was so raw, right? And I think it's you know, my position titles, like you know, vice president or president, you know, vice president at the time, or like who's doing this and I'm not editing it, and like there's so much AI in the world as I I and you do marketing, right? So and I I just love doing things different. I like I've never I love marketing, I've never like done anything like schooling for marketing, but I just love being able to do stuff different. So when I I look at stuff, I'm treat people the way that you want to be treated, right? So when I look at really good ads out there and I'm like, man, somebody's done that really, really well. So I don't want somebody to be like, yeah, I can I can manipulate video and I can do whatever, but as if if I can go, and it's I can tell you, it's like never set up. So when I'm doing videos, it's always me. If I say, hey, something's in the yard, is like literally I see something and I go and walk and I talk about it.

Matt Weitzel: 38:17

Uh-huh.

David Dick: 38:17

So it's just it's gone over really well, I think, because it's been different. And I'd done, I think there's probably three or four. So if you go back through, and if nobody's knows my my LinkedIn videos, go look at them, but there was a the first one I did, I went to see our Illumina baggage cart in Salt Lake City and kind of did like a fun little joking video about it, and it went really well. I did one for golf or GHI and and a Santa one for Christmas a few years back, and I kind of poke fun of myself and I'm totally, you know, and it it goes over really well. So I think people really appreciate the I hold the phone, I walk around, I talk. You and I in Vegas were talking about it where I'm like, man, I got I got so many little video cuts on the side that I'm gonna put a blooper veil video or a blooper reel together. I've been out there, I've been stuck by bees, I've tripped, I've done stuff, I've you know, but I I try not to edit it, right?

Matt Weitzel: 39:09

I just yeah, you just you know, there's something to being genuine and and not editing. And so, you know, with this podcast, a lot of times it's zero edits. Yeah. I mean, and we we leave a lot of that stuff in there, and it's also a conversation, right? And I don't have anything in front of me, I don't have any notes or anything, as anybody can see. As long as this camera's still working, I don't know.

David Dick: 39:27

I forgot that it was even on necessarily.

Matt Weitzel: 39:28

Right, I know.

David Dick: 39:29

If you're comfortable, I forgot that was on.

Matt Weitzel: 39:30

Yeah, yeah. So anyway, there is just something to that where people can tell, right? And it doesn't have to be perfect. And in fact, I think it goes better if it's not.

David Dick: 39:38

Exactly. And that's how I feel as well. So, and that was like my whole approach of highlighting, you know, the equipment that we do trying to show. And and people have told me is that I I probably highlight too much. I'm like, but if they want to go see our product, they're gonna see it anyways, right? So it's more for me is like, I'm gonna go and show everything, and some of them are are long, and I gotta try to, I can be long winded sometimes. So I gotta try to bring that down in a little bit shorts, but it's just my way of being like, hey, this is our product, I'm gonna be real. And it's it's genuine, it's not pre-planned, and it's not edited, and this is what it is. And I and I think it comes across really well because obviously I get so much feedback on it. Where like I had been at shows where people come up, it's like, oh, you know, the the video guy. I was called the video guy for many years. Oh, that's fine. Okay, like you know, one of my competitors at the GSE Expo was just you know walking down the hallway the last day and ran up and stopped me, and he was just like, I just want to introduce myself, and I was like, that's pretty cool. You know, I I like that. So that is awesome, yeah. But I mean, it's like and I I think even when you say it is like you you see videos and that's cool, but I'm I don't feel any, I'm just do what I do, right?

Matt Weitzel: 40:49

So you're authentically you, it is, and that's so I'm so glad. Yeah, all right, and then I wanted to ask you about so you've been a couple years, I think you've been kind of doing the golf thing for for I think is it G H I?

David Dick: 41:02

Yeah, yeah, two years now, I think that we do it. So we sponsor it, and we're gonna do it again in Panama in June, I guess it's going to be. And we've got such good feedback on that, and people are excited. So this year's goal is to get like a full a full course. So we've only got about like half last year. So we want to get the whole thing booked. So if anybody's looking to go golfing and stuff, it's like it's a great time, and we're gonna try to come up with some different events. But it's like uh it's interesting that we'll have some of our competitors there.

Matt Weitzel: 41:35

Let's do it.

David Dick: 41:36

And at the at the beginning, you'll you'll you see there's a little bit of tension and stuff, but at the end, it's like it's just a whole bunch of people from this industry having fun, going out, kind of celebrating a show that's gonna come, and and it's a really good time. So people love it, and we've got really good feedback from it, which is which is awesome.

Matt Weitzel: 41:52

Yeah, I mean, it's paying them all, it's golf. Yeah, I mean, you know, who cares if we're competitors or whatever? I mean, we're not. I'm just saying, like, you know what I mean? Who cares?

David Dick: 42:00

So yeah, we go out. My CFO Sneal, he's a big into cigars, and I I'm not at all, but I can't believe like the cigar culture out there. But he'll go buy like a whole bunch of really good cigars, and we just drive around and give people cigars while they're playing golf. And there you go. We go buy like so. Are you not even a golfer? No, I don't even I'd hurt my back a couple years ago, so I don't. It's just too risky. So I'm like the the driver and the provider of booze and and cigars, and just talking to people and making sure they're having a good time. Oh, that's funny. People really love that. Yeah. Yeah. So it just we just do laps and we'll get to see them probably four or five times during the thing. And yeah, it's it's a good time.

Matt Weitzel: 42:36

I think I need to hurt my back or something because I'm terrible at golf, and I think people are are tired of seeing me out there trying to do it. So maybe I could drive around with you or something like that.

David Dick: 42:47

And uh And that's the the best about that tournament with being the best ball there, is like you don't have to golf, right? You don't, it doesn't matter how good or or bad you are, and and they're not nobody cares, right? There's some really good golfers out there. There's some really good golfers in G S E. Yeah, I think the same group keeps winning it every year.

Matt Weitzel: 43:04

I'm sure. Yeah. Yeah, it's never been my group, just to just to say I've never. But I did so obviously I came to GHI Orlando. I go to every GHI Americas, but I was I was golfing at the the GHI Americas. It'll be a lot of fun to have it down in Panama. We haven't had a GHI Americas in Panama since 2019. And I think that was the last time that we were down there. Did you go to that one?

David Dick: 43:28

No, the first one we went to was Dominican.

Matt Weitzel: 43:31

Oh, yes, that was uh that was a lot of fun. That was crazy. That yeah, that I mean it was just crazy to know that you really couldn't leave the the premises. Yeah, as he saw everybody everywhere. Uh the place was humongous, that hard rock, you know, it was it was too big, it was huge, yeah. And then oh, you'll you'll love this. So I decided to leave on an earlier flight. This will be my GSE story, by the way, for this for this episode. Okay, just let the listeners know Matt's gonna do a GSE story. So I decided to leave a day early, and so I was in a hurry. So I went in, gathered all my stuff, threw it in my suitcase. It was kind of a last second decision. I was gonna leave on a Friday and I decided to leave on the Thursday because all the Oshkosh guys were coming back to Orlando and they were like, no, this is a great flight. Hop on with us. So get everything, I'm running out of there. And then, of course, Patrick McDowell, which I'm sure he'll be listening to this, he he lost his passport. It was a freaking mess. We left him for dead, though. I mean, we you know what I mean. Like, sorry, you know, we we we we hightailed it out of there, and poor Patrick was just still standing there, like with his bags in his hands, with no passport, couldn't leave the premises like in Dominican. Yes, that's right, in Punta Cana. And it turns out it's kind of a long story, and I'll go ahead and ruin his GSE story, which is basically they had thrown away his passport. They came in, he had left it in his in the room, like in between a seat cushion. Um, the maid found it, threw it in the trash can. So he ended up like having to pay cash to a security person, a security guard, to even get him to go over there to help him get into the room. Well, he didn't even need to get into the room. They ended up like opening up the trash because they found the woman who had cleaned his room and they found the passport in the trash. So he ended up getting out of there that on our same flight and everything. But like I said, we left him. So I'll never be able to recover from leaving him there. But but anyway, so back to to Matt Matt's story and not Patrick's story, which is I left two or three suits in my closet along with some button-downs and ties, and I had just bought one of these suits. And I'd actually gotten a suit, and you can probably look back at the pictures on the LinkedIn. I'd gotten this really nice light blue suit that I still wear. It's very flashy, and it was for my mother-in-law's wedding. And my wife said, Don't take that down there, because if you lose it or something happens to it, you're not gonna be dressed like the rest of the party because the the wedding was afterwards. Was right after getting back from Punta Kana. So I was like, Why would I ever leave a suit? You know what I mean? Like, I'm like, I'm so anyway, that's the one that I did not leave behind. Thank God, or else I would have been murdered. Because, you know, I told her, I'm like, well, there's no way I'm gonna leave a suit. I left three. Okay, and that's the only one that I did not leave, thank the Lord. But she was getting married on a cruise, and that's the reason it was very tropical looking. And so that's the reason I thought, well, Panama's a great, you know, that's a great place to to introduce that, right? So I think I had like a floral, like uh flowery tie and everything. So I'm like it's Panama, right? You gotta do that. So that's that's that's my GSE story for today. Right. So we'll we'll start wrapping this thing up. What's your what's your GSE story?

David Dick: 47:00

Yeah, so I don't have anything like big no no I haven't lost any left any suits. I have lost lots of passports though, and damaged lots of passports. So I got lots of stories on that. But yeah, I was thinking of and and probably a lot of people maybe maybe people don't think about it like this, but I'm gonna I'm gonna maybe take some people back. And you're probably gonna be able to, you know, appreciate this. Okay, let me give you like three little steps here. The being, I guess, so so new and doing the stuff with WestJet and and getting equipment going, and we're building stuff, and it's you know, it leaves our facility and it's like it's gone, right? Never get to see it again. And the it still is that that first time that you walk through that door at a hangar, or you know, and you go into something where you're underneath like a 737 or like a plane, and you just mean like look around with like the marvel of oh my god, like look at this stuff, look how big everything is, and it only happens once, right? It's it's cool every time you go see it, right? You know, driving down your office here and see on the planes, I'm like, I love it. I love this industry, I love everything about it. But that feeling that when you go through that door, and I'm sure that people are listening, are like, yeah, I know that first time that I got to go through, right? And that was like incredible for me. So, you know, and and I appreciate all the opportunities and all the stuff that my parents have done for me. So I got to I asked West Jed if I could bring my dad over, and so I got him to come through and just watching him, you know, have that same feeling after I've gone in a few times and and getting to experience that with my family and and see him, you know, look around and just again the size of these buildings that nobody who's not been there can you can't even describe it, like it's impossible. So this past year, I told you I have a son 22 who works for me actually, so it's great. So it's kind of like the third generation. He does not, I guess I should say he works for us, does our our some of our QC for the GSE equipment, which is awesome. But the girls that are 15 for take your kids to to work day. So grade nine out. Do they do that in the States?

Matt Weitzel: 49:06

Oh, yeah, we did it, we did it at my former company at XEED, and my son got to go to Chicago and and go to the office in uh April of 2021 or 2022, something like that.

David Dick: 49:17

Nice. So I I sat up WestJet, Porter, Sky Cafe. So we deal with them all, but they all got the the girls to come in and kind of did a tour of the aircrafts, and because they all, I mean Westjet and Porter don't, but Sky Cafe services no Porter, so I was able to go and say, here's the equipment that we build. They got to see it against the aircraft, get to go in the aircrafts and do all that stuff. And I'm standing in Porter airplane, and and one of the guys I was with is like, you know, he's one of the the header ups there, and then he's like, man, he's like I can see and like the girls like do stuff. And he's like, I should probably like get my kids to do this because you just forget you're in the industry and you don't pay attention of like people really like this stuff. And we're standing there, and I just hear it over like the announcement of like the you know, they're sitting in the flight deck and getting all the pictures, and then over the the intercom is like, welcome to you know, Porter, and they're on the back on the speaker, and I'm like, who gets to do that stuff as a kid? And you're speaking on a sorry, on the on a phone and or on the the intercom and you know, changing the lights and doing all that stuff. So being able to share this, you know, with my I haven't got my wife out there yet, so you know there'll be kind of a thing because I tell her all the stories, but being able to share this experience that I'm going through right now, you know, this this whirlwind of sitting in a podcast with you and you know, getting articles written about me, and nine years later, of we're in this, we have a company and part of like this count, you know, this this massive industry is just it's everything for me, right? Like I'm I'm such a family person, and it's like that's been I think when I look back, it's like that's been the most rewarding thing for me is be able to experience this and share it with other people. And I'm just like I'm pretty humble and I'm pretty just like No, it's I love that story, it's good. And I think again, everybody can relate because you have that first time that you cross that line, the first time you're underneath the plane, and yeah, it's it goes away quick, but it's it's pretty wild.

Matt Weitzel: 51:12

There's some people that's pretty cool that you gotta do that with your family too.

David Dick: 51:15

Yeah, they and it's funny, they were talking about it and they still talk about it. The girls they wear like Wilcox GSE stuff at their high school, they become like Wilcox GSE stuff become like the cool wear now, which is like I'm like, why are you wearing my work stuff? And it's like, you know, it's it's awesome, but so all their friends want it and stuff. Like, what's GSE?

Matt Weitzel: 51:32

Yeah, and there's like all these other kids being like and then they start listening to my podcast, and then all the kids, you know what I mean? Like, I become famous.

David Dick: 51:40

I guarantee I'm gonna be like, I talked about you, and they'll they'll be on it and they'll get their friends to do it. You'll you'll peek up. I'm on Spotify kids. Yeah, you'd be like, Why is like all this stuff in Canada? Like, what did I peek up there, my audience? But yeah, so I've I've I've been pretty lucky.

Matt Weitzel: 51:56

No, I I would say so. That's awesome. I'm glad you started this side of the business and didn't just stay in trucks and you came to our side of the of the of the GSE industry. Yeah, me too. Yeah, this has been great, man. I I I I quiz my child every time we're on a plane. I'm like, all right, what is that down there? He's like belt loader. Nice. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like it's I quiz him on everything. We'll see if we can get him into the industry. I don't know. So but that's pretty cool. Your son's doing the the QC stuff, and yeah, maybe one day he'll he'll take he'll take the reins over from you, and then it'll be a third generation thing.

David Dick: 52:32

Yeah, it's awesome. And what I was trying to figure is like, where's the place that you're gonna learn the most? And if you and I'm he's again, I had the same talk with him. I'm like, you're my kid, right? You gotta work harder than everybody else. And he does, like he he impresses me so much, and he goes out there and he gets underneath things and he'll get in the mud and fix things if he needs to, and he just does it himself, and it's it's awesome. But being able to teach somebody is like if you do QC, you'll know your product inside and out. You can sell the product, you can do all these different things. So he started creating manuals, then it was actually doing physical QCs, and as we kind of develop him and and do it, is like it was a good place to start. So yeah, it's it's you know, I started with toilets, he started with manuals, it's a lot of people.

Matt Weitzel: 53:17

Yeah, I was gonna ask you if he's done the toilets yet, but no, no, you just at home. Yeah, yeah.

David Dick: 53:22

It's it's too clean now, so yeah. Yeah.

Matt Weitzel: 53:25

Well, is there anything we haven't covered? I mean, I think we we went through the products a little bit. I mean, is there anything else you want to go to?

David Dick: 53:31

No, actually just on our stuff, I I don't think so. Again, thank you for the opportunity, but I was curious, and and I did talk to you a little bit. We touched base a little bit in Vegas, but I think this is amazing of what you're doing here, right? And and me personally is just like I I I love change. I love pushing the envelope, I love kind of you know, getting outside of the box, and I think that's really work for me. I'm not really fearful of making a mistake and and doing something different in an industry. And I think that's why we've kind of why we've done well so far. But look at your podcast and what you've done here, and I think it's amazing, right? As you know, listening to some of them when you started at I think a kitchen table or a kitchen counter and you you know were in a studio that you're gonna, you know, you're you're recording and you're gonna be putting shelves and doing all these things. It's like, how did you get here? Like, where did it, how did it start?

Matt Weitzel: 54:21

Yeah, so that's a great question. I thanks. I don't know if I've gone through this or not on the podcast, and I don't think I have, but yeah, so in high school, I I was a geek, right? So self-admittedly, I was in the A V, you know, club or whatever. I don't know if it was a club, but it was definitely a class. We had an A V class, and I would I would edit videos for people for for you know that we had high school athletes, right? Obviously playing football and things like that, and they would want highlight videos they could send to colleges, and so I would edit their videos for them. I started building computers when I was 15 years old and started a computer business. I've always been kind of like a techie person, and I really enjoyed kind of radio. So I did a little bit of radio at our at our high school. I was a color commentator for our football games. So my my friend would do the play by play, and I would, and then his dad did play by play for for years for our high school football games. So they gave the role to him after after that, and then I would come in and do the color commentating. I also was doing our PA announcing for our football games when they were at home. I only did the the the color commentating when did away games, and then I would do the uh high school basketball games PA announcing as well. So I don't know how I kind of got involved in all those different things. I think my the reason I brought up all those different things is because it's all very geeky stuff, but it's something that I enjoyed doing. And then when it was brought up to me, we were trying to figure out something fun to do for marketing for XEED, and somebody said we should do a podcast. And I was like, that's a terrible idea. And and they were like, no, no, I think it would work. And I'm like, I don't know if it would, and I couldn't find the angle. And then one day I found the angle and I was like, Oh, I know. And it it actually makes a lot of sense because we buy from everyone, right? We're agnostic as far as it manufacturers go. So I'm like, I could interview manufacturers and it would help them with their business because they would be able to come on here and talk about their business. Then they'll want to talk about Exceed because we're the ones that provided them this avenue to come on and talk about their products and things like that. So then they're gonna talk about XCED on their LinkedIn. And then I already have the background and the knowledge and hopefully the voice for this, right? So so anyway, so that's kind of how it came to be. And and I and I I've been in this industry for a really long time, and so I kind of knew a bunch of people. And so my first call was from Brad Compton uh to Brad Compton just because you know he's the guy who hired me into this industry, and I kind of told you about meeting him in the enterprise rent a car. And so I called Brad, and Brad knows everybody in GSE, and I was like, What would you think if I started a GSE podcast? Like, what do you can remember where I was talking to him in the car, and he's like, if anybody can do it, it's you, and which was great. I mean, I whether or not he was being truthful at the at the moment, we'll never know. But it gave me the confidence after him saying that to go, okay, I think I can do this, you know. And so anyway, you know, again, Brad came in and saved the day. Like, you know, he got me into GSC and he told me I should do the podcast, and so here we are today. So that's kind of the story behind it. Does that does that answer your question?

David Dick: 57:43

Yeah, no, I think it's it's it's awesome, right? I really I love people that take a chance, yeah. Right, and you never really know. And it was a chance though. But look what you've done, right? You're great at it, and you know, people a lot of people listen to it, and I think you've done really well. So I appreciate that. Keep going at it, and yeah, and again, I I appreciate you giving me an opportunity here.

Matt Weitzel: 58:03

We we have an idea. So I have a bunch of people ask me, you know, did that somebody should interview me, right? And they're like, Well, can I interview you? You're like, I'll I'll interview Matt Weitzel. All right, and so I think I have an idea on this. And I think it should be my son. So he's 11, but he is he's an actor, he's on stage all the time. He does he does not get camera shy at all. He will not be shy in front of a microphone. And I'm thinking about maybe doing a a podcast where he comes in and he interviews me, and I would be really good. And I think that might be fun, and maybe we do that for for Father's Day. Yeah, that would be awesome.

David Dick: 58:40

Yeah, that's such a good idea. You have to do that.

Matt Weitzel: 58:43

Yeah, so that's what a good idea. And then we'll have the studio all set up by that point. Um, so that'll be kind of a great way to like kick off the studio and um what a I love that idea. People finally get the Matt Weitzel experience brought to his brought to his.

David Dick: 58:55

Yeah, you have to give your your experience, right? Like you have so many stories, and everybody has these great stories, and you put a little bit of yours in there all the time. But yeah, if you did that, that would that would be amazing. That's a good idea.

Matt Weitzel: 59:07

Yeah, so anyway, so be looking out that for that, guys. Hopefully the camera's still on. David, thank you so much for coming in. I really appreciate it. And uh, yeah, thanks for telling us about Wilcox. And obviously, guys, to find Will Cox, you can just go online, Wilcox GSE, and you will see David at all the shows, and uh, you can come up and talk to him about how great this episode is. Well, thank you all for listening. This has been Matt Weitzel and David Dick for the GSE Podcast. Thank you. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the GSE Podcast. We hope you found it informative and engaging. If this episode resonated with you, please share it with your colleagues and peers in the ground support equipment community. Your support is invaluable to us. We'd appreciate it if you could take a moment to rate and review our podcast. Your feedback not only encourages us But also helps expand our reach within the GSE community. Keep an eye out for more episodes as we continue to explore the dynamic world of ground operations, bringing you the latest trends, insights, and stories from the industry. Thank you for listening to the GSE Podcast. Until we meet again, stay grounded and keep pushing forward.