Adam Fink – Marine Corps to Building a Business – Our most honest interview yet!

The first year that I ran the company, AI think I broke like

$100,000 and I was super proud of myself.

I'm like, hey, and I think maybe in six months or so I did that.

And I was like, I'm really doing something here.

My aunt pulled me and she was helping with the Bush, and she

showed me a screen that said I had spent $200,000.

And I was like, oh man, this isn't going good.

Take a briefcase full of $20 bills.

I don't know any of it would have been better than what I

did. Hey guys, as I edited this

episode I realized I needed to include an apology.

This is probably the most raw, honest and best interview we

have had on From the Ground Up Show and I dropped the ball as

the host. Adam brought some incredible

content, was extremely vulnerable and gives an

incredible view into the emotion and thoughts of a fresh

entrepreneur and a human being who has pushed through some very

difficult things. There are so many questions I

wish I would have asked, and I missed it.

I sincerely hope that Adam will return for an update on his new

business ventures and to further discuss the hard lessons he has

learned throughout his unique life experiences.

So I apologize for my performance and I sincerely hope

that you dive in and enjoy the most raw and honest interview I

have ever done. Thanks and enjoy.

Hey there and welcome to From the Ground Up Show, the show

where we encourage and inspire the next generation of free

thinking leaders by telling the stories of those that have been

there, done that, and are still getting it done.

Building a life that they love with their hearts, their hands

and their hustle. I'm your host, Eric Loden.

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platforms at From the Ground Up show.

And if you guys are just on podcast right now, we also have

the show available on YouTube. Make sure you check that out and

get the full video version. Today I am joined in the studio

by Adam Fink. Adam is the owner of Clear Creek

Septic Service and Layered Sanitation, founded in 2021.

He partners in that endeavor with his father-in-law.

They began in 2021 with Clear Creek Septic Service and just

one truck and a commitment to reliable service.

Since then, they have expanded into portable toilets and have

steadily grown their fleet. In January this year, they

acquired Layered Sanitation, allowing them to serve customers

better and providing comprehensive septic and

portable toilet services to six counties in northern Wyoming.

Along with owning Clear Creek Septic Services.

Adam is a former Marine search and rescue volunteer, dog

handler, competitive shooter, and a father and a husband.

So, Adam, thanks for joining me. Yeah, thanks for having me.

Awesome, we will dive right in. The first thing we do every show

is we just like to learn a little bit about you.

So can you tell us about your life growing up?

Yeah, I was born here in Buffalo, WY, raised about two

blocks from here, and my parents owned the Clear Creek Well

Service, the water well contractor.

They started in 92, so I was kind of raised up in the with

the entrepreneurial spirit. I was homeschooled until the 8th

grade, where my mom decided that maybe she was tired of having me

around all the time. Now that I have kids, I feel bad

for what I put my mom through in those years.

I went to Three Peaks Christian School in Sheridan for one year

and then they unfortunately shut down.

So I went to Buffalo High School and that's where I graduated

from. From there, I joined the Marine

Corps. I spent four years in Marine

Corps, stationed in Hawaii, which was great.

Did a couple tours to Afghanistan, got out and started

my professional careers from there.

OK. Can you tell us a little bit

more about your service in the Marines?

I know you've had a few interesting things.

You worked with dogs quite a bit, didn't you?

Yeah, kind of I was, my MOS was O 311 Rifleman and one of the

things that they offer to infantrymen during that period

of time, I don't know if they still do it, but of the IED

threat was so high. And so they had a program where

they utilize black labs that were trained as trial dogs.

So just your regular gun dog and then they just imprinted them

with IED sense all the different types of explosives that we

would, we'd run into and we handled them just like you would

at any other trial dog. And one of the guys we call him

seniors, all the guys that are above us, he went through the

program and I thought it's pretty sweet.

And so when it was my turn to volunteer, I did and I, I was

lucky enough to get sent to that that schooling.

It was a five week school in South Carolina and this was

actually on my second deployment.

So my first deployment I was a Rifleman and I carried AM/249

saw. Then on my second deployment is

when when I did the dog handler thing.

But it was super fun, super rewarding.

I love dogs. So having a dog working with a

dog, having a another companion with you was cool.

That wasn't one of the guys that was all grumpy and pissed off

all the time like the rest of us.

And so, yeah, her and I, we, we found a handful IEDs, could

probably credit some lives being saved to, to the work that she

was able to do while we were there.

And then we split ways at the end of the deployment.

You cut ties with them can be kind of hard.

My mom had signed up for the ability to adopt retired service

dogs. They wouldn't allow it active

duty members to do it because we didn't know where it'd be next

month. You know, so she actually got an

e-mail right after I decided to get out of the Marine Corps that

Riley was up for adoption. Oh wow, which is super cool.

So we did all the paperwork. I had to go down to Denver.

She flew in basically in a shipping crate and got her back

and that everyone asked me they were like, well, did she

remember you? And I don't know she was

excited, but I think anybody would be when they come out, you

know, get shipped across the country in a crate.

But what was what was super cool is, is I was part of search and

rescue at the time, and she didn't have a job to do anymore.

So I got her imprinted on cadaver and we became a cadaver

team. And I think you got to meet her

through that process. So that was super rewarding,

able to take those skills. There's not a lot of

transferable skills from being a grunt in the Marine Corps into

the real world, so it's cool to actually be able to use some of

that for a short period of time. She ended up getting diabetes

that was misdiagnosed or we just missed it.

And so she she passed away pretty early, but that was very

rewarding to be able to work with her in the service and come

back and continue that service with her here and here at home.

That's pretty cool. Do you know is there a reason

they kind of disconnect the handler from the dog after that

deployment? Yeah, the dog's going to get

redeployed and and that Marine that was assigned to her, who

knows where he's going to end up.

So aside other than in country, the dog does isn't really with

you. You go to, you go to the

schooling you they introduce you to a handful of dogs.

The ones that you connect with you end up working with as long

as that connection continues to to thrive and then you deploy

the deployment's over and that's unfortunately it for that

chapter of the story. There are other occupations

within the campuses where I think guys will get dogs and

keep dogs because it's it's their primary job.

This is secondary for what I did.

So, so there's no guarantee on my next deployment where I would

be going in. But that was actually my last

deployment. So that's why, that's why I

don't know if if my dog had two or three or four handlers before

me, but she had definitely, we've been over there before.

Interesting. Yeah, that's an interesting

program. Yeah, yeah, it was.

And it was all civilian ran. I can't remember the town in

South Carolina where they, they run it out of, but all of the,

all of the trainers that trained the dogs and the Marines are

multi award winner gun trial guys.

You know, you Google them up and they, they're pretty well known.

It was really, it was neat getting into that side of the

dog world, Been around hunting dogs growing up a little bit

here and there and always had a bird dog that was not well

trained. Seeing that that side of what

dogs can do is super cool. I just, I've never been able to

train a dog up to that level. I was lucky that they did all

that for me. Getting out of the Marines, you

got your dog. Yeah.

And so you had a few more years with Riley serving in search and

rescue. You had no secondary education

after high school, is that correct?

Nope. Nope.

And I didn't for a long time. So after after I got out, I I

bounced around jobs little bit ran equipment for a dirt work

outfit and then went to work for my dad.

And at that time he was he wasn't really running operations

anymore. His business partner was was

more the operations manager. My dad was just more making sure

that the wheels didn't fall off. And I think I started in July of

2013. I got out of the Marine Corps in

2012 and went to work for for my parents kind of got pushed up a

little faster than I would have liked.

I think you could probably relate to that.

I wasn't ready. I knew I wasn't ready.

I went from, at that point in time, they had transitioned

completely out of drilling water wells and were in oil and gas.

And so I was just working the floor, perfectly happy, just

working, not having to use my noggin at all.

And they pushed me into a driller position and I didn't

really know what I was doing yet.

And somebody got hurt bad by me. But you know, the actions that I

took running the rig and I wasn't, I just was not

confident. I wasn't comfortable.

And about two weeks later somebody else got hurt.

And that one, that one just was a mixed, mixed effort.

There's there's a couple things that went in, but ultimately I

was the one on the controls. It was, it was my rig, my crew

and another guy got hurt and I hung it up.

At that point, I just, I wasn't getting the help that I needed,

you know, to make sure that I was fully aware and understood

what I, what, you know, what I was doing.

It was kind of here's the keys, have fun.

And I wasn't, I just, I wasn't going to continue down that

road. It was somebody's going to get

killed and and it wasn't something that I wanted to be

part of anymore. So I'd left the company, went

back to running equipment for a while.

And then while I was actually, while I was still working for my

parents, we found out that my mom had brain cancer.

That was in October, November ish of 2013.

And it was later on that winter when I decided to be done with

the company. And so my parents drafted up the

contract and and sold out to their business partner.

My dad basically asked me at that time if I would come on

payroll with them and just help out, you know, wherever He knew

that he was going to be able to do it all on his own.

And so I did that. I left the job that I was

working, took a pretty decent pay cut and, and just helped

out. I remodeled their house for him.

We, we knew that my mom after her first brain surgery wasn't

going to be super mobile. So did some ADA stuff around the

house and then just kind of farted around.

I helped out people, you know, day worked and stuff like that

where I could, but just made sure that I was available for,

for whatever they would need. In September 2014 my mom passed

away and then my dad started. Throughout all of this he he

abused alcohol and and pain medications and essentially

melted his his brain. He got early onset dementia and

by the time he was 60, early 60s, he was pretty well had very

little cognitive function. So my, my sisters and I were the

primary caretakers for him, along with my aunt, his sister.

And in that, in that time frame, when my dad sold the business to

his partner, we kept 1 water well rig.

And so I fired that rig back up, hired a couple guys and, and

we're doing my best to make ends meet there and all of that.

And, and go out on my own and, and, you know, try to walk in my

father's footsteps, if you will, you know, and, and, and make a

run of it. And that was probably 2015, 2016

time frame. And it was pretty slow around

here. There just wasn't a lot going

on. And the first year that I ran

the company, I, I think I broke like $100,000 and I was super

proud of myself. I'm like, hey, and I think maybe

in six months or so I did that and I was like, I'm really doing

something here. My aunt pulled me and she was

helping with the Bush and she showed me a screen that said I

had spent $200,000. And I was like, oh man, this

isn't going good. And you know, that was just, I

had to make another decision right then.

Obviously things weren't going great.

I had way too many people on payroll because of the

circumstances. I I was when my mom got sick,

they brought my aunt on to help run the books.

We kept her because I needed her.

She, she would take care of my dad during the day while I could

try to go work. And then it just came to a point

where I had, I had to just shut everything down.

I had to let her go. I had to let the two hired guys

that I had on. I let them go just to try to

save enough money so that my dad could eat the when they sold the

business, they basically lost it all the first year because of my

mom being sick. It all went to to medical cost.

And so I went from having to worry about providing for myself

for then, you know, I did, I had to come up with some way to

provide for everybody and, and, and we were just losing too much

money. So shut all that down, sold the

rig to a guy here in town and went got a nine to five again,

my sisters and I split time of taking care of our our dad.

The unfortunate thing is he was a candidate for nursing home at

that point in time. But because of this, when they

sold the company, they carried their partner on a note.

So they had a lot of assets on the books.

He defaulted within a year, but was able to make some payments

here and there. So we're kind of keeping alive

and it's that's the oil and gas is up and down.

It's boom and bust. And so we knew that if we waited

long enough, another boom or at least enough of one would show

up that we'd be able to get the rest of the money paid off the

It never came.

They unfortunately had to had to move on and do the same thing I

was doing is is fold and go get a job.

So because of that that that contract still existed and the

state wouldn't kick in any funds.

So even though my in the bank account, there was not a lot of

money, the state viewed it as as we did.

So I had to start the process of repossessing that defaulted

purchase agreement and that was ugly.

Unfortunately, the family friends that bought it are no

longer family friends. And that was tough.

You know, I was at that point in time, I was 202526 and have to

make some pretty big boy decisions.

And it was hard. You know, that whole, that whole

time period was hard and took a lot of humility.

You know, I had to, there was no time to to think that no, this

might work out. I'd had to say no, I failed.

And it's time to move on, strap your boots on and keep going and

just drive forward. And we did.

We, my sisters and I, made that arrangement work for another 3-4

years until my dad passed away. And one of the hardest things I

had to do through that time period was we knew that he

probably only had three or four years left.

And I've struggled with this forever.

He had a life insurance policy, a a term life insurance policy

that was getting close. Well, we were running out of

money and, and couldn't pay it. So I went down and I met with

the insurance agent and I'm happy I did.

But it's, it's hard because she said your, your mom and dad have

made this investment. They paid a lot of money into

it. We know the end is near.

Don't stop, don't stop paying on this yet.

My for a moment in time, my, my dad's life, his legacy,

unfortunately turned into dollar signs, you know, ones and it, it

was hard it, and she wasn't wrong.

It was an investment that they made.

They paid on it for a long time. But to to have it said that way,

you know, and, and to have to think about it that way, it was

tough, but we decided to, I don't remember if how we ended

up paying it, but we, we kept paying it up until the end.

So we were fortunate enough that you know when it was all when

everything was finally, when all the dust had settled, our my

parents were able to still leave us with something, even though

the company seemed to have not provided the the fruits of their

labor the way that they wished it would have.

But there's still something left, at least when it was all

said and done so that that was 2019.

I was no 2018 is when he passed away.

I was working at Spring Creek coal mine as a mechanic at that

point in time, still always wanted to go out on my own and,

and, but started having kids at that point in time and and I

wasn't willing to take the risk. You know, some opportunities

that come up and and gone and, and I always sat around saying I

wish I would have, wish I would have.

And in 2021 I was working for the padlock ranch.

I was a maintenance manager for them, which is really fancy

title for the handyman padlock has anywhere from 3 to 500,000

acres depending on the year, around 30 houses.

So I was I was busy and I would call the local septic company to

get some service done and, and they would just tell me how busy

they were and, and they didn't feel like it needed to be done.

And I kind of got tired of hearing that.

And I had a little bit of money saved up.

And my father-in-law had he was a rancher his whole life.

And I was telling my wife I was like, I just need somebody.

I'll buy the truck if somebody will just drive it.

And somebody whether it was her sister, I can't remember.

We actually had this argument the other day, which one had the

conversation with him, but but the bug in his ear, he called me

like right away and was like, you serious?

And I was like, not really, but yeah, let's go.

And I think within a week we had a truck here.

I hadn't I didn't have a business set up yet.

I didn't have anything. And he's dropping at the bit

ready to go. And the first year, I think we

started in July. Come winter, we had money in the

bank, but not enough to carry him through the winter.

I was still working full time in the evenings.

I was doing invoicing and, and paying bills and do whatever

else came up. And, and then he was, he would

go out and do the jobs that first winter.

He, I don't remember who he worked for a couple different

other people through the winters and just whatever it took to to

get it going. And I always had, you know, told

him I said, I have no intention of ever doing this full time.

We'll see where it goes, but I don't really want to be on call.

I don't want to be the guy that leaving birthday parties to go

out on emergency call. And so, you know, as long as you

have enough to survive and, and, and do well, that's all I'm

worried about. I didn't know my father-in-law

as well as I thought I did. He, he ranched his entire life.

So he doesn't know what a five day work week is and he doesn't

know what an 8 to 5 is. If he's, if it's not ten hours

or, or or more, it's not a full day's work.

And he doesn't idle well. So I could see, you know, pretty

quick that we got a this thing's going to grow a lot faster than

I thought it was. And I think it was in 22 we, we

bought our first trailer full of portable toilets.

I found them on Facebook, drove out to Gig Harbor, WA to go get

them. Borrowed somebody's 40 foot

gooseneck trailer and it was 30 toilets and a portable toilet

truck. We show up, the truck is not as

represented at all. I foolishly wired this guy in

full for everything. So we show up and it's we got

there, thank God we got there early on a Friday and walk

around the truck. And I still remember the

panicked look on my father in law's face when we realized we

cannot take this truck. It won't make it back to

Wyoming. And it's he basically is like,

you got to go do something about this.

And I'm like, oh, no, So I have to go tell this guy I'm like,

hey, we'll take the toilets, but we cannot take the truck.

And he's like, Oh, well, I already moved all the money

around and, and, and there's three people involved in this.

And I paid some guys off and I'm like, oh man, there goes.

And I don't remember how much it was.

I think that truck was 30,000 and the toilets were about the

same. And I got had his hand in it,

obviously, because he, the guy got on the phone with his bank

and I talked to his banker. She gave me all of her

credentials. She's like, we will pay you

don't worry about it. But, you know, those are the

lessons that would be better learned in a classroom than in

Gig Harbor, WA. But I'm happy you had, you know,

that's in. You asked if I had a formal

education. Yeah, lessons like that.

I think some of those are lessons that I don't know how

you learn that in a class. Or you don't.

I don't know that they don't learn that so.

Don't wire money you don't take. Take couple cashier's checks,

Take a briefcase full of $20 bills.

I don't know any of it would have been better than what I

did, but it all worked out. And yeah, we just continued to

steadily grow since then. That's awesome.

So I want to roll back a little bit.

You were just talking about education.

What was the the thought process or or what was it that pushed

you to dive into the Marines instead of diving into the

workforce or pursuing an education after high school?

I always, I just had a desire from young age.

I don't know what it was. It just was, it was always

there. I was.

I was never going to do anything other than that.

My GTA in high school reflects that.

I mean, I did just enough to get by.

I I signed contract to go to the Marine Corps when I was 17.

If they could have got me at 16, they would have had me.

You know it. I just, there was nothing else

that I was going to do. I don't know when it was that I

decided on the Marine Corps is somewhere in high school, found

out that obviously they're the best and I can attest to that.

Found out they had the hardest boot camp is 13 weeks long.

I was like, that sounds right. I'll do that.

And that's kind of how I, I, I, for whatever reason, that's how

I do everything. If, if it's going to be the

hardest, most difficult way to get it done, sign me up.

And so, yeah, I just, I never was going to do anything other

than that. I was, I was going to be a

career Marine, do 20 years or or more.

And it was just circumstances back here that that kept me from

doing that. OK.

So it wasn't anything any part of your service or any issues.

With no. That caused you to get out.

No, I mean, there's always there.

There was leadership issues. There was all sorts of stuff

like that going on. But I'd love the Marine Corps.

I love the camaraderie. I, you know, we were the tip of

the spear and that was that was cool.

You know, we had massive egos and chips on our shoulders and,

and walked around with our chest puffed out and there wasn't

anybody that was going to tell us any different.

Yeah, I loved every every aspect of it.

It just it was not in the in the cards for me to stay there.

OK. Have you ever thought about

going back or serving in the reserves?

You know, I, I have back in 16, I actually reached out to a

buddy that I served with. I was a recruiter at the time

and I was like, hey, I'm going to come back.

And he's like, don't forget all the reasons why he left.

You know that there are I, I, I'm going to contradict what

everything I've just said. It's like anywhere else.

When you're in it, it sucks. You know the grass is greener,

but you get a couple steps away from it and you look at it

retrospectively and with hindsight, everything obviously

looks a lot better. And there is being a grunt, an

infantryman when there's nothing to do, the only thing to do is

screw with you and your time. And when you're in between

deployments and you're not, you're not in that work up

schedule yet. There's a lot of downtime.

And so just it's a lot of games and, and just when you're even

as a junior NCOI got out as a corporal and E4, yeah, it just a

lot of nonsense. You know, days where you could

have been done at 3 and set out early to go enjoy Hawaii.

You know, they they'd keep you till 10 at night just because

the company first Sergeant probably doesn't like his wife,

so he doesn't want to go home either.

So he just takes it out on all of the people below him.

You know, there's stuff like that, that it, it's the truth

that, that that type of thing is what happens.

And it does cause for burnout. It causes for low retention rate

and and I don't know what the retention rate is anymore in

Marine Corps, but it was pretty low when I was there.

OK. And you said since you guys have

started, you've been growing pretty rapidly in your new

business. Can you give us an idea what

does that growth look like? What have been kind of the, the

big steps or you know, how much, how much have you been

increasing your sales every year?

Yeah, it's gone from Lyle, my father-in-law having to find

work to do in the winter to if he wants to.

A problem is as as we've grown, we've stayed busy through the

the winter season, but we can carry carry him through the

whole winter, which is great. Which is what my goal was

setting out with this was to, you know, have him ease into

retirement a little bit, even even if he refuses to take a day

off, at least the options there. And you know, I don't actually

know sales percentage, you know, all of that.

We just it's, it's job by job. And we've got, we went from

those 30 toilets. Now we have 80 and that's in

three years. I measure our success in in the

freedom that we've been able to get in our lives later on.

And as I continue to to, to grow this other business, it, you

know, those type of metrics are going to be a lot more

important. But when it's just me and Lyle

is just kind of, hey, are we surviving great.

And not even the way we're thriving and continue to thrive,

but yeah, that's where that's where we're at today.

We're we're we're to the point where we're not worried where

the if the next jobs coming in or when the next jobs coming in.

We, I think it's safe to say that we're probably the number

one call in in Sheridan County now for for Septics.

Porta Pies are still slow, but I'm at a point right now where

that threshold of growth where if we continue, if we grow

anymore, I'm going to have to bring somebody on.

If I bring somebody on, margins are going to get tight again.

And I haven't completely decided how we're going to handle that

one yet. You know, we're just, I'm

figuring this out as I go more than anything through hopefully

less failure than before, but great determination and, and a

willingness to to go about it an unconventional way.

I just quit my full time job a month ago.

OK. And and that's because of the

acquisition of, of layered sanitation, it just wasn't going

to be possible for me to work a full time job anymore.

But you know, that's you have to be willing to to sacrifice a lot

to be a a business owner and to start a business in the grass

root it. And it was a common occurrence

for me to still be up working at 11:00 at night and, and waking

up early and going to my next, you know, to my real job.

And then getting off and then going and hopping in her truck

and helping Lyle out and then going back to the office,

getting the kids, put the bed in office, which is my house,

getting the kids to bed and going back to work again.

You know, it just it's what I enjoy.

I I I don't know why I thought of this the other day, but it

it, it occurred to me that I don't care what I'm doing.

I just like working. Never in a million years did I

ever think I was going to own a septic company.

I never, never crossed my mind. Yeah, but I don't, I don't care.

It just work, you know? And I don't if it's physical

labour, great. If it's sitting behind a desk,

great. I like.

I just I like working. What is it a difficult decision

to give up your your day job and kind of go all in and have two

families relying on this business now?

Yeah, yeah. And there's actually more.

So I, I have 3 full time employees with Laird.

So yeah, there is in July this last year, my wife quit her job

to take a little bit off of my plate.

And you know, we knew that more likely than not this purchase

with Laird was going to go through.

And so is get her trained up on Clear Creek to take my position

because Laird is probably 3 to 4X, but Clear Creek accepted

services right now. So they will, that will be the

work that I was just talking about.

You know, I'll, I'll leave a full time job to, to take a full

time plus one because Mike and his wife, the previous owners,

they, they both were working the business side of it.

So, and I'm just, I'm very fresh into it that that was January

29th that we signed papers and bought that.

So, OK, just a little over a week into it.

Yeah. What made you decide to go that

route and acquire another business instead of focusing on

growing yours or going a different?

Route there, it landed in my lap.

Yeah, I think earlier I alluded to watching opportunities come

and go and saying I wish I would have this one landed in my lap

super hard. MM treated as very well.

It was extremely generous through the whole process of of

purchasing the company. We kind of partnered up, got to

know each other a little bit and and built some rapport while

kind of doing all the negotiations as well.

And I, I left it up to God. I, I, I remember we, we were in

the final stages of, of negotiating and it kind of

looked like it was all going to fall apart.

And I said, I, I just, I, I got down on my knees and I, I prayed

to God and I said, if this is not supposed to happen, let me

know. It was later that day, I was

listening to a podcast and the host was talking about work and

kind of that same thing. I just said like, doesn't matter

what it is. And he said it, I don't care if

you're the septic guy pumping shit, go out and get it done.

And I'm like, holy cow. If that's not a sign that I

that, that I guess there will won't be anything bigger than

that, you know, and so we push forward and we'll find out.

But ultimately it's all it's all in God's hands.

I'm, I'm just a, a steward and of what my parents left for me.

My, I grew up in the church. My mom was extremely active in

the, in the church and in the community.

And this is a way to continue the legacy that they tried to

build and, and leave for us. I couldn't say no, you know,

and, and it's all up to God from now.

Oh man, that's a big leap, but seems like things are going well

so far. So far so good.

So what man you you've been through some hard things at a

lot of different levels. What has been the hardest part

of Clear Creek Sanitations? Working with families always

difficult. Lyle and I luckily have a great

relationship, but it's always there's always the fear that,

you know, one's going to do something that's going to upset

the other. And so just being open and

honest, managing expectations, both directions, learning how to

communicate, you know, well with each other.

You know, that that's probably one of the biggest hurdles that

we had. Like I was saying, Lyle's a go,

go, go, go, go. And I'm a whoa, whoa, whoa,

whoa, whoa. Which has been great, you know,

kind of that Ying and Yang where I might have drugged my feet

until something was available anymore.

And and if it were up to him, he would have bought it three times

yesterday, you know, But yeah, you know, that growth is hard.

But we structured we structured it from the beginning the right

way. We were we were all cash.

So if if it failed tomorrow, the bank wasn't knocking our door to

take our homes and we just started small and just let it,

you know, planted a seed and let it grow.

So there wasn't a lot of really difficult lessons learned yet.

I, I guess driving to Gig Harbor with hoping that money was going

to come back to us. But yeah, you know, some

embarrassing things like that throughout the last couple

years, but overall it's just been, we went about it the right

way this time. You know, I, I say we, but a lot

of that's me just, I learned from my past experiences.

I didn't want to, I didn't want to go through that again.

I, I, I'm sure you know, you can't scale exponentially

without having anything to land on when you're done.

So we're just building a foundation and, and still are,

I'm not in any hurry to, to meet any certain, you know, goals of

growth or anything as as it comes, it'll come.

Yeah, that seems like a a wise reproach.

That was always kind of my approach and business as well.

But I know he gets looked down on sometimes and man, there's a

lot more stability there. Then yeah, I don't, you know,

it's like. Trying to shoot the moon.

Five years out, I just, I hope that we've continued just a

steady up word trajectory and I'm not looking for a percentage

attached to that. As long as it's still going up,

I'm happy with that. Yeah, that's great.

Are you going to keep the name? With layered sanitation, Yep.

Yeah. So Mike, he had that for 20

years. He did the same thing I did.

He bought out some local over there and then grew it into what

it is today. He's got, I mean, he basically

runs the entire Bitcoin basin. There's I was, I mapped it out

the other day. If you take his area in the area

that we have on this out of mound, it's like 10,000 square

miles of area to run. And that's, you know, porta

potties spread out through all of that.

Yeah, but he's a, he's a very big personality over in the

Bighorn Basin, and his name is very much recognized.

So I'm keeping the name. The branding is great.

Everyone knows who he is. He's a, his slogan's Got Poop,

which we had over the last year. We've been using one of his

trucks on this side of the mountain and the amount of

people that have stopped taking a picture or just wanted to tell

me how hilarious it was. The only cross branding that I

am going to do is I'm going to adopt the Got Poop on Clear

Creek and then maybe later on down the road, maybe we'll look

at doing some rebranding. But right now they're completely

separated. Yeah, I think I I saw that on

one of the trucks. I didn't realize it was yours,

but I saw that recently and thought it was funny.

Yeah, I know you've learned a lot of hard lessons through a

lot of things. Is there one in particular that

you wish you would have learned earlier?

No, they all came when when I needed them.

I don't, I don't think that I would have been ready to receive

some of the lessons that I got, you know, had they come in

different times. And again, that kind of comes to

the, it's all God's plan, part of it.

He's going to, he's going to give us our trials and

tribulations when we're we're ready for them, whether we know

it or not. Yeah, great.

Is there something that you've changed your mind about maybe

throughout you, you've now run a few different businesses.

Is there something you once held as a pretty strong opinion or or

maybe a little bit judgmental about and through your

experience you've changed your mind?

I think the big one that I've I've changed is a none of it's

mine. I I owe it all of it to God.

I'm working right now for for my kids so that if they want, they

can, they can continue on and if not, they can go explore

whatever it is. It turns their crane that, you

know, I used to, I used to want it to be about me and, and what

I've done, but it's, it's not what it is at the end of the

day. It's it's what God's afforded me

and and what I can do for for those around.

Me. Yeah, Man, that's great.

I can't argue with that at all. Well, I know you're still pretty

fresh into this, only a few years in, but if you could go

back and had the opportunity to start Clear Creek again or do

something else, would you do it again?

Oh, yeah. I'd do it all again in a

heartbeat. I would have, I would have said

yes earlier. And my dad always told me his

biggest regret in business was that he didn't start earlier.

And I, I sat by and I watched the clock tick and, you know,

that's I did start early and maybe too early, but again, not

really. Because the lessons I learned

from from that failure is, is allowed me to be where I'm at

today. And yeah, I do it all over

again. OK.

I know you mentioned learning the lesson of communication,

working with your father-in-law. For someone else looking at a

partnership or especially maybe a family partnership, do you

have any caution or advice of what it's worked or what hasn't?

You're going to if you don't know each other at the

beginning, you're going to know each other by the end of it.

Better to RIP that Band-Aid off early.

There's there's going to be hard conversations, there's going to

be uncomfortable conversations that are going to have to be

had. Get it all out in the open.

Don't hide anything from each other.

Let let each other know what your expectations are.

That's a big one. And that I mean, that's through

everything, whether it's a your business partner or your, your

spouse, you know, or, or an employee, make sure that your

expectations are known and make sure that you understand theirs.

Good. Has that changed the dynamics of

like family get togethers or family relationships at all?

Yeah, for the better. I always tell my wife whenever

she's I don't want complaining is not the right word.

But when we're having conversations about her dad, I

said don't talk about him like that.

That's my business partner. OK, that's good.

But no, no, not at all. It's it's strengthen me and

Lyle's relationship. I'd consider him a friend more

than a father-in-law now, you know, just it's been great.

I've loved working with the guy. I hope that when I'm his age, I

work half as hard as he does because it'll still be twice as

much as anybody else. Yeah, that's great.

I I read a quote the other day that said what was it?

I only work half days. I just decide which 12 hours.

That's it. Yeah, well.

I know you've been through, yeah, a lot of really hard

things, taking over your parents business and and walking with

them through the end of life, shutting down a few businesses.

What is it that keeps you motivated and keeps you moving

forward when things get hard? There's no other option.

I mean, we can sit and and dwell on our self pity or just keep

moving forward. I mean, in, in the, in the worst

of times when, you know, we didn't know how we were going to

take care of our dad and I had no other option.

I had to figure it out. And, and now that I have

multiple families relying on me again, it's the same way, you

know, when, when, when problems arise, they, you have to find a

solution to them. There's no options, you know.

Yeah, I think that's one of the uncomfortable things about

leadership is quitting. Quitting isn't an option.

No. Often no.

No, you don't get to just go find another.

Job No, no, I mean, and, but unfortunately sometimes it is

too, you know, and that's where you have to be able to, to truly

step back and and look at this situation you're in and decide

is this recoverable or do we pull the plug early while, while

there's still something to be, you know, maybe saved a little

bit. But but yeah, I mean, right now

failure is not an option to me. I got a lot riding on it.

With the experiences you've had with other businesses and your

parents business, did that add any hesitation to starting a new

business? No, no, I it's what I always

wanted. My mom, she stayed at home,

raised as me and my two sisters homeschooled as she was able to

be there for everything. And and same with my dad for the

most part, that every ball game might not be sitting in the

stands, but he'll show up and on the other side of the field and

sitting in his pickup, but was able to make it.

And that was that was a big turning point this summer.

You know, I said to my wife, quit her job.

And part of that was so that we could raise our kids, you know,

take their future into our hands, make sure that we're

molding them into, into the, you know, future, maybe

entrepreneurs or just hopefully there, there will be a value add

to society, you know, and, and, and it was important to us that

that that was left up to us only, you know, so.

So did you plan to homeschool your kids then?

No, no, I don't have the patience that my mom did, and

neither do does my wife. We're fortunate in Ranchester

with the school district that we have.

We're extremely pleased with it. They have a four day school

week, which is great. Again, me and my wife being

self-employed now that Friday is no longer a stress of how are we

going to how and what are we going to do with the kids on

Fridays when they don't have school.

Summertime's got easier. You know, all of that is just a

lot of that stress is gone. Yeah, that's cool.

That's great. Has there been a a major turning

point building your business where you kind of got to take a

a sigh of relief and felt like you kind of you hit a level of

stability? Yeah, You know, I think the

first time that we had a no my, my, my goal with the business

was is always to you with with Clear Creek Septic Service

because we we grass rooted it. We started it with cash.

Everything we did was cash. We never had a bank involved

period. So once we built it up to the

amount where, hey, if any of our trucks breakdown tomorrow, we

can go buy a new one. We're not out of business.

That was a huge sigh of relief. Like, all right, we're, we're in

it for the long haul now. We can, we can weather some

storms. And you know, I think that's,

that's my approach to, to business now is like, just make

sure that you're setting yourself up to, to weather that

storm because it's going to come.

It always does. And as long as you're you're,

you've been positioned yourself that way, it the stress level

goes down a little bit. Oh, yeah, yeah.

I remember in 2008 when everything was tanking and my

dad's business actually ended up growing a lot that year.

He he grew like 50%. But when things were looking

pretty bleak and we didn't know how things were going to turn

out, I asked like, what what's going to happen?

What are what are you going to do?

He's like, well, if all the work dries up, I guess we'll park all

the equipment in the garage and take a couple months off.

Yeah. When you don't have payments to

make, when you don't have, when you're not leasing someone

else's equipment, right, that stress kind of disappears and

and things go a lot. Smoother, yeah.

So and I can't say that for for the new business, but that's our

goal. We'll get there.

Yeah, sounds like you're off to a good start.

Have there been any unique challenges taking over someone

else's business that you've experienced in the last few

weeks? Not yet.

It's funny how how God maps your life out.

Two years ago, I, I took a position at the VA in Sheridan

as the ground supervisor and fleet manager there and there

was trying to remember there's six grounds guys.

I was one of them and then they open this position.

I got it. So I went overnight from pier to

supervisor and inherited all the employees, good or bad, and had

to figure out how to work around that.

And I mean, that's essentially what I just did.

Again, I'm extremely lucky. The guys that Mike has hired on

are rock stars. They're rock solid.

Couldn't ask for a better group of guys to to do this huge

transition of ownership with. So extremely fortunate.

But it's not, it's not unfamiliar water for me.

So, yeah, yeah, great, great. Well, this is my favorite

question we ask of all the guests.

You've alluded to it a little bit already, but are you a

person of a particular faith tradition?

And if so, how is that shaped your business journey?

Yeah, grew up Southern Baptist and walked away from God for a

long time. It was difficult, you know,

during. When my when my mom was sick and

my dad was sick and all of that, my mom gave her every free

moment she had that she wasn't with her family.

She was doing something for for the church and for God.

And I know I couldn't understand why, why she had to suffer the

way she did for every, you know, after everything she did.

And I still don't understand, but I've, I've because because

of my kids asking my wife a bunch of questions about God

that I wasn't willing to answer, we ended up going back to church

this last year. And I kind of reluctantly went.

And it's been the best thing for me.

I, I, I never, I never was. I kept God at arm's reach when I

needed them. I wouldn't reach out to him and

this over the last six months I've, I've really rekindled my

relationship with God and I'm looking back now, I can see he

was always there. You know, he really was.

I wouldn't have anything that I have without him.

And, and it's, it's changed my perspective on, on, on life and,

and how I run, run my business. You know, I was telling you,

it's this, it's not for me right now.

It's it's all God and and whatever plan he has with with

what I'm doing, it's direct the direction we're going to go.

The thing I love about it is I don't have to stress about it.

I have to work, but he's going to provide.

He always has. It's funny, this morning I have

a daily Bible verse. Today was Romans 5, three

through 4:00. Not only that, but we rejoice in

our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance and

endurance produces character and character produces hope.

You know, I was thinking a lot about the conversation that

we're going to have in what direction I want to go with it,

because I could hit the all the high points, but there's a lot

of low points that I'd learned a lot of lessons in and that that

verse some sums it all up. Without all those hardships,

you're not built into the person.

I'm not wouldn't have been built into the person that I am today.

And I think lean into the hardships, see what God's trying

to teach you and and, and take everything you can out of it.

You know, we're going to, we're going to land in, in those

times, don't ask why, but ask, ask what you know, what are we?

What are we? What are we going to learn from

this? Yeah, that's a great lesson.

And so I, it sounds like you kind of just gave the the number

one piece right there. But are there any particular

resources that you've used to grow up your knowledge, grow in

leadership, grow as a person that you would recommend to

somebody else? Observation is a huge thing for

me, you know, I, I, I take in as much knowledge as I can.

I listen to a lot of podcasts. I try to, I try to read, but I

end up falling asleep as soon as I open the book.

But I just try to surround myself with people that are a

lot smarter than me, which is easy because I'm not, I'm not

entirely intelligent. So I listen to people.

If I see someone that's doing something I don't want to do, I

I go and talk to them and figure it out and, you know, have them

teach me. That's great.

I think we've had quite a few guests that said something along

those lines. And I think that was the the

best advice my dad ever gave me was to to find people that are

where you want to go. Yeah.

And hang out with them. Do.

What I'm doing and don't be so prideful that you you can't

admit that you're you're wrong or don't know something.

Get some of the best leaders. I I knew were never the smartest

guy in the room, but they would just pay attention, you know,

read the room and just good people, good people, people.

One of the best pieces of device I ever heard too, is is staff

your deficiencies. And you know, that doesn't

necessarily mean you have to hire it, but it might be, you

know, reaching out to someone to coach you along, you know, but

you don't have to have all the answers.

You won't have all the answers, but somebody does and go find

them. Oh man, that's cool.

That's good stuff right there. I know you've talked a lot about

your kids, working for your kids to the legacy that you were left

and the legacy you wish to leave for your kids.

If there was some advice or piece of information or

something that you would wish for your kids to have as they

grow into adulthood, what would that be?

Kind of what I just said. Don't stop learning.

Soak up every bit of information someone's trying to give to you.

I mean, I'm sure we've all had that person that's trying to

tell you what you need to go do and you're like, you're an

idiot. You know nothing.

I'm the smartest person right now.

Get rid of your ego. Get rid of your pride.

It'll only get in your way. I.

Mean, yeah, that's good stuff. I think the the best leaders and

the most successful people are humble.

And if you don't learn it yourself, life has a way of

teaching. You.

Yeah, yeah. So what, what's next?

Where are you going from here? I know the the acquisition of

Laird is pretty new. I yeah.

And that's still kind of on the horizon.

But yeah, it is your vision or your goal.

The vision has to get hopefully sooner than later get out from

underneath the mountain of debt that I just went under to

purchase that. And then, you know, right now

I'm just get stable again. You know, everything's all the

dust is kicked up pretty thick right now.

So just let everything settle, get into the groove, and then

just see where see where it takes me.

Are there potential future acquisitions or expansion on the

horizon? I think there's some, some

options out there. Maybe they don't know it yet,

but I, yeah, mostly kidding. But no, I, I don't know it just

wherever it goes. I'm not I, you know, I plan for

the hardship and, and just wait, see, wait to see where, where

it's going to go on the good end.

Yeah. Great.

Well, is there somebody else that you'd like to see on the

show, somebody that has a really cool business industry story

that you'd like to learn some more about?

You. Oh OK, well we might have to do

that someday. Maybe 100th episode?

Or yeah, no, I'd, I'd love to hear, hear about your successful

taking over successfulness of taking over your father's

business. Yeah, it'd be super interesting.

OK, well, we might have to consider that.

Maybe we'll we'll make that happen someday.

So our our last question, we ask every guest to either fuel or

settle the debate. If you have a job to do and have

to pick a cordless tool, which brand do you prefer?

Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Big Red, I think they're pulling ahead

again. Good.

DeWalt and Milwaukee are kind of they've been Milwaukee gets a

little bit ahead and DeWalt catches up and they keep edging

us out. I think that's kind of how it is

on the industry, too. Milwaukee releases a new,

better, better tool than here. Comes to Walt with ours, right?

Ouch, that that stings a little bit.

But well, thank you so much for joining me today.

This has been a pleasure. I really appreciate the the

insight, the honesty, the lessons learned that you brought

to the table. And thank you guys all for

joining us here on from the ground Up show.

Again, you can find us on social media at from the Ground Up

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Until next time, keep grinding.