From Wrestling to Rooftops

Tune in as Matt Murray and Chris Guillot of Murray Enterprises pull back the curtain on how wrestling discipline, proven sales strategy, and giving back to the community are fueling explosive roofing expansion. This candid conversation traces their journey from burnout to breakthrough, uncovering lessons in grit, gratitude, and building a business that uplifts both people and profits. If you care about smart, sustainable growth and lasting impact, this episode is for you."

• profit-sharing branches under corporate support
• processes over emotion in volatile markets
• wrestling mindset applied to hiring and sales
• systems from Pitney Bowes and Rich Dad Poor Dad
• gratitude after loss and purpose-driven leadership
• Beat the Streets expansion and scholarships
• technology, AI, and cross-division efficiencies
• role-play training, call recording, and habit change
• community engagement from roofs to Habitat

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Chapters

• 0:00 No Title
• 17:03 Marker 01

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:28

Thanks for joining everybody. And today we are here with a special guest. That was actually a third-party guest on our last episode with Antrell Taylor. Chris. We pronounce it a lot of different ways in this office. You should hear the way my kids pronounce it. But no, Chris, I appreciate it. It's uh going to be a little bit of um a fun podcast of kind of dabbling in our history together, plus forward thinking about where we're going and what you're involved with. So, first off, thank you for making time on this Friday to do this.

Speaker: 1:04

Awesome. It's it's uh it's been a cool journey the last six months getting here to Murray and coming to work here and how it organically happened, that's for sure.

Speaker 1: 1:14

We're like literally at our sixth month, right?

Speaker: 1:16

Yeah, right coming to the end of the sixth month at the end of this month.

Speaker 1: 1:20

Yeah, so I'll kind of give everybody a backstory a little bit and then we can deep dive. So Chris came on six months ago, like we just said, and he came on as a brand ambassador first, and we'll get into how that all transpired. But now he is leading our expansion efforts and training of taking our roofing company and taking what we did with our expansion efforts to Grand Island with our beloved John Dillard, who we just got off the phone with. And we made him a what we call in Murray a profit sharing partner and our Grand Island location. It is it is in the same bubble, but completely different than a franchise. They're still underneath the Murray corporate tag. They're they're an employee of Murray, running a Murray branch. Uh we just call them a profit sharing partner. And so you are doing that, and you're taking our processes, our company, and and um realize we had a kind of a niche here, and you just needed to refine it a little bit and and take it and run with it. And so you're using your connections within your world and USA wrestling and and taking us to new new ventures above and beyond. And so Chris was a wrestler. I was a wrestler, obviously. You guys probably know that if you've listened to any podcasts, you're a little bit older than me, but we'll get into the weeds. But it was kind of strange. I've known of you, known about you, family knows you, but I was pretty young when you know, when you were at Colby Community College where I'm from. And so when I got the phone call or the text eight, nine, ten months ago that you were looking to maybe relocate to Lincoln and needed a job. At first I was like, God damn, I gotta help somebody else find a job. You know, I just I get a lot of those calls and texts. And then so I had him come to the house on a Saturday, and we left one of uh of our son's baseball parties, went out to the house with you and your son and interviewed you. And I left there. I thought the intent was to help you find a job. I had already reached out to Caesar with luxury, and a couple other people were saying, I got this guy, comes from the wrestling world, trust him, great dude. Don't know what he does, don't know what he did as far as your past history, your second life, what I call it. But he would be great. And then I interviewed you and learned about your history and what you did do in your your second life other than wrestling. And and I was like, I looked at my wife and I was like, wait, we'd be stupid to let this guy go. We we need this guy on our team. And we didn't really have uh a position open, I was honest with you. And I said we could make you a brand ambassador, which we used to have with Rob Sanders, and and uh so we brought you on and kind of a tailored position for a brand ambassador, which we thought would be a great fit with your connections and everything. And and it was shortly thereafter that you realized that what John had done in Grand Island and and and the the success but lack of processes with the roofing division and the opportunity there and the margins and the growth and the scalability. You know, I was told a long time ago from actually my good friend Gabe, shout out to Gabe, one year sober this week. His brother, yeah, Gabe. His brother told me when I went out to visit him that he started in the custom home building world and and and shortly thereafter changed because uh emotion is not scalable. And I should have listened, right? And that's kind of where we're at with the custom homes world is it's it's really difficult, it's really emotional. We're in a turbulent time right now at the economy with interest rates. And and when you presented this idea to me, just with the market volatility, my uh already efforts of trying to get back into the roofing world to help scale and expand, it was perfect timing to take you up on the opportunity of of coming to me and saying, Hey, I know you signed up for A, but I'd like to do B, and but we're gonna we're gonna kick some ass. So we'll start there. And I you're you're a much much better storyteller of our history and past and where you come from and all the ins and the outs. So kind of take over from there.

Speaker: 5:25

Yeah, um just a little bit more about my background. When I came out of college, I was I had some demons from wrestling to say the least. It's kind of hard to understand unless you did it as you know, Matt. You know, you finished second in the country, two-time all-American, I was fourth in the country, two-time all-American. And how did I have demons from being a top four guy in the country? Now I understand it a lot better. And you and I have had some fun talks about it that aren't so fun. But but the reality of it is, is I was burnt out. I was upset coming out of college. And I have a brother that's been extremely successful, built businesses, started in real systems of sales and training. And I'm lucky because I came out and he gave me the guidance to try and get to work for Xerox or Pitney Bowes. And I was lucky and I got hired on at Pitney Bowes in Kansas City. And if you've ever read the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Good to Great, both of those companies are mentioned in it because of their systems, their selling, and their training system. And I'm gonna tell you, it was hard, but it was structured. You know, we had scripts, we had daily plans, we had quotas, but I like that. I was coachable, trainable. It gave me real things to strive for. So, fast forward years later, I owned my own business after Katrina. I saw the opportunity to stop making others rich. And I read the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad, called my dad, pretty hard conversation. I told him, I'm sorry, dad, but I need you to read this book, Your Poor Dad. And I'm Rich Dad in my mindset. And the difference was my dad taught us to get a great job, stay in it forever, get the great benefits. He never built assets, he never built anything for himself outside of work. So he was a rich, poor dad, in my opinion. He gave us a great life, but he worked till my dad. Yeah, he worked till he was 74. My dad worked till he was 74. I don't want to do that. So, you know, I took, I read that book and it changed my life. I I I saw my father and I said, I want you to understand, I moved away at 18, never came home, did my own laundry, fed myself. I'm a risk taker. I live in that world, I strive on stress and I build structures. I like stress, unlike a lot of people. It makes me, it makes me better. So I took that philosophy, turned to my corporate guy, was making 140 grand, gave him a computer, and looked at my wife and said, We're going in business for ourselves. That's awesome. So I did that, built my company from zero to uh 1.7 million in the first 18 months. When a wrestler gets their back put against the wall, they got to provide for their family. And that's what I did. And I did it building processes and procedures without a real team. I was the owner, I was the salesman, I was the marketer, which I couldn't market, which brings me to Murray. Murray has everything I did not have because I couldn't afford it. It was too risky. My wife had to stay home. She was doing the audits, the workman comps, the insurance, and people don't understand those hidden costs. You know, $40,000, $50,000 for my wife not to generate income just because Uncle Sam needs me to do these things. Yep. So fast forward, I come, I coached wrestling, and we'll get into that a little bit. But I I threw the I told my wife, I said, I'm a risk taker, and I was offered a huge opportunity in Austin, Texas, with a guy I did work for and consult and work with. And uh he begged me to come, offered me ownership because he's seen what I had done in the past. And I wanted challenge. I'm a wrestler. I wanted challenge. I wanted to be around a wrestler that owned a business because I had been coaching for six years, and the wrestling family is very unique, and they love you. I mean, they never forget you. I mentioned your name, and everybody's like, man, he was a hell of a wrestler. That's crazy. You know, so you know, that network never goes away because that was who we were at that time. And people, that identity stays with us even after we're dead, I believe, because it's in books, right?

Speaker 1: 10:20

You know, it's crazy. I was just we were talking to that ex-gymnist from the university. And you know, you you talk about demons, and this is I'll make a short story of a long story, but I also had my demons and I kind of disconnected from what I what we would call USA wrestling, right? Which is which talking to the gymnast, the ex-gymnist, I I don't think they really have the they have the connection to the teams they were on. Wrestling's unique to the fact that you belong to a national organization called USA Wrestling, and and your leverage within that entire organization is tremendous. Like you said, it's not just the individual teams you were on, the high school teams, the college teams. If you were a good wrestler or you coached, everybody in wrestling, in the sport of wrestling, knows who you are. And so being able to get back to that community and to see how you've leveraged those relationships and that trust level, it's amazing. And I kind of feel, I don't know what the proper word is, like an idiot. You know, not only did I not leverage that, but I've never given back to that community, right? So both sides of the coin, I feel bad for a lot of it, but I I I want to start to leverage that community, but also to be able to start to give back to that that USA wrestling community. Because, like you said, I mean, when you when you're we've had a lot of wrestlers work for us here, and it's just a it's a no-brainer. As soon as you have a wrestler come in that applies for any position, you already know the first one through ten are check marked, which it's hard work, dedication, trustworthy, you know, you name it. It's already checked off. Right. And so it's it's amazing.

Speaker: 11:54

You know, I want to kind of reach back into the demons with Matt because I I I I do understand this because it's a crazy story. I was about 12 years retired from wrestling. Guy I worked with was a backup quarterback at Texas AM, and his name's Sam Morrison. I might have to reach out to Sam, but he invented the dispenser that dispenses hand soap called Sandy Fresh. And I happened to work with the guy, he was a brilliant man, graduated for Texas AM, grew up in Wichita Falls, Texas, and we loved working together. And before I worked with him, I was managing a company in New Orleans, and he asked me to go to dinner because I was switching them. I didn't want him as my vendor, I was realigning some things, and he knew I was an axer and I was gonna axe and check some things. And he's like, I really want to get to know you, and I'm gonna sit down. He goes, I followed your wrestling career. Make a long story short. We went to Peyton Manning's favorite uh Poeboy shop, Clancy's in New Orleans, and we're sitting down, and I never liked to talk about wrestling back then because it brought up memories that weren't good, honestly. So he asked me, he goes, How did it feel to stand on the like all American to stand on a stand? I'm like, it felt terrible. He's like, What? And I'm like, Yeah, I didn't win it. And then his next comment was like, Man, I was a backup quarterback for five years. I played one quarter in college, and it was the greatest time of my life. I got to go to a bowl game, I got to be a part of making the number one quarterback better and the receivers. And it hit me like a ton of bricks. I'm sitting here going, I really want to end this conversation, right? I went in my car and I actually cried for like 10 minutes, and I said, How ungrateful was I? I'm like, I was fourth in the country twice, and I was not grateful. And then I started looking at things a lot different and business and everything. I'm grateful to be here. I'm grateful that I got to coach because being grateful for what we have is a big part of being happy.

Speaker 1: 14:19

You're absolutely right. You know what's crazy is me and you could we should probably have a therapy session at my house one of these days. It would go for a few days. I never even thought about what you just said. I don't I don't resent the fact that I got second in the country. But I when people say you got second in the country, the first thought that comes in my head is, yeah, but if you knew the story, I would have got first. It's because I who I got put up against, I was I was better than. There's a few other people in the bracket that if you said I lost to in the finals, I would be like, Yeah, but they're fucking good. Right. Like I deserve to lose to them. They're they're an equal combatant. But the guy that I lost to won't say a name. I shouldn't have lost to. And so it just pisses me off. Even I'm 40 some years old, and it's like it just happened yesterday. I'm like, yeah, but damn it.

Speaker: 15:08

I know the feeling because the guy that won the national championship my junior year, I beat three times. He scored one point in each of the three matches. I lost in the first round. He wins a national title. He's a national champ. I beat the guy that finished first, I beat the guy that finished second, and the guy that was ranked number one got upset and beat me for third and fourth. And I really truly know that would have been a hard task on the front side. Yep. Because the guy won three national titles, and Coach Spencer Lee. I mean, he was he was legit. So, you know, when it comes back down to the wrestling, and I just love this sport, the community, and where one of the reasons I came here, number one, you're a wrestler. I know you, that integrity, the loyalty, the check boxes in our marketing department. Hi, Shannon. You can toot the thing for yourself. I saw something here that I always wish I had, which was I didn't have to have my wife running all the inside of my business because you have all those things and set up. National insurance, all those things set up for expansion, great production teams, great processes with Tommy and the vetting process, and who runs the roof and production side. But where Shannon fit in was if you talk to any small business owner, the pain is the only way we grew was great work, word of mouth, referral, third party, right? And then a few door knocks here and there if we were too slow. And we managed payroll and we managed profit because we didn't have the pockets to do what you did and created this beautiful thing we see as Murray Enterprises now. And the fact that we can be first movers, we got those kind of people, and then getting the right people on the bus, you already had getting the right people in the right seat on the bus, you were willing to listen to. That's the strength of a great organization, not just a good organization. I'm just pumped about building this company. It's exciting.

Speaker 1: 17:22

And I'm I appreciate you giving Shannon a shout out. He he deserves all the kudos in the world. We had a company update. I thought it was really important to do that company update because not a lot of people see the time, energy, and effort that goes into what is Murray's next move. Whether it's buying lots, building the next spec house, starting an inspection division, deciding to expand the roofing division, launching a new division of the custom homes that we're going to announce here shortly. A lot of thought goes into that. A lot, a terrible amount. And when we do it and we roll it out, I would have to say my flaw is I don't roll it out in the best way possible to the company to announce it, to let everybody know the thought, the energy, the effort that it went into it. And so there's a lot of people that are like, well, shit, we were doing this and then now we're doing this and we don't know why. And our workload just doubled. And so I appreciate everybody, especially Shannon, being able to shift. There, there is a goal, there is a purpose. And this was in the mix for a long time, and it's just it's going great. Everybody needs to pivot. And especially in this economy, everybody, I think everybody here that I really appreciate everybody's ability to pivot and change directions. Custom homes is going a little bit slow. Let's reimp roofing up, right? If if new construction's slowing down, let's do flip houses, let's do remodels. And so I appreciate everybody. I just wanted to give a shout-out to everybody and and Shannon and Brandy and everybody included, and you especially with leading this bus. I'm kind of kind of just being the bumpers here and and letting you guys run.

Speaker: 18:54

Well, thanks for the trust. And you know, and and you know, it really says a lot about our own company because I've been able to do this in other companies, and other companies fought it and they didn't make it, you know, or they didn't grow or they stay stagnant and then they come running to me after and go, We're ready for it. I'm like, Well, you missed first mover, bro. It's done. You know, we're staying ahead of the game. And it's like that wrestler that clicks for me.

Speaker 1: 19:23

It is.

Speaker: 19:24

That's why I love sales. I mean, people like, you're a really good coach, but I'm a really good salesman too, because I work at it, right? It's important to me. I study it. I don't go play golf. I read books. Yep. I do the things that are gonna bring my income and bring things to other people. So instead of coaching, getting a kid on a stand now, I'm here able to say, let's set some goals. What do you want for yourself, your family? And that's my new coach, right? To watch a guy buy his first house or to be able to send their kid to a school that they could afford that they didn't think they could afford. I've been able to do that, and that gives me that competitive joy and and and the structure that I need to walk away from wrestling. So people like, how do you walk away from wrestling? I don't walk away from wrestling. I just use those skills and I stay involved in wrestling because I put the demons away and I learned how to deal with my own demons of the sport, which really are. Big. I mean, truthfully, you know, they're big. I mean, you go from basically a professional athlete to it's done.

Speaker 1: 20:35

I appreciate you mentioning this because uh you know, behind closed doors with a mic in my face, I will tell you that whoever we choose to be a profit sharing partner is one lucky MR MFR. No doubt. We're gonna treat them like family. We are in not so many words, handing them a piece of the pie that we have built for 18 fucking years and honed and put your processes in and all the training and the roadmaps and the warrant and the warranties and the processes and the manuals and the insurance and the vehicles and the phones. We're just giving it to them. So they're kind of taking a risk on us, but holy shit, aren't we taking a risk on them? And that's where the wrestling comes in and you, and that's what he is, Chris is out there doing is is is finding these people in these territories that we want to be in. We're strategically choosing, and and and saying, I know you, I know your work ethic, I know your trust, and we want to bring you on and give you a piece of Murray. And so it's it's an exciting, exciting time. I keep saying this over and over. I have my full-time job, which is running the companies, and then now I have another full-time job, which is trying to run this expansion effort. But it it it's reinvigorated me. I am I've been saying, I've said it on air, I'll say it again. You get a little burned out with mundane, you get burned out with custom homes. Even if you have the best clients in the world, it it is just an emotional beast and it wears on you and it tugs on you. And I have a great, tremendous team that's gonna hopefully take over a lot of the the heavy loads. But to be able to to grow and to help people, and the reason I brought that up is just we're not just doing this, you or me, for the for the money. I could walk away and be done, and I would, but I'm I'm writing one hell of a big check saying we can help people, we can take these people that we know are great people, that have a hell of a work ethic, that for one reason or another, either they're stay-at-home parents or they got caught up in the the bog of corporate America, or they got coach in the caught in the coaching cycle, and they just really are not happy with where they're at, and they have tremendous success. And we're saying, come be part of Murray. We're gonna make you really freaking successful, and you're gonna be able to enjoy your life.

Speaker: 22:56

That's a great way to put it, you know. It's funny because we're older, right? All three of us sitting in this room right now have gone through that phase. We had that, we went to college, we had that excitement, we set those goals, right? And then life hits and you know, you know, real life hits and ups and downs and family, and then you still gotta grind it out, but you never saw that coming, right? And then, you know, you're like me, I'm a risky sucker. So, you know, I was doing everything great and I made a really bad investment, got arrogant, you know, I'm confident. So I decided I was gonna do something I didn't have enough knowledge and lost a couple hundred thousand bucks. I learned the hard way, right? But I learned there's the difference. I learned. So when I look at that kind of feeling, and when I go and talk to these people that I'm geared at, I know every one of us here looked at ourselves at the age of 40 and said, Have we accomplished what we wanted? Right? It's every morning for me, actually. But, you know, you self-reflect. People like us are self-reflecting. I look at Shannon, he's been through the grinder, you know. You were lucky, yeah, not calling you lucky, but you know, luck is something to do with it. It's timing, it's relationships, it's the whole thing. But when it all comes down to it, is when I see what Murray has, we have opportunity that small business owners capped out at. Now we don't have to cap out. And that's the big difference. I I run this like I ran my own business. I'm probably more excited about this than my own businesses when I was running because I have a different role. And other people have real roles that can actually take the workload off of me so I don't have to work 20 hours like I used to do.

Speaker 1: 25:01

Yeah, you guys get to have fun.

Speaker: 25:02

Well, I sit at home with my never mind. So, but no, I I'm just super, super excited about the teams we're putting together and you know, the contacts. I'm I mean, I got college coaches calling me. I got people asking if they can do internships here. We want to build this company with opportunities for people to be able to come. Summer jobs, wrestlers, learn the business, and move to where they want to do and run their own locations, right? So we want to build this with people that aren't like-minded, but like valued. But we also want people that want something. They want to give back. Like, I want to give a scholarship to a needy kid in wrestling, right? There's something that's ulterior that's gonna drive me because I don't love roofs, yeah, but I love what roofs can provide.

Speaker 1: 26:01

Absolutely. I think it's let the listeners know, kind of so we were we were in the wrestling world, but I you're what 10 or 11 years older than me. Um so when I say that, we kind of really didn't know each other, but we knew of each other. You knew my family. So I lived in Colby, Kansas, grew up there, and so when I was shit, nine or ten?

Speaker: 26:21

I'm 50, I'll be 55. I graduated in high school in 1989, so I wrestled in Colby 1989 to 1991. I was there two years.

Speaker 1: 26:32

Yeah, perfect. So yeah, yeah, you're 12 years older than me. So yeah, so yeah, so I didn't know you, but here's the deal when you when you live for one thing and one thing only, and and and my parents didn't make me a single sport athlete. It just wrestling was my life. And anybody that was good at wrestling was my idol. And so anybody at Colby Community College to me was a college athlete. At that point, I didn't know the difference between JUCO and Division I and Pro. And you just you were wrestling in college, you are a hero. And so my dad was pretty involved with the the wrestlers at the university. He would pay you guys to come train me and pay you guys to mentor me. And so kudos to my father for that. But so I knew of you, knew of Romiko, Chloe, and all these contacts, and so just kind of kept track, and then you can kind of go into where you went to coach and stuff, but that's kind of the initial point of run-in between Murray and Chris.

Speaker: 27:37

Yeah, it's kind of funny because uh your dad was very visible in Colby, and so was Eric Lookie's dad. Yeah, Brian, yep. And then you had the Shields and Goodland, and you know, there wasn't a lot of college wrestling out there. I mean, let's face it, it was Colby, Kansas, and six hours till you see another college. You know, you live pretty remotely. So, but you know, first college match I ever saw was the one I wrestled. So you were way ahead of me. Wow, because they didn't even have college wrestling where I grew up. I think I was the third or fifth all-American ever out of the state of Louisiana. That's awesome. So, you know, I was bitter going to Colby because I knew I was better than JUCO. But, you know, but I that's where I ended up. And and but, you know, it's really neat is I wouldn't change anything. You know, I was angry, bitter, but I met my wife in Colby, Kansas. We've been together 37 years. Congrats. You know, her name's Lisa, and and it was just looking back, I you know, didn't have a good team. I I succeeded, but we didn't have a good team. But I remember you really well. It was funny because, you know, like you said, the as a wrestler, you you put a lot of work into it. You do notice who shows up to watch you wrestle, especially in a small town. And you really appreciated the people that didn't have their own kids there, that were there, especially bringing their kids like you, because and then you know, I might even signed an autograph for you when you were a little kid on your shoe or something. And I remember thinking it was weird, but I did get it, right? But I I was funny because I would st scout y'all, and but Aaron Shields out of Goodland, his dad loved they loved wrestling, right? And wrestlers. Your dad, at that point, you were a little too young. He started hiring my friends a couple years after I graduated to coach you. But it was funny because uh Aaron Shields comes, his family comes up and they said, I love the way you wrestle. You want to make some extra money. So I coached Aaron Shields as a little kid, and he ended up winning three state titles. He was a beast. Yeah, and I coached Matt too. But what's interesting about Aaron, again, translation of wrestling, he was one of the longest tire men in NASCAR. People don't realize it. He was 14 years as a tire man in the pit for Dale Earnhardt and he went lived in North Carolina. He moved back to Goodland, owns a chemical company. He's retired at like 40.

Speaker 1: 30:31

That's awesome.

Speaker: 30:32

And it was like one of the longest terms, but cool, he made ESPN, beating up a car. He got clipped him in the pit and he was on the hood. He made the SPN. That's awesome. But but you know, so I got to actually watch you wrestle as a kid, and then I got to try and beat you as a high school coach. So it I coached against you in high school, and I was always really impressed because you did the right things to be a champion, and that's what was noticeable in wrestling. That's awesome.

Speaker 1: 31:02

So then, yeah, so then you go from so you like I said, the tale of two lives, right? You did the college wrestling, then you went into corporate America, right? Right. And then you got decided you were gonna get out of corporate America, go back to coaching.

Speaker: 31:17

I've done that twice. I've done that twice. So the first time was I was running the Baton Roos sales branch of Many Sanitary Supplies. Okay. And I was coaching who one of my wrestlers who actually wrestled you in college, Roger Radcliffe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I coached him and a group at McKinley High School because I wanted to go coach an underprivileged school. And uh several of those kids wrestled in college, but Jesuit high school, I think, got a little worried, truthfully. And because we went from like not being known to like fifth in the state in one year, and I put like four guys in the state finals, I had like three champs. So Jesuits stole me, and I went down there. It wasn't a good fit for me. But you quit corporate America and went and coached full time? And I went and coached full time. I quit my six-figure income to make twenty thirty-two thousand. I'm surprised my wife didn't divorce me then. But we didn't have any kids, and I was there for two years, and then I got that call from Goodland, and that's how I ended up in Goodland. Okay. So I left that job to go coach because I you were already an empty nester. Yeah, so I was an empty nester until I had a kid when we went to Goodland, and I got offered a head job at a little NAIA, and I had great references, and my goal was to go coach in college. That's why I went to Kansas. I knew I could be seen. We won a state title my first year there. Okay, sorry, I was confused.

Speaker 1: 32:50

Uh you've been to Goodland twice. That's why I was confused. So this is before you had kids, not empty nester. This is before I had kids. That's also an empty nester.

Speaker: 33:00

Yeah, it was because I could be selfish, right? Be broken, be selfish. It didn't affect anyone.

Speaker 1: 33:06

Okay, so you went to Jesuit high school, then Goodland High School, then became the high school coach.

Speaker: 33:11

And one of the So you were 28, 29, 30, real young and full of vinegar. Yeah, that's awesome. You did that, though. And so my wife sacrificed, we went there. We got uh we we got pregnant with our first kid. I got offered that job, and they offered me like 42,000, wanted me to be a sports information director and a head wrestling coach. And I couldn't write my name. You know, I was I was not the best writer. So, make a long story short, I got home and I said my last day as a coach is today. I quit the job and said, I'm not raising my kids poor. And I made a decision to be a salesman and and dedicate my life like I did to wrestling, change my goals and set the bar and went after it.

Speaker 1: 34:03

Assuming that was after the season was over?

Speaker: 34:06

Soon as the season was over. I'm like, I'm not coming back to Goodland. This would have been 2001, about when you were about to graduate, because I had Coach Bryce Abbey, who was a four-time All-American, Matt and them. I went one more year. We finished third. I think y'all might have won it the next year when we finished third. Yes.

Speaker 1: 34:27

Yeah, you guys were we were, yeah, yep.

Speaker: 34:30

Yep, and then so I resigned at the end of the year. I went into sales, back into chemical sales, moved to Oklahoma and was the national sales rep of the year for two years, grounded out, and then Baton Rouge decided to uh New Orleans decided to call me again. My family's company got bought out by American Sanitary. Okay. And you see the thing renowned that you pee on on the my family's company was the first one bought out. My dad was the manager of the company, my uncles. I stare at a lot of those with my small bladder. Well, yeah. I used to say I'm always pissing on my uncle. So it was funny, but because it used to be Gilead's and I was pissing on my own name. So, but make a long story short, I I when that happened, I got the company got bought out. New Orleans called me and said we need to get a run and manage the change. So I moved back to New Orleans and I was there, and then Katrina hit, and that's a whole different story. But I ended up saying, I'm ready to be a rich man. I'm ready to go on my own. And so I built my own businesses, got lucky, and said one day if I ever build my businesses enough that I could ever get to coach again, I would. And I got that call when I was 48, shut my businesses down, made a third like normal, cut my income to a third, and then, you know, decompressed, moved to a small town, and and wanted to prove that back to Goodland. And I wanted to prove that I was as good a coach as I thought I was, and that I could produce what my kids always told me when they would come home.

Speaker 1: 36:22

Yeah, and so just for the listeners, so Goodland got Ford Hayes.

Speaker: 36:27

It was Northwest Kansas Tech when I went there. It's a little small podunk, 400 student college. They had a pretty decent program. They had a couple of good years. When I came in, it was in chaos. Came in at Christmas, they fired the coach. Oh. So I told them, you're not going to keep this team, let me fly in, and I had to hold them together. We ended up, I ended up, believe it or not, I qualified seven guys for the national tournament with a half a season. Then the next year we finished sixth in the country. Wow. So then you were there for six years? Six years, five and a half, but six seasons. Yes. Had 15 all-American. I had nine guys make the national finals and eight win. So I that I I'm like, to this day, it's just something that like most coaches don't ever. I had a friend that told me he had 19 guys make the national finals and had one national champ. You know, it's really hard to do it. And, you know, I'm taking it for granted a little bit, but I really don't because I know what went into each and one of those guys. So this time last year, what are you doing? This time last year, I'm holding a bunch of kids together, setting goals, trying to help them understand their role as a wrestler, as a freshman, coming out as a three-time state champ, but now you're probably going to be a third teamer.

Speaker 1: 38:01

So you're coaching, you're you're in the grind. And so at what point do you realize that making a transition is coming?

Speaker: 38:09

That's a really good one. There's a few things. I was living in Northwest Kansas after living in New Orleans, and uh and I love New Orleans. I'm true New Orleanian. Population of Goodland. Population of Goodland, 1,500, uh, 3,000 in the county, no bars, no place to shoot pool, really nothing to do for me or the kids. Not really good for a wrestler mentality, right now. Nah, I was going crazy. And and being that I ran two businesses before, like I still waking up at 4 30 in the morning, bored to death, feeling like my brain is going to mush. Because wrestling was these people think it's stressful. I thought it was recreational. So, you know, it's not even the same kind of stress. It's it's it's a joke, honestly, and I don't understand how people find coaching stressful. That's crazy. We'll have to dive into that more. Yeah. They they they just I have no control over them. Yep. So why can't how can I be stressed to somebody else's lack of mentality to have? So I guide them, they go to water, they drink. If not, I'm not their babysitter. If you're a babysitter, then you probably shouldn't be wrestling for me. And they know that pretty quick. Yeah. So but no, I I I love the I what I knew I wanted to get out. Number one, my wife, she's an amazing, amazing person. She puts up with me and I'm pretty high energy. Yeah, shout out to your wife.

Speaker 1: 39:43

I don't know her uh that well yet, but I know her well enough to know that if she put up with someone like you and me, and shout out to my wife, that they've they put up with a lot of our shit.

Speaker: 39:56

Yeah, your wife seems awesome. She knows when to put the bridle in my mouth and pull it. That's what I say. You know, she knows how to pull me back because you know, yin and yang is 37 years, not yin and yin. Yeah, right. So she knows what makes me tick, she knows how to pull me back, she knows my risk, she knows how to navigate my risk with me, which I've taught her how because I need that guide. You know, so she's an amazing woman, but. But I wanted to give her a I wanted to give her an empty nest life. I want her to be able to have the friends that she sacrificed by raising kids and being a great mother. You guys have been all over the place. Yeah. And and and you know, like that that's that's pretty special. And so that started creeping in. And then I was already struggling with the fact that I didn't feel these kids were getting a real college experience and learning to grow up because of the small town mentality of always being watched. And I'm not good with that. I like freedom. Hang me when I mess up, don't hang me before I mess up. And so that's kind of it started getting to me. Kids were driving to Denver, driving to Hayes to get an experience. And last spring, you know, coming off the highest season of my life, I had a kid die on I-70, leaving college in a dirt storm. Bad deal. It was. And and you know, I don't get paid enough to bury someone else's kid. I'm sorry, it's just too hard on me. I care too much. I love my kids, I guide them, I get to know them. And, you know, every kid's special, but that kid I knew pretty damn well. And uh, you know, I say uh, sorry, choking up a little bit. No, you're good. That was bad, bad deal. But uh, you know, I say Dawson changed my life, and and what I say, and it it will be with me in business. And because of him, I've never seen a kid more selfless in my life. I had a call, I brought him into my office because he was all American good, but couldn't make my team. And and I'm like, I feel guilty. I'm like, I'm gonna sign your waivers. I think you should go somewhere else because I think you could compete for an all-American spot, or at least top 12 when I got a national champ sitting in front of you. And he's like, Coach, I love your guidance, I love the school, I love my teammates. I'll get my chance when I leave here because your connections and that you believe in me and you'll make it work.

Speaker 1: 42:48

That speaks so highly of both of you. For you to be willing to do that, to compete against you, and then for him to to do that. It's crazy.

Speaker: 42:55

But you know, I I God has his plan, whether or not I realize it or not. But you know, you know, that was tough, and I don't want that much ownership of other people's kids. It's just very hard because I love them, you know. I mean, I support a lot of kids out, and part of my motivation here is to help those underprivileged kids. And whether it's anonymously or in Murray's name, you know, we do a lot here charity and and it it it it builds me up. And Shannon and I were talking, and I love Beats the Streets. I had a national champ come out of Beats the Streets, Philadelphia. And those kids are taken off the street, given opportunities, mentorships. And when I move back to New Orleans, I'm gonna reach out and say, we want to start Beat the Streets in New Orleans, and I want to kind of chair it, not coach it, but I want to give back in that way.

Speaker 1: 43:54

And explain beats the streets a little bit. It's a good segue into what we do locally for to give back.

Speaker: 44:01

Yeah, beats the streets are, you know, I go back to to Chicago. You're looking at inner city kids that maybe parents are in prison. It all different scenarios, but they're usually, you know, need some help. They need food, they need shoes, they can't afford to travel, they can't afford, and I was fortunate. My my parents were upper middle class. I made it to college because I was able to go to camps. I was able to go wrestle because my parents would sacrifice and pay for that. Well, these kids don't have that. And, you know, so I want to be able to give those kids, it's not about winning, it's about experiences. You don't remember whether you won that tournament, but I do remember watching Daniel throw Roxy Shelvin on the on the bed and break in the bed. Or I remember the fun conversations in the van. Absolutely. And that's why I want to do something, but I don't want to go coach a Jesuit or Rummel or Brother Martin. They're privileged. They're privileged. Unfortunately, I don't want to I want to give the kids to see that diversity is a good thing, that there are people that care that are out there and that they care about whether you're sex trafficked, they care about whether you're abused, they care about your future, and we're gonna help with a roadmap and some mentorship. And I've already talked to a few coaches for a writing essay, like the coach from Carney, myself, Terry Pack, you would be on it, probably have Iowa State and a couple people, and I would have a scholarship that they can interview and tell us why they want to go somewhere. That's my goal and dream to give back from coming to work from Murray. I couldn't do that as a coach.

Speaker 1: 46:00

That's why I asked about Beat the Streets because I feel I feel like I haven't done my due diligence with that because the only thing that I really know about it is when Jordan Burroughs competed in it and it wasn't a Times Square, right? Yeah. I mean, that was awesome. And the the amount of money they raised to give back, I kind of just didn't know the the flow and the inner workings of that. But we'll put a link in in the podcast for Beat the Streets. But it's it's a good point. I'd love to start looking into that to see how we can help them. But I think that's part of your passion as well as mine is just, you know, being being in the position we're in mentally and financially to be able to not just think of ourselves and to be able to give back to I've got a name, the golf tournaments we do, the Habitat for Humanity, John Dillard and Grand Island's got a race going on right now to see who can raise the most amount of money. He's one of top three candidates there for for giving back roofs and stuff like that. But yeah, it's it's amazing to be at this point in our life to to be able to look at stuff like that. And you know, it's crazy. It's hard for me to explain. I find myself in a lot of unique conversations, especially with having recently joined Bankwise Realty and trying to explain the nuances of my my brain and my workings and why I work so much and why I care so much. You you mentioned and got choked up there, which says a lot about you and your character, about your your teammate. I think uh there's there's some connections there between the way that you feel about him and the way you feel I feel about our employees and and our profit sharing partners, no matter no matter how much I've met them or anything they've joined my family. And and the stress, it's not necessarily bad stress, but it's stress and anxiety that I have to make sure that they succeed. Like I don't plan on them reaching the end of the year or two years or five years and not having accomplished every fucking thing that I told them that they would accomplish. And if I need to sacrifice life and limb for that, I will. And so I'm very you know intentional about what we try to say because I mean everything I say. And and and everybody in this company, I just I I look at them as family members, some of them as kids as I get older, and some of them as brothers and sisters, and I just I don't know, I don't know how to explain that to people. You know, everybody's like workers come and go, some people just don't listen. It's like, but it's just different. They joined your team, they joined your family under the montage that we're a family and we're gonna make everybody better, and and everybody rises together. And so my goal is is to bring everybody up, and that's I think one of the things that I think the buy-in here is realizing that that if you're on the custom home side and custom homes is struggling, but I'm over on the roofing side having the roofing team succeed and they do good, custom homes will benefit as well. Absolutely.

Speaker: 49:12

You know, prime example back to Shannon. You know, Shannon and I were going through technology and what are we paying for, and how can we use these technologies to help? We had the pray to homes. Well, we found, I'm not gonna say our technology, but we found our technology, and what did it do? It helped the custom home side, you know, it cleans up processes. What people fear is a big word in wrestling, right? Fear. We either run or we face it. And you and I had to face it 176 times in college. I did. You know, I had to face it. You know, I had to face that guy that might have beat my ass, you know, and then the next time, you know, he still beat my ass, but I had to pick out the good and to even be able to stay mentally in some of those kind of matches, right? Early in your career. So when I look at what we have here, like what you said, I felt that from the beginning. I mean, everything you do really is about your family or the family that's here working. You want them to do better. You're great at hiring, you're great at doing those things. And you know, you care so much that you're you're in a lot of things. And I think what this did is that it's gonna help everybody see that they can make their job easier because of what we're doing on the roof inside, right? Yep. They're gonna realize, man, look, maybe I just need to take a step back and clean some things up and make ourselves better. And and I think that's the mentality that's striving right now in us three in this room. Absolutely. It's like he's working at this. I'm not gonna let him get ahead of me, right? That competitive, good synergy, move the flywheel. You have energy, you have passion. When we're collaborating, great things happen. And that's the same as wrestling, right? It's no different. But the energy in this office and the roofing and the division and the people out in the field, there's no down economy right now in roofing. We're doing things we never did. So we're gonna only be better. Yep. And that's that and that's the idea. We're just getting better.

Speaker 1: 51:46

Yeah, it's fun and exciting times. I mean, you know, we've always, I think, been kind of forward thinkers in our industry and and and kind of you know, one of one of I would have to say, statistically speaking, I don't think I'm speaking out of line here, but very one of few builders or residential roofers that have a full-time marketing department, right? I mean, we have a full-time assistant. We have we have uh yeah, it's uh he's saying it's extremely expensive. You are expensive, Shannon.

Speaker: 52:16

And it's something I couldn't afford. That's why I came here as a as a small business owner. Two million dollar business cannot afford to miss in marketing. Yeah, they can't afford it.

Speaker 1: 52:27

We just have a lot of a lot of abilities and it's fun and exciting. And and where my mind's going here, I blinked out there for a second, is it's it's fun. I spent like earlier today, I got up at 5 30, worked till now on on the the day-to-day, the monotonous, the answering the emails, the keeping keeping the shit going. And then now I get out get off this and and go work on Chris Hawes's private sharing partner contract. I get to go do the PKP properties bid for keeping that going, for hopefully establishing a relationship for $90 million worth of properties from the East Coast to the West Coast, and and and and finish me and yours interviewing our Git and stuff like that. It's it's no it's a trade-off. No more spending my Fridays playing keynote and hanging out anymore. It's uh it I'm back to the grind, but it's in the the the fun way. Yeah. You know, feeling accomplished and feeling like we're doing stuff and using AI and technology to get ahead and make job, make people's jobs easier. Right. And just streamlining stuff. And it's it's it's been fun. It's we're taking, like what you said, one last thing is we're we're we're taking the ideas and the growth and the technological advances on the roofing side, and we're saying, hey, look what we did here, and rolling that out to make everybody's life easier in all companies that we own. So it's fun times.

Speaker: 53:51

Yeah, and I and like you said, anyone, I tell people when I'm like setting up the Zoom and we're talking, I'm like, if you don't want to, if you don't see this, we don't want you. Yep. Because honestly, I would have dropped my business many years ago if I would have seen what I saw here, but I was so deep into it, and all the things that our profit sharing partners, you know, were thinking about going in business or those kind of people, or came from that kind of business. When I lay it out, this is the greatest business model I've ever seen. And with what Shannon, I and you and John, and the collaboration and the processes, you look at a job interview, you look mean a job posting, everyone, I want a company that I can advance and be trained. We're here. Yep. That's all I have to say. Yep. Because we are that now. And we have the backing, we have the family, we have the philanthropy, we have everything. If you wanted to give back, we know how to give back to Habitat for Humanity. We know how to set up golf tournaments and find sponsors to help raise money for the right causes. And if you have those kind of family values and you didn't have the resources to be a community giver, you come to work for us, you are a community giver. You instantly get to do things that you dreamed of doing. And I want to thank you, Matt, for that because I mean, all those things are what makes Murray. Yep. I mean, that's in you come to Lincoln, they know Murray. When they go to Denver, they will know Murray. When they go to New Orleans, they will know Murray. They go to Lafayette because we're going to be involved in the community. When there's a storm, we're going to be on the corner helping the neighborhoods clean their neighborhood, not for business, but that's what people are supposed to do. Help their community. And that philosophy from wrestling, it will always be here. But I can tell you this one of the reasons I'm really excited, you've never tied into the wrestling like you should. I know. And I'm going to help you put some of those demons away. We'll have some deep conversations because it took a lot of counseling to get rid of.

Speaker 1: 56:20

I'm still on the I'm still in the middle mindset where I have a lot of fuck you wrestling in in my mind, in my head.

Speaker: 56:27

So remember the word gratefulness, and that not many people did what you did. And I think if you look at through that lens, you take our OCD out, our manic out, our single-minded mindset out, our Uber focus, our pains that we see. But when you all look at it, you have this company because you went through those pains.

unknown: 56:57

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 56:58

And I think you know what's crazy is I'm never gonna say that I could uh acknowledge what PTSD is or going to war, but I'm I'm comparing our situation to that in the sense that you really can't know what those guys went through unless you've done it yourself. With wrestling, there's a I tell people that we we're weird. We're we're a unique breed. We are different. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. We have a lot of good things that we took away from the sport, but a lot of bad things too. And you got to work on it and talk about it. But we are different. If you were at the level of competition that we were at in the sport of wrestling, there it's hard to get people to realize it's a fuck you mindset.

Speaker: 57:45

We are. It's I call it a, I mean, excuse the French, but it's a fuck you mindset because it's a fuck mind sport. Yeah. The first day of college when I bring them in, I'm like, you're in the biggest mind fuck you'll ever be into. And and you know, battling and navigating that and being honest with yourself is part of that. Yeah. Whereas not many other people have to be so honest to themselves. You know, like, did I go to sleep on time? That honestly is a is Oh it's that it's that detailed.

Speaker 1: 58:21

Yeah, I'm running a battery check every 10 seconds. Oh God, I don't feel good. Oh now I feel great. Oh God, now I now I feel like I have allergies.

Speaker: 58:28

Oh God, now I I had an extra workout, you know. I mean, you know, like my weight was 1.2 pounds above where it should have been on Tuesday. I mean, and then I got to do homework and my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth, and and and you know, and like I'm getting ready to wrestle the number one guy in the country, and I got a midterm, you know. So, you know, though those kind of things are really different in in the fact that I think my wisdom through coaching, through business, you know, it's supposed to be fun. Yep. Whether you're working, whether you're coaching, gotta remember it's not gonna be, you know, there's enough business in business to take the fun out of it. But, you know, I like the synergy that Shannon and I have. I look forward to my meeting with you because the it's sharpening, right? We're we're progressing towards something, and I think that's where we're getting ready to take this company to a different level. Yeah. Because we're gonna we're gonna analyze, we're gonna adjust, and then we're gonna execute, and then we're gonna keep doing it weekly, monthly, and we don't blame each other. We just keep moving. And you know, you lost a national title, I lost a national title, but I've lost takedowns, I've fallen, I've been pinned, I've been crying, I've missed weight, I've done everything that that puts us in a position to analyze, adjust, and execute. And my whole philosophy is you stepped off the mat, we analyze, we adjust, and we practice to fix our execution. The same thing we're doing in sales. We're doing role plays, we're gonna we do videos, you're gonna tape yourself, you're gonna hear yourself go um, um, um, um, and you're gonna break that habit. Yeah. So, you know. Getting out of your comfort zones are life, but that's not everybody's life. Because when you hit 40, Shannon, right? When you hit 40 and you looked and you gotten out of your comfort zone and you never saw the success, you're scared. You're scared. And by coming to work for Murray, we're going to take that away from you if you've had some failures and we're going to give you a better roadmap so you can lose your fear and anxiety and work towards the goals you want to set. And that's what separates Murray. That's what separates our roof and division. And that's why we're going to be a $30 million company in three to five years with smart growth, with the right people that want to come to work, that are excited, and they understand time is the only thing you can't get back. So they're going to use their time wisely and we're going to help them do that.

Speaker 1: 1:01:21

Well, it's well said. This has been great. I know that Shannon has other stuff he's got to get to as well. Shannon, we tooted your horn a lot today. Thank you so much for everything. Mm-hmm.

Speaker: 1:01:31

And when somebody of your level buys in, Shannon, it means the world because you are a game changer. We'll end it with that. Well, I appreciate it, everybody. Thank you.