Jon & Joe reunite | Discovering mead | Turning trash into goods | Saving the world & trusting your gut | Hemp & Zahntech disruptions

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1:00Let me grab my car keys and we'll roll. We still going to that new bar downtown. Yeah, suppose to be fun. Lexi, give me driving directions from home to downtown bar district. Auto correct. Suggest Uber. Take up. Home. Drop off downtown bar district. No, I'm driving. Suggest the Metro bus, departing in 12 minutes. Point taken, Lexi. We'll grab a ride. If you drink, don't drive. Decide to ride. Brought to you in partnership by Anna's or Bush. Mothers against drunk driving and Uber. This message brought to you by Bill Distributing of Sioux Falls. Welcome to the scouting lounge. A weekly program that Dakota scouting newspaper based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Thank my name is Jones Nevy. But I know that this program is brought to you by Bill Distributing

2:02Juna Sleep Systems. I'm here with Jonathan Ellis. That was my Bill Distributed product. You're like a stranger. I think yesterday was the first time I saw you for more than like 10 seconds. Like a month. That's what happens when you go to India. Yeah. I think I might still be there. A little bit. But I am graced by two guests. I mean, you're the special guest. Avery's on Chad Garns. Is actually just a part of the Dakota scouts. So he's not special. He's a worker. You're special, Chad. In my own way. Yeah. So thanks, guys. Yeah. So anyway, Avery, you're not a politician. I'm not where you used to have a politician as our guests. So this is refreshing. It's also a nice ease back in for me to like the ego-driven world where you have to like be charming all the time with suits. That's what you are, Joe, a charming.

3:02Yeah. Wow. Welcome, man. Yeah, thank you. I think you're the man that's going to end up saving the world. Thank you. Appreciate that. So you. He's a lot. Yeah, well, I was in India and they got like garbage over there. And I kept thinking of you. And they have buildings that are just like falling down. Super old. So I thought, how can you take all that garbage and like turn it into buildings? Bingo. That's right. So tell us about what you do. If you like your business and all that. Yeah. Yeah. Let me see. So our company is called Zontag. Zontag. And what we do is we convert totally in ways. That's the name. I think I connect the dots there. And actually, it took me a year to actually accept that name. Our first name was Sustainable Products. And then we had some legal difficulties and take out these with that that there was a company in New York that actually wanted to come after us legally because we had that name. Even though they didn't even have that name, they just sent email addresses for that name. And it was just a front for grants and things like that.

4:04So like a poor man's copy, right? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's exactly what it was. So we had to change the name. And so it took me a while to accept the name Zontag. Because I really didn't care for the notoriety and unlike that. Well, it sounds cool though. Yeah. So yeah, yeah, like some busy and age sounds very exotic. Yeah, so I appreciate that. And your technologies, exotic or sort of futuristic, you take basically garbage and turn it into building material. Yeah, yeah, we hear all the time. It's too good to be true. That's our number one thing that we hear all the time. Well, first of all, are you an engineer? No, I'm not an engineer. I ask you that. Yeah, yeah, you ask that. Usually everyone asks that right away, you know? Or can I start nerding out on plastics and stuff, you know, they think I'm an engineer. So is it like, are you having chemistry background though? I do not have chemistry. How do you know all this stuff is going to work? So my background, actually with the Southeast tech for landscape design and horticulture and turf management.

5:06Wow. I was going for business degree now. Back then, you know, I was young and I was just like, yeah, I already know how to run business on it to finish off the degree and I just went, you know, heads into the business and just didn't do that. The social history or whatever. But that is my background. Okay. Were you glad you did that? Yeah, it was good. It was good. You knew it's like, you were like, oh, I should have stayed in and learned more things. Yeah, it's been pretty successful. No, like my landscape company went to, all the way from, at the time, it was, it was a lot because went from Okavogit to North Dakota. So we would do like resorts and we would do high end properties in Okavogit. And then we would go to the middle of nowhere in North Dakota doing hospitals and apartment complexes in the middle of nowhere. And we're like, what the heck are we doing up here? It was before the oil boom. So we were prepping before the oil boom. And we're going all this landscape enough there. And it was awesome. It was great. It was cool, you know? Yeah. And then that was fun too. As a younger man. Yeah, it was.

6:06Yeah. Yeah, we haven't been it up in the bar the night before in town. And we had some crazy stories. So I was really frugal. So like, we had a pickup, one pickup. It was a crew cab dueling and stuff like that. And I would have a crew of like, some guy. Yes. I had a 44 foot long and close trailer. And a lot of the guys would actually, there was a goose neck portion in the trailer. And they would just crash in the trailer and we just road trip, drive through the night all the way up there. You know, and just, you know, we'd camp out or whatever. Yeah, it was cool. You can do a lot when you're younger, when you're younger. You can get by minimal, minimal amounts of sleep, maximal amounts of alcohol and, you know, and it's not so good mattress. And it not so good mattress. Yeah, exactly, right? Yeah, that's what it was. I mean, it would sleep on the floor, you know? You could sleep on this floor and be fine, you know? Nowadays, you can do that, you know? Nowadays, you get a Juno. Yeah, actually, yeah. Actually, the first night of the Dakota Scout, August 31st, 2022, Fermer Dance left on a cardboard box right down the hall there.

7:11It was fun. It was a good time. And the building maintenance guys didn't know us yet. And everyone guys were looking in the window, or in the morning. They got to know us pretty fast. Anyway, Chad is a director of operations and development. I've told a lot of people, uh, Chad's like our first adult employee. He's already a real employee. It's expected to like make money for us. So, uh, one I introduced everybody to Chad. He's, we went to hire him if he didn't fit the culture. So, yeah, I think we could all hang out down here. We can, you know, I learned some things on the road. I'm sure he's done. Anyway, uh, I'm not sleeping on a cardboard box. Okay, uh, these new, the new days here. One of those, the scouting lounge for any chairs. Pretty comfy actually. It is. So, I slept in here one time.

8:13Uh, anyway, so when I got back from India, I called you and I was like, you know, about all those garbage. Don't you see all the opportunity? Uh, this technology you have, I guess I hadn't really thought about it, but the government, if something is so sort of monumental that it could like, cure cancer. Can't the government take that from you and just give it to everybody? Right? Are you worried about that? No, I'm not worried about them. So, because we're here to do everything for the greater good. You know, make the planet a better place to if the greater good. If I have a part of that, you know, just raise awareness and educate and like do it for the greater good. That's a win and everyone's work. Yeah. You know, so if other people win, I win myself. So, I'm not worried about it all. Well, how did you make the transition from we were talking about you, the landscape company and the local bulge. You did North Dakota and everything. But how, how, how did you make this transition?

9:13Yeah, so it's crazy, like, uh, my story of my life is pretty insane. I've done a lot of unique things and different things in my life, you know? I'm a type of person that I don't like, but not in this everyday things. I like adventure. I like doing different things. You know, that's what I have. I have a creative mind. So, like, when I was a kid, like, if I wanted some, like, a go-kart or something like that, you know, I had to fix it. I had to build it, like, build a go-kart from scratch tech. You couldn't have looked it up on YouTube then. No, you couldn't look at YouTube. Yeah, flip phones back then. Right. Or I was mom and dad and buy it. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. If I would ask my, my parents would buy me that. I would say, nope. And he did. He said, no. You know, if you want, go get it yourself, you know? We didn't grow poor, but, I mean, he just taught us. We're gonna start us to work for everything. Yeah, we got it. Absolutely. How come I didn't open a beer? I will get you one. Yeah, we're there. Sorry. Yeah. Well, I don't mean to interrupt your story. Yeah, you're fine. You want to try one of those? Yeah, let's try one of these. You can keep going about your life.

10:13When do you start drinking? Well, what have we got here? It's a, so I'm all about, like, trying to be healthy as everybody possibly can, you know? Yep. So, I've never tried this before. All of this? No, I mean, that, that is no call over there. Okay. That's what I'm gonna crack this. Yeah, so that's a clean energy drink. Okay. Well, natural grocery. So, give you a little kick, a little boost, you know? I taste pretty good too. Who will pep in your step? Yep. Better in coffee. Yeah, exactly. Coffee stunts your growth. So, yeah. Yeah. Believe it or not, I didn't drink coffee until I was 25 or so ago. So, what happened then? Yeah. Anyway, so you were the kind of guy you had to, like, work with that stuff, right? Yeah, so yeah, so my parents thought I had to work. And you're thinking about the hands and create things and six things and all that, and I'll go, go, go, uh, go-karts and go-pads and vehicles. If we want to vehicle, a first vehicle, like,

11:15we go by our own vehicle. We work our own stuff, you know? type thing. So I always had that creative mind and I always just want to create things in the hands, you know. My mind doesn't shut off. Like I always think of like, oh, I could do that or, you know, that'd be cool if I could do that, you know, type of thing. Yeah. I always get challenged that way, finding a solution to the problem. Yeah. So from the landscape inside of it, I was tired of traveling, tired of going to the oil fields and no caboge and going all around. Like I think we're talking about the young man's game. Yeah. You know what I mean? And it's just like, and I wasn't very, I had some relationships, but like I kind of want to settle down and just kind of just stay in the area, type thing, you know. Yeah, it's hard to settle down if you're on the road all the time, all the time nonstop. And so I came back here wherever and I started farming and working for a farmer. We did around 14,000 acres of ground. And one of the landowners took a liking to man is you thought, hey, that's sort of custom harvesting

12:18crew business. And I was, when I was 27 years old. And it would have taken like a half million dollars and I'm 27, I don't know, half million dollars that have put a down payment on combines and equipment and stuff like that. I also couldn't do it. My dad was the mayor of wording for 28 years. Okay. And they wanted to have a company come in and assess their pipes, their sewage pipes. So they clean the pipes and then camera the pipes underground. And they were on like a two-year waiting list. There's a company up at Watertown that they were trying to get, you know, a waiting list. He's like, you know, you always like excavating and dirt work and stuff like that. Like I used to do excavating and I went to Southeast Tech, like digging houses and water insurers to pay for my tuition and stuff. I thought, you know, I should do that. You know, once I researched it for a couple weeks, I was Google back then actually. And I went to Chicago and I bought my first camera trailer and I

13:18went to Detroit Michigan and I bought my first jetback truck. Not knowing how to run a camera trailer, not knowing how to run a jetback truck. Figure it out. Yeah. So I went to the salesman and you know, I didn't want to admit that I didn't know what I was doing. So I went to the salesman and I was like, I'm not really familiar with this brand of truck and what it is. You know, can you tell me some about it? How to operate it and things like that, you know? And he said, well, to be honest, I really don't know about this truck meter. So I really can't tell you nothing about it. I'm like, damn it, you know. Did you get the manual? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I, we bought it and then that land investor and I went together on it and brought the jetback truck and the camera unit back to my place and I had an acreage back then. So I literally got some pipes and laid them on both ground and my acreage. And I just sort of playing with the jetback truck and sort of playing with the camera unit. Yeah. Yeah. You know, just trying to figure out how to do it and try to figure out how to run it and stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then I went into

14:19the Worthing, you know, for my dad's town or whatever. And I started cleaning and televising pipes in Worthing just for experience. I wouldn't bill on it. They pay you? No. Other than that, we got a story. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know. Because yeah, that's it. Oh, there's a lot of small time drama with that. They thought I was a small time millionaire because of Worthing, but I mean, I did a lot of volunteer time where I got to get peace for you know, I could see a bigger town to get you to put a cabash on that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. My truck plus the Worthing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. My truck plus the Worthing. Yeah. So yeah, I grew up in that industry because my dad was there. So he was also helping with the maintenance and the live station pumps going out in the middle of the night and that type of thing. You know what I mean? And they call him here to go take your lift. Yeah, that's what they were doing. That's people call him bitch all the time. 10 o'clock at night. It's for a ring like people complain and think this job. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. And we're out here. We're at two o'clock in the morning, unplugging a live station pump, you know.

15:21We're doing a pay for none of that, you know. Right. It's a volunteer a lot of that time. Yeah. Okay. So we, I got into that business and it was a really good business and my plan was just to keep two or three trucks and keep going and stuff like that. The more I got into it, the more we grew, the more we grew that company, we were going out of state again. And the whole point of me doing everything I was doing was to stay in state. We're a state local type of thing, you know. Yeah. But we were doing work in Colorado. And we went to, we did some stuff around the Denver area, eerie Colorado and stuff like that. And then we did a project in Breckenridge. You know what I mean? My early 30s then and we had this challenge at Breckenridge where the pipes have never been cleaned ever since the installation of these pipes. They're four foot diameter sewage pipes. Yeah. And so they put it off for beds. So every company in the U.S. could go a bit on this project. There's three of us in the bidding room. And the other two companies that are as well as the

16:23average multi-million dollar companies, stuff like that, they're like, this is crazy. This will never work. There's no way you can clean it in this deadline because it's a ski town. Yeah. So there was a certain limited window of when you could actually clean the pipes. So me being young and dumb, I was like, sure, we can do it. We'll try, you know. So we did, we did it. And we actually beat the deadline by 15 days. Well, I actually grew up in Breckenridge, much better than a lot of my life. And my family had a house there. But what's, I mean, I remember that town before they even had a stoplight. Oh yeah. But so how, I mean, that sounds like a big job. And you, like you said, you're dealing with a very narrow time frame. How long do that take? It was 45 days. We got done. Oh, yeah. And if you're familiar with Brecken, so the top of the hill, all the way down to the bottom of the treatment plan is. Yeah. So we had to clean the main transmission line that goes from the top to the bottom. And it was like a 48 inch pipe, never been cleaned. And then as a lot of scale deposits, a lot of minerals. Yeah, sure. Like in there, you know,

17:24so that would build up in the pipe. So your pipe might only be a quarter to half full of actually a septage going through it. The rest is mineral. Yeah. So we, we have to take those mineral deposits out, which is very hard to do, you know. It's almost easier just to replace the pipe, isn't it? Not really. No. Okay. You know, it would be detrimental that town because of construction and length of time. It's there like that, you know. Yeah. So I felt we were in and out. Pretty sure. What was that? Oh, jeez has to think about that. I think that was the 2000, 2000, mid 2000. No, it's 2013. Okay. So my time. Yeah. I don't think we can. So anyways, we get the reputation of being large diameter pipe queens. So cleaning large diameter pipes. So there's a lot of any windows. Yeah. Made, you know, if cracking jokes to each other about all that.

18:26Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. I've heard those before too. Yeah. We talked about those. We did a project in construction work. You basically have. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It's definitely not PGG. Yeah. It's like a new, it's like a new room. Yeah. Exactly. Well, an old old room. Yeah. You're not here very much. It's still that way. It's just well. I know. But we're, we're, we're, we're embodying the old school. Yeah. Yeah. When the kids are around. Right. Anyway. Yeah. Yeah. So then we went from Bracken Ranch, California, when we got a project in the Sue City. And kind of same thing in Sue City with the same thing with Brack was, was kind of an impossible target to hit and things like that. You know, and we, uh, we went and knocked the project out in like record time. I can't remember what it was, but I mean, it was, uh, we adapted to the situation. A problem came up and my creative mind figured it came in and figured out how we could

19:28do it. And then we started implementing like sonar into it and LIDAR and things like that. And, uh, kind of something that no one's really heard of in the Midwest before, you know, how's before that time. So you can, LIDAR, take, why couldn't we do that? Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. I love good challenge. Stressfuls, I'll get out, you know. Oh, yeah. So I'm going both with theory and I'm having with you. Yeah. I think we're kind of the same person out there. We go. We go. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I did that project and, uh, that helped us get on the map of large name or play. And then with that, I realized like our infrastructure, our infrastructure is decaying on their ground. City Worthy, for example. Like to play some worthy, I don't even know how they're still holding up. Like, yeah, it went through all that. Yeah. That's why that's why they excused the 500-dollar watermelon. Oh, yeah. That's not quite that great. Getting there. Yeah. That pisses you off. Yeah. That was when your vehicle was right there. Yeah, I can flush my toy,

20:33but people in part of the town, like, you know, but this, they start raising, raising, and adding on the search areas because they were going to catch up with all the food maintenance on the system. I get that. But at some point, you could use some sales tax revenue to like offset some of those. No, there's not a gun to your head that says it can't. You know what I mean? Yeah. So I like living in Lincoln County. It's nice. It's expensive, but it's really nice. Yeah. Well, you're afloat. All right. Good timing. Yeah. So, well, how did you go from that? So you sold that car? Are you? No. So then I realized that infrastructure is decaying. Right. Rapidly. So then you said and Greg, why not just dig it up? Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. The cheaper, faster, it all adds to digging them is that. So then I got into the lining aspect of creating a new pipe inside of an old pipe without digging up the road. Yep. And so I got into that and we did it and

21:37it's called CFPP cured in place pipe. So you clean the pipe out and then put this line on it inside, inside it. Yep. Yep. Yep. So it was CFPP. So it was a thermal set resin pipeline. So it takes a thermal set reaction to set it off. So it comes in as a liquid form. And it's got a felt sock around it and you shoot it in and then you expand it with steam. And the temperature of the steam throws off the thermal set of the plastics and that's what cures the pipe and makes it harder. So we did that and we were doing a project up in mass and for the city mass and the pool. Tell how you figured that out. Well, I am a chemist to figure that out. No, I didn't invent that. That was just already a technology that started been adapted by a company called the City Form. Was the creators of that. And so you just buy into it, you just buy the equipment and you get into it that type of thing, you know? Yeah. So then we're installing this in the city mass at the pool and we're shooting the

22:38liner. And my guy is I'm up at the top of the pool. I got my pole on short sleeves and stuff at that. And you have to have long sleeves and stuff and glows. And the liner started setting off because it's a hundred degree dead. So when it sets off above ground, it can go up and flames. That's how dangerous it is. So I jump in the pool and I'm helping try to shoot this liner. And it's starting to go off as we're trying to shoot it because we can't get it around the bend. Which normally we could get it around the bend. We couldn't get it around the bend. So we struggled and struggled and struggled and I jumped down to help the guys. Again, I'm in short sleeves. And so I had resin all over my ass, like all over my ass. This is on Wednesday or Thursday. I came home now. And I go home and I shower twice a day. I pray too much information, but it's the truth. Just tell my story every night, every morning, you know? I was flying out for Denver Monday morning. And I was flying out for a certification class for

23:41this CIPP liner. And I go to Sioux Falls Airport. And going into the airport and the scanners, and I light up the scanners. My arms were like bright, bright red. I'm both arms. So you look at my arms. You don't see any resin. Yeah. Literally, you don't even see a speckle of resin. But yet I'm the scanner. I was all lit up. Yeah. So I go, I'm 65. And I go back behind the black screen with a guy who was taller than me. And I go down to my underwear. And I'm like, no way. This is BS. You know what I mean? But I mean, I threw him off that much. They couldn't figure out why just my arms from here down there. I don't know what they were thinking. But anyway, so they checked me out. I was good to go. So then when I finally got out of the black screen room, I go and my planes leave and they left without me. I'm like, damn. So then I have this certification class. And this certification class is a big deal because you need to be certified in order

24:45to install this liner for these big cities. And otherwise, you don't get the project. These are multi-million dollar projects. So I mean, it's crucial. So I was like, oh, I was the only one thing to do. Hop in my pick. I'm starting to wear my underwear. So I did. I went and drove to Denver. I took a picture of the screen. I took a picture of my ticket. I took a picture of the plane leaving. So proving that I was there to fly out. So I go there and I tell the instructor, I'm like, this is why I'm a daylight. He's like, yeah, okay, all right. Well, thankfully for smartphones, then, you know, I was able to show them everything. Yeah. And I show them the scares. You know, because here it is, I'm going to certification for this thermal set liner. And I did that to you. I did it to me. So he thought, okay, let's just get this guy in, like, get him past. So he's kind of sweet one of the rug type of thing, you know, like, don't make a big issue about it. He might be a liability. Exactly. Exactly. I don't go to the media on it, you know. So then I get home.

25:47And here you are. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. And I get home, I'm thinking, you know, I'm asking my guys to do that every day to go in there and be in those elements and all that. And then they go home with their kids. They're hugging their kids, are laying next to their lives, are whatever, you know, like, just touching other people in that type of thing. And if it was just one time that made that into my body like that, we couldn't even see it from the outside. Yeah, it's like, yeah, how can I ask my guys to do that every day? Was it like that for you? Like, oh, yeah, it's full of carcinogens. It's nasty. Like, it's like cancer. It's like, I'm just waiting for, like, being a commercial some night. Like, yeah, if you've been exposed to CFP liner, it calls sphincter and sphincter a lot for me. I mean, I always saw the stats, you know. And so I didn't, I didn't want to do that to my guys. I don't want to do that to our family. I didn't want to do our kids. You know, so I was on a mission.

26:47I was like, okay, I'm going to find a way to have a liner that didn't have those carcinogens. And styrene's the main one of it. The styrene's terrible carcinogens was terrible. But, um, allegedly, my serif sponsors. DuPont, you got to, you got to do pont on the line, Fred. Got to think, all right, you can tie earth for you. You can tie trash. But, uh, so then, uh, I found a guy in Colorado. And, um, there was a technology called, um, back then, it was called, uh, uh, thermal form. It was called, uh, it was a PVC liner, but they did thermal form liner, full of inform. It was called bow and bar, full of inform. So it's a PVC vinyl liner that you pull through and then you expand the PVC with steam and you blast through a cold air and it'll harden and make a pipe inside of the old pipe. So I got with this guy and then we re-developed the formulation to eliminate a lot of the carcinogens.

27:50So I was the field guy in South Dakota being the guinea pig doing test trials in South Dakota. And then he was in Colorado and Alabama, um, working together with the company out of Alabama to make this formulation happen. So then that's how the liner started adapting. How's that? So then we created a thermal form liner that didn't have those carcinogens. So then you could actually stand over and breathe and it's just pure steam and water. There's no thermal reaction or nothing like that. It's all embedded inside the liner and then inside the liner didn't have any carcinogens. Did the industry sort of move without that? No. Because the industry is so huge. It's multi-billions. With this CIPP liner, you know, and then they get into UV lining and UV linings the same thing. Just use UV light versus steam and things like that. It still has those carcinogens in the thermos up. And that's what they used today as UV. So in May of 2020,

28:53COVID's getting more and more and more. And there's a company and private equity that wanted to buy me out. And because I had a contract in Denver, I had a contract in Omaha. These large towns, while during COVID, no one really knew what was going to happen. They weren't thought the world was going to come to an end or whatever you know. And so they purchased me and they bought me out and I got blessed by that. I worked for them and I was in charge of their large jambour, I was their large jambour director. And so we cleaned the pipes and then we would rehab them and things like that. And then working for private equity is not me. I'm not a private equity guy at all, you know. And my dad developed cancer and I was in the hospital, Sanford Hospital here in Sioux Falls. I was listening to my dad. I was outside the, in the waiting room in his room, across the hall. I was listening to him scream for his life, you know, it's dying. And I'm not

29:54here doing this call on this project. And there was a multi-million dollar project. And I landed the deal, listening to my dad screaming. You know, I've been here as a distraction for me, you know, I get feel done. The next day, the president of the private, or not private equity, but president of the company, that's what he said. Hey, we need to get you more involved with our sales team. We need to teach our salesman how you do what you do. So it probably wasn't the best thing for him to tell me, you know, like, especially he knew that I was there. Yeah, he knew that my dad was dying, you know. Yeah. And then I was just like, you know, like, there's no camera. Big, you know, like, yeah, like, no, this, I care more about people than I do about your profits that you have to have. You know, so I quit it. And I don't put it into a lot for me to quit, you know. And I was just like, you know, so one of my last things that my dad said to me was, hey, don't work your life away. You know, because he knew where I was

30:55going. I was working all the time and stuff like that. And I was like, all right, I'm going to do it. I'm going to turn this garbage. I'm a certain, I'm a conference boss either, you know, because my dad knew I want to do that, you know. So how did you already know how to do that? So how it all happened was I'm a horse guy. I'm a big horse guy. I have horses. And I was just sitting there and looking out the window and I was watching my horses push over my railroad tight fence. And I was like, damn, I just put in that fence like five or seven years prior. And then I was thinking about a light bulb clicked on because I used railroad ties. I don't know if you guys have another railroad tie, a cruise soak that will get ill and all that crap, you know. I put them in my hand then. So I dug the hole with an auger. You take the railroad tie, throw it in 200 pounds, you throw it in and stuff like that pack around there. And a light bulb clicked down because I stunk for, it felt like I stunk for like a month or two because that cruise soak was embedded in my body and my skin, my nostrils and all that

31:55putting that fence in. And a light bulb clicked down like, wait a minute, like, okay, so we developed that liner because of that thermal reaction, tumble stuff, plastic and stuff like that because the personagens, cruise soak is terrible for you. It's cancerous and stuff like that. Why don't I take those liner scraps? We have scraps from the liner we created, all the testing and stuff like that. Take those scraps, grind them up and homogenize them into a fence post. And create a fence post that don't have carcinogens that won't rot, won't deteriorate, won't break down. It doesn't weigh 200 pounds. Well, they're heavy though. Are they? They're heavy, they're heavy. Yeah, they have to be correct. Yeah, for the strengthiest of that. And why not take those liner scraps and convert those and put those into a profile that will last forever so you're not three do it. So you knew enough about sort of like the molecular structure of this other stuff. Good for her vision. So like, why don't you do have some like chemistry knowledge?

33:00Self-taught. Self-taught. Like, yes. No, traditionally educated, but you take that up along the way. Yeah. Yeah. Self-taught. So like, I learned it from you. The universe gives you a lot of information for free. You pay attention. Exactly. Exactly. I agree. Do anything you say to mine to you, that's what I was saying. Yep. So it's all about passion drive. So like, you guys are passionate, you get the drive for what you do. You know, like, I know what I'm here to do. And this is making the planet a better place. Yeah. You think this is, you've got a lot of things. I mean, you can do more in fence posts with this stuff. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So the reason why I start with fence posts is obviously the horses. Yeah. And then, you know, I'm, was country boy raised where we worked on the farm and that type of thing, you know, in farmers and ranchers. They don't want to spend a lot of money. Unless it's a big house or a nice fancy truck. That's so in time they want to spend money, you know. Like, they want to be as frugal as possible. And that's why I am. I'm frugal too. You know, I'd rather put my

34:01money into something nice than versus put it into a fence post. So it's always my dream of taking these fence posts and converting these fence posts into something that farmers and ranchers can afford. And something that's comparable to wood pricing to where if you see our posts in the store and you see a wood post, it's around the same price. Well, why don't I have a post that you don't have to log in? That's good on tree. And if you're taking garbage, you know, converting garbage into a fence post, it won't rot, won't deteriorate. It's 10 times stronger, last 20 times longer. It's very retarded. You know, taking our garbage, putting into some versus putting into a landfill. So there's gotta be well first cost to converting the garbage into that. And that's what drive here. I guess price points. Correct. Yeah. Electricity is huge. It takes a lot of energy to do this. Labor was huge. When we first started, it would take four people, around 14 and a half minutes to

35:03do it. Now we can get down to one person around a minute and a half, three minutes, through automation and stuff. The more we adapt to it, the more efficient we make it. We make all of our own machines in our process. So you can't just go to someone and say, you can't even go overseas. I want to say the name asserts to the sea, but you can't go there and say, yeah, I want a machine that makes fence posts out of garbage. So it starts a little sea. You can't do that. You can't buy that. You know, so we make all of our own machines our whole process is self-made. The thing that I think is cool is that you're also taking things out of our environment that are bad, you know, waste. Putting this, how do you gather or get the content that you're using? Source material. Yeah. Source material, but you know, and I mean, for me, it would be a consistency thing too, but I don't know if that comes into play or not.

36:04You know, you need X number of this type of plastic in here, this type of whatever. It looks like you would have some pieces of metal in there. With the waste from Jonathan's house, the better suited for this than the waste from my house, for instance, or industrial waste, or yeah, where is this where are you sourcing? Yeah, so the cool thing about post-industrial waste, a lot of people don't realize how much we actually waste. When it comes to industry, industrial waste, it's crazy how much product they throw away. Like large corporations, I won't say any names, like large corporations to them to throw away a semi-a-week plastic waste is like nothing. Then to stay here, you're like nearly the dollar, with like my real furniture. Oh yeah. When they moved into the one stop, you know. Yeah, I mean, we're a throwaway society. You know what I mean? Like these chairs, you just bought these chairs here. I mean, yep. I did. And like these chairs, we could convert these chairs into this.

37:09We eventually get the clothes to wear in. Yeah, we're not in our chairs. We'll just try these secures out, let's see. We'll call this scalp. The scalp pose, they still have to at least 10 to 12 each. Yeah, we'll call them the scalp pose. Like the boots to wear, that's good. They're the clothes, you're shirt and all that. Like mostly everything we wear is petroleum. Yeah, unless you're organic, cotton or whatever you know, like pretty much everything we have is petroleum. Hey, I've seen Yeah, the one the one show where he's like everything like I go through everything the big out of petroleum Yeah, so when you ask like how do we sort it? So if as long as it's petroleum we can do it. Okay, there's a aluminum in there. Correct. So there's aluminum end cappering And what that comes from is when you scrap aluminum wire and copper wire and you bring to the scrapper the scrapper takes it and he takes the aluminum or tries to extract as much aluminum copper out as it possibly can. He doesn't get all of it. And Because I do it in such large volumes. So the sheeting of wire is petroleum

38:15So the insulation and the outer core is petroleum. So we take that and we convert it and we put it into our fence So that's more in post industrial waste that would go to landfill. Yeah, like there's no other recycler that I can do that because you were asking about injection molding. So you couldn't take that aluminum around through injection molder because it pulled the Orphus for the machines and our machines the way we do it the way we process we don't have to worry about that Well, I think I don't know if you want to do the right thing, but I think it could be a rich man By a lot of bills, by a lot of bills, your products and when we come back from the break I needed you to make a snack because we might break that whole bottle of meat

39:30Enjoy responsibly copyright 2022 in a sub-ocean bush I fear St. Louis, Missouri Beel distributing soup all South Dakota If you want to understand what's really happening in South Dakota start with the Dakota Scout South Dakota's leading journal of politics and culture locally owned and printed in Sioux Falls Founded in 2022 by veteran reporters Jonathan Ellis and Joe Snevy the scout brings more than 40 years of combined experience And a reputation for relentless fair-minded reporting from Sioux Falls City Hall to the state capital in peer the Dakota Scout Deliver's breaking news investigative reporting and serious political coverage without the spin It's Lewis and Clark inspired logo reflects its mission charting new territory in a new era of South Dakota Journalism Subscribe today for full access to stories delivered straight to your inbox plus the Scouting Lounge podcast $7 a month at the Dakota Scout dot com the Dakota Scout stay informed

40:36My grandpa was one of my favorite all-time people growing up I remember going to the tulip festival with him. I remember his blue jacket was always full of starbursts I remember a lot of my grandfather But I also remember a lot about what he instilled to me and some of the values he dropped along the way things like I Could never afford to buy cheap now. What that means to me is that in the industry that I'm in mattresses Don't last through their warranty and those big box brands really don't have your best interests in mind They'd rather have you buy a bed and it break down prematurely You need to have to buy new bed again, but at Juno sleep systems We value our commitment to our customers and their satisfaction long-term Which is why we only use the best quality ingredients and we're there for you anytime you want to make a change to the mattress even per side at Juno 1950s values are still alive We're only as good as the quality products we turn out at the end of the day and our word is our bond Come on down and check us out today. 41st and Grange in Sioux Falls

41:36Thanks again to Juno sleep systems and be well Distributing we should probably say thanks to sunshine. Do they're out there? I can They have a 30 pack on sale don't they they've got some mark on this next week too More special They have damn good meat and chicken at last time. Nope, so Anyway, we have some of those mead with the hell of me. Yeah, so I I know right so I I thought me was like a gluten type thing or whatever You know, so I'm like oh, that doesn't sound very good And then I got a cup. Yeah, I was educated on it by nephew was in the par looking Championship at Roseville, whatever And so we went to the ranch and roost We went to the ranch and roost Right across from Sioux Falls Ford got Lake Lorraine Carstress, so I'm building on that and

42:37In there good food good place good atmosphere and they have this stuff called meat I'm like, okay, what the heck is this? So I learned it's made from fermented honey And no idea what it was you know, I was nasty. What are this first time me trying this bottle? Whatever it's a wild man I thought why not patronize a local Meadry local restaurant and we said hey bring a drink. I'm like, well, let's bring this and see what it See what it does, so well I can read the description real quick says mead is the world's oldest fermented beverage made from honey Mead was a favorite of the ancient Egyptians Chinese Vikings Saxons and just about every other culture that loved a party down and get the pillage on Our products are flavorful meld and Perfectly suited for sipping with a damsel by candlelight or knocking back from a rams home before sacking the nearest Nunnery gets your pillage on There is

43:41This is like the medieval feast cheers. Yeah, this is maybe the medieval feast. You talk about chicken like a chicken leg It's like Greece around the night Cheers thanks for the tribute It's pretty good Who didn't you're good? Come on in there. What's up? It's pretty good air saw Is that what that is? I thought maybe you guys were smoking something Who's gonna fly through in the studios and the third degenerate? Learned it from you. Yeah, we got a lot of great. Yeah, the nuance We always go back to that don't we? Is that because he was smoking? The patio burgers the patio burners. Yeah

44:45We don't need a good the gas line City This stuff's good though. It's not bad. It's already loosened in the air It's gonna give you more of a kick than a Yeah, it's gonna take what 10 bush lancie Makes Joe more tolerable. It's good stuff. Yeah, it makes me more handsome driving You're talking about your India trip. Oh, yeah, well after this I'm gonna be like a slideshow like my grandpa used to do You're gonna make sound effects or job. Yeah, well, I don't know. Are all those slides gonna be family friendly? Nope But this is for publication Yeah, it's really just for my own poster

45:46Okay, and the Indian government said there was no strings attached But then last night like we need a 300 word recollection By the weekend, so I'll do that you guys want to tell a radio Smartie now the food school. I say no about your big Big day of eight. Yeah, you're the third debate the late April 27. Yeah, and we're live sponsors of that again Oh, you're a sponsor. Howman insurance and good job market be market be again northern plans Fitness sort of church I don't want to chase fitness out. I'll see you in business as 24 seven figures. Okay, cool. Say closer. Well, cut that part Get to get bride and bunny for the radio All right, well, I'll let you guys get back. All right, nice to see you later. Take care. See you, Grant

46:49Well, that's pretty good. It's not bad. So you does there's a meter in town. Yeah, it's called a big big lost It's in the ranch and roost by Lake Lorraine. It's not like Lake Lorraine. Yeah, the atmosphere is cool You know, good. I'm sure you look out the window and see the lake, you know, yeah, food. How's the food? Foods awesome. It's made from beef tower Yeah, beef tower. Yeah, good skill stuff. No seed oils on us. So it's helped with me. It's a great thing So yeah, food's really good. Amateurs get it. It's cool setting kind of different because You know, it seems like something like that should be like up north or something like that type of thing I had bugles for lunch, so this is sounding great to me Well, there we go. That was you're like rustling out of a bag. I'm like, is that your lunch? No, it was a little too long ago. I had to make some fast food Taco place. I heard I listen to a employee there talk to his parole officer about getting past from checking in That's pretty Colorful culture there

47:50It was the same place where one time I saw a man fall asleep in the middle of the driveway Remember that remember the drive through or drive through so nobody could get in That's on the restaurant and your description of set event did create a cluster as I recall It was our first PR sort of yeah, as a paper They're using Ah What we had like checked on the guy and someone called that one and then I took a picture and said something snarky like hell of a place to sleep We're off and I thought, you know, I'm not about it I would probably just fall over three feet over while the The indignant bleeding hearts out there that like one that you know be good people for the fashion of it But really wouldn't sort of walk across the street to help your dog Uh Yeah, it's one thing to put a tweet out. It's another thing to put for for those people but Another thing to actually like you said go across the street to help somebody or enter enter the balls of India

48:57And hang out with some coolest people Ever at a mafia bar So we were talking about fence posts earlier and then you were talking you were talking about the Nebraska fire Which has been devastating yeah a lot of rant man started by Yes, a shitty fence post or no, I'll pull like pull. How come pull at your heart? Yeah, yeah, yeah, and so you have a cure potentially for this issue. Yeah So that powerful it was rotting on the inside and I went and snapped it. Yeah, we fell over and it arched on the prairie And arched on the prairie and started a fire then With the wind and the dryness that we've had with the drought and stuff like that. It's just been going Like wow, it's great. It's pretty easy. Just so I got an email from the South Dakota Calamans association The day or two ago and they are offering to try their their supporters They're members to send aid and basically they're

49:59Talking about like if you have open land, we need to haul cattle from Nebraska to give them a place to house them Um Place to feed them all that kind of reminded me of the issue they A episode of Yellowstone where they're trying to find an emergency place to put their cattle, you know They're trying to do that and But it's a huge and I think you said now it's there. I think there were two separate fires But you you're saying over a million acres. I think it's about a million acres are now. Yeah, that's pretty huge Yeah, that's huge and it's devastating, you know like the stories we're hearing we're hearing Uh, out cattle are actually on fire And they get trapped because the fences have broke through yet. They're trying to get through the fence And if they finally you get to the fence like they've been charred so bad And they're still alive walk around charred And we one of our customers actually is in that area and he's helping ranchers currently as we speak And uh, they're having to put down cattle Just because they're suffering

51:00They've been burnt alive and they're still alive And that's just forward, you know, and um He's actually a very good advocate for us this rancher down there and he's blocked quite a few posts from us quite a few Semilo is actually for fences for fences. Yeah, and uh, so he's advocate for our post Our post we would never thought about, you know, like what are What happens in a wildfire, you know, like our posts are designed for fire retardant Can withstand a wildfire as opposed to your conventional That would close that would burn up and Yeah, yep. So this is going to be testing in regards to the Heat rating on the product. Yeah. Yeah, we have a YouTube channel We have a YouTube channel uh, Zontak on our YouTube channel And uh, we have a lot of questions like what it comes to free saw cycles and heat and fire Cold temps like how are how does our formulations react to those And um, so uh, let's try it So we have one video where we're holding a weed burner directly to our post

52:00And we take a weed burner away After a certain period of time you'll see that video and then once we take it away, it extinguishes out Doesn't affect the integrity of the post whatsoever And then we have one where you know, all their extreme cold temps, you know, plastic, plastic rated snaps rates, you know, technically And um, so we did one where I'm gonna tracks his theory and I'm pushing against the post I think it was like negative 43 with the windshield. It was super cold Like it was crazy cold out So I'm pushing against our post and the post is going back and forth back and forth back and forth The skid loader tracks your spin and spin and black smokes come out the back of the skid loader The post isn't breaking I'm pretty excited. I'm pretty stoked because we're recording it in the video and everything and like sweet awesome thumbs up I think you know Now let's try breaking it. So I back up. I put on a seatbelt and go full throttle. I hit it full throttle I didn't expect Hit it full throttle and it snapped in the road but I mean That's a lot of pressure, you know In the beginning you're at 43 below zero. Yeah, correct exactly. So yeah, so

53:05I mean From what we were doing before so we actually ran it through testing lines through AI through GROC Of what that amount of force was against that we put the machine weight Attraction speed and also our stuff in the equation formulation It was something crazy like 33,000 pounds of force instead, you know So which not a not a horse. Yeah exactly Horse are even a cow. Yeah, right. Yeah, right. Then when you put it in a fence form and you have the wire that has Structured behind two Where it's not just one single post. Yeah, yeah, so it makes it stronger So going back to the electrical pole. I mean, that's you already do in the fence, but now this is just a much bigger fence post Correct. Yeah, and you're like and so are you talking about making Of just a pole just an electrical pole or working with ones that exist or how are you talking? Yeah, so What what the plan is is there's seconds and scraps of metal pipe throughout the United States

54:06Whether it's using the oil fields whether it's using the solar fields any seconds they come off the mills And um the mills might it might have a split in the pole somewhere where it doesn't need speck For the oil field or the solar field and they reject it So they could reject a whole load if they see some spots on his post that Don't need their specs So we can take those poles and we can encase them with our product on the outside and the inside of that post So we could use the metal structure of that pole for rigidity of the telephone pole power pole And then we'll encase it so from a distance it's going to look like a wooden pole Uh, it'll be charcoal the colors you have here. We're actually going to trademark that name. We're going to call it ranch wood Says brown has gray and has black and I you know, so we're just going to call it ranch wood And from a distance, you'll see our ranch wood poles And have a metal core So we have ice storms or we have wind storms and things like that. It's going to hold up which we have over the Midwest exactly exactly

55:12far superior to You know your traditional wood poles. They'll never rot won't deteriorate You know and uh, so like the Nebraska fire for example that would have been prevented If our pole was playing that choice So that's what makes you feel really good And you know in an unfortunate situation Knowing that like we can prevent that from happening again loop with our products. So Well, so what do you have to do for a manufacturing perspective? Actually scale up to that is yeah money money money and time It takes a lot of dollars to do what we do Uh, everything's been self-funded by myself You know, good bank first national bank soup balls awesome bank They've been helping us with our mission and stuff like that and um But yeah, just the money and time to actually make The machines to make that profile So that machine will be a complete separate machine from a fence post The process and the formulation be similar, but

56:14The because you're talking of 45 65 foot long pole Yeah, it takes a massive machine to make something like that. So just building out the machines, you know Just takes time. It's not like your product a lot But there's keeping it like hemp So it's still hemp makes Nowadays build building block of that Is there Is that weird that I know we're actually we're actually talking. I'm a hemp sport So I was actually gonna start a clothing Yeah I'm more the manufacturing side joy. You might be a little bit different I'm like it's so renewable Yeah, but uh, I was actually looking at doing clothing with hemp Before it actually became trendy like though Because I It was called pipe clothing It was for blue collar working people You know because most people nowadays, they're what I look trendy by the working. They care about how they move

57:19You know, they don't show up and ride tag clothes and stuff like that So it was called pipe clothing and I started at the same time. I started this zontag versus they were products and And it was one of the other I thought for the greater good This is for the greater good versus the clothing, but the clothing still could be turned back on anytime But yeah, so adding hemp to our formulation We're looking at doing that adding hemp to it. I've been in the Works communicating with hemp processors Yeah, now we could take hemp waste the byproducts of hemp waste that they can't use And implementing that inside of our formulation To add to our formulation so then we're full circle with that as well. Yeah, that's cool So everything we do we want to be full circle So we trap all of our gases or off gases of a process like everything we trap Capture we put it back in we preheat our material before it goes into the process Yeah, yeah, so we want to be full circle and everything so

58:19If we can help the hemp industry because I believe in that industry, you know like If we can help that by taking the waste and make that full circular where there is no waste with hemp And put that in our formulation Why not, you know, well, I just think they're they're building they're using hemp to make really strong building skills too Is the technology similar and that Did you work together on machine technologies too or is it totally different? Yeah, I've seen their Re-manufacturing facilities how to process them. I've seen it and It's kind of similar to what we do But it's different But what they have for machines we could easily make of ourself easily So we we haven't ventured into politics at all, but did it bum you out then when known was so anti former governor Chrissy known was very anti-hemp. It seemed like her first year Yeah, do you remember that and that kind of like boomerang against her like that was the 10 one of the big things like Why is she still against hemp like a lot of farmers wanted it and I don't know if you were into the industry back then

59:22But you know back in her first term. I mean she really took some political flack for being so anti-hemp Yeah, it's a diverse course. I think a lot of it is just the This little concept of hemp. You know when I worked in Colorado and breakfast like that You know like everyone thinks like everyone's growing in high with hemp, you know like they just don't realize they don't I think themselves do you know mean like you don't educate themselves and realize like hemp is actually an incredible plant And what it could do for our environment, you know like I'm dealing with plastic. So I'm dealing with Petroleum. I'm dealing with garbage. I'm dealing with all kinds of crap that Synthetics that we create That this is terrible for your body. You know, it's terrible for the environment type of thing You know, but we're here to take those and eliminate those from being put into the ground And or or water, but you know politics wise Like I don't understand that Why politicians don't get behind the manufacturing the processing things like that because there's so much good behind that

1:00:26That could benefit. I think by and large they are now Yeah, that we were kind of on the We were on the downward side. I mean try to end of that spectrum But I think now people recognize Generally the value, but I don't know. There are still probably some people in the legislature, but Generally I think so that like in your wild right it looks like good here. Yeah, but it is even ditch weed Um, so they say Uh, but you know, but I think people are by and large gotten through the politics of that Helped that it was authorized in the farm bill back and I think what 2016 some were in that area, but Uh, so I think the industry is growing Um, and it's interesting to me that if you can like I mean, it's a win-win for the hemp it if you can start to incorporate That your products. Yeah, we we can I know we can we've been in conversation with local hemp manufacturers in South Dakota To team up with that which there are some good advocates in that industry, you know, correct? Yeah, yep and

1:01:27Can Meyer listen to this, you know, but uh Met with him and his brother and sister and stuff like that Seeing how we could work together to fulfill our Story of being full circular and everything we do You know, if we can add to their story and they can add to our story, you know, type of thing Like combining synthetics and organics together. Yeah, making a superior product Something that last, you know, like you were seeing the structural integrity of him What it adds to Profiles and stuff like that instead of taking fiberglass or manufacturing fiberglass Putting hemp in there and the hemp fibers would give that extra strength. What it already has Part of this Formulation actually the story we had was taking windmill blades And putting windmill blades in our formulation, which we can't do There's a market for that. So that's that's kind of gets to the next thing Like this is all very like why won't politicians get behind it? It's all very disruptive To the status quo. Yeah, correct a lot of established businesses

1:02:31That would maybe aren't on the front line It's just me Technology or whatever They stand to like really lose a lot. So there's probably protectionism happening and That's why I asked earlier like if something is so like world changing Uh, I would hope like somebody can enjoy the fruits of those labors Uh, even for the most noble first admit But some politicians don't come take it and claim it as their own Because to make change the world with it and claim it as their own. So Should hide you have a bunker. I know right Right This is why one of the reasons why I want to be here Because I didn't educate or tell people our story because I kept it secret Because I don't I never fear anything in my life. I got all fear nothing You know me, but I'm always cautious and I always look to see you know like I don't understand But um, now I start realizing like no, what maybe it's just our telling our story

1:03:35And educating people and letting people know and making them aware So if you so if somebody that pops out somewhere else, people know you had it. Yeah, yeah, I mean yeah Yeah, that's like the thing you know like um politics wise We tried with the gred for last three years to get low interest loan for funding for adding expansion for abundance and with the gred The cans has been kicked down the road like oh, yeah, we'll bring leadership team. Oh, yeah, we'll bring leadership team But one thing that we've done that no one knew that we were doing is we are recording everything we do Every phone call text message email That we have gets recorded in timestamp Is that because you're afraid of Like NBA be violated they look at kind of just protecting the whole aspect and tell our story But how it all started it? I had a friend in Florida that told me this like always record everything you do And uh, they set us up for a netflix documentary

1:04:38So we're building a bunch of b-roll footage And we're building a bunch of stories and the documentation behind it And so we're putting this all in a timeline For our documentary So when we're ready to launch our documentary Bam, it's all right here. Yeah, so we don't have to go back and say oh, what we do three years ago to you So we already started this three years ago. Yeah, so for doing this netflix documentary So we documented everything so like with the duty the government auto shoes and stuff like that I've had supper with Chrissy know Breakfast with us Johnson. Yeah, like all of that. I've told him our story. Oh, yeah, that sounds great That sounds great. You know, I'm like those crickets There's zero like nothing for help. I want to ask him for handouts. I'm not that type of person. I don't want to hand out I just want to help. I want advocacy. You know, like that's all I'm asking for it Knowing I was asking for a GOD was a low-interest loan Everything's been self-funded by myself from the proceeds of me saw him do private equity And now we're at the point of scaling up. We'll scaling up it takes money

1:05:41Like it takes a lot of money to do that and Building wise if we're taking garbage for free the jump public, which we don't charge for So we're taking in garbage for free Like it'd be cool if we had a low-interest loan for building that we could house the garbage So it's not blowing around the countryside, you know, you're providing a service Forget much, right? Yeah, that's garbage. It's not Going into mark codders landfills self. Yeah, correct. Yeah, yeah The it's funny you mentioned like telling your story because I interviewed the guy who runs has run the fisheries Part of the game fish and perks They have a very successful program of raising fish And he said, you know, we finally Realize we need to be out there telling our story like a lot of bureaucrats appear or like you like keep your head down And you don't yeah, he's like no, we need to talk about like what we do success. How we're succeeding Like this is like it so a change of mindset about I mean, it's promotional But you're doing good stuff, and so you will need to let the world know about that correct

1:06:42So you're gonna yeah, and you know, just getting our story out. Okay, chicken. I just started tick-tock like Two months ago. Oh, you're ahead of me. I know like I was like out as it said Well, first of all, I said I'll never have sent a text message in my life back when the footballs came up Yeah, not here. I text all the time. Well, I got it And then tick-tock came and I was like I said I'll never have tick-tock But now tick-tock is the way I realize it takes that type of stuff to like some educating people what we're doing Yeah, it's it's unfortunately true. Yeah, I mean, that's just a really you can't change that and that as a me as an old school media guy You know, I start my morning every morning reading the Wall Street Journal And I read today a long in-depth story that they did about how a journalist at fortune magazine is producing A huge amount of content three a.m. And they're happy with that and they're good with that And that's a something like well, we're not you know, I mean, that's something you kind of like I don't know I mean, that's but you also talk about tick-tock. This is the world you live it I know if you need to communicate a message you gotta you can't change it correct

1:07:44We can't go back to the old school newspaper Yeah, so I You might inspire me to get a tick-tock. Here we go follow us Follow us, you know, we had a one on rodent with our chip challenge trying to break our our coin You mentioned all politicians in South Dakota. He'd be the most likely to be able to break it He's a big guy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He'd be the one that could break it. Yeah. Yeah, we got a lot of road. Yeah So he tried with his hands. So we put that video on tick-tock So I think like day two we had 169,000 people really so it was like my first viral tick-tock Oh, yeah, she it is I bought a brand new wooden baseball bat one first solid contact bro Like you can't get your money back Wouldn't that must be jacks that jacks is my guess This one's with natural go pick me out of the winter body Yeah

1:08:45Did you care about the lightning bolt on the side? Yeah No, it does last bad Well, anyway that honey It's pretty good I don't know sleepy yeah, he is you can tell you certain that those off-road That's right he need to finish this man. We did You know it'll kick in here. You know what? No way not to leave Yeah, I think we're gonna have to have some folks at least right So you don't set the alarm off well with the fumes that are in here I don't know if we want to do that. We all might light up. So let me first Smoole spray paint here. Let me first move into this belly and before we even print it a paper uh, we have the Not this space and not the museum we're in now There's like nine p.m. There's like no time Everybody's gone out of the building wasn't busy building back then anyway and

1:09:50I smoke a cigarette door close And then he knocked on the door You smell that someone's smoking out here and I'm like I can smell that and then he's like are you smoking like yeah And then he's like Don't do that. I'm not okay So how's it going like just move that suddenly would be okay then You know after hours It's a newspaper place You know that correlation is not causation but I would contend media was better when I was Typewriter using cigarettes hanging out of during this month. So bring it back Hey, I hope you have fun here. I did. I appreciate it. Appreciate you guys. I'm here. So yeah, we'll click say this. I love you Tell more about yeah, yeah, I want to tell more about stories. I want to see the telephone call Everyone else see that. Yeah, everyone see that. That's the number one thing like can we see it? And then like right now the answer is no because

1:10:53I've given so many tours in there And we've had people who mess with represent themselves. We had a dealer out of IOR clean video For fence post and you want to be a dealer for us. He said but before I buy for you. I want to see your process You know like okay, you know back then we were kind of naive. We didn't know about it So this guy Had his phone like this and a pocket and a shirt like that And then so one of my guys happened to see he was recording that And then so we called him out on that and we found out he's not from Iowa He's from Indiana. He's a recycler. He owns a recycling company So he's trying to find our process how he could he's recording the whole thing So we called him out on it and he got angered Angered with us and then he's stormed off and haven't heard from us. What's your name? This is really long cuz dude So And you know what you're saying back in originally Because it'll spike it. It's by I like that

1:11:55So that's happened to a spice and So right, you know what no more tours So then what we're doing from now on is our new location and can and industrial park It's huge. It's gonna be the total campus. It's gonna be a hundred acres and I'll be over a hundred thousand square foot building And um in our new locations can be modular to where the general public can come in our whole process And everything's gonna be screened Where no one's gonna understand how we do what we do They're just gonna see a bunch of big orange blocks Yeah, so Slug words there you go. That's it. Yeah, it's a slug word. No well Hope you can keep them slug words out of there. All right. What was up with Charlie's grandpa just getting out from first time 30 years Thinking wow, you know the movie Very well. Okay, there's all that. Yeah, we're gonna go and take it quick. This goes in everything Hey, so could you make like you read a conversation with the military? Yeah, we uh, we've done a Kevlar

1:12:56doing some DOD contracts Uh, we're working on a couple contracts and there again There's corruption everywhere. Yeah, so a lot of companies reach out to us and they want us to figure out the formulation And once we figure out the formulation, they just want to copy it and then do it So we have one company out of Ohio reach out to us and they want us to do PET Which PET is uh, I don't have anything PET water bottle water bottle is PET So the military the US Army has a super amount of PET Which I don't want to do a lot of it So they want to take this PET and they want to convert it into a trader that can For semi's and then done in block and then for inside a shipping container to ship them Across overseas because they want a company to figure out a formulation to take PET Recycle a process that turn into those profiles And utilize this to them the US Army can have sustainability actions and the DOD again So we started on that project and again, we're that was in the first phase of what we're doing

1:13:57We're kind of naive to the whole thing Yeah, thinking like oh, yeah, people are good, you know, totally all it turns out Anyone's just trying to steal anything they can't forget and use it for themselves So long as we figure that out, we just shut people like that off Well, Ohio is your first trip, right? Yeah A lot of Ohio people do like large dairy flooring, you know how they call it flooring It's just like that and this stuff is tough enough to handle that Oh, yeah, that's I go to a lot of those type of trade shows and you see a lot of people selling That type of flooring, you know, it's not the size of a You know eight nap or I love it, you know, it may get to be pretty size pieces Yeah, yeah, let me put long 12 of them the opportunities are So just just rarotize Just rarotize a lot every year in North America There's 20 to 22 million rarotizer placed every year Hmm, that's every year. That's annually replaced. So just imagine a rarotite which is 20 or 40 pounds So if 240 pounds of garbage per rarotite you take that times 20 million

1:15:02So just rarotize a lot and that's every year so that's wood that's metal and that's some composites that we could replace This could save us from a future that looks like really wally Yeah, yeah I think there's yeah, well, there's a bunch of untracked rail here in South Dakota. They're trying to get rid of We should look into what happened with that and putting that up for bids want that Yeah, a lot of real real that they about 80 some miles was me Put new railing. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, so yeah, some of that stuff to probably have with track It did back in the day. Yeah But yeah, our rail spreader facility and new facility and can't we want to have Our plastic ties up here Then the metal manufacturer makes metal rail ties down Texas. No metal ties down there Those ship their metal scraps to us Then we'll ship our plastic to them On plastic ties and I'm metal ties. So it's kind of a Crazy story. We're gonna get you all up the different aspects of this whole thing like I was truly fully certain ying and ying kind of

1:16:06Yeah, yeah, yeah Well, I think we could go on forever, but this is no this is a long ago We should have more non-politicians on Ah We could get them politics. Well, you about did I'm gonna save you for yourself. I know I know Anyway, thanks for coming in. Yeah, thank you guys. Hope you guys hope everybody got to meet Chad a little bit Uh, we'll have him back. Hopefully we'll have to have discuss your artwork at some point here sure Yeah, yeah, I'm not afraid your world famous for that. So that's a infamous. Yeah, nice. What type of artwork? Did you see the big owl that was in the lobby? We have a be out a little harder Yes, take a little cooler. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, that's cool. I like that. Yeah, so we'll have to talk more in depth Especially with the sidewalk arts festival coming up and then not to do this a future. That's for sure Yeah, I'm going. I'll trade you I'll trade your fence post for a sculpture I'm

1:17:07Burgular. Yeah, some lumber. Oh, you're thinking I'm already thought of this Yeah, I have a bunch of six by sixes a lot of six. We're doing it here I'm scoping this thing out so we can talk. Okay. Yeah, I got six by sixes and we're gonna do two by six Part of the deal right here. Yeah, speaking of the deal it's campaign season. So I'll you Political and vicious folks get a whole chat. You can help you out Reach your voters Through the Dakota Scout Good luck. It's not too late to turn back though. You don't want to go up there Uh listeners Would you bro? It's good. It was a tough couple last weeks Yeah, that session. All right. Anyway, these tips walk. Thanks You

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