 You can predict where the future is going. You can predict how companies are going to scale and grow, and the fact that you're ahead of this, and especially being in the States, like dude, the future is so insane. So if somebody wants to be a part of something, really big picture, this is an amazing time. I don't care what I want, I care what I need. Every single day I'm heading off to my dream, and I get everything that I damn well please. I don't give a damn if you all listen to me, because I'm running, I'm the only one. Hey guys, welcome to the 1%er podcast. I'm here today with my brother Derek. I'm going to tell you something super cool. Number one, he's here with his family. All his kids, they're just amazing. His family is amazing, greatest people I've ever met. But I'm going to tell you, he does something really cool with business, really cool. Matter of fact, I've never had anybody before that I've met that makes robots. So number one, I'm not even sure exactly how he got started, and we started to tell me, I said, whoa bro, I know a lot about you. I know what you're doing now. I know you're extremely successful. I know the stuff that you do help so many companies. But let's save the backstory for the podcast. You guys know every single day, my goal is to bring you as much value as I can. Dude, a lot of you, you never know what you're going to do in the future. And matter of fact, you never know who you're going to end up even working with. Derek right now, and I've shared this, I put a link in the description box below, but he's actually looking, I have a very big sales community. And he's actually looking for a few sales people to help sell these robots. And insane earning opportunities, quick paydays, help massive companies, big revenue streams, amazing leaders, and a killer organization that's going through the moon. So today, as Derek tells a story, if you're like, man, dude, I want to be with a company like that. You guys can go down to the description box, you guys can click on that link, and you guys can get connected with Derek. But most importantly, Derek, today, you never know where you're going to end up. I bet when you were younger, you didn't think when I'd be older, I'm going to be building robots, right? No, I thought I would be working in my family's business, which is totally different today than when it was. Cool. So I want to know that, because this is the journey. This is the journey of life, okay? And he's super successful. He's got an amazing family. And he's in a journey right now, 3.0, Derek, changing his life again, not only in business, but just in all these other areas. So it's super cool that I'm with him right now. And I want him to share with you some stuff that you're really going to learn. And let's just drop it. Like, Derek, number one, where are you from? Tell us a little bit about you. And tell us about your business currently. And then let's go back to how you got to where you are now. Sure. Oh, that's great. My name is Derek DeGyste. I'm president of DeGyste Corporation and Lester, USA, which is interesting because DeGyste Corporation is a third generation company. So we've been in business. We'll be next year, 50 years. So I come from a legacy family business that I run, but also I'm an entrepreneur president of our new automation division, which is something that was born out of a need that we needed to keep our company going. And now we're disrupting the entire industry and became a leader in something and it didn't even exist before we brought it in. So amazing. Well, that's a robot too. Talk to us about that. Yeah, so Lester, USA is a self-learning robot. And what it does is it works with painters. It works with people. So in manufacturing, you have to fabricate parts. You have to weld them and build them. And then you have to paint them. And whether it's wood, whether it's metal, anything you have, you have to make the pieces. You got to put it together. And then you got to finish and paint it. There's a lot of amazing equipment and technology and automation in building the pieces. And then they're starting to get better at some of the welding and put them together. But there's very little solutions for the finishing side. And what's reason that's so important is because you see it all over the world right now. There's no one or there's no one to work. Like in the US, we have 9.5 million open jobs and only 6.5 million people unemployed. And right now, today, there's 10,000 baby boomers retiring every day. So this huge group of people is leaving the industry. People coming in and the people coming in, they have higher expectations of what they want. You know, they're watching shows like this. Like, I want to do great things. And I don't want to just go be a blue collar manufacturer. I don't want to build stuff that the thought is that manufacturing is a dirty and blue collar environment. I want to be educated. And that's not a place for me to go. Which is totally wrong when the companies that are doing it right, it's freaking amazing. There's more money going into manufacturing than about any other industry because they're using technology because it's like in the GDP, it's like a $3 trillion business right now. Just for a year, 13 million people work in manufacturing. So it's a huge thing. So there's so much money in it because it's everything that we do. It's a huge driver for our country. So we have to be able to produce and we need to manufacture. And so what we did is I am a manufacturer. So we're in this industry and we needed a solution. We went out and found the self-learning robots because it didn't exist. It was not available in the US. And it just was a really neat story how we came about it. We brought it here. We brought it in. We introduced. We educated the market. And now we're putting these in companies all over the country. So we've got who are your clients? If somebody is watching this and they're like, how do I know if I need one of these? Yeah. Who are those clients? You bet. So like there's tier one automotive. So everyone knows like where you build cars. There's a site called that tier one automotive. And then there's everybody else. So if you own a company and you build stuff that you paint or you use powder coat or you use paint liquid equipment with, if you do anything in that environment, we can help you. Because we have solutions for powder, for liquid, for furniture companies. We do stuff in the metal side for fabricating really big parts to small parts. And if you make something, if you finish it, we brought technology to the US. Not just robots, but other companies in Europe said, we've been successful of helping the US and they want to bring their stuff over. They're contacting me and our company is helping bring other technologies to help manufacturing in the US. Because manufacturing has to survive here in the US. So I mean, those are the type of companies. So any general industry customer, coding companies, custom coders, fabricators, OEMs that have their own products, usually they're struggling to keep their paint lines running and they cancel products. If you don't put paint on it, it doesn't look pretty. How does someone reach out to you, ask a question or something like that? Yeah, I mean, if you'd like to find out more, LestaUSA.com. How do you spell that? L-E-S-T-A-U-S-A.com. LestaUSA.com. You go to our website in the upper corner. It says request more information. You can click that and someone will get back to you right away. And you can look on site there. We got all kinds of different information, content, videos all over the place on there of companies we've helped. I love it. Hey guys, what's going on? It's Andy. A lot of you leave comments telling me that you need help. Do me a favor and say the best way to get a hold of me. Shoot me a text message right now, 918-210-0254. 918-210-0254. I'll help you with whatever you need. I got your back for life. Let's get back to the video. The reason why I think this is so important for us, even if you don't even care about manufacturing, I have nothing to do with it, it's still important for every single individual that will listen to this podcast because it's going to affect everything that we do in the future. And we're at a really pivotal point right now in this country because we have pivoted away from building stuff on our own. We don't build stuff anymore. We're a service country. So it's cheaper to go overseas. So it's just cheaper. It's fine. Cheap labor. So everyone's trying to cheap labor. We ship everything off to China. Well then COVID happens and whole shit. Now we can't get stuff anymore, right? So now we're like, now we couldn't get stuff. Everything is so expensive. You couldn't get things. The company is like, all right, we need to bring it back. We need to bring it reshore. Well, we haven't been producing or investing in manufacturing in the US. We're trying, but the government really is using big companies and manufacturing to build a tax more and to build a leverage other things. Other countries, I travel the world to be able to see and work on manufacturing in Europe. They're decades ahead of us in technology for manufacturing. They're investing. The countries are helping them invest and doing it. And so we're behind. And in China, that's like a whole other scary thing. So they have a thing called Made in China of 2025. They have a major Chinese initiative investing just tons, pouring money into manufacturing. And their main goal is to dominate world domination of industrial manufacturing, control the whole thing. So that happens. And if we can't build something and they win and they have all the manufacturing because we say it's cheaper, look what happens when we shut down pump and oil and we just said it's cheaper to get overseas. What happened when we were unable to build or produce our own oil? What happened to our gas prices? Freaking went through the roof, right? And then we could do nothing about it. So it's super important just for our own freedom of our country and for freedom as individuals to make sure that we got to be able to build stuff in U.S. soil or we're going to be reliant on someone else. And I freaking hate losing. So like you hate losing, right? Sucks, right? So that's why it's so important. That's why I'm passionate about it because it's so important for just the safety of our country and just as freedom as a country and individuals. And so and I happen to own a manufacturing company, our family does. And I was always like, let's do more. Let's push more. Let's really get after it. And then I said, well, I want to help our people. So three generations of people, I grew up doing that. But I found out it's so much more than just helping our people. If I don't help the industry, if I don't help what I've learned and share that with other companies, it won't matter what we do in our little bubble because there won't be other manufacturers around. We got nothing to build. That's right. What is your family's manufacturing business? What is it? So it's called De Geest Corporation. And so we're a contract job shop. So we actually fabricate and build the components, metal components that go into other large equipment. So we'll be in agriculture. We'd make stuff for mining. We make stuff for roads and so utilities. So pretty much everything that we use everywhere, it's getting manufactured by something. And we do a lot of big equipment, a lot of things that we're making the roads that you're on, the food that you eat, the electricity that you have. All those things are put in by pieces equipment that we make. So how did you get into this? My grandpa started it. So he was actually a welder in the Navy. And so when he got out of the Navy, he wanted, he used the skill he learned when he was serving. And so then he went to work for a manufacturer in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where we're from. And then so he did that for a long time, running the plant. And then he said eventually, you know, I don't want to retire, but I don't want to do this anymore. So he opened up a small shop in a little garage in Sioux Falls with him and my grandma. My dad started a year after. They designed and made some different trailers and different equipment. And then that company, they already worked for it, called them and said, hey, will you make some parts for us? And so he said, sure, I'll make some parts. So then we started contracting work for them and we started fabricating and growing. And it just kept growing. And so, and then as I was growing up, then I wanted to join my dad works there. And he's worked there from the beginning. And I wanted to get in there. At 12, I could start mowing. And I could be around the shop. And then at 16, it was the age I could legally start working in the shop. And that was like the ride of passage. Like I wanted to get in there and build stuff. So I got to start working there part-time. And then as working there, we were always known, like we were better than, we were the best. Like our group, we were a small group. We worked, could outwork anyone. Never had a website. Never, and people knew that we did good work. We grew with the companies that were out. Some of our companies we've been with for an hour over 45 years. It's like they never left. So that was what we did. And then as we were growing, we were getting bigger and bigger. And then I came back after college, came back full-time, went back in the shop, wiping down tangs, painting, fabricating. I just worked out in the shop for many years. And then I started doing our software side and ERP. We moved to a bigger building. Like we're going to grow. My brother was coming to join the business. At least my wife was going to join the business. Like we got to grow. So we doubled the size, bought a new building. We moved in and we're like, we're going to do this. And I was like 2014, I think, somewhere like 15, somewhere around there is when we moved in. And some critical thing happened that changed and that really put us into a bind. Is that we could not work technology or cheap labor anymore. It got to a point where we couldn't beat that. And so that was a real key change. Like we have to adapt now. Our old model that worked and we got so comfortable and didn't work anymore. Because you can't outwork faster equipment. In no way. Faster equipment just keeps getting more expensive and it's growing faster and faster. Technology is growing. And then our area, we have colonies around and they actually would farm. And then they bought some lasers when they weren't farming and they put a laser in their barn. And they started cutting parts. And then we had in state prison, they actually opened up a cool program to teach us skills. So they learned welding and machining. And so these other companies are like, oh wait, hold on. I can buy parts in a dirt barn, ship them to a state prison and have a welding labor, weld them. And then that's now the weldment that we had to compete against. And so here we're in this huge building. We have all these people that have been here for 20, 20, 30 years plus. You know, a huge tenure. And I'm supposed to be a third generation coming in to do everything my grandpa, my dad did. And they're like, uh-oh, what are we going to do? So I said, well, we're not freaking back and down. We're going to do it better. I said, we're going to multiply the efforts of our people and we're going to figure out how to outsmart them. We can't just outwork them. We're hard workers. But we're going to beat cheap labor. So we had to beat cheap labor before cheap labor was a big thing. You know, everyone was really thinking about it. So we started doubling down. We started developing our own software to multiply our efforts in our office. We started investing our automation out in our fab side. Got our first welding robot. Our first welding robot turned into another, a second, a third. And so now we're very automated. And then we moved to the point where like, okay, so we fabricated, we have everything streamlined and now we're at paint. All right, now we're going to automate paint now. So we go talk to the robot companies in the US. And they're like, well, I talked to all the big ones, you know, the fan at KBB, Ms. Yaskawa, Motoman. And we said, and they're like, well, you have way too many parts. Like, you can't do this. Because again, this is back, automotive does this. If you make in tens of thousands of something, you can do it. But if you got over a thousand different parts, it would take you months to make programs like you'll never be able to use it. And I'm like, well, we can't stop. What are we going to do? We got to keep going. So I said, they said, well, that's what we do. We're the biggest. I'm like, well, good for you, but that's not going to help us. And so we actually left ejected. And then one of our one of our automation team found seven pages down on YouTube, this company called Lesta in Italy. And we were going to get another welding robot. And this is about 2017. And I said, we're going to be over there. I said, I saw this self-learning stuff where they're just working with their painters. You know, it's really cool. I'm like, well, this is amazing. I've never heard of this thing. It must not be true. Take me to your customers. He's like, great, come on over. So we came over there. We took small, small two-man shops or actually about 10-man shops to huge companies. We're using what I was told was impossible. It blew my mind. I'm like, we got to do this. And so I'm flying back. And he's like, we'd love to come to the US. We're just thinking about going. We need a partner to do it. Can you get me in touch with someone there who sells paint equipment or does paint stuff? And we'd like to come and we can help you if you can find that. I'm flying home. And I'm thinking, I'm like, God. I said that we've done really cool things in our shop. In 2016, we had over 600 people tour our facility. No website. We're not promoting anything that we're doing. But word of mouth, they knew we were doing. And we had nothing to sell. How do they know? How do they find out about it? Just word of mouth. They knew that we were using automation in ways other people weren't. And we were just small enough. And my dad either believed in me or I just didn't take no enough that I just was doing it. And we could move quickly. And so we became our own R-L-R-N-D environment. And we were being successful on it. And I said, someday, when people come to our facility, like, we have to have something to sell. And so I'm like, all right. Well, we have made our own software. We've fabricated and we've integrated a welding robot before. What if why can't we do painting robots? What if we become the integrator and we'll sell them? And so I called them back as soon as I landed the owner in Lesta. His name is Emmanuel. And so, Emmanuel, I got this crazy idea. I said, you need someone not just to sell the equipment. We're going to build this system right in the middle in the heart of the USA, right in South Dakota, right in the middle. So people are going to come from everywhere. We're going to build something that's never been done on the continent. And so people are going to come. I said, and why have a local regional painter? We need to help all of this country. I said, we've done software. We fabricate, but we can fabricate, build all the parts in-house. We can integrate and we can do them. He's like, Derek, we love this crazy idea. So like, all right. So we figured our partnership legally. It shouldn't even have been possible. We did. But we became almost best friends. And we have full control so we can protect and help our customers. So we opened up Lesta USA, or DBA, part of our De Geese Corporation. And now we have Fabricate and Steelworks Division and Automation and Finishings. So we have three main service divisions of our company. It was a train wreck when we started. And that's never been done. The industry didn't know how to do it. When did you start? That. We launched, we built our line in 2018 and we launched in 2019 at a huge trade show. Like, I'd gone to a trade show. It's like 50,000 people come to these big trades. And then to go to the show was like a big deal. I could only afford it. I want my dad like only let me go once. You know, it's a big deal just to go. And then here I am. Your dad's still involved. Yeah, he's half retired and he half wants to keep working. He loves it too much is what he knows how to do. I love that. He helps out a little around and helps quote. And your grandpa? My grandpa died quite a long time when I was young. Yeah, so my dad had to take it over and on his own and figure out how to make it work. And he really innovated and grew it. And then he got to a comfortable level and then we came in and now we're now we're blowing it up. I love that. Do you guys sell robots overseas? No, so yeah, just in the we were concentrated on USA and in Canada, we're starting to go to Canada and we're starting to dabble in Mexico. So pretty much all the North American continent, we're heavily done US right now, helping companies. And really what makes it so unique about our products is because we became an integrator that uses what we sell in a production environment. I don't know that that's really ever been done before. And I've never met another integrator. What that means? So an integrator is someone that takes automation and then they put it together and they give it to somebody. So typically integrators, they know robots or they know like automation electronics and they'll put something together and that will fulfill like a task or a purpose. And then the company's got to figure out how to make it work. So normally this went to really big companies who has legions of engineers and they have project managers and people that do it. So most automation has been in really huge tier one big companies and then there's hundreds and hundreds of thousands of other general industry manufacturers that don't have access, that don't have a way to be able to apply this technology to what they're doing. Now they can't find people. Now they're having a hard time keeping going. And now the country's like, hey, we should make more. And these big companies are like, we need more from you. And if these companies can't keep going, the big ones can't find the work and then they ship their work overseas and now we don't have jobs. Hey guys, sorry for interrupting the video. Listen to me. He's looking for a couple reps right now that want to make a lot of money, a level 10 earning opportunity that want to work for a really cool company, a really cool organization and for a kick butt leader. Okay. If that's you and you're looking for an opportunity based on what he's talking about, you're like, dude, this is interesting. I would love to be on the front end cells of that and help grow and build this company. You guys can go down in the description box below and you're going to see a little box that says, click here for your earning opportunity to join their team basically. You're going to answer some questions. You're going to send a 60 second video so they can put a name with the face when then 24 hours they're going to reach out to you. This is an opportunity of a lifetime. He's looking for a few people. I don't care if you're younger, I don't care if you're older. If you believe in this product and you want to help them grow this company, this is your opportunity. Let's get back to the video. So it's super important to figure out. So our solutions, what's so unique about what we're doing is because we use these solutions to production environment, we are the cutting customer. You know, we bend them. We've been on the other end of being disappointed or given something. Oh, here's a robot that welds. Good luck. See you later. You hit the trigger, it does it. Well, there's so much other things to be able to make that work. And we've gone through the tough times of figuring it out and the crap, you know, to figure out how to make it work. So we don't just provide, here's a robot that paints. Good luck. Here's what we do is we say, okay, we're going to give you help you with the fixtures. We're going to help tell you how to do it. We're going to help you with the processes. We've built software around that. So then we're going to come there. We're going to put it in. We're going to integrate the same team that built it. We'll come train you how to use it and you'll be running production before we leave. So it's just, it's not hurt. It's never been hurt. That's not, that's not typical. So a company right now, they have, let's say a painter that paints parts and they've been there for 15, 20 years. Obviously they're getting tired, right? They get wore down. They literally most of the time, can't stay consistent to keep spraying all day. Because it's a lot of work, right? Like when it's tough job. Like I've seen the, the, the robots you guys have. I mean, it's insane. I mean, it's a lot of in depth work and these people are doing it by hand. Yeah. Shoulders, arms, back, body, everything. Bodies are breaking down. Yeah. And there's awesome, amazing people out there and they're trying to keep them as long as they can. They know they're not going to find another one. It's going to work for 10, 15 years to learn that skill to that level through and everything they can to hold on. And these painters are like, well, you can't do that very often until you retire. At a certain level, you break down. I bet there's a lot of turnover in this industry. And they can't find it. Yeah. It's terrible. So if a business owner is watching this right now and they're like, man, you know, I want one of these robots to do this. They ask some questions. A lot of the times people don't lay off all their people when they get these robots. What they do is that they, they have some of them actually help run the robots. Am I right? Yeah. Well, you can, yeah. You take, you make a career out of a job. So when, so if you have a painter, if you have a painter and they're good, we need to help them because our goal is to keep them as long as we can. So we talked about not having enough people to come in. So we, all of our solutions, we have to use technology to augment what we're doing today to want to be able to save as much knowledge of your people, the skilled people that you have. You need to save that before they're gone. And just so that you have that. And now if you have technology to go with that, that's what you, the next generation wants to do. They'll do work. There's hardworking people coming up that are into the job force. They just want to see that there's a career, there's a path here, and that you can't, you can't do the, you can't do manual stuff old ways when there's better ways to do it. Because people are, people, they don't have time for that anymore. There's too many jobs. Why would I go bust my ass over here when I already know there's just salt on YouTube? There's a better way to do this. I'm not going to do this right now. If they're not going to invest in this, they're not going to be investing in me. I'm not going to stay. I'll go get a different job. Let's talk about ROI on these robots. Can we? Yeah. Like you talk about when somebody buys a robot, you were saying anywhere between six to nine months, usually ROI return on one? Yeah. Some of our, some of our coding technologies that we use to help make it easier for a painter. So we brought other, other stuff from Europe that helps, helps save on powder and liquids so we can save up to 20 to 30% on the coatings. Some of these people spend millions and millions of dollars on this. And so we have a very cost effective way to be able to sell and help them put that in and helps our painter make it easier for the painter on day one. We'll come in and put that in easier for your painter. Now your painter's happier. So it gives you a little more time with your painter, right? So then now then we put our robot in and now the robot comes in and then the painter just teaches, he just paints a part and it's teaching the robot in the same time. So the painter, the robot is just the coolest thing to see. So like when we go put these in and we put them in for, put these robots in, are the painters, we train them what they do. At first they're like, yeah, this is crazy. I've never, I've never done anything like this. I can't touch it. You know, they're worried about touching it. You know, and eventually we show them how it is, our application specialist shows them what to do, gets them in there and he paints a part and he starts going. So we actually just let him just keep painting with the robot and he's like, all right, I got it. Record it. It's like, okay, just record it. He stops and he gets out and he looks at it in this, the look of amazement. Like that's him. Perfection. Yeah, well, and that robot is him. It's like an extension of himself. So he didn't get replaced. He's like, okay, now I can teach the robot how to do these parts. So I don't have to stand on there all day. Why would I do this 500 times when I could show it once and I could come out and I could use my knowledge? They'll never get replaced because that knowledge is irreplaceable. They need knowledge on the line, way more value than standing in the booth. So they come out and they're like, because these painters paint, you know, 10, 12 hours a day, right? Yeah, well, yeah, then they, and these lines can't stop like, so they don't stop being. So if you have to have a pee break, someone's got to come replace them to even go to the bathroom so it keeps going. It's crazy what they do. But so if you do that, like we've had guys go home and say to their kids and their wife, he said, I'm a robot programmer now. You know, that's the coolest thing ever. They change from being a painter over to a robot programmer. And you guys teach how these companies use these. Yeah. I mean, you talk about ROI. It's not very complicated. No, like we don't need engineers. We don't need, we just need their painter. And our team will work with them. And then they call us to have a question. We work with them all the time. You know, and our lines are running. You know, that's the one thing you talk about in ROI, just like a peace of mind. It's like, if you own a company, we own a company, we have a paint line. Before I had this, like I worried. It's six, you know, six, between six and seven in the morning, if I had a phone call, like I was worried like, okay, I hope it's not Kevin. I hope it's not, hope it's not Jamie. If they're not here, I got a truck to fill tomorrow. And if they're not here to paint, like, it's your fundamental, yeah, like your fear of, if my kids, if the kids sick, or if they're sick, or like, or like if someone offered them a, you know, more, more, like they decided I don't want to do it anymore. That's done. I don't worry about that anymore. I think I want to say, so you got all these people, right? And especially in the painting field and stuff like that. And life happens. Like things happen. People get sick. Somebody decides they wake up and they want to go do something else in life. And then literally the time it takes to teach someone to get up to speed, you end up losing all of this money. Oh yeah, your quality goes to crap. Or your quality goes to crap. Yeah, if somebody come in and they paint fast and they got to rid of redoing everything and you end up wasting all this money. It's terrible. And everything they knew is gone. Like you're paying for them. Think of this like you're burning your candle in the wick. When that's done and gone, you're starting all over, you're starting all over at zero. So as a company, I look at it as like you're building your stacking, right? And you're building to be able to get to the next level. If you are always just relying on the individual over the process, as soon as the individual is gone, you're starting at zero again. And so you can never progress your company. There's a limit of how far you can go and finding individuals that are going to commit 10 to 20 years to do a manual job that has a better one. It's not possible anymore. So it's a huge critical thing, but it's really who need to see all of our solutions are tied around saving the knowledge of your people that you have and using technology to help present it to the next generation who then they can see a career opportunity. Like I used to tour, we tour kids elementary, middle school, high school kids around, and I could see when I'd give tours around. Before we had this system in and I'd worried about who was calling every day who was going to come in. You know, we would give tours. We go through the welding area in the robots. You know, we see the programmers, engineers that are building stuff, lasers are running really fast. Super cool. They're like, really didn't want to see it. And we get the paint side. I want to talk about the chemistry. It's a cool mix. It's the way things work. And they see a guy crawling around on his knees and a whole suit, like crawling around there. They're like, they're starting to look around. And they're like, so I just like glazed it over. You know, so people weren't going into that anymore. Now we put this line in. And yeah, these robots around our main painter, who had been an automotive and painted for us for a long time. He's holding a touchscreen tablet, watching the system, clicking it around, walking around overseeing it. And sometimes they'll jump in and reteach a new part. So I mean, it's just the honor of that knowledge being replayed in. And now he's got a career. He could do it until retirement, which I don't know where our age might be. We might be seven years old before that gets to be. Yeah, I remember one step. Yeah. So I mean, you can do it. I mean, there's no end to what you can do. And then now as these kids come in, they're like, holy cow, this is really cool. So the main way that I know this works is that everyone, where I go, there's painters are looking to hire, need people. We have a waiting list of industrial painters that want to work for us. I don't think you'll find another company in the country, except maybe the ones that we've helped give them lines that have paper, especially they want to go. And this industry that you're in, this niche, it's pretty rare, right? Of building robots and integrating. We're the only ones in North America that can do what we can do. There's some other people are trying to bring something and trying to figure it out how to do it. And really, we're not at odds in competing against anyone. And so other industrial robot companies may think of us as a threat. And I'm like, no, like we have a tool that fits a niche of the market that is so important to our country that we actually complement other industrial robot companies. If we look back far enough, it said before we had paint robots, we had about six welding, five welding robots at the time and no paint, no paint. So our automation stopped. So our scaling, remember I talked about our scaling of our company stop because we can't manually do what you could automate here. So once we automated here, now the rest could grow. We doubled the amount of robots that we have now. And it's like, hey, you want to sell more industrial robots? Help cheer us on because if we help give them painting, we secure painting and finishing for these companies. The rest of the company, because the country needs it, will get to grow and they're going to come buy more industrial robots. Everyone should love us. Yeah, and by the way, you're talking about people that come visit your facility. Yeah. Right? Yeah. And you said how many people? Well, it's like we have like the Disneyland of manufacturing now. So because we opened up this paint line, we have six of these self-learning robots running all day long. We've got welding robots all over. We've made solutions for welding now. Actually, we have, like to tell you about that. So we produce, what we've built is a production showroom. So we give tours every week. Companies fly from all over the country to come in to build a tour our place. And we make it like a little Disneyland experience. You come in, we tell them what we do, how we can help them, and then we find out where they're at. Like maybe your paint robot isn't what you need first. Like let's look at your processes and let's make sure that we sustainably put you in. So we have three-year plans with some large companies now of where they want to get to and what they're buying today is to be able to help more of their people. Again, how can I save my people as long as I can and get all the information out and be able to get that through? We've applied that to our main facility too, where we fabricate parts and we are a side. So we've developed DELP solutions. So we have a rapid R&D environment, our whole team that just develops new solutions that we use. We test them out and when they work out well, two really cool things come from that. One, at Deguist Corporation, if you work there, you use the best and most stated out equipment on the planet. Awesome. And some stuff no one else even has. And then we develop from there solutions that we can help other general industry and manufacturers. They can come in, they can see how we use it. We're not going to sell it to them. We'll just show you what we do. If you think that could help you, then we'll help you do it. No, we'll get on it. So we actually have probably the most state-of-the-art welding, manual welding cells on the planet. We've done something in welding that's going to be even, I think, as big disruptive as what we did on the Leicester side on the Weld side. So we have just incredible opportunities coming at Deguist Corporation and Leicester USA and we are engaging in helping manufacturers be successful in the U.S. and making sure that it's here for our country and everyone that lives in it. So anybody watching right now, if they're like, hey, that's a product that I have questions on based on their company. Because a lot of, I mean, almost everybody has a company. Yeah. Right, or they're working for a company and help blow that up. Right. Which they may think, hey, this would be good for my company. They go to what website and click on? LeicesterUSA.com. Yeah, Leicester. LeicesterUSA.com. If you go there and you can see a lot of the different products. You can see our robots you can find applications close to you or just clicking the link in the upper corner. We have, we can call us right from there's a number right on there or click a link. Leicester. Write a little bit about something, hey, I'm really interested in this and this is my company. One of our team will give you a call. We'll start talking to see where you're at, what your pain points are and we'll help back down, work it down into some solutions that you could do like right now. Yeah. And there's financing options, right? I mean for these robots, right? We talked about yesterday. There's zero down, financing options. Yeah. I mean, so a lot of companies don't have to actually leverage their cash. No. You don't have to do anything. Like if we have, if you're paying, and if you have any type of pain in the pot or finished an application, we have something that could help you. Bell to help your people and help yourself. And with that, with our financing options now, you don't need any money. You got six months, no payments. You could do a one, six, nine, then a year you get a tax return, pay less and you're gonna make on that and we'll be saving you on your Codians 20 to 30% on day one. Yeah. Which I mean, you're making money. And so talking about that a little bit, about some of the needed help, your computers, the robots, I mean, but like the robot sales division that you have right now. You have people that are coming in every day. They're demoing, you know, kind of an eye with their eyes, what's going on, what solution they need help with, what problems are having in their company right now. You talked about consistency, you know, making sure that they can fulfill X amount of work each day. Yeah. Seems like, you know, if there's X amount of orders coming into these companies, they got to fulfill all of that work going out. And that means all those parts got to be painted, they got to be coated and all that stuff. Yeah. And human beings, when they're under stress workload every single day, that's usually when they break in these computer, these robots, they just don't ever slow down. No. You know, they're just hungry, hungry, hungry. So people come in and check these out. And when they do inside of your facility, they need to be able to talk to someone, right? To be able to see, you know, hey, I need one robot, I need two, this is what I need. And so we're building, we're building this internal sales team that you're looking for, this culture, right? Can you talk about what kind of culture you're looking for? Yeah. You have a great culture in your company, but adding into the sales division culture, what do you envision? Well, our, we really, we talked, we had that badass swagger that we had coming up through all the years. And then we said, we want to make sure we keep that as we grow. Like we interviewed everyone in our entire company. And we said, we asked, want to know what made them special, what they're proud of, what they're things. We boiled it all down, at least my wife does our marketing media relations. She's incredible. 15 years in the industry, she was a, she was a killer. She came in to help us out. So like we are, we got firepower that we shouldn't have. And so it's cool. But she, she boiled that down to a, coming out with her team to a, we call the stronger standard. And that's like on all of our clothes, like we talk about, there's no standards left in this country anymore. We said, no, we're going to make a stronger standard. And that's what that's everything we have built around is our brand, as well as about our stronger standard and how we're going to raise up our people, our processes, our industry, our community. Everything that we do is we're going to do better. And so that's the level that we take in our company and our pride that we have in what we do. And we're looking for other people that want to be a part of, of doing something better, being a part of being a stronger standard saying average sucks. Like I don't want to do that. And then by doing this, I can help other people. I can help the industry that the skills already know. Like I can help others too. So no matter where you're at in our company, and we're hiring for everything, because we're blowing up on all three of our divisions right now. So if you do anything in manufacturing at all, or if you know someone in welding, you want someone who knows. I mean, we're hiring all of them as we're growing, which is really cool. But our team is, our team is a killer. So I mean, that's, that's really how we look at the culture that goes with that. It ties back into, we want people that are hungry that want to be a part of that. And these people are passionate about what they're doing and they're applying their skills. They believe in the mission. Yeah. I mean, they know what's important and they know that, that what their skills that they have and they're using technology. And they're also, we're getting feedback from the ones that are using it. That's making it better because again, we used it here before it went out. There's, our customers aren't guinea pigs. We were our own guinea pigs. Yeah. Yeah. So, and sometimes that sucks, but they, but they, they get that done. So I mean, that's, that's a big piece of where that is. And then also just, just the, just the heart of our family that we have, like our, our motto of our family is, is live for another. You know, you talk about God being a part of really faith is being really important. It's really important, part of our family. And as we are, I mean, even before we had money, you know, so one thing as we challenge it, and I want to talk to like the rest of your, your audience is about finding ways to be able to make a difference in, in, in the, in the world or whatever you're passionate about. Right. You know, for us it was, and before we had money, we did triathlons, my kids did triathlons before I got out of shape and I'm going to get back in shape now. I did triathlons and so did my wife, police and so did my kids racing. We didn't want them to be about them. You know, it had to be about something else. So I said, you're not racing for yourself, we're racing for another. And so every time you complete a race, we're going to buy and assemble a bike together and we're going to donate it to the foster association. That's awesome. And so we started that and then the rest of the triathlon group heard about it and then they started doing it and then they called and then we found another company that restored bikes and soon we're, we're hundreds of bikes we were getting in the summer. They were getting and donating to foster kids because our goal is that as my kids are growing up I want them to build a, if they had the, the pleasure of learning and the joy of riding a bike. And these kids didn't have that. You know, so it was a really cool thing. And then, and then after that, then I was at a, I was at a Christian concert. I love Christian music just all kinds. So what do you like? Like I, like I, I killed song United or? Yeah, those are good. And I also like Toby Mack really cool and King and country. Like there's some, there's this awesome stuff out there. So I was actually at a, a Toby Mack concert and that halftime intermission someone came out and they said that, you know, this, they have a, the food for hungry thing. You can, you can sponsor a child. You know, you can make a difference. And we've done this bike thing. You know, we're starting to do better in the company. And like, we want to help more people. I want to help people. That's my whole mission to live for another. And I was like, okay, well, this is cool. Like I, we can help a couple of people. They show like, we, we can do this. And so like, yeah. So like, well, we have three kids. So let's, let's sponsor, get three kids who sponsored three kids. We write them notes. They would write us notes. We get to know them. You know, pretty good. And then our oldest one, a couple of years later, she aged out of the program. You know, it was all food, clothes, and you know, help them go to school. But then she still lives, lives in a country where they're doing all kinds of just terrible things to them. And I'm like, did we do enough for Rebecca? Was it enough? Like, she still lives there. Did we, did we really change her life? Like we helped them give them a chance, but it really wasn't enough. You know, I was back in a church. We went to celebrate in Sioux Falls. There's an awesome church there. And they started talking about adoption. And so we're like, why didn't we even thought about it? But then I saw some families. You know, I thought adoption was like, if you can't have kids and you needed a baby, you could help someone else and get a baby. I was so naively stupid about what that was. I went to a class and I said, let's let me see what it is. God told me I need to go. I sat there. Actually, Lisa was gone on a, on a business trip. And I went by myself. I'm like, just to see if I want to, you know, get, get excited or not excited, depending on how that went. And I went there. And I'm like, just was moved by it, that there's just thousands and thousands and thousands of kids, not baby newborns, but kids that don't have a home, forever home, they're just in the system. I'm like, oh my gosh, like we, we can do this. Like I want to, we're going to change a life. And so we signed up and she came home about Lisa. I'm like, guess what we're going to, we said, I went to a thing in the church that said, we're going to adopt. And she's like, what? Like never talked about it before. And she's like, okay, like let's do it. You know, so we signed up and like, two weeks later, we got a call. And then there was a situation, a baby, one year old, was going to be put into the social services system. And when they get into there, it's bad. Like so, they said, if you can get down here tomorrow in Southern Texas and get, and help get, help get her before that happens, we want you to, the family said, we want you to be their, their family. So like jumped on a plane and we went down there or in the back by you, with Texas in the areas, like just a fascinating story. But we found and we adopted our daughter, Ellery. And she's nine now, just amazing. Just a huge roller coaster ride of emotions and like, and things that we learned. Can't imagine. That's your nine year old. Yeah. Yeah, I can't imagine. Yeah, I can't imagine our family or a life without her. You know, so in, and so I mean, that was a great thing. And then, and then I was at another Christian concert. Maybe I should quit going or I got to go to more of them. I'm not sure which one, but we went to another Christian concert Chris Tomlin, was he's really cool dude. He's super cool. Yeah. And so he had, they had an intermission, his thing too. And I'm sitting back there and I was contemplating about the same thing. We had Ellery now for about six years. It's been wonderful. And she's just part of our family now. It's like, Hey, like, she's just part of my family. I don't even think about it anymore. I'm like, Okay, so what's next? Like, you know, what's the next thing? Like, we got to keep giving. I'm doing everything I can for our company, but I feel like is that enough? Like, that's my, that's my 50 guys, you know, your team at the time. And so then, and then, so then at the halftime there, they came out and then they talked about this, Cure International Program. And I'm like, well, and I'm just starting to listen and and I just get just like, overcame me. Like, this is, this is the thing I need to do. I want to impact more as many people and make a difference in this world while I'm here. Wow. And this is what we want to do as a, as a family. So we live for them. Like, how do we do this at a bigger level? We had just got back from our, um, like, learn about Lesta robots. And I'm like, we're going to Lesta. We're going to start, we're going to start opening these robots, selling these robots. I can impact and help, and we can help more people. And then I hear about this and I'm like, holy crap. Like, what's cool about this program is there's, there's thousands of kids across the world that, that have born with a cleft palate, cephalitis, burn victims, or legs are bowed wrong. And for a $1,500 surgery can completely change your life. Either they're going to die, they're going to end up in a, in a ditch, they usually get disavowed by their family. And they're just, and if they live, it's a horrible life. $1,500 dollars. They have a completely changed their life and the families that they live in. And I'm like, that's nothing. Like, and it, so it's not like just giving money the right cross, everyone has causes and there's, there's none of them that are better or worse than others. But I always wanted to like have a connection. That's why I like when I sponsored kids. Like, I got to know like something I, that made a difference. I knew, knew the face and I knew the story. Right. So they pair you with, with, with the, with the kid, with whatever, whatever their thing is, they pair them and you, you donate to that where there's $10 dollars, $20 or the whole $1,500. And, and you can change their life forever. And I'm like, oh my God, that is what we want to do. Like we want to be a part of that. And so, you know, being cooler, we're going to find a way that whenever time we sell a robot, we're going to pair that with it, with the child and donate that on our own end. And so everyone in our company can be a part of this. And we're going to start pairing these together. So that's a program we're going to be launching this year. This isn't like customer don't have to pay for this. Like our, our prices are good. No matter what, it's just on our end. It's on that. This is your mission. It's a stronger standard. We want to help more people. You know, want to help more people. And I want everyone to be able to be a part of something that's bigger to themselves. We're not just building a part. We're not just building a robot. We're changing our industry. We're helping make sure that we can be sustained and we're making a big impact on the world. And we're changing people's lives. So that is a, that's what God's willing hearts at. Yeah. Well, number one, you got a beautiful family. Thank you. Your wife's amazing. She's incredible. You guys have a super cool company. I think it's cool having this podcast. We're going to do a lot of them, but having this one now as you guys are blowing up where you guys will be in, you know, two years. You're front and inside of your company, the sales division, your back out, your backside is completely built. You're selling a lot of robots organically. The sales division side guys, he's looking for a couple men or women super hungry, super fired up. You can obviously fill his heart to the podcast. People that, you know, believe in his mission, who wants to change, you know, business owner's lives, company's lives, and believes in technology. Technology is the future. And it's crazy. This is an opportunity now that if you're watching this, you know, I've been waiting for some bad ass. You can make a lot of money, but you can be a part of something really cool and around a great organization and around like-minded individuals. So it's amazing. You guys can go down the description box. You guys can click on that link. You guys can answer something information, send over a 60-second video, and he'll reach out to you within 24 hours. This is an opportunity of a lifetime if you want to join the sales division. Super important. If this is something that you feel like, man, like this is something that could help my company. Like this is amazing. I want you guys to go and make sure you go to his website. Make sure you click on, you know, ask a question. I think you said your request information. Yeah, we're requesting. And you guys can ask any questions you want. And then where do they find you on social media? I know you don't use it a lot, but if somebody wants to DM you and ask your question. We're going to start. Like we have it open. Like I have a strong, I have a podcast channel called Manufacturing a Stronger Standard where I talk about things like this as well. And I'm the host of that one. Where do they find that? Just anywhere Spotify, Apple, wherever you go to Spotify, you type in what? Yep, Manufacturing a Stronger Standard. Manufacturing a Stronger Standard. Yep. Yep, I got a podcast channel on there. And then- Good, I love that. So people can find out more information as well. Yep. And then we also, yeah, we're on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, De Geese Corporation, Lester USA, both of them are on there. And they both will link in. And then I'm going to start- I'm going to- You're inspiring me, man. I'm going to get out there now. Yeah, we're going to help you. I mean, we're going to start going. Well, this is huge. This is the future. Yeah. I always tell people, like you've got to, it's predictive analytics. Like you can predict where the future is going. You can predict how companies are going to scale and grow. You know, you can predict like, like how things become more efficient. Like you can predict all this. And the fact that you're ahead of this, and especially being in the States, you know, like getting ahead, you're an early adopter in this. Yep. Like, dude, the future is so insane. So if somebody wants to be a part of something, really big picture, this is an amazing time. But meeting Derek, I just wanted you guys to get an opportunity to see him, meet him. You heard a story about, you know, adopting his daughter, him and his wife, how quick they're drawn to just doing good things. You know, I always say we're in an era, the biggest shortage of leaders in the history of time, from families to businesses, just everywhere. I mean, the homes need him, families need him. When I see them, I might, dude, like we got to share this person. So I hope you guys found some value today. You know, I want you guys to make sure you connect with Derek if you want to. Just want to say that every time we get together, I meet the most incredible people. And I just want to tell you, my goal in 2024 is like, I was like, God, put me around, you know, some better people, you know, better, better women for my wife. You know, better kids for my children. You know, so that's why I like when I meet these people, I want to share them with you guys. There's always opportunities, which I think is super cool. I think in life, you know, like everybody's like one opportunity away from a brand new life. So if you're watching this, you may be like, dude, my opportunity needs to be with this. That's amazing. If that's not you, I hope that you found something that he said today that you could take back into your own life and increase your life or help someone else. So, man, I appreciate you being a great leader, guys. Appreciate it. We'll be doing a lot of podcasts with him, so you guys will learn as we go. Yeah, I hope you want to follow us, man, because whether you want to be a part of it, you just want to follow it. We're going to change the industry. We're going to change this country. We're going to do big things. That's going to be a wild ride. I know he is. I love it. So, guys, watch the journey and if you want to join him, you know how to do it. Love you guys. Have a blessed day and we'll see you in the next podcast. Let's go. Hey, guys, I just want to tell you the true one percenters you made it till the end of the video. Do me a favor. Share it with the friend that wants to go to another level. Make sure you like the video. Comment below so I know who you are. Set your notifications and then subscribe to the channel. We've got daily sales training videos dropping. I'll see you soon.