moment in a road you go left or right. I've got to make something out of myself. Otherwise, I'm gonna be those people that I see that I don't want to be. That's how you end up number one in the country. The government's on the same page and everyone kind of starts rowing in the same direction. More committed to this city.
Look what's going on around us. I want our brand to be all over this city. And how quickly do you pick it up and realize that like there's some serious potential. From South Bend to Evansville and everywhere in between, this is Get In, the show focused on the Hooser State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation. Most neighborhoods are built to sell homes.
Aberdeene was built to build community. It's Indiana's first Agrahood, a wellness lifestyle neighborhood in Center Grove designed around a simple conviction. Life is better when you actually know your neighbors. In Aberdine, that's not an aspiration. It's a texture of daily life. Family stopping at the fence to say hello to the Highland cows on their way to school.
Neighbors trading sourdough starters after an evening at the barn. Kids who know every trail by name. The homes are custom and carefully built. The trails are wooded and peaceful. And Aberdine Farms, a working farm right inside the neighborhood. That means the seasons here are something you actually live in, not just drive fast.
If you've ever wanted to live somewhere that feels like it was designed for the way people were meant to live together, Aberdine was built for you. Visit aberdineliving. com to schedule a tour. Now, let's get into the episode. My guest today is Pete Hilger and he is the CEO of Allied Solutions. He's the former president and chief marketing officer and he has built a career around scaling organizations through strategic planning, acquisitions, and his early experience in the US Air Force.
I'm really excited to dive into your journey from St. Paul, Minnesota to Franklin, Indiana to Carmel, where you guys have become an absolute institution all around Midtown Carmel. I'm really excited to learn a little bit more about the behemoth that is Allied Solutions and all the great work you guys are doing and how you're supporting the community. And this is going to be a fun part we're going to dive into towards the end. How you're bringing tons of executives from around the country to experience one of my favorite days of the year, the Indianapolis 500. Pete, welcome to the show.
Well, thanks so much. Very excited to be a part of this. Appreciate you having me. Of course. And this is the one thing I know that almost everyone who listens to the show has seen the word Allied Solutions. Whether that's at the Palladium in Carmel or in Midtown somewhere, they know that this is a company that exists and that is in Carmel.
And by the end of this episode, we're all going to have a really great understanding of what it is you do, how you guys support the community, like just how everything works there. But before we dive into the nuts and bolts that is Allied Solutions, I got to know about you. You're originally from St. Paul, Minnesota. You told me before this uh that you moved to Franklin, Indiana. something to do with horse racing and and you know purebred horses or whatever and now you're a hooer.
I wild story. Take me through moving to Indiana and kind of like where your life started to go from there. Well, it is a crazy story. You know, we grew up my mom's single mother kind of raised four kids uh in St. Paul was a claims judicator and this is going to make sense to the story when we get to what I call the Paul Harvey the rest of the story. Um, she worked for a company called Minnesota Life and that name will come into play as I explain kind of the history of Allied.
Uh, but we actually left there, moved to New Richmond, Wisconsin. So, we kind of slowly but migrated down to Indiana, raised a bunch of Morgan horses. Uh, this is when she got What are Morgan horses? So, Morgan horses is a it's a beautiful horse, very intelligent horse, about 14 12 to 15 hands tall, so a good size horse. Um they specialize it used to be a workhorse but now they specialize in showing and and we used to this was my stepfather who had them and we used to show the horses work the farm um and that all fell apart through the rest of the story but that's eventually we went from New Richmond to Franklin Indiana driven by the horses and the story of my mother who you'll hear that founded our company um very shortly after we got to Franklin those two separated and she literally became a single parent for the most of the rest of the journey in forming this great company called Allied Solutions.
Wow. How many siblings? So, I have two older brothers. Both of those brothers have worked with Allied Solutions um and or with Minnesota Life. And then I have one younger sister. My sister's 5 years younger than me.
You're 12 years old, but are all four kids still like in the house like high school age or or below by the time we get to Franklin? We get to Franklin. Oh, yes. Most definitely. And so your mom and your stepfather split up. And so it's four kids and your mom living alone here in now in a new place relatively.
What was she doing for work at that time? Well, it was interesting because by then she got a job as a sales rep. We moved from Franklin to Indianapolis. Uh what part of India? Uh Greenbryer area, Tutor Lake Apartments, 86 and Ditch. Okay.
Uh they were uh close to being government subsidized housing. We had a lot of help there. Uh but no, that's where she moved up, became a sales rep. Um, I went to North Central High School. Uh, my siblings did as well. And the journey started from there.
Wow. Okay. One, you're 12 years old. Your mom is helping support you and your three siblings. Like, what lessons were you picking up that now you can look back on, you know, many years later that you're like, "Wow, having a single parent that was working her tail off, like what were you what were you learning at that time that you didn't realize until you were older? probably a lot of things I shouldn't have learned to be honest with you, but I wasn't the greatest young kid when I grew up.
But you became dependent on each other and and you talk about a family getting very tight, very close, very dependent, uh because there was nobody else. Mom was on the road all the time trying to make a living. So there were many times where 3, four, five days a night we were at home by ourselves. Oh wow. Oh yeah. And so you became very dependent.
Uh, I would tell you sacrifice and survival were two big skill sets that you had to embrace. And I'll tell you what, it builds character. It really does build character. And then the family and the dependability were were I think the things that through the good and the bad. And there was plenty of both. Um, those things help build us as a family who we are.
We're all still extremely close to this day. Was there ever a moment, let's say, when you become 15 and you kind of start to look around and you're like, "Wait, we're not quite like all the other families, like this is a little bit different than maybe your friend on the tennis team or wherever, you know." I used to think all the time cuz I got the handme-downs. So, I remember looking at all the other kids going to school and I would think, hm, I don't have enough clothes to wear a different outfit every week. Uh, and so that was part of it. And and then the other thing was, you know, when you you had events, the parents were always there.
And I thought, well, guess this is part of being a divorced child. Your mom's working and it was your brother that was there or your other sister that was there cuz you kind of were a tribe. You kind of moved together. Yeah. And those are probably some of the bigger difference. You know, the other one that I remember is I always had to get the government assistance for my lunch.
And somehow kids kids are mean. I mean, they really are. especially at that they're just an evil evil group of people and I was part of that meanness. I mean that we were all that's just how it was and it still is in many cases but people knew and you know you got made fun of they they didn't like my first name they made fun of that. Uh so it was it was an interesting journey. Yeah I will say okay so I'm also a high school wrestling coach.
That's like something that I do in my free time. I've done it ever since I graduated college and drove by kids being mean. That was how I knew I was going bald. Like one day I just showed up and a high school kid said, "Dang, coach, where's your hair?" And I was like, no one, no adult had ever said anything. I was kind of like, I'm chilling.
And then I looked in the mirror and I said, "Wow, I am going." And high school kids are mean. That's just how it goes. Um, but you talk about service, you talk about sacrifice, your tribe. You end up taking that into the professional sense, right? When you graduate high school, you then join the Air Force.
How did how did that become the right path? And how did you choose to go the military route? Well, remember I told you about the word survival and uh I barely graduated from high school. I I was one of those kids that my goal when I went to school was to get out of there as quick as possible. I just was not an academic. I was not somebody who really embraced that type of environment.
I wanted to get out into the real world. But something interesting happened uh at the age of 16. My at that time my high school sweetheart, I'd been married to her for 17 years before I got my divorce. and I'm remarried to a beautiful wife now and have been for 25 years. But if it wasn't for the event that took place where she got pregnant and I'm I'm Catholic and and I had to make a choice and that choice I was going to become a father and then I had to make a second choice and that was that's where that moment in the road you go left or right. Um I'm left-handed so I like to say I went left and uh I said I've got to do something.
I've got to make something out of myself otherwise I'm going to be those people that I see that I don't want to be. And so I went and had a buddy of mine actually that wanted to go to the Air Force. So we went to the I went to the Air Force, did all the testing, passed, got into the military. Ironically, he couldn't pass. So he ended up going from the Air Force down the chain of all the different armed services and actually never could pass the test. And they're not that hard, by the way.
And so when I went there, what? They're not that hard to pass. You're like me and me and my buddy were going in and he's like, "Yeah, I failed." You're like, "And you're getting shipped off to wherever." I'm getting shipped off to Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. And I'm looking at him thinking, "I thought we were doing this together."
And so I I I took this test and I I wanted to get in and out of the military, too. I I didn't even though my family had been in the military, my grandparents and whatnot, I I didn't appreciate it until I got there. Why do you think that you wanted that that was the the thought process was to get in and out of thing like get through high school, get through the military, like that that almost uh what's next kind of mentality. Well, something we never had as a family, money. Yeah. So, I wanted to get into the world, make an impact, and make a really good living.
I I didn't want to be in the the the circle and the web that I had been in as I grew up as a child. Yeah. Um, and when I went in the military, I thought I was going to get out quickly and was going to go to a I was going to be a butcher. That was what I signed up for. You get a sign up. Two things you sign up in the military is you sign up in the list of what you want to do work-wise and then they have a dream list where you want to be stationed.
So, I filled that out and I took Wait, what were you two? You said you wanted to be a butcher. A butcher in in I wanted to go to Hawaii. I wanted to go No, the Hawaiian butcher just carving up some ham and some pineapple. Come on. Okay.
So, you wanted to be a Hawaiian butcher and you ended up being a crypto technician. Instead of going through 6 weeks tech school, I had to go to 56 weeks of tech school and they shipped me off to Buxy, Mississippi. So, you went from wanting to be a Hawaiian butcher to a crypto technician. A crypto technician in Buxy, Mississippi. Now, that is like a game of mad lips. Oh, yes.
You know, like where you fill out the like the different things. Wow. So, Cry, where did you even learn or or did you just did Did something happen with a test and they realized, oh, you might be uh you might have the right skills to be a crypto technician? Yeah. So, it it was weird because I kept taking the test. I thought there's no way I scored that score on the test.
And I kept getting better and better even when I tried not to score well. And it all had to do with memorization. So, I I have the ability to memorize and synchronize things uh in a sequential order very quickly. And that's what crypto is. And so what you would do in crypto is part of the info security system. Um I was part of a thing called worldwide military command control center which sounds really big and important but remember I was an enlisted airman.
So, um, and you just would take this board and and you back then they didn't have the size of the computers back then were massive, but you still had to do manual stuff and you would sequence numbers and if you got it right, you put it in the machine and it let them go to the next stage of any type of security issue they had or any type of logistic issue they had. And that's what I did. Wow. Yeah. So, you just like memorize numbers to crack codes. That was the job.
Yeah. In a a rustic way. Yes. Interesting. Okay. So, you went from having six weeks of training is what you thought you were going to have to 56 weeks of training.
And so, doing the math, that's like you have over a year of training. How long were you set to be in the military? Four years. Four years. So, one year is spent in training. Yep.
And then by the time or did you spend the next three in Buxy, Mississippi? No, I moved around. Uh my my base was in right Patterson Air Force Base in Columbus or Dayton, Ohio, excuse me. But every six weeks for a while I went to different bases. Wow. Uh because part of the info security and I had a top secret clearance.
So it was part of the job that you had to go to these different areas. That's pretty cool. Now here's an interesting question too. You grew up in an apartment with your siblings and your mom and now all of a sudden you're on, you know, a state away at some points but also traveling to all these different places. Were you homesick? No.
Were you ready to get out? I was ready to go. Okay. I said, you know, you go from from what's familiar and you know, being around your tribe and your people, um, and then, you know, go out and see the world and all these other things. Did you start to make friends within the Air Force? Oh, not only did I make friends, I started to appreciate and I was going to become career.
I I after when my four years was coming up, I had this chief master sergeant of mine and I had all these rewards, airman of the year, all these different things they gave me. topsy clearance kept going to different levels and I reinlisted for five more years. And so when you do that, you have a period of time you can change your mind. And my older brother Dave said to me, "Are you sure you want to know what you're going to make every year for the next 20 years?" I said, "But man, I'm going to retire at 37 years old. I can start a whole new career.
I'll have a pension and everything." He said, 'But you've got a top secret clearance and I've got this great idea. No. Wow. Okay. So, then do you end up rescending because you have like the the time that like grace period in the middle.
Do you end up rescending and not going in for five more years? Yes. But after I sold everything I owned, uh was going to Anchorage, Alaska, uh had literally rented a vehicle that we were going to drive ourselves, uh and go all the way up there. At that time, I had two children and we were going to go, actually, at that time, I had three children. So, I had three children before I was 21. Uh which is pretty crazy in I mean, okay, wait, we got to we got to dive into here for a second.
You have three children before you're 21. you're traveling every six weeks at that one portion uh from different Air Force base. Like that's a lot for anyone being whether you're 21 or you're 31. Like what were you thinking about at the time when you're 21, you're in the Air Force and you also start to hit your stride? You go from barely graduating high school to winning airman of the year and like finding something that you're good at. Like what was your mental process going through that time while you were in the Air Force and have and starting a family?
Well, the weirdest thing I got disciplined. I I learned to respect things and those were were two big things. Remember I told you I wasn't a very good kid when I grew up. Um, so those were the two things that that matured me to a level that I was up to any challenge that was out there. Was there like a specific moment where like whether it be a leader or a mentor or someone you know within the Air Force that just like ripped your ass and that was the moment that it clicked? Yeah.
So, Chief Master Sergeant McKenzie to this day had a huge impact because he pulled me aside one day and said, "You know, you're really smart, but you're also really bad." And he goes, "You need to figure out if you're going to be really smart or really bad." And he goes, "I can help you." And he literally broke me down and built me back up. Uh, your confidence goes up, your character gets stronger, your discipline grows. Um, and you start caring.
I mean, obviously being a leader, you get to in, you know, help other whether it be professionals or or individuals develop into the best version of themselves. Is are there any lessons that you learned from the Air Force and from your time that you apply to leadership today? I think that everybody should go to the military for at least 2 years. They do it in Israel. You get so much discipline and so much appreciation for what life can offer. Um, I think the biggest thing is don't be afraid to fail.
Yeah. Um, that's probably the biggest. If I had to say one thing, what was your discipline that you can teach other people? Don't be afraid to go and fail once in a while because you'll grow and grow when you do. Do it with a little bit of discipline. Uh, but uh, failing is not a bad thing.
Some people are like, "Oh, I don't want to be told what to do all the time and blah blah." And it's like, no, the discipline of that like creates so much freedom that it's wild. Like I mean I feel like looking back I played a ton of sports growing up and you know early morning practices and just like the grind and doing like the challenging things always like at at the time you're like oh gosh this really stinks. But then you look back and you're like oh wait like I learned good habits like now I get up early and you make your bed and you like do all these things and I just I do think that getting discipline is something that oh especially in 2026 it's so hard. Um it's never been easier and it's also never been harder. It's a wild uh conundrum there.
But you end up then after your four years in the Air Force, your brother, and you have this wild idea and and you decide to get up and go to Alaska. No, that's where I was supposed to go in the military. And so I went back to Indianapolis. Oh, so they were going to send you to Alaska. Oh, I was on my way. Again, nowhere in here is there a butcher in Hawaii story ever happening.
So you were getting ready to go to Anchorage, Alaska, and but your brother says he has an idea, right? So what ends up changing your mind from being a career military guy? Cuz he was my older brother and I had something that he thought his idea would work great with. Um it was the topseeker clearance. What was the idea? Um to start a confidential data destruction company.
It was called Compule back then. And and to give you a comparison, there's shredded out there now. There's uh Oh, yeah. So that that's that's what we did. And I mean this was what what time frame? This was in 1987.
So everything lived in a filing cabinet. Like very much physical paper. And if you you couldn't just like delete it and empty your your recycle bin on your MacBook. Like you had to literally put these in like locked locked containers containers. And then someone had to dispose of them. They would dispose them or we'd go pick them up or they could bring them to our our plant.
Um there was micro fishing was just starting. Think about we're talking about microfishing. Um which is so outdated now, but it was just beginning back then. What is that? So microfishing. How old are you?
I'm 29. Okay. So I was born in 97. Yeah. So So you uh it's kind of like thinking about an overhead projector. I don't even know if you know what that is.
Yeah. Yeah. So back in that era. So they would take the data and they would put it on microfish, basically sheets, and then they would store these sheets somewhat electronically. um very outdated compared to what we have today. I mean, we're in the cloud now, right?
Uh but very very outdated. And they'd have to take all that data and convert them to microfish, which were back then what they consider mass storage sheets of information. Okay. And sheets being digital sheets. Oh, okay. So, this Yeah, this would have been like at the start of like taking filing cabinets and digitizing them.
That's what it is. And then you have to dispose of all the hard copies. All the hard copies. Okay. So, you guys start a company. Yep.
That is doing that. How do you get your first customer? Like, how do you guys start to get things rolling? And does your top security clearance when you leave the military, do you still get to kind of claim that status? Yes. Oh, that's nice.
Yeah. And so, it it was kind of interesting. Now, you have to do things to keep it in force, but and there has to be a purpose to keep it in force, but that was kind of our pitch. Um, our very first client was IBM. My older brother Dave sold it. It was up in Chicago.
Wait, IBM? Yeah. So, do you know what that is? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, okay.
I always think like the first customer is like, I don't know, like NY's Bakery or something like your first customer is IBM. You just walk in and get a meeting and like, hey, we have this company now. Like, let us Well, nobody know what to do with paper. So, they're doing all this microfishing. Our our second largest client was in Teroot. It was uh Columbia House.
And they would bring all the videos, semi-loadades over the weekend to our plant. And there used to be VHS movies. You'd be a club of the month. So every month you'd get a movie that was sent to you. And if you didn't want it, you had a certain time to send it back. And they discovered that there was a black market in Vigo County, which is where Terraote is.
And it had the lowest VHS sale movie sales, Blockbuster was big back then, than any county in the country cuz they were giving all these return uh VHS's to a trash service that would take them to a a dumpyard. And they never made it there. Wait, hold on. Hold on. So this Where were they being shipped from? So they were being shipped from Terode, Indiana, cuz that's where the return mail would come.
Uh and they were like, "Hey, we're supposed to be taking these to the landfill." Yeah. But we're just going to There was an underground black market for VHS tapes out of Teroot. Yeah. No. And so they're like, "Hey, we can't have this.
We So they're gonna change and start to dispose of it with you guys." Right. And that was the assumption. And I called on them and I said, "Hey, we you can bring these there and you can supervise the destruction of them." And they were just skids and skids of these things. I mean, there would be two or three dump trucks every weekend coming up and we would send them through these massive shredders and they would destroy them to pulp and then we'd recycle.
So, if there are any kids in in VO County that stopped getting movies somewhere around the 80s, Yeah. this is the culprit, right? That's exactly right. Wow. Okay. Wait, how did you get the machinery though?
Like again, this is a startup business with you and your brother. Like, did you go have to raise money? How do you get a plant? How do you start to get the equipment to shred things? Well, we must have wanted to be poor again because we invested every bit of our savings to buy these big huge shredders. And these shredders were, you know, they could shred your table right here.
Just put them in there. It would just destroy it. No way. So, it's data destruction and you have the top secret clearance. So, it's the whole thing is confidential. It's like, "Hey, we're we'll take care of all this stuff."
And so you start getting VHS tapes, you start getting paper things like that, checks. Remember back then, uh, the banks and credians, all the checks would get returned back to the institution. And so, and you know, checks are pretty much obsolete now, too. And so, we would destroy all the checks as well. Wow. And then we would recycle it.
So, we'd charge it by the pound and then we'd turn around and recycle that material. We'd send it up to uh Kimberly Clark who made paper out of it. We'd send the plastic somewhere. So we would charge for our raw material. So people would bring the stuff that needed to be shredded and then we'd commoditize it and take it and sell it to manufacturers. That's a pretty good two-sided marketplace, right?
It's like they're paying you to give you the stuff and you're selling the leftover. Yeah. If it would have been managed properly, it would have been great. Oh, okay. So what ends up happening? We call that our college education for three years.
it uh under capitalized companies. All of our equipment would break down non-stop. You're paying people minimum wage. So, you you get what you get for minimum wage. A lot of turnover. Yeah.
And um we basically sold it uh for enough to pay off our debt. I think we both walked out of the company with uh a an educational degree of life and reality. Uh kind of like on the job training cuz I never went to college. And when we sold it, took care of our debt, gave us a little bit of money in our pocket. I'm talking$25 $30,000. And that's when my career at back then Eldridge, which is now Allied, started back in 1989.
Okay. So that's when your career with with Allied starts in 1990, but your mom had been kind of working her way up. So while this is all going talk to me about the the dual pathways you and your brother are are learning you know school of hard knocks on business from the data destruction company but what has your mom been able to do and talk she ends up buying a business right correct so when she became that salesperson uh the small company but they sold product to financial institutions um they did a lot of what we do today like talk to me in this is the 1980s. Yeah. Like what kind of products was she selling to financial institutions? Uh credit life, credit disability insurance that would be tied to a loan and then they also tracked automobile insurance.
So if you get a loan, you have to have automobile insurance and you have to have the lean holder listed. And so she started that company she had had a tracking system and they track loans. Those are the two products she sold. Okay, that makes sense. So yeah, if I if I get a loan from XYZ bank and they're like, "Yeah, we just need to make sure that if you wreck this car or whatever, you have insurance that we get paid off on our you got on the Okay, that makes sense. Okay, that kind of product."
So, but these are not like like what she's selling uh you as a consumer, me as a consumer going out and buying a car or whatever. I would never know that this exists in the background. You wouldn't until you didn't have insurance. Then I would then I would know that it existed because you like the tracking is going to say like hey go get insurance and if you don't we'll add it. Wow. Okay.
I'm following now. So she working she's working her way up through that. And how did she end up buying the company? So the owner and this I think this was probably a less than a 10 person company. The owner decided he wanted to go back to California and she was the top salesperson. I think there was just a couple of them out there but she sold like 90% of their business.
He said, "Do you want to buy it?" And they worked out a deal. She didn't have a whole lot of money then, but was better off than when when she started. And they basically on a handshake, he turned the company over to her and the rest is history. I mean, she grew it and grew it and in 200 uh excuse me, 1990, my brother Chris had went to go work for he worked at Avid Labs. He was a smart one.
So, this was the one that did not did not do the business with you. You got it. This is the my Irish twin. So, he's 11 months older than me. And he uh went to the Air Force Academy and wanted to be a fighter pilot. Uh he had vision issues and back then you couldn't have glasses to fix it.
So, he went to the University of Indiana. Uh graduated from there, worked at Abbott Labs. Uh he started watching what my mom was doing and said, "Well, she needs some help here, especially on the accounting side of things." And so, he went and basically took over the company for us. He still owned it and ran it and was the CEO, but he took it over, straightened up all the accounting stuff. And when he found out that where I was working was gone, he said, "Hey, why don't you come on board here and uh be a service rep and I'll pay you $24,000 a year."
That was in 1990. Remember, I had three kids. Wow. And And you and your high school sweetheart had three kids together. So, you're Oh my gosh. You leave the military, you start this business with your brother, doesn't I mean it works out I mean well enough, you know, like you don't end up going like absolutely bankrupt on it.
It's not a home run. So like you know you're learning on the job and you then join the family business at that point for $24,000 a year and 35 employees and 35. Wow. Okay. And from there, you start as a service. And then how quickly do you pick it up and realize that like, oh man, we're we're building some momentum here.
Like there's there's some serious potential. One day, one literally first day. First day I walked in, I observed and I was a service rep and I realized the guy running your service needs to go. The people running your claims need to go. And literally within the first 6 months, I became the only service person left. Uh because we got rid of everybody.
They just they weren't committed to their job. remember discipline. I told you discipline and hard work. You can get a long way with those two uh skill sets and we re rebuilt um the infrastructure of the company. So I worked in the call center. I serviced accounts, drove all over, put about 300,000 miles a year on my car a year.
A year. Uh used to have a Pontiac Grand Dam. It was falling apart, but it just, you know, they they reimbured me mileage back then. So you got a mileage fee. I thought, okay, that'll help me support my family, get a little more money coming in here. 300,000 miles in a year.
Oh my. That's like just in the Midwest. That's like I don't know what that is per day, but that is an insane amount of mileage. It is. And we we didn't have a lot of money cuz a company was struggling. So you would go from here if you know where Sagenol Michigan is.
It's all the way up right before you get to the upper piece. So it it's a haul to go there and back in one day. It's a 15 16 hour day, but you didn't have to pay for a hotel. And so that's kind of how it evolved. Things turned around and started growing after that. Okay.
And did did you guys scale it through keeping those same couple products and just like getting more efficient and growing that way or did you start to add more? Like how did that go? And was your mom leading the company at the time? This is also, you know, you talk about her being in the 80s and we kind of mentioned it like this wasn't what it is today in 2026 in the like business community where there's like women CEOs all over the place. Correct. Correct.
So, she was still running the company and it wasn't until about 1993 that we started to realize that my brother Chris needed to run the company. And so, he took over the company. She was a salesperson. Uh eventually we made a commitment to my mother that trust us on this. We're going to buy the company from you and we promise you you'll never have to worry about money again and continue to work but let's put you in the place of strength and that's marketing and distribution. I mean if you met my mother there you'd be best friends with her in 5 minutes.
Um she never met a stranger. Oh yeah. And that that's really was a huge family decision. And remember, we were a tight-knit family. A lot of trust in that family, a lot of entrepreneurial attitudes within that family. And it just worked out.
It it not saying it would work out for everybody, but this one worked out. My mom continued to work with us all the way through 2013 and we finally said maybe even 14. Uh she reported to me for about 15 20 years. And we finally said, "Okay, you're I think at that time she was 76 years old, 75, 76 year old." We said, "You need to go retire." Um, company's moving beyond you.
You send to take a lot of time off, but yet then you want to know everything that's going on. Typical, you know, story of a parent running a company that at some point in time, and it was the greatest thing after about 8 weeks, she loved retirement. She's still so vibrant and active right now that that she's in a great spot. Well, you know, it's also like she started this like I mean didn't start it but like kind of stewarded it to keep it alive like for you guys to end up having jobs. So like obviously she's going to have like this uh affinity for it and want to know what's going on. But as you get into your 70s it's like well you know at some point you know maybe go enjoy the relaxation and you know maybe take up pickle ball or exactly whatever it might be.
And that's the greatest success story of Allied is a woman, my mother, building a company in a very very nonfriendly world for a woman leader at that point in time. I mean, this is banking and finance. Like this is like the old school like suit and tie, three martini lunch. Like exactly. I mean, did she ever like talk to you guys about that? Did you get to see that?
I mean, this is your mother also. like how what did you learn from her through building a company during that time? Oh, we saw everything because every breakfast, every lunch, every dinner, that's all we talked about. And whether it be her talking and us listening or as we started to get involved in the company talking and listening and the one thing that that she taught us was there has to be a fine line. business, family, and if you can't handle it, because by now my brother Dave after he wrapped up shutting down the company, cuz I left as like he was shutting down the company when we sold it, he now is on board and is an owner, too. So now the three brothers own the company.
Mom is still the the queen bee. Um, and as she fit within her groove, the three of us specifically found different roles and different strengths within the company. And that's how it moved all the way through until 2020. Um, she starts to fade out and uh, the name Eldridge ends up going away in 2020. How did you guys grow from 90 to 2000? How did you grow from 2000 to 10 and then from 2010 to 2020?
So product is one. Yeah. Expense management was another big one. I told you my mom was great in a lot of areas. One of them wasn't expense management. Um, and then discipline and really focusing on what you do best.
And then the fourth component was distribution. Yeah, we really started to beef up our distribution. That's kind of the the niche I carved out of the company that was going to be my responsibility. I was all sales and marketing. Yeah. So sales, marketing, service, anything that touched the client, I was in charge of And it's 35 employees when you start in 1990.
But give me a rough idea for growth over those decades. Let's say 200 employees. Okay. So 10 years in 200 I mean that's good growth for sure and then 10 years later so in 2000 we used to have this consortium of agencies that ran independent and we started to buy a lot of them up but the one that was the largest at that time we basically became bigger than they did and they had no succession planning great great great partners they became uh but we merged together a 50-50 merger so at that time we went in 2000 we went from 200 to basically 400 employees. Okay. Through a merger.
Through a merger and that's where Allied came in in 2000. Yep. And then the name changes in 2000. Mhm. Okay. Eldridge goes away.
Eldridge goes away. Where they What was the name of the other one? The other one was FLS. And you guys both agree we're going to be called Allied Solutions. You got it. In 2000 at 200 people.
Yep. Wow. Okay. And then your mom's still working there. The brothers are all in the business at this point. And are you really starting to like add new products?
Again, the original products were the tracking behind car insurance and credit insurance and credit insurance. Is that still the the main products that you Oh, no. There's probably 115 products. We are both geographically defined, uh, product defined. We're in the US and Canada. Um, and that the transition was more products, more services, core to what we do.
uh continued the M&A process. So when we merged in 2000, we probably call it 450 employees. Between 2000 and 2004, we probably added another 75. So we're over 500 at that point. Over 500 at that point. And then the interesting happened.
One of these companies that we had a lot of volume with, in fact, we had more than 50%, probably 60% of the total volume. And that company, remember I told you where my mother worked when she started at Minnesota Life, a claims adjudicator at Minnesota Life. That's the company that came eventually bought us. We weren't for sale. It was almost self-preservance. They were monoline in the products they sold.
They were a big credit insurance company. So they were selling credit life disability. And they bought us in 2004 and made all of their employees that were on the manufacturing distribution side. So about 200 people had to come and apply to work at Allied Solutions. So Allied remained independent. They bought us in its entirety and all 200 actually 199 of those employees came across.
We lost one employee and I would argue that that was a good thing for that employee and for us that we lost that one employee. So this is 2004 now. But you don't own the company anymore. So, no longer a family-owned business owned by Minnesota Life, but are you guys still in charge of running it? Mhm. So, Chris is the CEO.
I'm the president and chief marketing officer. Wow. Yeah. And uh by then we had started out in Cicero, Indiana. Wow. That was in the middle of Hamilton County like nowhere.
Nowhere in an old bank building that we had bought. Why? Just just because why did you guys pick Cicero? My mom lived in Cicero. Okay. And so we moved from Cisero to Westfield to Indianapolis.
Wait, when when was uh when were you in Cicero? Actually, if you go back to the history, we started out in Carmel. Um and small little place we rented. All all roads lead back to Carl, doesn't it? Yeah. Right.
And uh Voy Cro was different back then. And then we moved to Cicero in the bank building cuz she was there and there was a neat place there. Remember the consumer doesn't really know who Allied is. Yes, it's our clients that know who we are. And then we went to Westfield off 169th in Keystone Meridian area, right where they merged together. What year did you move from Cicero?
It might even been right around 20201. Okay. So like you had a significant amount of employees that were going up to Cicero to work. Well, we were pulling that was part of the issue. We were pulling them from Tipton, Elwood, Cicero, and as we gotten bigger, we needed a larger employee pool to choose from. And that's what why we started mar migrating and eventually ended up at 116th in Meridian before we came to Carmel.
Okay. And that's a unique story in its own right. Oh well I'm here for unique stories cuz I think that it's fascinating. This is 2000. No one work from home was not a thing. The remote work culture.
So I'm sure that was actually a pretty good economic driver for Cicero to have businesses bringing people into that small town, you know, for lunches or whatever it might be. Yeah, it was. But you know at that time we had you know now that I think about the time we probably moved out of Cisco in '98 before we even merged. Yeah. And so maybe like 100 200 employees. No probably 50 cuz we really took off between 9798 and 2000.
Wow. So and then you started moving you know further south. But you end up you said there's a unique story on how you ended up in Caramel. So we were we were sitting in uh right next to the Renaissance Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue in 116th area. And back then the mayor of Carmel uh and I were chatting and he said, "Hey, why don't you move down into this area right next to downtown Oldtown Carmel?" And I said, "Where?"
He said, "Yeah, come on out and meet with me." And he took me out there. And alls it was was fields. So if you knew where our corporate office is today, nothing was there. Literally, it's the arts district now. And the the Monan Trail uh I I think was probably even not even there at that time.
I mean if it was it was gravel. So it was that was that was field. Oh that was all field. So if you look at all the apartments there the railard where I live right now where I have my apartment when I'm here. Our entire complex all the great great entertainment and the the whole familyfriendly environment from Main Street all the way down. All of that was either old lumber yards uh warehouse factory type buildings.
None of that existed. It was the palladium. None of that existed at all. What? Yeah. So, if you look at that map, all fields, the only thing that was there was the water tower.
No way. Yeah. And this is like in the early 2000s. Mhm. That's what by the time we moved there, we're now into about 2015 when the discussions started. Okay.
And so, and where were you guys officed out up until then? Well, because I just make sure I have the facts right. We were actually at this time we moved from Indianapolis which was just you know that line of Indianapolis Caramels right there. So we were on the Indianapolis side. We had moved right to where the Renaissance Hotel was. So we were actually a caramel company.
Yeah. Barely at that time. And we were there for 8 n years in that area. Okay. And so our lease was coming up. They didn't have a parking garage and we had known the mayor and didn't have a close relation.
Not a good or a bad relation. It's not a close but developed a very close one. And he had this vision and that vision is what you see Carmel as right now. The Midtown Carmel. You got it. And and Mayor Brainer was the visionary of that.
Whether people like him or not, the fact is that that he he created an unbelievable vision of what that area I remember looking at the models that they had built. What? Yeah. I mean, you're sitting in there and they're trying to convince you to come into that new district in Midtown Carmel and that it's like not anything that it is today 11 years later and like where where was the moment when he was kind of, you know, recruiting you guys to to be a first mover there that it clicked for you and you said, "You know what? We're in." So, we had three areas that we were looking at.
One in Indianapolis at the old Firestone building on the other side of I465, another one in Caramel on Meridian Street. We thought, well, that'd be pretty cool. Our sign will be up there. And then this one. And he said, "Let me see what we can do uh if the city can help on your garage." So, there would be a grant and and the city could do some things for you.
So, he put together a proposal and and government's very complicated, but put it together. We melt Justin Moffett, by the way, that's another guy that that is just so great for the community. Uh who's that? So, he owns a company called Oldtown. So he's one of the ones that have helped design all the old homes. So he is a residential builder, but then got into commercial.
Matter of fact, this might have been our building might have been his first commercial adventure. Yeah. Uh and sorry, Justin, if I'm wrong, but I know it was close to being one of the first, if not and we said, "Yeah, we'll roll the dice. We think that it's going to be an area that's going to help us recruit." How many employees did you have at the time? 1100.
1100 employees. So you need the Yeah. You talk about the parking garage and I'm just like having cuz I've like lived in Indianapolis since 2019. So I've kind of like see like this is Caramel has been mid Midtown Caramel has been what it's been. I mean it's gotten progressively better but it's like kind of had that that those bones to it for the entirety that I've been in central Indiana. So I'm like wow thinking of you being one of the first movies in the space in 2015 2016 timeline.
That's wild. Was everyone in office? Oh yeah. No, we were we were big in office. So, 1100 employees then. I mean, that's a ton of people that start coming to that area.
Well, it was, but so a couple things. Our offices are in uh Dakota Dunes, uh, South Dakota, Carmel, Indiana's our corporate offices. We have an office in Plano, and an office in St. Paul. So, those are where we're located. So, you didn't have them all here, but you had many of them coming and going.
Uh, right now, we have probably 600, 700 employees in Caramel and growing. Wow. and the rest of them are spread out at other areas. But yes, we were all in the office, all working up until craziness happened. Okay, couple questions. One, does the company continue to maintain ownership from Minnesota Life?
Yep. So, even to today? Even today. Wow, that's so interesting. Okay, so you guys move corporate headquarters into Caramel into this district that on a vision of Mayor Brainer like, "Yeah, one day this thing's going to be cool." And were employees excited?
Were employees unhappy? Like what was the feedback you guys got? Um, I think the employees at that time it was just another building cuz there wasn't anything around there. Like fast forward today, it is a recruiting mecca. I mean, you can live in Caramel and not have a car. I mean, we're pulling people from car from from Chicago, all over the place to come to work in Carmel, Indiana.
Um, and so it's it's a vibrant place to live. Unbelievable place to run a family. Uh, the mayor, Sue Feim, does a great job in in in running the city now. Uh, all of the the boards, city council, they're all they're all united in in continuing to create an environment that's very family oriented, very very diversified. Um, we love it. We think it's helped retain employees and recruit employees.
Wow. Yeah. I mean, so you guys are again one of the first movers in there. How long did it take for you to look around and say like, "Oh my gosh, like this is going to be incredible." Probably 2020. We thought this is pretty cool.
And you guys moved in there though? 17. Beginning of 17. So you're three years into this and you're like, "Okay." And then you start to realize like, "Oh my gosh, the dominoes are falling." Oh yeah.
Now, we've lived in construction hell since then because it's like the streets, the infrastructure, the buildings. I mean, Caramel just keeps growing and growing. I think today that small town that you described, it was just another small old Indiana town. I think it has north of 100,000 people in it now. Why for Allied Solutions was, you know, I think you guys uh are the naming rights partner to the performing arts area, like the palladium and all that. Like, why are you investing so much in Midtown Carmel and getting brand awareness and your name up there?
So, we've always had stewards of the community within our leadership team. Um, it was Bob Liam with a guy, he's passed since then when he came over from FLS and became a partner and then a guy by the name of Brian Orbansky. They were kind of the the community pillars. And one day, just talking to leadership team, I said, "We need to do more. We need to be more committed to this city. Look what's going on around us.
I want our brand to be all over this city. I want to work with the mayor to build uh remember CO's coming and so that we were doing all these different programs. We have a great uh communication director. She's actually here right now listening to this um who has been so key to helping us build and build our brand and do it disciplined. Uh so it still is within our values and our our charitable giving strategy, our community strategy. They're all so important to what we do as an organization.
Um and we're hoping that other companies follow. So when you look at a podcast and you say, "What's the value you want?" I want to get other people to realize it's a stewardship to live in a town as great as Carmel, Indiana and a state as great as Indiana. Indiana is an extremely well-run state. Could be getting the Chicago Bears, which is kind of interesting. Come on.
Just come on, bring them on. And I we just we just wanted to own that responsibility. and going all the way back to my military's day, developing discipline and responsibility and commitment to your family and and we still have a very familyoriented brand within our company. And so it started out doing the Fourth of July event, then it started out doing a ton of things for the city and then it went to the arts and it was the Palladium. Um it was all the Allied uh center of performance. All of that became part of our brand and who we are.
um helps recruiting, but boy, it helps the city. Uh we get so many benefits out of being part of that community, whether it be the arts, the very safe, very diversified environment, the recruiting that we get. Um it it's just been a great spot to be. And you said something, and I don't know if it was early in the episode or kind of right before we pressed go about like municipal budget or like the the city can't you can't get a worldass city on tax dollars alone. I think it was something along the lines of there where it's like you as a as a you know a business need to invest in your community because that's how you can make it world class like I think and depends on what list you look at but Caramel is always like the number one place to live in the United States of America which is wild but you don't get that just from like your typical property tax or whatever it like you have to have the public private partnership is what I'm hearing from you.
You're so right on there. And it it the only other option is to raise taxes. And what happens when you raise taxes? Eventually people leave. Yeah. And so that's why and there are a lot of companies that do do a good job supporting the communities.
But for every one that does support Caramel, there's three or four that need to start supporting Carmel. And I'm a huge advocate of that. Um and working with the city to get and the the arts, the palladium. We're big supporters of that whole area. uh getting them to step up and contribute, which is interesting because it's, you know, at the end of the day, like you're not trying to get someone going to a play on a Tuesday night to buy like a product, you know, it's not like you're selling beer. You know, it's like, "Oh, yeah, by the way, buy our beer."
Like, it is the the right demographic. If someone that is at a financial institution happens to walk in there and sees Allied, knows the name, like feels good about that. Absolutely. Like, but would you you would still say that the investment you guys have made into Midtown Carmel from a business perspective has made sense and and been the right thing for you guys? Well, it has for a couple reasons. One, the most important people that see it are our employees.
And the pride that is so exuberant within our family at Allied, they're proud to live in Carmel. They're proud to see what we're doing for the community. And in fact, our charitable giving hours over the last three or four years continues just to escalate. So, it's not just about money. It's the time and the commitment that people make to make a great city and that that we're watching that evolve. We're growing up as far as our community uh disciplines and our community commitment, not just financially, but the people time and there's a lot of people time being committed.
Well, if you think about even the smallest towns, whether it's in Indiana or all across the country, like what makes a good strong small town is that uh civic pride where you know it's the it's the local businesses that put their name on the back of the T-ball shirts, right? or like you know your sponsor the outfield and like you look around the walls of uh again I don't know why I'm in the little league mindset but like but like the World Series of College but it's like those having those partners who invest in the community who keep their storefronts clean who do all this stuff and and make a vibrant town and it's like yeah at the end of the day you guys sell financial products you know that's not necessarily like a business that you're going to like pop in off the street and like stop in for a drink or whatever but the fact that you take pride and that assimilates down into your employees.
They start taking pride in their community and then you start to get that ripple effect of other private businesses coming in and taking pride in whether you're a lawyer or you run the brewery like everyone kind of starts rowing in the same direction. The government's on the same page and that's how you end up number one in the country. Exactly. Right. And I tell you the other thing that's interesting is our clients. So our clients are the institutions.
When they come to Carmel, they're like, "Wow, I didn't even know this place existed." It is crazy. It is crazy. From from, you know, you bring in financial institutions, they're like having a good time. Maybe you go to Anony's Chop House, and then you're hanging out, getting a a drink on that patio out by Sun King. Like, it's a total vibe.
The craziest part is that now uh college graduates are foregoing Broadripple or downtown and moving to Midtown Carmel for that whole like nightife. The GOAT is like the spot to go for 20somes like all in central Indiana and I'm just like in what world? No, there was an absolute 0% chance and actually we have mayor think I'm coming on later this fall and I can't wait to talk about it but there was a 0% chance in 2019 that I was taking my towns to caramel Indiana like that was like the suburban grow of family place not the young youth and vibrant place and now it's totally changed it is and you know you talk about 2019 when when co hit the one thing that made the goat for example really popular was Marian County had a set of co rules Hamilton County wasn't quite This is strict. So everybody would come to Caramel, Indiana. Created some problems, but in the end of the day, it helped brand who they were and created as a great great workplace.
Yeah, absolutely. It's it's so funny cuz I do remember early on like the the old school Carmelites were kind of like I don't know about this place. Like seems a little And now like expansion, everyone loves it. Like I mean if you walked through there while AU was playing in the college football playoff, it was just like it was electric like that whole just that whole district. And I hate to say it cuz I had been an outward caramel critic I would say cuz it's like very like you know suburban and and you know that's caramel but now I'm just like man it's pretty cool pretty cool stuff going on there. And Kevin Paul from the go talking about resilience.
He stayed tough and respectful as he went through those challenges that were out there because of the population was way outside of the capacity obviously, but uh he's done a great job and that you know they got the goat, the scapegoat. I mean that whole area and there's other uh restaurant areas that that have done such a great job in growing that area. Oh yeah. It's it's super super cool. Well, what do I know today? Everyone has seen the branding, but if you had to to summarize it, if you could say in a couple sentences, tell me what Allied Solutions does.
So, Allied Solutions provides riskmanagement services. And and what I mean by that is if an institution does a loan or has a process that has risk to it, we become consultants and provide solutions within that area. So, that's one big thing we do. Um, the second thing is we track homes, mortgages, and autos. About 22 million a year. So, 22 million loans every month.
We're making sure they have insurance. So, that's that core product we have. I got you. Um, and then the other thing that we do is we provide very valuable consumer products distributed by the institution to their customers and members. So, warranties, uh, product called GAP. So, anything you could tie to a loan that would protect them.
I got you. Yeah. Yeah. So, but it's through through the institutions. So, we're B2B TOC. B2B.
That makes sense. So, like yeah, you buy a new car and you have to get the gap insurance or whatever of like, hey, if this thing, you know, you got to be able to make sure that it levels out your loan, right? Cuz as soon as you drive the car off the lot, it's like literally jump straight down there. Okay, that makes sense cuz everyone sees the branding and knows the name. But I that was why I was so curious to have the conversation because I was like I know the name. I could not tell you before today what you guys do.
I knew that it had something to do with finance and I knew that are credit unions a big uh client of yours, banks, finance companies. I got you. So all of it. Well, and one thing that you do that's super interesting that is I'll say maybe the opposite end of the spectrum from Midtown Carmel is you bring a lot of your institutional customers to the Indianapolis 500 and you've done it for a lot of years. How do you get a hundred bank executives fired up about the Indie 500? Well, we have a good meeting agenda.
So, that's the first thing. It's got to be business agenda, but it's iconic and and we made a decision probably now we've been this my 44th one in a row I just went to. It was fabulous. Um, but we made a decision about 20 years ago that if we live in this great state of Indiana and one of the well, the largest single day sporting event in the world is Indianapolis 500, people should experience it. And we took our our team that that helps coordinate and and build that, built marketing, and just really started out with 30 or 40, then 50. Now it gets sold out within two weeks when the invites go out.
No way. How many do you bring? Um, this year we had uh almost 150 people. And look, what's the average title of the person that you're bringing in? I would say they're all executives or higher for the most part. So, you bring in 150 executives from across the country, East Coast to West Coast, North.
Finance executives to experience the V. So, how what what day do they come in? Give me the whole run of the show. Like, how are you being the greatest host uh for the Indianapolis 500? We put a fivestar experience. Friday morning we have a police escort.
We have a suite there. Um we've been collecting tickets for quite some time in the paddock penthouse. So there if you want to be outside you have the best seats of the best. You want to be inside you have a great seat. So you have great accommodations. And when he says collecting tickets like it it truthfully is is a timehonored tradition.
Like you have to continue to like put in your application and like grow those seats and renew those seats. Like I I mean that's a pretty cool part of it that I think a lot of people overlook. It it is. It is. And it becomes addictive to some of these leaders. They come every year.
They like the meeting agenda that happens on Wednesday and Thursday and then come Friday morning, police escort into the track. Uh all the festivities at the track on on Friday. Uh we get back, we we basically rent almost a whole hotel out right downtown on Maryland uh street, the the Hampton in there. and they've been so great to us. But we go there, so it's simple. Nothing crazy there.
But we had a great restaurant this year. We're at the Del Frasco Double Eagle Steakhouse, which was phenomenal. We've been at Tony's. So, always really upper end dinners on Friday. Saturday morning, they wake up. Uh they eat a little breakfast and then the fun starts.
We have the parade. Yeah. Uh then we go to Harry and Izzy's and have the shrimp cocktail. And we have, believe it or not, some of our financial institutions now help sponsor some of these things. Oh, no way. They're like, "Oh, we love this so much that we want to be part of it."
And they want to get their brand out there in front of all the other financial institutions. Um, and then we do the bikes. So, we do the pedal bikes where you have the pub tour that pedal bikes. Uh, do a really cool thing uh that evening. We were I think we were at the garage this year, which was a really neat place downtown Indie. And we tell them Saturday night behave because police escorts leaving at 6:30 in the morning.
And at 6:30 in the morning, we line up. We have 12 to 13 15 passenger vans and away we go. Uh and now we go right to the tailgate center that's sponsored by Allied Solutions and we get in there and and we just have a day of it. They get to learn all the culture of the race. They get to go out to the on the track in the garages. We have a lot of traditional things.
We have a Bloody Mary bar. We have a champagne area. Um we have great toast. We I'm very patriotic cuz I was in the military. besides that I believe in this great country so much and it it is a patriotic event and when people leave they come out of there in one of two ways wow I never not want I never do not want to miss this or wow what a great event I don't think I can handle three days of this any again so they they don't come back but always with just glowing scorecards no one is ever comes out of it and it's like oh my god that was the worst thing ever like some people do opt out and say hey I've done it I totally see why people love it, but 300,000 people in a crowd is maybe not my thing. And I totally respect that.
And then the other side of people are like, I could never miss one of these. It's incredible. Like I feel like that is 99. 9% of new people that come to the 500, they leave feeling one of those two ways. They sure do. And nobody ever disappointed.
And and those that that are really strong of will and my my wonderful wife Debbie has been a part of this whole journey uh that I'm describing these days go by because on Monday night you're exhausted. And now it it's it's Memorial Day weekend, so Monday's there, you kind of just all float around. And then those that are are still around that want to experience some closer ties to the drivers, we go to the victory celebration dinner. We've got a couple tables there and we're part of that great event. And then Tuesday morning, everybody kind of wipes out the cobwebs and then the blurry vision and they go home and back to their professional work. Yeah.
And then they like then their brain turns back on the following Monday. Got it? You know, maybe Friday if you're lucky. Maybe get like a sweat in and you're like, "Oh, wait. Now I'm a human being again. It's wow.
Well, and the most special thing about it is is the charitable giving we do at that. So building up to that, every segment of the financial world, so finance companies, community banks, large banks, creditings alike, they do a lot of charitable giving. And so they do very big with Children's Miracle Network. So we donate an entire Indianapolis 500 package to them. And sometimes the buyer goes or this year was really neat because they gave uh the package to a young lady who was awesome. Her name was Riley ironically, but she had cancer, hotinson's disease, and she was a cancer victim survivor just coming out of it.
And just to see the face and the smile on her, I can tell you this year that was probably the most emotional and greatest thing. Her family was off the charts. Uh so appreciative. But things like that go within the event which people don't necessarily see every day. That's the other piece that I love about the 500 is you could be, you know, a cancer survivor. You could be a business finance executive.
You could be an indie car driver. You could be a DJ that plays the snake pit. Or you could be a ditch digger from Teroot, Indiana. Everyone comes there and largely it's just friendly, fun, everyone is so hospitable. Uh so we flew a guy in from the UK and his big thing was he was worried that when he he was worried to tell people it was his first 500 cuz he thought that uh that Hoosiers would gatekeep the Indy500 and be like oh don't know like this is our thing like we don't want you here newbie and he was like then I told a couple people and it was the exact opposite. Everyone's like oh it's your first one like get this guy a beer like get him some milk.
Like let him do and it's like the exact opposite. Everyone wants more people to experience the Indy500. And the fact that you guys bring uh 150 people, what what was the furthest distance traveled? Oregon. Wow. The other side of the country.
Other side of the country. Yeah. That's incredible. To experience the Indy500. Now, who's the longest tenur customer that's been coming? Mike Lucer and his wife that he's retired now.
And we have a rule, by the way. If you come, you're invited always until you stop coming and then you fall off. First right of refusal. First right of refusal. So he retired but he's still still 15 years later. I love that.
And then we had a couple that were both CEOs out on the West Coast. Uh Dennis and Stephanie. And Dennis and Stephanie are great. And by the way, they all get their roles and responsibilities. So the Lucers are in charge of the gambling board. The gambling board is you 20 bucks to get pull out a driver.
And now we have four boards. That's how big it's gotten. And you pay first, second, last. And so then there's Dennis and Stephanie. And they bought it at a Children's Miracle Network in California. They bought it again and again.
I think they bought it three or four times. I finally went up to him and I said, "Appreciate the charitable contribution that you make, but you know, you're veterans now. As long as you keep coming, you're part of the inner circle." They have not stopped coming. I think they're on their 13th year. and they have a role because they become guides and escorts to quote unquote the newbies that want to go into the garage, that want to go out to the track, that want to go to the museum.
So, so much to offer there and so many people helping the success of the event. What do you think the biggest piece of feedback or the biggest like like one statement that new people, whether they be from the West Coast or the East Coast, have to say about the Indy500? Wow. I've never seen so many people in one place. And and the other thing that they'll say when they walk away from there, if they're one of the clients, I can't believe how much work we get done. The collaboration that, you know, you give everybody a couple drinks, they kind of really easy, ready to talk.
Yeah. Right. And like I I love that. Uh just I mean the whole month of May, honestly, if you're out there, it just like feels a little more fun to work when you're at the track and you're talking sales or whatever it might be. I love it. If there was one final thing specific to Allied Solutions that you want the state of Indiana to know about you all, what would that be?
Uh, we are a very committed company to our employees. We continue to pay well and continue to find ways to pay better, great benefits, open for hiring. We we have a lot of open spots. Caramel is our corporate offices. Um, and we are very family oriented. Um, we we are extremely family oriented, communitydriven.
Um, and it's a fun place to work. Yeah. And if there is like a uh if there's an open roll on there for like Indy500 tailgate sherpa, I might have to put an application in there. Come on. The more the marrier. I love it.
Well, we've come to the final part of the show where we get to talk all things Indiana. So, this question is brought to you by our friends at JC Hart. They're a leader in creating enjoyable living experiences at apartment communities all across Indiana and beyond. Check them out at homejart. com. Now, I know you do split time, but I'm going to I'm going to assume that Indiana is still technically home and that home, at least home for Allied Solutions.
So, my question is, why do you call Indiana home? Um, it kind of gets in your blood. It's It's not just the Indie 500. There's that old thing, who's your hospitality? It's real. It It's real.
Uh, people are friendly. Um, and I'll go back to the family thing. it it if you if I was going to raise a family, no matter where I came from, and I experienced what Indiana has to offer, whether it be the economy, uh whether it be most of the leadership in the state, whether it be Caramel, which I love Caramel, I'd raise a family here. I it really is a special place. Yeah. Okay.
We also know that discipline, I mean, you've talked about it, the thread has been pulled well throughout this entire episode. What if someone's out there listening and is like I know I know discipline is what I need. I know like but it it's it's not that easy for everyone to just like wake up one day and say okay today this is the day that I am disciplined. You know now I have changed my life. Not everyone has a chief master sergeant to you know tell them what they could be and give them this fork in the road scenario. What advice would you have for anyone out there that's listening that wants to start to instill a little bit more of discipline in their life every day and start to build off that?
Well, it starts with parenting and if that fails because it does at times. I mean, I gave you my story. It wasn't my my mother was not a disciplined person. She was, but there's too much to be disciplined about with what she was trying to do. She was trying to raise a family and survive. Um, military is always a good good outlet.
I I really do believe that. But find somebody. There's big brothers, big sisters out there that you can find. There's your own family that you can find. And in some cases, just a really good friend. Sign find somebody who's a leader that makes a difference in this world.
And it's not about money. It's making a difference in so many different ways. Latch on to that person. And then I'll tell you the other thing we didn't talk much about. I'm a big believer in this is trust. Uh trust is so hard to earn and so easy to lose.
Your word and your soul are what drive you. So believe in yourself. Yeah. Believe in yourself. And I told you earlier, don't be afraid to fail. And there are all sorts of people that can help you.
There's all sorts of people that want to help you. And there's all sorts of hidden gems that will help you. Yeah. Wow. What a segue right there because you're bringing us into the part where these are the same three questions that I ask every guest that comes on the show. And this is your opportunity to shed some light on a part of the state that more people need to be talking about.
Could be a restaurant, could be a park, could be anything like that. What is a hidden gem in Indiana? Madison, Indiana. Madison, Indiana. Right off the Ohio River. Oh, beautiful.
Absolute hidden gem. It's It's right on the cliff of the Ohio River and they have the hydroplane boat races there every year. The Riata. I'm going for the first time. This I love it. I I would say that's a hidden gem that that people just don't take the time to go see.
They I think a lot of people know about it, but they don't actually go. Same thing with French Lick. A lot of people know about it, but they don't go. And like I have loved French lick. I've spent like one day so far in Madison and I'm really excited to go back on July 4th to have a regata. I love that.
Okay, now next question. Uh we have two more remaining. This is where we source new guests and hear about other people that are making a big impact in Indiana. Who's a Hooser we need to keep on our radar? Someone who's doing big things. The CEO of Discovery of Broadway.
Um his name is Joel. He is a great leader who's committed to the community, committed to nurturing young young minds. What they do is they they bring artists uh together to develop plays and some of these plays go all the way through not just here in Indiana. He's got a long strong presence and very connected in New York City. Uh but he's a great great leader. And then Signetti, everybody knows what what what he's been able to do.
Um to the the community, um to the Hooser spirit, those are probably the two, but the gentleman from Discovering Broadway, Alli's a big supporter of his as well, Joel Kirk. Yep. Joel Kirk, he he is I would tell you that the the one champion if I had to pick one, uh Signetti's great, but this gentleman, self-built, uh self-driven, he brings Broadway musicals to central Indiana. Yeah. Yeah. And then all the way to New York before their runs in New York.
No way. That's incredible. Pretty phenomenal. I mean, that's cool to bring world class entertainment like top of the line to Indiana to central Indiana and then it ends up in Broadway. It is. Yeah.
Enjoy having the the second helpings there. Broadway comes to Indiana first. Great. Oh, I love it. Okay, this is our final question where we're going to wrap things up here. I want you to think about I mean from the time you were 12 years old you spent so much time in the state of Indiana 44 Indie 500s.
If you were to just close your eyes and think back what is your favorite Indiana memory? March 10th of 1998 and it's the date that I met the greatest hooser in the world from born in Noblesville Indiana. Met her in Cicero and it's my wife. Wow. She is she's my iron. She's my she basically single-handedly raised our kids.
Uh she became a teenage parent. Remember I told you I was divorced once uh after 17 years of great marriage. But but this this is the one person that I would tell you rocks my life. Wow. March 10th, 1998 was the day that I turned one years old. I thought you were going to say my birthday for a second there and I was like I wish I would have known this guy's got his math done.
Wow. That's incredible. I love that. Congratulations to you both. Um Pete, man, this has been so fun. I think that again, everyone knows the brand.
They've seen it around Caramel, but getting to hear a little bit about the people behind it. the fact that I mean this whole thing roundabout of a way started with your mom taking a sales job and just working her tail off, ending up buying a business uh in the 80s to then bringing, you know, the the family more involved there, the tight-knit tribe that you guys have and then just growing where you guys were planted, whether that be Cicero, Westfield, Caramel. I mean, the impact that you guys make now today in Caramel, believing in the vision that you guys were were pitched, it's incredible. If people want to learn more about you, learn more about Allied or apply for any of those open roles that you guys have, how can they do that? Go to alliedsolutions. net.
Got a great website there. net. Yes. Wow. There you go. Because the other one was taken.
Hey, you know what? That's how it goes. Just Google it. Uh the signetti reference, you get that one. Come on. Uh, appreciate your Well, your comment about roundabout is caramel.
Oh, that's so true. I cannot wait. Actually, I'm going to I'm going to try to do a video with uh Mayor Fingham. I want to see if I can go from east to west across Carmel without hitting a roundabout. Like, do you think there's a way? No.
I'm going to see if I can find the one path. It's going to be one. I want that route. I love it. All right. Well, hey, thanks for stopping by and we'll talk to you soon.
Great. Thank you. This show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater. Whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level, click the link in the description to see all my gear recommendations at Sweetwater. If you want a behind-the-scenes look at everything we're doing across the state, make sure you follow me on Instagram and Tik Tok, Nate Spangle. Thank you so much for listening and being a part of what makes the Hooer State great.
We'll see you next time here on Get
