I'm not falling back. There's no falling back. We'll fall forward if we're falling anywhere. The conversation is we're gonna be your go-to plant heart. You're gonna have to cold call. You're gonna have to really believe in what you're doing and show it in your effort.
So, as you guys are looking forward, like what's coming down the pipeline for Iron Timbers from South Bin to Evansville and everywhere in between, this is Get In, the show focused on the Hoosier 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. All right, folks. Mother's Day is around the corner and I'm going to help you get prepared. Ditch the Amazon or Target candle and get mom something from Warm Glow Candle Company. They're based out in Centerville, Indiana, and they make some of the best candles I have ever smelled.
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Now, let's get back to the episode. Today, I'm joined by Gary, Caleb, and Dustin, owners of Iron Timbers, a custom woodwork and metal workshop based in Ozgood, Indiana. Now, you may have seen their work on social media where they have almost 1 million followers across Instagram, Tik Tok, and Facebook. Or you might have seen them on the famous HGTV show, Good Bones. Today, we're going to be talking about how they got their start in creating both insane metal and wood projects as well as content. We're going to talk about the impact they have across the Hoosier State and beyond, and how they prioritize their local Ozgood community.
We're gonna wrap it up by talking about what's uh what's coming down the pipeline and in the future for everything at uh at Iron Timbers. Gentlemen, welcome. Thanks for having me to be here. Dude, I will tell the listeners this is our first time with the the four the four screen here on the podcast. So, I'm super excited to see how this pans out and to have all three of you here. I mean, this is an incredible business based down in that southeastern corridor.
Uh custom woodwork, metal work, wood carving, right? And uh I'm excited to get into how you guys have built this insane platform and this incredible company. So take us back. Where did the idea of building and creating come from? Like where where did that kind of get where you guys get your start there? First of all, Nate, thanks for having us on.
This is awesome. Uh really got a nice thing going here. So we appreciate you inviting us. Our family line is builders. We come from a lot of builders. uh dad in particular, you know, he he was a building trades instructor in the first Indiana area career center in Verales, Indiana, and he taught building trades for 30 years there.
So, construction, that's a huge one, right? Like right. It's like a T- road that's down there. Uh I think like between when you're coming from Osgood to sales, you take a left, it's on your right. There we go. Okay, I know what we're talking about.
Yeah. So, he taught there for 30 years. Um thousands of students. I personally went through his class. He, you know, we grew up doing those s sort of things, remodels, uh, building decks, whatever. Um, so our family bloodline is just creators, builders, um, as far back as we can see, you know, and dad's got siblings are the same way.
So that's how we kind of grew up around that all the time. So dad instilled work ethic in us from an early age. So, and that's one thing that's just so important is having that work ethic. Um, so he really uh made sure that we were brought up um knowing how to work with our hands and just knowing how uh much of a gift it is to be able to create with your hands. So um we grew up around that. Like I said, I took building trades when I went through the career center and Caleb, he took welding when he went through a couple years after me.
So um had to stick it to the man. Yeah. Like no, not going to do woodworking. Sorry, Dad. It's always the youngest one that rebuilds. Yeah.
Right. It's like, oh, yeah. And it's like I mean, I've done some woodwork. Every grandpa, I feel like in small town Indiana has a wood shop, right? So, you go and you make your mom's, you know, Christmas gift or the Mother's Day thing. But welding and metal work is like another bar.
Like, good for you. That's that's impressive. But I think that um when I think through metal work, woodwork, and you go through building trades, I feel like the goal is to get a job, right? Right? It's like you go work on building homes or construction crew or something like that and and then you have this in your back pocket of it's a hobby, right? It's like you can, you know, you never have to pay full price for Christmas gifts.
That's awesome. Where did the transition from like hobby to we might have something here and let's go into this business. Where'd that come from? Yeah. So, after we went through the building trades and welding and we got out of school, Caleb went into pipe fitters union for a while. Uh, I became an electrician with a local company right after that.
Fast forward eight, nine years, Caleb and I are working for that same electrical company that and we traveled around the country doing industrial electrical work. So, we enjoyed it. Uh, we were kind of a little tired of traveling. And in 2016, um, I was getting married. I just got married and we moved into a new home, me and my wife Katie. And we needed some furniture.
So, I went out to dad's wood shop. He turned our old basketball court into a wood shop and I just kind of start I started out with a coffee table. I got a big wire spool from work and I surprised my wife with that. Made it as like a wedding gift. So, I kind of started making a few things. But as I was doing that, I was getting on social media because it's a great place to learn.
And in the meantime, I was seeing these big giant live edge tables that these guys were selling for tens of thousands of dollars. I kind of always wanted to build one of those. I built me one is very amateur level done, I should say. Uh, but in the meantime, I kind of approached Caleb one day when we were on the job and said, "Hey, I'm thinking about building some of these tabletops. I think there's a big market for it. Would you be interested in partnering up and building some metal bases for them?"
Because I think it I think that it could be something. And he was automatically intrigued by it. We set up a day to go to a local mill to get some lumber and dad tagged along just because going to being a woodworker going to a wood millmill is like kid in candy shop, you know. So yeah. Yeah. So, uh I remember we got back to our local bank parking lot.
That's where we all met. And we're just sitting there talking about the things we can make with these slabs we got. And dad at that point was like, "What? Well, why don't we consider putting some carvings in this you guys?" We I think we were talking about doing a coffee table. He's like, "How cool would it be if you made the wood top, put some metal legs on it, and then I put a carving into it."
We kind of tell people that Iron Timbers, the idea was born in that bank parking lot in just small town Napoleon, Indiana, right up the road from Ozgood. RIP the Napoleon Tavern. Yeah. Isn't that a good spot of fried chicken there? Oh, come on. There we go.
Southeast Indiana fried chicken. That's Come on. Okay, so you're in the uh you're in the bank parking lot at Napoleon. and you're kind of just putting it together and it's like, you know, maybe someone will buy a table or two. We could sell it on Facebook Marketplace. You're right.
I know about um Elco or they have I think they're up in Elcart and they just their business is just the Live Edge tables and they're like but they sell them in Chicago, right? Where they're willing to pay like 10 15 grand or whatever for these things and it's like I love the idea of like well you know I can make one of these, right? if you have like the builder gene, you're just always like, "Let's go and let's just go and do it ourselves and and make this." Where did the first person first customer say, "Hey, will you make one of those for me?" The idea was born, right? And soon after that, we knew that we we didn't want to do it for a hobby.
You know, we're like, "All right, let's, you know, this is something that we really enjoy doing. How cool would it be to work for ourselves doing this and create something for ourselves?" So, you know, we were taking it seriously at that point. And I remember being down in Nashville, Tennessee on a job site as an an electrician and we're at this Marathon Petroleum asphalt terminal. Each terminal has a manager there. I overheard a conversation happening with the manager talking about how he's going to be remodeling and he wants, you know, this reclaimed wood upstairs and these new tables and things like that.
And I'm like, hey, that's what we do. So, I went up there, you know, had a break from my electrical, you know, and uh went up there. I'm like, and that was basically the first big job that we got. Said, "Hey, you know, this is what we do. We we actually do exactly what you're looking for. We do the reclaimed lumber.
We build tables. Um we could even help you with your accent wall." And that's where the that conversation stem from. And really the that first project t came from. And um that was actually one of the jobs that kind of propelled us into taking the leap of faith in quitting our full-time job and you know starting that. How did you how did you convince this first to like did you have a body of work or it's like you're kind of just basing it on hey we do this.
Yeah, we say we can do this. I don't know if we've actually done like how did you convince them? Yeah. Uh you know before that we were doing some art shows and things like that. So, we we had, you know, some work out there for people to see. And by the reaction that we were getting from them, the people passing by, mostly dad's carvings, you know, they're just like, you know, they'll stop you in your tracks really.
But we had a positive response. We had a couple leads. We sold that first coffee uh coffee table set. It was a coffee table and two end tables, I think, and we made it as a set. So, that kind of gave us a little bit of momentum there. Um, we had another job with a designer that saw us from the art show, but we soon realized we're like, "This isn't work.
Like, we're spending too much time doing these art shows and we need to go into a broader audience." So, we had the interaction, right? We we were we're painting our story. We were telling people about what we were doing already. So, I was down there working in Nashville. We were already doing this, you know, we were we were knocking on doors.
We were cold calling and things like that. So, it really wasn't anything for me to go up there and and make that pitch. You know, right from the beginning, we knew that we wanted to stand apart and we were going to do so by our quality of work. So, we kind of let our work speak for itself. Um, and if you know you have a good product and um can deliver on what you say, you know, then it's just making the pitch to to convince the other person that that's true. So, you land this first big job and you're still working, which I love that it's like, yeah, I cl, you know, during lunch break, like I wouldn't pitch him on company time, but like during the lunch break, I go up, you land the deal, you you get that uh the first big project, you deliver.
How long of a time frame is this project like to get from start to finish? Uh, I think maybe we said it's six to eight weeks, something like that. So, six to eight weeks, you land that first one and then you're like, "All right, we're done. Like, let's go do this full-time." or how does that transition work? And and at this point, are you already retired?
Yes, I am. So, you're just you're like, "This is fun. I got to hang out. Look, the boys want to spend time with me on the weekends. Let's go." That's right.
Okay. Yeah. Um, so that was one big job that helped propel. There was another one. Uh, there was there's a brewery in Madison. Shout out to Mad Paddle Brewery.
I've heard about them. Mad Paddle. Yeah. So, uh, that was also in the pipeline. And those two big jobs were like, "Okay, like we we can't justify working 50our work weeks and coming home um spending 10 minutes with our family and then going out to the shop and working till 2 a. m.
every night because that's what we were doing. I mean, we were burning the midnight oil. Um and every good startup story has that, right? Just a little bit of that time." Yeah. So, you know, we gave our our boss that uh about one or two months notice.
say, "Hey, hey, you know, we're serious about this. We're going to do this. We're thinking around this time we're going to we're going to quit." And it was happened to be November 1st of 2018. You know, we didn't look back. We said, "We're both going to quit on this day."
And we gave him, you know, four to six weeks notice. Yeah. Yeah. So, timeline wise, the bank parking lot was about November of 16 and then till jumping fulltime November of 18. So for 2 years almost we were just grinding getting home from our 40 50 hour job a week you know um and then doing another 40 hours on top of it almost end of the night and then so it was it was tiresome but like you said Nate like you almost got to go through that like there's got to be that in there at some point the grind right like yeah or you never get to the point where you have the some there's never really stability when it's entrepreneurship but you have a little bit of stability where you're like, "Okay, we can go do this thing." So, two years, it's like, and and a lot of people, I think, that want to be entrepreneurs or want to grow their side hustle to make it a full-time thing, like, forget about that 2year process of going to the art shows and knocking and cold calling and doing all that stuff.
Gary, you have a 30-year career, right? And like woodworking, wood carving was something that you did within your career, but you still had the stability of a job. When they come to you and are like, "Hey, we're going to do this full-time." What was what was your immediate feedback? Well, we kind of built up to that. It wasn't an immediate decision, but uh I think it was our commitment and their commitment to doing, you know, this business and uh we kind of felt like it's once they had it in their mind that they were going to do it, it was just a matter of time that they were going to quit their job.
So, so it was expected. Yeah, it was a it was a commitment and u you remember Dustin saying, you know, like uh people would laugh at him about telling, you know, we're going to go full-time in a wood business and a metal business and it seems impossible to do, but uh the commitment that we made was like uh Dustin would say, you know, I'm I'm never going back. You know, I think it's that total jump in faith and similar what you're doing, Nate. you know, you're going full in, you know, and and uh we love that and I think that's what it takes to be successful as an entrepreneur. You have to make that commitment and have the follow-through action to make it happen. So, I commend you for that.
I feel like a lot of parents love the idea of entrepreneurship and seeing their kids be successful, right? It's like, oh, and you know, in theory, it's awesome. I want my kid to be, you know, build this business, but in practice, when you're a kid, recently married, were you married at the time? Yeah, I got married in 2015, right? So, two recently married, like, you know, they got to provide for their families and they're like, "Yeah, we're going to quit our stable jobs, you know, like that is a huge like I'm I'm uh not married, no kids, no." Like, so like the only one who's going to suffer if this doesn't work out is me.
So, like, kudos to you guys for like putting that all together and building a plan, right? I think some people are are quick to jump off the deep end like I'm quitting my job and you know it's it's taking these calculated risks which is a lot of entrepreneurship right it's like you balance the risk you take it but you know that worst case scenario if it all fails you go get another job right we talked about it for a year I think there was if not daily weekly motivation calls for these conversations right so we're we're coming home uh from the job we're talking on the phone all three of us together there'd be times where Caleb and I aren't necessarily one of us might not be on high spirits because a job's not going right or something. So, we were always able to lift each other up, but you know, dad was always really good at coming in and just being like, "Look, you guys, you know, you say you're going to do it full-time.
Just keep that in your mind. Eventually, you're going to get to the full-time, you're going to get to a point where um you're going to be doing this, you're going to have employees." So, dad was really good at motivating us when we were a little less motivated at times, you know, and that that's why it's really good for all three of us to help lift each other up. But to hit on your point, like some of the people closest to you, they don't want you to fail, you know? So, you tell them ideas like that, they just want you to be comfortable, right? And the brain wants you to be comfortable, your family wants you to be comfortable.
They don't want you to fail. So a lot of times you'll have people closest to you be like I don't know about that. You know that what if it doesn't work out type situation. So but it's out of love, right? Like they just don't want you to fail. They want you to be comfortable.
They want the best for you. Dad was never like that. Dad was like yeah I think you you know he really lifted us up, motivated us. And so we were always just kind of the mindset like I think it was Denzel Washington said like I'm not fall I'm not falling back. If anything, I'm falling forward because people would be like, "Well, you always got that electric background to fall back on." It's like, "No, there's no falling back.
We'll fall forward if we're falling anywhere." And we just I love it. I think that that's so powerful. And like coming from the top, right? You've been around these literally their entire lives. And to have that uh outpouring of love and positivity and support to like go and build this thing.
I think that's just that's just that small town like that charm and that like that good family dynamic, which I I just I love that. It's so cool. So you're building this business and you're you're going on. Where was that first? So obviously the first big break was these two projects, you know, between Mad Paddle Brewing and the the other home. You get those two.
Where was the next big break of like, oh man, like things are rolling. Where did you feel like you're on top of the world at at the next point? To hit on your point, you know, you take as much calculated risk as you can, right? But there is was never like a great time to do it, right? There's never a good time. It was never like, okay, you know, the bank account looks great right now.
You know, I don't need that next paycheck, right? So, I mean, there was a huge portion of sacrifice on everybody's part, including our family's part. Um, our wives, you know, they supported us throughout the growth, the beginning stages, which is really hard uh for them because they don't see us very much. So yeah, especially it's like, oh, you know, you're less than five years married, both of you at that point, and you're like, you go to like the family outing or whatever, and it's like, yeah, my husband that just quit his job to like start this woodworking business. Like, I mean, like my girlfriend and I, right, I was down in uh and the first time I met her parents, I was like I had just started like it was probably or I was like in the middle of like leaving my company, like leaving my job to start this and I was like, "Yeah, I'm an entrepreneur." This is like, "Oh god, agree.
You brought home a loser. Yeah. People were like, "Oh, so you're unemployed." Yeah. Exactly. And I'm like, "No, I got" And then it was actually at the You guys heard of the Freud Fest in Old, right?
So I was there and then someone came up to me and was like, "Oh my gosh, I love your videos and like your parents are right there." And I was like, "Yeah, but come on." Like we got something. Um, so so yeah, there's never a good time. Uh, you're you're I know you guys, especially on your website, are very supportive about your families, your wives. They're huge portions of this business.
like you guys might be the hands that are doing the work except for when the kids come and help out with some projects, right? But having that support system and it really being an entire family business, I think that's amazing. Yeah. You know, to get back to your question about where our next break came from, I think it was just really I wouldn't call it a break. I would just say being consistent with what we're doing. Even when we were starting the business for the very beginning on our social media, we knew that marketing was important.
So in order to get, you know, the word out that what we're doing, we had to be very active on social media. We take really good pictures as good as we could and post them online. So that is what helped um start uh bringing in client some clients but not a lot. We still had to go to the city. We and we still do do that today. We'll go to Indianapolis um Cincinnati and Louisville.
We'll literally set up calls with designers. And for any craftsman listening to this, that's what you have to do. That's what it's going to take to get your business off the ground. You're going to have to go and knock on doors. You're going to have to cold call. You're going to have to uh really believe in what you're doing and and you know, show it in your effort to to grow your business.
So, just the consistency of doing that help streamline clients into our queue essentially, right? So, that's that's where the growth came from, the beginning growth. Yeah. I think especially like all across America, the heartland, there are probably tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of really good craftsmen. Like people that build incredible things, the piece that probably limits their growth is like calling the city of Louisville and figuring out who's the person that's going to be making a decision on some type of project and how do we stay top of mind? And it's like the business networking side of it that like I think back to my grandpa, incredible woodworker.
He would not have wanted to spend his time networking with guys in suits in the big city, right? It's like, no, I'm like one like my work speaks for itself. And it does, but you have to like amplify that through social media. So, did you guys have like one post or one picture that was the first one that kind of like got some steam? Do you remember what it was? I remember what it was.
It was a a live edge table, a river live edge table. So, the epoxy went all the way through it and I remember we put blue dye in the resin and uh mixed it up and I think we got 10,000 followers off that one video. No way. Not not I'm sorry. 10,000 views, not followers. Well, I think you're right.
I think we did get I was it that many? We the first year I think we got 500 followers and we're like we did a big giveaway and we're like man we're we're rolling you know and we had to get to the 10K mark because that's when you got swipe up feature. Oh. So that was like the milestone. So that so that would have been 2017 to 2018 and then 2018 we had some really good growth and I don't necessarily remember what was responsible for that growth but I do know when we went full-time the table the dad's talking about when we went full-time we had about 10,000 I think on Instagram but that table took us to 20,000 within like a couple months that was like the epoxy era right like everybody love and now it's it's like you know you see those a lot but like back this was 2018 it was like the rise of this like cool river epoxy, all those different dyes and stuff. Yeah.
If you poured epoxy with any sort of color in it, like you're you're good. Like it's going somewhere. The video. Yes. Okay. I love that.
So that you post that one, you're getting, you know, 10,000 views. You double your follower count. This is like 2018, 2019, that time frame. When does the introduction with Good Bones come through and and how does that end up and how do you end up on HGTV from Ozgood, Indiana? We started building our shop uh in Ozgood in 2019 at the end of 2019. It was being built uh in 2020 early as well.
And like I said before, we were doing a lot of cold pitching, right? So we were cold calling, we were cold emailing. I happened to wake up one morning and I was drinking coffee on the couch, you know, going through social media like every good entrepreneur should. You know, you really got to pay attention to social media. It's I I mean it's really important. So on there looking see an ad pop up uh for Good Bones and saw that it was in Indianapolis.
Never heard of it before. Saw that they had red hair, you know, naturally that's Ginger's got to stick together. So uh anyways, I'm like, "Hey man, this is like a home renovation show in Indianapolis. Like that's right down the road and that's where we're doing a lot of our business anyways. Like we need to pitch this." So, I go back to my back room and get on their, you know, their website, check them out, do some vetting, make sure we're a good fit or whatever.
Go to their contact page and they're tell us a little bit about your project. And I think the first few words I said was, "Hello, fellow Gingers." Right? And then just this runon paragraph about what we do, who we are, what, you know, what we're doing, why we'd be a good fit. And, uh, hit send. And then I remember going up to the shop.
Dad and Dustin were already up there working and I said, "Hey, I uh I sent a pitch in to a TV show. It's on HGTV and uh hopefully we'll hear back." 3 weeks later, the designer MJ Coyle um he reaches out and says, "Hey, we got your uh got your message and we'd like to meet you guys and uh why don't you tell them what we what we did for that?" their um offices was in the U Stuts building downtown and uh so we had a trailer at that point and so we built a beautiful walnut table. It's probably 8 ft long, 3 ft wide, beautiful base underneath it. Put it in the trailer, took it up there.
Soon as we got there, we invited the team, MJ and his team to come down to the street and we took a table out of the trailer right there on the sidewalk and we're we're shown off the table, you know, right there. Bam. How do you like that? This is what we can do, fellow. Of course, we did uh we didn't get to meet Mina and Karen um at that point, but we did go up. We made a formal presentation.
They were really impressed. They've never had anyone do that before. And this was like season four or the start of season five. They they've already started projects for season five, but season four just finished. I think they loved us. We really hit it off.
Did you guys leave the t like was it their table? Like you Oh, no. You just wanted to show them. Okay. I didn't know if it was like this is our business card, right? We did.
We did leave samples though. We had samples and of the metal and well this is a if no one if you haven't gone back and listeners need to listen to my episode with MJ and he talks about like the growth of that show and talking about burning the candle at both ends like they're also grinding they're I bet it's like season 4 is airing they're working on season five and planning season six right like all that going on at the same time in multiple different houses so like being able to come in there and have your stuff together is important and show them that you mean business and I think that's just like advice for a lot a lot of entrepor reneurs if you sit back and wait for your work to speak for itself and don't just like put it out in front of them and get it out there and show up and make a good impression. Uh that that's just like the cheat code to find especially in Indiana where people are so relationship driven.
Let's say even if they would have said like ah maybe it's not a good fit for the show but then down the road MJ goes on to you know he has his design studio now and he's designing for a pacer right and they're like oh we want a hardwood basketball something or other. They're like, "I got some guys that could do something like this." And and it'll pay off in dividends. Maybe not always in the way you expect it to, but somewhere down the road. Like Indiana's good about, you know, like the karma and the faith comes back around. I feel like, hey, Hoosiers, let me tell you about Keller and Keller, a respected Indiana based law firm that's here for all of us from Evansville up to Southbend.
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We literally turned power on the day before they came. So, it's this empty pole barn essentially. We set some slabs out. Um, we had a welding table and a welder. And, uh, yeah, it was just kind of surreal. They came in with their cameras and their lighting equipment and all of their stuff.
And of course, we got to meet Mina and Karen. The night before, were you guys like freaking out? Like, what was what was like what was the prep looking like to get ready for them to come in? We just needed a couple outlets for them to plug some stuff in. So that's what we were trying to get. Yeah.
And they came and we shot and just hit it off with me and Karen and it was a very genuine authentic uh connection with them. Uh but I remember telling MJ, I said, "Hey, just so you know, this is my first time, our first time meeting MJ as well. Hey, just so you know, we're going to be your Clint Harp." Because Clint Harp, you know, associated with Magnolia and Chip and Joe uh on Fixer Upper and, you know, they built the empire. They really started the home renovation series in my opinion. They're they're the OGs essentially them and uh what was like bus driver move that extreme makeover home edition like those two between Fixer Upper and those like yeah that was uh it's incredible and it's like so captivating like daytime television for you know like you come home wherever and your girlfriend or your wife's like oh yeah we're going to make this new renovation like I saw it on HGTV this past like during the day today right it's classic so you're rock and roll you you tell him the conversation is We're going to be your go-to Clint Harp.
Yeah. Little do we know what that commitment would look like, you know, the demands and the sacrifices that we made in our own business to accommodate u sometimes the uh needs that they needed. Like give me Yeah. Do you have an example of like a time where Yeah. you're giving up like whatever you're doing to make it work for Good Bones? Like you said, they just had so much going on.
So when they would finally get to designing a piece or something, they needed it fairly quickly. got used to that. So, uh, a lot of times it was just some late evenings getting it done for them, but we understood too because we saw what everything they had going on and it just couldn't really wrap our head around it. What What was the impact to your business from working with them, right? Like you get on that first episode, they come down to the newly electrified shop and is it like overnight you're just like phones ringing off the hook or how does that look? season five aired and we were on the first one of the first episodes maybe uh episode two or three.
Um we had a few inquiries come in right after the show and we're like okay this is you know this is going to be huge for us. We still to this day get business from what we did with Good Bones because it's constantly airing, you know, the reruns, right? Come on. We're we're known as the Good Bones guys, you know. So, we essentially achieved the goal of being the Clint Hart for Good Bones and um and that's what Iron Timbers is. But, uh as far as social media goes, it did not really impact our social media as much as we thought it would.
It's, you know, a fraction of of our total following, but um we didn't see a lot of growth there, but a lot of projects coming in because of airing. And uh you know, whenever we get the opportunity to share this what we do, we donated all of our labor, all of our time going to the city, uh doing all the the the um shooting, you know, that was all on our dime. So that was a huge sacrifice, but we knew that the, you know, the return was being aired in front of millions and millions of people. So wait, like they're not like writing you a check to do the the work that you guys were doing? They never wrote a check until we talked with Mina at the end of season 5 and said, "Hey, it'd be nice to get paid for materials." So other than getting paid for materials, we had a tradeout with them, which is a social media tradeout.
uh they would pay for materials and then the rest of that project would be put into a package and then based on you know the amount of uh projects we donated it would go into that kind of tradeout. Yeah. Where it's like you're getting exp and it's like that's fair. It's a business expense, right? Okay. Like I mean how many woodworkers out there would trade lots of free stuff to get in front of millions of people?
Yeah. You can pay for that. I I do think that that your point on it's never it's never as quick as you think it's going to be, right? where it's like I mean think about you when you're watching TV how often do you see something and like go then research how to find them on Instagram and buy from them right away. It's usually like that's an entry point and then what I think you guys did really well was your own social media where then it's like oh I've seen them and now I'm seeing them again and now I want to like it builds that credibility I feel like but it is funny where it's like I think a lot of people think that even like you guys me anyone that's like putting out content it's like oh they just had one big break and it's like no it's not about being great one time or being big one it's about how do you be good consistently and that's like how you become elite at whatever you're doing. Yeah.
And we and we leveraged that, you know, every time that uh we would put a post out, you know, even even now if you go to our web page, you see we were on good bones, you know, so they understood the value of uh consistency and the using the idea that we're on good bones uh on national TV and leveraged it across social media every chance we got. When the first episode aired, did you guys have like a watch party? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Was it just the family? Did you invite the town of Osgood?
you like what was the what was the vibe for that? It it was just an intimate setting of family in the uh showroom of our shop. I think Caleb even announced some exciting news like right before we and then they popped some champagne, you know, and we announced that my wife was pregnant with our third child at that that party, too. So, it's kind of just like a good day on top. So, heck yeah. Yeah.
I do I do remember the next day uh talking about leads coming in. And I think we saw like four or five. As soon as the episode that was over, it's just like we started getting emails like, "Okay, this is good." And I remember talking to one of them the next day. And because we did a lot of stuff in that first episode, we did a table with a bench. We did some shelves, some railings.
Karen had us do these little cat steps. Like we did a bunch of stuff. But this lady liked the dining table and the bench. And I think she was in Missouri or something. She's like, "Yeah, I saw your dining table and bench on Good Bones last night." and she's like, "I want it."
And I'm like, "Okay, yeah. Um, we could definitely make that happen." And she's like, "So, um, I got my credit card ready. Would you like it right now?" And we didn't even quote it. I didn't even know anything about how big the table need to be.
Like, there was so many details you needed, but this lady was just like, "All right, here's my card. You ready?" Like, "Slow down a little bit. We got a couple more details." But that's I mean, that's kind of Well, and it's like, is it a is it something you can like is it work you can ship anywhere? like if you're making furniture and stuff, but it's like there's also the the idea of like that's scary.
You put it in transit and it's like this it's $10,000 set or whatever it is. It's like you counting on XYZ movers to get it there or how does that work? Yeah. And we've had some nightmares with some shipping stuff. Luckily, nothing too expensive or crazy, but we we've definitely ate some losses on some smaller things. But yeah, it's it's nationwide that we ship it.
Um some things we don't ship. Just depends what it is, how intricate like field measuring and everything needs to be that we'll kind of, you know, if there's something that's just super specific railing or something that's out in California, we're we're probably going to pass on something like that. But everything else like tables, stuff like that is super simple to ship. You know, you just giant crate and it's on its way. That's that's awesome. Uh, what was the first like nationwide like the furthest order away early on where you were like, "Holy like we're shipping a table to Colorado or wherever."
Well, I guess it would be that one, right? It was Colorado. Yeah, you're right. Yeah. And it's actually a family friend lived out there and uh relation to my wife actually and he wanted a table and we shipped it to Colorado and so that was probably the first fingers crossed like oh man please get there and it's like he you get a call from him when he gets and it's like oh no you it's great you're like yes thank big exhale right that's awesome so you're on season five of good bones it's going you're getting some business it's a slow growth and then where were you at on social media from that like where were you at in follower account, viewership on that kind of thing. As we said, you know, consistency was key.
There was a transitionary period before reels came out. You know, Instagram was pictures. You know, everything was square format. Make sure if you take a picture, you can at least get it in square format so that it looks good on Instagram. And uh Facebook was not a top priority for us because it's always been local community and the community support which is great because you could use plat your Instagram platform for more of a nationwide or around the world and then you use Facebook for other reasons for more more of your community. So we were staying consistent with that.
I remember Dustin putting out some videos on Instagram and they didn't it wasn't the right time yet. So he was doing some reels before reals really was even a thing and they just wouldn't hit the way that they hit now. But we saw continued growth. We have a chart with our growth. And actually there's some good platforms online you can see your growth as well. But just that consistency.
I don't think that there was ever a time where it was just like maybe a couple posts where it's like hey we got we got 30,000 view or 30,000 followers on this. But that didn't happen until what, maybe a couple years ago. Until reels came out and were a thing. Yeah. We, you know, they Instagram came out and said, "We're implementing reels. We're going to pay you to make video content."
And we're like, "Absolutely." And we made quite a bit of money doing that because we doubled down on it. And that's what you really have to do uh in today's day and age is just you got to see what trends are happening. You know, Tik Tok is I know Tik Tok is a question mark and it it's it is I don't think it's going anywhere, but if we would have doubled down on Tik Tok, I mean, we would we would just be killing it on Tik Tok. It's just just because we tried to get to 100,000 followers. Um, and we did in less than a year.
And the only reason we wanted to do that is so that they would pay us. And they didn't end up paying us. So, we just we stopped posting to it. Wait, how long ago was that? That was 2020. Probably around the time Reels came out on Instagram.
Probably 2022. Oh, man. Because if you guys were still going, you could be Oh, we Yeah, we'd be up there with our Instagram accounts. Yeah. And it's like I mean I even I have 40,000 on there and I'm now part of the creator fund, too. And it's like it's not a full salary, but but you're turning you a lot of companies biggest expense is marketing and you're turning that into a revenue center for you guys.
Like that is you want to talk about building a good business, it's like turn your expenses into profits and you're going to make it all work. Uh on the vein of content, how did you end up working with Duth and doing the content with them? That's is super funny. Have you seen those? Yeah, we have a lot of fun working with them. They reached out to us on Instagram back in 2020 or 2021.
They they contacted us and they said, "Hey, you guys look like you'd be a real good fit for our brand. Um would you want to talk?" And we're just like, heck yeah. And I don't even know if any of us owned any Duth at that point. We knew about Duth, but we never shoed there. I mean, it's a high quality.
You know, you got to have some put some coin down if you're in if you're racking Duth. Yeah. And it's it's worth it, too, because it just stands, you know, holds up. So, since 21 2021, we would they would give us product and then we would usually just kind of share it. The main thing was we were just rocking it and all of our social media. We had it on.
We and once we put it on, we were die hards. Like that's all we all wear on a daily basis is Duth. You'll never find one of us not one piece of Duth clothing on. So we love it. It's it's a really good fit for us. Um but then in 2023, uh we started doing some more video type productions for them.
I think we started at the end of 22 actually. I think we did a Christmas one and then in 23 the spring we did a father's day bit and we started really leaning into that subtle humor with subtle branding which is what we really like uh when we're making content. So the fall of 22 is when or 23 sorry is when we really ramped up making those videos for duth and um we're planning on hopefully putting some more of those out this year is the plan. So uh we have a lot of fun. Isn't that crazy that like starting wood and metal working in 2016, you know, like kind of getting rolling with some side projects, making that first table led you to creating content with Duth Trading Company? That's like, isn't life just kind of funny like that sometimes?
It's awesome. Like so so so cool. So, I mean, as you guys kept growing, right, when did more people start to join the team? 2021. Also, I think we might have hired and much like us going full-time, we talked about hiring somebody for the longest time. So, you know, kudos to you, you know, on going the full-time and then uh hiring somebody because those are two big leaps and and it's dude, it's like you're lucky to have a crew cuz it's kind of lonely some and you're just like and you're like you have to make the decision.
Yeah. Like it like it stops here. Is that a good Is that a good thumbnail? Is that a good You're having the conversation in your head with yourself, right? It's just like Yeah. So, I get a lot of I ask my friends and like, you know, peers and mentors and stuff.
I just like tap it. What do you think about this? I don't know. Why are you asking me? Like, I don't know who else to ask, right? Uh, so 2021 you brought on and like what's the team up to now?
Uh, so it's us three and then we have four others back at the shop. So, we have a couple guys in the metal shop, guy in the wood shop, and then we have someone in our office, too. Heck yeah. I mean, that's pretty cool. All local southeastern Indiana. Amazing.
friends or just like people you found through the grapevine or how did that work? Well, they're friends now. We had some bad experiences hiring getting friends hired with our with our previous job. So, uh we we don't hire for experience necessarily. We hire for culture. I mean, as as uh cliche as it sounds, we we think that we could teach somebody the ability to do what we do, but you can't teach work ethic.
You can't teach, you know, just character and personality. And that's really important to us especially in a startup you know you're sub 20 10 employees you go from three to four this person is 25% of your company 25% of your culture 25% of your workforce it's like that's a big hire then the next one is 20% right and you start to stack those on you have you're up to seven seven now I think and it's like each person is carrying over 10% of your brand your company your culture all that like those are important hires and it's like uh who I just had someone on they were talking about you're going to make mistakes. You're going to like you know it's a coin flip if they're the right person usually, right? And uh you have to especially early on like be okay with parting ways or doing whatever there. So that was like I was like uh going to my mentors and saying I think I'm going to hire someone and they're like you know what find the right person, make your best judgment call, but like you know it's a decent chance you're going to make the wrong call and you just have to figure it out and move forward.
That's entrepreneurship, right? Quick pause in the action. Do you want to be able to submit questions to my future guests in advance? Do you want access to exclusive discounts with our Hoosier partners? Do you want to make sure you're invited to all of our private in-person events across the state? If you answered yes to all or any of those questions, you need to head to Instagram and subscribe to our GetIn Insiders channel.
For $4. 99 a month, you're going to be able to ask our guest questions, get great discounts, and above all, help us fund all this amazing Indiana content that we create. Head over to Instagram, Nate Spangle, and subscribe. Now, let's get back to the episode. So, as you guys are looking forward, like what's coming down the pipeline for Iron Timbers? We're super excited to keep working with our content.
Um, that's that's really important to us. So much so that we're even discussing creating that as a separate entity outside of Iron Timber. So sort of like a media company and we want to help other people do what we have done and use our platform and our handles, you know, our Instagram, Facebook and things as proof of of that concept. So that's that's kind of exciting. We really enjoy content and just as we enjoy building things over the years, we've built content, you know, we've built that social following and it's really fun. and we didn't know that we would enjoy it, but it's just it's so much fun as you know, producing content and putting it out there and really getting people's genuine feedback on it and stuff like that.
So, we we're really enjoying that. Sometimes sometimes people's feedback it's uh the comment sections on the internet is a nasty place, but that's how it goes sometimes. It's crazy how from platform to platform they're even I'd say Tik Tok's the most brutal. The comments on there then they don't mess around. No, then Instagram and probably Facebook's the lesser of especially for like woodworking, metal working content on Facebook. Like I know like dads and grandpa's like grind Facebook reels and they're like, "Oh, you look at this table that's being built out in Indiana.
This thing is so cool." And like your grandson's like, "Grandpa, I don't care." But it's like there's an audience for it all. Right. So, so when you talk about this and the growth and the expansion, like 10 years from now, where do you see Iron Timbers being? I think iron timber is just as far as a custom wood and metal shop goes.
We are going to expand our facility. So likely have between three and five guys on each side. So we're going to continue to grow the Iron Timbers brand as far as custom wooden metal work goes. Uh content, you know, we we plan on expanding that as well. We hope to partner with some more brands that we're we're trying to work with right now and help build their brand by using our audience as well. So, and you know, we're not going after any brands like just anyone.
We're we're looking for an authentic fit, right? So, Duth was really an easy call for us because their product's awesome first. Second, you know, you're we're catering more towards those craftsman people who need to uh you know, have that solid work gear on. So, uh just continuing to try to work with more partners. And then, yeah, we have some some more exciting things. Yeah.
Going on. Yeah, we're uh we just launched a course where we're going to actually be teaching other craftsmen how to grow their side hustle or their business as well. So, if you already are a wood or a metal worker or you aspire to be one and you want to take it to the next level or you just want to learn how to start like the first steps, we're launching a course. We just launched the pre-sale of it and we got a handful of students. So, we're going to go through that and then it's going to actually we're going to do the full launch to where people can get online and purchase it and go through it. But, it's going to be teaching the steps that we took along the way just using our experience, our failures, what we found didn't work.
We're just going to be teaching that through this course, you know, from a start, like how do you initially set up your business all the way down to landing your first client and then your next 100 clients. So, that's really exciting. I think there's a huge market for that, right? Again, like it's kind of been the theme. There's a lot of really good craftsmen that make amazing things that just aren't u like maybe their strong suit isn't necessarily growing the business side of it or the marketing side of it and that's the little kick that they need to, you know, get it going. Even if it's, you know, like you're the best woodworker in your county and you want to build a business and, you know, that's what you want your full-time job to be.
I think that's great. Oh, yeah. And that's I think that's what a lot of people struggle with, especially who are craftsman. They want to be in the shop building and that's great. You know, you but you could be the absolute best woodworker or metal worker ever. If you don't know how to get your product in front of people via social media, you know, going out and meeting clients, then it's you're really holding yourself back.
So, how much of the success from the content and the social media side do you attribute to like you guys and your personalities versus how much of it is like rinse and repeat? You know, Joe Blow in Kentucky could go figure this out. I would have to say when we have uh clients coming into our facility, uh we are personable people and we get along with people and they see that we're genuine and they like to do business with us. So uh our personalities lend ourselves to that environment. So u it has a lot to do with the success of our business is is how we interact with society basically. Yeah.
And it's like it screams through the phone screen that these guys are genuine and authentic. And I think that is just I love that you know when you when you watch a video and you're like and then the person actually ends up being like that in real life. Like that's the best right where versus I don't know if you guys have had the experience where you see someone online and then you meet them in person. you're kind of like, "Oh, interesting." Okay. Right.
So, I I think that's uh one piece I would say in C is that like you guys just have these really I mean for craftsmen that are I would assume usually more introverted and you know just like like building their thing. you do have really good personalities to make the the you know from TV to social media work which I think has been a real from what I see is like a differentiator in your guys's business and has to have helped contribute to a lot of the growth which is so cool. Yeah. Yeah. I think so and like Dad said that's really important is when people do come in that we kind of get to know them. You know they're not just another client that we're just like all right we're going to build something for you and you pay us and we like to learn about them.
They and they like to learn about us too. So, they like a story, whether it's the iron timber story or us telling a story of the where the wood came from for the table we're going to build them. So, uh, and people come into our shop all the time. We show them around. You know, we're happy to do that. We like interacting with people.
And, um, like when dad retired, he went out to his wood shop and he was carving for a couple years. And I remember him saying, he said it several times that that was what he missed was the people interaction. You know, he didn't interact with anybody out there in his shop. he was used to interacting with students every day and you know colleagues. So um the people interaction it's it's definitely a big part. Yeah.
Yeah. I would say and you said it you said it yourself you know authenticity is really important and we kind of lean into that. You know we might not have the the the greatest personalities or whatever but we're authentic and we nobody can compete with you on being you right. And we see that with you too. I mean you got an awesome personality. you could tell that you're just being your genuine self and having fun doing it.
So, that's what we tried doing as well. And people just gravitate toward that. I I couldn't agree more and I appreciate that. All right, we're coming down to the end of the show. I have a couple fun segments and portions to uh to wrap up here. So, the first one is going to be our younger year segment.
So, this is brought to you by our friends at OR Fellowship. They're a great organization here in Indiana helping develop young business leaders across the state. All right. So, we'll start here and we'll go this way and get each of your answers. What advice would you give to your 22-year-old self? I I think I would say trust your intuition.
Learn to accept that things go wrong and things can go right, you know, and and as long as you trust your gut and doing what you believe that you should do in whatever you're doing, um that's the path you should go on. It's important to uh look forward and have a goal to work toward. And and I think that if I was uh saying that to myself at 22, I think that would have been an important step for me to look at because I was kind of uh right out of school and not really having a focus on what I really wanted to do. So, but in you know, I had this had this dream within me, you know, and it uh finally appeared and I finally worked toward it, you know. So, I I think that uh I would say have a goal, something that's worth living for. I think that's pretty interesting, too.
if like you had a full-on 30-year career in a similar field, right? But then it's like your entrepreneurship like the company comes to life like after you retire and you get to work with your boys like that just has to feel so cool. Yeah. So many people come in the shop and say, "Wow, you have a got you've got it made. You know, you do what you love to do and you work with your family and uh it's true. I'm I'm so blessed."
You know, but I think a lot of people lose track of the uh the long game, right? you had to but you had to do building trades and teach that for 30 years before the opport the opportunity presented itself to build what you guys have built. And I think a lot of times you know the people can get up in age and start to be like ah well it's it's at the end now let's just coast it through like I'll carve some stuff and do this and and then that goal right bringing that goal to like get your the art and the stuff that you guys are making out to the world. I just think I'm just I'm pumped up about that. Frankle uh in his book called uh man's search for meaning he was saying in there that uh success is not something that's uh pursued like happiness it has to be ensued. So you basically have to forget about you know trying to pursue these things and they would you know just live your life and you know have the goals and do the things you need to do to feel like you're making a difference in the world and those things will come to you.
Heck yeah. That's incredible. Yeah. man's search for meaning. Yeah. Yeah.
Victor Markle. Yeah. Or Frankle. Frankle. Yeah. Frankle.
I think my answer would be uh bet on yourself, you know, and it kind of goes hand in hand with what Dad and Caleb were saying. If if you do have a goal or there's something you want to do, I would invest in yourself, whether it's through um different learning styles, courses, social media, I don't know. But invest in yourself because I think a lot of times that it's not necessarily taught that you can go out and be do your own thing. thing and I think a lot of people stumble on it and we kind of did too. We were never in the mindset of getting out of high school that hey we're going to go do our own thing. We it was get we were going to get a job.
So um I would say bet on yourself and then um put yourself in uncomfortable situations because that's going to be where you see a lot of growth. You know when you go out and you do something that you don't want to do. If you're terrified of public speaking, maybe you should go somewhere and talk to some people because that's just going to push you past your comfort zone and that's really when you're going to be molded and um you're just really going to hit a cycle of growth, I feel like. So, I would say bet on yourself and then um put yourself in uncomfortable situations. Right. We're going back here.
Dustin, what's your favorite project or piece you guys have ever built? Honestly, my favorite project is probably the one uh in Ozgood. The sculpture that we did. Um we built a giant interactive sculpture that says the word spells the name of the town Ozgood. Um we used some really cool materials like teakwood, copper, aluminum. We get to see it every day.
It's the It's one block from our shop. So that's my favorite. One piece we sent out to California, the gentleman saw a piece that we made for Good Bones and uh he he calls it was a waterfall double waterfall desk kind of thing and went up 30 in and then up again across and then down all in one slab of wood. He was a CEO for a company out in California and he uh shopped around and uh we spent probably six months just looking at different woods from around the country and the world really. He sent us samples from Africa, I think. And uh he finally came up with a bassstone walnut from California.
And we bought two slabs, shipped them from California, built this awesome table, a desk, and uh sent it back out to him, and it was like a two-year period that had happened, and it had a lot of creative aspects to it. So, uh that was one of the favorite projects. Yeah. I would end with just saying what Dustin said. Actually, the sculpture in Osgood, if you're ever passing through Osgood, um it's right past the tracks if you're heading south on the right. And that had to be the coolest project.
We had all that that whole process documented as well. So, we actually GCD the the renovation of that park. So, not only did we build the sculpture, but we helped manage the the project and it was all documented, which we have all that footage. So, it's kind of cool. I'm looking Well, that that's the project that put you guys on my radar, right? I'm driving through Osgood.
I'm down in that part of the the state and I'm just like for I mean what's the population of OSGA 1,200 2,000 1500 I'm like why the first way I go to is my my hometown's Bourbon where Triton is and I'm like why the heck don't we have one of these statues like what the heck's going on what they took our state championship and now we have the better artwork too what the heck and then I started doing my research and then someone swiped up and was like are you visiting the guys from Iron Timbers? It was actually Luke Bazo. He's the AD of IU Indie. He's like, "Are you visiting the guys from Iron Timbers?" And I was like, "What the heck is Iron Timbers?" And I like go down and down this path and I'm like, "Oh my gosh, these guys are sick.
This is so cool." So, it was that piece that originally got you guys on my radar. As we go back in, we're going to have some fun lightning round questions here. Caleb, favorite tool that you use on a on a weekly basis. Probably the plasma cutter. Yep.
It's a It's just a machine that's able to cut sheet metal. You design what you want to design in the computer and it's able to cut it out of sheeting. U mine is old school chisels. I like to carve it. So, you know, making this table here is a nice flat and square. Things that I really enjoy and have passion for are things that are not that way.
You know, they're they're in the round. There's no squared edge on them anywhere. So, a lot of times, u I have to use multiple tools, but my favorite is just a nice crisp chisel to just take and you see that little scoop of sliver coming out of that wood. Nice and clean and sharp. Yeah, you're commenting on this table. This is like a Target purchase.
We might have to I want to meet you guys up and get a nice like L with some carving in it like this. Uh yeah, the Costco or Target or whatever table. Might not be getting it done. Okay, so the chisel, what do we got? We recently got a laser in the wood shop uh at the end of last year. So, that's really fun to play around with.
You know, it's all automated. So, we can take a picture of someone and actually laser it into a piece of wood. uh it can pretty much do whatever you want it to do. So that's been having a lot of fun playing around with that. My uh my best friend Andrew, I talk about him frequently on the show. He is like a diehard custom woodworker.
Like he was the one like he was 22 and he was like spending his money on like commercial band saws and stuff like that like Grizzly, you know, like these big industrial size uh band saws and whatnot. He was making longboards and has done all sorts of custom cabinetry or whatever. Uh, and he bought an XCarve if you remember like the the CNC things and you could get the laser attachment. We never did that. But the stuff that you can make on some of those CNC machines just like in your own home shop are really really cool. Oh, yeah.
Yeah. And people think uh like woodworking or metal working. They're just thinking like, oh, old school like, you know, gluing boards together or clamping. Like there's a lot of fun technology in it really. We have three CNCs in our shop. Uh we got a CNC router and a laser on the wood side.
And then Caleb's got his plasma and we have uh plans to get more also. But the technology is a lot of fun to work with really. Yeah. Cuz even with like a plasma type cutter, right? It's like you could do you can do this very intricate stuff, but it's like you need uh to fab up something. You could create 10 brackets or whatever, you know, and like it just gives you a lot of flexibility versus having to go through like a Granger or a supply company, right, and get all the stuff.
So I love it. Uh next question. hidden talent outside of your workshop because I I have your answer. Do you? Yeah. Okay, I'm gonna allow him to say it on the mic.
What is it? Dustin's got this unique ability to where when he's putting away clothes, he is able to reach into his closet and get the perfect amount of hangers for the amount of clothes that he he has to put away. Yes, I I did share that superpower. I did share that with Caleb one day that I'm uh regretting now. But yeah, so if I have all my clothes on the bed, I can reach in and grab the exact amount, you know, no big deal. I know everybody's impressed by that, but yeah.
All right, there we go. Hanger estimator. Yeah. Um I'm a real spiritual guy and I can uh relate to people on a spiritual level unlike a lot of people. So, uh that's kind of a hidden gift of mine. Yeah.
Incredible. Gosh, me and Dustin really need to step it up. I have this I have this ability where uh if I'm listening to a podcast, you know, or something driving down the road and I have to reflect on, you know, something that was said, I'm able to remember exactly where I was on the road when I heard that piece of the the podcast or the information. It's not useful, but it's it's an ability, I think. It's like it's like it's like if Jeopardy was in a moving vehicle, you'd be really It's like, ah, yes, I remember now. Like I heard about that thing when I was on the corner of County Road 56 and 200 West.
I love it. Uh, okay. We're going to the same three questions I ask everyone who sits in these chairs. Caleb, we'll start with you. What's something the world needs to know about Indiana? There's a lot of beauty in Indiana.
You know, there's a lot of talent that comes out of Indiana. And it's just a it's not only a wonderful place to live, it's a wonderful place to visit. And you could see that in a lot of the small towns around such as Osgood. Uh, Ozgood such as V for sales, uh, Madison, Indiana. It's one of the most historic towns in the in the nation. That's what I like about Indiana the most is visiting those small towns, too.
And, uh, you know, good food, too. You can't can't go wrong with the food. Yeah, we live uh pretty much from uh the flat area where it starts going down to the river. And so, there's a lot of uh hills and valleys and creeks and uh rivers down that way. And uh I love the outdoors. I'm a backpacker.
That's kind of my hobby. So, uh there's some great backpacking in Indiana, Backpacker Magazine called the Knobstone Trail, the uh Appalachian Trail of the Midwest, and uh so it's just right on our back door. I'm with Caleb on, uh the beauty of the state. Yeah, I would agree with all that. The you got all the demographics as you know, you got the hills down in southern Indiana, you got the lakes. So, it's not just a flyover state as they say.
You know, there's just so much going on in Indiana. I think a lot of people just think it's corn bean fields and there's just so much more to it than that. Yeah. What is the Jason Aldine? Have they ever drove through Indiana? Yeah.
Come on. All right. So, now we're going to get particular on one, right? What is a hidden gem in Indiana? Versailles state park there's I think it might be the second largest state park in the state maybe. But it is just super nice bike trails, you know, there's camping, there's lakes.
I think that's a hidden gem that we don't personally don't even realize sometimes without thinking unless you start thinking about how fortunate we are to be close to something like that because there is just and people from all over you meet it's like oh yeah I go camping at Verscell State Park it's like yeah that's when it's right when it's right in your backyard you got to take it for granted right it's like it's beautiful there's there's a ton of cool stuff down there all right what's a hidden gem in Indiana I'd say the people you know I really enjoy the people uh you know they're really cordial and outgoing and fun to be around. You talk about mountains or beaches, like those make a lot of places, right? Like on the coast, out in Colorado, but the people are really what make Indiana. And I think it's a special and that's like our our thing that attracts people, right? Is if you like good people, you're going to like it here.
I'm going to give a shout out to uh the Ozgood Grub Company right in our hometown there. That's that's a hidden gem. A lot of people do know about it across across the nation really. It is kind of a landmark, but uh solid food, solid people, and Did you guys make the signs for that? I did not. They've been around for a while.
Wow. I was like, that look that looks like an impressive I was like looking through their their uh their art piece right there and whatnot. The Ozgood Grubco. All right. What's the order there? The tomboy.
You got to do the tomboy. What is the tomboy? It's a It's a double cheeseburger and they got a tomboy sauce. It's kind of, you know, kind of like the fr's big boy. You know, it's got that special sauce on there, but that's that's like their staple is the tomboy there. Yeah.
Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. All right. So, we're we're talking about the Ozgood Grubco and you're getting the tomboy double cheeseburger with the special sauce.
I'm in next time I'm down there. Actually, I'm going down to Batesville this weekend. Maybe I'll just dip over and uh and we'll check it out. Uh okay, final question of the day. This is a chance to share the love. That also helps us figure out uh other people we need to talk to on the show.
Who's a Hoosier that we need to keep on our radar? There's a guy out of Ozgood that he he went to Jacksonale and he uh he's in a band called Tailgate Revival and they're down in Evansville. They're kind of a they're pretty big down in Evansville, but I think they travel they do travel around the country and they're doing starting to do some pretty big uh headlining for some pretty big people. So, they're really I I would say that Blake with Tailgate Revival is a pretty good one. Heck yeah. Their music's really good.
Tailgate. I mean, the pictures on the website look sick. Tailgate Blake. What is he? Is he What does he play? So, he's a singer.
Oh, heck. Yeah. And they sing country. I'm in. I love a good country singer. Well, if you love good country singers, Rachel Holt from Milan, Indiana.
She's uh been to Ozgood many a time and does festivals around our area and region. Uh finally had a big hit and she's like right out of high school right now down in living in Nashville. I think she's going to be a star. Rachel Hol. She's from Milin. From Milin, the southeastern Indiana with the country singers.
Let's go. Okay. And she just put out Yeah. I mean, she's pretty big on on social for sure. Okay. So, we're Can we round it out?
Do we have three country singers? Not a country singer, but carry the music theme. Uh Matt Sherman, he is local to Ozgood. Uh they used to have a band Well, they have still have a band called 650 North. Actually, the road that I live on in Osgood is called 650 North. So, uh, shout out to Matt and then, of course, the guys, Andrew Valer and those guys that make up that band, Bob Gellen.
Yeah, they're awesome. You should check them out. Heck yeah. I feel like I've heard of 650 North. They might play I don't They play some a festival or something that I've went to. Okay.
Yeah, they play a lot of different places. Yeah, I like it a lot. That's awesome. All right, so three for three on the on the music. I love it. Uh, gentlemen, this has been so fun.
Thank you for coming in and sharing a little bit about the incredible business and community and and everything you've built with Iron Timbers. I'm I'm just really moved by the way one that you support each other and like how this all comes together in the family dynamic. The way you talk about your family and your business and how it's all intertwined from the website to how you are in person. Like I've loved that. And as a small town guy, it's like seeing guys when you start to get some success and things are going right to like not forget your small town and just all of a sudden you're moving out to Indianapolis or Nashville or wherever and forgetting about, you know, Ozgood and the place that made you. And I just think that's so cool and so special.
So I appreciate you coming on and sharing the show and and just being an awesome Hoosiers that are doing incredible things. Really appreciate it. Yeah, thanks for having us. We had a lot of fun. Thank you for listening to this episode of Get In. If you like what you heard, make sure you leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.
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 of my gear recommendations at sweetwater. com. 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 @ natepangle. Thank you so much for listening and being part of what makes the Who's Your State great. We'll see you next time here on Get
