Matt Ebert: Scaling to $3B+, Secrets of Building a Business & Embracing Obstacles

In this episode, we sit down with Matt Ebert, founder and CEO of Crash Champions, to uncover the 25-year journey behind building a $3 billion auto collision empire. Matt shares the gritty reality of spending decades on modest paychecks and reinvesting every dollar back into the company, before ultimately leveraging private equity to scale from eight regional shops to over 650 locations nationwide with 11,000 employees. He breaks down his entry into entrepreneurship, strategies for becoming a great leader, building workforce trust, and using authentic, founder-led media to communicate at scale.

About Matt Ebert:

Matt Ebert is the Founder and CEO of Crash Champions, one of the nation's leading collision repair operators, generating $3 billion in revenue across more than 650 locations with a team of nearly 11,000 employees. His entry into the automotive world began purely by accident as a teenager in small-town Illinois when a car crash prompted him to learn hands-on repair from a local technician. Driven by relentless self-education and decades of delayed gratification, Matt spent over 20 years honing his operational skills before scaling his business to a $3B+ valuation.

Matt is a dedicated advocate for modernizing the skilled trades, breaking down traditional blue-collar stereotypes, and developing talent from within through internal mentorship and apprenticeship programs. Today, Matt also hosts Podcrash with Matt Ebert, where he sits down with business leaders, entrepreneurs, and team members to share practical insights on leadership, scaling businesses, and turning life's biggest obstacles into lasting opportunities.

Matt’s Website: https://mattebert.com/

PodCrash Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@MattEbertCC

Crash Champions: https://crashchampions.com/

Timestamps:
00:00 - Introducing Matt Ebert
00:28 - The Accidents That Changed Everything
03:39 - Matt's Entry into Entrepreneurship
05:16 - Delayed Gratification & Modest Paychecks
07:52 - How Crash Champions Scaled Nationwide
08:51 - Smart Cars & ADAS Tech
10:56 - Reclaiming Blue-Collar Careers
11:59 - What AI Means for Auto Repair
14:50 - Building Customer Trust in Service Industries
16:44 - Stepping into Executive Leadership
17:37 - M&A Strategy & 10-Year Industry Outlook
21:06 - Will Driver Safety Tech Eliminate Car Wrecks?
22:45 - Managing 11,000 Employees Across 650+ Locations
26:32 - Founder-Led Content as a Marketing Engine
28:14 - Fatherhood, Mindset, and Navigating Success
31:08 - What Really Drives Business ROI
36:09 - CEO Communication: Leadership for Large-Scale Teams
39:59 - Turning Business Obstacles into Major Opportunities

#entrepreneur #business #founder

Transcript

Brad Banyas (00:07)
All right, everybody, welcome back. You're listening to the Salty MF Goat podcast. We're live here in the McBastard Studio, FOCO USA. And we have an amazing guest today. I'm really excited to talk to Matt Ebert today about his crash champions and his life. He's just an amazing story. And we're welcome. Welcome, Matt. Yeah, man. It's it's it was so funny. So I'm gonna start off with a story. I I won't give all your goodies away, but you know.

Matt Ebert (00:26)
Excited to be here, Brad. Thanks for having me.

Brad Banyas (00:35)
It's amazing how something as a mishap or something bad can happen that turns around and it becomes your life. And so many good things come out of ⁓ a car accident in some cases, right? ⁓ I I was reading your story and I laughed. ⁓ I drove you were 16 when that happened, but I was 18 and I drove my ⁓ Volkswagen Fox through my dad's house.

And ⁓ it was an event that he never forgot and I will never forget.

Matt Ebert (01:07)
I imagine. I I didn't hurt anybody's house, l let alone the one I lived in. So yours is an even better story. Could you

live in it afterwards or just a small hole in the wall?

Brad Banyas (01:16)
Well, yeah, I it I won't tell you how I got to that point, but it wasn't good. But I I drove up through his front porch onto our stairway in the house. So that car literally went into the house. He was getting ready for work. I'm looking I'm in the car looking up with all the bricks down on me, and I see my dad slide across the top stairs in his underwear with his face half shaved, and he's he's ⁓ he's saying all kinds of fli explicatives.

And telling me to back the car out of the house. And at that time I was playing football at the University of Tennessee. He came out, he said, I don't I won't say what he said, but he said, Come sundown Sunday. I want your butt on a Greyhound bus back to Knoxville, and I don't want to see you until Christmas. Well, this was June. So little say I got my bags, went back and saw in December. And he he'd re bricked it, re faced it. It looked amazing.

You know, it was much of good home improvement project, but he was still not happy with me. He just said, Never, never mention it again.

Matt Ebert (02:21)
Well, he he he at least he got you away before he did something he'd regret. I guess that's the good thing about that story. And you probably stuck out to you as even more so than if he had a yelled at you or whatever. So it's probably a good way he handled it.

Brad Banyas (02:30)
⁓

Yeah.

Yeah, he he was a good guy. He was ⁓ he he he ne he was not a like a physical guy, you didn't get a spanking, but if he was mad at you, you got the silent treatment, which was a l I would have just rather taken a spanking probably, but ⁓ you know, that that's you knew when he wasn't talking to you, he was mad at you, so

Matt Ebert (02:56)
Yeah, I know those silent treatments. I get those from my wife every now and then. So I I I I can feel yeah

Brad Banyas (03:03)
well, after 35

years of marriage, brother, if you ever need any tips, I know that you guys have been married a while. ⁓ I can tell you what not to do. I I can't tell you what to do, but I can tell you what not to do. 100%. 100%. Well, you know, a little bit about, you know, Crash Champions and where you've come from. Your story is so amazing. So for our our audience who doesn't know, you've just

Matt Ebert (03:15)
Yeah, from the school of hard knocks on that one too, myself. Yeah.

Brad Banyas (03:31)
You've been on a a whirlwind of amazingness really for the last what seven, eight years. And you know, just kinda walk us through, let let everybody know about Crash Champions and and and how you got to be where you're at and we can get into some other good stuff behind it.

Matt Ebert (03:46)
Yeah, I guess you already commented on it.

I I got into the industry purely by accident when I was a teenager because I had my second accident and I had totaled the first car. So I was afraid of making another insurance claim for fear that I wouldn't have insurance anymore. And to me, grew up in a small town in Illinois, we were grew up poor. So that car was more than a car. For me, it was freedom. So the last thing I wanted to do is give up my newfound freedom. So

That led me to asking somebody in the town who did it was a collision technician during the day and then at night he worked on cars in his own garage. So I asked him how to show me. I asked him to show me rather how to fix mine. And that's really loved the industry, never left it. So it was by pure accident. I didn't grow up around it. I didn't grow up dreaming of being an auto body technician. It just happened. But I've learned through life that

Some just like you commented on the challenges you face are often where the biggest opportunities are. And for this one for me, that's what it ended up being. It's been a good living along the way. Started in business in my twenties with a partner. And we stayed he had a couple shops besides mine, so stayed real small, just a half a shop, so to speak, for 15 years. And then once I was finally able to buy him out is when I started growing. So

Brad Banyas (05:12)
Yeah.

Matt Ebert (05:12)
Really the company's blown up in the last say six, seven years, but it was twenty five years of foundational stuff going on to support that.

Brad Banyas (05:23)
Yeah, I wouldn't ask you because and being an entrepreneur, different industries, but people don't realize, you know, they see the the success now, right? And where you're at now, and you know, three billion in revenue and six hundred and fifty plus locations. But that 20 years that you were there doing that with your 13 or 14 locations, just you know, I I think people don't under they always see the success at the end, or you know, sometimes it's quicker.

But what what was that like, you know, r running these collision centers for twenty years with thirteen I don't know exactly thirteen, fourteen locations? What was that what was that like as an operator, you know, w versus kind of where you're at now? Fair enough?

Matt Ebert (06:09)
Yeah, it was i it it was ups and downs, a whole lot of not whole lot of satisfaction for me postponed or or gratification and that had to keep the money in the business to keep it going. I mean, there were years with a fifty thousand dollar paycheck, so to speak, that I couldn't never cash. So for me there there was a lot of of grinding away. ⁓ I

You know, didn't go to college. So for me, it was also a lot of learning from a leadership and entrepreneur perspective. So I spent a lot of time reading, going to various seminars, et cetera, learning how to do things better from a business perspective. And what helped me to survive in the meantime is delayed gratification of wasn't looking to take money out, wasn't living an extravagant lifestyle, really just taking every dime I could get my hands on, putting it back into the company to.

Roll it.

Brad Banyas (07:07)
Yeah, I think I think that's a misconception that people always think when you start and specifically like it doesn't sound like that you raised money early on, you kind of built it organically and grew organically. And I always tell people that that's a slow burn. Like just the things that you were saying, it's such a slow burn that, you know, it y the the marketing, the awareness, the things like that. But I ⁓ I think obviously when you have good operational knowledge.

You have real knowledge of what you're doing and you can get that organic when someone comes in and says, Wow, like these people really have something amazing here. So when you, you know, when you started to look at ⁓ private equity, ⁓ was that like a scary was that scary for you? Was it, you know, like, hey, I don't know, should I do this? What was that like?

Matt Ebert (07:59)
Yeah, it was a little apprehension. I I I can say ⁓ at that time I was eight locations at the end of twenty eighteen and I had deals on three locations coming up in twenty nineteen that I wanted to ⁓ buy and I had maxed out the SBA. I grew to that point using SBA and seller financing, some financing from vendors, et cetera. I kinda had

maxed all of those out. And so I went to an investment banker really looking for mezzanine debt, which would be, you know, more expensive debt to buy a business with because a traditional bank isn't going to loan you money on business assets typically. Buying the real estate was a lot easier because, you know, with the down payment, there's an asset there. But business assets and traditional banks didn't quite mix. So when I went to the investment banker, they encouraged me to

Brad Banyas (08:52)
Yeah.

Matt Ebert (08:58)
be open-minded to private equity and other things that I really wasn't looking for. Heck, I had just gotten rid of my partner four or five years prior. So part of me was absolutely no way I'm gonna do that deal, but I'm willing to have the conversation. And then really just thinking thinking it through, thinking what the future would be, ended up being the best decision. ⁓ I can tell you a few things that were included in that decision making. Number one,

Vehicles were starting to get complicated. So as we see them today, if you go back six or seven years, all of the advanced driver assist systems that we see coming out today and in really at scale were starting to show up back then. So to me, it was gonna take a lot of investing in equipment and training and technology to keep up with the cars. So that was a little bit of a threat that doing it on my own might not be a great idea.

Also, the way the business was consolidating, it seemed like I might be left behind if I didn't go a little faster than I was planning on going. So getting big quicker in a world where big screws small didn't seem like staying small was going to be a great idea. And then because I was small, I really just had a couple major accounts. And I was afraid that one decision at one of those big accounts.

could take a significant chunk of my business away. So to me, give the ability the business to scale, be able to keep up with what the industry was going to need, and then a bit of protect the business were what led to me making that decision. And then yeah, it was scary because I never did it before. You're bringing in somebody else and giving up control of the business. Even though I left all the money in, it it was still the way it it was structured, giving up control.

So there was risk in that. But to me, that's all the conversations you have ahead of time to make sure you're on the same page, make sure you want to do the same things with the business.

Brad Banyas (11:03)
Yeah, well it's it's also, you know, coming out of the technology space from a long time and you know, we being all this AI stuff and all this stuff, and I think it's amazing how everyone's pushing like, you know, the the new blue collar jobs or the next, you know, millionaire, you know, be famous jobs. And I don't ever think it went away, to be honest with you. I think that was just the the

The tech dorks had more marketing money and we're pushing that. That's my personal opinion. I can say that because I live in that space. So sorry guys, a lot a lot of fluff in in that space. But I I I just I I love it. I love the fact that like people working with their hands, real things, real jobs. And I know you've been a real advocate ⁓ internally of of training your employees. And you guys have a program and kind of getting involved in vocational schools and helping.

these people, you know, learn to trade. And I I I think I think that's pretty amazing. You wanna highlight, you know, some of your thoughts around what you guys are doing there?

Matt Ebert (12:06)
Yeah, number one, trying to tear down the stereotype from decades of white collar jobs being pushed really by society for lack of a better way of saying it. So trying to overcome the stereotype, you know, it's not the same image people would have of a body technician. You're just as likely to be holding a tablet today as you are a paint gun or a welder. So trying to change the image around the industry, it pays better than people think. And to your point,

Before there was any technology, there's a whole lot of people that made a whole lot of money over the years fixing your house and fixing your car and performing all these great services that existed long before technology came. And I believe even though they say AI is gonna take over the world, I believe these opportunities are gonna continue to exist because as I say it, r AI's affected the automobile more than anything I can think of in my personal life as far as the ability.

Brad Banyas (12:42)
Absolutely.

Okay.

Matt Ebert (13:05)
ability of a car to almost drive itself, that's AI. So from a watching it in a practical way affect what we do, but I still say robots won't fix cars anytime soon. It's too too diverse.

Brad Banyas (13:17)
No, and I you know, it's funny because ⁓ you know, my my wife's family is all construction, concrete, you know, ⁓ things like that. So I grew up before I got into this space, you know, ⁓ pouring foundations, pouring driveways, you know, doing all that kind of stuff. And ⁓ they made a pretty good living in concrete, made a pretty good living. So I I think it's just this, you know, some people may the the maybe it's non sexy.

Sometimes but the reality of it's real and it's it's valuable and to me I'm the I just love to see it. I I love to see ⁓ people that can do something. I have ten thumbs, so that that's the only reason I'm ⁓ I'm not doing anything like that. I I can't well don't tell my wife, but I can't fix anything, so so that's ⁓

Matt Ebert (14:01)
You wouldn't want to see me fix your car today either. If

I did it'd be really, really slow. You'd have to go away for a week and come back and then it then it'd probably look good, but I'd be so slow at it I couldn't make a living. Let's put it that way.

Brad Banyas (14:06)
Yeah.

No,

I know, man. It it passes me by. But I you know, it's funny how you find ⁓ you know, I've got call out to a guy named Midway Automotive, guy named Billy. We've used him forever. He's just got a kind of a local guy. And the thing I love about him is he's honest and I always trust that he's gonna, you know, do something good for me and and treat me right. And there that relationship side, I don't think people also think of that where you're regional and you you own some of these shops or collision and you're you're regional. ⁓

That relationship really does matter 'cause it's a trust. I mean, you know, these things are expensive, like you said, to fit you're you're having to work nights to fix your car, right? From from an insurance perspective. It's it's expensive. So

Matt Ebert (14:57)
Yeah, very very much so. I mean, we our why is we believe the difference is trust and that's because of how important what we do is to to people. we're helping people in a time of need. It's a ⁓ an automobile isn't just a car, it's their way to work, it's the way to get the kids to sporting events. So it's an in integral part of everyone's life. And we believe that we have an opportunity that to help people in a situation that they don't face very often.

It's our chance to make them comfortable, build their trust in what we're doing, and get their confidence. So that's how we look at it. From a training perspective, the great thing about our company growing is you may start out as a technician and we we train that from apprenticeship programs to how to fix the car. But really, what's been really rewarding for me as the company has grown.

is just how much opportunity we've been able to create for the team. ⁓ people can advance as much as they want in a growing company or or stay doing just what they love. So it's the ability to bring that opportunity to people that's been awesome. But you also have to train for it. You know, as an example, most of our management team has come up through the shop. So they're they're great people. They know what it takes to fix a car, but it doesn't necessarily mean they're a good leader or a great

a great communicator or a great manager of other people. So we've kind of taken it upon ourselves looking at the type of people we all are, myself included, coming up through the shop. What are the things that we need to learn to continue to move up in the company or to in my case, to continue it to advance the company? And all of the those things are things that we believe to some degree you can learn and you can always get better at.

Brad Banyas (16:51)
That's awesome. Well, I can tell you, so when we posted the other day that you were up next, right, ⁓ I was amazed how many people actually were commenting, saying we're we we really were anxious to hear what's next for the industry from Matt. Like, and it was it was it was really it was neat to see that 'cause people were engaging before the podcast, which showed me that they had a lot of respect for you and your background and the knowledge and your leadership. So

Matt Ebert (16:57)
Mm-hmm.

Brad Banyas (17:20)
I mean, you want to comment on just the industry? I know you guys are, you know, you guys are looking to acquire really kind of the mom and pop shops that, you know, maybe they're not gonna pass that on to their kids or there's no option for them to continue. I don't know your strategy there, but that's what it kinda sounds like. Any news for these guys out there that that are owning these shops and look up to you and trust you and you know.

Matt Ebert (17:44)
Sure.

Sure. I I I mean, look, the great thing is is I've been there. I was the guy that didn't want to didn't want to sell, didn't want to bring in private equity. And just looking at where the industry was going and the things that were happening led me to make certain decisions. And some of them, again, I spent years not making any money, not taking money out. I had to look at eventually if I ever want to retire, how will I get paid? So

Brad Banyas (18:13)
Yeah.

Matt Ebert (18:13)
Where

where are things going? So from a independent shop perspective, there is such a degree of investment needed to keep up with the vehicles today. It it's a reality that that's difficult to do. And then from a from a claims processing perspective through insurance companies, they're dealing more and more with larger companies because they can get consistency across a much bigger platform. We can usually fix things at a

little bit cheaper cost, we save them money administratively. So there's there's so much advantage to the bigger players in in the industry. And that's just the reality that I saw coming. I'm not saying you have to be big, but if you're gonna if you're gonna stay small and ⁓ the industry won't consolidate a hundred percent. No industry does, but in all my research, most industries that begin to consolidate, consolidate up to

say 60, 65%. And so that means that there is a future where there'll be a lot less independent shops in this business. So if I was an independent shop, I would just be looking very seriously at what my plan is for 10 years from now. If I'm looking to exit and my kids don't want the business or couldn't run the business, I'll I would want to create as much value as I could to get somebody like me to to come in and buy it. And if I had a unique

kind of niche as niche situation where I had a dealership that was referring me work or I had a certain certification that I was really confident that I have a strong future, then heck, God bless you. Go run the go run the wheels off that business and and do whatever you want. But I I do think no matter what our situation is, including mine, we gotta somewhat look to the future of 10 years from now, there will be to a degree less accidents than there are today because

Technology is trying to stop cars from wrecking. It's not going to completely succeed, but it will make there be less accidents. The way the kind of all the forward modeling numbers look, it's a growing total addressable market in revenue because all the new cars need more hours to repair them. They need more parts to repair them. They need calibration of all the electronics. So we'll be fixing as an industry less cars for more dollars ten years from now.

You just have to look at your business, whatever the size, and say, Hey, will I survive and thrive in that new world that's gonna be here ten years from now? And technology left the station a long time ago. We have to figure that out because it's here. Does that help? Me too.

Brad Banyas (20:55)
Yeah. Absolutely. And I I I I like to drive. I mean I I I personally like to drive.

You know, I I like to I don't want to sit in the back and let say take me to wherever. So I I I'm kind of torn from a from a personal perspective on that 'cause I I I like the feel of driving. But what is it what's it like now

Matt Ebert (21:13)
Yeah, to but to

your point, I don't think the cars will completely drive themselves, not at scale, but forward braking and even the technology that stops you from backing into the to the light pole binding in a parking lot or something, it does reduce the number of accidents. So I believe cars will continue to wreck. I believe we're gonna have stuff to fix and service for a long time. It's just gonna change a little bit.

Brad Banyas (21:17)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Yeah. Well, I mean, the I don't know what the current stats are now with all the technology around that with cameras and everything, but it was a hundred percent of all drivers were going to get an accident at some point in their life. So I don't know what that is anymore, but you you had a good chance that you had a hundred percent chance that you were you were gonna be coming to visit crash champions at some point in your in your driving career. So so

Matt Ebert (22:03)
Yeah,

we see everybody on average a once every ten years. So that number might go to once every I'm just making up a number here, once every fifteen, but I still believe and you still have natural disasters, you still have hail storms, you still have a tree branch fall off. There's a there's all kinds of reasons that cause you to unfortunately need us, even if you wish you never did.

Brad Banyas (22:24)
Yeah. Well,

hey, hey man, it it happens. I've had it I've had it happen five or six times to me. So, and I was grateful for the guys. My truck came out better looking, you know, than it went in. So ⁓ they did a good job. They did a really good job. What's it what's it like now from a people perspective? Like I don't know what your operations were before, but after the acquisition, you know, I think there's like eleven thousand employees, if roughly, right? Roughly. What is what is that like?

Matt Ebert (22:48)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Brad Banyas (22:52)
Now now you know you had your platoon, you know, and now you've got, you know, a global army kind of thing. Who how has that been for you, like, you know, just as far as that transition?

Matt Ebert (23:06)
Great question. Honestly, that's the work that I concentrate the most on and our team concentrates the most on every day because it's a service business done through our team and with ⁓ because of our team. And so our success is literally based on the quantity and quality of our people. We can we can get all the work in the world. If we don't have the people to produce it, it d it won't matter.

⁓ and if we don't have the the team to work the relationships, we won't get the work. So across the board it's all about it's all about our people. Me sitting in front of a microphone talking to you today is literally the grassroots of it were me trying to figure out how to use technology to communicate with our own team because it got so big I can't get to every location on any kind of reasonable time frame. And so how can I stay connected to the team as big as we are as

What got me in front of the camera in the in the first place. So it's been a transformation and of how to do it different, but ⁓ big time concerned about the team. How do we make sure we get everybody bought in? How do we build the culture? How do we get people excited about what we're trying to do? ⁓ it's literally probably the biggest thing we think about.

Brad Banyas (24:28)
Yeah, that's awesome. Well, I I I I I didn't do a deep dive on all everything you guys are doing, but as far as it seems like the employees and the things I've seen and just from the feedback of people commenting in our post before we even, you know, did this podcast, I would say the the whatever you're doing is working. So that that's that's amazing. And then, you know, so you said that. I I feel very I feel kind of affinity to what you just said because when we started this podcast.

Two a half years ago, I had no intention of being Joe Rogan or a podcaster. We were literally just trying to highlight people like you, other entrepreneurs, other athletes, fighters, whatever it may be. And I find it's been it's an amazing vehicle to reach people that we we never would have reached, even more so for our other business. I mean, I would say this probably was a better, this probably was a better marketing slash investment slash spending time.

than anything we could have done on our other side of the business because people related to the human nature of just having a conversation. So

Matt Ebert (25:30)
Yeah,

that's it that I found the same exact thing, Brad. Especially think about it, a world where people are only gonna need us once every ten years. We can't possibly be Coca-Cola or s some brand name that advertises like crazy where everybody in the world knows the name and it's a household name. We we could never afford to do that. So this has been powerful for us to communicate with

with the world for lack of a better way of saying it, because we could never hope to advertise our advertise our way to top of mind awareness to people. Nobody cares about collision repair until they have to. That's the that's the reality. I don't blame ⁓ right?

Brad Banyas (26:05)
Yeah. Yeah.

Well, hey, well, that's

yeah, well, it's an important choice. So now they know where to go, at least, you know. It's you want somebody to do a good job. Well, just, you know, I I know that you're a busy guy and you've got a lot. You're I know I saw some of your schedule, but I so I don't want to keep it beyond your time. But I did want like so podcrash is your podcast, right? Podcrash. So just ⁓ tell everybody so I I've listened to it.

Matt Ebert (26:34)
Yeah.

Brad Banyas (26:39)
You know, over the last couple of days, I love your guests you have on. It's all a lot of entrepreneurship stuff. So just tell everybody about that 'cause we want we want them to listen to you as well on that.

Matt Ebert (26:49)
appreciate it. Yeah, we it's called Podcrash with Matt Ebert. So kind of a great spin that our chief marketing officer came up with, I think, on the name because of Crash Champions being our company. But exactly that. It's the opportunity to interview what I view as a lot of smart people in in the world come in and give ad advice entrepreneurially, business wise, management wise. And so it we feel like we've gone after really high quality guests too.

Brad Banyas (26:59)
Yeah.

Matt Ebert (27:19)
And and that's what makes it for me, I'm still learning from a I I say I'm still closer to the disaster than the master of being being the host, but I I feel like I learned something every time and hopefully anybody who tunes in will will too. Thanks for the opportunity to talk about it.

Brad Banyas (27:35)
Yeah. Yeah, I I I I like your kids.

Yeah, no, I I l I love your guest choice. It's funny because people ⁓ you know, like Dave Meltzer was on. We've had we've had some people that would be really known and then we'll have someone on that that's ⁓ you know, a sophomore in college, an athlete. And so y it's ⁓ our kind of theme on that is you never know what you're gonna get.

And that was kind of the purpose of what we were trying to do, highlight 'cause everybody's got a good story or some value to give. And so we never wanted to be just in like a political, you know, realm or whatever realm. We wanted to be, hey man, it it y you you never know who's gonna show up here and hopefully you get some good value and get get get pumped up and encouraged to go out and change the world. So

Matt Ebert (28:21)
I love it. You know, it's interesting on that because some of the most viewed ones so far have been our own employees that we talked to or or or my wife or or somebody that's not so well known. Sometimes those get even even more attention, I think, because it just makes things a little more real and maybe two well known people's stories are out there in and people might not think they're gonna get anything new out of it. I don't know.

Brad Banyas (28:28)
Yeah.

Yeah, it's fun. It's funny. I think some of this that like we I had a friend on, he was ⁓ Clint Dees, called Clint, good guy, ex ⁓ professional basketball player, big guy, tall guy. And he's like, Hey, I'm gonna come on the podcast. I'm like, you gonna talk about basketball? And he's like, No. He goes, I want to talk about fatherhood. And I was like, Well, I know about I know that. I got four kids, so I I I'll do it. And it was just one of these things, you know, we weren't even talking about.

Matt Ebert (29:04)
Mm.

Brad Banyas (29:13)
sports or anything and that was probably one of the most viewed podcasts just because we were you know, everyone can who's a father can relate to kinda all the stuff you deal with as a dad and I I I was grateful for that. Sometimes the best conversations are definitely just happen. So

Matt Ebert (29:30)
Yeah, 'cause it's real and we all face it. Hell, that's one thing I worry about the most is not being a bad father. it I I think none of us know exactly how to get it right. As maybe after we've had as many kids as you said you've had, we got it down, but I only have two and they're still really young, so I have no clue how this turns out.

Brad Banyas (29:35)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

It's like.

Well, you know,

you know what I tell people, that's one thing I know of you you you you just you just love ⁓ encourage ⁓ and they gotta make this when they get old enough, they gotta make their decisions and mistakes and they'll come back to you and say, You told me, you know, you told me I said, Look, you weren't ready. You weren't ready to receive that message, you haven't had the life experience, but now you know. So please tell your kids early as well. Maybe

May maybe that'll work out for you and they won't do it. But realistically, you know, we all gotta live our life, right? We we don't know. Things happen, impact ya. Hey, you may wreck your car and then one day, you know, be running a a eleven thousand employee business though. You never know. So

Matt Ebert (30:36)
Yeah, I I I tell my wife, I feel like we're almost doomed to screw this up in some kind of way. If we were perfect parents, we'd screw our kids up 'cause we were perfect, right? There'd always be something. So ⁓

Brad Banyas (30:45)
Yeah. Yeah. I

yeah, you know, I I think it's like I said, you just you kinda point in the right direction, you support as much as you can and you love on and ⁓ they figure it out. You know, well the one thing I'm glad is none of my kids wanted to be in the whole technology space, which I'm grateful for that 'cause ⁓ it it it's a it's a different thing. So they're they're they're in the trades. A lot of them are in the trades and other areas and and they love it. So that's and I and I love it 'cause they

Matt Ebert (31:09)
that's super cool.

You as the technology

guy didn't want him in it, huh?

Brad Banyas (31:15)
No, I mean, you know, it's

I don't know, man. It's all moving data around. It's so funny because you know, I was around when year 2000 happened and all that stuff and the internet boom and then the internet crash and all this stuff. And like I I look at our business now as we're just like you. You have a problem at your enterprise or your company. We're coming in to fix that problem and have an outcome. Whatever tools we use are not really as important as long as they were the right tool to use it. And I the older I get, I take that approach.

Matt Ebert (31:49)
Yeah.

Brad Banyas (31:49)
⁓

to the way we deliver a result or an outcome not so much as we're using anthropic or we're you we're using salesforce or we like that stuff really doesn't matter and our team laughs because like don't say that I'm like look dude we're the plumbers and the electricians of a corporate like enterprise that's it there's no sexiness to CRM and all the there's none of it it's marketing fluff it's bullshit and if you don't get an outcome

The the customer can't make money or save costs or whatever. That's our job. And our our lead marketing guy's like, don't ever say that. But I am saying that under Salty. So maybe the other team's not listening. So ⁓ so I'll do it.

Matt Ebert (32:32)
Love

it, yeah. The user has to see the benefit of it. I agree for sure. Right. If it there's no benefit to it in the end, it it if it won't I can't see it succeeding.

Brad Banyas (32:36)
Absolut. Yeah. Absolutely.

Yeah.

Yeah, well it you know, you can have a you can have the best pair of sunglasses and maybe look cool, but if you if you really can't pull it off, it it doesn't matter. So ⁓ I don't know. But but we we've got we won't go into all that stuff. But hey, ⁓ my my dad always just say, Hey, it doesn't matter what kind of marketing it is, good or bad, as long as they remember you. So ⁓ so there's my marketing tip for everybody. Do something memorable.

Matt Ebert (33:09)
You know, Brad, I noticed

you'd got a few things going on all at once. Are you are you having trouble 'cause the doing the podcast successfully, I can tell you from my little learning on it takes time. It I I didn't foresee it taking the time it takes to do mine and we're not even monetizing it, but ⁓ you're you're juggling a few things pretty well, it looks like.

Brad Banyas (33:28)
Yeah.

Well, I I I grew up, you know, my dad told me that I was unemployable and it was the greatest thing he ever said to me. He said, You better find something that you can do and ⁓ he said you you're you're pretty conversational, you like people, you should get into sales. So early on I got into sales and had what I would call professional people train us. And my dad was right. And ⁓ I see this as you and I talked a little bit before that the fans or the the crowd didn't get to hear, but

we started this venture to honor people during a time during COVID when the world had shut down and they were kind of dehumanizing everything and keeping people from having conversations. So, this is more of to me ⁓ an importance of like showing people it's okay just to have a conversation with people. That that's how you learn, that's how you grow, that's how you build friendships, that's how you get business.

And it was just something that really sat in my head, Matt, that ⁓ regardless of what this is or the time, some value will come out of it. Hopefully you guys will have a light shine on you. We might have a light shine on us. So, but yeah, I I like I said, so what we did was we we just

We just went and leased a bunch of space and built a studio to to accommodate this and then I moved my office out of our building here so that if I had to come sit down in this chair, at least it wouldn't interrupt too much of what I was doing.

Matt Ebert (35:05)
I think it's great. ⁓ people people like to do business with people they know and people they trust. And one advantage is something like this, it does give people a chance to get to know you. And without it, in my world they wouldn't have they wouldn't have known me because there w until we started doing this, there was literally nothing out there other than a Google resume. But as far as being able to actually get to know someone, to me this has been

great from that perspective, which I'm sure it's doing the same thing for you.

Brad Banyas (35:37)
Yeah. It

it is. It's a little awkward. I mean, I'll have to say, you know, I'm not I've never been, you know, even though I would say from a conversational business side, I I'm fine with that. It's a little awkward ⁓ to see yourself and be on camera all the time and do all that. And I'm kind of an introvert. People don't think I am, but I'd rather be sitting on a mountain somewhere. Like, you know, but but it's part of life. I mean, you you know, you gotta you gotta you gotta

You gotta teach people what you learned or show how you did it or see if you can pull them through a a bad phase of their life. Everything will pass, I tell everybody, every entrepreneur will pass.

Matt Ebert (36:16)
So interesting you say that 'cause I I I feel the same way about it. But I also feel like my role in the company today, as it's gotten so much bigger, my ability to communicate matters to a a huge degree. And it's not the same as one on one conversations. It's the ability to communicate through media or to bigger audiences. So

Brad Banyas (36:17)
Okay.

Matt Ebert (36:41)
To me it's all growth too. It might not be something I'm comfortable or necessarily love, but it it helps me do more of what I love because it helps me advance my ability to communicate. That's how I've looked at it anyway.

Brad Banyas (36:54)
Yeah, well, I think you're doing a good job. And I think ⁓ I think having credibility behind something versus a facade or somebody, you know, just propping people up. I mean, I'm very comfortable with what we do from a business perspective. And we kind of were in the technology space, media space. We've done some stuff around it. So for us not to come out and kind of say this is it it would be kind of hypocritical for us to not be doing these things. But at the same time, ⁓

You know, the technology today for people that want to start a podcast or people that want to be on social media. I mean, as long as I say you know something about a subject, could be fatherhood, you know, could it could be anything, could be technology. I mean, if you have what you think is valuable to yourself, because you know you're well, just get out there and talk about it. You you're amazed how the some of these people become you know, gurus and just opening little kids' gifts. I saw this kid, he was like 13, he runs a

10 million dollar business and all the all the toy people just send him the new toys and he sits there and he opens them and he plays with them and he gives a rating. And this kid's I don't know, he's like twelve, you know? What an what an awesome thing. He's set for life and he's doing something he likes. It's it's pretty amazing in some of these cases, so.

Matt Ebert (38:02)
Yeah.

Yeah, I think the best ones are when people are just authentically them. And if you're twelve and in the toys, you can be authentically you and do it well. So the you have it too. It's the authenticity of it all that to me, even when I'm searching other people's podcasts and stuff, the authentic ones are the ones I like the best.

Brad Banyas (38:21)
Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. It's amazing.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean it's it it's great to get the superstars and and all that, but you know, I find that you we always forget, you know, most of the people, whether you're gonna label it in labor or blue collar, whatever you want to label it as irrelevant, working with your hands. ⁓ everybody sees the top YouTube and Flint's influence or whatever. Well, I I gotta tell you, the majority of the population are like you.

Matt Ebert (39:01)
Mm-hmm.

Brad Banyas (39:01)
Right. It's great to see, you know, these, you know, famous people, but the reality of it is you really have nothing to relate to them in most cases. It's everyday people. And those are the people you should surround yourself with because they're going through it right now or they figured out how to get out of it, or I tried this and whatever. And it's not going to be some, you know, fabricated story. So ⁓ talk to your neighbors, talk to your friends, talk to ⁓ whoever. So maybe it's something good'll come out of it. So

Matt Ebert (39:31)
Love it. Yep.

Brad Banyas (39:32)
Well, I I've been grateful. I know you you're you're busy and you've got your show and I I'm I'm grateful to have you on. We're excited. ⁓ I'm a fan ⁓ of you guys and you know, really, you know, it's funny you could say that because when I thought I'd heard your name and I thought I knew you, but then when I looked you up, I was like, yeah, this is this is amazing, you know. And so ⁓ I I I think this will be great for our ⁓ our audience, salty nation out there. You wanna close with anything, Matt? Like you wanna

Matt Ebert (39:53)
Thanks.

Brad Banyas (40:01)
Give some people some advice out there or just anything or

Matt Ebert (40:06)
My my my big advice is ⁓ to my big life learn is to look where you're struggling, look at the obstacles and that's where your biggest opportunity lies when you figure it out. I spent my whole time trying to avoid challenge until I figured out the challenges are never gonna go away. It's embrace and figure out how to how to conquer them and then you can be helpful to others too. And then

Surround yourself with a great team. That's been my biggest hack. ⁓ surround yourself with better people and and your life gets better. And I believe that wholeheartedly. And I would thank you for bringing me on. ⁓ can't wait to keep watching you and ⁓ and the people you bring on and thanks for giving me the chance to talk to.

Brad Banyas (40:52)
Yeah.

Yeah, Matt, I ⁓ absolutely we're we're grateful to have you on. I love your story and it's it's a story for everyone. Sometimes, sometimes growth comes through pain or, like you said, obstacles. And it's really hard to grasp that to people out there. But if you're an entrepreneur, I promise you, or you're an aspiring entrepreneur, aspiring anything, entrepreneur means a lot of things. sometimes you got to go through the pain.

To get to the next step. And I don't know how to explain it. I don't know why it happens. I would rather miss it. But the reality of it is, you know, hang in there and believe in yourself. And ⁓ I I'm I'm a fan now of Crash Champions and ⁓ check out Pod Crash as well. ⁓ and Matt can ⁓ he's interviewing some amazing people. But ⁓ Matt, I've enjoyed having you, brother. You're part of the SALTY MF family now.

Matt Ebert (41:29)
Yes, yes, yeah.

Brad Banyas (41:51)
When if you ever make it down to the Atlanta area, we we would love to have you in studio.

Matt Ebert (41:52)
Love it.

All right, I'll come by and see ya. Thanks for the invite. Thanks, Brett.

Brad Banyas (41:58)
All right, brother. Thank you. Appreciate