The Long Burn

Episode 16 - Brian Harrell - SOGA Graphics

• Jonathan Wade & Joel Malin

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 51:13

Send us Fan Mail

🎙️ The Long Burn Podcast — Episode Summary

🏷️ From Car Audio to Covert Success: 25 Years of Pivoting, Delegation, and "Burning the Boats"

Episode Overview

In this guest episode of The Long Burn Podcast, co-hosts Dr. Jonathan Wade and Joel Malin sit down with longtime friend Brian Harrell, founder and owner of Soga Graphics (South Georgia Graphics) in Adel, Georgia. Celebrating 25 years in business, Brian reflects on his high-stakes entrepreneurial journey—from starting out in car stereos and window tinting to navigating a failed early partnership, surviving the 2008 recession, shifting entirely to commercial vinyl graphics, and learning the hard lesson of delegating tasks to stop being the "single point of failure" in his own business. 

👥 Meet the Guest

  • Brian Harrell: Founder and owner of Soga Graphics. What began as a small 800-square-foot storefront in 2001 has grown under his leadership into a 13,000-square-foot operation with a 9-person team, servicing fleets, patrol vehicles, and commercial accounts across Georgia. 

🧠 Core Themes & Key Takeaways

1. Navigating Pivots & "Burning the Boats"

  • The Failed Partnership: Brian’s business initially began as a joint venture with a close friend. Just three months in, realizing they worked better as friends than partners, they split, leaving Brian to buy out his partner and inherit all early business debt. 
  • Following the Revenue Writing on the Wall: Brian’s passion was car audio and truck accessories. However, after buying a small 24-inch vinyl plotter for $2,500 in the early 2000s to make in-house shop graphics, demand snowballed. By 2007, that single machine was generating more revenue than the entire audio and tint side of the business. 
  • Liquidating the Past: Seeing that factory vehicles were increasingly coming pre-equipped with built-in entertainment systems, Brian made the hard call in 2007–2008 to completely liquidate his audio inventory. He "burned the boats" to go full-time into vinyl graphics right at the onset of the 2008 economic recession. 

2. Moving from a "High-Paying Job" to a True Business

  • The Trap of Being the Hero: For nearly a decade, Brian worked 15+ hour days (6:00 AM to 10:00 PM) as the sole skilled laborer. Around 2021, he realized that despite having multiple employees and growing revenue, he was still personally responsible for driving the vast majority of income—meaning he hadn't built a self-sustaining business, but rather a grueling high-paying job. 
  • Learning to Delegate: Brian notes that his biggest operational mistake was trying to hire skilled labor to do what he already knew how to do, rather than hiring for the roles he disliked or struggled with, such as administration and sales. 
  • The 95% Standard: A major bottleneck for hands-on entrepreneurs is perfectionism. Brian had to learn to step back from answering every phone call, doing every quote, or running every install, accepting that a team executing at 95% quality is necessary to scale and gain personal time back. 

3. Word-of-Mouth, Relationships, and Cultural Legacy

  • The High School Lesson: Brian attributes his core business philosophy to a single piece of advice from his high school homeroom teacher, Ms. Susan Keene: To be successful, meet and stay in contact with as many people as possible. 
  • Small-Town Accountability: Operating in South Georgia means relationships and reputation are everything. Over 25 years, consistent word-of-mouth networking and local trust built a far stronger pipeline than aggressive digital advertising campaigns. 
  • Passing the Torch: Brian’s 19-year-old son voluntarily chose to join Soga Graphics after graduating high school. Working alongside his son has given Brian a new perspective on mentorship and the long-term value of the family business. 

🔥 The Firing Line (3 Core Questions)

  1. What is a failure that cost you more than money, and what did it change about how you operate today?
    • Answer: Thinking he had to do everything on his own. The true cost was missing precious time with his young children while working 80-hour weeks. It taught him that delegation, building systems, and stepping back from being the "hero" are essential for real growth. 
  2. What belief did you have to unlearn to keep growing without burning out?
    • Answer: Unlearning the belief that he was the center of the business. He shifted his mindset from making himself important to making his team important—ensuring they have great working conditions, flexibility, and a supportive culture. 
  3. What does success look like in this season of your life?
    • Answer: Five years ago, success was defined by revenue numbers. Today, success is defined purely by time and freedom—having a business and a trusted team that allows him to step away and enjoy life. 

📢 Exclusive Announcement

  • Paint is Dead Network Expansion: Soga Graphics has officially been invited to join the exclusive, invitation-only Paint is Dead network as only the second location in the entire state of Georgia (alongside industry pioneer Miller Decals). 
🛑 Podcast Mindset Anchor" People see your fruits, but they don't see your labor. They don't always see everything behind closed doors." — Brian Harrell 


unknown

Right.

SPEAKER_03

Hey, welcome to this episode of the Longburn Podcast. We've got ourselves another guest episode today, but as always, it's me, uh Dr. Jonathan Wade and Joel Mallon uh here at the resident hosts. Um today we're we're real fortunate to have a uh a longtime friend of ours, uh Brian Harrell. He is uh a longtime business owner here in South Georgia.

SPEAKER_04

Um he's a professional rapper.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, he is. He loves rap. Started South America. My wife's South Georgia buddy then. There you go. South Georgia graphics over in Adel, Georgia, uh, over 25 years ago. And so he's got a wealth of information uh to kind of run us through that gauntlet, that journey that we always talk about of the entrepreneur. Um so Brian, why don't you uh uh welcome to the show. Why don't you give us a little rundown of of your history and then we'll kind of dive into the thing?

SPEAKER_04

He only said wealth of information. So I mean, are you okay with Brian? Like that's all he has is information. Everything else is a wash. Well, it's good and bad, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

That's right. Information is information. Um whether you value it or not, that's you know, completely different. But um uh but yeah, yeah, I'm Brian Harrell from uh Soga Graphics. Um uh like Jonathan said, I've been at this 25 years now. And um, you know, I started pretty small. Um actually it was it was me and a business partner that uh that lasted about three months in the beginning. And um that's a that's a good way to ruin a friendship, by the way. Just uh jump in business with your best with your best friend. So um so anyway, um three months in uh me and my friend decided we weren't great at being partners, we're good at being friends, but not so much being partners. So we we separated and I had to buy him out um right off the bat. That was fun. And uh so that's good to keep the house. Yeah, yeah, and all and all the debt and everything they get in. So but uh but yeah, you know, partnerships can be good for some people, I guess, but they were not for us. Um but uh yeah, started out very small, and um, you know, we're up to to nine people on our team now. Um and and always looking to grow, but just in the right direction, you know. So um learned a lot around along the way. Um unfortunately I didn't learn the correct way and uh always the hard way. Uh you know, there's there's a lot more resources out today that that I did not have, you know, in 2001.

SPEAKER_04

He's talking about AI.

SPEAKER_00

That too. I mean uh YouTube for one. Yeah. And um but man, there's there's uh there's so many resources available now that that I wish I could have plugged into back then.

SPEAKER_04

Um well if I remember correctly, I think if you if I remember your story, you got what got you kicked off on all this was car audio.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, yep. So so I'll I'll I'll kind of I'll go back to the beginning. So we we did we started out in uh car stereos and window tanning and truck accessories, that sort of thing. And um uh you know not long after starting, um we were looking to make graphics for ourselves for for for use on different projects of the shop and and uh the logo for beats by Brian, that's what it was back then. That's right. And um so we needed we needed a way to make these because at the time there was only one place in town that would that would make vinyl decals at all. And um, and no offense, but the the it was an elderly couple, not very creative, so you know, unless you could walk in with like uh explicit details of what you wanted and could even draw it for them, like they just they didn't have capacity or capability to do it. So um, so a buddy of mine talked me into buying uh a plotter, you know, a small 24-inch plotter. And um and at the time, you know, I I think I paid I don't know twenty five hundred bucks for this equipment, and like that was a lot of money, you know.

SPEAKER_04

Um was that just m not much of a step up from like a cricket or something like that?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, well in in today's world, yeah. Now but now back then it was pretty significant, but um uh but you know we we bit the bullet and and um started making graphics for our only for us. And you know, one customer found out that we could make you know decals that were like, hey man, I'm I need you to make this for my project. And then um, you know, well, hey, can you make a car tag? You know, can you make this? Can you make that? And then uh I think it was 2003 um the school system found out that we had the machine. They're like, hey, we you know, we need somebody to to make banners for the football field, and um and it just kind of started snowballing. And in 2007, um we were making or generating more revenue with that one little machine than we were the whole other side of the business, the the audio, the tent, the accessories, like that one machine was generating more revenue. So I kind of seen the writing on the wall. Um, it wasn't necessarily uh the direction that I wanted to go in because audio and stuff was my passion. Like you know, in in in high school, like I'm I'm flipping through mini trucking magazines and you know what I mean? Like I'm not even paying attention to what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_04

I mean, car audio, I mean you know how many drugs you have to sell to be able to afford a good stereo?

SPEAKER_00

I mean that's true. Gosh. That was uh that was uh a small portion of our clientele. Um but uh but times have changed a good bit, and you know, I'm I'm kind of glad, I'm not kind of glad, I'm very glad we we made the move. Um that industry is not what it was 20 years ago. Yeah. Uh the the new vehicles come equipped with everything. Oh gosh, yeah. I I remember that this might have been 2005, 2000, 2005, 2006. I remember the very first uh expedition that I seen um from from Cook County Ford. They rolled up because we we tended the front windows on it. They rolled up, and I looked up there, and I'm like, oh man, this thing has got a flip-down DVD player in it already. You know, and uh and that was one of the things we did. Like they would give us a call that hey, we need a you know, you know, rear seat entertainment system in this thing. And and um so so equipping that equipping vehicles with that kind of stuff was a big part of our business.

SPEAKER_04

Well the term nowadays is clapped out.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, clapped out. Fully clapped out. So uh um so yeah, thankfully, thankfully we did see the writing on the wall. Or I should say I seen the writing on the wall was just primarily my decision at that time. Um but we started, you know, kind of leaning more toward the graphics and and uh I actually bought a printer that year, and we tried uh our first vehicle wrap in 2007, and it was terrible. I think we pulled it right back off. Um I don't think we got it completely on. Um I remember the first commercial van we wrapped, like I had uh I had a friend that was my window 10 installer at the time. He was he was trying to learn how to wrap and help me. And um, so so I'm doing the driver's side, he's doing the passenger side, and we get done, and I'm looking like mine's running downhill, his is running uphill, and I'm just like, oh my god, what have we gotten into?

SPEAKER_04

And um but uh we were optical illusion car, like people know if you're coming or going. That's right. That's great. So it's like two different wraps at one time.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah Brian, when you when you made that pivot, did you completely just drop the the audio stuff? I mean you just went full bore into the wraps.

SPEAKER_00

Um not initially, like we we we invested in the printer and and I was a I was a little reluctant to just fully step away from it, but um late 2007, 2000 or early 2008, like I just seen it. I was like, you know what, I just I've got to step back so I can focus on on the graphics industry. And um, so we we ended up basically just um liquidating the inventory, like it was you know, we didn't try to sell that portion of the business or anything. We we ended up selling all of our displays and equipment and stuff and he burned the boats, Joel.

SPEAKER_03

He bur he burned the boats. That's right.

SPEAKER_04

That was right during the recession, too, wasn't it? Right around 2008. It was. That was that was a pretty rough time. And I mean, stuff like car audio, that's for people with expendable income for the most part, or drugs, like I said. That's right.

SPEAKER_00

Either one.

SPEAKER_04

One or the other.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Coming from a licensed drug dealer side either. That's right. That's what I do, okay. He's got nicer bottles.

SPEAKER_04

He didn't have any baggies.

SPEAKER_00

Oh man. So uh so yeah, it was uh it wasn't a smooth transition, but but um yeah, we uh we did make it and uh it was it was a rough start. But I I think it was more mental struggle than anything, just because I didn't have the other part of the business as a crutch, you know. Um but uh but we have we've shown growth year after year since 2006, and um it's it's just crazy to to see where kind of where we've come from since then. We started out in about uh 800 square foot building in 2001, and I mean it was tiny, like we were cramped inside the thing, and then we moved up to a 2400 square foot building in 2004, and then in 2015 we we bought our current location and we're a little over 13,000 square feet now.

SPEAKER_03

Um when did you hire your first emp employee amongst all that? When when did you have to bring in?

SPEAKER_00

Um 2004, we actually I hired my first actual employee. Um but now I ended up having to scale back a good bit in 07, 08, right until when times kind of got rough. Um matter of fact, uh my mother at the time was kind of my part-time bookkeeper and uh she was she worked in the banking industry. And um so she would get off work in the banking industry, she would come by and kind of help me with the bookkeeping and that sort of thing. And um and then she ended up basically retiring from the banking industry and coming with me full time, um, kind of doing the books and everything, and and now she's 99.9% retired. Um she just kind of does some remote bookkeeping when she wants to. Um you know, her and uh her and her sister will go to the beach and you know for a couple weeks of time and just uh so I'm I'm I'm proud that she can do that. And I um but but anyway, uh again back to the employee thing. So um my first full-time employee besides my mother was probably 2010, 2011, and uh and and I didn't really hire the way that that that I looking back, like I I should have hired the jobs that I didn't like to do. You know, like I I should have hired admin and I should have hired uh sales, and you know you know what I mean, like um like like I was I was d not trying I was trying to hire the skilled labor, yeah, um and I was the skilled laborer at the time, you know. Um but yeah, yeah I'm not sure where I was going with that.

SPEAKER_03

Well that that's a long time that you were by yourself. I mean that's a long time that you you were the business, right?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. Which kind of leads back to what we were saying earlier, you know, like I I kind of um I did I didn't necessarily build a business at that point, but I built a high paying job. You know um because I I didn't realize it at the time, you know, but uh uh uh the business was growing, our revenue was growing, um you know, we did end up hiring you know employees one at a time until we've kind of gotten up to where you are where we are now. But um but I still had to be such a um such a major part of the business that I couldn't never really I never could step away from it, you know. So the business would never really operate unless I was there 24-7. So you know, and and I think that's one of the pitfalls that that um that a lot of small business owners find themselves in because I you know I've I've traveled the country a good bit in the past few years to different rap shops and I've and I've kind of got to see the way a lot of other people do it. And um and I see that most of them had the same struggles, right? I mean, yeah, there's there's a few that have figured it out, but but most of them have the same struggles. They're they're going through the same pitfalls and and um you know they're they're right in the same boat, they've created themselves a high-paying job and they can't really get away from it. So so you you've gotta really um change your mindset.

SPEAKER_01

You know, um you know, you you you don't want to be um how can I phrase this?

SPEAKER_00

Um you don't want to be the the person that uh that every decision depends on. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_04

Like um Well it's a single point of failure.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So um you know, you you've gotta delegate, obviously. Um but you you've gotta hire the right people.

SPEAKER_00

Um you've got to uh to trust for one thing. And you and you've gotta be able to step back and and just uh and know that things are gonna get done. Um you know, so I that that was that has been a a big uh drawback in mine. Um you know, I've gotten a lot better at it, but uh but it's it's definitely uh a bit of a learning curve when you've done it by yourself for so long.

SPEAKER_04

Even when you have employees, like you you know, you have five employees, but you're still like running around chasing your tail and uh and then you out of curiosity, what did what did your work week look like when it was just you doing pretty much most of the skilled labor? Like how many hours you think you were working a week?

SPEAKER_00

Way more than I needed to. I mean, I mean I would be um I mean I would be at the shop at six o'clock in the morning and not leave till nine, ten o'clock, you know. And um you know, my my uh my son was born in in 07, my daughter was born in 11, you know, and I missed a lot of a lot of time that I just can't get back, you know. So um so yeah, so I I wish I would have figured out a lot of this stuff in you know 2010 instead of you know 2022 or 23, you know, you know.

SPEAKER_04

So um but uh that's the thing we talk about all the time. Like there's no way of knowing in that moment what the right answer is. And so you know, looking back and saying, Oh, I should have done this different, or should have done you didn't have that information. You did not know then what you know now. You know, that would be ideally if we could all do that, but I mean you were figuring it out, and especially in because Adale's in Cook County, is that right? Yeah, Cook County. So, Cook County, I mean, how many other people did you have to pull information from or get any kind of feedback about how to run the business for that specific industry? Zero. So, I mean you're that that's the the perspective Jonathan talks about building the parachute. Like you were building your success and escape plan with little to no input at the same time.

SPEAKER_00

That's true. I will I will say this. Um, I did have uh at the time I considered uh somebody in the in town, I don't want to say who it was, but at the time it was somebody that I considered to be very successful. And of course, I think success is is measured in so many different ways, but what I considered success at the time, and um and he tried to kind of pull me in, and and I I the closer that I kind of got to watching him, how he operated his business, I realized pretty quick that that wasn't necessarily the best route for me to run my business. Um he had more than one set of books. And uh you know, so uh so I was like, you know what, this is probably not the best mentor for me.

SPEAKER_04

Well, Cook County is a home of cooking books, right? That's for the turkey. Cooking books.

SPEAKER_00

So um, you know, I am I am pretty proud to say that we have one set of books and uh that uh we we do everything by the book for Was it the Harry Potter series in which books every time?

SPEAKER_05

Fiction mostly.

SPEAKER_03

What what was that moment that you realized I gotta do something different? You know, I mean you said it was 2022, 2023, but but was there was there a a week, a day, a month, something happened?

SPEAKER_00

You know, I I think um it was probably closer to like 2021, if I really look back at it, you know, it wasn't long after COVID. And um you know, we we had uh we probably had six or maybe seven people on the team at the time.

SPEAKER_01

And and I just realized that uh it's like man, you know, we we've I've got all these employees and our revenue is X amount of dollars and I'm responsible for the majority of this income.

SPEAKER_00

You know, and it's like it shouldn't be that way, you know, like like I should really be able to to step back and the revenue stay the same. Um that's when I realized that okay, I've not really created a business, I've just created a job.

SPEAKER_01

You know.

SPEAKER_00

Um you know, so so that's and it's a hard pill to swallow, especially when you've been in business for for so long and um and from the outside looking in, like people only you know, they don't they don't see everything obviously, and and um of course you know you you get a bunch of attaboys and pats on the back and it's like man, if you just knew you know like struggles and everything. And um I know you and I talked about it, Jonathan, about a posted I put on Facebook one time about a lot of the different struggles that a lot of the businesses business owners in general have. And um, you know, until somebody puts it out there, like you just don't you don't think that we all have the same struggles, but we do.

SPEAKER_03

I remember that. I mean it was so eloquent and it it resonated h hell. I think it brought Candace to tears because as entrepreneurs, we think we're on an island, you know, and though we are in different industries, we face the same struggles. We go through the same head-in-hands moments, we go through that same uh mature maturity and and and whatnot to get where we are. And yet for you to put that out there, I think there were lots of business owners that liked it, shared it, you know, commented on it because I think it resonated with so many people. Um that I think that opened my eyes to uh to running a small business in South Georgia that man, I'm not alone. That is true. How do you go ahead, Joel?

SPEAKER_04

I was gonna say, I I have no experience building a business like you guys have, but I can remember the short period of time when I was doing uh woodworking and everything else. To your point, Brian, of like kind of you know, getting people on board to do the parts of it that drain you. That's kind of the way I think about it. Is that I do not prefer to do admin and marketing and all that other stuff. At the time, what I wanted to do was work with wood and build stuff and be creative because your creative juices are substantially um drained by numbers and and doing the books and doing the marketing and and you know, writing out estimates for clients and stuff like that. Obviously, it's necessary for you to run a legitimate, uh, responsible business and everything else. But like, you know, I would imagine like what you wanted to do initially was car audio, but then you realized what made money was the vinyl rep. You had to get in the mindset of I really want to do vinyl wrap and printing now because that's where the money was. And I imagine there was a a transition time that you had to be like, no, this is the direction that I have to go if I want this to succeed. Was that hard to let go of what you wanted it to be initially?

SPEAKER_00

Oh, a hundred percent. Um you know, because it it's not what I wanted to do. Yeah, but but uh you know, it's like I said, I seen the writing on the wall. And um I I knew that if I was gonna if I was ever gonna get out of the hole, if I was ever gonna um you know be profitable, um that I that I had to I had to do it, you know.

SPEAKER_01

Um it was it was pretty difficult.

SPEAKER_00

Um I still love car audio, like but you know, my son now, he'll be 19 next month, so like I I see him kind of going through a lot of the stages that I went through you know with the with with you know fixing up his truck and uh you know and and of course now he's got a system in his truck and you know and the LED lights and he's got those star twinkle lights, doesn't he?

SPEAKER_03

Up in and I hope he's got that Carolina squat.

SPEAKER_00

I think he does. Um but yeah, but I but you know watching him kind of go through a lot. Yeah. But the skill set's still there too. Yeah, you know, I've I've I've been able to enjoy helping him with some of his little projects and stuff, you know. Like I've we get to work on his truck a lot and and I forget that you know that he never actually seen that part of my business, right? Um because we were transitioning like when he was born. So so he never got to see the the cool stuff that his dad did, you know. You know, to him raps aren't cool, you know, car audio is cool, you know. But uh uh but but he's changed a little bit. So he he he works up here with me now. Um matter of fact, you know, um when he graduated last year, and I had no idea that he was gonna do this, but you know, when when the kids have uh when they do like their letters of intent to go to different schools and or or uh or have like a national sign day, well they I didn't realize that they have uh the same type of uh ceremony uh you know if if a kid is gonna follow some sort of vocation. Like I had no idea. And then I was I was called up, you know, about a day ahead of time, and they're like, hey, your son is you know doing like a letter of intent kind of thing, and I'm like, Really? You know, and like, yeah, you need to be at the high school tomorrow at 10 o'clock in the morning or whatever. So um so I was like pretty shocked that um you know he stands up in front of everybody and he's like, hey, you know, um, you know, my plan is to to work at Soga Graphics with my dad, and I'm just kind of like, you know, because I kinda never pushed that on him. Like, you know, coming up through high school, like I never made him work. Like he was big into baseball, you know, that job. And um so I never made him work, you know. He he played ball and and of course, you know, school sports now take up so much time that it's it's hard for kids to even have a job. So um, so you know, it kind of hit me in the feels a little bit, you know, I mean when he when he decided that uh he wanted to work for me and and uh of course you know it's been a little over a year now and he's he now he's kind of seeing the cool side of stuff, you know, and and um and I've been able to take him along with me to some different uh you know rap events and and you know he's gotten to meet some some pretty cool people out in the in the world that's doing the same stuff. And uh, you know, so I'm I'm hoping that you know he'll he'll learn every aspect aspect of the business. And you know, maybe he'll eventually take my place. I don't know, we'll see. You know, I'm not pushing that on him. Um but I'm I'm gonna let him learn as much of it as he wants. You know, and we'll we'll kind of see where that goes. But um, but it's been cool, you know, seeing uh seeing him grow and uh not only as a person but but like um in this business too, you know, seeing kind of the emphasis of of him having a job in general, you know, um it's it's tough working for your dad. I'm sure you know um I know my dad had a convenience store growing up and me and him did not get along good when I tried to work for him. You know, so um so I've I've I've tried to kind of keep that in mind too.

SPEAKER_04

I'm like, you know, I can I can't be like super harsh on yeah, but um well reflecting back to what you said, you you were kind of critical of yourself for not being around as much or as you wanted to, needed to whenever the kids were younger, but you've done something right enough that he's okay to stay, and that's what he wants to do. So I mean, there's the potential that maybe you're being a little too hard on yourself because uh I think that you know, I've mentioned this before we talked about fathers. You know, my dad worked a lot, but you know, it wasn't until I was older that I realized that he was doing what I needed him to do by supporting us financially, even if I didn't have that time with him. You know, and I think that that's so relatable to a lot of kids growing up that yeah, their dad works 60, 80 hours a week or does whatever just to make sure the family's safe and comfortable and has their needs met. It doesn't give a kid what they want, but I mean he's still making the decision to stick around. So maybe you deserve a little bit more credit than you think, just putting it out there. Unless we get him on here and he's like, no, he sucks, dad sucks the way he's the word.

SPEAKER_03

So Brian, let's let's talk a little bit about this. So I mean, this is a a unique industry that you're in in a small town in South Georgia. I guess the benefit you have is you're right on 75. But how how did you market? How did you grow? How did how did you build what you've got now?

SPEAKER_00

Um, I mean, I wish I knew the the answer to all those questions um because I can I can tell you it wasn't the right way, you know. Um you know, I especially now, I mean, you know, I didn't have um you know, TikTok and and um Facebook was so young, even back in like 2009, like nobody was using that for marketing, you know what I mean? Um you know, it it was just word of mouth, you know. So I I remember um I can only really remember one thing in high school that I learned and actually took something from, and that was from my homeroom teacher. And she told me, her name was Miss Keene, Mr. Keene, by the way, Susan Keene. And um she told me that no matter no matter what in life, if I wanted to be successful, I needed to meet and stay in contact with as many people as possible. That was it. Like I don't remember anything else from high school. Like I remember that. I mean, that's you know, um, and and and I've I've I'm not gonna say I'm a social butterfly, but like, you know, I like talking to people, you know, and I like uh my wife hates it because we don't we can't go to Walmart without me stopping every three seconds to talk to somebody else. But um but I but I think that has played a role, you know what I mean? Because I'm yeah I try to be personable and I try to talk to everybody, you know, like I don't meet a stranger, and um, you know, and I remember people's names and and you know I try to remember different things about them, you know what I mean? Like um and I think that I think it helped a lot. Um, especially in, you know, like you said, we're in I'm in South Georgia. So it you know, it's not Atlanta, you know what I mean? Like I I can't I can't afford to to upset a customer because they're gonna tell ten people, you know what I mean? Yeah um you can make a hundred customers like super happy and they'll never tell a soul. But uh but if you do this went off though. Yeah, they'll tell everybody.

SPEAKER_03

That's right.

SPEAKER_00

You do one thing wrong, and especially nowadays, I mean you're your Google message uh messengers going off saying you got a one-star review, and you know, so you have to be super careful.

SPEAKER_03

Um well and and and don't sell yourself short. I mean, I I think everybody's realized like you've done some huge jobs. Well, you you did the the Lounge High School um stuff, didn't you you won that contract? I mean talk about some of these bigger things that you've done. I mean you've come a long way from you know wrapping a car the wrong way.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yeah. So and we're pretty diverse too. So I mean we we do a lot of graphics and and and wraps and stuff. Um you know, we have a lot of fleets of uh of HVAC companies. We do stuff for patrol vehicles. We we do patrol graphics for um I think the our furthest client is probably in Pine Mountain, Georgia. Um you know, over to around Savannah area to uh around Bainbridge. I mean we we do hundreds of patrol vehicles. Um we've got a fleet of buses sitting outside right now. We've got 12 buses we got to do graphics on. Um you know, and and and it's mainly been word of mouth, you know. Um I mean obviously we you know we we do try to um use social media you know to our advantage, but um but but I'm not like out there hammering it every day with three or four social media posts today, you know.

SPEAKER_04

But you've been building those connections for 25 years. And so, you know, with having the intentionality of meeting people and having those conversations and being it's the consistency of 25 years. I mean, how many times along the way were you like, should I shut this down? Should I do something different? Like, how many times did that thought come across your mind?

SPEAKER_00

Well, I've I've never been a quitter. You know, like um I'm I'm pretty bad about jumping in head first, um, whether I know enough about it or not. And uh but I but I won't quit. Like I will I will not let something beat me, right? So um so I I I never I don't think I ever really thought about giving up, honestly. Um I just don't think it's in me to to uh to to you know bury the hatchet, so to say.

SPEAKER_04

So you never had a plan B?

SPEAKER_00

I've no, I've never had a plan B. He really burnt the boats, I told you.

SPEAKER_03

Oh you mean man, they are gone. Yeah. But Joel, you brought up a a good point. This small, small consistency things, right? This wasn't an overnight success. This was consistency, discipline, sticking with the plan, doing the same boring stuff, I would guess, over and over again, and then it compounds, you know. This is compound interest at its best over 25 years.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. But you know, one but one thing I wish I could have done differently was was uh was to like build the business to be able to scale, you know, and that's not something that that I knew anything even about at the time. You know, and um I've I've I've had some some younger kids you know come up asking me for like different business advice, and and um one kid in particular, um he has a uh car detailing business and he's got a really good head on his shoulders. And um I was like, man, I said, I said, you're like in the perfect position. Um because I said you've really got to look at this business as if I'm if I'm gonna hire one more guy, what can I do to make that super easy? What can I do to make the training process super easy? You know, like how can I scale this? Like how how can I get somebody doing what I'm doing fast? You know, and um, but you know, I never thought about those things back then. Um I was just trying to manage, I was just trying to make sure there was enough money in the bank to pay this and pay that, and you know what I mean? Like that that was the furthest thing from my mind. And um, it was just revival mode every day. Um you know, and now I now I kind of get to look at things a little differently. Um you know, I I get to think about um, you know, systems and processes and and stuff that I never even dreamed about, you know, 20 years ago or even heck 10 years ago, like you know, I wasn't thinking about the stuff I'm thinking about now. So um, but I I get to focus a little bit more on the business, you know, instead of just staying in business.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, so you're working more on the business versus in the business these days, you think? Have you have you gotten to that point? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um more so than what I was a few years ago. Like you know, I I I can rap, but I try not to. Like, because I I'm I'm trying to not do installs, I'm trying to um you know to to not do quotes, I'm trying to not answer the phone. You know, not that I don't want to. I enjoy doing those things. Sure. But but if uh but if you're gonna grow, like you've got to be able to turn loose. And um and that's hard because I have a really high expectation of quality, and and everybody in my shop knows that, right?

SPEAKER_01

So I so if something leaves our shop, like they they know the level of uh quality that's gotta be at for for for it to pass me.

SPEAKER_00

And um it's it's taken a while, I think, for me to to step back and realize that they're gonna do that now, you know, but um uh but but I've had to learn that okay, maybe, maybe my hundred percent is maybe not not necessarily that's not achievable, but it's not feasible, right? It's like I've I've learned that 95% is is good, right? Like, you know, and and most customers are okay with 80% from what I've seen.

SPEAKER_04

Well, you have a trained eye, and so you're gonna see flaws that nobody else would even have an idea about. Right. And and and this idea you're saying I don't think I marketed it right or something like that, you know. I think you did it perfectly because my experience, like living in small towns and stuff like that, is they do trust word of mouth. They don't trust what media is selling them, they don't trust trust an advertisement and a lot of expensive marketing, they trust the dude that came over and talked to them about their family or shook their hand, you know, because I mean I I wouldn't I would doubt that it's even your goal to move into Atlanta because I'm sure there'd probably be a lot more competition in big cities like that. But I think your marketing is perfect for the reach that you have, you know, based on that approach with you know knowing people.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I agree. And um, you know, it's funny you mentioned Atlanta. I mean, there's there's so many rap shops in Atlanta. Um like I I could not even count how many rap shops are up there. Um I mean, probably some some of the best rap shops in the world are in Atlanta. I've had uh Jim Miller, he owns Miller Decals, he's he's been at this since like before I was born, I think 76 or 77 maybe, like they were installing graphics on semi-trailers and and um like he's pretty much like the godfather of raps, but he's in Atlanta. And um and he's got so much competition up there, but he's he's thurished or he he's he's flourished um you know from from having uh the the uh the right um lost words.

SPEAKER_01

Um the right swagger. Yeah, I mean that's not really what I was calling it.

SPEAKER_03

But his his reputation, sure.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. Yeah, and and if he started in the 70s, I mean he might as well start it on covered wagons. You know?

SPEAKER_00

Uh the very first uh vehicle advertisement, um not covered wagons, but um uh Hershey's was the first uh company to ever advertise on vehicles. Um but it was like on the old panel wagons, but the first company to ever actually put an advertiser on a vehicle, and that was you know back in like the 30s or something, too. But this industry's been around a long time. Maybe not maybe not in the aspect we see it today, but um and and I think it's still a a pretty young industry um compared to a lot of other you know industries that are out there.

SPEAKER_04

Well it was limited to marketing for and advertising, I think, originally. And I mean now people just have individual tastes and style. And I'll tell you what, people will pay a lot of money to kind of demonstrate their personality or what is interesting or what matters to them to make their car look a certain way. I see raps that have like superheroes on the car, and I and to me I'm just like, man, I would never want that. But I mean that person loves it, and that's exactly what they wanted, you know? Yeah, to use their own.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, um, so you're you're like in the Jacksonville area. So there's um uh Austin Smith, uh he's the founder of uh Pain is dead, and they're they're based out of Jacksonville. Um so the the restyling industry is kind of more with us geared towards color color change. You see these guys buying G-Wagons and and you know wrapping them metallic pink or whatever, you know, but but uh 201 wraps, I'm not sure if you've heard of them, but uh Austin founded that business. He's um he's since uh sold it and he's he's still kind of the face of it, but but he sold that business now.

SPEAKER_04

Well, I reached out to him a couple years ago because we were we were gonna name our boat Pasta Salad, and I was asking you about it, and you still who doesn't love pasta salad's a great name for Jonathan, do we need to move into the firing line question? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's uh let's we'll finish this up. I've got plenty more stupid stuff to say.

SPEAKER_03

I mean, that's quite all right. So so question number one, Brian. What's a failure that cost you more than money and what did it change about how you operate today?

SPEAKER_00

You know, the the biggest failure um I think is is me thinking that I can do it all on my own. Um you you've got to learn how to delegate, and you've got to learn that um that building systems and processes and delegation is like the key to to growing the business. And and and I don't mean just growing it, you know, for revenue, but growing it to the point that you can step back, you know. I mean that I I think that's every business owner, I think that's their end goal, right? Is to is to build a business that they don't have to necessarily be a part of, you know. Right. Um, I don't think we necessarily start a business for that reason. We we typically start a business for either necessity or for passion, right? But um, you know, most of us business owners don't necessarily do that. I mean now you you have entrepreneurs that that maybe just invest money and and you know they hire the right people off the bat and they just kind of step back. But that's not most small business owners. Most small business owners jump in like me head first and they just try to figure it out. And um but there's a man, there's such a wealth of knowledge, a wealth of information and knowledge out there now that I didn't have access to. And um, but yeah, I wish I could get that time back. I wish that I could um you know not have have thought that I had to be the most important person at the job. You know what I mean? You know, don't don't try to be the hero, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_04

Well, I think to your point, the pa the family pays the price when that's the answer at that time.

SPEAKER_02

Yep.

SPEAKER_03

But here's the potential too. Let's let's think if your son decides to take over and do all that, those are lessons you've learned for him or that he can scale, he can grow. We don't know, I I'm right. I mean let's let's think in the positive light there, but you know, that that he can take Soga graphics to a whole nother level, you know, and and and build off of what you did and what you've done.

SPEAKER_04

So I mean I also know how to sabotage them if you're trying to build character, you know. There's different ways to look at it. Sure. Sure.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

All right. Question number two. What belief did you have to unlearn to keep growing without burning out?

SPEAKER_01

Well this kind of ties back into the first one a little bit. So I had to learn that uh again, that that I'm not the uh the center of it.

SPEAKER_00

You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01

Like I I had I had to learn that uh I had to shift from from me being important to uh making my team important, right? And you know, and and um you know making sure that they're happy, making sure that uh and not just about uh you know pay.

SPEAKER_00

Of course everybody wants more pay, right? But but uh you know making sure that they get the time off they need and making sure that that um you know they get to do the things they want to do, right? Um but I I've had to kind of kind of learn that uh that I've got to step back a little bit and allow those things to happen.

SPEAKER_03

You have to build that culture, right, where people want to come to work for a paycheck or for the the the job that they get to do versus have to do. So I I think you're exactly right there. And we've talked about that years ago, and I think that's something that you've worked really hard on. You know, you and I both kind of being in family businesses, it does make it tricky to have family work yeah, family work in there and then not family work in there gets gets a little bit uh hit or miss at times. But you know, I think that that when done right, that creates that that culture of how you want it done.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, the dynamic is definitely different, um, for sure.

SPEAKER_03

All right, and question number three what does success look like in this season of your life, not five years ago?

SPEAKER_00

I think that's a pretty easy one. So um you know, I I think I think five years ago, five years ago I was definitely more focused on uh revenue um now I'm focused on time because um that's the one thing we can't get back, you know. Like I've um you know, I I want to be able to enjoy life, right?

SPEAKER_05

Um and novel concept.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

But but you know, most small business owners um we get so wrapped up in just trying to survive and and just trying to you know um that that we really don't enjoy life. And and which which also you know it all leads back to you know, building that culture and building the team so that you can step back, you know, because I I like to be able to go and do things and um and you can't do that if you don't have people that you can depend on and and have a team that um that you can trust and delegate stuff to, you know.

SPEAKER_04

So it's like making time to to you know wrap your jet ski docks with you know rustic wood prints. Right. Right. Yep.

SPEAKER_00

Yep.

SPEAKER_03

I would like to think that that all small business owners, and this is just me being optimistic, would see that that money, revenue is the tool for the time. Right? Time is the ultimate goal, that that freedom, that ability to to live life how you want to live it, and and money is the the vehicle that gets you there.

SPEAKER_04

And peace has a price tag.

unknown

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

It is but but I would I would say this I would um I was so focused on the revenue though that I wasn't focused on how the revenue was being generated. I was just focused on making sure the revenue was generated and at that that meant me working 75% harder than I had to than I just did. Yeah. You know now I would rather work 25% as hard as I have should have to. You know what I mean? Because because you if you if you hire capable people and and um you know have you you trust them and again build that culture up um then then you'll have more time and more revenue.

SPEAKER_04

Well it's like letting it succeed versus trying to make it succeed still like you've got all the infrastructure to for the business to continue forward and put being able to pull back is just letting it continue to roll and probably gives you a lot of that time back, you know, instead of feeling like you have to forcefully you know like you said have your hands on every little thing which just absolutely steals your joy of why you started the business to begin with. Right.

SPEAKER_03

That's true. Well we we talk about it here a lot you know Ryan you mentioned it people don't see that process that head in the hands moment the struggles for years and years and years they see that final product of what you have today. And and that's because I imagine like us your flywheel is going because of that work you put in. And so you get people that talk about you in rooms that you're not in and so that generates business without you having to do anything. And I think that's success when it comes to a small business and entrepreneur is is to not have to market and you still grow.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Well people people see your fruits but they don't see your labor. That's right. They don't always see everything behind closed doors.

SPEAKER_04

How do you like it when people say oh your business is succeeding you're so lucky it must be nice right must be nice to be in your shoes.

SPEAKER_00

Must be nice yeah good deal all right man what else you got for us any last little pearls and then we'll let everybody know how to find you um you know um do more reason do more research than I did when I first started like as I just jumped in head over heels but man there's there's so much resources out there um you know um read a book you know I mean there there's tons of information on on growing the business and scaling a business and and um you know um ask questions you know if you see somebody that's doing something that that you want to do ask them ask them how they got there you know um I was scared to do that stuff right I mean I was um and maybe maybe not as scared as I was maybe a little too prideful you know um you know not thinking I needed help or or didn't want to ask for help but um you know looking back I mean that I I I could have grown and scaled this business ten times what it is today you know if I done it differently but um but but we're blessed you know like I I don't I don't want to you know discredit um where we are now and and how we got here but um but uh it's the peace of saying that the success is enough like you sure you could have done more to be bigger but you know having the contentment in the moment of just saying this is enough this is good you know that's that's a that brings peace to yourself as well true all right so tell of our folks how can they get a hold of you where can they find you where can they see all these TikToks and social media things that you're posting.

SPEAKER_03

And your new rap album yeah my my my wife were uh married the wrong kind of rapper so um so yeah so uh you know online Sogagraphics.com um you know we have the the regular social media outlets the you know TikTok Instagram Facebook and um uh and one thing I I do want to mention too that um they haven't actually announced this yet but uh they will be announcing it pretty soon so I I mentioned Miller Decals earlier uh uh uh he's a somebody that I've watched and admired for years well uh the the Pain is dead network um there's there's 26 pain is dead locations um in the United States and Miller Decals is the only one in Georgia um until now so they've invited us to be the second pain is dead network or second pain is dead shop and the only other pain is dead shop in the state of Georgia and um you know it's kind of an invitation only um you know network and um so we're pretty proud of that you know so something congratulations man that's great thank you I appreciate it and um so that that'll be going out on social media pretty soon and you guys are the first one to hear that oh man insider information that's right only on the podcast wow that's right so awesome Brian will well thanks for being here today man we we really appreciate it uh you've got a wealth of knowledge like I said Joel a wealth of knowledge knowledge just knowledge knowledge on the good the bad right I mean that's how we learn I don't think there's failures there's learning lessons so folks check him out reach out to Brian he does a great job he does a lot of work for us and uh joel do you want to finish up with the one liner here for this show?

SPEAKER_04

The one liner oh yeah sure well but that's our oh that's a rap yeah no I was just gonna say we'll put all the details for the uh website for uh Soga Graphics that's S-O-G-A graphics and uh it's it's located there in Adele Georgia um so to just to make Jonathan happy I'll say it thank you Brian for being here Jonathan as always we tolerate you thank you so much that's right uh so for this the for this episode of the Long Burn are you gonna say Brian that's right there it is awesome all right thank you guys we will catch you next time see y'all later appreciate you guys having me on the