Have you ever wondered what it takes to turn scraps into a successful empire while navigating personal and industry challenges? Join me, Darren Mass, as I embark on a revealing hike through Wachung Reservation with Jeremy Royzen, a mastermind in precious metals recycling. This episode peels back the curtain on the raw, sometimes treacherous journey of entrepreneurship, inviting you to witness firsthand how discipline, diversification, and a commitment to environmental sustainability can forge not just a company, but a legacy.
Strap on your hiking boots and prepare to traverse the peaks and valleys of business growth with fascinating stories of our past experiences and the unforeseen paths of personal growth. We discuss the pivotal role of trust in business partnerships, the environmental considerations of electric vehicles, and the strategies that protect against the undercurrent of theft in high-stakes industries. Jeremy's candid revelations offer a perspective that's as precious as the metals he recycles – invaluable insights that could change the way you think about success and sustainability.
As the journey winds down, reflections turn to the media's influence on mental health and the elusive chase for purpose in our lives. Michael Crotty, former heavyweight at Paramount Global Premium Group, joins the conversation to share his transformative experiences stepping off the beaten path. This episode isn't just about climbing to new heights in business; it's about recalibrating your focus, realigning with your goals, and maybe even redefining what a midlife opportunity looks like for you.
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Have you ever wondered what it takes to turn scraps into a successful empire while navigating personal and industry challenges? Join me, Darren Mass, as I embark on a revealing hike through Wachung Reservation with Jeremy Royzen, a mastermind in precious metals recycling. This episode peels back the curtain on the raw, sometimes treacherous journey of entrepreneurship, inviting you to witness firsthand how discipline, diversification, and a commitment to environmental sustainability can forge not just a company, but a legacy.
Strap on your hiking boots and prepare to traverse the peaks and valleys of business growth with fascinating stories of our past experiences and the unforeseen paths of personal growth. We discuss the pivotal role of trust in business partnerships, the environmental considerations of electric vehicles, and the strategies that protect against the undercurrent of theft in high-stakes industries. Jeremy's candid revelations offer a perspective that's as precious as the metals he recycles – invaluable insights that could change the way you think about success and sustainability.
As the journey winds down, reflections turn to the media's influence on mental health and the elusive chase for purpose in our lives. Michael Crotty, former heavyweight at Paramount Global Premium Group, joins the conversation to share his transformative experiences stepping off the beaten path. This episode isn't just about climbing to new heights in business; it's about recalibrating your focus, realigning with your goals, and maybe even redefining what a midlife opportunity looks like for you.
Contribute to the granola bar fund :)
Follow The Journey on Instagram
Tiktok?
Submit Feedback
Apply to be a guest
Become a Sponsor
All right, jeremy Royzen, are you okay with being recorded on a podcast? Yes, there goes that liability. This is I Took a Hike. I'm your host, darren Mass, founder of Business Therapy Group and Parktime Wilderness Philosopher. Here we step out of the boardrooms and home offices and into the great outdoors where the hustle of entrepreneurship meets the rustle of nature. In this episode we hear the sounds of a brisk morning trek with Jeremy Royzen, a trailblazing entrepreneur and the owner of a precious metals recycling company. Our topics sparked the inspiration of hustle and drive, never settling for comfortability, rising to the top of your industry and the challenges of midlife reflections. This hike was filled with the sights, sounds and autumn sense in the northeast. There were undoubtedly some obstacles to overcome when I took a hike with Jeremy Royzen. This episode is sponsored by DeFi Supplements. Are you feeling stuck in a rut? Do you need more energy for the trail? Stuck behind the screen all day and lacking focus? Well, you need to recalibrate, my friend, and get your energy back for the summit. The summit is a premium brain health supplement doctor formulated to help with energy, focus, mood and longevity. Visit defiyourmindcom and use code HIK for 20% off and you will defi your expectations. So welcome to Wachung Reservation. Thank you, we're going to have fun. It's a nice, cool day Autumn, yes, beautiful leaves, breathe that awesome air. Listen to the sounds. It did rain a lot, so we are going to be experiencing probably some heavier streams than normal. I promise, if you get carried away, I'll try to save you. Heavier what?
Speaker 2:Streams. What's that Like a river? Oh, streams, streams. I thought you said screams, oh.
Speaker 1:What kind of screams? Well, I'll see you hike Never.
Speaker 2:This is my first hike ever, ever, ever.
Speaker 1:This is great. Okay, fun, fun. You're going to experience something that you've never seen before you do know that I don't like the wilderness or nature.
Speaker 2:I'm a city boy and when I moved to Jersey I asked if I can pave my whole front yard and they laughed at me.
Speaker 1:So, jeremy, who are you and why do we care about you?
Speaker 2:I am a first generation American. My family came from Ukraine in the 70s. They're part of like the first wave of immigrants to come. During that time my mom and dad met in Brooklyn, brighton Beach, got married, had myself, my sister. My dad was in a gold buying business in New York for 30 years. My mother has a ballet school in Brooklyn for 30 years. She still has one.
Speaker 1:Wow, did she ever try to teach you ballet?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so she actually forced me to do ballet till I was about 10.
Speaker 1:All right, so forced, yes, so this is not your thing.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:You're not a flingaltoast.
Speaker 2:I don't like dancing, you don't like dancing. So when I was around 12, I went to military school and I was in military school for junior high school.
Speaker 1:Elective, or were you just that kid that needed to be forced into a different path?
Speaker 2:Let's just say I didn't last very long in schools when I was a kid and I needed a little more discipline and I didn't listen to authority. I wouldn't say I was disrespectful, I just was very kind of carefree.
Speaker 1:So did you look at military schools? If it was a punishment?
Speaker 2:It was. I mean, you know you're essentially put in what could be considered prison for kids, right? You don't have any free time, you sit on a, you live on a schedule. You can't go home. You go from being a child to being a person with no identity or saying what you can do in your own life. So did you?
Speaker 1:find that you harbored the fact that it was a punishment and maybe your parents didn't love you.
Speaker 2:No, I understood why I was there, but it doesn't mean that I wanted to be there.
Speaker 1:Got it, but you got through it. I did so. Did you find any good aspects at all of being a military school? Either discipline or educational value.
Speaker 2:You know what I think? That the discipline of the military teaches people how to structure themselves and it also helped me in business, where you know you can structure your business with the same like mindsets of the military. You know everything follows the chain of command. People don't interfere in that chain of command. That's why I never micromanage my managers or partners, because I feel like if you're in business with somebody you need to trust them.
Speaker 1:So let's fast forward a little bit professionally. So what do you do?
Speaker 2:So my dad was in the gold buying business. What about the easy route?
Speaker 1:I didn't say this was an easy hike. I said it was a moderate hike. Come on.
Speaker 2:Not a good day for asthma today. Oh, you also have asthma Developed asthma from my business.
Speaker 1:From your business. Yeah, okay, then I feel like we're going to hear this story.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was in college at the time and I had a small mortgage company in Brooklyn. It wasn't really doing too well because during that time this was when everybody was doing the talking and walking. For me right now, as an NG.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's the fun of this whole experience.
Speaker 2:There was a big mortgage boom in late 90s, early 2000s because of the, I guess, the deregulation of banks at the time, which led to the financial crisis. During that time there was a lot of shady things going on in the mortgage industry. I was not willing to participate in that.
Speaker 1:Such as underwriting mortgages for people who had extremely low credits worthiness or inability to even afford the home.
Speaker 2:And you knew in conversation that they couldn't afford the stuff.
Speaker 1:So a lot of brokers would write them.
Speaker 2:Thank you, roman, so my business wasn't doing too well because of that.
Speaker 1:Well, that's also part of the reason for 2008's crisis, right.
Speaker 2:And eventually my dad told me that there's precious metals in catalytic converters. Now, when people hear catalytic converters today, they're like you're a crook, you feed, you steal, because they automatically associate that business with criminality because of all the news and things like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I hear about the catalytic converters being stolen from cars all the time. Right, right, it's rampant in our towns and our cities these days.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, that's due to the rise in precious metals because of demand for more catalyst in converters. They need more catalytic converters in the world because they were pumping out so many cars that there was a big deficit. So there's precious metal. What type of metals? Platinum, palladium and rhodium.
Speaker 1:Oh, very expensive precious metals and those are in catalytic converters. What's the purpose of having the metals in there?
Speaker 2:So it reduces the CO2. The metals do yes. So you need all three metals to create this chemical reaction that reduces CO2. And catalytic converters are used in all industries that produce carbon, so in cars. They're a smaller version of what an oil refinery would use or anything. So catalytic converters are used in every aspect of life, and for consumers it's in cars.
Speaker 1:OK, so these are only combustion cars. Electric cars do not have catalytic converters.
Speaker 2:No, but what people fail to realize is that an average car produces maybe five metric tons of carbon a year.
Speaker 1:OK, that's a lot, it's a lot. That's a lot for a single car. Yeah.
Speaker 2:But mining for these rare earth metals has a larger impact on the world than every car.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, look, it's one of those things where I don't like nature, but I'd like to preserve it.
Speaker 1:These are the kind of prerequisites for I took a hike, kind of have to like nature a little bit. So how much metal is in a catalytic converter?
Speaker 2:Meaning like can I?
Speaker 1:take my catalytic converter, crack it open and see a bar of metal in there.
Speaker 2:It's very small amounts and it's flaked on, so it's a volume business. So if someone busted it open, you wouldn't see it. No, ok, no. And the misconception also is that our industry is full of criminals and mafia, but the truth is the business is run by mostly corporations and family people and you have some bad actors that have done some bad things over the years.
Speaker 1:Well, you have bad actors in every single industry, no matter what right?
Speaker 2:It's the same like in the medical industry, where doctors prescribe things yeah, or get kickbacks, or get kickbacks.
Speaker 1:Politicians, every single industry. There's always a bad human, so you've built this company based on precious metals.
Speaker 2:So I started. How I started in the converter business was my dad told me the idea. I got in my car at the end of when I was in school, while I had my mortgage company. I was in school full time and I got in my car, drove around repair shops on a Friday dumpster dived into some repair shops. Dumpsters picked out these catalytic converters.
Speaker 1:Seriously, you were dumpster diving to pick out catalytic converters?
Speaker 2:Yeah, because back then people would throw them out. Oh, they didn't know what was in it. People didn't care. They were not as valuable as they are today. Got you have to keep in mind that the value today was not the value yesterday.
Speaker 1:Because the price of metals has increased over time. Right.
Speaker 2:When I started, platinum was maybe 800 ounce, palladium was probably 200 ounce and what is it today? 900, 1300. And rhodium was also maybe a couple of hundred ounce. It probably was about unseren alfamilies, the peak. It's hit 30,000 an ounce. So I dumpster dive and I realized that there at the end of school, I just dumpster dive and made like a grand selling it back to one of my competitors and I was like holy shit, there's a business here. So I got a pickup truck, drove around, started picking up more material and I was just guessing on how to buy. Some places would give it for free, some people would make me pay, I'd lose, I'd make. But ultimately I started cataloging everything that I was buying.
Speaker 1:So you had that natural business brand, you had the vision and you saw a huge opportunity.
Speaker 2:You know, I feel like I saw a business, but it wasn't like this light that went off. It was more like I just made a grand, let's see if I can make two, let's see if I can make three and right, and just keep pushing. So it wasn't really like I didn't understand what I was onto, because I had no experience Right today. If I saw that, I'd be like oh shit, I have a business. Back then it was more about like how much more can I make?
Speaker 1:Well, so that's what it takes to be a real hustler and to really grow a business is. You just have to do it right, you get through it and all of a sudden you start recognizing patterns over time. You start recognizing that, oh, this is why I did that and that's why I became so successful. Alright, so let's cross this stream Again. If you fall in, I will definitely save you.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:You made that look really easy. I mean that was an easy path, alright, so here we are. Hey, listener, thanks for hiking along with us. For more episodes at hiketokahikecom or to recommend an adventurous guest, apply to be a sponsor or to simply drop us a line.
Speaker 2:Look about three months in, I'm at a Chinese store, a local Chinese restaurant. My friend's parent walks in, sees me all dirty after a day's work and is like Jeremy, everything's okay, you're good. I'm like, yeah, everything is great. And she's like there are a couple. And the wife says to me you just I've never seen you this dirty. I'm like, well, I'm working. She's like, okay, yeah, great. And I knew that they were judging me based on my appearance of not being in my usual suit and tie and conforming to what they?
Speaker 1:You weren't prim and proper anymore.
Speaker 2:What they deem as successful. Meanwhile, that day I probably made like two and a half, three grand just picking through, you know, scrap.
Speaker 1:Not a bad day's work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so funny thing about that story is about a year, maybe less than a year later, their son came to work for me.
Speaker 1:It's amazing how full circle life could be Right, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, but we we partnered with a company called BSF, which is a Huge mega brand.
Speaker 1:Right, publicly traded Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, in chemicals, pharmaceuticals, weapons, probably everything. It's a 100 year old German company. Yep, it's a monster corporation. They weren't the first partner I had. Okay, I started with a company called Techomet. Then I switched to another company 10 years later called Sabane Stillwater, which is another publicly traded company, mining company in South Africa. Okay, so when the pandemic hit, I switched to BSF.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you work with these big companies. I'm sure you negotiated great rates with them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you negotiate terms. They usually give you six to 12 month terms, and then you just got to deliver.
Speaker 1:And you've got these big contracts. So how much by weight? What's the weight?
Speaker 2:What's the volume of business?
Speaker 1:you're doing.
Speaker 2:I mean at our peak we were doing about 60,000 pounds of material a month.
Speaker 1:That's a lot that's a lot. What do you do? Package it up.
Speaker 2:So what happens is we buy the cans whole, we break it down, we put it in SuperSax and then we ship it in SuperSax.
Speaker 1:That's awesome To Germany.
Speaker 2:No, they have locations in the US. Okay, so they're scattered all over the US. For security, I won't say where they're located. But I appreciate that which location we ship to. But essentially there's points in the US that you ship to and they refine the material here.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you have just the raw material, so they pay you per pound.
Speaker 2:No, so we refine it actually.
Speaker 1:You refine it as well.
Speaker 2:So they refine it for us. That's their purpose. They take a couple of percent for it and then we can choose to get the metal back or sell it to the OEMs, the car manufacturers. So the mining business is one aspect of these metals getting back into the market. But the recycling business actually has the biggest impact and the least impact on the environment. So all these big corporations that are in the business of providing car manufacturers with catalyst have to buy a certain amount from recycling.
Speaker 1:Got it In order to maintain their certification or just the goodwill of? The public To show that they're actually involved in buying from recycling, kind of have to put their money where their mouth is Right. Okay, so we've got the business here. We've got the why, the purpose. You're doing very well, I assume. Right, so we're selling 60,000 pounds of material to a mega company. This is real quality material, so you've got a solid business here. How long did it take to get to that level? 20 years, 20 years. So you went from pickup trucks and dumpster diving, but at what point during that 20 year period did it turn into a real business?
Speaker 2:Probably about two years in. Two years in, that's pretty quick.
Speaker 1:And you were able to hire staff, get an office, do the things that a business would need.
Speaker 2:I mean I hired staff, got an office warehouse probably about eight months in and I was still in school at the time.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you are clearly a little winded. Is that because of the business?
Speaker 2:So because when I started the business I had nobody to really teach me anything. I would cut the material myself and not wear PPE.
Speaker 1:I did Google it and watch a YouTube video on Cadillac Converter recycling. The big machine basically looks like a guillotine with a point Correct, Slices in half. There's powder, lots of powder in it. And it's flying all over the place, so you didn't think to ever wear a mask.
Speaker 2:I was 22 years old.
Speaker 1:There you go. That's all you had to say. You were 22.
Speaker 2:I was 22 years old. Yep, I was on top of the world, like every 22 year old is, not financially or physically, I was just mentally on top of the world and I would cut these Cadillacs open and inhale all this material. Eventually, it scars your lungs. I imagine, because it's like fine particles, very fine particles Like a concrete almost Right, okay, and it's solidified and about two years into the business I developed asthma from it. Okay.
Speaker 1:And I imagine you saw a doctor. Did the doctor tell you cut it out?
Speaker 2:Doctor said cut it out. I said you don't know what you're talking about. Found another doctor. Found another doctor.
Speaker 1:Notice a trend from when you were young with school and authority. Okay.
Speaker 2:You know, until you finally realize and associate wearing, you feel sick and don't. So you know, today my guys wear respirators and yeah.
Speaker 1:You care about their health Right.
Speaker 2:They don't catch anybody without a respirator. They're allowed to go immediately.
Speaker 1:Well, it reminds me of Paul O'Neill. It's one of the best business stories that I've ever heard. When I went to business school, they taught about it. Paul O'Neill became the CEO of Alcoa, the aluminum corporation of America, in the 80s, and at the time the stock was not doing too great, and that's why they brought Paul in. And Paul's first press conference, where the investment community is just sitting there waiting on baited breath for how he's going to pump shareholder value. The only thing he wanted to talk about was not P&Ls, not revenue, not new products, new design none of that. All he wanted to talk about was safety. He only cared about worker safety, and then his entire conversation was around we have too many accidents, we have too many mistakes, we have too many people dying Right, they're falling into the furnaces, they're dying of heat exhaustion, exhaustion Right, it's a dangerous business to be in. So, obviously, what happened next? The investment community hated that. The stock tanked. And well, paul did his thing. He then made sure that safety worker safety was the number one priority. If there was an incident, it was reported. He bought everyone new safety gear. There was new safety trainings. Well, in a matter of only a few years, it became one of the most valuable companies ever and the reason why his message was more than just safety. Let's be honest, I'm sure he truly did care about people and their safety, but he knew if the CEO cares about your life and your safety, then you are going to want to work more efficiently, better and happier, knowing that people actually care about you and at work and they had the worst safety record prior to Paul after. I believe I have to check this as well. I'll check while you're on the trail, but I believe they only had one or two safety incidents during his entire tenure.
Speaker 2:That's pretty amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and he was an amazing CEO and it's an amazing story to tell. This episode is proudly brought to you by Brand Built, a dynamic social media networking community designed to elevate your success, feeling stuck in a brand loop. Your brand matters more than ever before and falling behind is not an option. Join our dynamic community for expert social media guidance, valuable lessons, education, weekly spotlights, monthly speakers and a robust brand building network. Learn more at MyBrandBuiltcom and join me in the chat for a thriving journey to success. This is where we can start chatting about learning lessons and teachable moments. You are clearly very smart, wise, you understand and you can foresee that your business is going to be challenged. So what steps are you taking to either take this current business future proof it, diversify it or, in essence, wind it down?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I think any business the smart business owners will always look forward and try to predict the future. You might not always be right, but you have to, in one way or another, try to predict what's happening six to twelve months forward. That's right. In our case, I'm trying to predict three, four years forward, or I started doing that several years ago.
Speaker 1:Give me for instance of what you're doing.
Speaker 2:Right now we're in the process of trying to acquire other junk yard scrap yard so we can diversify out of just doing catalytic converters.
Speaker 1:Okay, so one key approach is to diversify products.
Speaker 2:If you can right, not every industry you can diversify.
Speaker 1:Well, you can go off into different lines of business, but from at least my own experience in failing, if you are going to diversify then you have to be all in it. You have to be ready to diversify. You have to be ready and you have to have milestones when you do pivot and you have to be willing to invest in that, like you invested in your first business. Otherwise side business fails Right. The pivot will always fail, sure.
Speaker 2:I think that business owners need to figure out how to pivot. I know everyone uses the term entrepreneur today and it's a very loose term. It's incredibly loose at the time? I don't think anybody In fact.
Speaker 1:The right term is what Mark Cuban said it's entrepreneur.
Speaker 2:It's a lot.
Speaker 1:Because it's entrepreneur. There are so many people that have great ideas and visions but they don't have the ability to pivot from being that idea, that visionary, that entrepreneur, into being a business owner. There are major differences between an entrepreneur and a business owner, Agreed as big as of a difference as a business owner and a CEO, and they're not used interchangeably Right.
Speaker 2:If you own a deli, you're a business owner yeah, small business owner. If you're an entrepreneur, I think you're creating things that are changing society. I consider myself a business owner, not an entrepreneur. Even though I've been involved in various businesses in my life, that doesn't make me an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1:I would consider you an entrepreneur based on the fact that you had a mortgage business. To me, the entrepreneur is the business thinking, the mentality you have. You saw a hole and a void and you filled it. You had that vision. Now you turned into a business owner with this current company, because now you're running a physical business Right, but you had mentioned before that you always see ideas, whether it was trading cards throwing up or a mortgage business. That's entrepreneurial, right. You're constantly looking for the next latest grace, right, Even now when you said with the scrap yards. That's an entrepreneurial mindset, right, but you still own a business and that's your core focus. Now, when you sell this business, then we'll have another conversation.
Speaker 2:I mean I don't know if I'll ever sell it. I have two sons, so I don't know what the future holds for them, but maybe it'll be something they'll want to go into. Not necessarily I want them to go into it.
Speaker 1:That was my next question.
Speaker 2:But if they like it and enjoy it, then why not?
Speaker 1:So you do know the risk of having a generational business, correct?
Speaker 2:Well, most of the time they don't live up to the standards and it'll go out of business anyway.
Speaker 1:That's exactly right. The statistic is pretty high Right, and that's because the child, the second generation, was born without the same hunger in their belly, because the father took care of them. Right Now, from what I'm hearing of you and I know of you, I have a feeling you're probably not raising your kids to be spoiled.
Speaker 2:I am, you are, yeah, all right, I'm surprised.
Speaker 1:Look, it's like being wrong.
Speaker 2:You know I'm of the. They're still young, they'll have their time to grind. I let them understand the concept of money, but you know I do give them a majority of what they want. Okay, but they're good kids so they deserve it. Good, you know, they don't throw tantrums. They don't cry and moan about things.
Speaker 1:They're having three children. You call them bullshit. Your kids, don't throw tantrums. Yeah, no, my kids don't throw tantrums Around you or in general, in general, you just became the most envied or loathed guest.
Speaker 2:I don't look. I think it has a lot to do with genetics. Maybe my wife and I are both very calm people.
Speaker 1:Okay, I gather.
Speaker 2:And you know, because of that maybe something kind of is innate in them to not throw tantrums.
Speaker 1:So that would explain why my kids are sometimes nuts, my wife and I are not calm. We're very energetic people. We're achievers in that sense. Yeah, I mean look it's.
Speaker 2:There's nothing wrong with throwing tantrums or showing emotion. Maybe it's better in a way, because you release that energy Right. You know for my kids they hold it in and disperse it differently, their frustration. But maybe that's going to be a downside for them in life. I don't know.
Speaker 1:Well, time will tell, but one thing I do know is you never tell someone else how to parent, because you're wrong as well. So all right, let's get back to this business. You've done a pivot.
Speaker 2:Let's get back to the business.
Speaker 1:Do you see success with this pivot currently, or is it still a work in progress?
Speaker 2:Nobody knows, right, it's just another excuse me, just another hustle. Right, you were pivoting because I know the scrap industry is a good industry. But whether or not I'll succeed, that time will tell. It's all based on my execution. There's no guarantee for me based on prior history.
Speaker 1:Well, there's no guarantees with anything in life, right, Except for the fact that you are your own best investment right. Your time, your effort, your hustle makes you the best investment you'll ever have. Right. And if you're not willing to constantly reinvest and re-up yourself, then you kind of want yourself to fail.
Speaker 2:Well, it kind of goes with the saying scared money doesn't make money.
Speaker 1:Scared money does not make money. Yes, that is absolutely true.
Speaker 2:You have to invest and you have to take risk. If you don't take risk, then you'll never get anywhere. And I think there's different risk at different points in life, right? So if you're 20 years old, you can take more risk, and then if you're 30, you'll probably take less risk because you have family, you have people that depend on you, right. And then when you're 40, you'll probably take even less risk. But then if you're somebody like Elon or somebody else, you'll keep taking risks, and I envy people like that and I probably try to live my life a little closer to that mentality that I'll always take risk.
Speaker 1:Can I ask do you truly believe that electric is not the best thing for the planet, or is it because you run a business currently that requires electric to be suppressed?
Speaker 2:So I actually drive electric cars, ironically, right, so I'm like I actually don't.
Speaker 1:You don't practice what you preach? Well, I do. No, yeah, because.
Speaker 2:I don't. I'm not against progress and change and I'll try anything. And if I really do believe that electric is better for the planet, I would fully adopt to it and even if it destroys my business and industry, it's okay. Progress is part of life and change is part of life, and if you stand in the way of progress and change, you get left behind. So me driving an electric car being in a petrol industry is not because I hate electric or I actually like electric, but I do think that it's worse for the world. You actually can't recycle lithium batteries. You can turn them into other things, but you have to continue mining the earth for the rare earth metals.
Speaker 1:So that is something that is a scary reality of all of this is that we're all being sold that electric is better for the environment. Right, the mentality and this is I don't know if this is just an American mentality or Navite, or the fact that the average person's IQ isn't enabling them to think beyond but we believe as a whole that, oh, if I just plug it into my wall, it's better for the environment. Right, there's nothing coming out of an exhaust pipe. It's because you don't see it. Exactly, we don't see it, so we don't know what it really takes to produce that kilowatt. Right, the largest fuel source for this country still is fossil fuel. Right, it's coal. Right, natural gas has to be fracked, right, Hydro power is great, but we don't have big dams, except if you're up, let's say, in Rochester, new York, or in Buffalo or Niagara, right, right, so we're still burning something to make that kilowatt.
Speaker 2:Right, plus mining for lithium and the other rare earth metals that go into lithium are detrimental to our planet.
Speaker 1:So is this a complete farce? Are we being sold to billiards?
Speaker 2:We are essentially Until we find a way to effectively bring these rare earth metals back into their rare form and recycle them and put them into new cars, we will essentially destroy this planet mining for these materials.
Speaker 1:So we're exacerbating the problem by essentially swatting on a fly with a sledgehammer, which is what we do very well in this country.
Speaker 2:Right, and then you can ask the question again so why are you driving electric?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I drive it because it's fast, it's quiet and I like the comfort of plugging it at home. I hate going to the gas station.
Speaker 1:So there you go. So that makes more sense. The convenience Would you like to sit next to the pergola? Sure, we can have a seat in a romantic pergola. So that unfolds the reality. And I don't buy it when people say they're purely driving an electric car for the environment, because either they are uneducated, unintelligent or unaware.
Speaker 2:I mean they're essentially listening to what they're being told.
Speaker 1:Right which falls under the uneducated unintelligent and unaware it falls into the three categories. Now it's looks like a sacrificing throne.
Speaker 2:Well, jeremy, like an old Mayan, you know.
Speaker 1:Mayan would require a lot more age here. In fact, I don't think that this country was around during that.
Speaker 2:Obviously, but just giving the analogy.
Speaker 1:So I do appreciate the fact that you say your reality. The reality is, is you're driving an electric car because of the convenience? Factor and that makes sense.
Speaker 2:For a daily driver not hearing an engine and plugging in when you come home, not having to go to a gas station is extremely convenient.
Speaker 1:And being able to charge on your time. So I appreciate that. I just wish people would completely stop saying, oh, it's better for the environment. Because when I hear people say it's better for the environment, I know I can't have an intelligent conversation with you. I immediately know that you're not going to be able to have the middle conversation. You're going to pick one side you have gone. How many miles do you think you've went?
Speaker 2:I can tell you oh, that's cheating 1.8. I got 1.9.
Speaker 1:Well, that's because you got double steps A little shorter than me, so your legs have to move more. That's my style.
Speaker 2:So not nice. I only look shorter. You're standing higher, you're wearing heels, I am no.
Speaker 1:Look, we have some debris from some ferns that want to propagate and you have a nettle. Excuse me, isn't that cool how that works? Yeah, shall we, yeah, yes, I want to hear about your business lessons, inspirations, what have you learned?
Speaker 2:So let's talk about Earlier we talked about trust. So trust comes and goes in life and the biggest people that can betray you is probably family, and then goes friends, and then business partners and whatnot.
Speaker 1:Well, the people that can hurt you the most are the ones that are closest to you long-standing relationships, so in our industry a lot of it is on trust.
Speaker 2:So you ship material to a refiner. You hope that the refiner will pay you, but the refiner also pays you on delivery in advance of the material and hopes that what you're saying is in there is actually in there before. It takes them three, four months to process the material and get a result on it. So there's a lot of trust involved and because of that trust, when we buy from people we also have to trust the people we buy from. And we've advanced people and been burned and things like that. And it's just the nature of business where you figure out if you want to take these type of risks or not. And it's probably a defining moment for people in business if they take those risks Because it's easier not to take those risks. It's easier to hold on to your money and take your 5% or 10% return on it a year and in a row.
Speaker 1:But that's what kills a business. The stalemate of just riding the hockey stick plateau that's how you kill a business. The second you take your foot off the accelerator, that's when your business starts dying.
Speaker 2:I think every business owner at some point takes their foot off the accelerator. Because you can't be 100. Regardless of what people show on social media, of all these business advisors that are teaching Hustle and whatnot and go 100%. And I wake up every day 5 AM, oh, that's all bullshit, yeah. But come to my class and let me teach you. It doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1:That's how they made their money. You bought their class.
Speaker 2:Right. Any business owner that is selling their idea is selling you bullshit. Nobody sells their ideas and their process for money, because that's their edge, that's their competitive edge.
Speaker 1:That's what's essential. This has been a recurring theme always. Right, it was back in the day it was about flipping houses, how I made my first million flipping houses. Well, you made it because they just sold you a $99 course. So I agree with that. It frustrates me when I see those social media posts with those high energy individuals, because the reality is is running a business sucks?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is. It's tough, it's not fun. It's constant stress, it's constant worry. It's constant dealing with politics, compliance, staffing managers You're always dealing with some kind of problem, putting out some kind of fire. Everyone is your boss.
Speaker 1:I get frustrated when I hear someone who says I want to start a business because I want to be my own boss. Well, the reality is is once you have that first employee, that first customer, that first anything, you work for them. There's no your own boss. And if you think that the luxury is you could take a month off on vacation, sure, but unless you've built a good business and a good brand and have great people with metrics and goals, it's going to go backwards. So you're double paying for your own vacation. But I know I said, owning a business sucks, but it sucks in the emotional and mental toll that it takes on you. There are a lot of perks to owning a business the freedoms you can buy and the don'ts that you don't have to do anymore. Later on, after you have nurtured the business, grown a business, watered it, fed it right, that's when you can reap some of the reward. But until then it sucks.
Speaker 2:And that's when you can take your foot off the pedal right. So we got into this because you mentioned about being on the accelerator always. You can take your foot off at times right and enjoy the fruits of your labor, and it's important to do that. But it's also important to recognize when you got to step back in and keep pushing forward.
Speaker 1:That's right. Well, it also is important to get the right people on the team, right People in the right seat. That's attraction term, it's practiced and I believe in it heavily right. It's also important to be able to delegate, as now a CEO and a business owner right and that's the difference between the entrepreneur and the visionary and the business owner and the CEO is the business owner and CEO has to make those business decisions to help delegate right. And I see this all too often with small business owners they're afraid to hire, they're afraid to spend some money on that next in line, because you can see the money, you can't see the effort from the individual, you can't see the trust.
Speaker 2:I mean, if you don't invest in your business, you're not getting anywhere. No, and if you don't, it's the same like investing in yourself. Right, you have to constantly invest in your business, in yourself, to move forward, otherwise you're moving backwards.
Speaker 1:And that is. There are lots of business owners that are listening to this show, or any other show like this, where they're scratching their heads saying, well, why isn't my business taking off, why isn't my business accelerating? And that's because you're living in that plateau but you're not doing anything to rise above or step on the accelerator again.
Speaker 2:You know, maybe that's the case, or maybe they're just in the wrong business, right? Not every business has to be successful. This is another like misconception in today's world is like oh, I'm gonna grow up, I'm going to open up a business and I'm going to be an instant success. Not every idea, not every business has success.
Speaker 1:That's very Gen X of you. By the way, I believe the younger generations think that yeah, I started the business. Why am I not successful? Or why am I not a crazy famous YouTuber is what they're saying today. So I do agree with you that you have to be willing to put in the work. A while back I said that screw the business plan unless you're taking on investors. Just write a loosely defined business plan, because you have to be willing to pivot if you want your business to be successful.
Speaker 2:Well, like I just said, it doesn't even matter if you do all of that, there's still no guarantee. So it's like what's driving today's world is people that are solving problems, or really good marketing.
Speaker 1:Really good marketing sometimes wins.
Speaker 2:So if you're not solving problem or you're like a marketing guru, you're probably not going to succeed unless you have like a really niche business.
Speaker 1:So what problems are you solving?
Speaker 2:Well, I guess you can say I'm in the recycling industry, so I'm solving the issue of recycling materials that have been mined and putting them back into the hands of car manufacturers to create more catalysts so they don't have to mine for those metals again. So that's my problem, that I'm solving for the world on a small scale and regardless of how glamorous that industry is, it's an essential industry for our planet and for the car industry.
Speaker 1:That's right. So, on behalf of the world, I do thank you for doing your part. It does make sense. It makes complete sense, though I wish cars would stop getting stolen for it. So how speaking of that, because it is a hot topic and let's talk about that how do you prevent stolen product from being delivered to you?
Speaker 2:There's a lot of ways that people can prevent that. The way we do it is we have attorneys that put in these protocols for us where we do what we call KYC know your customer. So we don't buy from the public, we only buy from people that are in our industry. So that eliminates a big majority of stolen material just not buying from the public. People can't just show up and sell to our door. You have to be a registered business, you have to be in our industry to sell to us.
Speaker 1:After that so you're a known, known you have to go through lots of checks, backwards checks.
Speaker 2:Lots of checks. So after that they give us their tax ID, business licenses, ids. We run background checks through something called World Check and if anything comes back it checks them for the whole world if they did anything illegal and if it's anything of question, we say no.
Speaker 1:So just right there, when you said we have to have their tax ID, I'm going to surmise that that whittles down a lot of the street theft, because the guy who's stealing a catalytic converter is probably not going to have a tax ID or be willing to give you his driver's license, but that's my protocol.
Speaker 2:That doesn't mean that the guy 50 miles away from me is following the same protocols.
Speaker 1:So we talk. There's always bad actors in every industry, no matter what it is. Now, unfortunately, the bad actors get the biggest reputation. So that's what your industry is known for is dealing with pilferage theft.
Speaker 2:Well, it is recently. It wasn't the case five years ago. It's a recent phenomenon and it's also dying out because the price of precious metals are tanking and the law enforcement is cracking down on companies that are not following the right protocols. So I would say catalyst theft is probably down 70, 80% nationwide.
Speaker 1:I'm going to ask you a tough question.
Speaker 2:Do you think?
Speaker 1:the industry that you helped create created the crime wave for the theft of catalytic converters.
Speaker 2:No, I think the media that talks about it constantly and talks about the values and how easy it is to steal it creates a more theft.
Speaker 1:So I agree with you If you suppress the name, you hide that you don't glorify them or even vilify them. You essentially make their story pointless and irrelevant, hopefully curb it. But the challenge that we have, because we still like to hunt witches right, the media won't let that happen. The media sells on fear, chaos right, it keeps you glued to the TV, it gets the amygdala running and essentially hooked like a drug and the media can't live that down. And we can draw that correlation to everything that the media does. And unless we shut off media, which we will not be doing- there's no way to escape this.
Speaker 2:There's no way to escape this. When we were kids, we would turn on the news once a day and we'd get our 20, 30 minutes of news with our parents and we'd move about our lives.
Speaker 1:I'm shocked you even sat through. I hate it.
Speaker 2:Washington. Well, I mean, it was in the background. Today you're getting news every second.
Speaker 1:Every second.
Speaker 2:Everywhere you go, you're getting news, and that's why there's so much depression, anxiety, right? Because you're constantly being fed negative information, right? So there's no more positivity coming out of media, but that's a separate so we could change that right.
Speaker 1:There are positive programs. I mean the goal of this, at the hands of always just apples lost on campus program, is to lead with inspiration, motivation. Business tells right To find some path to a less depressive environment. But you know, the honest approach or the honest reality is I started this because I was on a path of depression after watching all of this one-sided news.
Speaker 2:Right. I mean you also are. All of us are coming out of a part in life that we never thought would happen. Right With this pandemic, regardless of it being a mild pandemic right or an overblown pandemic, let's just, let's say right, a lot of people still died and it was still a pandemic right, no matter. No matter to what degree it was. We still live through the shutdowns and, you know not knowing what the future holds, because that's what the reality was in the beginning there's a lot of anxiety coming out of it.
Speaker 1:We live together in solidarity through the biggest fear-mongering there has been ever in our century, and our lives for sure, and it taught us some valuable lessons, but it also drove a nail straight through the heart of this country. All right, so now for the most pivotal question of the hour do you feel like you're successful?
Speaker 2:Look, I think you know someone asked me that a week ago I was at a watch event and someone said you know you're successful. Do you feel successful? I said everyone has their gauge of success. I don't feel successful yet.
Speaker 1:You don't feel successful, yet I do not. Okay, so let me ask would someone from the outside or listening in consider you a successful person?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm sure, based on society standards.
Speaker 1:yes, Okay, and what is your definition of success? I don't know what it is. You don't know what your definition is.
Speaker 2:That's what keeps pushing me forward, because I haven't found that point where I feel that I've peaked.
Speaker 1:Okay. So are you one of those people where, if it's your dying deathbed, you're gonna wonder if you were ever happy or if you had your purpose fulfilled? Probably.
Speaker 2:Okay, purpose is a very loose term because you know all of this, every, all the existence that we have and that we live in, eventually will be gone anyway. So it doesn't really that purpose doesn't really matter. I guess it's more about what you do in the moment and who you are in the moment, and I guess that's kind of where I'm at in life is. You know, I'm realizing that it doesn't necessarily matter what's gonna be of you in 100 or 200 years, because you won't be around and most likely 99% of what of humanity today. There won't be any remnants of us in a couple of hundred years anyway.
Speaker 1:I hate to say it. I'm fairly certain that host of podcasts will not be in the history books, right, and I don't think catalytic converter recycling man will be there either. But we do live at least one generation, possibly two, in the memories of our family and our children, right, right. So I would say there is purpose there.
Speaker 2:I mean, I can define purpose in that sense right.
Speaker 1:So when do you think you're going to arrive upon your purpose?
Speaker 2:Maybe I will, maybe I won't. Does that bother you? Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. It's one of those things where you know you kind of have to accept as you get older. You know, when you're in your 20s and 30s this life is very different. Mentally, yes, when you turn 40, you realize that you are midlife and time is not on your side anymore.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you don't have a lot.
Speaker 2:Right and now you have to make smarter choices of how you spend your time.
Speaker 1:So there are a whole bunch of people listening to us right now there and in the same exact thought process. They're in the same boat with this conversation and they're wondering what the hell you know midlife crisis. The struggle is real and it's not about just going out and buying your Corvette right or your fancy car to get you out of the funk. It is the reality that, yeah, half is gone. If you're lucky, half is up. If you're lucky, half is up right, right, and that's a big kick in the butt.
Speaker 2:People call it a midlife crisis because it's easier to call it that right, but I don't think it's a midlife crisis. I think it's reflection on your life and your future.
Speaker 1:Okay, right so it's not a negative thing. Well, it's used in a negative connotation as in a slight to men, and it is, you know it qualified with the acquisition of a brand new shiny red Corvette. Look Sorry to stereotype, I love.
Speaker 2:Corvettes. That's fine, but you know you also have to consider the fact that most people prior to these crazy years couldn't afford shiny red cars, sports cars, in their 20s and 30s. Most of the time, you can only start affording these things in your 40s and 50s. So the association with midlife crisis and that I feel like it's kind of silly, but you know that is the association with that.
Speaker 1:There's nothing wrong with it. We could justify it. Obviously, like you just said, in your 20s and 30s you couldn't afford that dream car and then later on in life you were able to afford it. Absolutely, go out and buy the dream car If you absolutely want to. I'm just saying that it is actually really healthy when you get to that midlife point, because if you harness the fact that you are now reflecting on what your life has been, where it's going, the purpose of it, you could potentially see a pivot to becoming a better person. And I think, at least for myself, I have seen that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's midlife reflection for you. Midlife reflection, let's trademark that term.
Speaker 1:This is trademarked by Jeremy and Darren On the I Took a Hike podcast. Technically, you signed the waiver, so it's now mine, but no, it's the trademark. Reflection right In midlife crisis. It's midlife reflection, right it's absolutely true.
Speaker 2:For me, purpose getting back to purpose is a very loose term and I don't know. For some people, purpose is their kids, their family and their business. That might not be my purpose. I don't know my purpose.
Speaker 1:I do believe you are successful. Thank you. Your conversation alone inspires me. It motivates me. You obviously have a fantastic entrepreneurial mind, an entrepreneurial spirit. You've been a great business owner. You do have these self-doubt, self-reflection moments, but I think that's what keeps you grounded, sure, and probably why you don't rest.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, like I said, I do give breaks, but I do keep pushing forward, and I think that's important.
Speaker 1:That's an important marker in every successful business-minded individual.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think that the most important thing for your listeners is for them to understand that, depending on what point in life they are, they should take the risk accordingly. If you're 20, go all in, that's right. If you're 30, be a little smarter. If you're 40, think a little bit more about what you're doing, because time is not on your side.
Speaker 1:Well, Jeremy Royzend, I want to thank you for joining me along this experience.
Speaker 2:I enjoyed our conversation.
Speaker 1:Thank you for having me and I absolutely see a successful person, whether or not you believe that.
Speaker 2:Listen, I won't say I'm unsuccessful, I'm just not. I haven't reached my peak of success that I deem as successful.
Speaker 1:Well, I will follow up with you because I want to know when you're there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, maybe you'll take the journey with me. We'll come up with a concept.
Speaker 1:That would be really cool and in a way now I'm hoping you never find it, because if I'm still searching for that journey along with you, that means we're living a very long life, right. So here's to your health. Likewise, bro. Thank you Next time on, I Took a Hike. We go off the beaten path only to find our way back with former COO and CFO of Paramount Global Premium Group, michael Crotty. This episode is sponsored by DeFi Supplements. Are you feeling stuck in a rut? Do you need more energy for the trail? Stuck behind the screen all day and lacking focus? Well, you need to recalibrate, my friend, and get your energy back for the summit. Calibrate is a premium brain health supplement doctor formulated to help with energy, focus, mood and longevity. Visit defiyourmindcom and use code Hike for 20% off and you will defy your expectations.