He Sold His Family Business for Millions, Then Bought It Back 10 Years Later With His Son

Joshua Wilson: Good day everybody. Welcome to the Deal Podcast. Um. This podcast is, has been kind of envisioned by Jude and, and the team here at FA Mergers to inspire the next generation of deal makers. Um, the, the people who are going to be receiving the largest transfer of wealth from the silver tsunami and people buying and selling companies.

And, and we just wanna inspire that group and connect with that group. If that is you, if you are a future deal maker or maybe just kind of getting started, we'd love to hear from you. The deal podcast.com. Great place to connect with us. We wanna know your questions. What questions do you have for our guests?

We're putting up and teeing up some really rockstar people for you, so we wanna know your thoughts, listen to some of the episodes, share your questions, and, uh, maybe even get you on the show one day. But today, across from us, we have a, a great friend of, of Jude and, and they've known each other for a long time.

Mr. Walter, welcome to the podcast. 

Walter Hildalgo: Thank you. Thank you for having me. 

Joshua Wilson: Yeah. So let's start with this. You're a Walter Jr. There's a, there's a few Walters that you referenced in our initial conversation in the Green Room. Kinda walk us through who you are. 

Walter Hildalgo: So, I'm, uh, Walter Hidalgo Jr. Um, I have a son, uh, he's 25 years old, the third Walter, I third.

Yeah. And my dad, who obviously, uh, uh, was the first one. He's, he's, uh. No longer with us. 

Joshua Wilson: Yeah. Well, Walter, um, the name carries on. Why don't you tell us a little bit about who you are and, and what you do in business? 

Walter Hildalgo: So, what we're doing now is we have a, a small chemical company called Enviro Chem that I had originally, uh, started in 2001, sold in 2014.

And then last year we were able to get our name back and my son and I go back to business. 

Joshua Wilson: Got it. Okay. Small chemical company starting in 2001, sold 2014. And now you picked it back up. Walk us through the journey of what does that actually look like? What's that mean 

Walter Hildalgo: From the beginning in oh one?

Joshua Wilson: Absolutely. Like you, 

Walter Hildalgo: you started. Yeah. So in 2001 I was actually, um, I had been in. Several businesses and I was, uh, in the convenience store business at that time. And, um, just by chance, uh, started blending a product use for cleaning, basically an industrial degreaser. And, uh, started blending it, selling it primarily for, uh, the oil and gas business.

And from there, grew the company. Uh, to be in the rental business and also the service, uh, business mostly for drilling. 

Jude David: Walter's one of those guys that can always spot a need and figure out how to fill that need. And, uh, you know, it's, it's inspiring because so many people want to be entrepreneurs and they sit around thinking like, what could I sell?

You know, what is the business I can do? And Walter's one of those guys who can look at any situation and say, that's what they need. That's what I need, what I need to sell. 

Walter Hildalgo: Well, thank you Jude. Uh, sometimes to a fault, sometimes that, uh, that, um, part of me, uh. Maybe, uh, jumps a little too quick, but hey, you know, uh, we, uh, we have fun doing it or it doesn't always work out the way it did with chem, but we keep, we keep trying.

Joshua Wilson: For sure. So in the convenience business, what were you doing in the convenience business? 

Walter Hildalgo: So, I had been in the construction business, saw an opportunity to, with a buddy open a, uh, convenience store. 

Joshua Wilson: Mm-hmm. 

Walter Hildalgo: Uh, in Youngsville, Louisiana. And, uh, so we did, we opened one, bought another one, and was in that business when, uh, just by chance, um, I saw an opportunity to sell soap and, uh, that's what we did.

Joshua Wilson: Okay, man, I'm seeing a pattern. All right, so one of the things that we love to do is kind of dissect the deal maker. Not, not literally, but to understand how your brain works and, and how to, uh, you know, learn from a guy sitting across the table, start in construction, right? And it sounds like an entrepreneur has many different, you know, opportunities in their lifetime starting construction.

Saw an opportunity for a convenience store. Now you're in the convenience business, right? You see these shops and you worked with a buddy, saw an opportunity, Hey, if we mix these two chemicals, it could be a soap saw, an opportunity to get in the service business for oil and gas. Right? So all these things.

How do you, how do you know how to spot an opportunity? Because it seems like you've been really good at that. 

Walter Hildalgo: I think a lot of it is just. It just kind of happens. It just kind of, you know, you come across it. And, um, that particular one was just really a customer happened to come to the store. He had some chemical in back of his, uh, truck.

I asked him what it was he told me. I just looked into it and talked to, uh, actually my brother-in-law who was a little. Familiar with the chemical business. And from there, um, I just started, uh, blending and selling degreaser selling soap. 

Joshua Wilson: Yeah. So before selling soap, you, you're, you're mixing chemicals, right?

And back in my past we would study chemicals that were mixed because some chemicals, if you mix, please don't do this, anyone, but bleach and ammonia, right? You get different types of gas that is very hazardous. So as you're going through this process of you solve a problem. And then you saw like a solution mix in certain chemicals that could fix that problem, grease or oil or whatever the case may be.

How did that process go to make sure that, you know, you were blending stuff that would solve the problem and, and how did you approach that research? 

Walter Hildalgo: Well, I'm not a chemist, so, um, actually my brother-in-law, uh, introduced me to some people who blended 

Joshua Wilson: Yeah. 

Walter Hildalgo: And had formulations for. These products and, um, I started selling them 

Joshua Wilson: yeah, 

Walter Hildalgo: at first, and then had an opportunity to, um, buy the, the formulas and go into the blending business.

Joshua Wilson: Very cool. All right, so. You built this up and you, you got into different industries, you saw a need, you fulfilled the need, saw a need, fulfilled the need. Right. When you're observing, you know, younger deal makers or the future generation of deal makers, how do you know if your idea or the opportunity is worth pursuing?

If it's, you know, like how, how do you approach that thought?

Walter Hildalgo: Well in I, in viral Che's case, we had been, we were doing well in the chemical side. 

Joshua Wilson: Yeah. 

Walter Hildalgo: Our customers used other, had other needs. 

Mm-hmm. 

Walter Hildalgo: So it was, it was fairly easy for us to approach our customers and say, you know, if we go into this would. Would you be willing to to use us as well? And from there, you know, you go in, we went into the rental business and then from there we went into the labor business by just, um, basically fulfilling our customer's needs, uh, and.

Yeah. 

Joshua Wilson: So you have existing customers and you, you had conversations with them. What do you need? Are you having this problem? And then you would fix a need that that was stated from your customers. Have you ever been in a situation where a customer said, oh, we have this need, and you go spend a bunch of time, money, energy, and effort, and realize that the end of the day they weren't willing to actually fix that problem or that pay for that 

Walter Hildalgo: it's happened?

Joshua Wilson: Sure. Walk me through one of those scenarios and what would you have done differently? 

Walter Hildalgo: We have had scenarios where our salesman may call me and say, look, I've got a customer who needs this particular piece of equipment 

Jude David: mm-hmm. 

Walter Hildalgo: On a drilling rig. And, uh, he's a good customer. So we go out, we build it, we get it ready and.

It doesn't get the utilization that we had hoped for. And, uh, so it, but you know, that's just part of the game. Sometimes it, it works well and not always. 

Joshua Wilson: Yeah. 

Walter Hildalgo: We just, uh, you know, just gotta, it's part, part of the whole deal, 

Joshua Wilson: part of the game. 

Walter Hildalgo: The good and the bad. 

Joshua Wilson: Yeah. So, Walter, how did, how did you first connect with Jude and, uh, the team here?

Walter Hildalgo: So I first met Jude in 20, uh, 14 when, um, we started the process of selling the company. Okay. The law firm we used, Jude was at the law firm that we used to sell. And, uh, that's how I met you. 

Joshua Wilson: Okay. 

Jude David: Walter had to be, um, I mean, either you're a savant, which I mean, you might be, or lucky as can be sold in July of 2014 whenever oil was $120 a barrel, and it went on a six month tear after that of dropping below $20 a barrel.

And man, I can't tell you how many people I met with that next year in 2015 that said, oh, if I'd only sold last year. Sure. So the timing was just right. Just right luck. 

Walter Hildalgo: Yep.

Joshua Wilson: Alright, so just luck. How does luck play in the world of deal making, and is there ways to increase your odds for luck? 

Walter Hildalgo: Sure. By being out there.

My son actually had lunch with a customer of ours a couple of weeks ago and he told his customer, he said, you know, he said, I was on the drilling rig last week and I got really lucky. One of the superintendents happened to be there when I was there, and his customer looked at him and said, Walter, that's not luck.

You were there. 

Jude David: Mm-hmm. 

Walter Hildalgo: That's, you've gotta be out there. It can't happen if you're not, you know,

actually being calling on people and doing the work. 

Joshua Wilson: Hmm. So being, being in the game is where luck kind of meets the preparation, right? Sure. There's that, that that's 

Walter Hildalgo: where opportunity comes. 

Joshua Wilson: Yeah, absolutely. 

Jude David: Yeah. Even a 100 hitter in baseball can get a hundred base hits. He just needs to step up to the plate a thousand times.

Walter Hildalgo: That's right. 

Jude David: So, 

Walter Hildalgo: and I tell 

Jude David: him now can do it over and over again. 

Walter Hildalgo: I tell my son that you're gonna call on 10 and you may get one, but you've gotta keep calling. You gotta be really, really diligent. 

Joshua Wilson: Fear of rejection, fear of failure. Right. We're humans and we've got these things in our brain, or at least most people do.

I do. Um, you know, I, I used to have to cold call a hundred people a day to get to, you know, 10 yeses. 

Walter Hildalgo: Sure. 

Joshua Wilson: And then to get to one sale. That's a lot of rejection for, for the world of deal making. Right? It is. Making those a hundred calls or knocking on the doors or getting out there, like you say, to find luck.

A lot of that luck comes in that, that, that kind of. Process of doing that, but what, when it comes to people, how do you, what are your thoughts on how to get over that fear of rejection or the fear of failure because it's gonna come? 

Walter Hildalgo: I just think, you know, you have to be that person that's not bothered by making cold calls.

Uh, for me, making cold calls and, and luckily for my son as well, we're very comfortable doing it actually. It's kind of my favorite thing to do because you approach someone who doesn't know you, can you have no, you can be whatever you want, whoever you want, you know? Uh, I don't know. It's, it's, uh, it's, it's never been a problem.

Joshua Wilson: Yeah. 

Walter Hildalgo: And as far as for rejection, you know, we just move on to the next one. 

Joshua Wilson: Hmm. That takes some fortitude. It also takes, um. I think some, some skills and there's, there's something in there that I want, I wanna keep, keep diving into. You said it's your favorite thing to do. Kind of walk me through like why and where do you find joy?

Like why do you find joy in that and like walk, walk me through that process. It's your favorite thing to do in business. I love it. 

Walter Hildalgo: For some reason, I don't know what it is, but I've always, I think I've had better luck calling on people that I had not met before. Then actually people I've known. Well, I don't know why that is, but, uh, it, it has, I've have had it happen many times where guys that I knew well, grew up with, um, didn't actually come to the plate like I had hoped they would, you know, and, and help out and otherwise, and other guys that I didn't know from Adam, uh, I established a relationship with them and, and, uh, ended up.

Being a good customer 

Joshua Wilson: man. Jude, uh, in one of our past interviews, I think we've interviewed you like five times over the years. Um, you mentioned you were working on a big deal and you had a cold call. A lot of banks and I think how many cold like you, you mapped it out, you're, you're a numbers guy. How many calls did you make to get to that deal?

Jude David: It, it was about 300 lenders. Um, you know, we were refinancing a big loan package. Doing acquisition loans is very difficult. And, uh, you know, we'd grown beyond the size of any regional banks we needed to go with, you know, much larger institutions and, you know, little business from Lafayette, Louisiana.

There's a good chance you're gonna get told no when you call up a bunch of guys from New York and LA and Chicago. And so, uh, you know, I just, I figured out we're gonna keep grinding until we get a yes. And, and I called about 300 lending institutions out of that, got two yeses and selected one of those to be our partner.

Uh, fortunately we were able to refinance them out a couple years later because that loan allowed us to grow and, and get to the next level. 

Joshua Wilson: Hmm. What I'm sensing between the both of you is, is, the word that comes to mind is, is grit, right? Showing up, batting those hundred or a thousand times, making those hundreds of phone calls, cold calling people.

When it comes to grit, I think, uh, I think the future generation of deal makers will, will definitely need to. To learn this alongside me, like I, I'm learning it too, like how do you push through? So let me ask the question. When it comes to grit and personal perseverance, how do you keep driving through failures or resistance in the marketplace or downturns?

Jude David: Well, I can tell you I haven't seen it on social media. Email or text messages, which, you know, most young people now are gonna gonna try to use those methods to have grit and get a yes. I haven't seen it yet. Walter, how do you do it? 

Walter Hildalgo: Well, I mean, it's obviously out of need to make a, make a living right?

That you just keep, keep getting up and every morning and, and going to work. It's, um, it's fun to win. It's fun when you, you know, you get that. Yes. Um. In my case, in all honesty, I didn't have a profession from college, so I didn't have many, many choices. But to get out there and 

Joshua Wilson: mm-hmm. 

Walter Hildalgo: And make my own way.

Joshua Wilson: Yeah. 

Walter Hildalgo: And I still am. 

Joshua Wilson: Yeah. Where do you invest your time and energy today?

Walter Hildalgo: In work, you mean? 

Joshua Wilson: Yeah. Yeah. Where, where do you, where do you put your energy? Talk to us about what you're doing. Today. And where as, uh, what, like what role do you have and what, what, what kind of activities do you do in your work? 

Walter Hildalgo: So we're doing it all. We are, um, we are just starting again and it's, um, tougher than it was in 2001, obviously, because the oil and gas business has changed a lot.

Uh, back in those days there were 10 times more drilling rigs. Uh, that we had, you know, availability to, and, um, they're just not there anymore. So we've had to diversify. My son is very good at using technology, so he, through LinkedIn has met people in different industries in, um, cleaning businesses all over the country.

Uh, actually some that clean cargo ships in California, Seattle, all over. So we've diversified into different areas, but we do whatever it takes. Uh, we blend, we deliver, we make calls. Last week, Walter was, uh, had plans to go to North Louisiana, make calls. We got a call during the night that a customer needed, um, some product very early the next morning in New Orleans.

So I got in the truck and went delivered. So we do whatever it takes. We do whatever we have to do. 

Jude David: Yeah. You say what's the worst they can say it's no. So you call the next one. 

Walter Hildalgo: Right, exactly. 

Jude David: You remind me a little bit of, uh, grant Cardone. I don't know if you follow him at all. I do, but he, uh, he always has this thing where, you know, he'll wake up in the morning, he'll say, now I gotta figure out who's got my money today.

Let me, uh, lemme, lemme figure out who's got my money so I can call 'em and get it. Yeah. And uh, and you know, that's just, that's what sales is. Somebody's got your money, you gotta go give 'em a call and ask 'em for it.

Walter Hildalgo: Yeah. Yesterday morning Walter was in, uh, north Louisiana. He went call on several different land rigs.

Most of them were good. He came across one guy that wasn't so nice and uh, basically told him. I'm not gonna use you. Well said. Thank you very much. You know, I'll, I'll keep coming back and if ever you need anything, we are here. So, 

Joshua Wilson: yeah, 

Walter Hildalgo: that's it. 

Joshua Wilson: That's it, man. That who has my money. Yeah, I 

Walter Hildalgo: like

Joshua Wilson: that. It's, I do too.

I really do. Uh, grant, if you're watching, man, we'd love to have a conversation with you. Maybe fly you out to our, our studio here. Uh. Walter, you know, as you're building this, what's it like to work in, you know, in business with, with your son? Walk us through the dynamics of that. 

Walter Hildalgo: Yeah, I, it's something that I was able to do with my dad somewhat, and, uh, it's, it's, it's fantastic to, you know, spend time with him.

I really hadn't thought about it that much because Walter was young. He was only 14 when we sold the business, and I hadn't thought about it. I got into some other businesses after that and he, he joined me there, but he didn't like those businesses. And, uh, one day mentioned to me that he said, uh, he was, he had never told me, but he was disappointed when he was 14 years old that we sold the business because he had always wanted to be in that business.

So the fact that we've had this opportunity now. Is is great. 

Joshua Wilson: All right. So you sold in 2014, you call it, you know, luck and timing, right? 

Walter Hildalgo: Sure. 

Joshua Wilson: Walk us through, you know, as business owner, you built this from the ground up. 

Walter Hildalgo: Yeah. 

Joshua Wilson: From 2001 to 2014, it was your baby, your family was involved in it. Talk to us through the, the business owner's mentality of selling a business and like how did you go about making that decision to sell?

Walter Hildalgo: I, I don't remember exactly what brought that on. I, I guess we, I guess we realized I had a CFO who was also an attorney, my brother-in-law, who was really sharp and I think we had, we were doing well, we were making money, and, um, just realized that maybe there was an opportunity. A lot of companies were selling at that time, getting good, good multiples, you know.

On their business, on their ebitda, and we first hired a banker, uh, out of Dallas to help us. That process hadn't, didn't really go that well, and we kind of had pushed it aside. And then a few months later, again, just by chance approached one of the private equity groups that had showed some interest. We called them.

I asked him if they were still had any interest and they said, sure. If the numbers are still good, 90 days later we, we were done. 

Jude David: Yeah. Walter's story is part of the reason I got into this business. You know, he, he hired a, an investment bank out of Dallas and. You know, they were so focused on what they wanted out of a transaction that, you know, they kept presenting offers to Walter that weren't what he wanted out of the transaction.

Mm-hmm. And there was this one that just got buried in the shuffle. That was exactly what Walter wanted. Um, but they weren't presenting that one because it wouldn't have paid them as. And, uh, that happens a lot in this industry. It's an unregulated industry. You get a lot of sales guys that, you know, don't really know what they're doing, and they're looking for the biggest payday.

Uh, and Walter just saw, saw through it all. He kept telling 'em no until he found the right offer for him. But, uh, you know, a lot of people get pressured into taking the wrong deal or they end up not selling their company. And so, 

Walter Hildalgo: yeah. 

Jude David: Uh, you know, 

Walter Hildalgo: that's exactly right. Jude. I remember, uh, walking into Doug's office and saying.

Asking me if, if he remembered the company that had made us that clean offer all cash. I didn't have to stay in, you know, done deal. And we went through the paperwork, found it, contacted them, and that's what happened. 

Joshua Wilson: All right, so one day you wake up, the wire hits the bank account. 90 days later you sold, right?

Or you, you had some exit where you, you didn't have to show up anymore. Like what was the. What was the, 

Walter Hildalgo: so yeah, this particular group, they had their own people. Mm-hmm. I guess they felt like, you know, and I had a one year non-compete, but that was it. 

Joshua Wilson: Yep. 

Walter Hildalgo: But eight months after we sold, I was actually out.

Okay. And, uh, when I bought my business. 

Joshua Wilson: Yeah. When, when you worked through the deal and, uh, you know, you, you exited fully from that company. What, what did you do with your, your time, energy, effort? Like you just sold you, you know, you had an exit event. What, what, what changed in your life?

Walter Hildalgo: I think, uh, for a little while there you kind of lost a little bit. 

Joshua Wilson: Yeah. 

Walter Hildalgo: Because, you know, we, uh, the company was a big part of, of all of our life, of my, my kids, my wife. It was how we had been the last 13 years and, uh. Yeah, not much changed for me really. Uh, you know, had three kids in school and then a few months later started another business.

Joshua Wilson: What was that? Business 

Walter Hildalgo: bar? Business restaurant. Bar business. 

Joshua Wilson: Oh yeah. Okay. What was it called? 

Walter Hildalgo: Poor POUR. 

Joshua Wilson: I like that. Yeah, the, the poor house, right? Yeah. 

Walter Hildalgo: Yeah. Very 

Joshua Wilson: cool. 

Walter Hildalgo: That's a good way to describe it. 

Joshua Wilson: Yeah. So, all right. You lasted about three months before you went and jumped into the next business, right?

Walter Hildalgo: The following March. March of 

Joshua Wilson: 15. Okay, gotcha. 

Walter Hildalgo: March of 15 I bought the restaurant. 

Joshua Wilson: Yeah. You said when you were. When you sold, you had this period where you were, you felt lost. Ex. Explain that. 'cause I think that happens to a lot of people who sell their business and a part of their identity was, was in the business, their life, their everything.

Right? The, the routine, the schedule, the customers, the relationships. What did that look like for you? What, explain what lost was to you? 

Walter Hildalgo: Yeah. All of that. I mean, I'm, every day I spoke to all my salespeople, spoke to my managers. I was very involved. Yeah. I knew everything that went on. Every day, every job. I, I, you know, I had, I talked to my customers every day.

Um, so yeah, all of a sudden you don't have that anymore. 

Jude David: Mm-hmm. 

Walter Hildalgo: You know, I had 130 employees and, uh, I was very involved with all of them. 

Jude David: You know, I knew a, uh, a federal judge who retired at one point and he said, uh, the biggest thing he noticed is whenever he was a federal judge, everybody laughed at his jokes and then he retired and suddenly he wasn't funny anymore.

Right. 

Jude David: And, uh, I think there's a little bit of that for business owners too. It's like you're the top dog, the most important guy in the company. Everybody looks up to you and respects you and comes, comes to you for all kinds of things. You sell the business suddenly, you know, you go to. Like non-existence, you know, not, not importance.

Walter Hildalgo: Exactly. 

Jude David: That's hard for entrepreneurs to go 

Walter Hildalgo: through. Yeah. I think because of that, that's part of the reason I probably tried this other venture, you know, was to have something fulfill that time and it was also in my neighborhood, so it made it really, it convenient, close to home to buy and thought it'd be fun every, I think everybody thinks it's fun to own a bore.

Joshua Wilson: Until they do it. 

Walter Hildalgo: Yeah. 

Joshua Wilson: We interviewed, uh, a few bar owners recently and, uh, you know, that what I'm, what I'm hearing from the world of owning bars and restaurants is it has to be attached to some level of purpose. Like one of the guys was, uh, the, the community, the people, and another group that we interviewed, it was about kind of like creating stepping stones for, for people and individuals.

So it was very interesting to hear kind of the motivations behind opening. And running these things long term. Um, I think that we can learn a lot from, from what you just shared, when it comes to you exited, you felt lost. And when, when Jude described that kind of like the, the fulfillment, the sense of purpose, right?

You said? Yeah, exactly. So let's just say we could go back in time and we could have a conversation with you while you were the business owner and we're gonna say you're looking to sell. What would you tell yourself? You know, if you would even listen to your own advice back in the day, but like what would you tell yourself before preparing for the sale and then after the sale, post-sale, what would you tell yourself?

Walter Hildalgo: Well, after the sale, I would probably take some advice that I was, uh, given by a friend. Uh, Rodney Sal told me a couple of times, you know, not to take risk when you don't have to. And the second thing was maybe stay in what, you know, stay in what you know. Looking back as opposed to getting in the restaurant business, I probably would've been smarter to, to something in the industry that I was more familiar with.

Joshua Wilson: Sure. Well, you're really, really gifted in the world of, you know, in, in what you're doing and spotting opportunities within this like ecosystem that you've built. You, you, as you're building and making the cold calls and, and showing up every day at volume, you and your son, uh, you, you spot different opportunities and then you, because you know your customers so well.

You know what they need and then you develop a solution for the problem. But I think a lot of times what I've heard from doing a few thousand interviews and working with Jude, uh, closely is people will exit, they have some money, and then they totally jump to a new industry or something that they have no experience in, and then they have to reset their whole life learning and go through the costly aspect of that.

So when it comes to selling and, you know, sticking in, what, you know, kind of walk us through now that. That new change in your life and that that 'cause you rebought the brand and, you know, and, and building that out, how are you gonna do it different? Round two?

Walter Hildalgo: Well, this time, I mean, like I said, it's, it's gonna be somewhat more challenging because the industry's changed. So we're, we're looking at ways to diversify, get into other. Other type businesses other than just, uh, oil and gas. I grew up in south Louisiana, so all and gas was easy. It was what we knew.

Joshua Wilson: Mm-hmm. 

Walter Hildalgo: I knew a lot of people in the business. We were busy in, in those days there were a lot of drilling going on here and offshore, so it was fairly easy. This is gonna be different. Uh, it's, it's great doing it with my son. And then, like I told him this week, I think we need to also keep the eye on our eye on the ball, not try to venture into other stuff and stay focused on, on what we do the best.

You know, because sometimes, like you said earlier, we, there may be an opportunity to go here. For that, for that customer. But then you spend some money, it doesn't quite work out, so we are gonna try and stay focused on, and he's helped me with that. He is a, I'm a, I'm a very, um, spontaneous kind of person too much.

Sometime Walter's more, he thinks about it a little bit more. So it is good having him around to kind of. Hold me back a little bit. 

Joshua Wilson: We've, we've heard this a few times in the conversations, especially with, with working with family. It's this idea of one is the more visionary, more of a risk taker. The other one's more of a integrator, operational, a little bit more risk adverse, and that, that balance of decision making has, we've seen when used healthily.

It builds really good businesses. But let me ask you, I have, I have, I have kids. The idea of one of my kids kind of pulling me in, I, I, I think at first I'd be a little bit challenged, right? Like if I'm the visionary out and going, getting deals and bringing in the bacon, right? And then one of my kids, let's just say I get the honor of one day working with them like you are with your son, which would be a dream come true of mine.

Having that kid who goes, well dad, you know, I think we should pull back a little bit or not do this or do that. How do you. How do you maintain a humble spirit where you can hear that 

Walter Hildalgo: you just have to humble yourself? I mean, it is true. I mean, it is, you know, sometimes I, I have that feeling of just, you know, going a little bit more in, 'cause I am a risk taker.

Mm-hmm. Um, and he is more risk adverse. And, um, it, he has, he has, it's been a big, a big benefit having him. Now on the other hand, there are times where. We talk about it and he realizes that my, my, uh, idea might be, might be worthwhile, should we just work it out? He's 25 years old. He's smart, and, um, he, he, uh, he loves business.

Jude David: You know, there's a whole business philosophy and system out there called entrepreneurial operating system that. Lots of business consultants and coaches help people to get into, but one of the key parts of that system is having a defined visionary and integrator in every business because you need one person who's just focused on all the upside and all the opportunity and the thousand different ways we can take this business.

And you need an integrator who says, well, yeah, I can only. Five of those ideas and actually put 'em to work. Uh, but it's incredibly successful because if one person tries to be both visionary and integrator, they get bogged down in the day to day and they stop being a visionary. And so it's kind of a good dynamic, you guys, it have developed.

Walter Hildalgo: It's, it is, and I'm not, I'm not suggesting that he's not, you know, he's not willing to take some risk as well. 'cause he has, and he and he does every day. But I just think he takes it a little bit slower. 

Joshua Wilson: Yeah. 

Walter Hildalgo: Um, than I do. And, um, 

Jude David: he's earlier in the curve though, right? So, you know, I heard something from, uh, Tony Robbins pretty recently that I thought was really interesting.

He, uh, he talked about the three steps to success, and they all have to do with patterns. You know, one is pattern recognition, the next is pattern proficiency, and the last one's pattern creation. So, you know. It, it applies to anything in life. Like think about if you know you like music, um, you know, pattern recognition is, you know, what's the kind of music I like?

What are the chords that go together that sound really appealing to me? That sort of thing. Pattern proficiency is maybe I find some music that somebody else has created and I try to play it myself or sing it myself. And then pattern creation, I've gotten really good at playing other people's music. Now I'm gonna start doing it myself.

And the same thing happens in business. It's, you know. What are other people selling? What are other people doing? How are they making money? Okay. Can I mimic what other people are doing? Can I try to, you know, learn from somebody else who's already doing it? And then eventually you get so proficient at what they're doing, you can do it yourself.

So it sounds like Walt's getting pretty far along that journey.

Walter Hildalgo: He is. Like, for instance, a couple of weeks ago I had gone look at some equipment, um, a tank to purchase, and while I was there, I saw. Other pieces of equipment that were actually mine from years ago that were in this yard going through an auction.

And I guess a little bit of it was sentimental, which is kind of silly, but it had my name on it, on it. It was my old equipment that was being sold, and I figured we could get it pretty cheap. So I got real excited. And I called him and I sent him pictures of the different pieces of equipment and he's like, well, dad, what are we gonna do with that?

So 

Jude David: son, you don't understand. It's got my name on it. 

Walter Hildalgo: My answer was, we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna try and put 'em to work. We're gonna try and put 'em. So all of a sudden that meant we were going from chemical business now back to rental business. And that's when he. You know, kind of put the brakes on and said, well, are we gonna be by doing that?

Are we gonna be competing with any of our customers? And I said, I don't think so. I don't think we're gonna be competing with any of the people we do business with. But it was something to think about. And, um, my brain works just like Jude said, a thousand ways to just make money and not. Like Wal Walter Walter's brain takes a step, just, you know.

Kind of thinks about it. 

Joshua Wilson: Yeah, we have, uh, so those three Ps from Tony Robbins. Tony, if you're listening, we'd love to chat with you too. We'll, we'll have you and Grant, and at the same time if you guys want, or we'll give you separate time. You know, you guys deserve it. Uh, the three Ps, the pattern recognition, pro uh, proficiency and creation.

There's another, uh, P three Ps that, uh, Chris and I use within it's pause, pray process. Right. So, um, in this, you know, you've, you saw something which was sentimental to you. My name's on this. Right. And that's meaningful because that was a part of your identity, your purpose. You built this, you sold it, right?

Like it was, it was a part of who you are and what you've done. It was an impact. 

Walter Hildalgo: Mm-hmm. 

Joshua Wilson: And then you brought in front of the, the committee, and the committee said, well, they, they brought up some really good questions. You, as your processing this with them, you paused and you, and you went through this. Now your son made some suggestions.

And then ultimately you said, you know what? You're right now you might have taken pictures and. Post them on your wall or something like that. But like, how did you, how did you notice yield to that decision rather than just go, Nope, we're doing it. 

Walter Hildalgo: Well, in all honesty, I made an offer on the equivalent. 

Joshua Wilson: He still tried.

Yeah. 

Walter Hildalgo: And, and a, a very low ball offer. And he, he was fine with it. And I, like I said, we'll, if we get it, we'll make sure that we're not gonna go into any. Anybody, you know, we're not gonna go anywhere that we're doing business with. Uh, it didn't work out. We didn't get it. But it did, it did cause me to realize and step, take a step back that maybe, maybe it's just gonna sit in the yard and, and do nothing for a while, and then we have money sitting there doing nothing.

And so I, I'm glad that we had the conversation. 

Jude David: Yeah. 

Walter Hildalgo: Because if, if I were by myself. Like I was for many, many years, I would've just probably gone out there and maybe even up my, up my offer. 

Joshua Wilson: We interviewed someone, uh, my director will probably remind me, and they were saying as they built this business, it was getting very successful and they had to bring in someone to, for accountability.

I think it was, um, Victor, no. Uh. Anyways, they, they, they brought in, uh, accountability as they were building maybe Marvin, Marvin. 

Jude David: Marvin, Marvin, 

Joshua Wilson: okay. They, they, as they were building, they had someone who they can, an outside person who could look at their business and, and kind of bounce the ideas off, and they reminded him of.

What are we building here? What's our mission, vision, values? As you talk about the EOS system, mission, vision, values, and you set course, and then if something is going to steer you off, you either have to reset your mission, vision, values, or say no to that decision, right in those guide rails, mission, vision, values.

As you were going through this process, you, you know, you got a green light. Yeah, you could do it, but maybe at this low bid price. When it comes to operating outside, you're really, really, really gifted at spotting opportunities. What does that do to your brain when, when you look at an opportunity and you go, man, if I chase that, the squirrel, if I chase that man, it could be huge.

Ah, this is what we're working on now. How do you, how do you do that within your brain? Because I think all entrepreneurs listening in, all visionaries listening in will have that squirrel chase in thing where they see opportunities. How do you, how do you know when to stay course or chase a new opportunity?

Walter Hildalgo: I'm, I'm not sure. I mean, it just, you know, in, in, in that particular case, um, I think right now, uh, it's, we've, we are just being very careful about staying the course. 

Joshua Wilson: Yeah. 

Walter Hildalgo: If we see an opportunity, we're definitely gonna go for it. You know, if, if we're a hundred percent, but we are, we're more cautious, I'm just more cautious.

Maybe it's because I'm older. 

Joshua Wilson: Yeah. 

Walter Hildalgo: You know, maybe that's part of it, is that I'm older and not as, you know, willing to take the same risk. I, I used to when I was younger. 

Joshua Wilson: Okay. Well, Jude, how do you, how do you go about, you know, o opportunistically too. You've bought tons of businesses, actually, you, you credit Walter for actually getting into the world of investment banking and help people sell their businesses.

Like, how do you, how do you determine if a opportunity's worth chasing down? 

Jude David: Well, apparently I'm not as wise as Walter yet because I usually say yes to most of the opportunities that come my way. And, and actually I find it kind of motivating to my team because if I say yes to too many things, it means everybody's working full tilt, trying to, uh, trying to get it all done.

Right now for us, it's our crane company. Um, you know, I, I told those guys when we first started out, I'm gonna. I'm gonna buy more cranes than you're comfortable having in our fleet. And you're always gonna feel this pressure to keep putting more cranes to work. And uh, and you know, everybody was a little skeptical and nervous about it, but it really works whenever you're saying yes to all these opportunities and not.

Shutting things off. Uh, yeah, there's more risk to it, but also a lot more upside. Um, and, and I find it's been really great for those people. We're executing really well and, uh, you know, we have to go through those questions of, okay, well when do we stop? When do we, when do we start turning this down a little bit and, and giving into that, um, you know, risk aversion a little bit, but, uh, I just really enjoy.

Um, you know, the opportunity to go chase more things. Um, you know, my ops people and my, my teammates are the ones putting on the restraints. 

Joshua Wilson: Yeah. Well, I, I love this because, you know, if we look at even the growth of a, of a fund, right? You have the, the growth stage where you know, it's all out, lot of risk, push, push, push, push, push.

You accumulate, you kind of go through this operational process and then preservation. Of capital and, and stuff where you start to minimize risk and how do we, how do we maintain and, you know, turn this into a, a larger machine. I, I think that is important. And you mentioned maybe 'cause of age and maybe it's age or stage of, of how you're building this and, you know, when it comes to growth, I love what you said.

You know, Jude and I think we both, we all have the growth mentality here. You know, make a bunch of cold calls all day long, cold calling all day long. Let's just keep on piling on opportunities. You've got people that you trust. And what I love about both you is what I'm hearing. You got people you could trust that allow you to operate in your genius and you know that because of your trust in them, you could go out knocking on all those doors, cold calling all those things, or create these opportunities because you got a team of people who could help execute on it.

I think that's the Marcus Limonis will say people, product process, the people of the aspect. So let, let's three 

Jude David: piece. 

Joshua Wilson: Another three P Man, there's a lot of three Ps three P square is, uh, you know, we'll, we'll bring to the table. But, um, you know, Marcus bought, you bought an RV from you, you know, two years ago.

I, I wanna see you on the show too. You know, we'd love to chat with you. Uh, but the, in this term of people, let, let's talk about that for people. How, you know, we, we view, uh, our, our skills and weakness. How do you know, like when it comes to hiring or what kind of team member you need to the table, how do you guys approach that?

Either one of you guys. 

Jude David: Oh boy. With a lot of mistakes. 

Joshua Wilson: Okay. 

Jude David: You know, it, uh, it, it's funny because really successful entrepreneurs will all tell you that it's about getting the right people in your company. Uh, if you have the wrong people, you're not gonna go very far because you're limited to what you can do yourself.

You get the right, people suddenly have so much capability to, to go the distance. It's a real challenge trying to hire people because everyone is good in, in a job interview. Um, especially hiring salesmen. Oh my gosh. You know, they are so good at selling themselves. If only they were that good at selling product.

You know, that's, that's the challenge. And so, you know, it, it's really hard to find the right people. Um, you know, my old, uh, law mentor used to always tell me, you have to be slow to hire and quick to fire. I mean, you have to, you have to be very cautious about making sure you find the right person. But when you figure out that they're not the right person, you gotta cut ties quick because, um, you know, we all have a tendency to try to give people the benefit of the doubt and really try to, you know, help them get to the point that they need to be.

And, oh, maybe, you know, maybe this bad salesman will turn into a good salesman if I just give him six months of coaching. Well, chances are that won't be the case. Chances are he'll stick around. Not sell for you for six months and it will have cost you a bunch of time and money. Um, and so that's the challenge.

I've, uh, I've really loved the opportunity to grow people from within though, you know, find people that want to start and they're very eager to learn and they, you know, learn the basics of the business and they grow up to the next level and the next level. Now that takes a lot of time and a lot of investment in people, but that's, that's the best success I've found so far.

Walter Hildalgo: What Jude said is a hundred percent correct. Excuse me. Especially in the restaurant business, we interviewed people many times who we thought were gonna be knockout, you know, great. And they did. They just interview well, much better than they turn out to be. And it's challenging and I'm, I'm with Jude. If I have a good employee, if I can, you know, use them internally and promote them within.

That's, I find that's always the best. 

Joshua Wilson: Hmm. 

Walter Hildalgo: And in viral camp, our first go round, I was extremely fortunate to have really, really good people. 

Joshua Wilson: Man, that's cool. There's a proverb, uh, written by a very wise king. It says, if you want a, uh, clean stall, do it yourself. If you want, uh, a harvest, you're gonna have a messy stall.

And it, and it talks about like, working with people can be, you know, messy. But if you want to yield a, a harvest, then you just gotta work through that. When it comes to people, how do you know? You know, Jim Collins, I, I referenced him in, in another podcast. He, he talks about the right person. The right bus, the right seat on that bus.

Right. How do you deal with a situation where you, where you feel like deep in your heart, you have the right person, but maybe the wrong seat in the bus, or maybe even the wrong bus in general, but you got the right person. How would you approach that? I, 

Walter Hildalgo: I don't think I've too often had that happen where I, I, most of the time it was the right person.

He was in the right, he was in the right place. 

Jude David: Mm-hmm. 

Walter Hildalgo: Doing the right thing. Um. Uh, like I said, I haven't had that experience really. You know, we, we've always, in our business, we either hired salesmen or mechanics, welders, whatever it was. We had good ones, we had bad ones. And, uh, we, like Jude says, you have to be willing to, uh, cut, get, get 'em out quick.

Joshua Wilson: Mm-hmm. 

Jude David: You know, um, when we've had people in the wrong seat, I. Two, two things happen. One, you know, you really try to almost bargain with yourself. You, you'll find somebody who's in the wrong seat and you're like, oh man, he's such a good guy, but maybe we just need to find a new seat for him. And unfortunately, like, you know.

Even though somebody's a really good guy, it doesn't necessarily mean they're a good employee or very good at what they do. And, and sometimes you'll find somebody you really like and you'll move them from seat to seat to seat, trying to find the right fit, and then you end up realizing they're just not that good of an employee, even though they're a great person.

Those are really hard. Um. Another really hard situation is whenever you, uh, Peter principle, somebody, you know, if you know the, the Peter principle, people get promoted to their first level of incompetence. So you find somebody who's really good and really motivated and really eager, and they're great at their job.

So you promote 'em, you get 'em to the next level, and they're really good and really eager at that job. So you promote 'em again and they're good at that level and the next level and the next level. And then finally you promote 'em to a level where they're not good, and then that's where they stay. And, uh, you know, that's, that's a real challenge you have to watch out for as a manager, because really good people are very ambitious.

They wanna move up, they want to take more and more responsibility, but there's. Nothing worse as a manager than taking somebody who's really good, who you really like and promoting 'em to a job that they're not good at because where do you go from there? You can't demote 'em back down and say, well, you weren't good at this.

Now I'm gonna, I'm gonna send you back down into a lower level. And so you always have to be so careful as a, as a manager and as a boss to, you know, really have those conversations with people. This is why I think you're so great in this role. How do I help you grow this role and, and do the thing that you're absolutely best at, rather than trying to promote you to a whole different skill set that maybe you're not good at.

You see it a lot with the guys in the field. You know, a guy who's, you know, a good technician might be a good foreman. Uh, if he's a good foreman, he might be a good supervisor. If he's a good supervisor, he might be a good superintendent. And then, you know, there's this tendency of, oh, he's a great superintendent.

Let me promote him to executive executive level management. Well now, instead of, you know, managing. The construction field, this guy is now managing spreadsheets and QuickBooks and you know, accounting and whatever. It's like that's a whole different skillset, but once you've promoted him to the executive level, how can you send them back to the field?

And so you have to be very careful. 

Walter Hildalgo: So I guess I have had that happen and actually because in the restaurant business, you could have a really good server or a really good bartender. And then an opportunity comes up where you need a manager or even an assistant manager and oh, well, they great, great person, great server, great bartender, and you promote them.

And they're not a good manager. They can't manage people, they can't work with people. To be a good manager, you have to be able to work. You have to, you have to have the people want to work for you. And, uh, a lot of, a lot of managers are just not, they, their employees don't wanna work for them. That's not a good thing.

Joshua Wilson: Hmm. Yeah, man, I love these conversations. Super grateful that you're, you're here, Walter. This is, this is great. One of the, um, one of the traditions we have is asking a question from a previous guest. So Brady, uh. I came in earlier, Brady Cuomo, and, uh, great interview. I encourage everybody to go back and listen to the, uh, left a question for you.

Do you mind if I read that for you? 

Walter Hildalgo: Sure. 

Joshua Wilson: All right. Here it goes. I haven't read it yet, so it could be crazy. Who knows? All right. What would be your dream job if you're not doing it now, what would be, if you weren't doing what you're doing now, what would be your dream job? You could do anything in the world.

Walter Hildalgo: I think I am right now. I actually think right now at my age, being able to work with, uh, my son and grow a business is, uh, is pretty much a dream come true. 

Joshua Wilson: Hmm. 

Walter Hildalgo: Because first of all, starting a business and growing a business is much more fun than operating a business. 

Joshua Wilson: Yeah. 

Walter Hildalgo: That's the funnest part, right?

Yeah. For me it is. Starting a new business. And, uh, so us doing that is, uh, is really a dream come true. 

Jude David: I, I just, I really hope my kids want to take after me one day and, and I can do that with 'em. Malter I mean, it sounds like a dream come true. My, uh. My son killed his first deer this weekend, and I asked him what he wanted to be for a living.

He said, I wanna be a hunting guide. And I said, oh, that would ruin it. That would just, that would just, that would just ruin it. But, uh, but I hope one day he figures it out, you know, he wants to get into business. We do it together. 

Walter Hildalgo: Yeah. 

Joshua Wilson: Hmm. When it comes to, 

Walter Hildalgo: I don't know who Brady Cuomo is, but that's a good question.

Joshua Wilson: Yeah, yeah. Well, we'll, we'll connect you one day, man. And we, maybe we'll have a, a reunion where we bring in some of our top guests and have a round table or something. We do it at a university and, and put some, uh, future deal makers in so they can connect. You know, we've, we've had that vision. Maybe there's someone in the audience who can help execute that and make it, make those kind of things happen with us.

But, uh. You know, you're gonna have an opportunity to pass on a question for the next guest, so we'll do that at the, at the end. But I've got a few more questions, uh, before we wrap up today. If you got a minute, is when it comes to, uh, what you're building with, with your son, what do you think your son's vision of the future is?

And what do you think he wants? What, what do you think drives him, gets him outta bed, and, and you know, what, what do you think his motivation is? 

Walter Hildalgo: Oh, I think he would, he's. Motivated to try to grow the business and build a big business. 

Joshua Wilson: Yeah. 

Walter Hildalgo: He, um, he enjoys what he does. He, he doesn't mind getting his hands dirty.

He, um, doesn't mind making the cold calls. He drove three hours yesterday, made cold calls all day, drove three hours home. So he, he enjoys it and I think he, um, he's on the right track. Hmm. 

Jude David: Those Hidalgos can sell ice to Eskimos. They're, uh, hardworking at it. 

Walter Hildalgo: We'll see. 

Joshua Wilson: Yeah. Well, I might ice this on Friday.

You know, we're getting alerts on our phones that, uh, Friday we might not be able to fly out. So we, you might, I might be buying some ice from you in the very near future, Mr. Higa, um, one of the, the final things is, are, is there a question or a topic that I probably should have asked you during this interview that you wish I would've asked you?

Walter Hildalgo: I don't think so. 

Joshua Wilson: Okay. Do do you have any, i, I put you on the spot last time, but then you came up with the growth mindset, man, it was so good. So what, what's another, how about this? Let me, let me put it this way. We have a future deal maker listening into this right now. They're, they're, they're studying getting their MBA or whatever, and you get to pass on one piece of valuable wisdom to them.

What do you wanna share to that future deal maker?

Walter Hildalgo: Well, in my experience, I just think it's easy. You just gotta, you know, be persistent. 

Joshua Wilson: Okay? 

Walter Hildalgo: Be persistent every day. Uh, keep on, you know, working hard every day. Keep your nose down and just go to work. Uh, that's what I do, that's what we do. We just get up every morning and go to work. And, uh, a little rejection.

Never killed anybody. We just keep trying. 

Jude David: You miss a hundred percent of the shots you don't take. Oh, oh, Wayne 

Joshua Wilson: Gretzky. 

Jude David: Oh yeah, yeah. You gotta take 'em all. 

Joshua Wilson: And Wayne also, if you're listening into the podcast, you too. So we got on future episode, we have so many guests. Episode, we have Tony Robbins, grant Cardone, and Wayne Gretzky coming in.

So, you know, tune in and if you know them, do a email introduction to me. That'd be great. Alright, so fellow deal makers, thanks for listening into this podcast. This is such a blessing to be able to, uh, sit here with this, you know, with these guests that we're lining up. If you have a guest recommendation, head over to the deal podcast.com, fill out a quick form and make a suggestion.

Also, what questions do you have for our guests? We'd love to share those, uh, you know, kind of in the same format, the same, uh, the structure as we do as a part of our tradition. But, um, fellow deal makers, thanks for tuning in and we'll see you all on the next episode. Cheers, guys.