Metal, Ministry, and Mentorship: Shaun Eller’s Multifaceted Career at Ohio Gratings | Manufacturing Series

Anthony Codispoti : Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they’ve overcome adversity. My name is Anthony Codispoti and today’s guest is Shaun Eller, Chief Business Officer at Ohio Greetings. Founded in 1970, they specialize in steel, aluminum, and stainless steel bar grading products for a variety of industrial and architectural applications. Their dedication to safety and durability has earned them a trusted reputation within the industry. As the Chief Business Officer, Sean focuses on community engagement and nurturing synergy across all of Ohio Greetings entities. Over the years, he has taken on multiple roles from drafting design and logistics to human resources and sales. He also acts as the company’s ambassador working to strengthen relationships within the community’s Ohio Greetings serves. By launching several outreach programs, he has shown a strong commitment to giving back and supporting local initiatives.

He is a licensed minister once served as the company’s dedicated chaplain and penned the balance in 2019, a book which offers insights into balancing the demands of an insistent society with personal development. Now, before we get into all that good stuff, today’s episode is brought to you by my company, AdBac Benefits Agency, where we offer very specific and unique employee benefits that are both great for your team and fiscally optimized for your bottom line. One recent client was able to add over $900 per employee per year in extra cash flow by implementing one of our innovative programs. Results vary for each company and some organizations may not be eligible.

To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at adbackbenefits.com. All right, back to our guest today, the Chief Business Officer at Ohio Greetings, Shaun Eller. I appreciate you making the time to share your story today. Thank you very much. Honored to do it.

Okay, Sean, so I gotta say this is almost unheard of these days. You’ve been working with Ohio Greetings for 30 years. Tell us first how the opportunity to work there came about.

Shaun Eller : Yeah, that’s a great story. And once again, thank you so much for taking the time to interview me. Hopefully, I’ll do my best to make it interesting. You said interesting people.

I’m not sure how interesting I am, but we’ll try. So 30 years ago, I was working and really just needed a job. I had taken vocational drafting in high school at Tymkin Senior High School here in Canton.

So I had not done drafting for a couple years. Applied for an ad in the newspaper back then. That’s how you found jobs. And you didn’t have the internet to, you know, look up a company. So there’s an ad in paper, and it was very simple. It said looking for a draft person must have metal experience, must have the most recent version of AutoCAD, and must have a two year degree. I didn’t have a two year degree. I’d never done anything with metals.

And I hadn’t used CAD in two years because I was working for a land surveying company. So didn’t meet any of the qualifications. I went ahead and put it mailed in my resume, and got an interview, got a second interview, got a third interview, third interview. David Bartley, who was interviewing me said, I don’t know why I keep talking to you.

You don’t meet any of my qualifications. So he then asked me to come meet with his brother, John, met with him, and had a great conversation with him, and they made me an offer for a job. So I had, I got, I tell everybody I got home from my interview, my wife said, is there, what’s grading, and is there enough of it to keep you busy?

I said, well, I have no idea what grading is. And if I quit my job, hopefully they keep me busy. Well, 30 years later, they’ve kept me really busy. And I know a little bit more about grading than I used to.

So it’s, it’s been a, it’s been a great ride. Start off in drafting soon, soon after that, they asked me to move into sales. So I moved into sales. I did pastor church for about 11 years. And for part of that time, I did work part time at Ohio gradings and part time at the church. And during that time, I did all kinds of different positions here at Ohio gradings, worked in outside service, coordinating outside services, worked in quality, worked on the shop floor quite a bit, you know, running punch presses, helping fabricators, ran stalls, loaded, and unloaded trucks, did some purchasing. So it really got me a really nice, broad background in all areas of the company. As you know, said in the intro, I did some time where I was doing evaluations and helping with hiring. And, and then I did work as the first chaplain we’ve had, we’ve had one ever since, but after a few years as chaplain and pastoring, the owner asked me to come back full time. And actually he came in one morning, I don’t know, it was three or three or four in the morning, and I was out on the floor running a press, and he’s, you know, double did a little double take, what are you doing?

I said, I’ve been coming out in the morning, you know, to, you know, I picked up this habit called eating and had to figure out a way to keep eating. So working some extra hours. And he was like, if you’re going to be here, I don’t want you to run the press, I want you to, you know, help run our detailing department, and get into back, you know, into management role, if you’d be interested in doing that.

Anthony Codispoti : So you were kind of working multiple roles at this point?

Shaun Eller : Yeah, when I, when I asked to go part time, once again, I was in sales, I’d already been in detailing drafting detailing is in the steel world, the name for drafting. So some people think detailing is cleaning your car.

But it’s really AutoCAD. So I was, I had done both of those roles. So when I went part time, they’re like, well, we can’t really have a part time sales person. So they kind of just put me wherever. And I filled in in sales, some people on vacation, I filled in in detailing. And around that time are actually our plant manager got cancer. And he went out and when they did, they just told me basically to move into the general manager’s office and do anything I can to help.

Anthony Codispoti : So that’s, sorry, I’m gonna, sorry to interrupt you, Sean, but absolutely, there’s a couple of questions that come to mind. First of all, kind of going back to the beginning when they first hired you, like you said, you didn’t meet any of those three criteria. Why do you think they kept meeting with you? Why do you think they eventually offered you the job? What, what was it that they saw on you?

Shaun Eller : You know, that’s a great question. I don’t know. Hopefully they don’t regret it. They kept me around for 30 years. I tell people they moved me in so many positions because I can’t find anything I’m good at. So hopefully, hopefully one of these days, they find something they can do right. But it’s, I, you know, I think, you know, part of it, I think God just opened the door and made a connection that was meant to be is a big piece of it, in my opinion. You know, one of the things it was kind of interesting to me, you know, I was a youth pastor at the time. And when I had my third interview, I said, you know, David won me, me, his brother. And when I did, he just, when he saw youth pastor, he lit up. He’s like, I have a vision.

I want to have a chapel in someday. I just, you know, and I had a third interview at another company in the area at the same time. And when the, it was, you know, kind of similar, I met with the hiring manager three times. And then they wanted me to meet the owner. When he saw my application and saw youth pastor, he just went total opposite, went so negative. And he was, he was like, you know, so you’re going to want Fridays off for your kitty trips. And it was just like such a smack in the face. And compared to the third interview here, where, you know, like I said, John just lit up, like I have a vision for this to be a ministry too, and not just a, not just a company, not just grow business, but make an impact on people’s lives and do something different, which, you know, obviously really resonated with me and, you know, my, my desire to, to help people and make an impact on people’s lives.

So John, you know, I think that connection really, really helped. And I, you know, I did use CAD in high school. It just been a couple of years since I’d used it. So I was a little rusty. I had a nice portfolio drawings and stuff I’d done. But honestly, I hadn’t, I hadn’t used CAD in a couple of years. I’d been out in a field crew doing a land surveying.

So it was, yeah, I think just the right connections. And, you know, I now in my new role, what I do now as Chief Business Officer, I do a lot of work in the community, as you said, if I do a lot of work with schools, I talk to high school students all the time, junior high students, and I tell students all the time that story. Because, you know, if you, if you apply for a job, you don’t have the job now.

So what do you lose? You know, I didn’t have the job when I made the application. If they didn’t hire me, guess what? I didn’t have the job.

But I tried. I learned something. I grew. I improved my skills. I learned how, you know, better interview. So what’s it hurt? Try it. And you still don’t have the job.

Anthony Codispoti : I love this message, Sean. And I want to take a moment and just, you know, give voice to it. Because I think so many times in life, and I’ve been guilty of this myself, where it’s like, there’s a door that we could knock on, but it’s like, I’m not big enough for that.

I don’t have the right skills, the personality, the education, whatever it is. And like you said, you had nothing to lose. Like you send in your application, and if you don’t get a call, you don’t get any interview, you’re in the same place. But at least you took a shot, right? You know, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. So that’s the truth.

Shaun Eller : Yep. And, you know, any, I always try to, I can learn something from anybody. You know, it doesn’t matter who I interact with. There’s a lesson that they have. So if, you know, I met, even if it was just meeting a great, you know, person, a leader at a company, there’s things that I can learn and grow from. And even the company that once again interviewed me three times, and they actually maybe an offer as well. After that, you know, the fourth interview with the owner in both situations, Ohio Gratings and another company, you know, one was very positive, one was one, you know, kind of had a negative slant there. But obviously they still both made me an offer. And, you know, from my standpoint, you know, well, this one definitely aligns with my, my, you know, moral compass and my belief system. And that’s, that’s, you know,

Anthony Codispoti : that was a big determining factor for you. It is an easy decision where to go. So I want to explore the faith piece here for a moment, if you don’t mind. Sure. It is surprising to me that the other company who shall remain nameless had such a negative take on your faith background, you being a youth minister. I mean, even if faith isn’t something that is integral to your own life, I would think that somebody would see that and say, Oh, this guy’s probably a pretty upstanding individual. He probably has, like you said, a pretty good moral compass. Like, even if I don’t have the same belief system as him, that’s the type of person that, you know, we would want kind of on the inside of our walls here. And then with the Bartley saying, you know, the complete opposite, which was, this is amazing, like this fits into our bigger plan.

I kind of want to talk a little bit more about this. In my experience, and tell me if I’m just naive, it’s a little unusual for a company to sort of want their even bigger mission to be more of, what was the word that you used, of ministry?

Shaun Eller : Yeah. And, you know, I, that’s, you know, why did the other company take the negative thing? I don’t know. Maybe they had a bad experience. Maybe someone, you know, wasn’t, maybe ripped them off by, you know, cutting out earlier or something.

I don’t know. I don’t know what drove it, other than the fact that it was a great sign to me that this is where I need to go, because I was probably leaning a little more towards the other company until that interview. Honestly, just from, you the three interviews I’d had each place, you know, and now, you know, I’m grateful I made the decision I made that, you know, John is John’s the owner of Ohio Greatings and the other entities that we have, the acquisitions he’s made. He’s made it. He’s been very intentional with, he wants this to be a kingdom class company that’s, you know, really glorifies God is honoring to God. And, you know, it’s a, it’s, it’s a, you know, monumental, unachievable, but always something to strive for and something to kind of motivate us to get better every day. So it’s, it’s, it’s definitely, you know, sets a high standard. And, you know, unfortunately, we don’t always make it, but we keep trying.

Anthony Codispoti : And so what does that look like internally? Like what, what does it look like the kingdom class to, you know, make this a ministry? What, like, what’s, what’s the employee experience like, you know,

Shaun Eller : we do spend a lot of effort on culture. So we have a cultural officer. We do have a chaplain, a full time chaplain now when I was chaplain, it was part time. But we have a full time chaplain now we offer us the class called to Puku, which basically is an acronym, the only person you cheat is you. And it’s the chaplain teaches it setting goals in all of your life.

It’s not just about work, it’s, you know, financial goals, relationship goals, spiritual goals, work goals. And it’s the employees get paid to come to the class if they want to not force to, but it’s open. You know, they, you know, in our lobby, we have a book about Jesus, you know, it’s free to anybody, any employee that wants it, any guest or visitor that comes in. Just, you know, once again, it’s not forced down anyone’s throat. It’s, it’s just, it’s available if that’s what you want, you know, a chaplain.

And, you know, I played in that chaplain role, I won’t say played in it, but I served in that chaplain role, I guess, is a better term for probably four years, four and a half years. And it’s, you know, coming from a, you know, strong faith background and, and, and family, you know, things that, that maybe were more natural to me were, or not, not everybody has that. So, you know, you get a lot of people that have no faith connection at all.

And then when someone, you know, they lose a family member, you know, the way I remember one incident in particular, one of our associates had a heart attack and his wife, they never, they never were involved in any church. And his wife called me and she’s like, can you just come to the hospital? I’m, I’m a mess. I’m a, I’m a basket case. And I don’t know who to go to.

I don’t, you know, I don’t have family around. And, and so just to go sit and, you know, serve the role of what a pastor would do was, was extremely meaningful to, to those, those, you know, the people that we serve through the years, you know, doing a funeral. When someone passes in an associate’s family, you know, they don’t know who to go to, they don’t know. So I know just recently, our chaplain did a funeral for one of our associates who had a family member pass away and they didn’t know who to go to.

So that’s stuff I did when I was chaplain, stuff that our chaplain now does, once again, serve the associates and, and be available. And, you know, it doesn’t mean we’re perfect. We got a lot of things to work on and strive for, but trying to set that culture to where once again, how do we, you know, something else, if I’m running rambling on to stop me, but, you know, in the role as a chief business officer and what we do with schools, you know, last year, we hired 40 high school students from local career tech programs, worked around there, you know, we really strive to work around their schedule. We wanted them to have, number one, you got to graduate. That’s the most important thing. And we’re going to help you graduate.

We’re going to help you, you know, if you want to play, it’s your senior year in high school, if you want to play sports, play sports, if you want to play in a band, play in a band, if you got activities, do those activities, that’s important. And we know, and, you know, the owner, we’ve talked about it is they’re not all going to stay with Ohio Granges, they’re not going to have a career here. But let’s make an impact on their life in a positive way and see how we can help them as they transition to adulthood and how they’re going to grow and develop as people. And if we can have a place in that, I know they’re not going to stay, you know, so.

Anthony Codispoti : But even if you can just sort of bend the arc of their life just a little bit more in a positive direction, what a great thing.

Shaun Eller : Yep, do something, do something positive to make an impact on them.

Anthony Codispoti : So, you know, Sean, I get to talk with a lot of business leaders, a lot of folks who faith is very important to them, who, you know, make a lot of their decisions based on their spiritual beliefs. But I think this is the first company that I’ve come across that has it so integrated into their culture, you know, a full time chaplain, look at, you know, the company is, you know, becoming a ministry. And again, like you said, not in a way where it’s being forced down people’s throats, but it’s there and it’s available for them.

And it sounds like this, obviously, it’s a huge part of your belief system. But John Bartley is the one who’s really, you know, sort of been driving this from the beginning.

Shaun Eller : Yes, absolutely. Yep. It’s definitely part of him and his wife, Karen. They’re both very involved in business. And it’s definitely part of their belief system and what they want to do.

That’s their vision for the company. So I’m in a lot of ways the face I get, which is kind of sad, couldn’t found a better one. But I am out in the community a lot do a lot, you know, a lot of times I’m the one out front, but they’re they’re definitely behind the scenes. And that’s the vision they want for for a while.

Anthony Codispoti : That’s really cool. I’m people understand what gradings are, why they’re important. Where do they get used help educate us?

Shaun Eller : Like I said, when I first started, I had no clue. And now it’s just still boggles my mind how much of it there is in the world. And hopefully, you’ll never be able to walk down the sidewalk and not see grading again, after today’s interview, or if you listen to it, because it’s truly everywhere. Now, you know, I drive out of my way on vacation to go see grading applications and drive my wife crazy.

But it is it’s deep rooted into us. So one of the places you’ll probably most commonly see grading is if you know, for the general public would be on city sidewalks. If you know, if any big city, especially if you go to like New York, New York City, subway systems, underground utilities, every city has underground utilities. If you got tall buildings, you can’t put, you know, transformers on power poles. So they put them underneath the sidewalk, those have to breathe. So the most common, a lot of times people think that drainage is the most common.

That’s what popped into my mind. Usually it’s venting is truly the most common reason, venting. But drainage is another factor.

But it’s more about airflow. And that’s the biggest reason you see grading. And the most common place you might see it would be once again, if you’re walking down the street in Columbus, there’s going to be transformers underground, those probably have grading on top of them.

And that’s so that they can vent those, you know, famous picture, Maryland on row, walking across the great and their dress flying up, has cost grading, and that was subway grading, actually. So if you think about pushing a train through a tunnel, that air has to go somewhere. You know, if you stand beside us on the street and the bus goes by, you can feel the wind from the bus, just think about a train in the tunnel. That’s a pushing a lot of air and somewhere that air has to escape. So they put big, you know, sections of grading in the sidewalk to let the air from a subway escape.

And that’s that’s another big application that you might run into. Most grading, though, as far as, you know, the amount of tons we ship is industrial flooring. It’s a very inexpensive way to floor multiples levels of an industrial facility with access to equipment, piping, you know, maybe valves or other things they need to get to for maintenance. Catwalks and factories, stadiums have grading in them. Bridges, bridge decking, we own a company in Alabama called Frontier Grading. And we also have a company here, OGI Bridge and Transportation that focuses on bridge decking. So if you ever drove across an open deck bridge, great chance that we made it.

Anthony Codispoti : And why would you use that rather than just, I don’t know, laying down concrete or asphalt?

Shaun Eller : Great question. And it’s all about weight. So most open deck bridges are lift bridges, swing span bridges, draw bridges. So when you get to a bridge, it has to be immovable or what they would call heavy movable structure.

Weight becomes extremely important. And that’s why they use open deck bridging. And they don’t people don’t like driving across open deck bridges.

Much rather drive across concrete because they feel a lot more comfortable. But when weight becomes a huge factor, because they have to move the bridge, that’s why they use open deck bridging.

Anthony Codispoti : So would it be correct in assuming that an open graded bridge is more expensive to produce than like a concrete or an asphalt? Or do I have that backwards?

Shaun Eller : Well, the whole bridge, the whole bridge would be more expensive because of the movable system. Right. But the actual grading is cheaper than than a concrete system. And much lighter. So now if they we do some, especially out of Fort Payne, Alabama, the frontier gradings is the company will end on there. They do what’s called an exodermic bridge deck, and it actually gets a concrete fill in it. That is more expensive overall, but the durability of it. So it’s a grading that’s been got pans in it where they can pump concrete on top. And so you get a full covered surface, but you get the durability of the concrete plus the grading. So that’s kind of like a duplex system.

Anthony Codispoti : And why would you want that? Where would be the use case for that?

Shaun Eller : The biggest reason is because it’s going to last so much longer. So if you think about rebar and

Anthony Codispoti : concrete, I was just going to ask is it’s like putting rebar and concrete to kind of reinforce it.

Shaun Eller : It’s like rebar on steroids in concrete. So you’re putting a whole grading system with the concrete. So it’s going to last way, way longer than just concrete with rebar. And that’s why. So if you got a bridge, you know, once again, say New York City, where it’s so expensive to shut the bridge down, it would become very feasible for them to use an exodermic deck that’s made, you know, with like split I beams and then put concrete over it. So you get the concrete fill, people are comfortable with it, but it’s going to last for for a much, much longer time than just concrete with rebar. That’s the biggest reason.

So the other the other big reason is is they can do precasting. So when when they say shut down a lane for just, you know, eight hours a night, because traffic patterns are so important, where they can only take out so much and put down so much every night, they can do all the work off site, precast it into an exodermic deck and then drop it in. Yeah, drop it in overnight and get as much bridge replaced as they can during

Anthony Codispoti : you’re not waiting for it to cure and dry on site. That’s already been taken care of off site. Yep.

Shaun Eller : And in high traffic areas, that’s important. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti : Sean, you know, the name of the company, at least the core company is Ohio Greatings, but I’ve already heard you mention other facilities, other locations, where all are you guys located? Yeah.

Shaun Eller : So we, as I joke around, John goes shopping and I get more work. But John, John has acquired a number of companies over the few years. Frontier Gratings is in Fort Payne, Alabama. And we also built another plant there in Fort Payne. We just did a grand opening on Wednesday this week.

So that was exciting. 45,000 square foot light duty grading fabrication facility. So now we have both those facilities in Fort Payne, Alabama, to give us a better presence down in the southeast of the United States. So it’s Fort Payne’s a small community about 50 miles from Chattanooga, about an hour and 45 minutes from Nashville, Birmingham and Atlanta.

So kind of tucked up in the Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama corner there. We have a plant in Houston, Texas. I spent eight years as general manager of that plant. So John moved me down there for a while to run that facility. It was a startup. I went down about a year after it started up and then kind of had responsibility for everything there for, I was, I think I was there almost eight years.

And then he moved me back to Ohio as a COO at that point and then moved me to CBO. We got a company in Leola, Pennsylvania called K-Bar Products. They build the frames for Con Edison, which is New York City’s electric company. So we build the grading. They build the frames and then they buy the grading off us. We got a company in Baltimore, Maryland called Waco Products. They do sewer treatment gates and water treatment gates. They do a lot of Department of Defense work, ship platforms and Navy ships, gangways on ships.

Got a company in Twinsburg, Ohio called KD Products. They do ornamental grading. So they do some bronze grading. They do stainless steel revolving door specifically for revolving door entrance ways. And they do, if you ever, you’ve walked across it for sure. Target, Walmart, Calvars, banks where there’s strips of carpet, schools, a lot of schools have them, entrance mats where there’s actually strips of carpets and aluminum pans.

So it gets the dirt off your feet on the way in. They manufacture those as well, but KD Products. And then we got some sales offices and engineering offices across the country as well.

Anthony Codispoti : So given the size and the weight of the products that you produce, I would guess that each of these facilities, the business tends to be more regional because freight would become a big issue. Is that true?

Shaun Eller : Yeah, freight’s a big issue. Ohio is the big manufacturing hub for everything here in Canton. We have about 800,000 square feet. So, and that’s kind of a cool transformation story. But when I started, we had 50, 50 some people and about 85,000 square feet.

Now in Canton, we have 800,000 square feet and across all the companies, we’re about 870 people. So it’s been a great growth story, very exciting, never a dull moment. I tell people, if you’re bored here, it’s your problem because there’s definitely something to do.

So always more to do than we can get done. But so having a regional fabrication facility, all the manufacturing is here, but we will, we send truckloads of panels to Houston and Fort Payne, Alabama, and that’s where they fabricate them. We do also a lot of the raw material for the other companies such as KD, K-Bar, Waco and Frontier Gratings. Since we buy coils of steel, 50 to 60,000 pound coils of steel, slid them and make bar here in Canton. So we provide the bar for all the facilities as well. So those are the synergies between companies and that’s kind of the other part of my role is the community stuff and the synergies between the businesses. And especially, I’m really focused on KD in Twinsburg, Fort Payne, Alabama and Texas. Those are all ones that I spend a lot of time with.

Anthony Codispoti : So, you know, this is an industry that myself, a lot of other folks probably never thought about, never knew existed until today. But now that you’re talking through it, it’s like, oh, of course, I can see these use cases and the need for them. And Ohio Gratings and all the different, you know, entities that John’s gone shopping for are clearly not the only ones out there. So I’d like to explore about what sets you guys apart from the competition. This may be a good time to talk about, you know, some of the trademarks and the patents that you guys have filed for products like all grip, on grip, wheels and heels. Can you give voice to some of this for us?

Shaun Eller : Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, that’s one of the things that really sets us apart is just, we call it solution-eering, engineering a solution. So, example, there’s a bridge, Grossfield Bridge in Michigan, and they called us a movable bridge, 1300 foot long bridge, 300 feet. So a whole football field spins or swings to let boats go through swings back. So they basically called and said, hey, we got this bridge, the bridge decking is falling apart.

It’s only 20 some years old. We need a solution. We can’t increase the weight of the bridge, though. Because we can’t replace all the mechanical systems. So it has to be, it has to weigh less.

So find a solution that’s going to weigh less. And we were able to, you know, come up with a riveted bridge deck where every other bar is lighter to make the load less, still handle the traffic pattern based on the supports. We, as a sidewalk was a concrete sidewalk, obviously very heavy. Through the years, you could see the rebar rusted through it and people were scared walking across it.

It would chip and falling into the river. I went up the, I was a project manager at the time. I went up to the bridge today, shut it down. You could really literally pull bars right out of the bridge decking.

They welded plates all over the place. It rattled. It was loud.

It wasn’t a very good situation. The sidewalk was, you know, kind of scary. You’re walking your kids across sidewalk and it’s, you know, got busted pieces and you could see down into the river. And underneath the bridge, there was an inspection walkway two, two by tens that the inspector had to walk on in icy conditions in Michigan.

So not ideal. We have a light I bar, which is, you know, at that time, we were the only ones that used it, made that product. And it’s like little I beams made out of aluminum that we were able to replace the inspection walkway with and give them a three foot wide.

Anthony Codispoti : So it makes it lighter, but is it still strong enough?

Shaun Eller : Yes, actually stronger, lighter, and it was a wider, you know, they walked on two, two by tens. Now they had a three foot wide walkway that actually weighed less than two, two by tens and also allowed for drainage so it wouldn’t get ice filled up on it. And it was a slip resistant surface. So it wasn’t slippery. So much, much safer for that inspector.

Anthony Codispoti : Sorry, I want to hear the rest of this story, but how do you make it slip resistant?

Shaun Eller : So that’s some of our products that we have on grip and all grip are what we call traction safety products. So they are on grip is a spray. It’s a trademark name. That one’s not patented all grip is patented. It’s actually like a weld stud. We use a metallized powder and shoot a laser into it.

It’s a patented process patented product. We can put them on bars or on plate and you know, friction is all the co-fiction of friction is what is really the kind of the measurement for slip resistance. And our on grip and all grip products are off the charts as far as the slip resistance. You know, a lot of, a lot of, you know, products might be in the 0.4, 0.5 all grip and on grip consistently test in the upper 0.8 and in the 0.9. So on a scale up to one. So it’s once again very, very, very, you know, slippery.

Anthony Codispoti : And this coating that you put on is that the all grip or the on grip product? Both either one of them. We could both are a coating and the coating is durable.

Shaun Eller : Is it last? Yes, it’s actually a metal. So the on grips a metal spray. So if you can almost envision two weld wires get shorted out heated above the melting point and embedded into the metal. So they become a very, very resistant. It’s a metallizing.

Once again, a lot of people do that. Our trademark is on grip. All grip is the patented one. We run a metallized powder, shoot a laser into it and it becomes a weld stud. That weld stud is harder than the base metal. So it’s very, very durable.

It’s going to last forever. You know, as long as the structure is there, that all grips going to be there. We actually, we’re limited on how we can cut it after we put all grip on it because it’s so hard. It destroys a saw blade in no time. So we have other cutting options we have to use due to the hardness of that material and how durable it is.

Anthony Codispoti : Are you also using lasers there? Because anytime you use lasers, that’s just a cool part of the story.

Shaun Eller : Yeah, yeah. We have a couple of laser tables. We got a tube laser and we use lasers in the all grip process. So yeah, we definitely use a lot of laser. lasers.

Anthony Codispoti : Okay, so this project, if you ever want to come see it, you got me. I love to see manufacturing processes.

Shaun Eller : Come check us out. There’s that show that they used to do on History Channel. I think it was how it’s made. And they show like the manufacturing process for something common like a pen or, you know, food or something. And I’m just fascinated at the automation there. So yeah, I’m going to take you up on that offer, Sean. Open invitation.

Anthony Codispoti : So, okay, so you had this, this interesting bridge product in Michigan that had some really, you know, tight specifications, you got to make it lighter, you know, you guys ended up making it wider and lighter, stronger, because they couldn’t replace the mechanicals and you guys were able to hit all their requirements.

Shaun Eller : Yes, yeah, we were. And one of the things that was kind of interesting when we, when, you know, it’s a public bid, it’s a county owned bridge. So obviously open bid, but we had a big competitive advantage because we helped write the spec on all of it.

And it was, we were the only one the bid spec. Everybody else did alternative products, which weren’t working well, which is why they came to us. So that’s, that’s one example of solutioneering. You know, we engineer a solution, we work with the customer, we listen to the customer, you know, what are your true needs here?

How can we help you come up with a solution that’s going to work in the long term? And that’s, that’s just one example that the utility grates is another example. And another patented product is our wheels and heels rating. Wheels and heels is wheel capable and high heel friendly. But they’re ADA compliant, ADA stands for American with Disability Act.

Anthony Codispoti : So the And so what is the grading just like very, like the openings are very small?

Shaun Eller : So there’s, yeah, there’s a lot of requirements that go with ADA to meet ADA requirements. You can’t have elongated openings, a wheelchair could get stuck in the, the, the biggest ones are it’s got to be slip resistant. You can’t have an opening over a half inch. You can’t have openings that run parallel to the primary direction of travel. So all of the grates in the city sidewalk, the bars are the top surface bars are supposed to be perpendicular to the main lane of traffic. So those are some of the big requirements with grading when it comes to the ADA compliance.

So we develop wheels and heels and it’s been over, you know, I’d say over a decade. And a lot of it’s been work with engineers, architects, utility companies, they need access to it. So how do you get into the utility vault to work on my transformer? So we’ve actually just this year rolled out some products we call greater balance that actually have lifting devices built into the product. So, you know, before the doors of these are so heavy, they’d have to bring a truck with a crane on it. And then you’d have to have a service truck. So they would bring, you know, five or six people out to, to work on a transformer, a couple of trucks.

And, you know, that’s a lot of labor and costs. Now with these greater balance options that we have, we build these, you know, utility vault covers and one person can actually, so they can bring a pickup truck with no crane and two people for safety reasons, they have two people work on them, one up top while one’s down. And they can actually open it by themselves. You know, I think it’s like 30 pounds of force to lift a 600 pound door.

Anthony Codispoti : How is that? Is there like some sort of a winch or a motor or something that’s built into it?

Shaun Eller : Like piston put underneath it. So you think about your hatchback or, or, you know, in your car, they have a, this is just beefed up. So beefed up lift assist system, some of them are mechanical with like a little hydraulic pump where they can actually plug in to open it. And now with, with, you know, Homeland Security, they have to have locking devices so that terrorists can’t get into our power grid and, you know, destroy transformers that are powering skyscrapers.

So through many years of developing these products, and seeing what’s the utility’s true needs, you know, we’ve engineered some products that are not patented that, you know, utilities across the country want, because it saves them a lot of labor. It’s very safe, it’s secure. It doesn’t get destroyed when the UPS driver drives down the sidewalk and runs across the grading and ruins it. It’s ADA compliant, so it keeps the liability from them. So they’re great, great products that we’ve done.

And those are some of the things that really separate us. We’ve, I think a lot of, you know, the backbone of grading is, is what they call 19W4, it’s industrial grading, one by four, basically openings and, you know, carbon steel. And we do a lot of it, everybody, all the competitors do that. But we do a lot more specialty products than they do. We’ve been more solutioneered to do products that others don’t, they just focus on the commodity.

Anthony Codispoti : I want to talk a little bit more about this, because I think it dovetails into another question that I wanted to ask, in terms of, you know, what you guys have found to be really good growth strategies. Obviously, there have been a number of acquisitions made, and that helps. But even your core facility there in Canton has grown considerably. And so, you know, I heard you say that, you know, you on that Michigan Bridge project that you helped to write the spec.

And then you’ve used the term solutioneered. And so, I’m wondering, is this sort of a big part of your sales and marketing strategy is, is to kind of get into the process, like, early on, so that you’re kind of steering the specifications to be stuff that, you know, only Ohio gradings can be.

Shaun Eller : Yeah, that’s definitely part of it. You kind of got two avenues, and that’s the specialty products. We’re definitely getting in early, getting with engineers, architects, finding solutions. We have an architectural division that, you know, does grading that really isn’t walked on. So, like sunscreens on buildings, handrail infills, trash enclosures, stuff that needs to breathe, but yet visual blocks is part of what you would see there. And, you know, a lot of architects, like the metal look that grading can provide for the outside of a building.

So, that’s part of it. The other part would be, you know, just kind of the day-to-day grading. And a lot of the growth there for the industrial grading, the commodity type stuff that we’ve done has been vertical integration. So, you know, when I started, we bought it from someone else and fabricated it. We manufactured aluminum, we manufactured some of these specialty products, but we didn’t manufacture the backbone of grading, which was the, you know, the commodity, big industrial.

So, you know, got big industrial plants. They have, you know, massive amounts of grading in them. We just fabricated them after we bought them from someone else. Through the years, we vertically integrated where now we slid our own steel, make our own bar, you know, well, the grading, resistance welled the grading panels, not make welled. So, we’ve got, you know, a lot of equipment, vertical integration through the years, and that’s really been that side of the growth. So, the special products growth and offering more solution-driven products is part of the growth. The other part is, you know, getting more market sharing commodities by vertically integrating and taking more control of our costs and, you know, lead time and capabilities.

Anthony Codispoti : I would imagine, and correct me if I’m wrong, Sean, that a big part of sort of your sales and marketing has to be education, letting folks know that, hey, there are different options than the commodities that maybe you’re accustomed to, especially since you guys have so many patented products. Am I correct in that assumption? If so, how do you go about that education process?

Shaun Eller : Well, we, I don’t know, before the interview started, or we talked about the studio and part of that’s lunch and learns. We do a good bit of lunch and learns, trying to get into architects space and engineers space, offering an opportunity to educate them, get continuing education credits at times, depending on the session, to educate them on the different aspects of grading and what we can do. And a lot of it’s, you know, just listening, listening to our customers.

What are the needs? And, you know, the city sidewalk market, which we talked about with the wheels and heels, is just such a perfect example of it, because, you know, I can go back 20 years ago, where we did some wheels and heels in our infancy. And, you know, the first versions of it, you know, they, the feedback was it met the specs, but it was ugly. It’s got welds all over the top. We don’t like it. So then it was like, okay, we thought it was great, you know, but listening to them, you know, I don’t want that over my utility vault.

I want something that’s going to look better. Well, you know, and then so it’s constantly revising, adjusting, listening to the customer, finding out what they need, and being flexible, you know, then as Homeland Security becomes more and more, I have to have locking devices. I have to wait a lot this so that no one can just jump, you know, get into one of my utility vaults and open a, open a vault access panel. But then, you know, so we come up with locking devices, we come up with better hinge devices, so that the grading lays flat when you open it up instead of standing up.

Or there’s a way to keep that so it doesn’t shut, you know, and put someone in an unsafe situation. So, you know, listening to them, continuing develop what’s the next steps. And, you know, now to where even greater balances is, you know, part of what we do, where, you know, they can send a truck with two, two technicians to go out there and open it by themselves with, you know, 35 pounds of force to open a 600 pound door.

And just, you know, continue to find what’s the next innovative step that’s going to make them more efficient, and also provide something that their customer likes as well. You know, the building owner that has to, you know, put any utility vault, the utility company’s going to control the spec of what they want. But the utility, the owner of the building wants it to look good too.

You know, they just put up this beautiful, you know, building for their offices. I don’t want some ugly vault out there. So, it’s got to be functional. It’s got to look good for the building owner. It’s got to be functional for the utility. And just listening through the process to come up with a solution that’s best for everybody.

Anthony Codispoti : And you guys have solutions that check all those boxes, which is great. We’re trying.

Shaun Eller : Keep, keep, keep, uh, hey, we’re always improving.

Anthony Codispoti : Yeah, sure. Who knows what’s next. If we sit still, someone’s going to pass us up. So, gotta keep figuring out more. Get rest on your laurels. So, you guys at Ohio Grading, you position yourself as a step ahead. What does that slogan personally mean to you? And how does that mindset sort of show up in day-to-day business decisions?

Shaun Eller : Yeah, one of our core values is, is transforming ourselves. And if, you know, take just a second, five core values that are very important to us. First one’s caring, during trust. And it’s about treating people respectfully, being respectful of other people. And that’s an expectation here. I tell every new hire when I do hire orientation that it’s expected that you treat people respectfully.

And I expect, we expect people to treat you respectfully well. Honor your commitments, which is, you know, if you say you’re going to do it, do it. Operate with integrity, working with passion. If you’re here, work hard.

Do what you’re supposed to do. The third or fourth one is sustaining our future. And it’s, you know, how you’re contributing to profitability, making a better product. And the last one’s transforming ourselves. And that’s really where that step ahead comes in.

Really, I think it really applies to all of them, but specifically transforming ourselves. How, what are the steps we’re taking to stay ahead of, not just the competition, but just to stay relevant in a fast moving industry with, you know, automation and innovation is extremely important modernization of our processes. How do we continue to be better than we were yesterday and not get comfortable, you know, the great book by Jim Collins, Good to Great, You Know, Good is the Enemy of Great. And, you know, if you think you’re good, you know, you get comfortable with good, you’ll never be great. And I don’t know where we’re at in that good to great, but I know we’re not where we need to be yet.

So we’ve got to keep pushing to get better. And, you know, I constantly, you know, and John and I talk about this all the time. And if I can use a biblical analogy, it’s, you know, it’s so easy to see all the things we do wrong.

And every day, it’s like, you know, can drive me nuts, I see the things we mess up on. And I tell John, I’ve talked about this before, you know, after in Genesis chapter one in the creation story, every day, God saw it was good, the Bible says. And, you know, it was still a mess after day one, still mess, day two, still mess, still, you know, that was good. And sometimes, you know, John, I’ve talked about that, you know, we got to stop sometime and recognize we’ve done a lot of good things.

But we can’t be too excited because we got a lot more to go, you know, so after he separated light from darkness, he stopped and said, that was good, you know, so I got to realize that these things can sort of coexist.

Anthony Codispoti : Exactly. You can pat yourself on the back and said, wow, we’ve done something really great here,

Shaun Eller : you know, turn around kick yourself in the butt and

Anthony Codispoti : say, and then say, we’ve got room to improve.

Shaun Eller : Yeah, exactly. And that’s, you know, constantly striving to not just see the bad, but also see the good and celebrate the good. But don’t rest on the good. We got it. We got to, there’s a lot more we got to work on.

Anthony Codispoti : So this idea of transforming yourself, it strikes me, Sean, that this is something that you have personally done many, many, many times there at Ohio Grandings in the last 30 years, all the different roles that you failed. I’m curious to hear maybe one of those transitions that was, I don’t know, the most challenging or surprising for you and why.

Shaun Eller : Oh, that’s a great question. Hopefully I transform myself this morning, and yesterday and day before, because I know I’ve got a lot of things to work on and a lot of growth areas. There’s been, yeah, tons of transformation. You know, I started once again, didn’t even have an associates degree. They wanted someone with an associates degree through the years I’ve been able to get, you know, been blessed to get an associates degree and a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree.

And, you know, that’s really transformed me. And a lot of it was, you know, I have people ask me, should, you know, should I get my degree or not? And John’s not big on, you know, saying you got to have a degree or not.

It’s, you know, make good decisions, work hard, you know, do your job. But the biggest things there were, one, I’d never done anything with finance. So I kind of come from my associates degree, civil engineering. And as I grew in my career, you know, getting into financial statements and P &Ls and balance sheets, I was totally ignorant of that side of the business. So I really had to focus on, I had to understand it better. So getting a degree helped me to grow in the financial side of the business. But the other thing is, it kind of helped me be more confident.

You know, some, some, some in the back of my mind was, you know, it might just be good because I landed at the right spot. And, you know, if I went anywhere else, it would be, you know, I’m really nothing. And I’ve told John this before, so I’m not saying something that I don’t see myself as all that special. You know, I got a good work ethic, you know, I’m not not a genius or anything. So, but I, you know, I got a good, a good set of skills, you know, where I can, you know, work with people I can, you know, common sense is uncommon. So it’s it’s a little bit of common sense and, you know, things that I guess, you know, make me who I am and the experiences I’ve had. And so, you know, it’s transforming myself.

I think really once again, has to happen constantly. You know, part of that was getting an education and, and, you know, developing a confidence that I was, yeah, I could do this, I can do this and, you know, getting an MBA, let me know. Yeah, I’m okay as a leader. I can continue to to grow. It doesn’t mean I’m there, but it means I’ve got the tools that can be successful in, in different positions.

Anthony Codispoti : Sean, tell me about the balance. What is this? So the book? Yeah.

Shaun Eller : So that’s, you know, I’ve got, we’ve got four kids, my wife and I have four kids and June will be 32 years of marriage. So it’s kid three of the four that wasn’t really into sports, but he wanted to write a book. And so, you know, I coached my oldest in baseball and football and coach, you know, so you kind of had that connection with them, you know, playing sports and, and coaching them and, and working with them, but he wanted to write a book. And this is, you know, back in when I was pastoring, we went through really challenging time and don’t want to drag the story out.

But young man in our church got cancer a couple months later died, left four young kids, devastating situation. And I did a message on the balance. And I had so many people afterwards say, you need to write a book on that.

That would be, that would be, that material was phenomenal. You should write a book on it. Well, my third child, Elijah wanted to write a book. So we kind of did where at least once a month, I tried to, him and I would go to Panera on Saturday morning, and we would spend time working on our books. And, you know, he was probably seven, eight years old.

And, you know, so, but to him, he got an iPad and, and his grandpa gave him an iPad so he could work on his book and him and I would go to Panera and buy breakfast and we just sit there and I worked on the balance. And it took me probably a dozen years to write it. But it was kind of an outline from that message I had preached during that very challenging time for our whole church, it was very challenging to see that young mother with four little kids. And, you know, he was just an alive, active, you know, great guy, athletic. And, you know, one day I was actually up breakfast with him. And he said, man, the doctor said, I had to get to, you know, go get some tests today. And, you know, just that little comment. And it was like, you feeling all right?

Yeah. And that night he called me and said, I’ve got cancer stage four. And a couple months later, he was passed away. And so that kind of is what prompted it. And then, you know, once again, just spending the time with my son was really what drove it.

The content of the book came from the message that, that, you know, I gave during that challenging time and encouragement from a number of the people in the church that you should put that into a book. And, and it, my wife and I’ve always tried very hard to, you know, live healthy, live a balanced life the best we can. And, you know, there’s, there’s just so many challenges and struggles that we have as individuals and the demands of society and, you know, the eating well, exercising, you know, I believe in, in divine healing, but I also believe God gave us a brain to, you know, not eat fast food every day and expect to, you know, God to heal us when, when we’ve done nothing to take care of ourselves. So, so that’s, that’s kind of some of the emphasis of the balance. And, you know, one of the chapters, you know,

Anthony Codispoti : finding balance through these different elements in your life. Yeah.

Shaun Eller : Yeah. And just living, living a balanced life, you know, relationally and, and, you know, with, with God, with our spouse, with our kids, work, how to balance all the, all those demands that we have on us.

Anthony Codispoti : It’s actually a good segue into one of my favorite questions I always like to ask my guest, Sean, which is, I’d like to hear about a serious challenge that you’ve overcome, whether it’s personal or professional, maybe a combination of the two. What was it? How’d you get through it? What did you learn?

Shaun Eller : Yeah, actually, you know, from a personal standpoint, I mentioned it in the book and talk a little bit about it. And I’m certainly not an expert at all. But I went through a situation with one of our children with mental health. And to the point of hospitalization for over six months, and, you know, over four hours away for a specialized unit. And that was by far the most challenging situation I’ve ever went through was, was, was, you know, dealing with that.

And, you know, thank God that everything’s, you know, done or, you know, through that and everything’s good. But it was, it was a very, very challenging situation. I talk a little bit about in the book, mental health is such a hard topic, because it’s hard to wrap your brain around mental health.

And, you know, a lot of, a lot of, you know, church doctors, even medical, don’t know where to go with, with some of those issues and challenges. And I had no clue what I was doing. I was, you know, it was all foreign territory to me. So very, very, very challenging situation. And, you know, I look back on it and, you know, that old poem about footprints in the sand, you know, during the hardest times he carried us. And that’s the only thing I can think of is, you know, God carried us through it, because I’m not sure how, how we make it through sometimes the situations we go through. But, you know, there have been plenty of challenges in business and, and, you know, moving to Texas was a big for kids moving all the way across the country. And taking on a pretty challenging situation there.

Like I said, they had started the business a year before. John sent me there. And it was having some big issues with management and, you know, personalities and a lot of changes needed to take place. And, you know, John kind of sent me there to try to, try to work through it and, you know, figure out what the best steps to, to continue to help it survive first off and then grow. So, so that was a, that was a, you know, very challenging time.

Right before that, if I go into it for a second, and what’s going to just tell me shut up if I’m going too long. But we had a situation where Hurricane Ike that hit Texas, we were living in North Canton. And we had just moved into the house, only been in there for a week.

And we lost power. One of the guys in the church, tried to generate her over and put it in the garage. And we had a breezeway. But the way the wind was blowing, and we would only run it just enough to keep, you know, I had some deer meat from hunting season in my freezer that he didn’t want me to lose and I didn’t want to lose. So we were just running enough to keep the the freezer from, you know, thawing out the meat.

So we’d run it for a little bit. But unbeknownst to us, the fumes have been building up in our house. And make a long story short, we almost all died from carbon monoxide poisoning. It was just a total act of God that we got ahold of paramedics when we did. But if you look at the stages of carbon monoxide poisoning, the last stage, stage four is, you know, vomiting, unconsciousness and death.

And I was, have been unconscious, my wife had passed out, she was unconscious, both of us have been vomiting, I was in convulsions when they found me. And that was a big transition point, very, very challenging, took a lot out of us. And that’s right when actually ended up resigning, pastoring the church and moved to Texas.

You know, it was, I think it just been wearing, working full time, pastoring full time, and then having and having a an incident like that in our, in our lives that really kind of just rocked us.

Anthony Codispoti : So how did, how did help come to you if you guys had passed out? You, you knew enough to make a call before you lost consciousness?

Shaun Eller : Yeah. And, that’s where I wasn’t sure how, how long you want me to go in the story. But so our two oldest kids have went to their grandparents’ house so they could do homeschool. The two youngest kids, one was just a few months old, the other one was 20 months older.

So maybe two years old and 20, probably two years old and four or five months old. My wife and I were in bed, the baby had been crying all night. I felt sick. I got up and, you know, was trying to get to the toilet, but I didn’t make it.

I dropped. And I remember laying on the tile floor and, you know, I’ve been vomiting and I was thinking if I could just get to the carpet, it would feel so much better than this cold tile floor. And I couldn’t move. I was just like stuck. And they, you know, when, when carbon monoxide is, your brain just stops functioning.

And I remember that specific moment laying there thinking if I could just get the, and I was only two feet away from carpet. And I’ve been vomiting and I couldn’t figure out what’s wrong. And I still have no clue or the hand of God. I somehow made it to my phone and called my parents. And we’re both firstborn, never asked for help for anything. So my dad was like, you’ve never asked me for help. It was four in the morning, three 30 in the morning, something like that. And he was like, I better get over there.

We just moved there. So nobody else had a key. And this is the other thing I have no clue other than the hand of God. Somehow I got downstairs and unlocked the door. My dad said, you know, if he, he would have busted a window or something. Cause he said, you guys, you know, 15, 18 years of marriage, you’ve never called, ask him for help.

So I knew something had to be serious. When my wife saw she had woke up and came around the bed to check on me. She passed out. And so she was unconscious on the floor. And so my mom went up, found her unconscious on the floor. I was downstairs. I’d unlocked the door and I’d started once again, vomiting and I went unconscious again when my dad came in the house. So they called 911 immediately.

And the paramedics came in, in our room. And if I remember the numbers, but something like a detector goes off at like 15 parts per million. Our room was over 250 parts per million. And in our blood, my wife and I both were, you know, they said, you know, death is, you know, 1920, we were at 1920 parts in our blood, which I’m not a medical guy. I don’t know the details, but basically

Anthony Codispoti : they were saying there’s no way you should have been alive. You almost shouldn’t be here. Yeah.

Shaun Eller : And, you know, my son, the, the, the two year old came down the steps and was like, sweet, a fire truck. I’m gonna be a fireman. But then he ended up passing out and started vomiting later. But he was in the other side of the house, which wasn’t as bad.

We have brought the baby into the room with us because he was just crying all night, but probably because of the effects of carbon monoxide. So they had to life transport us to a youngstown for treatments and, you know, once again, how in the world those things happen physically, I don’t have a clue. But somehow God got us where we need to be. So, well, thank goodness. So those are some few challenges that we face.

Anthony Codispoti : So, you, you picked out three pretty powerful ones. And I especially appreciate you sharing the story about your son. I can’t imagine how difficult that must have been, particularly with being four hours away for six months, you know, a time where you really want to be there and you want to be present all the time. It takes a stressful situation. It just makes it even more challenging.

Shaun Eller : Yeah, it’s very, very, very difficult. A lot of times, you know, due to the nature, there was only certain times where we were even allowed to see him. And I might, you know, drive up and then they wouldn’t let us see him, you know, and drive four and a half hours and, you know, stayed in around McDonald House a lot when they had room. You know, a lot of times that, you know, visiting was, you know, seven to eight and drive up to see and then drive home, you know, eight o’clock, get home at 1.30 to two in the morning and get up and go to work, you know, or go to one of my other kids’ football games or, you know, so just a very, very challenging, very challenging time.

Anthony Codispoti : I would imagine, Sean, as you went through each of these challenges with your son, the big move to Texas, you know, recovering from the carbon monoxide poisoning, just based on, you know, what I’ve learned about you today, that faith was probably a big part of what helped to carry you through those hard times. Are there other things, other people, other, I don’t know, practices that kind of helped you get through those really challenging times?

Shaun Eller : Yeah, you know, obviously, faith of being the top one for sure and a great wife, so way better than I deserve. She’s been wonderful. You and I are in the same boat. Yeah, I married way up, without a doubt, so way better than I deserve. And so she’s been, you know, a wonderful partner through all of life and very, very grateful for her. You know, great kids and, you know, love them dearly, great parents. Church, you know, the church family has always been great, wonderful leaders in my life and, you know, very appreciative of all the things that God blessed us with.

Anthony Codispoti : Any particular daily habits or practices, rituals that help get you going, help keep you centered every day? Yeah, absolutely. And I’m really a over the top structured person.

Shaun Eller : So some people say extremely boring. I like the word discipline. Sounds better. But so I’m, you know, I do, every morning I try to get up and exercise, try to keep some weights in the routine, cardio in the routine, prayer, read the Bible every morning, just kind of set my compass for the day, and ask for help, because I certainly need it every day. I see myself all the time in a lot of mornings, you know, I’m sure I did this morning, you know, God, I got some decisions and things today that I don’t know what I’m going to do or how I’m going to do it. So I need you to bail me out. So you can help me out, I appreciate it, because I’m, this is, I’m in over my head, you know, it feels like I live over my head. So that’s why I’m here.

Anthony Codispoti : And when that conversation takes place, I’m curious, how does the, how does the help or the answers appear to you?

Shaun Eller : Oh, you know, I’ve been, so many times, you know, I, you know, sometimes it’s just in the Word of God, I’ll get an answer when I’m reading my Bible, it’s like, oh, wow, that’s kind of needed that today.

That’s, that fits perfect. You know, with what I’m dealing with, sometimes it’s just, you know, kind of that still small voice you see in the Bible. And, you know, I’ve been sitting in, in, in situations and I’m thinking, dear Lord, I have no clue what to say or what to do. And, and then, you know, somehow I get some inspiration or, you know, God brings a scripture to my mind or a thought and it’s like, well, thanks, because that’s way smarter than me.

I wasn’t, I’m not that smart. So, yeah, I don’t, I don’t know the, you know, the internal makings of it, but I know he keeps bailing me out and helping me along the way. So, prop and me up. That’s great.

Anthony Codispoti : Sean, I’ve just got one more question for you. But before I ask it, I want to do two things. First of all, for everyone listening, I’m going to invite you to hit the follow button on your favorite podcast app so you can continue to get more great interviews like we’ve had with Sean Eller, the Chief Business Officer of Ohio Greetings today. Sean, I also want to let people know the best way either to get in touch with you directly or to continue to follow your story or that of Ohio Greetings. What would that be?

Shaun Eller : Yeah. So, my email, S-E-L-L-E-R, first initial, last name, at OhioGradings.com, O-H-I-O-G-R-A-T-I-N-G-S .com, cell phone number 330-418-6255. It’s, you know, text or call OhioGradings.com. You can check out the company. So, those are all different ways to get in touch and, you know, once again, if I can be a help, I’ll do my best.

Anthony Codispoti : So, that’s what you want. That’s nice. Last question for you, Sean. As you look to the future, what exciting changes do you see coming to the business in the next few years?

Shaun Eller : You know, that’s a great question. And, you know, a lot of things that I see that we’ve done, you know, if you were to ask us, you know, 20 years ago, we’d be where we’re at today and never would have had a clue how some of this looks. And, you know, one of the things that I love, Truett Cathy, former president, founder, Chick-fil-A, he tells the story.

One time he was in a meeting with their board and I think it was Boston Market was one of their big competitors and was, you know, they were like, you know, Boston Market’s taking all kinds of market share and, you know, in this space and what are we going to do? How are we going to get bigger? How are we going to grow? And he said, you know, they spent an hour talking about how they’re going to grow, how they’re going to get bigger.

And finally he just stopped them and said, you know what, forget talking about how we’re going to get bigger. Let’s figure out how to get better. And if we figure out how to get better, our customers will demand that we get bigger.

And that’s something we’ve tried to live by, you know, stealing that from him. But we just got to figure out how to get better and keep getting better and keep getting better and keep getting better, innovate, automate, modernize, you know, continue to figure out ways that we can serve our customers and our associates and our marketplace. And as we serve them, they’re going to keep demanding that we can produce more product and we can get bigger.

And, you know, what that looks like, I don’t know, every day, I think we’re finding new things that can make us more efficient, can make us better, can make a better impact on our associates. Our mission is to be a first choice organization for our associates, our customers and our marketplace. And we’ve chose that first associates because we can’t do anything without our people. And, you know, we don’t have no customers if we can’t take care of our people and produce products that they need. And, you know, also our customers and our marketplace. So what meets the demands of our customers, what meets the demands of our marketplace and serving our associates so that we can stay a step ahead and continue to grow and thrive as a business. So I don’t know if that was a good answer to your question. It was the perfect answer, Sean. We got to keep getting better is what we’ve got to do and find ways to do that every day.

Anthony Codispoti : I love it. Sean, I want to be the first one to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate it.

Shaun Eller : Well, thank you for the opportunity and, you know, hopefully this is helpful and, you know, please feel free to reach out if I can be of any assistance.

Anthony Codispoti : That’s great. Folks, that’s a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories Podcast. Thanks for learning with us today.