Adam Torres and Tim Lee discuss the AED Summit.
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Show Notes:
Listen to the Associated Equipment Distributor’s annual summit coverage. In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Tim Lee, Regional Sales Manager at Hercules Sealing Products, explore Hercules Sealing Products and the Associated Equipment Distributor’s annual summit thanks to the support of our sponsor, Vanguard Captive Management.
About Hercules Sealing Products
Hercules Sealing Products is the premier name in the aftermarket hydraulic equipment repair parts sector. Operating out of Clearwater, Florida, our expansive distribution network spans over 100 brands, ensuring a vast in-stock selection of over 60,000 seals and kits for immediate dispatch. As a cornerstone of the fluid power industry, Hercules leverages decades of expertise to meet the demands of partners worldwide, embodying the essence of a global leader originating from a foundation of unparalleled service and quality.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on be our guest to apply. All right. So today is a very special episode. We’ve been covering the AED summit and and thanks to our sponsors over at Vanguard Captive Management.
They help manufacturers. All sizes with innovative captive finance strategies. You can learn more at van cap. com. And my guest for this episode is Tim Lee. He is a regional sales manager over at Hercules ceiling products. Tim, welcome to the show. Hey, thank you very much, Adam. Looking forward to this.
All right, Tim. So first off the first time I attended the AED conference, it was this year and I have to tell you, man, it was so much fun. I learned a lot. First off, we’re definitely doing more and more content in this industry and it’s just been a blast, like learning the new content, obviously, but more importantly, the people, like the people that I met there, the relationships, even the interviews, Some of these manufacturers or the dealers that I’ve had the opportunity to, to have interviews with.
I mean, second, third generation dealers. I see yourself over at Hercules ceiling product. you’ve been in this business for going on. I think you mentioned in our, pre call of maybe 20 years or so. So just to get this kicked off, what got you originally into what brought you into hydraulics?
Well, back back in like 1990, I was playing around with pneumatic cylinders, basically hydraulic cylinders. But instead of using hydraulic fluid, they would use air. And actually shot a rod through the side of a building by over pressurizing it. And, you know, I was, you know, 17, 18 years old, whatever it was, and you know, I didn’t know any better.
And, you know, we, were just messing around out in the warehouse, me and another guy, , and just shot that cylinder rod straight through the side of the building. And you know, didn’t realize at the time just the magnitude that That it would take on my career choice or, and my career path.
You know, the, the boss came out, he, he heard the, the commotion and oh my God, he comes out and he goes so I guess you guys figured out how to actually blow a cylinder apart, you know, obviously, not in a jovial way. Yes, of course, you know. Basically, threatened my life and you know, explain to us the dangers of the situation that we put ourselves into but, we survived and, when I talked to my old boss, we get a good chuckle out of that now.
But you know, basically, I was sitting back, you know, recalling that and I said, you know, I wanted to. work with something that had a little bit higher pressure to it. And a different fluid media and went to school, learned a little bit about it.
And here I am 20 years later, work in the industry as a sales manager and so basically, we sell the seals that basically, keep the cylinder from leaking. So that’s what got me into the industry, first and foremost, but it was almost an accidental, you know, oops.
I got into the industry. That’s a great story. And you got me thinking about, so I’m from Michigan originally, and you got me thinking about some of my friends who we’d be building things are doing all this other stuff. And, and if one of those experiments would have you know, when you’re a kid would have led to another yeah, my dad had a shop, an auto body shop.
So that was his profession. so you can imagine all the, equipment and tools and methods we got into growing up. Right? Yeah. I mean, think about you know, and I don’t know the legalities of this. So, sheriff’s department, if you’re listening to this, I didn’t do it. We used to make a potato guns, you know, pneumatic cylinders and pneumatic, you know three way pneumatic valves, you know, little twelve volt.
We’d shoot those suckers, you know. 200 feet into the woods, down here in Florida. That’s where I’m from. And I mean, we’d shoot those things 200 feet into the woods and, you know, they, they’d let out a loud boom. Oh yeah. Taking me back to my childhood, man. I would tell you, I’ll tell you over six, , this is what I love about, covering this the AED summit and everything that’s taking me back to my childhood.
Number one, but number two, man, I’ve done over 6, 000 episodes. And I feel like finally this show is maturing because we brought up a potato gun. Thank you, Tim.
Yeah, I’m so mature. See, hold on. CEO of Reebok, of Lululemon. Ah, yeah, those were nice interviews. Fine. But no, now the show’s getting real. Amazing. Oh. Talk to me, Tim, a little bit about the industry overall, like what, while I have you on here. So like about just maybe hydraulic techs. I mean, there’s all kinds of things of opportunity within that industry as a whole.
And one of the things that I’m doing, and I’m taking the time with this particular series is to hopefully inspire some of the, next generation to start getting involved. So maybe talk to me just overall about the industry as a whole, and maybe why people would want to get involved.
Well, I have a different perspective. I mean, there’s a lot of, different routes that you could take hydraulically. I mean between plastic injection molding to, your Caterpillar tractors, your Ponzi tractors, your John Deere’s. your basic log splitter from, Harbor Freight and so on and so forth, where Hercules is involved, we cover basically, repair shops, small mom and pop repair shops to large cylinder manufacturers.
So, that’s where my perspective would lie is basically between the repair industry all the way on up into the OEM cylinder manufacturer and so , talk a little bit about, you know, why someone would want it to enter the industry. Like, it’s been, it’s a rewarding career for you.
it’s been a very rewarding career for me. getting into the industry, , it’s dirty, everybody knows that it’s dirty especially on, the repair side you’re going to get your hands, you know, dirty, if you’re into tinkering with stuff, this is the industry for you.
if you’re looking to rebuild things, this is the industry for you. If you’re looking to, engineer the next generation of hydraulic cylinders, this is the industry for you. I can’t say enough about what, this industry. Actually brings, to infrastructure to many, different facets.
I mean, even from, say, like a hospital, to a, gas station, you know, they’re lifting your car up or excuse me, not really a gas station anymore. I’m showing my age, but, you know, like a car repair shop, that has the car lifts, I mean, there’s somebody’s gotta design that somebody’s gotta, fix that.
Somebody’s got to, sell that. I mean, there’s many different facets to the hydraulic side, not just selling, you a large tractor. Okay. But, I mean, even to the smallest, tiniest O ring that goes into that cylinder, somebody’s got to design it, somebody’s got to make it, somebody’s got to sell it, somebody’s got to install it.
So, speaking of the future, I mean, what do you think hydraulics are going to be in maybe the next 20 years or so? Use your crystal ball. Well, I’m using my crystal ball right now as a sales manager in the next 20 years, I see, the industry flourishing, growing by leaps and bounds infrastructure in the United States and worldwide for that matter, needs to be repaired or fixed and, they, need heavy equipment to do that.
Heavy equipment normally, has hydraulic cylinders on it, normally has hydraulics, Anything that, that earth moves, anything that, needs anything that really needs to be addressed hydraulically is going to need to either be fixed, repaired, built, made it. Maybe there’s nothing out.
Maybe there’s something out there right now that, somebody, listening to this podcast right now is saying, hey, you know, I’ve got a great idea. Maybe they can do it hydraulically and, it’s the next big thing, 20 years from now especially being in Florida the ground is marshy, so, I mean foundation issues on houses down here are, quite prevalent and need to lift a house. How are you going to do that? You know, to fix the foundation, you’re only going to do that hydraulically. I mean, I, can’t see, five guys out there lifting the side of the house up, you know, they may try. Come on, you know, I mean, people may try, but realistically that’s a hydraulic cylinder that’s doing that.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it’s great. Well, Tim, man, this has been a lot of fun having you on the show today and just getting to learn and more about the hydraulic industry and you what you do, how you’re doing and the future of it. So thank you for that. If somebody’s listening to this and they want to follow up or they want to learn more about Hercules ceiling products, how do they do that?
Well, they can go to our website. It’s www. herculesus. com. on there you’ll find information about our company. You what we do, who we are where we’re located, we’re a 60-year-old company. We’ve been in, based in Florida for, all 60 of those years.
We just recently opened our distribution center in Louisville, Kentucky. it’s all robotics, so it’s all automated. we ship about 3, 000 orders out a day, take about 1, 280 phone calls a day and, it’s just a phenomenal place to work. It’s a, great company culture and, you still can talk to a human being, when you call our company, it’s not, you’re not talking to robot.
Yeah. So Like I said, we’ve been around 60 years, full engineering staff, full customer service staff if you want to learn more about the sales manager side is look at our website, we cover all 50 of the United States including South America and the Caribbean, just as a distribution unit.
So I invite you guys to take a look at that. Awesome. And for everybody listening, just so you know, we’ll definitely put the links in the show notes, so you can just click on the links and head right on over. And speaking of that just a quick reminder, this AED Summit Series is sponsored by Vanguard Captive Management, which enables manufacturers of All sides to harness the power of innovative captive finance to achieve market success.
So again, go check out van cap. com to learn more about what our sponsors over at Vanguard captive management are doing. And if you’re a first time listener and you have not done it yet, make sure you hit that subscribe or follow button. This is a daily show each and every day. We’re bringing you new content, new ideas, and hopefully new ones.
To help you along the way on your journey as well. So again, hit that subscribe or follow button and Tim, man, really appreciate all you’re doing. And thanks again for making time for us. Hey, you’re very welcome. Adam. Thank you very much for having me.