In this episode, Russ Whiting, CEO of Whiting Systems, shares the story of Whiting's 50-year anniversary and the evolution of the company. He emphasizes the importance of customer-centeredness and staying focused on what you're good at. Russ discusses the milestones and challenges Whiting has faced over the years, highlighting the role of the team in the company's success.

 


Highlights

00:00 - Introduction to Whiting Systems
03:48 - Whiting's Vision and Longevity
07:14 - Keys to Whiting's Longevity and Success
08:19 - Memorable Milestones
12:25 - Challenges Faced by Whiting and Adaptation
15:56 - The Role of People in Whiting's Success
19:39 - Advancement of Technology in Whiting
23:40 - Responding to Shifts in the Market
30:36 - Personal Highlights and Proud Moments
33:04 - Key Lessons and Wisdom for Younger People and Companies
35:43 - The Future of Whiting Systems
41:17 - Summary and Closing

Key Takeaways

  1.  
  2. - Stay focused on what you're good at and be customer-centered.
  3. - Build a strong team and surround yourself with excellent people.
  4. - Embrace advancements in technology to improve efficiency and customer service.
  5. - Work hard, have a can-do attitude, and always strive to improve.
  6. - Keep the main thing the main thing, and don't settle for mediocrity.
  7.  

episode transcript

Andrya (00:01.086)
Welcome to the Vox Verba podcast where we explore the stories behind today's most influential businesses. Today we have a very special guest with us, Russ Whiting. We're gonna be talking about legacy and forward thinking leadership. Joining us is Russ, CEO of Whiting Systems. Russ is known for being leader of the top of the line Fleetwash Systems at Whiting Systems. And today he's gonna share the story.

of Whiting's celebration of their 50th year anniversary. Rest welcome and thank you for joining us to share this incredible milestone.

Russ (00:40.042)
Thank you, very honored to be here.

Andrya (00:43.422)
Wonderful. As we get started today, Russ, I'd really like to begin with an introduction to Whiting Systems. Could you tell me a little bit about how did Whiting get started or an overview of the company and how has it evolved over the past five decades?

Russ (01:04.298)
Yeah, I'd love to. So my father started the business back in 1974. He was previously a pilot for the state of Arkansas and was newly married and basically just came along. And so he actually answered one ad for us older.

We know the free one ads that came out in the papers and saw an ad that was basically desiring distributors for steam cleaner pressure washers. And so, you know, to make a long story short on that, he answered the ad and it basically began working out of the back of his pickup truck with my mom, Ms. Pat, taking care of all of the...

accounting aspects of that. But, you know, so he would load up his pickup truck and go all over the state of Arkansas, selling pressure washers and basically not come home until he sold them all. That was, that was the deal. So he, that's where we got started. He, one of the neat things about my father is just that he, he, he always,

He was never happy just making the cell and then moving on. He had a deep, he had a lot of integrity, still does. He's 81 years old and just still is a great man. But he was never just happy selling the equipment, always wanted to stay in touch with those customers and make sure that they were happy and that their equipment was running properly. And so he continued.

selling pressure washers and you know, they kind of struggled through the late 70s through incredibly high interest rates and while having to borrow money and you know, he then in the in the 80s we got into he got into selling we got into selling automatic truck wash systems and became a distributor for those and

Russ (03:28.298)
basically through years of kind of fighting the distributorship, we began manufacturing automatic systems. So went from that to some chemical blending, some expansions, but that's how we started out.

Andrya (03:48.83)
Wow, thank you for sharing that with me. What a journey from a distributor to manufacturer. And then today, I'm curious, as you became, you shifted into being a manufacturer, what did Whiting's vision look like then and what is Whiting's vision now?

Russ (04:11.37)
Well, I think, I mean, first of all, my father's vision was always that continued, okay, I can sell it, but I have to sell something that is going to work, that's going to run, something that we're able to get components for to keep the equipment running at a maximum performance. And so, he just evolved into...

You know, he has told me a number of times that he would have never gotten into manufacturing. Whiting systems would have never gotten into manufacturing. If we felt like that we could have been partnered with a manufacturer that would support us the way we wanted to support our customers. And so it was for him, it was a decision of, you know, it was just through necessity to be able to have a partnership with their, with our customers, a.

where we could maintain their wash needs, control our ability to do that. And so, and then as we've evolved through the years, that has been really our biggest focus. And we've taken everything that, you know, my father started relative to the manufacturing and the,

equipment and all that. And so we put a major focus on managing that bay, what we call owning the bay and providing a guaranteed wash cost, wash quality and wash time. And so it's all of the tools are vitally important to achieving maximum value relative to those three, but it's

It's managing all of that. So it's the best service department that we can possibly have. It's the best equipment that we can possibly manufacture along with the detergents. But we know that our success or failure is going to be, okay, how are we improving the lives of our customers and how are we helping them make a greater profit? Only then do we have a chance to make a greater profit.

Andrya (06:32.51)
I couldn't agree more with it's a very customer centered approach. And, you know, it sounds like really adapting to make sure that what you want to provide to your customers can actually be achieved. So what an incredible piece to your story. It makes me think of the keys to longevity. What is it about whiting that has allowed it to

reach a 50 -year milestone, which is no small feat. In your opinion, what have the keys to Whiting's longevity and success been?

Russ (07:13.77)
Well, you know, I mean, it's hard work. You show up every day, it's hard work. There's no doubt. There's a few things that, you know, I believe keep the main thing the main thing, okay? Know what you're good at. You know, know what you're good at. And, you know, there are other areas that you can get into that are what I call in your wheelhouse. But,

hey look at the end of the day we wash trucks and that's we're in and i think we're we're good at it through our our team um you know ultimately we wash trucks and we happen to manufacture the equipment the tools they're required to do that but yeah stay focused on what you're good at.

Andrya (08:04.378)
Absolutely. Keep the main thing the main thing. I love that quote. I'm going to carry it away with me.

Russ (08:09.962)
That's right. I think, I think, I think Stephen Covey was the original on that. So I stole that one, but it works.

Andrya (08:19.038)
It sure does. As long as there's hard work behind it, right? You know, Russ, when I think about the time that Whiting has had in the industry and your involvement, I wonder, what are some of those memorable milestones that you've had along the way, either for yourself or for Whiting overall?

Russ (08:24.042)
That's correct. Yep.

Russ (08:47.37)
Yeah, you know, I think back to 30 years ago when I was working for my father and early on milestones, learning how to truly repair a pressure washer. And when I first started out, I was a great part swapper. You change out parts and just hope that repairs it. But actually learning how to troubleshoot,

I know it's funny, but it was, it was just a really strong sense of accomplishment in that, in doing that, you know, uh, we then got a, uh, class B straight truck that, uh, uh, you know, I was, I was the head delivery guy, uh, it basically throughout the mid south and, you know, I looked back on that and that was a fond memory. That was kind of a.

a step out there and that was a big step for Whiting Systems and I was happy to be a part of that. Milestones for us. My father's decision to begin manufacturing equipment, that was a big, big step that was not easy at all. And my father's always been very gifted mechanically. But...

This is a highly technical piece of equipment and you know, he was, I think he'll, I know he'll be the first to tell you that he was fortunate to partner with some very, very talented both vendors, but especially key employees. And, but that was a huge milestone for us. Another milestone was where we really have, where we really began going back to the owning the bay.

where we really began account managing instead of, you when I was, you know, say back, let's say back in the mid to late eighties, you'd have a sales person that would sell, basically sell components, okay? And we really transitioned that to be an account manager. Going back to, we wanna own that bay. We want to optimize, give them the greatest value relative to wash cost, wash quality and wash time.

Russ (11:12.458)
because that's really what it all matters. The equipment, we don't sell toys, we don't sell things. I mean, the bottom line, they have to get a return on their investment. We have to help them make a greater profit. Those were some big milestones. And there's been plenty others that I could elaborate on, but those are the first ones that come to mind from personal and to lighting systems.

Andrya (11:35.678)
Thank you for sharing those with me. You know, the idea of the first thing learning, one, that you can switch out a part or be in control in very hands -on way of this small thing, but how it affects the overall performance. And then actually getting into trucks and knowing that piece about your customer base and how they function. There's no experience like being on the road than being on the road.

Russ (12:05.834)
Yeah, that's right.

Andrya (12:08.098)
Wonderful. Okay, so I'm thinking about these milestones and I'm curious along the way what kind of challenges did Whiting face and how did Whiting adapt to these challenges?

Russ (12:24.682)
Yeah. Well, I'll go back again to the manufacturing. You know, that was just, you know, there we've got pictures of, you know, us building our first gantry was on the parking lot out here. And, you know, so we had facility challenges, you know, always early on, especially, you know, cashflow challenges, but facility challenges and built, you know, building that first one.

My dad, when he started, he had to build the first one and sell the first one and sell the second one and did it a lot off of what I would call the, hey, trust me, please trust me. Well, so when I come along in my late thirties and he made it easy for me because I could say,

Hey, Carl, so and so, ABC Trucking over here are another one of the leading trucking companies that my father had been selling to. And so I had it much easier. But going back to, you know, that was just a very, it was a very, very real challenge that we encountered. You know, we've made a big transition in the last couple of years to our customer service team and...

Uh, that's been a challenge because we've made significant investment in everything from trucks to training of personnel to raising the caliber of the, um, experience of those, what we call external CSRs. Uh, this taken a lot of, a lot of commitment, a lot of, uh, just tremendous input from our, from our team leadership team. And, you know, that's been a recent, uh,

challenge. You know, we there's so many technology improvements that we've that we've pulled off and accomplished throughout the years that were major challenges. The smart brush technology, which is basically where we can feel mirrors. And hey, back in the 80s, we we had what you call dumb brush technology that would really struggle to not damage mirrors and damaged trucks, you know, because they were going to go to a given point.

Russ (14:49.994)
no matter what was in its way. Whereas now with our Smart Brush technology, we're able to read our AMP draw, OK, and sense when we're having a higher draw of AMP, Amperage, and then pull back a little bit. Well, that was just a tremendous accomplishment from our programming team and even the installation team, our whole team. That was a heck of a challenge, and that took years. So.

You know, and that's the thing. I mean, all of the major accomplishments are the hardest and, you know, and the most rewarding as well.

Andrya (15:30.042)
Absolutely. As you were sharing about these challenges, you mentioned your team and the role they play. I'm curious over this 50 year history, in what role or how have the people impacted Whiting's success from your team to vendors, customers? What's the role of people at Whiting's success?

Russ (15:56.106)
Oh, it's been huge. You know, we've had, you know, some very strong, great partnerships relative to vendors and, you know, from all aspects, we've just had some great partnerships there, but there's no doubt our, you know, my father and mother, it being just those two, okay, that was a long time ago. And so our growth, I would contribute if not,

Number one, it's obviously in the top three most important reasons for our continued success. Our philosophy has always been to be the employer of choice, the provider of choice while remaining profitable. And that will always continue as long as I'm here. And that is key. Some of the areas that we have programmers that have been with us for...

Uh, 35 years and, you know, 30 years, 40 years. I mean, we have a lot of tenured people and we've had many people that have retired. You know, with us, um, you know, and we just had a very neat retirement, uh, party for a gentleman that was a lead install, uh, guy that had been with us for many, many years. And so.

But those guys, the ones that I've mentioned and ladies, when I say guys, that's male or female, you know? So have just been the key, have been the key and have really helped create the overall culture. And we're just so big in passing it on and, you know, going back to some of the milestones. Well, after I got out of driving that truck,

Well, then I became, I got into selling pressure washers and I became the sales manager for our pressure wash division. Well, so I'm, you know, late twenties and I'm managing guys that were in their late forties and, and, you know, fifties and things. And, and so, you know, that, that was a real challenge, but it taught me a lot in terms of how to, to lead.

Russ (18:22.174)
you know, to improve my leadership skills, management skills, but leadership skills. But all those guys were so influential in building this company and numbers of them retired from Whiting Systems. So our employees have just, our teammates have been, have made, contributed so much to my success that it's been amazing and just,

I'm very grateful.

Andrya (18:54.142)
Thank you for sharing that Russ. I know that the only way to hit a 50 year milestone while focusing efforts on customer service and innovating in the market, you've got to have people that really care and that can function on a team. So thank you for sharing that.

Russ (19:15.762)
Absolutely.

Andrya (19:19.422)
As we shift, I'm thinking about tech advances. In 50 years, there's been a lot of industry changes, especially in technology. In what ways has Whiting been part of the advancement of technology and bringing that to the market?

Russ (19:38.922)
Yeah, one of the biggest, one of the bigger ones I've already mentioned, but it's worth mentioning again, Smart Brush technology has been a real game changer for automatic large vehicle wash, whether truck, bus or train, because it really made the three brush gantry, which is our staple unit, it made it the most effective automated wash system.

in the world because it eliminated a lot of the challenges, as I said earlier, in terms of damaging the truck. Smart Rush technology was huge. One of the things that we began manufacturing in the mid -90s is what we call a multi -gun pressure wash system. One of the big challenges that we had was we would

sell pressure washers along with our automatic system that would feed multiple bays for floor washing, for engine washing, for things like that, along with the automatic truck, or with the truck wash bay as well. And so the multi -gun pressure wash system has been a tremendous system that we have began to manufacture and that has

was there was not one before. So basically you've got one machine that will feed up to 10 guns at a time, 10 spray wands at a time. And so it's just much, much more efficient, uses less electricity, you know, even in just a far greater run time and up time on the multi -gun. So that's, you know, and then how the overall industry has changed drastically is,

Andrya (21:12.638)
Okay.

Mm -hmm.

Russ (21:32.202)
I'll go back to that owning of the bay and being able to provide the complete fleet image program to a customer. Those are some big ones. You know, chemistry is always changing and that is a, you never arrive. I mean, it's a destination. I haven't really talked about it to this point, but I mean, we have the best detergent product line that we've ever had and I would

There's a lot of detergent manufacturers out there. I never liked to say that, hey, we're the best or that we have the best, but I've not seen any, any better. And so, but we still haven't arrived, you know, but there's a, there's obviously major environmental concerns, uh, with chemistry. And I think we've done a great job, you know, eliminating some of the harsher raw materials that are, uh, on the no fly list, uh, so to speak.

you know, eliminating phosphates and phosphorous. And so that's been an area that has been, you know, in the old days, boy, you know, you just put a lot of hydrofluoric acid on there and a lot of caustic and, and put a little bit of water with it. And that would, you know, it would, it would eat it off, you know, and it would eat the concrete up too. And was very, very harmful if you got it on your hand, whatever.

So those days are long gone. So that's been a big area for us as well.

Andrya (23:04.808)
It's, you know, when you think about technology, you're often thinking about, you know, AI, computers. And I know that Whiting does have that level of technology, but it's very interesting to hear the chemistry evolution and how that has adapted to industry changes.

Russ (23:11.594)
Mm -hmm.

Andrya (23:26.674)
As we think about industry changes, what has Whiting done to respond to shifts in the market over time as the industry changes over 50 years?

Russ (23:39.69)
Well, we've, you know, the, the big, one of the biggest, I will go back to the owning of the Bay and going back to needing to, to manage a wash Bay. So you know what, we just go back to the CSRs, how we've had to change the bottom line. You have to keep people up and running. Okay. Maximum uptime, minimal downtime. And you know, so how do you do that?

Uh, in the early days, it was, we'd fly people from Little Rock. We'd have, we'd have five or six, uh, technicians basically on call, uh, here in Little Rock at our, at our main headquarters. And they were flying all over the country every week. And you know, that was not so how we've changed. Uh, so we have a distribution center in Youngstown, Ohio, uh, Phoenix, Arizona. Uh, uh.

Roberta, Georgia, which is right outside of Macon. And we have service techs based all throughout the country. And so what our objective is, and I mean from Southern Cal to New England, to Central Florida, to the Northwest. And so what we continue to try to do is tighten that circle around.

the locations. So instead of, if you're just based out of Little Rock here, well, okay, well your circle is 3000 miles. Well, we've cut that down to two to 300 miles. So we have, again, we have techs based all throughout the country. So, you know, the wash cost, wash quality, wash time, how you're having to do that now. Another thing is that we have what we call CSR techs that will...

that will not only make all repairs in the bay, but will also deliver detergents as well. So that's been a big, big change for us and something that has been very successful that we're very, very proud of. But what does it go back to? The main thing, and that's keeping people running and managing their wash cost and making sure that they're cleaning trucks, making sure that they don't have leaks all over the bay.

Russ (26:02.506)
Um, but that, so that is where we're staying with the main thing. It's just doing it more efficiently. We have, you know, you mentioned earlier, uh, as far as predictive analysis, and we've really put a big focus on that. Uh, I'm not going to mention any of our vendors, but, uh, that has just been data logging, um, tracking what's going on in the Bay. And then also the predictive part of it has become a very big.

part of our business now, especially in the last year. We've data logged. In other words, okay, what truck ran through the bay? What was the truck number? What was the employee ID? We've done that for a few years. We've cleaned it up considerably, made some significant developments in what we send back out to our customer. The predictive analysis is really a really neat tool that we will continue to expand on.

Long answer there. I hope I the hot points.

Andrya (27:06.654)
Yeah, you know, I find predictive analytics and predictive AI, anything that can help look into the future and say, what do I need to be aware of so that I'm being proactive and not reactive is the key to success, cost savings, general maintenance and uptime. And so when someone is thinking about keeping their bay up and running, how does the predictive analytics help them?

or the predictive piece of them.

Russ (27:37.322)
Yeah, sure, sure. The way we're using it by far, the biggest way that we're using it now is for all cleaning detergents. So you take an average wash bay, they'll have a couple of products that will run through the automatic and then they'll have a pre -spray type product for degreasing or challenge areas or two.

So, you know, typically our customer will have three to four products per location. And so what we're doing with our predictive is we have internal CSRs too that email and call all day, and we still have four or five senior account managers that will monitor accounts as well. So from the predictive, if we have ABC Company,

in Salt Lake City that we saw that their last order took basically three weeks to get delivered for whatever reason, two weeks. Okay. So let's say, but we'll say three. Salt Lake is a little bit of a challenging area anywhere in the West. So, you know, so then we will notify, we'll get notification to one of our internal CSRs and the senior account manager that, hey, the last time,

It took about three weeks, it took approximately three weeks to get so -and -so delivered and we're now two weeks from when they should be due. And so it's, it's an alert to the, again, internal CSRs. And so what will happen then is our internal CSR will open up a service case and it sounds a little more complex than it really is. It's pretty simple. You know, we, it's just a, it's a service case that's opened.

Andrya (29:13.094)
Mmm.

Russ (29:34.09)
that ABC trucking companies should be due for detergents. Less contact and or deliver. And there's different parameters per customer. We're getting more and more advanced on the technical side. We still are a little bit lean.

more heavily on old school, I mean, we're blue collar, we wash trucks. And as I told you, you know, what I started doing and you know, so we rely heavily on that external CSR that is going to these locations on average once a month. Okay, what are you seeing? We have equipment checklist and then we're tying that into our service, but we're using the detergent delivery very aggressively today.

Andrya (30:27.902)
That's wonderful. It's great to hear how that has evolved to serve your customers. So thank you for sharing that.

Andrya (30:36.99)
In this conversation, I'd like to ask, in your time personally at Whiting, what have been some personal highlights or proud moments that you've had in your time at Whiting?

Russ (30:55.434)
Well, and I've touched on some of it, you know, the just early starting on and starting, starting and seeing some, some developments in, in accomplishing some things that were not necessarily in my wheelhouse personally. But, you know, I just, I look back on, on, you know, it's just been such an honor to follow my father. I was told many, many times that, that, you know, Hey,

You know, my job's easy compared to my dad having to sell the first few units out there and then versus me being able to say, hey, call these 20 references that I have, call these 50 references that we have. Don't trust me, trust them. And so that really made it. You know, I had mentioned the leading our pressure wash team there for

for quite a few years and that was, I learned so much out of that just from a leadership and really the business, learning the overall business, going out in the field, working with one of the gentlemen, John Hutchins, who just recently retired, conducting installations and startups with him for several years there, was so.

So very gratifying and just some of the most fond memories. So it's been a lot. It's been a fun ride that we want to continue on with.

Andrya (32:34.61)
It's great. I had to hear the personal highlights of a part swapper to CEO. So thank you. Love it.

Russ (32:41.192)
Yeah, yeah, very, it's, that's real.

Andrya (32:46.718)
If another business or someone who's interested in going into business is listening, what are some of the key lessons or pieces of wisdom that you might share with them you've learned in your time at Whiting?

Russ (33:03.946)
Well, always it's hard work. Everything, any, you know, whether, you know, I think there's some really neat documentaries that are, you know, whether it be on the Netflix or whatever, I think there's some neat, you know, I like to watch some of these athletes and how hard they work. It's, it's hard work, you know, no matter what industry you're in, whether it's a sports or in business, it's all hard work. And, you know, if you, if you want to, uh, have the right attitude and you want to.

You can accomplish a lot of things. That's number one. There's just no doubting that. I still go back to and will always, you know, we wash trucks. That's what we do. Okay. We're blue collar and we get it done. Keep the main thing, the main thing while always learning though. But you know, not, you know, we back in the day, okay, yeah, you could wash trucks with a bucket and a brush, but that's not developing. I mean, so we're keeping the main thing, the main thing.

but we've always got to be advancing, be looking. So yeah, you gotta be, I try to be a little cautious on cliche terms, but if it's not broke, don't fix it. I mean, I still like the Hershey's candy bar. I think it's pretty good, stick with it. I mean.

Andrya (34:23.23)
That's right, I love Hershey's.

Russ (34:25.642)
Yeah, so, you know, but, you know, so always ask, ask the ask questions and ask the right questions. You know, how can we improve? How can we improve this particular area of our business? And it may be doing very well, but always be asking the question, you know, what about this? And, and listen to your people. It's so key. We've talked about it. We've talked about it and listen to your people.

And you need a good team. You need a very, very good team. And I think that's more important and a little more challenging today than it was 10 years ago, frankly. I just think that's the reality that we have. But build a very strong team around you. I'll take attitude and want to over potential any day. Any day. I mean, hey, can do attitude and how can we...

Andrya (35:19.582)
Absolutely.

Russ (35:23.946)
How can we solve this issue? This is broken, it's just not gonna work.

Andrya (35:28.606)
Mm -hmm. Thank you for that. Russ, as we talk about the next, let's say decade, the next 10 years for whiting, looking forward, what do you see?

Russ (35:43.274)
Well, for us, you know, I think that we will continue. We're excited about the future. I mean, the, you know, the world has got some challenges. Our country has some challenges and I think we would all agree with that. There's some, you know, world conflicts and things and those, those things that are, that are, they're out of my control and most of our control, but.

We see for us, you know, we're in the automatic truck wash large vehicle wash business and there's clearly a greater acceptance to automation throughout the world. I think there's more, there's more, we see now more, you know, we're using everything from QR codes to, we're getting more support from some of these young folks that are in wash bays through technology.

than we ever used to, well, I mean, than we used to 10 years ago. Okay. So we're excited about some of the, we're not, some of the AI is a little, little unique and you know, so it's, you have to take pause, but I'm excited about the overall technology capabilities and things that are coming along. I think it's going to be very, very helpful for our company. The more automated, the better.

And we're getting, our equipment is getting more and more automated. We still have challenge areas in vehicles such as behind the cab, front of the trailer, wheels. Some of those areas are a little more of a challenge to clean, but we're cleaning more, we're cleaning at a higher wash quality than we ever have. And over the next 10 years, I see that only increasing. I think you'll see vehicles that will be more,

aerodynamic. I think that the hard work that our whole team is putting in in terms of managing that bay, owning the bay, and being the 100 % wash provider, maintaining the highest wash quality with the lowest wash time and the lowest wash cost. We're very excited. Couldn't be more excited about the overall automatic wash.

Russ (38:04.714)
future for the next 10 years. And I do want to go back to it's people and our commitment to being the employer of choice. That's going to be key. You still have to have people that make good, common sense decisions, doing the next right thing. We're never going to be perfect. Never going to be perfect. And doing the next right thing is more of a...

just what is the common sense next right thing to do more so than a moral type statement there. So, but yeah, keep a strong team and we like the next 10 years.

Andrya (38:47.87)
I'm so glad to hear that.

for younger people and companies that might be listening. Maybe it's the young guy in the wash bay using the QR code, or perhaps it's a young CEO or a young sales director that really aspires to have.

the success and legacy that you've had in the industry as well as Whiting. What would you say to them, someone in this younger position in terms of their future and what they could do about it?

Russ (39:24.458)
Well, I go back, I'll repeat myself. I think you can't repeat it too much, too often, but work hard, really, really work hard and be good at something. Figure it out. I think that is so key. And you know, so I think you're seeing a common theme here, the main thing, main thing, but be good at something. And I don't remember where I heard that, but I've liked it for years. Get really, really good at something.

and stick to it. And I'm not saying that you can't be versatile and get into different things, but I think know what your strongest talents are, strongest abilities. We all have strengths and some areas that need more work on. That's just life and that's humans. But those are the main things. Work and surround yourself with excellent people that you can learn from. That is key.

People, there's, you know, as we talk about predictive analytics and all of that, you know, the human factor is still very real. Surround yourself with people that are high achievers and don't ever settle for mediocrity.

Andrya (40:41.822)
That's right. Advice to all, but especially the young. Thank you, Russ.

Russ (40:47.466)
Well, yeah, absolutely. Thank you.

Andrya (40:50.782)
So today we've talked about a lot and as we closed, you mentioned for young companies and anyone in general to be focused on their strengths. What I've heard today in Whiting Strengths is first it's about the customer and how you serve the customer, but also about your people and your technology and this constant picking the next right thing to do in terms of keeping...

the top of the line fleet wash systems, making them smart, automated, and servicing everything that you need in the bay if you're a large vehicle fleet from buses, trains, and trucks. So thank you so much, Russ, for sharing with me today. Is there anything that we left out that you'd like to share with anyone listening?

Russ (41:40.17)
Well, I just appreciate you having me on today. Thank you very much. It's been a pleasure and an honor. So that and also, you know, there's so many areas that we have in our company that you're hesitant to bring up a thank you in fear of leaving somebody out. But if I just to reiterate, our team is the.

Number one, most important part of the success of Widing Systems and carrying on the 50 year tradition that my father started. And thank you very much to our team. And thanks again to you for having me on.

Andrya (42:20.414)
I appreciate that. Yeah, thanks for taking the time today. And again, congratulations to you to everyone at Whiting for the 50 year anniversary. And I'm really excited to see what you guys are doing in the future. To anyone listening, let's say that you're interested in learning more about Whiting, perhaps you're interested in becoming a customer or working together in some way, please visit whitingsystems .com. You'll have links in the channels and the descriptions.

and you can always reach out directly to someone at Whiting through their contact rep system on their website. So Russ, thanks again for today and everyone thank you for listening. This is Andrea signing off.

Russ (43:03.85)
Thank you.

Andrya (43:07.23)
Okay, we've got the recording stopping, but it's still uploading, so we just have to...