This is the full transcript for Episode #284 of the Wild Business Growth podcast featuring Greg Berry – Government Surplus Auctioneer, Founder of Municibid. You can listen to the interview and learn more here. Please note: this transcript is not 100% accurate.
Greg Berry 0:00
I don’t I do not have an auctioneer’ss voice
Max Branstetter 0:18
I do not have an auctioneer’s voice as well. Welcome back to the Wild Business Growth podcast. This is your placeto hear from a new entrepreneur every single Wednesday morning, who’s turning Wild ideas into Wild growth. I’m your host, Max Branstetter. Today’s auctioneer I’m your host, Maxwell Branstetter. Founder and Podcast Producer at MaxPodcasting. And you can email me at to save time with your high-quality podcast, and maybe your next auction. You never know. This is episode 284. And today’s guest is Greg Branstetter. No, I’m just kidding. He is episode 18. Actually, Greg Berry, Greg B is the founder and CEO of municipal ID as well as surplus.com. His brand new baby business, and municipal ID is the online marketplace for auctions of government surplus. Now before we connected, I don’t even think I knew what government surplus is. But think of municipal bid as the eBay for cop cars, construction vehicles, school buses, fire trucks, etc. Even materials that are no longer in use retired in a sense by that specific government body. In this episode, we talk Greg’s journey from city council to starting municipal Red Cross Country Road trips. And some of the most creative things people have ever done with government surplus items they’ve bought on municipal debt. And then anybody can buy. That’s for anybody. It is Greg. Enjoyyyyyyy the showwwwww!
Aaaaalrightyyyyy
we’re here with Greg Berry, the founder and CEO of Municibid. Which, by the way, do you say it Municibid or Mooonicibid this a bit because, you know, there’s lots of cow jokes in one of the apps.
Greg Berry 2:27
We hear all kinds of different pronunciations.
Max Branstetter 2:31
Perfect, perfect. Well, it’s the M company now just kidding. But really, really cool company dealing with government surplus, which this will be really fun at because it’s an area that before prepping for this interview I knew about negative 5% About. And now I’m slightly in the positive but always love learning about cool out of the box areas. And before we get to that, I have to thank you and give you credit, because you are Greg B and my father is also a Greg B. So oh, you know, I just have to thank you for being a fantastic father and role model so that you don’t even know you sign up for that. Before we jump into kind of the origin story, can you share like a one of the most creative uses of a truck or vehicle or something from government surplus that you found somebody got on Munis a bit and turn it into something else?
Greg Berry 3:24
Sure. And we see it quite a bit, we see a lot of conversion. So people will buy ambulances or school buses and convert them into like, basically RVs. But one guy in Massachusetts bought an ambulance that he turned into basically this tailgating machine. And he’s a new New England Patriots fan. And the whole thing is outfitted in patriots gear and you know, the decals on the outside and the whole thing and then the inside is all decorated. And then one of the coolest parts is the grill is on the gurney, so pulls out like the stretcher, you know, the pulls out of the back of thing the legs come down. And that’s the grill. And I thought that was pretty cool. But yeah, we have we have many different examples of how people use things that they by, either, you know, sort of fixing them up to use themselves or kind of using them, you know, using parts or repurposing items. Like for example, we have people that buy fire hoses and repurpose them into belts and wallets and that sort of thing and sell on Etsy or whatever.
Max Branstetter 4:28
I love that tailgating example. Actually one of the first things I thought of when I was checking out your company and some of the especially like kind of like the military type vehicles and, you know, fire trucks and school buses and things like that as well. I thought about tailgating because I’m from Cleveland, Ohio originally. And the muni lot is really where the big Browns tailgate is every Sunday. And if you walk through the muni lot you’ll see just like rows and rows of like school buses and giant You know, Hummer type trucks that people have decked out and, and brown certified, if that’s a word. Yeah. Obviously, that applies to every NFL team as well. But really, really cool how much stuff is out there? But what else like these, you know, you don’t need to reveal, you know, your social security number and all your private information about the company. But like, these days, what, what would you say are the most commonly bought vehicles or items on separate?
Greg Berry 5:27
So we sell a lot of, well, I should kind of rephrase that the government’s sell a lot of used police vehicles, police cars, and so they’re probably that’s our number one item, so old crown Vics Dodge Chargers, things along those lines that are being sold. Now. They’re not being sold with the lights and sirens. But unless you’re another police department buying it, but yeah, so those get stripped off. But yeah, that’s our number one category vehicles in general is our number one category followed by heavy equipment. So backhoes and loaders and dump trucks, things like that. And then it really kind of goes on from there. So we I always like to say, and challenge people to name something that you know, name something, and I would kind of guarantee you has been sold on Munis a bit over the last 18 years at some point, even a bridge.
Max Branstetter 6:16
wait like an entire bridge? Yeah, yeah. So
Greg Berry 6:19
accounting was looking to get rid of this bridge, basically, they were replacing it. But basically, the thing was that you had to be able to come and remove the bridge. So it wasn’t a little bit of a catch. We have a first rate. Now we have a log cabin, which I’m not sure we’ve ever had a log cabin, for auction, but it’s property that a town owns and they’re selling just it’s just the building, not the land. That’s kind of an interesting one as well. And the
Max Branstetter 6:44
police car note, part of it, part of me thinks it’s like, out of this world that so many people are interested in police cars, but also it’s like, you think about that scene from The Hangover where they steal the police car and are driving around and talking to people. I don’t know if that’s what people a pipe dream they have in line or not. But on a realistic level, what is it that, like, why are people so interested in, you know, bringing older police cars back to life like this?
Greg Berry 7:11
Well, typically, when you’re buying a used police car, for the most part, they’re very well maintained. And then they also when they’re purchased, and the way the manufacturers make them is specifically for police departments. So they have stronger engines, stronger suspensions, system and those types of things that are built into it better handling, you know, just more of an upgraded vehicle than you would just purchase normally, if you’re going to kind of compare a similar model. So like a Dodge Charger, police car is a lot stronger than just your regular Dodge Charger that you’re buying, unless, of course, you’re buying like the big Hemi or whatever, it’s just kind of a stronger, more stable vehicle, and then they tend to take good care of the police cars. But you know, kind of the one thing about buying a police car, if you’re going to use it, you know, kind of for yourself is try to understand how the car was used. Because if it was in a, you know, kind of serving rural areas where it’s like, you know, kind of open highways or you know, not a lot of stops, stop signs and red lights like you would have in a city. You know, that’s where you find a little bit more wear and tear. And then the other thing to keep in mind, and people that buy police cars really kind of know this that typically if especially if the department is running, well, if they’re running on a 24 hour cycle, those cars really never turn off. They’re kind of just always left running. So that’s something to keep in mind. But so that it’s a good question to ask if they if you’re buying it from a 24/7 You know, police department, you know, as the car left on the whole time, which they typically are,
Max Branstetter 8:51
it takes mileage amounts and oil changes to the next level.
Greg Berry 8:57
Yeah, yeah, I mean, just like buying any other car, doing your due diligence on homework is important. But then we have people that buy it for all different reasons. I mean, one, you know, they’re getting a solid car for a good price. They buy them because they’re collectors or enthusiast you know, they upgrade kind of deck it out in different ways. And yeah, so there’s all kinds of ways that they’re being used.
Max Branstetter 9:22
So let’s get to the early early days of municipal Did, did you have any idea growing up? That you would be and I say this tongue in cheek but you would become a US police car dealer at some point?
Greg Berry 9:42
No, definitely not. I mean, I always knew I was an entrepreneur. So and I knew that I would be you know, having my own business at some point which I started my first business actually right out of high school, which now today it’s like not that big of a deal because a lot of kids are doing that even you know while in high school right? I’m in middle school. And so I knew I was always an entrepreneur, you know, as far back as I can remember, really, you know, from the lemonade kind of stands and mowing lawns and shoveling driveways, and doing all that sort of thing. And then I was very lucky to have the opportunity. My mom worked for an IT department and my uncle was like this big computer geek. By the time I was eight, nine, something like that in late 80s, I had a computer and I feel like I’ve been in front of the computer ever since. So, in high school, I had a good opportunity to have to go work as an apprentice in my mom’s company, and then a smaller sort of IT company. I learned a lot about it. I went to school at night for all these industry certifications. And then I started my my IT consulting company right out of high school in 1998, which I then went on to continue to own until 2010. So and I sold that, but I started Munis a bit in 2006. And that was after I was elected to our local town council in the borough of Pottstown, and Pennsylvania. So I ran for that position, it was a heavily contested race. And I ended up winning, I think it was 24 or 25. At the time, and it was great, so much experience in the four years that I served on the council, and it was how municipal was founded, basically, the quick story is that we were looking to get rid of like parking meters or something like that. And when there wasn’t really a system, especially up in Pennsylvania, in the northeast, that would work for that. And then I noticed kind of a bigger problem, which was we were selling things for like pennies on the dollar. So we would sell us Police car for $300 when the blue book value was $3,000. And I’m like, why? How are we doing this? And then we go on to the next agenda item and argue over $1,000. And I’m like, well, we just gave away three grand like what’s going on. So I noticed that this kind of problem was being faced by many municipalities across Pennsylvania. And then across the country. There were a couple other providers that were already, you know, kind of competitors to doing what we’re doing. But being in PA in 2006 was really the first time that governments or municipalities were allowed to sell their surplus online. It was the electronic bidding law. And so that had just passed. And so it was like kind of like perfect timing. back then. And then it but then it was kind of a slow go from there. Probably took us five years to get to maybe having 100 Well, maybe that’s not true. But let’s call it five years to 100. A couple 100 agencies using us now there’s over 6000 that use us and about 50 More that come on each month still to this day, which is which is pretty wild.
Max Branstetter 12:53
Wow. It’s all those brands tailgaters coming on. That’s.
Greg Berry 12:59
So that’s just the seller side. But basically, yeah, thankfully, you know, I put the system together after I saw this, this kind of problem that a lot of municipalities were facing, and got some surrounding municipalities to give it a shot. And it worked. But in fact, it worked so well that they didn’t believe it. And so one of the first well, the very first item sold on Munis a bid was on writing Miller, and it sold for $500. They were really hoping to get $100 for it. So when they got $500 for it, they were shocked when one of the next items was a police car by a neighboring Township. It had a blown engine, and it sold for like 2500 hours. They again, they were expecting to get like a couple 100 hours. So they actually contacted me and said, Something’s wrong with your system. There’s no way anyone’s gonna buy this car for $2,500 I think something’s not right. I’m like, no, no, I think I think it’s okay, I’m not seeing anything wrong. Sure enough, the guy comes with a check for 2500 hours and takes the car the next day. So, so they were thrilled, they couldn’t believe that. So we obviously we have a testimony on the result from that, and then kind of just took that on the road. But it was again, very slow, very slow going took several years to get off the ground because it was a hard thing to sell. Governments are not a big fan of trying new things. So you know, getting over that initial hump is a challenge.
Max Branstetter 14:23
But it’s that’s a really, really unique scenario you’re in I mean, Joe, first of all, just the fact that you are on city council. It’s such a young age, like that’s a whole other story. But on top of that, like starting a business while you’re already you know, working in some form for the government, that’s a pretty unique situation there. What was the kind of the ambiance around you and around fellow council people. When you were like, Hey, I actually I have a solution for this. You know, not just like an idea, but this actually might turn into a real business.
Greg Berry 14:55
Well, one we the town that I serve pots and they couldn’t use municipal because it would be a conflict of interest. I’m not sure I really ever had that many discussions about it with council people I did with some other, you know, people that are involved in local governments. In fact, pretty much all of them told me it wasn’t going to work. And I was wasting my time.
Max Branstetter 15:17
You should have listened to him over a decade later, a decade and a half.
Greg Berry 15:21
Yeah, and just having those conversations and hearing people I trusted and kind of looked up to tell me that it was just not going to work. But I’m like, I just kept seeing that it would, you know, and eventually it did work. And here we are 18 years later, it
Max Branstetter 15:36
18 years. So your so your business can vote, congratulations. But what is like for anybody who’s not familiar? How big of a problem is government surplus? Like, is this something a lot of towns encounter?
Greg Berry 15:50
Yeah, so pretty much every town owns, you know, items, equipment, furniture, you know, obviously like office equipment, that type of stuff, water and sewer department, equipment, there’s, there’s so much that a town owns that you might not think they would own. There’s typically a replacement cycle for these these items, you know, cars, generally a couple years, five years, maybe depending fire trucks, ambulances, heavy equipment, in some cases, items that are bought, and then realized they weren’t needed or something changed with the project. And so there’s sort of newer items. But I would say most of the items on municipal are items that the government has used, and now no longer has a need for in small cases, they’re like sort of, you know, you can think of it like seized assets, or forfeited assets as as it’s called. So those items are up for auction here and there. But I would say probably 90%, of what is sold on municipalities something that the government has bought, used, or bought, and then didn’t actually need, we give them a way to sell this, it is a problem. And we’re slowly solving that problem. Even 18 years in, because governments like I said before, they they would sell this stuff for pennies on the dollar, it was just they were looking for an easy way to follow the their kind of bidding rules, and they would put a legal ad in the paper. And then a couple lowball bids would come in. And that was just like one bid and done. The items that are just not they weren’t available to a larger audience and a more diverse audience from geographically and otherwise. So now it is. And so now people have a way to easily find these items, or find that governments actually have things for sale, then easily find the items and then easily bid on them in a convenient matter. Because before you like have to go down to the town hall fill out a bunch of paperwork. And it can be really intimidating, confusing. And people just don’t want to do that. So to be able to make it a more convenient and easy to use process has opened it up to a much larger group of buyers. You
Max Branstetter 18:02
know, when you’re creating a marketplace like this, or a new home for it, there’s a lot of as the cool kids say heavy lifting involved in to figure out like, how do we get more buyers? And how do we get more sellers? And you mentioned that with your business like it took, I mean, you had those early testimonials, but it took many years before you felt like it really started to pop and, and grow at a different level? What do you think was the difference like in your marketing, or just your strategy there that kind of helped you get to that? That inflection point? Well, I
Greg Berry 18:32
mean, I think the experience that we demonstrated with results and that sort of thing, where governments are more confident. A lot of governments talk with each other, I would say probably 80% of our growth is referral based where governments are at a conference or they’re in some organization, or they’re on some online forum. And they’re talking about it, you know, one, one government says, hey, you know, how’d you get? Or, you know, we have a backhoe that we’re looking to get rid of, like, how are you guys doing that? Oh, we use
Max Branstetter 19:01
that situation?
Greg Berry 19:05
Yeah, there’s just different different ways that they communicate with each other that, you know, produces a referral. And then we have a whole marketing program on that side as well, just to keep in front of governments and try to provide them a lot of value, you know, talking about kind of trends or what things are selling for, you know, what they can expect. And that, you know, is over email, direct mail, and so forth. So, you know, there’s that outreach as well. But yeah, probably 80% of it starts coming from referrals. And obviously, the more customers you have, the more opportunity there are for referrals. But yeah, it took us a couple years to get to 50 governments using us and now we have 50 coming on every month. So that’s,
Max Branstetter 19:46
that’s a much, much nicer place to be. Is it more of a challenge to not acquire but get more buyers or to get more sellers?
Greg Berry 19:54
Probably the sellers because, again, you know, it’s a longer sales cycle. You Typically buyers, they’re coming in, because, you know, usually they’re looking to buy something. And so they they find us through, you know, Google search, or just they happen and see us there, or all the marketing that we’re doing online, which is more targeted. So you know, we have obviously, we, you know, run Google ads and that kind of thing, where it’s a little bit more intent based. And then, of course, we have all kinds of other ads, Facebook, Instagram, otherwise, promoting the items, and then across different industry publications and websites based on the category of the item. And it goes both ways with with that, but, you know, bringing on a seller is can be a whole different animal. Now, most most governments come on board, they register, and they start selling with very little interaction from us. But that’s also by design, you know, we really try to make sure that our information is clear, and sort of self explanatory, but also we do demos and things like that, you know, in some other cases, we have to respond to requests for proposals. And you know, that’s a several month process, and then we might have to wait several months for to hear anything, you know, then we have a contract. So it could, you know, the sales cycle can be much longer, it can be yours. In some cases where an agency is using a competitor, they’re on a contract, and we have to just kind of maintain a relationship or build a relationship, and kind of wait for that contract opportunity to come back around.
Max Branstetter 21:25
I’ve always wondered with businesses like this, where it is like that online marketplace, like, it just seems like it could become a nightmare really quick to you know, things get disorganized, or you know, things aren’t, like you don’t have the guardrails in place to like, monitor and make sure listings look good, and, you know, tax working and all that sort of thing. How in the world do you and your team manage? Like having so many different listings? Also, with the nature of the auction site? Like there’s constantly potential money figures being thrown around? They’re like, how do you how do you keep all that in check, pun intended,
Greg Berry 22:02
you know, again, our market or our messaging to our sellers, the copy that we use the instructions and walkthroughs, and things like that we really touch on best practices, and, you know, ideas for making listings better, because you know, we’re really fully aligned with them. So the better they do, the better we do. So we really invest a lot of time and making sure that their listings look great, you know, as best as possible, and the auction is set up for success from the beginning. And so then that reduces a lot of other problems. So if there’s an auction item that’s listed and has very little information, you know, that’s going to cause obviously, more people to ask questions, maybe shy away from bidding on it, you know, that kind of thing. So we really tried to work with them to develop a listing that will be successful for them, including figuring out starting prices, and that sort of thing.
Max Branstetter 22:57
Have you seen any trends in like, how the auction world has, or the bidding world has changed now compared to when you started the business?
Greg Berry 23:09
Yeah, I mean, you know, just the kind of taking these old processes online, not only do we have sort of online competitors, per se, but we also have online or competitive processes. So like sealed bid is a competitive process, a live auction is a competitive process, a trade situation is a competitive process, where a government might trade their vehicles, and instead of selling them on the open market, you know, so we have, you know, language to kind of talk about each of those and how we compare and so forth. That’s kind of one way, I guess, that we really try to help governments understand, you know, sort of these differences between these processes, because ultimately, it can affect the outcome of the sale. So like the sealed bid, you’re not going to get a lot of bids, and they’re going to be probably lowball bids, live auction, you’re waiting all year for this live auction, and then it rains, or people have to drive several hours just to go go to the auction. Whereas online, you know, there’s a lot of advantages, from convenience, to efficiency, and so forth. And then trade, you know, like, we beat trade prices, nine times out of 10, if not more, but what we recommend to the governments is just list that trade price that you get that you’ve, you’ve received as your reserve, you know, if we beat it, we beat it. If not, that’s fine.
Max Branstetter 24:33
It should be company logo, company motto. If not, it’s fine. That’s a good way to go about for anything, but another thing I was really curious about was like, because I’ve heard your company described as an easy way for people to learn about it is like, it’s like the eBay for government surplus, right? In a company that’s involved with government goods. What’s it like from a competition standpoint, like Are you do you consider yourself competitors with like, eBay and Facebook marketplace and those sort of things or is it like a whole, you know, different planet there?
Greg Berry 25:06
Yeah, it’s it’s pretty different. So one thing to keep in mind and I should clarify this for the for the audience, so only governments can sell on Municibid, but it’s open to the public to buy, so anyone can buy so right so biocides for anybody but yeah, yeah, exactly. But as it compares to Facebook and eBay, well, they really can’t use Facebook because it has, you have to accept competitive bids, you know, Munis bid allows gives them a platform to accept competitive bids. eBay can do the same thing. But they’re not really designed for governments and for the requirements that governments have for open records. And you know, just just sort of in general processes. So govern, for example, governments have the right to reject any bid for any reason, they have a right to vote on him accepting or rejecting a bid, just those two things in general, kind of don’t really make eBay the great a great solution for them. And then cost customer service, those those types of things are, you know, another consideration, we know how to talk to the the Talk or the monocular of a government, where, you know, eBay might not, or they might not even be available, or what have you. So we you know, we spend a lot of time on making sure that we truly deliver an exceptional customer service. And we, you know, again, just invest a lot into making sure that that’s a reality and not just a tagline. Same with Craigslist, that’s not a competitor with us.
Max Branstetter 26:39
You never know what you’re going to find on municipal bid, and you never know who you’re going to meet at CEX, Content Entrepreneur Expo, it might even be Ryan from The Office, aka BJ Novak. And some really, really cool content, fellow content entrepreneurs, as well. CEX is May 5-7, 2024, in my favorite city of Cleveland, Ohio. And if you use the code, the promo code or coupon code, however, you prefer to use the code MAX100 you can get $100 off the in-person ticket price, that is MAX100. And you can register at CEX.Events. Now, let’s dive a bid more into the mind behind Municibid. So I’d love to switch gears a little bit and learn more about you on the personal side. I mean, this relates to business as well. But with a business that seemingly is so complex, as well, as you mentioned that the sales cycle can be so long, like several months sales cycle, you’re dealing with, you know, high value goods, a wide range of goods, goods that sometimes are too big to fit on a street, or they’re a bridge. How in the world do you continue to stay, you know, inspired and motivated and kind of optimistic and keep charging on from a business standpoint, when you are for example, like, in the midst of this several months sales cycle that might seem like no hope at the moment, it’s
Greg Berry 28:12
gonna probably sound strange to you and a lot of people listening but, you know, I saw this problem of government selling their stuff for not a lot of money firsthand. And then kind of the problems that were sort of a result of that things not being able to be funded, new equipment, new projects, those types of things that are maybe not being funded. And it could be, you know, just based off a couple $1,000, you know, and so when I saw how many towns were selling their stuff for like nothing. I’m like, wow, this is a big, this is a big problem when you, you know, look at the 90,000 government agencies in the US, it’s a huge problem. It just irks me whenever I still see that. And I’m like, we have a solution that, you know, has been around for a long time. That works. And that is driving enabling municipalities to sell their stuff for a lot more money. You know, and we just still see, these governments have these problems. So as long as there’s governments out there that are selling their stuff for, you know, pennies instead of the true market value, then, you know, that kind of drives us to solve that problem. It’s a win win win for everyone. It’s a win for the government. It’s a win for the government’s taxpayers, and it’s a win for us. I
Max Branstetter 29:27
think that’s a phenomenal thing to build a business around is what irks me, like, what really grinds my gears and then there’s that passion there that will keep driving you. I think it’s also it makes perfect sense that you you had the background from your old city council like you had you had that behind the scenes look at like these, you know, interactions like this, that local governments and all sorts of governments experience every day. I can’t even say these words pronounce them, but like that background and it’s almost like you got your MBA in, you know, this problem before starting the business, right? And so that that helped to fuel it and it helped to continue to argue. But how about on the personal side, outside of work? If you’re ever able to get your your head out of the business or unplug or relax for a bit, how are you spending your free time, there’s
Greg Berry 30:20
less of it now, because we just launched surplus.com, about two months ago, just about two months ago, which is kind of it’s a business, the business community marketplace for the sale of used goods from businesses. And so that’s been taking up a lot of my extra time recently, but I have an RV, like taking that out on different road trips. And that sort of thing is a fun, fun thing. For me. I’m into music, bike riding. I love being outside. So anything, anything outside working out that kind of thing. Do
Max Branstetter 30:49
you have a favorite RV road trip you’ve ever been on?
Greg Berry 30:54
I love the desert. I love being out in the desert. So any anywhere, I guess there’s a highway that cuts through Nevada called highway 50. And it’s called the loneliest highway in America. And it really does live up to its name. You could drive on that for hours and not see a single other person another car or anything. So yeah, it’s pretty cool. I like those and it’s just gorgeous.
Max Branstetter 31:17
Does it start to get to you do you start to be like you start to feel like you’re on another planet or something when you’re out there?
Greg Berry 31:22
I do remember there was a point where I’m like wow, we’re I’m really out here and no one else is around like what if something were to happen you know and then you get kind of a little bit of a relief when you roll into the one stoplight town finally you know that has like a gas station that’s the extent of it.
Max Branstetter 31:41
I’ve never heard the one stoplight town as relief that’s exactly cool. I’m getting serious breaking bad vibes RV in a desert that’s that’s an iconic image so
Greg Berry 31:50
it’s kind of funny to live in I my RV is all white and so I named my RV Walt White
Max Branstetter 31:59
there we go. And I’m sure somewhere there’s footage of you running around in your waiting tidy so there we go.
Greg Berry 32:04
I’m not sure about that.
Max Branstetter 32:08
So you like the you like the outdoors? We were chatting beforehand you actually have as part of your your studio setup you have what I thought was a Bongo because we’re big on bongos here on this podcast, but was a conga. How’d you get into Congo?
Greg Berry 32:22
It’s not actually mine. It’s some friends’ that are here. Yeah. So I can’t really play it that well. I have some friends that can that can really go at it. But I’m I’m not that great at it.
Max Branstetter 32:35
What do you play? Do you play around with music at all? Are you mean you you rock out? You listen to music? I
Greg Berry 32:41
play around with it. I have a couple friends that are musicians and you know work with them to make music together. But yeah, nothing. Nothing very much. Yeah, obviously. It’s not what I do professionally.
Max Branstetter 32:52
You’re being bashful right now. But now we can reveal to people that you created the theme song to Breaking Bad. So thank you for that. Sorry. All right. On that wacky note, let’s wrap up with some rapid fire q&a. You’re ready for it?
Greg Berry 33:08
Sure. Let’s do it. All right. By the way, I’m terrible at these rapid fires, but we’ll see how it was the algos? I’m terrible
Max Branstetter 33:14
at asking them. So I think we’re all right. We’ll be we’ll be on par here. This is this. See, it’s not even a quick question. I have to shout out city council. So my grandma Adele Shaligram. Adele, for almost 30 years was on city council amendment over 30 years. And part of that as Vice Mayor and so like I have like a bit of nostalgia when I hear about city council because growing up like you know, we’d go she lived in a town nearby. So like we’d go and go and see her get sworn in and like meet her her co workers and things like that. So, so got a kind of a little peek into that world. Yeah, so shout to her. But what’s something about being on a city council that you think most people would be surprised by?
Greg Berry 33:53
It does give you sort of an inside look into like how politics work. It’s a whole different world. And so I would think that would probably be the number one thing that someone that that was not really involved in politics that ran for an office and even on a local level, kind of how that how it works. And then you can kind of see how it works up through the federal level as well.
Max Branstetter 34:14
Seems like a very different world. And on a very different note. I’m surprised you don’t you didn’t do this whole interview in an auctioneer voice. So have you ever worked on your auctioneer voice?
Greg Berry 34:24
I don’t I do not have an auctioneers voice.
Max Branstetter 34:28
Have you ever been to live in person auctions? Oh, yeah, of course. Yeah.
Greg Berry 34:31
I love them.
Max Branstetter 34:32
Yeah, there’s some they’re entertaining. I don’t know. That would be a fascinating topic to deep dive into like the history of those voices. I don’t know why. It’s a thing. But it’s,
Greg Berry 34:40
I do know that it’s
Max Branstetter 34:41
definitely a thing.
Greg Berry 34:42
It’s kind of going away though. The traditional sort of auctioneers are having a lot of problems recruiting new auctioneers. So was
Max Branstetter 34:50
it a golden opportunity for you? But uh,
Greg Berry 34:53
maybe next I’ll stick with the online thing.
Max Branstetter 34:57
Exactly easier on the voice That was the most challenging part about starting a business straight out of high school.
Greg Berry 35:05
The cool thing was, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. So it didn’t really hold me back from from much, probably though it was, especially with what I was doing was gaining trust from older people. So, you know, I’m this 18 year old kid, basically, I’m handling there, you know, some companies, you know, it network. And so it’s like, trust in that was probably the thing that most people are had to kind of convince people of that, you know, but I was able to do that, because I had, like, actual real, sought after certifications from Microsoft and a couple other companies that, you know, showed that I had the knowledge to be able to do what I was doing. And
Max Branstetter 35:47
then, in addition to the that loneliest highway in the world, we were talking about the drive thru Nevada. I won’t let you say that one. But what would you say is the longest road trip? You’ve been on in your RV? Well, I’ve
Greg Berry 36:02
done several cross country, several cross country. Yep. Yep. So I’ve been, you know, kind of direct from basically California to Pennsylvania, maybe twice. And then I’ve done one from Philadelphia, to Miami and to Los Angeles. That was a long one. I love doing road cross country road trips, just because obviously, the scenery is one thing, but talking with people, you know, as I make my way, across the country is pretty interesting as well. It’s cool to see the different facets of of America. Yeah,
Max Branstetter 36:35
just got like a warm, fuzzy feeling. I’ve always wanted to do like a true cross country road trip. So you’re, you’re the guy if I need any tips, because you got you got several under your belt. On that note, what’s your best tip for anybody who wants to do a cross country or several road trips?
Greg Berry 36:51
Well definitely go through Southern Utah. It’s gorgeous. So I haven’t had I haven’t made any, like far north routes. So, you know, I really can’t speak to that. But I love Southern Utah, it makes you feel so small, with how big the landscape is there. So and then through the Rockies, obviously, is a gorgeous track. And then, you know, kind of once you get past there, if you’re going east, you’re in cornfields for a big stretch of the road trip. So yeah, so east of the Rockies gets a little boring. But Western Rockies are pretty cool.
Max Branstetter 37:26
Yeah, growing up in the Midwest, you just get a little bit outside the city and suburb area, and you’re basically attacked by corn. So I know what you’re talking about. Well, Greg, this has been awesome. So Greg, be I should say, this has been fantastic. So thank you so much for coming on. And really, really cool, really unique business. And really cool, you know, behind the scenes of tailgate trucks too, which is, which is awesome. But where’s the best place? If people are interested in buying? Or if they work for the government? And they’re looking for selling? On, you know, subid? Where’s the best place to do that? And then if anybody wants to connect with you online?
Greg Berry 38:04
It’s just Municibid.com is the domain and then obviously, Surplus.com. And then we’re @Municibid across all the channels. And then I’m @GregMBerry across all the channels. Perfect.
Max Branstetter 38:17
Very, very cool. Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Last thing, Final Thoughts, sages years, it could be a quote, words to live by, sing your favorite song in your auctioneer voice. And I’m just gonna just kind of what words to live by send us home here.
Greg Berry 38:32
I guess so to encourage younger people to just, it’s going to sound cliche, but like sort of, you know, go after your dreams, like really get in tune with what it is that you are passionate about, and try a lot of different things. But if you find the one thing that really sticks to really go for it, and especially the younger, the better 44 starting a new company and I can feel it. It’s the it’s a little different than when I was 25 or 18.
Max Branstetter 39:07
Or 28. Thank you so much, Greg, for coming on the show, for being another awesome Greg B, and sharing the fantastic and super fantastically cool, niche, Municibid business story. And thank you listeners for tuning in to another episode. If you want to hear more wild stories like this one, make sure to subscribe or follow the Wild Business Growth podcast on your favorite podcast platform, as well as subscribe on YouTube that YouTube is @MaxBranstetter. You can also find us on Goodpods where there are podcast recommendations and cool podcast people. And for any help with podcast production, you can learn more at MaxPodcasting.com and sign up for the Podcasting to the Max newsletter. That is at MaxPodcasting.com/Newsletter and that is where podcasting meets entrepreneurship and the worst jokes you will hear in the middle of the desert or anywhere else in the world. Until next time, let your business Run Wild…Bring on the Bongos!!
