First live in-studio guest in the new space, and it had to be Freddie Bosquez.

Freddie worked for me back in the ServPro days, starting around 2013, and watching who he's become since then is one of the privileges of my career. This conversation goes everywhere. A lower middle class kid who wouldn't ask his parents for sports money, so he sold his PlayStation for a pawnshop bass and started a punk band. A recession layoff and a Craigslist ad that led him to walk into a restoration shop looking for work. And then the part most people never hear about this industry: years of trauma scene cleanup, the weight our techs carry into homes on the worst day of a family's life, and how Freddie used work as the mask while alcohol did the quiet damage underneath. He talks about getting honest, what fatherhood cost him and gave him, and how he and his wife built Wolf, now in year 6, into a business worth fighting for, including the year of layoffs that nearly broke them right before everything paid off.

Fair warning: the trauma scene portion of this conversation is heavy, and we don't dance around it. It's also some of the most important ground we've ever covered about what the people in this industry actually experience.

Enjoy the show - Brandon

Why You Should Listen:

[2:30] Childhood Freddie: the middle child who filtered his own wants before his parents ever had to say no
[6:42] A recession layoff, a Craigslist ad, and the walk-in interview that started a restoration career
[9:53] "We're locked in until everybody says yes": the morning huddle every restoration shop should steal
[16:16] The mask was work: after-hours calls, trauma scenes, and the drinking he wasn't ready to name
[17:55] What a trauma instructor taught him about going home and talking about it
[52:47] The catalysts: a daughter, a lost relationship with his son, and retiring old Freddie
[56:13] Building Wolf with his wife: feeling alone in the business, the worst year, and the payoff