13 How Coach Rodo Became an Entrepreneur

In this candid and powerful episode of Winning Regardless, Coach Rodo tells the remarkable story of his own entrepreneurial journey. He opens up about his struggles after leaving the Marine Corps, his battle with finding a purpose, and how a conversation on a basketball court became the improbable beginning of his company, Aldevra.

This is a masterclass in modern entrepreneurship, revealing how his small, veteran-owned business grew from a niche in government contracts to a multi-million-dollar company that has renovated kitchens at the Pentagon. Rodo shares the raw truth about the early mistakes, the lessons learned from bad business partners, and the critical need to pivot during the COVID-19 pandemic. He also offers a rare look at the mindset of a successful Black entrepreneur, sharing the emotional challenges of navigating corporate boardrooms and the joy of "sending the elevator back down" to help others rise.

Key Discussion Points:

From Marine to Entrepreneur: Rodo shares the personal struggle of transitioning from the military and how his wife's intervention led to a life-changing discovery.

The Power of a Niche: How a veteran-owned business status opened doors to government contracts that were closed to others.

Losing to Win: An honest look at the early mistakes and bad business deals, including paying a "fine" on their first contract to learn a crucial lesson.

Culture Over Everything: Rodo discusses his philosophy on creating a flexible work environment where employees are empowered to succeed and have a voice.

The Unspoken Challenges: A frank conversation about the unique pressures and expectations of being a successful Black business owner.

The 20% Rule: Rodo's final piece of advice for entrepreneurs on how to view winning and losing and what to expect on the long road to success.

Transcript

Welcome listeners to another day of Coach Rodo's Winning Regardless podcast. Today, I'm gonna talk about becoming an entrepreneur and sort of a little bit of what I do in my entrepreneurship. So, I had joined the Marine Corps, did everything that I did in the Marine Corps, and when I got out, I really couldn't find a job.

Well, not really fine one. I couldn't keep one. Let's just be honest. I would get jobs and if I didn't like them, you know, because nobody wants to work a job they don't like. I had just spent five years doing something that I didn't like, but I did. You have to be a military person to understand where I'm coming from. So either I would quit them or I would get fired and...

Sometimes I would get fired based on, know, being angry and having attitude. So I didn't know what was wrong. ⁓ And of course, you know, being a black male where therapy is out of the question, you know, because that's how we were raised. You know, that's another topic for another, you know, another day seeking therapy. therapy wasn't an option. And, you know, you didn't believe the stories of the battle fatigue and the things of that sort. But

Stella Nause, something was wrong. I ended up going to the VA, prompted by my wife, of course, and for about three or four years with me going. ⁓ The lady didn't, you know, every time, because you don't really want to talk about it, so you don't talk about it. You just live with it. You just figure that it's part of life, so you live with it. You figure out how to navigate it. I mean, you're not the best at navigating it, but you

you're learning and you're trying to figure it out along the way. So I would go to my physical, or to my therapy sessions and every time, know, lady walk, I walk in, sit down, she say, well, how are you doing Rodney? How are you feeling out of the day? Good. Everything is fine. ⁓ You know, play a little basketball today, you know, go over what my day was and.

You know, totally skipping, you know, whatever issues that I may have had throughout that day or throughout that week or throughout that month, whatever period just, you know, totally going past that. ⁓ again, four years had gone by or so and my wife says, know, I think I'm gonna come with you this time because I don't understand what's going on at therapy. I was like, well, what do mean? You're gonna go with me? She's like, well,

I want to go and I just want to, you know, I just want to sit down and I just want to listen to you talk to your therapist and, you know, find out, you know, what we can do to make things better because it seems like you've been going a long time and we still haven't made things better and I need to know if there's something I need to do at home to help that. So I said, okay, cool. You know, we go, she's dressed up. Of course she's in her work outfit. So, you know, first thing they think when we pull up is they think that she's my therapist.

⁓ That's because I get into a fight in the VA parking lot with another veteran. We got into a fist fight and the police came up and, you know, they, she was the only witness. So they asked her, you know, you witnessed it. Where were you? She said, I was in that car, which was my car. And the police was like, no, what we're saying is where were you? She said, I was in his car. She said, yeah, but he was in that car. Where were you? She said, that's my husband. I was in the car with him.

when the incident happened because again, she's dressed for work. So she looks like my therapist. And so we always make jokes and fun about that. So, you know, police take their their report and things of that sort. We go up into the physical or we go up into the ⁓ my my mental therapist. ⁓ Her name was Valerie and we sit down and she says, well, so Rodney, tell me how things are. I said, everything is fine.

And my wife, all of a sudden, just go, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold the fucking phone. What do you mean everything is fine? This motherfucker just got into a fist fight out in the parking lot on our way to this therapy appointment. What has he been telling you?

So, you know, of course they run down everything that I've been telling her. She's looking at me like I'm gonna get in big trouble when I get home because for the last four years I haven't told her about anything that's going on. So, you know, we find out that it's a lot worse than, you know, even I had thought. And, you know, she knew because she was living with me. you know, I had got put on disability because of, you know, mental issues. And so I'm really like struggling like, man, what am I gonna do to provide for my family?

So I'm coaching basketball and I meet this guy and he's coaching with me and he says to me, where you work at? I said, I don't work. I'm disabled veteran and collect, get benefits, my disability. And he says, well, know, the federal government has, if you own your own company, a ⁓ veteran, you can have a company and you can get government contracts or whatever. my dream was to have a brown Porsche with

Peanut butter guts. I always called it doo doo brown porch with peanut butter guts. That was my dream. he, he, he, me and him was talking about it. He was like, I get you to you'll be able to get that Porsche. You know, we'll work together. You'll be to get that Porsche. And you know, I mean, and it sounded real good. You know, me being a veteran, not knowing everything, but just knowing that I could start something and hearing this guy telling me all the money that I could make, you know, of course.

It sounds too good to be true than it probably is. So I run home and I tell the wife. My wife is an intellect. you know, she says, well, that sounds great, but let me do some research. So she started doing some research and she comes back and she says, well, about 10 % of what he told you is right. And that's the starting a veteran business, what it ranks in the federal government.

world and you can get some government contracts. So, you know, we quickly just, you know, we filed an entity and ⁓ filed an LLC, you know, took us a while to think of the name. So we thought of the name Al Devere, named it after the kids, Alex, Devin and Sierra. So, you know, but we just didn't know what we were going to do. Well, you know, I played basketball.

Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday up at the YMCA and there's a guy who I've been playing basketball with for about 15 years His name is Jim heater real good guy. ⁓ So we've been playing together for 15 years I'd say up there at the Y and I told him we started a business and he was a business owner So I was just asking him some pointers and he was like, well, you know, I do commercial kitchen equipment. He's like

wait, you just started a business? I said, yeah, we started a veteran-owned business. He said, man, I've been trying to get into the federal government realm with what I do, so maybe we should try and go after some contracts together. So we started, you know, investigating some things and looking into it. And, you know, we said, OK, everything looks good, looks up and up. Let's go ahead and give it a shot. So we gave it a shot. We didn't win for a while because we had to figure out we had to nab it.

But the thing about it was where he was in the ownership of his business, it allowed us some leeway to be able to do some things to possibly win a contract or two through the government. Well, we won a contract and we always, you know, we always try to, we always like to say that we paid the government for our first contract because we didn't understand, you know, that this piece of equipment was going on a

ship which you needed a barge to take the equipment out there to be able to install it on. So we didn't know all of this stuff because you know we didn't you know read well not that we didn't read we just didn't understand like a lot of the footnotes that came along with it. So you know we knew he was a good partner when we

came back to him and told him, you know what, we screwed up, just end the third, we gotta pay the government this much, but no worries, we'll keep going. And his first response was, well, I'll pay half. Right then is when we knew that we had a good partner if we were gonna try this. So we started selling a few things, becoming...

you know, making some headway in the, in our industry. And ⁓ one of the large buying groups came, well, the largest supplier to the federal government came and wanted to use us ⁓ to help them get more government contracts and split it with us. But what we found out was we weren't getting our fair share.

they were making the lion's share. ⁓ So of course we did it because we didn't have no, any, I mean, they could give us better pricing than my friend could, and they wish they did. They can put us in more markets in the federal government in which they helped us get to ⁓ that my buddy couldn't because he, of course he didn't, again, he didn't understand the government realm. So we were in government, he was commercial. We were his first dabble in federal government.

because of me starting the company. you know, again, we get with this other buying group and, you know, the pricing's were great and we're winning some contracts, but started noticing the money that we're making them, what our payout should be isn't what we're getting. So they, you know, tried to get us to do some illegal things and we were like, well,

I'd rather not go along those lines and just stay on the up and the, you know, and of course, of course they continued to tell us that, you know, nobody will work with us and, you know, this, that, and the third, and you'll be out of business in no time by not messing with us. So, you know, again, winning regardless, we were like, okay, well, we'll find out. So there was a small company, there was a, in Pennsylvania that was owned by a guy and he was started by his family.

came and gave us a shot. And we did tremendous with them. It was called Follett. They started out with their ice machines, putting them in VAs, putting them in military bases, and became one of the hottest selling items. I mean, put ice, mean, the NIH right now is ran through Follett ice machines that we sell them and that we maintain for them.

ice and water dispensers and stuff, you know, and that was our first big break. And other manufacturers started coming along, you know, because of the work that we were doing, such as like, not really the manufacturers, but the heads of the buying groups that were selling these manufacturers things started coming along. ⁓ Before you know it, we started getting a lot of the bigger names like, you know, ⁓

like ⁓ I'm drawing a blank right now. Rationale who sell ⁓ combi ovens, which is like one of the most incredible things I've ever seen in my life. You know, I mean, and then there's Advanced Tafco, which makes some of the greatest tables and these that you, you know, that you see, ⁓ we started getting TSA contracts to build tables for them.

⁓ We started getting contracts to provide kitchen equipment for VAs all over the country, all over the world. And then we met up with this guy who, because my wife always thought that we should have a, that there should be a temperature monitoring refrigerator or freezer thing that monitors your...

keeps the temperature for your vaccines and your bloods all of that stuff. There wasn't anything in the market. So we talked to a company and they manufactured that. we became, you know, in cahoots with them on that. you know, all of a sudden we started pushing those ⁓ and expanding our footprint in the versatility and the things that we could do business wise with the federal government to the point where ⁓ the last administration

We did the Secretary of the Navy's kitchen at the Pentagon. We totally reconstructed it to our every piece of kitchen equipment out and restocked it and re-renovated it. Because we do everything. We do everything from chairs to tables to ⁓ big commercial stoves, ⁓ champion dishwashers, champion dishwashers. ⁓

You know, we do, you know, again, rationale, combi ovens. do, you know, I mean, we do so much with food service equipment that I didn't even know existed unless I was in this field myself. ⁓ And it's always fascinating because people always ask, how do we get started? Because most companies got started because their parents started it or a grandparents started and passed it down, passed it down. We were a

start in our son's bedroom company, know, start and, you know, they were like, how are you able to get the relationships that, you know, took other companies, you know, years and decades to get? ⁓ And it was because we had a niche that quite a few of them didn't have and that was that service disabled veteran owned small business in the federal government world. ⁓

⁓ stamp behind us. Where there's the order in which the federal government buys goods. So we were way up there and all we needed was good pricing. And if you got good pricing, then it opens up a lot of doors on winning contracts. And fortunately for us, we had good partners that allowed us to

have good pricing to where if the pricing wasn't good, where good, they wanted to get with the government market and get them in their market so much that they would even work with us on pricing. Like, OK, we'll eat a couple of more points just so we can get in the door type of deal. ⁓ My entrepreneurship started with a conversation in coaching basketball, and it ballooned to

being in boardrooms and meeting people who are the heads of their parents' company or their grandparents' company, great-great-grandparents' company. mean, ⁓ one of our, I think it was Advanced Tafco, one of my dreams, I'm a New York Knicks fan, was to go to the Garden to a Knicks game. Well, sure.

Just this year, my son and I went to the New York Nick Bostons Southest basketball game right there in the garden. They were like, hey, I got two tickets. Your dad's a Knicks fan. Come on in. I mean, my wife had to be in DC anyway. So I caught the train to New York and went to a Knicks game all because of relationships that, you know, we built. He built this one. But nonetheless, it's ⁓ a relationship that was built through doing what we do.

My entrepreneurship journey was a long one because we've been in business for 16 years. There's a lot of no's. You get way more no's than you get yes. The thing about it is you can't quit. There was times when we thought about shutting the doors. There was times when we thought we couldn't handle capacity. Because things you've got to remember is you have other people that work for you, so they're relying on you. They have bills.

you know, that they have to take care of. It's not just all about you once you start hiring people. you know, you don't want to be one of those stories of your people looking for a job because you went under. So you do everything that you can to make sure that that doesn't happen. Where we opened up another division, which is called, you know, which is our services, which is, you know, where we provide people to the federal government like. ⁓

anesthesiologist, we provide cancer, the radiology techs, ⁓ we provide people who work on barges, maintenance, I mean, we provide equipment, other types of equipment to the National Guard up in Alpena. So what you try to learn to do is diversify so that you're able to maintain and keep your people employed.

I learned a lot being an entrepreneur and I'm learning every day still. You have to learn your people. You have to know, like if somebody's having a bad day, you have to be able to know that they're having a bad day. You have to be able to know their personality well enough to know that, hey, I can't get on this person the way that I need to right now.

because they might be one step from being over the edge for that day. So, you you want to keep them there. So you might let it, you know, you might have to manage it a different way. ⁓ When I go in and I talk to these people, nine times out of the 10, you know, myself, I'm usually the only black person in the room. So I have to ⁓ curtail how I come across. don't have, I, you know, cause the first thing that we're told is we're

you know, being voice actors, we're intimidating. So I have to come across as not intimidating because I'm, you know, this big bald black guy. Of course, you know, I'm what you see on TV. That's the villain. And, you know, I have to come in and change that whole perception. And the funny thing about it is when, you know, we walk into these boardrooms with these thoughts of what

people of how people might perceive you and then you talk to someone when it is nothing like they are like some of the greatest people in the world you meet yeah i mean you meet some guys who you're probably the first black person that they've talked to and they're just so happy to talk to you

You know, and you can just feel it when you have the conversation with them that like it is like anything that asks you is not offensive because of the conversation that you're having and how much feeling that they've given you with the conversation you have and it's funny because you meet, you know, all types of people, women, men, you know, I mean, you get invited to all kinds of places like, you know, my son, one of our ⁓ manatee walk.

You know, one of our suppliers just invited him up to where they're having the Ryder Cup in 2029 up in Minnesota. I mean, this motherfucker was just up there. was a whole, they rented that whole golf course out and what, but 24 people here. You know, it's a walking course only they let them have golf golf carts. I mean, these are the types of relationships that you make when you become an entrepreneur, work at your craft and

you know, not take no for an answer and decide you're gonna win regardless, you know. Again, that buying group told us that, you know, nobody was gonna work with us, nobody was gonna mess with us, you know. You'll probably be out of business in two, three years and I mean, here we are. This was what, 13 years ago? 13, 14 years ago, here we are. 13, 14 years later.

still going and made a lot more impressive relationships to where we are in a new buying group now. And I mean, this new buying group that we're in is called CFA. It is phenomenal. mean, the people in it are, you know, are great. We went to our very first conference in San Diego. And I tell you, I'm not a conference type of guy because I don't.

You know, I don't like to have to be in a suit and tie all the time. That's why I couldn't wait to hire my son so he go do that shit. I like being in my basketball shirts and my sweatshirt and my t-shirts like I am now, you know. ⁓ He doesn't mind that. And the thing about him is he can talk to anybody young or old to where you see it when we go to these conferences and we see the way that they interact with him.

Even the old people, it's like he gave them a shot of B12. That's the energy that he brings to them. And it's amazing as a father to watch. It's amazing as his boss to watch and to watch how accepted he is and how accepted we are as a company. Like I said, we went to this conference. I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know how.

people would treat us because we are the only black dealer in the buying group. And man, it's great. mean, they're great people. They're genuine people. The industry is trying to get younger. We bring a lot of youth to the industry with our people that we're bringing in. And they love it. We bring in diversity into the buying group, which

Most of the buying groups don't have, and we're bringing that element to them in which they're very accepting of it. They're not shying away from it. They're not trying to, you know, with the political climate and things of that sort, they're not trying to deny it. ⁓ It's been phenomenal for us as an entrepreneur to watch our company grow from what it was to what it is.

Now, mean, you know, to being a $20 million a year company and sometimes more, I mean, those are numbers I never fathomed. I never thought of starting a business to command that type of money. I was just trying to feed my family. Wasn't trying to feed other people's families. Now I'm able to do that through the industry that we're in. ⁓

I'm going to have a few of my industry people who

Like one of I'm gonna have a few people in my industry come on the podcast and talk about their stories because some of them are interesting. Like one of a great, great guy of ours who's a good friend of ours who also owns a dealership up in Grand Rapids. mean, his story. Motherfucker worked for a company, was going bankrupt, went in and said, hey, I'll give you 50 grand for it right now. You either get 50 grand or you get nothing.

took it, hand wrote all of the manufacturers, hey, give me a year and I'll turn this shit around. And they said, we'll give you a year to turn it around. If not, we getting rid of it. After the year, they asked him to take on other sections in other areas because he did so well. I mean, just to hear stories like that of, mean, and you know, and the notice guy, I mean, he's a real good guy. He's a...

hard worker, he's definitely a hustler and an older gentleman. he, again, when he's around Alex, it's like he has a shot of B12 about him, because he has just this energy about him. But he loves what he's doing, and his story alone is a great one, because I want him to tell it to you. But it's one of perseverance, and it's one of struggle to get to enjoy the spoils.

You that's what you hope being a successful entrepreneur brings you, an opportunity to enjoy your spoils. ⁓ As a black entrepreneur who's successful, I enjoy my spoils, but at the same time, you know, one thing that I always tell my wife is, I go to sleep worried a lot sometimes because I know at the drop of a dime, it can be taken from me because that's how our culture lives.

We try not to get too happy because we've seen what happens when we get too happy. And it has nothing to do with us. It's just something that's been ingrained in us because we've seen that happen and play out so many times that you believe that your success at one point in your life is going to be a detriment. So you live that way and that that and you shouldn't you shouldn't have to and you shouldn't because I mean, you know,

to the victory comes the reward and the spoils of the reward. So you have to understand that it can happen, but the chances of it happening are like a figment of your imagination. As long as you do the things that you're supposed to do to be successful, to continue your success.

by sending the elevator back down, by boosting others, by teaching others in your industry how they can become better in the industry. One thing that we always say here at Aldevra is we want our employees to know our industry or what they're working on in our industry so well they can go get a job anywhere. And not just a job. I'm talking about high paying. Six figures.

Anybody who leave who leaves here we want them to be able to at least command six figures when they go somewhere else and the funny thing about it is a few of them can but they just don't want to leave us because of an environment that we created and that's what being an entrepreneur allowed us to do was create the own environment that we to create our own environment ⁓ I Love for my employees to be able to come in on in a sweatshirt and yoga pants because that's how they feel in that day They can come in anywhere because we're not we're not a customer

come into your office based company. When our vendors and our suppliers and our manufacturers and our buying group come, everybody know, be dressed. You don't have to be dressed to deny. Just have on some jeans and an out-of-hours shirt and that's fine. But you know, when it's not, I don't care if you got your big blanket covering your body while you're sitting in front of your desk with your pajamas on and you're here, this is what you need to have on to be productive.

important to us being able to create an environment understanding that There's a youth movement in the world and with it being a youth movement there Being comfortable plays a big deal in it because you have to understand with it being a youth movement the one thing that these kids are not afraid to do that we were is they will fucking leave if they don't like it their motherfuckers will be out just like that whereas to we

Gotta pay this bill. I can't leave blah blah blah blah blah blah stay we will stay at a job that we hate them motherfuckers will not They will if they don't like if they hate it. Hey, you know what? They've been on the month. They've been on the internet looking for something else for a month You know or they've already had a couple of interviews on hold That that that provides a little bit something more of what they want. It might not be everything but it's more than what you are so

and creating our environment that we wanted to be an environment where, you know, the employees have a say so in things. I don't just, hey, I'm the boss. I run it. That's how it's going to be. No, that's not how we do things over here. I take into consideration everyone's opinion because I'm not the fucking know all be all. They might have a better suggestion than the one.

Excuse me. Then the one I have in my head. So why wouldn't I listen? And even if it's not, I still want to give them the courtesy to express their position so that they don't feel like they're around a dictator, so they don't feel like they can't come to me and tell you can't have an open door policy if it's really not open. And that's how I have. have an open door policy. They can come talk to me about anything and they all know it.

You know, and that was an environment we wanted to create in also in establishing our business. ⁓ We also wanted to make it to where companies and vendors and suppliers want to work with us. And we have done that. You know, our son goes out.

and creates those relationships. Adam, know, one of our other employee gets on the computer or the phone and he creates those relationships. He'll get on the plane. We have to send them somewhere and create those relationships. have an employee in Minnesota, his name is Jerry. He also goes out and creates those relationships. So a lot of what we do entrepreneurial wise in the food service industry is based on

relationships in order to get better pricing in order to serve the government more efficiently and better and be able to take care of everyone that works for us. know, that's the thing. Entrepreneurship is a, it can be lonely because you might not have the time to go and hang out with people that you want to because you have paperwork that has to be done or you have ⁓ a bid due.

You know, you have other people turning in work to you that you may have to look over. It's not easy. You have to take losses. do you take those losses? mean, you know, we've taken big losses, but we've also had big wins. You you have to look at it as I lose more than I win, but I need my wins to be bigger than my losses.

That's how you have to look at being an entrepreneur. You have to look at, even though the wins aren't as plentiful, they are more, you get more out of it. You've gotten more out of the wins than you do the losses. To be a successful entrepreneurship is being able to take the bad along with the

You know, being able to take the good along with the bad. Because, you know, bad times are definitely gonna come and I've seen a lot of people quit and fold and just give up and switch gears. Don't give up, you know. Switch gears. Switch to something else because the thing about having an entrepreneurial spirit is

You know how to make money. Maybe what you're doing at that point in time is not your moneymaker, but you have the mind to make a business. You just have to figure out what it is your moneymaker. And when you quit doing it, then you're killing your spirit. You're killing your opportunity. yeah, granted, everyone won't be put in the same situation.

that I was in, was luckily to play basketball with a guy who was able to help get me started. But all he was was the key to the car. I still had to turn the ignition. I still had to put that bad boy in drive. I still had to put it on the radio station that I wanted it on. And I'm still the one driving this long journey. Of course he gave me the key, but the key is only part of it. I still had to pay the bill.

You know, I still had to pay the insurance. And that came from us, myself, my wife, my son, and a lot of my employees now that I have here. You know, when COVID hit, a lot of ⁓ people shut down. A lot of people went out of businesses. The government stopped buying food service equipment. ⁓

because nobody was able to go to the hospitals and things like that. So we had to pivot. So what did we do? That was when we picked up on our other side, our services. We started providing people at VAs to do screening for people coming in, screen them for colds, check their temperatures. Now we provided for VAs and all throughout Ohio, ⁓ we sold masks.

You know, we sold temperature monitoring. know, being an entrepreneur doesn't mean once you make it in that one field, you stop because you never know when that one field might get hit. didn't know. We didn't expect COVID. But what we had to do was figure out how to keep people employed. What we had to do is figure out how to make it so that they didn't feel the hit. We would feel the hit, but they wouldn't. And we were able to do that. We were able to.

survive COVID. even some may even say we thrived in COVID. ⁓ You know, if you can say that, you know, we did so. Being an entrepreneur, I guess in closing, I would have to say being an entrepreneur means winning regardless, never giving up, never quitting understanding that no is more common than yes. You're going to get eight no's to

both to two yeses, but again, just make sure that most of the time those two yeses outweigh those eight no's. And you just have to remember that 20 % of the time I'm a win. And that's a good number as an entrepreneur because it gives you a place to aim for. You can go up. You never want to be up and then go down.

Because once you get up, you have no place else to go. But once you start from down, it's always better to climb. Because the way up feels a whole lot better than it does if you're already up on the way down. So you just have to remember that as an entrepreneur, keep that spirit, keep that mind, keep that thought, understanding that you may lose, but you also may win. So I would like to thank you for tuning in.

to another episode of Coach Rodo's podcast, Winning Regardless, and you can catch us wherever you listen to your podcast. Have a good day.