Sponsorship And Show Setup

Announcer 0:00

The following programming is sponsored by Marc J. Bernstein. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of this station, its management, or Beasly Media Group. Entrepreneur, founder, author, and financial advisor Marc Bernstein helps high-performing business owners turn their visions into reality. Through his innovative work and the forward-focused forum, Marc connects entrepreneurs to resources that fuel their success. Founders Forum is a radio show and podcast where entrepreneurs share their journeys, revealing the lessons they've learned and the stories behind their success. Join Marcet is guests for a mix of inspiration, valuable insights, and a little fun. Now, let's dive in.

Marc Bernstein 0:40

Good morning, America. How are you? The um, you know, it's a it's a really great morning. It's a day after elections. A lot of people are wondering the impact of these elections. We're not going to get into all that. Um by the way, I was I was digging the music when we were just listening to. That's my music, by the way, Matt. Uh Mitch, that's my uh my band. It's called Fretz Bridges and Skins. For anyone that wants to listen more, the name of that song is called Should I? I don't plug the music usually, but I was I was listening particularly the bass player. I love the bass parts on that. It's me. But anyway, so uh we're we this is our second show that we're recording today, and sometimes we continue the topic of the day from the last show. And I think this is a good one because it's something I've been thinking about for a few weeks, and I have a group that we work with personal development type stuff, and we've been talking about this. Is what are the things that influence you that you may not realize influence you um and you know, that could put influence you. I I don't always believe in positive and negative, like that things are black and white like that, but it can influence you in a good way or a not so good way. Um and that's just something that um I've been I've been thinking about. So I'm gonna start because I know Vera Vera Hempel's with me again today, by the way. And um I know she's thinking about it. So I'm gonna ask you first, Mitch. We have Mitch and I'm gonna formally introduce Mitch in a minute. What what how does that question occur to you?

Mitch Gyger 2:12

Yeah, so I think it's it's really interesting, right? So the things that I probably purposely try to influence me, mostly reading, mostly audiobooks, uh we'll call it purposeful content that I like to consume. Uh things that influence me that I don't have any control over, uh traffic, the lines in grocery stores, um, and uh social media influencers recording themselves in the gym.

Vera Hempel 2:36

Aggressive drivers.

Mitch Gyger 2:38

Yes.

Marc Bernstein 2:38

Love the way you put that. Um how about you, Vera? Any new insights on this?

Vera Hempel 2:44

Well, I like that, you know, putting it that way. I think there's a lot of things that we have control over that I think I also like to think that influence me. Um, but I think mostly what influences me is my relationship with my child, with my daughter. Um in a good way, because she's a mirror and she shows me if I, you know, if I'm doing something that she doesn't agree with, or if we if we get into, you know, if we get into an argument, um I'm I'm influenced by that. So I think that's that's probably the the most important one.

Mitch’s Path From Lancaster

Marc Bernstein 3:22

It's a question I'm throwing out to all our listeners, you know, think about what influences you're doing in the course of the day that you may or may not realize. And you know, and and I love um Mitch's approach to it in particular, which is you know, choose your own influences and plant those. And and and I'm I've spent most of my adult career living it that way. Lately been really busy and it's been a lot less I've been a little bit more just responsive to what's around me, and I'm realizing I gotta get control of that again. So thanks for that reminder. So um let's officially introduce Mitch Gyger, who's president and co-founder of OPS Security Group. Mitch has over 20 years of experience in the security industry and serves as president, as I mentioned, of OPS. Since found co-founding the company, he has co he has played a central role in shaping its growth and evolution. In his role as president, Mitch is responsible for setting the company's strategy, overseeing finance, sales, human resources, and service delivery. His leadership ensures OPS continues to deliver high quality service while building a culture rooted in integrity and high performance. Welcome, Mitch.

Mitch Gyger 4:38

Thanks, Marc. It was very kind of you, but thanks for having me today.

Marc Bernstein 4:42

Well, uh, hey, uh, this is what I'm reading, you know. It is what it is. But I I trust that that's all true. I know enough about you to know that those things are true. Um so first of all, let's talk about your humble roots in Lancaster County. That's been a theme. We have a lot of Lancaster shows coming up. We were talking about that earlier, and our last guest was actually from central Pennsylvania and has a location in Lancaster. Um, what happened from there? I guess it really starts in college and then uh grad school.

Mitch Gyger 5:11

Yeah. Uh born and raised uh Lancaster County. I actually uh grew up in the Mennonite Church. Uh so one degree called left of the Amish. Maybe two degrees were a little bit more reformative in terms of the Mennonite church I went to, but uh left Lancaster County, uh moved to Philadelphia for school, um did uh went to Drexel, um, and then I ended up sticking around. Uh and have kind of lived in and around here ever since, uh lived in the city for about 20 years and then recently moved out to Wayne.

Marc Bernstein 5:44

And let's talk about professionally how that's evolved. So I think your um I guess your curiosity about security really started kind of in grad school where you studied Homeland Security?

Mitch Gyger 5:56

Yeah, so I think uh it was more of so I I graduated college in uh 09, and so everyone that probably was working or trying to work in 09, it was definitely a rough time. Uh it was something that, you know, being in college in 08, I feel like when you're in college and there's larger economic issues, you almost feel insulated from them because you're just in school, you show up, you can just do it whatever you want, you can live off $100 a week and it's and it's fine. Um but I graduated college in uh May of 09, and then I couldn't get a job. I think I'd tried for like six months to get a job. Um so I ended up getting a job as a security guard at an apartment building uh just because I was too proud to move home and I've literally backed into how much I needed to make just to pay my bills and have a little bit of spending money.

Marc Bernstein 6:42

It was either that or enterprise car rentals, probably.

Mitch Gyger 6:45

No, it was either security, which I felt like I knew. I you know, I worked in some nightclubs when I was in college in the city, and I felt like I knew something there. Um but yeah, it was either that or enterprise where they give you the tools to be your own boss.

Marc Bernstein 6:57

Right. Right. I've heard that one before. I actually had someone on the show that went that ran the whole um Northeast um section of enterprise, a very big job, and had a lot of growth and a lot of financial success.

Mitch Gyger 7:11

People like to knock on their training program from a manager perspective, it's pretty good considering what else is out there in a lot of other companies.

Marc Bernstein 7:17

I'd love to find even our business people that had done that first because they're they're it'd be fun to talk to. Good basic training, no question about it. Um so you went from security guard to uh after applying for hundreds of jobs and you got a job in security, what happened next?

Mitch Gyger 7:33

Uh I was still applying for jobs, and at some point I probably gave up and just said I'll have to give this like a year for the economy to improve. I think every job that I applied for, you know, one out of fifty actually gave me an interview, and then I never got those jobs because everyone with five or ten years of experience was also out of a job and taking entry-level positions at that point. So I figured time was my best friend, so just waited out. And I think I maybe waited too long, but I just stopped applying and then I started liking the work I was doing. I got promoted a few times, um, went went to grad school uh just uh you know further my own study in in that general area. So I went to St. Joe's, uh got my master's in uh homeland security. Um, you know, there's not very many ways that I I think at the time a 24-year-old gained credibility other than uh through hard knocks, which takes time and years and and some wisdom earned. So it was my fastest track to gaining credibility.

Marc Bernstein 8:30

So Right. And then what did you do with that?

Starting OPS With No Playbook

Mitch Gyger 8:33

Uh so um about a semester after I started that program, I left the company I was working with. Uh, and then I started uh OPS uh with my business partner. So it was around January of 13. So was that almost four fourteen years ago? Yeah.

Marc Bernstein 8:50

So I'll fast forward, I know you have like over six hundred employees today, and it's a pretty large organization. How did you start out with your partner and what did it look like in the beginning?

Mitch Gyger 9:00

Um so I was fortunate enough to actually know my business partner prior to uh us like even having a conversation around you know, starting a business. He he worked um as a consultant with the company that I was working for, uh, and then was probably eight, maybe five or eight blocks away from me uh in terms of where we lived in the city. So we always stayed in touch. Uh so it was we kind of sat down one day and said, Hey, what it would look like if you know we gave this a shot. I was 25. He was coming off the heels of uh retiring from being a police officer, so was an adjunct professor, and I said, Hey, you know, what do you have to lose? You're like mid-40s, what does like, you know, round two look like for you? Um and so we we ended up giving it a shot. Um and I think in the beginning it was uh, you know, he's never run a business before, I never ran a business before. I worked in a security business, but that doesn't mean I know anything about business, um, which my business ended up showing me the hard way more times than I I probably liked it to, but um I learned a lot through getting things wrong.

Marc Bernstein 10:04

Um so it wasn't wasn't a smooth ride then with the No, oh no.

Mitch Gyger 10:09

It was it was nothing close to smooth.

Marc Bernstein 10:11

I think you know I joke, we're in an entrepreneur's group together, and the joke is it's never a smooth, you know, the the reality is it's never a smooth ride. It's very rare.

Mitch Gyger 10:18

Trevor Burrus, Jr. Oh, it's it's never easy. I think, especially in the beginning, right? You don't, you know, you everyone's like, oh, you have to establish roles and responsibilities, but it was kind of like I feel like they just get worked out as you do the work, right? In the beginning, you don't have the resources to hire people, you don't have the resources to like pay appropriate vendors or other outsource companies. So you just um you do whatever you can to get as much done as you can. Doesn't matter what it is, where it is, or who's technically responsible for it.

Vera Hempel 10:49

Yeah, that's interesting because you you spoke about you know hiring people and and building building up that traction as you grow and you 650 employees, that's a very impressive number. Um I'd be interested in hearing how are you setting yourself apart from your competitors? Um I'm assuming it's a competitive space, but what makes you different? And we talked about this earlier a little bit, and I think it has to do with how you hire and and how your um culture is built from within the company.

Mitch Gyger 11:20

Yeah, so uh a lot of what we do emanates from an employee focus. Um, and so that really uh gets into everything that we think about from processes to hiring to how we treat people to the career tracks that we create, right? Even you know, our mission statement and our values, right? It all emanates from you know putting ourselves in the shoes of the frontline employee doing the work and and trying to figure out how can instead of this being a job that has no real value, meaning, or purpose, how can it? Um and so even when how we price deals, right? It's not what is the least amount that we think that we can barely you know accomplish the expectations, but it's what do we think the people that are doing this work every day need to get paid so that they can feel valued in the work that they're doing. Um that then informs how we how we price deals, which you know, fortunately or unfortunately, uh it eliminates probably 50% of the potential customers in the marketplace for us. But it means we have very long-standing customer relationships.

Vera Hempel 12:19

Aaron Powell's probably also how the people working for you with you are in their relationship with the customer and how that translates into the customer relationship.

Three Security Lines Of Business

Mitch Gyger 12:31

Absolutely correct. So you know, you think about the people doing the work, them taking pride in the work they're doing is completely reflective then in the actual or perceived value of the customer in that same service, right? And that's whether our service is an employee-facing service or it's a customer-facing service, or it's a vendor-facing service. Um, we should be adding value to what our customer is trying to accomplish.

Marc Bernstein 12:54

Aaron Ross Powell Mitch, before we go to break, there's three um sectors that I understand that you focus in. Why don't you briefly go through those three sectors and what they look like for your company?

Mitch Gyger 13:04

Yeah, so we have uh three main business units, uh commercial services, which is rate basically commercial real estate, relatively agnostic, everything from high-rise multifamily to mixed use, um petrochemical, oil and gas, manufacturing, distribution, you know, pretty much anything privately owned. Um and then we have our personal protection work, which is contracted either through directly through individuals or through larger companies for their executive teams. Uh and the last is our government contracting services, which is like our commercial services, but it's all government facilities. There's also critical infrastructure in there, um, and almost all of that work is is also armed.

Sponsor Break

Marc Bernstein 13:43

Uh that's great. Well, why don't we take a quick break and we'll be right back on Founders Forum?

Announcer 13:47

The Satell Institute is the leading CEO member organization dedicated to Corporate Social Responsibility. Under the vision and leadership of its founder—entrepreneur and philanthropist Ed Satell—the Institute brings together CEOs in Philadelphia and other cities to support the Nonprofit organizations that do heroic work in our communities. The Satell Institute believes that “community is every leader’s business.” SI’s members-only meetings and private CEO conferences give members the opportunity to hear from world-class thought leaders on crucial topics like AI, education, corporate philanthropy and more. In addition, CEO members get the opportunity to share ideas and experiences with their peers— like-minded CEOs who believe in the importance of giving back to the community and who understand the benefits companies get from embracing Corporate Social Responsibility. The Satell Institute charges no dues or fees — in order to join, member companies simply make a long-term commitment to the nonprofit of their choice. To find out more about membership, —and why so many leading companies are now part of the Satell Institute — visit the organization’s web site at satellinstitute.org. As Ed Satell says, “Think WE, not just me.”

Managing Units And Planning Ahead

Marc Bernstein 15:06

We're back on Founders Forum with our guest today, Mitch Gyger. Mitch, you were talking about your three business units. Um do they operate differently from each other? Does it require different uh material from a management point of view? Um and how, you know, how do they how do they intersect and how are they different?

Mitch Gyger 15:24

Uh so there's there's definitely a good amount of overlap, but there are some probably key differences, right? So from a you know, back office shared services perspective, right? It still utilizes most of the same processes and people around HR, accounting, finance, uh, where the it does change is in the oversight and management of the staff, um, as well as the training of the staff, uh the requirements to be eligible for some of that work, and then also how we think about um the marketing and and selling of that business is also completely different.

Marc Bernstein 15:56

Uh I want to jump ahead, something we usually ask at the end of the program, but your future vision, um, because that will tell us a little bit about what kind of challenges you might have. If we were, you know, this is November of 2025, if we're talking again November 2028, and I asked you at that point, hey, how, Mitch, how the last three years been, you know, what would have to happen in order for you to determine that that was a successful period, three-year period in your journey?

Mitch Gyger 16:25

Uh yeah, so I I think about that and and what does success look like in three years, uh, in three different buckets, right? I think first and foremost is that uh my faith and relationship uh with God Jesus Christ is as strong, if not stronger, than it is today. Uh the second is that my personal life, which is my marriage, uh hopefully we have kids at that point, as well as the relationships with our larger extended family, is on uh a firm foundation and continuing to do really well. Um, and the last is uh from a business perspective, our thesis around commercial sales has been successful and we've been able to achieve the things that we wanted to in our government services space that we set out to like seven years ago. It's been a long road.

Marc Bernstein 17:12

I'll ask you, it's a business show, but feel free to answer this on the personal level as well. In regard to making that vision come true, what challenges do you see? And what strengths do you think you've built over the years to be able to meet those challenges? Is it personally? In any area that you want to address, wherever you wherever you like to address.

Mitch Gyger 17:34

Yeah, so I think uh and I'll just, you know, kind of go in the same order, right? So time allocation in terms of my relationship with God and and my own my own walk, right? It's not something you can do haphazardly.

Marc Bernstein 17:44

Right.

Mitch Gyger 17:44

Um you can't just wake up and hope it's okay. Um it's purposeful dedication of time aimed in a direction um that that is where I want it to be. Uh I would say the same is true in my personal life. Um, which you know, it's I don't want to call it a balance, um, but finding a way in which to exist in a space where my relationships are in all really good places with my wife, um, you know, hopefully children uh in three years from now, um, and then my parents, my wife's parents, my in-laws, and our extended families.

Marc Bernstein 18:17

Um that might have to do with your way of being. Um because right, it's hard to al allocate it by a time based point of view. Yeah, right.

Mitch Gyger 18:26

It's it's seasonal, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think the the season dictates the need, and you have to sometimes be responsive to the season that you're in and accept the season that you're in.

Marc Bernstein 18:34

And how about on the business side from your um from your the vision that you have for the next three years?

Mitch Gyger 18:40

Yeah, I think that is uh just following the plan and process that that we've laid out, you know, the the playbook that we've created, um, right. I think a lot of the uh challenges that we've encountered, especially specifically on the government services side, are purely just timing, right? So a lot of that is just staying the course. Um right. We can't help administration changes, we can't help uh procurement sentiment, we can't help the government shutdowns. Um, but it doesn't mean what we're doing won't work. It's just it's not in the time that we would like it to work. So some of that is um just trust in that what we're doing will inevitably get us to where we want to be.

Marc Bernstein 19:16

So common thread through all those might be planning, you know, taking time to plan, whether it's time to study, to pray, to work on relationships, to execute your business plans. So uh are you you're a planner, I take it.

Mitch Gyger 19:32

Oh, 100%. Uh I probably get in trouble for planning too many things. Right. Uh right. Like why is this so rigid? Why is this so planned out?

Marc Bernstein 19:40

I hear that at home a bit myself sometimes. Yeah.

Mitch Gyger 19:43

I mean uh the the the default or the opposite of too much planning just feels like pure chaos to me, and I don't know how anyone exists in that kind of space. I can I can relate to that.

Vera Hempel 19:54

I'm gonna be quiet here.

Marc Bernstein 19:57

Well I between you want to say something.

Seasons, Pivots, And Saying No

Vera Hempel 19:59

Well, between I think between my business partner and myself, I am would probably be perceived the planner, um, but not as not as rigid. I think if you were to look into my brain, that would probably cause some some uh I'll look at a little bit of chaos. Yes, some chaos. Um but but I would be, you know, I was I was just reflecting on on one thing that you said is that you it's it's seasonal, right? And and how how are we living through the seasons personally and also in business and how do we how do we adapt um in terms of pivoting away from a certain from a certain angle that we want to take, you know, if you if you if you're pursuing the government contracting and that might not be the right season, how do you pivot into maybe other revenue streams or other endeavors within your business that might be more profitable in the in the short term and still focus on the long-term goal?

Mitch Gyger 20:58

Yeah, I mean, I I think a great example, and I literally just lived through one of these seasons um is I went through this period of of ramping up my sales team, which involves a lot of my time and commitment, through we have a very, you know, um uh processed or process-driven onboarding plan uh and training program that takes three and a half to four weeks for anyone on the sales team before they can actually start doing the work. So ramping up that team plus hired a new HR director, uh, which meant that every hour of every day that already wasn't accounted for was for onboarding and training new people. Um and so a lot of that was just accepting of the fact that I was gonna have to say no to a lot of things outside of work, whether they were social events or or time with friends or you know, extra time with family, or even you know, having the conversation with Jenna around hey, the next, you know, three months are gonna be a little rough on my schedule. Um, and so I, you know, I ask for a modicum of grace in terms of like when I can get home versus how we spend time together versus how she might want us to spend time together.

Marc Bernstein 22:02

Yeah. Well it's it's it's the dance that we all have to do, right? And sometimes the dance includes a quick pivot or a you know a short term pivot or a or a longer term pivot, right? Um did you have a follow-up to that? Are you good?

Vera Hempel 22:17

No, I'm not sure. Okay, good. Okay.

Marc Bernstein 22:20

Okay. Um so I know you're a voracious reader. Um what kind of books do you like to read? And what are your favorite books?

Mitch Gyger 22:28

Uh so uh I use reading as an outlet to gain we'll call it knowledge and some wisdom. Um so uh like I think this year I went on a whole tear because I rebuilt our commercial sales team and process. I probably tore through like 20 to 25 sales books. Um and so that's been an interesting journey. Uh I'm not a sales manager, I've never been a sales rep on an official sales team. So um, but I knew that with you know time and enough effort pointed in the right direction that I could get there and and and we've gotten there. So that's been an enjoyable one this year.

Marc Bernstein 23:02

Um any favorite, any favorite sales books?

Mitch Gyger 23:05

Um the one book uh that uh is really good. It's a it's a great tactical teardown of like how to I think um uh a lot of sales books do a really good job of being super amorphous at what you actually should be doing. And they just generalize and speak in like vague like generalities around how you do this work. Um and there's there's this book uh like consulting speak.

Marc Bernstein 23:36

No, no offense to getting friends out there.

Mitch Gyger 23:39

You know, I can't tell you how many sales books I read where I came away with like three actual takeaways that I could implement. And I'm like 300 pages for three takeaways, that's all you had to say. Um and the uh one book, and I'm gonna look it up here, uh, but it's probably the best tactical teardown of work, and it's called Cold Calling Sucks, and that's why it works. Um, and it was the best. Like, if you want to know like what you actually should say when you pick up the phone and not just, oh, like think about making calls, like but and then actually get hear examples of people saying it and watching the the videos. It's great for new reps, it's great for SDRs, but it's just called Cole Calling Sucks. Probably best sales book on the market today.

Marc Bernstein 24:24

And how about non-sales books?

Mitch Gyger 24:27

Oh, non-sales books. They go all over the place. Um so um are you reading one right now? I am. I'm I'm reading uh Jordan Peterson's um uh We Who Wrestle With God. Uh um and so that has been a very dense book to get to the book.

Marc Bernstein 24:43

He deals with heavy duty stuff, and he's heavy duty to read.

Mitch Gyger 24:46

Very so it's about 500 pages, and I've I I more than 10 pages a day is is a little rough, so I try to stick to ten pages maybe three or four times a week.

Marc Bernstein 24:56

Yep. Um do you have any all-time favorite books?

Mitch Gyger 25:00

Oh, all-time favorite books. Um it's a book, uh The Hard Thing About Hard Things, um which is a really great read. Uh basically everything that they should teach in business school, but don't. Right. Um and so I think like one of the chapters, like I could just to give you an example, um, one of the chapters is uh how do you fire your friend? Right.

Marc Bernstein 25:29

Yeah, they don't teach that in business school. They don't. Very uh we uh I've had a couple conversations about that with different entrepreneurs over the last couple days, and it is one of the hardest things you'd ever have to do.

Mitch Gyger 25:41

Oh, it is not fun. But I mean he does he takes four pages and he lays out exactly how you fire your friend with like grace.

Humility, Failure, And Closing Advice

Marc Bernstein 25:49

I hopefully will never have to do that again, but I've had to do it several times, so it's I probably should read that book book. I've heard about it, I haven't read that one, it's a good one. Um if you were speaking to your younger self, Mitch, what advice would you give you?

Mitch Gyger 26:05

Um You're not as smart as you think you are. Uh you know less than you think you do. Uh there's nothing wrong with listening to other opinions. Um and you're gonna continue to fail and get beat up, and that's part of the process.

Marc Bernstein 26:23

And there's nothing wrong with not knowing the answer, too, right? Correct. It's okay to say I don't know. I wish more people in business would learn that because I feel they they have to feel like they have to give an answer even when they don't know.

Mitch Gyger 26:36

Yeah, no, it's uh it's okay to keep asking more questions. It can be just about, you know, discovery uh than it is about just knowing what you think is the right answer. It's yeah.

Marc Bernstein 26:48

Do you have anything we anything I should have asked you that I didn't ask you? I never asked that on this show.

Mitch Gyger 26:53

I like that one too.

Marc Bernstein 26:54

Is there anything you'd like to throw in?

Mitch Gyger 26:57

Uh no, I I think I'm good. I think it was a uh solid conversation.

Marc Bernstein 27:01

Great. Vera, any closing thoughts from you?

Vera Hempel 27:04

No, I mean, yeah, I was I was thinking about um you know asking the question as I think that it goes for personal, but also any aspect of business when you're talking to your customers, you're trying to figure out what are you solving for, what are the problems, um, how do I how do I do this? And um I think that's a very important takeaway that I'll I'll uh put on a sticky note on my on my desk.

Marc Bernstein 27:29

Well, we I think we've covered it all. And thank you both for being here. Thank you all for listening this week on Founders Forum, and we'll be with you again next week.

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