Hi and welcome to another episode of Celebrating small family businesses.

Today we are celebrating Fred Martin Welding Company and Marty and Kelly Martin.

And Marty is, if I'm correct, third generation in the business.

Is that right, Marty?

That's correct.

So tell me the story.

How do we get here?

That's.

Wow.

If I could figure that out.

My grandfather in the late 20s, early 30s, was working as a welder at a welding and engineering firm in downtown Atlanta, sort of in the center of the city.

And after several years of that, in 1938, he branched out on his own and opened his own welding company.

He was Fred Martin.

Fred Martin Welding.

There was even an article in the Atlanta Journal that said, Fred Martin to leave bird pots and open his own welding company.

And it was right almost at in Atlanta, there's five points, which is where all the big banks were.

And it was the center of life of Atlanta in the early 1900s.

So that was 1938, and he was very well respected.

The saying went that he could weld anything but a broken heart and the crack of dawn.

And so he was there for about 10 years, and then he decided he would buy a small piece of property that is less than a mile from there east of that point.

And my uncle told me at a later time that he was so afraid that he was going to lose all his business because he was moving so far out of town.

And that kind of makes us laugh now, but.

But he ran the business until he passed in 1959.

And then my uncle, who was Fred, also not Junior, but first name Fred, too, he took over the business.

And then he retired in 1995, and somehow he coaxed me into joining him in the business.

And here we are that many years later.

So how many years did you work with him in the business before he retired?

Often, probably starting when I was 10 years old, I would come around the shop in the summer, not full time or anything, but maybe a day or two a week, and he would give me the great task of holding a broom.

I don't know how good I was at that even.

But when I was in college or a few years in high school, I worked full time in the summers.

But then when I was in college, whenever I would be home, he would ask me to why don't you come watch the shop for me so he could go on a vacation?

Because I guess a lot of your people that watch your podcasts, your followers know if you have a small family business, being gone is not always easy because so many times the business is the family members for in a lot of ways.

So when, when I could do that, I would.

And I got a flavor of not only what the work we would do, but what it meant to kind of run the business.

So that went on for several years and I was in college as a musician and thought that I would be a rock star.

And maybe I was for a while.

But right before Kelly and I were married, my uncle said, look, I'm retiring and if I retire and business is just going to go away because it's, I don't know that I could sell the business, I could sell the property, but the business isn't worth much more than me being there and you know, the goodwill and the good nature.

So he said, look at this, you can still play trumpet whenever you wanted to and you've got a business here that will probably put a little bit of food on your table.

So that, that convinced me.

So that was 1995 and like the same year we were married.

So I got busy with it.

Two big commitments in the same year.

Yeah, Billy was always.

Since I took over, she was always involved.

But when our kids were really little, she worked basically from home, taking care of most of the book work and trying to keep me from losing my mind.

And then as the kids got older, she started spending more and more time.

She could tell you the ups and downs of that.

Yeah, a lot of ups and downs.

That's just today.

What a story.

Wow.

So many questions.

I'm trying to sort it out in my head.

The transition, that's, you know, that's one of those things that's a lot of, well, both what you said about your uncle wanting to retire and saying, you know, the business.

I was just talking to a business broker today and that's one of the things that they deal with on a daily basis is businesses ask them, well, what's my company worth?

And, and in the case of an owner operated business, if it can't operate without the owner, the value is mostly in the tangible assets, like you said, the physical, the property.

And that's, that's a real hard thing for somebody to hear.

That's, you know, put their life in all their blood and sweat and tears into it for 20 years or more.

But it's, it's so neat that you had that transition, that opportunity to fill in and get that.

So it doesn't sound like there was this sense of a weight hanging over your head of expectation.

It was just, it was there if you wanted it.

That's right.

That's exactly the way it was.

That's amazing.

That is.

That is one of the signs that we've seen of, of a successful transition, that, that ability to choose.

And I remember when he did retire, you know, he said his words to me were, I'll be available anytime you need me for.

I can come down here, I can answer questions, I can help you.

The day when he retired, it was a Friday.

We had a little party for him.

Monday, he and his wife drove to Florida.

And probably Tuesday I called him with a question and he says, I don't know.

And I was flabbergasted.

I'm like, what do you mean you don't know?

And it took me about three or four times asking him things like that to realize.

He knew if I went and found it out myself, it would be invaluable compared to him just saying, do exactly this.

So I appreciate that a lot that he did that.

Maybe not at the time, but at.

The time he would come home and like, he's not helping me.

What am I supposed to do?

Yes, it sounds like he had set you up.

He knew you knew enough fig to be able to figure it out.

You weren't just completely floundering, Right?

You know, I had the tools to discover what the right answer should be.

Oh, wow.

So.

So he was a coach and not a consultant.

That's exactly right.

Right.

In a lot of ways.

In a lot of ways, yeah.

That's wonderful.

So you guys have apparently been working in the business together pretty much since the day you were married.

So how's.

Tell me what you love about working together in a business.

She's got a short list for that question.

No, that's not true.

I think we just.

It just develops into what it is.

Marty, for the most part is pretty funny and easy to be around.

So I think that makes for, you know, a good marriage and a good work environment.

And now, I mean, it's weird, like if one of us is gone or, you know, I'll go away with girls, it's like, it's.

I miss him quite a bit because we're together all the time.

So it's true.

I don't know.

How's it working with me?

That's pretty wonderful.

Well, we.

For better.

Not for better and worse, but we are very different in the way we approach the work that we have, the employees and a lot of different things.

She's a task oriented.

She wants a list.

She had a list of 10 things on it for the whole day.

And by 10 o'clock in the morning, it's done.

I made notes on 20 different pieces of scrap paper and lose 19 of them.

And the one I find I don't really know what it is.

I'm really.

I'm better at a big picture.

And so when I have people like Kelly who are very detail oriented, then it works in a lot of ways.

That way, unless we're trying to solve the same problem at the same time, then it's how can you do it that way?

How can you do it that way?

But.

But it really complements us.

I think there are a lot of the ways that we do it.

I've only quit a few times.

Only a few.

Oh, well.

Never fired.

Never fired.

Only quit.

Yeah.

And you relate.

Exactly.

Oh, my goodness.

So you're coming up on your 30th anniversary on both of them next year, right?

We had our 30th anniversary in 94.

We were married.

So this year was our 30th wedding anniversary.

Yes.

Wow.

It'll be my 30th anniversary here at the shop.

Yes.

We're ours.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Wow.

That's.

That's real cost for celebration.

I think so.

And the business just celebrated its 86th anniversary.

Yes.

Wow.

Proclamation from the city of Atlanta, which was very cool.

Oh, that is neat.

Yeah, it is.

Yeah.

Luke is in the business with you, right?

So there is a succession in progress if he continues to want it.

Yes.

Right.

And does he have a choice?

He does.

We did not see that happening.

He approached us and we had given up on.

He's the youngest of three and we'd given up.

We thought it'll end with us and the area is changing and that'll be our retirement and sell the property and go.

And then he approached us and it's been a little over two years and it's been back.

Fabulous.

Yeah.

Yes.

Oh, that's wonderful.

What a great surprise.

And yeah, common.

Common story a lot.

We talk to a lot of people especially it seems, you know, in.

In more physical, you know, trades they call them.

But the hands on work in this digital age, a lot of the younger generation has different aspirations.

Right.

I have a friend of mine a few weeks ago and he said, Marty, I think you're the only person I know who goes to work and makes something.

Everybody else just lives in the cloud and you actually make something that somebody can carry away.

That's true.

Yeah.

And speaking of making stuff, I was, you know, reviewing your website and you know, there's a picture of a desk, there's a sign, you know, there's a Lot of cutout in the sign and you know, very decorative and then, and then an amazing looking desk I would love to have.

So you guys, you know, it's a lot more than just like welding pipes together.

It's not industrial.

Limited to industrial.

I'm sure.

You can't, can't be in Atlanta and be 86 years of welding and not do industrial.

That's very true.

Yeah.

And we're a small company so we, we do, we can, we can pivot pretty easily, which has helped us through the years.

Like we don't have a widget that we make and that's it.

But we can, you know, when tastes change or styles change or processes change, we can usually pivot pretty quickly and meet the demand of whatever our clientele would want.

Well, in, yeah, in that 86 years, I'm thinking 38.

So that was between World War I and World War II.

And then, you know, there had to be quite a story about During World War II, what did the business, how did the business weather or prosper that time?

From what I understand, my grandfather had a lot of the business that he got was like Georgia Power, the Atlanta Gas company, water company, and he would basically repair a lot of their fleet vehicles and equipment like bumpers on trucks and when everything was made of steel, pretty much so and had to be repaired because you couldn't get a part like today you can get a part for just about anything from anywhere in the world in a day or two.

So a lot of that repair stuff is gone.

But he had a lot.

I don't think they did have.

They weren't really involved in any wartime efforts of, you know, supplying or repairing military type things.

But, but there was always, I think we've always seen when there is the unfortunate war that there's a lot of municipalities spending money on different things.

And even, you know, at that time, if there was a bad economy, then those kind of things were kind of being picked up by social, municipal programs.

Let's build a road, let's build a building.

So we've always kind of been aside.

We're never the ones building we stadium.

But the people building the stadium need small things and need them quickly.

So that's the kind of structural things that we've always been able to do.

And I think that's where he sort of thrived to.

And relationships were everything with my grandfather and my uncle.

You know, people knew him, trusted him and liked them.

And that's probably why we have half of our business just because probably not the best we're not the cheapest, but if something goes wrong, we're going to answer the phone the next day and we're going to be there.

So that I think that that's helped us and that's what I learned from my family coming up.

That's, that's what you do.

You make a mistake, you own up to it and fix it.

And there we are.

The values that another major theme in family businesses is.

Yeah, that how the family values play into the business values and, and you know, blend together.

So I mean, you just said it.

You learned that from your family.

I'm guessing that's the way it worked in the family.

Outside the business as well.

We certainly try.

Yes.

I think Kelly tries harder to keep us on a straight and narrow.

Your parents had that, right.

Yes.

They gave you that too.

That's true.

Cool.

Well, what do you know now that you wish you had numerous back 30 years ago?

Well, that you don't have to physically work hard all the time.

It's okay to take a break and it's okay to let your guys go.

And as long as it's not dangerous to make mistakes and let them learn from that.

There's people that will never learn.

But I think I've always had the problem of having it in my mind the way it should go and thinking everybody could read my mind and then when they don't, kind of being a little bit upset and saying, how in the world could you do it that way?

Instead of stepping back myself and doing, oh, I see where that could have been a good idea or at least I see where your process was going.

Let's use that in a positive way somewhere else.

And I think our son Luke has taught me that a lot because he brings a completely different aspect to the business than I have ever had or Kelly's had.

He's got.

I like to create and I like, I like to plan things and design things.

But he is, has a very artistic bent that I've never had.

For instance, he can see a pile of scrap land in the corner and he goes, that's a paper airplane.

What are you talking about?

And within a half hour he's got a model, you know, like a six foot paper airplane made out of steel and like he saw that out of this pile of rubbish.

And there's a picture of that on your website.

There is absolutely.

On art installations.

Yeah, that's.

That's right.

And our daughter did the website.

That's right.

True.

Oh, wonderful.

Yes.

It is a family fair.

Yes.

Oh, goodness.

Well, so kudos first for, I mean, what you just expressed.

I think that's another sticking point for a lot of owner operators, because they've done it.

They ran the business, they've got the skills, and they've done it a certain way, their way for a long time.

They can't make that shift to let somebody make the mistakes and maybe find a better way.

But in the mistake, I think that might have been what your uncle was doing for you back then.

That's right.

That's right.

Is there a particular lesson that you've learned, something really valuable that you've learned from an employee?

Patience.

And we've been fortunate.

We've had some wonderful guys that have worked for us over the years, but they've all been different in the way they approach things and what they brought to the table and what skills they had.

And so it kind of goes along with Marty said.

But it's just been cool to see, you know, it's like your children, they all have different gifts and talents, and you see how they.

What.

What that does out in the world.

And it's been cool to see the guys here, and then you have to adjust of how you talk to them and how you.

What they, you know, their work style is.

And so we've been very fortunate.

They've, you know, a couple of guys remodeled the whole office, and they just saw it one day, and we're like, you know, we can do all this.

We're like, well, great, let's do it.

So we've just had.

We've had great guys that we've learned a lot from, I think.

And that's just been cool to see.

The easy side of that is to say just like tips and tricks, because you have somebody who came from fabricating somewhere else, and they, you know, they build.

Let's say they build a railing in a certain way, and you see it, you go, I never, ever thought of that.

And then all of a sudden, that's the way we do it, you know, so that's the easy thing.

You learn.

Several.

In particular, I've learned there were immigrants, refugees, and incredibly talented.

Just unbelievable.

They had come from shops similar to what we do, but with much more rudimentary tooling.

So they were able to create with a lot less.

So with this, with modern equipment that works pretty well.

They just.

They could.

It was magic.

And to learn things from them, like, you know, today's a good day because nobody's in my front yard shooting, you know, from where they came from, you know, just.

Just Those kind of things just to make you step back and go, okay, there's something more important than those six tables that we're building.

And those same people would invite us to their homes on special occasions.

And just to have a community and the people and you know, that's more important than anything.

Any deadline that you have.

Wow.

Yes.

Beautiful.

Beautiful.

What?

Couldn't have said any better myself.

What?

Haven't I asked?

What are, what, what, what's kind of next?

I mean we, we know the technology of course has changed so much over the years and what's out there new on the horizon in the welding world?

Well, we're, we're kind of an anomaly in that we're a job shop that kind of does whatever comes in the door.

We try to try to curate that a little bit.

But obviously the processes keep getting better.

As long as technology gets better and the electronics and that's always changing for the better.

Usually.

I don't know that the things that affect the big welding world like the robotics, you know, in mass production, robotics is like the thing.

Lasers and robotics just are transforming welding as far as speed, accuracy, consistency, it's kind of amazing.

So there's a lot more room for engineering in the welding world.

And most people, I think most of the people we hire have at least some college and most of them have a four year college degree just because that's what's, you know, you come in now, I go and look some of the new machines we buy and I'm like, yeah, you got to be a computer operator and a programmer to understand what these things can do and turn it on and turn it off.

But it's if for us it kind of mimics what's been happening.

If like in the food world, we're farm to table, locally sourced craft, you know, like in beers you have craft beer is a huge thing now.

So people are looking for something a little bit more organic, a little more close to home.

So that's where we are prospering some, is that people in our neighborhood, they want to know the guy that built their table, they want to know the guy that put the rail of their house.

And you know that they're using quality materials and they take their time and treat their employees pretty well.

So for us I think, I hope that continues.

I don't see us, I don't want to say never.

I don't see us growing into a giant company with hundreds of employees, but I think just utilizing those, that's what I see, that's what I hope so whether it's true or not, I don't know.

Well, our neighborhood is changing, so, I mean, it's changed a lot in the last 10 years.

Definitely more walkable, more people.

There's more restaurants.

There's a party going on across the street today.

So we're getting more walk in business than ever.

More homeowners, which goes great with our son.

I'm selling more art pieces, more things for the homeowner that they want straight from us.

So that's been fun to see.

Oh, okay.

Well, that's one of the things I also saw on your website.

You've actually got a gift shop inside.

That'S pretty dark inside.

A welding company, A gift shop.

Never heard of that.

That's 100.

That's just been something I've been wanting and I really want.

You know, I keep saying we need a.

More of a showroom or more of a.

I'd love to have a bakery in here, too, just to have it more.

I love when people come in.

I love.

And people come in, you know, every day I have a weird question or I have a weird theme.

You're in the right place.

So, yeah, we're trying to make it a little more because the neighborhood is, you know, definitely more and more people just walking up and down the street.

There's more places to go.

We're close to the Atlanta belt line, so that's been fun people.

And to Kelly's hard work.

People come in almost all the time.

People I've known for years that are in the construction industry.

And one of the things they say so often is this is the cleanest welding shop I've ever seen.

And that's a compliment.

Absolutely.

I would.

I mean, what I see in the picture behind you, I would agree.

And, yeah, I've been in.

I've been in some other welding shops and, you know, they're.

Yeah, it's dirt and oil.

It's almost like a dirt floor.

It's so dirty.

If I'm going to be here, it's going to be clean and the candle is going to be going.

Yeah.

And.

And we all appreciate that.

Right?

You appreciate that when you walk into a store that is clean.

Yes.

Because you know that they care.

It speaks to value again.

Exactly.

Right.

Right.

I keep waiting for the guys to say, oh, I just love that you clean today.

They don't say that.

Yeah.

Because I didn't have to.

Wow.

This is such a wonderful story.

I'm so glad I found you guys.

And I.

We just want to thank you so much for spending this time with us.

Yeah.

Thank you.

How.

So how can people find you locally?

I know you're well known and you've got a website, so I'm going to make sure we put that in the show notes so that, you know, if someone's in the Atlanta area, they can find you.

Do you have.

Do you do stuff off your website or grow.

Are you growing into some sort of mail order or, you know, selling from your gift shop at a distance that.

That people would discover you that way?

We, we do a little bit of not really e commerce, but people will want something and we can ship it.

One of the big problems is obviously most of what we do is steel.

It's heavy, so shipping it may cost more than the piece itself.

So that's kind of a hindrance to that really developing much further.

We would like to.

But yeah, we're.

I mean, we're on our website, Instagram, Facebook.

That's where we find so much traffic coming through those things now.

So we'll make sure we put those links there.

So, yeah, if somebody's building a house over in Lake Martin in Alabama and they want to, you know, get some.

Some nice railings for their balcony, they can come and see you.

Or some art for the yard.

Art for their New York.

Yes, that's right.

Well, Atlanta Airport is.

You got to go through there to go any place in the world too.

So maybe you could be a destination.

Awesome.

We'd like that.

Road trip.

I'm thinking that's it.

Come on down.

There you go.

Nearby, Marty Kelly.

Thank you again.

It was appreciate.

So nice to meet you and we will.

We'll be following your story and hopefully we'll circle back and get Luke in the picture next time.

Yeah.

Thanks for having us.

Thank you for having us.

Yes.

Bye.