For the Long Haul with Tommy Fitzgerald

Show Notes

Join Kosta and his guest: Tommy Fitzgerald, Owner of Fitzgerald Peterbilt and Founder of SemiCasual Truck Show.

Learn more about Tommy Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald Peterbilt, and SemiCasual Truck Show:
https://fitzgeraldpeterbilt.com/
https://semicasualtruckshow.com/

Follow SemiCasual Truck Show on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@SEMICasualShow

Better Together with Kosta Yepifantsev is a product of Morgan Franklin Media and recorded in Cookeville, TN.

Find out more about Kosta Yepifantsev:
https://kostayepifantsev.com/

What is Better Together with Kosta Yepifantsev?

Better Together with Kosta Yepifantsev is a podcast about business, parenting and living life intentionally. We're here every week to bring you intentional conversations on making your own path to success, challenging the status quo, and finding all the ways we're better. Recorded in Cookeville, TN, Kosta joins guests from all walks of life to bring fresh perspective and start your week with purpose. We're better together.

Tommy Fitzgerald: There are
quite a few misconceptions about

the trucking industry. But one
thing I would say is the

industry is aging. And I think
as an industry, we need to find

more ways to attract youth to
our industry. And I know that's

something that a lot of
industries struggle with. But

you know, trucking specifically
is not one of those. I just

turned 18. And there's this
fantastic looking trucking

company that I want to go drive
trucks for, you know, typically

all the truckers that I know of
are generational. You know, my

dad was a trucker. My uncle was
a trucker. My grandfather was a

trucker. And it's not very
glamorous to you know, somebody

who's 18, 19 years old, but
Well, hey, I want to go drive a

big rig.

Morgan Franklin: Welcome to
Better Together with Kosta

Yepifantsev, a podcast on
parenting business and living

life intentionally. We're here
every week to bring you

thoughtful conversation, making
your own path to

success,challenging the status
quo, and finding all the ways

we're better together. Here's
your host, Kosta Yepifantsev.

Kosta Yepifantsev: Hey, y'all,
it's Kosta. Today, I'm here with

my guest, Tommy Fitzgerald,
owner of Fitzgerald Peterbilt,

and founder of semi casual Truck
Show. This episode is different

from our usual content. So I
want to set the scene for our

listeners. Tommy, would you give
us some background on semi

casual how you started working
with rigs? And what trucks mean

to you?

Tommy Fitzgerald: Yeah, sure. So
semi casual is a customization

arm of Fitzgerald Peterbilt. I'm
a co owner and Fitzgerald

Peterbilt. I've always really
enjoyed customizing big rigs. So

I decided a couple of years ago,
me and my friend Brian Burke, we

decided to start a customization
brand. And that's what semi

casual is and the way I got into
the business, I guess I was born

into it. Okay, so my father
started a company back in 1989.

And I was born in 87. So before
I was even able to comprehend

what was going on, I was already
in it.

Kosta Yepifantsev: And what did
he start doing back in? 1989?

Like, how did he get started?

Yeah, so

Tommy Fitzgerald: my dad was
building rigs, okay, you know, a

long time ago. So you know, my
father and my mother kind of ran

away from home, so to speak,
whenever they were 16 years old.

Oh, wow. They decided that they
were going to change their lives

for the better, you know, some
negative things going on at

home. And so they decided they
were going to change their lives

for the better. They ran away
from home together. They lived

in a abandoned school bus in the
woods when they were 16 years

old, here in Tennessee. Now that
actually happened in Kentucky.

Okay. Yeah, my dad, my dad tells
me about it. It was about 1960s

some limits raised. I get to
hear the story a lot. But

Kosta Yepifantsev: so I mean,
he's he's building trucks just

in the very beginning. Yeah. And
obviously, most people that

listen to this episode are
probably going to know what

Fitzgerald is in terms of its
business and its footprint, you

guys have been wildly
successful. What happened next,

Tommy Fitzgerald: so you know,
my dad, his goal was to

basically provide the means for
us to provide for ourselves. My

father has six children, there
are three boys, three girls,

every single one of us are
involved in one of the family

businesses. My dad was a serial
entrepreneur, he loved starting

new companies. And so over time,
he made it to where every single

one of us basically had a way to
provide for ourselves and our

own families going forward in
the future. So you know, I'm

with Fitzgerald, Peterbilt. My
older brother Robert, he has a

company called Fitzgerald
collision repair. My sisters are

very actively involved in some
hardware stores that we took on

called the country Farm and
Home. My younger brother, Blake.

He's wildly successful in this
performance business that he has

called Fitzgerald performance
where he likes doing basically

it's diesel drag racing, and you
know, things of that nature and

just customization of pickup
trucks is really taken on, you

know, a similar role that me and
Brian do in the Big Rig role

that he does it with pickup
trucks.

Kosta Yepifantsev: Why do they
call them rigs?

Tommy Fitzgerald: So big rigs?

You know, I really don't know
where that come from. I can tell

you where tractor trailers come
from. Okay, so tractor trailers,

you know, a tractor is basically
just a mechanical component to

move heavy machinery is, you
know, the definition of tractor.

Right. And so when people hear
tractor, they naturally think

farm tractor, but the technical
definition of tractor is just

large engine, or large
mechanical device that can move

other machinery,

Kosta Yepifantsev: customization
and personalization play a huge

role in the culture and
lifestyle of most truckers, what

do these customizations normally
look like? And how have you

built a career and platform
around these modifications?

Tommy Fitzgerald: You know, the
platform was pretty easy because

it is wildly popular in my
industry and others, a lot of

guys who do what I do, there's a
lot of guys who do it just as

good if I wouldn't say if maybe
not even better than when we do

it. But you know, when we
started the YouTube channel, it

started a lot slower than what
we had anticipated. And then

over time, we just hit this one
wild stride where it grew and

grew and grew. And that was
about 12 months into it. So I

would actually want to say that
the modifications themselves,

sell the, you know, the platform
in which you know, which we have

on YouTube, right? So the
modifications are pretty wild

sometimes, you know, we have one
customer who redid his entire

interior. And the interior of a
big rig is huge. I mean, when

you compare it to like that of a
car have like a bed in there and

yeah, there's beds, there's
cabinets and you know, whenever

you want to wrap all this stuff
in leather, that's a lot of

leathers. Yeah, you know, one
job we did took 40 hides of

leather to do. And the guy
wanted Italian Leather. So it

was $1,000. To hide, to do to do
the inside of this rig. And he

said it took 40 of these. So,
you know, whenever you're doing

builds that are that wild and
that customize, you know,

obviously it draws a lot of
attention online and people want

to see more of that. Do they do
the exterior too? Yeah. Oh,

yeah. Okay, we do quite a bit to
the exterior. So

Kosta Yepifantsev: here's my
question. Alright. These trucks

are going across the country
multiple times. a month. Yeah.

Okay, multiple times a week, a
week, maybe. Right, exactly. So

okay, so you are spending tons
of money. And the reason I'm

asking this question is because
you understand the mind of

somebody that drives truck?

Yeah, because you've been doing
it all your life. So why would I

spend $200,000 or $100,000 on
redoing the exterior of a truck,

and please forgive the ignorance
but like chrome pipes and flames

and maybe like spikes on the
wheels, if you're going to be

driving with a bunch of crazy
people back and forth. On the

interstates, you know, multiple
times a week,

Tommy Fitzgerald: you know, a
lot of it is going to come down

to passion. Okay. So, you know,
the truck we built for that

specific gentleman, he has 50
trucks, and he drives that

specific truck himself. So that
was, you know, for one, that's

his pride. That's his passion.

He's been in trucking for years
and years and years. And he's,

you know, honestly, one of the
best people I've ever met. I

mean, he's he's incredibly
genuine guy. He's very, very

passionate about what he does.

The second part of that is
marketing. You know, a lot of

these guys will spend the money
and try to get the name out

there as far as this was a, you
know, so and so transportation

truck. And whenever there's that
flagship truck that is known out

there, there are very few
competitions that get a lot of

recognition in our industry. So
you take like a Mid America

Truck Show. That's the hardest
truck show in the United States

to win at. Okay, right? So
that's our version of like a

SEMA. Right? And so when you go
there, and you put a truck in

that competition, and you win,
it's instant recognition,

industry wide. Everybody knows
your name now, because you want

Mid America.

Kosta Yepifantsev: And if you're
a truck builder, that helps

business right. If you're a
truck builder,

Tommy Fitzgerald: that helps me
because it gets my name out

there as far as I built this
truck, which by the way, that

specific truck got second place
in the combo class, which is

super hard to do. It wasn't a
win. And the guy who did win we

100% expected it to because it
was just a wild and crazy build.

And we thought, Well, if there's
one truck out there, it's going

to beat us it's going to be this
one because, you know, we'd seen

it a couple times and got a
sneak peek and we were just

like, man, if we lose, it's
gonna be to that truck. But

anyway, more than helping us as
a builder. It helps the person

who came there that says so and
so transportation on the door

that helps them in the instance
of you know, getting new loads.

This particular instance this
guy hauls fuel. And so if you

know, if he reaches out to
someone in shell corporation,

they're gonna say, oh, yeah, you
know, I saw your truck you know,

even shell has a super rigs
competition. And so you know,

there's, there's a lot of
industry networking you can do

when you get into building a
show truck, and it helps

recruiting drivers obtaining new
loads and building your

business.

Kosta Yepifantsev: How much does
a regular truck like so for

example, you own Fitzgerald,
Peterbilt, you sell Peterbilt

type trucks, brand trucks, like
how much does a regular

Peterbilt truck cost?

Tommy Fitzgerald: You know,
what's really cool about

Peterbilt is there's no such
thing as a regular Peterbilt.

Oh, okay. Yeah, so Peterbilt is
the most customizable ordering

truck on the planet. So whenever
you go to order a Peterbilt, you

get what's called a
specification sheet. There are

about 280 line items on the
specification sheet. And out of

those 280 line items, there's
about 16 or 18 options per line

item. Wow. Yeah. And so
Peterbilt likes to claim it,

there are 2.5 million ways to
order a Peterbilt which makes it

very stressful as a dealer
because you don't want to get it

wrong. And I've got it wrong a
lot. I've had to learn a lot of

hard lessons the hard way, but
that being said, I would say

your average aerodynamic truck
probably run somebody about

$200,000 Okay, you know, 200 to
210 somewhere in that

neighborhood and then your you
know, your out of the box 389

with no customization done to it
is going to run you between 265

and 285.

Kosta Yepifantsev: How much does
it cost if they buy one of your

trucks that's been customized
with all the bells and whistles?

So

Tommy Fitzgerald: I've done
$30,000 builds on top of the

price of the truck that I've
done $300,000 on top of the

price at the truck, so Wow, it's
like a $500,000 truck. Yeah, so

it's basically whatever you
want, and that's what semi

casual, you know, that's that's
what we specialize in is what do

you want? You know, you dream
it, we build it.

Kosta Yepifantsev: I love it.

What do you think is the biggest
misconception about truckers?

And how can we better understand
the people who literally keep

our country running?

Tommy Fitzgerald: You know,
there are quite a few

misconceptions about the
trucking industry. But one thing

I would say is, you know, me and
you had talked about this before

the industry is aging. And I
think as an industry, we need to

find more ways to attract youth
to our industry. And I know

that's something that a lot of
industries struggle with. But

you know, trucking specifically
is not one of those, you know,

whenever I get out of high
school, I just turned 18. And

there's this fantastic looking
trucking company that I want to

go drive trucks for, you know,
typically all the truckers that

I know of are generational. You
know, my dad was a trucker. My

uncle was a trucker. My
grandfather was a trucker. And

there's a lot of generational
experience in the trucking

industry. But it's not very
glamorous to you know, somebody

who's 1819 years old that well,
hey, I want to go drop Big Rig.

Kosta Yepifantsev: Is it just
because in this could be a

common misconception? But is it
just because you're like sitting

in a truck all day and driving?

And that seems rather boring?

Or?

Tommy Fitzgerald: You know, I
don't, I really don't know what

it is, I don't think it's the
pay there, because they're

making great money. There is
some fantastic money driving

trucks, it might just be I don't
want to sit and hold a steering

wheel. Whatever it is, we got to
find a way to attract some more

youth because a driver shortage
is is our probably number one

issue that our industry faces.

Yeah,

Kosta Yepifantsev: you and a lot
of other industries. But I will

say like, what about self
driving trucks? I mean, they are

all over the TV, 60 minutes, I
mean, literally turn the TV on,

or you Googled trucking, and
there's something about you

know, self driving electric
trucks.

Tommy Fitzgerald: Yeah, so
there's a there's five different

levels of automation. And then
whenever you get to level five,

that's full autonomy. From what
I understand where you know,

we're close to scratching level
three. And then level four is

driver disengage, where you
still have to have a driver in

the truck. I think they're
experimenting with some, some

level for autonomy out there.

But we're still several years
away from that, you know,

actually getting the truck to
the actual grocery store. So you

think any kind of product from
manufacturing to getting it to

the shelf, there's several steps
in between, you know, there's

the transportation company that
gets it from manufacturing to

distribution, and then from
distribution to basically the

store shelf. I think within the
distribution, network. Autonomy

is all quite possible. But I
think when it comes down to the

actual truck, getting it from
the distribution, and then the

intricacies of running it
through city lights, it's

Kosta Yepifantsev: that last
little bit, that's the last one

he keeps talking about that last

Tommy Fitzgerald: mile delivery
is going to be something that I

don't know that they'll ever
figure out. So I don't think

that autonomy is the full answer
for our industry as far as

driving goes. But I think
distribution center, I think

center to center, I think that's
a fantastic idea, because you

know, something was manufactured
in Pennsylvania, and it's gonna

go to its nearest distribution
center in Pennsylvania, right.

And these products need to get
to Los Angeles. Sure, there'll

be a distribution center close
to Los Angeles. So I think from

the distribution center in
Pennsylvania that's close to an

interstate to the distribution
center and California that's

close to an interstate I think
there's a lot of autonomy and a

lot of capability that can
happen between them too. I don't

know that that last final mile
of delivery can ever be

autonomous because there's too
many factors at play

Kosta Yepifantsev: unless you
build like one of those heavy

helicopters and you make it
autonomous as well that actually

list the truck up and then
carries it over to the store and

drops

Tommy Fitzgerald: Yeah, we could
do some we could we'll just go

ahead and invent like the
world's heaviest drone. Yeah,

Kosta Yepifantsev: I mean, you
could use the boring company you

know I'm sure it'll probably
create like a little tunnel

Yeah, exactly underneath and
it'll just go down there and

just do to dupe and then come
right back go that's why they

could do it. Elon Musk man.

Let's talk about truck shows. I
know we touched on it a little

bit but I really want to get
into the to the details of it

specifically the semi casual
Truck Show. So one what is a

truck show? And two what can
visitors expect from the semi

casual Truck Show?

Tommy Fitzgerald: So a truck
show is very similar to

basically you know, like a show
and shine car show. Okay, there

are these car meets where a lot
of guys have come together and

they bring this wide variety of
cars, you know, you get Chevy's

and dodges and Fords. You know,
truck shows are very similar.

You know, whenever you go to a
truck show you don't just see

Peterbilt and Kenworth, although
they're more prominent. There

are people who rebuild Kenworth
and people who rebuild old

international cab overs and so
on and so forth. And you know,

that make them really, really
nice. The semi casual truck show

is no different. It's a
collection of basically super

nice rigs that guys are super
passionate about. And then on

top of that, there was a lot of
trucks that were what's called a

working class show rig that you
know, it didn't have a million

dollars worth of accessories and
pain and all this stuff put on

it. It was just guys who take
some pride in their truck and

they're putting in Chrome on it
when they can where they can

afford it and they just they'll
guys who are super appreciative

of being in The industry and
they just love what they do.

What's really cool about the
semi casual truck show is it's a

celebration of industry lovers.

And we all have a lot of fun.

And what's really cool is we do
this dinner on Friday night.

Anybody who is either a vendor
that is displaying at our show

or a driver who entered a truck,
you get a plus one ticket, and

we do this appreciation dinner
in Casino Night. And we give

everybody the opportunity to
mingle. I mean, you just had

one, right? Yeah, no, it was
literally last week. So yeah, in

Crossville. Right. Yeah. And
that's usually what do you have

the truck shows? Or do you have
them all over? No, no, we

typically only do that one in
Crossville. Okay, I have talked

about having several more of
them and doing a circuit, but

we're just not to the point
where we want to take that on

yet. Because the process of
taking the one on in Crossville.

It took us probably six, eight
months to get it going. Oh my

gosh. Yeah. It's it was it was
huge. It it's not going to be as

stressful next year. We
literally just took possession

of this facility. So the
Crossville facility, I bought it

off my father in January. And so
we wanted to do some upgrades

and updates to make the facility
look good. So the truck show

next year will not be near as
stressful. But this year where

everything came down to the last
minute and it was down to the

wire and

Kosta Yepifantsev: it was Kayo
how many trucks were there?

Tommy Fitzgerald: We had 150
truck show last year 152 The

most we've ever parked last year
we had 10 vendors and we parked

about 85 trucks this year we had
28 vendors and parked 152

trucks.

Kosta Yepifantsev: Now the truck
show that you were describing

like the Holy Grail the Super
Bowl of truck shows how many

trucks go through their

Tommy Fitzgerald: well it's
limited they can only park so

many trucks but I think they
parked about 200 Last year maybe

210 I didn't get an exact count
but that they get a corner of

the parking lot at the Mid
American Truck Show and it's

it's technically called the P KY
show and shine I think is what

they call it

Kosta Yepifantsev: is your goal
with semi casual to be a

competitor of the main American
Truck shows that your end goal

never okay.

Tommy Fitzgerald: No, and it's
not because I'm intimidated. And

sighs I really do want semi
casual to have 500 rigs parked

Crossville, Tennessee, I want
that and I'm going to achieve

that. What I don't want to
happen is men America is a

really tough challenge because
it's a judged competition. And

the reason semi casual is the
way we make ours different is

the entrance get a scorecard
when they enter their truck. And

they have to go around and pick
their favorite trucks. And we

don't judge trucks nice, we stay
out of it. We don't want that

politics, right. I don't want
someone to come to the semi

casual truck show and get their
feelings hurt because I didn't

pick their truck to win, right.

And so me and Brian, we don't
even have a trophy where we like

pick our favorite, which you
know, there are shows out there

that do that, you know, it's the
family owners, they'll go walk

around and they'll say this is
my favorite truck. And they'll

pick a favorite, we don't even
do that. It's 100% judged by

your peers. If they like you,
and they like your rig, then

they're going to vote for you.

And if they don't like you and
don't like your rig, they're not

going to vote for you. And it
has nothing to do with me and

Brian, and we get to keep our
hands clean of it, you know, Mid

America, you know, they do a
fantastic job at parking the

trucks and putting on the event
and taking care of the drivers.

And you know, they provide
lunchtime and they do all this

stuff. But at the end of the
day, everybody still gets upset

when they don't get a trophy.

It's because the judges were
built into the show itself. And

so me and Brian are gonna stay
miles away from that. It'll make

it to where it's not going to be
easy to win at semi casual

because you know, you're being
judged by America's Elite in the

truck show world. But it's never
going to be as large of a

challenge as winning up at
America.

Kosta Yepifantsev: Well, and the
only reason that I asked you

about size is just because you
don't do anything halfway. And

we're going to talk a little bit
about some of the success, the

generational success that you've
had with Fitzgerald. Going back

to you know, the hay day and
honestly, the continued success

that you've had, but you just
don't do anything small time.

And so I when I asked you if
you're gonna compete with Mid

American, you say, No, when I
hear you explain it, I think Oh,

okay. Well, he's he's
essentially building out a

better product that people are
going to gravitate towards,

because it's kind of like what
is your mantra, which is it's

grit. You want to be judged by
your peers. You don't want to be

judged by people that have
nothing to do with the industry

or aren't themselves truck
owners. I get that 100%

Tommy Fitzgerald: Yeah, we want
to make it bigger and we want to

grow it and you're right. I have
a hard time thinking small but

no, yeah, I do want some my
casual to be as large as

possible. But I always want to
maintain it as a celebration of

the industry and something that
people are happy when they leave

and are excited to come back to
next year.

Kosta Yepifantsev: Yeah, well,
let's talk about big your

YouTube channel semi casual show
has over 12 million views and

100,000 followers. I know almost
every business owner would kill

to have a platform of that size
adjacent to their business.

What's your advice to content
creators and YouTubers? who want

to grow their audience in a
meaningful way?

Tommy Fitzgerald: Consistency is
key. So I was very fortunate in

the beginning, whenever we
started the YouTube channel, and

we had, we had a friend who also
has a very successful YouTube,

he's got 600,000 followers, and
Noah millions and millions of

views every month. I mean, he
gets the same amount of views on

one month that I have total.

And, you know, when I was
talking to him, he said, Tommy,

for one, you have to follow
trends. You know, if there's

something trendy going on out
there, make sure you pick up on

it. And, you know, for one good
instance as the unboxing trend,

you know, there was for a long
time that YouTube videos was

about unboxing. So me and Brian
did a video unboxing a brand new

Peterbilt, which basically, you
know, we wrap all the, you know,

the sticky tape off the side of
the doors, and you know, the way

it ships in from Peterbilt
corporate and they come in

piggybacked on decked it off the
back of another truck and took

all the little sticky tape, the
protective films and stuff like

that off of it. And, you know,
we unboxed a new Peterbilt,

Kosta Yepifantsev: did it go
viral?

Tommy Fitzgerald: It did pretty
good. You know, for at the time,

I think we had 10 or 20,000
followers, and that thing got 10

or 20,000 hits right out of the
gate. And so that's, that's a

good video for us, guys. And so
the advice from him was follow

trends and stay consistent. He
says, you know, YouTube is all

about content creators, and they
like to provide to those who are

providing content. And so you'll
fall into the popular algorithms

more easily if you have a
consistent time and date when

you post content. So if you're
posting once a week, stick with

that or more, but don't ever
fall off of that, right? If

you're posting three times a
week stick with that or more.

Don't ever come back off of it.

How often do you guys post we
typically try to post a video

three times a week. Wow. Yeah,

Kosta Yepifantsev: that's a lot.

That doesn't mean we post a
video once a week. And I mean, I

tried to cram it all into one or
two days in it is an entire day.

Yeah, like 10 hours, 12 hours.

So that's amazing. It's a lot
more time intense than later. Do

you find the time you run
dealerships? I mean,

Tommy Fitzgerald: you'll notice
a lot of our videos are shot at

nighttime. Yeah, after business
hours are over and the cell

phone calms down a little bit.

Me and Brian can go jump in the
shop and knock out a video and

it takes you know, takes about
two hours of the night. And

sometimes we'll feel real Sparky
and say we're gonna knock out

four or five videos in one night
and stay up till two in the

morning and go to work the next
day. Yeah, that's what you gotta

do.

Kosta Yepifantsev: I love it. I
love it. So on a personal note,

I want to talk about Fitzgerald
USA and Fitzgerald glider kids?

How did growing up in the
industry shape your perspective

on trucking and business? And
what do you see for the next 30

years of these companies?

Tommy Fitzgerald: Well, for one,
Fisher bladder kits doesn't

exist anymore, right? That
company has long gone, you know,

as like I said, you know, my dad
decided to retire, there's three

boys, three girls, he wanted all
of us to be able to have the

means to take care of ourselves
going forward. And he was quite

successful. And that, you know,
we all have our own companies

now. And we've all kind of moved
on from that chapter of our

lives. And, you know, we all
still work very closely together

as brothers and sisters, you
know, dad kind of takes the

stance of, you know, whatever I
tell him about a problem within,

within my business. He's like,
that sounds like your problem.

Or his famous saying is, Hey,
Tommy, you should treat that,

like it's your own problem,
because it is. But no, I mean,

you know, me and my brothers, we
work very closely together. And

also me and my sisters need to,

Kosta Yepifantsev: you know,
your dad, and we don't have to

get into it, we can go as far as
you want to go. But your dad has

had a lot of success. Yes, yeah,
tremendous. And I think people

don't quite realize the level of
success that he's had, I would

venture to say that he was on
his way to becoming the largest

company, not just trucking
company, but company in general,

within the state of Tennessee.

And within the entire southeast.

There were some things that
happened, you know, some things

that were outside of your
control that happened. And it

was a very stressful and a very
difficult time, not just for

you, but for your family. And
for everyone else that had the

ancillary businesses that they
have now. Yeah, not to get too

much into the weeds. But what is
it like now, when you look back

on that period, and you see that
your dad accomplished his

original mission? And you guys
are all successful in growing

your businesses? If you could
put it into context for our

listeners? Or describe it in one
word, what is it about your dad

that makes him so special?

Tommy Fitzgerald: It's really
hard to beat someone who won't

give up really is and my dad has
probably the strongest work

ethic I think I've ever seen or
heard of. Yeah, that translated

into my older brother, Robert,
and even my younger brother

Blake and into you. That's, you
know, that's That's all from

competitiveness. Because you
know, me and my brothers were

very competitive with each
other. And so anytime I'm ever

getting tired, I kind of look at
them and I'm just thinking, you

know, oh, man, would they quit
right now? No, they wouldn't. So

now it's time to grit and go
because you know, I can't have

my brother's getting one up on
me here. But no, I mean, yeah,

my father has this tremendous
amount. Losing work ethic. And

you know, that's something that
nobody's ever going to be able

to take away from him. You know,
a lot of people have tried

taking away from his
accomplishments, but more than

anything, you know, I've seen
him go through a lot of ups, and

I've seen him go through a lot
of downs. And people tend to

only recognize the upside of
things. And they don't see the

blood, sweat and tears that went
on to it. And the background,

and I think, him showing me and
Robert, the gritty sides of the

business and being there through
his mood swings, and seeing the

happy parts of the business, but
also seeing the stressful parts

of the business when he was
younger, it taught me a lot to

learn from the best. I did,
honestly, you know, there are

people who say that, but there
are people who feel that, and I

feel as if having the guidance
of my older brother and my

father, I truly, truly feel like
I got to learn from some of the

absolute best in the industry,
bar none

Kosta Yepifantsev: the best
leaders, they credit, everyone

that train them with their
success. I mean, obviously, you

have a personality, that's going
to lead to success. But when you

credit the people that gave you
the knowledge and the

opportunities, just like me, I
credit pretty much everything

that I have right now to the
fact that my father in law

taught me this industry. And in
that my dad gave me grit, you

know, he essentially kicked me
out at a Fed 15 and said, You're

gonna go play hockey, and I
said, I don't want to play

hockey. And he said, I don't
care.

Tommy Fitzgerald: Yeah, go in.

Right. Yeah. And that's those
life experiences Exactly. Right,

are a reflection of our
challenges in life. And so I

find people who have, you know,
little to no humility, they've

just they've not had enough
challenge in life. And the

people who have had a lot of
challenges are typically the

ones you know, like you said,
They're quick to credit those

around them for, you know, what
they've become. What's next?

Man? I know, it's a loaded
question. It really is. And I've

got a huge project. And I'm so
excited to work with my older

brother again, you know, me and
me and Robert, were very present

together in previous companies.

And I always enjoyed working
with him, because we're so much

alike, yet. We're such complete
opposite of each other. You

know, everybody who knows me and
Robert think that we're just

alike. But when me and Robert
are together, we know that there

were nothing alike. So I'm the
one who likes to talk and

promote. And Robert is a little
bit quiet. And he's got a very,

an incredible mind for
engineering. And he loves

building things and
manufacturing things. And

there's a project on the horizon
that my brother is going to

build a product, and he's put me
in charge of sales and marketing

it. And I'm so excited for it.

And I can't wait to I want to
take you for a tour of it once

the factory is up and going. But
we've got a 250,000 square foot

facility that's going to be
almost 100% automated. It's in

Tompkinsville, Kentucky. Oh,
yeah. Okay. And so we're going

to be hiring on there. And I get
to follow Roberts leadership

again, which was, you know, was
always fun working with my

brother and yeah, 100%
automated? Well, I say 100%

automated, there's a lot of
automation. I think if you put

the actual percentage to it, it
came down to like 72%

automation, Roberts gonna build
10,000 units of what he's

building with basically 150
employees. That's incredible.

That's the future that yeah,
it's right. It's neat. And it's

a really cool vision that he
come up with. And whenever he

comes to me and said, Hey, Tom,
do you want to be part of this?

I was just, I was so excited. I
was like, yes, yes, Robert, I

want to work with you again.

It'd be awesome. My uncle Ricky
was one of the reasons why me

and Robert are as close as we
are nice. My father Tommy

senior, he gets a lot of credit
for everything, you know, that

he's he's done in the past.

Everything, a lot of that of
what he's accomplished, but

there was a Ricky Fitzgerald,
who's very quiet. And he's

always been right there next to
Tommy Seigneur, like no matter

what thick and thin, good times
bad times, his brother was

always right there with him. And
that's, that's something that,

you know, my father always told
me and my brother whenever we

were growing up, you know, he
said things, like, whenever

you're older, I hope you guys
have each other the same way me

and Ricky had each other. And I
think it's very important to

bring up that point is, yeah,
that did have to build something

from the ground up. But he did
have a brother that was right

there next to him the whole
time, too.

Kosta Yepifantsev: But there are
six of you. Now, there are six

of us. And that means that if
you all work together, not only

will you get to the pinnacle of
success, but you will probably

eclipse that and you guys all
have the good fortune of being

along for the ride. So you are
you know, when I look when I

asked you a question of what's
next your future is I mean, it's

unlimited.

Tommy Fitzgerald: Yeah, no, and
that's me and my brother have

this cool philosophy of your
best days aren't behind you. A

lot of people look back and
you're like, Oh man, high school

was the best days of my life. I
hate that philosophy. I just

high school was terrible. For
some of us, it definitely was

yeah, you know, but but there
are so many of those people in

the world. You know what I'm
saying? Right? Oh, my teen years

my late teens or my my early 20s
Were the best years of my life

or you know, Now that I've now
that I'm 30 years old, the best

years of my life are behind me,
you know, I really resent that

mindset, just because it's hard
to move forward when you're

looking back. And so me and
Robert, we're constantly looking

at, you know, what can be the
next thing, obviously, keeping

immense and intense focus on
what we're doing now. But you

always have to be looking
forward to. Next thing is, like

you said, when you have the
mentality of the best part of

your life is tomorrow, or the
days in front of you, then you

are always looking forward and
excited to those days, you know,

it would be easy for us to say,
oh, you know, that business we

had in the past, you know,
that's the best it's ever gonna

get. Now,

Kosta Yepifantsev: that's the
best is yet to come.

Tommy Fitzgerald: The best is
yet to come.

Kosta Yepifantsev: I mean, I
would like to have my body at 20

years old.

Tommy Fitzgerald: That would be
nice. I would love to, I'd love

to have my mindset now. And my
physicality of exactly right.

That would be good.

Kosta Yepifantsev: I agree.

Before we wrap up, I want to
encourage everyone to go watch a

few videos on your YouTube
because it's truly nothing like

I've ever seen before, out of
all the projects and

customizations that you've done.

What's your favorite?

Tommy Fitzgerald: Whoo, so
you're getting me in that Mid

America category now. That's
gonna make me pick a favorite.

We did this truck and it's it's
been our flagship, you know,

truck we did, there's actually
two of them. That's kind of

considered flagship, you know,
semi casual trucks. Big Daddy

being the first one. But that
was a cobuild. We did with with

the Davis brothers. And you got
to give credit where credit was

due because those guys, you
know, did a lot of paint works

and stuff for us. You know, they
did a lot of customization when

we weren't ready to be in that
world yet. And our next flagship

truck was a truck called Project
legendary. And that one is

probably one of my favorites. So
if you're going to pin me to it,

I would say legendary is it's a
good look and build and look

like, oh, it's, it's beautiful.

The reason it's called legendary
is because Peterbilt came out

with this line of paint called
legendary paints. And instead of

having a metal flake, it's got
glass beads in it. And so when

the sun hits it just right, I
mean, the paint and dances and

so everything on the truck that
is not Chrome was painted with

legendary paint, I mean, the
chassis, the axles, inside the

frame, all of it, every single
thing, if it didn't have Chrome

on it, it was painted with
legendary pain, it's legendary

black, Legendary Silver, and
legendary red,

Kosta Yepifantsev: and they're
taking this thing across the

country, he drives it every day.

Amazing. could love it, see,
truckers man, it's a different

breed, it's a different breed.

So we always like to end the
show on a high note, who is

someone that makes you better
when you're together?

Tommy Fitzgerald: So I've been
putting a lot of thought into

this question, it's gonna take
me some time. Because I hate to

narrow it down to one person,
obviously, my brother is, you

know, a huge instrument and my
motivation and keeps me driven

every day. And just knowing his
work ethic keeps my work ethic

active. I've got a new business
partner guy named Joe Depew, who

come on with me at Fitzgerald
Peterbilt. And, you know, he's

incredibly knowledgeable on the
business side of things, you

know, I was focused on sales and
marketing in the past. And, you

know, I needed someone to teach
me that other side of the

business. And Joe has been very
instrumental to that. And so,

you know, whenever I'm working
with him, I feel more productive

in different parts of the
business, and I feel like I can

grow and develop around him. And
then there's obviously my

father, you know, hugely
instrumental in, you know, how I

turned out today, and you know,
who I became. And so every time

I get around him and talk to him
within the business, although,

you know, I do say, jokingly,
that he tells me, my problems

are my problems. But the reality
is, is he would be there and

willing to help me with anything
that I could possibly throw at

him. And, you know, if I did
come across a large business

issue, that I wanted to bounce
something off of somebody, you

know, Dad would be my first
choice, and then I'd be an

absolute traitor, if I didn't
bring up my wife, you know,

after being with her for 1618
years now. I don't know me and

Jessica got together and we were
16 years old, and I'm coming on

36. Now, wow, 20 years, there's
just something about her that,

you know, whatever, I'm around
her, I feel this calm. And, you

know, I feel like that's rare
for a 20 year relationship. And

she keeps me centered. And she's
basically the only person in my

life you know, because you know,
when you're the boss, there's

very few people that will call
you on your, you know, on your

nonsense. When you're being a
bit of a jerk. She will, she'll

call me on it and you know,
congratulations to her. It's

pretty awesome to have that in
my life. You know, someone

that'll say, Hey, Tommy, you
need to calm down. Just because

right? So yeah, there's there
are many, many people in my life

that make me better. And that's
how I would answer that.

Morgan Franklin: Thank you for
joining us on this episode of

Better Together with Kosta
Yepifantsev. If you've enjoyed

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friend. Today's episode was
written and produced by Morgan

Franklin post production mixing
and editing by Mike Franklin.

Want to know more about Kosta
visit us at

kostayepifantsev.com. We're
better together. We'd like to

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