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Join Jim Baker & Bill LuMayeas they sit down with his Jim's former neighbor and successful entrepreneur, Marty Hartwell, the owner of a thriving floor covering business. In this episode of the Wisdom Series, Marty shares his life experiences, beginning with his childhood in Cleveland and Detroit, his family's influence, his journey through various jobs, and the roots of his work ethic. Discover Marty's time in the Army, his eventual success in sales, and the founding of his own business in Raleigh. Listen in as Marty reflects on valuable life lessons, the importance of family, faith, and hard work, and offers insightful advice for the next generation.
00:00 Introduction and Holiday Greetings
01:22 Introducing Marty Hartwell
02:45 Marty's Early Life and Family Influence
06:11 Career Beginnings and Military Service
09:42 Transition to Sales and Business Ventures
14:13 Challenges and Success in Business
17:41 Family Life and Parenting Philosophy
28:17 Reflections on Faith and Marriage
29:48 Meeting and Marrying Maureen
35:41 Navigating Early Relationship Challenges
36:37 Health Benefits of English Breakfast Tea
37:16 Overcoming Life's Struggles Together
37:55 Secrets to a Successful Marriage
38:11 Balancing Business and Family
40:17 Keys to Success in Sales
43:15 Current Trends in Flooring
44:05 Staying Active and Healthy
49:08 Reflections on Family and Legacy
52:33 Thoughts on Society and Patriotism
56:43 Concluding Thoughts and Life Advice
Creators and Guests
Host
Jim Baker
Author of "The Adventure Begins When The Plan Falls Apart" Converting a Crisis into Company Success, Jim is a husband and father of 4, Baker has spent the last 30 years in the business world as an entrepreneur, investor, and advisor. He had a successful exit in 2014 after owning and managing a CRO and functional services company, Ockham, specializing in Oncology. During that time prior to exit, Baker grew ASG and then Ockham both organically and through M&A. Over time Baker has experience in acquiring and selling companies, working with investment bankers, private equity, and mezzanine debt funding. In addition, has vast experience in business branding and managing and leading people. After the sale to Chiltern International, Baker started Sumus Development Group, an advisory business focused on operational excellence, exit strategy and marketing. In addition, Baker is an active investor in the business community.
Guest
Marty Hartwell
President/Owner at Floor Coverings International
What is Hot Takes: 50Cups?
United We Sip – Dive into the fascinating world of American culture with "Hot Takes: 50Cups." Join founder Jim Baker as he shares his hot takes on everything from day to day life, business trends and societal shifts, uncovering how we are all more united than we think.
At 50Cups, we believe in the power of community and the shared goal of living a healthy, fulfilled life. Our mission is to inspire you through organic, great-tasting teas, education, and awareness, uniting us all in our quest for better living.
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28 - Hot Takes
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[00:00:30] Default_2025-11-19_1: Hello everyone. Once again, we are here with Jim Baker, who is an entrepreneur. He's an author, very successful guy, very smart guy, owner of 50 Cups Tea Company, which brings you hot Takes and this is the Wisdom series, Jim.
And first of all, it's good to see you again. We're getting close to the holidays. How you doing? Doing great. How are you? Good. I noticed the tea is kind of a holiday color ish. It is. It's our traditional refresher tea. And since it's a little bit unusually warm, nothing crazy, so the climatologist can't go nuts.
Yes, it's a little nice. It's beautiful out today. Yes. Yeah. But I thought we go with a little iced refresher today, which is a hibiscus blend tea. Not caffeinated and obviously very good for you. It tastes wonderful. It really does. I know we're anxious to get to our guests and this is the Wisdom series.
Maybe you could just kind of set us up going from that perspective, why the Wisdom series? What do you hope to gain and who's our guest? Yeah. For the few listeners out there that have been watching us for a while, we've embarked on a a wisdom tour, so to speak, where we, um, talk to people that have, um, spent a lot of their life, a long life, um, gaining wisdom and other experiences that we wanna share with the audience.
So today I'm honored to introduce Marty Hartwell, and Marty is a former neighbor of mine in Kerry. He's a successful entrepreneur. He owns a very successful floor covering business and. I think he probably got a little nervous when we first moved in 'cause he was already there and we had bought the house behind him, which at the time had a nice woods buffer, trees, leaves, bushes, things like that.
And we had bought the only piece of land. It was kind of a slice of pie, but it was a half an acre. And we had two kids at that point in time. And naturally the swing set goes back there. Then as the kids get a little older, like, you know what, we gotta clear out the rest of the woods to put a mini soccer field in baseball, whatever, with a soccer goal.
That now backed up to his house. And I'm thinking, okay, Marni might be a little bit upset with this thing, but he ended up being one of our best neighbors of all time. And we've been friends for the last 32 years or so. 30, yeah, 37 years. Been a long time. It's my honor to have you here today, so. Oh, thanks.
Thanks. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Well we like I say, we met, you know, 30 years ago, but a little bit on my background. I was born in Cleveland, Ohio back in the day, and after a year my dad took a job in Detroit, and so we moved up to Detroit and I had a pretty, pretty normal childhood.
Typical, typical stuff. My dad was a tremendous influence on me. He had a tremendous work ethic, work ethic, and that's kind of rubbed off on me and so forth. But he he started he was working for a company called Carlo. And when you're in Detroit, you work with the cars, with manufacturing.
That's, that's it. It's like down here, it's all tech. Back in those days, the company was called Carboloy, and they made a alloy which is called silicone carbide, which is basically stronger than diamond, but it would, it's used to machine materials. I the materials and automotive transmissions, axles, engines and so forth.
And he worked with that company for a while and he thought, you know what? I can make these tools myself. So he built a garage in back of our house, and I remember digging a trench, which was probably about 200 foot long, about three foot deep for the wire to get the power to the garage from our basement.
And that was a arduous task. But anyways, it was a lot of fun. So dad started the work out there and, um, he what we, my mom and I during the day, we would prep. Some of the tools that he would do as far as fabricating. And then he'd come home from work and he'd work till midnight and make 'em and slow.
But sure, he got going and then he build a building and started his business and worked. I didn't see much of him. He worked, he worked a lot of, a lot of hours. Um, so the company really developed, um, of course by, in those days then I went into high school and typical high school went to a Catholic high school and had a good time and wasn't really too studious.
But at any rate after I got outta high school, of course, in those days were you gonna go to college? So and what are you gonna do? So I went to a college down in Cincinnati, Xavier Jesuit school, and thought I'd be a doctor and, that really didn't work out. The smarts weren't there. My roommate was getting stuff done about an hour before me, and I was struggling.
So I lasted about a semester and then I thought, well, what am I gonna do here? Well, am I gonna stay in pre-med and really struggle with this? And those days you had two choices. It was either business or medicine, that was it. And nobody gave you guidance or mm-hmm. Didn't have a counselor. So you really were on your own, just making, making decisions.
So I I went back for the second semester and I thought, you know, I don't wanna be a bookkeeper or accounting, so I quit. So I went back home and my dad says, well, what are gonna do? And I said, I don't know what I wanna do. You know, I was typical kid, 19 years old, not knowing what's going on. So he said, well, he says, if you want, he says, I can, you can work out in the shop for a while.
And I said, okay. So I, that was like in February or March. So I started working with my, with my father out in the shop for a while. And Labor Day weekend, it was, it was a Tuesday morning, and at the coffee break at nine o'clock, my dad came up to me and he says, um, as of Friday, you're fired. So I said, oh, okay.
He said either you go back to school or do something, but you're not staying in here. You gotta do something. Well, in those days, the draft was available. Yeah. We had to do two years or go the RRO RO, not the OSTZ, but the National Guard route. So I said, well, I'll go for two years. I'll get that out of the way.
So I went they right in the city there. They had the army, the Navy, the Air Force, and the Marines. So I thought, I'm gonna be a Marine. So I go into the Marine, talk to the guy. He says, yeah, we'll take you. We you gotta go do three years. I thought, oh man, wait a minute. I don't know if I wanna do three years, but I only have to do two.
So I dropped out of the Army place and he says, two years. I says, got a deal. So, so I joined uncle Sam's army did my basic at Fort Leonard Wood. And while I was down there all during the classes we were in a little seminar one day about how to clean your rifle and everything. And this guy walks in with jump boots on and all kind of paraphernalia on his, on his uniform.
And he said how many of you guys wanna be paratroopers? He says, it's worth 50 bucks a month in your pay. So I raised my hand, I figured, Hey, 50 bucks, why not? So ended up easily motivated Marty. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Money's great, great motivator. So anyway you know, hell, it's 19 years old, you know, you're just.
Footloose, fancy free, you know, I didn't care. So anyway, I ended up going ironically down to Fort Bragg in January that year. Did all the rest of my duties down at Bragg had, had really, it was, it was a good experience. I think every, every guy at the United States should do sometime in the, in the service.
I think it's good, it's patriotic and I think you owe g our country. But at any rate, um, so I finished up, finished up my service at Bragg and everything and um, I ended up doing 23 jumps, which was great. And I'd go out of an airplane tomorrow if I could, but they won't let me, you know. Were you ever deployed?
Huh? Did you get deployed? The closest we got to deployment was, there was a conflict going on at Lebanon, and I don't remember too many of the details, but they had us out on a tamarack there about five in the morning, and we were there till about nine at night and they finally called us off. We never went.
They were gonna probably parachute us in and I don't know what would've happened. Mm-hmm. But no, I never saw active duty. I was fortunate in that respect. So got outta the service, came back home. And again, the big problem, what do you do first? Turning point in life had no, you know, no college degree, which wasn't critical back then, but I didn't know, I didn't know what the heck to do, you know?
So, my dad said to me, he says, you know, he says, Marty, he said, um, I could use some help in sales. And he says you wanna give it a try? And I says, dad, you know, I'll tell you what, let's do, let me try it for a year and if it works, great. So. Talking about a quick education system. He says, okay, next week we're going up to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Talk to some of my reps up there, and we're gonna go down to Caterpillar in Peoria, which was one of our accounts and so forth. So that was like a week and a half stint. So we get back home, he says, okay, you're ready to go. And I says, oh, the only thing that helped me. Was that I knew what we were making.
Other than the sales or anything, I had no, I had no clue. You know? So I remember my first call, it was up in, um, a Chevrolet plant up in Bay City. I remember the buyer's name in those days. What you, what what the, what the companies like my dad would do is you'd go into the into the purchasing department and you'd, there were different buyers for different products, and you'd go to the reception desk and you'd say, Hey, I wanna see Mr.
So and so. He, he's the guy that's sends out the deals for carbide cutting tools and so forth. And so you went in, you chatted with 'em and hoped that they would send you quotes and then keep it going from there. So I went into this fella and I walked up and I said, hi, I'm Marty Hartwell dual tool company and blah, blah, blah.
And got talking. He says, Hey, hold off for a minute. I said, what? He said, um, how long you been in this business? I said, well, I said, I'll tell you what. I said, you're my first call Mr. Mr. Crawford. He starts laughing. He said, I kind of thought you were green, you know, but anyway, that started it. And I gradually got my feet on the ground and, um, started developing accounts that we didn't have.
I, I went to different places in the country and over a period of time, got knew, kind of knew what I was doing and everything, and called on these buyers and worked out really, really well. I was, I was happy and I was doing a lot of traveling. I, I drove like 60, 70,000 miles a year back and forth, and I covered, michigan, Ohio, Indiana, New York. And then I flew into the east coast of the aircraft engine, pat and Whitney and Sikorsky and those places. Did a lot of business with 'em. I developed those accounts. So I was pretty, pretty successful. And I was a little cocky, but I, I, I had good relationships with my buyers.
I was always upfront with 'em and backed up what we were gonna do. We always pro, we always, if the guy said, you know, how's your delivery system, blah, blah, blah. I would say, Hey, this is, you're gonna be, we're running three weeks right now. We're running four weeks. That's the best we can do. But that integrity, I build up a lot of integrity with the buyers, and I think that was a key point for me being successful in the sales end of it.
So, over a period of years, my dad, um, at that time was aging a little bit and he had asthma, very very bad. And, um, he decided to get outta the company and go down to Florida where he got relief. So. My uncle and my brother. My brother was working out at a plant doing, managing the plant. And my uncle was running the, the front end of it.
And after a few years my my uncle, great guy, but he, he was, he was just, just tough to deal with in a way. Um, and um, finally my brother and I said, Hey, look at, why don't you, um, why don't you retire? And um, and we will let Larry and I run it. And he says, um, no. He says, I don't think so. He said, um, he said, I think maybe we should just sell the company.
I said, oh. And I'm thinking, here I am, you know, I'm home now. I got two kids and everything and he's gonna sell the company. Now what do I do? You know? So it ended up, we did sell the company, my brother. I stayed on with the new owner for a couple years. And, um, the typical change when companies are sold, bought, and sold is you lose your territory, lose your wages.
And that, that happened to me. I thought, well, I'll be a good guy. So I worked with this fellow for a couple years and finally I, I said, Hey, look at it. I said, I'm bringing in a ton of money for you. You're making money on these accounts. I said, I need to get back up there. I said, I don't want the moon, the stars, but give me, gimme something to work with.
So he said, well, you know, we're doing capital equipment and we're gonna do this and do this. And he said, maybe I can up your bonus a little bit. And I said, okay. Okay. So I kind of went along and I think I was getting to the point where, Hey, I don't think this is gonna go anywhere and I'm, I'm going down instead of up and not even holding my ground.
So I got thinking and everything and my brother was living down here in Raleigh. And he says, Marty, come on down to Raleigh. I says, man, I said, I got two, two kids going. Another one's gonna be going to college. I said, I can't, I can't just come down there and retire. I gotta, I gotta make some money.
So I found out about Floor Coverings International, which was a franchise company. So I went to their open house day and everything. And, um, it was in Atlanta. And, um, they're giving all the information on a company and this and that. And I thought, Hey man, I can sell carpet. Wow. So I signed up and we stayed in Michigan for a year because I, my last son was still, I wanted him to finish his senior year in high school.
I didn't wanna pull him. So we moved on here in 93 and I started the business. That was definitely a, a real leader for me. It I was, I was losing ground very fast going through the funds. I darn near went belly up. Yeah, I was pretty close to it. And then finally couple things happened and I started to get the business turned around.
But during that time I was, I actually was working two jobs. I worked for my brother. He had a precision tune franchise, a couple of 'em in the area. I worked a counter during the day and then after we were done, I put my logo shirt on, go out and make calls at night. I work seven days a week, 24 7 for about a year and a half.
And finally I was getting burned out. And so finally I said to myself, you know what? I came down here to get this business. This is what I'm gonna do and get it started. So through a different. Things had happened. I finally got the business going and I've been doing it for 31 years now. And when I look back, as painful as everything was, it was the right decision.
Because after I left the bone, sold the company about two years after I left, and he rented into the ground in about a year and a half. So it was, it was the right move at the right time for me. So it worked out pretty good. Well, if I may ask, you know, just listening to your history if I were taking notes, I'm going, it seems to you go back to your childhood.
I mean, it was normal. Yes. But you didn't have a father around because he gave you the work ethic. Yeah. He also gave you the boot and the butt Marty, and said, go do something. Right. Yeah. That's, that's some love, don't you think? As you, as you look over your, your, your shoulder at your life. I mean, how did all those things play out so that you ended up where you are today?
Well, it, it, I think he just instilled in me, you know, to, he was an example and he would, he would just, he would say something and I knew what he meant and he didn't elaborate, you know, like like in high school, um, he would, he would let me, I had my license and I said, Hey dad, can I use the car tonight?
Yeah. So sometimes I kind of ran three nights. We'd run up and down Woodward Avenue, which was the thing to do. We hit the drive-ins and all that Cru stuff. Cruising. Yeah. Yeah, cruising. Yep. And he then he'd say, Hey, um, boy, you were out quite a bit this week. And that was the hint that lay low. You don't do this every night.
You know? So he was real subtle in some ways. And then sometimes you could be a bear, you know, but most of the time. My dad and I had a tremendous relationship, and I am really today, and I get emotional when I talk about this, but my dad, if it wasn't for my dad, I don't know what I've been doing today. He influenced my life 90% because he had these, number one, I had the privilege of working with him, so I had a, a job opportunity and just what he did and how hard he worked, I did the same thing and my boys and have developed that same worth ethic because I think the kids feed off what you are, you know, if you're a good parent and they, they observe.
You don't have to tell 'em anything, but they observe. And I've got tremendous relationship with our, with, with my boys, and they're hardworking in, they're all successful in their own way. So it really, it's worked out well, worked out well. I have no complaints. So I have to ask, in the, when the business was sold, did your, who got the proceed?
Did your uncle and your father get the proceeds? Well, no. We had, we had some stocks, so my brother and I did get some money from the sales. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did your dad yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah. We, we, you, we did, we did. Okay. Did that good. I wanna make sure you sold for a profit. Oh, yeah, yeah. No, no. We didn't lose any money.
No, we didn't lose any money. But it was, it was a tough, it was a tough experience there. You know, you, you have a lot of doubts and you don't know where you're gonna be going and, say, oh man, you know, a lot of sleepless nights. And of course, coming down here when I started the business, that was I had a rough, a rough three years.
It was it was, and that's when you guys were living behind us too. I mean, that's why you didn't care that I cleared out the, the, I didn't, I didn't, I didn't care about anything. All I did get up, get up work and go home, take a shower, get up the next day and do the same doggone thing, you know? But hey, you, you know, you gotta do what you gotta do.
You gotta have discipline and drive and you know, you have to have a couple breaks, obviously, but you gotta recognize those bricks. Yeah, right. Yeah. Well, you gotta, yeah, you do. So, like I say, I've been fortunate and I've got a, a nice business going with my with my with my floor coverings.
I've got a good reputation. I've got I. Over a couple hundred Google, five stars and, um, you know, and that today, that's what people, when they go online, they see, they wanna see your reviews. Mm-hmm. At least it gets you in the door. You don't get every order, but it gets you in. Sure. Just gets you in the in the door.
So it works out well. That had to be difficult. I mean, you move to an area you weren't familiar with. I came down here Turkey, and then you got knock on doors and sell Turkey. Came down here, cold Turkey. How'd you do that? I mean, what was some of the first things you had to do to establish yourself?
Well number one, um, my brother's wife was in real estate, so thank you for her. She knew about the sub going in where we're at in in Preston, and she says, Marty, this is a perfect spot for you because when I bought the franchise, I bought Kerry and, and these, and part of Raleigh and so forth. Oh, wow.
Yeah. So that was a good, you know, I had a little help from them because they'd been down here, so they knew, you know, they knew some doctors, they knew this and that, so it was, wasn't like coming in Coca-Cola Turkey, but, so we when we moved in, that, that was a, that was a big help, a big help for us getting into, into that area.
It was a tough, um, with you and your wife being in a new location and your kids maybe are still, some of 'em might be still being in Michigan or elsewhere? Well, the kids, the kids, my daughter finished college when, um the. We moved down in August of 93. She finished college in Jan in January of 94.
So she was with us, and then my two boys then were, then they moved in with us. And so I had all three kids there for a while, and then one by one, they, they filled it out. The boys started school. My Brian, who is my youngest, he started out at he was going to Michigan State and then he transferred out and he, he ended up going to Syracuse and that lasted for about a year because I said, Hey, I'm not paying this tuition. Let's gro. He was a good lacrosse player. He played goalie and lacrosse. And I said hey, you got, come on down here in North Carolina. I'm not paying that tuition at Syracuse. And I didn't have the money, you know?
Right, right. And then my other son, Matthew he came down, he went to, right after high school, he went to Alabama for a year and I says, Hey, it's time to come, come back. So both of both the guys finished up, one went to UNC and the other one finished at at State. So that's, that's how that developed.
And then my daughter came down here. Eventually she met met a, a fella and they got married and luckily they're still still in the area here, so that worked out really well. Yeah. Yeah. Well, um, I'm just curious, how, how do you, when you see the world today versus what it was when you were a kid and Yeah.
How you grew up and it, it's changed a lot, hasn't it? And then I'm just wondering if you have any, since it is the wisdom segment, wisdom for, for some of the folks who might be watching and listening and who are maybe just starting out young parents and relationship you established with your children, the, how do you earn the respect?
How do you set the example that needs to be set? You know, my wife and I my philosophy was treat 'em as adults. And that's what I really did with the kids. I let 'em run, you know, I, I said, Hey, you know, I, I let them borrow the car. And I know they were doing stuff behind my back, which all kids do, you know?
You do. Especially the boys. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's kids. But I, I treated 'em like adults and they basically were pretty, pretty. Dependable type kids. They did their homework. They all went to to like an all boys school. The, and my daughter went to all girls school up there and in the, in the area where we lived, brother Rice.
And they did their studies. They were, they played three sports, football, hockey, lacrosse, all through high school. So that was our social life. I mean, we just went from season to season and that was, that was great. It was great. And but I, I didn't, I guided them and if they got outta hand a little bit, I chastises them.
But really, I let 'em, I let 'em run. I let 'em run, and, um, they turned out fine. So I guess I, you know, I don't know if there's a right and wrong way to raise your kids. I did what was natural. I just, just, do you think they, you let 'em run and then they ran because they knew there were boundaries? They probably did.
Yeah. They knew. They knew where to stop. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they did the hellacious things that kids do, but you know, but nothing bad, you know, nothing bad. Because I see today, to Bill's point, a lot of parents are, they wanna be your friend, right? Like, they want to be your Instagram buddy. They want to, yeah.
They want to be, you know, they wanna be part of your entire life, right? They wanna know what crap do you Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And, um, you know, I, I, so inevitably if you do have a kid that does get in trouble a lot, then there's no consequences. And then I don't know how that, that is, um. Makes that kid successful, let's say when they're in their twenties and thirties when they can't have mom or dad hanging around with 'em anymore.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. My guys did everything basically on their own. They studied, they went and they got their college educations and and, and maybe and they say that, you know, they, they were influenced by me. So, 'cause they saw how hard I worked 'cause they, I was gone in the mornings you know be we left all seven time, about seven 30 I'd be gone.
And we with the sports, it was pretty hectic as far as all having dinners together, but spent a lot of time with them and their friends. When with the sports, I think sports were a real cement to keep the family and the kids on the right track. Mm-hmm. Um, they have you, you know, with sports, you gotta have discipline.
And I tell the kids, Hey, whatever you do, you sign up, you finish. There's no getting out. So if you don't think you're gonna make it, don't sign up. But they were all, all played sports. They enjoyed it and they were in a good environment. The all boys school, Catholic school you know, and great education for the kids.
And that's, that, that influenced their life also. That gave 'em a, gave 'em a base, you know, to what we're they're doing today. I, I'm assuming it influenced you as well. You, you have the Catholic background. Yeah. Went to the school and, and all that as well. And, um, how, how much did you think that played into who you are and now who your kids are?
Well it, it gives you some keep your morals up, you know. Um, I've always, I'm, I'm always. Hopeful, helpful or hopeful that my my faith has given me a lot of, a lot of, got me through some of the conflicts that I've had. I think you have to have faith and I don't care what type of religion you have, but you have to have some, some, some type of faith and that, that's helped me immensely.
Um, and I don't know, I just, um, there's just, for me, I'm an easygoing guy. I don't get rattled too much. Very seldom do I get rattled, but when I do, I do get rattled. But it's, it's rare. It's rare. I'm pretty, pretty even keeled. And I, I think that's helped me get through a lot of situations and think it out and, and relax and get your, get your marbles together and, and go on so forth.
You, you look like 50. How old are you? Can I ask? 88. Damn. You're looking good for you. 88 is great.
So obviously you talked about religion, maybe grounding you. Yeah. Um, but he also has been married for how long? 56 years. Oh yeah. To a wonderful woman, CSIL. Yeah. Great girl. And God bless her. She has to put up with me. Yeah. I mean she probably had a lot to do with being the glue in the family Right. With your kids and everything else.
Oh yeah. Hey, it's a two-way street. Yeah. Tell us how you got married, how, how you got met and, you know, kind of give us, give us a little background on her. She'll laugh when she sees this one. Well in the day, like I say in my bachelor days we, we lived a life in Detroit and so I had a boat and did a lot of boating.
Well, every big holiday, Memorial Day, fourth July, labor Day, we go down to a place in Lake Erie called, put in the Bay. And, um. It was a great place to go because number one, it was a crazy weekend. They had a winery on one island and at 10 o'clock in the morning people were drunk. You know, it was, it was nuts.
But we went down there and, and and you know, to meet chicks, whatever, you know, it was just a good meeting spot. So I remember it was the, it was in 60? Yeah, 68. Memorial Day, 68. Um, I was on a boat and it was typical Michigan weather. It was like 60 degrees and it was drizzly and everything, and one of my buddies was missing and I said, Hey, should we go to the Bay for the weekend or not, you know?
I said, man, the weather looks terrible. He says, ah, yeah Marty, let's go, you know? I said, okay. So we took off and got down to the bay and tied up our boat and everything. And down the dock, I see these three gals going down. So typical Marty Hartwell attitude. I'm up on the flying bridge of the boat and I says, Hey.
I said, I like that one in the polka dot pants. I said, that's mine for the weekend. I'm a wolfer, you know, typical guys, you know? Yeah. So anyway, we, um, we closed up the boat. It was drizzling, it was still lousy, you know, and couple, my other guys had boats, so my buddy and I, we got outta mine and we went down to his boat and uhm cil, her name's Maureen, but we call her Csil.
She hates Maureen. So CIL and her girlfriends were there, and we got talking and everything and just just kind of, you know, just had, you know, a typical meeting and so forth. We later in the day, and this is lingo she always reminds me of, it's about four in the afternoon or so, and she said, are, are, is there a church here? I said, yeah. I said, we'll go to the Magic Show. I says, it's at five o'clock. She says, oh, is there a circus here? I says, no, no, I says The Magic Show. Oh, okay. So we ended up going to church, which was great, you know, and all of us were Catholics. So we all went. And then afterwards well what do you do?
You go to the bar. And she was only 20. And I said, have you got fake id? And she says, yeah, I says, work well. And she says, I hope so. You know, I says, Hey, listen, when you're with me, don't worry. I'll get you in. So we get up to this bar at Thero, they called it the Roundhouse, and we're in line. And the guy looks at me and says, I'll go on through.
And she was scared to death that you'd get booed out. Anyhow, um, I, I saw her the next day and which was like, I think Monday. And they were, she was heading back with their girlfriends, and of course we headed back and I thought, well, I, oh, when I called, when I asked her, I says, Hey, is your number, she, it's in a phone book.
My dad's Dr. Glenn. That was it, you know? And I says, well, okay, you're not gonna gimme it that way. So I figured, well, what the hell? So I get home and sort of thought, I'll give her a call. And I was at the point really, I had met a lot of bimbos. Yeah. You know, I was 30, I was 31 years old. I met all kind of flaky gals, you know, and I wasn't really in any hurry to get married or anything.
I didn't care, you know, I said, hell, I was having a good time, you know, I'd ski in the winter time and go out west with my friends and we'd ski out there and we were having just great old time boat in the summertime. I, I wasn't worried about all my friends were, were buying homes and they were married and getting kids and everything.
And I was footloose and fancy free. So anyway so I called her I called her later that week and I said, Hey, look at there's something going on here at the yacht club. I says, it's, it's it's Monday. I said how'd you, how'd you like to go? Oh, she says, I can't make it. I said, oh, alright, okay.
So I thought, yeah, okay. So I called her again about a week later and I said, um, there's something going on, whatever it was. And, um, I said it was for a Sunday, that's what it was. Oh, who dates on a Sunday afternoon? I figured, you know, so I call her and she says I can't make it, but she says, I'll take a rain check.
And that saved her because had she not said that, I would've never called her back. I mean, that's just the way lucky for her. I'm learning. That's, I mean, that's just the way I was. I, I wasn't, you know, yeah. I wasn't there. So anyway after about two or three dates. I, I knew, I mean, this was a gal for me, you know, I was, I was, I was hit and but I was 10 years older than her, so I didn't wanna come on too strong.
And so we dated during the summer and you know, I was, I was real, real close and gave her a ring in October and I said, well, let's, let's get married. I said, oh, oh, no, no. She has seven girls and a boy in the family. Good Irish family. Yes. So she said, oh, no, no, no, we have to wait till spring, you know, to get the wedding going.
So we got married in the spring, you know, and best thing ever happened to me. I, I'm blessed. I got a Greek guy she's had to put up with my garbage, but, you know, so Was she busy or was she just testing you? I, I think she, I think she, she kind of liked me, but she wasn't really sure. Mm-hmm. You know, but after, I think during the summertime, yeah.
She knew too, you know, that we were, I'm saying when you first asked her out and you said she was busy, and then you asked her out again. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I think, I think, I think, no. What was happening is that there were a lot of graduations going on. Okay. And it was, it was right around that time of the year, so she was tied up with, with the family and the neighborhood and everything like that.
So it was a legit turn down. Okay. But I didn't realize that, you know, I figured, Hey man, if she says no, I'm not gonna take a strike out, you know? So anyway, so that, that, that was the best thing that had happened to me, you know, it was really really the greatest.
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[00:37:16] Default_2025-11-19_1: Well, you've been through a lot though. I mean, Raja had ups and downs, I mean, some pretty scary times.
Yeah. We've had some hard time. How did she make it work that she, she, she hung in, you know, never complained, like the move down here was tough for her. Probably a lot tougher for her than me because all her family was up in Detroit. So we, she came down here and, um, the only one that was down here was my brother and his wife, you know.
And so, but she said, Hey, if that's what we have to do, let's do it. And, um, so she said, you know, she, she hung in there and it was so, no magic secret? No. To keep together? No. Just that love you felt stayed with you. Yeah. Yeah. Marriage is a two way street, you know, we've never had competition and I let her, I let her do what she wants to do, and I, I don't, she lets me do what I want.
Do, you know, it's we have no problems. No problems. I'm, I'm glad I'm happily married. When you were struggling with the business down here, did she go out and take a job also? Yeah. Yeah. She she worked for food and, and insurance. She worked at Hannaford's, which was Oh, eventually bought by Lowe's. Yeah.
She ran a cheese department there. She worked for. Two or three years there while we were struggling and and so forth. And then she, you know, once I got things going, then she, um, she retired and the reason she retired is that she was working really, she was head of the cheese department, but her hands were, she had bad arthritis in her hands and she couldn't cut the cheese, as they say, you know?
And so she finally had a, had a, had a get out and on that. But by then I was, you know, I, I basically had things going decent that we were getting high. I should have thought of her when I started at 50 Cups. She could have ran the retail for me. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, I messed that up. You did mess that up.
Yeah. It's tough starting business, man, you know, and you know, and it's with you 24 7. I mean, I'm, I'm thinking about the business all the time, and I'm glad when we moved down here that my kids were older because. It would've been very difficult for me to give them the attention had they been like in high school when I was down here, you know, to get to their sporting events and things like that.
I wouldn't have been able to do it, you know, so that time cycle worked out well, and when I was in sales, when the guys were in high school, I would work my schedules so I could get back for their hockey games or or their lacrosse games or whatever. I'd, you know, I'd maybe finish up in Indianapolis at at one o'clock and I'd wheel right back to Detroit for the hockey game that night or something like that.
I'd, I'd juggled my schedule mm-hmm. Around their schedules. And it, luckily, I had free reign on my sales, so I knew I could do what I wanted to and, and work in that direction. That, and that was very, very, very helpful, you know, having that freedom and flexibility. So from a sales perspective Yeah. You being in sales pretty much your whole life.
Yeah. What's the secret? Well, if you've given advice to other people that are in sales, what do you think? I'll tell you. Be yourself. You are what you are. I, when I go into a home and I meet somebody I know in about three minutes whether I've got vibes with them or not, like you can feel it. And I've been able to sense that out and it, and it's, it's proved pretty doggone accurate.
Now, even sometimes when you do get the vibes, you never get the order, but at least you've got a good relationship going, you know? I think you have to just be yourself. Don't, don't flaunt or just be natural. Mm-hmm. And I kid with my customers and I treat 'em like I knew 'em from day one. When I walk in the house, I ask 'em about the kids or the dogs or you know what, you know, what's going on here?
Why are you doing this? I try to get as friendly as I can, but that's just me. Right. That's just me. You are what you are inside, you know? And that's, that's hard to teach if you don't have it. Well, having been a customer of many folks like you, you know you instantly do pick up whether someone's genuine or not.
Yeah. You know, and I think that you mentioned integrity, you know, and think consumers do look for that and they can sense that if someone's giving 'em a, a talking point for a sales pitch or not. Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. I always, I try to make a profit, a, a, a good profit, but I never cheat people. If I tell 'em, I'm gonna give him this carpet.
This padding, this particular, whatever we do, I do it. And if I, if I make a mistake, which I've done on quoting jobs and forgetting something, they still get it, you know? And I don't, I don't cheat 'em, I, I give 'em what they, I give 'em what I promised and I've got a good reputation because of that. And also too, when I work with my guys that do my installation for me most of my guys have been working with me over 15 years.
I've got a great relationship with 'em. Um, I treat 'em like, I'd like to be treated. They come to me and say, Hey, Marty, man, look it, you know, we had this, we had this. I said, how much do you need? Ah, could you gimme another a hundred? I don't even question it. Here, here's another a hundred. You know, so that's, that's, you gotta treat people right.
And my dad used to do that, and I picked that up from my dad because when he was first starting a business, I remember he would throw parties at our house down in the basement and hell, I was only maybe 10, 12 years old back in those days, but he would always take care of the guys. And at Christmas he would give 'em bonuses and if the company wasn't making money, he'd still take a, take something outta the bank and give us something for Christmas and take care of his employees.
And that's why he had good employees. And that led to his success. To his success. Sure. Yeah. So just from a. Market perspective on flooring these days. Yeah. Is wall to wall carpet eaten? Still in? Is it out? Oh yeah. Is hardwoods in, like, what's going on? Oh, carpet's still king. Carpet's still king. Carpet's king.
Yeah. Carpet not in the bathroom though, right? It's king. Huh? Not in the bathroom anymore though, right? No, no, no. Not in the bathrooms, but yeah, carpet is that's, that's my biggest selling product. Mm-hmm. The big other secondary product now is what they call the luxury vinyl planks. The LVP stuff?
Yeah. That's, that's a hot item. And hardwood. I don't do a treme, hardwoods a lot more expensive now. It's, it's gone up quite a bit and so forth. But carpet's still, still the still the big, the big item. Most people still go with carpet. Yeah. Yeah. How, how do you stay so healthy? I, well, I mean, you, you look like, again, again, your age.
You're, you're, you're energetic, you're excited, you're moving around. Well, thank God I got good genes or whatever the guy upstairs gave me. I, I don't know. About how long did your father and mother live for? They were 86. Okay. So I've, I've outlived those guys. Yep. But, um, I've always been kind of active.
I used to run a lot, um, and, um, till I, I, and I ran a couple, three marathons, all that crazy stuff. But I've always been active, you know, athletic wise and um, that's, that's, that's been good. And now what I do, I stop running about nine years ago. 'cause my Achilles was giving me a lot of trouble. And so I, now I swim, I, I swim.
I tried to swim. At least four or five days a week. That's, that's my exercise. Sometimes, sometimes I, I walk out to the mailbox. Yeah, you're pretty active that Yeah, I keep active and I don't have the gas I used to have, you know, I'll tell you that much, you know, I mean, I used to, Jim knows my yard and I got a, I created a jungle out in my yard and I used to be able to go all day and take care of it.
Now it's about two hours and that's it for the day. You know, I don't, that's age can't help that, you know. Well, still still involved in the bus business. Oh, yeah. I'm still, yeah, still does that KP Young, I mean, working on doing that. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I just made a call this morning on somebody over in North Raleigh on a commercial job and yeah, I'm, I'm busy pretty much every day.
You know, the nice thing now tomorrow I'm taking off. 'cause I got, I worked, I got a couple things to do, but. That's the nice thing about being self-employed. Yeah. You know, you can, you could work your schedule and, and, and do, and if I wanna take a week vacation, I'll just take off and nobody knows where you're at today.
It's all full and, you know, and I just call 'em and say, Hey, I'm on vacation. I'll call you when I get back if you can wait. If not, it is what it is. Right. You gotta have time off, you know? Yeah. And I, when I, we moved to a different part of the bigger neighborhood, um, he would still run and he'd, I'd see him usually anytime of day wasn't you didn't really discriminate.
He tried to run in the evenings, I think for the most part. Well, yeah. Or early in the morning. Yeah. So, yeah. But sometimes you were, he's rocking down the road at 95 degree heat. And I'm like, that's impressive. That is impressive. Yeah. Yeah. I get my stuff done before like 7, 7 30 every day. I wanna make sure it's, it's in the coolest part of the day.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's smart. Yeah. I try, what I try to do now is I try to set my day up. Um, I try to keep 11 to 12 open. That's when I swim. Mm-hmm. And that kind of works out so I can make my appointments early first thing in the morning or, or after lunch, you know, and that works out pretty nice. And I do that.
That's the good thing about being self-employed. You can call your shots. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nobody's gonna fire me. So what's the exit strategy for the business? Pardon? Do you wanna sell the business someday or do you want to hand it off? This? Yeah. Yeah. I, I don't, I, you know, I don't know what I would do if I, if I retired you know, I'm volunteer or something.
But, um, it, the good thing about this business is that I'm active. I'm using my brain. I'm meeting people having fun most of the time. It's fun. You know, you meet some people that obviously that's, that's true in life that you don't care for or any, and you get days where everything goes wrong. You have the hellacious days but you know, there's always tomorrow and it, it keeps cooking.
Um. So I, it, it's good. It keeps me going. And that, I think that's part of why I feel so good, because I've been active. I'm not sitting around. I think if you sit around and not do anything, you, you get sedentary and you start deteriorating, you know? I agree. Yeah. I do. You, you gotta keep, you gotta keep moving.
You gotta keep moving. And I don't do as heavy as I used to. I used to swim longer. Now I cut the time back a little bit, but I'm still getting good exercise. Sure. And that's all I need to do, you know? And that's, that's the, that's just part of me. I mean, I, I have to do it. Know I can't, I can't sit around.
I get antsy, you know? Oh, that'd be tough to do. Yeah. Should add the 50 cup tea. To your diet as well. It's very healthy. Yeah. I, you know, I was telling Jim, I, I I had, I'm trying to help you here. Yeah. I, I, I, this is Okay. See, he's honest. This is why he, everybody we talked to, that's over 80 coffee is the, the main that's drink.
That's my main thing. But I do, I was telling Jim in the winter months, like in the, if, if I'm, if I'm working in the office or something, I'll get a hot tea or something, you know? Right. And I'll, I'll do that quite regularly during the winter months. That's just a nice afternoon. Sure. Kind of tonic for you.
Yeah. And it's great. I enjoy that. But yeah, most time I have one cup in the morning of, of coffee and that's it. After that, I don't, I don't, I don't touch it. All right. So we're gonna put you to the test. Okay. Tell us how many grandkids you have. Okay. You got nine grandkids and their names. Okay. Alright.
I'll start with my youngest. We have McKayla, Mateo, Malia. That's my son, Brian's, and they live in Las Vegas. The next batch is Matthew, my second son. He has Landon, Willie, And your third grandson is Andy. And then, and then, and then I have Jennifer, my daughter we have Henry and Meredith and Allison.
Yeah. Allison's 26. She's the oldest. The oldest one. Wow. She's 26, huh. Wow. It's some, some family you have. Yeah. That's impressive. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And the nice thing about it, Jim, is that the, I love to see the kids, and the kids love to see us, and boy, that's a good, that's a good combo to have.
Oh, absolutely. And your grandkids like you. Um, I never had my grandparents like I was 10 and aop, they were all passed away. So I don't, I don't remember much about 'em, but these kids at least had the, I, you know, because I've been living longer, um, that they can have a relationship and say, well, I remember papa, you know, I remember him, this and that.
So that's, that's good. But everybody wants to get, my boys and my daughter, we all wanna, you know, we love each other equally. Mm-hmm. You know, we're always together. And that's, man, that's, you can't buy that. Yeah. Can't buy. I'm blessed with that, with a good family. That's, that's, that's just the greatest really, is I was gonna ask in your life, what's the most important thing, but I think you answered it.
Yeah. That is, yeah. I, if you've got family, you got everything. Family and health, you don't need anything else. That's right. Yeah. That's, that's the Marty Hartwell philosophy. Real quick, what do you do to relax? What do I do to relax? I don't know if I really do relax, to be honest with you. The only time I really you wanna call it relaxes, is after I finished my laps at, at Preston Pool in the summertime, I lay down on the chase lounge and fall asleep for about 15 minutes.
But yeah, I don't, I mean, I don't really relax that much. I'm always doing something. Yeah. You know, but I, I, I mean, it's not working, but I'm always putzing around. You know, I, I, I'm so used to doing stuff. I mean, when, when I, when it gets, like, sometimes it gets slow in my business, I'm thinking, well, what am I gonna do today?
You know, I'm thinking, what, what's going on? You know? So, yeah. Vacation wise. See our kids. That's our trips. Yeah. Yeah. No Caribbean, no, nothing like that. We go see our kids. That's, that's, that's all I care about. You know, Jim still mowing your lawn. Oh yeah. That might be a good time to sit in the lawn chair.
Yeah. Yeah. Is all I'm saying. Well, I can, I can almost see through there now. Yeah. But the new owner's got a guy comes out and does the whole big back the backyard all the time. He comes out there Sunday about eight o'clock in the morning. Oh my gosh. That's not a good time. Yeah. He's out there in the summertime, you know, but yeah.
That's hilarious. Yeah. Um, anything on your mind from a hot take perspective? Anything driving you in a little frustrated with these days with society or anything like that? Well, yeah, that's apolitical by the way. Well, you know, politics, God, you never went talking about politics or religion, but I, I mean our, I, the thing that really bugs me today, I think is just the attitude of a lot of people and.
I'm a little concerned, I think a lot of people just don't realize how great our country is, right? Mm-hmm. I don't, these, these younger kids, I, I, I, I don't think they've got a grasp that how lucky they are to be in this country. I mean, we got our faults and things are screwed up, and there's nasty politicians and there's scandals and all that sort of stuff, but half these kids don't know who who the president is.
They are a lot of them, well, what can you do for me? You know, instead of, you know, getting out there and doing something and that, that's, that's not a good thing, you know? But that's 'cause I, old, older people talk that way, you know? See the younger generation, maybe the, our, the generation before me is not the same of us.
I don't know. But that's, that's one thing that kind of bothers me. I, I, I hate to say I'm a patriotic guy. I love this country. I think it's the greatest country in the world, in spite of our faults. Um, I'd certainly like to change a lot of things, but that'll never happen. But I get annoyed with the politicians 'cause I think some of 'em are really a waste.
But it is what it is. You gotta deal with it. But we're still better than anybody else in the world. I agree. You know, still, still the greatest. I also want to congratulate you because, um, you've lived 88 years. Yeah. And this whole interview, he didn't say back in my day. It's true because I would have, because I, I, I just think generations, um.
My generation. Your generation, we grew up differently. And it's not this generation's fault really, because things have changed in a lot of ways. Oh yeah, yeah. But the work ethic, the integrity, that's it. You know, the taking risks, having faith, all these things seem to, they're deteriorated. Yeah. They have, they're deteriorated.
Yeah. There's still a lot of good kids out there Absolutely. Doing good things. But I, I, I agree. Definitely you've hit it on the head that the, it, it, the, the values or the morals, whatever word you wanna use, have deteriorated. They're not like they used to be, you know? Um, my one son that he interviews a lot of kids for his job.
He's he works for enterprise and their leasing. And he says a lot of these, um, before they're, they're doing recruitment differently now, but a lot of these kids, they come in, they just wear a polo top for an interview. They'll say, well, what kind of salary am I gonna get before anything goes on?
Yeah. I mean, where are you gonna go with something like that? You know, you gotta earn your way, you gotta earn your way. But a lot of the kids, and I think a lot of that is because they weren't brought up. Right. It's the parents. Mm-hmm. The parents got it put, you've done a great job with your kids. I've, I think I've done a good job with my kids.
I, I did what was natural. I'm not bragging about it, but I've been lucky. But if they have to, they gotta get off and do it. You know, it's, it that's, it's, that's the world today. It's a cruel world. You gotta get out and hustle today if you're gonna make it. It's a lot different than when I was taught. It's harder.
It's, yeah. It's a harder too, it's a lot more effort for the kids today. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. Yeah. What a great guest. Yeah. Even though he doesn't particularly care for your tea, Jim. I think he's a great, oh, just a minute. Just a minute. We'll make peace. Yes, let's make peace. Cheers. Foxville biscuits.
But I do love, this is a good tasting tea. I'm just joking. This is wonderful stuff. Yeah. Yeah. It's been, this has been been great. I hope I haven't bored you with all my stuff. No, it's been great. No, no, it's very interesting. So, um, just to conclude, yeah. You know, you always ask our guests for the five tips of life that you wanna, well, I don't know if fast anybody that's gonna watch, well, I don't dunno if I've got five, but I'll tell you
number one is discipline, empathy, the golden rule, as corny as it sounds, do under others as you have 'em do unto you when you're down in the dumps. Be positive. That's four. And those pretty much are the things I live by. Excellent. Good advice. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And I think to your point earlier about the deterioration and just listening to your story, your Catholic faith has been very important to you.
Definitely. And I think it seems like what you described growing up, CSOL, the Irish family, lots of kids. Yeah. Asking to go to mast on a party night, Saturday night. Mm-hmm. Um, you know, we, that that's not part of society anymore now. No. And I think if you are not grounded in God or some other spiritual, whatever you may believe, um, 'cause there's, there's a purpose to life and if you're purposeless, then things deteriorate.
And I think ultimately, if the purpose is to really be a good person. It's to love God and to hopefully live in eternity when you pass. Yeah. I mean, that's a big purpose to make sure in life you're staying positive. Exactly. And you're doing things you need to do. Oh, yeah. Yeah. No question about it. Yeah.
You gotta have, you got, you gotta have the morals and the good faith, you know, and it's, it's discipline. I mean, it's like going to mass. I mean, my kids, unfortunately, they, some, sometimes they go, sometimes they don't. They don't have the same feel I have today. I don't say anything to 'em, because eventually they'll maybe come around, you know?
Right. But but you, in, in their defense, you're a hard act to follow. You pick up chicks and take 'em to church. That hasn't happened for a while, mark. Yeah. Well that was back in the day. Yeah. I know. I, I stole your phrase. Yeah. Yeah. It was it was, it was fun. But I, yeah, like I say, I. I'm, I'm had a, a good life.
I mean, there's things you add like this, I like that. But in a scheme of things, you want your feet looking ahead. I mean, come on, you're, nah, it's gonna be around while not really, not, not really, you know, satisfied. I mean the, the, the temporal things are, I mean, they're okay, but not that big a deal. I think I got my health, I got a good family and that, and really, man, that's like I say, that's all you need.
Yeah. That's all you need, you know? Yeah. Great advice. The rest, the rest rubs off. Yeah. Yeah. So where can we find you? Where can we what? Where can we find you? I want carpeting. Where? Go want carpeting. Oh. Just, just look up Floor comes international and carry on the web. I got a good website. All right.
And anybody wants to take a look? I'll be happy to call 'em. Fantastic. Yeah. Should just call 'em to have 'em come out and hang for a while. Yeah. It'd be fascinating to talk to. Yeah. And Jim, I know that, um. You have a website as well. 50 cups tea.com Everybody. 50 do. Yeah. Limited supply left. So order up.
Thank you again Marty, for being here today. Oh, pleasure. Well, it's been an absolute pleasure, pleasure, pleasure. I hope I haven't talked your heads off here with all my stuff going on, but it's been a great conversation, but I am what I am. That's it. That's it. Authenticity. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you.