My First Hood Cleaning School

Back in 1992, I went down to Fort Worth, Texas, for the very first PW&A convention. That’s where I met a gentleman named Robert Hinderleider from Delco. Robert was a character — sharp, forward-thinking, and a real hustler when it came to sales. I started buying a lot of products from him because he was always ahead of the game.

He used to put out this newspaper with all his products, sales, and pricing. It came in the mail, thick with ads and deals. Looking back, he was kind of like the first guy to do “online sales” before online sales even existed. He made it simple to order, and his pricing was always better than what I was used to. It was eye-opening, and I saved a lot of money buying from him.

Over time, Robert and I got to know each other pretty well. He knew I was in the exhaust cleaning business, and one day he asked me if I’d be willing to start training people in kitchen exhaust cleaning. At first, I didn’t know what to think — I was busy building my business. But the more we talked, the more it made sense.

So, we set up a school at my facility up in Gurnee, Illinois. Robert handled the sales, marketing, and the financial side. I handled the teaching. We’d run four-day classes, bringing people in from all over the country. We’d take them out into the field, show them my trucks, let them see real jobs, and then do hands-on training. I put a lot of people through those classes.

It was a great experience. In fact, some of the guys who are out there teaching exhaust cleaning today — they were my students back then. That’s something I look back on with a lot of pride. I was helping shape an industry that, at that time, was still kind of the Wild West.

But as my company started growing into bigger markets, it became clear that I was also training my competition. That’s when it started to feel questionable. I was giving people the tools to compete with me, sometimes in the very same cities. So eventually, I stepped back from doing the training.

I’ll never forget one of my students, though. Before he came to my class, he told my insurance man: “I’m going to go learn how to clean exhaust systems from Daryl, and one of these days, I’m going to buy him out.” He never did buy me out, but years later, he did come to work for me. Funny how business comes full circle like that.