We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Wade Julian a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Wade, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
Houston Diesels started in 2015 by three friends. Jhett Young, Forrest Rushing, and Wade Julian. What it is today, is never what it was supposed to be. Back in the beginning, the three of us where apart of a bunch of different Facebook diesel groups. A lot of the guys on the pages where meeting up periodically to hang out. The problem was, all their met ups where in other cities, such as Austin and Dallas. It wasn’t feasible for us to meet up with them due to distance. So, we decided to start our own thing here in Houston. The purpose was to just meet up with local diesel enthusiast, hang out, and talk shop. After a short time it began to turn into more. Guys started asking us to get a decal for their truck, a hat, a shirt etc. We then started to raise money for local charities when we where together to just help, out of the kindness of our hearts. Well, one thing led to another and we are where we are at now. We are the largest diesel enthusiast organization that is a non profit 501C3. We host monthly charity events to raise money for local charities. We are about to hit $1,000,000 dollars donated back into the community. We have helped over 100 different charities, have a community service program, and also a scholarship program now.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am actually a full time Firefighter. I have a beautiful wife, and four amazing children. Houston Diesels is actually my hobby, even though it takes a ton of my time. I actually just kind of fell into all of this. The organization was never supposed to be what it is today. We have gotten here due to the community needs and our membership pushing us to do and want more. Our organization has turned into being an excellent resource for local charities that need assistance, whether it is for child cancer, veterans, little league teams, animal shelters, and everything in between.
The biggest thing that I am proud of and that separates Houston Diesels from others is the fact that we do not take an operating cost from our events. A lot of charity events, the company will take ten to fifteen percent of the amount raised for operating cost. We do not. When you come to one of our events, 100% of what you donate, goes to the charity we are helping. Weather you donate $1 or $1,000, 100% goes to the charity. Houston Diesels solely survives on the sale of our own product- hats, shirts, decals, koozies, etc, and outside donors who believe in our mission and purpose. This is a value we have stood on since we started this great organization.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
Our reputation of the organization is everything. Diesel drivers have never been in the best spot light. This is mainly due to the small group of ones that like to blow smoke, “roll coal”. Since day one, we have not tolerated immaturity in anything we do. There is zero tolerance for it. We have focused extremely hard to ensure that every place we go and everyone we help, is left with a positive interaction and image of our organization. We have stood strong on that for the last 10+ years.
Along with that, we are very transparent. When we raise funds and donate them, we publicly posts receipts showing the donation being made. This is done for two main reasons. We want the supporters to see the difference they have made for the charity and also so we are transparent that we are doing what we said we would do with the proceeds.
We have built an organization that strives to be a positive impact in the community and peoples lives. There is so much hate and drama in this world that it tends to take a toll on you. We have tried to create the one thing that you can turn to, that doesn’t involve any of that. A place you can be happy and actually enjoy yourself.
We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.
We sell all of our product at two places- our website- www.houstondiesels.org and at the events we host. We have looked into possibly selling it on Amazon, but it has never been the fit for us. We are what you would consider “mom and pop”. There is only a small group of us working behind closed doors. It takes a lot of man power to continue operating on other websites. Along with that, most other websites have fees of some sort. Fees eat into profits or cause you to raise your prices. Our profit margins are very small and is important to retain as much as possible for our organization. With that, our price point is right in line with the market and raising prices for the consumer isn’t feasible, nor right to do to them. We do have to watch income for the organization, but sacrificing the consumer and raising their prices when there is other work arounds, isn’t right. We want to make sure we are doing right by them as well.
With proper website setup, search features, background codes, and time to build, your website will be popular to find you, and you will not need other websites. But you have to be patient.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.houstondiesels.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/houstondiesels
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/houstondiesels
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wade-julian-b43b81364/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@houstondiesels
Image Credits
All images are owned by Houston Diesels.