Armando Verdugo shares his love for off-road and why he gets up in the morning to go to work! Founder of Herooffroad.org and BAM Strategic, Armando has been around the off-road block learning how to help the small business guy tie everything together. It’s a good conversation between two friends. Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app – subscribe so you don’t miss anything, a new episode drops every Thursday morning, early!
3:56 – I just kept moving progressively east until I got to just outside of Phoenix
11:02 – it was a good time to build myself into what I wanted to be in this industry
18:13 – the start of Herooffroad.org
35:33 – My thing with Hero is that I’m not going to save all of them, but I’d like to save one
43:29 – your website is your Nexus, your home, you want it to be open and inviting
52:02 – the PSA’s? that was a way for me to vent after dealing with customers
We want to thank our sponsors Maxxis Tires and 4Low Magazine.
TRANSCRIPT
[00:01:47.320] – Big Rich Klein
on today’s episode of Conversations with Big Rich, we have Armando Verdugo. Armando is a marketing and management specialist. He’s been in the off road world, well, probably for at least 13 or 14 years, I believe. I first met him with Warriors for Wounded, came out to one of our events and set up. We’ll talk about all that, but he’s been with Rigid Lighting and Addictive Desert Designs and Artec, and now he’s doing his own thing. And he also heads up Hero offroad. So we’ll talk about all of those things. Armando, thank you so much for coming on board and sharing your life with us.
[00:02:28.340] – Armando Verdugo
Thanks, Big. Yes, definitely. It’s been a long time that we’ve known each other and considered you and Shelley good friends and always excited to get some time to hang out with you guys.
[00:02:42.270] – Big Rich Klein
Absolutely. So let’s start right off. Where were you born and raised?
[00:02:48.860] – Armando Verdugo
I was born in Southern California. Don’t hold that against me.
[00:02:53.740] – Big Rich Klein
That’s all right. I was born in Northern California.
[00:02:56.150] – Armando Verdugo
I just don’t tell people that, yeah, born in Southern California, spent most of my life out there, and then in 2007 moved to Arizona and been in Arizona since.
[00:03:12.740] – Big Rich Klein
And Southern California has got a lot of metropolitan areas and a lot of cities and towns and whatnot all over the place. What part of Southern California were you in?
[00:03:24.920] – Armando Verdugo
So I was born in Los Angeles proper at General Hospital, of all places, to a very young mother and grew up in the Monterey Park Montebello area. And spent most of my childhood up to early 20s out in that area. Then moved out to the South Bay, Manhattan Beach, Rodondo Beach. Hermosa. Beach areas.
[00:03:55.100] – Big Rich Klein
Nice.
[00:03:56.720] – Armando Verdugo
Then moved to Long Beach, out to Riverside and then just kept going progressively further east till I got to just outside of Phoenix and that’s where I live now is outside of Phoenix.
[00:04:07.240] – Big Rich Klein
Excellent. And what did you do as you were growing up that prepared you for what you’re doing now?
[00:04:14.840] – Armando Verdugo
Probably nothing, but the dirt has always been in my soul. I had a mini bike, a little Honda Trail 50 with a 70 motor in it. I got that on my 9th birthday. We put it that around going up to Asusa Canyon out to the hills in Corona where my uncle and aunt live through the neighborhoods by the house going into ATC’s ATVs kind of. And that whole dirt team was always something I enjoyed. But career wise I went to a technical high school and I was doing metallurgical technology. I was doing a figure analysis and that’s what I did for almost 20 years I was in that field but I always had dirt in my soul. And 2009 when that industry kind of shrunk up a bit and I got laid off I went searching for something different and decided to jump into the off road side awesome. READ MORE
