Hi and welcome to AwarePreneurs, the world's longest running social entrepreneur podcast. My name is Paul Zelizer and I'm your host. If you could take a moment and hit subscribe and do a review on your favorite podcast app, it helps our guests help more social entrepreneurs have more positive impact. Thank you so much. Today our guest is Scott Gates and our topic is the growth benefits of Second Chances Hiring. Scott Gates is the co founder and CEO of Awake Window and Door Co. A luxury window and door manufacturer specializing in building windows and doors at massive sizes with minimal frames to maximize views in luxury custom homes. But even more important, the business focuses on its mission to reduce recidivism by providing meaningful second chance employment to those formerly incarcerated.

And before I introduce Scott, I want to mention We've done two other interviews over the eight and a half years that might be very relevant. Episode 236, I had the absolute honor of interviewing Tom Bozo, who recently retired as CEO of Homeboy Industries, which is one of the pioneers of this approach worldwide. And episode 352, I interviewed Rose Velasquez on some of the HR issues of second Chances Hiring. So I'll put links to both of those in the show. Notes. Scott, welcome to AwarePreneurs.

I'm excited to be here. Paul, I love your podcast and I appreciate you helping tell the the stories of businesses out there that are trying to make a difference.

Thank you so much. So let's, let's kind of wind back and give a little bit. Like what? Before we get into specifics of Awake Window and Door, what would somebody want to know about you and your professional journey before you got to Awake Window and Door?

Yeah, so I've. In college I was actually working. I was teaching a fifth and sixth grade Sunday school class at my church and there was a guy that, whose son was in my class and he worked in the luxury window and door business, which I knew absolutely nothing about. And he kind of said, hey, would you. You seem like a smart, motivated kid. You're doing a great job with these young boys. Would you like to come learn about my company? And that started me on a journey where I've spent, you know, 20 plus years of my career now in this space. And what's unique about it is people build these amazingly beautiful homes and executing on them is really difficult.

So the window and door side of luxury homes is quite challenging and energizing. And what I've had the pleasure of is I've worked on the dealer side of the business and then on the manufacturing side of the business. But my latest venture is the first time I've truly been an entrepreneur and actually got to build my own manufacturing company serving this space that I worked in for a long time.

So you came into this. I love that story. Huge, huge fan of having a network and, you know, paying attention to the opportunities that your network bring you. And what a great story. You're teaching Sunday school. Somebody saw your engagement and wanting to make a difference, invited you into the space. You learned about the industry, and somewhere along the way, you said, you know what, this knowledge and this desire I have to be an entrepreneur, I can sync this up with my desire to have a positive impact. Tell us a little bit about that thinking.

Like, when did those two things, hey, I know something about windows and doors in this luxury space, and I also want to have a positive impact. When did those two sort of, you know, threads start to weave together? Scott?

Yeah, that's a great question. And I. I think I've had this entrepreneurial bug in me since I was a teenager. So I've always had, like, an interest of, like, creating something that was truly my own. And I used to go to a lot of different leadership conferences, and the. In the businesses and leaders that I heard from that I would say I was most motivated and inspired by were those that were using their business as a way to make a bigger impact in the world. And, you know, there's ones we can think of. I remember one of the leadership conferences I was at, the.