Episode Eleven: From Startup to Student Success: Justin Clements’ Big Idea

Transcription:

Kim Cole

Hi everyone, and thanks for joining us today. My guest today is a local entrepreneur. He’s very interesting and a lot to talk about today, he has joined forces with the Community Foundation to help Morgan County Youth. And I’m very excited to introduce you to Justin Clements, hey, Justin, thanks for coming today.

 

Justin Clements

Thanks for having me. Kim,

 

Kim Cole

Sure, one of the things I’d like to talk about, besides your interesting background, is what led you to us. So, let’s, let’s talk about what got you excited about coming to the Community Foundation?

 

Justin Clements

Well, like most good things in life, it was a referral. So, business and relationships and anything you do in life, whether you’re buying something on Amazon or looking for someone to partner with on initiative, usually comes from word-of-mouth referrals and gentleman, Dan Moore said, hey, you got to talk to Kim Cole and the Community Foundation of Morgan County.

 

Kim Cole

Great. Well, we love Dan Moore for sure, and we appreciate that referral. So, tell us. Tell the viewers a little bit about yourself, because you have a very interesting background.

 

Justin Clements

I’ll try to give the short version, so that unless someone really wants struggling with sleeping at night, then I can go for the long version. But born and raised in Indianapolis on the east side of Indy, really rough neighborhood around 42nd and post, and grew up there and then went to college, was not good at school at all, like no one expected me to graduate high school, let alone go to college, and was kind of hanging out with the wrong crowds. That was the only crowd around 42nd and post. But you know, life would really wasn’t heading the right direction. And then something happened where I was kind of on probation and wasn’t allowed to do much, but I was allowed to go to church and work, and so I started going to church with my grandma and grandfather, and that that experience changed my life and put me on a solid foundation, and it had me in a different direction. Was able to graduate high school, got a degree, I got a scholarship for painting and drawing because I was an artist, I was always a really good artist. So went to school to be art teacher, preacher, fell in love with a gal from Morgan County and settled down with her right after college, we got married. A month after I graduated college, we got married and settled into Green Township and started working building my own business, and then worked at United Healthcare, and grew there, and then me and the old VP of United Healthcare started a company called Remodel Health, launched a couple other businesses as well that are somewhat successful, but Remodel Health is by far the most successful. Last year, private equity made a huge investment into us. I’ve gone part time, and now I’m trying to use my time, talents and treasures to make a difference. Grow where you’re planted and make a difference in Morgan County. And I’ve started networking and talking with folks in Morgan County, like yourself, and have found that Morgan County has amazing people with tons of talents and gifts, and are, I believe, the community’s prime for a lot of exciting growth opportunities, and so that’s where I’m spending a lot of my time and energy now, is here in Morgan County put into place some things that that should be done.

 

Kim Cole

Well, and there’s so much to talk about with that, but let’s, let’s talk a little bit about your first project. I know you’re, you’re a lot of different places, but the main exciting thing that I think you’re doing is you’ve bought the old Marsh Supermarket strip mall in Martinsville that’s been vacant for quite a while, and you’re wanting to put a new career, lab, high tech trade school in that and in that center. So, tell our viewers about that, because that’s what that’s why we’re here. We want to hear about that.

 

Justin Clements

Yeah. So, any great community has great schools. Our schools are fantastic. My kids have all gone there, and two of them are still in Martinsville school systems. And the leadership I found is phenomenal. And so first thing I did was reached out and got a meeting with the superintendent, and I just asked, you know, what do you think of the idea of having, an innovation career lab, having a place where kids can get their hands on different career paths before they graduate high school, so they can figure out what they truly want to do, not think what they want to do, and some of them can bypass going to college, go straight into a career or starting their own business. And Eric Bolin, I don’t want to put words in his mouth, but he pretty much said this, this answer to prayers like this, is exactly what we want to do. The vision is what Eric had for this already and just needed some good partners. So, alignment exists there between the superintendent went and started, I don’t like to start things from scratch. I like to try and find things that are already existent and copy them, instead of creating a will from scratch. And went up and visited the town of fishers has something like this with hub and spoke a public private venture. Went and visited them, met the guy that runs that, David Decker, and took inspiration from that, had planning meetings. There are some other folks that are involved on the technical, skilled trades part of it, that are already interested, and we all kind of came together at the same moment. So just really good timing. And, you know, it was just an idea, and it was Eric Bolin idea first, and I stepped in, and we’re just partnering together to see make that happen.

 

Kim Cole

That’s fantastic. So, as I understand it, it’s a collaboration with Martinsville, but all our county students are going to be able to have seats at this table, correct?

 

Justin Clements

Absolutely. Yeah. So, the goal there would be to allow kids from all around Central Indiana that want one take advantage of this program. And our goal is to make it the best program possible and excellent. And everything you do, you should try to do it excellent way to where these kids can really have a great experience, a good learning experience, figure out what they want to do, and fast track to doing that, whatever that career path is. So, it doesn’t just mean trades. It doesn’t just mean plumbing, electrical, you know, masonry, concrete, framing. We want it to be financial services, banking entrepreneurism, soft skills, insurance. Did you know you could spend a week or so studying to become an insurance licensed professional, and you get a license, and now you’re an expert, right? You don’t have to have a degree to be licensed in life and health or PNC. So those things help. But you can, you can fast track on some of those things. And we want to give the kids the best opportunity, get them excited and let them, let them graduate to where they’re going into a career, not just a job. They’re going into a career, whether that means they have to get more education or not. That’s kind of up to them. Depend on the career path.

 

Kim Cole

Well, that sounds that sounds great. What is the timing of this? Do you have a timing nailed down yet?

 

Justin Clements

I mean, we closed on the building last week. And you know, we’re trying to move as fast as possible, however. We want to be diligent and do things the right way. So sure. I believe the 2027 school year will have some of this in play. And as we build out, there’s still a lot of factors that have to to be in place for when the marsh building gets used for that. And but the school system is already starting to make those classes available today, right now, and we’re just trying to grow and expand on as fast as possible,

 

Kim Cole

Sure. And so different stages are going to start with certain trades and then add things along. I assume correct,

 

Justin Clements

Yeah.

 

Kim Cole

Okay, and then I know that when you have a vision for something, it is great big. So, if you could tell the viewers, a little bit about where you see bringing in possibly a John Wooden experience.

 

Justin Clements

Yeah, I’ll step back a bit and say I used to think that I was like borderline crazy with the dreaming stuff. But if you study people that created businesses or foundations or even like Disneyland, and you listen to their stories, like the Shoe Dog, the Nike story, or any you, most of them start with a dream and a vision that most people think is crazy, and most businesses don’t make it. Most organizations or dreams don’t come true, but I learned firsthand when we started Remodel Health in my basement, like most people, thought we were crazy, like or that I was crazy, and have this vision and this dream of building a health insurance tech company that, you know, grow it up and sell it in a few years. And that happened

Kim Cole

Where is Remodel Health now,

 

Justin Clements

 

Downtown and kind of right by Lucas Oil and Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

Kim Cole

Right, so from the basement to near Lucas Oil now.

 

Justin Clements

 

From the basement to the fifth and sixth floor of a fabulous, great building with a couple hundred employees.

Kim Cole

That’s awesome. So go back to what you were saying about big dreams.

 

Justin Clements

 

So, the dream is to kind of rebrand Morgan County. I personally have found Morgan County and Martinsville to be phenomenal, with great people and beautiful landscape and so many, so many things in its favor. The distance with I-69 between Martinsville and Indianapolis or Martinsville and Bloomington is quick. So, I see all these things in favor of Morgan County, but we have a negative connotation, a negative brand, a negative image. And if I were buying a business that had a negative image, I would rebrand it and change the perception. So, bringing to life the fact that John R. Wooden is from Martinsville, and his brand image and all his accomplishments are undisputable, and they’re fantastic. And so, working with some of the folks connected with Wooden, his coaching curriculum, the books that he wrote, the content, even the family. Bringing a John R. Wooden experience, like bringing to life the principles and the teachings that John R. Wooden left us that we can use today in growing ourselves, growing our families, growing our businesses. And I think that the kind of bigger picture dream is for Morgan County to be where you grow your family and grow your business and a lot of exciting stuff in the works. We don’t have time to kind of dig into all the details all but, you know, rebranding that so people come, and visit come and, you know, see Martinsville, talk to the folks in Morgan County, in Mooresville, in Monrovia, and see all the opportunities that exist there.

Kim Cole

Well, we are. We’re certainly on the verge of something very big with this. I appreciate you coming today to tell to tell our viewers more about it, and we’ll probably have to do a follow up podcast as we get along in the way. So, thanks for being here today and thanks to everybody for watching.

 

Justin Clements

 

Thank you.