Most fence companies sell fences.

Very few fence companies have a story.

Our story is what makes us different.

In the winter of 2016, I was fresh out of inpatient rehab, living in a state-funded transitional housing facility, and officially classified as homeless. “Indigent” if you want to sound sophisticated.

At the time, I owned exactly three things of value: a Bible somebody had given me, a pair of running shoes, and an unhealthy amount of optimism for a man whose life looked like a yard sale nobody stopped at.

One of the conditions of living there was simple: get a job.

Sounds easy enough, right?

It probably would have been if I hadn’t made the decision to try something completely foreign to me—honesty.

For years, I had lied my way through life. I lied to employers. I lied to family. I lied to myself. If there were employment gaps on my resume, I could usually come up with a story quicker than most people could come up with a question.

But that was the old life.

This time, I decided to tell the truth.

Every employment gap was explained exactly as it happened: drug addiction, alcoholism, arrests, and the chaos that comes with them.

The results were immediate.

Call backs: zero.

Interviews: almost none.

A Whataburger with a help wanted sign in the window wouldn’t even take a chance on me.

To be fair, if I had been the hiring manager, I probably wouldn’t have hired me either.

My resume looked less like a career path and more like a police investigation.

I found myself standing at a crossroads. I could go back to the life I knew—the one that inevitably led to jails, institutions, and eventually death—or I could ask God for help.

One afternoon, while out on a run, I was doing exactly that. I was praying. Crying, actually. Asking God what I was supposed to do next.

Then, in what can only be described as God’s unique sense of humor, I was nearly run over by a landscape trailer.

As the truck passed, a thought hit me.

“Wait a minute. I could do that.”

I could rake leaves.

I could clean gutters.

I could do yard work.

If nobody else would hire me, maybe I could hire myself.

The idea sounds simple now, but at the time it felt impossible.

I didn’t have a driver’s license.

I didn’t have a truck.

I didn’t have a trailer.

I barely had two nickels to rub together.

But I did have willingness.

With the help of my newly acquired brother-in-law, a borrowed trailer, a couple of rakes, and some tarps, I completed my very first leaf removal job on a cold Sunday afternoon.

We were so inexperienced that we didn’t even know where to dump the leaves afterward.

At one point, I found myself crawling around inside a trailer while it bounced down a dirt road, throwing leaves out the back by hand.

If you’ve ever wondered what entrepreneurship looks like in America, sometimes it’s Shark Tank.

Other times it’s a grown man in a borrowed trailer committing what may or may not have been agricultural littering.

Looking back, it was ridiculous.

But every company has a first day.

That was ours.

Over the next several months, God continued to provide one customer at a time.

Leaf removals.

Gutter clean-outs.

Tree trimming.

Brush hauling.

Pretty much anything people were willing to pay me to do—as long as it wasn’t illegal. If it was illegal, I knew a guy… but thankfully those days were behind me.

As I rebuilt my life, I was also rebuilding my future.

Eventually I got my driver’s license back.

Then came a vehicle.

Then more customers.

Then more work.

Soon I found myself facing a new challenge: I needed to hire someone.

That’s when God gave me what would become the foundation of our company culture.

I remember thinking about who I should hire. Experienced people? Skilled people? People with perfect backgrounds?

Instead, I felt God whisper something completely different.

“Only hire people just like you.”

Honestly, I thought it was a terrible idea.

Not a mildly concerning idea.

Not a risky idea.

A terrible idea.

The kind of idea that sounds inspirational in a sermon and catastrophic in a payroll meeting.

“God, nobody is going to hire us.”

His response was simple.

“You let Me worry about that.”

Deal.

I didn’t fully understand it at the time, but obedience rarely requires understanding.

So I started hiring people with stories like mine.

People in recovery.

People who had made mistakes.

People who were rebuilding their lives.

People who needed someone willing to believe in them before they fully believed in themselves.

The results surprised everyone.

Including me.

Before long, we landed our first fence project.

Then another.

Then another.

Then another.

By the end of 2018, fence construction had become our largest source of revenue.

At that point, we made it official.

We weren’t just a landscape company anymore.

We were a fence company.

Today, Oklahoma Fence & Gate builds residential fences, commercial fencing, custom gates, gate operators, and security solutions throughout Oklahoma.

But the truth is, we’ve never really been in the fence business.

We’re in the people-building business.

The people just happen to build fences.

You’ll hear a lot of companies describe themselves as “second chance employers.”

Many of them truly mean well.

But we’ve learned that giving someone a second chance requires more than giving them a paycheck.

A paycheck is important.

A new way of life is essential.

When someone comes to work for us after years of addiction, incarceration, or personal failure, they often need more than a job.

Sometimes they need transportation.

Sometimes they need help getting a driver’s license reinstated.

Sometimes they need help navigating court requirements, probation obligations, child support issues, or recovery programs.

We’ve learned that if you’re serious about helping people rebuild their lives, you have to be willing to help them navigate the obstacles that got in the way in the first place.

That’s why we’ve joked for years that while other companies offer a 401(k) match, we offer a driver’s license reinstatement match.

Because for some people, getting their license back changes everything.

Yes, there is a cost to operating this way.

It takes more patience.

More investment.

More grace.

More time.

But the return on investment is unlike anything we’ve ever experienced.

The ROI isn’t measured in dollars.

It’s measured in phone calls from fathers who got custody of their children back.

It’s measured in employees showing up with a driver’s license they never thought they’d hold again.

It’s measured in wives answering the phone.

In probation officers running out of reasons to be suspicious.

In men and women who spent years introducing themselves by their mistakes finally learning how to introduce themselves by their future.

That’s the kind of ROI that doesn’t fit neatly on a spreadsheet.

That’s why Oklahoma Fence & Gate exists.

We build great fences.

We build secure gates.

We take tremendous pride in our craftsmanship.

But the mission has always been bigger than wood, steel, and concrete.

Every fence we build helps create opportunities for someone to rebuild their life.

Every gate we install helps support a company culture built on redemption, responsibility, and second chances.

When you choose Oklahoma Fence & Gate, you’re not just hiring a contractor.

You’re becoming part of a story.

A story of redemption.

A story of second chances.

A story that’s still being written every single day.