April 23, 2025

East Mississippi Community College alumnus Justin Lindley launched his first business, The Welding Works, seventeen years ago and his Starkville-based business enterprises have been expanding ever since.

In addition to The Welding Works, Lindley owns True Grit Trailers, which specializes in custom-built trailers, and True Grit Trading Company, an outdoor and sporting goods store. Lindley also owns a few commercial rental properties and earns money on the side operating a bulldozer, excavator and dump trucks.

He’s often bouncing back and forth between his businesses and job sites, touching base with employees and pitching in wherever the need is the greatest.

“Whatever squeaky wheel is getting the grease is where I am going,” he said with laugh.

Lindley, who grew up on his parents’ farm in Shuqualak and attended school in Macon, knew he wanted a career working with his hands. In 2006, he enrolled in the Welding Technology program on EMCC’s Golden Triangle campus.

“Welding just seemed like a good fit for me,” he said.

Lindley enjoyed the program and, along with other Welding students, spent the summer of 2006 welding components for a new Welding Technology building on EMCC’s Golden Triangle campus under the direction of program instructors Gary Gammill and Ricky Collier.

“We would come in early and stay late that summer working on the lab,” Lindley said. “We learned a lot during that time.”

Gammill, the Welding department head for EMCC, described Lindley as an industrious student who was eager to learn.

“From the first day of class I knew Justin was going to be successful because of his work ethic and desire to please the customer,” Gammill said.

By the fall of 2007, Lindley had completed the welding courses at EMCC and only had a couple of academic courses to take to earn his degree. Although he was doing side-hustle work in Macon, Lindley had a welding truck and knew he wanted to start his own business, so that’s what he did.

In late 2007, he signed a lease on a building on Industrial Park Road in Starkville and opened The Welding Works in early 2008. Lindley sold truck accessories and performed minor welding jobs out of the business.

“It was little odds-and-end things at first and we did whatever we could to survive,” Lindley said.

He abandoned the truck accessories and focused on welding, which was growing but not rapidly.

“We struggled pretty hard from 2008 to 2011,” he said.

Then Lindley got a break. The Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine was expanding its building and needed welders for the work. Lindley landed the contract and reached out to Gammill, who was able to connect him with students in EMCC’s Welding program who were looking for work.

Things took off after that. Lindley was the successful bidder on a job constructing metal handrails and fencing for a large apartment complex, which led to similar work at The Pointe at MSU.

“We went from doing little miscellaneous projects to working from 6 in the morning to 6 at night,” Lindley said. “I was staying up doing the paperwork until 8 or 9 at night.”

In 2016, Lindley and his employees began constructing metal buildings, traveling as far away as South Carolina for work. When work slowed during the winter, they would build a few trailers to sell.

Then, in 2020 the global pandemic that was COVID 19 shut down much of the economy. Also, that year Lindley and his wife, Katie, had a daughter, Ava Rose. Things suddenly changed.

He scaled back on the metal building construction so he could spend more time at home. Rather than constructing a few trailers at a time for sale, they built 75 in 2020.

“It was like, bam, they just sold out,” Lindley said.

True Grit Trailers was born. A little over a year ago, Lindely opened True Grit Trading Company in the front half of a building he owned on Mississippi Highway 25 south of Starkville. He has a crew of welders who work out of the back of the building fabricating trailers for True Grit Trailers.

True Grit Trading Company sells outdoor gear, coolers, sunglasses, fireworks, ammunition and firearms, to name a few things. His father, who used to own a gun shop, runs the store and performs gun repairs and installs scopes, among other things.

Lindley averages six to seven employees at The Welding Works, with four to five employees at True Grit Trailers and another four employees at True Grit Trading Company. He also has a couple of employees who take care of his commercial rental properties.

About half of his employees came through EMCC’s Welding Technology program.

“Whenever I need a welder, I call Gary (Gammill) and he gets me someone,” said Lindley, who credits Gammill with helping him out throughout the years.

Lindley still builds a few metal buildings, mostly local for someone he knows. He recently completed a barndominium in Crawford and he has a crew of welders working on a patio for The Mill at MSU, a former cotton mill that now houses MSU’s Division of Development and Alumni. He also has some workers making repairs for the MSU Beef Unit, which has Angus and Hereford seedstock herds, as well as a crossbred herd.

Lindley recalled a time more than a decade ago when the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. in Starkville needed some aluminum welding done. Lindley called Gammill seeking his advice about what type of equipment he would need for the project. Lindley said Gammill spent several hours over three days teaching him the basics of aluminum welding.

“I’m sure Gary would have done that for any of his students,” Lindley said. “That is just the type of person he is.”

For his part, Gammill said Lindley serves as an industry partner for EMCC’s Welding Technology program.

“Justin gives back to EMCC and is always willing to help in any way that he can,” Gammill said.

Lindley, who returned to EMCC to pick up a few classes, is one class shy of earning his degree in Welding Engineering Technology.

“If I can find time, I may go back and take that last class,” Lindley said. “At this point, I’m not sure. I stay pretty busy.”