Building Texas Business: Recent Episodes
BoyarMiller
BoyarMiller Chairman Chris Hanslik interviews industry thought leaders and organizational visionaries in a discussion rife with leading edge information, the latest trends, case studies, and news. Business inspiration, growth, challenges, corporate culture and mentorship will be on the agenda. Enjoy the banter and glean valuable insight as the conversation unfolds.
In this episode of Building Texas Business, Chris Hanslik sits down with Shannon Payne, Co-Founder and CEO of Allied Fire Protection, for a conversation about building a life safety company from the ground up and the discipline it takes to grow one steadily over nearly three decades. Shannon frames his work simply, describing a business dedicated to saving lives and protecting property through the engineering, construction, service, and maintenance of fire sprinkler and fire alarm systems.
Shannon shares how the company began in 1998 with three people in a Pearland garage, a lifelong friendship, and a mentor’s early advice about mastering operations as the true heart of any business. He walks through the growth that followed, from the first offices on Telephone Road to expansion across Texas and eventually into markets like Nashville and Tampa, all achieved organically. He also speaks candidly about weathering back to back black swan events, including 9/11 and the financial crisis, and how deep customer relationships allowed Allied to remain profitable even through steep downturns.
The conversation covers the themes that have defined Shannon’s approach to leadership, starting with a commitment to hiring for values first and the story of how a rebranding effort surfaced the company’s real mission by asking team members and customers who Allied truly was. He and Chris discuss the challenge of keeping culture consistent across regions, the importance of learning to let go and empower others, and the value of building in a pro business state like Texas. Shannon is also honest about hard lessons, including the million dollar cost of commodity swings in steel and pipe, and the transparency he brought to his team afterward along with the strategy he adopted to protect the company going forward.
Shannon also talks about innovation in an industry that struggles to find skilled people, describing how Allied built talent acquisition and training programs that reach into high schools, military bases, and colleges to introduce young people to a career path, along with a rotational development program aimed at growing the next generation of leaders. Throughout, he returns to a principle he once taught his son, to say what you can do and do what you say, as the foundation of trust and lasting customer loyalty.
For business owners, entrepreneurs, and leaders interested in disciplined growth, building a values driven culture, navigating economic uncertainty, and solving the talent challenges facing the trades, this episode offers a grounded and practical look at how a garage startup became a company operating across Texas and beyond.
LINKS
Show Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About Allied Fire Protection
In this episode of Building Texas Business, Chris Hanslik sits down with Julie Friedman, founder of Young + Wild and Friedman and known to many as the Play Dough Lady, for a conversation about turning a personal challenge into a thriving product company. Julie shares how her search for a way to help her young daughter, who struggled with a speech disorder and anxiety, led her to homemade sensory play and, almost by accident, to building a nationally recognized brand.
Julie walks through the early days of mixing Play Dough in her kitchen, packing hundreds of kits across every room of her house, and hauling pallets of bins and fifty pound bags of flour with three small kids in tow. She talks candidly about the moment she realized this was a real business, the viral growth that took off on Instagram, and the tenacity and passion that kept her from giving up even when it would have been easier to walk away.
The conversation covers the practical lessons of scaling a company that grew faster than anyone expected, including learning to let go of control one finger at a time, hiring the right people, and building a supply chain with backup plans after being burned by a single source. Julie also opens up about the family that runs her Play Dough factory today, the culture of love and loyalty she has built with her team and customers, and the leadership style that favors trusting her gut and moving quickly over overanalyzing every decision.
Along the way, Julie reflects on balancing motherhood with entrepreneurship, the importance of asking for help and leaning on a supportive spouse and business partner, and the surreal milestone of launching her line into eighteen hundred Target stores. She shares why authenticity has been at the heart of her brand from the beginning and how she recharges each summer by unplugging in Montana.
For entrepreneurs, mompreneurs, and anyone who has ever turned a personal passion into something bigger than they imagined, this episode offers an honest and inspiring look at resilience, growth, and staying true to yourself while building a business from scratch.
LINKS
Show Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About Young + Wild and Friedman
In this episode of Building Texas Business, Chris Hanslik welcomes back Bethany Andell, President and CEO of Savage Brands, for a conversation marking five years of the podcast. Bethany was one of the first guests on the show, and her return offers a timely opportunity to reflect on how much the business landscape has shifted and what it now takes to lead, grow, and build a meaningful brand in an era defined by relentless change.
Bethany shares how the fundamental challenge for leaders has moved from planning for change to planning through it, and what that shift means for decision making, team communication, and company culture. She explains why the velocity of today’s business environment creates new pressures around trust, both within organizations and in the marketplace, and why the leaders who thrive are the ones who can project confidence and direction even when the answers are not fully clear.
The conversation covers the intersection of brand building and artificial intelligence in depth. Bethany makes a compelling case for why AI makes brand more important, not less, because trust and authenticity become the differentiating factors in a world where execution is increasingly commoditized. She also introduces the idea of thinking about AI not as a tool but as a teammate, and what it looks like when companies begin designing their organizations around how work gets done rather than around traditional roles and titles.
Bethany and Chris also get into the importance of investing in personal brands and individual thought leadership, the power of internal influencer research to drive organizational change, and the discipline required to let go of what no longer fits in order to double down on core strengths. Throughout the episode, Bethany brings a perspective shaped by years of helping companies find and amplify what makes them genuinely distinct in competitive markets.
For entrepreneurs, executives, marketers, and anyone thinking seriously about culture, brand, and leadership in a fast moving world, this episode offers a candid and grounded look at what it means to build something real when everything around you keeps shifting.
LINKS
Show Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About Savage Brands
In this episode of Building Texas Business, Chris Hanslik sits down with Bonnie Moss, President and CEO of MBCO, a civil engineering, surveying, and subsurface utility engineering firm she founded nearly 11 years ago. Drawing on close to three decades of industry experience across Texas, Bonnie shares what ultimately pushed her from regional manager to business owner, and how sometimes the best entrepreneurial decisions are the ones you make before you have time to overthink them.
Bonnie walks through the real lessons of transitioning from engineer to business owner, including learning the hard way about accounts receivable, reading profit and loss statements, and the critical difference between being able to do a project and actually making money on it. She also reflects on the growth pains that come with scaling too quickly, what happens when business development takes a back seat to delivering work, and why hiring slowly and controlling costs are two disciplines she wishes she had internalized sooner.
The conversation covers how MBCO built its culture around core values, autonomy, and a willingness to embrace failure without shame. Bonnie talks about adapting the organizational chart to fit the people on the team, surrounding herself with those who are stronger in areas she is not, and learning to lead by listening more than speaking. She also addresses the emerging pressures facing the engineering industry, from artificial intelligence automating design alternatives to autonomous grading equipment changing jobsite operations, as well as the importance of client diversification when government agency budgets slow down.
Bonnie also touches on leadership fatigue as a real and underappreciated risk for founders, the value of programs like Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses for early stage entrepreneurs, and why growing fast is not the same as growing well. Her advice to anyone thinking about starting their own company is grounded and direct: control your cash, seek counsel from people who have been through it, and trust your gut.
If you are a business owner, entrepreneur, or aspiring founder in the engineering or professional services space, this episode offers a candid and practical look at what it actually takes to build a firm from the ground up, sustain it through setbacks, and position it for long term growth in the Texas market.
LINKS
Show Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About MBCO Engineering
In this episode of Building Texas Business, Chris Hanslik sits down with Joey Evans, head of business development, government relations, and transportation technology at TNW Corporation, for a conversation about an industry that quietly keeps Texas - and the rest of America - running. Joey introduces listeners to the world of short-line railroading and explains how TNW’s four Texas railroads, located in Gonzales, Dumas, Brownwood, and at the Port of Victoria, serve as the critical first and last mile of freight movement across the state.
Joey breaks down how short-line railroads fit into the national transportation network, why one rail car effectively removes four trucks from the highway, and what makes TNW’s operation distinctive - including its flagship Dumas facility, which has grown into the largest privately owned rail car storage facility in North America. He also shares how the company built its proprietary technology platform, MyTNW, to give customers real-time visibility into their entire fleet, and how TNW has continued to push innovation in an industry that has historically lagged behind when it comes to technology adoption.
The conversation covers TNW’s approach to customer relationships, strategic planning, and staying nimble in the face of shifting market conditions and geopolitical uncertainty. Joey also discusses his work as president of the Texas Shortline Railroad Association and the significance of newly passed state legislation that lays the groundwork for dedicated state funding to complement federal infrastructure grants - funding that could accelerate rail upgrades across Texas by years and help the state compete with neighboring states that already have these programs in place.
Joey also speaks candidly about his own leadership journey, from starting as a railroad conductor with no college degree to growing into a strategic role, and how mentorship, faith, and a shift away from purely transactional thinking have shaped the leader he is today. He talks about the importance of building a personal brand early in a career, the value of servant leadership, and why asking for help is a sign of courage rather than weakness.
For business owners, entrepreneurs, and leaders interested in Texas infrastructure, economic growth, logistics, and what it takes to build a service-driven company with deep roots and long-term vision, this episode offers a compelling and eye-opening look at an industry that touches nearly everything - even if most people never think about it.
LINKS
Show Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About TNW Corporation
In this episode of Building Texas Business, Chris Hanslik sits down with Ryan Walsh, CEO of the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority, for a conversation about Houston’s growing role as one of the country’s premier destinations for major sporting events.
Ryan explains the mission of the Sports Authority, how the organization helps attract and support events like the Super Bowl, Final Four, World Baseball Classic, and FIFA World Cup, and why those events create meaningful economic impact across the region. He also shares how Houston’s venues, hospitality industry, public partners, and business community work together to deliver large-scale events that showcase the city on a national and global stage.
The conversation takes a deep look at the upcoming FIFA World Cup in Houston, including what residents and visitors can expect from Houston Stadium, the Fan Fest in EaDo, international fan culture, and the once-in-a-generation opportunity for Houston to welcome the world. Ryan also discusses why 2026 may become the biggest sports year in Houston’s history and how the city is preparing for a summer that will put its food, culture, diversity, and collaborative spirit on full display.
Chris and Ryan also talk about leadership, building the right team, creating a culture of accountability, transparency, and collaboration, and preparing an organization for high-pressure moments where execution matters.
If you are interested in Houston business, sports tourism, leadership, and the impact major events can have on a city’s economy and identity, this episode offers a timely and insightful look at how Houston is getting ready for the world stage.
LINKS
Show Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About Harris County-Houston Sports Authority
In this episode of Building Texas Business, Chris Hanslik sits down with Brad Coleman, Owner and CEO of Safeway Driving, for a conversation that goes far beyond driver’s education. Brad shares his remarkable journey from racing professionally in NASCAR to leading one of Texas’s most established driving schools, and how that transition became the foundation for a purpose-driven business.
Brad talks about how his passion for cars and driver safety first took shape, what he learned competing at the highest levels of motorsports, and how those lessons carried into entrepreneurship, leadership, and business growth. He also explains how Safeway Driving has evolved from a traditional local driving school into a modern franchise operation with a strong reputation, innovative curriculum, and a measurable impact on driver safety across Texas.
Along the way, the conversation explores topics like overcoming adversity, building the right team, protecting company culture, balancing accountability with empathy, and growing a business without compromising quality. Brad also offers candid insight into the pressure of racing, the mindset required to get back behind the wheel after a serious crash, and how confidence and preparation can make all the difference, both in business and on the road.
It’s a compelling episode about resilience, reinvention, and what it looks like to build a business that is both scalable and deeply meaningful. For business owners, entrepreneurs, and leaders looking for lessons in growth, culture, and long-term vision, this conversation delivers plenty to take away.
LINKS
Show Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About Safeway Driving
In this episode of Building Texas Business, Chris Hanslik sits down with Chris Howard, founder and CEO of Softeq Development, for a conversation about entrepreneurship, innovation, and building a technology company over nearly three decades.
Chris shares how he started his business after leaving IBM, the early risks he took, and the lessons he learned while growing Softeq into a full-stack engineering firm working across hardware, software, and emerging technologies. He explains how a mindset of constant learning has been critical to staying relevant in an industry that continues to evolve at a rapid pace.
Chris and Chris discuss what innovation looks like in practice, how business owners can think about adopting new technologies, and why curiosity and adaptability are essential traits for long-term success. The conversation also explores how artificial intelligence is changing the way companies operate and what leaders should be doing today to prepare for what comes next.
The discussion also highlights lessons in hiring, culture, and leadership, including how to build teams that can grow with the business and deliver consistent results over time.
If you are interested in entrepreneurship, technology, and leading a business through constant change, this episode offers practical insight from a founder who has done it for nearly 30 years.
LINKS
Show Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About Softeq
In this episode of Building Texas Business, Chris Hanslik sits down with Erin Gajdalo, CEO of Pluralsight, for a conversation about leadership, company transformation, and the challenges of scaling technology businesses.
Erin shares the story of her first year leading Pluralsight and the dramatic changes the company has undergone. After stepping into the role, she faced a lender takeover, the need to rebuild the executive team, and the challenge of resetting the organization’s culture and go-to-market structure to return the business to growth.
Chris and Erin discuss the realities many startups and SaaS companies face after periods of rapid expansion, including how leaders must align teams around clear priorities, understand where to invest resources, and make difficult decisions during a turnaround. Erin also explains how her leadership style evolved as the company worked through its transformation.
The conversation also explores how organizations are responding to the rapid rise of artificial intelligence. Erin explains how Pluralsight helps companies develop technology skills, build AI literacy across their workforce, and ensure employees understand how to effectively use emerging tools.
This episode offers insight into leadership, culture, and the decisions required to guide organizations through periods of change and transformation.
LINKS
Show Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About Pluralsight
In this episode of Building Texas Business, Chris Hanslik sits down with Steve Montgomery, President and CEO of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, for a conversation about leadership, entrepreneurship, and the growth of one of the fastest-growing cities in the United States.
Steve brings more than three decades of experience in both the private and public sectors. Before leading the Fort Worth Chamber, he helped build and grow a healthcare information technology company, joining as the fourth employee and helping scale the business before its eventual sale. That experience shaped his perspective on entrepreneurship, small business challenges, and the importance of building strong teams.
Chris and Steve discuss the mission of the Fort Worth Chamber and its role in advocating for businesses, connecting companies with opportunities, and helping create an environment where businesses can grow and thrive. Steve explains why Fort Worth is experiencing significant growth, pointing to the city’s expanding population, available land for development, and its strategic location within the Texas economy.
The conversation also explores leadership lessons from building startups, including hiring philosophy, the importance of culture, and the value of adaptability in growing organizations. Steve shares insights from his work with businesses across Fort Worth, along with trends he’s hearing from local leaders as they navigate economic uncertainty and global market pressures.
If you are interested in entrepreneurship, leadership development, and the factors driving business growth across Texas, this episode offers valuable perspective from someone working directly with companies every day.
LINKS
Show Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About The Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce
In this episode of Building Texas Business, Chris Hanslik sits down with Roe Patterson, co-founder and Managing Partner of Marauder Capital, for a candid conversation about leadership, resilience, and building energy businesses in one of Texas’ most cyclical industries.
With more than 30 years of experience in the oil and gas sector, Roe has built, scaled, sold, and led companies across the energy spectrum, including serving as CEO of a public oilfield services company and completing more than 130 M&A transactions throughout his career. Today, he invests in and advises energy and industrial services businesses, bringing both operator experience and board-level perspective to the table.
Roe shares what it takes to navigate downturns, manage risk, and know when to walk away, whether from a deal, a strategy, or a hiring decision. He discusses the importance of capital discipline, the industry’s shift toward lower leverage and return of capital, and how technological advancements such as automation and AI continue to reshape energy production without replacing the people who make it work.
The conversation also explores culture, mentorship, and leadership evolution. Roe reflects on lessons learned from early setbacks, the power of listening over talking, and why humility and decisiveness must coexist in strong leadership. From hiring philosophy and team retention to innovation and safety in the field, this episode offers practical insight for business owners navigating growth in dynamic industries.
If you are interested in entrepreneurship, energy, leadership development, and the realities of building businesses in Texas, this episode delivers hard-earned wisdom from someone who has seen the industry from every angle.
LINKS
Show Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About Marauder Capital
In this episode of Building Texas Business, Chris Hanslik sits down with Levi Goode, president of Goode Company, to talk about leadership, legacy, and building a business rooted in Texas culture.
A fifth-generation Texan and three-time James Beard Award nominee, Levi grew up in the family business founded by his father, Jim Goode. From washing dishes as a kid to leading one of Houston’s most iconic hospitality groups, Levi shares what it means to carry forward a legacy while continuing to evolve.
The conversation explores the realities of running a family business, earning trust as a leader, and preserving culture as a company grows. Levi reflects on the role Texas traditions play in Goode Company’s identity, from backyard barbecue and barbecue cook-offs to Houston Rodeo season, community gatherings, and the cookout culture that brings people together year after year.
Chris and Levi also discuss leadership development, team culture, and the responsibility that comes with stewarding a brand that has been part of Houston’s food scene and rodeo tradition for decades. This episode offers thoughtful insight into entrepreneurship, hospitality, and what it takes to build a business that lasts in Texas.
LINKS
Show Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About Goode Company
Brandon shares how Surely became a leader in non-alcoholic wine and why nearly 90 percent of its customers still drink alcohol. Rather than targeting only those who are sober, the brand connects with people who want to enjoy wine on their own terms. He also introduces Arlow, the first legally recognized low-alcohol wine brand in the United States, offering half the calories and zero sugar while maintaining the full-bodied experience wine lovers expect.
Listeners will learn how Arlow’s concept grew from Brandon’s deep understanding of consumer behavior and his curiosity about where the market was heading. He explains the technical challenges of dealcoholization, how his California-based team perfected the process, and what it takes to create a wine that meets both taste and quality standards in this emerging space.
Beyond product development, Brandon discusses how Surely and Arlow have scaled from direct-to-consumer beginnings to major retail success. Today, Surely can be found in Target, Sprouts, Total Wine & More, and Spec’s. He explains how the company’s focus on profitability and sustainable growth has allowed it to thrive in a changing industry where investors now value lean operations over rapid expansion.
As the conversation continues, Brandon shares leadership lessons from two distinct growth phases: one centered on fast-paced scaling and another built around operational discipline. He offers insights into the importance of communication, team alignment, and company culture, noting that even high-performing employees can hold a business back if they are not the right cultural fit.
Brandon also reflects on his journey as a leader, emphasizing the need for transparency and collaboration, both with his team and with his investors. His approach to management highlights how curiosity, accountability, and clear communication can drive consistent results without compromising values.
Now rooted in Austin with his family, Brandon talks about what makes Texas the perfect home for entrepreneurs like him. From the state’s unique energy to its strong business community and culinary culture, he shares why Texas has become the ideal place to grow both personally and professionally.
Whether you are interested in brand strategy, leadership, or the evolving world of consumer products, this episode offers a thoughtful look at how clarity of purpose and innovative thinking can build a business that lasts.
LINKS
Show Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About Surely Wine
About Arlow Wine
In this episode of Building Texas Business, Chris Hanslik talks with Nubia Pérez, CEO and part-owner of Gretna Machine Shop, a Houston-based precision manufacturer serving the energy, aerospace, and defense industries.
Nubia shares the remarkable story of how her family built Gretna from a single-garage operation in 1980 into a certified lean manufacturing company, and how she later transformed it through leadership, culture, and purpose.
After her father’s passing in 2012, Nubia faced a decade of uncertainty before realizing that the company’s future depended on her stepping forward. She reveals how she rebuilt Gretna from within by creating accountability, redefining its culture, and leading with empathy and transparency.
From embracing EOS to driving diversification from oil and gas to aerospace, Nubia explains what it takes to modernize a second-generation family business while honoring its legacy. She also shares her perspective on automation, AI, and making manufacturing “mindful” again.
If you are interested in leadership, culture change, and the evolution of Texas manufacturing, this episode offers a powerful look at resilience, renewal, and what it means to lead with heart and purpose.
LINKS
Show Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About Gretna Machine Shop
In this special live 100th episode of Building Texas Business, Chris Hanslik talks with Dean Reynaldo Valencia, President and Dean of South Texas College of Law Houston, and Billy Murphy, CEO of University Lands, about the intersection of law, leadership, and innovation in shaping Texas’ future.
From higher education to resource management, both guests share how Texas institutions are adapting to a rapidly changing world while balancing tradition and transformation. Dean Valencia discusses the law school’s century-long commitment to access and opportunity, its pioneering online programs, and how artificial intelligence is reshaping legal education. Murphy offers a look inside University Lands, where a small team manages 2.1 million acres and billions in annual revenue to fund public universities, while navigating emerging challenges such as renewable energy, AI, and sustainability.
Together, they explore how legal training builds critical thinking and leadership skills that extend far beyond the courtroom, and why innovation, ethics, and stewardship remain central to Texas’ continued growth.
If you’re interested in leadership, education, and the forces shaping the future of business in Texas, this milestone episode offers a thoughtful, forward-looking conversation about progress built on purpose.
LINKS
Show Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About South Texas College of Law
About University Lands
In this episode of Building Texas Business, Chris Hanslik talks with Bobby and Janice Jucker, co-owners of Three Brothers Bakery, about what it takes to build and sustain a family business through two centuries of change, challenge, and perseverance.
From their family’s remarkable story of survival and entrepreneurship to leading one of Houston’s most beloved bakeries today, Bobby and Janice share how resilience, culture, and community have guided every decision along the way. They explain how they turned hardship into strength, rebuilding again and again after floods, fires, hurricanes, and even a pandemic, while staying true to their roots and their people.
Janice discusses lessons learned from the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program and how they transformed a toxic workplace into a culture grounded in care, communication, and accountability. Bobby reflects on the balance between preserving tradition and embracing innovation, from hand-rolled bread to digital recipe systems and modern production technology.
Together, they offer practical insights on leadership, disaster recovery, and the power of people, proving that success is not about avoiding challenges but about how you rise after them.
If you are interested in entrepreneurship, legacy, and leading with heart, this episode is a masterclass in perseverance and purpose from one of Texas’s most enduring family businesses.
LINKS
Show Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About Three Brothers Bakery
In this episode of Building Texas Business Podcast, Chris Hanslik talks with Jeff Ludy, Founder of The Window Experts, about what it takes to build a purpose-driven, disruptive business in the home improvement industry.Jeff shares how he turned a small garage startup into one of the most trusted window companies in the country, with a national footprint and the most-watched YouTube channel in the industry. He explains how his faith, integrity, and commitment to treating people with honesty, dignity, and respect have guided every decision along the way.From early lessons in sales and leadership to creating a “no-haggle” model that broke the mold for his industry, Jeff reveals how character and culture drive lasting success. He also shares the systems behind his hiring process, his four “C’s” of talent, and how he navigated growing pains—including scaling too fast and learning to lead through crisis.If you’re interested in leadership, entrepreneurship, and building a company that stands out by doing things differently, Jeff’s story is a masterclass in vision, integrity, and resilience.
LINKS
Show Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About The Window Experts
Building a business that lasts starts with building a culture that matters.In this episode of Building Texas Business, I sit down with Andy Weiner, CEO and Founder of RockStep Capital, to talk about what it takes to create and sustain a truly fierce company culture. From his family’s early retail ventures to leading a national real estate investment firm with more than 9.7 million square feet under management, Andy has learned that success depends not just on smart deals but on shared values and disciplined behaviors.Andy reveals how his team lives by 25 guiding principles called “RockSteps,” specific behaviors that define how they respond, collaborate, and lead every day. With rituals like their weekly “RockStep of the Week” call and a focus on accountability, responsiveness, and family-first priorities, he has built an organization where integrity and energy drive performance.We also discuss how RockStep’s “Hometown America” investment strategy and vertically integrated structure have helped them thrive through changing markets, and why the company’s success begins with hiring for cultural alignment rather than skill alone.If you are passionate about leadership, culture, and the values that fuel great Texas businesses, this episode offers powerful lessons on how intentional leadership can transform an organization from the inside out.
LINKS
Show Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About RockStep Capital
In today's episode, join me for a fascinating discussion with entrepreneur Allie Danziger. As the founder of Ampersand, a platform empowering early career professionals, Allie shares her inspiring journey of building a company that fills real needs in the market. Her innovative spirit and knack for staying on top of trends have led to her success in launching her first social media PR agency in Texas. Allie provides unique insights into sparking creativity through yoga, running while consuming business content and navigating changes like an acquisition. Her openness to opportunities, regardless of source, echoes the importance of constant learning. Listen in for invaluable wisdom on communication, mentors, and balancing self-care when uncertainty strikes.
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
-
Allie Danziger, the Founder of Ampersand, shares her journey of creating a platform that empowers early career professionals with necessary skills to thrive in their careers.
-
She emphasizes the importance of staying current with market trends and fostering creativity and innovation to propel the business.
-
Allie shares her unique approach to sparking creativity, which includes finding inspiration in business books and podcasts while running or doing yoga.
-
We highlight the importance of being open to opportunities, regardless of their source, and the significance of building and maintaining relationships.
-
Allie talks about her unique leadership style and the crucial role of mentors in her entrepreneurial journey.
-
We discuss the importance of having the right team and she shares her thoughts on how she would spend a 30-day sabbatical.
-
Allie shares her story of how she grew her first business, Integrate, noticing the shift towards social media and starting the first social media PR agency in Texas.
-
She emphasizes the importance of knowing who you are bringing on board in your business and how it will impact the future of the company.
-
Allie shares her insights on building relationships with employees, customers, and stakeholders, emphasizing honesty, clarity, and empathy.
-
She talks about her experience of finding her way as a leader as her company was acquired, and she came into a new team, emphasizing the importance of gathering the right people to the table and giving them power and autonomy.
LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
GUESTS
| | Allie DanzigerAbout Allie |
TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors)
Chris Hanslik In this episode, you'll meet Allie Danziger, who has founded and sold two startup businesses in her career. Allie shares many great tips on how to be successful in business, but one of the best is to focus on your own self-care to build good habits that will translate into your professional life. Okay, Allie, I want to thank you for being here today. I really appreciate your time. Allie Danziger Thank you so much. I'm excited to do this video. Chris Hanslik So there's a lot that we could cover and talk about with you, and I hope we get to touch on everything, but I want to start with current business. Tell us what it is and what it's known for. Allie Danziger So Ampersand business is a training platform that helps early career professionals learn the skills they need to succeed in their careers. Chris Hanslik So what was your inspiration for starting Ampersand? Allie Danziger Well, ampersand is I mean in a little bit more detail. It's a training platform. So we have 250 different lessons in there that students or early career professionals never learn and college oftentimes not through college or high school jobs that they may have of really how to succeed. How to set a calendar in mind. How to attend a meeting. When to raise your hand in a meeting. How to ask for a boss for a vacation the right way. How to book the flight and then ask for the vacation. Ask them first. Have a plan. Here's the agenda. What to do when you meet with your team before you go on a vacation. How to come back. What to do if your boss texts you while you're on vacation. So all these like unwritten rules and all of that came from my experience in my previous business where we hired over 250 interns and entry level employees and I was constantly frustrated. But they just didn't know these things, and so we built pretty robust training at that other company called Integrate for our interns and entry level employees. When COVID hit, I was spending a lot of time talking to young professionals who had lost their jobs or internships. I realized I was saying the same things over and over again and looked around for resources for them, for podcasts, to listen to our books to read or whatever, and there was nothing that could teach all of those. Just I call it the unwritten rules of the workplace soft skills power skills, durable skills, like there's a ton of buzzwords for social intelligence. There's a book. Chris Hanslik There's a book right, social intelligence, kind of that. Yeah, it is. Allie Danziger And so that was the impetus to start a quick pilot as a nights and weekends project, to test the concept and then launch this. Chris Hanslik That's amazing and definitely serving. I mean, I think what I find interesting about all my guests is usually the inspiration is experiencing some gap and whatever industry they're in, and then taking advantage of it. That sounds exactly what you've done with Ampersand, yeah exactly. Allie Danziger I mean, there's still and I just cannot believe it that there still is nothing that we have yet to find that is interesting and engaging training that Gen Z or young professionals actually want to go through and participate in, that teaches these really important skills. There's a lot of boot camps out there. There's a lot of schools out there. There's a lot of workforce development programs that are trying different things, but what I believe we've created something that works at scale to keep young adults really engaged. Chris Hanslik That's great. So I know just from knowing you that you've recently kind of taken Ampersand to a new level kind of. Maybe, since you can share that, I mean, what's transpired, and how is that going to help take the company to the next level? Allie Danziger Absolutely so. Just two weeks ago, we were acquired by a student lending company called Ascent Funding. So actually now I am the SVP and GM of a success platform at Ascent Funding. And what they? Why that made sense is they have always offered every single borrower hundreds of thousands of borrowers career coaching, because they believe that their job as a lender is not just to give them money and then ask for money back upon graduation, knowing that colleges don't necessarily adequately prepare you to go get that job, but that they want to really ensure the success of every student they get money to. They're one of the good guys. Yeah, so your values aligned, our values were very aligned, and so we were out raising money and meeting with lots of different VCs and different companies out there, and I met the Ascent folks and we realized that this is just one of those situations where one plus one equals five and we could really use it as an opportunity to grow their business while giving Ampersand the resources that we needed from dev, support, leadership, etc. Additional coaches to really grow our platform in the existing way that we always have to the businesses and to colleges and simultaneously help their business too. Chris Hanslik That's great. Well, congratulations on that. I'm very excited. Well, we don't always start, that's not sure the end, but we'll go back more to the beginning. What you're doing is innovative, to say the least. So what is it that you try to do at Ampersand that fosters creativity, innovation in order to kind of propel the business? Allie Danziger So for me personally and for my team, I mean, we are a learning and development platform, but I think it's super important for us to constantly be learning and developing ourselves as well, and so it's just by taking time to stay up to date with what's happening in the market, knowing that what we've created doesn't exist, and so it is white paper which is sometimes very scary for me and the team right Like we're not making something better, cheaper or faster than someone else. We are truly creating something that has never existed before, which is good and bad. Chris Hanslik It's going to be inspirational and exciting. Allie Danziger It's certainly great for recruiting and it's certainly great for just like seeing something in a totally different market and thinking about how that can apply to Ampersand and applying some of the problems in the industry, in the ed tech space, in the thin tech space, in the workforce development space, and saying, well, guys, this is really broken. I'll be doing the same thing the same way for 25 years. Let's come in and I'm allowed to ask some questions because I'm new to the space and we're creating something different which I think get the brain working. With my previous business, with Integrate, I was really focused on just like serving our clients. We were a marketing agency, worked with over 600 businesses in my 12 year tenure, but we were busy all the time and I never really took the tie or I didn't take enough time to develop my own professional development skills, my own leadership skills, until about halfway through that experience and then realized how much that work is actually the work that's the work that matters, but I used to think that it wasn't, and so I think it's just about structuring your days and again, myself and my team, structuring our days so that we have the time and space to think, to create, to brainstorm. That's unstructured. It's not through meeting or like time block on your calendar to do work so that you can innovate. Chris Hanslik What are some of the things getting a little granular on that point that you do, or that you recommend, a listener that's at business under trying to grow, do the structure so they can find that time. Allie Danziger Yeah, so I well, I work out, and when I work out, I usually when I run I listen to business books, and your brain wanders while you're on a run listening to a business book, but it's like every single book that I read, I change my way of thinking about something or come up with some different idea. Same with podcasts, too, so hopefully this will inspire the listeners. Chris Hanslik That's the goal, yeah. Allie Danziger It's really like learning different opinions and just different ways of doing things is what opens up my mind. If I do that in a really structured setting, I get really bored, right Like if I do it I have to sit at my desk and have to learn something in that moment. But for me personally, it's while I'm on a run or while I'm in my car and I'm like half listening, but I don't really need to learn something, but really just be inspired. That's when it works for me to come up with those ideas. I also do a lot of yoga, and so then that that is when the ideas then like formulate more. But my team always knows that in March-ish, when the weather starts to get better at around 5am, is when they'll start getting these emails from me, because I will have six. Am Sorry because I've just gotten back from a run and like the ideas just are flowing and make it super annoying. Chris Hanslik I love that. Well, I'm an early morning workout person myself and I know exactly what you're talking about. The question, the challenge, is capturing them right, because you can't write it down or whatever. Allie Danziger Well, so in my yoga class I always I try to remember to take a notepad and pen, because they want to let your phones in and then that way, just as the ideas come, I can write them down and hopefully remember what they mean later. I tried doing it in my Apple watch with that. Then it's just gibberish and I have no idea what it means. Chris Hanslik Yeah. Allie Danziger And on the run, yeah, I'll send myself emails. That just no subject line is every idea that pops into my head. Chris Hanslik I love it. Yeah, Good. So you mentioned Integrate, First company you started, you know. Maybe you mentioned a little bit about what it was. Maybe give the listeners a little more background on that company, what it was doing and kind of what your inspiration was there and how that I guess company evolved into being sold. Allie Danziger For sure. So I started that company when I was 23. I was working in New York for a PR agency that was just a traditional PR. There was no social media or anything like that at the time, and the real estate market crashed six months into my first job at college. And so they laid off half the staff. I assumed that I would be laid off because you know, for last one in first one out is what you normally heard. Chris Hanslik Sure. Allie Danziger That boss took a totally different approach to the 2008 recession, and she kept the junior level employees and the like most executive team, so all the like middle level everything is what is who was laid off. I started looking around, though, because I assumed that in some time it was a real estate firm. It was not going to do very well. Chris Hanslik You saw the writing on the wall. Allie Danziger So I started looking around and saw that most of the PR agencies were starting social media departments, and so I went to my boss, against my parents' suggestion, and said in the next round of layoffs, you can lay me off because I'm actually more interested in the social media side of things and I think that's the future of marketing. And she said why don't you start that at our firm? And so I was 22, six months out of college, or probably eight months out of college at the time, and she gave me an opportunity that completely changed my life. And I was within two months of that conversation, running a P&L, going to my own new business, meetings, hiring a team, all under her guidance and leadership. But I was speaking all over the country like about social media and real estate and how social media was going to really change the way that real estate marketing was done. So I was on all these panels and as I was doing that, I was getting business opportunities, but they were too small for the agency to take on, so I started taking freelance opportunities. On that my boss actually like helped me write the contracts for and learn how to do freelance work, because it was a recession and she couldn't pay us at her employees very much more. And so she said as long as this doesn't get in the way of what you're doing for the firm, like all good. Chris Hanslik What a great it was amazing. Yeah, great opportunity, great person to have in your corner. Allie Danziger And all of that gave me the entrepreneurial bug. Chris Hanslik Yeah. Allie Danziger So after about a year of that experience and learning under her guidance and having all of these different freelance opportunities, I did the math that I think a lot of budding entrepreneurs do, where I said, well, if I had full time, I used to have all my second vacation days. There was no remote work or anything like there is today. I gave the economy like none of that existed, and I did the math that if I had my normal 60 hours a week to do all this freelance work, how much money, how much more money I could possibly make. So quit my job. Gave myself a month living in New York to see. Am I really the type of person who will wake up early and get the work done, or do I need a bot? I didn't know myself well enough. Do I need a bot to help guide me through a normal work day and quickly realize that when I was working for myself, I was much more a bossler and would wake up even earlier and work even harder. And so after that month, came to Houston and started in a great I'm from Houston, so I couldn't really afford to the risky the risk in the New York rent and expenses. So he came to Houston August 2009 and started in a great. We were the first social media PR agency, I think in all of Texas. Chris Hanslik Wow. Allie Danziger And so it was something different. Businesses, just like, believed me talking about social media, more so than companies who are adding social media into their portfolio. The agencies, who have been around for 20, 30 years and we're now starting to talk about social media. We could come in just with a different lens, even though I was 23, 24 years old and just talk about it a little bit differently. So, that was the start of Inaugurate. Over the years we grew, evolved, added other services in, but I never could quite get a handle on digital marketing. It's just not my skill set. Try to hire for that skill set, try to acquire for that skill set and just never could break. We were never the best digital marketing agency. Where I really do believe we were the best PR and social media agency. And so, long story long, in 2017, I ended up meeting my business partner who had the same business idea as I did. He came from a digital marketing background and had already raised money to go buy other agencies and he needed PR support. Just like the digital support, and so I ended up buying the company and it was a really quick process. It was not really the way that I had structured the business from day one. It was not my original goal to sell that business. I thought I'd be ready to integrate my entire life. My kids would work there one day. But then we met, opportunity presented itself. It just made sense. All of a sudden it clicked that like, oh, maybe there's other things that the agency could be, Maybe there's other things that I could do. It ended up being a great outcome for me, for my team, for my clients, the agency as a whole. It just was again like a life changing experience. That wasn't exactly the plan, but sometimes you just have to go with it when those opportunities are presented to you. Chris Hanslik One thing about a plan right is once you write it down and implement it. You take a step or two and it's done Right. But at least there's a kind of a foundation. But yeah, you're right, you never know what the world's going to bring you Right. Yeah, and so that's how that ended up going. Allie Danziger I stayed on board for three and a half years, running our sales and growth and continuing to like blend, the services of PR and social media that we were bringing to the table, as well as the digital SEO website, everything that their experience was All still under the same name of Integrate now and still thriving agency. Chris Hanslik Well, that's one thing. That's kind of cool about the story, I think, is you get quote acquired, but they kept your name. Allie Danziger Yeah, I mean, we had really strong brand loyalty, brand legacy and had worked really hard on that in. Houston. So since the agency was going to have a big presence in Houston, it just made more sense to keep the name. Chris Hanslik Well, let's go back, whether it's Integrate or Ampersand, and share some of the learnings of what it's like to just step out on your own. What are some of the pitfalls you encountered, how you grew from them, what you learned? That kind of helped make the company better as a result of going through that rough kind of starting the business kind of time. Allie Danziger Yeah, and both businesses definitely have lessons. You know lessons learned, mistakes made and moments where you look around and like, what did I just do? I should just go get a job at a company while I'm doing this to myself, making life so hard, but it's also it's so rewarding being able to bring something that you believe into the world. Chris Hanslik Sure. Allie Danziger Sorry, your question was what. Chris Hanslik Some of the lessons learned of like whether it was a you know a misstep or mistake or God. I wish I'd have known that, but I only knew that now when I started right. So just kind of thinking through every entrepreneur I know is like you know, getting it off the ground is just. Sometimes you don't even know what you don't know, right. Allie Danziger But so one one thing that I think is a lesson learned, and something that I have done pretty well, I believe, is just sometimes you just have to get started. While there is research and work that has to be done, sometimes you just have to start testing, start learning, see if there's, even if you don't know what the product is, see if there's product market fit, if anybody cares, because if you wait until it's perfect, if you wait till you have the best website to launch or you have, you know, the product completely defined or the pricing model completely defined. You may never do it, and then somebody else will and you'll be kicking yourself later. So that's something that may be too fast, but I have tried to do that and give other entrepreneurs that same guidance, with ampersand. I did not do enough market research. When I got started, I was very passionate about what we were doing still am and I believe that this needed to be in the market, but I didn't look around to see why it isn't in the market. Chris Hanslik Okay, because it doesn't, and it's again. Allie Danziger It still does not exist. There's no training out there that teaches young professionals how to be grown-ups, and there's just in. It's still an issue with who's the stakeholder, who's gonna pay for that, and I think there's other parties that have maybe tried and also couldn't find that same answer, and I didn't do enough of that research in the beginning to really understand. How do colleges actually work with their students? What do they actually care about at the end of the day, even though they say all these things, what's their real motivation? Who's really paying their dollars? Right and and what a distruggles that they're one of the problems they're trying to solve for. And then same thing on the workforce side, like why doesn't this exist? Where are the engagement issues, where the employee issues, where the manager struggles and Not just my own biases, and not that, like I did talk to 200 business owners before launching this, but you know Stepping outside of my bubble, stepping outside of my community to get their input, just to really understand what else exists. That's a mistake that I certainly made, and then also your team. You have to really think diligently. Think about who you're adding. Chris Hanslik Both to your cap table right, for sure, big time, and. Allie Danziger To your founding team to make sure that not just for the problem that you're trying to solve in that moment today, but also where you want the company to go. What do you, what are you going to need at the table? Advisory boards can be. We're really helpful for me in that to add some expertise where I couldn't afford to hire and I Couldn't fundraise from these different verticals or industries, so that that is a way that I kind of solved that a little bit. But being really careful about who you're hitting equity to is a big lesson learned for sure, this experience For sure, right. Like you need the money or you need the support until you take it. But next time around I will be much more diligent and listen to all of the tales that are out there and like why there's a reason people say don't raise Money from friends and family. There's a reason why they don't, you know, work with family or people you know intimately. So all those things have a reason. Chris Hanslik Yeah, they absolutely do. We tell clients all the time just before you bring on Partners. Make sure you know who that is, whether it's friends and family or someone else. Soon as you bring them in, you can't really get rid of them absent writing a check, so it can be an expensive lesson to learn. Allie Danziger Yeah, and for us everything luckily worked out in the end, but it caused extra heartache or work along the way, right. Chris Hanslik So let's talk a little bit about just managing through Uncertainty, whether that be economic times, like we've seen that here, you know, obviously in the recent times, with the kind of ups and downs in the market and what's going on, and other types of just, you know, uncertainty as you're starting and running a business. Yeah, how do you manage through that? What are some of the maybe things you've learned that you could pass on and the things that have helped you keep the both of these businesses Going and thriving? Allie Danziger Yeah. So on a personal level I got this advice once years ago from someone in my PO forum was to Work on your own self-care in times of not stress, so that when you are stressed there, your natural habits. So there are times over the past ten years or so that I've looked around and realized that things are kind of slow and, instead of trust me, I've added chaos in those moments too, because I'm bored but, I, also try to Up my meditation, increase my water, you know like work out more, take the time with my kids or build good habits with them, so that because I know that it's all, it's only a season and it's only gonna last a few months and then something else is gonna get crazy. And so, as long as I like have that foundation, it helps me again with the reading different business books or self-help books or listening to different podcasts, so that it's somewhere in my brain there when I need it most like that is something that has really helped me Again throughout the past decade, probably okay. And then professionally, I think you know when having some of these having many difficult decisions or having tough conversations with employees I go back to a lot of Brene Brown's work of kind of what did she say? Hopefully you can edit this out. Okay empathy vulnerability, but then also honesty is kind like being yes front with your employees, with your family members, with your friends, about the things that you are struggling with or frustrated with them, about being Clearness is clear. As long as we're up front with them about your expectations and you're super clear with them and then confirm One, two, three times that you are clear with them, that, I think, is something that has helped me really Significantly. Again, the vulnerability when you're not having that crisis moment or that moment where you are in stress mode, so that they have that trusting relationship with you and know that you are going to be honest with them and that you have your their best interest in heart. That's when I think you've built that foundation in a relationship, whether that's a client, an investor, a customer, an employee. You're then able to use that foundation to get through the hard times together. Chris Hanslik That's good stuff, I mean. I Couldn't agree more. I think there's lots of good learning that Brene offers to businesses, business owners, employees as well as personal. But to me fundamentally it's recognizing. It's a relationship at work no different than your personal relationship. So that is being honest, being clear. Everyone benefits from that, even when it's bad news because you may be dealing with an employee that, as times evolved, is no longer a good fit for either your company in there. They're gonna be happier somewhere else. But they're only gonna realize that if you have the honest conversations in a respectful way and then everybody wins, everybody can move on. Allie Danziger One of the things we teach in our training to early career professionals because, again, a lot of people don't teach this to someone right out of school is what that dynamic between a manager and employee really is. And like they complain about micromanaging. Why are they micromanaging? Why is this employee, why is your manager or this employer talking to you this way and what kind of questions do you need to ask to clear the air, to ask for follow, ask for more information and really make sure that everyone's clear on expectations. And so, since what we do, we're not always in touch with the managers, we put a lot of that on this on the early career professional, and also teach them hey, your boss's job is to make is to make you look good Like they. They need you to be looking good for them to succeed, like because they've got a boss that they have to answer to. And so explaining that dynamic also helps an entry level employer and intern go into those types of conversations with the manager, which is a clear understanding of why they're having that conversation. And so I think more of that training and just teaching the impact to the young professionals helps to also set up that trusting relationship in a two way. In a two way relationship so that again, when things get tough or you know there's uncertainty or something that has to happen, the young professional understands it a little bit more, because it's a stressful moment. You're not necessarily listening to every single word Someone's saying to you in that stressful conversation, but again, when things are good it's similar to, like what I said, I do personally taking the time to do that, some of that training and foundation laying. Chris Hanslik That's good. So I guess, thinking about, I want to ask what are some of the things that that maybe that you do, that you become part of the teaching that ampersand now offers about how to go about building relationships internally or externally with stakeholders or customers. So what are some of the tips that you've offered, you know in the past or you're now offering through ampersand on that? Allie Danziger So again, to build the. It's hard. In a zoom world we can't have as many in-person relationships. It's so much more effective Three times as many meetings in a day that I could have four years ago. So I get a lot done but I'm not building those same type of super important relationships that I know will stay with us me far after that business relationship is over. So some of the ways I like to do it is by taking time just for relationship building, knowing that not everyone's going to put the same emphasis or like take the same time for that, but like I've sent gift cards Starbucks gift cards and said, hey, I'm buying you a coffee, can we hop on zoom for 15 minutes? I also take really extensive notes of people's, the details that they say at the beginning of the meeting, like your five daughters and you know your five girls and two of them are 21 and going to college and like all that stuff. I make note of that so that I can remember it later and bring it up in the next conversation. I use a tool called Otter that records all of my conversations. Then he emails me a transcript following the zoom call or teams call or whatever, and so that entire transcript is then saved in each customer hub spot file, and so it allows me then to go back to my cheat sheet. Chris Hanslik Yeah, but everyone's got it right. You can't keep it all in your head. Allie Danziger Right, and it lets me go back in, you know, in my notes, two minutes before the meeting to say, oh yeah, ask him about his vacation or if he just got she just got done with an MBA program. Make sure you follow up on that and I'll highlight those notes so that I can easily find them later. And again, it's like my cheat sheet, but it helps to build more meaningful relationships, because that just speaks to the trusting relationship that we have. Even though I'm using technology to do it, it helps. Chris Hanslik I think the beauty of that is breaking down the barrier for people, right, cause people probably that don't know that about you, now they do If they listen to this. It's okay, they know, but but they may think, god, alice, just got this great memory. She remembers everything and it's like no, I'm intentional about it. I use tools to help me be intentional and they're look, you can record it, but if you don't go look at it afterwards, there's no value in that. So you're diligent about the follow-up, and to me, that's the learning. Use tools around you to help you be better and be diligent about the follow-up. All right, I'll give you another tool, all right. Allie Danziger So Microsoft Gmail. They all have it like a, the snooze tool. You know, if you've seen it. Chris Hanslik And so I will have my. Allie Danziger I go to bed every night with a clean inbox, not one email In my inbox, and so then I'll have the email come back to me at the time that I need to respond to it or at a time that I want to follow up on it. So if you tell me I'm not follow up with me, you know, mid-september I'm really busy, I'm traveling here. I will actually snooze that email to come back to me September 15th so that on that day I can reply back to you and say hey hope your trip was great. Hope your summer's been wonderful. Let's set up that call and people always seem to be like wow, thanks so much for staying on top of this. I really appreciate it and it's like no, we use it Like you have the same tool on your computer too. Chris Hanslik Oh, that's right, it's been super. Allie Danziger I've been using that for years, even when you had to pay for the tool. Now it's free and standard and all of these different email. Chris Hanslik Okay, I love it. No, I mean again. I think if you're in it, it's obviously helped you be successful as you had been, but if you're teaching that to these young professionals, oh my gosh, what value, yeah, all these kinds of cheat sheets when to stand in a happy hour. What do you? Allie Danziger say, if someone offers you a third drink and you actually don't want the third drink, but you wanna stay there and you wanna stay engaged in conversation. All kinds of good things, all kinds of stuff. Chris Hanslik I mean, as you're talking, I'm thinking. I cannot believe that no one's thought of this before now, because it is so obviously the frustration inside a company is dealing with young professionals that don't know and they expect them to know, and all it does has been years and years of just pent up frustration, year after year, right, and how Pentefaction you've got manager. Allie Danziger There's so much out there for, like managers, turnover, they leave, and so much of it goes back to this frustration that they have to teach young professionals the same things over and over again. And, frankly, in this environment where so many people are hybrid and not in the office together, young professionals are learning less skills than they were by osmosis before. It used to be that, like I'm sitting at my desk, I see what's happening around me and I'm learning it even when I'm doing my work. Or like my person sitting next to me in the cube makes 5,000 copies instead of 50, comes over and's like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I did this and we problem solved it together. Or like they make the decision of what to do, but still they're commiserating with their colleagues that they can't do them, and then they either handle it the right way or they don't, and I, as the person sitting next to them, see the outcome of that, and so I learned that lesson. If I ever make 5,000 copies again or do something, here's how I handle it. But no one's going to slap and saying, oh my gosh, I just made this huge mistake. Here's how I handled it. What do you guys think? No, there's just not no way that psychology works. Like we're not gonna do that, and so, because of that, every individual has learned every single lesson every time, which makes the managers even more frustrated than they were before. Chris Hanslik I mean, there's just so much loss in the hybrid world of learning social norms and every office has them right, Just in general, but every office has that and you're right before the work from home in hybrid, you were in the office and you hopefully got to train some, but then you just, yeah, by existing, you just figured it out. So let's talk a little bit about you as a leader. How would you describe kind of your leadership style? How has that evolved since starting your own company at 23? Allie Danziger Yeah, so at 23, I had I mean, I had a hard time transitioning into that leadership role. as you can imagine, I'm sure I'm 23 year old does and that's actually how Ampersand's ideas all started is I never felt comfortable at first hiring people older than me, so I was only hiring interns and people right out of college or people within my network in those early days, because I just didn't have the confidence to lead people much older than me. So that became part of our culture of hiring interns and intro level employees. But anyways, I at first I really wanted to be my employees friend. Chris Hanslik But it's natural. Allie Danziger Yeah, and it took a while for me to understand that they didn't want to be my friend either I didn't really want to be their friend and they didn't want to be my friend and there's benefit to that separation of the relationship. But I think at first I was really trying to have this mentality of like we're all in it together. Let's, you know, get in the foxhole and solve these problems as a whole team. I didn't believe in titles and structure and there's a reason that you know this has existed for however many decades or hundreds of years, so that was original and, as I mentioned about the last decade, or so I started doing more of that professional development. It started with Patrick Linciani you know first book, which I think is always like very easy business read, written in a fiction type of style, just to understand the ways to company more companies are run, because I've only seen one for about a year before I started my own company. To then get my own, find my own self as a leader, and I take a very friendly tone still as a leader, but I'm often quiet in meetings and let other people talk and hear the perspective of others, and then like to gather people around me to help solve problems together. I'm a visionary in the whole rocket fuel EOS model, so I move very fast and I like to. I'm a salesperson by nature, so like to sell, get people on board for my ideas and then again like give them the power on autonomy, bring the right people to the table to then go do what needs to be done. And I'm in a situation right now where my company was just acquired and I'm coming into a new company and coming into a new team and kind of finding my way as a leader, as a lot of new people are in my team now that have been in other people's leadership for a while. And so that's what I'm doing is I'm trying to really just hear what is everyone's vision for this and then put it all together and then strongly communicate what my vision is and what the vision of this department will be, our vertical will be, and then get the right people on the bus and the right seats so that we can all do it. Chris Hanslik Very good, very good. So any mentors along the way that kind of helped you as you grown as an entrepreneur and a leader. Allie Danziger Yeah, so I mean my parents, for sure they have just been mentors in the sense of just encouraging me to fly as big and as high as the world will take me. Chris Hanslik I love it. Allie Danziger Which I think is really important. Eo has, as a whole, been just an incredible organization for me to be a part of, to not just have my husband to talk to about some of these business struggles, but to collectively like, use a group around me of mentors and people who have been in similar situations or not, but at least understand what I'm going through as a founder and as a leader. And then I've had an incredible advice in this company. I've had an incredible advisory board of leaders in different industries who have mentored me in different ways, whether that's fintech or hiring employees or fundraising, and so there are a little bit more vertical and specific into specific things that I needed to solve for technology. When it's like, okay, I'm a service provider, as a PR agency owner, I'm building a product through software and have to figure out self pricing, I have no idea where I'm starting and so, yeah, getting the right people there has been really helpful. Chris Hanslik I think that surrounding yourself with the right people, especially in the areas that you aren't strong in, is maybe the single best thing. Anyone out there that's wanting to do what you've done now twice can do. Allie Danziger Absolutely, there's no way. And again, when I was young, I had this mentality that I needed to figure it all out myself and I had everything and I was just focused on getting the to-do list done every day. And now it's much more about okay, really, all I have is ideas and vision and I know how to get people excited about my ideas and vision. And then I need to bring the right people so that I'm making the right decisions at the right times and, yeah, putting the right people in those seats. Chris Hanslik So one or two things with the listeners out here that you would say if you're thinking about stepping out or you just kind of started a new business, here's one or two things that I would implore you to do or consider. Allie Danziger So first is just to do it, Just to start with a messy pilot. Start with an Excel spreadsheet, a Word document. You do not need a business plan. Just like start talking about it, socializing it and testing it as quickly as possible. You'll get opinions from every single person that you tell the idea to, and most of them will be terrible opinions that you should just bucket away into like an Evernote document or something. Keep track of them because you might need it later. But just start talking about it. Don't wait till it's perfect, don't wait till it's fully fleshed out, and each time you talk about it, your pitch or your idea will change a little bit, and that's okay. That's what's supposed to happen, so that you get what it's supposed to be out there. So that's one. And then the second is, as we were just talking, to surround yourself with people, expand your network. Go to take advantage of the events around Houston. There's so many around Houston. Every city, but like every city is trying to bring together innovators, and so those are great places to go to. Again, like start networking the idea, start meeting new people. You never know who you're going to run into, especially if you get out there and talk about it and if you are more of an introvert and not ready, not if you're not comfortable in that environment. Do it through Zoom, do it through one-on-one, so you can have a little bit of a script or notes in front of you to practice on and build up your confidence. Chris Hanslik Gotcha and the snooze feature on email. Allie Danziger That one, I mean if Gmail ever got rid of the snooze feature, it would take away all of my productivity. I have no idea what I would do. Chris Hanslik I love it Alright. So, on the personal side, what was your first job? Allie Danziger I worked at a kid's bookstore when I turned 16 and, yeah, I worked like the checkout. It was a very small mom-and-pop store and then I I guess my first part of entrepreneurship actually started there, where I started running their birthday parties. So I saw kind of an opportunity that people were coming in for presents all the time and I heard about all the different parties that people were doing and so we started doing birthday parties where I would dress up as like a princess or a dinosaur or whatever. So we would read a couple of stories then we would do cake and arts activity, and then the party would be over and the party favorite was a book, and so it was like really a great thing for the story. Chris Hanslik That's awesome. I love it so obviously from Houston, native Houstonian Tex-Mex or barbecue, what do you prefer? Allie Danziger Oh, good Tex-Mex, bad Tex-Mex. Chris Hanslik Okay, okay, and I'm gonna put you on a spot to name any names on the good or bad list. But good, tex-mex, okay. Favorite type of wine. Allie Danziger Like type or brand Saviag Blanc in the summer and Pinot Noir in the winter. My taste buds actually change when the season changes. Chris Hanslik Okay, so what's your favorite? Savi B. Allie Danziger For both. I just like duck horn. Okay, I used to belong, or I belonged to the club out there and, yeah, it shows up at my house. Chris Hanslik so that helps. That helps. Well, I read how you drank through your wine fridge during COVID. So we did. Yes, that is true, but still like the basics. Allie Danziger My husband traveled to San Francisco for seven years back and forth, and so we got to go a lot of different ways. Chris Hanslik Gotcha okay. Last question if you could do a 30-day sabbatical, where would you go and what would you do? Allie Danziger In my current stage of life with my kids, it would be Colorado. Chris Hanslik Okay. Allie Danziger So we've been fortunate to do that a little bit. Not a sabbatical, we're not working, but I love it there. In the summer we go to a small town outside of Breckenridge that has no more than a thousand people that live there and we can bike, we can boat, we can hike, everything, yoga, all the things, and I am just a much happier person there, as is my husband and my kids. Chris Hanslik That's great. Allie Danziger I would say that Maybe like later, when I have older kids, I would say summer much more fabulous, like Spain or South America. Chris Hanslik Right, but for now, that's it. Okay, that's good. That's good. We take you where you are Great. So, allie, this has been amazing. Thank you for taking the time sharing your story. What an impressive career you've had so far. I know it's only going to get better. Allie Danziger Thank you so much. This was fun. I appreciate the time.
In this episode of Building Texas Business, I sit down for a compelling conversation with Clayton Garrett and Scott Snodgrass, the innovative founders of Agmenity and Meristem Communities. They share their inspiring journey of transitioning from agricultural services to conceptualizing master-planned communities. I learn about their groundbreaking project, Indigo, an organic farm-centric community in Richmond, Texas. Clayton and Scott reveal their entrepreneurial backstories and how their passion for farming and experience in real estate development converged in their work. I also come to understand the delicate balance of maintaining culture during growth. Clayton and Scott provide insights into the significance of soft skills, fiscal responsibility, and a culture of positivity. We explore the unique dynamics of their partnership and leverage diverse strengths. It is fascinating to see how these entrepreneurs have fused urban farming with real estate development through their trailblazing work.
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
-
Agminity and Maristim Communities, founded by Clayton Garrett and Scott Snodgrass, are pioneering the concept of integrating farming and real estate development to create unique, farm-centric communities.
-
The duo has a rich entrepreneurial background in farming and real estate development, and their project Indigo, located in Richmond, Texas, is a testament to their innovative vision.
-
The founders share their experiences in the hiring process, emphasizing the importance of recruiting the right team, setting timelines, and maintaining clear communication.
-
They also delve into the challenges of preserving a strong company culture as the team expands and ensuring everyone remains aligned with the company's vision.
-
Agminity's business model involves incorporating urban farms into master plan communities. The company has expanded its operations across different states, including Texas and Florida.
-
Clayton and Scott highlight the critical role of soft skills and fiscal responsibility in their leadership approach, fostering a culture of positivity in the workplace to keep work enjoyable and engaging.
-
The business partnership between Clayton and Scott has been instrumental in their success. They discuss the advantages of diverse personalities in leadership and the art of leveraging these differences to refine ideas.
-
Maristim Communities transitioned from offering agricultural services to developers to developing their own master plan communities. The company's flagship project, Indigo, includes an organic farm within a master plan community.
-
While managing their expansion, they realized the importance of keeping their team connected and maintaining a strong company culture despite geographical distance. They are considering implementing corporate retreats to foster team unity.
-
Their hiring process has evolved from hiring out of desperation to a comprehensive process that includes multiple interviews, written components, and on-the-ground working days to ensure a good fit for the company's culture and values.
LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
GUESTS
| | Clayton GarrettAbout Clayton |
| | Scott SnodgrassAbout Scott |
TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors)
Chris Hanslik In this episode, you will meet Clayton Garrett and Scott Snodgrass, founding partners of Agminity and Maristim Communities. In this episode, you will learn how they have built an innovative company that brings urban farms to master plan communities, and done so by focusing on caring about people, being passionate for farming and delivering healthy food. Alright, clayton and Scott, I want to welcome you to the Building Texas business. Thanks for being here. Thanks for having us. Yeah, absolutely, let's get started. You've got some great stories to tell, but let's just talk about, I guess, what your company or companies do so they give the listeners a background on kind of the type of business you're in. I know you have Maristim Communities. You also have Agminity, so tell us about those companies and what you do for inside those companies. Scott Snodgrass What happened. You know we originally had Agminity. It was our first company together that we've been running for a number of years now and Agminity provides agricultural amenity services to developers. That's a big chunk of big words. So we usually break that down by saying that we put urban farms into master plan communities, into neighborhoods, and we do that in partnership with the developers that we work with there. So we had been around the real estate development world for a while providing those services, but really from a farmer's point of view and very much. Clayton and I had both been on the ground doing farming work there with Agminity and then that transitioned into Maristim Communities. Clayton Garrett And Maristim is a community developer. In our context in Houston we call those master plan developers, and so we're doing, in this instance, a master plan called Indigo in Richmond, texas, so southwest of Houston, and Maristim's goal is to connect people to amazing places. So, in fact, our tagline is places for people and we're focused on the design and the framework and how to connect interesting spaces. So, as you can imagine, we also put an organic farm in Indigo. Chris Hanslik You're very sure, Be odd if you didn't. Clayton Garrett Yeah it would be very strange. It's something we're incredibly passionate about and easy for us to do where it's a big challenge for other developers. So we've oriented a community around that and we're super proud to bring it to market in January 24. Chris Hanslik Great, so it sounds like a common evolution, with this Agminity being a service provider to developers and then transitioning now into a developer yourself of the full community. Clayton Garrett We had a property and we went to the development community and said, like, if this was your property, what would you do? We just asked questions, right, and we had known some things about what we're interested in prior to you by just being associated with it. So we're kind of the we're a consultant to a lot of other master plan developers and so we get to sit in the room when they're talking about where they're going to put a community center or how they're going to connect spaces, and so we were able to really engage on that front. And then when we had our own property, we didn't set out with a goal in mind, we were just other than like, hey, we have some, we've seen some things that didn't work in other places, like why do they make these decisions, and so we kind of framed our plans around what that was going to be. Scott Snodgrass But people look at us and they're like you're not developers, but you're doing development. And how did that happen? And then when they find out agriculture was in our history, they're like from farmer to developer, like that's a big shift, and so we have to explain that. You know, we had been sitting in those development meetings for years with a number of different developers and so we'd seen behind the scenes and we started to ask questions about why decisions, certain decisions, were made. I think we were also shocked that it may just be two or three people making the decisions for what's going to be a more than billion dollar community. When it's done like that was kind of shocking to us how small the actual employment side can be for those teams. And we said, okay, well, we have this property now and we heard some other people's opinions and it didn't really nothing resonated with us. We didn't find anyone we really wanted to partner with, and so we said, okay, well, you know, let's look at what we're going to do here. And we started going down the route of looking at, like maybe some light industrial, just ways that we could use some of the property, you know, return some income from it but also keep a farm there. We had a farm at that property as well, and then you know I don't know if you heard of it, but COVID hit. I did breach something about that recently. So what happened with COVID was, in the real estate development world, basically everything. There were only two parts of the market that were still active, so the like logistic side of industrial started to explode because everybody was ordering everything at home. All of a sudden, amazon needed a bunch of more distribution centers and fulfillment centers, and then also single family homes went through the roof as everybody was stuck at home and realized how unhappy with their home they were, and then the people who could afford to were looking to add a home with another office or zoom rooms became a thing at homes that people were starting to move into. So the single family market went kind of crazy in Houston, and still is, right now even. And so we said, okay, we've been walking alongside all these master playing communities. We really understand the human side of it and the connections between people and how important it is and was something that we were interested in fostering, and so we said, okay, I guess we looked at each other and we're like I guess we're going to be master playing community developers. Chris Hanslik I love how that just organically happened, and no pun intended with agriculture and organic. But let's go back to the beginning. What was the inspiration behind of your background in farming, if there was one? Tell us a little bit about how that just all came together and you two partnered up. Clayton Garrett Well, we're sitting in a lawyer's office, so my story I'm a licensed attorney, which is recovery. I like to say as well. So you know that wasn't a great ultimate fit for me. I was interested in building something. I've always been sort of more connected to small business side, but Scott and I joined forces in 2008 and at that time Scott had an edible landscaping company and I had seen a couple of models of large scale organic farms that were in the ecosystem, and I was really interested. I came from a food production background. I was managing an artist in Bakery in town that had about 70 employees. At that time, we had just finished purchasing Whole Foods as Bakery when they were kind of moving out of it, and so I wanted to be in the food space and I also want to be connected to agriculture, which I have, my family has a history of. So that was the genesis for me, and Scott was doing something really interesting in town, and so you know then after that, from my perspective, it's just been a series of opportunities coming our way, us looking at them in a unique light, I think, trying to be in a niche, qualitative business, not trying to have a discount model, which, you know, it's just not something that our personalities can wrap our heads around, and so, you know, agminity was an opportunity presented to us, a landscape architect in town brought us in and was like hey, we're trying to do this interesting thing with one of the great developers here in Houston, johnson Development and can you guys help? And so that you know a series of conversations later we're creating a farm with them, advising them on the plants that are going to be without throughout their community, and then that was the same sort of conversation around purchasing a farm here in town and kind of going after that vision. Chris Hanslik How about for you, Scott? What kind of got you started in this? What was that inspiration? Scott Snodgrass Yeah, so I was. Actually. I was managing a coffee shop and then shifted into actually buying coffee from Central American countries, primarily Nicaragua, and so I had been traveling in Nicaragua and really working on both sides of the relationship in the US trying to teach people about quality coffee. In 2006 and 2007 and even in almost 2008, when I was doing this work, the coffee scene in Houston was pretty lacking. There were, I think, three coffee shops. There were three of us like trying to actually do good coffee in Houston. That has now bloomed and now there's great coffee shops all over town. Chris Hanslik It's exploded, right. I mean they should open a new one down the street. I saw this week in Cuckoos. Yeah, yeah, of course we have slow pokes in the building. There you go. Yeah, yeah, and so we knew that was changing. Scott Snodgrass So trying to teach people here in the US that they should pay for quality coffee. So what is quality coffee? Enjoy it, learn to enjoy it and then pay a little bit more for it. And then cutting out the distributors who acted as the middlemen in the process and working directly with farmers or cooperatives of farmers in Nicaragua. So I was traveling down a couple of times a year talking to farmers, testing coffees, negotiating with them pricing and everything, and then importing it back into the US and, as a part of that, started getting asked all these agricultural questions and I was like no, I'm the sales and marketing guy. You know I'm your buyer and then I'm helping you with your marketing in the US. Basically, I don't know the ag stuff, but I realized their only access to information most of the small towns didn't even have an internet cafe in them at that time, so they had no access to the internet and the only access information they had on the ag side was the chemical salesman in their town who was in charge of selling all the chemicals. So of course every problem they went to him with he had a solution they could buy that fixed the problem. But it might also create another four or five problems for them. And so in seeing that, I was like, okay, well, I'm trying to help these farmers out anyway. On the sales side I have access to information. So I started to go start doing some research on my own and so started just like watching YouTube videos and reading things on the internet and checked out a few books at a library to learn about coffee production, and I think the bug kind of bit me and really got into agriculture then. And so I had started an urban farm and run it for three years here in Houston and then Clayton, and I joined up soon after that and also, you know, interestingly enough our lives had unbeknownst been intertwined In the past. We were both at UT at the same time, graduated a couple years apart, but there at the same time never knew each other. And then both of our families are from Lubbock, both involved in cotton farming in Lubbock, and my, my mom and my uncle both graduated just like in the class or a class away from Clayton's dad in Lubbock. So small world. Chris Hanslik You know, leading these intertwining paths to bring us back together, right, yeah, well, that's great. So then you hook up and you start working with these developers. Give us an idea, I guess. How did Agminity start to grow and what were, what were, some of the growing pains you experienced through that process? Clayton Garrett Yeah, you know, starting Agminity was really about sort of fulfilling one particular client's needs, right, and they were trying to do something. They were amazing in understanding that we were headed from a concept that had been sort of around in the US. I mean, there were probably at that time maybe 10 to 12 agri-hoods that were sort of known and they were trying to do it in a different way, sort of a more mass way, let's say, instead of a very curated, passionate project by a developer. So it was kind of walking alongside them and growing over time, really understanding what that individual project was. And then how could we start to apply it to other people and places and what is the market? Right, we felt like at one point we felt like we were doing something that was very specific and then over time we realized, oh, we, there's some ways in which we can use some of these lessons to apply them to different places. And so you know, I think that the market for Produce that's sort of connected to community and that in the, in the community, that farm can create within the broader context, I think that appetite is huge. I think people, from a development perspective, when we talk to developers, you know they're just like. Their questions are pretty rudimentary, like how does this work, like what is the structure involved, what is the compensation? And when you start to sort of go down the line, it's sort of a no-brainer for a lot of folks that are engaged and interested in it. So you know, it was just a matter of time. These development projects take a long time, as many of you know, and and so part of that process is just Having a timeline being available, having consistent communication around the people who are kind of the early adopters, and then broadening the appeal, saying that you know, this is available for lots of different people in different ways. Scott Snodgrass In each project is a big undertaking for us and we have full-time embedded staff at every farm. So harvest greener first project. We have four full-time staff members on the ground. Chris Hanslik They're farming and teaching classes every so Agminity that kind of goes to a question I was gonna ask. The Agminity actually runs the farm inside the community. So you employ people to do that right, just get paid by the developer, right by the homeowners association in other states we get, we may get paid through like quasi public financial Bodies. Scott Snodgrass On Florida's, cdd's tend to be the groups that are paying. So okay, so we employ and then get paid for doing that. So it's an amenity service that we're offering and then residents get to enjoy it, and so we were. You know you asked about some of the struggles there. Hiring has been, I'd say, the number one struggle at Agminity. We were first started just looking around in Houston because we were a new company, we were learning what we were doing. We didn't expect to like bring in top talent from around the country. You know to do this and we had already known this but struggled through it even more that there's not an urban farming scene in Houston. It's very small. Yeah we're already friends with all of the people who are in that scene and knew that none of them were, you know, interested in leaving what they were doing. They're all entrepreneurs themselves. None of them were gonna leave what they were doing to come join us at Agminity. And so it really was a struggle and you know, we went through a few rounds of employees of trying to figure out like who is the best fit, what sort of person is the best fit for that? And you know we have a CEO at Agminity now, justin Myers, who does a great job. He handles all the hiring now. Chris Hanslik Thankfully I didn't see, but he smiled. Yes, scott, big smile. He said that. Scott Snodgrass Thankfully, both to take it off of our plate and also because he does it better than we ever could have. Yeah, and I think we've really as a team kind of narrowed in on who is the right kind of person to come in and be one of these positions, because the reality is most farmers in big-scale agriculture they have that job because they like to be in their tractors alone, most of them they don't necessarily like being around people a lot. Yeah they tend to be more introverted, and so at our farms it's an amenity service, so our teams have to. They get interrupted constantly by residents who want to ask questions and see the farm and meet the goats and all those sorts of things, and so our team has that both sides. They have to be able to put their head down and do hard work in a hundred degree weather Outside in the afternoon, and they also have to be friendly and smile and talk to residents when they come out. Clayton Garrett I didn't have to be passionate about both of those things. Scott Snodgrass I mean, that's right, you know the people who we hire. Clayton Garrett This is all they want to do. This is a mission for them. So our company adminity reflects the mission drive that they have. Chris Hanslik So let's just to drill down a little deeper, because Hiring is the key to the kingdom, right? I think I don't care what business you're in, if it's an, especially the service side, yeah, hiring the right people that they had the passion for what your company's mission is critical. So what were some of the things that you learned, I guess, along the way mistakes in the hiring process, and what was the learning and the correction you made to kind of hone the process so that you could find the right fit? Scott Snodgrass Because I think there's a lot of learning for people in that yeah so Clayton mentioned passion. Passion is really important, but passion without grounding in experience is not great, and we went through a number of hires where there's these romantic ideals around agriculture and people are like, oh, I've been working this desk job for the man and it would be so great to get out in nature dance with the butterflies, and that's just not the reality of it. It's sweat and dirt and blood sometimes, and so it is very difficult work and so you need that deep internal passion that's realistic, that says this is going to suck a bunch of the time, but also the impact that I'm having on people having access to fresh produce. Learning about where their food comes, is so impactful to me that it'll keep me going, because it's difficult work and at the same time, we have to make the job better and continually find ways to. We can't change the weather in Houston Just the two of us and we're in other places. Clayton Garrett Just for a sense of scale, agminity is in the process of in various stages of development. We have seven agricultural farms within developments and it sounds like across different states. Yeah, across different states. So here there's four in Texas and then we've got three in Florida and one coming on. Our eighth one would be in Alabama. So it's across the Southeast and with different developers doing different sort of scales of development, which is really interesting, from sort of mixed use projects to larger master plans, traditional neighborhood design plans, so sort of more walkable. But I think the scale is relevant for what we're interested in, and so the competencies that people need to have. I mean our hiring process. It used to be sort of we needed somebody and we hired very quick At a desperation, yeah. And now I think there's a written component of our application process. There's probably, I think, over six interviews, hour-long interviews. There's a team, there's on the ground working days. There's sort of a filtering process where somebody gets kind of brought into our framework and they have to meet other people in the team and they get to hear it from them. So the goal is hey, you have to hear it To ground people in reality. Talk to Nathan on the farm and he'll tell you what his life is like right On a very real basis. And so and I think one of the other things I think we've learned is I want people to be as calm and as grounded as possible in interviews. So I really want them, I really want to get down to a non-stressed environment for them so I could see what they are in a non-stress environment, because there will be plenty of stress when they're on the farms or in any sort of engagement, and so those stress times are different than a normative time for most people. Chris Hanslik And that is a transition. Clayton Garrett I think a lot of people of our generation are looking at instead of the old ways of hiring where you're trying to put people on the spot or what it is. Chris Hanslik So what, if anything, do you do to kind of keep your team and immunity connected Throughout the state of Texas and across the state? Do you do anything to kind of build the culture for those? Scott Snodgrass employees. We're just talking about that today. Actually, right now we have Texas, that's kind of a hub, and then Florida is going to be a hub, so those two hubs are going to have their own connected kind of subcultures within the community. Alabama may get lumped in with Florida in that regard too, or here it's about halfway. But how we do it corporate-wide is a question we haven't answered yet. So we've talked about is that like a corporate retreat for all employees where we go somewhere, and so maybe it is going to one of these farm resorts? There's Flora Farms in Cabo. Chris Hanslik I was just there last week. Scott Snodgrass So Flora Farms is a good, something like that, or maybe it's Blackberry Farm in Tennessee, or maybe it's another location. Are we taking team members somewhere, letting someone else do the work, but still letting them enjoy the same kind of experience that they get to give other people, and then doing a series of workshops and team building and that sort of stuff? We've got to find some way to get everyone together. Right now. Our leadership on the ground in Florida. She was one of our leaders here in Texas, so we've been able to transfer the culture over there that way. But we recognize that it's like, the faster you grow, the more people you bring on, the quicker you dilute the culture that you have and the more influence aggregated that all those new employees have. And so we don't want to grow so fast that we just lose that dynamic culture that we have, because right now it's really healthy. So we're trying to find out kind of how to do that and you hire people who fit into your culture relatively well and who add to it and change it. That's one step, but also I think just making sure that those two groups stay connected so that they don't end up, you know, ending up diverging too far, will be really important. Clayton Garrett I mean we have a very strong leader at Agminity too. So common language, common framework, really caring about people and having other people care about fellow employees. I think everybody recognizes that there are easier ways to make money than to do this work, and so the people who are invested and engaged, they want to be recognized for the challenges that are there, but also the opportunities, and so most of the people are interested in food and plants, and so we speak to them in that vernacular often, and it's been incredibly rewarding. We don't really have a retention issue. People leave for great opportunities, which is something we're really proud of. Chris Hanslik Very good. So you started in Agminity and the farming game. We talked about this a minute ago. Let's go deeper. You transition into a Development company. What really was the calling there? That's not, like you said, a long time, long lead time projects and stuff. So what was the the bug or the catch for you to make that transition? Clayton Garrett Really to stubborn, very stubborn people Ha just incredibly obstinate about Accomplishing a vision. Yeah, I think having a company like amenity that has such a high mission and is is with truly lovely people as a Teams encourages, I think, a certain type of behavior from all of our other businesses from Maristome. So I mean, from my perspective it was, you know, we really looked at our property and our project and sort of what could happen in the ecosystem and we tested. We did a bunch of pressure testing with the market, let's say, and so we asked other developers, we asked consultants, you know, for feedback, and so we went to the market and got feedback and that feedback we liked some of it, we didn't like other of it, yeah, and so then we just decide, you know, like Scott mentioned earlier, we decided we need to own and control this, and so once we made that decision, then this is sort of there's a cascading effect, right and so if a sense of scale, where it's a Maristome is developing indigo and Richmond and indigos has will have 650 homes, residences, 120 multifamily units with a commons around a 42 acre farm. So when you think about master plans in Texas, you know relatively small, about 235 acres. When you think about, you know our California friends and our East Coast friends, you know that's a pretty big project, right, about 400 million dollars of assessed value from a taxable value standpoint. So that's a very different scale than Agminity is a consulting business, right, right. And so we had to have great partners and so through our years of working in Around real estate, we understood we needed to get some great consultants, and so we had seen some amazing people doing large-scale projects. So, for instance, one of our consultants is Terry Slavik Siyuki, who was the CMO of Newland communities, which is one of the largest master plans Companies in the US. So, like that level of talent we needed to bring on our team because we were first-time developers and so to be able to attract folks like that and to kind of help them, like, have them help us plan and conceptualize our project, was really impactful, both in raising capital and, you know, bringing on other team members as well. Chris Hanslik So sounds like you know, with Meristem you're managing consultants where at many, you were managing employees. What's that? One of the similarities? What have been the differences and the challenges in the stem construct of managing contractors? Scott Snodgrass There's been, yeah there's been so many similarities that have been surprising, I think you know, first, when you're out there trying to select consultants for a project, so say we're doing indigo, we need to have a land planner who helps us develop the land plan for the community. We don't have expertise in land planning on our own, so we need somebody's gonna help us do that. It's not unlike hiring someone, right? You start talking to people about how you're doing this thing, asking do they know anyone who does this work that they'd recommend, just in the same way that you would look for an employee through those sort of good relationships. And then you know. Then they come to you and they present their work and what they've done before and why they think they're a good fit for you. So the interview process Relatively the same in that regard, and then we've really found that like, like we said, you know you see these billion dollar projects only with two, three, four employees working at that firm or in that division of the firm, but there's a group of 10 to 15 consultants that are there doing a significant portion of the work. And I think that the difference is that it's very easy because those people work for another company with its own values and its own vision. It's very easy for your vision as a developer, to again be watered down through all of those steps. Like we don't have the expertise in land planning, civil engineering. Like I don't know. I don't know all of the nuances of getting sewage from someone's house to the wastewater treatment plant and getting it treated and I'm not interested in learning. Clayton Garrett Yeah. Scott Snodgrass But our civil engineers. Clayton Garrett It needs to work. Scott Snodgrass It really isn't very important, and so our civil engineers have to know how that works, but their value set isn't necessarily our value set at Maristown communities. And so how do we make sure those things align? And we're learning more and more that that being in the development chair, wearing the development hat, is really about crafting a vision and then, as much as you can, through all of the steps in the process, trying to hold on to that vision in every way that you can. Because inevitably you come up with some great utopian idea and it gets punched around by your consultants first, and then it gets, you know, severely drugged through the mud by the municipalities, your county and your city and other people, right. And then, once you actually go Out to the public, you're gonna get public commentary on it, it's gonna get beat up a little bit again, and so it's really about how do we craft a vision that's strong enough to make its way through all of that and then, through the whole process, be willing to take the hits and get back up and still keep that vision. And so not only do we have to hold that vision ourselves, but we have to convince each of our consultants in that process to hold a vision which is very similar to a company culture. Sure, in many ways. Chris Hanslik What you're gonna think it about on the financial side. What are some of the lessons that you've learned? Maybe wish you had known, but you learn the hard way that helped you maybe Manage growth and that you might tell a. You know a listener that's an aspiring entrepreneur. You know. Try to avoid this. You know, pothole if you can. We're serial entrepreneurs. Scott Snodgrass So we had another business we haven't talked about yet, which was a farm. It's the property we're now developing and at that farm we we took a really like go big swing on the farm, and I think that was the big financial lesson is like we made sure to have the capital we needed to go out and do everything. So on the financial side we had everything set up. But if you don't have the back end handled really well too, and then you're just gonna bleed all that money that you've arranged for, and so we really struggled on the staffing side of having the right staff to keep that like really grow that business and get it to the size it needed to be to support the financial Infrastructure that it demanded, and so I think that's one. It's just always I think most entrepreneurs go the opposite way and we have done that before where it's like you don't capitalize yourself well enough and you're just bootstrapping constantly. Right and that's a big struggle and it doesn't put anyone in the right mental place to do their best. But if you go the opposite way, you know you can have the same problems if you overcapitalize but you don't have the operation side handled right. Chris Hanslik I mean, since I might collect anything to add to that, you know. Clayton Garrett I mean so many lessons around financing. I mean, I think when we were financing this project, you know we did everything that every bank, institution, private lender asked us to do and still they were, you know, having trouble wrapping their heads around sort of us as a development entity, a new entity, right, and sort of. Our vision and you know, it's really fascinating to me is the things that people would comment on them being a fiscal challenge around is really which means risk Right, is the thing that we're getting the compliments and is creating the most value for us. So, for instance, indigo's a walkable neighborhood with traditional neighborhood designs, which means alley load. Houston, if you're familiar with it, does not have a lot of alley loaded home types and so. But when we looked at, we did some market research. When we looked at the market is massive for that, there's a huge appetite on a relative basis for that and you can see lots of reasons why I think, if people have ever lived in that sort of Framework, so that is the thing that is creating a tremendous amount of value for us and the sort of financing world Considered that to be risk right, and so to really try to understand what that is, I think is a critical lesson and how to overcome it. And I think you know people told us no, all over the place told us we're crazy. You know those lessons are very familiar for us at this point. But also we've been able to be stubborn, like I said earlier, and kind of craft our vision and hold our vision. And you know we're, you know we're set up for this project to be very successful and have an identity in the future as well. Chris Hanslik That's right, let's talk a little bit about leadership, and I asked both of you kind of how do you describe your leadership style? How has it evolved over time? How do you try to show up for your people? Scott Snodgrass So, this has been a big learning process for me, I think, since the first time I was an employer right, the first business I had, it was just me and a business partner. We didn't have any employees. That's. It was really just about learning that partnership relationship, and Clayton and I continue to evolve that and see all the benefits in being founding partners together and not just alone. Chris Hanslik Yeah. Scott Snodgrass There's tremendous value there. But on the leadership side, with employees, you know I very early on I don't have it's easy for me to perform highly in the work that the company does, and so I would place that same standard on every employee, expecting every employee to be able to accomplish the same amount of work per hour that I was, or at the same level of detail that I could. I have a high capacity for stepping into a new space, quickly figuring out the ecosystem and then understanding how things work and crafting a plan. And I'm very ideological, it's like a line for me, this step, and so I've had to learn to put a little more effort into the soft skills side of things and to recognize that, like, my role in the company needs to be different than anyone else's role in the company. And so then, therefore, I can't have the same expectations of anyone else, or even, you know, like Clayton and I, can't have the same expectations of each other, even though we're in the same role, because we're different people. And so just I think, recognizing the differences in people and then having some more of the soft skills, being able to slow down a little bit and say, okay, in this moment we need to make sure this person feels cared for. The work doesn't matter right now, let's just care for this person. And so shifting more and more to a focus, I think, on humans, which is what. Marisem does as a development company, so we have to do it from an employment standard as well. Clayton Garrett Right, clayton, and I think the job of leaders to be a servant to the company. I mean, we, you know, people think we we have this conversation occasionally with our kids or wives like, oh, you own the company, you can do whatever you want, you know right. And you're like, no, that's not how it works, right, we are serving, we are servants to the sort of overall framework of the community. Chris Hanslik So you know, I think there's a. Clayton Garrett One of the things I think is a job is to prioritize a number of different things. But from a leader standpoint, you really do have to prioritize various things. Like top of the list is payroll every two weeks for us, right, and so that's a high priority. I was talking to a leader of a company with a couple hundred employees and I asked her she's the president. I asked her, like do you still think about payroll, you know, and she's like yes, in fact, we're talking to our owners, our principals in our company about that every day, because they need to be on board about what needs to happen. And when we think about cash and we think about all those other things, and and I was just relieved to think that it never I mean it never goes away from the sense of like this is a priority that a leader needs to understand and they need to understand the cash position at all times and you understand sort of their fiscal responsibility. And then there's all the soft skills Right, are you being true and authentic? Are you showing up? And I think you know, I think that's relatively easy for us to do because we're passionate about what we do. I think, scott, I think we have the at times. I think we have the absence of when people complain about work or what they're doing or it doesn't matter. It's like we just have the absence of that. We don't. We feel like what we do matters, but it's less about. It's less about promoting a positive ideal than just not having the negative right Right which people experience, and so people in our organization are excited about typically what they do and how they're doing it and they can show up in authentic ways. So I think there's some other good lessons, like being playful around what we do, you know, trying to play as an organization and be curious, you know. Do you believe that's a big part of the lesson for leaders allowing that space to happen? Chris Hanslik That's great. So let's talk about this. Scott, you kind of mentioned it, but what has been the learning and the value for the two of you than being co-founders and partners, because that's not always an easy thing and, in fact, can be the downfall of an organization. If they're more than one at the top and they're, you know they get sideways. So talk us about that a little bit. Scott Snodgrass You know, I mean, it's no surprise we talk about it in marriage terms. Quite a bit you know, and you know both of our wives, I'm sure, are here plenty and are like, yeah, and you do the same thing. Clayton Garrett You come over here you know, and they're not wrong. Scott Snodgrass And so I think it's actually. I think it's really helpful because there are things that your employees, no matter what level that they're at, are going to struggle to share with you, to tell you about who you are, and it's a little bit easier when you have someone who's at the exact same level as you, has the exact same authority that you do, and so, like we're 50-50 in everything we do. You know, we anticipate doing all of our businesses together. If we open new businesses in the future, anticipate doing that together. It just keeps things simple and we're a good pair. I think we're very complimentary. So if you had two people who were the same personality, that might not be great, because you're bringing the same things and you're lacking the same things when you come to the relationship. And I don't know that when we became business partners, we knew that. I think we just lucked into it. Clayton Garrett And we had struggles. Scott Snodgrass And that's why it's lasted so far, but I do think there's a lot of value in that. And then also, I think having two partners it's also great for your employees in the regard that like if someone's having an issue with one partner, they have another partner they can go to and talk to them and say hey, you know, help me deal with this situation. And we're, you know, we have different employees who were, over the years, have been naturally drawn to one of us versus the other, just because of personality, fit being better, and so I think there's a lot of great benefits to it. No doubt it is a struggle at times, but I think that struggle is the kind of refining fire to a degree, and it's when Clayton and I can't agree on something. We're 50-50, so no decision can be made unless we can agree on it, and so we're kicking the idea back and forth, we're both beating up each other's arguments, and then you know, figuring out in the end like which one is coming out of this fire, and even stronger than it went into it. Chris Hanslik Right, that's great. That's a really good, healthy process. Clayton Garrett I was joking the other day with Scott that we're designing buildings and frameworks around buildings now, right and relatively large-scale master plan and I was like we were arguing about something and I was like how about we just each design our own buildings? Chris Hanslik Like, let's just do that. Clayton Garrett Let's just divide the line. But you know, sometimes you do want to put a piece of duct tape down the middle of the room and be like you stay over there and I stay over here. But I think the lesson I mean I think structurally I think one of the most important lessons that we've been very true to is Scott mentioned it but we've never changed the incentives. So there's been lots of different ways, lots of different times, lots of good reasons to change incentives around what we do. But from my perspective, what we're trying to accomplish is this macro vision, and so all of the minor sort of day-to-day stuff even capital calls and you know, various things like that is sort of secondary to what we're trying to accomplish, and so for me that's been a critical structural component. That's been really helpful and it just feels like we have a. I feel like I have a partner. I'm in this like if I want to go on vacation or if there's life happens, which it does right. We've been in this eight years now and we've both had numerous babies and like life and deaths in the family, right, and so you need somebody to help. In fact, I feel tremendously lucky to have a partner and I look at some of our business friends who own businesses, don't have a partner, and I'm like man, that is a challenge to not have somebody to rely on in lots of different ways. So you take the good with the bad not that there's a lot of good, but we also have fun. I mean, I think that's another part of it's. Like we celebrate wins. That's a big part of what we try to accomplish. Like we're on this, our spouses and families are on this journey, but like really, the two of us are on this very specific journey and so we have somebody to share and reflect like, can you? I mean, we talked about our story a little bit. It's like we started out of a landscaping company. We knew there was something there and we've come to the place where we're, you know, doing a $400 million community. Like that journey is shared and so we get to talk about that. Yeah, and which is amazing, that's really cool. Chris Hanslik All right, we're very dynamic story, so I appreciate you sharing it. I mean, it is very to me innovative and I can see why there's been so much success. But I can see where the interest is around that. Let's turn a little bit to the personal side. So both of you, I'm actually both Tex-Mex or barbecue Tex-Mex. Clayton Garrett Yeah, same. Scott Snodgrass Okay, this is why we're good partners, that's why you're good partners. We're gonna be very similar, you agree? We? Clayton Garrett would agree on all the best barbecue restaurants in town, though. Chris Hanslik So we would go down. All this to you Very good, all right, and then. So I'll go with you. First. Scott, if you could take a 30 day sabbatical, where would you go? What would you do? Scott Snodgrass Oh goodness, probably Central America and like take the kids and kick around in the cloud forest a little bit. Very cool yeah. Clayton Garrett Very cool, like I'd love to get a Japan and really experience like a very different culture than what I'm used to, so that would be something interesting. Very good. Chris Hanslik Well, guys, thanks so much for taking the time to come on the podcast. Love your story and best of luck to you With Indigo. I know it'll be a success, Thanks. Scott Snodgrass Chris, yeah, appreciate it no-transcript.
In this episode of Building Texas Business, I had a riveting conversation with Dave Quinn, the mastermind behind Day One Experts. Dave and his well-versed team have dedicated their craft to bridging the divide between public-sector funds and private-sector projects. Not only does Dave bring to light the nuances of doing business in Texas, he does so with finesse and undeniable expertise. His reflections on his entrepreneurial journey and personal anecdotes about his first job, favorite food debate, and dream vacation make for a well-rounded conversation. Join us for this episode as we explore the landscape of economic development and the lessons learned along the way.
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
-
So I'm talking today with Dave Quinn, the founder of Day One Experts. His company helps businesses connect with the folks who handle economic development and community funding.
-
Basically, Dave and his team help companies understand and explain why they deserve money from places like community development boards. They make the process a little less confusing for businesses.
-
The Texas Economic Development Connection is a resource Dave's company created for businesses in Texas. It can help business owners navigate all the different economic development opportunities available.
-
Dave says building relationships with local economic development folks can open doors beyond just getting cash incentives.
-
COVID-19 has changed how economic development works now, so Dave's company had to adapt. They realized businesses really needed a guide to walk them through the process.
-
Dave shares some personal stories about his first job, favorite foods, and dream vacation. It adds a little personality to the conversation.
-
Through the Texas Economic Development Connection, Dave's company provides tools and info for small businesses looking to relocate to Texas.
-
They've created content marketing that highlights success stories from Texas communities. This makes it easier for business owners to find vetted resources.
-
Dave emphasizes that passion and purpose are important for entrepreneurship, but so is focus and avoiding chasing every opportunity.
-
Even with the current economic uncertainty, Dave sees Texas as a safe place for businesses looking to weather the storm.
LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
GUESTS
| | Dave Quinn About Dave |
TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors)
Chris Hanslik In today's episode you will meet Dave Quinn, founder and managing partner of Day One Experts. You will learn how Dave works with business owners to understand and articulate their value proposition when seeking economic incentives from community development boards. Alright, Dave, i want to welcome you to Building Texas Business. Thank you for coming on the show. I want to start by just having you tell us a little bit about your company, day One Experts, and what it does and what it's known for. Dave Quinn Yeah well, thank you, Chris. I appreciate the opportunity to get to listen to your show and happy to be on here now. So Day One Experts is an economic development consulting firm. We're an on-demand consulting firm. We work with communities, we work with business owners who want to engage with communities, and we also work with higher net worth individuals that are looking for projects to invest in, and so we have this little sweet spot where public-private partnerships come together and then we have the financing connections to help make those projects go. Chris Hanslik So it is a very specialized service you provide which is, at least in my mind, kind of unique. What inspired you to start this adventure and keep it going? Dave Quinn Well, great question. So my partners and I two of us are certified economic developers. We've spent our careers in the economic development public sector And one of my partners, when he retired, actually worked for him as his vice president in Frisco Economic Development Corporation. And when he retired I left also and we decided we kept getting asked how we were so successful in Frisco and what were we doing and how we could do this. And we had a third partner that was involved in a lot of different projects And he kept running into the problem where he knew that we were able to do certain things with the public sector funds, but he kept coming into communities where they weren't sure how to use their tools to really help his private projects. And so after a couple of these we realized we went out from lunch one day at Rudy's barbecue and we were like, hey, we think this could be a thing, like we think we could make this work, and so that's what we did. We drove up the business model and kind of greasy paper there at Rudy's barbecue And we day one experts was born and the idea is that we bring value from day one. We shorten the time frame from that interaction between a private sector client and the public sector client Knowing from day one what it is the city is looking for and knowing what the private sector needs and how the city can use its tools to bridge that gap. And we can just help bring value from day one. And that was kind of the concept. We keep our foot on the economic development public sector. We offer on demand economic development for cities that might not have the resources for the experience that we bring to the table, but need the experience we bring to the table. Fast growing communities in sort of the metro areas, where they're getting bombarded by projects and they just can't handle it. They can fractionalize our experience and we're there when we need it And they don't suffer the detriment of not having to be able to afford an experienced person that kind of handle those projects Right. And so that allows us to see opportunities that a lot of private sector developers don't know about. Because, for whatever reason, we get told about things and we're in meetings where things happen and we understand there's opportunity And we know on our development side that we can go get that client. We know what they're looking for, it's the type of project that they're looking for. We reach out to them and say, hey, we think there's an opportunity here And we start crafting that and take it back to the city. And then, of course, you know, every major project needs money, right, and so having this tied into high net worth individuals that are looking for solid projects to invest in that are maybe not be sort of on the retail market, it gives us that unique opportunity to kind of bring all the players together and push these projects forward. And so really what we're doing is leveraging our expertise over the last. You know, we have 60 years, my partner has 40 years in the business, I've got over 20. So all of this experience and our deep knowledge and relationships that we have in the industry, we're basically now making that available to communities and to developers at a fraction of the cost, because we're, you know, practicing last. Chris Hanslik So it sounds like to me kind of classic entrepreneurial story where, based on your experience, you identified a gap and then you created this new venture to go address filling in how to fill in that gap and add value to the market. Dave Quinn Yeah, i wish I understood that when I started. I just saw that there was a need and we tried to feel it. I always tell people I'd be a much better economic developer now because I've been on the business side, i thought I understood small business and I thought I understood the pain points of the private sector. But until you've laid it, you know, sleep at night trying to figure out am I going to make payroll or not, or how am I going to do that. You don't really understand the pain, right? So in the public sector, you push things a month or two. It's not a big deal, right? It'll be there next month. On the private side, a month, my sink, you right, right. And so you know we've been blessed from the beginning and we've got work right away and we've just been blessed. So we started in 2019 and we've never looked back and it's been a very fortunate ride. But I didn't know all the terms and economic development, you know, and entrepreneurship and things. I just didn't know what I didn't know. We just wanted to help people and we saw that we could. You know people willing to pay us to get that help. Chris Hanslik So well, that's always nice when you can tie that to right. You people pay you for what you do is as you were learning as an entrepreneur. that's pretty critical. So you mentioned and I think it's a great conversation to have with our listeners who are business owners, entrepreneurs Is what were some of those pain points, the things you made you didn't know going in, that you've learned since, that you know you could kind of share with someone that's maybe about to do the same thing, things to kind of maybe make sure you have your eye on the ball about as you're starting a new company. Dave Quinn Yeah, so thank you for that. It's one. Cash flow is king, right, you need cash. It takes longer and costs more than you think it will. It's probably 10 times more. I don't know what that number is. But even being fortunate in getting projects, it's just a lot of work. And you know, a lot of people will maybe agree with what you're doing or think it's a good idea and say that, but when you ask them to pay for it, it's a completely different conversation, right, so it's one thing to So I think it's a great idea. But then you say, ok, well, it's going to cost X, then it gets sort of, you know, then it might not be as straightforward as people think. So you know, just just know, going in, that there's no day when you just like, ok, i made it and I don't have to worry, right, it's like you know whether the sales say the only easy day was yesterday. And I think that sometimes we glorify, you know, entrepreneurship and business ownership And it all sounds good to be your own boss until you're your own boss, right? And so you know, if you're not out hunting and killing and dragging stuff back to the cave, then you're not eating, and so there is a trade off there. Now I wouldn't. I don't know that I would go back. I never say never. Well, it is a very tiring and can be exhilarating journey. You know some days that you know, just going to work for someone and having them cut me a check and not having to worry about it at the end of the day sounds kind of nice. There's a lot of positive stuff that comes from on your own business and there's a lot of reward and gratification that comes from it. But I think people need to be ready for just the battle that it can be And, you know, having to get up and do that every day. Just, i think they need to be realistic about what's about to happen and not saying it's not rewarding, not saying it's not worth it. But that's why passion and purpose is so critical is that you know some days you don't really feel like doing it, but you get a gut. You got to get up and do it anyway. Chris Hanslik I think you hit the nail on the head there, right there at the end. You said passion and purpose. If you're going to do this and start your own business and you know kind of take the risk that it, that all that involves, If you're not passionate about what it is you're doing and if you don't have a really clearly defined purpose, it's going to be really tough. Dave Quinn Well, what Go ahead? Well, I was just going to say right. So that's one thing that I've learned is that there's lots of different ways to make money. Right, there's no shortage of opportunities. The question is are you willing to go through what it's going to take to mine that? right, it's like finding gold or anything else. Right, there's hard work involved and you got to decide. Is that what I want to do? And I think a lot of times entrepreneurs start off and we jump from thing to thing thinking that this will be a little easier, right, when really you just need to focus, find your passion, that purpose, and focus on that and sort of niche down and go really hard at that, and then other opportunities will come to you. But if you start chasing every little opportunity because you think that one will be just a little bit easier Man, you can get in the trap real quick, right? Chris Hanslik Staying focused is so clear, so important. Sounds like you guys at day one have found your purpose and you said it earlier it's in helping people And that's what's driving your business. Dave Quinn Yeah. so we love solving interesting problems right, and a lot of people kind of shy away from challenging problems. We love it when somebody says you can't do that or that's going to be really hard. That's where we specialize in, because one we've had lots of experience and we've seen it happen in time again, both in Jim and Ma's time in economic development. We've heard that won't work, can't do that, and we've found ways to make it work. So we know there's a way. It's just a matter of are you willing to commit the resources and the time and energy to sort of figure it out? Chris Hanslik Yeah. So let's talk a little bit about just how you go about doing what you do there. You've mentioned kind of working on kind of both sides, one, i guess, with these economic development councils or boards and others with entrepreneurs or businesses looking to come into those communities or maybe not a specific community but one in Texas that you may have a connection with. How do you go about, i guess, on the entrepreneur, private side of the equation, finding those opportunities and being able to engage and develop those relationships? Dave Quinn Well, what we've found is that, as much as we spend time in the economic development world marketing and telling people about our services, very few business owners actually know what the economic developer office can do for them and how to engage in those resources. And so when we spend our time networking and going to different watering holes where different entrepreneurs are, we find that they don't even realize that in their backyard they can go to the economic development and there's a wealth of resources that economic development professional can provide to them, and so that gives us the opportunity. One of the things that we started coming out of COVID was the Texas Economic Development Connection, for that exact reason. There are so many opportunities in Texas and so many different economic development offices that can help you, but most business owners don't know that. They see on the news that Texas is good. They want to move to Dallas or they want to move to Austin. Well, in Dallas alone there's something over 100 different cities, and so Houston Metro. When someone says Houston, they don't really mean Houston. It could be Paraland or Conra. Well, those are, i mean, heck, those in Houston. That's an hour and a half apart from each other, right, right? Chris Hanslik yeah. Dave Quinn And so how do you sort through all of that if you're from California or you're from Japan or you're from Taiwan and you've never been here? And so what we realized is that we can help feel that we can be the boots on the ground, the expertise in Texas to help you identify what makes sense for you, and because we're also spending a lot of time at the Texas Economic Development Conferences and we're hearing from all of these different people and we understand what they're looking for. You know they might be saying, hey, I'm. You know, we'd really like a resort hotel with a conference center. Well, we know a developer that specializes in that. So I can start to connect the dots and create value for both sides. Because as an economic developer, you've never done that project, so you don't even know where to get started right And you don't even know how to vet the different people that want to do that. So we can help connect those dots with vetted resources and shorten the time frame that it takes you to get you know into the game. That's man, we just love doing that. Chris Hanslik We love connecting people and creating value that way I can see the passion you have for and the excitement. What are some of the attributes that we just educate you know listeners on? What are some of the attributes that are out there that you know certain you know entrepreneur might be able to take advantage of if they get connected with the right economic development council. Dave Quinn Well, so the easy one is economic incentives, right? Everybody wants to know about incentives. First and foremost, you need to understand what value you bring to the table When you're an entrepreneur and you come into a city, how cities look at your economic value is your jobs. Are you creating you know jobs and you know work opportunity for their citizens? What's the capital investment for property taxes on the equipment? What kind of value are you bringing in that stance? And then, where's your product being sold? Are you selling to just the local regional area or are you selling product to people all over the US And ideally, that is a really high value opportunity for the city. They want you selling your product made in one town that's sold to somebody else, because now you're importing dollars. So, understanding the value there, then you can go to the city and say this is the economic value I bring. And then understanding what's your ask? right, because if you just say, hey, i want some money, well, yeah, we all need money, we all need resources. But if you say I need $15,000 to buy a new piece of equipment that's going to allow me to increase production by 20%, which is going to increase my sales and allow me to hire two people. That's a very specific ask that the city can then look at and say, okay, let me figure out how I can get you there, right. And so I think that's one thing business owners need to understand is don't You can go and start to have the conversation, but you really need to understand what you're asking for. It's not just money. We all need money. I need this money for this thing that's going to create this opportunity And that allows the public side to look at that and say, okay, how can we best fill that gap? There's a lot of different resources out there, and it might not be direct cash incentives. Maybe it's partnering with the workforce board to create specific training that offsets some of the costs you have related to hiring new people, and so you know the money that it would have cost you for that you can then repurpose to buy the equipment that you're needing, right. And so the economic developer knows that and they know what resources are available at the state level and what other sort of opportunity this might be to plug in to help you, and then it might go beyond cash incentives. It's about plugging into the network, right? So the economic developer is out networking and they're seeing other people who have products and challenges and those kind of things, and maybe they know, if they understand what it is you bring to the table. They are looking for that connection point as well, right, so they're trying to figure out how do I help you connect with this business that is looking for your product, that maybe together you all do a whole new thing and that creates revenue and opportunities for you. So, even if it's not a cash incentive, making sure that you're having and developing a relationship with your local economic developer so that when the that something goes wrong in your business or there's a challenge that comes up, you have a person who is in your backyard that wants to help you succeed. But they need to first understand what it is you're doing, and so there's a value in that. And they're traveling, not just in the state, but they're traveling all over the country, so they might bump into someone who talks about meeting. You know again something that your business can provide, and it's not just about cash incentives, it's about connecting the dots for you as well. Chris Hanslik Gotcha. Well so, and I'm sure you know, those types of incentives kind of exist in lots of places. So what are some of the things you tell the private side, these, you know, privately held businesses that would be an advantage of them relocating to Texas and or staying in Texas and growing here? What are some of those attributes you think our state provides for those types of privately held businesses? Dave Quinn Yeah, so I think just the general business environment, right. So the tax environment that we operate in and the cost of doing business in Texas, for the most part. It's not perfect in every industry, in every business, but for the most part operating in Texas is going to be less expensive. There's going to be generally, depending on where you're coming from, a workforce and an educated workforce that you're going to be able to tap into, although everywhere you go across the US you know there's workforce challenges. But I think what you find here is a workforce that is less. You know. They just want to, they want a good job, they want to show up and they want to do that job and then be able to go home And there's not a lot of extra drama around that, right. And the state doesn't spend a lot of time and effort, you know, piling on different mandates and things like that. You know now, if you think you're going to come into Texas and just pay minimum wage and hire the best, you're probably not right. There's a wage rate that is, there's a floor, right. Your competitors are paying, right. So I don't want to be, i don't want to give people the wrong idea that you can come in and pay cheap labor. There's a you know there's a certain level there, but you'll generally find too that people here in Texas want you to succeed, especially at the economic development level, in this community development. We're not in the business of keeping you from doing what you want to do, i mean really we and I get this question from small business owners. When they call from the state and I'm explaining this, they're like I have to first get them past the fact that we actually want to help. They think it's a scam or there's a bait and switch. Or are you serious? This person's going to do this for free? This person is going to help you find resources and we want you to succeed and we're willing to invest time and effort to do that. I mean, and I don't have to pay all these different fees up front and invest first, and no, they are there to be your partner and to help, and so I think that's the thing that Texas offers is just man. We want people to come here and be successful. Chris Hanslik Certainly, you know, been a lot of movement, not just I mean obviously recently, but even over the last decade or so of that business migration to Texas for those reasons and others, and so you know, as we all hope it continues, is there anything? I know you said you started in 2019. Is there anything coming out of the pandemic of 2020 and what the economy has been doing in the last couple of years, any changes that you've seen that you think have hindered your ability to attract business of Texas? And then I'll ask the opposite after that. Dave Quinn Yeah well, so I'll just say, covid, traditionally economic developers were on the road right. You had to go to trade shows. you were it was this in-person sort of trying to get in front of people. COVID shut that down And so we were all forced to do things like Zoom and figure this out And really we shifted. that's one of the reasons we created the Texas Economic Development Connection was we knew we weren't going to be able to do traditional economic development marketing And that's starting to come back a little bit. you know there's more and more conferences coming online. But we created this infrastructure to do inbound content marketing and really showcasing success stories from our communities. So we're creating a great community partners and getting that in front of these business owners digitally. And man, getting in front of small business owners is really tough, like it's easy to go find a big guy's, but to find a 15 person manufacturing shop somewhere in California and in LA and figure out where that person hangs out is really tough. But what we found is, because of what's going on in the different states, those business owners are now being more aggressive at looking for options to relocate to And that's the one presence that allows people to engage and start to find that, hey, there's people out there that can help me sort through this. I can't tell you how many times the business owner has connected with us and they said, thank goodness, can you just tell me where I'm supposed to go? You know, they know Texas, but it's overwhelming. if you start doing the search, there's a lot of different information out there, and so you know, as a business owner, you're just like man. could I connect with someone who can help walk me through that? I need a Sherpa And that's what we're looking for, and so that's changed a little bit right. Chris Hanslik So let's talk a little bit about that, though. So Texas economic development connection that's something that you created as a kind of a website that aggregates all this for a business owner to go and, i guess, find on the web and access this information and, obviously, a way to reach out to you. Dave Quinn That's correct. So you know we don't what I say, what I tell everyone is we don't go market Texas and that people should relocate to Texas. What we do is create content for people who are looking at Texas as an option. And so how do you set up your LLC? Why would I be in South Texas versus East Texas? You know we are putting content together that showcases the different options that are available in Texas, and then we make it very easy for them to find us. Get on a phone call with us and let us walk them through that process. And so it's not about convincing people to move to Texas. If you don't want to be in Texas, i don't want you in Texas because you're not going to be successful. What I want to do is help the person who says I want to be in Texas, i just don't know where to go. Elon Musk is getting a bunch of money from the state. How do I do that? Well, in Texas, economic development resources are really derived at the local level a lot more than the state level. Especially if you're a small business owner, there are resources available to you that you got to know where to go. I talked to a gentleman, a community in East Texas. They have 77 acres in an industrial park ready to go. Streets, water, sewer, are looking, you know, to put that on the market, but they don't have it on the website. They don't have it anywhere that you can find it. I can give you the name of the town and I would be willing to bet you $100. You wouldn't come up with any idea that they have land available for sale. So what we do is we bury out those nuggets, and we know that, and now we make that available to the business owner And so it's a. You know, it's just helping people. As a small business owner, now I understand there's only so many hours in the day, and so you're trying to do your job here in business hours, than a night you're on Google trying to figure out where am I supposed to go, and it can be very confusing. And there's HR and there's insurance issues and there's legal issues. If you have two companies in different states and doing different things, it's a lot, and so what we want to do is be that again the Sherpa that allows you to easily transition into that, to give you a place to go and vetted resources that you're not going to get taken advantage of. You don't want to just look down the phone book or Google and call the first person that you come to. Chris Hanslik Okay, that's. I mean that came that website came out of, i guess, like you said, the inability to connect personally, and you've found a different way. So kind of what looked like a negative cut in COVID you turned into a very positive thing for your business and for the people you're trying to serve. Anything, i guess on the positive side of it, as things have tried to recover, that has kind of helped your business grow. Dave Quinn Well, i think just the fact that there's a lot of negative talk about the economy and a lot of uncertainty across the US, right, what's the market's going to do and everything's it's a very negative. It can feel very negative, but we haven't seen that in Texas. And what I tell people is yes, there's a storm coming, but Texas is that safe harbor that the boats are trying to get into to weather it. Not saying that we won't have some rough water in the harbor, but I'd rather weather that storm in Texas than anywhere else in the country. And we're seeing that. You know, more and more smaller businesses are saying look, i love this place, whether it's Oregon or New York, new Jersey, California, we love this place. I've been here forever, but it's just gotten to the point where I can't grow my business here And I've got to find somewhere else to go. And again, there's a lot of different places in Texas to go, and it doesn't have to be in Dallas or the central circuit, right, there's places all over Texas that are arms open, welcome you and you can find a good quality of life in these places. You just don't know to ask the question. Chris Hanslik That's great. So let's talk a little bit about I guess internally You've got two partners you're driving the business. I mean, what type of I guess qualities from a leadership standpoint do you feel like you bring to the table that helped you kind of grow this business over the last few? Dave Quinn years. Well, I'm in this trap of I'm the visionary, i see the big picture of where I'm going. The challenge I have is that day-to-day operations execute right. And I know a lot of entrepreneurs I've talked to. We kind of get into the same battle. At some point you have to bring more people on your team, but you've got to kind of figure out to do that wisely and manage cash and manage it. Every time you add someone, that's a big thing. Right now You're taking their livelihood under. Am I willing to do that? But in order to grow and to scale, that's one of the things that I'm going to have to do. But my skill set is in seeing opportunity and having the vision and passion to drive that, and so, in recognizing that and recognizing that, for us to continue to move forward, we're getting to that point where we need to start backfilling with expertise in a different realm And that the process driven person right that wants to show up and create these systems and processes. We've sort of done that on our own and it's fine. I can do it. It's just not my greatest skill set, and so I think that's. You know, every business owner has to realize that they just can't do it all. You have to do it all at first, but if there's some point where you just can't, you can't be everything And so you have to, sort of feels like you're taking a step back, right, you're sort of spending or investing resources And so it feels like you're losing. But what happens is I've seen it happen time and time again with friends in the economic and in the entrepreneur world walking the same journey is, you know, they took the step back, but then they took three steps forward because they took so much pressure off themselves And suddenly they were able to capitalize on other opportunities that they just didn't have time to get to those before. Chris Hanslik Yeah, you're. I mean, you're so right. I mean the entrepreneur, that visionary that starts. you can do it all, you just won't grow your business. Dave Quinn Yeah, and when we're going to a certain level and it is just all you'll ever get. It's like a plant in a potted plant in a you know, in a certain size pot. It will grow to that pot. You have to transplant if you want to grow better. Chris Hanslik That's right, and it is as you grow that team find the trust that does you know, open you up for the opportunity to more growth. What do you see, kind of you know, in the near future, as far as you know, innovative things that may be happening in the economic development world, that you may be able to grow your business even further by attracting more of these entrepreneurs and privately held businesses into the state? Dave Quinn Yeah, so one of the things that we're looking at is automation and being able to use technology to scale and using a virtual admin team And, instead of each economic developer hiring their own person to do, say, sites and buildings or different things, really building a virtual team and not being limited by someone sitting in your office, right, and you know, you don't need a person to do sites and buildings on your website or certain things all the time, but you need them when you need them. And so we're looking at how do we help the public sector adopt these innovative tools without the risk of being innovative. Everybody loves innovation until they realize innovation means failure And in order to, you know, innovate you've got to fail a few times. Well, in the public sector, we don't like failure, that's you know. We stay away from failure. And so, as the private side, what we like to do is innovate, find the solution and then plug it in. So you've sort of mitigated the risk and fractionalized that over different communities. So we're doing that. We're adding unavailable properties listing on our website And again taking that using automation, so that the economic developer doesn't have to upload their data and their sites into the system. It's done for them, and one of the reasons that hasn't been done in the past is it always comes to the bottleneck of the economic developer having to have time to input that and then keep it relevant and up to date. And we're going to take that off their shoulders and do it for them so that, you know, a business owner in Irvine, California, can look on our website And if they're looking for, you know, 25,000 square feet in North Texas, they'll be able to find that building and have a place to go. Do that. And then we're pushing resources to maintain that database and make sure it's up, updated and accurate. Chris Hanslik That's great. It's kind of like a much needed service that is obviously underserved at this point. Dave Quinn It is. It's a heavy lift. I will tell you I can say it a lot easier than I can that we've been able to figure it out, but we're going to make it happen And that's why we exist. Right, we're again fractionalizing that effort across a lot of different cities for the benefit of the business owner. I always tell people that come into the partnership you know, it's not about talking about ourselves, it's about creating value to the business owner. And if we can become value to the business owner, they'll tell their friends and they'll tell others and they'll find us. And because they're out there looking, they're not looking for a sales pitch on a community. What they're looking for is a solution to a problem they have, and that's what we do. Chris Hanslik That's great. Let's turn a little bit to the lighter side, normal, personal. What was your first job, Dave Man? Dave Quinn my first job, not working for my dad was milking cows. I was a relief milker, So I would go and milk cows in the weekend And I thought that was the perfect job, right? Because you milk cows at four in the morning and four the afternoon. I thought, man, that's only two times a day And I'll have all this free time. Well, I realized, when you get up at four in the morning, or when you start milking at four, you have to get up to like three And then you're so tired and so you know done that you sleep till four o'clock and have to do it all over again. So that whole summer I didn't do, I didn't have any fun because I don't milk cows And I thought this is a dumb job. Like there's no days off, you have to milk twice a day. The cows don't like you, you don't like them. You know it's not dirty, you stink And I'm like it really allowed me to like I need to go get a college education because I don't love you know people that do that. God bless them. They love it And that is their thing. It was not my thing. Chris Hanslik I'll say it brings you. I bet you appreciated the next class of milk you had. Dave Quinn Oh, gosh, yes, I'm telling you, I don't know, man, that was not a lot of fun. Chris Hanslik Well, I'll tell you this, Dave we've done over 50 episodes on this podcast and your first job just went to the top of the list. Dave Quinn I want if I could remember. I wish I could remember the guy that hired me, because I would go and tell him I'm sorry, i don't think I was a very good worker. I mean I got the job done but you know, i don't know, i don't. I feel like I owe him an apology. Chris Hanslik Yeah, that's great. I love it All right. So now, now the food choice you Tex-Max or barbecue guy? Dave Quinn Oh man, that's a tough one. I love Tex-Max. That's probably the more I ate it, more. Barbecue is more of a nice meal out right, like it's a, especially now, and I've gotten sort of picky with my barbecue too, right. So, growing, having been in Bastrop and worked in, you know, central Texas, having a friend that owns a barbecue restaurant, I'm kind of a, I'm kind of snobbish about that, and so it has to be really good barbecue, which means it's, you know, fairly expensive, and so that's not something we have all the time. And if you're not going to appreciate it, i know my kids, i don't take them, they don't appreciate it enough. So Tex-Max is the easy one. We do that. In fact, we had Tex-Max last night. Chris Hanslik That's lovely. Well, i can understand that. But I guess from a guy that said he started his this entrepreneurial business at a Rudy's barbecue, i kind of thought you might go barbecue. Dave Quinn Well, yeah, well, rudy's. So the you know, my partner was the guy that helped Rudy's get to Frisco And there was the whole story behind it. There's a really cool backstory, and so for me, when they said, where do you want to meet And I knew we were going to meet about this I'm like, if this turns into something, this will be a cool story, right? So I was like, well, let's start at Rudy's right. And you know, whatever, I'm a sucker for a story, right. And I love that connection Southwest Airlines back at Napkin thing. Chris Hanslik Yeah. Dave Quinn Something about we started Rudy's on. you know, greasy sausage paper, like butcher paper, like that. Anyway, I did it for the story. I love it. I didn't know if it was going to happen, But I thought, if it does, this is going to be a cool story. Chris Hanslik Yeah, for sure It is. It did happen And it is a great story. Yeah, all right. Last question So if you could take a 30-day sabbatical, where would you go And what would you do? Dave Quinn I'd go to Australia for 30 days. I'd be in Australia. I've just a fascinating place And yeah. So there you go. I would love to do that. I've never been. That's one of the places I've never been, And it feels like a place that you need more than a week to really explore. Chris Hanslik Yeah. I think, it would be great down there And I think your ride's going to go. You want to go and stay for a little bit. Well, Dave, this has been great. I've loved getting to know you, loved hearing your story and what you and your partners are doing to drive business into Texas. You know, not surprised. you're successful and hope for all of us. You continue to be more than successful than you ever planned to be. Dave Quinn Well, Chris, thank you, appreciate you giving me the opportunity to share my story and then also sharing other people's story. I think you know letting others hear our stories and inspiring them to do it in spite of all of the reasons not to. And, like I said, it would be easier if you don't start a business, i guarantee you. But we need more people doing what they're passionate and purpose driven. If we can get more people doing what their purpose is and bringing their value to the world, i think the world would be a better place. Chris Hanslik Man, I couldn't agree more. You can't say any better than what you said. It right then. So thanks again, Dave, and best of luck to you. Dave Quinn All right, thanks, Chris. Thanks, man, i really appreciate it. Bye. Chris Hanslik Bye. Thanks for tuning in to Building Texas Business For more information, episodes and summaries. head over to boyermillercom forward slash podcast. If you enjoyed this episode and found it informative. Please take a moment to rate, review and share it with friends and colleagues. It really helps others find our podcast. As always, we appreciate the support and feedback of our podcast community. More episodes are coming soon, so be sure to check back. Special Guest: Dave Quinn.
In this episode of Building Texas Business, join us as we sit down with Lance Thrailkill, CEO of All Metals Fabricating, to discuss his family's 70-year-old business and how their focus on putting employees first has led to their continued success. In this conversation, we explore the challenges and rewards of running a family business and the leadership lessons Lance has learned along the way. Discover his unique approach to hiring, firing, and innovation and how he maintain a successful business through open communication and a "whatever it takes" mentality.
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
-
All Metals Fabricating is a family-owned contract manufacturer with a 70-year history, specializing in sheet metal fabricating, machining, powder coating, and assembly.
-
The company prioritizes a people-first approach, driven by the desire to serve others with excellence and create real wealth for its employees.
-
All Metals Fabricating provides its employees with a 15% 401k contribution, full healthcare coverage, and bonuses, creating a family-oriented culture.
-
The company's culture is defined by a "whatever it takes" mentality and open, honest conversations, established by the founder and continued by the current CEO, Lance Thrillkill.
-
During the hiring process, All Metals Fabricating ensures that new hires align with their core values and culture by requiring personality surveys and core values assessments.
-
Lance Thrillkill advocates for a humble approach to leadership, open communication, and providing team members with the tools and resources they need to be successful.
-
Automation and AI in the manufacturing industry can provide job security and new opportunities for employees, rather than replacing them.
-
Creating a team-oriented culture, taking ownership of conflicts, and learning from past mistakes are essential leadership lessons shared by Lance Thrillkill.
-
Transitioning leadership requires building trust within the team, open and honest communication, and the willingness to challenge one another's perspectives.
-
Lance Thrillkill's dream sabbatical involves a two-week elk hunting trip and a two-week beach getaway with his wife.
LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
GUESTS
| | Lance Thrailkill About Lance |
TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors)
Chris Hanslik In this episode, you will meet Lance Thrailkill, ceo of All Metals Fabricating. Lance is a third generation leader whose focus and passion is to put his employees first and defines his company's why as serving others with excellence. Alright, lance, i want to welcome you to Building Texas Business. You're currently the CEO of All Metals Fabricating and I just want you to start by telling the audience and our listeners what is All Metals Fabricating? What do you do? what are you known for? Lance Thrailkill Yes, sir, thanks for having me Chris Appreciate the opportunity. All Metals Fabricating is a third generation family owned business, with me being the third generation owner. We are a contract manufacturer, more commonly known as a job shop. We specialize in sheet metal fabricating, machining, powder coating and assembly, including electromechanical assembly. The family the business was built on the backbone of the Telecom boom of the 80s and 90s. It's a 70 year old business. I've been in my family for 45 years. So my grandfather bought the business in 1978. My dad joined him that next year and they built the business and my grandfather retired, coincidentally the same year that I'd come on board, back in 2008, 15 years ago. And, yes, so the company is built on the Telecom boom of the 80s and 90s. in 2000 that boom, that bubble, busted and we diversified quite a bit And so now Telecom is still about 30% of our business and but we're in virtually every industry. OEMs, which stands for original equipment manufacturers, are primary biggest customers and that goes into different industries. Primarily alternative energy and medical is our biggest OEM customers. Chris Hanslik Okay, that's impressive. So a couple of questions. I want to follow up on that. So what inspired first year grandfather to buy this business in 1978? Lance Thrailkill Yeah, so my grandfather is pretty cool I'm instead of classic American dream story but you know he got married when he was 16 and had my dad when he was 17 work three jobs. He actually worked at AC Horn, which is another third generation owned business I think that might actually be on the fourth generation and the horns and they're in Dallas and sheet metal shop and primarily focus in the food processing equipment space, and my grandfather just was inspired by the way the horns invested in their people and he wanted to create real wealth for himself, and so he had saved up enough and took out a loan from the bank to buy all metals, fabricating and modeled a lot of what he'd learned from the horns, especially in the way that we take care of people and have our rich benefits plan, and so that was kind of his inspiration. Chris Hanslik That's great. That is inspiring. So then the next question from that is what inspired you to want to work in the family business and eventually take over the family business? Lance Thrailkill Yeah. So that's a great question. I would say, just the way that my dad and my grandfather have just they're the most selfless men you've ever met. And so the way that my dad just selflessly put me and my sisters in needs and our families needs before his own, and even just the all his employees needs before their own, just how hard he worked, how hard my grandfather had worked, i just wanted to come in and help give my dad the opportunity to retire, and if that's what he wanted to do, and so that that was really just giving back to the two men that have really given me everything that that I have, as was the main driver. Chris Hanslik Well, i think you've seen this. It sounds like both of your grandfather and your father, but it has to resonate, reside inside of you. You have to have a passion for what you do to really do it well. So you clearly must have a passion for this business and being able to lead it as a CEO. Now, for what? is it now? five, six years? Yes, sir. Lance Thrailkill Yeah, i would say you have to have a greater purpose, and our why to what we do is to serve others with excellence. We follow Jesus and He laid down His life for us, and so we believe that that's how we're supposed to treat others. And so, while I wouldn't say I've learned and grown to become passionate about manufacturing that is not at all what drew me in or what continues to drive me daily or motivate me daily It's the people. It's serving and caring for our people and putting them first and seeing the lives impacted and their families lives. That's really what motivates me and keeps me going. Chris Hanslik Well, that's great, because I mean, as you know well, without good people and you're not going to have good people unless you take care of them you're not really going to have a very good business, especially one that's going to span as long as your family's has. So tell us what are some of the things that you do at AMF to show the people that you care about them, that you're taking care of them, so that they feel it and they see it in action. Lance Thrailkill Yeah. So just you know, following in my dad and grandfather's footsteps, they'd put a lot of the fundamental pieces in place in terms of compensation and things like that. So, really, starting with that, we have a 15% 401k contribution that they've done every year. Even in years when we've lost money, they've done that 15% 401k contribution And so that's very significant. We have a welder who's been here for 47 years and he's got over a million dollars in his 401k And so you know I tease him that only Jesse James is the only welder that has more money than him. You know you do so the fundamental business, the way the business is set up and doing that and fully covering their health care, which is certainly not common in manufacturing industry really not any industry anymore. You have to pay, you know, out of pocket, something for most insurance at most companies, and so fully covering that. We also do quarterly bonuses is something they've kind of had in place and that I've really doubled down on. And then a guaranteed Christmas bonus, no matter what their performance is. That we do early at the very beginning of December, along with a big Christmas party that's very family-oriented and a big deal to our employees, and we do that early in December so that they can have that money to go buy Christmas presents for their family. And so, just starting with those things, you know that having the structure there is key, but you know that's not really enough. You know you've got to really care for people in a radical way And so that looks, you know, different at different times. You got to look for opportunities and your true colors really show during the difficult times, of course. So during COVID, you know we had food brought in for our people every day at the start of it so that they didn't have to go out and risk exposure. We were, you know, having the place sanitized every night. We spent, you know, several hundred thousand dollars over the first six months of COVID just making sure people were cared for because we were a mandatory business. That's one example And but you know it's the little opportunities where people you know go through life difficulties and you know sending flowers to their, to the funerals, and and then some other things we have in place is we have a company chaplain that comes out and walks the company once a month and checks in with people, offers counseling services, prayer to people We do about four times a year. Well, he'll do an encouragement, a message during lunch for people, for everybody, for the whole company, and just encouraging the team, and so just, but then even just knowing what's going on in people's lives. So I walk the floor every Friday and hand out people's paychecks myself and check in with them to ask how they're doing. That forces me to really engage and know what's going on in people's lives and with their families and follow up on those things. So you, just you have to put things in place that help you fundamentally do it And then, when the big opportunities arise, you have to be ready to show your true colors and step it up. Chris Hanslik And that's impressive stuff. I mean you're clearly bringing the true definition of family into your business and treating your employees like they're an extension of the family. that has to foster a very cohesive culture there at AMF. Tell us a little bit about that. How would you describe the culture or the things, in addition to what you've just described, that you do that you think helps foster, build the culture you have there? Lance Thrailkill Yeah, absolutely So. I think one thing that really defines us is, you know, the we care more. So it starts with us, as leadership, caring more for our people and putting our people first. You know, a lot of businesses put the customer first and really, as an owner, your customers, your employees, first and foremost, and so by doing that we care more for our employees and they in turn put the company before themselves, often in our customers before themselves. Just last week we had, you know, erickson had this big prototype order that they needed to get out And it was very critical And we were kind of behind the eight ball And we had people stay until eight, nine o'clock at night. They're back at five in the morning here working around the clock. Then we lost power on Friday morning And we had the whole team are, you know, director of operations is out there on the floor assembling these things, and we got them all done, you know, right in the nick of time. And so you just see, in people rally together is something that really defines us And this, whatever it takes, mentality really defines our culture, which was instilled by my grandfather and dad. Just, you know, the grandfather used to walk out on the floor and be like do whatever it takes, get the work done, you know, and that we've got coined that And it really does define our culture a lot. It is certainly a family, family environment, which you know can be a bad thing Some for some people, but for us it's good And you know, just being able to have open and honest conversations, give each other feedback. But culture is something that you have to constantly be working on. You can never be satisfied, you can never get comfortable, especially as you grow, really keeping your culture refined. And so we really, when hiring you know a lot of people in a manufacturing space, especially in this work shortage if you have a pulse and you know how to do the job, you're going to get hired. Well, we have a different approach. We make them take a personality survey before we'll even interview them so that I can better understand how they're wired as a person. In preparation for the interview, we make them go through our core values and exhibit how they show our core values or have shown that in recent jobs, and so really making sure people align with our culture before they come on board has been a huge help for us as we've grown, to keep that culture intact And that's really important, because the key, i think, to a good hire that you actually retain over the long haul which is to the benefit of your business for all kinds of reasons is making sure they're a cultural ad on the front end, because they're more likely to work out and stay longer. Chris Hanslik And the opposite is true, right. If you don't really take the time through the interview process to figure out if this person is going to really add to your culture, in fact, if they're a cultural detriment, then they're not going to last long and you've got turnover. if you're going to spend more time and money trying to fill that position, you're going to have downtime because you don't have someone in that position. It's just there's nothing good that comes from it. Lance Thrailkill No, it's been a game changer. Yeah, and it's always harder to fire people and it's the impact that it has on your culture, just like when you have people training new people that don't end up working out. that is very draining to your people, and so really making sure and even bringing them in on the process, bringing the leads in on the process, having the department of leads meet the new candidates has been helpful as well. Chris Hanslik Speaking, of that. You kind of mentioned it. It's never easy to let someone go or make that hard decision, but everything you read as the as soon as you know, the faster you make that decision, the better everyone off is. What are some of the things that you've learned over these years on? when you have to make that decision, to let someone go, to actually make it more decisively and act rather than let it linger. Lance Thrailkill Yeah, i'm not the best at that, i'll tell you that I'm a little bit too compassionate, but I think that once you know it is important to act swiftly, and so I would say, really the key is outlining what the expectations are, and the way I say it is like people should, when it comes time to fire them, they should already know that it's inevitable, because the expectations have been so clearly outlined and it's obvious that they are not meeting them that they've essentially fired themselves. And so, while I may not act quickly enough sometimes, that's the key right there is that they understand that it's they've fired themselves by not meeting expectations. I think where you get in trouble is where people don't know that they're not meeting the expectation and then they're just kind of lingering around, and then it hurts everybody's morale because they see this person you know just hanging around and they're just a poor performer. Chris Hanslik Another couple good points there. One I think you're right. I think clear communication is the key right. Clearly communicate the expectations and then clearly communicate whether they're being met or not. In both cases, you know you praise the reward when someone's meeting or exceeding expectations, so they reinforce that good behavior is critically important, just as you should, when they're not meeting expectations, communicate why that's the case. Unfortunately, i think I don't know about you, but I find, as a leader, a lot of times we're always focused on the problems, why they're not meeting, and we then collect some of our star performers and praise to make them even better. Lance Thrailkill And that's a challenge right, but it's very important to make sure you're spending time with both Yeah it is You know, and that's you have to find opportunities to celebrate the wins and to pat people on the back and it's so critical. And you're right, it is very difficult to do so. You have to systemize it to where it's built into your habits So you're not having to think to go do that And you know. For us, like in the data driven world that we live in, that's the best way to do. It is to have you know we have. Every employee has their own performance dashboard, so all they need to know to see how they are doing is to go to their dashboard and see how they're performing on every job. You know that. They've got their time and attendance there. They've got how much you know their efficiency is. They've got their rejects on there so they can see, just in a snapshot, exactly how they're performing and their bonus based on that performance. So they know what's coming and how they can. The win is clearly defined and it's at their, available to them, at their fingertips, and know that they're hitting it or not. Chris Hanslik You mentioned data driven and when I hear that? it makes me think of the word innovate. So let's talk about innovation. What are some of the things that you have done as CEO to innovate the business or you think are innovative in the industry and the way you're doing things there may not be innovative in itself, but it's maybe new to your industry, or it is something you've kind of come up with to try to move the company forward in this data driven world we're in. Lance Thrailkill Yeah, so we, our team, is very innovative. That's one of our core values. So I wouldn't say that I per se have done anything, but our team has definitely implemented a ton of things and that innovative mindset came, you know, from my grandfather and my dad, just constantly reinvesting in new equipment. So that starts, you know, the top. You've got to be able to provide people with the best tools that they need. If you want people to be as efficient as possible, you've got to be willing to invest in new equipment constantly, and so we've always done that historically. And then just to take it to the next level here in the past few years really, we've focused around data and software. So we have automated quoting software that is revolutionary and that we are an early adopter of. That's been a huge thing for us and help us really get quotes out faster and more accurately, more consistently. We have the machine monitoring software, which we were also an early adopter for and have gotten a lot of public recognition and awards for. So we can I can see what every machine in our shop if it's running, what job it's running on, how much it's being utilized every day of every minute for many where in the world. That's pretty cool And that software also generates reports to our department leads each week, showing them how each machine in their department was utilized, what their utilization rate was, with a look back of three weeks, so they can see for trends and use that to drive their huddles. We also have that, as I mentioned that, the employee performance dashboards. So that's something that's very innovative and that we've we actually co-developed with a software company. Our ERP system is the largest for manufacturing in the world and we co-developed it with them. As it now, it's a common product offering. So that's what I would say is very innovative and we built the bonus structure off of those performances. So the mindset you got to connect employees to the big picture KPIs, and so the way that we do that is they can so their efficiency rating everything over 100% that they hit. They're making us as a company more money, and so that's how they impact the net income percentage. So they're immediately on their dashboard connected to our net income percentage based on how efficient they are, and so they're obviously connected to sales by how much product they can get out. So by connecting them to the big picture goals and specifically profit margin, most importantly, we then put that money back in their pocket. So we'll give them an extra $500 bonus for hitting over 100% efficiency, and we're working even how to monetize that even more to where we can give even larger, for larger percentages over 100 to where, however much extra money they're making the company, they're getting a direct percentage of that instead of a flat fee as we currently have it structured. So those are just a few things that we've done here recently that have been very helpful and help keep us on the forefront And this industry 4.0, as they call it world that we're living in. Chris Hanslik Right, Yeah, I've seen speaking of industry 4.0 that you. You definitely spoke about it and I know you've been asked about it before. Just you know, maybe briefly educate our listeners that may not know about that. What do you mean when you speak of industry 4.0? Lance Thrailkill Yes, sir. So industry 4.0 is just for the fourth industrial revolution, as what it stands for, and it's focused on really full connectivity, so having machine monitoring, even taking it a step further to have machine to machine communication. It's focused on data live data, being used to drive your business decisions. It's focused on robotics, so having fully robotic, fully autonomous equipment and software as well, and so all these things kind of culminate together to make up industry 4.0. And a lot of times there's these buzzwords that are just buzzwords, and I assure you that industry 4.0 is not that. This is the culmination of a bunch of things that have been in the works for a while now, and the hype behind American manufacturing that started with our previous administration and is still carrying on today, and this kind of reborn pride in America and in American products and being self-sustaining has helped drive that even further. So the way that we're able to be competitive globally in order to compete with slave labor and subsidize goods is through automation and being able to run things much more efficiently than we had done previously. Chris Hanslik That is interesting and it brings to mind a question for me that I think you'll be the first. yes, i've asked, but it is kind of can't avoid it. these days It's kind of another you know current buzzword and it's not going away, and that's AI, artificial intelligence. How do you see AI impacting your business going forward and how will you balance that with this family-oriented culture that you have, as automation starts to potentially replace jobs formerly done by humans? Lance Thrailkill Yeah, so great question. So I always say that automation is not a replacement for humans, it's an opportunity. And so jobs transition. They just look like new opportunities, different job titles, different new opportunities for learning and experience. And so we do have some AI. Our automated quoting software does have some AI where it analyzes part features and looks for manufacturability concerns. I look forward to embracing future AI opportunities. So I even take it a step further and I tell people that automation maybe not as much AI, but automation is job security for our people, because what it does is it allows us to ramp up. We're a contract manufacturer, so business might be booming one day and slow a month later, and so by having automation, it allows us to ramp up production and use technology to get product out in a short period of time and then ramp down when we need to. So in the past you'd have had to hire people and lay them off, whereas now we can use automation to run around the clock unattended and give people actually more job security by doing so. So that's how we do it. Yeah, it takes a level of trust with your people, but it also I always reinforce it with people Anytime we are getting new automated equipment. I just remind people that this is an opportunity for them and not a replacement of them. And even taking it a step further, i bring the people that are going to be running that equipment are actually the ones that make the decision of what we buy. And so you've got we're making a buying a million dollar piece of equipment and you've got a guy that's a department lead making that decision, somebody that's making 50 or $75,000 a year, maybe a hundred on the high side, but making a you know decision on a million dollar machine, and but they appreciate those opportunities And that's where you get the buy in and the rest of the people in their department trust them and follow them and fall in suit. Chris Hanslik So that's good Sounds like you're. You've got a great mindset about that and prepared for what the future is bringing. Change subjects a little bit, so said this earlier in the episode, third generation leader of the company. Let's talk a little bit about what that, how that transition came about and kind of what were the some of the struggles that you and your dad and or the company went through as that transition was happening, because we have listeners out there probably facing the same thing and I think they can learn from your experience. Lance Thrailkill Yeah, i appreciate that. So at a real high level, i got my master's in accounting and so I had worked in the business a little bit in high school and one summer in college. I'm an entrepreneur, so I'd actually started my own business all through college and grad school and entertainment business and then wound that up and came over to all metals. But I came in from the financial side So I was, took over our accounting firms activities, learned it from the books and took over also a lot of my grandfather's functions that were kind of more high level as well, and so I really just came out of from that. So I worked as a controller, then became CFO and then CEO, and so just that was what my career path looked like, and as CFO I just looked for opportunities for improvement and attacked those, helped people be able to do their job more effectively and efficiently, and for me it was actually. I think I tell people it's an advantage to like be ignorant, and so, even if you're not, you think you know everything. You should come in, especially in a place where there's really high long. You know tenured people, which is the case for me. I mean we still have three that are over 40, one over 30 and a handful over 20. And so, you know, coming in as a young, you know man, that can be pretty intimidating, but the best thing you do is ask a lot of questions. So that's where ignorance is a blessing and, like I said, the worst thing you do is come in, act like you know it all and so asking a lot of questions, coming in with a mindset of how can I help you do your job easier, how can I make your job easier, how can I help you do your job more effectively? and just asking questions to help people come to the conclusions that that they, you know, might not necessarily come up with on their own. And if you come out of that approach and people start to see you helping them and know that's your heart, you begin to establish trust. And that's what was successful for me as far as it goes with relating to the team and building trust, and it's all about helping them. And it still is. I tell people today, like I would say it regularly I'm the. My job should be CSO chief servant, of all you know, and because my job as the leader is to serve our team and to position people for success by having them in the right seat and giving them the right tools to be successful and make their job as as easy as possible in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. But as it relates to my dad, you know, i think that and you know that all comes down to the person who's you're taking over from, and so my dad handled it and has handled it, continues to handle it, just as graciously as possible and humbly as possible, and I could not be more thankful for that. And so he's made it easy. He's just giving me the reins, and that was a, you know, a conversation I had on the front end with him of like hey, i'm gonna come here, like it's gotta be, we gotta be on the same page, that I'm gonna make changes and you gotta be okay with it. And he's like, yes, absolutely. He's like. the only thing I would say is like, if we're ever gonna make it a, if we're ever gonna talk about anything, let's make it valuable by always offering another perspective. And so you know hey, you know what it looks like is like I'll bring some. Hey, we're thinking about doing this. And then my dad would say hey, i'm sure you've already thought about this. But another something you may think about is this is a different perspective, maybe a you know a drawback to doing that, and so that way, and you frame it up where you're, it's an under, it's understood, and we, we restate that every time. Almost it's like you know, hey, i'm just gonna give you another perspective. You probably already thought about this, but just in case you haven't, because our theory is, if we're gonna talk about it together, then it needs to be value add, and the only way you can add value is if you're really challenging one another's perspectives and just reminding yourselves that's what you're doing, and so it's funny. And if we don't remind ourselves that's what we're doing, we can kind of get in starting these little, you know, arguments back and forth. They're like, you know, neither one of us are set in either way, so we just remind ourselves like, hey, we're just offering a different perspective, you know, and so that's been super helpful for us. And you know, i think just open and honest conversations is the biggest key for people, you know, having humble leaders that are willing to take ownership for their mistakes and and then just being patient. You know, if people aren't as ready and willing as my dad has been, then you know, you just gotta just be patient and understand that's their baby and that's gonna take time and you just gotta just take it one step at a time yeah, humility definitely plays a big role in it and I think you're right. Chris Hanslik I mean, as you're talking, i think I may want to do an episode where I have you know, someone like you and your dad, because I think your dad's perspective would be interesting too of how to let go and give those reins over, because it has to be hard when you run the show and you like said I mean it is, it was kind of his baby at the time but to entrust it to you and give you the freedom to take it the direction you felt like it needed to go yeah, absolutely, i know. Lance Thrailkill One thing I'd say is, like you know, as a young leader, and you just gotta come in and you know our culture especially you have to just be willing to outwork everybody. You know and you gotta be willing to. You know you can never ask somebody to do something that you're not willing to do yourself, and by doing those things it makes it easier on you know, the prior generation two-hand things over to you as you prove yourself trustworthy and willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done and to be faithful and excellent. So, walking in the wisdom of others, the council of many, you know, i mean like that was one of the first things I put in place was a leadership team, because you know there's wisdom in the council of many and that's it's not me making any decision, it's I'm processing all decisions through our leadership team, one that gives additional perspective, but then it also gives extra buy-in, and so that's a key component as well. Chris Hanslik I think that's all you know very good advice for anyone listening out there. That is, you know, coming in to lead an organization and even if they found it and it's grown, they've grown it you've got to have the trust of your people and then when you're coming in like you did, you know this generational thing. It sounds like it was done the right way. You came in somewhere at the bottom, worked your way up, proved yourself to the everyone else, because you know there are a lot of eyes on you and that's the right way to do it. It's hard work, earn trust and there's no substitute for that yes, sir thank you very much. So let me ask you this. Well, you know we learn in a lot of different ways, but you know some of the best learning we have is when we fail or have some kind of setback. Can you think you know it was setback or two, since you've taken over in a leadership role where you've had a failure, that you've learned from that and it's made you better and stronger because of it? Lance Thrailkill Yeah, i think making a decision without getting buy-in from others, even if it's a small decision, you know, like a silly one, i mean not silly, but recently was, you know, i came, i went to this show. It's called Fabtech. They came up with this new laser welders And so it's a. You know, it's a $20,000 machine. I mean, for us that's the cheapest machine we have, and so I bought one. I was sold at the show. I came back I was going to have one of those you know, and then I didn't get buy-in from the team out on the floor, the guys that are going to be using it, and so it's sad, idle for six months. You know. I mean I just like, oh my gosh, guys like this is a great technology, like you need to use it, but I didn't get buy-in, and so that was a good reminder. Thankfully it was not on a more expensive machine than it was, but just a good reminder that you got to get the buy-in. No matter how, you know, expensive or not, it is, anything you're trying to implement has to be bought in by your team, even if it is a great technology or it is the right thing to do, if you don't have the buy-in on the front end. That's just not going to go well for you. That was a good reminder, unfortunately not as expensive as it could have been. And then I would say you know, i'm constantly reminded of dealing with conflict, pressing into conflict Anytime. I do not press into conflict. If there's two employees having conflict and I don't make sure or have someone else make sure that is resolved and reconciled, then it blows up in my face. And so I tell people like we literally force reconciliation. I actually just last week had somebody quit because I told him. I said, if you cannot take ownership of conflict with another employee, they got into a big argument And I just said you know I let him cool down for a week. I just said hey, if you cannot take ownership for your part in that conflict, then you cannot work here. I'm sorry, but that's you know. You need to take ownership and accountability for your part of the conflict. And he said I can't, i can't. You know he got upset and walked out. And so just dealing with the conflict and honestly, even that one, like I was trying to give him time to cool down because I knew how heated he was about it, but I probably should have dealt with that a week earlier. You know I shouldn't have let it wait a week. Unfortunately there's some travel and things in there. But you know just not, you cannot put off conflict. You cannot do it. It is. It's affecting everybody around you, everyone out on the in your company, more than you can ever realize And you have to press into conflict. So that would, i would say, is a tough lesson to learn And one we all have to be continually reminded of, because dealing with conflicts hard, you know, but it's really you know. I tell people conflict is an opportunity. I just say that all the time. Conflict is an opportunity. It's not a bad word, it's not a bad thing. It's an opportunity to grow closer together and to improve. So it's an opportunity to also do the opposite, you know. And so how are we going to take that opportunity and use it to bring the team closer together? And so we do that. We force reconciliation. We have a conflict field guide here for our team that shows people how to walk through conflict, and I would say that not dealing with it is impacting your business more than you could ever imagine. Chris Hanslik I think that's great advice, and you're right. Not dealing with it doesn't make it go away, it's still just fester. And so you have got to address those issues head on sooner rather than later, because they will affect the entire organization And you can't you give one person a pass. It makes it harder to enforce it on someone else. Exactly So so, man Lansies are all great points and great advice. Let's turn a little bit to the lighter side of things. What was your first job that wasn't at AMF? Lance Thrailkill First job? Oh man, i gotta think about that. I know we're to the smoothie king. One summer My first job, actually, i think, was at AMF. I built someone. We were moving into this building. We I moved the inventory from our old building, which was dusty, and I'm allergic to dust. It was nasty and I had to, so I've moved all the inventory from our old building to this building and built the shelving system to house our inventory here and put it into our ERP system. So that was one of my first jobs one summer with a buddy of mine And that was the worst job I've ever had. That job sucked And then I think up for that it was smoothie king and that job was a lot more fun. I just got to hang up my friends. Right And it was air conditioned. Yeah, yeah. One of the best jobs I'd say is, i know, is waiting tables, because learning how to serve people is a powerful thing, especially, you know, when you know people are difficult, and so you don't get to just like be ugly to people. You get to serve people with a smile on your face, no matter how they treat you, and that's a good lesson, i think, for everybody to learn. Chris Hanslik Yeah, i mean lots of people say the same. you know that waiting waiter position, you know learning good people skills, because you have to deal with people when they're happy and when they're not so happy, and that's one of those jobs that can teach you that. There's pretty much everything out there. People say, oh, this is a people business. I think almost everything's a people business. right, it's all a certain relation relationship driven. So. so here's a good question for you Do you prefer Tex-Mex or barbecue? Lance Thrailkill Oh, gosh, man, That's a not a fair question. Partest one of the whole show, right? Oh, by far. Oh, man, i don't know, gosh, i'll say sushi. Chris Hanslik Some guests tell me a brisket taco. Lance Thrailkill There you go. That's the best, that's the happy medium there. Chris Hanslik Brisket queso I love me some brisket queso Yeah, i had some of that this past weekend for sure, So all right. So then a final thought would be if you could take a 30-day sabbatical, where would you go? What would you do? Lance Thrailkill 30-day sabbatical Man, i'd probably spend two weeks in the mountains elk hunting and just living in the back country and just enjoying the serene nature and then probably go to the beach for two weeks. My wife's gonna enjoy that a lot more. Get a like mulledeeves or something. Chris Hanslik Now you're talking. That's how I wrote it, john. So well, that's great stuff. Lance, thanks so much for taking the time to be a guest on the show. We loved your story. Can't wait to get it out and let everyone else share in what you all accomplished there at All Metals Fabricating. Lance Thrailkill Thank you so much. Thanks for having me, Chris. It's been a pleasure. Special Guest: Lance Thrailkill.
Jim Perschbach, President and CEO of Port San Antonio, joins the podcast to share his insights on leading an organization that has transformed an old Air Force Base into an innovative aerospace and national defense park. Jim discusses the challenges of working remotely and the importance of providing flexibility to maintain a collaborative and productive work environment. Dive into the fascinating world of Port San Antonio and discover the innovative solutions transforming the aerospace and national defense industries.
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
-
Port San Antonio operates as a research park, aerospace national defense park, and innovation hub with 18,000 people working on the campus.
-
Formerly an Air Force Base, the port now serves as a public asset that must generate revenue without receiving direct government support.
-
Jim Perschbach, President and CEO of Port San Antonio, believes the key to making great hires is finding people focused on value and long-term relationships.
-
The organization has a low turnover rate, which Jim attributes to his focus on collaboration, communication, and being open to new ideas and suggestions.
-
Port San Antonio is working on groundbreaking projects, including a 72-foot tall robot with a 20 kilowatt laser for removing paint from airplanes and a LiDAR system on the back of a robot for measuring buildings.
-
Collaboration between different industries and organizations is crucial for developing innovative solutions and prototypes.
-
Sam Jimenez, a space architect working with NASA and private sector companies, is developing systems for manufacturing on the moon by melting lunar regolith and turning it into filament for 3D printing.
-
The Wex Foundation, run by Sam Jimenez, brings in 8th to 12th-grade students to work with him and NASA scientists on space-related projects.
-
The Boeing Center at Techport, an entertainment arena on the campus, supports educational opportunities through the Kelly Heritage Foundation.
-
Port San Antonio focuses on innovation that makes core industries like aviation, national defense, and critical infrastructure better and more efficient.
LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
GUESTS
| | Jim Perschbach About Jim |
TRANSCRIPT
Chris Hanslik In this episode, you will meet Jim Pershbach, President and CEO of Port San Antonio. Jim shares his views on why he believes the key to making great hires is to find people who are focused on value and long-term relationships. Okay, Jim, I want to thank you for being a guest on Building Texas Business. I want to welcome you to the show. Let's start by just telling the listeners what it is you do and where you do it. Jim Pershcbach Sure Well, thank you so much for having me. It's an absolute thrill to be here. We operate what's called Port San Antonio and people always say what on earth are you doing with the port in San Antonio? you're hundreds of miles away from the sea. What it is? an old Air Force Base, one of the most important Air Force Spaces in our country, that was bracked in the 1990s, and what we do is we operate it today as a research park, as an aerospace national defense park. It's got 18,000 people working on this campus. This year we're adding over 2,000 jobs. We've been averaging about 1,200 jobs a year for the past couple of years And we focus on everything from traditional aviation. We've got Boeing's largest global technical operations on the planet here. Standard Aero builds and overhauls jet engines here. We've got military cybersecurity operations. We've got private sector cybersecurity operations and then an awful lot of startup activity focused on automation, robotics, artificial intelligence and all kinds of cool stuff that's being incorporated in. Chris Hanslik Well, that's amazing. You're right. I'd never heard of the port of San Antonio and thought the same thing. I'm pretty sure they didn't dredge something all the way up a waterway, although that you do have the Riverwalk. Jim Perschbach We do have the Riverwalk. In theory. you can get to it from Leon Creek over here Just be a long walk up a rattlesnake alley. Chris Hanslik Well, it sounds, you know, expansive in scope of what's going on there. Let's just maybe start by telling the listeners how did you come about becoming the CEO of the port? Jim Perschbach Well, that's my story is quite uninteresting. I'm a lowly airplane guy. I'm a lawyer. I spent about 18 years doing aviation and defense work. I guess the firm called it white collar because it touched on federal fraud cases and had a lot of clients. I was moved here to San Antonio because of our client base that we had some of the operations And I looked at this and two things really struck us, jumped out at me. The first one was we were doing some of the most amazing work, and I say we. It's this collective aerospace and industrial world, but nobody knew about it And that's the fault of the aerospace and defense world is we try and keep everything a secret. The second part was that we have an installation that is sitting in a wonderful part of the San Antonio community. But it's also one of the more challenged parts of the San Antonio community. It's a part of the city that has traditionally been somewhat forgotten about, and I the law had been so good to me, aviation been so good to me I wanted to jump out and do something different, not so much because I'm a savior for this, but because it was an exciting opportunity to come in and literally and figuratively knock down some of the walls between our installation and the community that surrounds us Right. Chris Hanslik Clearly you have a passion for it. I don't know if I ask this how long has the port been around and how did it come into existence? Jim Perschbach Well, it depends on when you say. The port Kelly Air Force Base was opened in 1917 as Camp Kelly. It's one of the oldest aviation installations on the planet. It was bracked in 1995. It was transitioned over to our predecessor in 2001. They came up with the idea of calling it Port San Antonio, i think in the somewhere between 2006 and 2010,. Let's say, 2007, 2008, because inland ports were all the rage. And then the focus that we have now. We kind of call it tech port informally. This focus on connecting industries and connecting people started in late 2017, early 2018 as a strategy. So we stand on the shoulders of everybody that came before us, but we're building on a heritage that goes back over 100 years. Chris Hanslik So what type of I guess team do you supervise and manage in your role as a CEO? Jim Perschbach Yeah, we've got about a hundred I think it's 103 now people that work directly in our organization, and then we've got another 100 and some odd folks that work with some contractors for us, particularly with the Boeing Center at Techport, which is this massive entertainment arena that we have built here on the campus. So there's about 200 some odd people direct and contract that work with us on any given day, and then there are 18,000 people that work on this campus with massive employers like Boeing and Northrop Grumman, down to some really exciting start ups, some of which are growing like weeds, some of which are still one or two people. Chris Hanslik That's a lot to keep your hands around. That sounds like. Jim Perschbach Well it is, but I'm just a pretty face for a lot of good people And I can say pretty face because nobody can see me and I'm trusting you're not going to put my picture. Chris Hanslik That I promise you know, but so I guess you've been there now almost 10 years. Thank you, tell us. let's talk a little bit about how you've gone about building your team specifically to 100 and out three plus, you know, almost 100 contractors. What are some of the things that you have found to be successful in hiring the right people? Jim Perschbach It's looking at people who look at what they do on a day-to-day basis as a long-term relationship building not as short-term. At our core, we're just a real estate development company. We're a real estate development company that functions as a political subdivision of the state of Texas because it's a publicly owned asset, but we don't get any tax revenue. We don't get any direct support from the government. What we have is a public asset that we have to manage and maintain. So we have to go out and we have to generate revenue. And what we have found is that if your focus is solely on revenue, which is what so many real estate companies are, you are really at the mercy of just location and big picture demand. If you find people who recognize much like in the legal business, that it's about relationships and it's long-term relationships, it's about providing a value, then you start to build that culture amongst your customers. We don't call them tenants, we call them customers. You start to build that with the community that surrounds you And that is what I think has been the secret of our success. It is tough to find people who really do have that relationship minded core to them, but when you find them, we hold on to them quick. Chris Hanslik Yeah, I couldn't agree more. That mindset of a relationship and relationship building is such a more positive mindset to have than just trying to punch a clock and do a task. So what are you going to talk about? How it could be difficult to find those relationships oriented people. Let's talk about the last few years, I mean, with all the challenges employers face. What are some of the challenges that you face there at Fort San Antonio as you try to fill positions or grow the team? Jim Perschbach Yeah. So we had two teams that we were trying to grow at the same time. The first was our internal operation, and right during the pandemic we had our customers seeing massive growth. We've got companies that are doing some really groundbreaking work with not healthcare in terms of the actual biomedical delivery, but the systems that go around healthcare. Everything from the information technology of that to building these medical modules are going to be put in the back of cargo airplanes, and so one challenge was not only bringing people back into an office, because it is really hard to collaborate across systems and across teams when everybody is remote. I hear a lot of people saying well, my team functions really well remotely And that's easy to do. You can build very functional teams with trust where they're all working remotely. But when you have to work hand in hand with a different team in the organization or, in our case, different teams from different organizations, there has to be that level of collaboration, and so what we did is two things One focus on giving people flexibility and treating them like adults Those who can work remotely from time to time. We let work remotely For those folks who can't if you're working on mechanical systems for our landscapers and that type of stuff we can't say work from home, but we want to provide them the same level of flexibility and the same level of treating them like adults, treating them like colleagues that we do And that worked With respect to building those relationships with the customers that never ended During the height of the pandemic. I am very proud to say that we had people both on our team and on our customer teams that were not shy about finding ways to get together, to work together, while still making sure that they were being safe. That's great. Chris Hanslik Yeah, to me this issue of work remote and now people are kind of migrating back to a hybrid. At the core, there's kind of two fundamental things If you're having an issue with someone, it's probably more performance issue you would have had even if they were in time. And the second is it goes back to what you said a minute ago with my view, and that is, if you're really hiring those people with a relationship mindset, you're not going to have to tell them that they should be in person, because they're going to naturally want to be more than not but enjoy the flexibility to work remote from time to time. Jim Perschbach I think that's right. And one thing I found because you're in the law business in law firms we're a unique set of creatures. We've got people who whether it's a personality defect or whether it gets trained to you, but there's a certain lifestyle that we have and teams become very fluid within law firms. The role of a lawyer you may be the lead on one project, you may be support on another project, you may be doing sales and customer capture, you may be doing back office stuff, but it flows And the hierarchies are less important than just getting the job done. And what I have found the most interesting thing for me jumping from that law firm world into this world. Most human beings don't operate like that And trying to bring somewhat of the law firm culture is difficult. You've got to find people and start to treat them as colleagues, which we do in law firms. The other thing I've noticed is and I think it's just who goes into law firms we tend to be thicker skin. So many people dislike us every day. The business is so nasty. You get your feelings hurt, but you get over it quick. People in the real world are. They're more sensitive and it takes a different level of dealing with them. But what that has led me to believe is the importance of people being physically together. It is really hard to miscommunicate and to misread cues when you're doing it over text messages or even zooms that, people being social creatures. When you bring them together and they can read those cues, they can intersect with people. It is so much easier. My mind always goes back to that key and peel skit of them sending text messages and Keith thinking he's just being a nice guy and peel getting that. Excuse me, peel being a nice guy and key just getting angry, or an angry, or how he's reading those texts, right. Chris Hanslik It's so true. So what? I guess, how would you describe the culture that you feel you built there at poor San Antonio? Jim Perschbach I think it is constantly in flux. What we try and do is let everybody know, regardless of their position in the organization, that we really do value them as colleagues. The challenge, i think, is the challenge that every organization has is you at some point have to find who has the stick to make the decision And then, once the decision is being made, make sure that gets communicated and spoken at one voice. And that's something that we candidly, even with 200, some odd people working in our couple buildings here, we're starting to struggle with. It makes me feel a little better because I know it's the same issue that our defense departments having, that major corporations are having. But I think this is the next level of what's going to happen with. The challenge and organizations is, as the automation comes in, as people spend less time doing physical work, as they move away from being just functionaries and the human intelligence becomes more and more important, it becomes more difficult to work that collaborative systems engineering when you build an organization, and that's going to be really interesting to watch, especially with things like artificial intelligence and automation coming into a lot of tasks that traditionally were done by people. Chris Hanslik Yeah, i mean certainly that's the hot topic now and it's rapidly developing, which means it's rapidly changing things. What are you mentioned? the kind of experiences and challenges in communicating across your 200 folks in a few buildings. Can you be a little more specific? What are some of the challenges you've seen recently And what are you doing to try to overcome this? Jim Perschbach Yeah. So it's a challenge and I put this situation solely on me. For the past couple of years, i've been trying to squash down and flatten out the organization as much as possible and empower people to get things done. We have many people whose jobs keep them really out in the field. They're working either directly with our customers across this campus, which is 1900 acres, or in some cases they're around the country and they're around the world scouting for new talent, scouting for new technology, scouting for new customers, and in doing that, communication and what we call a national defense, the command and control infrastructure starts to get tricky. There is a line that I think is really difficult to manage between wanting to empower people and get people doing things proactively but not finding yourself committed to something, or having to walk back an effort, or having efforts that are being duplicated. As a candid example and I'm going to be very open on this stuff we had two different groups in our organization launching engineering studies for parking lots for a customer expansion, and what that means is even our customer had two different people launching their project. So it makes me feel better that it's a challenge that everybody faces, but it is something that I don't think organizations are putting enough time into. As you get bigger, as you get faster, as you get more complex, you've got to make sure that these systems coordinate back with each other, share information in real time and then build a culture of people collaborating. Again, i think it's something lawyers and law firms have been handling for centuries. It's just more difficult to do in larger organizations with people who are used to different styles of project management. Chris Hanslik I think learning there is. Lots of things change over time, but some of the fundamentals don't. Communication is key. The way you communicate may be a little different, but the fact that you need to communicate clearly and the importance of that is a fundamental. That should not change Right. Let's talk a little bit about your leadership style. How would you describe your style and how you try to show up as a leader in the organization? Jim Perschbach Oh, that's a good question. That requires me to be more reflective, and you should probably ask other people. In my mind, i am a charming, sophisticated, easygoing, empowering person that everybody loves, and I'm sure that-. Chris Hanslik And really good looking. Jim Perschbach And really good looking. And then I've seen pictures. I'm looking at myself on this Zoom and I own a mirror, so I know none of that is true. Like everybody else, i'd say that I'm trying to figure this out as you go through it. It is difficult for every human being. Everybody says we want to have collaboration, we want people coming in. Everybody says listen to other people. Everybody says don't be arrogant. But I will tell you whether it's speaking to my board of directors or it's talking to stakeholders or it's even internal conversations. If somebody says something to you that kind of prickles you because it's a different way of looking at it, your initial reaction is to be dismissive. This person doesn't know what they're talking about. How dare they? And so what I am trying to do more and more is be more self-aware and more understanding of when other folks have those same challenges. You can't ask somebody to collaborate, to communicate, to be open to new suggestions and new ideas if you aren't yourself, and I am hoping that comes across. I can tell you that organizationally we have almost no turnover here, which is a nice thing to see. So either people just really like being around me or we pay really well or I don't know, But at least that comforts me When I walk around. I think all these people can't stand me in my arrogant walk and my obnoxious voice. Chris Hanslik Yeah Well, no, it's not like you're doing something right, because turnover is a good indicator of that Any lessons you've learned as a leader and I'm going to go a little deeper We tend to learn the lessons the hard way, right, where we make a mistake or a decision that we looked at It was oh, that wasn't the right way, but we learned from it and improved. Anything that comes to mind for you or you felt like, man, that was a learning, a lesson a hard way, but I am better for it. Jim Perschbach Yeah, i think there are several of those. The hardest one, i think, was learning how to really let go What. I have a real passion for this campus. I knew what Kelly Air Force Base was before I could find San Antonio on a map. I'm not from San Antonio, but I knew the work that was being done here. I remember being in DC and talking about Kelly Air Force Base years before anybody thought about closing it, and talking about what the workloads would be here and what the future would be for this installation. But in doing that, what I've realized is I can become very closed off to other good ideas, and so these are situations of lessons learned, not where anything has gone wrong, but there have been times that folks in this organization have brought forward some ideas And my initial reaction was to say that is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. You're not listening to me, you're not listening to what we're trying to do. And there's one it's a guy on our team named Ray Flores, and Ray is a fantastic, fantastic mind And he's got a real passion for historic properties. We've got a whole neighborhood here of houses that were built in the 1920s out of the shipping crates that the airplanes were sent down in And they've been rotting in place because nobody took care of them for decades. It was the old commander's headquarters And Ray came up with a plan to not only get those reactivated but to partner with the city and the city's historic preservation district to do it in a way that is allowing it to be a research laboratory and a training laboratory for people who want to work on historic preservation, to bring people in who are working on fixing up these homes, because they're training and apprenticing in that type of work, and it's going to create a little community where you can put in things. Ray's got some ideas for bee gardens and flower gardens and everything else. My initial reaction when he came up with that was what are you talking about? I don't want housing. I don't want those architecture people. I want airplanes, i want cool stuff. I want all of this. But watching how he managed that, how he took the initial rejection he took the frankly nonsensical I don't want to change mindset, put it together, put it in context and explained how it was going to add value to everything else that we're doing. And when I go over there and I see what's being built up and it's really just started. It's an absolutely amazing process And it's something it's not just the idea, but it's the recognition that it's an idea worth having and the coming forward with it to explain how it adds value to the system. I think was tremendously impressive the way that he did it And for me the lesson was don't be arrogant. And I'm the most arrogant human being on earth, but hypocrisy is a human tradition, so I get so frustrated when people don't listen to my brilliant ideas, and the lesson I took from how Ray did it was he did it in a charming way, without getting angry and pounding on tables and saying, no, nobody's as smart as me. Watch, you know, hold my beer. Chris Hanslik Right, well, i mean, yeah, go ahead. You may not think this, but definitely a demonstration by you of some humility to allow that project to go forward. recognize that Ray had a great idea And I would think that meant a lot to him. and others see that in the organization that you know to kind of make you push where they think you need to listen again. Jim Perschbach Yep. Making me listen is a good thing, because, man, i'm unpleasant to be around some days. Chris Hanslik So you've kind of talked around this and I'd like to hear more. This may not be directed, maybe, at the port, but I think so because it feels like what St Antonio is doing there is innovative. So I'm going to talk a little bit about innovation, not just in your organization specifically, but in the customers that you talked about. What kind of innovation are you trying to implement and that you see being implemented that maybe you're maybe borrowing from? Jim Perschbach Yeah. So that's a great question. What the innovation that we are focused on is finding stuff that makes our core industries better Aviation, national defense, critical infrastructure And it is really tough to do, because you need to find people who look at a problem from a different perspective, which means they come from a completely different mindset, a completely different culture, a completely different viewpoint. But you can't have just tinfoil-hatted crazy people coming in and running the asylum, because things will go nuts, right Right. What we have built is a system It's really a machine that is designed to attract as many different people and as many different ideas as we possibly can, with no front-end gatekeeper. We don't question whether anything makes sense or not at the front-end. There are ways that you can do that as you test it up, and then we bring together different entities, different people, different organizations to sanity check and prototype things, and there's a couple of examples that I'm real proud of that show this and work. One is we have a 72-foot tall robot sitting at the end of the runway as a 20 kilowatt laser attached to its arm. It's a directed energy weapon. We could cut a building with it, but we're not going to do that. It takes the paint off of an airplane in 60% less time than human beings do. It eliminates all the danger and the toxicity of doing that and takes what would normally be chemicals that would kill you and turns it into two and a half pounds of dust that you could toss in your kitchen garbage without a problem. And it takes the cost of building the stripping hanger from astronomical to very doable. And in doing that it addresses two challenges that we've had in aviation, on the military side and on the commercial side, that's sustainment, cost and the peaks and valleys of it meant we have commoditized the work, we have offshored the work, we've had a lot of platforms just sitting fallow, and this allows them all to go back to work and allows us to upscale the human beings. The guy who came up with that idea was a computer software salesman And the point is now he didn't develop any of it but he had the idea and he ran it and he put it together. He just needed to be connected with the people who have the different skills the robotics, the lasers, the optics, the HEPAVAC, which is the scariest thing on earth I feel like a puppy dog next to that thing because a 72 foot tall vacuum is loud The airplane people who can work on it and the facilities in which to work it. There's another one I'm real proud of met this guy in the back of somebody else's laboratory And he was developing a LiDAR system, putting it on the back of a robot, because he had a friend in real estate And that friend said it's really hard to go out and measure these buildings. It's expensive, You have to bring a lot of people in, You have to upload the CAD. It takes a lot of time. This system measures and uploads a space to within a centimeter or two of accuracy and does it almost instantaneously. We took him to Atlanta to an aviation show and we put him in our little museum down here And the next thing you know he's being named by Aviation Week, is one of eight startups in the world changing aerospace, And the reason is unbeknownst to him. When other people looked at that solution. They saw it as having potential to do everything from optimizing the way that you utilize a hangar space to being able to scout out a lunar cave that we can use for a lunar manufacturing facility, And the example is a bound. There's a gentleman on our campus named Sam Jimenez. We just put him into the San Antonio Aerospace Hall of Fame, But Sam is one of the few space architects in the world right now And he is developing systems with NASA and a couple of private sector companies to melt lunar regolith to build a landing surface for usable rockets and then to grind lunar regolith and turn it into a filament that can be used to 3D print a habitation cap on top of a lunar cave. It's just amazing work. That's crazy. But Sam also runs a foundation called the Wex Foundation And he brings in eighth to 12th grade students who work with him and work with the NASA scientists, the research scientists, Southwest Research Institute, on the same work. So if you walk into our museum space, you're going to see a 1-7 scale version of this hang printer. It's still about 15 feet tall and it works, But it was put together by a bunch of students working with those scientists. So at the same time, what we're doing is showing these people these kids and not kids that you can really do anything you put your mind to, as long as you do it. Last thing I'll say all of this sits in our Boeing Center at Techport, which if you go, look at it, looks like any other arena and entertainment facility on the planet. But to show you how bad a businessman I am, we're never going to make a profit off of that building. That building which is hosted Smashing Pumpkins and Judas Priest and Parkway Drive and Paw Patrol is going to come in there and do some shows. All of the profits out of that building go toward our Kelly Heritage Foundation and that supports these educational opportunities. So we had a couple of weeks ago, 100 kids from the school districts around us come in. They did the largest computer build of all time and they all walked out of there with their own $3,000 gaming machine. But, more important, they did that hand in hand with both folks from Air Force Cyber, with the companies. The gaming folks flew in. These kids knew that people were there to help them and we hope that those kids come back and they start to continue, whether it's coding, cybersecurity, robotics, that's what we're trying to do. I can't even remember what you asked me, but when you talk about We started with innovation. Chris Hanslik What I love hearing is that, from somewhat of a novel concept to bring the defense and security companies together in one place to create and collaborate. And you're doing two other things by extension bringing in the kids to encourage them that there are careers and things to do in the science, math, etc. Of which we know is an issue in our country, to help promote that and get them excited about it And, at the same time, preserve the heritage which is, as you said, over 100 years old. I think all of that's really neat and necessary. It is That's really interesting stuff that I think most people that are going to listen to this had no idea was going on in San Antonio, and hopefully we can spread what you're doing to other places. So let's turn to a little personal. I'd like to know what was your first job? Jim Perschbach Oh, that is a good question. I think my first job that I actually got paid for was working for one of my mom's friends. She had a big old house and she ran a kennel on it, so I'd wander around that place cleaning out dog stalls. and I worked at Red Lobster and a grocery store. I worked injection molding machines on a factory line all kinds of glamour stuff. Chris Hanslik Right. All kinds of things that made you determine that you wanted an office job. Jim Perschbach Yeah, work in 12 hours a day on injection molding machines. Ever seen these things? One of the things we made were plastic forks and knives and everything else for fast food restaurants around the world And it's a I don't know six and a half, seven and a half foot plate that slams together and fills up with molten plastic And then all these things are supposed to fall out And your job is to build boxes and fill them with plastic bags and just catch all this stuff. But every now and then something would get stuck in there, so you'd have to crawl in and knock it out with a broom handle. All right, and this was a long time ago. They would get really mad at you if you'd stopped the machine for doing that. So it was terrifying thinking that thing is going to slam back on you. You learned to move quick. You learned to move quick. Some folks were smart enough to actually hit the emergency stop button but you'd get yourself in trouble doing that. So native Texan? No, my father was Army for the first couple of years of my life And then he went into doing. I still don't know what he did. born in North Carolina, Southern California, Utah, Tel Aviv, London, Suburban, Philadelphia. Chris Hanslik All around. Jim Perschbach I've been in Texas since 1993. They sent me down here and then they bounced me around to the glamor places that had military commercial derivative programs. That's how I got to San Antonio. Chris Hanslik Gotcha. Well, the question I like to ask all my guests is what do you prefer, Tex-Mex or barbecue? Jim Perschbach I don't know, i eat like a toddler, so I'll go get fried chicken strips and macaroni and cheese. Chris Hanslik Okay, well, that's it first. So let's ask this If you could take a 30-day sabbatical, where would you go and what would you do? Jim Perschbach I would spend those entire 30 days at Walt Disney World, and not just because I think it's the coolest place on earth, but what they have put together in terms of how they use the real estate, how they use the operations, how they incorporate technology and how they do it all by putting on a show, i think is unmatched anywhere on the planet. Yeah, that Guardians of the Galaxy cosmic rewind. If you haven't read it, it's like roller skating through the universe. It's the most amazing thing I've ever written. All right. Chris Hanslik Well, jim, i want to thank you for taking the time and sharing the story of the poor San Antonio, as well as your own as a leader. It's been fascinating to hear what's going on there, and keep up the great work. Jim Perschbach Well, thank you so much. Thanks for having me, and you all, take care, come see us sometime, we'll do it. Chris Hanslik Thanks for tuning in to Building Texas Business For more information, episodes and summaries head over to boyarmiller.com forward slash podcast. If you enjoyed this episode and found it informative. Please take a moment to rate, review and share it with friends and colleagues. It really helps others find our podcast. As always, we appreciate the support and feedback of our podcast community. More episodes are coming soon, so be sure to check back. Special Guest: Jim Perschbach.
Bill Boyar, Founding Shareholder of BoyarMiller, joins the podcast. Bill shares his fascinating story of going from a summer associate at a law firm to ultimately forming BoyarMiller with the help of two of his partners. Through his experiences, Bill shares the importance of focusing on people and building a strong foundation for a professional services practice, rather than solely chasing growth and money. Listen as Bill explores leadership transitions and entrepreneurial advice for those looking to build successful businesses. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS * Bill Boyar, a founding shareholder of BoyarMiller, shares his journey from being a summer associate at Chamberlain Hrdlicka to starting his own firm with Gary Miller and Lynn Simon. * Boyar emphasizes the importance of focusing on people and building a strong foundation for a professional services practice rather than just focusing on growth and making money. * Creating a culture based on core values has been instrumental in the firm's growth over the past 33 years. * Taking care of people in terms of hiring and firing decisions has shaped the firm into what it is today. * Investing in technology and setting a 10-year vision for the firm were pivotal moments that contributed to BoyarMiller's success. * Leadership succession and remaining independently owned were also key factors in the firm's growth and sustainability. * The importance of purpose, method, and outcome in organizational development is discussed, as well as the firm's continuous engagement with all of its lawyers. * Boyar reflects on the leadership transition to the current leader, who embraced the firm's mission and values, rather than bringing in their own ideas. * Entrepreneurial advice is shared, such as setting standards for how to treat people and dreaming big. * Boyar's first job experiences, the Tex-Mex vs. barbecue debate, and the journey of building BoyarMiller from the ground up are also discussed.
LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
GUESTS
| | Bill Boyar About Bill |
TRANSCRIPT
Chris Hanslik Alright, so I'm excited to start what is our 50th episode of Building Texas Business, and a very special guest, the founder of our firm, Boyar Miller, and happy to call in my law partner. So, bill, welcome to the show. Bill Boyar Thanks, Chris. I'm really excited to actually finally be here. Chris Hanslik Yes, so I think the story of our firm is a pretty special one. Obviously it's near and near to my heart. Maybe start by telling the listeners a little bit about what led you to the firm that became Boyar, simon and Miller at the time in 1990, and kind of that journey that brought you in to the firm and how that influenced where you went from there. Bill Boyar Sure, My story begins. And this journey begins the campus of Tulane Law School in New Orleans when Bob Waters from Chamberlain Herlica Whiten Waters, came to interview for a summer associate when I was in my second year. We had an amazing interview experience. It was supposed to be the last interview of the day when they were 20 minutes and we spent two hours together And that ended up resulting in me coming to Houston for my summer associate experience, and back in those days it was 12 weeks, one firm. You basically put all your chips on one number and hope it worked out. It worked out great for me. So after I graduated I came to Houston. I didn't know anybody. I had dated a girl in college who was from Houston. She was the only person. So it was really quite an adventure, Started at Chamberlain and I was there for four years. After three years, Bob, who was my boss, my mentor, my friend, my running buddy, left to become a principal with a group that developed the Houstonian And he wanted to start a little law firm when he left and took one other guy with him and a year later I joined him. So we had a little three person law firm. About six months into that experience. He came to me and he said I've got too much to do and on the principal side of this relationship so I'm not going to practice alone anymore. So I was 29 years old and the guy who had all the business was not going to be practicing law anymore and my partner was a tax lawyer who read the Wall Street Journal and tax periodicals and so I woke up one day and had a law firm to figure out how to run and manage A little bit of a cold shower. It was crazy. So I had some guys that I practiced law with at Chamberlain and over time they joined me and we went from three lawyers to ten lawyers. We moved to a facility at Five Post Oak Park. We had twenty lawyers and we had thirty lawyers and we were on opening up an office in Austin. And this was over a ten year period. And the last three or four years of that experience I was unhappy and had a hard time sort of rolling out of bed in the morning. I didn't know why, other than I didn't like the way that we were so focused on growth and making money and not really taking care of our people. So I had two little kids and in 1990 I told my wife that I was going to do something different. I didn't know what I was going to do, so I resigned from that firm and I had learned a lot. I learned a lot about running law firms and marketing and we were way ahead of the game in terms of creating a brand and doing marketing before it was sort of popular. But I didn't like the way we were treating people. It sounds like the lesson there was. Chris Hanslik You said it. You were focused on making money, not your people kind of on the wrong things that led ultimately what made look successful to unhappiness. Bill Boyar Yeah, i think the fundamental lesson I learned that you and I have talked about this a lot is that growing a professional services practice and making money is the result of doing a lot of things right. If you can figure out what that is, what are those things that you have to do right and the outcome is growth and making money. It's just a much more fulfilling way to be in this business. So I decided to leave. I didn't know what I was going to do. Fast forward, i had a client that went to high school in Waco, texas, with Gary Miller. Gary was trying to poach my client. My client said you should talk to Bill Boyar. He just resigned from his firm and Gary was like no way. So Gary and Lynn Simon had a small firm, seven lawyers. I did a bunch of interviewing. I interviewed and what I thought I was going to do was tuck into one of the big firms. I had a good size practice. I was still in my 30s. I could bring two or three lawyers and some assistance and paralegal so I could pick up a practice and take it. I did all that interviewing with all those big regional firms When I got introduced to Gary and Leonard and they were like they opened their arms. And ultimately was my wife, pam, who helped me figure out what I wanted to do with my life, because every time I came home from interviewing with one of the large firms I sort of was unhappy and couldn't see myself doing that. And when I came home from talking with Gary and Leonard, i was energized and excited. And so she's the one who pointed out to me you need to go do that. So I'd say I've had two great mulligans in my life. One was Pam, was my second marriage We've been married for 40 years But two, the opportunity to start another firm, essentially, and take the lessons from that first experience. I don't think I could spell business when waters came in and told me that I, it was my firm to run and lead and do whatever I wanted with. By the time I got a chance to partner with Gary and Leonard and start what is now Boyar-Miller, i had a better sense of what it took to be successful in this industry, but not in a traditional way. So, if you think about it, there was no internet, we weren't operating on computers, barely had cell phones. We had the big ones just stacked in your car and plugged into your lighter. But we didn't have all the technology to be connected, so we had to work harder for people to know who we were and are. But they just gave me the opportunity. They plugged my name first on the door so felt like continuity in my practice And we started and we had 10 lawyers in 1990. I think that the what brings us to today, chris, is we never really have cared how big we were or are. We've never measured our value to this industry or to our clients or to our people, to each other, by profits per partner or how many lawyers we have. We've always really focused on what's the value we contribute, and I think that makes us different. Chris Hanslik I agree There will be a lot of agreement in this episode, for obvious reasons, but I think one of the things that I've always liked about that story, and can relate to it as well, is not only you're not from Houston, you're from Texas. In a lot of ways, i think it's a testament to the welcoming nature of the Houston business community. You don't have to be from here to be successful if you want to work hard and do what you say you're going to do. Bill Boyar Yeah, i've got people all the time that we couldn't have done what we've done with this law firm, with particularly me as the sort of the first name on the door and one of the founders, anywhere in the world but Houston, texas. I'm from Philadelphia, i went to school in New Orleans, i came here, i didn't know anybody And you know, here we are 45 years later, 47 years later now, enjoying the, you know, the organization that we've built together. Chris Hanslik No, So, 1990, you get settled in this new firm, based on what you had learned over that prior 10 years. What vision did you have, or at what point did you start to develop a vision of what Boyar Miller? Bill Boyar could be. So I said I think starting out I knew that you know you learn a lot from mistakes you make. I always tell people you don't learn by doing things right, you learn by doing things wrong. So the learning for me about the previous firm was you take care of your people and you focus on the right things. But I didn't under. I had no sort of connection with the concepts of mission or purpose or vision or value. I had the things that we sort of have built the foundation of this law firm on it. When I started with Gary Leonard, i was just trying to sort of rebuild my practice. I was very, very fortunate. I brought 100% of my business with me and some really good young lawyers and support team, but I didn't really know how to actually build it. Chris Hanslik Right. How did that evolve? Where did the learning come from? Bill Boyar So we started out and because of the similarity in the names of the two firms the one I left and the one that we started together there was a lot of confusion in the marketplace And we had some young lawyers that we hired And really our journey to build a culture started with sort of sourced out of the confusion we created in the market and our young lawyers not being able to describe who we were as a firm. So a couple of really young lawyers came in. One in particular said I was at a cocktail party and people asked me about where I worked and they said tell me about the firm and I couldn't answer the question. So one of my dearest friends in the world was starting a consulting practice about the same time we started the firm and he was really focused on communication, culture building things that were. You know, it was not popular, there was no internet, people weren't doing this, so they could stick something on the internet and it has a sort of a marketing, you know tool. Chris Hanslik It's more genuine right. It's like does it matter. Bill Boyar Yeah, And his name is Mickey Conley, has a group out of Boulder called Conversant, you know, really a terrific firm. But back then he was sort of just starting to develop his own body of knowledge and the way of thinking about organizational hygiene, organizational development. So I asked him to come down. We got all our lawyers in the room and we were just wrestling with who do we want to be and how do we want to behave and what's going to define us in terms of the sort of the cultural foundation of this firm. And we sat around and I intentionally sat in the back of the room and led I think we had a dozen lawyers at the time and I let it evolve and we came up with at the time five, what we call core values. To this day four of them have survived. This is probably 1992 or three. Of those five core values, Four are still core to our being and we said, okay, this is who we're going to be. And organizations evolve, as you and I have talked about a lot. You start with nothing and something is non-existent and then you start to evolve. You start thinking and developing your way of leading to what you want as your foundation. Then something becomes reliable where you have a leader who is like the cop and I was the cop of the core values from the day that we generated them and then ultimately, something becomes institutionalized. And the first thing that became institutionalized in this firm was core values, and what defines something becoming institutionalized is when that one leader is no longer the cop and everybody is given the space and everybody agrees to hold each other accountable for the behavior. So probably the thing I'm most proud of is the way that we actually work through. It developed our core values, had them evolve, had them become reliable and now as part of our DNA. Chris Hanslik Yeah, what I love about our values here is that they have become institutional. I was here at the time where I feel like that really solidified in itself. It's when we started hiring and firing from culture and it sent a message to people that this is really real. It's not no one's above the culture or the values, and it's a game-changing moment for an organization. There was not just marketing stuff for the website, but it's really, as you just said, in the DNA. Bill Boyar Well, i think a defining moment for us was we do off-sites twice a year and we do them in June and November, and we were in an off-site in, i think, san Antonio and we sat around the room and we were having some challenges with some people, including one or two that were in the room who were our fellow shareholders and we posed the question are we willing to declare that if you cannot live consistent with our values, you cannot work here, regardless of your position of firm, and unanimously around the room everybody said yes, and soon thereafter one of the people in the room was no longer in the room for that very reason, and the message that that sent to our organization was a game-changer. Chris Hanslik I think that's a good lesson for the listeners is the culture building, setting some values and starting to hold people to account for those behaviors. To define and build a culture isn't easy. It's messy work, it's bumpy, but if you stay diligent and consistent with it and committed to it, it will play out. Bill Boyar Absolutely. I mean we evolved in terms of the behavior. Some people call them core values, some people call them pillars, some people call them standards, i don't care what you call them. What ultimately is how we can treat each other, our colleagues, our friends, people on the other side of deals, and I think that defines us. The other piece of that puzzle is purpose Right, and we struggled with how to articulate purpose. And I traveled a lot, as you know. I was on airplanes a lot, i was in hotels a lot, i was in airplane lounges a lot. My travel was long distance and I was a voracious reader of business books and I wanted to use this firm as a sort of a lab experiment of can you take principles from great companies? and I never read anything about law firms, anything about the industry. I was all. My study was what can I find from lessons from great companies and great leaders that I can see whether or not it works in a flat, horizontal organization with a bunch of Taipei people? And so I would experiment. And because we struggled so much to sort of articulate a mission statement, we pulled everybody together, as you know, in a room and the question was when you get up in the morning. What are you excited about related to coming to work? You might be excited about a lot of stuff, but I was really more focused on what are you excited about about this firm, and that's how we evolved our mission statement. I don't know how many years ago that's been now. I think it was 2007. Chris Hanslik What's really? that's such a great story and I tell it as you do all the time. There was no outside consultant, there was no prompts. It was the owners of the organization answering that question for about 45 minutes and a bunch of words on the board and three themes fell out that we then kind of worked. Smith and that mission everyone here, i think, can quote it. We check in on it, as you said, at our off-sites twice a year and it still resonates and everyone's hard to get here. Bill Boyar Yeah, and it's the. You know, it's the. You asked me early what was the vision? and you know how we think and talk around here about. You know purpose, method and outcome, and I mean my philosophy of leadership or organizational development, organizational hygiene, whatever you want to call it is. You start with purpose, which is mission. You set a direction, a vision for what you want to be when you grow up, and then you connect that with method, which is really. You know who you are, what you do and how you do it, and that's where sort of values reside. And strategy and action. And if you don't, if you can have all the strategy in the world but if you're not in action, it's meaningless. But and I think we've done a pretty good job here of trying to look forward and listen to our people you know that. You know and engage everybody who's in this firm, every lawyer who's in this firm, in the process. You sit around and think and you know somebody who's a first year associate today, 10 years from now, is if they're gonna, if they last through the experience, they're gonna be a partner here, and so we let them have influence over their own destiny, their own experience and what this firm is gonna look like for them 10 years from now. Chris Hanslik So, Like I said there's pivotal moments in organizations, right If they're going to survive, and this firm's now. I guess it's about to finish year 33. Let's talk about some of the things, when you look back, that you think in the moment we're innovative, we're pivotal to keeping the firm going in its independent state, and it has helped to get us where we sit today. Bill Boyar So several. I think the first one is our acceptance of technology. So early on, when we started, I had a very large client who let me do very large deals, international deals, that I was probably less prepared for than he was but was prepared for me to do, But I did it anyway. And I had one deal where I lived in the Regency Hotel in New York for two and a half months While I was up there and this is in 1991, while I was up there I connected with a lawyer who was part of our group And he was running his practice on a little Dell laptop computer And I was handwriting things on a yellow pad and faxing them to my assistant at Houston who was typing and then faxing back to me. And he's there on this computer And I'm like I've got to be able to do this. So I got the specs for his laptop, faxed them, Faxed them to Houston And if we looked at it today, it wouldn't be that small right Chunky. It was chunky. Yeah, it was chunky, but I had it drop shipped to me in New York And I'd work all day and teach myself how to operate that computer all night. And when I came back we finished the deal very successful. I gathered all of the lawyers in the firm in a room And I said see this One year from now, every one of you is going to be operating your practice on one of these or you won't be working here anymore. And I had one. That's a big moment. Yeah, that was a moment And one of my partners said I got a D in typing, it's not going to happen. And I laughed and I said well, you're going to have to learn how to pack, because that's the way we're going to do it. And we made the investment And it started a path for us that we were not leading edge but were right behind. We can't afford to be leading edge, but we've made tremendous investments in technology And we've continued to do that ever since. I guess the other thing I would say is in 2006, which I think was another watershed moment in our firm's history. We had 20 lawyers at the time, if you remember. We had 10 shareholders, 10 associates, the firm divided in perfect quadrants senior shareholders, junior shareholders, senior associates, junior associates And we set a 10-year vision for the firm, broke up in groups and it was amazing how consistent everybody's view was. 2006, and some of the critical things that came out of that work was in 10 years. We had to be in a new facility And the lesson I got out of it was we had to look at leadership succession. So we did a SWAT analysis, if you remember, and I was a strength, a weakness, an opportunity and a threat, right right. So I listened to that And we did a lot of work that culminated in this beautiful facility that we've now been in for seven years And you succeeding me as chairman of the firm. Chris Hanslik Yeah, i think I remember that meeting well and some of the other meetings we had, about everyone wanting to remain independent at the shareholder level and then doing the work at every level of the organization, and the input was consistent about being independent, investing in the future. One of the first things that needed to happen was leadership succession, and you, i think, took a huge moment. no reason to step aside, but put in place a plan to step aside by the time you were 60. And then we embarked on a couple years of trying to figure out who that person would be. Bill Boyar Well, we didn't spend a couple years figuring out who the person was. We spent a couple years executing. Yeah Well, look, i laugh to myself when I have friends of mine who are in their 70s, who are trying to run law firms And they're recruiting and hiring professionals who are 45 years, their junior, younger than their children. The real sort of wake up for me is when we started having my kids' friends come across as candidates And I've always been open door first name. We're all colleagues. There is some hierarchy because it's natural with experience, but I've tried to always try to break that hierarchy down. We're all a team, right, And you know, i just, i just knew that part of that that if you didn't study generational differences and then respond to those differences intelligently, that we were never gonna be a multi-generational firm. I could not do that. I could get this firm. I was chair for 20 years and I got it to a place where I thought I had exceeded my ability to drive it to the next level, and that's where you came along and you've done a phenomenal job with this firm since, which is now a dozen years. I guess It's crazy, but you know, people get entrenched in positions and it's about power. I've never felt like being chairman was the source of power for me. I always felt like trying to be a great lawyer was the source of power for me, and it still is to this day. So I never. This was not about I had to retain a title. It's why I don't have a title. I always felt like the. The ability to sort of sit in the middle generationally, be able to connect with the more senior generations and be able to connect with the more junior generations, is the sort of the perfect place to be in the leadership of any organization. And when you lose sight of that, you get myopic and you rely on sort of history versus being connected to the present. And I mean God knows. The changes we've experienced in the last five years, both generationally and socially, have been tremendous. Chris Hanslik No questions. You know there's gotta be a lot of organizations out there facing that challenge. Leaders out there in organizations, the challenge of succession. Do I do it? How do I do it? Maybe let's just talk a little bit about what that process looked like for you and in us, because, yeah, i was right there with you. It was very thoughtful and disciplined about how we went about that And it. I think the results would suggest it was executed. Thought out a great plan and executed beautifully, because it was a very seamless thing for our organization. Bill Boyar So that in 2006 I was 55. So that when we had that meeting I was 55. And it took me a little while to completely digest the message from that meeting. But the message was clearly that in 10 years from that moment there needed to be another leader. And as I thought about it, i determined that 60, 860 was the sort of the tip. That was the breakpoint that the leader of this organization and all of the leaders of this organization in each of the practice groups, needed to be younger than 60. So I counseled with some of my particularly with my friend at Conversant and talked about how best to think about this. And so at the next meeting of our shareholders, i asked the group who wants my job? And there were three of you. So we did a about a one-year program where I would ask each of you to read a particular book that I thought was reflective of my philosophy of business and leadership, and we'd go out to dinner and drink really nice wine and sit around and talk about and what was the learning and how did you apply it to the firm and the future of the firm. And you know, over a short period of time I realized that you were the logical person to take that on. So I went to the shareholders and said, chris, it's my choice, and you were unanimously endorsed. And so we created a role as vice chairman for a year where the promise was, and this was when I was closing in on 60. The promise was that by the end of that year, my responsibilities in running this firm would be transitioned to you, So that by the time I was no longer chairman and you were gentlemen that you would have been doing the job. And, as it worked out, the person who was our executive director made a decision to retire, had health issues, so you were able to then recruit your own partner in the operations, which turned out to be fantastic. So by the time it was time to make the move. Now the biggest challenge is I didn't go anywhere. Chris Hanslik Right, i was still there It was very unique. Bill Boyar Yeah, i wasn't going anywhere and we had to convince our team that Bill's not retiring. We had to also convince client base, the marketplace, our friends, that Bill wasn't retiring. But here's what I did do. I made you a promise that I would stay away for about six months, as much as I could, and let you sort of find your way, because it's different when you say you're going to be the leader and the day you wake up and you are the leader. And I think the first year was a little bumpy for me because I'd been running law firms for 30 years Even though I was sort of in denial that that was part of my identity. It obviously was. But I look back now it was one of the smartest business moves I've ever made. It freed me up to do other things, do a lot of work in the community, continue to grow my practice, be a better father, because I had more time. So it worked out really great And I think that I've counseled a lot of people on succession and it's hard to let go, but what the key to it is to build the foundation. And one thing I sort of love about the way you took it on is we talked about the name and agree it wouldn't change, and you embraced the culture of this place. You took on the mission as your own, the values as your own, and you've done nothing but build on what was there. I think the risk that people see in succession in organizations like this is that the next guy is going to come in and tear up all the work and bring their own. I've got my own ideas about what the culture should be and what the vision should be, and you didn't do that. You had a strong foundation and built on it, and that's where we are today. Chris Hanslik I get asked a lot of questions about that and did at the time. So one, they're retiring. Two, so your name's going on the door. And I'd say no. And as I experienced the culture and grew here, what I tell people, told them, then tell them today is, in our business any lawyer can have their name on the door. So there's nothing unique or special about that. I've always been a team player on teams my whole life. So being a part of a really well-known, high-functioning team is really cool and unique in my view, and to be able to have the opportunity and the privilege to be the leader of that team. So I was like I want to make that brand of Order Miller something special And if I'm known as the leader of that, that's more important than having my name on the door, because there's 80-something thousand licensed lawyers in Texas that make it each go out and hang a shingle. There's nothing unique about that. The other thing I think we've proven even though I think it's a little unique because you're right, most succession plans there's a retirement involved. We've proven you can do it without the retirement If everyone involved in those leadership roles stays focused on what's important and that's the health and well-being of the organization. Bill Boyar So I think if I had to point to one thing that made it work is the promise I made to you and to myself is that I would never contradict you in public, that I would bring to you my ideas, my concerns, whatever thoughts I had, and you could take them and do with them what you wanted. I don't think I've ever mandated anything, but I've never wanted to contradict you or take you on Shareholders meeting, lawyers meeting, how I talk about our relationship in the public, so that there's no question who's the boss, who's the chairman, who's the leader of the firm. And yeah, i think people respect what I've contributed over the last 33 years to this place and the contribution I made to the foundation. But I think there's no question about who's on first. Chris Hanslik Yeah Well, it's been great. The other thing I would add to that is in our transition. You're right that first year is almost a reverse transition. I was still learning, and always am, and there was transition for you not actually being the guy in that seat. But again, there may have been a little bumpy, but it wasn't anything that felt natural and it's proven itself, i think, so far to be successful. Bill Boyar Well, i will tell you, i made a liar out of a lot of people who doubted I could do it. Chris Hanslik I should have placed a bet. So I always like guests that have had the success like you've had and through failures and learning, And you get to, and I'll say this, and anybody that knows you know you. One of the things that drives you is the opportunity to work with entrepreneurs every day and make it their dreams happen. So what are two or three things that a listener out there that has just started a business or thinking about it, what are some of the nuggets of wisdom you'd say? keep this in mind as you start that journey, or if you're in that journey and you're questioning why. Bill Boyar I'd say so. I tell people all the time It's never too early to start thinking about the purpose for which you're doing this business and it's not making money. So what is the other, what's the real purpose? It's never too early to set standards of how you want your people to be, to treat each other. And it's never too early to dream big, think big and work backwards. I'm a sort of a classic reach out, look back, thinker, set the bar, the peg in the sand, whatever you want to call it. Look back to today and really think about what do I have to do? Too many young entrepreneurs just get up, put their clothes on and take one step forward, and another step forward, and another step forward, and it can be directionless and that can create a lot of dysfunction and failure. So it's never too early to try to actually have organizational hygiene. It's also never too early to figure out who you can get around the table, who has experience, who's been through what you're trying to go through, to coach you, counsel you. That's why organizations like YPO and EO and Vistage are so valuable, because you could find a place to have, you know, get counsel or coaching from people who have been there, who are trying, who have already accomplished what you're trying to do, or all who are similarly situated, experiencing the same challenges as you're challenging. Well, bill, this has been great. Chris Hanslik You know. Love the story. Knew most of it, you know, but just love that giving you the opportunity to be able to tell it so everyone else can hear it. So let's wrap up on some personal things. What was your first job? Bill Boyar So my first real job other than catting, when I was a kid, my first real job was working in summers in residential construction. I did sheathing and roofing for houses on a non-union crew. I did it, you know, for four summers, made my way from the guy on the ground hoisting up the four by eight to the guy up on the first story, pulling him up to the guy on the roof, laying him to the guy on the roof, being the supervisor and the hammer, until it rained one day and I'd slid off the second story of a roof. And the next summer I was on a landscaping crew. Chris Hanslik Literally boots on the ground. Bill Boyar Yeah, and I've stayed on the ground since Wisely All right. Chris Hanslik Famous question Tex-Max or barbecue? Oh, Tex-Max, Yeah, you raised the kids at Nifas, right? Bill Boyar Well, you know, i got engaged at Nifas. I celebrated every birthday there, you know, between Nifas and El Tiempo, it's yeah, i love it If you could take a 30-day sabbatical. Chris Hanslik Where would you go? what would you do? Bill Boyar You know, I knew you were going to ask me this question because I listened to all your podcasts and I think I would probably go hang out in Italy. Chris Hanslik That's a pretty popular question or answer, excuse me, i mean and it sounded like to split it They say maybe two there, two somewhere else. Bill Boyar You know, so much of my travel is three days here or four days there or a week there, but it's never really immersed. I went to school in Wales my junior year in college and I really immersed. I didn't do the year-rail pass and go to every country I could go to. I actually spent a year in the UK and in Wales and something that you know a mini version of immersion is really sounds great to me, but I got a boss who won't let me leave for 30 days. Chris Hanslik I'll see if I can talk to him about that. Bill, this has been wonderful. Thanks for telling your story, Thanks for being the kind of milestone marker for us at the 50th episode. I think we've you know, hopefully proven and validated this concept and that the listeners enjoy the content. Bill Boyar So it's a pleasure to be on this and I'm proud of what you've done with this. Thank you, Thank you. Special Guest: Bill Boyar.
Troy Elmore, President of Sandler Training, a Houston-based company established in 2003 joins the podcast. Troy shares why he thinks, in addition to having core values for your company, it is important to have core behaviors so that you can make those values action. Troy also discusses how he uses a concept titled the "Three P's" to help motivate his people.
LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About Houston Office of Saddler Training
GUESTS
| | Troy ElmoreAbout Troy |
Special Guest: Troy Elmore.
Cheers to our 40th episode! To celebrate we hosted a live event where we talked to Ryan and Crystal Waugh of Waugh Family Wines to share their story about how they started their thriving wine business. Their inspiration to get into the wine business is not only unique, but one that has a bit of romance attached. Hear Ryan share how meeting Crystal amplified their business to the next level, how Crystal has crafted a unique B2C model, and a few wine tips that you won't want to miss.
LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About Relief Wines
GUESTS
| | Crystal WaughAbout Crystal |
| | Ryan WaughAbout Ryan |
Special Guests: Crystal Waugh and Ryan Waugh.
Cody Johnson, CEO of National Signs, a prominent sign company in Houston, joins the podcast. A serial entrepreneur since the age of 25 with a diverse background in startups, Cody has built various companies around the world from Malaysia, India, and Mexico. Listen to his unique story and how he has found success across various continents and the keys to building an intentional and impactful team.
LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About National Signs
GUESTS
| | Cody JohnsonAbout Cody |
Special Guest: Cody Johnson.
Jing Johnson, Founder and CEO of Prism Renderings, joins the Building Texas Business podcast. Jing was inspired to start her own company as a way to balance her professional and family commitments. In doing so, she has grown her company over the past 16 years by building a team made up of all working moms. Listen to hear the motivation behind creating Prism Renderings and how Jing created her own lane, based on the resources and training she already possessed, all while redefining time management in her own terms.
LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About Prism Renderings
GUESTS
| | Jing JohnsonAbout Jing |
Special Guest: Jing Johnson.
Carrie Colbert, founder of Curate Capital, a venture capital firm focused on investing in companies founded by women with products for women joins the podcast to share her unique story. Carrie's shares her beliefs in aligning incentives and being transparent in communication and financials have sparked her success.
LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About Curate Capital Grill
GUESTS
| | Carrie ColbertAbout Carrie |
Special Guest: Carrie Colbert.
Matt Brice, Founder of Federal American Grill, shares his passion for treating people right. Matt discusses how his mission to improve the lives of everyone he touches has helped him build a company with a learning culture, grounded in values like empathy.
LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About The Federal Grill
GUESTS
| | Matt BriceAbout Matt |
Special Guest: Matt Brice.
Michael Scheurich, CEO and founder of Arch-Con corporation, joins the podcast to share how he has built a strong team by creating a positive work environment, opportunities for growth in ownership and staying competitive with compensation. Michael's clarity around purpose and passion has fueled Arch-Con's success, and his passion for commercial construction shines through his stories.
LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About Arch-Con
GUESTS
| | Michael ScheurichAbout Michael |
Special Guest: Michael Scheurich.
David Gow, CEO of Gow Media, a large multi-platform media company based in Houston, joins the Building Texas Business podcast to share his journey as a successful leader. David has lead Gow Media for over 15 years, which has digital content sites including Culturemap.com, Sportsmap.com, and Innovationmap.com. Listen to David give great advice on what it means to be a supportive, attentive leader who fosters consensus and cooperation.
LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
GUESTS
| | David GowAbout David |
Jenna Jackson, Founder and CEO of P+R Creative Group, joins the podcast to tell us how she took 20 plus years in TV production and built her company with a focus on telling great stories. P+R is a Texas based full service creative agency that helps its clients around the world through the entire creative process
LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About P+R Creative Group
**GUESTS
| | Jenna JacksonAbout Jenna |*Special Guest: Jenna Jackson.***
In today's episode, you will meet Eddie Martin, president and CEO of Tilson homes. Tilson is one of the oldest family owned and operated home builders in Texas celebrating its 90th anniversary this year. Eddie and I discuss the dynamics involved in taking over a leadership of a Family business and priming it for growth and positive culture. Whether you are a business owner, a new entrepreneur or just considering starting a family business of your own, this episode is perfect for you to gain valuable knowledge.
LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About Tilson Homes
**GUESTS
| | Eddie MartinAbout Eddie |* Special Guest: Eddie Martin.***
As we celebrate the One Year Anniversary of the Building Texas Business podcast, we are taking it back to Episode 1 with Houston legend, Johnny Carrabba. Johnny is the founder of The Original Carrabba’s Restaurant on Kirby Drive in Houston, Texas and the inspiration for the nationwide chain of restaurants. Johnny talks about his passion for culture, humility, and good old fashioned courtesy as he shares his ups and downs with the evolution of the restaurant industry and his original vision for expansion. Johnny believes the keys to success are in the Carrabba's fundamentals: food, service, cleanliness, energy and enthusiasm. Johnny compares running a restaurant to coaching a football team and find shares if he really was destined for this role prior to birth. LINKSShow Notes
About BoyarMiller About the Carrabba's Family
GUEST
| | Johnny CarrabbaAbout Johnny |
Special Guest: Johnny Carrabba.
In today's episode, we celebrate the Houston Zoo's 100th anniversary with the Zoo's President and CEO, Lee Ehmke. Lee discusses the conservation efforts and improvements undertaken by the Houston Zoo and how contributions and partnerships are leading to worldwide efforts to save animals in the wild. This episode is an exciting venture into the world of global animal welfare and the efforts being undertaken to protect all the amazing creatures we share this planet with.
LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About The Houston Zoo
**GUESTS
| | Lee EhmkeAbout Lee |* Special Guest: Lee Ehmke.***
June Dively, CEO of SiEnergy, a gas utility company based in Austin, Texas, joins the podcast to let us into the mind of a trailblazer and we explore what it means to build a customer focused business that has no use for the word "No". Si Energy are committed to delivering efficient, clean-burning natural gas at reasonable costs, and June has successfully grown the company over the past 10 years by eliminating the word "no" from her vocabulary and building a team that, above all else follows through on their word to the customers. You can take a listen now at BoyarMiller.com/podcast/029.
LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About SiEnergy
**GUESTS
| | June DivelyAbout June |*Special Guest: June Dively.***
On the latest episode of the Building Texas Business podcast, we talk with Josh Jacobs, Co-founder and CEO of the Blue Ox group, a commercial real estate brokerage based in Houston, focusing on tenant and landlord representation, investment sales, and land brokerage. Inspired by the fable of Paul Bunyan, the larger-than-life lumberjack who could achieve the impossible, he started his company in June of 2020 in the middle of the pandemic. Josh details the business principles he applied to help set the foundation for his company and how its core values support the way they work.
LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About The Blue Ox Group
**GUESTS
| | Josh JacobsAbout Josh |* Special Guest: Josh Jacobs.***
Kelly Hall joins the latest episode of the Building Texas Business podcast. Kelly, CEO of Harvey Builders, a full-service general contractor whose true mission is creating relationships that lead to spaces where great things happen. Starting as a project manager 29-years ago, Kelly worked his way up to become CEO in 2018. He discusses the importance of leaders being visible, listening to their employees and demonstrate empathy. This episode is valuable to anyone in a leadership position, and Kelly's experience and perspective demonstrate why Harvey has a great reputation.
LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About Harvey-Cleary
**GUESTS
| | Kelly HallAbout Kelly |* Special Guest: Kelly Hall.***
On the latest episode of the Building Texas Business podcast, we talk with Ali Nasser, CEO and founder of the wealth and life planning company AltruVista and author of a new book, The Business Owner's Dilemma, looking at the 3 dilemmas we face as business owners. This is a great conversation. Ali shares insights from his career, how he started AltruVista, and the lessons he's learned over the years that led him to write the book. Entrepreneurs are fundamentally different from non-entrepreneurs when it comes to wealth and legacy planning and how to apply the concept of purposeful wealth to your business and life. LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About AltruVista
Get The Book The Business Owner's Dilemma
GUESTS
| | Ali NasserAbout Ali |
Special Guest: Ali Nasser.
On the latest episode of the Building Texas Business podcast, we're speaking with Ralph Vasami, CEO of Universal Weather and Aviation, headquartered here in Houston, Texas. Ralph has a unique and inspiring story. He started at Universal Weather and Aviation as a high school intern in their meteorology department, rising to the position of CEO in 2007, a role he still holds today. Ralph credits being a lifelong learner and staying curious as two of the qualities among many that have helped him lead Universal for the past 15 years. In our conversation, he details how he preserved the company's culture despite the tough times presented by the pandemic. LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About Universal Weather and Aviation
GUESTS
| | Ralph VasamiAbout Ralph |
Special Guest: Ralph Vasami.
I'm excited to introduce you to two guests on the latest episode of the Building Texas Business podcast. Chef Kiran Verma, Chef and Owner of Kiran's restaurant here in Houston, and her daughter Puja Verma, Director of Operations and Development. Chef Kiran is known as the Godmother of Indian fine dining, and you will hear how, at the age of six, she learned to cook in her mom's kitchen in New Delhi, India, and then on coming to the US, she was inspired by early visits to Luby's for the recipes she still uses today. Puja's background is also interesting, as she shares how she draws on her experiences learned working in finance for the oil and gas industry to drive the future of the restaurant. Kiran's is a beloved restaurant in Houston, and this is a great opportunity to get to know the family behind its success. LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About Kiran's
GUESTS
| | Kiran VermaAbout Chef Kiran |
| | Puja VermaAbout Puja |
Special Guests: Kiran Verma and Puja Verma.
On the latest episode of the Building Texas Business podcast, I'm excited to introduce you to Bob Harvey, President and CEO of the Greater Houston Partnership, the Houston region's principal business organization. Bob was a successful business leader in his own right before taking over at the partnership 10 years ago, and in this episode, we discuss the trends he's seeing in the employer, employee relationships, and company culture post-COVID, and how Houston's corporate leaders are engaging more with the area's institutions of higher education to produce a more employable workforce. You'll also hear why Bob was optimistic about the economic future of Houston. This is a very insightful episode with someone working very close to the heart of Houston's business community. LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About Greater Houston Partnership
GUEST
| | Bob HarveyAbout Bob |
Special Guest: Bob Harvey.
On the latest episode of the Building Texas Business podcast, you'll hear from Ryan Getz, Co-Founder, and CEO of WGA Consulting Engineers, a civil engineering firm in Houston, Texas. Ryan is passionate about his business, and as soon as you hear his voice, you'll recognize the energy he brings as we talk about the importance of setting a clear direction for the company and the need to establish core values. Something WGA achieves by addressing accountability, respect, and empowerment. He also talks about the critical need to have a team-building mentality in your company. LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About WGA Consulting Engineers
GUEST
| | Ryan GetzAbout Ryan |
Special Guest: Ryan Getz.
On the latest episode of the Building Texas Business podcast, you'll hear from Jesson Bradshaw, Co-Founder and CEO of Energy Ogre, an electricity management company based in Texas that uses proprietary systems to ensure its customers are always getting the best prices on their energy electricity. In this conversation, you'll learn why he believes our economy benefits from the innovation derived from entrepreneurs and the importance for business leaders to find the right balance between charging forward with strategic initiatives and practicing patience to allow things to happen on their own timing. Jesson has a great story to share and his passion for being a consumer advocate shows. LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About Energy Ogre
GUEST
| | Jesson BradshawAbout Jesson |
Special Guest: Jesson Bradshaw.
On the latest episode of the Building Texas Business podcast, you'll hear from Isaac Johnson, President, and CEO of TDECU, a credit union here in the Houston area. Isaac has a fascinating story, having built a parallel career in the military, serving in the US Army Reserves and the corporate world, coming up through law firms and then banking. Today, you'll hear Isaac talk about failure and why it's important to fail fast and move on, as well as his approach to culture, which comes from his military training and the mental of 'One Team.' LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About TDECU
GUEST
| | Isaac JohnsonAbout Isaac |
Special Guest: Isaac Johnson.
On the latest episode of the Building Texas Business podcast, you'll hear from Robin Stanaland. She is a great resource for any entrepreneur or business owner. Not only because of her experience having founded and built her own company, a software and IT consulting firm, growing it to over 150 employees before selling it, but also as a Master Chair within the Vistage organization, and running an M&A consulting firm, working with CEOs and entrepreneurs to help grow their business. Robin talks about the importance of setting a strategy with the end in mind and the importance of establishing core values in your business so you have those in place when you're making difficult decisions. LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About Robin Stanaland
GUEST
| | Robin StanalandAbout Robin |
Special Guest: Robin Stanaland.
On the latest episode of the Building Texas Business podcast, you'll hear from John Berger, CEO of Sunnova, a residential solar company based here in Houston, whose mission is to create a better energy service at a better price, believing residential customers should have energy independence. This conversation was recorded on stage at our first Building Texas Business Live event, and in it, you'll learn why John likens his company to a wireless power company and the Southwest Airlines of solar rather than a traditional utility company. He also shares some key fundamentals that any business owner or entrepreneur will benefit from. This was a great event, and John was the perfect guest to have on stage and the podcast. LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About Sunnova
GUEST
| | John BergerAbout John |
Special Guest: John Berger.
On the latest episode of the Building Texas Business podcast, you'll hear from Farid Virani, founder and CEO of Prime Communication, the largest AT&T Authorized Retailer in the United States. In this conversation, we learn how he started in 1999 with one kiosk store in Baybrook Mall and by staying humble, hungry, and scrappy, built Prime to over 2080 AT&T retail stores across North America. Farid has a really inspirational story to share. LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About Prime Communications
GUEST
| | Farid ViraniAbout Farid |
Special Guest: Farid Virani.
On the latest episode of the Building Texas Business podcast, you'll hear from Sheila Enriquez, CEO and Managing Partner at Houston-based CPA firm Briggs & Veselka. Sheila has received countless awards and accolades, including the 2020 Most Admired CEO by the Houston Business Journal, and brings a wealth of experience building this firm into the organization it is today. In this conversation, we learn more about her journey as a CPA and into management and how she views all innovations as starting with the people. This passion for her people and her business comes through in this great interview. LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About Briggs & Veselka
GUEST
| | Sheila EnriquezAbout Sheila |
Special Guest: Sheila Enriquez.
On the latest episode of the Building Texas Business podcast, you'll hear from Dr. Juliet Breeze, the founder, and CEO of Next Level Urgent Care. A healthcare provider in the Houston area, founded on the belief that it's possible to provide high-quality, cost-effective medical care for all who need immediate attention for non-life-threatening illnesses and injuries Learn how Juliet is bringing innovative thoughts to the practice of medicine, including focusing on customer service from a retail mindset and how they deliver healthcare at her company. She passionately believes in the mission of Next Level, and this episode has many insights into the journey from inspiration to now having multiple locations. LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About Next Level Urgent Care
GUEST
| | Juliet BreezeAbout Juliet |
Special Guest: Juliet Breeze.
On the latest episode of the Building Texas Business podcast, you'll hear from Jamey Rootes, former President of the Houston Texans and MLS's Columbus Crew, and President and Founder of Lone Star Sports & Entertainment. A sports management agency and marketing company. In this conversation, we talk about Jamey's long career and how he combined a passion for sports and a strong work ethic into building two sports franchises from the ground up. Jamey's commitment to the sport, the people he works with, and the fans comes together in the culture he fosters in these organizations. LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About JameyRootes.com
GUEST
| | Jamey RootesAbout Jamey |
Special Guest: Jamey Rootes.
On the latest episode of the Building Texas Business podcast, you'll hear from Aaron Lyons, Founder, and CEO of Dish Society, a casual farm-to-table restaurant brand with several locations across the Galleria area. In this conversation, you'll hear more about Aaron's journey and how he took a business-based approach to the restaurant industry, validating the market and building the first locations with scale in mind. Aaron's enthusiasm and business acumen make this episode a great listen. LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About Dish Society
About Daily Gather
GUEST
| | Aaron LyonsAbout Aaron |
Special Guest: Aaron Lyons.
On the latest episode of the Building Texas Business podcast, you'll hear from Sharon Birkman, Chairman and CEO of Birkman International, an industry-leading behavioral and occupational assessment company headquartered in Houston, Texas. Sharon has had a long career at the company, joining in 2002 as President and being named Chairman and CEO in 2019, where her leadership has been instrumental to their unprecedented growth. In this conversation, you'll hear more about Birkman's approach to empowering human potential and how Sharon believes raising a family helped her become a better business owner and create products that look at the multiplicity of characteristics that make you rich human being you are. LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About Birkman
GUEST
| | Sharon BirkmanAbout Sharon |
Special Guest: Sharon Birkman.
In today's Building Texas Business podcast episode, you'll hear from Rob Whitman of Forward Science, a privately held MedTech company based in Houston, Texas. Rob co-founded Forward Science in 2006 to change lives through early discovery, diagnosis, and treatment, and in this episode, you'll learn how he built the successful startup by focusing on legacy over currency. This is a great conversation and really shows Rob's interest and enthusiasm for early discovery in oral cancer diagnosis. LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About Forward Science
GUEST
| | Robert WhitmanAbout Robert |
Special Guest: Robert Whitman.
The latest guest on the Building Texas Business podcast is Ziggy Gruber, restauranteur and deli owner, here in Houston, Texas. Kenny & Ziggy's is a traditional New York Delicatessen Restaurant and Bakery specializing in Eastern European Jewish cuisine. It's the heart of the local community, and we hear how Ziggy believes cultivating your employees helps build a strong family-oriented culture. Listen now to hear Ziggy's passion for his craft and community shine. LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About Kenny & Ziggy's
GUEST
| | Ziggy GruberAbout Kenny |
Special Guest: Ziggy Gruber.
On the latest episode of the Building Texas Business podcast, we're talking with Goran Haag, President of Champion Fiberglass. We learn how a chemical engineer from Sweden started a company in Texas that has grown over the past 30 years, building from one to four product lines, even surviving and rebuilding after a devastating factory fire, to become the leading manufacturer of fiberglass conduit in the USA and Canada. Goran credits this success to focusing on his people and his Christian values, and he shares some great insights from his experience. LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About SACC Texas
GUEST
| | Goran HaagAbout Goran |
Special Guest: Goran Haag.
Today on the Building Texas Business podcast, we're talking with Reid Ryan, former president of the Houston Astros and currently the president of the Round Rock Express. As many of you will know, Reid is part of Houston sports royalty, and you'll learn many lessons from him through this episode, many of which he learned from his dad, Nolan Ryan. One of the most important, and one that is transferable to any business, is how his dad taught him not to let the failure of your last pitch affect the success of your next. LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
GUEST
| | Reid RyanAbout Reid |
Special Guest: Reid Ryan.
Today on the Building Texas Business podcast, we're talking with Jacky Fischer, CEO of 3 Men Movers. Growing up poor, Jacky watched her parents struggle to make ends meet. After several false starts, her father finally opened a moving company and started making money in his 50's. At age 66, he had a massive stroke and sold his business to Jacky, who grew the company to outpace the industry average by 30 times. In this episode, she talks about her story, why she believes culture is like a magnet, and what we can learn as a leader from Ted Lasso. LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About Jacky Fischer
GUEST
| | Jacky FischerAbout Jacky |
Special Guest: Jacky Fischer.
Today on the Building Texas Business podcast, we're talking with Jerry Lasco, founder and CEO of Lasco Enterprises. Starting as a pilot for the US Air Force, Jerry transitioned to being a commercial pilot before being furloughed after 9/11. He turned that challenging experience into a business opportunity, becoming a sommelier and ultimately a restaurant entrepreneur. Jerry talks about how he instills leadership at all levels and its contribution to the success of his concepts. He also discusses the lessons learned in his military career that apply surprisingly well to running the restaurants. LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About Lasco Enterprises
GUEST
| | Jerry LascoAbout Jerry |
Special Guest: Jerry Lasco.
Today on the Building Texas Business podcast, we're talking with William Vanderbloemen, the founder and CEO of Vanderbloemen, a Christian executive search firm. William has been able to combine over 15 years of ministry experience as a senior pastor with the best practices of executive search to provide churches with a unique offering; a deep understanding of local church work, with the very best knowledge and practices of professional executive search. He talks about how an accidental pastor transformed into a successful entrepreneur and has lots of insight into company culture and why it's important to be aware of the shadow side of your strengths. This is a great episode. William has a unique gift for helping churches and ministries connect with the right key people, and there are many great lessons here. LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About Vanderbloemen Executive Search
GUEST
| | William VanderbloemenAbout William |
Special Guest: William Vanderbloemen.
Today on the Building Texas Business podcast, we're talking to Dr. Setul Patel, Founder, and Managing Partner at FormulaMed, a health advocacy company based in Houston. Bringing over 20-years of experience in healthcare services, you'll hear how Setul went from being a physician to an entrepreneur, focusing on disrupting healthcare delivery by building a new sandbox. This is an insightful look into the challenges and opportunities of supporting employers and their employees through wellness, mental fitness, and education. LINKSShow Notes
Previous Episodes
About BoyarMiller
About FormulaMed
GUEST
| | Dr. Setul PatelAbout Dr. Patel |
Special Guest: Dr. Setul Patel.
Today on the Building Texas Business podcast, we're talking with Brent Gallagher, President and Co-founder of Avenu Fitness & Lifestyle. We'll learn how he incorporates small town values into a unique workout experience with the goal of making a healthy lifestyle sustainable, and about the business he started in 2006 based on his passion for making fitness goals more attainable. LINKSShow Notes
Transcript About BoyarMiller
About Avenu Fitness & Lifestyle
GUEST
| | Brent GallagherAbout Brent |
Special Guest: Brent Gallagher.
Today on the Building Texas Business podcast, we're talking with my friend Bethany Andell. Bethany is President of Savage Brands, a Houston-based branding, culture building, and marketing agency. In this episode, we talk about how she employs a servant/leadership mentality to her company and how her passion drives success at Savage and her client's business. This is a great conversation with a company building deep relationships across Texas. LINKSShow Notes
Transcript About BoyarMiller
About Savage Brands
GUEST
| | Bethany AndellAbout Bethany |
Special Guest: Bethany Andell.
Today, on the first episode of the Building Texas Business podcast we're talking with Johnny Carrabba, founder of The Original Carrabba’s Restaurant on Kirby Drive in Houston, Texas. Johnny talks about his passion for culture, humility, and good old fashioned courtesy, and he shares his ups and downs with the evolution of the restaurant industry and his original vision for expansion. Johnny believes the keys to success are in the Carrabba's fundamentals: food, service, cleanliness, energy and enthusiasm. Listen in to hear how Johnny compares running a restaurant to coaching a football team and find out if he really was destined for this role prior to birth. LINKSShow Notes
Transcript About BoyarMiller
About the Carrabba's Family
GUEST
| | Johnny CarrabbaAbout Johnny |
Special Guest: Johnny Carrabba.
Welcome to Building Texas Business. I'm Chris Hanslik, chairman of BoyarMiller, and I'll be your host as we interviewed successful business owners in Texas. I'm excited to share these stories with you, and in each show we'll have the opportunity to dive deeper into the background of these organizational visionaries and how they achieve their success, with leading-edge information, the latest trends and case studies, business inspiration, growth challenges, corporate culture, and mentorship, all on the agenda. You'll hear from the biggest names in all industries, including hospitality, sports, healthcare, and energy, to name a few. You'll get to know their stories of founding companies, closing concepts and handled generational transitions. So why would a law firm host a podcast like this? Because my guests are exactly the type of people who make up our client profile here at BoyarMiller where we serve as the legal partner for business owners and entrepreneurs, helping them realize their business goals. So hit subscribe in your podcast player, and you'll get notified the moment the first show is available. LINKSShow Notes
TranscriptAbout BoyarMiller