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17Twenty
17Twenty
E179 || Matt Terry || Blueprint for Balanced Leadership
This week Kevin and Stewart have the great privilege of sitting down with Matt Terry, President at TDIndustries, Inc.
In an episode full of shout-outs to those who were integral to his story, you quickly see how Matt exemplifies servant leadership with an episode packed with wisdom on nurturing a thriving organizational culture. We reflect on nostalgic traditions that foster connections, explore how such a sense of belonging can be mirrored in corporate settings to build camaraderie among employees, learn of Matt's early passion for construction and engineering, and understand how his career at TD Industries has been shaped by resilience, craftsmanship, and influential mentors.
From woodworking projects in his youth to current leadership roles, Matt's journey exemplifies the power of following one's passion. Gain valuable insights on servant leadership, the importance of industry advocacy, and the inspiring stories of mentors who have deeply impacted Matt's professional life—making this episode wisdom nuggets for anyone seeking personal and career growth.
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Does an organization really value profit or does an organization really value people and growing people? And I think that's one thing that TD has done a great job at and always balanced. Like to be a leader at TD, you've got to grow people and you've got to generate business results, but it's always growing people first.
Speaker 2:Every single individual has a story to tell, and they're great stories that need to be heard.
Speaker 3:I want every listener to know they have the ability to change the world.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the 1720 Podcast.
Speaker 3:What's up? Mountain Movers, welcome back to the 1720 Podcast. We hope you had an awesome 4th of July weekend, had a little bit of a summer hiatus, but we are back in the studio with Matt Terry with TD Industries. He's an awesome guy, awesome leader in the construction industry and we had a lot of laughs, a lot of fun pre-recording and I know we're going to get into your journey and some leadership tactics, but we're also going to have some fun in here.
Speaker 1:So welcome to the show, matt. Thanks, kevin. Appreciate you guys having me on, so I think we start with.
Speaker 2:I think you had a sales pitch for some hair product. Is that? I don't know if you want to start there or not.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So definitely big into the hair, huge hair guy.
Speaker 1:I'm a huge hair guy. I love hair. I think everybody should Same. So, yeah, I think Kevin's identified as Wolf on Wall Street hairstyle or something going on. But yeah, seven months into not touching the hair with any scissors or anything, and it's a little bit out of control at the moment.
Speaker 2:And I disagree.
Speaker 3:I could dig it, I could dig it, you're going to see a stark difference on our social media. From the headshot we got to the podcast recording date photo Like, you'll be able to see the difference of what seven months does?
Speaker 1:You guys are making me blush a little bit. I was trying to talk Kevin into going seven months also, and we'll see how it looks.
Speaker 3:Yeah, bozo the Clown. Yeah, just line up the buckets. Throw some balls in buckets.
Speaker 1:I think you could totally sport it, totally sport, it Did you actually watch Bozo the.
Speaker 3:Clown.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he was Chicago. Did you watch it? Yeah, not a whole lot.
Speaker 2:Kind of like Herbie. Yeah, heard you're a big Herbie the Lovebug fan too. Is that check it out?
Speaker 1:Yeah, big time. But yeah, you know, the hair, just something to have a little bit fun the start of the year, and that was kind of my inspiration of mcconaughey's got it, let's go. Let's go give it a run. No, but uh, just just kind of having fun with it and I'll probably have like a pedro moment from napoleon dynamite, where my head will get too hot from running this summer and I'll just go shave it off right now. Look like kevin there you go yeah it's already in advance.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what is the long-term plan there? There is none. Okay, there is respect there. Respect that.
Speaker 1:It is just like going by the day having a little bit fun. Can't take yourself too serious.
Speaker 3:Wasn't that a fantastic book, though, oh, spectacular. I didn't have high expectations going into it, and that's one of the very few that I would say listen to the book, not read it, because he self-narrates it and he's it's awesome it is.
Speaker 1:It is Some amazing stories, I mean, it's things that he talks you just you can't believe. It's like, wow, that guy's got a very, very interesting past, without a doubt, Is it?
Speaker 2:is it autobiography or something? I don't know what it is.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Shocker, I haven't read a book.
Speaker 3:Plus life advice. What you should do, type deal A little combo of both he intertwines some of his testimony or what you shouldn't do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, bit of both is he the naked bongos guy?
Speaker 1:he is.
Speaker 3:He talks about that in there really yeah yeah, it's on the cut scenes for matt terry's podcast.
Speaker 2:He's got the hair he does the bongos, the whole bit, it's the wolf of wall street. Uh, gavin newsome bongos guy, all those things right, nailed it, nailed it. We're off to a great start here. We didn't even let you do like, we just went straight to shenanigans. We didn't even let you do the who's matt terry bit.
Speaker 1:You want to do that yeah, yeah, let's do it okay, yeah, so we'll cut to it let's, we'll cut to it, hey.
Speaker 2:So welcome to the show. Who's matt terry?
Speaker 1:yeah, I know absolutely so uh don't cut it, just roll with it.
Speaker 1:So yeah, dad to two awesome boys, parker, who's 11, peyton, who's nine, husband to an amazing wife I think if they gave like perennial, like award-winning best mom, best wife in the world, she'd win it every year. Lindsay, and then TD partner for 17 years which is hard to believe it's been that long and then advocate for the construction industry, love what we do, love what we get to do, what we get to build, the people we get to impact and, you know, oftentimes say we're really in the business of building people, we just happen to build buildings in the process. That's right, and that's what brought me to TD and has kept me at TD for 17 years.
Speaker 3:It's the widget in which we achieve that right, that's right, it's just the widget and you undersold how much you give back to this industry and I know we're going to get into that later. But thank you for everything that you do, because it does move the needle and with representing a company like TD that has a lot of influence in the industry when you step up and lead and volunteer and people follow.
Speaker 1:Well, I appreciate you sharing that and it's been a really neat thing coming into TD. It's been modeled by leaders at TD through the history, the 78 years of TD Industries. We've always had leaders who have modeled the importance and shown the importance of you have to give back to the industry.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And so it's really just been the opportunity to walk in the footsteps of those leaders.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a great opportunity you get to. You don't have to like blaze. You do get to blaze your own path. But to see it pre blazed, if you will, is that a thing? I don't even know what that means, but just to see it like okay, I got it. To have a mentor around that instead of having to figure it all out, it's a. Yeah, that's awesome. All right, tell us a story. Man. Texas, home, texas is home.
Speaker 1:Uh, so it was born in Abilene, texas, in my house.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's fine.
Speaker 1:Intentionally yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:So like midwife, all that kind of stuff, I don't remember it. That's what I've been told. But yeah, so, born in Abilene, it's been like a year in the Northeast when I was too young to remember and then really raised here in North Texas area, a little bit in North Ocean Hills, and then moved to Southlake, texas, in second grade and really raised and grew up there in Southlake.
Speaker 2:Back in the day-ish gotta be different than now, right? I mean, I feel like Southlake's had its day in the last 10 years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, uh, back in the day-ish, yeah so I was second grade on, my wife was kindergarten on at Southlake, so we met there at Southlake and when we were we were there early days. It was a small 3A, believe it or not, not farm town.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Right, everybody had acres. There wasn't a whole lot out there. You'd go into town to go to Walmart, um, and there was a dairy queen.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:That was right there at like Kimball and one 14. And that was it. That was all you had. Um, that's crazy, yeah. So we've seen the, the town transform and change and grow into what it is today, and now that's home for us and it's really fun to be raising our boys in the town that we grew up in, be on the sports fields with the kids of the guys and gals we went to school with and grew up with, and just kind of doing community and raising our boys in that town and being a South Lake Carol Dragon.
Speaker 3:Do you like it more?
Speaker 1:now or then Like did you like it more?
Speaker 3:rural, or do you like how it's built out?
Speaker 1:You know, um, there, there's obvious advantages and disadvantages to both. Um, what I think, that what I love now about the town, is just the sense of community. Like everybody in the town is a dragon, so there's one high school. Yeah, there's multiple element community. Like everybody in the town is a dragon, so there's one high school.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's multiple elementaries, like but everybody is a dragon, you start as a dragon, you graduate as a dragon.
Speaker 1:Um, and that sense of community, while it was there when we were younger, it isn't like it is today.
Speaker 1:Um, now, some of the, some of the, the realities of the pressures, the, the what comes with South Lake Carroll today, wasn't there when we were there, right, it was a 3A farm school, always had an amazing sports program, big focus on football, big focus on academics, um, and that hasn't gone away, uh, but it was just, it was just different, right. I remember being second, third, fourth grade in elementary school, at Johnson Elementary, and you'd have the seniors, the high school football players and cheerleaders come in on Friday and they'd sell you the little ribbons for 50 cents or a dollar or whatever they were, and just kind of that opportunity as a small town feel, kind of varsity, blues-ish a little bit, but just that time, that way to connect and with the players, with the athletes, with the coaches. Everybody knew everybody in the town at that time and, and as it's grown it, it doesn't exactly have that small town feel, but it has a very deep sense of community, which is which is fantastic.
Speaker 2:That's an interesting balance to strike, Cause I would say that I think the story of most towns that grow like that is they lose that identity. It doesn't feel like you're at your hometown anymore. It's because everybody's transplanted in and don't really care about the coach because he's going to be you know, like the whole, the gyrations of a big city start to take over Yep, and I don't. I don't live in Southlake, but to hear that story it's like no, that's not how it is out there, it's different.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's interesting, yeah, and I think it does go back to just kind of that common, that common theme, that common thread throughout the community is that dragon and to see everybody in the dragon green on Friday nights on football nights and see their kids wearing dragon gear and swag to school throughout the school year and everything I think it helps create that sense of community and belonging there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and they're a football powerhouse, right? Oh yeah, they are belonging there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they're a football powerhouse, right? Oh yeah, they are. Yeah, yeah, football, and then baseball, as well as in several other sports. It's just very strong, both academically as well as athletically.
Speaker 2:You have a if you want to try to draw an idea for your business through the podcast. If that's why you're listening, there's one right there, right Cause I had never really thought about and it comes. It'll sound like an indoctrination principle, but in reality like it's just. No, you're just part of the team from day one of as an employee all the way through day X or N or however.
Speaker 2:You mathematically represent the N right, All the way through the nth day of being an employee. You're a. You're a Southlake Carol dragon. Of being an employee, you're a, you're a Southlake Carol dragon, right All day, every day, and you can breed that same sense of community and belonging and growth and camaraderie and whatever you know. Yeah, corporately, starting on day one.
Speaker 1:Yes, sir, it's super interesting when you think about to that exact point when we were in elementary school to middle school, to high school. At the time you kind of went from like a squire as your mascot to a knight, to a dragon.
Speaker 1:Okay, and then we had a coach come in, who I'll speak to in a little bit of kind of his impact and influence Coach Todd Dodge, who was very influential in saying, no, we're not going to have knights and squires and dragons, we're going to all be dragons, we're going to all be one to your point, around just that common theme of unity. You're part of the big, you're part of the team. Right, we wore the big team little me shimmels under our pads and all that stuff, and it was, it was all in this kind of like, how do you go create that sense of identity and belonging, to go unlock, uh, to use Covey's term, the discretionary effort, uh, within that team, team environment?
Speaker 2:Okay. So this is really, this is like very interesting to me because, uh, listeners probably remember I guess is the right word I live in North Dallas. Kids go to Richardson. We don't have that sense of camaraderie because the high school they're Mustang, but those kids over there they're the Mohawk, whatever, and they're the this and our kids are Bowie, they have different colors, dissimilar, they don't. And then when they hit junior high, it's like, oh, you're a brentfield kid and we're buoy kids, right, and he's even all the way to high school. It's like the buoy kids hang, you know, they haven't unlocked that. What I guess, and I guess it's derivative perhaps of an athletic department, maybe trying to push it down, I don't know. But, um, trying to like, mix those metaphors together, because it's pushing it down and creating, breaking down those barriers between your divisions or whatever, creating the homogeneous, homogeneous, homogeneous nature of your entity. Uh, when you reach the pinnacle, it's like no, no, no, we've always been dragons, right, right, that's really cool, man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and, and it's neat because it's cascaded and it goes into the youth sports right.
Speaker 1:That aren't even connected with the district but with the town. Everyone is a dragon. So you've got, instead of being the Rangers and the Yankees and the White Sox and the whoever, you're all dragons and you're playing each other at dragons, Sure. And so it just it's really translated and again it's around just that community. Back to the original question of the town. There's a lot of similarities to what it was, there's a lot of differences, but just that deep sense of community is and belonging is what really, for Lindsay and I, is kind of brought us back.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And you have so mentors growing up. You mentioned one. It sounds like you had a coach that had a big impact on your life. Who are your mentors?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So you know um a lot, a lot of different people um, throughout throughout my life. Right, I mean obviously amazing parents who just I mean set an awesome foundation in faith and belief and what that looks like and just building character, uh and and and really kind of focusing on what are the key principles, what really matters, um, and then an amazing brother who's who's a friend and just friend and just always been there to be an ear and to listen and connect and build a relationship together with. But, to you know, one that really like stands out beyond the family side of it is Coach Todd Dodge, who I mentioned previously a little bit. So Dodge came into Southlake in my kind of june, end of junior year going into senior year and, um, amazing x's and o's coach brilliant, like rebuilt the offense for for the dragons and really kind of set the dragons onto a new course and trajectory and we're talking football football with regards to results on the field um, amazing there.
Speaker 1:But what was even more impactful was the off the field growth and the intentionality of building men, building young men through every once a week in the locker room. Right, we would go through a new study, whether it was like a study on character, and what does character look like and how do you carry that out as a 17-year-old guy who's lost, or figuring out, or how do you prioritize things? And integrity, and what does that look like? And how do you show up with integrity in the classroom, with integrity in life? And so Dodge was just really good at more so, even more so than building X's and O's of a program, which is what he's known for.
Speaker 1:More so, what I saw through Dodge was he was a builder of young men. Yeah, he was a builder character, of integrity, of doing things the right way, winning in the right way, losing in the right way. Uh, and then just how do you put team over self, how do you put others in front of yourself? And that was just a common thing that it was every day, with intentionality, that he was bringing into the locker room and onto the field for us. And so that's, you know that's translated in so many different ways throughout my career, throughout being a dad, throughout being a husband, throughout being a friend, right, like just that.
Speaker 1:Some of those core principles that he was able to, there weren't anything new, right? Yeah, like growing up in a family, in a household, where that was very much part of it. Growing up in the church, that was very much part of it. But he was able to bring it from that mix of like on the field, off the field, as a leader in that clubhouse, to connect with young men. Right, and it was just. It was super formative.
Speaker 3:And you had the blessing of having that at home and on the field. A lot of people don't have that at home, so Absolutely Are coming into his care. It sounds like he was way ahead of his time than that, because that sounds unheard of yeah, in a public school.
Speaker 1:In a public school too. Right that way, ahead of his time there again, both in the locker room, but then on the field of bringing a different type of offense onto the field, bringing a different way that you build a program, building the men who are going to be the program, right.
Speaker 3:What a parallel to our industry. Right, industry right. Like you're, you're a football coach, but you're going to pour into these young men and try to build their character and the byproduct be some points on the scoreboard and wins and losses. And the same with our industry. Yeah, you know, we're pouring into people to go build that widget, the widgets, and the success of that is the byproduct.
Speaker 2:Right, I think it's lost a lot of times too, because, well, let me come at that a slightly different angle. Winning sometimes covers that up Because people from afar I didn't know any of that, I wouldn't, I could have never told you that story. I would just say, oh, south Lake Carols, they win a lot. Yep, no-transcript, like a duke player on talking about something or a former player. And it struck me a couple weeks ago when the lakers hired uh, jj JJ Redick to be their new coach. He's at the press conference and they're talking about how.
Speaker 2:They asked something about like, did you talk to Coach K about it? And he said something about how first of all, don't call me Coach Redick. Did you see it? No, I haven't, did you see it? So he says first thing, he says don't call me Coach Reddick. There's only one person in my life that's deserved to be called coach and that's coach cake. There's only one coach and I don't know how he does it, but he stays in touch with everybody and he knew I was interviewing before for this job, before anybody else did, and he like called me and we talked through it. Reddick hasn't played at duke in 20 years and yet he's plugged into all those players, because he spent tons of time like building them to be men and the byproduct was banners. And it's the same thing. You forget that Coach K is a good person. He pours in his players, he cares about them, he stays in touch with them. All of those things because you hate them, because they win Yep.
Speaker 1:Yep, yeah, and for coaches like that, who have like just the kind of impact that transcends over decades like the game is the instrument to grow men to grow, women to grow, future leaders to grow again, future fathers and wives and husbands and sons and daughters, right Like.
Speaker 1:and that that's where I think when you look at great leaders. It's whether you're building buildings, whether you're coaching a team, whether you're a doctor, whatever your profession is, you find a way to use that as an instrument to go positively impact the lives of people that you work with around and around each and every day. And guys like Coach K, they figured it out. Yes, right, yeah.
Speaker 3:We had this dude, the Waxahachie head football coach, shane Collison. He came on, man, he bleeds that. I love it and he pours faith. I got to sit into some of those practices and he doesn't shy away from it. I love it Think you could do it when you're a little further south from the Metroplex. You public school program Just a bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I mean that's his mission and we need more people like that in the school system for sure.
Speaker 2:Well said, yeah, okay, so football. I'm assuming you competed in hair competitions too, though.
Speaker 1:Mostly hair competitions.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he was a huge dreadlock guy.
Speaker 1:That was the only issue with football. Is the helmet covered up the hair? Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Although I feel like these days you see a lot more athletes with it coming out the back like working, like long locks, the dreads coming out the back, stuff like this.
Speaker 1:Maybe you could have, yeah, especially baseball. Like the flat bill baseball cap with the hair coming out the back. My oldest son's big into slug baseball and so that was probably also my inspiration. Was there a bunch of kids who looked really cool with the flat bill hat and the hair flowing out the back has?
Speaker 3:he got the big fro haircut, uh he doesn't?
Speaker 1:he doesn't. Yeah, he kind of wears a high and tight but uh, but there's a. That's. That's the thing watching the world series, men's world series, college world series, and the uh hey, is my 14 year old.
Speaker 2:He's got, he's got cool hair too. He's into this thing called the drop fade. Have you seen this? No, it's like the mullet, but it's short, so it's like along the side tight, and then it goes, faded, back to a point Okay.
Speaker 1:In the back, okay, and then it's like faded up.
Speaker 2:So it's like kind of like a blend, but it's like if. It's like if Mohawk and I just lost my train of thought Mullet it. It's like if Mohawk and Mullet had a baby.
Speaker 1:It would be that.
Speaker 2:It's the drop fade and Hayes is rocking that right now. It looks kind of cool actually.
Speaker 1:Hashtag America you think I could rock it.
Speaker 3:Yeah 100%.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Stewart seems less sold.
Speaker 2:No, I was just giving it an actual evaluation. I wanted to give you an honest opinion, not just some knee-jerk yes-man guy.
Speaker 3:I'm a red on yeah.
Speaker 2:You just watched a shining example of it. Pedal down yes, Let me think about it. Wait, wait, wait, wait.
Speaker 3:We should think about it, let's play this through the next several years.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's think it out, ken you know what's awesome about this.
Speaker 1:We're like I don't know 10, 20 minutes into the podcast and we spent half of it talking about my hair. Yeah, but like this happens at work too. I'll be in a superintendent meeting with just like amazing guys who are the best builders that you could ever imagine, and my hair and hair product comes up and it's right. Like I'd be like where am I? How is this happening?
Speaker 2:I just think not. You're like you know this happens more. I'm like yeah, because I thought you meant like people get off a topic, not what happens at work. Is everybody wants to talk about my hair? Yeah.
Speaker 1:Your hair is the main character. It is a common conversational point and it came up recently in a in a board meeting and stakeholders meeting. It's, it's, there's hair.
Speaker 3:It's a lot of it Sounds like there's going to be a public shave day. They're very well maybe Charitable public shave day.
Speaker 1:As long as I don't do it myself at some point.
Speaker 2:That's right. Hold the line. Don't do that. Seven months in, it'll be a crime against humanity to see that thing go away.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the good thing is, mom is liking it, so like if Renz is on board, then I just keep rocking it, that's it, that's it, that's it.
Speaker 1:So you're playing the sports, you're getting mentored, and then you said, man, someday when I make it I want to be in construction. That's how it went right. I mean, you nailed it, you know. So, back to like kind of his childhood, like there there was a, there was absolutely a piece of me that there there was always this like innate interest in in the built environment and construction. I remember in the early nineties, growing up in the neighborhood I lived in was really starting to kind of be developed and there were several homes that were always being built and I remember just loving to go walk those houses, intrigued by okay, what are they framing up? What are these pipes coming out of the ground?
Speaker 2:Where's that electrical core going? All of that right.
Speaker 1:Just like the intrigue and the interest in it and would just go kill time walking through homes, right, and that was like kind of my first memory of just being drawn to it and then, um, as I got older, kind of how that translated to, or a couple things one I would always I'm not. I'm not an artistic individual as an engineering mind, though, like I loved drawing floor plans and through from the homes that I walked and then translating those into new like front elevations and things like that.
Speaker 3:In high school.
Speaker 1:Like middle school, middle school, high school, and it kind of like translated from going and walking those homes and then what about this, what about that? And just kind of that. Middle school all the way through high school and when you know, a lot of my buds would be out on the town having a good time, whatever I'd do a woodworking project at the house and just always loved building things right, always loved building things, working with my hands. Woodworking was kind of my outlet, if you will. And so, as you kind of fast forward that right, this like this idea of kind of the influences in my life, there was this like deep passion and innate interest in going and building things and seeing a tangible result from what you built with your hands and the ideas that you ideated in your mind around what this could look like. And then you go build it. A lot of the furniture I built I didn't build off plans. I would go create my plans and then create my cut lists and then build the furniture accordingly and it was. And then you pair that with this like competitive nature, team environment, nature that I grew up in around on the sports field, and then and then coupled kind of.
Speaker 1:The other thing is, as I reflect on kind of where I've been, as in in high school at the age of like starting at 15, I always had a job. So, um, always was working, always had a job, and and one of the things that I loved and at the time I didn't recognize it, but one of the things my dad was always really um was important to him was, like you need to pay for your own car insurance, you need to go earn money to learn how to work and learn the importance of saving and how to be wise um, be wise with finances. And so from being a bus boy when I was 15 to selling TVs at Best Buy and going and selling clothes at Harold's Clothing Store or cashier at Home Depot to start my own lawn mowing business, I was always trying to figure out, like what could I go do to keep myself busy and build this work ethic? And so I think like a lot of that culminates in that's the construction industry around, like just the built environment and the passion and interest toward that, the grit and the industriousness that it takes to stay in the industry. It's an amazing industry but it's not the easiest industry, right, and so building that work ethic through that and then and then just the people leadership side through the teamwork and seeing guys like Todd Dodge again, who modeled what leadership can look like and the positive impact it can have on others.
Speaker 1:I think that's what kind of drew me there, right, and but I didn't find it right away. I didn't find it right away. I went to Texas. My initial desire was to go be an be an architect, and I applied to architecture school at Texas. Turns out I wasn't smart enough and didn't have a high enough GPA to get into the architecture school but got into mechanical engineering. Uh, I would've thought that would have been the opposite. You know UT has got an amazing architecture school. Um, and then I think Coach Dodge wrote a really good letter for me to get me into the engineering program. He played quarterback at UT, and so I think that kind of carried some weight for me there a little bit.
Speaker 3:Heck yeah.
Speaker 1:But yeah. So got into the engineering school and didn't really know what I was getting into right A lot of math, A lot of math, it turns out, and a lot of the math doesn't have numbers either. Uh, wasn't prepared for that, uh.
Speaker 2:So hey, wait a minute. Just you know, this math is not.
Speaker 1:There's some like squiggly symbols in them and letters and numbers combination of all of it. But yeah, so, so got into engineering and you know, you know it was interesting for me. Like went there, all of the friends that I like, roommates, guys I hung out with, girls I hung out with. None of them were engineers, they were the Kines majors. They're all high school coaches now, like it was business majors. But I had a propensity and interest on the mathematic engineering side of the world and so I went down that route and I had interned at Bell Helicopter and once you get a kind of defense contractor on your resume, there's a lot of career opportunities. So I came out of. I came out of Texas, graduated with an ME degree and had a couple different options in front of me, which was such a blessing to have choices and to make a decision and you're coming out what year it was 05.
Speaker 1:05. 05. Yep, coming out, 05. And so the two that I kind of boiled it down to one was with L3 Communications out in Greenville, texas, and it was aerospace design work. The other was with a company called Rock 10 at the time. They've since been acquired, uh, and it was a go get your black belt and it was a fast track management leadership opportunity. I remember kind of working through that, talking to that, with my dad praying on, that kind of figuring out like what, what do I want to do when I grow up? Um and uh, which is a funny thing to say when you're what, 22 or whatever, when you graduate, right you got a lot of time to figure that out.
Speaker 1:Um, but uh, I just I was pulled to L3 because it was like I just put four years into getting an engineering degree. I got to go try my hand at engineering.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I ultimately saw and felt like my calling was going to be more into leadership and people specifically, and while Rock 10 offered that more so it was like man, I just went four years through this program.
Speaker 1:I got to go try it and so and I'm so glad that I did, because through that two year, two and a half year experience whatever it was at L3, like it validated my gut that I need to be with people. Uh, and it also what I found, as I was with that organization and specifically with the people that I worked with at L3, was they had this like crazy passion and interest for airplanes. Like we would be out like playing ultimate Frisbee that was the thing that we all did there in Greenville Playing ultimate Frisbee after work with with everybody there or whatever, and like an airplane would fly over and they would be able to tell me everything about the airplane, like who made it when it was put into commission, how long it's been flying, all that kind of stuff Right. And I looked at him like it's got a fuselage, which I didn't know what that word was until I started at.
Speaker 1:L3 and it's got wings and vertical stabilizer Right, like it wasn't my passion.
Speaker 3:It wasn't my interest, right, and.
Speaker 1:But I was able to do it, but it wasn't something that like fueled me and gave me energy in a way that was like man. This is where I see my career going. And I'd read a book and it's my favorite book on leadership and it's really kind of resonated with me and it was John Wooden, one of the most winningest collegiate basketball coaches of all times. And Wooden's got this success pyramid and I'm sure you've seen it or if you haven't, I recommend listeners to go check it out.
Speaker 1:But in there, right, he talks about he's got his success pyramid and they're like the traits and characteristics that you need to go be successful right, and the two cornerstones are you have to have an industriousness about you and you have to have an enthusiasm for what you do. Enthusiasm for what you do. For me, I convert to like a love and passion for it. It gives you fuel, gives you energy, right and and as I spoke of earlier, like my background was the built environment, was building things and building people, and I was like that's what I need to go do, like, right now I'm sitting in front of a computer eight to 10 hours a day designing airplane parts. Um, just not my gig, you get to check it off the list though.
Speaker 3:Got to check it off the list.
Speaker 1:Got to meet some great people, got to really kind of validate for my journey, like, what, what do I want to do, right? And and so I from there started talking to my father-in-law, um, about that and as um kind of what, what do I want to do, what, what does my career look like, what are my passions? And we just talking with Tim about that, and he connected me with a guy named Dave Cunningham who was with Granite Properties, big customer of TD, and just said, hey, tim and Dave were longtime family friends and it was like, hey, just go meet with Dave, like, just go talk to him about what you like doing, what your interests are. And so we sat on his back patio one day and just kind of talked about it and it became apparent to him he's like I've got the perfect company I need to introduce you to.
Speaker 1:Because, we talked a lot about, like desire to be with people. I sent him from a computer screen all day long, desire my desire of woodworking and working with my hands and building and impacting again the tangible built environment. And immediately he's like I need to introduce you McNew and Aaron Rice over at TD Industries and met with them and kind of, through that journey, came to TD. Right, it became a parent of as TD Industries. A little bit about TD, so founded in 1946, longtime company, premier mechanical construction building services company in the Southwest.
Speaker 1:But what to me was the draw, why I love that side of it? To me it was like a company that was employee owned, that you get to be something bigger than you. It was a culture built on servant leadership, which the tenet of servant leadership, right, is growing others around you and developing others around you. And then just this company that had this reputation of great place to work, fortune 100, great place to work for 20 plus years, right, it was like clearly they put into practice what they put on the walls. Right, and it was, and it was evident from day one, right, and so so Tim, tim hired me. He always told me that really the reason he hired me was every self-respecting Aggie had to have a longhorn working for him.
Speaker 1:And so so that was. That was kind of my my foray from, from, from college into into the working environment and ultimately landing at TD where I've been 17 years now.
Speaker 2:That's a great story. Yeah, that's just what I was about to say the folks along the way to lean in and shepherd the journey and be willing to talk and listen and make connections and all that sort of stuff. Maybe you make your way there eventually on your own anyway, but having folks to listen and mentor and guide, who know you enough to say like, hey, man, you know, having folks to listen and mentor and guide and who know you enough to say like, hey, man, you should, you should talk to this guy, right? That's where things, uh, it's unique because not a lot, not a lot of people have that story. A lot of people are just trying to figure it out on their own. Not that you weren't to comment on the story being amazing and also like a call to others to say like, hey, there's a Matt in your life, help him out.
Speaker 1:Reach out to others, extend that olive branch, Like just the the, the power of building that trusting network around you, whether it's confidant mentors, being a mentor, teaching others, developing others. Like all the above, it's life-changing.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's life-changing for you and it's life-changing for them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's the one of the many reasons this podcast journey has been a blessing is like we identify someone like Matt Terry's freaking awesome. Let's talk to him about coming on the podcast and we get to dissect why you're awesome. You know, and it's it takes an army right. There's been many people to shape and form you, including your faith, to who you are today. But now I get it. Yeah, the story gives me the DNA that makes you so special, you know, which is super cool, and you get to highlight a bunch of people along the way, cause a lot of people come on this and they're like I don't want to highlight myself and it's like you don't really do that, you just share what got you to this point, which is a lot of other people.
Speaker 1:Which is others right. It's not about me, it's not about an individual, it's about a group of partners and back to that community that came alongside somebody and have just helped along the way.
Speaker 3:And Dave's right Cause, like if you did, I get this right Cause you clearly didn't go to utd for a master's. So project management at td is that? Was that your starting role? Um or bim or?
Speaker 1:yeah, no, you got that okay cool, you're really scrambling yeah I started as ceo. Get it right uh it was a project assistant assistant, project manager, assistant to the project manager fair it's the perfect combination.
Speaker 3:Like you explained project management when you were talking about your woodworking right Like procuring materials, do a takeoff, a cut list create. I mean, that's the project life cycle. So like talk about something that was T and E for project management Plus with mechanical systems. I bet there's a taste of math in that and some calcs.
Speaker 1:Again, it all had, it was letters.
Speaker 3:I value. Is this a one?
Speaker 2:I don't get it. I'm going to do the reach into the podcast archive bit that I sometimes do because I think there's a through line. I want to, I want to create here yeah um, it's going to take me a minute to tell a story to get to it. So I've been doing ever since herb sergeant said something about I think his parting shot was like build resiliency personal resiliency, corporate resiliency, build resiliency. I've been thinking a lot about how you build resiliency and then I've been listening. Have you listened to Hardcore History?
Speaker 1:Oh man Good listen.
Speaker 2:Oh man, dan Carlin does these long form history narratives. He's not a historian but he like, tells stories. I guess hardcore history. God, this is gonna be a long story, but bear with me, it makes sense at the end. Um, so I'm listening to this one called the blueprint for Armageddon. He's talking about the, the lead up to world war one, and I'm in in the middle of world war one now, and over the weekend I'm listening and he's talking about how, up until World War I, countries didn't have any resiliency, like battles were, like countries fell in two hours and then they had like a gentlemanly exchange of swords.
Speaker 2:Like oh, you've defeated me. You can have Norway. And it wasn't until really like the technological innovation started to take hold in the 19-digg, uh, that countries could take body blows. They were resilient and that became, uh, you know, you had Napoleon before that, alexander the Great before that, but those, those countries could take body blows. And then you have, in World War I, two, two, three, four countries that can all take body blows and the whole world erupts into a war.
Speaker 2:And but he was talking about that in terms of like a country's resiliency, right, and so I'm hearing that again.
Speaker 2:And then what I'm hearing you say is something that ollie uh said, is it ollie chanduk said is that your network of people helps you build resiliency. And so I'm thinking about all those three things and I don't know how they come together. But that is like the, the network that got you into your seat, coupled with, like the network effect you were talking about, kevin, earlier ago, about just all the people who help you, stay afloat and move you from here to there and have your best interest. Like that idea is like percolating. I can't say it like in a thesis statement, but all those ideas are kind of coming together at the same time for me to say, like, boy, the value of your network is huge. It's huge and people think of it in terms of like, what can you do for me? But that's a two-way street, because I personally have been the benefactor of my network and the giver into my network dozens of times over the last 20 years.
Speaker 1:And it goes both ways right and out of necessity. It needs to go both ways. Just iron sharpens iron, and how do you help grow those and positively impact those around you? And, Stuart, I'd add, like the resilience side around the network. But then back to like this enthusiasm for what you do and when you love what you do. Right, there's going to be tough seasons.
Speaker 2:Yes, there's going to be trial and tribulation.
Speaker 1:There will be failure and setback, but whenever you love what you do, it's like I'm going to put my head down and we're going to get through this. Yes, and I'm going to learn a lot from what I've just gone through. And let's not do it again, and let's try not to do it again.
Speaker 2:Well, there's a sports breakdown there too. I've never had this thought before. But that resiliency through sport also the when it gets hard, right, when you're in the middle of August, two days, and it gets hard, the kids who don't love football quit, yep, you know what I mean. You have to love it in order to take the body blows. Yep, it has to be something greater than you and you have to love what you're doing. You can fade that back into, like my country resiliency. Right, they're doing it because they believe in something greater than themselves. They're resilient because they're fighting for mother russia or whatever you know. Uh, but if you don't love it, peace you're gonna be out, I'm gone.
Speaker 2:Yep, take it, you can have my sword, you can have norway, I'm gone. Um, so, yeah, the love for the love for the fight, the love for the thing you're doing. Yeah, I've not really thought about that in terms of like the resiliency equation, but if we were whiteboarding and I'm writing it under there right now- it's it, it's key, you know, and that's back to, to take it back to the, the pyramid uh, success pyramid right From from wood.
Speaker 1:And again he had the, the grunt, the grit, industriousness, and then the, the enthusiasm for the cornerstones to success. But I think, to fully understand that and appreciate it and I love this is how wooden defines and frames what success is, is like. Success is, it's that satisfaction that you know that you did your best to go, achieve your maximum potential, right, and it's. It's not about. It's not about like, how high did you climb or how far did you go, it's like did I do everything I could?
Speaker 2:Did.
Speaker 1:I put in that effort. Hard you go, it's like did I do everything I could? Did I put in that effort? Was I resilient in that moment when it got tough? Did I leverage and lean into and help grow others and learn from them, Like if we've done everything we can? Like we need to be super content, excited, thankful, grateful for that opportunity that's been given to us, Right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and we need those books out there because most don't Right Like Right, did some research from writing the book on retirement homes and coined it as rocking chair moments. Like a lot of people in that season, look back with regret that they didn't give it at all. They turned around at resilience. They didn't prioritize their family and some of us get to check these in our twenties and thirties and see it coming and redirect. But man, some, some people make it to the end of the race and then look back and say crap which I could have, yeah.
Speaker 3:And that's why those books need to exist.
Speaker 2:You know, wooden's another good not to go back to coach Dodge slash coach K as we were telling that story but Wooden's another really good example of that. Because if you don't know anything about Wooden in the UCLA program, you think, ah, he just won a bunch. But in reality all those dudes who played for Wooden couched him among the most influential, most caring person ever in their lives. I think about Bill Walton, who recently passed. He talked about Wooden all the time, all the time, all the time. Yeah, they won some titles, but what was more important to Bill Walton was that Coach Wooden cared about him. Sure, they won, but he was his friend and his mentor and he could rely on them and all those things too.
Speaker 1:And when you read the story of Wooden and kind of his leadership approach and how he built teams, yeah, he had the Bill Waltons and he had some stars, but he didn't rely on stars Walton's and he had some some stars, but he didn't rely on stars. Right he, he brought in people based on character and coachability and then help them go unlock what does success look like for them and through relationship, camaraderie and having the right culture on the team, that's how he really achieved success in the run that he had.
Speaker 2:You ever been to UCLA have not achieved success in the run that he? Had you ever been to UCLA? Have not. So at UCLA they have a very cool sports hall of fame. It's adjacent to Pauley Pavilion and when Coach Wooden passed, his wife donated I guess is the right word their living room to the sports hall of fame there at UCLA. So when you it's it's glassed off but it's like the living room or wouldn't spend his last years and it is it's my own personal ADD, ocd hell, but just stacked with books and everything you know. And they said like people would come and visit him there. They'd come to his little, like humble living room just to spend time with him after he retired in his latter years, kind of again speaking to like the character of the man. But the point I really was trying to make is like he didn't live a fancy life.
Speaker 2:He didn't care about all that stuff. He cared about you and what you were doing and making sure you maximize your potential as a human on and off the floor, right, more than a fancy leather lazy boy, right you?
Speaker 3:know Yep, and so that book is called Success Pyramid. I don't think I've read it.
Speaker 1:It's just John Wooden on leadership. Okay, yep, and then the Success Pyramid is kind of an illustration that he speaks to of the leadership approach Gonna get it.
Speaker 3:Get it, Check check.
Speaker 2:All right.
Speaker 3:That's a. That's a wrap.
Speaker 2:All right, that's a, that's a wrap. We talked about basketball a lot today.
Speaker 3:I feel like we hit the quota. Hair and basketball Victory.
Speaker 2:See ya, hair and basketball. See ya, it's two pillars of the podcast.
Speaker 3:Well, we know, we have the inside track on how special TD is and servant leadership and I know, uh, I think it was for a Texo event. The first time I went to y'all's Dallas office like jaw dropped. When you look at the, it felt like miles of, uh, tenured employee partners. You know that start. I think it starts at five. It starts at five. I was like man 50. Yep, like it's up there, I think it makes its way into that conference room.
Speaker 1:Ed Ramsey's at 57 right now.
Speaker 3:Dude, it's. It's Unbelievable, insane, and the volume to which there's long tenured people Like it. It's gotta be a special place when that many people are willing to be there for that long and fight for something together. And so it's like man. It's another chapter in your book of being at the right place with the right people and getting poured into so like it continues your trajectory as you start your TD career.
Speaker 1:I'm assuming yeah, absolutely as somebody again, TD career, I'm assuming. Yeah, absolutely as somebody again who was drawn to TD in a big part because of that servant leadership culture and that employee ownership mindset that exists throughout all of our owners. Right that you look at the experience, the tenure of guys like Ed Ramsey 57, jimbo Bunnell, 45. Like it's unbelievable type of tenure experience within the organization and you just have these leaders that you're able to listen from, lean on they probably already made this mistake for you before you walk into it and just being able to take those wisdom nuggets and those experiences from them and uh, it it's so special to have that strength of group and been strength around um to be there to support you.
Speaker 2:It's like that farmer's commercial and if farmers I know a thing or two, cause I've seen a thing or two, yep, it's like that. I mean those guys, they have already screwed it up and they would be their joy to help you not screw it up, that's right. You know, that's right.
Speaker 3:And she had some values instilled in you at a young age and some character that you're building as you get into this TD career and we know that you climb. I mean APM to president.
Speaker 1:Climb or descend, descend. Wave, so our so I the reason I laugh about that.
Speaker 2:So it's a small thing, but our org charts at TD are inverted.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so the CEO is always at the bottom of the org chart, right, and it's very symbolic and representative of our culture and who we are in that my job exists to support the frontline period Right, like it's just that reality. To support the frontline period Right, like it's just that reality. And so the partners who are out there doing the work, putting the work into place, my job is to support them and give them the resources that they need to be able to be successful and then get out of their way Right. And so just that small little descending down the org chart to your point has been a fun journey over 17 years.
Speaker 3:Why do we miss that in the industry still to this day? To your point has been a fun journey over 17 years. Why do we miss that in the industry still to this day? I get the org chart, but forgetting that the people that put the work in place are everything. None of our roles exist if we don't have those people putting the work in place. How are we missing that?
Speaker 2:Ego. It's a big part of it. It's just my pistol out of the holster approach, just that. I mean, I don't know if it's all of it, but you know I climbed, I used to do that and I don't do anymore. Therefore, that sort of thing, yeah, which is stupid. I said it like it was right. It came out of my mouth like with some gravitas. I did not need. I don't think that's right.
Speaker 3:You were a blue acting like a red for a hot second. Ego Pow, it's such. I talk to a lot of people about this topic and I feel like the ones that most typically get it right have been in their shoes, had the hammer in the holster, swinging the hammer, you know, doing the widget themselves, and there's just, there's never this ivory tower. Nice, never is a strong word, but there's not this ivory tower. Typically, cause you've been there, you can empathize with what they're going through. But even if you haven't, when you have a structure like TD does, with that org chart flipped on its head day one, you understand as an employee here, like you are serving your people and I think that helps, even if you haven't swung a hammer and been in the trenches like at least you understand like this is a non-negotiable yeah, and Stuart, to your point, it's ego, it's pride, but I think it's also just like organizational culture and what does an organization really value?
Speaker 1:right and so like, does an organization really value profit or does an organization really value people and growing people? And and I think that's one thing that TD has done a great job at and always balanced Like to be a leader at TD, you've got to grow people and you've got to generate business results, but it's always growing people first. Right that if you're there and you're growing people, you're developing others and you understand where the work really happens and that's out in the field. Then that's how you're going to drive profit. That's how you're going to drive profit. That's how you're going to drive income and success on your jobs. Um, it's not from sitting in a boardroom, it's not from sitting in meetings and pontificating on what we could do or what's the best way to streamline the process. It's it's out. It's out in the field, where that, where the work really happens.
Speaker 3:What are some tactics, without giving away secret sauce, that you do pour into those frontline people?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, some tactics, without giving away secret sauce that you do pour into those frontline people, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So, um, you know a lot of it is.
Speaker 1:It's it's simple blocking and tackling right.
Speaker 1:It's intentionality around finding space to get to break bread together, right, like one of the favorite things that I do is, on a monthly basis, I bring in a handful of our frontline partners and just break bread together and have breakfast and check in on how are they doing, how are they experiencing servant leadership out in the field, how are their leaders showing up for them, what can we be doing as an organization to better serve our partners? And and and it's it's things that are, again, nothing is earth shattering, but it's finding that intentionality in the DNA of the organization to say we're going to carve out space to connect. We're going to be thinking through things of how do we simplify and make life easier for those frontline partners to help them and enable them and equip them to do their job and do their job well, yeah them and equip them to do their job and do their job well, yeah, and and building a culture around safety that every one of those partners comes home the way that they came to job, to the job that day.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I'm assuming cause I've I've had my fair share of those types of meetings. You get the wind taken out of you when you start getting the results and it doesn't match the words on the wall all the time. When you translate it down to the field and you start uncovering some things that man hurt your feelings, they hurt your heart, when you know what you stand for and the results aren't there. I'm sure you've had a couple instances of that, without a doubt right, and what you hear you don't.
Speaker 1:It's not what you wanted to hear, but it's what you need to hear, right.
Speaker 1:It's not what you wanted to hear but it's what you need to hear, right, it's like, okay, that's not what I was expecting today, but that's what I need to hear Now. We need to go move on it. Yeah, we need to go do work here, and so that's just one small example of what we do within the organization. Right, and you spoke, kevin, to the point. It's like the face is on the wall when you walk in TD. It's like the faces on the wall when you walk in TD.
Speaker 1:It's about celebrating careers. It's in our mission, it's why we exist. But it's whether your career is in the trade or whether your career is in a project management role or an estimator, whatever it is, that career, your role, your impact is as impactful to the organization as anybody else. There's no rank in the room within our organization. Whether you're the president or you're a day one apprentice, you can be an employee, owner of this company. Right, and it just kind of level sets within the organization of, hey, I own this company as much as you own this company.
Speaker 1:Here's what we need to go do, here's the right thing to do for this organization. And, and again, I think it just breeds. It just breeds that culture around ownership at all levels throughout the organization, and then that servant leadership just so naturally comes next to it. And I think, whenever, whenever you do those well and you do those right, it it's while it still happens. It's not as easy to lose perspective on the guys and the gals putting the work in. Those are the ones that we're here to support, those are the ones that we're here to serve day in day out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I know I'm envious of it, of how much professional development y'all have at all ranks, like how many opportunities there are to learn, whether it's about the widget, about leading people, about personal finances there's so many opportunities within the company where people have resources to just grow as people, not workers, but as human beings. Yep, and that's also rare in the industry.
Speaker 1:Right, right, as Jack Lowe would say, it's like how can you afford not to train your, your people, right? And so, whether it's through CEF craft training or local ABC craft training, whether it's through professional development, covey development, ccl, whatever it ultimately is right. If there's, if there's a partner who has a passion to go learn, td is generally going to figure out a way to help them go achieve that. Yeah.
Speaker 2:What's this saying? I think? I think it's a Richard Branson quote, Isn't it? It's about like, uh, yes, it is Go on. Sometimes you finish my sandwiches. I had nothing. Oh, you don't know what.
Speaker 2:I'm talking about no, not yet, oh, it's something about to the point of training your people. It's like what are you afraid of? You're going to train them and they're going to go Right, or you're going to not and they're going to stay. Yeah, something I'm paraphrasing and I butchered a touch, but what's the downside? Yeah, and I not that you need to be convinced, but like so many people out there are just like what's the downside, man?
Speaker 1:Spend some time investing in your people. It's also I mean, so you can look at it very focused from an organization Like it's not only the right thing to do for your company and for your people, it's the right thing to do for your industry. Yeah, and so what? You go train somebody up and they get a better opportunity at a company other than yours.
Speaker 1:Cheer for them that you don't have ready for them right now. Cheer for them, yeah, and it's going to make the industry better and it's going to make your competition better. And when you think about really good competition, as Simon Sinek calls, like the worthy rival, like we want all of our competitors to be really good at what they do right, and because that makes us better, that raises the bar for us, that allows us to train differently, to grow differently, to focus differently, that the industry as a whole benefits when everybody's training, when everyone's on equal footing and training in the same way and really elevating the game throughout the industry.
Speaker 3:Well, queen Bee, mellie Mell says rising tides lifts all boats commonly. That's one of her go-to sayings and it's absolutely true.
Speaker 2:There's a good sports analogy there too. Like again, to make fun of basketball for just a second. The boys, when they think about old timey basketball, they say, well yeah, wilt Chamberlain was awesome because he played against plumbers, right, that's like the refrain they say is like just a bunch of regular dudes who happened to dribble at basketball. So basketball wasn't great in the 70s. Then somebody got a little bit better and everybody else got a little bit better. Then another team won another championship and they all got a little bit better. You fast forward now and the league is insane. That's what we're all trying to shoot for. Here too, competition's not bad. When the Lakers won another title, it caused the Celtics to be mad and get better so they could win another one. That's right. And now you have insanely high quality product that hits everybody's TVs all day long Yep, just like you have when the rising tide lifts all of our boats. We have insanely well-built buildings all across the universe because we lifted it all up together.
Speaker 1:Yep and our local communities benefit from it. Our building owners benefit from it, the industry benefits from it, I mean, which generates more jobs and more careers and keeps the thing moving in a high direction.
Speaker 3:I'm going to force you to shine the spotlight on yourself for a little bit, but it's all to share.
Speaker 1:No, thank you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm going to pass on this Beep and that's a wrap, so we should run that Woodhouse commercial right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's run that Woodhouse commercial.
Speaker 3:Thank you, Matt Fisher, for your $10,000 sponsorship for this week's episode.
Speaker 2:You remember? I don't know if you Matt, I don't know if you.
Speaker 1:It was only 10? Yeah.
Speaker 2:For the second half of the episode.
Speaker 1:He left a zero out. I thought so Did.
Speaker 3:I thought I was here, is he?
Speaker 1:on quick call here.
Speaker 3:Dude, he's got the voice of an angel. I couldn't. I would love to hear him sing.
Speaker 2:Matt Fisher. Matt Fisher does. I can't wait to. I'm going to call him when we leave and see if I can record him singing.
Speaker 1:We're going to cut to it right here. I'm just so thankful that Fisher's decided to take the platinum level sponsor for the Texo building renovation.
Speaker 2:It's unbelievable. It's so nice. I didn't think he was going to do it. And then when he raised it, he was like I'm in on this. I was like God, kudos to you.
Speaker 3:Matt Terry's already chiseling his logo into the front entrance. So, chiseled right now.
Speaker 2:It's. So. Are we talking about the logo or my abs? I can't remember.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, thank you for all of that, matt. We fit it in. That's funny. Yeah, back to highlighting you, mr Matt Terry. I'm not going to shy away from it. You had the. You had an insane climb in your 17 year career that most don't have and it took a lot of people along the way. But and you answered it indirectly throughout the episode, but let's answer it a little directly here Like what, what character traits help you to get to the bottom of that org chart?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So, um, you know, I I think there's we've industriousness of just learning the work ethic, the grit, the grind when the seasons are tough, the ability to just continue to work through that and look at it not as a failure or a mistake. But it's like what can I learn from this? Oh yeah, how can I grow, how can I build resiliency, stuart, to your point, through this season?
Speaker 1:Because again construction's not easy. There are tough seasons that we will walk through and let's learn through, right. And so is that, coupled with this enthusiasm, this passion, this love for what I do, the people I get to work with and around, the people that I get to learn from and be molded by um and and a great organizational culture and company like that's huge right, that's, that's a big part of it. And then just always being a curious learner yeah, um, asking a bunch of really bad questions, uh, I would like to just say early in my career, but I think I continue to do so, right, but just being that, that curious learner, um, I once had a, once had a leader, uh, when I started at TD that told me I had seven years to be a dumbass. Ask as many questions as I can Right.
Speaker 1:Uh, and then after about a year he said you've got two years, we're going from seven to two.
Speaker 2:We're accelerating your program, enough of your dumbassery, like we've had a sufficient quantity Never expected you could be that big of a dumbass.
Speaker 1:And then, and then, being you know the last, I would say we've talked a lot about network, but being just relationship builder, right, whether it's inside the walls of the organization, outside the walls of the organization, whether it's with customers, industry partners, strategic vendor, suppliers, you name it. It's like just how do you, how can you connect and relate and find common ground Whether it's growing out your hair to be stupid, to find a common thing to laugh about or whatever, right? It's like how do you be relatable and build a relationship, um, and ultimately build a culture of trust?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Right, ooh, I like that culture of trust. I don't know if I just rolled off the tongue or you say that often, but culture of trust is great.
Speaker 1:It's, it's a big part. Again back to TD. Um, it's a big part of our core values, of building, maintaining trust and relationships and just that, that culture of trust that has to exist if you're going to move fast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, and yeah, those are two good ideas coupled together, cause if and the thought that shot that in my mind was, as long as we have a high culture of trust, I can say something that's a little difficult so that we can keep moving, that's right. If not, I'm like, wow, should I say something? Should I tell them that his TPS reports aren't oriented right, or I don't know? That's fine.
Speaker 2:Right, I say something and you're mad, and then we got to fix it. As opposed to cultures, hey dude, landscape, not portrait. You're like, oh sorry, we just keep clicking right, yep.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we had a phrase we used quite a bit not as much, but within the walls of called PUD, passionately unfiltered debate. Right, like we want to. We want you have a voice at the table and in your voice, hopefully, your mind, your thoughts, your thinking is different than where everyone else is at, and that's why you're at the table to go share that and let's put it on the table, let's talk about it so that we can get to the right answer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, not my answer, your answer, but the right answer, love answer. And you can't have PUD without trust. You can try to force it, but it's, it's synthetic and it's not real Right and so, but when you have that trust, that culture of trust, the speed of trust, like you can have the right conversations quickly and get to a much better decision. Yeah, love that.
Speaker 3:It's the beauty of whiteboarding. Just bring an idea into a, into a meeting. Oh here it is Not a great one. Yep, oh here it is Not a great one Yep. What do y'all think? And then, like you leave after an hour and a half and it's, it's made it seven layers from here, like we got a plan. This is going to be awesome, yep, but it just it might've started with a crap idea and it's just like what if he did this? And then there's seven. What ifs?
Speaker 1:later and that's the beauty of whiteboarding, of vulnerability and humility to be able to say, not a great idea, but here's what I'm thinking Right, and not getting so like rooted in on well, this is my idea, my way, or the highway it's. It's like recognizing every single person at this table is going to think differently, more creatively, more brilliantly than me, and let's go make it a better outcome.
Speaker 3:And I think when, in our position, we have to lead off, if we're going to have to, if we're bringing the idea to the table, we have to lead off. This isn't great.
Speaker 3:This isn't it. It's not solved, it's half-baked. Yeah, this is bad. Let's make it great through y'all because you're smarter, spot on, because if you don't, you're like there's a few places where it's safe, maybe in the putt environment. I know DPR does it. Uh, call BS. I think demo company does it. Call BS is a core value. I love that. Like, just it doesn't matter who it comes from, just we're trying to be better. Yep, let's just make it better. So are there, before we spin out of the TD journey, anything we didn't cover? Or I'd love to hear a story about a person impacted, like an employee owner, where it just it's like a shining memory or moment from your journey. Has anybody come to mind or any story come to mind?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so, like. So a couple of things. I cut it a couple of different ways, like from a kind of mentor question of like customers out there there there's some names that specifically come to mind when I think about like who has had and there's there's many out there but who have been influential and in the right spot at the right time. A guy named Mike Crayball I was working with senior PM with AUI, kind of right when I was cutting my teeth as a PM, right, and he was the guy that really helped me understand and learn the importance of building true relationship with your customer, and not relationship in the boardroom or in the job site trailer, but like relationship to help learn from one another, learn perspective from one another, learn perspective from one another and be coached and mentored by guys like that, right.
Speaker 1:And so I remember a story where Mike needed to take his car to the auto mechanic and I was like Mike, I'll meet you there. I got an extra car, let him have my car for a week while I was in the shop and then next thing you know he's coming to church with me on Sundays and like it's just like wow, that's, it's cool to build a building. But it's way cooler to have that kind of impact on individuals, right. And then guys like Dave Clark, who just like a mastermind of the operation side of building the children's hospital with them and I learned from him in two years what I probably would have learned in 10 otherwise right. And guys like Ted Recadello, who was a pre-con mastermind with Beck and just the way that he looked at deals and understood them and the ability to learn from guys like that, they just blew me away, right. And these are guys who their their job wasn't to teach me, my job was to be the expert right and I was learning from them more than they were getting from me right.
Speaker 1:And so it's just kind of finding those relationships and at the same time, again, I think that everybody's benefiting through that. And then when I look inside TD, there's so many, so many different people have impacted my journey here at TD Industries. Some of them have been on the technical side, some of them have been on the people leadership side, some have been on the operations business side of it all. Right, and so many you know. So I'll walk through a couple of them. I'll walk through a couple of them. But I just got to say, like there are so many other leaders and peers and team members that, like, every single person I've interacted with over the last 17 years has somehow, someway kind of formed my story and my journey and my career.
Speaker 1:But the first one that comes to mind was Tim McNew. Right, just, he was the guy who said every Aggie, self-respecting Aggie, had to have a longhorn working for him, right, and he brought me into the organization and just super grateful, thankful for that. But you know, tim has a great way to think about things creatively, brilliantly, outside of the box, much different from someone like myself as an engineered-minded individual. But most importantly was this like he is super customer focused, so customer focused. So our focus of like, hey, how do we, how do we help serve our customer better? Right, they're the ones paying the bills. How do we help give them a better product, give them a better service? How do we make sure that our yes is yes and our no is no and that we go deliver the value that we committed to when we sold them the project? And so that was so neat to be able to work for him, with him, alongside him, for so many years of my career here at TD Industries. And Tim's a personal friend of mine now and just somebody who I would not be sitting in this podcast in the seat that I sit in at TD without Tim, without a doubt.
Speaker 1:And then as you go through, like Rod Johanson's, another guy, he was that, just over my career, amazing operations, mind, amazing business acumen, financial acumen and somebody who really came in over the course of several years, just kind of like one-on-one mentorship and teaching in a very intentional way, as he was kind of on the back end of his career and just kind of came alongside me and helped me understand what does it mean to be a general manager, business leader, at TD Industries, what is it? How do you, how do you drive a P&L and a balance sheet and how do you, how do you look at this and look at labor productivity and understand? I mean, just just one of those guys. It was like every time I met with them I'm like I grew six months in a two-hour work session, right, like that kind of stuff, and then those guys are gems, they're gems.
Speaker 2:They're gems.
Speaker 1:And then the other one spotlight is Harold McDowell. So Harold recently retired, ceo for 18 years of TD Industries, but Harold had just a great way of kind of embodying servant leadership through like leading with an empathetic heart. Embodying servant leadership through like leading with an empathetic heart, like just really was connected with our partners, knew our partners' names, knew their kids' names. I'll never forget I got a book from him when Parker was born, right, and it was just like the little train that could and had a super nice personalized note. And I'm like there's 2,500 people at this company, yeah, yeah, how does he know my kids being born? And then takes the time to get a book and write a thoughtful note in it. Right, and so just like just different people in different ways. And then, and then I look at like field leaders like David Hollowell and Gary Barr and Jimbo Bunnell that are like you can put anything in front of those guys and they can build it for you.
Speaker 3:Period.
Speaker 1:Like it is nothing those guys can't build, and and, and it just blows me away, right, and they'll never be able to build like those guys can build, or plan like they build, but the ability to just be around them and so can absorb, right, as it's been really neat and special. And so there's again. I could go on and on and on, uh, but there's many more that would come to mind um, as if we had another couple hours, but um, but uh, yeah. So those are some that have just kind of come in an amazing way and poured into me in ways that, frankly, I didn't deserve. Uh, but uh, that I've absolutely benefited from and they've been a huge part of my career.
Speaker 3:That's all I. I just had this thought over the weekend, uh, driving past this fabricator shop, custom fabricator like of, like big wheel bagger motorcycles and uh, classic cars, and like builds them from scratch. And I'm like, what job security like to be a master builder or master fabricator that like you could create anything you wanted, you could go work anywhere, yeah, like you could do whatever you want. Like the amount of job security that has with it. No doubt Because it's becoming less and less because we're on technology now, Yep, master craftsmen with their hands is becoming a rarity, hard skip.
Speaker 2:No, I was just like thinking about yeah, you got hard skip Cause. I was like in a lost in thought, thinking like why didn't I get that and how it is amazing, and like it's a lost art, and did we cycle back eventually and like I don't know, I just got my mind got all like circled up and like actually thinking about that guy in the shop, like welding helmet down, just like getting after it.
Speaker 3:It's insane man, yeah, the talent level, like I mean you get to see it in so many of those craft championships, yep, and that's those are. That's not just the youth, right, that you're bringing your top performers to compete at any age, right?
Speaker 1:How those ABC competitions, yeah so yeah, the national craft championship that Kevin's referring to is ABC National and all the local chapters go through kind of the top craftsmen, tradesmen inside of their trade and then compete at the local level and the winners advance to national. And you see these guys and gals that are the best there is at their trade, at their craft, as they've gone through apprenticeship programs and really learned uh in the merit organization of how to, how to be the best of the best, right and and you get to see them go compete and win medals and it's such an honor uh for them and for us to get to go be part of that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I love it. I've got. I've went to one of the national conventions and seen it and seen the awards and the energy and the enthusiasm behind it. I did, you know, as a glazer, though. I did walk the trade show booths and I asked, like the authors and publishers of some of these books, like where's the glass bro?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Like where is it?
Speaker 3:There's a lot of Not one of them have it. There's a lot of pipe and sheet metal and electrical around here. That's right. I would love to have a curtain wall competition, but anytime you bring that up you're like you should spear it, do it, you should start it. Yeah, it's just back out of the room.
Speaker 1:Good idea. You've been voluntold.
Speaker 3:That's right, that's how that rolls you talking to me no, no, comprehending no. And so you are, you're on the so serving you, you're on all sorts of stuff. So Texel board, obviously, abc national, abc national board of directors, right, and so that's where you get to see the craft championships. But what for folks that haven't attended one of those ABC national conventions? What happens at one of them?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So I mean there's there's various different um kind of items that are going on right From a big. A big thing is that we're working on is like governmental affairs policy that impacts the industry, and so a big part of ABC National is the voice of the merit shop in the industry and organization and what are we doing to ensure that we're looking out for that piece of the industry and making sure that policy supports the business? Need, right, that piece of the industry and making sure that policy supports the business? Need, yeah, and, and a big part of it is workforce development. Um, translates into national craft championship.
Speaker 1:Yep Is one piece of that. And then the other piece is working with uh colleges to bring in construction management degrees to work through kind of project management side of of the world as well, and so the whole workforce development. And then safety, uh, health and wellness side of it, right, a big, big focus on safety, whole person, whole partner safety, not just the physical safety but the mental wellness, right, our industry is plagued by the highest suicide rate of all industries, including military.
Speaker 1:And that's unacceptable. Yeah, right, and so, as a big industry leader, it's like what are we doing to go put initiatives in place, to go connect with partners, people to go shore that up and be there to help? Yeah, a big part of it is around leadership development. Leadership week is coming up here in November and was in DC last week for for legislative week. Again, that gets back to the policy side of it. So there's a lot of different facets and aspects that go on at the ABC national level, but ultimately, abc national exists to support this industry, to be an advocate for this industry.
Speaker 3:How many times you said it about project management and getting training and awareness on that? How many times have you said in an interview and people didn't understand the boardroom side of it or the office side even existed, because when you're outside this industry completely, you might be ignorant to the fact of like what happens before the widget goes up Right and most instances, a lot, a lot.
Speaker 3:So like if you think that's the start and end of a career, you might not pursue it because you don't see. Maybe you have a big ceiling or a tall ceiling over your life and your career expectations and you don't see it there. So you never pursue construction because you don't even understand. What we do exists, yes, yep, even on your side. You could practice law specifically on construction for all your career, correct? I wouldn't know that outside looking in on the business.
Speaker 2:There's lots of I mean there's lots of tangent pieces to the construction business, nobody thinks about 100% Marketing accounting, all those other back office things that are construction necessary, that aren't widget installation, so to speak.
Speaker 3:Spot on. I would love to get to a point where the majority of people didn't fall backwards into this business. You know it's tough sledding man. Yeah, it takes guys like you stepping up. Any leader that's listening, it takes you. It takes all of us right Stepping up. It takes a village, that's right.
Speaker 1:And I think that's a big part of like kind of why why I've chosen to jump onto the Texel board and had the honor to do so and had the honor and chosen to jump onto the ABC national board and have involvement with CEF and supporting the craft training that's going on. There is like this industry needs all of us to step up and support and serve this industry, yeah, To be advocates for this industry, To donate not just our time to the industry but our finances to the industry right.
Speaker 1:That it takes money to go, deliver and move on these initiatives, to be a voice, to be an advocate, to represent this industry appropriately, whether it's on Capitol Hill or at your local courthouse or wherever it ultimately is. It's like how do you go? How do we make sure that we're really tooling up and equipping our industry leaders to be advocates of this industry? Yeah, because there are. To your point, kevin, there are amazing careers. Amazing careers whether you're in the craft and trade, or whether it's in a leadership or office side or a boardroom side. There are amazing careers and we've got to do a better job as an industry telling those story, telling the stories, and I think 1720 has done an amazing job highlighting those stories. Right, but it's, how do we continue doing this of? Hey, here's what the construction industry is, here's the impact it's had on people and the communities, and then the livelihoods of the people who've chosen to have amazing careers in uh, in the construction industry.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's the PSA for today. Wherever you're sitting, you have a way to get involved. Get involved. Get involved. You have a voice. Don't complain if you're not willing to get involved.
Speaker 1:Don't say you want, like a, a glazing, a glazing championship if you're not willing, willing to go drive it Right.
Speaker 3:I just wanted a book that shows how to do it. You know like that would have been cool. And they were even like have you ever thought about?
Speaker 2:writing a book. You should write a book. I did that, it was about.
Speaker 3:You know mountains and stuff, yeah. So what's the summer plans? My man, you take any vacations. Yet you got vacations coming, you know.
Speaker 1:So we actually just got back from a week in Gulf Shores, Alabama.
Speaker 1:Baseball, combo Baseball yeah, so it was a baseball tournament for Parker. He's our older one and he and the team were out there, had a great time last week and came home with a little bit of a ring, which was fun. Let's go some nice icing on it, but uh, but no, that was great. We were out there with some great families and friends and just kind of enjoying the beach and enjoying the baseball fields. Um. So the other one we got is every year we go out to 30, a area, Florida area, with uh four really good family friends. It's kind of like my best friend from elementary school, my best friend from college, and then another amazing guy who I've gotten to know super well, actually through our wives, met first, and so the eight of us road trip out there with our 13 crazy kids. We stay in a single house the whole time we're out there and it's just like it's not even controlled chaos it's just chaos.
Speaker 2:No, it's total chaos.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're totally more exhausted when you get back than when you went and it's just chaos. No, it's total chaos. Yeah, you're totally more exhausted when you get back than when you went, and then it's back at it. So, yeah, we're heading out there here in a few weeks and looking forward to just kind of getting out of it all and going and hanging out with our best friends and our kiddos with their best friends and have a good time.
Speaker 3:That's awesome that you do that Make it a tradition?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I feel like a lot of people go down to 38 in the summer Is that like Destin and all that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's right between, like Destin and Panama City, panama City yeah, it's a good time.
Speaker 2:And you can 12 hour drive pretty easy to get there and get back. You can one shot it too. Y'all one shot it we do on the way back, yep.
Speaker 1:Not there.
Speaker 2:Where do you then?
Speaker 1:So this year we're actually we're changing it up. This year we're going to stop it in Vicksburg. And so my, my oldest son he's you were talking. I grabbed the note on the history podcast. What hardcore history. Yeah, so he's a, as an 11 year old, like he's a historian and it's awesome.
Speaker 2:Oh, he'll love this, so he'll he'll love, yeah, that podcast.
Speaker 1:So we're going to stop at Vicksburg and all that. He's big time into World War II and just passions. But I'm like let's go check this out while we're on our way and get to see some of the battlegrounds and history there and just anything history for him has got a bent and interest toward. So we'll do that on the way out and then the way back. We'll just One shot. One shot we actually stayed in Vicksburg last time we went down, we stayed.
Speaker 2:I can't remember exactly where we stayed, it doesn't matter, but that's where we stayed last time.
Speaker 1:Nice, it's awesome All right. It's a good little spot. Yeah, give me any pointers, if you got some before we go.
Speaker 2:I have a memory like a goldfish about places we go Gotcha. I can remember that Ollie Chantook one time said that your network helps build your resiliency, but I have no idea what we did in Vicksburg. You just remember you were there, yeah, I just remember going there and we ate dinner on top of a hotel. It was nice.
Speaker 1:Nice. Yeah, we did that USS Alabama last year in Mobile.
Speaker 3:Yeah it's cool. Yeah, it was awesome.
Speaker 2:It's a cool spot.
Speaker 1:We did the submarine and looked at all the planes it was a highlight.
Speaker 3:It's a good time, good time, bunch of kids. No doubt, no doubt, when you go to that stuff.
Speaker 1:A lot of wiffle ball, a lot of wiffle ball. Home run derby, let's go Going on on the beach.
Speaker 2:Oh man, that sounds so fun.
Speaker 1:That's a blast Smoking that ball oh yeah, it's whether you're hitting into the wind or the winds to your back, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I can see the wiffle ball you.
Speaker 3:I feel like I got a hold of that thing, still stretching a double out of that Behind me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's so funny. That's so funny. How do we end this thing, man? One big thing yeah.
Speaker 3:Are we there? We're there.
Speaker 1:Are we there?
Speaker 2:You got one.
Speaker 1:You know, I think there's a lot of themes, a lot of things that I could throw on here, but as I was asked the question to kind of think through, I think it's really my call out here is just follow your passion, like that's been my journey, is I found what I loved and I just ran at it Right. It's like find your passion, find what gives you energy and just go run toward it Right and don't look back. And when you do that back to back to Wooden's definition of success you'll find success in what you do.
Speaker 2:So, follow your passion, find what you love find what gives you energy and just go run at it. Boom. All the basketball talk today just makes my heart so full and warm.
Speaker 3:Full and warm, yeah, I didn't know we were going to have. I've quoted John Wooden a lot in things, but I've never really researched him, so this will be fun.
Speaker 2:He's ainating character man it is.
Speaker 3:It's going to be my next Kindle book For sure.
Speaker 2:It's really good, Matt. Thanks for hanging out with us, man.
Speaker 1:Hey, thank you guys so much for the invite. It's definitely an honor to sit here with you guys this morning and talk through this and share a little bit of my story, but, more importantly, those individuals who bit and kind of share what all that looks like. The honor is ours, sir.