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17Twenty
17Twenty
E181 || Randy Humphrey || HOWSYAMOMANDEM
This week we have the honor of sitting down with Randy Humphrey, a stalwart in the commercial construction industry, as he opens up about living a life grounded in biblical principles. From the joys and challenges of raising four boys to maintaining a rich relationship with his 84-year-old father, Randy shares heartfelt reflections on fatherhood, continuous self-improvement, and making the right choices. His insights into the importance of wisdom, faith, and family values provide a compelling look into how these principles shape one's life and career.
Join us as we navigate the intricate dynamics of the construction industry, from communication challenges and union-related issues to the culture and values of Randy's family-owned business. Hear about the unique approach of employee ownership, the significance of mentorship, and the ongoing support of organizations like the Associated Builders and Contractors.
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They found a business based on biblical principles and that's what they told me, you know, until I was probably 40 and in the back of the car with mom and dad riding and going. Okay, tell me what Bible verse that was, tell me what. Come on, I mean, you got to boil it down, what's that? One thing, kind of the Jack Palance, one thing. And they got down to two. They got down to Mark 12, love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. And the second thing was Colossians 3.23 of do all things to the best of your ability, as though you're doing it for Christ.
Speaker 2:Every single individual has a story to tell and they're great stories that need to be heard.
Speaker 3:individual has a story to tell and they're great stories that need to be heard.
Speaker 2:I want every listener to know they have the ability to change the world. Welcome to the 1720 podcast.
Speaker 3:What's up? Mountain movers. Welcome back to the 1720 podcast. This week's guest is an absolute treasure in the commercial construction business. It's somebody both Stuart and I have looked up to for many years for the amount of giving and participation in the industry, what their company stands for, what the family stands for. Randy Humphrey, thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 1:My friend, it's an honor. Wow, thanks for joining us today. My friend, it's an honor. Wow, thanks for having me. I appreciate you two and have enjoyed watching you grow in the industry and all that y'all do.
Speaker 2:So thanks for having me Randy's, one of those guys I don't remember not knowing you, right Like a tangent, to work together, talk to you and it's like I feel like we've known each other forever. It was probably because we have conversations, like the one we're about to have, that aren't just like hey how's it going? Good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just a little deeper.
Speaker 2:Just a touch, just a touch below the surface. So we'll go there, for sure. Man, you know how we kick this off. Let you, let you take the floor. Who's Randy?
Speaker 1:Wow, you know, I thought about that because you asked me that question beforehand and it's a struggle for me to say who I am and what I am Husband, father, co-worker, leader those dynamics of who I am on a daily basis. You know I want to be a God core country, passionate about who I am and where I'm at. I'd like to define myself as prayerful, purposeful, passionate about people. I get control in life and think I'm really just whimsical wimpy and whiny.
Speaker 3:My P switched to W's what happened there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I want to be. I know the man I want to be. I want to know how I want to do it. But, as we've talked in the past, you know, as a young, now 55-year-old man, still making mistakes and trying to seek wisdom.
Speaker 2:Which I mean there's a lot of smart, a lot of smartness, almost like just there's a lot of wisdom in just the idea of, like I know who I want to be, I know I'm not there and I'm striving for it every day, like that's. If you're not doing that, you're sort of missing the boat, you know. So it's a great way to even just get kicked off as who you're trying to be. You know, it's a great picture.
Speaker 1:If I could aspire to be the man that my kids saw me from birth to age 18, if I could be that man, I would be really proud.
Speaker 3:Well, we have some. I mean, you have some reflections on that too. I mean, cause you're already looking backwards at that to some extent with your boys and everything? And extended family. So you know where the P's and W's lie in that journey with that list.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. But you know, raising four boys is not an easy task and I look back and enjoy those moments and want to be the man that I need to be. It's easy to be a good man. It's hard to make those choices in the moment, to be right, mm-hmm. Yeah, so you end up watching four young men grow into young men on their own, with their own free will and their own decisions, and heartbreaking moments and exhilarating moments, and maybe akin to watching a two-year-old slip and fall or two-year-old begin to walk and run.
Speaker 2:So really, beautiful Everybody's like on this journey of wherever you're going. But I think a lot of kids, a lot of folks with the raising the kids journey, I've always thought, like you know, we'll leave my head out in a couple of years. He's 16, right, just started his junior year. He'll head out in a couple of years and sort of think I now believe in falsely, like I did it, like he's gone. That's crazy. You never stopped being dad. I just really hadn't thought about it in that context until you and I were talking earlier and like my dad didn't stop being my dad, I still call him for advice.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he's still got the robes in the closet, and so does he. Yeah, right, earlier point Right. So, yeah, yeah, right To the earlier point.
Speaker 2:Right. So yeah, it's an interesting spin on the raising of kids, and when that weight stops, it ceases to be like it doesn't stop.
Speaker 1:They're always your kids. No, and it changes. I think that weight changes as they grow, as we grow as men. And keeping a perspective of that, my father's 84 and lives across the fence and so we speak every day, we hang out every day. If we can, I try to take him to Windstar once a week, just to you know, give him something to do and hang out. We lost my mom in 2020. But the dynamic of hanging out with my dad, I see that and I see the value and I think, with my four boys, how do I spend time with them?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's awesome to see dad every day. I'll tell a story just for the purpose of telling a story. But the other day I was texting my dad. I was like what are you doing today? He's like I don't know. I was like you planning on getting out. He's like no, I don't think so. I was like any chance you could bring a skill soul to the office. I need to cut something. And it was like ding dong, oh man, that was awesome. You know, it was great to see him. We did a little project together, cut some blah, blah blah. But just having being able to see him every day is super duper, you know so. Well, take us I've kind of gotten a storytelling mode chronologically these days. But tell us a little story. Like Dallas home. I think of you as being a Dallas forever guy. Dallas home, where did it all start?
Speaker 1:Grew up in Grapevine, texas, from third grade until about 20 years ago, moved out to Argyle but Grapevine Mustang through and through. Brother sister went to high school there. My sister-in-law is still in Grapevine. She's on the school board in Grapevine and she's one of my great heroes. But she was my student council sponsor. I was president of the student council. She was the cheerleading sponsor and I was attracted to the cheerleaders. It works, yeah, it all fit together. And so I introduced her to my brother.
Speaker 1:They ended up getting married, uh, after I graduated from high school and it was great. But in the midst of that we created, uh, the Grave on High School Spirit Wrestlers, which is the, the guys cheering squad for the high school, and that kind of started, uh, I think, a movement in North Texas of guys supporting the cheerleaders through being on the sidelines doing things, trying to get the students involved. So the Graveland Spirit Wrestlers are a big deal today and you have to apply for it and you have to qualify and you have to do all these dynamics and back when we did it it was throwing a pair of red high tops, grab you a red bandana, throw you around the leg like you're Chachi, which nobody would get. I got it and let's go to the football game, let's have fun and let's make fun of people or chant across the field or whatever we can do to involve students in the sports for the high school.
Speaker 2:Less cheerleader, more shenanigans and hype men and that sort of stuff, oh, 100%. Yeah, 100%.
Speaker 1:And today they do skits and all kinds of things. We were the defenders of what we felt Grapevine. We moved into 4A my junior and senior year and when we did that we got the crap beat out of us.
Speaker 2:That's a very similar story. Like I feel it in my soul, I know exactly what you're talking about. It was beautiful.
Speaker 1:So today, a good friend of mine, who was at Trinity High School at that time, at Grapevine there's two hills opposite of each other where the stands are and he and his friends got over on the side of the football field and started spelling 4A Like ha ha we're. You know, it's like 58 to nothing or something in the football game. And so we thought we would be nice and defend our grapevine heritage. So we got over on the dirt and started spelling F-U, and Mary, who's now my mother, my sister-in-law, stopped me from continuing that process.
Speaker 2:Don't close that loop on the U.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, no. Yeah, she says no more.
Speaker 1:And so it was really great. But today Kevin Weick's a friend of mine and he's like hey, do you remember in high school when we played grapevine there was a group of guys that spelled 4A. He goes I was a big part of that. I'm sorry, I was like that's nothing. Do you know the guys on the other side that were spelling F and U? I was a big part of that, but I got stopped. Spelling F-U that was a big part of that, but I got stopped. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Did that, setting that up like when is this? What year? 1987. So that's a little different. Like, did it face resistance and criticism and, like you know, like for that time was that a little out there to step out and do that?
Speaker 1:It was, it was. I mean, there were male cheerleaders at that time. But you had to be able to do backflips and do all the gymnastic stuff and be really strong to hold the girls up. We couldn't do any of those things. We could spell.
Speaker 3:We could spell.
Speaker 1:And we were funny and we would do skits and bring in some Young Life fun. And I remember for Halloween we came in as the monks that were in Monty Python and the Holy Grail P-A-A-S-U-D-O-M-I-N-A-I-N. It was great, it was great Very childlike Side quest.
Speaker 2:We watched the Holy Grail with my boys, not maybe six months ago. Holds up, man Still funny. Boys were chuckling at it. It's so good, gotta hate cats. That's one of my favorite. You're talking about when they're like throwing the bodies on the cart and there's, like lady, you're the only person who, when we talk about it I'm always like you never notice there's a lady beating a cat against the wall in the background. You're the only the protest who knows it. Oh yeah, oh yeah, and there's, there's you know what we're talking about.
Speaker 3:I do know the movie.
Speaker 2:I can't picture scenes, though there's a long time oh god, that scene is so good because, as I recall, the guy is not dead yet. He's like I'm not dead yet and you think me a flesh wound. I've had worse anyway, there's a, there's a lady and Chase Wood, if you're listening, you'd be very upset about this. Very there's a lady with a cat like just banging it against the wall like a rug, and I think it's like you can hear her like.
Speaker 3:You got the sound effects today the thump, the cat meow. Those are pretty good. That's not the soundboard people. No, that's me, that's all OG sounds.
Speaker 2:Anyway, love that. I love that we share this like moment of the cat lady.
Speaker 1:That was. That was part of my heritage at Grapevine. Every Friday night my mother and father would have in our upstairs game room Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Come on, my friends would show up. I would come in from a date and be like why are all my friends?
Speaker 2:here, why are?
Speaker 1:all my friends here. What's going on Is something wrong and I'd walk in. They're like what's up, dude, sit down. We're watching the movie it's a Monty Python and Holy Grail every Friday night. It's so good.
Speaker 3:Humphrey House your parents created a Humphrey House that was just a safe haven for kiddos to hang out.
Speaker 1:It was. That's awesome man involvement. But they were great about just opening the door and saying Dusty Wes, you guys come on in. Randy's not here, but we think he's coming home a little bit. But it was a beautiful safe space that mom and dad created 316 Ridge Road and people showed up all the time. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:You said earlier brothers and sisters. I forget.
Speaker 1:I do. I have an older brother partners in business and an older sister, and she and her husband are semi-retired but he's still involved in business, doing different things and investing in different things.
Speaker 2:You're a classic youngest child, then, aren't you?
Speaker 1:I am. In fact, part of my growth and wisdom was they would get in trouble and I would go clean my room. So I'm surprised they let me live this long. But they would get in trouble, break a door down, do whatever, fighting while mom and dad were at work and we were latchkey kids. And in the process of that, mom would come home and I would say, yeah, they broke the door off the wall and did you see my room? It's really clean.
Speaker 2:I did those other things.
Speaker 1:Very much different. So I was a wonder child. The baby. Yes, the baby and they hated you and they were like why is?
Speaker 2:it Randy never gets in trouble, that sort of thing.
Speaker 1:Yes or never got caught, except for the FU thing. Yes or never got caught Except for the FU thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, take me back to sorry I diverted a second because I was thinking about all the kids in the house and stuff. But take me back to your parents creating that space for kids to hang out. And the reason I ask that question is like very selfish, because we've tried, I think, to some degree of success. But to be that house, I think a lot of people want to. You know, like air quotes, be that house where it's safe, bring your buddies over open door policy, grab some snacks, whatever right Like, but say tell me more about how it worked at your house. I'm going to try to grab a tip from her or something.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. You know mom, mom would feed people, love on people, care about people, listen to their stories. You know it's almost that environment of love on them and if it was something really bad, everybody's going to know about it, right. You know, if they were in danger, yeah, but loved on them and knew they were making silly decisions at times. But you know we try to do that at our house with Scotty and I and the boys and we had a basketball court outside and other things the guys could come and do and pool table upstairs and still struggle to find that today with kids of being a safe space, loving on them and a place they can hang out.
Speaker 2:I mean, we talk about actually I talk about it probably every other week or so right now about, like, what do we need to do? Like, is it time that we build, like a new, a fire pit in the backyard, or do we need to invest in like a big fancy, like paneled led thing outside? Like, how do we do something that creates energy to show up? Right Cause, in the eighties a pool table did it and in 2024 pool table doesn't really do it, and how do you create that space and energy and excitement and anyway, all that stuff?
Speaker 2:Feeding kids usually helps, though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think food and you know, figuring out how we level these kids today, that they would rather look at their computer screen or their iPhone or their iPad or whatever, than have interaction and communicate.
Speaker 3:It's love, care and community. Like you got the ping pong table and nine square and those things. Even at church for youth ministry those kids show up for they might think they're showing up for the ping pong table but they're showing up because their friends are there.
Speaker 3:They're showing up because there's adults that care about them. They own the whole. We are the church Like you create that at your house. It's just that. Care about them. You know the whole. We are the church like you create that at your house. It's just that initial draw. How do you get them there to see that, yeah, it's more than just a pool table? The pool table is kind of just holding on close nowadays yeah right.
Speaker 3:Three-fold close, but the love and care piece is diminishing. So there's more opportunity, even though technology is distracting us so much.
Speaker 2:We were at let me get back to. This is kind of a series of side quests here we were at a I guess we were at dinner with Hayes' basketball team and the boys all sat at their own table. But as they sat down they came over to our table and stacked all their phones up. We didn't ask them to do it. So there's a stack of like 12, probably eight actually cell phones stacked one on top of the other on the adult table and I was like kind of taking it back by, cause I've never seen them do that before, but apparently their coach demands that like you don't get to have a team dinner without stacking the phone somewhere else.
Speaker 2:And I was like that was interesting. So and then we left and they were talking about things they learned, about their buddies and all this, you know. Like they actually talked. And I haven't stolen that idea yet for the house because it's kind of new to me. But the idea of like they are starting to come around to just willingly divesting themselves of that little stress machine they have in their pocket in lieu of like having a little chat with a buddy, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:I think that's beautiful, like having a little chat with a buddy. That's pretty cool. I think that's beautiful, the dynamic of having friends that do that stack phones. I have friends that are grandparents that say to their kids and their grandkids we're going to dinner, we're paying stack phones, pick it up, your mom and dad can pay, we're out.
Speaker 3:A little consequential.
Speaker 1:Ooh, I like that, yeah, that little dynamic of hey, let's stack phones and we could probably all benefit from that. Yeah, you know, in a big perspective of I see business meetings, business calls, and you know we used to in the 90s call it a Blackberry prayer, that somebody had their phone below the table in their lap and they're. You know, today people have their iPad out or their computer out in the middle of a meeting working and doing other things like, oh, I can two-track, it's okay.
Speaker 1:No, but they're missing the perspective of the eye contact and the things we learn about each other that, just like today having conversation, you know I've known you guys, like you said, forever for a long long time and in the dynamic we're still learning about each other and learning from each other.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, and it all starts in leadership that works at home, but also at the office as well. To your point, if you're walking into a conference room and you're leading the meeting, don't bring your phone, leave it out there, because the temptation of it sitting right there, it's calling your name. Randy, there's important updates here. Look at your stock portfolio. Look at your lease cameras.
Speaker 2:You're like it's your lease cameras.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's all these things. Look at the lines on the Mo job. You did Um, but you don't bring it in there. It's out of sight, out of mind, and if you're the leader setting that example, it rubs off on folks. So you start looking around the conference room. You're like, oh, nobody's on their phones. That's great. They might be emailing on their computer, they might be pulling a fast one with the computer, but at least they're not texting and scrolling.
Speaker 1:That's really great. You know, we're learning from coach coaching kids whose kids go to a family dinner sitting at a different table, and we're picking that up. That and we're picking that up, that's right.
Speaker 3:There's so many parallels.
Speaker 1:That's awesome.
Speaker 2:All right, so take me back to take me back to story time. Yes, we're in high school. You're writing F, the F word, on the hill to defend your honor. Tell me, tell me some more stuff about that growing up. So wherever that story goes, I don't know.
Speaker 1:You know, grapevine was the center of the world as we knew it and it really was. When you think about Young, life jokingly called that area Herschelus, bedford, grapevine kind of globbed onto that. But the hub, because DFW is a hub and the world rotates around it and for North Texas, for Texas, for the Southwest, all of those things, a lot of life circled around DFW Airport. So I grew up in a small town. I could not get away with anything. As I said earlier, I was a student council president and there was a Friday.
Speaker 1:I went to school and Dad was so proud of me. I put on my coat and tie. It was nice, double Windsor. I looked. I looked pretty good, but as an 18 year old I couldn't look that good and not get attention. So I put on my flip-flops at that time, which in the eighties were called titties and, uh, my foam titties on my feet and went to work.
Speaker 1:I went to school, dad went off to work I'm at school, by the way. I didn't put those on at the house, I had them in the car, of course Wore my penny loafers to the car, then took them off. When I went in school I had on my titties and the principal was talking to my dad because he was on the school board. I said man, randy looked great today, coat and tie, he was good looking, hair done, everything was right. I mean, at that time I wore a flat top which is funny because I'm a long-haired hippie guy now but in that flat top, all of those things, but he had titties on his feet. So I got home at 3.45, you know, school got out at 3.30. Dad was there and I thought man, this is weird, dad's in construction. Man, maybe he's going fishing today, something's, you know something's up.
Speaker 3:Did you swap back to loafers at this point?
Speaker 1:Oh no, I was I had been to track practice that afternoon and I'm coming home in shorts, got my my suit in a bag, dad goes you looked really nice when you left for school this morning. I said thanks, dad, I really appreciate that. He said what'd you wear on your feet to school? I was like, well, when I left the house I had on penny loafers. I said, yeah, I know, I saw you. What'd you wear to school?
Speaker 1:I was like, oh, those were my titties, which you know, not only the name, but they they had two breasts on them and they weren't weren't socially acceptable, but, um, they were really comfortable and um, so by the time I got home, my father knew what I had worn on my feet and I knew at that point anything I do, everybody knows and everybody sees. And it was really a great life lesson because it's really that way, as we're adults, right, we can think we do something, we can think we get away with something, even if we're doing it on our phone or doing something else. Nobody's going to out me, it's all okay, right, but the reality is, everything we do is public. Oh yeah, and it should be. We should be accountable to each other, and that taught me a lot as an 18-year-old kid. That I'm going to get busted, yeah for sure.
Speaker 2:I love that story. I love the small town feel of all of it. I mean, I grew up in a small town. I have similar stories like that where it's like, well, I got home and mom already knew I ran a stop sign and stuff like that that you just don't get. Like, my kids don't have that really growing up in the city. I mean we live in a small kind of community in dallas but, um, they don't get it. So there's something lost about that that I don't know.
Speaker 1:kind of my heart kind of yearns for that, the small town feel, all of it yeah, me too, and we try to do that with community and you know the, the friend groups and knowing the parents and doing those things, but it's still not it, it's not the same, not the same.
Speaker 2:Take me back, because you've used the word Young Life a few times, I think sometimes people hear that and it either zips through their brain or they hear like lowercase y, lowercase l, like Young. But you're talking about a capital Y, capital L like an organization. Yes, so just for those listeners who are like I don't even know what that is Like, give us a little like what is Young Life?
Speaker 1:So Young Life is a ministry that actually started in Gainesville, texas, in 1941. I didn't know that Same year as my father. My father was born in 1941, and one of my favorite things, jeep started in 1941. So Young Life started in 1941 in Gainesville, texas, and today is a worldwide ministry for high school kids in Gainesville, texas, and today is a worldwide ministry for high school kids. That's the main focus, but it's also today middle school, high school mothers, teenage mothers and teenage fathers, and Capernaum does special needs young life and there's all kinds of dynamics, but it's a parachurch ministry that reaches out to kids and shares Christ. Yeah, and my experience I don't know if you're going to say my experience has been, but it's a parachurch ministry that reaches out to kids and shares Christ.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and my, my experience I don't know if you're the same, my experience has been like it's not the like get your stuff together Like everybody's all buttoned down expectations version of like a parachurch ministry. It's like just come as you are man, like well, it's, we're cool. Like it's fine. Like I get it. Like you're probably in a bad spot, it's okay. Like come hang with us, we're going to do fun things and we'll talk about hearts. You know, like that sort of thing. It's not a like uppity, pretentious, overly church sitch 100% and you know, everything ebbs and flows.
Speaker 1:It's different in different areas, but when Jim Rayburn for a church in Gainesville and the story goes, working for a church in Gainesville and two kids are walking down the street smoking on the way to church and the deacon stopped him and said hey, you kids need to clean up. You can't come to church. You've been smoking, You're not acceptable here until you go get your life right, and it's like wait a minute.
Speaker 2:That's the backwards version of the gospel. I didn't get that version.
Speaker 1:So Young Life stands in the gap in that picture to say go to the kids where they are in their environment, love on them the way they are, earn the right to tell them about Christ. So it's a little different in that perspective of it's not a youth group with a church but, like I said, it's different in every area and those dynamics still remain of go to the kids where they are, earn the right, by being involved in their life, to have meaningful conversation and tell them about Christ. Take that to the bank right there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can take that like leadership, theological overlay, and you can drop that in everywhere. That's what we do every day. Earn the right to dot dot dot. It's just so good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, or we try to do Right. Yeah, that's our struggle. All right, keep telling that's our struggle.
Speaker 2:All right, keep telling me a story here. So we're high school, young life. Yeah, so, grapevine, bring your flip flops to school.
Speaker 1:Grapevine was awesome, continued down there. It was a beautiful place to grow up, watch my parents, watch my parents start a business. From 1977, when we moved to Grapevine, to 1981, we were Collier Electric of Dallas. In 1981, my mother and father, borrowing some money from my grandmother that she has saved I think $25,000, bought the Colliers and gave the 50% of the business that was owned by the other family to our employees. And in 1981, humphrey Associates was started and today we continue to be 50% employee-owned, 50% family-owned Gotcha.
Speaker 1:So I grew up in that environment where if I was sick and couldn't go to school, mom loaded me up, grabbed a pillow and I would stay under her desk at the office because I couldn't go to school. So if I was too sick to go to school I had to go to work. It was a unique dynamic and I grew up around the office, in the office, great mentors as mom and dad. There's a dynamic of watching people that I think being the baby, as we talked about earlier, being the youngest child, my Sunday school teacher, watching him just in life, a guy named Ken Smith. He had sold a trucking business in Grapevine probably in the early 80s, and I'm watching him and he's a cutting horse guy. He's got horses, he's got a big dually. He's a pretty cool dude. He wears a cowboy hat and I was doing an event at the school I don't know if it was a Young Life event or a Spirit Wrestler event I was like I've got to have six bales of hay. So I grabbed my truck and I go to Ken's property and he tells me I can borrow the hay and I go in his barn and it was. I could paint the painting if I could paint. I walked in his barn, looked across and you could see the sunlight coming in the dirty window and the sunlight landed on his Bible, where he'd been reading his Bible that morning. And I thought, wow, that guy's bought a business, sold a business, raised his family, done his thing semi-retired he was probably 50 at that time. The guy took the time to read his Bible this morning. So I had some great mentors like that that set some examples and showed me some things. Ken never knew, because I didn't tell him it was probably not right, but he never knew. I saw that Bible and what effect he had on me. But he knew he was a mentor in my life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it was fun and later I'd graduated from high school and I was going to college in a Jeep Actually, it was G Paul Holloman's Jeep that he would leave at my house and he traveled internationally as an accountant. So I jump in G Paul's Jeep and I run across to pick up a buddy across Grapevine and Ken was mowing his yard. And I stopped to say hi to Ken because I hadn't seen him in a couple of years and he wasn't doing Sunday school. So I pull up to Ken's and he walks up dirty, like we've been talking about Just that mowing happiness. And he said hey, are you married yet? I was like no, sir. He said are you dating anybody special? I was like no, sir, he goes. Do you want to know why? I was like yes, sir.
Speaker 1:Oh, he asked you do you want to know why he asked me if I want to know why I wasn't dating anybody meaningful.
Speaker 2:I haven't seen you in a minute. Thanks for this. Go on, buddy, yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And he said it's because your life's not right with God. You're a special person and God's preparing you and there have been people in your life praying for someone that you're going to meet and, in the big picture, you need to just take a minute, check yourself, get right with God and all those things are going to come about. I thought I drove away in the Jeep, thinking that was weird. What was that? What does that mean? And even to this point today, I'm, like you know, ken's a wise man. He is a very, very wise man and he took the time to say to me hey, I don't know where you are in your life, but I want to take a minute and tell you you're probably ought to check things. And it was really cool.
Speaker 3:Leaving the Bible out didn't stick. He was on. He was on that same drive home like well, bible out didn't work in the barn.
Speaker 2:You're going to have to crank this up a notch with.
Speaker 1:Randy yeah, he tried all those other things. I didn't know.
Speaker 2:So I guess we'll have to take a less subtle approach. That's right.
Speaker 1:Right between the eyes. Here you go yeah, the mule kick. That's all part of it. So I had great guys like that. I had a coach. Greg Oglesby was my soccer coach and, the fun thing, he was actually my nephew, Tater, who we've talked about in the past. He was Tater's soccer coach growing up and Coach Oglesby was great. He would play with us, work out with us. He could jump higher than us. He was just a really great guy.
Speaker 1:And one night we took the bus back after the soccer game and I followed him in the bus so I could pick him up and take him back to his little Volkswagen.
Speaker 1:And as he got into my car he stopped and he said hey, I want to spend a minute with you before you take off, because you're a natural leader and you're going to lead in one direction or the other, either good or bad, and I know your heart, I know your family, I know a lot about you. I just want to tell you I don't think you're leading in a way that's congruent with your heart. And I thought, wow, my coach just took time and he you know I was playing sports for him and think I was doing the right things on the field. But he took the time to just say I want to check with you and I want you to know I don't think you're following your heart, you're leading and you know whether it was goofing off or leading the team not to make a hard workout, and he did teach me practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect.
Speaker 1:And so, in that path, those mentors, like Ken and Coach Oglesby and my Young Life leaders, took time to communicate, stop ask me where I was and make the hard statement at times of you're not leading in a way that's congruent to your heart.
Speaker 3:I think there's a reminder for everybody that's putting in that effort and wishing it was their timing and not God's right to meet that person, because some of us are expecting that light bulb moment as we share that with you, like, hey, you need to align your actions with your heart and your path and all that, and they're hoping that it clicks. And maybe it takes years, and this moment here where you're sharing that small moment made a grand impact. That's just great motivation and incentive for all of us to keep doing those things and show up and make those comments, because they do move the needle, whether you see it or not, because you, you may it doesn't sound like with the first guy that you shared with him. Oh, that had a profound impact, but it had a profound impact. You know we don't get to see that all the time, but that doesn't mean it didn't do anything.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Yeah, I failed to get to Ken before he passed to share with him Wow, what an impact you made. And shared a little bit with his daughter when he passed, but took the time to. I was doing some FCA stuff and Coach Oglesby was there with the city of Southlake and took the time to say, look, you had a profound impact on me and that was a sweet moment to be able to share that and reach back, because at that time I had kids.
Speaker 1:I'm an adult, I'm helping to contribute to FCA and do some things and he's still coaching and still loving on kids and still doing all those great things, and for me it was a sweet moment to be able to say to him thanks. But how many people in our life do we walk by who have a profound impact and we never stop and say, hey, listen, Kevin, what you said yesterday made a big difference and we don't do that. We don't need that, we don't do it for those reasons, but it does make an impact and so we need to value those people in our life that have directed us, guided us and taught us things.
Speaker 2:Well, and let's not lose sight, also agree also of the idea that those people who said those things and made profound impacts earned the right to say them. We kind of can pull that full circle. Like Coach Oglesby, absolutely. He doesn't just come out of left field as a nobody, he's like someone you've worked with, you've been in the trenches with, you've done a lot of things with, you've earned the respect and then you've earned the right to say that to you, not just out of the blue like hey, man, you don't know me.
Speaker 2:I saw you checking out of Target and I just want to let you know, like think you probably need to be buying cigs. Okay, random buddy, it doesn't do any good. Um, but the guy we said it earlier and I don't mean to like triple down on it, but so important you don't just get to say stuff to people you're in the right to say stuff to people.
Speaker 1:I think that's everything, and I think there's so many things that, uh, we as men, whether it's in our christian walk, whether it's in our business path, whatever can say things to someone or have an opinion and don't know that we haven't earned the right to be heard. And earning that right to be heard in business, in family, in life, you know, there's moments I say things to my wife and I have no right to say those things, that it's harmful and it's hurtful and why did I say that those should have remained thoughts and not words?
Speaker 3:Yeah, my filter. I should have ended that thoughts.
Speaker 1:Yeah, as you guys know, my filter doesn't always work. Ditto yeah.
Speaker 2:I shouldn't have said I like the green beans saltier.
Speaker 3:I should have said that there's no reason I left my filter at the office today. Darn it.
Speaker 2:That's fine, all right. Keep telling us the story man we're going to pick through this thing. Go ahead. No, kev has a really important. He did like that. I have a point, hans, I was open for prayer?
Speaker 3:Yeah, because I feel like you have constructions in your blood. It's a family business. You would think the automatic trajectory is I'm going to go to construction as well, but that's not many people's story in our industry. Many of us try to run away from it to some extent. I did several times and the vortex kept pulling me back in. If you go to TCU for a non-construction degree, were you running from it or to it, or was it a pit stop Like what's the story there?
Speaker 1:It was a unique dynamic. So, graduating from high school, as I mentioned, my sister-in-law was my student council sponsor and she also wrote all my college entrance paperwork. There wasn't plagiarism, she was just helping. And in that dynamic I got into Baylor, I got into A&M and I got into TCU. My mother said the board of directors of Humphrey Associates voted and said I need to go to A&M and get an electrical engineering degree. Interesting, therefore, would have been wise. My friends at church said I should go to Baylor. I was like it's a bubble. I'm not going to Jerusalem on the a bubble. I'm not going to Jerusalem on the Brazos. I'm not going to do it.
Speaker 2:Never heard that before.
Speaker 1:And, um, I was working full-time all summer and I thought wait a minute, I can go to TCU, I can do Young Life, I can still work full-time or at that time it was part-time 20 to 40 hours a week, and I can do all those things and be close enough to still be around family and do other things.
Speaker 1:Okay, and so and my other things Okay and so and my sister had gone there, tcu was kind of cool and the numbers at TCU seven women to one man. So the odds were good for me, yeah, that I could go over there and find a great looking woman to date, right. So I chose to go to TCU. Because I couldn't go to A&M, because everybody told me I had to.
Speaker 1:I couldn't go to Baylor because you know they were arguing at church about it. And so I went to TCU. In TCU I ended up in the business school. First thing I wanted to be in business and really in perspective, looking back, I just wanted to be like dad right. And so I'm in the business school. My freshman year I almost failed out. My grades were low. Seven to one ratio.
Speaker 2:My grades were low. Seven to one ratio.
Speaker 1:Well there was that number and in that dynamic also I'd been hit in the head and had a head injury from soccer and I wanted to be able to say that that was the reason not staying out all night or chasing seven women. I wanted to say that was the reason that I was not doing well in school. So I went to TCJC, I went to TCU, I was doing Young Life and I was working and in the midst of doing all those things, at one time I learned that TCJC was one-tenth of the cost of TCU and it was a better deal. So I continued to go to TCJC. I didn't unenroll in TCU.
Speaker 1:I kept three to six, nine hours going so I wouldn't get kicked out, got my grades up at TCU and then I went to bring all my completed courses from TCJC back to TCU and they would not allow me to bring them into business school and I was like hold on, you're not going to let me bring my grades over. Why are you not going to bring them into my whole experience of college? They said we'll give you credit for curriculum extracurricular activities. I was like no, no, no, same number. Here's a communication course I took. Here's the number, here's the number. They're the same. Well, we have better teachers. I don't buy that. Well, we have smaller classes. I had 12 people in my class at TCJC. You know there's 24 here.
Speaker 1:So every argument they gave me, my nature was to argue back. So I'm arguing through all of these dynamics and then I got to the point that they said well, it's just better at TCU than it is at TCJC. I'm like I took the class at TCJC from the professors that wrote the book that you teach out of at TCU for one-tenth of the cost and you're going to tell me, you're going to teach me how to do business. I'm out of here. I'm going to the communication school. So I transferred to communication and when I did that I took over personnel and safety in the company. I was doing a lot of things, trying to help with the family business. Your question was did I run to or from construction? My first two years of college I thought I needed to go work for IBM or somewhere, because I can't just ride daddy's coattails, I need to prove myself stand my own two feet.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I got to go.
Speaker 1:I got to go out there and I've got to do these things my junior year, working full-time. My boss quit and actually he got fired. But he was an alcoholic and struggling in life and my dad told him he needed to go get cleaned up and so he went to a clinic for the weekend and on Sunday he called my dad and said I'm not an alcoholic. Everybody over there is an alcoholic. Those people are crazy. I'm going back to the Elks Lodge, I'm going to get a beer and a chicken fried steak and I'm going to go about my business. My dad said okay, well, you knew our agreement. If you don't go and you don't fulfill the program, you quit. And my dad called me.
Speaker 1:I was on the way back from Frontier Ranch, young Life, from doing a college work week and he said hey, I need you to go to the office and run personnel this week because your boss quit. And I thought, oh, that's great, what are we going to do? I ended up running personnel and safety. My dad and I made an agreement that I would do that and stay six and nine hours at a time. So while I was a TCU student, I was writing a curriculum for our training programs, other things at Humphrey and Associates redid our personnel policy, got credit at TCU for them. So the vortex sucked me in, but at the same time I felt like I ran towards it because I was passionate about people.
Speaker 1:I was passionate about the things in the communication and the one thing I picked up in the midst of that I was trying to teach one of my professors what interviewing was and how it wasn't just what they were teaching in class. I had interviewed one guy that filed 13 lawsuits against us and she said would you bring those 13 lawsuits in and teach the next class? I'm like, yeah, it sounds like fun. And so I brought in all the claims that that guy had made and how I had to defend each one of them, and so it was interesting.
Speaker 1:But in the midst of all of those things, the one dynamic that I learned is in construction, we still can't build because we can't communicate. Whether it was general contractor to sub employee, to safety programs, our difficulty was based in the fact, just like in the Tower of Babel, when God stopped the construction of the Tower of Babel, he didn't take their ability away, he didn't take their strength away, he didn't take their arms or legs away. He took away their ability to communicate and confuse their speech and I thought wow, I'm a communication major and this is exactly what I need to do for our personnel at Humphrey Associates.
Speaker 3:Look, at that God moment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was really cool.
Speaker 3:And you accidentally walked your way into what was most needed for construction because your construction experience was through real experience. But you got to see that missing link at school and actually get some value out of the program.
Speaker 1:It was really great and I was working for the company at Cook Children's my sophomore year, in the midst of some of those things, and I got to draw, you know, the blue lights we all see on top of Cook Children. I got to draw those on the blueprints, you know, with pen and paper on the blueprints, you know, with pen and paper, and in all of those dynamics on the job site, it was leading me towards man. The whole problem out here is communication, whether it's I'm not putting it on the drawing right or someone's not getting it right, or you know every problem. We had continued to walk across a path that we're not communicating. Yeah, that's the whole problem. Yeah.
Speaker 3:It goes so much deeper than plans and specs. Mm-hmm Communication. Are we communicating love and care Like whew? Our industry's still falling way short of that. What are we communicating? To the people building the buildings.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what and how. Communicating to the people building the buildings? Yeah, what and how? Mm-hmm, I used to well, I don't know how to even get into the comment I want to make, so I'm just going to blurt it out Potatoes, potatoes. Yeah, I just wanted to let everybody know that I don't really love carbs and I don't like potatoes. That's not what I was going to say. Potatoes, that's not what I was gonna say. I commonly tell clients 80 of the things that I deal with on a day-to-day basis is derivative somehow of a communication breakdown. So hearing you say like we just don't communicate well makes me think, yeah, like this is more than just an something I see like we're if you're paying attention, you got your head up, you're, you see it, which means we need to fix it. Like it's not that hard to just stop and communicate well oh my gosh, you know don't get me started one of the.
Speaker 1:I'll run down a path and y'all are gonna have to stop me because you know number one, I don't have a filter. Number two I'm maybe add in a little bit, but uh welcome yes, the whole movement of the progressive world is to confuse speech.
Speaker 1:So I read a book about or I didn't read it, I listened to it because I'm not that voracious of a reader but Springtime for Snowflakes and in that book they're trying to change communication about the wording of a tree, change communication about the wording of a tree. And so if you and I can agree, when we say tree, we're talking about a green leafy woody bigger than a bush, smaller than a building structure out there. We know we're talking tree. But if we begin to confuse a speech and say, well, that's a tree to me, but it's not a tree to you and it's not a tree to you and it's not a tree to you, and how are we going to do those things? If we can take the definition off of those things, we're all of a sudden are lost. So I think it's more than just construction, but we definitely, definitely are missing the boat on construction.
Speaker 2:We definitely, definitely are missing the boat on construction. I see that specific issue in construction all the time where people use terms that mean something, either intentionally or unintentionally, in a context that kind of conflates the meaning and lawyers do it too all the time to each other. And so one of the tactics I teach is you have to identify, identify that like the nomenclature differential and correct it. You can't just keep saying like change order over and over but you're not talking about a change order. Like you have to fix it. You keep saying that but that's not what we're talking about and fix it. Otherwise we can't communicate. Like if you're saying something and I'm saying something, we don't know what we're talking. It's just ships passing in the night. You're just yelling at each other and nobody's listening Because we can't even agree on what the words mean. And you're right, it's worse societally on other issues. But if you identify the issue kind of day to day in your inbox, Absolutely Go a long, long long long way to solving.
Speaker 1:Yeah, our frame of reference. You know which we all often talk about our frame of reference. If you use frame of reference as a perspective, you've got to see through the same window pane. I see through, yeah, or you're not going to understand what I'm saying. Correct, yeah, so you know.
Speaker 2:The building, the context building the dynamic getting all those things connected and it takes time, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Honestly today in construction I think it's interesting in this Again, it's a stolen thought we have 30% more people in the job site. We're designing it electronically Before we ever get to the job site. We have it in CAD or BIM. You know the whole BIM perspective. We've got contracts that are way more detailed than we've ever had. We know the equipment, when it's coming, how it's going to do. We're not building work any faster or any better with all these new dynamics Computer. It's still people installing the material. We've added all the other things to it and probably over-communicated.
Speaker 2:Diluted, so none of it means anything, correct yeah?
Speaker 1:We're really not communicating, we're just Over-processing, throwing more poop at the wall.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, and there's a natural logic progression to what you just said which would suggest we need to strip it all away then, because it's, it's superfluous, it's for naught, it's, it's a waste. I don't know if we make it that we don't even need to try to unpack this. I don't know that we could, but like if and I believe what you say is true we've added all these and all these people and all these systems and devices and protocols and online, but we're not doing it any better or any faster. It would suggest that all of the other stuff can just go away. Like we can stop. Like stop emailing me. I don't like, just stop. Yeah, we're not. It's not making it better or faster. We're not communicating more clearly.
Speaker 1:Just stop, yeah, and some of those things. Even in our safety aspect of what we're doing, trying to protect our employees. We love our employees. Everybody in the industry knows we can't do anything without an employee. Our employees are volunteers, they work for us and today they can go down the street and probably make 10% more doing the same thing. They're voluntarily staying at our places of business to help us do the work. We're doing that whole dynamic of them being there and us communicating with them and all those things.
Speaker 1:We keep adding all these safety procedures and I don't know that we're making it any safer. Type 2 hard hat, no ladders on a job site. There's a large suit manufacturer in Texas that said there are no ladders allowed on my job site. And I'm thinking well, we're professionals, we've got to train our employees how to use ladders and we've got to use ladders to work on a conveyor because they go from you know, six inches off the ground to 100 feet in the air and you can't get a lift around all of them. It's not the safest way to do that. So I think we're overdoing some things and haven't taken the moment to check and say is all that communication necessary? And the bad thing is so much of it's driven from a legal need. You know the attorneys.
Speaker 2:Well, I was just about to say one of my favorite lawyer edges is that I hate lawyers. Because you know why soup manufacturer said you can't have ladders.
Speaker 3:Somebody fell off a ladder.
Speaker 2:Somebody fell off a ladder and someone at risk was like well, I know how to solve that, Delete ladders. And fell off a ladder and someone at risk was like well, I know how to solve that, Delete ladders.
Speaker 1:And now here we are Like hold on a minute buddy, that doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 2:My job is to protect risk.
Speaker 1:Yeah, at a certain point and we jokingly said this as Young Life leaders being a Young Life leader was a great experience and we had so much fun hanging out together we said, man, this would be great if it weren't for all these kids. Right, wait, the whole purpose of what we're doing is to get the kids and the dynamic of construction. It's almost like safety professionals at time, or risk managers or others. Man, this construction's great. Would you not use any vehicles or people, keep the people away or equipment, and that'd be great. But, number one, those people are causing a problem. Yeah, well, that's the only thing that we have. That's a benefit, mm-hmm. And we've got to remember that. Yeah, how do we help them? Yeah, how do we make them better professionals? What do we do in those dynamics?
Speaker 3:That's a challenging environment. I don't have the answer. Well, but that's what you put your gloves on when you get out of the truck. Even if I'm showing up on some sites, my gloves are going on. I did that last week. I'm trying to take notes. How am I going to do that with my glove on?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Cut four.
Speaker 1:But if your glass were to break on your iPad, it wouldn't cut your finger. Cut for you. But but if, if your glass were to break on your ipad, it wouldn't cut your finger, and that's why that's why you can't get on a ladder with your ipad yeah, and I even to some of the folks that are following those rules.
Speaker 3:I get it. They're just doing their job. It's just a systemic breakdown right like some of the things you were describing offline, like where, where heat travels through your body and where it exits, and and uh, how hot it is in Texas, and all those things add up and then people are falling down. That's a big deal. It needs to be addressed. Just it's challenging, it's not as easy as addressing it, unfortunately.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you, you know this is a bigger conversation. We can jump in or not, but like, turning the boat around is hard, you're not turning around a little speedboat?
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:A ski boat's probably better. You're not turning around a ski boat.
Speaker 1:No, but you know we don't turn ships quickly. If we try to turn a ship quickly, something's going to break.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:But I do think we can benefit from taking a check back. What's important? What are the critical things? How do we communicate effectively without overdoing it or loading somebody's email up just to protect ourselves?
Speaker 2:email up just to protect ourselves, you know and and all of those things, that people are the number one asset and we need to love people. And in that I think there's a, there's a basis, but I a time is how we do it. I mean, I've gotten in this part where now commonly I will say, like I know, like the standard between us is for me to write a big long email and you to respond to a big long email, but I'm not going to do that. Can you talk tomorrow at two o'clock? Can I come by the office and, like I've done the little paper bit, not like I tried to like break down the keyboard, warrior, document the file, protect your back, all that stuff, and just say I get it. I know I'm supposed to do that. I'm not going to. Can we? Can we talk? Can you talk tomorrow? You?
Speaker 1:around. Yeah, let's go. Let's go have a face-to-face, and I think that's a number. One issue is maybe we're communicating by email, iPad, text, procore, whatever system that's out there right, that's going to fix our communication. And look face-to-face, put the phones down, stack them up at lunch and say, man, I care about you and we're not going to get through this without each other. How do we do that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, what's a win. Look like for you. That's not what it looks like for me. So what about this? How about that? What if I did this? How would that make? How would yeah? Oh, we found a solution. We didn't just keyboard warrior Three days.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's my favorite game to play those two words what if?
Speaker 3:Just start throwing that out there. That's all the magic of whiteboarding. We start with what if, right here on the floor and then by the end of 45 minutes you're like can you believe where we just went? Yeah, I don't even know whose idea that was at the end of those this what if session. But here we are. This is great. Let I this might not make sense. I knew about whiteboarding like just, and I thought of it when people would say that as the literal just, you write things on a whiteboard.
Speaker 1:but like the magic of whiteboarding process and the start of it to the end of it.
Speaker 3:Like, I guess, whiteboard whiteboarding as a verb, like the action of it, from beginning to end it's pretty magical what happens in those scenarios when you get a group of people with an open mind ego and pride may be checked at the door, a little bit like what you can walk out of, my goodness.
Speaker 2:Start to solve problems instead of just create them or log them or worry about them or manage them. You solve them for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if you think about the size of the ship and go back through some of our previous conversation this morning, if we just went back to the contracts, you know, a 600-page contract for an electrical contractor to build a building may be excessive. And when we get a letter from our auditor that says we're going to engage and it says they're not going to do anything, all of these contracts that have all these terms, that they only matter if we go to court, that's right. How are we going to build work? Let's start there. Let's begin down the path. I really think we have to start with interpersonal communication and sitting down together and talking about those things. But you know when, when we look at the mess from contract to finish project, we've created a lot of lot of crap.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that 600 page contract might say a lot about paid if paid. But I identify as a net 30 contractor. We'll be all right, we're good to go.
Speaker 2:That's a pretty funny like weaving three things together right there. I like that. I identify as a net 30 contractor is great.
Speaker 3:We got to digress, though. What about Humphrey and Associates? So you, you get back, you graduate. Wait seven to one ratio. Did you meet your wife at TCU? I did so we might not want to spin out of that quite yet Beautiful moment.
Speaker 1:You know, tcu gave me a lot of things Gave me a communication major, gave me a degree. I've got this really cool ring that floats around on my key chain. It's really awesome and, best of all, I got my wife. I think it was my second senior year because after my junior year, I went to work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was. I went to work part-time or school part-time and work full-time, work part-time or school part-time and work full-time. So I was in broadcast speech class and there were three rows small class, maybe 10 or 15 people in the class, and the first row were the studious girls sorority girls.
Speaker 2:Second row was kind of studious.
Speaker 1:I need to get a grade. I've got to pass. And the third row was kind of the goof-off guys of I don't know, it's a night class, I just took what I could get and I need a grade. Got to get out of here and I knew people in all three rows, which was great. And I sat in the middle and I had an older professor. This is crass, I apologize. I had an older professor that couldn't hear anything but he taught broadcast speech class and in the midst of class I was working full-time, starting at 4.30 in the morning, a seven o'clock class in Fort Worth, when I had been to Marshall Texas.
Speaker 1:That morning is a long drive, a long day and I need to stay awake. So when my professor would lean over I would make gastrointestinal sounds with my mouth and it sounded like he was farting and my wife thought that was funny and we weren't dating. In fact Ken Smith had told me hey, you want to get your life right, you want to meet the right person. Flatulence, yeah, somewhere along the way I got flatulence out of that. But you know he told me to get my life right with God and so I quit dating. So I wasn't dating. I had a hunting lease, I had a bass boat, I had a good job, I was enjoying life, had a Jeep and nothing gets better and so I'm not dating. I'd purposely stopped dating, trying to work on my life with Christ. While I'm fishing and hunting and working full time and professor leans over, I pass gas for him and it was great I attracted Scotty.
Speaker 1:We end up midterms, we end up comparing notes on the test and a friend of mine, brian Keita, was performing music at that time for Christ Chapel and a couple other things in Fort Worth. He had just cut a new tape and he wanted to go listen to it. So we're going afterwards. I said look, brian, I can listen to your tape, but I got to get somebody. I got to go to Taco Bell. Scotty walks up and says well, how'd y'all doing the test? What's going on? Oh, we're about to go to Taco Bell and eat and I want to listen to Brian's tape. She said well, I want to go with y'all. We had a wonderful conversation. That was a Thursday night. We went to dinner Friday. Saturday, went to church Sunday, ended up getting married a year later but we were engaged in four months Wow.
Speaker 3:You just knew it.
Speaker 1:I got Scotty from TCU and it was the best thing that ever ever came from that university, so it was really, really great.
Speaker 2:So I met Scotty there. How does she tell that story? Not that you know how she tells that story, but like theoretically, how does she tell it? Same way, pretty much the same, okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's funny yeah it was an entertaining class because we had to prepare videos and audio and all of those dynamics. And you know, I took my Victronix pocket knife with the wine opener and talked about a romantic date and she talked about me, you know, and so we're using our dating to finish class. It was a wonderful experience, but she'll tell you that he made fart noises and that attracted me.
Speaker 1:That's a beautiful story and she said he's a man Like she's not that much younger than I am, but I did have a mustache and I had a backpack with a phone in it and if you think of 1991, those phones were big so the antenna stuck out of my backpack. So she thought I was just a businessman, didn't realize I was only a couple years older than she was.
Speaker 2:But he's a man. He's a man. I love his fart noises. That's what did it.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, 100%.
Speaker 3:I don't think my wife loves my fart noises.
Speaker 2:Well, because yours aren't like from the mouth. No, yeah, they're the real deal. No, you're doing a real deal, yeah and I don't like my daughter's.
Speaker 3:It's a flatulent house.
Speaker 2:Oh, y'all just full fart house, mm-hmm.
Speaker 3:I wonder with my daughter she's about to turn seven. Saturday she does these things at home all flatulence related, gastrointestinal, as you said and I wonder when she goes to school, am I? She's probably still doing this and I'm definitely the poster boy for who's teaching her these things. Oh yeah, they're like Quinn her dad. It's her dad. How was your day, honey? The teacher goes back home. Well, quinn threw a fart at me today, so that was my day at school.
Speaker 1:I mean Quinn threw a fart at me today, so that was my day at school the things we can teach our kids, I'm telling you.
Speaker 2:All I've learned so far is sometimes it's attractive, though.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Maybe it's the future mating call Full speed ahead.
Speaker 3:I'm going to bang through the gears. Yeah, don't turn him back, Keep going. I'm so sorry.
Speaker 1:I imagine y'all don't talk about farts as often as we should.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:I don't know.
Speaker 2:I probably do. Yeah, I'm a child. One of my favorite things about the podcast is in and out of the ditch, like serious to ditch and just having a good old time. And we ended up here, mm-hmm, squarely in the ditch.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Pull us out. That's awesome. So let me go back. You mentioned Humphrey Associates and then you asked me about my wife, which can completely sidetrack me because she is an angel. She's amazing and she has been by my side through whatever I've been through and continues to love me and will give me great wisdom. And I may run down a path, thinking this is the right thing to do, and she's like have you thought about that? No, she's great, great wisdom.
Speaker 1:But my mom and dad started Humphrey Associates in 1981. We talked about that earlier and in the dynamic we are a 50% employee-owned company, so our ESOP owns 50%, the family owns 50%. We actually have the third generation working today with nephews, my sons, Two of my sons in the business. One's in college and one's still in high school. But mom and dad, we are so fortunate and blessed and I don't use that lightly. Mom and dad, we are so fortunate and blessed and I don't use that lightly. Mom and dad started a business that was different. My dad was involved in the business. My mom worked with her. He referred to her at times as his sexitary, which is terribly embarrassing for a 16-year-old kid when your dad's presenting that from the podium.
Speaker 2:Also respect the dad joke, Like with the benefit of hindsight. That's funny.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was, it was great.
Speaker 2:When you're 16, you're like oh, dad now, oh yeah, it's beautiful yeah perfect, love it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, mom and dad started a business and they came away from the Collier family with some ethical differences, but they wanted to be different. So in 1981, we had a non-smoking facility, which was weird. Most construction guys drink their lunch and smoke cigarettes. They found a business based on biblical principles. And they found a business based on biblical principles and that's what they told me. You know, until I was probably 40 and in the back of the car with mom and dad riding and going okay, tell me what Bible verse that was, tell me what, come on, I mean, you got to boil it down, what's that? One thing, kind of the Jack Palance, one thing. And they got down to two. They got down to Mark 12. Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. And the second thing was Colossians 3.23 of do all things to the best of your ability, as though you're doing it for Christ. So they set a business and a core culture and values in path that did those things Unbelievable core culture and values, when everybody today is talking about how do you create your core culture and values and what do you do and how does that last? And we have a wonderful example scripturally whether we talk about young life and how do you earn the right to be heard, or, most, all of our policies, procedures and things we do, we can go back to the Bible and find some process. Whether an individual agrees with it as the Word of God or a history book or just a book, it's got great examples for leadership and people to look at. So mom and dad put the business together on that.
Speaker 1:My mother was a lady. She was not 1% butch. She wore dresses to job sites. She was you know I said we lost her in 2020. She was a matriarch to the construction industry. Ladies that got to know her understood those things. She was a lady. She fought hard for the industry. She fought hard for the apprentices. She was constantly recruiting. She was a blessing to the industry. And my dad was the patriarch, started the business, the electrical mind, the business mind behind it, I jokingly say as a merit shop contractor. My mom was a business agent for the union. My dad was the contractor and together they put those things together.
Speaker 1:But it was beautiful because today our employees enjoy that core culture and values. We're literally trying to rewrite and get those things down and go through training programs with guys like Brent Gleason and Matthew Lanning to say let's teach that next generation core culture and values verbally and in writing, not just the emotions behind it. So it's really, really valuable. It's something that they built, a foundation that you know. Like I said earlier, I just wanted to be like dad.
Speaker 1:I don't think if I was building a business today I could have done it as thoughtfully and beneficially to create a business that could get to the third generation. You know, when we came into business, my brother and I were told second generation always kills a business. You know, this is where it goes. First generation builds it, second generation tears it down or cuts it down if it's a tree, and the third generation birds it for fuel. And, uh, we're healthily have the third generation not in leadership, but, um, it looks like we're going to do okay and I think it's based on the foundation that mom and dad set that it's not just a dollar-driven business, it's a people-driven business that cares.
Speaker 2:I don't know if listeners pick up on it, but watching you talk about your mom and dad, it's just super special. Oh, like I don't even know how to say it exactly, but like when you're talking about your mom and dad, like I just want to hear all about them, you know, like that, I just like, I just know right A hundred percent.
Speaker 2:Tell me, like, do you think your dad ever had like well, I get somebody did, but like originally had the vision like this is a business that I anticipate handing down to the second generation at some point. Was that on his radar? Was that part of the initial plan? Like it's a good question?
Speaker 1:Yeah, Day one thing. Yeah, I believe my nephew and my son is are sitting down with dad tomorrow to walk through some of those questions on video which is going to be awesome.
Speaker 1:But you know, my perception is he created the business to help put food on people's tables in the 70s. Yeah, that he had worked for Fox Electric in a grist mill at that time. Worked for Fox Electric in a grist mill at that time. He needed to start a business that he could develop and care about people and do things, because that was his nature, and he and my mom together were a great concert. You know that dynamic and my brother and I do this today. Right, we're a lot alike and a lot different, but together when we're in sync, it's a great concert. If we're off, it's going to create some issues. But mom and dad did that. They loved hard, they fought hard, they were passionate about everything they did. And so you know, I think their intent was to just create it for the employees.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my sophomore year in college, my junior year in that cycle, my dad came to Stephen and I and said, hey, we should start another business and let y'all run it, because I've strapped y'all to this ESOP and you may not want to be in business with, you know, 300 employees or 250 at that time.
Speaker 1:You may want to have your own business where you're not committed to that. This is something I did and Stephen and I both looked at him and said no, this is where we're committed, and we're committed not only to the family of the Humphreys but to the family of the business, and that's I think that's the only thing that got us through all the buyouts when all of the 80s, 90s buyouts occurred, to keep us a family-owned, employee-owned business, and that you know, I get five to 10 phone calls or emails or um contacts a week that want to buy our business or want us to buy another business. It's not for sale because it belongs to the employees and the family. So, um, I don't think that was his original intent, um, when he first started, but I think as we grew it became a clear perspective.
Speaker 2:Was it 50-50 from the start?
Speaker 1:No 77 to 81, the Colliers owned 50% and my mom and dad owned 50%. And then 1981, mom and dad bought the 50% owned by the Collier family, who's still involved in and around the construction industry today, and gave that 50% to the employees in the ESOP.
Speaker 2:Okay, you said that earlier but I didn't put the timeline together, just right, but that makes sense. Yeah, that's amazing. The thought that was running through my head is a lot of people think that ESOP is a way to take your chips off the table when you don't have really any other good options. I mean, I hear that sometimes. Right, yeah. But not when you did it from the beginning.
Speaker 1:Air quotes yes absolutely From the beginning.
Speaker 2:That's a totally different dynamic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and very few people took the perspective of Humphrey and Associates, as those associates are the employees. Mm-hmm, you know, and that's the clear perspective that it's family-owned and employee-owned. Yeah, I see.
Speaker 3:Awesome, well, and I've, so I didn't get too many opportunities to interact with them. Like I saw Humphrey, I saw you kind of you were the face of the company in my eyes, yes, and I just remember like very specific times of seeing you at ABC stuff, which we'll have to go down that memory lane at some point to just have the historical ABC mirror shop perspective from you. But like, I'll give you one specific scenario Uh, the YCC washer tournament.
Speaker 3:I think it was just a washer tournament at that point and they were doing a can drive, a can food drive and uh so I showed up with my box that I got from the grocery store you probably know where I'm going with this and I'm carrying this box.
Speaker 3:I got like 20 cans in there. He has a full blown trailer, all the way full from front to back with cans, thousands upon thousands. And uh, I'm like, holy crap, that's a, that is a big donation. And I think at that time, like you were just a person I knew I didn't know you and like that and. But Melanie and I were good buddies and that's when she started giving me the download on y'all's heart and I'm like, oh yeah, this is commonplace, this is just what they do, like cause, like the perception could be oh, you're just showing off, maybe you're trying to get points to win the competition, all that sort of stuff. It's like those also could be true, but the core of it's love and care, like we were here, we're here for something bigger than just a construction company and so, like that was like the real start for me to understand who you were and why y'all exist and all that sort of stuff. I remember that moment, like, and that was a great.
Speaker 1:But I think it was in Grapevine. It was in Grapevine, yeah, so you were on your home turf.
Speaker 3:For that it was. I didn't see you in a red bandana, though though, yeah, so that that, um, thanks.
Speaker 1:That's really sweet of you to remember it that way. We we did show up with a trailer with two pallets of food, Um, and we had negotiated with our relationships and our vendors and our customers to get all of that. And so we leveraged relationships to do those things and we did get points in the competition for Texo, which did count, but knowing the rules. We had to know the rules and the benefit of those competitions and raising food or doing those things. We took the opportunity to share that with employees and get them involved. So all of a sudden, we're not moving the needle with four family members, we're moving the needle with 500 employees saying, hey, this is a great way we can give back. And when you've created a core culture and value of employees that say they care, it's a great moment to just say, okay, let's, let's take the team and move the ship this direction. So those are, those are fun memories For sure.
Speaker 3:And how much y'all show up big Humphrey squad at events and stuff. You know which other people complain. I can't it's like pulling teeth get one other person to show up Like you have an army of folks that show up.
Speaker 1:That kind of speaks to the heart and the culture Again that you know I'm so blessed and fortunate uh, beyond comprehension. I'm part of the family not just the Humphrey family, but the Humphrey and Associates family that there are 500 employees. There's new employees coming in this week who we're trying to tell here's our core culture and values. We have, I think, 500 employees with an average of seven and a half years of employment, and we hired 200 people last year. Wow, and so those 200 people? Because we're trying to get people into the industry. Right, we're trying to make electricians out of high school graduates, career-changing individuals, college dropouts all of those individuals we're trying to scoop up out there. We hired in the previous 180 days we hired 90 individuals that have no idea anything about electrical or mechanical plumbing, pipe fitting or welding, and so let us make you a professional.
Speaker 2:I have that model, that idea, that execution strategy just lives in the back of my brain always. And there's a specific story I won't overtell here. You're smiling because I think you know where I'm going, but that person came kind of across my desk, so to speak, at one point.
Speaker 1:Do you remember this? I do.
Speaker 2:I do. It's one of those moments I can remember. I was pacing, you and I were on the phone. I was pacing up and down in front of the house, talking because I hadn't gone into the house yet, talking about this particular individual, and you're like tell him to call me. And I don't know how the story transpired or where it went from there, but just this idea of like I can help, I can take this person who's sort of wandering and I can provide a career. They don't need to know about this, I'll teach them the widget. Like just just let me talk to them and uh, that just lives, uh in a good way, like rent free my brain all the time.
Speaker 1:That was a. That was a great moment, cause I think you had, you had gotten home and your wife was having wine with the neighbors and and, uh, a neighbor had a nephew sleeping on the couch and came out of the military and honestly, don't know where he is today. But I know that you and I talked to the point that he became an employee and got out there and got him into the trade and started a career. And you know, shame on me for not knowing today exactly where that individual is. But that dynamic of man, if we've got individuals that don't have something to do, it's not just Humphrey and Associates. Our industry is dying for people like that. Some contractors don't know that they need to hire them and put them in training. They'd rather another contractor train them for two or three years and then hire them, sure, but that value in seeing people grow is what everything is about you can't see.
Speaker 2:But like in all your people at kevin, all your guys are gonna like fund me right now, but like I got the little, I got chili buns, because like that's just one random story to you, like I remember that, but all those details is exactly what happened and you remember it like like 100. Like it kind of blows my mind, cause I know you have thousands of those stories with the idea of, like you remember that conversation and that particular individual and that specific, like it's exactly what happened.
Speaker 1:That was cool. But that was a sweet moment because you were saying man, I care about this situation. Is there? What do you think we can do to help? And man, all I knew was tell him to call me. We're going to try to find that guy a job and if we can get him to be an electrician, we can give him a career that can change his life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, that was sweet that was awesome.
Speaker 3:I think we could gloss over those stats. Like you said, 90 people in the past 180 days.
Speaker 3:Yes, those 90 people represent 90 stories like that that might be worse, better, like you know, like comparisons of the thief of joy, it's just like the pinnacle for 90 people that might have families and like we need to hire. Yes, this big crusade, that we need people in this industry, but the impact that each one of those 90 people have on their lives that now maybe are broken or fell backwards in the industry, that now there's a new chapter in their book, that's exciting, they're about to be loved and cared for. Like so I get to see these, like we, we I think we take it for granted because I need to go by between now and the end of October, I need to hire 26 people, and it's like it's a business decision. But when you look at the human element of it, what it does to that person's life, I've seen it on the other end, that side of it, the steward side of it, where guy at church has been unemployed for a hot minute and we need to help him out and introduce him to some folks in the industry Maybe it's the Texo board Like hey, this is a great guy, I know him, I watch him lead at church.
Speaker 3:Like I know his character. I don't know his widget, I know his character and then boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. It's interviews like those connected dots, like I got to see his life group celebrate and hug, like to the point of tears, and you know there's a story there that there's a struggle there and there was a need met and a mutual win between person, family, life group, a construction company and it's not just we went from zero to 90 people. Like lives are impacted, so like I hope people feel the weight and the motivation and the inspiration and the impact behind that. When you're going and making those decisions to bring people in, you're changing lives Like it's a big deal.
Speaker 1:It's a big deal, Never forget it, and it could change generations. And the cool thing is it's not Humphrey Associates we're a small part of the industry that's doing that and we get accolades for it and I appreciate that. But the big picture is that guy that you know at church. You've changed his life and the life of those around him. And all of those individuals we as an industry reach out and pick up. They seem like man. This new employee doesn't know anything about the industry. We're sending them to the job site and they showed up in tennis shoes. How dare them? You know, that whole dynamic is yeah, but in four years, where is he going to be? Or where is she going to be? What's that going to be in six years, in 10 years? And those are our future competitors. We want them trained. Those are our future employees. We want them trained and that's a future of our.
Speaker 1:You know, early on I mentioned God core country perspective. But if we I heard a pastor say this at an event at Cowboy Stadium years ago If you want to be a better country, be a better man making a better family. If you want to be a better community, be a better man making a better family, making a better man, making a better family. If you want to be a better community, be a better man. Making a better family, making a better community. And that perspective goes from individual to family, to community, to city, to county, to country, the whole picture. If we want to make it better, it's one at a time yeah and it's that communication we've talked about of.
Speaker 1:it's not a safe space, it's a loving space and taking a minute to care about people.
Speaker 2:I had a conversation the other day.
Speaker 2:We were talking about hiring somebody at the firm and they're lamenting hiring folks and laterals and it's kind of a similar conversation law firms, specific and I was like what are you talking about?
Speaker 2:Like I would love nothing more than to hire someone who had no idea what we were doing and teach them everything I've learned, not like in a self-aggrandizing way, but like in a helpful, like caring, like I'm gonna do my little tiny part here and my industry is a little different and it's tangent to you guys in the venn diagram but like I make it better, like I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do the best I can to teach someone. Like all those things and I don't take any of that lightly and it's same on a much greater scale but like how you missing the boat complaining about the guy with shows him a tennis. He didn't know any better, nobody ever told him. And you teach him and you train him and and it's like what are we? Why are we so judgmental and missing the boat on all this? Anyway, kind of get off my horse here for a second, not a high horse.
Speaker 1:It's a great perspective.
Speaker 2:There's a quote. I forget what it is, but it's kind of to your point. I want to, I want to attribute to Reagan and the gist of it is I'll butcher is like all great change comes at the dinner table, something like that. Like that's you're not going to change an organization if that guy's worried about whatever, and he's anyway. Side quest. But to your point all great change comes at the dinner table, and you change families, you change companies, you change neighborhoods. You just said it.
Speaker 1:Oh, you know we talk about and we've talked this morning about our kids right, and their perspective of they've got free will, they're going to make decisions. I was with a buddy of mine from high school and my oldest son was in trouble and arguing with my wife and you know it was kind of one of those minutes of I just need to go home and, you know, take him out behind the bar and have a long conversation and my buddy looked at me and goes you know, during that whole COVID deal, when you almost died, did your memory go away? Like what do you mean? And he goes you were an asshole. Well, that's not nice.
Speaker 2:Say less about that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, why are you telling me that? And he goes? Because you forgot where you came from and you forgot where you were and you forgot you also acted like that. And so many of us in the industry kind of forget man. We've got mentors, We've got individuals that have loved on us, We've got grace that we've been forgiven for and all those things that we've been forgiven for. We often forget to forgive others. You know how dare that kid come in tennis shoes. What an idiot. And you think, who told him? Well, not me, Well, that can't be my fault, you know. Just to know these things.
Speaker 3:Very timely. I read Matthew 7 this morning. Yeah, that's the speck in your eye or speck in their eye. Well, you have the log in yours 100%. Yeah, and that doesn't only apply to modern times. Like that, doesn't only apply to modern times. That, like you know, like the dichotomy of time, it's you might be feeling in a be in a good season Now what'd that look like 20 years ago? And that person's that age have some self-awareness there. And I'm saying have some self-awareness there as I'm looking in the mirror 100%.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:Man got to have that hindsight.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like we said earlier, it's easy to be a good man. It's just hard to make that decision in the moment of choice and we screw up Every day. I'm going to walk out of here and be a train wreck. Like I said, I really want to be prayerful and purposeful and all these great things, and I'm whimsical and wimpy.
Speaker 2:Whimsical might be good, though I like whimsy.
Speaker 1:Really, oh yeah, yeah, it's kind of fun.
Speaker 2:It's a good hang.
Speaker 3:So I'm going to toss up a challenge here. I'm out Hate. So I'm gonna toss up a challenge here. Um, I'm out, hate those. Those are the worst challenge lists here in the industry. Um, we have promoted and touted texo hundreds of times on this podcast through the guests. We're sitting in the texo office and so we don't need to do that specifically. I would love to just hear the ABC side of things, because I know that's a very passionate association for you. You mentioned Merit Shop Proud and I look at you, and I think the industry looks at you, as a historian with it and, um, I would love for you, at a high level, to share some of that history, um, of what ABC means to you, what ABC does for the industry, why it's important. You know I don't want to. I don't want to put you in a box in any sort of way, I just kind of want to tee that up for you to hit down the fairway.
Speaker 1:Perfect For your, for your ABC love, keep me in check, right, give me a clock. That's what I said at a high level, high level.
Speaker 2:Keep me focused All right, that's good enough, and yeah, that's it. I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1:Nobody wants to hear the history about that, but you know the dynamic of associated builders and contractors and AGC and for history, in 2003, I was the ABC chairman for North Texas. I was the youngest ABC chairman maybe in the nation. I don't even remember how old I was, it was a long time ago and I was the first second-generation chairman because Dad was chairman in 1985, I think Associated Builders and Contractors is a local. You know Texo is ABC and AGC combined. We started that back in 95, but ABC specifically is a merit shop contractor foundation, local, state and national contractor foundation, local, state and national. In that perspective it became very, very important to me in the 80s. I told you I became our safety and personnel professional in 91. I think it was 89, really.
Speaker 1:But as I did that, I received five lawsuits in my name and I showed up at work at 5.30 in the morning. I get the mail from the day before and it's an NLRB which scared the crap out of me because it's a federal government, an NLRB file with my name as the receiving end of it, with my name as the receiving end of it, on five individuals that had been refused employment at the Western Currency Facility which we were doing the electrical, on All of those demanded back and future wages because they had said they were union and they were what was called salts. They were union and they were what was called salts. They came in and said we're here to cause problems for you and we're union salts and you need to hire us and put us to work on your job site. And my little simple redneck perspective goes hold on you just came and applied for work and you said you're going to cause trouble for me on the job site. Your intent is to cost me money. Why in the world would I put you on the job site? Not a good sell. And they're protected under federal law that if I denied them employment for union involvement they would file a quick lawsuit and get back in future wages.
Speaker 1:And I was working with an attorney at Jackson Walker at that time. And of those five, we had reasons for every one of them to deny them work. Right Past work history. There were reasons we didn't hire them, every one of them. I can't remember all the reasons except for one.
Speaker 1:And the fifth individual said on his paperwork I have a back injury, like he wrote it on the application, just kind of free space out there and we were running. I think it was five inch rigid conduit in the ceiling on lifts and at that time you could actually cut conduit on a lift. You didn't have to go to a safe space and do that at a kindergarten table, but so we could take the five-inch conduit, lift it up above our heads and hang it on the rack so we could run wire through the Western Currency Facility. And my attorney said to me this was all getting almost to the point of court said what medical training do you have? I was like I'm a personnel guy, I'm a TCU student, I got first aid and CPR and I'm a registered lifeguard. Do you have any other medical training?
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 1:Well then, you don't have the right to determine whether this individual could lift that conduit or not. I'm like man. I'm required by Section 5A1 of the OSHA standard to keep this guy safe, but you're going to tell me I have to put him on a job site. Well, really, we're just going to settle the case, You're going to pay $5,000, and the guy's going to go away. It's like okay, and at that time it'd be like paying somebody today probably $25,000, but he was protected.
Speaker 1:That taught me that the unions are heavily protected federally and the Associated Builders and Contractors is the only national association that protects subcontractor, general contractor and employees when it comes to union and being a merit shop contractor, humphrey Associates is founded on, as I said, two biblical principles and one of those is love our employees. You know, in that dynamic I want to have a direct relationship with my employees, I want to care about them, I want to take care of them and I don't want a union sitting between us and them. I don't hate the union. I've got great union contractor friends and their businesses function well with the union. I would like some protection to be a merit shop contractor. That is not a federal law. There is no federal law that protects against that. Associated Builders and Contractors is the only association that will defend us other than the independent electrical contractors. But that's only for us electrically, not mechanically, not pipe fitting, not welding. And when I saw the federal government protecting those employees for doing things that I thought was un-American, I thought, man, I can fight with my general contractor friends all day long. I can fight over contract terms and we can get there. I can't fight the federal government. That's a losing battle. So the merit shop perspective to me fits more with my faith, fits more with my perspective of I'm going to pay you based on your merit, not based on your title. And so ABC set that perspective up and defended that Back.
Speaker 1:When you know the stories that I've heard, I wasn't part of that because, remember, I was in third grade or so, but Ben Houston, with TD Mechanical doing the Anatil Hotel, they would call Ben Houston and say I know where your daughter is and I know where your son is. And at this time they had to do it from a payphone, right, there weren't cell phones. They had to go to a payphone, call Ben Houston at the office and say I'm watching your kid, I know what path they walk to school. You need to get off the Anatole Hotel or something bad's going to happen. And I can tell you in Texas if somebody protect or threatened your daughter or my sons or your kids, that's a real, that's a real uncomfortable moment. Those are fighting words and so, um, the unions were protected in that and that was standard operating procedures in the eighties and nineties. From that, um, you know, I mentioned earlier going to my class at TCU and explaining all these lawsuits. Some of that was union harassment that I'm having to defend myself time and time again against this. We're one generation away from that where I don't think you guys have seen any union harassment and most of the YCCers haven't seen any union harassment and most of the YCCers haven't seen any union harassment.
Speaker 1:But once it starts, you can't go through the same gate on the job site. You have to have two separate gates. There's a union gate and a non-union gate and it stops construction and we haven't seen that in North Texas. The salting is starting in San Antonio and Austin, I understand, and those things are going to be very, very important as we proceed down the path and I hear a lot of my friends say it's not that important, we communicate better. It's different and I'm thinking I've been there before. Now you've got the crystal ball. I don't want to go back, and it's hard and it's uncomfortable. The ball I don't want to go back, and it's hard and it's uncomfortable.
Speaker 1:And when you end up receiving lawsuits in your name personally over that, you're thinking what the hell did I do? But the big difficulty is we've lost the perspective of knowing what ABC is and it's not that big of a deal and we have as TEXA we have board members that are union and non-union. We have general contractors who have union agreements and don't have union agreements and they get along and they really don't have any overlying issues in Texas. But as you go around the state it becomes a project labor agreement and for my tax dollars, if you tell me a job can be union only and I know there's only two contractors that can handle that I know my tax dollars are going to get tripled to pay for that and you can't disclude 78% of the industry of merit shop and have fair competition of merit shop and have fair competition. So I think ABC is an important critical part of the Texo path and who we are and how we fit together.
Speaker 1:But I think nationally, statewide and locally, it's hard to explain those things because there's nobody calling the Texo office going. I just got a lawsuit. Nobody calling Stewart-Tinnett just got a lawsuit. What am I going to do? How do I defend that? And most of those attorneys Joe Canabari and the others who defended those things are one generation out and to the point that our attorneys when I say, hey, I want you'all to do some stuff to prepare Texo members for union harassment. They're like what? Yeah, I don't know what you're talking about I haven't seen it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so I think it's coming.
Speaker 2:I'm going to ask a couple of questions in there, mostly because I'm interested, but a couple just because I want to clarify a few ideas. But I'll start with a story. I started practicing law in 2004, and I had a little bit of it right in there, but in a way like I was a baby lawyer and I didn't really know anything anyway. So it was like oh, and I've seen almost zero since the mid-2000s and I think that timeline probably lines up generally with what you're saying.
Speaker 2:It just started to dissipate, which is whether you're for it or against it. Wherever your position is like, the idea that there's something out there that we're not dealing with that could come back is like sort of a cautionary tool of just awareness. I think there's a lot of value in that. Take me, I did not know. You used a word I'd never heard before, so I Googled it while we were looking as to what salting was, and I could read from Wikipedia, but I let you explain, like what you said, there's salting in Houston, or that you had some union salts. Yes, that's not a term of art, necessarily, but it is not a chemical compound that makes your food tastier.
Speaker 1:It's a thing, yeah, so what is that? So, and I don't know how old, it is right, but the union, a union plan of recruiting and procreating the union process, was to take an employee from the union and tell them to apply with a merit shop contractor and once they went to work they would come in and try to change the flavor of the company and then ask for a vote that they go union, whether the company was leaning that way. In essence, we would take Kevin as a one-year-old contractor and somebody would come in and say we're unionizing the shop. Well, the ownership didn't ask for that, the employees didn't ask for that. The ownership didn't ask for that, the employees didn't ask for that. All of a sudden, somebody's coming in telling they're needing it, telling them Kevin's not taking care of you, he's lying, he's doing this, he's doing that Creates great dissension, great distrust.
Speaker 1:Literally, they were given a notebook of keep license plates of all the company cars you see, addresses of all the employees you can know, including the executives. Gather all the details you can, which today you know. We've got access to most of that stuff on our iPad or iPhones. But, knowing that someone was being a young married considering me a threat against the union and they know where I live. Are they going to go harass my wife when I'm not home? Wait, wait, wait, wait. What's going on?
Speaker 1:So the SALT would come in and try to be a problem. They went from trying to unionize the companies to going well, we can't unionize Kevin. He loves his employees and his employees love him. We're just going to go create problems. So they would do everything from just stir up trouble, cause lawsuits, cause fights, cause claims, injury claims. There was a situation where a window manufacturer here in North Texas found several rubber bands between the phases of their electrical gear, with nails laying on it, where it was basically creating a thing that would blow up with enough vibration. And you're like man, that's not just destroying equipment, that could kill somebody. That's crazy. So, um, and and I'm I don't want to be like Ooh, it's so scary, it's so bad, it was uncomfortable. Yeah, right, and it's un-American, I shouldn't be able to come in your business and create a problem. Yeah, I shouldn't be able to come in your business and create a problem, yeah, since there's not a lot of like long.
Speaker 2:Well, let me say, come at that differently. Most of our listeners are younger, I mean I think in their 30s, early 40s. There's not a lot of perspective on the difference or discrepancy between a unit shop and a merit shop. So like I don't want to oversimplify it at all, but I think the term merit shop is something that people hear a lot. You think, well, I don't really know what that means, but kind of know what it means. Moving on, like, is there any distinction or difference that's worth making here in terms of like, what those two terms or that nomenclature means for purposes of kind of evaluating what we've been talking about?
Speaker 1:You know, I think the basis is called collective bargaining, right? And the unionization of collective bargaining says hey, the three of us at the table are going to agree we need to be paid 50 bucks an hour and we're going to. If we don't get paid that 50 bucks an hour, we're going to walk out. And unions have been a great benefit to America. And unions have been a great benefit to America. They've been a source of benefit to the employee, they've been a source of check and balance with ownership and I don't think we need to do without them. Right? I want the freedom of choice to be collective bargaining or not. But I also don't think of my 500 employees that they're all equal. Some of them are really really good at control, some are good at conduit, some are good at managing people, some are great at digging ditches, but they're all in different perspectives, paid based on their merit, based on what they're producing.
Speaker 1:Where collective bargaining says hey, that's a journeyman electrician's job. Only a journeyman can do that. That's a helper job Only a helper can do that. You're a mechanical employee, you can't work to help the other side? Yeah, and the big line, the big difficulty for me is I'm a communication guy. I want to have conversation directly with my employees. The collective bargaining puts an individual between me and them and the employees and talking, and I don't think that's right in any way, that I don't want someone standing between me and another individual to confuse the speech.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's fair. It's funny. I know a fair amount about all of it just because I'm interested in things and stuff.
Speaker 2:But I've never really thought about that specific thing. There's an individual between you and the employee to confuse the speech. I never really thought about that specific thing Like there's an individual between you and the employee to confuse the speech. I never really thought about it like that. That's interesting All of it, the whole conversation for the last 15, 20 minutes or whatever. Very interesting. I think it's helpful for listeners too because, to kind of put a bow on it, I was like not a lot of us have a lot of experience in it. I never had to deal with it. Nobody's ever tried to figure out where I live. Nobody's called me and said hey, I watched your kid go to school today.
Speaker 2:I never had to deal with it and maybe we don't ever have to deal with it, but it's at least just like knowing that issue sits back there. It's interesting to know, and just know about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's like we said it's been 20 years at least, right, and all of a sudden we're hearing the word salting coming out of South Texas and it's like wait a minute For the younger generation. What is that? For us it's like wait a minute. Why are they doing that again? What's going on? I mean, we can communicate better.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a lot to it.
Speaker 3:There's a lot to it. I've seen both From South Side of Chicago, union heavy.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And you see the benefits of it and you see the disadvantages. I'll tell you stories offline of in between the two and seeing the stark differences and trying to merge the two together I think. At the end of the day, it's freedom of choice. That's what we're after, because one might benefit a company in a good way, the other might benefit a company in a good way, the other might benefit a company in a good way, and both are okay 100%.
Speaker 3:So involvement in Texo, which wraps up ABC and AGC you have those protections when you're an association member. We need to remember what it's protecting us from at the end of the day. So thank you for the history lesson, absolutely so. Broken Clay I want to make sure we get this before we wrap up. Broken Clay is a huge tournament that you have that supports Young Life. I believe it supports another charity, search Ministries. It started 20 years ago, so this is your 20th anniversary.
Speaker 1:September. End of September. September 26th and 27th will be our 20th year of doing the Broken Clay. It just started. September. September 26th and 27th will be our 20th year of doing the broken clay.
Speaker 3:It just started as an idea let's pull some people together.
Speaker 1:It did. We have fun doing it. The broken clay actually started because we as Humphrey Associates, being involved in the industry, had helped ASA do a sporting clay tournament, had helped ABC doing a sporting clay tournament, agc Tech so you know a whole perspective of helping everybody do those things. And we watch Austin Commercial have their golf tournament and others do things, and we love doing things with our employees and our customers. So let's have a sporting clay shoot. Literally 40 days before the first one on that Monday morning we said, hey, let's have a sporting clay shoe and we're going to charge. So it's going to be a little different and when we charge, whatever we make over the cost, we're going to give that to a charity. Well, what charity? Well, mom and dad were involved in Young Life in 1959 at W at WW. Samuel, my brother and sister were involved. I was involved. We have a lot of employees that have been involved in or around Young Life. A lot of ex-Young Life employees actually work for the family business today. But in that we were like, okay, we're going to benefit Young Life, we're going to do this.
Speaker 1:And we made a flyer. Jeff Bills and I made up a flyer, sent it out. We had 199 people registered to shoot by that Friday and it was like birthing a child. We were like what are we going to do? What do we do? Can we buy that many shotgun shells? I mean legally, are we going to get arrested?
Speaker 1:So we walked into Bass Pro Shops and our eyes had to look like saucers because the guy walked up and goes y'all are up to something. What can I do to help you? I was like look, I, my mouth overloads my butt every once in a while, but I've committed to do this sporting clay shoot. I've got over 200 people coming and I need shirts and I need some kind of bag and I need to buy shotgun shells for 200 people. How do I do that? He's like I got you Come with me, and so that was 20 years ago. This year we hope to have around 600 people. Thursday is a we call it a Sherpa day because we started this during COVID and we do every 15 minutes, so it's more intentional. Shooting team shows up. They get a guide. Their guide gets all their shirts for them, all their shotgun shells, gets some snacks, gets some water, gives them individually thought about harassment, picks on them, smarts off to them while they're shooting.
Speaker 2:It's like Dick's last resort. You've been there.
Speaker 1:So we're just stirring it up you know, just being a good waiter.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So we're just stirring it up, you know, just being a good waiter, yeah. And we're going to do that in the 26th, on the Sherpa Day, and the 27th we're going to have hopefully over 300 people, maybe four, and we'll start at 9 o'clock. We'll have a breakfast that morning, start at 9 o'clock, have lunch and then be done on Friday in time enough to get to the football games Thursday night. For our upper-level sponsors we're going to do a special event, a dinner. We've done that. We call it the broken bread.
Speaker 1:And for our upper-level sponsors, a good friend of mine, james Africano's chef, comes to town. He used to be the executive chef for Mayo Park Ranch, ted Turner's ranch. Now he has his own restaurant called the Warehouse in Colorado Springs. He's going to come to town. He's going to prepare a four or five course meal for the upper level sponsors. Other employees, guests and others can pay $25 and get a barbecue meal Not quite as nice and we have Carson Peters and his band, who's a bluegrass band coming out of Nashville, and we're going to have a hoedown. Let's go and we're going to do Thursday night upright and just hang out and enjoy each other and tell people thanks for supporting this event over 20 years and see where it goes.
Speaker 3:Still spots available.
Speaker 1:There are.
Speaker 3:Is it brokenclaycom? Where do you go? Where?
Speaker 1:do you?
Speaker 3:go to register or sponsor or get involved.
Speaker 1:Brokenclaycom or thebrokenclaycom. Both are going to take you to a registration flyer. Thursday is sold out, thursday night is not sold out and Friday we have room, plenty of room, of room for individuals to and teams, four person teams, individuals, all of the above um to get involved.
Speaker 3:That's awesome.
Speaker 2:What a monumental effort to like don't overshadow the fact that you guys are doing a ton of work to get it done and lined up and it's going to be a super event, but it's it's a lot goes into that. You guys are dedicating a lot of time and resources, energy, effort to doing it.
Speaker 1:It is. It is there. In fact, there have been years over the 20 where I selfishly and and angrily said it's cheaper to write a check than to run the event. Let me just write a check to Young Life. Um, but the Broken Clay has become a ministry event where everybody there gets a shirt, a bag. We've had guys in London in a bar look at the other end of the bar and not know the guy and see him in a Broken Clay shirt. Everybody there gets a Bible, whether they keep it, give it away or put it in their hunting bag, and it's a great moment to enjoy each other, have an environment where you can talk about Christ and just enjoy the day and raise money for great ministries, both Young Life and the Search Ministries, which is similar to a Young Life, but actually for adults and the crowd that you guys are talking about. That are individuals who want to have meaningful conversation. Why would God let bad things happen to good people and some of those things? Yeah, Super.
Speaker 2:Thanks for your work and doing all that man Nice fun. A lot of people don't say hey, thanks for doing that.
Speaker 1:You're welcome. That's so good, not thanks?
Speaker 2:on my behalf, but just for everybody else. Yeah, it's selfish and I for doing that. You're welcome. That's so good. Not thanks on my behalf, but just for everybody, yeah it's selfish and I love doing it.
Speaker 1:I love hanging out with people and it's a great benefit to Young Life. It's a great benefit. A friend of mine, mike Riley, wrote me a letter at year five and that's when the light went off that, wow, this is more than just a fundraiser, it's a ministry event hanging out with people in the industry, and it's not association-based. I mean, we've got general contractors, subcontractors, we've got our competitors that show up and participate, we've got auto dealerships. One year we had orthopedic surgeon competition between different groups and we're trying to get a Navy SEAL competition going with the Top Gun pilots this year. I don't know if that'll happen. That sounds awesome though.
Speaker 1:There's always yeah, always good competition and it's great fun to make fun of people.
Speaker 3:You got to sprinkle some humor in all this nonsense Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, what did we we miss? I don't know, we've been talking for a minute and make it sort of make it to the end of the thank you guys, the prep sheet. What are we missing?
Speaker 1:the story here so, um, you know, as we talked about all the things we talked about, if I could leave one little closing nugget perspective, two years ago we started a little hat fun thing we're doing called How's your Mom and them, and so some people have seen them around the industry and fun things. But we were lovingly making fun of our friends in East Texas. But we were lovingly making fun of our friends in East Texas and you know, when they greet each other they say hey, how's your mom and?
Speaker 1:dad. So it's all one word. It's colloquial and it's hard to read when it's on the hat, but we made one and in the perspective of that, how's?
Speaker 2:your mom and dad.
Speaker 3:I was wondering what that was when you first showed up.
Speaker 1:I brought you guys a hat. Well, I'm from East.
Speaker 2:Texas. So when I saw it I was like, oh, I know exactly what that is. Like this to me. I was like, oh hey, how's your mama? Now? That's local. I didn't even blink at it.
Speaker 1:I knew exactly what it was. Oh yeah, and so you know, at first it was a hey. That's really funny, right? Because you know we're making fun of our friends in East Texas and ourselves. The dynamic of it became wait a minute, everybody says we have a mental health problem in construction. I've heard you know at the national conventions, I think. When you and I were at the ABC national convention, Kevin, they said construction is number two for suicide in industries across America and it's like man that that's scary?
Speaker 1:I don't see that. I don't feel that, am I just do I have blinders on what's going on. And all of a sudden we became a. This became a theory in a white paper in the background that said our mental health problems could be solved by conversation. And if we stop, just like our friends in East Texas, and say how's your mom and them and we mean it and spend time with those people around us asking the question and giving enough time to have an honest answer, half of our mental health problems would go away. And so How's your Mom and them?
Speaker 1:Has become a fun hat for our employees, but it's also most of them reflect on outdoors. There's a hunting hat, there's a fishing hat, we're trying to make one with a truck covered with mud because we took customers to Vermejo and fortunately no one was injured, but we had six or 14 individuals, five vehicles, two hours in the mud on the road and barely got out. And so we're going to do a How's your Mom and them on that. But the point is, stop. Those employees and those friends and those people around you are hurting during the day. Stop and spend enough time to ask them how they're doing and get an honest answer and listen and that would fix, I believe, the majority of our problems. Back to the stack the phones. Spend time with the people you're around, be engaged, so that would be my nugget. That I really, I think is the biggest deal that we're missing, and it may fix the contract problems, it may fix the building problems, it may fix the other communication errors we have if we spend more time with people.
Speaker 2:I love that, and one of the things we say in the YCC I think it's generally attributed to Melanie is one of the things we're doing over here is a business the old-fashioned way shaking hands. It's not some online forum for the YCC, I don't know. Probably 400 people in the room last night, probably 400 people in the room last night. Maybe 500 people in the room last night shaking hands, laughing, telling stories, talking about work a little bit and asking like how's your mom and him? I was in those conversations, like literally in those conversations, and so yeah, not that you need me to, but I would double down on that because there's something to it for real, across all different aspects of what we're up to.
Speaker 3:So 100% Appreciate you, Randy. You are a patriarch to our industry, man. Yeah for sure, All of a sudden.
Speaker 1:I was a kid at one time. Now I'm the old guy. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and thanks for sitting down with us. When Kevin landed up I was like this is gonna be so exciting. I get just so excited to chat with you and spend some time just listening and learning and telling stories and stuff.
Speaker 1:Thank you guys for asking and taking the time to listen. Heck, yeah, appreciate you both.