June 12, 2025 • 32 mins
Ben Murphy, President of Hospitality Logistics International, Joins Trent and Patrick on “At Home with Roby”. Ben discusses how he grew Hospitality Logistics International, what led him to relocate the business to Charlotte, and offers valuable insights into the ever-evolving hospitality industry. Tune in as Ben, Trent, and Patrick dive into the realities of building a business, the importance of perseverance, and the lessons learned along the way.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the At Home with Ruby Show. I'm Patrick
mc isaac from Ruby Commercial in Services along with Trent
Houston from the Ruby family of Companies. We are your hosts.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
What's up, hey, Patrick? How you been buddy?
Speaker 1 (00:11):
I've been good. I've been good. We've got uh in
house guests. That's always fun.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Are you nervous?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
I'm very nervous.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
You've seen you seem nervous. Jeff's hanging out with us today.
I'm nervous. There's a lot going on.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
You're a little worried. You're gonna do like a breathing
exercise before we get started.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
No, I'm not.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
I had to get my phone ready. I had to
charge my phone up.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
I think you're gonna be okay.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
I think you're gonna be proud of me. Patrick. Uh,
I this morning went and had a CT scan. What
what did they? What are they looking for?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
The c A c uh calcium.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Calcium tests all because of my doctor. You thought I
was gonna say you no, but Uh, you've been on
You've been on a kick. Tell us a little bit
about your journey with that. I think it's good.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Yeah, you know, trend not to get overly personal, but
a lot of people in our sphere of influence that
you know that I know that are in their forties
have have passed away of sudden heart attacks cardiac events,
and I don't God, for some reason put it in
my heart to go do one of these. After about
the third or fourth one that I had seen or
(01:24):
known about, and I read a random LinkedIn post from
somebody I didn't even know that talked about this scan
and I was like, you know what, this is a sign.
I'm going to go do it. My wife and I
both went and did it, and I'm glad that I did.
If I didn't, then I might be looking at a
different outcome in by ten fifteen to maybe never. But
it did definitely open my eyes and it's something I
(01:45):
got to keep an eye on.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Now.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Well, now I think it all comes full circle. I
like to tell stories and get to the point. Later
our guest Ben Murphy, I was talking about the meta
Tranean diet a few minutes ago. I'm very familiar and
I did that this morning and you said you were
on it, So that's a that's the theme. Yeah, I
had a physical I think I said this on the show.
Have my annual physical about a month ago, and I've
(02:10):
over the past couple of years had had higher cholesterol
and uh cholesterol, I guess I said that, right, and
and my doctor you had already said it, But my
doctor said, hey, whyon't you go check this out and
then it'll it'll help us have more definition behind what
we're dealing with, uh, because I've always been anti medicine.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Me too, me too.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
But man, it's hardy salads all the time. I'm just
gonna go ahead and tell you.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
I'm with you. I've been really good since since I've
done it. You kind of kind of get used to it,
though a little bit in a way, like but a
good a good twelve chicken fing wings sounds pretty good
right about now, be honest with you.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
So I had I had a dentist appointment today. My
dentist appointment. I did that. I'm like checking off all
of this, uh this stuff. Because I'm in town for
a couple of days. I got to go back out
for a YPO trip, uh family trip out the Colorado
Springs're gonna have a good times. I talk about this.
Our guests is a fellow I po or. But it's
(03:08):
like a reunion when you go on these trips. You see, folks,
we're in the southern seven to seven southern states. A
lot of folks have been on the show from Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Virginia,
and you see the it's like a family reunion. It
really is so and you then and then I get
geeked up on all this education. So I come back
(03:29):
and shove it down your throat and I were like,
what are you talking about? Stop? I know how it
all goes.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
We've got our own shovels.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Trent. My wife's like, you need a temper how you
deliver this?
Speaker 1 (03:44):
So come on, man, you have really tried. I mean,
I know for over the last ten years you're really
good about being intentional on what you bring back. I
think that's something as you get older. I mean, every
time I get excited, I would try to throw an
idea onto our team. And now it's sort of like, okay,
when the right time is this the right but but
that's good.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
We had our our We do a quarterly off site
off site e o S day with our executive team.
And one of my topics and something we've been talking
about it is embracing AI in the construction business. Uh,
in all businesses, but but our our arena is the
services and construction side of it. So so it's been
(04:26):
good to hear that you, you and EO and Dave
our CEO Maguire in Vistage are are focusing on that.
So that's good. I feel like I brought that in.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Well, well can you good jobs? Is your arm hurting
from hitting your back? Yeah, I'm just joking. But AI
is pretty cool, not only for construction, but if you're
not using it even from a personal standpoint. So like,
if let's say you go to a restaurant, I've got
it down to the point where I'm like, hey, what's
you're talking about? The Mediterranean diet. I'm trying to really
stick to that. I can say, hey, wish to aide
of Noble Smoke, and it'll go scan the menu. It'll say, hey,
(05:01):
these three things would be good to stay away from this.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Order that.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Or you know, if you're at the grocery store and
you're looking at something, then you're not sure if it's
you know, just because it says it's vegan or it's
a turkey sausage or something like that, there might be
things in it that you don't know about just snap
a photo of the dang thing loaded in and it's like,
you know, good, bad and different. I was talking to
somebody else, what's so different about AI than you know?
Just like a Google search? The Google search gives you
(05:25):
an answer, and AI, particularly chatch ept, which is the
most common form of AI used, is it kind of
tells you how to get to the answer instead of
just giving you the answer. I thought that was a
really good, a really good analogy of of what it's
capable of. And to your point, we're playing with this
thing on trying to get it to do take offs
on our plans, commercial plans, and you know, you can
obviously test it against human your human brain, but it's
(05:50):
learning how to do that and learning how we want
it to do it and starting to It's just such
a time saver.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yeah, No, I think it's gonna be great. You can
do more with less, be more efficient and uh and
grow greater. So it's how how how each business and
how in our personal life she embrace it. Speaking of
A I got to go out on the boat yesterday
on the river. It was nice, Yes, it was great.
Uhmell smelled dead catfish and muddy water. I've been at
(06:19):
the beach for about a week and a half. I
think it's been raining here too. Uh, it was raining
at the beach. But it's good to see the river full.
It's the Catabo River all of our not too Charlotte,
North Carolina lakes no leading to not but not hurricane full.
But uh, but it's good. It's good early summer when
when the river has has a lot of water in it. So, yeah,
(06:43):
it was nice to be home. Nice to be back
on Bright Road and see some of our Bright Road cronies.
Got to go into the office to day and see everybody.
Uh yeah. So after after my what what's it called
a calcium scan? Yeah, I went straight over since I
was in South part, went straight over to food court
and got me some some noodles in two spring rolls.
(07:08):
I don't know. I didn't say I if that was Mediterranean.
But I was in the neighborhood. I was in the neighborhood.
Uh so so I got to do that. I did
not eat my spring rolls, so I got to give
them to de Leasha in the office.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
I was like, man, so immediately I was late today
and I ordered it. So I ordered a salad at
the restaurant. It didn't come. So but at some point
you just got to cut tie. So I took off
and ran and thank god, Johnny still there. He's gonna
be He's gonna take it.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
You might need to go play a baseball game, Patrick Man.
The tar Hills lost yesterday in the in the this
is if you if you kind of tracking when we're
recording this early June is the it's the College Baseball
World Series. I thought the tar Hills had a chance
this year, and.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
After going up eighteen to two first game against Arizona,
I thought y'all had it too well.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
We were up the second game and they came back
and it's down. Uh yeah. When my buddy that lives
in uh lives outside of Omaha. Uh. You know Joe
Beckenhower on the show a couple of a couple of
weeks ago when he texts me and says, hey, if
if the Tar Hills make it make it to Omaha,
you are you thinking about coming? We lose every game
(08:20):
after that, thank Joe, Like, yeah, man, I had this dream.
I was admiring the stadium a couple of months ago
when I was out there. Uh, but I don't know.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Maybe Ducal win is Duke get Dukes in.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
I think they're winning. They lost last night. Duke's won
in one right now as we were. Of course, the
channel clears aren't Coastal Carolina. Let's win, Let's win. I
just rode by their stadium on the way home from
the beach yesterday the other day. Uh so, I'll tell you.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
What my dad said. My dad is also a U
and C, and he said, I'm here for Coastal Carolina
because I like the second word in their name. That's
a good way to look at it.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
He must have aied that crap.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
I don't but uh but but but I'm I don't know.
Any day now, I'm gonna start peeling because I got
really sunburnt. Uh Friday chart too. Then at Myrtle Beach,
I got my back all I didn't put any sunscreen
on and it was blazing in about four hours. Been over.
(09:29):
So we'll see how see how itchy is starting to
feel right now?
Speaker 1 (09:32):
If I slap you in the back, that's probably gonna
be a problem.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
If I start peeling during the show, we gotta we
got an issue. Maybe Ben, we'll find out. Maybe Ben's
an expert in sunburn relief of Okay, when we return,
we have my good friend fellow ypl or Ben Murphy
gonna talk about his life, talk about his family, and
talk about his business when we return on that home
(09:56):
with Ruby.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Don't forget. Rugby Services is your one stop soorce for
all your electrical heating, cooling, plumbing and handyman needs. Keep
it easy and get it all done by one. Roby
servicesnow dot com. That's Roby Services now dot com. Welcome
back at Home with Roby. I'm Patrick Pacaac from Roby
Commercial in Services along with Trent Hasten from the Roby
Family of Companies. Where your hosts. We got Ben Murphy in.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
The and y'all had never met, right, I.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Don't think so. I don't think so. You look familiar,
but I I'm sure you probably hear that a lot
punchable face.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
So.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
I can relate. I've never heard Uh, it's kind of
got a slappable back right now. Yeah, I've a definite
range too. I can put.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Up an I can. I have a high pain tolerance.
I know I know no problem with pain, but I
know what you grew up with. Yeah, we're good yeah,
so we just in between the segments we had, we
continued the calcium discussion. Very informative. I've learned a lot
(10:59):
to day. Thank you, Ben, thank you Patrick, guys. Thank
you for educating me. Me feel like I didn't need
a healthy lunch, but I got to go enjoy the
food court and sit outside of South Park.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
It was we could have done the show live from there.
My office is right around the.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Corner there you go.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Allegedly there's a SUFFOC punch in there too, from what
I hear.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Yeah, I did not go there. Yeah, you're on Carnegie right.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
I am right around the corner.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
I knew that. So I was at Cameron Parkways where.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Yeah, do you go to Prospective Health?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
I do not.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Okay, I go Moving Perspective Health, Yeah, which is right there. Doctor.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Yes, yeah, I got a lot of buddies, Brent Beson
and those guys.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
That's right. That doesn't surprise me that Brincos there.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Time I'm doing. I'm doing my annual physical band enough,
we've already been through this. I'm I'm working my way towards.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
I'm just very happy to hear that you're doing that.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Those people don't do it So that's good. So I
appreciate that. So Ben where from so unlike, uh, probably
you guys. I'm from the north. So I'm from New Jersey.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
And what part of New Jersey.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
I'm in the town from caled Morristown, which is about
thirty minutes dead west of Manhattan.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
I've got some family in Colt Snake Red that's pretty nearby.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
That's about an hour south hours like right where the
beach starts, the Jersey Shore for all those who watched TV.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
But for sure, yeah, sure called they the Jersey.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Everywhere else is the beach in Jersey. It's the shore
it is.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
I've been to the Jersey Shore. Dean Parker has a house,
Oh Jersey. It's pretty nice. He's another YPO guy, isn't it. Yeah,
he's in my form.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Man, it's good. I just come up in my head
with like the best concept for said, they should put you,
like like recast a Jersey Shore with all those like
similar type guys and just throw you in the mix.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
I would like it. I like hanging out. It would
be good. That would be good TV. Guys from Jersey.
I think I said this last time last recording of
the show. The first time I ever met anybody from
the Northeast. I don't, or I might have said this
in conversation. Was I went to a fortunate enough to
go to Carolina basketball camp when I was twelve, and
we're all sitting around what was a Granville Towers was
(13:14):
where we stayed, and it's like, hey, where are you from?
Over Charlotte. They're like, where is that? They knew Charlotte,
but they didn't understand what I said for sure, and
uh and now I said.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Well, you know, I was fortunate enough not to be
raised with a Jersey accent. But I will say for
the rest of my crew back home, especially heavy Italian
Jersey people are the best. I hear you.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
My cousins were Vivona's.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Yeah there you go.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Yeah, so definitely we would go visit them and they
would be just talk like just start talking, like what
do you mean I don't have an accent?
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Yeah? Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Well I grew up with a girl whose father was
in the trash business and the Luciano's their last name,
so that sort of her realm of went on in
New Jersey was still there.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Yeah, wow, still existing, kept it clean. Huh. Her dad
didn't have how many siblings do you have.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
So I've got one brother who's twenty months younger than me,
and he's a college professor at Saint Lawrence University, which
is like upstate New York, really far north. He teach
teaches biology, ecology, and really his specialty is renewed blant energy.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Renewable energy.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Interesting, okay, biology and renewable energy.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
I couldn't tell you anything about it, to be honest, understood.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
I think the solar panels and things of that nature.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
But he's he's he's taken the teaching piece interesting enough.
And now he works with some of the big investment
banks on you know, where to put investment dollars for clients.
So he works with like William Blair and JP Morgan
and things like that. So that's pretty cool. It's kind
of a neat, little side hustle to have outside of teaching. Yeah,
for sure.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
How did you get down in North Carolina?
Speaker 3 (14:54):
So after college, I moved to New York and I
was working for a big publicly traded transportation company and
one day got a call from a guy who was
retiring out in Seattle who had a small logistics business
that was doing hotel renovations and I bought that business
in twenty ten and moved to Charlotte in twenty eleven.
(15:16):
Kind of a random roundabout story.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Why did you move that business to Charlotte or was
it already here?
Speaker 3 (15:22):
No, So as we moved, Megan and I, my wife
and I moved to Seattle, and basically in the hotel
renovation business, eighty percent of the customers, so take the
brands out of it that marry out the Hiltons of
the world.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
You know a little bit about this, Yeah, So there's.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Just the brand side of it, right. The ownerships are
anywhere from big privity equity firms like blacks Own and
Brockfield all the way down to family offices that have ten, fifteen,
twenty five hotels. Of that group of people, eighty percent
of those companies are based Chicago and East the big
hubs being Chicago, Atlanta, and Northern Virginia. So I had
(15:58):
thought about moving our business really kind of reached starting
the business in Atlanta, and at the last second, my
wife had gone to high school here and we hadn't
really spent any time here. So I just drove up
here in twenty eleven and I was like the airport's there,
I can live here. That's all pretty convenient and easy,
and took a flyer and moved myself in Megan to
Charlotte and then really built the business from there. Really.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Yeah, So this guy co called you about buying his business.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
So he was a family friend. He had been in
the transportation business and had retired and started, you know,
sort of like most people in the transportations based kind
of start sort of a little freight forwarding business, you know,
non asset based company. And he had a friend who
used to family used to have making furniture in Virginia
and off short it and got a call in two
thousand and six and said, hey, I made all this
(16:48):
furniture for the Peninsula Hotel in Chicago, but I how
to get it from Shanghai to Chicago. Can help me?
And his name was Peter, and Peter said, yeah, no,
probably I can help you. I can do that for you.
So in six oh seven he did that, and then
eight nine, eight and nine came in the business sort
of fell apart, so it did about eight hundred thousand
dollars in revenue and lost two hundred grand and No.
Nine he called me and said, this is a great business,
(17:10):
but I'm sixty five and needs capital and needs somebody
young to run it. You want to do this? So
I bought half the equity in end of nine for
one hundred grand, and then bought the other half a
year later for another one hundred and fifty. Wow.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Yeah, what a story.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
So it was an interesting time. I will say that
I wish I had a reason why we picture all up.
But this is a wonderful place to build the reason
of the same raise a family, and great place to
recruit people.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
I'm gonna be honest with you. I didn't know before,
Patrick Assatt. I want to you know, it was kind
of wanting to know where you're from. Where you came from.
I literally thought there was over a fifty percent. This
is how dumb I am. Over a fifty percent chance
that you were from Charlotte.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
It's even better. I love that.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Yeah, that's true. That's how that's how deep I go
into that type of thinking.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Well, more than half of my adult life I've lived
here now, so that counts close enough me too.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Well. Good, and are you Charlotte team for life now?
Speaker 3 (18:07):
I think so. I mean I've really enjoyed being here.
I mean I spend for my job, spend most of
my time in the big thirty cities in the country,
and there's probably nowhere I'd rather live right now raising
a family than in Charlotte.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Amen. I always say that. We talk about this quite often.
Trent grew up in this area, I did, and I
grew up outside of Atlanta. We talked about that. But
there's something about landing at Douglas Airport and seeing the
city in the skyline that just it just gives me
a feeling of this is where I'm supposed to be sure,
and I think a lot of people get that when
they come here and spend time here. I mean, we
were just so lucky to have this city, and obviously
(18:39):
the proximity of the mountains and the coast, all the
things that we talk about. But it's interesting to hear
somebody else say that as well.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Yeah, I also think, you know, we need to take
a step back from it. From the business side, recruiting
people people wanting to live here has been incredibly helpful,
but the ease of living here. I know that people
who've grown up in Charlotte are frustrated with the growth
and the traffic. I'm here, but you know, if you
go anywhere else, there is not a place you can
live and be fifteen minutes from the airport just doesn't exist.
(19:06):
That's right. And at the end of the day, someone
who grew up in the north where you know, I
took the train to high school, which most people would
never thought of him. Yeah, yeah, so I took the
train forty five minutes each way and it was it
was great, But I didn't think anything Differently. You come
here and people are like, oh my god, you got
to drive to the lake and like the lake's right there.
(19:28):
You know. It's just a different perspective at the end
of the day, which I really appreciate. But about being
here is just you know, the welcoming atmosphere that people
are really great. But it's a great place to raise
your family as well. Know.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Well, well, when I was growing up and we'd ride
into the city. I said this before on the show.
My dad said, hey, son, this is on Saturday. I'm
ten years old. Nine years old. He'd say, there's three
things you need to know about the city. Said number one,
he pointed to the city. He'd say, we have our
livelihood because Hugh McCall built that city. You need to
know that Number two, Hugh McCall wouldn't have been able
to build a city if Jerry or had not built
the airport. Yep, that's a fact, he said. And in
(20:02):
the close family, the springs industry is our and he
said this in full reverence our royal family and helped,
you know, really really build that part of the city
as well.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
I agree. I mean, it's funny the stories of the
I call them the old families. So when people talk
about Charlotte, I say, things only get done here if
the old families want to getting done, and if you
cross that to the wrong side, things get closed out
pretty quickly, which I also think that helps the city
actually move forward in the right way versus one person
kind of dominating.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Well you probably throw the Harris family in there as well. Sure, yeah,
I mean in many others. But that's interesting. You remember
that as a kid.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
I just think it's so cool now that I'm I'm
in my mid forties and I've been doing this for
over twenty five years out of college and getting just
that those three little principles, there's three little facts, and
getting to watch it. I live, I live about five
minutes ten minutes west of the airport on the river.
I mean, so we're right beside the airport. So this
(21:00):
so convenient. I don't travel a bunch doing what we do,
as you do, how often do you travel?
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Being so I'm right now, I'm traveling two weeks every month.
But you know, I don't do long trips anymore. A
lot of it is a Tuesday to Thursday. We acquired
a business last closed last Thursday, so I'm going out
there tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Cool graduation, thank you.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
And so I'm doing a lot more of picking and
choosing my traveling versus it being dictated to me. But
for the first ten years, from twenty ten really up
until COVID, it was probably every week. I tell this
funny story that when my older son who's thirteen now,
was born, I went to Asia four days later, and
you know, work just took me there and I had
(21:44):
to go, and I just sprinted for a decade, and
then COVID came in, which is a nice little opportunity.
They say, I really want to continue to travel like
this and miss your kid's life and whatnot. So kind
of timed out right. The business grew enough that you know,
we have other people who can do more of the
heavy lifting than I have anymore. But the convenience of
getting it out here has been incredible.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
I do think, and I talk about this a lot.
I do think you need a sprint for a decade
ish if you want to be successful on the business
side of your life. That's what That's what a lot
of young folks miss.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
They want to be these high flying super success We're in.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
The you know, we're obviously we're in the world of gratification.
I mean, I mean, it's a given to you.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
I didn't travel, but I slept on the office floor
about three nights a week. Uh, And if I drove
up my heel and saw my house before seven thirty
or eight o'clock at night, I felt guilty. That's right,
because that's just what I had done to myself. Uh.
But frankly, I'm glad I did that early in my life,
and I'm glad I'm talking about it earlier. Knock on wood.
(22:44):
I'm healthy, and I have my kids, and I'm getting
to spend time with them and empower others in our
business to succeed.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
I agree, you got to make a roadway for the
rest of the management team. In your company to know
that they can grow, put the time and effort and
get reward it as well. And if I'm either controlling
all of it and not letting them grow, they end
up getting discouraged and want to go do something else.
So you got to create the pathway for the people
next generation.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
So how did you You bought a eight hundred thousand
dollars business that lost two hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
How did you?
Speaker 2 (23:16):
How did so? I'm third generation family business that I
had this platform that I was able to grow, But
it's how did you do that?
Speaker 3 (23:23):
So funny enough, the people who worked for me know
the stories I've told a thousand times. But you know
when I showed up there in January seventh, twenty ten,
at the end of January, you know, we just bought
the business. I was really young. I'd bought it when
I was twenty nine, had just turned thirty. I didn't
really understand what it took to build a business. I
(23:43):
worked for a big, publicly traded company ran it.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Most people do, yeah, and I.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Ran a big division. It was like a you know,
one hundred and fifty million dollar business. But when you
work for a big corporation. You think you're controlling it,
but really all you're doing is growing revenue and controlling expenses.
You're not really setting strategy recruiting correct. Not worried about
ar now, worried about cash flow.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Hey, cash as IPO. Our bond is when we put
our head on a pillar at night. We have families
that are were responded for.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
It's our bond, that's right. So continue, I want.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
To touch on that too. I came from corporate to
the to work with with with with Trent and these
guys at Roby, and it's like you never touched the
cash at a corporate company, and it's like cash flow,
that's right, what do you just pay the billred percent?
It was just that was a big eye opener.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
When Ben said cash flow, he looked right in Patrick's side.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
I felt a connection there. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Well it's funny, you know. So in that January end
of January twenty ten, we did five thousand dollars in
revenue and lost forty grand. So I went to Peter.
I was using his office in Seattle now and this
is a true story. I sat in his office, I
took the piano I slid across the table and I
was like, what do you want me to do with us?
And he was like hey. I was like, I don't
(24:59):
know how to fix this. I don't have any customers
or call I don't know even know the business really well.
All I knew is I was thirty didn't want to
work for corporate America and thought I was an entrepreneur
and a leader and all the other fun stuff that comes
with But I was like, I don't know how to
fix that. And he was like, you go figure out
to fix it. If you need the money, we'll raise it.
I said, okay. So I just went out and Monday
(25:21):
through Friday and just went everywhere. And fortunately, because the
market had been soft in the hotel business, every potential
customer would meet with me. If I was like, hey,
i'll be in la I'll buy you lunch. Yeah, come
see me. I'll be in Atlanta. Come by line hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Come.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
I can't spend any money. So I did that for
an entire year and a half. And when the business
turned into eleven, you know, people were bidding to us
and we just started building it sort of brick by
brick and made some money in twenty eleven and then
since then it's been great.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
So I spent a little bit of time in a
previous life dealing with we called it hospitality, but hotels.
And isn't it like every six or seven years of
major flags force you to renovate.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
That's exactly right, So kind of breaking in two different buckets.
So the select service, Hampton in courtyard, you know hotels,
those are on a six to seven cycle. Full luxury
hotel is trying to get seven to nine years out
of it depends on where they are and where their
climate is. So you'll see the Caribbeans kind of renovate
quicker because the salt air just beating on the furniture.
(26:22):
But if you go to place like Chicago, you know
the peninsula is going to try to stay for nine
to ten years. But it's almost like an annuity. Now
that I've had the business for fifteen years, get we're
going through like some of the properties the third or
fourth cycle now, which is kind of neat to kind
of see how they changed over time, and you know,
it gives you a birth of you know, where the
(26:42):
market is and how it changes.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
So we're so COVID was a shock for sure. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
So about four and a half months from March of
twenty twenty until September of that year, all the bidding
just stopped. You know, we do five hundred tonerations a year,
so we've bid on called seven hundred. The bidding just
collapsed and we had plenty of work. All the work,
it's the money gets allocated usually eight to twelve months
(27:11):
in advance. So nineteen was a great year. All the
work in twenty twenty rolled forward, but then if we're
not booking for twenty one, it starts to slow down
pretty quickly. Fortunately, the market turned somewhat quickly in the fall,
and really the big capital, the Brookfields and the Black
zones of the world were like, hey, let's take advantage
(27:31):
yapp see's low, let's renovate. Now that kind of worked.
And also hotels is our main business, but we also
do stadium new build stadiums, so like so far where
the rams and the charge was played was getting built
during that time, and we worked that entire summer. It
was a great project to have during COVID and we're
doing the bill stadium that are you the lead GC? No,
(27:53):
we don't do GC work. So what we do so
all the luxury suites in the public space where you walk,
where you'll see airs or planters or tables, all the
stuff in the largery sweets, we install all that. So
we don't pour concrete, we don't put in the seats,
we don't put in the goalpost. But after that we
handle everything.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Else, kind of like the high end finishes.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Correct. We basically say, if you took a hotel or
a stadium turned upside down and shook it, everything that
falls out, that's all the stuff.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Well, it's a great analogy.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
So the same with the stadium. Right, everything that's not
locked into place that gets placed.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
We're installing it, and you source, you vertically integrate those products.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
We don't buy any of it and don't make the
product once it's made by whoever the manufacturers. We handle
the shipping warehouse and install those.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Mattresses, all those things a lot, so.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
We stay out of you know, we don't source, and
we don't want to manufacture. We really want to be
in that sort of supply chain logistics space. It's one
of those things that you guys just stay at hotels,
you know, your whole life. Yeah, no one ever goes
in there and goes, I wonder who put this stuff
in here? By the way, we love you know, we
from a competition standpoint to stay off the grid a
(29:03):
little bit.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
It's not like trying to make or something that's right
exactly right. That is very interesting, that's cool.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
But I think a lot of people that probably listen
to the show do think about that, right, how does
this get here? Because there's so much things that are
in a hotel where and think about all the pictures
on the wall. I mean, you know, this is what
you do with every day, the side tables, the desk,
I mean, the lambs, all the thing. It's a lot, dude.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Do y'all do this interior design?
Speaker 3 (29:29):
We don't do anything on the design side. Really, stay
out of design procurement GC work.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
It's really they say, hey, here's here's what we want
for this hotel. You say, got it? Cool, we got
source it. We'll put our doll in for you. It's easy,
button off we.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Go, right, So all these sourcing firms, they'll go out,
they'll find who to who to buy it from, either
you know, in Asia or Vietnam wherever it may be.
Once it's made, they call us. We you know, range
ocean shipping or effort, whatever it may be.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
You create the timeline, correct in the production schedule.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
Exactly right, I hear you.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
So do you work only in the US.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
We do some work in Mexico, Canada, and we do
a fair amount in the Caribbean. We do a little
bit in Western Europe. It's a little bit of different
model in Europe. We do think there's a growth opportunity
for us. There a lot of our clients transition over right,
So the big solid lol funds will have money invested
in Europe the same that will U US.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
You'll follow your clients. I heard that.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Well man, how can people look you up?
Speaker 3 (30:24):
Man?
Speaker 2 (30:24):
It's so cool, so awesome to hear your story, and
you did so well talking about it.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Thanks. Well, you know we're Our company is called Hospitalogistics International.
Our websites hospitalologistics dot com. Obviously I think my name
is on the website. We just did a redesign. So
I'm easy to find, easy to hunt down, and on
Carnegie Boulevard, on a Carnegie Bulevard.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
But one thing you left at where did you go
to college?
Speaker 3 (30:47):
So I went to a small school in a hog
called Dennison University. Very cool. I played lacrosse in high
school and played across in college there and met my wife, Megan,
who graduated from Country Day in ninety eight. We met
there and been together since the weekend after nine to eleven,
which is a crazy landmark.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
But yeah, yeah, man, I uh one, Dennis. In fact,
I'm sure it has nothing to do with the university.
I bought a penny mining stot called Dennison one time
that went to zero. How about that.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Penny stock went to zero? That seems it seems logical.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Uh, I love that number two. I saw that you
were an economics major. I too, am an economics major.
Soon brother got on that. Uh. I understand that type
of language, but that it's funny. People were like, how
in the world are you economics? I like that talk.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
I don't me too.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
So well cool, Well, thank you for being here, Ben,
Uh speed dating on steroids really worth today. I'm so
excited to know more about you and your business. Thank
you so much.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
Thanks, guys, I enjoyed it so much.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Thanks for coming.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Yeah, listen, hey, go do the Golden rule today. Treat
others the way you want to be treated, and carry
a smile around on your face. You don't know who
it will affect. Thank you for listening to At Home
with Roby
Welcome to the At Home with Ruby Show. I'm Patrick
mc isaac from Ruby Commercial in Services along with Trent
Houston from the Ruby family of Companies. We are your hosts.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
What's up, hey, Patrick? How you been buddy?
Speaker 1 (00:11):
I've been good. I've been good. We've got uh in
house guests. That's always fun.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Are you nervous?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
I'm very nervous.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
You've seen you seem nervous. Jeff's hanging out with us today.
I'm nervous. There's a lot going on.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
You're a little worried. You're gonna do like a breathing
exercise before we get started.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
No, I'm not.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
I had to get my phone ready. I had to
charge my phone up.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
I think you're gonna be okay.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
I think you're gonna be proud of me. Patrick. Uh,
I this morning went and had a CT scan. What
what did they? What are they looking for?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
The c A c uh calcium.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Calcium tests all because of my doctor. You thought I
was gonna say you no, but Uh, you've been on
You've been on a kick. Tell us a little bit
about your journey with that. I think it's good.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Yeah, you know, trend not to get overly personal, but
a lot of people in our sphere of influence that
you know that I know that are in their forties
have have passed away of sudden heart attacks cardiac events,
and I don't God, for some reason put it in
my heart to go do one of these. After about
the third or fourth one that I had seen or
(01:24):
known about, and I read a random LinkedIn post from
somebody I didn't even know that talked about this scan
and I was like, you know what, this is a sign.
I'm going to go do it. My wife and I
both went and did it, and I'm glad that I did.
If I didn't, then I might be looking at a
different outcome in by ten fifteen to maybe never. But
it did definitely open my eyes and it's something I
(01:45):
got to keep an eye on.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Now.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Well, now I think it all comes full circle. I
like to tell stories and get to the point. Later
our guest Ben Murphy, I was talking about the meta
Tranean diet a few minutes ago. I'm very familiar and
I did that this morning and you said you were
on it, So that's a that's the theme. Yeah, I
had a physical I think I said this on the show.
Have my annual physical about a month ago, and I've
(02:10):
over the past couple of years had had higher cholesterol
and uh cholesterol, I guess I said that, right, and
and my doctor you had already said it, But my
doctor said, hey, whyon't you go check this out and
then it'll it'll help us have more definition behind what
we're dealing with, uh, because I've always been anti medicine.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Me too, me too.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
But man, it's hardy salads all the time. I'm just
gonna go ahead and tell you.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
I'm with you. I've been really good since since I've
done it. You kind of kind of get used to it,
though a little bit in a way, like but a
good a good twelve chicken fing wings sounds pretty good
right about now, be honest with you.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
So I had I had a dentist appointment today. My
dentist appointment. I did that. I'm like checking off all
of this, uh this stuff. Because I'm in town for
a couple of days. I got to go back out
for a YPO trip, uh family trip out the Colorado
Springs're gonna have a good times. I talk about this.
Our guests is a fellow I po or. But it's
(03:08):
like a reunion when you go on these trips. You see, folks,
we're in the southern seven to seven southern states. A
lot of folks have been on the show from Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Virginia,
and you see the it's like a family reunion. It
really is so and you then and then I get
geeked up on all this education. So I come back
(03:29):
and shove it down your throat and I were like,
what are you talking about? Stop? I know how it
all goes.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
We've got our own shovels.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Trent. My wife's like, you need a temper how you
deliver this?
Speaker 1 (03:44):
So come on, man, you have really tried. I mean,
I know for over the last ten years you're really
good about being intentional on what you bring back. I
think that's something as you get older. I mean, every
time I get excited, I would try to throw an
idea onto our team. And now it's sort of like, okay,
when the right time is this the right but but
that's good.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
We had our our We do a quarterly off site
off site e o S day with our executive team.
And one of my topics and something we've been talking
about it is embracing AI in the construction business. Uh,
in all businesses, but but our our arena is the
services and construction side of it. So so it's been
(04:26):
good to hear that you, you and EO and Dave
our CEO Maguire in Vistage are are focusing on that.
So that's good. I feel like I brought that in.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Well, well can you good jobs? Is your arm hurting
from hitting your back? Yeah, I'm just joking. But AI
is pretty cool, not only for construction, but if you're
not using it even from a personal standpoint. So like,
if let's say you go to a restaurant, I've got
it down to the point where I'm like, hey, what's
you're talking about? The Mediterranean diet. I'm trying to really
stick to that. I can say, hey, wish to aide
of Noble Smoke, and it'll go scan the menu. It'll say, hey,
(05:01):
these three things would be good to stay away from this.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Order that.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Or you know, if you're at the grocery store and
you're looking at something, then you're not sure if it's
you know, just because it says it's vegan or it's
a turkey sausage or something like that, there might be
things in it that you don't know about just snap
a photo of the dang thing loaded in and it's like,
you know, good, bad and different. I was talking to
somebody else, what's so different about AI than you know?
Just like a Google search? The Google search gives you
(05:25):
an answer, and AI, particularly chatch ept, which is the
most common form of AI used, is it kind of
tells you how to get to the answer instead of
just giving you the answer. I thought that was a
really good, a really good analogy of of what it's
capable of. And to your point, we're playing with this
thing on trying to get it to do take offs
on our plans, commercial plans, and you know, you can
obviously test it against human your human brain, but it's
(05:50):
learning how to do that and learning how we want
it to do it and starting to It's just such
a time saver.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yeah, No, I think it's gonna be great. You can
do more with less, be more efficient and uh and
grow greater. So it's how how how each business and
how in our personal life she embrace it. Speaking of
A I got to go out on the boat yesterday
on the river. It was nice, Yes, it was great.
Uhmell smelled dead catfish and muddy water. I've been at
(06:19):
the beach for about a week and a half. I
think it's been raining here too. Uh, it was raining
at the beach. But it's good to see the river full.
It's the Catabo River all of our not too Charlotte,
North Carolina lakes no leading to not but not hurricane full.
But uh, but it's good. It's good early summer when
when the river has has a lot of water in it. So, yeah,
(06:43):
it was nice to be home. Nice to be back
on Bright Road and see some of our Bright Road cronies.
Got to go into the office to day and see everybody.
Uh yeah. So after after my what what's it called
a calcium scan? Yeah, I went straight over since I
was in South part, went straight over to food court
and got me some some noodles in two spring rolls.
(07:08):
I don't know. I didn't say I if that was Mediterranean.
But I was in the neighborhood. I was in the neighborhood.
Uh so so I got to do that. I did
not eat my spring rolls, so I got to give
them to de Leasha in the office.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
I was like, man, so immediately I was late today
and I ordered it. So I ordered a salad at
the restaurant. It didn't come. So but at some point
you just got to cut tie. So I took off
and ran and thank god, Johnny still there. He's gonna
be He's gonna take it.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
You might need to go play a baseball game, Patrick Man.
The tar Hills lost yesterday in the in the this
is if you if you kind of tracking when we're
recording this early June is the it's the College Baseball
World Series. I thought the tar Hills had a chance
this year, and.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
After going up eighteen to two first game against Arizona,
I thought y'all had it too well.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
We were up the second game and they came back
and it's down. Uh yeah. When my buddy that lives
in uh lives outside of Omaha. Uh. You know Joe
Beckenhower on the show a couple of a couple of
weeks ago when he texts me and says, hey, if
if the Tar Hills make it make it to Omaha,
you are you thinking about coming? We lose every game
(08:20):
after that, thank Joe, Like, yeah, man, I had this dream.
I was admiring the stadium a couple of months ago
when I was out there. Uh, but I don't know.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Maybe Ducal win is Duke get Dukes in.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
I think they're winning. They lost last night. Duke's won
in one right now as we were. Of course, the
channel clears aren't Coastal Carolina. Let's win, Let's win. I
just rode by their stadium on the way home from
the beach yesterday the other day. Uh so, I'll tell you.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
What my dad said. My dad is also a U
and C, and he said, I'm here for Coastal Carolina
because I like the second word in their name. That's
a good way to look at it.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
He must have aied that crap.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
I don't but uh but but but I'm I don't know.
Any day now, I'm gonna start peeling because I got
really sunburnt. Uh Friday chart too. Then at Myrtle Beach,
I got my back all I didn't put any sunscreen
on and it was blazing in about four hours. Been over.
(09:29):
So we'll see how see how itchy is starting to
feel right now?
Speaker 1 (09:32):
If I slap you in the back, that's probably gonna
be a problem.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
If I start peeling during the show, we gotta we
got an issue. Maybe Ben, we'll find out. Maybe Ben's
an expert in sunburn relief of Okay, when we return,
we have my good friend fellow ypl or Ben Murphy
gonna talk about his life, talk about his family, and
talk about his business when we return on that home
(09:56):
with Ruby.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Don't forget. Rugby Services is your one stop soorce for
all your electrical heating, cooling, plumbing and handyman needs. Keep
it easy and get it all done by one. Roby
servicesnow dot com. That's Roby Services now dot com. Welcome
back at Home with Roby. I'm Patrick Pacaac from Roby
Commercial in Services along with Trent Hasten from the Roby
Family of Companies. Where your hosts. We got Ben Murphy in.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
The and y'all had never met, right, I.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Don't think so. I don't think so. You look familiar,
but I I'm sure you probably hear that a lot
punchable face.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
So.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
I can relate. I've never heard Uh, it's kind of
got a slappable back right now. Yeah, I've a definite
range too. I can put.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Up an I can. I have a high pain tolerance.
I know I know no problem with pain, but I
know what you grew up with. Yeah, we're good yeah,
so we just in between the segments we had, we
continued the calcium discussion. Very informative. I've learned a lot
(10:59):
to day. Thank you, Ben, thank you Patrick, guys. Thank
you for educating me. Me feel like I didn't need
a healthy lunch, but I got to go enjoy the
food court and sit outside of South Park.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
It was we could have done the show live from there.
My office is right around the.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Corner there you go.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Allegedly there's a SUFFOC punch in there too, from what
I hear.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Yeah, I did not go there. Yeah, you're on Carnegie right.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
I am right around the corner.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
I knew that. So I was at Cameron Parkways where.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Yeah, do you go to Prospective Health?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
I do not.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Okay, I go Moving Perspective Health, Yeah, which is right there. Doctor.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Yes, yeah, I got a lot of buddies, Brent Beson
and those guys.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
That's right. That doesn't surprise me that Brincos there.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Time I'm doing. I'm doing my annual physical band enough,
we've already been through this. I'm I'm working my way towards.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
I'm just very happy to hear that you're doing that.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Those people don't do it So that's good. So I
appreciate that. So Ben where from so unlike, uh, probably
you guys. I'm from the north. So I'm from New Jersey.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
And what part of New Jersey.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
I'm in the town from caled Morristown, which is about
thirty minutes dead west of Manhattan.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
I've got some family in Colt Snake Red that's pretty nearby.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
That's about an hour south hours like right where the
beach starts, the Jersey Shore for all those who watched TV.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
But for sure, yeah, sure called they the Jersey.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Everywhere else is the beach in Jersey. It's the shore
it is.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
I've been to the Jersey Shore. Dean Parker has a house,
Oh Jersey. It's pretty nice. He's another YPO guy, isn't it. Yeah,
he's in my form.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Man, it's good. I just come up in my head
with like the best concept for said, they should put you,
like like recast a Jersey Shore with all those like
similar type guys and just throw you in the mix.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
I would like it. I like hanging out. It would
be good. That would be good TV. Guys from Jersey.
I think I said this last time last recording of
the show. The first time I ever met anybody from
the Northeast. I don't, or I might have said this
in conversation. Was I went to a fortunate enough to
go to Carolina basketball camp when I was twelve, and
we're all sitting around what was a Granville Towers was
(13:14):
where we stayed, and it's like, hey, where are you from?
Over Charlotte. They're like, where is that? They knew Charlotte,
but they didn't understand what I said for sure, and
uh and now I said.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Well, you know, I was fortunate enough not to be
raised with a Jersey accent. But I will say for
the rest of my crew back home, especially heavy Italian
Jersey people are the best. I hear you.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
My cousins were Vivona's.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Yeah there you go.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Yeah, so definitely we would go visit them and they
would be just talk like just start talking, like what
do you mean I don't have an accent?
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Yeah? Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Well I grew up with a girl whose father was
in the trash business and the Luciano's their last name,
so that sort of her realm of went on in
New Jersey was still there.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Yeah, wow, still existing, kept it clean. Huh. Her dad
didn't have how many siblings do you have.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
So I've got one brother who's twenty months younger than me,
and he's a college professor at Saint Lawrence University, which
is like upstate New York, really far north. He teach
teaches biology, ecology, and really his specialty is renewed blant energy.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Renewable energy.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Interesting, okay, biology and renewable energy.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
I couldn't tell you anything about it, to be honest, understood.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
I think the solar panels and things of that nature.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
But he's he's he's taken the teaching piece interesting enough.
And now he works with some of the big investment
banks on you know, where to put investment dollars for clients.
So he works with like William Blair and JP Morgan
and things like that. So that's pretty cool. It's kind
of a neat, little side hustle to have outside of teaching. Yeah,
for sure.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
How did you get down in North Carolina?
Speaker 3 (14:54):
So after college, I moved to New York and I
was working for a big publicly traded transportation company and
one day got a call from a guy who was
retiring out in Seattle who had a small logistics business
that was doing hotel renovations and I bought that business
in twenty ten and moved to Charlotte in twenty eleven.
(15:16):
Kind of a random roundabout story.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Why did you move that business to Charlotte or was
it already here?
Speaker 3 (15:22):
No, So as we moved, Megan and I, my wife
and I moved to Seattle, and basically in the hotel
renovation business, eighty percent of the customers, so take the
brands out of it that marry out the Hiltons of
the world.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
You know a little bit about this, Yeah, So there's.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Just the brand side of it, right. The ownerships are
anywhere from big privity equity firms like blacks Own and
Brockfield all the way down to family offices that have ten, fifteen,
twenty five hotels. Of that group of people, eighty percent
of those companies are based Chicago and East the big
hubs being Chicago, Atlanta, and Northern Virginia. So I had
(15:58):
thought about moving our business really kind of reached starting
the business in Atlanta, and at the last second, my
wife had gone to high school here and we hadn't
really spent any time here. So I just drove up
here in twenty eleven and I was like the airport's there,
I can live here. That's all pretty convenient and easy,
and took a flyer and moved myself in Megan to
Charlotte and then really built the business from there. Really.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Yeah, So this guy co called you about buying his business.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
So he was a family friend. He had been in
the transportation business and had retired and started, you know,
sort of like most people in the transportations based kind
of start sort of a little freight forwarding business, you know,
non asset based company. And he had a friend who
used to family used to have making furniture in Virginia
and off short it and got a call in two
thousand and six and said, hey, I made all this
(16:48):
furniture for the Peninsula Hotel in Chicago, but I how
to get it from Shanghai to Chicago. Can help me?
And his name was Peter, and Peter said, yeah, no,
probably I can help you. I can do that for you.
So in six oh seven he did that, and then
eight nine, eight and nine came in the business sort
of fell apart, so it did about eight hundred thousand
dollars in revenue and lost two hundred grand and No.
Nine he called me and said, this is a great business,
(17:10):
but I'm sixty five and needs capital and needs somebody
young to run it. You want to do this? So
I bought half the equity in end of nine for
one hundred grand, and then bought the other half a
year later for another one hundred and fifty. Wow.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Yeah, what a story.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
So it was an interesting time. I will say that
I wish I had a reason why we picture all up.
But this is a wonderful place to build the reason
of the same raise a family, and great place to
recruit people.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
I'm gonna be honest with you. I didn't know before,
Patrick Assatt. I want to you know, it was kind
of wanting to know where you're from. Where you came from.
I literally thought there was over a fifty percent. This
is how dumb I am. Over a fifty percent chance
that you were from Charlotte.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
It's even better. I love that.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Yeah, that's true. That's how that's how deep I go
into that type of thinking.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Well, more than half of my adult life I've lived
here now, so that counts close enough me too.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Well. Good, and are you Charlotte team for life now?
Speaker 3 (18:07):
I think so. I mean I've really enjoyed being here.
I mean I spend for my job, spend most of
my time in the big thirty cities in the country,
and there's probably nowhere I'd rather live right now raising
a family than in Charlotte.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Amen. I always say that. We talk about this quite often.
Trent grew up in this area, I did, and I
grew up outside of Atlanta. We talked about that. But
there's something about landing at Douglas Airport and seeing the
city in the skyline that just it just gives me
a feeling of this is where I'm supposed to be sure,
and I think a lot of people get that when
they come here and spend time here. I mean, we
were just so lucky to have this city, and obviously
(18:39):
the proximity of the mountains and the coast, all the
things that we talk about. But it's interesting to hear
somebody else say that as well.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Yeah, I also think, you know, we need to take
a step back from it. From the business side, recruiting
people people wanting to live here has been incredibly helpful,
but the ease of living here. I know that people
who've grown up in Charlotte are frustrated with the growth
and the traffic. I'm here, but you know, if you
go anywhere else, there is not a place you can
live and be fifteen minutes from the airport just doesn't exist.
(19:06):
That's right. And at the end of the day, someone
who grew up in the north where you know, I
took the train to high school, which most people would
never thought of him. Yeah, yeah, so I took the
train forty five minutes each way and it was it
was great, But I didn't think anything Differently. You come
here and people are like, oh my god, you got
to drive to the lake and like the lake's right there.
(19:28):
You know. It's just a different perspective at the end
of the day, which I really appreciate. But about being
here is just you know, the welcoming atmosphere that people
are really great. But it's a great place to raise
your family as well. Know.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Well, well, when I was growing up and we'd ride
into the city. I said this before on the show.
My dad said, hey, son, this is on Saturday. I'm
ten years old. Nine years old. He'd say, there's three
things you need to know about the city. Said number one,
he pointed to the city. He'd say, we have our
livelihood because Hugh McCall built that city. You need to
know that Number two, Hugh McCall wouldn't have been able
to build a city if Jerry or had not built
the airport. Yep, that's a fact, he said. And in
(20:02):
the close family, the springs industry is our and he
said this in full reverence our royal family and helped,
you know, really really build that part of the city
as well.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
I agree. I mean, it's funny the stories of the
I call them the old families. So when people talk
about Charlotte, I say, things only get done here if
the old families want to getting done, and if you
cross that to the wrong side, things get closed out
pretty quickly, which I also think that helps the city
actually move forward in the right way versus one person
kind of dominating.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Well you probably throw the Harris family in there as well. Sure, yeah,
I mean in many others. But that's interesting. You remember
that as a kid.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
I just think it's so cool now that I'm I'm
in my mid forties and I've been doing this for
over twenty five years out of college and getting just
that those three little principles, there's three little facts, and
getting to watch it. I live, I live about five
minutes ten minutes west of the airport on the river.
I mean, so we're right beside the airport. So this
(21:00):
so convenient. I don't travel a bunch doing what we do,
as you do, how often do you travel?
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Being so I'm right now, I'm traveling two weeks every month.
But you know, I don't do long trips anymore. A
lot of it is a Tuesday to Thursday. We acquired
a business last closed last Thursday, so I'm going out
there tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Cool graduation, thank you.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
And so I'm doing a lot more of picking and
choosing my traveling versus it being dictated to me. But
for the first ten years, from twenty ten really up
until COVID, it was probably every week. I tell this
funny story that when my older son who's thirteen now,
was born, I went to Asia four days later, and
you know, work just took me there and I had
(21:44):
to go, and I just sprinted for a decade, and
then COVID came in, which is a nice little opportunity.
They say, I really want to continue to travel like
this and miss your kid's life and whatnot. So kind
of timed out right. The business grew enough that you know,
we have other people who can do more of the
heavy lifting than I have anymore. But the convenience of
getting it out here has been incredible.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
I do think, and I talk about this a lot.
I do think you need a sprint for a decade
ish if you want to be successful on the business
side of your life. That's what That's what a lot
of young folks miss.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
They want to be these high flying super success We're in.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
The you know, we're obviously we're in the world of gratification.
I mean, I mean, it's a given to you.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
I didn't travel, but I slept on the office floor
about three nights a week. Uh, And if I drove
up my heel and saw my house before seven thirty
or eight o'clock at night, I felt guilty. That's right,
because that's just what I had done to myself. Uh.
But frankly, I'm glad I did that early in my life,
and I'm glad I'm talking about it earlier. Knock on wood.
(22:44):
I'm healthy, and I have my kids, and I'm getting
to spend time with them and empower others in our
business to succeed.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
I agree, you got to make a roadway for the
rest of the management team. In your company to know
that they can grow, put the time and effort and
get reward it as well. And if I'm either controlling
all of it and not letting them grow, they end
up getting discouraged and want to go do something else.
So you got to create the pathway for the people
next generation.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
So how did you You bought a eight hundred thousand
dollars business that lost two hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
How did you?
Speaker 2 (23:16):
How did so? I'm third generation family business that I
had this platform that I was able to grow, But
it's how did you do that?
Speaker 3 (23:23):
So funny enough, the people who worked for me know
the stories I've told a thousand times. But you know
when I showed up there in January seventh, twenty ten,
at the end of January, you know, we just bought
the business. I was really young. I'd bought it when
I was twenty nine, had just turned thirty. I didn't
really understand what it took to build a business. I
(23:43):
worked for a big, publicly traded company ran it.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Most people do, yeah, and I.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Ran a big division. It was like a you know,
one hundred and fifty million dollar business. But when you
work for a big corporation. You think you're controlling it,
but really all you're doing is growing revenue and controlling expenses.
You're not really setting strategy recruiting correct. Not worried about
ar now, worried about cash flow.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Hey, cash as IPO. Our bond is when we put
our head on a pillar at night. We have families
that are were responded for.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
It's our bond, that's right. So continue, I want.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
To touch on that too. I came from corporate to
the to work with with with with Trent and these
guys at Roby, and it's like you never touched the
cash at a corporate company, and it's like cash flow,
that's right, what do you just pay the billred percent?
It was just that was a big eye opener.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
When Ben said cash flow, he looked right in Patrick's side.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
I felt a connection there. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Well it's funny, you know. So in that January end
of January twenty ten, we did five thousand dollars in
revenue and lost forty grand. So I went to Peter.
I was using his office in Seattle now and this
is a true story. I sat in his office, I
took the piano I slid across the table and I
was like, what do you want me to do with us?
And he was like hey. I was like, I don't
(24:59):
know how to fix this. I don't have any customers
or call I don't know even know the business really well.
All I knew is I was thirty didn't want to
work for corporate America and thought I was an entrepreneur
and a leader and all the other fun stuff that comes
with But I was like, I don't know how to
fix that. And he was like, you go figure out
to fix it. If you need the money, we'll raise it.
I said, okay. So I just went out and Monday
(25:21):
through Friday and just went everywhere. And fortunately, because the
market had been soft in the hotel business, every potential
customer would meet with me. If I was like, hey,
i'll be in la I'll buy you lunch. Yeah, come
see me. I'll be in Atlanta. Come by line hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Come.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
I can't spend any money. So I did that for
an entire year and a half. And when the business
turned into eleven, you know, people were bidding to us
and we just started building it sort of brick by
brick and made some money in twenty eleven and then
since then it's been great.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
So I spent a little bit of time in a
previous life dealing with we called it hospitality, but hotels.
And isn't it like every six or seven years of
major flags force you to renovate.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
That's exactly right, So kind of breaking in two different buckets.
So the select service, Hampton in courtyard, you know hotels,
those are on a six to seven cycle. Full luxury
hotel is trying to get seven to nine years out
of it depends on where they are and where their
climate is. So you'll see the Caribbeans kind of renovate
quicker because the salt air just beating on the furniture.
(26:22):
But if you go to place like Chicago, you know
the peninsula is going to try to stay for nine
to ten years. But it's almost like an annuity. Now
that I've had the business for fifteen years, get we're
going through like some of the properties the third or
fourth cycle now, which is kind of neat to kind
of see how they changed over time, and you know,
it gives you a birth of you know, where the
(26:42):
market is and how it changes.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
So we're so COVID was a shock for sure. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
So about four and a half months from March of
twenty twenty until September of that year, all the bidding
just stopped. You know, we do five hundred tonerations a year,
so we've bid on called seven hundred. The bidding just
collapsed and we had plenty of work. All the work,
it's the money gets allocated usually eight to twelve months
(27:11):
in advance. So nineteen was a great year. All the
work in twenty twenty rolled forward, but then if we're
not booking for twenty one, it starts to slow down
pretty quickly. Fortunately, the market turned somewhat quickly in the fall,
and really the big capital, the Brookfields and the Black
zones of the world were like, hey, let's take advantage
(27:31):
yapp see's low, let's renovate. Now that kind of worked.
And also hotels is our main business, but we also
do stadium new build stadiums, so like so far where
the rams and the charge was played was getting built
during that time, and we worked that entire summer. It
was a great project to have during COVID and we're
doing the bill stadium that are you the lead GC? No,
(27:53):
we don't do GC work. So what we do so
all the luxury suites in the public space where you walk,
where you'll see airs or planters or tables, all the
stuff in the largery sweets, we install all that. So
we don't pour concrete, we don't put in the seats,
we don't put in the goalpost. But after that we
handle everything.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Else, kind of like the high end finishes.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Correct. We basically say, if you took a hotel or
a stadium turned upside down and shook it, everything that
falls out, that's all the stuff.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Well, it's a great analogy.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
So the same with the stadium. Right, everything that's not
locked into place that gets placed.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
We're installing it, and you source, you vertically integrate those products.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
We don't buy any of it and don't make the
product once it's made by whoever the manufacturers. We handle
the shipping warehouse and install those.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Mattresses, all those things a lot, so.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
We stay out of you know, we don't source, and
we don't want to manufacture. We really want to be
in that sort of supply chain logistics space. It's one
of those things that you guys just stay at hotels,
you know, your whole life. Yeah, no one ever goes
in there and goes, I wonder who put this stuff
in here? By the way, we love you know, we
from a competition standpoint to stay off the grid a
(29:03):
little bit.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
It's not like trying to make or something that's right
exactly right. That is very interesting, that's cool.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
But I think a lot of people that probably listen
to the show do think about that, right, how does
this get here? Because there's so much things that are
in a hotel where and think about all the pictures
on the wall. I mean, you know, this is what
you do with every day, the side tables, the desk,
I mean, the lambs, all the thing. It's a lot, dude.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Do y'all do this interior design?
Speaker 3 (29:29):
We don't do anything on the design side. Really, stay
out of design procurement GC work.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
It's really they say, hey, here's here's what we want
for this hotel. You say, got it? Cool, we got
source it. We'll put our doll in for you. It's easy,
button off we.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Go, right, So all these sourcing firms, they'll go out,
they'll find who to who to buy it from, either
you know, in Asia or Vietnam wherever it may be.
Once it's made, they call us. We you know, range
ocean shipping or effort, whatever it may be.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
You create the timeline, correct in the production schedule.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
Exactly right, I hear you.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
So do you work only in the US.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
We do some work in Mexico, Canada, and we do
a fair amount in the Caribbean. We do a little
bit in Western Europe. It's a little bit of different
model in Europe. We do think there's a growth opportunity
for us. There a lot of our clients transition over right,
So the big solid lol funds will have money invested
in Europe the same that will U US.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
You'll follow your clients. I heard that.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Well man, how can people look you up?
Speaker 3 (30:24):
Man?
Speaker 2 (30:24):
It's so cool, so awesome to hear your story, and
you did so well talking about it.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Thanks. Well, you know we're Our company is called Hospitalogistics International.
Our websites hospitalologistics dot com. Obviously I think my name
is on the website. We just did a redesign. So
I'm easy to find, easy to hunt down, and on
Carnegie Boulevard, on a Carnegie Bulevard.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
But one thing you left at where did you go
to college?
Speaker 3 (30:47):
So I went to a small school in a hog
called Dennison University. Very cool. I played lacrosse in high
school and played across in college there and met my wife, Megan,
who graduated from Country Day in ninety eight. We met
there and been together since the weekend after nine to eleven,
which is a crazy landmark.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
But yeah, yeah, man, I uh one, Dennis. In fact,
I'm sure it has nothing to do with the university.
I bought a penny mining stot called Dennison one time
that went to zero. How about that.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Penny stock went to zero? That seems it seems logical.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Uh, I love that number two. I saw that you
were an economics major. I too, am an economics major.
Soon brother got on that. Uh. I understand that type
of language, but that it's funny. People were like, how
in the world are you economics? I like that talk.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
I don't me too.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
So well cool, Well, thank you for being here, Ben,
Uh speed dating on steroids really worth today. I'm so
excited to know more about you and your business. Thank
you so much.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
Thanks, guys, I enjoyed it so much.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Thanks for coming.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Yeah, listen, hey, go do the Golden rule today. Treat
others the way you want to be treated, and carry
a smile around on your face. You don't know who
it will affect. Thank you for listening to At Home
with Roby
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