November 6, 2025 • 40 mins
This week, Trent and Patrick chat with Josh Russom, CEO and President of Momentum Holdings — a company overseeing 16 successful businesses across automotive, construction, marine, real estate, and finance. From humble beginnings to building a powerhouse portfolio, Josh shares how grit and smart pivots shaped his entrepreneurial journey.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Patrick mcaac from Ruby Commercial and Services, Long
with Trent Houston from the Ruby family of Companies.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Welcome to at Home with Ruby. Trent. What is going
on today, my man? Hey Patrick, not much.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
I'm looking at our if if you watch this, we
have a call. We have a call in a buddy
of mine today hailing from the great state of Alabama.
But I'm looking at our backdrop if you if you're
if you ever watched this on one of the social
media sources or whatever we do film it. I don't
(00:32):
think we took those two pictures that are on are
at Home with Ruby black backdrop blueprint together.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
We did not.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
So that picture of you also looks like it might
be a little dated perhaps way I think, what was
that when you won the CFO of the Year award?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Back in what year? Was that? That was?
Speaker 4 (00:49):
Not?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
I did not wear a wear a baited black polo
short sleeved shirt for the CFO of the Year award.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
I have seen even a Ralph Lesson hollow shirt.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
And sometimes listen, when you manage the money and you
don't have a CFO, you become.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
The CFO here. You get to do that.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
But yeah, I haven't I haven't worn that Shirt's not
in my collection anymore. I think I took that shirt outside.
It's on on our website for me if you look
us up.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
So what you're saying is in the near future, you
might see more different pictures of us than what you're
seeing right now. So enjoy what you got for the moment,
because this wasn't saying that. I mean, what do you say.
I mean, either one of us have any ruby attire
on either, but uh, I'm not one.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
I mean, we gotta.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
I have to do something on film after this show today,
and I don't have any any preppy Ruby shirts anymore,
so I had to do that earlier today.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
It was good, it was I appreciate.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
I think you will see the level of detail that
they're going to go into with you on how you
pronounce words, and it's just amazing people that are like
you and I would probably do with an iPhone and
call today, but just like E back there are producer.
I mean, just the way that people can hear and
see things. It's just remarkable to me because I don't
have that. I don't have that skill set. So I
(02:09):
have a question for you.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
What's the question? Uh?
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Have you ever heard I'm going to tell you about
something I did over the weekend, uh two weekends ago.
Have you ever heard of a band called Pierce the Veil,
I haven't, dude. It is like fast. I wouldn't call
it heavy metal, but close. And Scarlet has always been
into this band, and so we we took a road
trip up to Raleigh and watched them perform, and I'm like, okay, all.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Right, I hear you, sweet little, sweet, little innocent Scarlet.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
She's rocking out.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Man. She'd do like every word. I mean, we had
the time of our lives like that. There's so much
energy in that music. That's positive, and like when you
get out of there, you're like, man, that was so cool.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
And so we went up to Raleigh and watch that
and like I would look over and she had like
the biggest grin on our face and like literally knew
every word, and she'd nudge me, this is such and.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Such song, like great, I don't know what that is,
but you're having fun. I'm having That's wonderful.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
Man.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Was it was Jody go too? No, No, that that
really isn't her bag daddy daughter trup.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
It was so I think that it has like rekindled
my love for like Rage Against the Machine and three
eleven and regulatively Bers, like all these bands I listened
to when I was in high school. So on the
way back we took turns. I was like, all right,
I'll play a song from from my era that that
I think will sound like something you like, and then
you play me a new one, okay, And so it
(03:32):
made the card trip go go a lot quicker. She
got to hear the Green Day, Metallica, all these different things.
You know, like you have a very vast appreciation of
all music, but it was interesting to see that that
was what you know. You're right, she's sort of quiet,
and but man, these kids we were on it.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Hey, people have have ways to express themselves and show
show the fabric who they are and that's wonderful.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Well it's Piper, my third daughter is the old school person.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
And then we get them on Child Network and uh,
she's all in the red hot chili pepper.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
I think I said a couple of shows ago.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
She wants to get a get an eighties Toyota land
Cruiser and uh, she wants a CD player in it.
And she's got all Reagan's old CDs out, which is
Green Day, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against the Machine,
all that stuff, a Lotus Moore set, uh, you know.
And and she's copying the CDs and she's got our
(04:33):
old kitchen CD player. I don't know why we kept
this joker, but she's got it in a room and.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Her little areas, yeah throw back. You know.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
At one point she had a bunch of old like
Jordan Tennis shoe pictures and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
But she's like, yeah, that's how I'm rolling. I mean,
it's cool.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Yeah, I mean it's sort of it's just unique and
and and and they are who they are, which I love.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
It's kind of like us listening to the Eagles or
the Rolling Stones or the Beatles.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Outside's kind of telling her and you know that music
still translates and relates.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Yeah, it's just cool.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
And one thing that was sort of need did they
do with this concert is a they trade all the
kids make like wristbands, like they basically out of beads,
and they put the names of the songs on them,
and if you see someone else, say, they'll trade them
with each other. And so really she had made two
before the concert, and there's a girl sitting behind us
with her dad about the same age, same kind of
set up, and she was like, well, you want to trade,
(05:34):
and so I was like, yeah, yeah, trade, you know.
The little girl at me. She's like, would you like one?
And Scarlet was like, well, I have two, but yeah,
I'll give you both the mind and you give one
to my dad and I'll take one. So if you
have do on the bracelet and off we went.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Wow, that's cool, man.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Yeah, it was definitely definitely something that you know, I'm
glad that she got me out of my comfort zone.
And I mean we were jamming. I mean it was
like loud lights like you it was cool.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
That's awesome.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Speaking of your stories with your daughter and the daddy
daughter Trip, Reagan and I are going with Tatum tomorrow
to Belmont University.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
We're gonna fly to Nashville.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Oh, and Tatum is my oldest daughter and I buyt
three weeks ago.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Tongue in cheek. I think you know this about me.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
I only get on my computer a couple times a
week now, but if I schedule something off on my phone,
I mess up. I don't do this often because I
wait till I get to the computer. Problem is I
don't get back to people as quick as I would
like to. And Reagan asked me, she said, Tatum wants
to go look at Belmont University. Tatum loves Nashville, and
(06:43):
you know, she said, you're okay with us buying a
plane ticket and staying one night over, making kind of
Daddy Mama Tatum trip.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
And anyway, I didn't put.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
It in my phone, and I had golf matches both
days set up. And then the other day she's like, yeah,
We're going to Nashville Tuesday afternoon. And I'm like, uh, yes,
we are calendar a lot lately we're not. And I
was like, oh, She's like, well, you told me you
could do it. I was like, well, I didn't put
(07:14):
it in my calendar. I did it on a fly
and uh. And she said, no question, I'm going. I
got to move my stuff around.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
But she said that.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Tatum said, my first daughter is seventeen, but she had
a human gium my birthmark. The time we were starting
our first Pitching for Wishes cornhole tournament, and that was
kind of a driver behind the business plan. And it
was a very trying time. And she said I think
we kind of got it figured out when she was
(07:48):
about four or five. We went to Duke University and
she's Reagan said that Tatum told her the other day,
this is the first time I'm going to get to
be with y'all alone on an overnight trip since the
time the last time we went to Duke with my
arm Wow. And I'm like, oh wow, oh cool, that
is coming. It is special, right, So, Uh, it's gonna
(08:09):
be both Reagan and I. But you know, we'll probably
go down down to the strip and hear a couple
of honky tonks and uh and have a good dinner
dinner with Tatum and and when you know, we have
five kids, so it's always cool when we can do
something special.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Yeah, uh, stand.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Alone with one of them and Uh, well, Belmont University.
I hope you're listening to Mike Madlin.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Ye.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
I was with Mike Midlin a couple of weeks ago
in Sonoma. Talked about that on the last show.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
I think I just got a text I have not
responded to where he said, hey man, it was so
fun hanging out with you. Randomly, but Mike and Uh
and his wife both played Division one basketball at Belmont.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Yeah, yeah, so, uh it's cool. So anyway, hopefully she's
gonna go to UNC Chapel Hill uh for that in
state tuition and not have to try to get grants
and stuff. But we'll see what happens. It's a good
reason to spend time together. Now.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
That's awesome, man, that's wonderful. We'll have to follow up
on the end the next show. You'll have to tell
us all about it.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
All right, So we're gonna introduce our guests calling in
from Alabama, from Titus, Alabama. I want to ask Josh
when he comes on, if I say that correctly, Josh
Russom Momentum Holdings. You can't wait to hear about what
all they got going on and how they are integrated
in their business when we return, fellow YPO buddy on
(09:29):
at Home with Ruby.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
And don't forget Ruby Services is your one stop source
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 robyservicesnow dot com.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Welcome back to at Home with Roby.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
I'm Patrick mccasack from Rouby Commercial and Services along with
Tren Hayson from the Roby Family of Companies. We are
your hosts. If you miss the first segment, go back,
check us out. You can find us anywhere podcasts are found.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Man, we were having.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Fun, cutting up, having a good old time. We're gonna
follow up Trent's head to Nashville here in today or
so with uh to go see Belmont University.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Really just to spend time with Reagan and Tatum. Yeah,
which is really cool. And now for the we can
tell we can tell.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Mike Malin that that's where we're going. Tell him see
if he's in the Hall of Fame there he probably is. Yeah,
I think he's got some pretty pretty good fanfare. Josh,
how you doing?
Speaker 4 (10:26):
Very good?
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Guys?
Speaker 4 (10:26):
Are we all?
Speaker 2 (10:28):
We are great.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Welcome to the At Home with Ruby Show. I talk
about this a lot. It's like speed dating on steroids. Mean,
you can be buddies and hang out and do our thing.
But when we got twenty minutes of hard hitting journalism,
you learn you learn so much more about somebody. So, uh,
here we are, so tell us, Uh, tell us where
(10:52):
you're from? Are you from Alabama?
Speaker 4 (10:56):
No, I'm actually from Georgia. Kind of grew up in
North Georgia. I went to uh school or I guess
can I elementary school in Cumming, Georgia. Oh yeah, I
don't know if you guys are familiar where that is,
but uh, a sweet little place. And then yeah, that's it.
That's it. I've lived all around Lakeland ear and then, uh,
when I was kind of nineteen, I met my dad
(11:20):
for the first time and he lived at the time,
he moved to Alabama, and uh, that's kind of how
I ended up in Alabama.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
When you were nineteen you met your father for the
first time.
Speaker 4 (11:32):
Yeah, that's it, man, man, So it's it's kind of crazy.
I I grew up pretty Uh. I guess what I
would say is just in normal poverty. We didn't we
didn't necessarily have a house until I was seven years old,
so we kind of moved around a good bit. Uh
used my grandmother's to address. So I went to that's
where I went to elementary school, and then moved down here.
(11:56):
And I'd worked a lot of different a lot of
different jobs, doing a lot of different things, learned how
to do welding, fumbing, electrical, I mean, you name it.
Ended up being a maintenance guy, and then come down
here and he had sold everything he had from from
a real estate perspective and bought into one Harley Davison
(12:18):
dealership at ninety eight. And he was like, hey, I
want you to come down and meet me. And you know,
obviously I'm thinking to myself, like this trailer in a
parking lot was full of gravel and these you know,
light posts and these triangle flags going from white post
to light posts, and these old nasty Harley sitting outside.
And I'm like, yeah, I guess I'll come down and
(12:39):
meet you. I've never met you, you know, and show
up and do these I pull up and there's this
taje my hall building sitting here, and I'm thinking to myself, Wow,
my dad old us. You know, just kind of began
and I had the opportunity to move down and he said,
I'll pay for you you go to college. I'm like, great,
(13:01):
I want to go to Auburn. He's like, yeah, no,
you're not. You're not. I don't want you to party
all the time. So I was like, well, I go.
He's like, well there's Auburn and yeah, he's like there's
Alburn and Montgomery. I'm like oh, He's like you can
still come to work and do some things every day
and then make sure you're doing college. And he's like,
(13:22):
I'll pay for it as long as you never fail.
If you fell a class, you pay for it.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
I'm like, a fair deal.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
Yeah, Dad, I could go to Well, it was a
great deal. But I was like, I could go to
school on the hope grant back home. Are you sure
you want me to be here? Yeah? I want you
to be here.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
So so I ended up ended up going to school.
I was I was always sharp for numbers, so got
an accounting and finance degree. He just wanted me to
get a business general business degree, and when you know,
kind of the deal. After I'd been with him several years,
he was like, well, if you can graduate with a degree,
(14:01):
I'll let you run the business. And I'm like, well,
good gosh, I mean that's like the best thing in
the entire world, right, And so I graduate. I've already
worked every position I created in the eBay store selling
take off parts. So I was making quite a bit
of money on the back end doing and I was
wakeboarding pretty much every day, going to school and then
(14:24):
doing that eBay service at night. And so it was
a win. Things were great, and then I'm getting married.
My wife's like, you're ever going to get a job.
I'm like, yeah, I'm taking over the Harley Dealership when
I graduate. And I graduate and I go, Dad, I'm ready,
you know. And I had already been running the finance
and service and sells the business, so I knew it.
(14:45):
And he's like, hey, what about five years from now.
I'm like what, that's what we talked about, right, And
he was like no, no, no, He's like, I get it.
I just I'm just not ready. I'm like, well, I
can read a you know, some financial statements you and
l and go out and do my own thing. I said,
(15:08):
I've already figured out how to make a business on
the side, doing selling parts on it. Why couldn't I
do it on my own? And he's like, okay, I
did it. I had fourteen thousand dollars in my bank account.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Did you think that relatively?
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Did you think that was a lot, or did you
you thought it was enough seed money to get gold?
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Well? No, I didn't know what I didn't know. I
knew that that was not that was not enough money
to make it happen, right, So I started looking at
all these dealerships, and I asked my dad. I was like, hey,
if I find a dealership, would you be willing to
at least because I don't want the money, would you
be willing to sign your name to a dealership saying
(15:50):
that if I didn't pay it, you would And he was.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Like, I'll do that for you there, okay.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
So I start like hunting all these places trying to
figure this out, and I realized like none of them
made money. I'm like, well, this sucks. So I turned
around and I go out and one day I just
like walk into this truck accessory store. And this is
a guy that's always been a friend of my dad's,
(16:18):
you know, and he started in ninety seven. My dad
started in ninety eight, and you know, this is about
two thousand and six after I graduated college. And he
was like, he usually go in there and just shot
shoot the bull with him for a little bit and
get some stuff down on my trucks. I think I
was looking for some headlights at the time, one of
my lights and went out or something and went in
(16:40):
and this was in a warehouse sell the truck acceressory store,
the truck accessories to truck dealers or two people coming
in and and he went in there, and the lady
running at nicole, she was like, you know, he's uh,
he's flown his plane down to the beach. He'll be
down there. And I'm like, the guy has a plane.
I'm like, wow, a minute, he might he must be
(17:02):
really doing good truck accessions. Yeah. I was like, okay, Well,
I was just thinking to myself, this's be a fool business.
And so I had no clue anything about truck accessions,
and I just said to the lady, I'm like, hey,
if he wants to sell this thing, let me know.
Thirty minutes later, my phone rings. What It's Dan, the
guy that owns the place, and he's like, hey, you
(17:24):
interested buying this? I'm like, well, you know, never crossed
my mind until today, but you know i'd be interested.
And you know, basically, he was doing about three million
annually in revenue, a quarter million to the bottom line,
and literally working ten to fifteen hours, ah, you know,
(17:44):
a month on the store. And I'm like, if he
can do that, I can certainly overdrive it.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Right, and you're ready to hustle. I'm in the game.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
Yeah, Yeah, that's it. And so you know, at the
end of the day, you know, I put this deal
together not knowing what I was really doing. We got
it financed sixty percent by the bank, forty percent by
a seller note. And you know, I took my little
fourteen thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
And put it in my bank account, and that's what
I had righting.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
I started zero zero down fourteen fourteen K and the
because I already knew I had at least forty five
days before I had to pay payables. And I looked
at the I looked at the you know, income statement.
I knew there was going to fill up with about
one hundred and forty to one hundred and fifty worth
of operating K on the front end. So if I
(18:37):
could just turn around and maintain the growth pattern, I'd
be fine. So I signed up for a little over
a million dollars in debt to do this deal and
went after it. And things were great the first eight months.
I bought it January two thousand and seven, I was
twenty five years old, just married a year and a half,
(18:59):
little over a year and a half, and things are
going great. Have my first kid November first of two
thousand and seven, and so you know, eleven months then
and then I realized, like, wow, I think two thousand
and eights hitting right, And so everybody that you've ever
(19:20):
seen in the you know, businesses all around are starting
to go out of business, and I'm like, oh, what
do I do now? Right? And that's when I really
become an entrepreneur.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
So for me, I, uh, do you realize everything that
you said leading up to this point? God, keep going.
This reminds me of Joe Dirt on the radio. Yeah,
I love it, this is great.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Keep going.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
Well, I'll tell you in uh, you know two thousand
and eight. You know, I was just like telling my wife, hey, look,
we'll figure out how to make it. There was three
locations at the time when I bought it, so it's
still three locations, and so I'm going to every single one.
I'm gone all the time, and so we make it,
(20:14):
you know, cash flow it through two thousand and eight.
I'm getting into two thousand and nine, and I remember
this call like it was yesterday. Guys. I'm standing on
a scissor lift at two thirty in the morning putting
vinyl on the front of a sign, and my GM
at the times there I have not made. I had
literally paid myself zero since the day that we open.
(20:39):
Because of my wife's occupational therapist. We were just living
on her salary, living well, as I call it, kind
of living on love. But if it wasn't for her,
I wouldn't have I wouldn't have been able to eat.
I can assure you that. And so I'm doing this
and she calls me at two thirty in the morning.
By then, I have two kids. She's like, where are you.
I'm like, what do you mean? Where am I? I'm like,
(20:59):
when you call me, you know I'm at work. You
know they didn't have this life through sixty thing on
your phone back then, right, And so I'm like, She's like,
how do I know it? It's two thirty in the morning, Josh,
you left here at four o'clock this morning and it's
two thirty in the morning. She is, I don't get this.
And I'm like, well, I don't, man, I don't know
(21:21):
what to tell you, honey. I said, I'm at work.
If you don't believe me, the guy's name was Wayne,
I said, just smile. I cooked the picture of Wayne.
I texted to her. I said, seem fan, this is
a lift and She's like, you're working, You're killing yourself.
This just does not make any sense. We're never gonna
make it. You've got to send all this dead. How
(21:41):
are we going to get out. I'm like, honey, you
just have to believe. I promise you I'm going to
get there.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
And so I ended up figuring out that I could
get into the automotive repair business. I ended up shutting
two of those locations down, bringing it back to a
schul location that we moved to in Montgomery, which is
actually happened to be right beside the Harley shop. And
started growing this thing. And we went after fleet businesses
(22:09):
and started working. Because my time working, I worked from
Candy Cane. It didn't never matter what time it was.
And I found some guys that would be willing to
stand behind me and work just as hard. And we
would show up at two in the morning to start
working on fleet vehicles. So we went out and started
grabbing vehicles that you could get eighty at the time
(22:30):
to work on, and next thing you know, they would
drop them off in the afternoon at five. We would
work on them either that night or early in the
morning and have them ready to go the next morning,
and nobody else in town would do it, and so
we kind of inverted this thing. We still did truck accessories,
but it was so dismal here in two thousand and eight,
men they almost stopped selling trucks in Montgomery, Alabama. So
(22:53):
at that point you start thinking like can we how
can we get to the next level? And so I
got an outside sales guy. He started going next thing.
You know, we grew that business back within six months.
We did over half a million dollars in gross profit
through the you know, fleet service side of things, and
so it just took off. I did that for almost
(23:17):
seven years, got back to a little over three million
in revenue, but we weren't making a quarter million. We
were making over half a million to three quarters a
million out of that store. As we continue to grow it,
and then my dad kind of realized like, hey, he's
done it. He made it right. So in twenty fourteen
(23:37):
he comes to me and he's like, hey, I think
I'm ready for you to take over the store. And
I'm like, Dad, i ain't worked for you in like
seven years. I love you to death, but I don't
I'm not interested. I'm finally making money and I'm finally like, yeah,
to me, that was all the money in the world.
I got it, like I struck it, like I didn't,
you know. And and to my wife, I was actually
(23:59):
a to spend time with her. I went and gone,
you know, eighteen nineteen hours a day and it was
just amazing. So after that point I told him, I
was like, look, I'll uh, you know, I'll help you
anything you need, but I'm not interested. He goes back
at Christmas and he goes, hey, I'm really not asking
(24:22):
when you I don't have anybody else and I need
your help. And man, that was a hard that a
hard discussion to have with a wife because I you know,
I literally went, you know, work my hands to death,
and now I'm spending time with my kids. And you know,
at this point in time, we have three, the fourth, one,
(24:45):
sixth and to be born, right, and so like I'm like,
you know, son or you know, my wife, I was
just like, look, I need to help my dad. He
did sign on the note for us. When we first started,
we would have never been able to do that. You know,
obviously that didn't work today, but you know, back in
(25:06):
the day, I said, you got to think I got
to get back, and she's like, well, how long.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Yeah, but in a year.
Speaker 4 (25:16):
Yeah yeah. She's like, I'll do it for I'll do
it for a year and then I'll be done. So
I went back, you know, we come back to Christmas
and we had a conversation. I said, look, this is
when Christmas with twenty fourteen. I said, I'm going to
take over. I said, but listen, I run things totally
different than the way you run things, right, and ultimately
(25:36):
I need to be able to accelerate things. My goal
is to double your net profits. You can get a
multiple earnings and we'll sell the store at the end
of the year. And he was like, okay, I'm good
for that. So that was my goal. When I set out,
I was like, you're not going to pay me anything.
I don't want to. Just I'm doing this to help
you get back. That's that's that's the goal. So I
(25:58):
went to work and the first quarter I had already
made what he had made the prior year.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
And then by the this you Gonta have to realize
he had kind of retired prior to ever coming to
say anything to me. Essentially is what he did, right,
And so these employees are just running the company, and
they ranked six hundred and sixty seven out of seven
hundred dealerships. So's the bottom of the list there, you
(26:27):
know the opportunity, right, yeah, yeah, And so you know,
I take off. By the end of the year, I
quadrupled the net profit and got rated as number two
Platinum Barnshi Dealer of that year. And that was twenty fifteen.
(26:48):
It put me in the position where I had the
opportunity to speak with the CEO of Harley and the
senior vice president of the Harley Davison Bank and basically
looked up and it was like, hey, what what can we
do to help you? Because like, you've done great? You know.
They of course asked me how I did it, and
people process drive, you know, all those good things, and
(27:11):
and uh, you know, we broke down and I was
just like, really, all I want this is my dad's store.
This was actually fun. I'd like to have my own store.
This all wes see my dad's store. This is the
way I look at it, right. I don't want anything
given to me. I want to I want to earn
my own and the guy I never forget, the senior
VP of the bank there just you know. His name's
(27:33):
Larry Hunt, a great, great guy. He pulled his glasses
to the very end of his nose, looked at me,
and goes, just pick one. I'm like, what what do
you mean? He goes, anybody that runs a store at
your level, we want you to have another one. I'm like, yeah,
but from a network standpoint, you guys want three million
dollars in listen capital. And I'm just not there. I'm
(27:57):
barely pushing two right, and you know, I don't you know,
I don't think I can get it by myself. And
he goes, I financed the whole thing for you. Jeez, Okay,
all right. So forty five days later I bought Huntsville, Alabama.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
I mean, they did Harley force the proprietor to sell
or Is it a news store.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
No, it was a store that was already be in existance.
A dealer group by the name of Scott Fisher, really really,
really good guy just had so many stores that he
didn't have the right GM in this store, and it
kept turning and burning gems, and so it was really
an opportunity in a large market, and I kind of
(28:45):
knew it, and so I just said, hey, look I'm
interested in buying it, and so he's like, look, the
only reason I'm selling this is because I can't turn
the reputation in this story. He said, I want to,
I just can't do it, and the amount of money
is going to cost me to do it. I'd rather
sell it to you and let you do it. And
so that's what I did. So I bought that store
in twenty sixteen. You know, obviously went from zero to
(29:09):
hero at that store in twelve months. We just two
year over year growth and then the same the same
kind of thing. He had a store in Blue Ridge
and by that time he was needing cash, and at
least that's kind of what I felt. And so I
ended up buying Blue Ridge from the great guy, and
I took over that store and we did the same thing.
(29:29):
And then then I realized, like, man, I don't I
don't know that we can actually you know, get the
time that we need uh to buy the other stores
that we're looking for. So we just read, you know,
kind of just went around and started looking at other opportunities.
(29:51):
I started a construction company building docks. We built you know,
seventy eight docks the first year. And these are like
these Todds in my hall docks that are built on
Lake Martin. Oh yeah, yeah, built a bunch of those.
And then I figured out how to acquire companies. It's
really what I did. And I figured out how to
do it with no money, because obviously.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
I figured it out. You're first too, You acquired with
no money. What are you talking about?
Speaker 4 (30:16):
Yep, yeah, but that that's kind of been like my
trait is like I will try to acquire a thirty
million dollar asset with no cash and see if I
can do it. So you can get a you know,
because you can cash and cash return and goes through
the reef. And I started looking at Sandbox and I'm like,
I want a two hundred cash on cash return if
I have to put some cash down and so I
(30:37):
can reinvest my money every single year and do it
again and again and again. Today there's thirty seven companies.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Thirty seven we've grown.
Speaker 4 (30:47):
Yeah, yeah, it's it's crazy. There's all kinds of things
that I've that I've done. We have with the fourth
largest Hardy deal the group in the world. And as
we've as we've kind of grown, we've grown into the
marine side, We've grown into the automotive repair side, do
some reinsurance and invest in all kinds of things. So
it's almost like a family family office. Now I'm the
(31:09):
only I'm the only one. My dad ended up going
to a divorce. I ended up buying that Montgomery store
from him back when he went through the divorce. And
and so yeah, it's it's been a heck of a journey.
But I'm going to tell you without God being like
that funding principle, that that was the thing that drove
(31:29):
everything that I was doing and believing in. It was
one of those things that I probably would never have
achieved the level where I am because that's what keep
me and my wife together and keep pushing. And she's
just amazing, man. You know, I heard somebody put it
this way one time. You know, I realized that I
(31:50):
was able to make you know, a good amount of
money before I met my wife. You know, let's just
tall it a million dollars. But after that, like I
made hundreds of millions of dollars, and you think about it, Wow,
without my wife, I would have never probably done that.
And so that means she's priceless, right, Well, I love it.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
There's this story, there's a story that Nick Saban says
about that. And I know you might not like Nick
Saban being an Auburn fan, but uh, he and his
wife are riding back through her hometown in West Virginia
and they passed by the uh A gas station where
her ex boyfriend worked and owned, and Nick Saban said, well,
what would have happened to him if you if you
(32:33):
married him? And she looked at him and said, he
would have been the head coach at Alabama.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
That's a good story.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
Pretty good.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
I just heard that one. I love it so true.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
Good, that is great. I'm telling you Without her, we
wouldn't have been anywhere. Man.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
So nice God.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
Consistency and discipline, yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
So you have you have four boys, and you you
said your first one was born in November of seven.
My daughter, Tatum, my oldest, was born December of seven. Uh,
and I have five, you know, and they're pretty similar.
So you got uh what seventeen, sixteen, twelve and eight,
(33:15):
and they're all it's the four g's.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Right, that's it.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
Gauge, Gavin, Grant, and Gunner. That's it.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
And this this sweet woman you're talking about is Crystal.
It's correct.
Speaker 4 (33:28):
Yeah, Yeah, it is Crystal. Yeah, and she just she
just had a birthday, she turned twenty five. Again, boy,
I tell you what.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
Well, well, dude, I'm gonna go ahead and tell you
we've been doing this eight and a half years, and
we've had so many YPO brothers and sisters and friends
on this show. And Patrick joined EO over a year ago,
and we were we've had a bunch of EO guys
Entrepreneur Organization and then Dave Dave are COEO is in vistage,
(34:02):
so we're you know, we're able to hear all these
great stories. That is one of the coolest stories I've
ever heard. And and truly, uh, me and you been
talking about going hunting together or doing something, going on
a golf trip. My buddy Jordan Beaman, who's been on
the show Heartbrand Beef out in Texas.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
You went, you went to his ranch and uh, I mean.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
We would pick up on some stories, but we wouldn't
have got all that and our audience wouldn't have got
to hear that. That is that was awesome, awesome, And uh,
I love how you. I love how you talk about God,
and I love how you talk about your wife and
and uh, I mean, Reagan and Crystal are very similar
in their fortitude for their husband, and uh, it's it's
(34:49):
just great. Are you are you trying to continue to grow?
Do you have guys out here setting a vision? Are
you still setting a vision? What's that look like? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (35:01):
No, you know in the in the dealership business, you know,
obviously the last couple of years has been kind of
a headwind situation, right. It just it's it's been extremely
tough from a dealership perspective. So when I start looking
at things like that, I start seeing the opportunity, uh
(35:21):
for the time that that when you need to be
able to buy more, and that's that's pretty much coming
because you want you don't want to buy too early,
right because that curve right, and then you don't want
to buy too late because then you pay for them
more for them. But probably in the next eighteen months
you're going to see, you know, the acquisitions start going down.
For me, that's just the way I do things. But
(35:43):
you know, I don't want to take away from time,
So I'm building all these people up under me that
that are really my team. Because you start to realize,
like it's not you that runs the company. Anymore. It's
really the core values that you know, I'm not the Messiah,
there's already one of those, right, and and your business
(36:04):
can be successful without you. And that's really where there's
so many people that have the same culture and value
system that I have there withinside of my company, that
take ownership of these stores every single day. They're just amazing, man.
And uh, those are the people I want to continue
to see when over and over again, my goals are
(36:28):
to continue to date my wife. Like I'm not talking
about going to date night. I'm talking about make her
feel extremely special every single day, Like wow, you know,
I'm glad I get to date here. Yeah, because because
you know, if you if you ever seen she looks
a whole lot better than me. So you know, it's like, wow,
you know, what what did I get myself into? My
(36:49):
dad always said, dude, you you outpunted your coverage their son,
you know. And so when I start thinking about it,
I'm like, look, I don't want to get to be
you know, we just made it past twenty years of
marriage in July, and I don't want to get to
you know, thirty or forty and realize, like, you know,
I didn't do all the right things. So I'm really
(37:10):
focusing on that, and then I'm focusing on my kids
kind of grow them as the leaders that I have,
you know, learned to come over the years. And you know,
I kind of always look at it from from one perspective.
That's what I tell them. Look, a leader is not
somebody get the right every day. A leader is somebody
that has the ability to grow one percent better every
(37:30):
day and share and confess the Lord, hey, look this
is what I did wrong. I need help on this
grow inside of me to do better tomorrow. Right. And
that's that's kind of the things I put in their
minds and I tell them, I said, look, all these businesses,
I've created, their liabilities to you guys, their assets to me.
(37:51):
So therefore I'm never going to just turn over business
to you guys. You guys are going to do the
same thing that I did. I'm going to help you
whatever it is you want to try to do. So,
you know, I guess I got to buy another five
years before I get that opportunity to really start helping
them grow their businesses. But that's really what my plan
is the next you know, ten fifteen years, is to
(38:13):
help them grow into the godly men that that my
wife has helped me become, you know, and so if
I can do that, and that's that's the next level.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
Well, man, I think that is uh, I think that
there it is. I think that's wonderful. How can people
look you up? I've been on your website. Throw that
out there. How can people check you out? It is cool?
You do build some really nice boat dots, and you know,
we're in a construction and trades business. So I'm like,
(38:43):
dang man, we need to really get together and talk
some shop because it's a war out there.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
But how can people look you up?
Speaker 4 (38:52):
Yeah? Yeah, I mean go online us dash mh dot
com is our web site from my minim holdings. I
don't put everything out there online because of some of
the other stuff kind of behind the scenes, you know,
we have all short company, all kind of other things.
I do a lot of stuff on LinkedIn to try to,
you know, promote different things that I got going. But
(39:14):
that's pretty much it.
Speaker 3 (39:15):
Yeah, well, great, well, Josh, it's been awesome. I'm going
to follow up and and I'm gonna make it a
point in the next couple of days, rest of this week,
maybe when I'm on the on the plane to Nashville
to uh to to to get us get us a
block so we can go hang out. And I think
Patrick's gonna tag along because he needs, he needs to
(39:37):
be with you.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
I think he might learn something. I have fun.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
Seriously, thanks for being here, man.
Speaker 4 (39:46):
Yeah, absolutely, I appreciate you guys inviting me. And just
listen to dumb Redneck Find.
Speaker 3 (39:52):
His Way tell you Okay, there's a lot of college here.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
We'll talk about that later.
Speaker 3 (39:59):
Hey, listen, Thanks for checking out the At Home with
Ruby Show. Listen to the Three dumb Rednecks find a Way,
but go do the Golden rule today. Treat others the
way you want to be treated, even when it's not easy,
even maybe they're not doing right, But treat them the
way you want people to treat you, and carry a
smile around on your face. Thanks for joining
This is Patrick mcaac from Ruby Commercial and Services, Long
with Trent Houston from the Ruby family of Companies.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Welcome to at Home with Ruby. Trent. What is going
on today, my man? Hey Patrick, not much.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
I'm looking at our if if you watch this, we
have a call. We have a call in a buddy
of mine today hailing from the great state of Alabama.
But I'm looking at our backdrop if you if you're
if you ever watched this on one of the social
media sources or whatever we do film it. I don't
(00:32):
think we took those two pictures that are on are
at Home with Ruby black backdrop blueprint together.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
We did not.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
So that picture of you also looks like it might
be a little dated perhaps way I think, what was
that when you won the CFO of the Year award?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Back in what year? Was that? That was?
Speaker 4 (00:49):
Not?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
I did not wear a wear a baited black polo
short sleeved shirt for the CFO of the Year award.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
I have seen even a Ralph Lesson hollow shirt.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
And sometimes listen, when you manage the money and you
don't have a CFO, you become.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
The CFO here. You get to do that.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
But yeah, I haven't I haven't worn that Shirt's not
in my collection anymore. I think I took that shirt outside.
It's on on our website for me if you look
us up.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
So what you're saying is in the near future, you
might see more different pictures of us than what you're
seeing right now. So enjoy what you got for the moment,
because this wasn't saying that. I mean, what do you say.
I mean, either one of us have any ruby attire
on either, but uh, I'm not one.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
I mean, we gotta.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
I have to do something on film after this show today,
and I don't have any any preppy Ruby shirts anymore,
so I had to do that earlier today.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
It was good, it was I appreciate.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
I think you will see the level of detail that
they're going to go into with you on how you
pronounce words, and it's just amazing people that are like
you and I would probably do with an iPhone and
call today, but just like E back there are producer.
I mean, just the way that people can hear and
see things. It's just remarkable to me because I don't
have that. I don't have that skill set. So I
(02:09):
have a question for you.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
What's the question? Uh?
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Have you ever heard I'm going to tell you about
something I did over the weekend, uh two weekends ago.
Have you ever heard of a band called Pierce the Veil,
I haven't, dude. It is like fast. I wouldn't call
it heavy metal, but close. And Scarlet has always been
into this band, and so we we took a road
trip up to Raleigh and watched them perform, and I'm like, okay, all.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Right, I hear you, sweet little, sweet, little innocent Scarlet.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
She's rocking out.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Man. She'd do like every word. I mean, we had
the time of our lives like that. There's so much
energy in that music. That's positive, and like when you
get out of there, you're like, man, that was so cool.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
And so we went up to Raleigh and watch that
and like I would look over and she had like
the biggest grin on our face and like literally knew
every word, and she'd nudge me, this is such and.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Such song, like great, I don't know what that is,
but you're having fun. I'm having That's wonderful.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
Man.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Was it was Jody go too? No, No, that that
really isn't her bag daddy daughter trup.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
It was so I think that it has like rekindled
my love for like Rage Against the Machine and three
eleven and regulatively Bers, like all these bands I listened
to when I was in high school. So on the
way back we took turns. I was like, all right,
I'll play a song from from my era that that
I think will sound like something you like, and then
you play me a new one, okay, And so it
(03:32):
made the card trip go go a lot quicker. She
got to hear the Green Day, Metallica, all these different things.
You know, like you have a very vast appreciation of
all music, but it was interesting to see that that
was what you know. You're right, she's sort of quiet,
and but man, these kids we were on it.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Hey, people have have ways to express themselves and show
show the fabric who they are and that's wonderful.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Well it's Piper, my third daughter is the old school person.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
And then we get them on Child Network and uh,
she's all in the red hot chili pepper.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
I think I said a couple of shows ago.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
She wants to get a get an eighties Toyota land
Cruiser and uh, she wants a CD player in it.
And she's got all Reagan's old CDs out, which is
Green Day, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against the Machine,
all that stuff, a Lotus Moore set, uh, you know.
And and she's copying the CDs and she's got our
(04:33):
old kitchen CD player. I don't know why we kept
this joker, but she's got it in a room and.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Her little areas, yeah throw back. You know.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
At one point she had a bunch of old like
Jordan Tennis shoe pictures and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
But she's like, yeah, that's how I'm rolling. I mean,
it's cool.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Yeah, I mean it's sort of it's just unique and
and and and they are who they are, which I love.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
It's kind of like us listening to the Eagles or
the Rolling Stones or the Beatles.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Outside's kind of telling her and you know that music
still translates and relates.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Yeah, it's just cool.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
And one thing that was sort of need did they
do with this concert is a they trade all the
kids make like wristbands, like they basically out of beads,
and they put the names of the songs on them,
and if you see someone else, say, they'll trade them
with each other. And so really she had made two
before the concert, and there's a girl sitting behind us
with her dad about the same age, same kind of
set up, and she was like, well, you want to trade,
(05:34):
and so I was like, yeah, yeah, trade, you know.
The little girl at me. She's like, would you like one?
And Scarlet was like, well, I have two, but yeah,
I'll give you both the mind and you give one
to my dad and I'll take one. So if you
have do on the bracelet and off we went.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Wow, that's cool, man.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Yeah, it was definitely definitely something that you know, I'm
glad that she got me out of my comfort zone.
And I mean we were jamming. I mean it was
like loud lights like you it was cool.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
That's awesome.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Speaking of your stories with your daughter and the daddy
daughter Trip, Reagan and I are going with Tatum tomorrow
to Belmont University.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
We're gonna fly to Nashville.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Oh, and Tatum is my oldest daughter and I buyt
three weeks ago.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Tongue in cheek. I think you know this about me.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
I only get on my computer a couple times a
week now, but if I schedule something off on my phone,
I mess up. I don't do this often because I
wait till I get to the computer. Problem is I
don't get back to people as quick as I would
like to. And Reagan asked me, she said, Tatum wants
to go look at Belmont University. Tatum loves Nashville, and
(06:43):
you know, she said, you're okay with us buying a
plane ticket and staying one night over, making kind of
Daddy Mama Tatum trip.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
And anyway, I didn't put.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
It in my phone, and I had golf matches both
days set up. And then the other day she's like, yeah,
We're going to Nashville Tuesday afternoon. And I'm like, uh, yes,
we are calendar a lot lately we're not. And I
was like, oh, She's like, well, you told me you
could do it. I was like, well, I didn't put
(07:14):
it in my calendar. I did it on a fly
and uh. And she said, no question, I'm going. I
got to move my stuff around.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
But she said that.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Tatum said, my first daughter is seventeen, but she had
a human gium my birthmark. The time we were starting
our first Pitching for Wishes cornhole tournament, and that was
kind of a driver behind the business plan. And it
was a very trying time. And she said I think
we kind of got it figured out when she was
(07:48):
about four or five. We went to Duke University and
she's Reagan said that Tatum told her the other day,
this is the first time I'm going to get to
be with y'all alone on an overnight trip since the
time the last time we went to Duke with my
arm Wow. And I'm like, oh wow, oh cool, that
is coming. It is special, right, So, Uh, it's gonna
(08:09):
be both Reagan and I. But you know, we'll probably
go down down to the strip and hear a couple
of honky tonks and uh and have a good dinner
dinner with Tatum and and when you know, we have
five kids, so it's always cool when we can do
something special.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Yeah, uh, stand.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Alone with one of them and Uh, well, Belmont University.
I hope you're listening to Mike Madlin.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Ye.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
I was with Mike Midlin a couple of weeks ago
in Sonoma. Talked about that on the last show.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
I think I just got a text I have not
responded to where he said, hey man, it was so
fun hanging out with you. Randomly, but Mike and Uh
and his wife both played Division one basketball at Belmont.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Yeah, yeah, so, uh it's cool. So anyway, hopefully she's
gonna go to UNC Chapel Hill uh for that in
state tuition and not have to try to get grants
and stuff. But we'll see what happens. It's a good
reason to spend time together. Now.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
That's awesome, man, that's wonderful. We'll have to follow up
on the end the next show. You'll have to tell
us all about it.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
All right, So we're gonna introduce our guests calling in
from Alabama, from Titus, Alabama. I want to ask Josh
when he comes on, if I say that correctly, Josh
Russom Momentum Holdings. You can't wait to hear about what
all they got going on and how they are integrated
in their business when we return, fellow YPO buddy on
(09:29):
at Home with Ruby.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
And don't forget Ruby Services is your one stop source
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 robyservicesnow dot com.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Welcome back to at Home with Roby.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
I'm Patrick mccasack from Rouby Commercial and Services along with
Tren Hayson from the Roby Family of Companies. We are
your hosts. If you miss the first segment, go back,
check us out. You can find us anywhere podcasts are found.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Man, we were having.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Fun, cutting up, having a good old time. We're gonna
follow up Trent's head to Nashville here in today or
so with uh to go see Belmont University.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Really just to spend time with Reagan and Tatum. Yeah,
which is really cool. And now for the we can
tell we can tell.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Mike Malin that that's where we're going. Tell him see
if he's in the Hall of Fame there he probably is. Yeah,
I think he's got some pretty pretty good fanfare. Josh,
how you doing?
Speaker 4 (10:26):
Very good?
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Guys?
Speaker 4 (10:26):
Are we all?
Speaker 2 (10:28):
We are great.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Welcome to the At Home with Ruby Show. I talk
about this a lot. It's like speed dating on steroids. Mean,
you can be buddies and hang out and do our thing.
But when we got twenty minutes of hard hitting journalism,
you learn you learn so much more about somebody. So, uh,
here we are, so tell us, Uh, tell us where
(10:52):
you're from? Are you from Alabama?
Speaker 4 (10:56):
No, I'm actually from Georgia. Kind of grew up in
North Georgia. I went to uh school or I guess
can I elementary school in Cumming, Georgia. Oh yeah, I
don't know if you guys are familiar where that is,
but uh, a sweet little place. And then yeah, that's it.
That's it. I've lived all around Lakeland ear and then, uh,
when I was kind of nineteen, I met my dad
(11:20):
for the first time and he lived at the time,
he moved to Alabama, and uh, that's kind of how
I ended up in Alabama.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
When you were nineteen you met your father for the
first time.
Speaker 4 (11:32):
Yeah, that's it, man, man, So it's it's kind of crazy.
I I grew up pretty Uh. I guess what I
would say is just in normal poverty. We didn't we
didn't necessarily have a house until I was seven years old,
so we kind of moved around a good bit. Uh
used my grandmother's to address. So I went to that's
where I went to elementary school, and then moved down here.
(11:56):
And I'd worked a lot of different a lot of
different jobs, doing a lot of different things, learned how
to do welding, fumbing, electrical, I mean, you name it.
Ended up being a maintenance guy, and then come down
here and he had sold everything he had from from
a real estate perspective and bought into one Harley Davison
(12:18):
dealership at ninety eight. And he was like, hey, I
want you to come down and meet me. And you know,
obviously I'm thinking to myself, like this trailer in a
parking lot was full of gravel and these you know,
light posts and these triangle flags going from white post
to light posts, and these old nasty Harley sitting outside.
And I'm like, yeah, I guess I'll come down and
(12:39):
meet you. I've never met you, you know, and show
up and do these I pull up and there's this
taje my hall building sitting here, and I'm thinking to myself, Wow,
my dad old us. You know, just kind of began
and I had the opportunity to move down and he said,
I'll pay for you you go to college. I'm like, great,
(13:01):
I want to go to Auburn. He's like, yeah, no,
you're not. You're not. I don't want you to party
all the time. So I was like, well, I go.
He's like, well there's Auburn and yeah, he's like there's
Alburn and Montgomery. I'm like oh, He's like you can
still come to work and do some things every day
and then make sure you're doing college. And he's like,
(13:22):
I'll pay for it as long as you never fail.
If you fell a class, you pay for it.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
I'm like, a fair deal.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
Yeah, Dad, I could go to Well, it was a
great deal. But I was like, I could go to
school on the hope grant back home. Are you sure
you want me to be here? Yeah? I want you
to be here.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
So so I ended up ended up going to school.
I was I was always sharp for numbers, so got
an accounting and finance degree. He just wanted me to
get a business general business degree, and when you know,
kind of the deal. After I'd been with him several years,
he was like, well, if you can graduate with a degree,
(14:01):
I'll let you run the business. And I'm like, well,
good gosh, I mean that's like the best thing in
the entire world, right, And so I graduate. I've already
worked every position I created in the eBay store selling
take off parts. So I was making quite a bit
of money on the back end doing and I was
wakeboarding pretty much every day, going to school and then
(14:24):
doing that eBay service at night. And so it was
a win. Things were great, and then I'm getting married.
My wife's like, you're ever going to get a job.
I'm like, yeah, I'm taking over the Harley Dealership when
I graduate. And I graduate and I go, Dad, I'm ready,
you know. And I had already been running the finance
and service and sells the business, so I knew it.
(14:45):
And he's like, hey, what about five years from now.
I'm like what, that's what we talked about, right, And
he was like no, no, no, He's like, I get it.
I just I'm just not ready. I'm like, well, I
can read a you know, some financial statements you and
l and go out and do my own thing. I said,
(15:08):
I've already figured out how to make a business on
the side, doing selling parts on it. Why couldn't I
do it on my own? And he's like, okay, I
did it. I had fourteen thousand dollars in my bank account.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Did you think that relatively?
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Did you think that was a lot, or did you
you thought it was enough seed money to get gold?
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Well? No, I didn't know what I didn't know. I
knew that that was not that was not enough money
to make it happen, right, So I started looking at
all these dealerships, and I asked my dad. I was like, hey,
if I find a dealership, would you be willing to
at least because I don't want the money, would you
be willing to sign your name to a dealership saying
(15:50):
that if I didn't pay it, you would And he was.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Like, I'll do that for you there, okay.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
So I start like hunting all these places trying to
figure this out, and I realized like none of them
made money. I'm like, well, this sucks. So I turned
around and I go out and one day I just
like walk into this truck accessory store. And this is
a guy that's always been a friend of my dad's,
(16:18):
you know, and he started in ninety seven. My dad
started in ninety eight, and you know, this is about
two thousand and six after I graduated college. And he
was like, he usually go in there and just shot
shoot the bull with him for a little bit and
get some stuff down on my trucks. I think I
was looking for some headlights at the time, one of
my lights and went out or something and went in
(16:40):
and this was in a warehouse sell the truck acceressory store,
the truck accessories to truck dealers or two people coming
in and and he went in there, and the lady
running at nicole, she was like, you know, he's uh,
he's flown his plane down to the beach. He'll be
down there. And I'm like, the guy has a plane.
I'm like, wow, a minute, he might he must be
(17:02):
really doing good truck accessions. Yeah. I was like, okay, Well,
I was just thinking to myself, this's be a fool business.
And so I had no clue anything about truck accessions,
and I just said to the lady, I'm like, hey,
if he wants to sell this thing, let me know.
Thirty minutes later, my phone rings. What It's Dan, the
guy that owns the place, and he's like, hey, you
(17:24):
interested buying this? I'm like, well, you know, never crossed
my mind until today, but you know i'd be interested.
And you know, basically, he was doing about three million
annually in revenue, a quarter million to the bottom line,
and literally working ten to fifteen hours, ah, you know,
(17:44):
a month on the store. And I'm like, if he
can do that, I can certainly overdrive it.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Right, and you're ready to hustle. I'm in the game.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
Yeah, Yeah, that's it. And so you know, at the
end of the day, you know, I put this deal
together not knowing what I was really doing. We got
it financed sixty percent by the bank, forty percent by
a seller note. And you know, I took my little
fourteen thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
And put it in my bank account, and that's what
I had righting.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
I started zero zero down fourteen fourteen K and the
because I already knew I had at least forty five
days before I had to pay payables. And I looked
at the I looked at the you know, income statement.
I knew there was going to fill up with about
one hundred and forty to one hundred and fifty worth
of operating K on the front end. So if I
(18:37):
could just turn around and maintain the growth pattern, I'd
be fine. So I signed up for a little over
a million dollars in debt to do this deal and
went after it. And things were great the first eight months.
I bought it January two thousand and seven, I was
twenty five years old, just married a year and a half,
(18:59):
little over a year and a half, and things are
going great. Have my first kid November first of two
thousand and seven, and so you know, eleven months then
and then I realized, like, wow, I think two thousand
and eights hitting right, And so everybody that you've ever
(19:20):
seen in the you know, businesses all around are starting
to go out of business, and I'm like, oh, what
do I do now? Right? And that's when I really
become an entrepreneur.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
So for me, I, uh, do you realize everything that
you said leading up to this point? God, keep going.
This reminds me of Joe Dirt on the radio. Yeah,
I love it, this is great.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Keep going.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
Well, I'll tell you in uh, you know two thousand
and eight. You know, I was just like telling my wife, hey, look,
we'll figure out how to make it. There was three
locations at the time when I bought it, so it's
still three locations, and so I'm going to every single one.
I'm gone all the time, and so we make it,
(20:14):
you know, cash flow it through two thousand and eight.
I'm getting into two thousand and nine, and I remember
this call like it was yesterday. Guys. I'm standing on
a scissor lift at two thirty in the morning putting
vinyl on the front of a sign, and my GM
at the times there I have not made. I had
literally paid myself zero since the day that we open.
(20:39):
Because of my wife's occupational therapist. We were just living
on her salary, living well, as I call it, kind
of living on love. But if it wasn't for her,
I wouldn't have I wouldn't have been able to eat.
I can assure you that. And so I'm doing this
and she calls me at two thirty in the morning.
By then, I have two kids. She's like, where are you.
I'm like, what do you mean? Where am I? I'm like,
(20:59):
when you call me, you know I'm at work. You
know they didn't have this life through sixty thing on
your phone back then, right, And so I'm like, She's like,
how do I know it? It's two thirty in the morning, Josh,
you left here at four o'clock this morning and it's
two thirty in the morning. She is, I don't get this.
And I'm like, well, I don't, man, I don't know
(21:21):
what to tell you, honey. I said, I'm at work.
If you don't believe me, the guy's name was Wayne,
I said, just smile. I cooked the picture of Wayne.
I texted to her. I said, seem fan, this is
a lift and She's like, you're working, You're killing yourself.
This just does not make any sense. We're never gonna
make it. You've got to send all this dead. How
(21:41):
are we going to get out. I'm like, honey, you
just have to believe. I promise you I'm going to
get there.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
And so I ended up figuring out that I could
get into the automotive repair business. I ended up shutting
two of those locations down, bringing it back to a
schul location that we moved to in Montgomery, which is
actually happened to be right beside the Harley shop. And
started growing this thing. And we went after fleet businesses
(22:09):
and started working. Because my time working, I worked from
Candy Cane. It didn't never matter what time it was.
And I found some guys that would be willing to
stand behind me and work just as hard. And we
would show up at two in the morning to start
working on fleet vehicles. So we went out and started
grabbing vehicles that you could get eighty at the time
(22:30):
to work on, and next thing you know, they would
drop them off in the afternoon at five. We would
work on them either that night or early in the
morning and have them ready to go the next morning,
and nobody else in town would do it, and so
we kind of inverted this thing. We still did truck accessories,
but it was so dismal here in two thousand and eight,
men they almost stopped selling trucks in Montgomery, Alabama. So
(22:53):
at that point you start thinking like can we how
can we get to the next level? And so I
got an outside sales guy. He started going next thing.
You know, we grew that business back within six months.
We did over half a million dollars in gross profit
through the you know, fleet service side of things, and
so it just took off. I did that for almost
(23:17):
seven years, got back to a little over three million
in revenue, but we weren't making a quarter million. We
were making over half a million to three quarters a
million out of that store. As we continue to grow it,
and then my dad kind of realized like, hey, he's
done it. He made it right. So in twenty fourteen
(23:37):
he comes to me and he's like, hey, I think
I'm ready for you to take over the store. And
I'm like, Dad, i ain't worked for you in like
seven years. I love you to death, but I don't
I'm not interested. I'm finally making money and I'm finally like, yeah,
to me, that was all the money in the world.
I got it, like I struck it, like I didn't,
you know. And and to my wife, I was actually
(23:59):
a to spend time with her. I went and gone,
you know, eighteen nineteen hours a day and it was
just amazing. So after that point I told him, I
was like, look, I'll uh, you know, I'll help you
anything you need, but I'm not interested. He goes back
at Christmas and he goes, hey, I'm really not asking
(24:22):
when you I don't have anybody else and I need
your help. And man, that was a hard that a
hard discussion to have with a wife because I you know,
I literally went, you know, work my hands to death,
and now I'm spending time with my kids. And you know,
at this point in time, we have three, the fourth, one,
(24:45):
sixth and to be born, right, and so like I'm like,
you know, son or you know, my wife, I was
just like, look, I need to help my dad. He
did sign on the note for us. When we first started,
we would have never been able to do that. You know,
obviously that didn't work today, but you know, back in
(25:06):
the day, I said, you got to think I got
to get back, and she's like, well, how long.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Yeah, but in a year.
Speaker 4 (25:16):
Yeah yeah. She's like, I'll do it for I'll do
it for a year and then I'll be done. So
I went back, you know, we come back to Christmas
and we had a conversation. I said, look, this is
when Christmas with twenty fourteen. I said, I'm going to
take over. I said, but listen, I run things totally
different than the way you run things, right, and ultimately
(25:36):
I need to be able to accelerate things. My goal
is to double your net profits. You can get a
multiple earnings and we'll sell the store at the end
of the year. And he was like, okay, I'm good
for that. So that was my goal. When I set out,
I was like, you're not going to pay me anything.
I don't want to. Just I'm doing this to help
you get back. That's that's that's the goal. So I
(25:58):
went to work and the first quarter I had already
made what he had made the prior year.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
And then by the this you Gonta have to realize
he had kind of retired prior to ever coming to
say anything to me. Essentially is what he did, right,
And so these employees are just running the company, and
they ranked six hundred and sixty seven out of seven
hundred dealerships. So's the bottom of the list there, you
(26:27):
know the opportunity, right, yeah, yeah, And so you know,
I take off. By the end of the year, I
quadrupled the net profit and got rated as number two
Platinum Barnshi Dealer of that year. And that was twenty fifteen.
(26:48):
It put me in the position where I had the
opportunity to speak with the CEO of Harley and the
senior vice president of the Harley Davison Bank and basically
looked up and it was like, hey, what what can we
do to help you? Because like, you've done great? You know.
They of course asked me how I did it, and
people process drive, you know, all those good things, and
(27:11):
and uh, you know, we broke down and I was
just like, really, all I want this is my dad's store.
This was actually fun. I'd like to have my own store.
This all wes see my dad's store. This is the
way I look at it, right. I don't want anything
given to me. I want to I want to earn
my own and the guy I never forget, the senior
VP of the bank there just you know. His name's
(27:33):
Larry Hunt, a great, great guy. He pulled his glasses
to the very end of his nose, looked at me,
and goes, just pick one. I'm like, what what do
you mean? He goes, anybody that runs a store at
your level, we want you to have another one. I'm like, yeah,
but from a network standpoint, you guys want three million
dollars in listen capital. And I'm just not there. I'm
(27:57):
barely pushing two right, and you know, I don't you know,
I don't think I can get it by myself. And
he goes, I financed the whole thing for you. Jeez, Okay,
all right. So forty five days later I bought Huntsville, Alabama.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
I mean, they did Harley force the proprietor to sell
or Is it a news store.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
No, it was a store that was already be in existance.
A dealer group by the name of Scott Fisher, really really,
really good guy just had so many stores that he
didn't have the right GM in this store, and it
kept turning and burning gems, and so it was really
an opportunity in a large market, and I kind of
(28:45):
knew it, and so I just said, hey, look I'm
interested in buying it, and so he's like, look, the
only reason I'm selling this is because I can't turn
the reputation in this story. He said, I want to,
I just can't do it, and the amount of money
is going to cost me to do it. I'd rather
sell it to you and let you do it. And
so that's what I did. So I bought that store
in twenty sixteen. You know, obviously went from zero to
(29:09):
hero at that store in twelve months. We just two
year over year growth and then the same the same
kind of thing. He had a store in Blue Ridge
and by that time he was needing cash, and at
least that's kind of what I felt. And so I
ended up buying Blue Ridge from the great guy, and
I took over that store and we did the same thing.
(29:29):
And then then I realized, like, man, I don't I
don't know that we can actually you know, get the
time that we need uh to buy the other stores
that we're looking for. So we just read, you know,
kind of just went around and started looking at other opportunities.
(29:51):
I started a construction company building docks. We built you know,
seventy eight docks the first year. And these are like
these Todds in my hall docks that are built on
Lake Martin. Oh yeah, yeah, built a bunch of those.
And then I figured out how to acquire companies. It's
really what I did. And I figured out how to
do it with no money, because obviously.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
I figured it out. You're first too, You acquired with
no money. What are you talking about?
Speaker 4 (30:16):
Yep, yeah, but that that's kind of been like my
trait is like I will try to acquire a thirty
million dollar asset with no cash and see if I
can do it. So you can get a you know,
because you can cash and cash return and goes through
the reef. And I started looking at Sandbox and I'm like,
I want a two hundred cash on cash return if
I have to put some cash down and so I
(30:37):
can reinvest my money every single year and do it
again and again and again. Today there's thirty seven companies.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Thirty seven we've grown.
Speaker 4 (30:47):
Yeah, yeah, it's it's crazy. There's all kinds of things
that I've that I've done. We have with the fourth
largest Hardy deal the group in the world. And as
we've as we've kind of grown, we've grown into the
marine side, We've grown into the automotive repair side, do
some reinsurance and invest in all kinds of things. So
it's almost like a family family office. Now I'm the
(31:09):
only I'm the only one. My dad ended up going
to a divorce. I ended up buying that Montgomery store
from him back when he went through the divorce. And
and so yeah, it's it's been a heck of a journey.
But I'm going to tell you without God being like
that funding principle, that that was the thing that drove
(31:29):
everything that I was doing and believing in. It was
one of those things that I probably would never have
achieved the level where I am because that's what keep
me and my wife together and keep pushing. And she's
just amazing, man. You know, I heard somebody put it
this way one time. You know, I realized that I
(31:50):
was able to make you know, a good amount of
money before I met my wife. You know, let's just
tall it a million dollars. But after that, like I
made hundreds of millions of dollars, and you think about it, Wow,
without my wife, I would have never probably done that.
And so that means she's priceless, right, Well, I love it.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
There's this story, there's a story that Nick Saban says
about that. And I know you might not like Nick
Saban being an Auburn fan, but uh, he and his
wife are riding back through her hometown in West Virginia
and they passed by the uh A gas station where
her ex boyfriend worked and owned, and Nick Saban said, well,
what would have happened to him if you if you
(32:33):
married him? And she looked at him and said, he
would have been the head coach at Alabama.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
That's a good story.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
Pretty good.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
I just heard that one. I love it so true.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
Good, that is great. I'm telling you Without her, we
wouldn't have been anywhere. Man.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
So nice God.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
Consistency and discipline, yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
So you have you have four boys, and you you
said your first one was born in November of seven.
My daughter, Tatum, my oldest, was born December of seven. Uh,
and I have five, you know, and they're pretty similar.
So you got uh what seventeen, sixteen, twelve and eight,
(33:15):
and they're all it's the four g's.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Right, that's it.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
Gauge, Gavin, Grant, and Gunner. That's it.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
And this this sweet woman you're talking about is Crystal.
It's correct.
Speaker 4 (33:28):
Yeah, Yeah, it is Crystal. Yeah, and she just she
just had a birthday, she turned twenty five. Again, boy,
I tell you what.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
Well, well, dude, I'm gonna go ahead and tell you
we've been doing this eight and a half years, and
we've had so many YPO brothers and sisters and friends
on this show. And Patrick joined EO over a year ago,
and we were we've had a bunch of EO guys
Entrepreneur Organization and then Dave Dave are COEO is in vistage,
(34:02):
so we're you know, we're able to hear all these
great stories. That is one of the coolest stories I've
ever heard. And and truly, uh, me and you been
talking about going hunting together or doing something, going on
a golf trip. My buddy Jordan Beaman, who's been on
the show Heartbrand Beef out in Texas.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
You went, you went to his ranch and uh, I mean.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
We would pick up on some stories, but we wouldn't
have got all that and our audience wouldn't have got
to hear that. That is that was awesome, awesome, And uh,
I love how you. I love how you talk about God,
and I love how you talk about your wife and
and uh, I mean, Reagan and Crystal are very similar
in their fortitude for their husband, and uh, it's it's
(34:49):
just great. Are you are you trying to continue to grow?
Do you have guys out here setting a vision? Are
you still setting a vision? What's that look like? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (35:01):
No, you know in the in the dealership business, you know,
obviously the last couple of years has been kind of
a headwind situation, right. It just it's it's been extremely
tough from a dealership perspective. So when I start looking
at things like that, I start seeing the opportunity, uh
(35:21):
for the time that that when you need to be
able to buy more, and that's that's pretty much coming
because you want you don't want to buy too early,
right because that curve right, and then you don't want
to buy too late because then you pay for them
more for them. But probably in the next eighteen months
you're going to see, you know, the acquisitions start going down.
For me, that's just the way I do things. But
(35:43):
you know, I don't want to take away from time,
So I'm building all these people up under me that
that are really my team. Because you start to realize,
like it's not you that runs the company. Anymore. It's
really the core values that you know, I'm not the Messiah,
there's already one of those, right, and and your business
(36:04):
can be successful without you. And that's really where there's
so many people that have the same culture and value
system that I have there withinside of my company, that
take ownership of these stores every single day. They're just amazing, man.
And uh, those are the people I want to continue
to see when over and over again, my goals are
(36:28):
to continue to date my wife. Like I'm not talking
about going to date night. I'm talking about make her
feel extremely special every single day, Like wow, you know,
I'm glad I get to date here. Yeah, because because
you know, if you if you ever seen she looks
a whole lot better than me. So you know, it's like, wow,
you know, what what did I get myself into? My
(36:49):
dad always said, dude, you you outpunted your coverage their son,
you know. And so when I start thinking about it,
I'm like, look, I don't want to get to be
you know, we just made it past twenty years of
marriage in July, and I don't want to get to
you know, thirty or forty and realize, like, you know,
I didn't do all the right things. So I'm really
(37:10):
focusing on that, and then I'm focusing on my kids
kind of grow them as the leaders that I have,
you know, learned to come over the years. And you know,
I kind of always look at it from from one perspective.
That's what I tell them. Look, a leader is not
somebody get the right every day. A leader is somebody
that has the ability to grow one percent better every
(37:30):
day and share and confess the Lord, hey, look this
is what I did wrong. I need help on this
grow inside of me to do better tomorrow. Right. And
that's that's kind of the things I put in their
minds and I tell them, I said, look, all these businesses,
I've created, their liabilities to you guys, their assets to me.
(37:51):
So therefore I'm never going to just turn over business
to you guys. You guys are going to do the
same thing that I did. I'm going to help you
whatever it is you want to try to do. So,
you know, I guess I got to buy another five
years before I get that opportunity to really start helping
them grow their businesses. But that's really what my plan
is the next you know, ten fifteen years, is to
(38:13):
help them grow into the godly men that that my
wife has helped me become, you know, and so if
I can do that, and that's that's the next level.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
Well, man, I think that is uh, I think that
there it is. I think that's wonderful. How can people
look you up? I've been on your website. Throw that
out there. How can people check you out? It is cool?
You do build some really nice boat dots, and you know,
we're in a construction and trades business. So I'm like,
(38:43):
dang man, we need to really get together and talk
some shop because it's a war out there.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
But how can people look you up?
Speaker 4 (38:52):
Yeah? Yeah, I mean go online us dash mh dot
com is our web site from my minim holdings. I
don't put everything out there online because of some of
the other stuff kind of behind the scenes, you know,
we have all short company, all kind of other things.
I do a lot of stuff on LinkedIn to try to,
you know, promote different things that I got going. But
(39:14):
that's pretty much it.
Speaker 3 (39:15):
Yeah, well, great, well, Josh, it's been awesome. I'm going
to follow up and and I'm gonna make it a
point in the next couple of days, rest of this week,
maybe when I'm on the on the plane to Nashville
to uh to to to get us get us a
block so we can go hang out. And I think
Patrick's gonna tag along because he needs, he needs to
(39:37):
be with you.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
I think he might learn something. I have fun.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
Seriously, thanks for being here, man.
Speaker 4 (39:46):
Yeah, absolutely, I appreciate you guys inviting me. And just
listen to dumb Redneck Find.
Speaker 3 (39:52):
His Way tell you Okay, there's a lot of college here.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
We'll talk about that later.
Speaker 3 (39:59):
Hey, listen, Thanks for checking out the At Home with
Ruby Show. Listen to the Three dumb Rednecks find a Way,
but go do the Golden rule today. Treat others the
way you want to be treated, even when it's not easy,
even maybe they're not doing right, But treat them the
way you want people to treat you, and carry a
smile around on your face. Thanks for joining
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