August 21, 2025 • 34 mins
In part 2 of this solo episode, Trent Haston dives into the recession years and the challenges that tested both him and the company—proving that growing pains can lead to lasting strength.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to at Home with Roby. I'm Patrick Beckayak from
Ruby Commercial and Services along with Trend Hayston from the
Roby Family of Companies.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
We are your hosts, Trent. We're gonna call this part
two or part two. This is it, and this is
all we're gonna do for a while for uh now
correct incorrect now because I got I'm saying I got
the guest list ready, but we we needed to follow
up with part two of part one. If you're calling it,
(00:29):
do you call it? Do you call it dawn? Are
we doing done? And two?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Duce? Or I mean, we can associate all kinds of
different ways of saying the word too.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
But I do want our audience to listen to our shows.
But I typically don't re listen to our shows because
I kind of live our shows. But to freshen up
coming off of last week, I think it was two
weeks ago, August the fifth, I thing we're August the eighteenth.
Now we're doing part two of the history of Trent
(01:02):
and Roby relative life lessons? What have you all all
in one chronological listing? And Kelvin has a request that
we might answer later on in the show. I don't
know when, but it is sunny and hot because it
was raining for weeks two weeks ago and it rained
(01:23):
all through last week a lot, and this week in
it the heat turned back on. It felt like asana
out there yesterday when I was doing my workout.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Well, we talk about this all the time, obviously the
industry that we're in. Fair weather is when you get
your work done. And where we left it on part
one was Kelvin reminded us that you were brought well.
Two things. One is you got a little emotional on
the last part.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
I did, and I've cleaned all that up.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
I think it's good man authentic.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
I think Reagan got your little teary eyed. So that
was good to see too. I think people appreciate.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
That we had a fight this morning, so you're on
the tears.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Just grips because I'm the closest one to you.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
And grit one of our that's one of our what
do you call it?
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Tenants can do?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Attitude can yeah, I mean what is it called core value?
Core values of our business? Patrick? Thank you? That was
a tea up like t ball, You're welcome. Can't get
any more.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Family and integrity can do attitude.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
So yeah, so we're recording on Monday to day. We
typically record on Tuesday. So uh, a lot more tired today,
now I'm just joking. That was a joke too.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
A lot I can understand that A lot more refreshed today.
Maybe not for me, but yeah, that's good.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
And I've had a real busy, real busy morning recording
after lunch. I well, number one, you have me doing
a Mediterranean diet and I'm trying to eat a little
later to get my to get my h what do
they call it starvation in I don't know, but when
you're doing a Mediterranean and you're eating a little later,
(03:10):
you can't push it too far because then you're maulnourished.
So uh, I'm a little late. I had to stop
and get some food on the way, but I had
took took the two boys to school this morning. They
started school last week. Knox started kindergarten. Friday was his
first full day of elementary school. Pretty cool. He's a
(03:34):
big dog now versus the little pupp that Reagan lights
to call him. And uh and Ford is in the
fifth grade, so he's the big dog in the elementary school.
So we have kindergarten in fifth grade had the book
ends of that and then at the same school goes
K through twelve. We have Tatum as a senior, Rowan
as a junior, and Piper is a freshman. So we
(03:56):
have no middle schoolers but five book and senior to kindergartens. Anyway,
Rowan now has her license. We talked about that about
me finding her her jeep Cherokee and Tatum has has
her license. Uh, so they both can drive to school.
And then I take the two boys to school because
(04:19):
it's daddy is It's a boy boy club. So anyway,
I got to take them both to school. And then
I had a meeting with my friend who's been on
the show Ken Fairley at the office, talk about some stuff,
and then I squeezed out. Uh. I worked on calendar
all yesterday and I, you know, my my schedule is
(04:40):
so crazy. It's like get it when you can. And
there Tatum's first golf match is today at Gaston Country Club.
So I went straight out there and caught a couple
of holes for her with her and she's hitting the
ball pretty good, uh for a hasting and uh, and
then I squeezed back over he so it's like a
(05:00):
little ping pong. Yeah, you're bouncing around, buddy, And all
I could think about I had to get gas this
morning when I honked at you going down Wilglson at
the quick trip you were coming out of Mecclenburg fleet
and auto spending money. I know what's going on.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Didn't see you.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Actually I did honk at you, and uh, and I
filled my tank up with gas. And all I would ever,
especially when I was full tying this all back together,
when I was full of a pee and vinegar back
in the day, I would have said, that is the
most inefficient use of gasoline ever. Going to Moorhead, oh
(05:37):
excuse me, going to Gaston, going to Morehead, going to Gaston,
going to South Tryon is where we're at now. So
I have been very inefficient, but very efficient in uh,
in checking boxes and what I want to do in life.
How about that?
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Pretty good? Pretty good?
Speaker 2 (05:57):
So it was cool to see Tatum. See Tatum play
and she's a senior, so this is it and she
was happy to see me. I had to pay forty
dollars for the golf cart to ride out. I'm like, dude,
I wasn't even trying to mess with the man. He's like, look, man,
I charged the golfers thirty five dollars. We're generally closed
on Mondays. He's like, I'm losing money. I need to
(06:19):
make all the forty dollars parent carts I can. I'm like,
I don't want to ride out and see her for
two long men and ride back and I couldn't walk
because she was on the whole other side of the course.
I wouldn't have got to see anything, and i'd have
been dog tired, which I'm not. Because it's Monday. I'm
so refreshed.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Good for you, man, coming off of my.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
What do you call it? Mediterranean diet?
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Let's helping.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
I did eat some ground beef last night. In the
Mediterranean world, you don't eat ground beef. They don't like Yeah, definitely,
red meats are not part of that. Well, put it
this way. Saturday night, about five Sunday morning, about five am.
Ford come down. He's crying, had a nightmare, And I said,
what was your nightmare about? He said, the shark was
(07:07):
eating the boat, coming after the people. I said, whoa.
And then uh, yesterday Piper was like, you watched Charles
last week, that's why you were thinking that.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
It's pretty scary.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Yeah, that music old going down and hate unsolved mysteries.
We're not going to go there. And then uh, I said, well,
I had a nightmare dream I was eating a big
fat cheeseburger at a dive. That sounds so good, going
to do it.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
I think we should do that after the show.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Maybe are you listening to what I'm telling you?
Speaker 1 (07:44):
I think you squeeze in a diner cheeseburger if you
get the opportunity, no matter if you're eating or not well,
and just go back to your story. It's not called
malnourished the cool word now, it's called a fast. That's
that's that's what they call it.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
There's something else like micro s room, and I don't know,
it's not really Uh. You can call things what you
want to call them, and it's still reality. But uh,
I'm not trying to fast too much. I gotta keep
I gotta keep a little weight on myself here, you know.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Anyway, I've been into the throes of the Mexican all
inclusive hotels, so I need to get back on to
the proper diet after a few days.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
So you were in Mexico, Yeah, where Kancomb.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Peninsula River here might just south. Yeah, you knew the deal.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
I went there two years ago.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Yeah, it's cool. Other than they got these bugs like
that like my skin A lot, a.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Lot goodness, gracious, I thought I thought my bugs from
Nova Scotia a couple of weeks ago were bad. They
weren't as bold. They were bad, but not bone.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
These were definitely they were bold. They weren't afraid of nothing.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Good. Did y'all have fun?
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Good? Your family go? Yeah, you extending family go, just
just the three of us, A three, I hear you. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Water slides and playing ball in the pool, and it's
what's about.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Water slides get a little more difficult as you get older.
It's hard to keep that head above the water when
you hit that. Can you take in some?
Speaker 2 (09:13):
You take it for sure?
Speaker 1 (09:13):
That yeah, he taking some. Uh it's a good way
to clean out your your nose, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Well, we've been fishing a lot, uh, piper and four
like to fish, so I said we got to go
get some clams. Well, you know, I used to dive
down and rummage my hands through the through the silky
bottom of the Katabo River, and I would have a
cold for five days I was trying to pick them
up with my toes. Now, I'm just scared to go
(09:41):
under the water at all. So before it was doing it,
I was like ugh, And I was like, no, let
the boy do it. That's that's what you do. Uh.
They got to get to know the catabo well. So
uh yes, anyway, I fished a little bit this weekend.
That was good. Maybe gonna fish something this week. But uh,
where we left off on the show the history, uh
(10:02):
was Dad told me to go collect some dag on money,
and that's how you kind of started leading the company.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Well let's explain that though. When he meant collect money,
but I mean back back then and still today, I
mean the construction world. But in many cases, is you
sending back then we mailed all of our invoices, but
you would, you know, do the work creating an invoice
and put it in the mail, and the customer would
put a check in the mail and send it back.
I mean that's kind of how we did it, right.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
And so when he I think it wasn't that you
weren't getting paid for not for poor performance, They just
hadn't written the check yet, Am I right? In most cases.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Some cases, some money talks. Yeah, bs walks. Money talks. Uh.
Sometimes when when people aren't paying you quickly, there's a
reason that's right. But but if you're passive and you're
not aggressive and you're not here, you're not toes. You're
on your heels. We talk about heels and toes. Uh,
kind of something I've always talked about you kind of
(10:58):
in limbo, and you don't know, and you wonder. She
gotta take control of the situation. I'll tell you a
story about my dad, So kelvin to your question, like,
now I'm taking on more jobs. I got to go
collect money, and Dad didn't coming by the office anymore.
He's out running jobs. My brother's out running jobs, you know.
(11:20):
Just to just to reiterate my brother, Travis. I would
love for him to come on the show and tell
two shows of his stories, but he has banished that
he'll never come on the show.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
I've tried.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
It's kind of his pre tra Travis has. Travis has
equal and as good stories on the other side. I'm sure,
but I don't think he Everyone wants to hear my story,
so I won't have heard his. No, I'm kidding, but
Dad used to tell me the story. He said, he
(11:53):
was running a job as the superintendent. Uh, and my
mom was pregnant and they were working on his baby
doctor's house and uh, and the final bill came. They
were done, and Granddaddy gave him the bill and said
go collect that money. And that walked in there innocent
(12:14):
as he could be, not thinking there was any any
bad vibe because he was the field guy. He's the
good guy, you know. And he said he walked into
a fire storm. And he said he had to grow
up real quick. So, Kelvin, to answer your question, I
think it was my turn. If I was gonna be
over here complaining and nagging on his ear. He wanted
to make my nag go go to the fire so
(12:37):
uh but I did that and uh and yeah, no
I didn't, Kelvin. I did not get a raise. Uh
during that time. I just I was told to say
thank you, and I got an old pickup truck with
a gas card and insurance and I didn't have a
truck payment and that was all pretty dagone good. So no,
(12:59):
so that you know, going to office about five thirty
most days, I could and try to get a couple
hours in because it's seven thirty. I mean, even our
guys today are project managers, and your guys can appreciate this.
Seven thirty eight o'clock hits, the phone starts ringing from
the clients and from the field. Guys, you're in You're
(13:20):
in the game. Oh yeah, You're not sitting here in
La la land with no phone ringing working on an estimate,
especially in twenty twenty, I mean two thousand and two
thousand and one, two thousand and two. So so try
to get a couple hours before and then and then
after five or six, after everybody kind of get out
(13:41):
of the office, you'd try to get a couple more
hours in and go. You know, during the day, you
were kind of, like I said, in the game, working
with your clients. And uh, but I tell a story.
My my sweet aunt ran the office, Brenda. She's awesome,
And UH got to say, and I want to tell
(14:01):
this story because I thought about it when I was
listening to the show. But this is about one or
oh two and I and I was full of pee
and vinegar. Man, I don't think I used the most
tacked when I alluded to this on the first show.
My granddad, you know, god rest Is. So he passed
away in O five. He was awesome blaze trails. But
(14:22):
they called me little G. He was big G. There's
a reason they called me little G. Leroy called me
little G. Uh call me a little push or two
talked about Leroy. Uh. Pretty good nicknames, honestly from from Leroy. Uh.
But but we butted heads a lot because I was
the new thing in town. I didn't use tack. They were.
(14:44):
He was scared I was gonna grow his business side
of business, uh, this legacy business. So I come in.
I'd come in at five. I'd get off, make my
photo copies, facts, my stuff to my vendors, my windows,
my lumber package. I'd go upstairs and start work, and
we had this all brokedown fax machine and go and
(15:06):
I would go, get into a zone and get still
working on a bed till nine or ten o'clock in
the morning. I'd come down. I thought my window guy
was working on this window estimate for me. Facts never
went through. So I go to my aunt. I mean
we were we were a family. We literally were a family.
And I said, please go today. I probably didn't say please,
I said go buy a fax machine. The nicest one
(15:28):
they have at OfficeMax on South Boulevard. Come in next
morning at five, I'm the only one at the office.
The fax machine is still there to the old one.
I'm like, oh, so I go do try to do
my facts. Run upstairs, start working, come back down. Fax
machine didn't go through. I rip it out of the
(15:49):
wall or go in there. My poor aunt Brenda's thought,
she doesn't seen the devil. I go back through the kitchen.
My dad's on the on the stove. I do. Stoves
are different now, but old stove. You crack it up,
turn on four hundred bait, crack it open, warm your
butt and hang out and watch people when they walked
in the back door. It's kind of a good way
(16:11):
to live. But my dad was standing there and just
watch how the world worked around and smoke a cigarette.
And I came through with that fact machine. I think
I blew up the little electrical outlo when I ripped
out of the wall and I and I threw that
fact machine off the two story and a half balcony
and he come back. I come back in and he said,
(16:32):
that woman got you worked up? Son. I said, man,
this is crazy.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Your your dad was a was a total sucker for
something like that. He would just sit back and loved it,
loved to watch stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Unful he really did. Uh.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
I mean, it's one of the times you do. You
always talk about him and you you do this even
to me now is call him now. He knows he's
got you. Five word up, pick up the phone and
call a person.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
I was telling my brother just a story the other
day about something, and I said, I don't know who
I was. Oh. Oh, I made a phone call with
you in the car and you couldn't talk and your
lips were moving, you couldn't say anything. I was on speakerphone.
I told my brother that, I was like, it's just
like Dad when he gets all fired up. You'd be
(17:24):
I'd be renting and raving in the truck on his team,
not at him, and he'd be wanting to get in.
But he couldn't get a word in edgeway or what
that's where it comes from. Couldn't get a word in edgeways,
his lips be moving, quivering, doing something. But I would
I would get to renting and raving about something. You know,
(17:46):
somebody did me wrong, did us wrong? Not right? And
he said call him, boy, call him. And then I
had been sitting on this for days weeks and putting
a knot in my belly, and I some reason I
got the courage right then, calling him right now. Dang it,
I jump out the truck and go call him right,
call him in front of him. Uh. But you know
(18:07):
this life lesson when you get a knight and your
bellies handles your business, you shouldn't walk around with worry,
uh or angst in your stomach. So uh So, anyway,
grudous company through through sweat. My uncle, my brother, my dad,
Ken Laney, God rest his soul. He passed away in
(18:28):
other three he actually, I mean this is the truth.
Really he had was on vacation in Mexico and had
a brain aneurysm. And he was always, I said this before,
always my boss. That's that's how it was. He was
the boss of the operations of the business. Uh my
whole life. And uh and and that was an upheaval.
(18:51):
My my brother then said, hey, I mean in all
and in the worst days of our life, right then.
Uh uh and this real life that the word went
on the street real quick. That old Roby, fifty three
years old, lost Ken Laney, God rest his soul boss
Ken Laney. They're not going to be the same. He
(19:11):
ran the company in the field my brother, uh then
being I was twenty five, he was twenty nine. He had,
you know, kind of wanted to be a project, kind
of wanted to come into office that had started. That
was good at it too, But you know, we're both
doing similar jobs. And and he said, man, we were crying.
We're sitting on the back porch of a house we
(19:34):
owned behind that behind our office. And he said, I'm
going back out in the field. I'm gonna handle this.
And and he did. And uh, it set the trajectory
from three to where we are now in twenty twenty
twenty five, so twenty two years later. But but we
were growing and and uh we had we had tripled
(19:55):
in size through through seventy eight. The hour work weeks
on all of us. It was really what really, like
I said in the last show, addiction is fun in
a one way, but addiction will kill you in another way.
So it wasn't that sustainable and it was hard. And
(20:16):
to Dad's point too, money money always gives you you
for it high. But money is in everything, and no
matter how much relatively more money you make or earn
or whatever where you get handed to you or have.
It doesn't replace happiness and it doesn't drive happiness, and
(20:37):
we were miserable. So it was like, Okay, we did
that for about six years because we were addicted to
it until the recession, and then coming out of nine
and ten, which was the worst days I thought the
business was going under, we said, we got to figure
out how to build this business and diversify and empower people,
(20:58):
which is what I said that makes the world go
around today and doesn't put knots in your belly. But
it's hard. You got to get through a moat because
when you start empowering people, they're never gonna be as
good as you are because you did it, especially on
your on your watch. So you gotta you gotta grow trust.
(21:19):
You gotta trade the addiction of working, and every time
you turn a screw it gets a little bit tighter
directly to trust and faith and hey, and I'm gonna
get you here and coaching and education and paying for
investment in people. And then at some point, if you
can have fortitude, you get to the other side. But
(21:40):
I'll tell you so Tinsley and Terry has been our
our our CPA since they bought a business from mister
Ruby in seventy six. Steve Tinsley and now Greg George
and Aaron mil him and those guys are who we
who we work with. And Uh. In two thousand and three,
Steve Tinsley, Uh call called my dad in August. He
(22:06):
wouldn't call me back. I was running the financials of
the company. And UH called my dad and said, hey,
y'all ow you know we did tax extension for business.
Y'all owe the i r s four hundred and fifty
thousand dollars were not masked. The Kelvin I still hadn't
made any money none, none of us really had. We
(22:29):
were trying to grow a stable business. Said how do
we owe the irs four hundred fifty thousand dollars. I'm
an economics major, I'm business one oh one family business.
I do not know accounting, never been educated. Uh. He
comes in our office. She got my granddad, my dad,
my uncle, my brother, me and he's trying to explain
(22:51):
explain accounting to us and uh yeah, and he's like, well,
you've tripled the revenue of your business. Uh, you buyd
you're buying vehicles with cash with your assets, you've grown
your working process, which is a big line item on
(23:14):
a on an operational business. It's the amount that you've
that you've spent, that you're owed you just hadn't built it.
And then your receivables, uh are are really high too.
So he said that's it. Took me as no, no, no, no, no, no,
no no no. We only have this in a bank account.
And after by after about an hour or so, I said, hmm,
(23:36):
he's right, and we run this business right and wrong
and said, well, we got to pay it. Dad said,
well then we'll be broken again immediately. Uh we can't.
We're not paying that. So we're just right and wrong.
And he said, we're gonna do it right. He said,
we're gonna start making a little bit of money to
I rest wants to get their money one way or another.
(23:56):
We were a sea corp. He said, let's start giving
it out at the end of the year, get out
and pay roll will make a little bit of money.
He said, just understand, I always got to make the most.
I don't care, and you got to make the least.
And my wife doesn't like when I say that. She's like,
kind of like Calvin, you were doing all this work. Uh.
And and he said, he said, we don't understand the
(24:20):
balance sheets and the p and ls when you show
them to us, speaking of him, my uncle and my brother,
who were also valuable equally as valuable, especially at the
time to the company. Uh as all four of us,
we were really us four, He said, we don't understand
all that stuff. He says, when you start talking about it.
Because I went and bought me a Robert Kissak, he wrote,
(24:41):
rich Dad, poor dad. After that meeting with Steve Tinsley,
I went straight to Barnes and Noble and bought Robert Kissaki.
I think accounting one oh one. I figured this out.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
So uh I did go learn something. I didn't go
to college and get a degree about it. But uh,
but so I would talk about it. And also I
was trying to talk to them about and he says,
so when you go over all that, well, all we're
thinking about is how if we can buy a couple
of pickup trucks this year. He said this. He said,
he used to always say, uh, you've always had good times.
(25:18):
He said, you were born in the late seventies, which
were terrible interest rates for eighteen percent. Uh word, we
had five employees in the seventies. We worked one day
a week so we could keep health insurance. Nobody's spending
any money, he said. And then in the eighties things
got a little better. Your childhood, he said, you thought
we were middle class. We were lower middle class. He said.
(25:40):
In the nineties you thought we were upper middle class.
We were middle class. And now, as you've led the
business and helped lead the business, you just think times
are always gonna be great. But at some point they're
not gonna be great. They're gonna be like the seventies again.
And this is in like three, four or five.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
When everything's going crazy. Everybody's winning.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
He said. We don't understand what you're talking about. And
we like the money. The money's good. We're doing better,
doing better, he said, But one day it's not gonna
be there. And he said, we're all we're all bad people.
We're gonna accuse you of stealing because you're the money guy.
That's what happens, he said. When that happens, you need
to make the least because cover your butt. So uh so,
(26:24):
that was kind of you know, that's a pretty good.
You know you read books. They you know, best sellers
lead from behind.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
How let me ask a question, where do you think
that he because it is it's genius. I mean, and
he was very he could he could see what was
gonna happen. I mean, did you think that's just wisdom
or with someone in his ear telling him that we're
a little bit of both.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
I think he had. He listened well to his customers
that were successful, like Dick Johnson, Bill Berry. I mean,
just those are more modern day. Yet I'm sure when
he was in his twenties and thirties he had people
talking to him. I think he was a great listener.
But I think I'm forty seven now, man. I think
(27:06):
I think wisdom comes exponentially the more the more experience
you have every day, and if you're aware and you're
not greedy. And I said, I said, he had a gift.
He didn't want. You know, I think that sometimes you
have an epiphany on stuff like that. I mean, it's
in the Bible, it's everywhere, you know, in what you're
(27:29):
trying to trying to learn. No, And he was right.
And in two thousand and nine, I used to sit
at the top of the steps and listen to the
workload meeting, and that included my dad, my brother, and
my uncle and a bunch of guys that some still
with us, Chris Maynard, and they were like, what about
(27:51):
David Federal? God rested. So he passed away a couple
of months ago. Wonderful. God, I've been with us since
ninety two. Wonderful, where's he got? He's got one hour
buillable Tuesday. Well, what are we gonna do with him?
We're gonna put him on this other job, fixed costs
contract job and keep him busy. And I was I
(28:11):
ran back and go back in my office. Oh my gosh,
nobody really knew this. I was remember running a next
cell spreadsheet. I was like, we're gonna be out of
business in like a month or two. This is terrible,
you know, I mean, everything we've saved and in nine
years is going down. And uh so we blew the
whistle at breakfast. The next day or two, I said,
we got a meet, and we went in the back
(28:33):
of the Greystone restaurant for two days and and made
tough decisions. In two thousand and nine, it was the
fall of O nine. That's really when it hit us.
And uh, and my dad came to my office in
UH and fought a couple of days later and took
his hat off, kind of similar to nine years earlier
when I was asking how much I was gonna make
(28:55):
talked about that on the last show, and he took
his hat off and he said, son, he said, this
don't have crap on the seventies. I said, ooh, and
he said it's tough. He said, I mean, he said,
the seventies doesn't have crap on this. Let me say
that correct. He was basically all those times he had
told me how bad the seventies were gonna be, and
(29:15):
come back the O nine was worse. And I don't
think I say this all the time. I don't think
he ever criticized my optimism after that again, and I
don't ever think I was as optimistic as I was
in my younger years after that again once again, because
once you live through something, you see how it is.
But uh, but that was the bomb we had and
(29:36):
we survived, and it got us. You know, Dave McGuire
was already on the team and then I mean with
eight within eight months, you were on the team of
that conversation, right, you started in twenty ten. Didn't know
what you were gonna do. I guess, I guess we
thought you're gonna run Rugby Electric there so you still
(29:59):
still run. No, it's wonderful. Yeah, I mean we didn't
know where where we meet the Uh what was the
name that restaurant, Kings Drive is not there anymore. Oh, Philadelphia,
the Philadelphia Delia, the Philadelphia Delhi.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
Yeah that place was good.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
It was good, got good memories too, but it's not
there anymore. Across the street from a trim which.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
You had a you were driving an Audi s u
V at the time, and you had a lisis plate
that said build a R.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
It was accurate, MD. That's what I speaking of my fault.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
And I remember looking at that for the first time, like,
I wonder if he knows he misspelled builder. And then
I said that to you. You were like, you're an idiot.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
He's still Gary Hickson one o one.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
I love that. That was good. That was funny.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
Uh. You know that that was the first non red
pickup truck I had. You know, I was like, I
got a different roll, I need a different car. Uh
started you know, having a little young family, and and
actually that car went through a couple of people. Chris
Maynard bought that car for Gavin, his son, and with
eight months. Six months ago, he sent a text to
(31:10):
me and my brother and a couple of us and
said it had finally died. So when we were trying
to look for rowing a car a car, I was like,
what about an old actor And she's like, I don't
like actor on mdx's And I was like, well, that's
what Gavin drove and that's what I had, and she's like,
(31:30):
you had that. I was like, it just died. But uh,
it's easier to talk about a car dying than a
person though. Yeah, okay, but anyway, there we go. We
got us to the big Great Recession. We lived through
the Great Recession. I used to lay in the tub.
I'll tell this one little more peace. I'll ended on
Reagan again. I used to wake up and I couldn't sleep.
(31:52):
And I'll tell you one thing, right, good, good, whatever's
going on in the world right now, I'm sleeping bag
on it hard. Uh, But I couldn't sleep, and I
had all this on my mind, and I really thought
there was a high probability or a chance we was
gonna go down and there wasn't nothing we could do
to stop it. And I would get up. I like
(32:13):
to takee bass. I got a bathtub, and I'd go
in there and just moan and groan and pray and
cry and by myself Reagan and wake up you all right,
you all right? But we were played. Uh we played.
I had a softball team in O nine and uh
we were riding in the Renaissance park I had Reagan
and and my baby Tatum at the time, and uh
she was pregnant with with Rowan, who was born in O.
(32:36):
Nine and Uh. I remember going over to speed hump
to the softball fields at Renaissance Parking and she said
something about painting the nursery for rowing. I mean my
house was tiny, I mean it was like a closet. Uh,
and we were gonna do the painting. I mean she
talking about was buying painting some tape and uh, and
(33:00):
I stopped the car and I and I wigged out
on her, and I was like, goodness, gracious, we don't
have any money. We're about to go bankrupt, We're about
to go out of business. And she looked at me
and she said, well, how am I supposed to know
all that you never tell me any of that, And
I said, I don't, you know, I don't want to
protect you, but that's what's going on. And that's that's
how bad it was back then. Hopefully, hopefully it's a
(33:23):
generation beyond my life. Tell me our kids kids will
deal with it again. Hey, history repeats itself, that's a fact.
So so Reagan was. Reagan was generous in her heart
on that wig out, Thank you, babe, ended on you again.
She's got a heart like that, very similar to my dad. So, hey,
(33:47):
go do the Golden rule. Treat others the way you
want to be treated. Who knows when we're going to
come back and do part trace on this, but carryous
smile around on your face. Thanks for listening to Home
with Roby.
Welcome to at Home with Roby. I'm Patrick Beckayak from
Ruby Commercial and Services along with Trend Hayston from the
Roby Family of Companies.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
We are your hosts, Trent. We're gonna call this part
two or part two. This is it, and this is
all we're gonna do for a while for uh now
correct incorrect now because I got I'm saying I got
the guest list ready, but we we needed to follow
up with part two of part one. If you're calling it,
(00:29):
do you call it? Do you call it dawn? Are
we doing done? And two?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Duce? Or I mean, we can associate all kinds of
different ways of saying the word too.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
But I do want our audience to listen to our shows.
But I typically don't re listen to our shows because
I kind of live our shows. But to freshen up
coming off of last week, I think it was two
weeks ago, August the fifth, I thing we're August the eighteenth.
Now we're doing part two of the history of Trent
(01:02):
and Roby relative life lessons? What have you all all
in one chronological listing? And Kelvin has a request that
we might answer later on in the show. I don't
know when, but it is sunny and hot because it
was raining for weeks two weeks ago and it rained
(01:23):
all through last week a lot, and this week in
it the heat turned back on. It felt like asana
out there yesterday when I was doing my workout.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Well, we talk about this all the time, obviously the
industry that we're in. Fair weather is when you get
your work done. And where we left it on part
one was Kelvin reminded us that you were brought well.
Two things. One is you got a little emotional on
the last part.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
I did, and I've cleaned all that up.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
I think it's good man authentic.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
I think Reagan got your little teary eyed. So that
was good to see too. I think people appreciate.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
That we had a fight this morning, so you're on
the tears.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Just grips because I'm the closest one to you.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
And grit one of our that's one of our what
do you call it?
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Tenants can do?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Attitude can yeah, I mean what is it called core value?
Core values of our business? Patrick? Thank you? That was
a tea up like t ball, You're welcome. Can't get
any more.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Family and integrity can do attitude.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
So yeah, so we're recording on Monday to day. We
typically record on Tuesday. So uh, a lot more tired today,
now I'm just joking. That was a joke too.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
A lot I can understand that A lot more refreshed today.
Maybe not for me, but yeah, that's good.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
And I've had a real busy, real busy morning recording
after lunch. I well, number one, you have me doing
a Mediterranean diet and I'm trying to eat a little
later to get my to get my h what do
they call it starvation in I don't know, but when
you're doing a Mediterranean and you're eating a little later,
(03:10):
you can't push it too far because then you're maulnourished.
So uh, I'm a little late. I had to stop
and get some food on the way, but I had
took took the two boys to school this morning. They
started school last week. Knox started kindergarten. Friday was his
first full day of elementary school. Pretty cool. He's a
(03:34):
big dog now versus the little pupp that Reagan lights
to call him. And uh and Ford is in the
fifth grade, so he's the big dog in the elementary school.
So we have kindergarten in fifth grade had the book
ends of that and then at the same school goes
K through twelve. We have Tatum as a senior, Rowan
as a junior, and Piper is a freshman. So we
(03:56):
have no middle schoolers but five book and senior to kindergartens. Anyway,
Rowan now has her license. We talked about that about
me finding her her jeep Cherokee and Tatum has has
her license. Uh, so they both can drive to school.
And then I take the two boys to school because
(04:19):
it's daddy is It's a boy boy club. So anyway,
I got to take them both to school. And then
I had a meeting with my friend who's been on
the show Ken Fairley at the office, talk about some stuff,
and then I squeezed out. Uh. I worked on calendar
all yesterday and I, you know, my my schedule is
(04:40):
so crazy. It's like get it when you can. And
there Tatum's first golf match is today at Gaston Country Club.
So I went straight out there and caught a couple
of holes for her with her and she's hitting the
ball pretty good, uh for a hasting and uh, and
then I squeezed back over he so it's like a
(05:00):
little ping pong. Yeah, you're bouncing around, buddy, And all
I could think about I had to get gas this
morning when I honked at you going down Wilglson at
the quick trip you were coming out of Mecclenburg fleet
and auto spending money. I know what's going on.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Didn't see you.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Actually I did honk at you, and uh, and I
filled my tank up with gas. And all I would ever,
especially when I was full tying this all back together,
when I was full of a pee and vinegar back
in the day, I would have said, that is the
most inefficient use of gasoline ever. Going to Moorhead, oh
(05:37):
excuse me, going to Gaston, going to Morehead, going to Gaston,
going to South Tryon is where we're at now. So
I have been very inefficient, but very efficient in uh,
in checking boxes and what I want to do in life.
How about that?
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Pretty good? Pretty good?
Speaker 2 (05:57):
So it was cool to see Tatum. See Tatum play
and she's a senior, so this is it and she
was happy to see me. I had to pay forty
dollars for the golf cart to ride out. I'm like, dude,
I wasn't even trying to mess with the man. He's like, look, man,
I charged the golfers thirty five dollars. We're generally closed
on Mondays. He's like, I'm losing money. I need to
(06:19):
make all the forty dollars parent carts I can. I'm like,
I don't want to ride out and see her for
two long men and ride back and I couldn't walk
because she was on the whole other side of the course.
I wouldn't have got to see anything, and i'd have
been dog tired, which I'm not. Because it's Monday. I'm
so refreshed.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Good for you, man, coming off of my.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
What do you call it? Mediterranean diet?
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Let's helping.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
I did eat some ground beef last night. In the
Mediterranean world, you don't eat ground beef. They don't like Yeah, definitely,
red meats are not part of that. Well, put it
this way. Saturday night, about five Sunday morning, about five am.
Ford come down. He's crying, had a nightmare, And I said,
what was your nightmare about? He said, the shark was
(07:07):
eating the boat, coming after the people. I said, whoa.
And then uh, yesterday Piper was like, you watched Charles
last week, that's why you were thinking that.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
It's pretty scary.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Yeah, that music old going down and hate unsolved mysteries.
We're not going to go there. And then uh, I said, well,
I had a nightmare dream I was eating a big
fat cheeseburger at a dive. That sounds so good, going
to do it.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
I think we should do that after the show.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Maybe are you listening to what I'm telling you?
Speaker 1 (07:44):
I think you squeeze in a diner cheeseburger if you
get the opportunity, no matter if you're eating or not well,
and just go back to your story. It's not called
malnourished the cool word now, it's called a fast. That's
that's that's what they call it.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
There's something else like micro s room, and I don't know,
it's not really Uh. You can call things what you
want to call them, and it's still reality. But uh,
I'm not trying to fast too much. I gotta keep
I gotta keep a little weight on myself here, you know.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Anyway, I've been into the throes of the Mexican all
inclusive hotels, so I need to get back on to
the proper diet after a few days.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
So you were in Mexico, Yeah, where Kancomb.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Peninsula River here might just south. Yeah, you knew the deal.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
I went there two years ago.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Yeah, it's cool. Other than they got these bugs like
that like my skin A lot, a.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Lot goodness, gracious, I thought I thought my bugs from
Nova Scotia a couple of weeks ago were bad. They
weren't as bold. They were bad, but not bone.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
These were definitely they were bold. They weren't afraid of nothing.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Good. Did y'all have fun?
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Good? Your family go? Yeah, you extending family go, just
just the three of us, A three, I hear you. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Water slides and playing ball in the pool, and it's
what's about.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Water slides get a little more difficult as you get older.
It's hard to keep that head above the water when
you hit that. Can you take in some?
Speaker 2 (09:13):
You take it for sure?
Speaker 1 (09:13):
That yeah, he taking some. Uh it's a good way
to clean out your your nose, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Well, we've been fishing a lot, uh, piper and four
like to fish, so I said we got to go
get some clams. Well, you know, I used to dive
down and rummage my hands through the through the silky
bottom of the Katabo River, and I would have a
cold for five days I was trying to pick them
up with my toes. Now, I'm just scared to go
(09:41):
under the water at all. So before it was doing it,
I was like ugh, And I was like, no, let
the boy do it. That's that's what you do. Uh.
They got to get to know the catabo well. So
uh yes, anyway, I fished a little bit this weekend.
That was good. Maybe gonna fish something this week. But uh,
where we left off on the show the history, uh
(10:02):
was Dad told me to go collect some dag on money,
and that's how you kind of started leading the company.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Well let's explain that though. When he meant collect money,
but I mean back back then and still today, I
mean the construction world. But in many cases, is you
sending back then we mailed all of our invoices, but
you would, you know, do the work creating an invoice
and put it in the mail, and the customer would
put a check in the mail and send it back.
I mean that's kind of how we did it, right.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
And so when he I think it wasn't that you
weren't getting paid for not for poor performance, They just
hadn't written the check yet, Am I right? In most cases.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Some cases, some money talks. Yeah, bs walks. Money talks. Uh.
Sometimes when when people aren't paying you quickly, there's a
reason that's right. But but if you're passive and you're
not aggressive and you're not here, you're not toes. You're
on your heels. We talk about heels and toes. Uh,
kind of something I've always talked about you kind of
(10:58):
in limbo, and you don't know, and you wonder. She
gotta take control of the situation. I'll tell you a
story about my dad, So kelvin to your question, like,
now I'm taking on more jobs. I got to go
collect money, and Dad didn't coming by the office anymore.
He's out running jobs. My brother's out running jobs, you know.
(11:20):
Just to just to reiterate my brother, Travis. I would
love for him to come on the show and tell
two shows of his stories, but he has banished that
he'll never come on the show.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
I've tried.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
It's kind of his pre tra Travis has. Travis has
equal and as good stories on the other side. I'm sure,
but I don't think he Everyone wants to hear my story,
so I won't have heard his. No, I'm kidding, but
Dad used to tell me the story. He said, he
(11:53):
was running a job as the superintendent. Uh, and my
mom was pregnant and they were working on his baby
doctor's house and uh, and the final bill came. They
were done, and Granddaddy gave him the bill and said
go collect that money. And that walked in there innocent
(12:14):
as he could be, not thinking there was any any
bad vibe because he was the field guy. He's the
good guy, you know. And he said he walked into
a fire storm. And he said he had to grow
up real quick. So, Kelvin, to answer your question, I
think it was my turn. If I was gonna be
over here complaining and nagging on his ear. He wanted
to make my nag go go to the fire so
(12:37):
uh but I did that and uh and yeah, no
I didn't, Kelvin. I did not get a raise. Uh
during that time. I just I was told to say
thank you, and I got an old pickup truck with
a gas card and insurance and I didn't have a
truck payment and that was all pretty dagone good. So no,
(12:59):
so that you know, going to office about five thirty
most days, I could and try to get a couple
hours in because it's seven thirty. I mean, even our
guys today are project managers, and your guys can appreciate this.
Seven thirty eight o'clock hits, the phone starts ringing from
the clients and from the field. Guys, you're in You're
(13:20):
in the game. Oh yeah, You're not sitting here in
La la land with no phone ringing working on an estimate,
especially in twenty twenty, I mean two thousand and two
thousand and one, two thousand and two. So so try
to get a couple hours before and then and then
after five or six, after everybody kind of get out
(13:41):
of the office, you'd try to get a couple more
hours in and go. You know, during the day, you
were kind of, like I said, in the game, working
with your clients. And uh, but I tell a story.
My my sweet aunt ran the office, Brenda. She's awesome,
And UH got to say, and I want to tell
(14:01):
this story because I thought about it when I was
listening to the show. But this is about one or
oh two and I and I was full of pee
and vinegar. Man, I don't think I used the most
tacked when I alluded to this on the first show.
My granddad, you know, god rest Is. So he passed
away in O five. He was awesome blaze trails. But
(14:22):
they called me little G. He was big G. There's
a reason they called me little G. Leroy called me
little G. Uh call me a little push or two
talked about Leroy. Uh. Pretty good nicknames, honestly from from Leroy. Uh.
But but we butted heads a lot because I was
the new thing in town. I didn't use tack. They were.
(14:44):
He was scared I was gonna grow his business side
of business, uh, this legacy business. So I come in.
I'd come in at five. I'd get off, make my
photo copies, facts, my stuff to my vendors, my windows,
my lumber package. I'd go upstairs and start work, and
we had this all brokedown fax machine and go and
(15:06):
I would go, get into a zone and get still
working on a bed till nine or ten o'clock in
the morning. I'd come down. I thought my window guy
was working on this window estimate for me. Facts never
went through. So I go to my aunt. I mean
we were we were a family. We literally were a family.
And I said, please go today. I probably didn't say please,
I said go buy a fax machine. The nicest one
(15:28):
they have at OfficeMax on South Boulevard. Come in next
morning at five, I'm the only one at the office.
The fax machine is still there to the old one.
I'm like, oh, so I go do try to do
my facts. Run upstairs, start working, come back down. Fax
machine didn't go through. I rip it out of the
(15:49):
wall or go in there. My poor aunt Brenda's thought,
she doesn't seen the devil. I go back through the kitchen.
My dad's on the on the stove. I do. Stoves
are different now, but old stove. You crack it up,
turn on four hundred bait, crack it open, warm your
butt and hang out and watch people when they walked
in the back door. It's kind of a good way
(16:11):
to live. But my dad was standing there and just
watch how the world worked around and smoke a cigarette.
And I came through with that fact machine. I think
I blew up the little electrical outlo when I ripped
out of the wall and I and I threw that
fact machine off the two story and a half balcony
and he come back. I come back in and he said,
(16:32):
that woman got you worked up? Son. I said, man,
this is crazy.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Your your dad was a was a total sucker for
something like that. He would just sit back and loved it,
loved to watch stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Unful he really did. Uh.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
I mean, it's one of the times you do. You
always talk about him and you you do this even
to me now is call him now. He knows he's
got you. Five word up, pick up the phone and
call a person.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
I was telling my brother just a story the other
day about something, and I said, I don't know who
I was. Oh. Oh, I made a phone call with
you in the car and you couldn't talk and your
lips were moving, you couldn't say anything. I was on speakerphone.
I told my brother that, I was like, it's just
like Dad when he gets all fired up. You'd be
(17:24):
I'd be renting and raving in the truck on his team,
not at him, and he'd be wanting to get in.
But he couldn't get a word in edgeway or what
that's where it comes from. Couldn't get a word in edgeways,
his lips be moving, quivering, doing something. But I would
I would get to renting and raving about something. You know,
(17:46):
somebody did me wrong, did us wrong? Not right? And
he said call him, boy, call him. And then I
had been sitting on this for days weeks and putting
a knot in my belly, and I some reason I
got the courage right then, calling him right now. Dang it,
I jump out the truck and go call him right,
call him in front of him. Uh. But you know
(18:07):
this life lesson when you get a knight and your
bellies handles your business, you shouldn't walk around with worry,
uh or angst in your stomach. So uh So, anyway,
grudous company through through sweat. My uncle, my brother, my dad,
Ken Laney, God rest his soul. He passed away in
(18:28):
other three he actually, I mean this is the truth.
Really he had was on vacation in Mexico and had
a brain aneurysm. And he was always, I said this before,
always my boss. That's that's how it was. He was
the boss of the operations of the business. Uh my
whole life. And uh and and that was an upheaval.
(18:51):
My my brother then said, hey, I mean in all
and in the worst days of our life, right then.
Uh uh and this real life that the word went
on the street real quick. That old Roby, fifty three
years old, lost Ken Laney, God rest his soul boss
Ken Laney. They're not going to be the same. He
(19:11):
ran the company in the field my brother, uh then
being I was twenty five, he was twenty nine. He had,
you know, kind of wanted to be a project, kind
of wanted to come into office that had started. That
was good at it too, But you know, we're both
doing similar jobs. And and he said, man, we were crying.
We're sitting on the back porch of a house we
(19:34):
owned behind that behind our office. And he said, I'm
going back out in the field. I'm gonna handle this.
And and he did. And uh, it set the trajectory
from three to where we are now in twenty twenty
twenty five, so twenty two years later. But but we
were growing and and uh we had we had tripled
(19:55):
in size through through seventy eight. The hour work weeks
on all of us. It was really what really, like
I said in the last show, addiction is fun in
a one way, but addiction will kill you in another way.
So it wasn't that sustainable and it was hard. And
(20:16):
to Dad's point too, money money always gives you you
for it high. But money is in everything, and no
matter how much relatively more money you make or earn
or whatever where you get handed to you or have.
It doesn't replace happiness and it doesn't drive happiness, and
(20:37):
we were miserable. So it was like, Okay, we did
that for about six years because we were addicted to
it until the recession, and then coming out of nine
and ten, which was the worst days I thought the
business was going under, we said, we got to figure
out how to build this business and diversify and empower people,
(20:58):
which is what I said that makes the world go
around today and doesn't put knots in your belly. But
it's hard. You got to get through a moat because
when you start empowering people, they're never gonna be as
good as you are because you did it, especially on
your on your watch. So you gotta you gotta grow trust.
(21:19):
You gotta trade the addiction of working, and every time
you turn a screw it gets a little bit tighter
directly to trust and faith and hey, and I'm gonna
get you here and coaching and education and paying for
investment in people. And then at some point, if you
can have fortitude, you get to the other side. But
(21:40):
I'll tell you so Tinsley and Terry has been our
our our CPA since they bought a business from mister
Ruby in seventy six. Steve Tinsley and now Greg George
and Aaron mil him and those guys are who we
who we work with. And Uh. In two thousand and three,
Steve Tinsley, Uh call called my dad in August. He
(22:06):
wouldn't call me back. I was running the financials of
the company. And UH called my dad and said, hey,
y'all ow you know we did tax extension for business.
Y'all owe the i r s four hundred and fifty
thousand dollars were not masked. The Kelvin I still hadn't
made any money none, none of us really had. We
(22:29):
were trying to grow a stable business. Said how do
we owe the irs four hundred fifty thousand dollars. I'm
an economics major, I'm business one oh one family business.
I do not know accounting, never been educated. Uh. He
comes in our office. She got my granddad, my dad,
my uncle, my brother, me and he's trying to explain
(22:51):
explain accounting to us and uh yeah, and he's like, well,
you've tripled the revenue of your business. Uh, you buyd
you're buying vehicles with cash with your assets, you've grown
your working process, which is a big line item on
(23:14):
a on an operational business. It's the amount that you've
that you've spent, that you're owed you just hadn't built it.
And then your receivables, uh are are really high too.
So he said that's it. Took me as no, no, no, no, no, no,
no no no. We only have this in a bank account.
And after by after about an hour or so, I said, hmm,
(23:36):
he's right, and we run this business right and wrong
and said, well, we got to pay it. Dad said,
well then we'll be broken again immediately. Uh we can't.
We're not paying that. So we're just right and wrong.
And he said, we're gonna do it right. He said,
we're gonna start making a little bit of money to
I rest wants to get their money one way or another.
(23:56):
We were a sea corp. He said, let's start giving
it out at the end of the year, get out
and pay roll will make a little bit of money.
He said, just understand, I always got to make the most.
I don't care, and you got to make the least.
And my wife doesn't like when I say that. She's like,
kind of like Calvin, you were doing all this work. Uh.
And and he said, he said, we don't understand the
(24:20):
balance sheets and the p and ls when you show
them to us, speaking of him, my uncle and my brother,
who were also valuable equally as valuable, especially at the
time to the company. Uh as all four of us,
we were really us four, He said, we don't understand
all that stuff. He says, when you start talking about it.
Because I went and bought me a Robert Kissak, he wrote,
(24:41):
rich Dad, poor dad. After that meeting with Steve Tinsley,
I went straight to Barnes and Noble and bought Robert Kissaki.
I think accounting one oh one. I figured this out.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
So uh I did go learn something. I didn't go
to college and get a degree about it. But uh,
but so I would talk about it. And also I
was trying to talk to them about and he says,
so when you go over all that, well, all we're
thinking about is how if we can buy a couple
of pickup trucks this year. He said this. He said,
he used to always say, uh, you've always had good times.
(25:18):
He said, you were born in the late seventies, which
were terrible interest rates for eighteen percent. Uh word, we
had five employees in the seventies. We worked one day
a week so we could keep health insurance. Nobody's spending
any money, he said. And then in the eighties things
got a little better. Your childhood, he said, you thought
we were middle class. We were lower middle class. He said.
(25:40):
In the nineties you thought we were upper middle class.
We were middle class. And now, as you've led the
business and helped lead the business, you just think times
are always gonna be great. But at some point they're
not gonna be great. They're gonna be like the seventies again.
And this is in like three, four or five.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
When everything's going crazy. Everybody's winning.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
He said. We don't understand what you're talking about. And
we like the money. The money's good. We're doing better,
doing better, he said, But one day it's not gonna
be there. And he said, we're all we're all bad people.
We're gonna accuse you of stealing because you're the money guy.
That's what happens, he said. When that happens, you need
to make the least because cover your butt. So uh so,
(26:24):
that was kind of you know, that's a pretty good.
You know you read books. They you know, best sellers
lead from behind.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
How let me ask a question, where do you think
that he because it is it's genius. I mean, and
he was very he could he could see what was
gonna happen. I mean, did you think that's just wisdom
or with someone in his ear telling him that we're
a little bit of both.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
I think he had. He listened well to his customers
that were successful, like Dick Johnson, Bill Berry. I mean,
just those are more modern day. Yet I'm sure when
he was in his twenties and thirties he had people
talking to him. I think he was a great listener.
But I think I'm forty seven now, man. I think
(27:06):
I think wisdom comes exponentially the more the more experience
you have every day, and if you're aware and you're
not greedy. And I said, I said, he had a gift.
He didn't want. You know, I think that sometimes you
have an epiphany on stuff like that. I mean, it's
in the Bible, it's everywhere, you know, in what you're
(27:29):
trying to trying to learn. No, And he was right.
And in two thousand and nine, I used to sit
at the top of the steps and listen to the
workload meeting, and that included my dad, my brother, and
my uncle and a bunch of guys that some still
with us, Chris Maynard, and they were like, what about
(27:51):
David Federal? God rested. So he passed away a couple
of months ago. Wonderful. God, I've been with us since
ninety two. Wonderful, where's he got? He's got one hour
buillable Tuesday. Well, what are we gonna do with him?
We're gonna put him on this other job, fixed costs
contract job and keep him busy. And I was I
(28:11):
ran back and go back in my office. Oh my gosh,
nobody really knew this. I was remember running a next
cell spreadsheet. I was like, we're gonna be out of
business in like a month or two. This is terrible,
you know, I mean, everything we've saved and in nine
years is going down. And uh so we blew the
whistle at breakfast. The next day or two, I said,
we got a meet, and we went in the back
(28:33):
of the Greystone restaurant for two days and and made
tough decisions. In two thousand and nine, it was the
fall of O nine. That's really when it hit us.
And uh, and my dad came to my office in
UH and fought a couple of days later and took
his hat off, kind of similar to nine years earlier
when I was asking how much I was gonna make
(28:55):
talked about that on the last show, and he took
his hat off and he said, son, he said, this
don't have crap on the seventies. I said, ooh, and
he said it's tough. He said, I mean, he said,
the seventies doesn't have crap on this. Let me say
that correct. He was basically all those times he had
told me how bad the seventies were gonna be, and
(29:15):
come back the O nine was worse. And I don't
think I say this all the time. I don't think
he ever criticized my optimism after that again, and I
don't ever think I was as optimistic as I was
in my younger years after that again once again, because
once you live through something, you see how it is.
But uh, but that was the bomb we had and
(29:36):
we survived, and it got us. You know, Dave McGuire
was already on the team and then I mean with
eight within eight months, you were on the team of
that conversation, right, you started in twenty ten. Didn't know
what you were gonna do. I guess, I guess we
thought you're gonna run Rugby Electric there so you still
(29:59):
still run. No, it's wonderful. Yeah, I mean we didn't
know where where we meet the Uh what was the
name that restaurant, Kings Drive is not there anymore. Oh, Philadelphia,
the Philadelphia Delia, the Philadelphia Delhi.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
Yeah that place was good.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
It was good, got good memories too, but it's not
there anymore. Across the street from a trim which.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
You had a you were driving an Audi s u
V at the time, and you had a lisis plate
that said build a R.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
It was accurate, MD. That's what I speaking of my fault.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
And I remember looking at that for the first time, like,
I wonder if he knows he misspelled builder. And then
I said that to you. You were like, you're an idiot.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
He's still Gary Hickson one o one.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
I love that. That was good. That was funny.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
Uh. You know that that was the first non red
pickup truck I had. You know, I was like, I
got a different roll, I need a different car. Uh
started you know, having a little young family, and and
actually that car went through a couple of people. Chris
Maynard bought that car for Gavin, his son, and with
eight months. Six months ago, he sent a text to
(31:10):
me and my brother and a couple of us and
said it had finally died. So when we were trying
to look for rowing a car a car, I was like,
what about an old actor And she's like, I don't
like actor on mdx's And I was like, well, that's
what Gavin drove and that's what I had, and she's like,
(31:30):
you had that. I was like, it just died. But uh,
it's easier to talk about a car dying than a
person though. Yeah, okay, but anyway, there we go. We
got us to the big Great Recession. We lived through
the Great Recession. I used to lay in the tub.
I'll tell this one little more peace. I'll ended on
Reagan again. I used to wake up and I couldn't sleep.
(31:52):
And I'll tell you one thing, right, good, good, whatever's
going on in the world right now, I'm sleeping bag
on it hard. Uh, But I couldn't sleep, and I
had all this on my mind, and I really thought
there was a high probability or a chance we was
gonna go down and there wasn't nothing we could do
to stop it. And I would get up. I like
(32:13):
to takee bass. I got a bathtub, and I'd go
in there and just moan and groan and pray and
cry and by myself Reagan and wake up you all right,
you all right? But we were played. Uh we played.
I had a softball team in O nine and uh
we were riding in the Renaissance park I had Reagan
and and my baby Tatum at the time, and uh
she was pregnant with with Rowan, who was born in O.
(32:36):
Nine and Uh. I remember going over to speed hump
to the softball fields at Renaissance Parking and she said
something about painting the nursery for rowing. I mean my
house was tiny, I mean it was like a closet. Uh,
and we were gonna do the painting. I mean she
talking about was buying painting some tape and uh, and
(33:00):
I stopped the car and I and I wigged out
on her, and I was like, goodness, gracious, we don't
have any money. We're about to go bankrupt, We're about
to go out of business. And she looked at me
and she said, well, how am I supposed to know
all that you never tell me any of that, And
I said, I don't, you know, I don't want to
protect you, but that's what's going on. And that's that's
how bad it was back then. Hopefully, hopefully it's a
(33:23):
generation beyond my life. Tell me our kids kids will
deal with it again. Hey, history repeats itself, that's a fact.
So so Reagan was. Reagan was generous in her heart
on that wig out, Thank you, babe, ended on you again.
She's got a heart like that, very similar to my dad. So, hey,
(33:47):
go do the Golden rule. Treat others the way you
want to be treated. Who knows when we're going to
come back and do part trace on this, but carryous
smile around on your face. Thanks for listening to Home
with Roby.
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