July 26, 2024 • 46 mins
In this episode of Growing Our Future Podcast, Eddie Priefert, the president of Priefert, shares his journey and the success of the Priefert brand. The company started with 300 acres, one product, and a two-car garage, and has now grown to a 3,500-acre ranch and a campus with 35 acres under roof. Priefert is involved in the ranch equipment and rodeo markets, as well as the steel industry, selling converted steel to other manufacturers. They also offer Priefert Complex Designs (PCD), which helps design and build animal agriculture facilities. Eddie emphasizes the importance of attitude, faith, and integrity in achieving success.
Story Notes:
- Eddie's Journey to Becoming President of Priefert
- The Priefert Brand and its Innovations
- The Scope ofPriefert's Operations
- The Growth and Future of Priefert
- The Importance of Attitude, Faith, and Integrity
- Competitive Edges for Success
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Growing Our Future podcast.
In this show, the Texas FFAFoundation will take on a
journey of exploration intoagricultural science, education,
leadership development andinsights from subject matter
experts and sponsors who providethe fuel to make dreams come
true.
Here's your host, AaronAlejandro.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well, good morning, good afternoon, good evening or
whenever you may be tuning in tothe Growing Our Future podcast.
Hey, listen, we're glad youstopped by and we just enjoy
bringing this podcast to you.
Texas Ag, science, education,the FFA.
We are blessed.
We are surrounded by somepeople that are willing to share
(00:51):
their time, their talent, theirtreasures, their testimony.
This show allows them to bringin their experiences, their
expertise, their insights, andtoday is no different.
It is an honor to introducetoday's guest.
We're going to talk a littlebit more about him here in a
minute, but I want to introduceEddie Preford.
Eddie Preford is the presidentof Preford and my gosh, what a
(01:15):
brand.
I mean.
That brand just goes on and on.
We're going to talk about that,eddie, just how big that brand
is.
But, eddie, thank you for beinghere.
Hey, hey, thank you for havingme here and it's absolutely
pleasure tell you, we're gonnatalk some eddie stories here in
just a minute.
But, eddie, I like to start offevery show with the same
question I love to hear fromguests, maybe something that's a
(01:39):
little internal, a littlereflective, and and that is what
are you grateful for today?
Speaker 3 (01:47):
What am I grateful for?
I am very grateful for myfamily.
That's primarily.
You know just everything thatI've been raised to be about,
but at the same time, over time,I've just learned that family
is what counts and why you getup every day and why you do it.
(02:07):
And when I say family, I don'tjust mean my immediate family,
my boys, my wife, my little girl, my mom and dad and
grandparents.
I'm talking about my family ingeneral, as it comes down to
friends like you, employees thatI work for, to friends like you
, employees that I work for.
And when I say that I work forthe employees but the employees
(02:28):
that I work for here, some ofthem have been with us for 40
and 45 years.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
They taught me how to work and they kicked me around
the plan a little bit, andthat's what I'm grateful for.
Well, eddie, I just want you toknow how much I respect you and
your family.
I just want you to know howmuch I respect you and your
family, and I agree with you.
I showed my kids a picture ofour family the other day.
You know, with now we got twograndchildren, you know and.
I told them.
I said you know I hate to sounda little sappy.
(03:02):
I said, but I want y'all tolook at that picture.
I said because I didn't havethat growing up.
Yeah, and to your point, eddie,when you can appreciate family
and the scope of what thatfamily means, right, and you can
be appreciative of that, itmeans a whole lot.
Um, you know, just to saysomething about eddie and
something that he said here andI don't know if he remembers
(03:23):
this, but I'm going to share it.
You know, I've got everybody'sname in my phone, so when they
call it pops up.
And I remember one day thiscall comes in from Eddie Preford
and I thought I wonder whatEddie needs, wonder what's going
on at Preford, and Eddie justgets on the call.
And he said I just wanted to sayhi, didn't need anything, I was
(03:45):
just checking on you and we hadrecently lost a country western
star friend and Eddie was justbeing Eddie.
And he said you know, I'm justcalling in checking on my
friends.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
And.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Eddie, I wanted to share that because I hope that
other people that hear thispodcast they may have people on
their mind and don't hesitate topick up that phone and call
them, because you know, godnudged you for a reason.
That day.
I never forgot, and I just wantyou to know how much I
(04:21):
appreciated that phone call andit gave me again just that much
more insight into who you are asa person, as a man, your
leadership, everything.
So I just want to share.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
I appreciate that.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
So Eddie Preford, the Preford brand, the Preford
family I know that probablyeverybody on this podcast has
ever watched a rodeo orparticipated in a stock show
somewhere.
I guarantee you've seen theblue Prefort brand somewhere in
your experiences.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
I sure hope so.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Well they will.
After this podcast.
I hope we add to that, anyway,the Prefort brand.
I was familiar.
I knew who Bill Prefort was andI knew that he had three sons,
eddie, nate and Travis, and theyhad this place in Mount
Pleasant, texas.
I mean, I was aware of all that.
But I'm an outdoorsman, I lovethe great outdoors and so I love
(05:23):
to watch hunting and fishingshows.
And all of a sudden I flippingthrough fish hunting shows one
(05:49):
day and there's the preferenceand I'm sitting here and I'm
going here watching this showand I immediately said we got to
connect with the pre-verts andI reached out to eddie and we
reached out and we began aconversation which led to a
sponsorship and which led thepast state FFA president Blake
Vineyard and I to join you on anepisode of Backwood Bloodlines
(06:10):
back then.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Yep that's right.
Palo Duro Canyon.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Palo Duro Canyon and I never forgot that.
We met at the Dairy Queen therein Claude, texas and we drove
hours out into Palo Duro Canyon.
We hiked up and down hills.
I share that story to say this,eddie one of our former board
members was a guy named BrianBolton and I don't know if you
ever met Brian.
You maybe didn't realize it,but Brian used to be the CEO of
(06:37):
All Flex Tax, okay, and hetraveled all around the world
and I'll never forget.
He told me a story one timeabout a client.
He was going over to Sweden.
I said, well, what are y'alldoing over there?
He said we're going fishing.
I thought, wow, that soundsgood.
I said, how long are you goingto be there?
He said about a week.
I thought a week.
(07:00):
He said, yeah, aaron, he goessee America.
We do things a little bitdifferent than some of these
other countries do.
To them, spending time withsomebody is how you build a
business relationship, oh yeah.
And so they spent a weekfishing to get to know one
another and I've got to say thatthat opportunity to hang out
with you and your folks, thatwas a moment.
(07:22):
I mean you get to know people.
Oh yeah, very much so you knowwhat I mean.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
When you struggle a little bit and you bleed and
bruise just a little bit witheach other, it just somehow
builds a bond.
God built it that way.
That's the way it's supposed tobe.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
So that's how I kind of got to know Eddie and again,
it's been a real honor my son,my youngest son we were just
swapping stories about thePreforts.
It's just special to haveorganizations like that,
companies and families like thatin your life.
Like you said, eddie, it's kindof an extended family,
absolutely.
There's no question that youcarry the title President of
(08:05):
Prefort, which is again anenormous brand, and we're going
to talk about all that.
You've got going on.
But I know for a fact you didnot just fall into that seat,
you didn't.
You didn't just happen intothat seat.
I guarantee you.
There's a story, there's ajourney that kind of led you to
where you're at today and I waswondering if you would just kind
of share with us led you towhere you're at today, and I was
wondering if you would justkind of share with us how did
(08:26):
you come up the ranks to bepresident of Preford?
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Well, you know, it's one of those things that you
know.
We come from a farming andranching background and my dad's
very old school he was raisedold school, my dad was raised by
a German farmer that grew upduring the depression and the
mentality of those old schoolguys is basically, you do what
(08:52):
your father did, you grow updoing what they did on the ranch
and you run the ranch.
That's what your life goalshould be and pretty much
growing up, I never believed Iactually had a choice.
It was like, okay, this isexactly what you're going to do
and how you're going to do it.
And I started being groomedfrom my early age at 10, 12, 11
(09:15):
years old, 10, 11, 12 years oldto to be the leader of a company
that that's a growing company.
Now, somewhere in all of thatin my 20s, I resented that fact
until I was 22, 23, 24 years old.
Then something happened to meat a younger age that I figured
(09:37):
out real quick.
It was a mission for me to bethe leader of
pre-for-manufacturingmanufacturing and I ended up
being blessed that my father putme in the positions to learn
all those things, to do what Ido today.
So you know, it's been ajourney and just growing up and
(09:57):
all of it.
I am absolutely blessed andit's a mission to god for me to
be a leader of pre-formanufacturing because he's put
me in a position not just toucha thousand lives in Mount
Pleasant, texas, that work forme, it's to touch 1,200 dealers
lives, all their employees andevery customer that's out there
that will ever buy pre-for Texasto the United States, to all
(10:19):
over the world.
So to get back to my story, mydad had me and my brothers
working in the plant afterschool at 12 years old.
11 years old, we'd get off theschool bus and we'd come in and
pick up nuts and bolts and sortnuts and bolts and sweep.
And it might only be an hourper day because he wanted to go
(10:40):
get our homework.
But we came up there, saw whatdad was doing, saw what grandpa
was doing doing, listened to himfor an hour or so, do a little
bit of work and then maybe evengo cut thistles down on the
ranch in the evenings, eventhough they had spray back.
Then he said y'all go cutthistles, get get rid of the
thistles, cut them out by hand.
But he had us working here atthe plant, learning everybody,
(11:03):
learning from everybody.
And as we grew up, we went tocollege and it was just
ingrained in me early on that Ihad an opportunity that I should
grasp and take hold of and notsquander, and see it as a
blessing and go forward, andI've loved every minute of it.
(11:25):
I know I'm made to do the job,so I'm happy to do it got to
write that down.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Always, listening to these interviews, find the title
of this show, this episode, andyou might've just gave me we'll
come back to that later, eddie,I think that, if I'm right, I
think it's kind of neat to thinkthat you, nate and Travis y'all
were all and I think your sonswere all former FFA members.
Is that correct?
(11:54):
Everybody?
Every one of us were all formerFFA members.
Is that correct, Everybody?
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Every one of us has been an FFA member.
Sure enough, grew up in the FFAwanting to be in the FFA.
That's what you did, and yougot involved and you helped out
and you worked and you got inthe FFA and you learned all
about it.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yeah, you know it's funny we're sitting here talking
about this and we know eachother through our professional
careers.
But just like you, you know, atBoys Ranch growing up I ran the
hog farm, the feedlot, thedairy barn, processed milk,
worked in the slaughterhouse,cut meat.
Well, it's amazing when I thinkof the-fort family farm and
(12:36):
everything that y'all have andthe experiences that your kids
get.
I don't think they alwaysreally understand just all that
they're learning now you'reexactly right.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
They're grasping and learning to look at all of it,
all of it.
And you know, when you're inthe ffa, I tell my kids all the
time put the cell phones downand just get your hands full of
something, something else,because you're learning
something that, when the cellphone's not there later you're
going to be using Isn't that thetruth.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
I mean, you know you said something else a second ago
One of my favorite books.
It's a leadership book by WesRobert called Leadership Secrets
of attila the hun, and whatattila would do is he would put
the young huns around a campfireand then he'd get the older
huns and have them stand behindthe younger huns and tell them
(13:31):
stories, battles, victories,defeats, experiences.
And you said something a secondago that really gave me
goosebumps because I thought howcool would it have been to have
been Eddie Preford growing up,getting to hear Bill Preford and
his dad and to hear them talkabout the business and what's
(13:54):
going on.
And if anybody here thatlistens to this ever gets a
chance in your through MountPleasant, stop at Preford
headquarters and go inside andyou'll see the original head
shoot, the original Preford headshoot that your grandfather is
that correct, hooked onto on tothe Mustang automobile.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Yep, he welded it to the frame of the back bumper.
He didn't have a pickup truck.
Well, they got better gasmodels in that Mustang than they
did in the Mustang and theywanted to go sell those
headgates.
So they welded it to the backbumper and they didn't have to
unload it.
It was already standing uprightand they could just operate it
right from the back bumper ofthat Mustang to the local
veterinary and never have tounload it, mount it or anything
(14:43):
else and they could operate andshow it off.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
So, eddie, one of the reasons we do this show, by the
way, is I like to tell people,if agriculture's taught me
anything, it's taught me that ifyou want to know what the
future is, grow it.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
You want to, if you want to know what the future is,
you grow it.
Well, how do you do that?
You've got to plant seeds, yougot to take care of those seeds,
you got to grow those seeds,you got to harvest, and then
you've got to share it withthose around you.
Okay, there's so many seeds ofgreatness that you've already
shared in just a very shortperiod of time.
By the way, I'm hoping thatpeople that are sitting in
(15:21):
classrooms, driving in theircars or wherever they may be,
are hearing these little, greatlittle seeds of greatness that
you're sharing.
But I want to highlight one ofthose.
One of the things that's alwaysimpressed me about you, your
brothers and the Prefab brand,your dad, is y'all's ability to
be innovators.
Y'all are always looking forideas.
(15:44):
You're always saying is there abetter way to do this?
And you don't necessarily and Idon't mean this with any
disrespect to anybody that'slistening you don't necessarily
have to have a college degree todo that.
You just have to have thatimagination and that will that
God gave you to say I want tofigure something out, I want to
do something better, and tothink that that's how your
(16:06):
company started, with yourgrandfather saying I'm going to
save some gas money.
I'm going to make it so it'seasy to see and to say I'm going
to help you solve a problem,make it easier for you work your
cattle?
Speaker 3 (16:22):
yeah, absolutely.
And and I'll put it this way,it's also is not any one person
uh, not, not any of the prefectscan take full credit for being
innovative.
I'll start to.
I'll start what I'm trying tosay with something, and where
I'm going is for every kidthat's out there and I'll tell
(16:42):
kids.
I learned this from Coach JohnBaxter in California.
He's at Fresno State assistanthead coach.
You show me your friends andI'll show you your future.
And what that means is you'reonly as good as the people you
surround yourself with.
And when it comes down toinnovation, it's not the
(17:05):
prefects doing it themselves.
You can't recognize all thedifferent things that are out
that can be done, but if you'relistening and learning from
others, that other people'sexperiences, other people's
thought processes, you'llrecognize something that is
needed in this world to make theworld a better place.
(17:28):
And that might just be in cattleequipment, it might be in a
bank I don't know what it is butyou listen to others and where
you see that there'sopportunities or people are hand
feeding you opportunities allthe time, you take them.
And then you listen to thepeople that you're around and go
the direction that the Lordwants you to go.
But if you surround yourselfwith sorry people, you'll never
(17:50):
get anywhere.
You're only going to do sorrythings and you're only going to
be representing sorry things.
You're only going to do sorrythings and you're only going to
be representing sorry things.
You're only going to bethinking about sorry things.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
But if you surround yourself with the right things
with the things that are goingthe right, the directions that
you know that are correct andnoble and honorable.
It's easy to recognize ifyou're willing to listen.
Well, that's that's so good,eddie, that that that's real
good.
And you're absolutely right.
And you know, every summer wetake a group of teachers, we
take 36 teachers from all overthe state of texas on a
week-long leadership experience.
About every six years we wereblessed to be able to go through
east texas, where one of ourstops is Preford headquarters
(18:35):
and to get to see themanufacturing side of everything
that you do and Bill Preford,the CEO, built.
You got to keep up with Bill.
Once Bill takes off throughthat plant, you better have your
sprinting shoes on becauseyou're going to have to keep up
with him.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
And yeah, and if and if you're the last in line, he's
going to grab you out and tellyou too slow.
And he knows everybody.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
He talks to everybody as he's walking through the
plant and everything.
But the reason I think that'simportant is because number one
he's willing to share.
Yeah, you were willing to jumpon this call.
I know you're a busy man, yougot a lot of things to do, but
it's also important to pay itforward and you know, one of the
things that we like to say isthat the essence of leadership
(19:19):
is to plant trees under whoseshades you may never sit Right.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
And people planted seeds in your life and we're
trying to plant seeds in others'lives and you're coming on here
and sharing could plant seeds?
Some kid may be sitting thereright now going hey, listen,
I've got an idea about a weldingproject.
I never thought it was worthanything but Eddie said think
about exploring it, think abouttrying it, just go get after it
and you never know where it maytake you.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Yep.
Well, my grandfather alwayssaid, you know, his secret to
success was not being a geniusand smart it was.
It was because he just had justhad, he was just too too dogged
in nature to quit and he would,uh, he would stay on projects
for longer than he should, eventhough they wouldn't work,
(20:06):
because he just wouldn't give up.
But he would fail.
He, he told me, my dad told methis they he'd fail nine times
out of ten.
It's just that one thatactually works.
But every idea you ever goteverything else and you can't be
afraid to fail.
I mean the ones that are afraidto fail, you just never take
the step.
He wasn't afraid to fail and hewasn't arrogant enough to
(20:30):
believe that he could, but hewas learning from every failure.
Failure and that 10th one wouldpay off.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Awesome that, I love it.
Yeah, bill, you know again.
I'm just sitting here and I canstill hear Bill talking to our
teachers and it never fails.
I love sharing this story, butit never fails.
We'll get back on the bus whenwe get ready to leave Prefix.
We'll get back on the bus and Ialways ask the teachers I said
well, what were your takeaways,what'd you learn?
We'll get back on the bus whenwe get ready to leave Preford.
(20:59):
We'll get back on the bus and Ialways ask the teachers I said
well, what were your takeaways,what did you learn?
And they always say the samething.
They said Bill Preford shouldrun for president of the United
States.
He said that before they said,man, this world would be better
off if Bill Preford would justrun for president of the United
States.
Eddie, y'all have quite acompany, you've got a lot of
(21:21):
success.
And, by the way, let me saythis about leadership I'm a firm
believer that a fountain canonly rise as high as its head.
Don't care what theorganization.
I guarantee you a fountaincannot rise higher than its head
.
And you, your dad, yourbrothers, y'all are setting a
standard of what you want theculture and the brand of Preford
(21:44):
to be, and it's evident in whaty'all are accomplishing.
So that people reallyunderstand the scope.
Because I've been blessed, I'vebeen able for the last 24 years
to visit Preford on severaloccasions and I've seen the
growth of this company.
It is phenomenal the buildings,the structures, the capacity.
(22:06):
I cannot do justice to it.
You're just going to have to goget a tour yourself to really
understand the scope of howphenomenal this company is.
But, eddie, take us through.
When we think of Preford, somepeople will think of rodeo
equipment or gates or panels.
But there is so much more to thePreford brand.
(22:27):
I know there's solar panelframes, there's steel division.
Give us a scope.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
Yeah, let me see if I can paint a picture for you.
So the company started in 64.
My grandfather were 300 acres,one product in a two car garage.
Today the ranch is thirty fivehundred acres.
We are the only rank.
I think I'm going to say this.
I don't know that I'm correct.
(22:54):
Correct, but we are one of theonly ranch equipment companies
that is a working branch.
So we use the product before weput them on the market.
We know that they're safe, weknow that they're wearing their
high quality, so we use them.
And the ranch is where we useall product.
So we have the ranch, 3,500acres.
(23:17):
We all work on the ranch, weall help take care of it all and
then, when it comes down to thebusiness, we roughly have 130
acres of total campus.
On that campus is about 35acres under roof.
Might be a little bit more, butI'm going to understate it just
a little bit.
So 35 acres under roof, we're1,000 employees that work and
(23:43):
operate.
When it comes down to themarkets and the markets that
we're in, the Lord has blessedus.
We're in a lot of differentmarkets Ranch equipment and
rodeo combined.
Them are roughly two-thirds ofour business today.
The other two-thirds of ourbusiness is selling steel,
(24:05):
converted steel, whether that betubing, flatbore, sheet metal,
cut parts, broken parts when Isay broken parts, broke parts in
presses and in shears and inbrakes parts to other
manufacturers.
So these other manufacturersroughly 600 other manufacturers
(24:28):
that are customers of ours, 500that buy steel, converted steel,
packaged and sent to theiroperations to be pulled out and
used in their operations forwelding and welding implements
and whatnot.
So if you've seen a SEM truckbid, if you've seen big tech
trailers, you've seen steelgoing up and down the road.
(24:52):
It's gone to othermanufacturers that use the steel
that we convert in our plantsfor them to manufacture with.
So that is two-thirds of ourbusiness today in that
two-thirds is also in the energysector, which is in solar
fields.
So the two mills we have twomills, we have three, two mills
(25:13):
operating today we have ourfourth tube mill going in
operation as we speak.
Any day now the fourth tubemill will be operating and in
six months we have another onegoing in at the same time but
it's been going in.
So it'll be our fifth tube millto go in along with the
slitters, the blanking lines andall that.
(25:33):
And to give you a little bitmore idea.
We have roughly 200 rail carsper month coming into the plant
carrying master coils of steel.
So we start with master coils.
Master coil looks like a coil.
I say coil my East Texas accentdoesn't come across real well
sometimes.
(25:54):
A master coil is about the sizeof a round belt of hay rolled up
in sheet like a roll of toiletpaper, and it comes out and we
convert it and cut it to thewidths of whatever we're going
to be making, whether that's aroll form part that goes into
the solar field or into atrailer floor, to a tube, to a
(26:15):
piece of sheet that's going intoa laser table, uh, to a cm flat
, flat bed.
That that goes to that sheet,that that slid to the width,
then goes to the laser table andit's lazed out and then broken,
the break, the edges and allthat, everything cut and
packaged.
So that's how everything starts.
So roughly 200 train cars permonth are unloaded.
(26:36):
200 train cars per month basedon the tons and the pounds, that
equates to about 800 truckloadsper month that come into the
plant.
Right now, based on all the newthings that we're doing in the
steel operation, on the tubemills, the new slitters, we're
putting in a 30-car rail spur aswe speak, also in operation, so
(26:58):
that we can unload 30 cars perday instead of 10 cars per day,
so that more than triples ourcapacities.
And, god willing, we'll sellthose capacities over the next
three to four to five years,depending on how everything goes
, and then we'll grow it again.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
That is phenomenal.
I mean those numbers that youjust shared for educational
purposes.
That's going to be really good.
So when you think of the scopeof all that, eddie and having
been there, I mean thepeer-to-peer accountability for
quality control there's just somany things about the way that
(27:45):
y'all do things.
I remember your dad was tellingus once about how the engineer
said that something wouldn'twork and your guys all looked at
it and said, well, I bet if wedid it this way it would work.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Yeah, we call it.
It's that farmer-ranchermentality.
This way it would work.
Yeah, we call it.
It's that farmer ranchermentality.
They, they don't go out in thejunkyard and don't get a piece
of equipment that was built 40years ago and we'll rebuild it
and we'll have something workingtoday that most people haven't
even thought of.
And there's always a way to doit.
Uh, you just can't give up now.
Sometimes it might not be allthat wise, but uh, yeah, if you
(28:20):
want to see everybody, everybodyjust really get on board, you
just say we can't andeverything's going the right
direction.
It might not be very profitablebut we'll get it done.
That's good, that's really good.
And let me go back.
You know the steel side of thebusiness is a growing sector.
It's a high.
There's a lot of volume in thesteel and selling steel and
(28:43):
that's a huge market when theranch equipment is a very mature
market.
You've got a lot of competitorsout there.
There's just so many cows outthere, there's just so many
horses, there's just so muchland.
One of the best things thathappens for us which I'm not
sure is a good thing foreveryone but when all these 300
acres and everybody's seen it inthe last couple of years and
(29:06):
it's just looking at the markets, how the markets work and all
that but when you see these 300acre places during COVID split
up into 30 acre places, 10, 30acre places, every one of those
folks needed to fence it offwith barbed wire, they needed to
put gates in.
Every one of them wanted asqueeze chute and a sweep system
for their six heifers, theirtwo horses, their three dogs and
(29:30):
their bunny rabbits and theirgoats All 10 people that split
up that 300 acres.
So you can see where the markethas grown during COVID, what's
going on, how this land'ssplitting up because everybody
wants to be a farmer.
They don't know that they do,but they all want to go out.
And when I say farmer, they allwant to be a rancher.
(29:50):
They want to live thatlifestyle because they know it
is an honorable lifestyle, theyknow it's the right way to be.
And everybody goes back andsettles back to that agrarian
mentality and that helps ourmarket.
Good thing, bad thing, whateverit is.
And that's the growth thatyou've seen.
Just kind of seen that slowdown the last year, with
(30:15):
everybody settling back in COVID, being over all the different
things that have happened, orthe plandemic as I call it, the
plandemic after it happened.
But today our aggressivementality is we've not stepped
back on our laurels with ranchequipment and said, okay, this
is just where it's at.
We have been flat for the lastyear, but we've looked at that
(30:38):
and said you know what?
How are we going to grow more?
So we went out after moredealers.
You go pick up more dealers allacross the nation because and
you go out and you compete, youget into those market shares and
you start taking market sharefrom your competitors, picking
up more dealers.
And that's how you grow,because there is a tremendous
(30:59):
amount.
There's more, there's moreranch equipment to be sold out
there.
There's six or sevencompetitors out there.
You just got to take it fromthem and today that's what we're
doing.
So when I say we're growing thesteel side ranch equipment, it
most likely in the next four tosix years we'll double in,
double in its capacities also.
We're doubling the capacity,but we'll probably end up
(31:20):
doubling and tripling sales inthe next four to five years just
in ranch equipment alone.
Also because of being aggressiveand going after markets, new
markets, and then me standing onthe shoulders of my father and
grandfather, the name that theybuilt.
Everybody wants to ownpreferred equipment because it
(31:42):
has high quality, high standards.
We live the lifestyle.
We are the brand to own.
Because in the markets todayhorses aren't cheap anymore.
Horses are very, very expensive, cattle markets going up and
the cattle are worth a whole lotmore than they've ever been.
Dogs are are perceived asvaluable as people today.
(32:05):
So when it comes down to thosethings, nobody wants to afford
anything less than preferbecause they need the quality to
house those animals in a highquality fence, gate, whatever it
is, because they don't wantthat animal to hurt.
So it's easy for me to say, ohyeah, we go out and pick up
(32:25):
market share, but it's all dueto the fact of the name that my
grandfather and father builtover time.
Let me capitalize on it.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
That's good Eddie that right there is good, I've
got to tell you again.
I'm just going back to myexperience there at the plants
and getting to tour through yourcampuses and all your
facilities and you know thepowder coating there, to watch a
piece of steel equipment gointo that powder coating and
then it comes out on that otherside, that iconic, that iconic
(32:57):
blue or the yellow, iconic, thaticonic blue or the yellow, I
mean it.
Just it's awesome.
And then all of a sudden I'mflipping through watching some
of my favorite television shows.
There's one, what is it?
Yellowstone.
I think.
Yellowstone.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Anyway, you're flipping through and all of a
sudden you go hey, that's.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Preford right there and it just makes you proud
because you're like, you knowthat that's an example right
there of the quality of a brandand how it gets picked up by
another quality brand, right,and eddie, something else.
That that that's, I think, partof y'all's journey here is that
I hope kids are hearing I'm afirm believer that success
(33:38):
begets success and that if youcan learn to be successful and
it could be something, eddie, goback in time I'm a firm
believer that success begetssuccess and that if you can
learn to be successful and itcould be something, eddie, go
back in time it could be justbeing brave enough to get in
front of the class and say theFFA creed yeah, absolutely.
But success begets success andif you can have success, you can
duplicate that success, right,and you can carry that on
(34:01):
through your career journey,your life journey.
And that's one of the thingsthat I like about what y'all are
doing at Preford is you're notsatisfied.
You're saying what can we donext?
And we know we've beensuccessful, so I know we can be
successful again.
Yes, yes, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
And the success is.
I started it with some of myfirst statements.
Our true success is notanything anyone preferred has
done.
It's the people that we haveworking in and they know that
they can.
They have faith in us, we havefaith in them, and it's a full
cooperation and team effort.
(34:38):
But the success is surroundingyourself with good people,
everybody going the samedirection in an honorable way,
and it's hard to fail when youdo everything the Lord lines out
in the Bible, which is truthand faith.
If you're just following thetruth and you're following the
faith and you're following allthose things he lines it out.
(35:01):
That is the secret to successand it's lined out in the
scripture exactly what you needto do and how to do it.
It's easy to follow.
It's written down.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Isn't that funny how we make life more complicated
than it really is?
It really is.
It really is.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Preference too.
By the way, I got to brag onanother little part that they
have and a lot of people don'teven know about this, but
Prefers Complex Designs, pcd.
You know, here's a company thathas these incredible products,
and then what do they do?
They add an incredible serviceto those products.
Yeah, so they can help fairs,expos, they can help companies,
(35:39):
businesses, universities createanimal agriculture facilities,
because, to your point, eddie,y'all understand animal
agriculture.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
Right and animal flow and animal safety and what
people need to do and how to doit.
And it's just, we know itinherently because we do it
every day Right.
A lot of people and and to usit's it's not rocket science,
but to others because they don'tunderstand it, have a tougher
time with it and and it can bevery, very overwhelming.
(36:09):
But that's where we come in.
We take all that overwhelmingaspect of how to handle all
these animals at different times.
Take it, take the products down, take the products up.
When I say products, ourproduct to go from one shell to
the next shell and how it'sstored, why it's stored, the way
it's stored, all the differentanimal flow about it, that's
overwhelming, hard to puttogether.
(36:30):
But we've done it for so longand so many other ways.
It was inherent for us and aneasy transition.
But to say that you know wejust finished Laramie County,
wyoming, and Cheyenne, wyoming,so that one was just finished
just the last month, just got itfinished and set up Sam Houston
(36:53):
State was just finished.
We did all of it but we havedone numerous.
Those are just two that we'vejust finished.
We've got probably eight or tenother complexes that are in the
works and what's going on as wespeak well you equine center
down at texas a&m university,yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
I just wanted to share that because I know that
there will be ag chapters.
Teachers listening that may notbe familiar with pre forert
Complex Designs, pcd, and ifyour school's looking at
expanding your ag facilities, oryou know, and Prefert PCD
doesn't come in and replace theschool's architects, they don't
(37:32):
come in and they work alongsideof them to make them efficient,
to save them money maybe.
Even so, I just wanted to throwthat out because I think that's
good.
Eddie, we got to start wrappingup, but there's a couple more
things that I want to cover realquick.
I know that when I was out thereone time you were showing me
this encased laser cutter thatblew my mind.
(37:57):
I could not get over how fastthat laser cutter was cutting
steel.
But you said something that dayto me that I'll also never
forget.
You know you want these kids togo through high school and you
want them to be involved and youwant them to learn as much as
(38:18):
they can and you want them toget all the certificates and all
the training that they canright.
But when you go to work forsomebody, you better be
coachable, right?
Speaker 3 (38:29):
absolutely they have to be coachable and I will
encourage everyone that that canwants to or whatever to go to
college.
But there's an awful lot tolearn outside of college.
There's a lot of people that wedon't want to go to college or
need to.
But when I'll, I'll bringpeople in to the company and the
(38:51):
first thing that we look forwith somebody is, you know, is
not necessarily you can't judgethem, but his attitude's
attitude.
We look at their attitude.
What kind of attitude do theyhave?
Do they have an attitude thatthey can learn?
Because, when it comes down toit, everybody high school age I
was this way high school age,college age, all that you think
(39:11):
all my education is over.
Well, when you go to work andwhen you start, the education
just starts.
Better, be still learning.
Now.
It may be listening and askingquestions from all the folks
around you, reading the books,getting on the computer.
It's learning all those things.
But if you want to get anywhere, you're going to have to be
continuous, always learning atrade and your trade of where
(39:37):
you want to go, and you can'tever stop learning and your
trade of where you want to go,and you can't ever stop learning
.
And college and high school arebasically those teachers out
there.
Aren't necessarily they areteaching you reading, writing
and arithmetic, but they'reteaching you to learn more than
they are anything else, andthat's what you're trying to do
(39:59):
is learning to learn, andlearning to listen, and learning
to gain wisdom so that you cango forward.
And at 60 years old, you'restill learning to make what
you're trying to do better.
Speaker 2 (40:11):
Eddie, you're giving us so much good stuff here.
Okay, so let's start to wrapthis up.
So here's the thing In thestate of Texas I can't speak for
every other state that'slistening to this, but the
model's the thing.
In the state of Texas I can'tspeak for every other state
that's listening to this, butthe model's the same.
In the state of Texas, there'sover 3,000 high schools.
Think about that.
How many of those high schoolsare going to have a graduating
(40:32):
class?
Every one of them.
They're all going to be gettingout.
They're going to be looking fora job, a scholarship or an
opportunity.
So I always ask the kids, I saywhat's your competitive edge?
What is it that separates youfrom everybody else that's going
to be out there looking forsomething?
So, eddie, if you were ablewhich you are right now, through
(40:52):
this platform, you're speakingto students across the United
States what would be threecompetitive edges?
What would be three things?
You'd tell them you do thesethree things and I guarantee you
they'll plant seeds ofopportunity for you.
Speaker 3 (41:11):
Man show my yes, that's a good question.
That's the hard question.
I'm going to go back to it.
First and foremost is threethings that everybody needs to
keep first in their life Godfirst, family, god, family,
country those three things.
God always comes first.
Everything else works itselfout if we keep God in front.
(41:33):
But attitude is everything Alearning attitude, an
encouraging attitude, theattitude when you come in, and
I'm I shouldn't say faith isfirst, but that's hard to judge.
But if you want to besuccessful, you have a good,
strong faith attitude andintegrity.
But you're automatically goingto have integrity if you have
(41:54):
the other two anyway.
So, uh, high integrity,attitude and faith.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Eddie, you can't say it any better than that.
It's like you and I have talkedabout.
There's no secret sauce to besuccessful.
No, it's little things that youdo that become part of your
core values, that you do welland people notice that it's just
like you said.
Speaker 3 (42:19):
Y'all look for that attitude, yep, and positive
energy, positive attitude, andyou're only going to make
yourself and everyone elsearound you better amen to that.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
Oh, that's great, eddie.
I don't time flies when you'rehaving fun, I tell you I it's
been an honor to know you, getto to know you.
We definitely appreciate havingPreford as one of the generous
sponsors to the Texas FFA and Iappreciate you taking time out
of your schedule.
It's my pleasure and an honor.
(42:52):
Thank you, to come on and sharewith us again.
You know, abraham Lincoln saidthat the philosophy of the
schoolroom in one generationwill be the philosophy of
government in the next.
Yep, think about that.
That the philosophy of theschoolroom here is going to be
how we're going to be governedhere.
And when I think about folkslike you and the Preford brand,
(43:14):
the Preford family, y'all'svalue system, the fact that
y'all are willing to share thatand plant seeds of greatness.
Again, if you want to know whatthe future is, grow it.
So, together y'all are helpingus plant seeds in young people
that will grow into strong,mighty oaks into the future.
Speaker 3 (43:34):
Yes, so thank you so much for your help, thank you,
thank you very much, it washonor.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
All right, so last question every guest gets one
last fun question.
For you.
This might be a challengebecause I know you, but uh, the
fun question is this what is thebest concert you've ever been
to best?
Speaker 3 (43:54):
concert.
Yes, well, I don't go to toomany concerts.
I don't know.
That's a good question.
What is the right thing to say?
I don't know.
I'm going to say George Strait.
I went to one of GeorgeStrait's last concerts.
Well, he said last concert andhe's still out there singing but
(44:15):
I went to one of his concerts.
I enjoyed that very muchbecause I was a little kid when
he was getting started.
So I'm going to say GeorgeStrait, but I've got an
opportunity to listen to a lotof them.
And then Cody Johnson's a realgood one to go to and he is a
very, very positive thinker anda very positive attitude and
shares his faith everywhere.
(44:36):
He goes all the time, and thatthat is a fantastic one.
But my favorite was probablythe George Strait concert.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
And you know I will tell you this when I've asked
this question.
There's no question that GeorgeStrait is still the number one
most recognized.
I did have a lady the other dayand she said Cody Johnson,
interestingly enough.
Yeah, and hopefully Cody'sgoing to be on this show one day
, because I really brag aboutCody Johnson and his success
(45:07):
because he was a former FFAmember.
He's a former Texas FFA memberand we've had a lot of them by
the way, george Strait was oneof them, yeah, and I appreciate
all of them.
But, cody, you said something awhile ago about that that
attitude of gratitude.
Cody's never failed torecognize that FFA experience in
(45:28):
his life and I've alwaysappreciated him because of that.
And anyway, we'll get him onhere one day and talk about that
.
Eddie, thanks for joining us toall of our listeners.
Thank you for tuning in toanother episode of Growing Our
Future.
You know, like we say, if youwant to know what the future is,
grow it.
Well, listen to Eddie today.
(45:50):
My goodness, his positiveattitude, his belief system, all
of that should be contagious.
All of that should be seedsthat we can plant in our lives.
That'll make us better people,better family members, better
community members that will helpus grow a better state and
nation.
Until our paths cross again.
(46:11):
Everybody, go out and dosomething great for somebody.
You're going to feel good aboutit and, as a result, think
about it.
Our homes, our communities, ourstate and country will be a
better place to live, work andraise our families.
Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1 (46:31):
We hope you've enjoyed this episode of the
Growing Our Future podcast.
This show is sponsored by theTexas FFA Foundation, whose
mission is to strengthenagricultural science education
so students can develop theirpotential for personal growth,
career success and leadership ina global marketplace.
Learn more at mytexasffaorg.
Welcome to the Growing Our Future podcast.
In this show, the Texas FFAFoundation will take on a
journey of exploration intoagricultural science, education,
leadership development andinsights from subject matter
experts and sponsors who providethe fuel to make dreams come
true.
Here's your host, AaronAlejandro.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well, good morning, good afternoon, good evening or
whenever you may be tuning in tothe Growing Our Future podcast.
Hey, listen, we're glad youstopped by and we just enjoy
bringing this podcast to you.
Texas Ag, science, education,the FFA.
We are blessed.
We are surrounded by somepeople that are willing to share
(00:51):
their time, their talent, theirtreasures, their testimony.
This show allows them to bringin their experiences, their
expertise, their insights, andtoday is no different.
It is an honor to introducetoday's guest.
We're going to talk a littlebit more about him here in a
minute, but I want to introduceEddie Preford.
Eddie Preford is the presidentof Preford and my gosh, what a
(01:15):
brand.
I mean.
That brand just goes on and on.
We're going to talk about that,eddie, just how big that brand
is.
But, eddie, thank you for beinghere.
Hey, hey, thank you for havingme here and it's absolutely
pleasure tell you, we're gonnatalk some eddie stories here in
just a minute.
But, eddie, I like to start offevery show with the same
question I love to hear fromguests, maybe something that's a
(01:39):
little internal, a littlereflective, and and that is what
are you grateful for today?
Speaker 3 (01:47):
What am I grateful for?
I am very grateful for myfamily.
That's primarily.
You know just everything thatI've been raised to be about,
but at the same time, over time,I've just learned that family
is what counts and why you getup every day and why you do it.
(02:07):
And when I say family, I don'tjust mean my immediate family,
my boys, my wife, my little girl, my mom and dad and
grandparents.
I'm talking about my family ingeneral, as it comes down to
friends like you, employees thatI work for, to friends like you
, employees that I work for.
And when I say that I work forthe employees but the employees
(02:28):
that I work for here, some ofthem have been with us for 40
and 45 years.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
They taught me how to work and they kicked me around
the plan a little bit, andthat's what I'm grateful for.
Well, eddie, I just want you toknow how much I respect you and
your family.
I just want you to know howmuch I respect you and your
family, and I agree with you.
I showed my kids a picture ofour family the other day.
You know, with now we got twograndchildren, you know and.
I told them.
I said you know I hate to sounda little sappy.
(03:02):
I said, but I want y'all tolook at that picture.
I said because I didn't havethat growing up.
Yeah, and to your point, eddie,when you can appreciate family
and the scope of what thatfamily means, right, and you can
be appreciative of that, itmeans a whole lot.
Um, you know, just to saysomething about eddie and
something that he said here andI don't know if he remembers
(03:23):
this, but I'm going to share it.
You know, I've got everybody'sname in my phone, so when they
call it pops up.
And I remember one day thiscall comes in from Eddie Preford
and I thought I wonder whatEddie needs, wonder what's going
on at Preford, and Eddie justgets on the call.
And he said I just wanted to sayhi, didn't need anything, I was
(03:45):
just checking on you and we hadrecently lost a country western
star friend and Eddie was justbeing Eddie.
And he said you know, I'm justcalling in checking on my
friends.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
And.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Eddie, I wanted to share that because I hope that
other people that hear thispodcast they may have people on
their mind and don't hesitate topick up that phone and call
them, because you know, godnudged you for a reason.
That day.
I never forgot, and I just wantyou to know how much I
(04:21):
appreciated that phone call andit gave me again just that much
more insight into who you are asa person, as a man, your
leadership, everything.
So I just want to share.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
I appreciate that.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
So Eddie Preford, the Preford brand, the Preford
family I know that probablyeverybody on this podcast has
ever watched a rodeo orparticipated in a stock show
somewhere.
I guarantee you've seen theblue Prefort brand somewhere in
your experiences.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
I sure hope so.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Well they will.
After this podcast.
I hope we add to that, anyway,the Prefort brand.
I was familiar.
I knew who Bill Prefort was andI knew that he had three sons,
eddie, nate and Travis, and theyhad this place in Mount
Pleasant, texas.
I mean, I was aware of all that.
But I'm an outdoorsman, I lovethe great outdoors and so I love
(05:23):
to watch hunting and fishingshows.
And all of a sudden I flippingthrough fish hunting shows one
(05:49):
day and there's the preferenceand I'm sitting here and I'm
going here watching this showand I immediately said we got to
connect with the pre-verts andI reached out to eddie and we
reached out and we began aconversation which led to a
sponsorship and which led thepast state FFA president Blake
Vineyard and I to join you on anepisode of Backwood Bloodlines
(06:10):
back then.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Yep that's right.
Palo Duro Canyon.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Palo Duro Canyon and I never forgot that.
We met at the Dairy Queen therein Claude, texas and we drove
hours out into Palo Duro Canyon.
We hiked up and down hills.
I share that story to say this,eddie one of our former board
members was a guy named BrianBolton and I don't know if you
ever met Brian.
You maybe didn't realize it,but Brian used to be the CEO of
(06:37):
All Flex Tax, okay, and hetraveled all around the world
and I'll never forget.
He told me a story one timeabout a client.
He was going over to Sweden.
I said, well, what are y'alldoing over there?
He said we're going fishing.
I thought, wow, that soundsgood.
I said, how long are you goingto be there?
He said about a week.
I thought a week.
(07:00):
He said, yeah, aaron, he goessee America.
We do things a little bitdifferent than some of these
other countries do.
To them, spending time withsomebody is how you build a
business relationship, oh yeah.
And so they spent a weekfishing to get to know one
another and I've got to say thatthat opportunity to hang out
with you and your folks, thatwas a moment.
(07:22):
I mean you get to know people.
Oh yeah, very much so you knowwhat I mean.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
When you struggle a little bit and you bleed and
bruise just a little bit witheach other, it just somehow
builds a bond.
God built it that way.
That's the way it's supposed tobe.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
So that's how I kind of got to know Eddie and again,
it's been a real honor my son,my youngest son we were just
swapping stories about thePreforts.
It's just special to haveorganizations like that,
companies and families like thatin your life.
Like you said, eddie, it's kindof an extended family,
absolutely.
There's no question that youcarry the title President of
(08:05):
Prefort, which is again anenormous brand, and we're going
to talk about all that.
You've got going on.
But I know for a fact you didnot just fall into that seat,
you didn't.
You didn't just happen intothat seat.
I guarantee you.
There's a story, there's ajourney that kind of led you to
where you're at today and I waswondering if you would just kind
of share with us led you towhere you're at today, and I was
wondering if you would justkind of share with us how did
(08:26):
you come up the ranks to bepresident of Preford?
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Well, you know, it's one of those things that you
know.
We come from a farming andranching background and my dad's
very old school he was raisedold school, my dad was raised by
a German farmer that grew upduring the depression and the
mentality of those old schoolguys is basically, you do what
(08:52):
your father did, you grow updoing what they did on the ranch
and you run the ranch.
That's what your life goalshould be and pretty much
growing up, I never believed Iactually had a choice.
It was like, okay, this isexactly what you're going to do
and how you're going to do it.
And I started being groomedfrom my early age at 10, 12, 11
(09:15):
years old, 10, 11, 12 years oldto to be the leader of a company
that that's a growing company.
Now, somewhere in all of thatin my 20s, I resented that fact
until I was 22, 23, 24 years old.
Then something happened to meat a younger age that I figured
(09:37):
out real quick.
It was a mission for me to bethe leader of
pre-for-manufacturingmanufacturing and I ended up
being blessed that my father putme in the positions to learn
all those things, to do what Ido today.
So you know, it's been ajourney and just growing up and
(09:57):
all of it.
I am absolutely blessed andit's a mission to god for me to
be a leader of pre-formanufacturing because he's put
me in a position not just toucha thousand lives in Mount
Pleasant, texas, that work forme, it's to touch 1,200 dealers
lives, all their employees andevery customer that's out there
that will ever buy pre-for Texasto the United States, to all
(10:19):
over the world.
So to get back to my story, mydad had me and my brothers
working in the plant afterschool at 12 years old.
11 years old, we'd get off theschool bus and we'd come in and
pick up nuts and bolts and sortnuts and bolts and sweep.
And it might only be an hourper day because he wanted to go
(10:40):
get our homework.
But we came up there, saw whatdad was doing, saw what grandpa
was doing doing, listened to himfor an hour or so, do a little
bit of work and then maybe evengo cut thistles down on the
ranch in the evenings, eventhough they had spray back.
Then he said y'all go cutthistles, get get rid of the
thistles, cut them out by hand.
But he had us working here atthe plant, learning everybody,
(11:03):
learning from everybody.
And as we grew up, we went tocollege and it was just
ingrained in me early on that Ihad an opportunity that I should
grasp and take hold of and notsquander, and see it as a
blessing and go forward, andI've loved every minute of it.
(11:25):
I know I'm made to do the job,so I'm happy to do it got to
write that down.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Always, listening to these interviews, find the title
of this show, this episode, andyou might've just gave me we'll
come back to that later, eddie,I think that, if I'm right, I
think it's kind of neat to thinkthat you, nate and Travis y'all
were all and I think your sonswere all former FFA members.
Is that correct?
(11:54):
Everybody?
Every one of us were all formerFFA members.
Is that correct, Everybody?
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Every one of us has been an FFA member.
Sure enough, grew up in the FFAwanting to be in the FFA.
That's what you did, and yougot involved and you helped out
and you worked and you got inthe FFA and you learned all
about it.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yeah, you know it's funny we're sitting here talking
about this and we know eachother through our professional
careers.
But just like you, you know, atBoys Ranch growing up I ran the
hog farm, the feedlot, thedairy barn, processed milk,
worked in the slaughterhouse,cut meat.
Well, it's amazing when I thinkof the-fort family farm and
(12:36):
everything that y'all have andthe experiences that your kids
get.
I don't think they alwaysreally understand just all that
they're learning now you'reexactly right.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
They're grasping and learning to look at all of it,
all of it.
And you know, when you're inthe ffa, I tell my kids all the
time put the cell phones downand just get your hands full of
something, something else,because you're learning
something that, when the cellphone's not there later you're
going to be using Isn't that thetruth.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
I mean, you know you said something else a second ago
One of my favorite books.
It's a leadership book by WesRobert called Leadership Secrets
of attila the hun, and whatattila would do is he would put
the young huns around a campfireand then he'd get the older
huns and have them stand behindthe younger huns and tell them
(13:31):
stories, battles, victories,defeats, experiences.
And you said something a secondago that really gave me
goosebumps because I thought howcool would it have been to have
been Eddie Preford growing up,getting to hear Bill Preford and
his dad and to hear them talkabout the business and what's
(13:54):
going on.
And if anybody here thatlistens to this ever gets a
chance in your through MountPleasant, stop at Preford
headquarters and go inside andyou'll see the original head
shoot, the original Preford headshoot that your grandfather is
that correct, hooked onto on tothe Mustang automobile.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Yep, he welded it to the frame of the back bumper.
He didn't have a pickup truck.
Well, they got better gasmodels in that Mustang than they
did in the Mustang and theywanted to go sell those
headgates.
So they welded it to the backbumper and they didn't have to
unload it.
It was already standing uprightand they could just operate it
right from the back bumper ofthat Mustang to the local
veterinary and never have tounload it, mount it or anything
(14:43):
else and they could operate andshow it off.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
So, eddie, one of the reasons we do this show, by the
way, is I like to tell people,if agriculture's taught me
anything, it's taught me that ifyou want to know what the
future is, grow it.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
You want to, if you want to know what the future is,
you grow it.
Well, how do you do that?
You've got to plant seeds, yougot to take care of those seeds,
you got to grow those seeds,you got to harvest, and then
you've got to share it withthose around you.
Okay, there's so many seeds ofgreatness that you've already
shared in just a very shortperiod of time.
By the way, I'm hoping thatpeople that are sitting in
(15:21):
classrooms, driving in theircars or wherever they may be,
are hearing these little, greatlittle seeds of greatness that
you're sharing.
But I want to highlight one ofthose.
One of the things that's alwaysimpressed me about you, your
brothers and the Prefab brand,your dad, is y'all's ability to
be innovators.
Y'all are always looking forideas.
(15:44):
You're always saying is there abetter way to do this?
And you don't necessarily and Idon't mean this with any
disrespect to anybody that'slistening you don't necessarily
have to have a college degree todo that.
You just have to have thatimagination and that will that
God gave you to say I want tofigure something out, I want to
do something better, and tothink that that's how your
(16:06):
company started, with yourgrandfather saying I'm going to
save some gas money.
I'm going to make it so it'seasy to see and to say I'm going
to help you solve a problem,make it easier for you work your
cattle?
Speaker 3 (16:22):
yeah, absolutely.
And and I'll put it this way,it's also is not any one person
uh, not, not any of the prefectscan take full credit for being
innovative.
I'll start to.
I'll start what I'm trying tosay with something, and where
I'm going is for every kidthat's out there and I'll tell
(16:42):
kids.
I learned this from Coach JohnBaxter in California.
He's at Fresno State assistanthead coach.
You show me your friends andI'll show you your future.
And what that means is you'reonly as good as the people you
surround yourself with.
And when it comes down toinnovation, it's not the
(17:05):
prefects doing it themselves.
You can't recognize all thedifferent things that are out
that can be done, but if you'relistening and learning from
others, that other people'sexperiences, other people's
thought processes, you'llrecognize something that is
needed in this world to make theworld a better place.
(17:28):
And that might just be in cattleequipment, it might be in a
bank I don't know what it is butyou listen to others and where
you see that there'sopportunities or people are hand
feeding you opportunities allthe time, you take them.
And then you listen to thepeople that you're around and go
the direction that the Lordwants you to go.
But if you surround yourselfwith sorry people, you'll never
(17:50):
get anywhere.
You're only going to do sorrythings and you're only going to
be representing sorry things.
You're only going to do sorrythings and you're only going to
be representing sorry things.
You're only going to bethinking about sorry things.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
But if you surround yourself with the right things
with the things that are goingthe right, the directions that
you know that are correct andnoble and honorable.
It's easy to recognize ifyou're willing to listen.
Well, that's that's so good,eddie, that that that's real
good.
And you're absolutely right.
And you know, every summer wetake a group of teachers, we
take 36 teachers from all overthe state of texas on a
week-long leadership experience.
About every six years we wereblessed to be able to go through
east texas, where one of ourstops is Preford headquarters
(18:35):
and to get to see themanufacturing side of everything
that you do and Bill Preford,the CEO, built.
You got to keep up with Bill.
Once Bill takes off throughthat plant, you better have your
sprinting shoes on becauseyou're going to have to keep up
with him.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
And yeah, and if and if you're the last in line, he's
going to grab you out and tellyou too slow.
And he knows everybody.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
He talks to everybody as he's walking through the
plant and everything.
But the reason I think that'simportant is because number one
he's willing to share.
Yeah, you were willing to jumpon this call.
I know you're a busy man, yougot a lot of things to do, but
it's also important to pay itforward and you know, one of the
things that we like to say isthat the essence of leadership
(19:19):
is to plant trees under whoseshades you may never sit Right.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
And people planted seeds in your life and we're
trying to plant seeds in others'lives and you're coming on here
and sharing could plant seeds?
Some kid may be sitting thereright now going hey, listen,
I've got an idea about a weldingproject.
I never thought it was worthanything but Eddie said think
about exploring it, think abouttrying it, just go get after it
and you never know where it maytake you.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Yep.
Well, my grandfather alwayssaid, you know, his secret to
success was not being a geniusand smart it was.
It was because he just had justhad, he was just too too dogged
in nature to quit and he would,uh, he would stay on projects
for longer than he should, eventhough they wouldn't work,
(20:06):
because he just wouldn't give up.
But he would fail.
He, he told me, my dad told methis they he'd fail nine times
out of ten.
It's just that one thatactually works.
But every idea you ever goteverything else and you can't be
afraid to fail.
I mean the ones that are afraidto fail, you just never take
the step.
He wasn't afraid to fail and hewasn't arrogant enough to
(20:30):
believe that he could, but hewas learning from every failure.
Failure and that 10th one wouldpay off.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Awesome that, I love it.
Yeah, bill, you know again.
I'm just sitting here and I canstill hear Bill talking to our
teachers and it never fails.
I love sharing this story, butit never fails.
We'll get back on the bus whenwe get ready to leave Prefix.
We'll get back on the bus and Ialways ask the teachers I said
well, what were your takeaways,what'd you learn?
We'll get back on the bus whenwe get ready to leave Preford.
(20:59):
We'll get back on the bus and Ialways ask the teachers I said
well, what were your takeaways,what did you learn?
And they always say the samething.
They said Bill Preford shouldrun for president of the United
States.
He said that before they said,man, this world would be better
off if Bill Preford would justrun for president of the United
States.
Eddie, y'all have quite acompany, you've got a lot of
(21:21):
success.
And, by the way, let me saythis about leadership I'm a firm
believer that a fountain canonly rise as high as its head.
Don't care what theorganization.
I guarantee you a fountaincannot rise higher than its head
.
And you, your dad, yourbrothers, y'all are setting a
standard of what you want theculture and the brand of Preford
(21:44):
to be, and it's evident in whaty'all are accomplishing.
So that people reallyunderstand the scope.
Because I've been blessed, I'vebeen able for the last 24 years
to visit Preford on severaloccasions and I've seen the
growth of this company.
It is phenomenal the buildings,the structures, the capacity.
(22:06):
I cannot do justice to it.
You're just going to have to goget a tour yourself to really
understand the scope of howphenomenal this company is.
But, eddie, take us through.
When we think of Preford, somepeople will think of rodeo
equipment or gates or panels.
But there is so much more to thePreford brand.
(22:27):
I know there's solar panelframes, there's steel division.
Give us a scope.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
Yeah, let me see if I can paint a picture for you.
So the company started in 64.
My grandfather were 300 acres,one product in a two car garage.
Today the ranch is thirty fivehundred acres.
We are the only rank.
I think I'm going to say this.
I don't know that I'm correct.
(22:54):
Correct, but we are one of theonly ranch equipment companies
that is a working branch.
So we use the product before weput them on the market.
We know that they're safe, weknow that they're wearing their
high quality, so we use them.
And the ranch is where we useall product.
So we have the ranch, 3,500acres.
(23:17):
We all work on the ranch, weall help take care of it all and
then, when it comes down to thebusiness, we roughly have 130
acres of total campus.
On that campus is about 35acres under roof.
Might be a little bit more, butI'm going to understate it just
a little bit.
So 35 acres under roof, we're1,000 employees that work and
(23:43):
operate.
When it comes down to themarkets and the markets that
we're in, the Lord has blessedus.
We're in a lot of differentmarkets Ranch equipment and
rodeo combined.
Them are roughly two-thirds ofour business today.
The other two-thirds of ourbusiness is selling steel,
(24:05):
converted steel, whether that betubing, flatbore, sheet metal,
cut parts, broken parts when Isay broken parts, broke parts in
presses and in shears and inbrakes parts to other
manufacturers.
So these other manufacturersroughly 600 other manufacturers
(24:28):
that are customers of ours, 500that buy steel, converted steel,
packaged and sent to theiroperations to be pulled out and
used in their operations forwelding and welding implements
and whatnot.
So if you've seen a SEM truckbid, if you've seen big tech
trailers, you've seen steelgoing up and down the road.
(24:52):
It's gone to othermanufacturers that use the steel
that we convert in our plantsfor them to manufacture with.
So that is two-thirds of ourbusiness today in that
two-thirds is also in the energysector, which is in solar
fields.
So the two mills we have twomills, we have three, two mills
(25:13):
operating today we have ourfourth tube mill going in
operation as we speak.
Any day now the fourth tubemill will be operating and in
six months we have another onegoing in at the same time but
it's been going in.
So it'll be our fifth tube millto go in along with the
slitters, the blanking lines andall that.
(25:33):
And to give you a little bitmore idea.
We have roughly 200 rail carsper month coming into the plant
carrying master coils of steel.
So we start with master coils.
Master coil looks like a coil.
I say coil my East Texas accentdoesn't come across real well
sometimes.
(25:54):
A master coil is about the sizeof a round belt of hay rolled up
in sheet like a roll of toiletpaper, and it comes out and we
convert it and cut it to thewidths of whatever we're going
to be making, whether that's aroll form part that goes into
the solar field or into atrailer floor, to a tube, to a
(26:15):
piece of sheet that's going intoa laser table, uh, to a cm flat
, flat bed.
That that goes to that sheet,that that slid to the width,
then goes to the laser table andit's lazed out and then broken,
the break, the edges and allthat, everything cut and
packaged.
So that's how everything starts.
So roughly 200 train cars permonth are unloaded.
(26:36):
200 train cars per month basedon the tons and the pounds, that
equates to about 800 truckloadsper month that come into the
plant.
Right now, based on all the newthings that we're doing in the
steel operation, on the tubemills, the new slitters, we're
putting in a 30-car rail spur aswe speak, also in operation, so
(26:58):
that we can unload 30 cars perday instead of 10 cars per day,
so that more than triples ourcapacities.
And, god willing, we'll sellthose capacities over the next
three to four to five years,depending on how everything goes
, and then we'll grow it again.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
That is phenomenal.
I mean those numbers that youjust shared for educational
purposes.
That's going to be really good.
So when you think of the scopeof all that, eddie and having
been there, I mean thepeer-to-peer accountability for
quality control there's just somany things about the way that
(27:45):
y'all do things.
I remember your dad was tellingus once about how the engineer
said that something wouldn'twork and your guys all looked at
it and said, well, I bet if wedid it this way it would work.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Yeah, we call it.
It's that farmer-ranchermentality.
This way it would work.
Yeah, we call it.
It's that farmer ranchermentality.
They, they don't go out in thejunkyard and don't get a piece
of equipment that was built 40years ago and we'll rebuild it
and we'll have something workingtoday that most people haven't
even thought of.
And there's always a way to doit.
Uh, you just can't give up now.
Sometimes it might not be allthat wise, but uh, yeah, if you
(28:20):
want to see everybody, everybodyjust really get on board, you
just say we can't andeverything's going the right
direction.
It might not be very profitablebut we'll get it done.
That's good, that's really good.
And let me go back.
You know the steel side of thebusiness is a growing sector.
It's a high.
There's a lot of volume in thesteel and selling steel and
(28:43):
that's a huge market when theranch equipment is a very mature
market.
You've got a lot of competitorsout there.
There's just so many cows outthere, there's just so many
horses, there's just so muchland.
One of the best things thathappens for us which I'm not
sure is a good thing foreveryone but when all these 300
acres and everybody's seen it inthe last couple of years and
(29:06):
it's just looking at the markets, how the markets work and all
that but when you see these 300acre places during COVID split
up into 30 acre places, 10, 30acre places, every one of those
folks needed to fence it offwith barbed wire, they needed to
put gates in.
Every one of them wanted asqueeze chute and a sweep system
for their six heifers, theirtwo horses, their three dogs and
(29:30):
their bunny rabbits and theirgoats All 10 people that split
up that 300 acres.
So you can see where the markethas grown during COVID, what's
going on, how this land'ssplitting up because everybody
wants to be a farmer.
They don't know that they do,but they all want to go out.
And when I say farmer, they allwant to be a rancher.
(29:50):
They want to live thatlifestyle because they know it
is an honorable lifestyle, theyknow it's the right way to be.
And everybody goes back andsettles back to that agrarian
mentality and that helps ourmarket.
Good thing, bad thing, whateverit is.
And that's the growth thatyou've seen.
Just kind of seen that slowdown the last year, with
(30:15):
everybody settling back in COVID, being over all the different
things that have happened, orthe plandemic as I call it, the
plandemic after it happened.
But today our aggressivementality is we've not stepped
back on our laurels with ranchequipment and said, okay, this
is just where it's at.
We have been flat for the lastyear, but we've looked at that
(30:38):
and said you know what?
How are we going to grow more?
So we went out after moredealers.
You go pick up more dealers allacross the nation because and
you go out and you compete, youget into those market shares and
you start taking market sharefrom your competitors, picking
up more dealers.
And that's how you grow,because there is a tremendous
(30:59):
amount.
There's more, there's moreranch equipment to be sold out
there.
There's six or sevencompetitors out there.
You just got to take it fromthem and today that's what we're
doing.
So when I say we're growing thesteel side ranch equipment, it
most likely in the next four tosix years we'll double in,
double in its capacities also.
We're doubling the capacity,but we'll probably end up
(31:20):
doubling and tripling sales inthe next four to five years just
in ranch equipment alone.
Also because of being aggressiveand going after markets, new
markets, and then me standing onthe shoulders of my father and
grandfather, the name that theybuilt.
Everybody wants to ownpreferred equipment because it
(31:42):
has high quality, high standards.
We live the lifestyle.
We are the brand to own.
Because in the markets todayhorses aren't cheap anymore.
Horses are very, very expensive, cattle markets going up and
the cattle are worth a whole lotmore than they've ever been.
Dogs are are perceived asvaluable as people today.
(32:05):
So when it comes down to thosethings, nobody wants to afford
anything less than preferbecause they need the quality to
house those animals in a highquality fence, gate, whatever it
is, because they don't wantthat animal to hurt.
So it's easy for me to say, ohyeah, we go out and pick up
(32:25):
market share, but it's all dueto the fact of the name that my
grandfather and father builtover time.
Let me capitalize on it.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
That's good Eddie that right there is good, I've
got to tell you again.
I'm just going back to myexperience there at the plants
and getting to tour through yourcampuses and all your
facilities and you know thepowder coating there, to watch a
piece of steel equipment gointo that powder coating and
then it comes out on that otherside, that iconic, that iconic
(32:57):
blue or the yellow, iconic, thaticonic blue or the yellow, I
mean it.
Just it's awesome.
And then all of a sudden I'mflipping through watching some
of my favorite television shows.
There's one, what is it?
Yellowstone.
I think.
Yellowstone.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Anyway, you're flipping through and all of a
sudden you go hey, that's.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Preford right there and it just makes you proud
because you're like, you knowthat that's an example right
there of the quality of a brandand how it gets picked up by
another quality brand, right,and eddie, something else.
That that that's, I think, partof y'all's journey here is that
I hope kids are hearing I'm afirm believer that success
(33:38):
begets success and that if youcan learn to be successful and
it could be something, eddie, goback in time I'm a firm
believer that success begetssuccess and that if you can
learn to be successful and itcould be something, eddie, go
back in time it could be justbeing brave enough to get in
front of the class and say theFFA creed yeah, absolutely.
But success begets success andif you can have success, you can
duplicate that success, right,and you can carry that on
(34:01):
through your career journey,your life journey.
And that's one of the thingsthat I like about what y'all are
doing at Preford is you're notsatisfied.
You're saying what can we donext?
And we know we've beensuccessful, so I know we can be
successful again.
Yes, yes, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
And the success is.
I started it with some of myfirst statements.
Our true success is notanything anyone preferred has
done.
It's the people that we haveworking in and they know that
they can.
They have faith in us, we havefaith in them, and it's a full
cooperation and team effort.
(34:38):
But the success is surroundingyourself with good people,
everybody going the samedirection in an honorable way,
and it's hard to fail when youdo everything the Lord lines out
in the Bible, which is truthand faith.
If you're just following thetruth and you're following the
faith and you're following allthose things he lines it out.
(35:01):
That is the secret to successand it's lined out in the
scripture exactly what you needto do and how to do it.
It's easy to follow.
It's written down.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Isn't that funny how we make life more complicated
than it really is?
It really is.
It really is.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Preference too.
By the way, I got to brag onanother little part that they
have and a lot of people don'teven know about this, but
Prefers Complex Designs, pcd.
You know, here's a company thathas these incredible products,
and then what do they do?
They add an incredible serviceto those products.
Yeah, so they can help fairs,expos, they can help companies,
(35:39):
businesses, universities createanimal agriculture facilities,
because, to your point, eddie,y'all understand animal
agriculture.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
Right and animal flow and animal safety and what
people need to do and how to doit.
And it's just, we know itinherently because we do it
every day Right.
A lot of people and and to usit's it's not rocket science,
but to others because they don'tunderstand it, have a tougher
time with it and and it can bevery, very overwhelming.
(36:09):
But that's where we come in.
We take all that overwhelmingaspect of how to handle all
these animals at different times.
Take it, take the products down, take the products up.
When I say products, ourproduct to go from one shell to
the next shell and how it'sstored, why it's stored, the way
it's stored, all the differentanimal flow about it, that's
overwhelming, hard to puttogether.
(36:30):
But we've done it for so longand so many other ways.
It was inherent for us and aneasy transition.
But to say that you know wejust finished Laramie County,
wyoming, and Cheyenne, wyoming,so that one was just finished
just the last month, just got itfinished and set up Sam Houston
(36:53):
State was just finished.
We did all of it but we havedone numerous.
Those are just two that we'vejust finished.
We've got probably eight or tenother complexes that are in the
works and what's going on as wespeak well you equine center
down at texas a&m university,yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
I just wanted to share that because I know that
there will be ag chapters.
Teachers listening that may notbe familiar with pre forert
Complex Designs, pcd, and ifyour school's looking at
expanding your ag facilities, oryou know, and Prefert PCD
doesn't come in and replace theschool's architects, they don't
(37:32):
come in and they work alongsideof them to make them efficient,
to save them money maybe.
Even so, I just wanted to throwthat out because I think that's
good.
Eddie, we got to start wrappingup, but there's a couple more
things that I want to cover realquick.
I know that when I was out thereone time you were showing me
this encased laser cutter thatblew my mind.
(37:57):
I could not get over how fastthat laser cutter was cutting
steel.
But you said something that dayto me that I'll also never
forget.
You know you want these kids togo through high school and you
want them to be involved and youwant them to learn as much as
(38:18):
they can and you want them toget all the certificates and all
the training that they canright.
But when you go to work forsomebody, you better be
coachable, right?
Speaker 3 (38:29):
absolutely they have to be coachable and I will
encourage everyone that that canwants to or whatever to go to
college.
But there's an awful lot tolearn outside of college.
There's a lot of people that wedon't want to go to college or
need to.
But when I'll, I'll bringpeople in to the company and the
(38:51):
first thing that we look forwith somebody is, you know, is
not necessarily you can't judgethem, but his attitude's
attitude.
We look at their attitude.
What kind of attitude do theyhave?
Do they have an attitude thatthey can learn?
Because, when it comes down toit, everybody high school age I
was this way high school age,college age, all that you think
(39:11):
all my education is over.
Well, when you go to work andwhen you start, the education
just starts.
Better, be still learning.
Now.
It may be listening and askingquestions from all the folks
around you, reading the books,getting on the computer.
It's learning all those things.
But if you want to get anywhere, you're going to have to be
continuous, always learning atrade and your trade of where
(39:37):
you want to go, and you can'tever stop learning and your
trade of where you want to go,and you can't ever stop learning
.
And college and high school arebasically those teachers out
there.
Aren't necessarily they areteaching you reading, writing
and arithmetic, but they'reteaching you to learn more than
they are anything else, andthat's what you're trying to do
(39:59):
is learning to learn, andlearning to listen, and learning
to gain wisdom so that you cango forward.
And at 60 years old, you'restill learning to make what
you're trying to do better.
Speaker 2 (40:11):
Eddie, you're giving us so much good stuff here.
Okay, so let's start to wrapthis up.
So here's the thing In thestate of Texas I can't speak for
every other state that'slistening to this, but the
model's the thing.
In the state of Texas I can'tspeak for every other state
that's listening to this, butthe model's the same.
In the state of Texas, there'sover 3,000 high schools.
Think about that.
How many of those high schoolsare going to have a graduating
(40:32):
class?
Every one of them.
They're all going to be gettingout.
They're going to be looking fora job, a scholarship or an
opportunity.
So I always ask the kids, I saywhat's your competitive edge?
What is it that separates youfrom everybody else that's going
to be out there looking forsomething?
So, eddie, if you were ablewhich you are right now, through
(40:52):
this platform, you're speakingto students across the United
States what would be threecompetitive edges?
What would be three things?
You'd tell them you do thesethree things and I guarantee you
they'll plant seeds ofopportunity for you.
Speaker 3 (41:11):
Man show my yes, that's a good question.
That's the hard question.
I'm going to go back to it.
First and foremost is threethings that everybody needs to
keep first in their life Godfirst, family, god, family,
country those three things.
God always comes first.
Everything else works itselfout if we keep God in front.
(41:33):
But attitude is everything Alearning attitude, an
encouraging attitude, theattitude when you come in, and
I'm I shouldn't say faith isfirst, but that's hard to judge.
But if you want to besuccessful, you have a good,
strong faith attitude andintegrity.
But you're automatically goingto have integrity if you have
(41:54):
the other two anyway.
So, uh, high integrity,attitude and faith.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Eddie, you can't say it any better than that.
It's like you and I have talkedabout.
There's no secret sauce to besuccessful.
No, it's little things that youdo that become part of your
core values, that you do welland people notice that it's just
like you said.
Speaker 3 (42:19):
Y'all look for that attitude, yep, and positive
energy, positive attitude, andyou're only going to make
yourself and everyone elsearound you better amen to that.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
Oh, that's great, eddie.
I don't time flies when you'rehaving fun, I tell you I it's
been an honor to know you, getto to know you.
We definitely appreciate havingPreford as one of the generous
sponsors to the Texas FFA and Iappreciate you taking time out
of your schedule.
It's my pleasure and an honor.
(42:52):
Thank you, to come on and sharewith us again.
You know, abraham Lincoln saidthat the philosophy of the
schoolroom in one generationwill be the philosophy of
government in the next.
Yep, think about that.
That the philosophy of theschoolroom here is going to be
how we're going to be governedhere.
And when I think about folkslike you and the Preford brand,
(43:14):
the Preford family, y'all'svalue system, the fact that
y'all are willing to share thatand plant seeds of greatness.
Again, if you want to know whatthe future is, grow it.
So, together y'all are helpingus plant seeds in young people
that will grow into strong,mighty oaks into the future.
Speaker 3 (43:34):
Yes, so thank you so much for your help, thank you,
thank you very much, it washonor.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
All right, so last question every guest gets one
last fun question.
For you.
This might be a challengebecause I know you, but uh, the
fun question is this what is thebest concert you've ever been
to best?
Speaker 3 (43:54):
concert.
Yes, well, I don't go to toomany concerts.
I don't know.
That's a good question.
What is the right thing to say?
I don't know.
I'm going to say George Strait.
I went to one of GeorgeStrait's last concerts.
Well, he said last concert andhe's still out there singing but
(44:15):
I went to one of his concerts.
I enjoyed that very muchbecause I was a little kid when
he was getting started.
So I'm going to say GeorgeStrait, but I've got an
opportunity to listen to a lotof them.
And then Cody Johnson's a realgood one to go to and he is a
very, very positive thinker anda very positive attitude and
shares his faith everywhere.
(44:36):
He goes all the time, and thatthat is a fantastic one.
But my favorite was probablythe George Strait concert.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
And you know I will tell you this when I've asked
this question.
There's no question that GeorgeStrait is still the number one
most recognized.
I did have a lady the other dayand she said Cody Johnson,
interestingly enough.
Yeah, and hopefully Cody'sgoing to be on this show one day
, because I really brag aboutCody Johnson and his success
(45:07):
because he was a former FFAmember.
He's a former Texas FFA memberand we've had a lot of them by
the way, george Strait was oneof them, yeah, and I appreciate
all of them.
But, cody, you said something awhile ago about that that
attitude of gratitude.
Cody's never failed torecognize that FFA experience in
(45:28):
his life and I've alwaysappreciated him because of that.
And anyway, we'll get him onhere one day and talk about that
.
Eddie, thanks for joining us toall of our listeners.
Thank you for tuning in toanother episode of Growing Our
Future.
You know, like we say, if youwant to know what the future is,
grow it.
Well, listen to Eddie today.
(45:50):
My goodness, his positiveattitude, his belief system, all
of that should be contagious.
All of that should be seedsthat we can plant in our lives.
That'll make us better people,better family members, better
community members that will helpus grow a better state and
nation.
Until our paths cross again.
(46:11):
Everybody, go out and dosomething great for somebody.
You're going to feel good aboutit and, as a result, think
about it.
Our homes, our communities, ourstate and country will be a
better place to live, work andraise our families.
Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1 (46:31):
We hope you've enjoyed this episode of the
Growing Our Future podcast.
This show is sponsored by theTexas FFA Foundation, whose
mission is to strengthenagricultural science education
so students can develop theirpotential for personal growth,
career success and leadership ina global marketplace.
Learn more at mytexasffaorg.
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