In this episode of The Learning to Lead Show, host Mark Cundiff interviews long-time friend and leader Robert Owens. Robert shares his fascinating career and leadership journey, which began with his work at Lowe's and culminated in owning his own construction business. He offers raw insights into the challenges he faced, including the 2008 economic downturn, and how he navigated them with resilience and servant leadership. From being unexpectedly handed a company to overcoming personal and professional trials, Robert's story is a testament to the power of humility, dedication, and the importance of investing in people. Tune in to hear valuable lessons on leading with integrity and purpose.
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Episode Timeline
00:00 Introduction and Sweetest Memory
00:22 Welcome to the Learning to Lead Show
00:32 Meet Robert Owens: A Dedicated Leader
02:17 Robert's Career Journey Begins
04:41 Leadership Lessons from Lowe's
07:52 Thrown into the Fire: Early Challenges
15:25 Servant Leadership in Action
17:59 Navigating Economic Downturns
22:56 From Business Owner to Employee
24:37 Conclusion and Key Takeaways
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It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
To this day, if you come into myoffice, I have a picture that
(00:02):
one of my workers took of me andmy wife on the pump covered in
concrete, and it's one of thesweetest memories that I have
because at that point it was myvery first leadership lesson
that you have to be a servantleader in order to lead and to
influence people.
(00:24):
Hello.
Welcome to the Learning to LeadShow where we help leaders learn
and grow on the go.
Today I have the privilege ofhaving a long time friend Robert
Owens on the show.
Robert has been a friend of minesince early two thousands, about
20 years now.
(00:44):
We have been members of the samechurch for many years until I
moved away.
He has just been a pleasure toknow.
One of the things I alwaysremember when I think about
Robert Owens is he's always gota smile on his face no matter
what's going on, and he's alwaysgot a hug for a friend.
Robert has been a long-termresident of Paulden County where
(01:06):
he was just recently namedCitizen of the Year for his many
volunteer endeavors.
He has been a long timeRotarian.
He has served on many boardslike the WellStar Ping Hospital
Regional Board.
He's been the vice chairmanthere.
He's been on the.
(01:26):
Pauling County Fire AdvisoryBoard, the Pauling County Zoning
Appeals Board, the Paling CountyWater and Sewer Advisory Board.
He's also been a board memberfor a long time of Kaya.
Come as You Are ministries inDallas, Georgia, a non-profit
that really helps theunderserved and needy in the
(01:48):
community.
Robert has been a dedicatedvolunteer for Caye Ministries
for many years.
In addition to serving on theboard professionally, he is the
regional Vice president ofStratus Construction Solutions
Company, a contractsubcontractor specializing in
multifamily apartments,renovations, and commercial
(02:09):
projects such as hospitals andoffice buildings.
With offices in Atlanta,Pensacola, Tampa, Nashville, and
Memphis.
Shortly, we're going to learn alittle bit about Robert's career
journey, the ups and downs, howhe started out working in Lowe's
many years ago and worked intohaving his own company for a
while, suffered through theeconomic downturn that many did
(02:33):
in the construction industry inthe 2008 era, and then recovered
from that to now be a top leaderin the construction industry.
For this company that he'sworking for now.
Today we're gonna learn a littlebit about his leadership
journey, learn about how he hasrisen to the tops of his
(02:54):
profession through many trialsand tribulations.
He's learned a lot along theway.
I'm excited for you to learnfrom Robert today.
He's married to his wife Tammy.
They live in Paulden Countystill, and he is a proud
grandfather.
See his pictures on Facebookwith his grandson Joshua.
(03:14):
He's just a great family man, agreat friend, and has some great
leadership lessons for us today.
So stay tuned and enjoy myinterview with Robert Owens.
One thing I want to ask you, areyou busy and still need to learn
and grow and develop as aleader?
If so, I've got the perfectsolution for you.
(03:35):
Today's podcast is sponsored bymy own newsletter, the Learning
to Lead Newsletter that comesout every Monday with five to
seven minutes worth of valuablecontent to help inspire you,
encourage you, equip you.
And put you on your way tolearning and growing in your
leadership journey.
You can subscribe by going toMark j kdu slash newsletter Mark
(03:59):
j kdu slash newsletter, and youcan get that in the show notes
as well.
And then I wanna also encourageyou to download our leader
notes.
Every episode I put togethersome leader notes that summarize
the podcast interview or showthat we did that day.
And give you some insights thatyou can grasp.
(04:19):
If you're out there driving andcan't take notes or you just
wanted to remember a book thatwas mentioned, I'll put all
those in the leader notes andyou can download those as well.
Those are in the show notes, soif you would stay tuned and
enjoy this great interview withRobert Owens.
Hello, Robert.
It's good to see you today heyMark.
(04:40):
Good to see you today too.
Tell us a little bit about yourcareer journey and your
leadership journey.
Where you started out, how yougot into the construction
business, and where that'staking you over the years.
It was an interesting story.
My father was in construction.
He was selling specialtymillwork staircases, windows for
developers and, residentialcommercial projects all over the
(05:01):
southeast.
So as an early child, I spent alot of time traveling with him.
During summer breaks fromschool, we would visit job
sites, so I got an interest inconstruction early on.
And as I moved on to college, myfather actually helped me get a
part-time job working for Lowe'sin Marietta, Georgia.
(05:23):
I would come back.
In the summers or even on theweekends, and I would stock the
shelves.
And during that process I beganto interact with customers and a
mentor of mine who is actuallynow the mayor of Ackworth.
His name is Tommy Allgood.
Tommy saw something in me.
As I started working thosesummertime jobs, he moved me
(05:44):
into what they called insidesales, and that was mom and pop
or building a deck.
They're doing some electricalwork and our job was to not only
consult them, but to sell themall the materials they would
need.
And so that kind of sparked aninterest in me in selling.
I continued to do that and anopportunity came.
(06:05):
I.
Where a salesman was leaving andI got the opportunity to then
become an outside salespersonand call on multifamily builders
and residential builders.
As I progressed in my careerwith Lowe's, in and out of
school they decided to put methrough what they call the
Lowe's Leadership School.
They sent me to Boone, NorthCarolina.
(06:27):
I went through eight weeks oftraining there where they taught
me how to read blueprints andhow to sell and everything
internal within the Lowe'sorganization.
Was on a career path to landtheir newest store, which was
gonna be in Douglasville,Georgia.
So I was pretty excited aboutthat.
And about that time, Lowe's andHome Depot.
(06:50):
Began the competition and theystarted entering into the big
box store concept.
So it went from that mom and popbuilder relationship to this
mega big box store where we wereselling retail.
At the time I just could not seemyself doing that probably too
(07:11):
young, I wish.
Sometimes I wish I would'vestayed because of just the
stock.
But I just thought, I don'twanna sell dishwash and soap and
appliances, I wanna sell lumber.
And I left and went to work fora residential supplier of doors
and windows in Marietta and didfor a little.
(07:33):
Then I saw an ad one day and itwas for this specialty concrete
called lightweight.
And they were looking for asales rep.
They were based out ofBirmingham, Alabama.
And I thought that soundsintriguing.
So I went and interviewed a manand he hired me right on the
spot.
And so I got into this industryof subcontracting that I'd never
(07:57):
even heard of or been exposedto.
Now the funny little side storyof that was he hired me and the
first day I got there I went tothis little house.
They had rented a room.
There were stacks of leads onthe desk and there was no one
there.
I went to that office every dayfor two weeks.
Never saw one human being,didn't know what to do, didn't
(08:21):
know how to do, I just waitedfor the phone to ring.
Sure enough, one day the phonerang and I picked it up, hello?
And he was like I'm glad you'rethere.
I live in Birmingham, but I'mmoving, just.
Continue to kind read the leadsand I'll be there soon.
So he came over I started, likecleaning up and going through
what they call dodge leads.
(08:42):
That was our referrals forstarts and organizing and he
came and he began to train me onbeing a concrete subcontractor.
Fast forward just a little bitfrom there.
Nine months to the day that hecame that I met him in the
office, he passed away ofcancer.
(09:04):
His partner who lived inBirmingham, who was the
financial arm of thepartnership, called me up and he
said listen, Harold really likedyou, so I have full confidence
in you and good luck.
You can run my company.
That was the beginning of mycareer, like talking about being
(09:25):
thrown to the fire.
I was thrown to the fire.
I began trying to learneverything I could, working with
the crews, going out there Iwould say, I would use the word
raw, I was just trying to figurethis out.
I would get a little bit ofadvice from him.
He would come over about.
Once every two or three monthsand spend a few hours with me.
(09:46):
I went from there.
He eventually allowed me to buyhis company two years later and
financed it for me.
Then I began the process ofowning my own company.
So that, that's a lot to unpackthere.
That is a lot, isn't it?
So let's dive in on a couplethings.
You had that leadershiptraining.
(10:07):
There at Lowe's.
Were some of those things thatyou carried throughout your
career, did you get some goodleadership skills from that?
I'm sure I did.
I think the biggest thing Iprobably had going for me was
really my father who hadinstilled a work ethic of me and
a tenacity not to give up.
(10:28):
And to chase my own dream.
So that was bred in me from anearly age.
My mentor at the time, TommyAllgood, I probably learned more
from him on how he led.
I watched him, he was and I'msure we may talk about this
later, but he really poured intohis employees.
He really, cared about us aspeople.
That sort of propelled me towant to please.
(10:52):
Because his success was tied tomine and mine to his.
He was very much of a, or of aencourager.
He was really the first person Ihad come into contact with who
instilled in me kind of theconcept of what we do for a
living is what we do.
It's not who we are.
Then who we are will instillwhat we become.
(11:15):
I loved that.
I'll never forget the day onetime as a early young guy I had
been working really hard and Iremember him walking in one day
and telling me to take theafternoon off.
I said what for am I in trouble?
He said, no, I would just likeyou to go out and enjoy the day.
You've been doing a really goodjob and I just want you to just,
(11:36):
to go.
I'm gonna pay you the full dayand you just go and relax and
come back energized fortomorrow.
As a young guy with a bossworking for a retailer.
That was just beyond mycomprehension, that someone
would care enough about me tosay at the time, Hey, why don't
you go clear your head?
Why don't you go, relax a littlebit.
(11:59):
That's all.
It's great to have such a greatmentor starting out early in
your career like that, that tohave you.
Sure.
Absolutely.
Yep.
So when you jumped in the deepend and you started running this
company it sounds like overnightalmost how did you get your
bearings from a leadershipstandpoint to go out and run
this business?
I think at the time when Ireally say it was raw, I would,
(12:21):
looking back it was really raw.
I did have some help along theway.
I realized pretty early thatpeople were willing to help you
if you were willing to helpthem.
There were some clients therethat kind of took me under their
wing and taught me the aspectsof what they needed.
What I learned was if I met theneeds of my clients, they would
(12:44):
reciprocate back to me.
And and so it became thispartnering relationship with the
clients from the internal aspectof it.
When I say the wild West, it wasthe wild west.
I was in a an area ofconstruction that I had no
expertise in.
It wasn't lumber or sellingmaterials.
It was an installation.
(13:05):
It was a subcontracting.
So we were very basic.
At the time, fax machines werejust coming on and I was trying
to figure out, rather than handdeliver these bills, what if we
could fax?
These invoices to save timebecause we were working in
multiple states.
Then the other thing that, thatI think served me well was I
(13:26):
really invested into my men whoat the time not knowing what we
did.
I would show up with jeans andboots on and just get covered in
concrete and let'em.
Let'em laugh at me and make funof me.
All along the while I wasbuilding relationships with
these people that would 30 yearslater be part of the management
(13:47):
team that I still have today.
Wow.
Yeah that, that's amazing.
That's a great.
Tell us a little bit how youtransitioned from working for
somebody to running the company,then owning the company.
So once once he was willing tosell me the company my wife and
I, that was a.
All in risk type situation tobecome this entrepreneur of
(14:10):
starting or owning my owncompany.
I remember, for the first timehaving to go to banks and
signing.
Letters of credit personally andthe impact that had on me.
One little interesting thingabout that I think was
pivotable, a pivotal part of mystory was I.
(14:31):
We were on a shoestring budget.
We're getting a check from thecontractor and I'm giving half
of it to the supplier and halfof it to meet payroll and half
of it to the bank, and thelittle bit that was left, we're
buying groceries and we're doingthat.
Kind of going on along.
And I'll never forget this dayor this period, we're behind
(14:52):
schedule.
I only have one pump.
I have one crew and one of ourlargest clients we're behind and
they come to me and they say,Robert, we've really gotta have
this pour done before Monday.
We have cabinets coming in fromout of the country, you've gotta
hit this mark.
Here it is on Friday night andI've gotta work the weekend and
(15:14):
I'm calling my crew and noteveryone is available.
So I'm two or three men short todo this poor that I've gotta
have done.
I make the decision that.
I'm gonna go and my wife Tammy'sgonna go, my kids are gonna go
and we're gonna go to this joband I run the pump and bust the
bags and my wife is running thebobcat and along with my crew,
(15:39):
and we get this this poor done.
At the moment.
It was out of desperation.
That's the truth.
It was just outta sheerdesperation of having to meet a
deadline.
But what I didn't see at thetime was what it was doing to my
men was showing them that I wasall in and that I was willing to
(16:02):
do anything that I would askthem to do.
To this day, if you come into myoffice, I have a picture that
one of my workers took.
Me and my wife own the pumpcovered in concrete, and it's
one of the sweetest memoriesthat I have because at that
point it was my very firstleadership lesson that you have
(16:22):
to be a servant leader in orderto lead and to influence people.
Wow.
That's really amazing.
And it's still paying dividends30 years later, as you were
saying.
Relate to us some of thechallenges, maybe some things
that early on when you weretrying to figure out this
leadership journey that you wishthe Robert, that you are now 30
(16:46):
years later.
Wishes he knew then.
Yeah.
So what are some things that youwould've done differently if you
had had some wisdom packed inthat maybe we could share with
others?
I think my first biggest mistakeI made early on was really
making assumptions about thingsand people.
Not being intentional withproviding them expectations.
(17:10):
So because I was wired to bedriven and because I was wired
to do certain ways, I had thismisconception that everyone was
like me.
So I became this roller coasterof becoming frustrated when
people didn't.
Do what I thought they should door what I needed them to do.
(17:31):
So looking back, I think Iwould've saved myself a lot of
headaches if I would've justbeen really intentional with
laying out expectations.
And then understanding that noteveryone is equally yoked with
you as far as what your desiresand passions and drive is.
Not everyone's gonna be thatway, that was something I had to
(17:53):
learn the hard way.
No that's some good leadershiplessons there for sure.
The one thing that I haveadmired about you from our
relationship is your resilienceover the years, because you've
had some really, like you said,times where things are going
good and businesses busting out,but you've also had some
challenges when things, theeconomy went south on you and
(18:14):
you had to reboot your career,walk us through from a
leadership standpoint whenyou're responsible for all these
people and you're running yourown company and you're going
through challenging times, whatdid you learn through some of
those journeys when you'vetraveled through some challenges
over the years?
Sure.
It was as you mentioned and youwere there with me for a lot of
this as we started rock andRolls, we started having great
(18:37):
success.
I would say early on thebusiness was rolling along
pretty good.
The construction as a wholenationally was good.
And then one day outta leftfield I get a phone call and
that phone call swung from a oneof my largest accounts.
The guy picked up the phone andsaid, Robert, I owe you a phone
call.
We're closing up.
(18:57):
We're closing up today, and Inot only can I not pay you the
money that I owe you, but Ican't pay you the retainage of
the money, which is the kind ofthe profit in our industry for
work.
We've already done that.
They held back.
So you're gonna lose that.
You're gonna lose the money thatyou're currently doing.
(19:18):
A portion of that money is whatI owe to the suppliers.
For the payroll and he said, Idon't blame you if you want to
start litigation, but I'll justtell you there's nothing to do.
We're an LLC and when I hang upthis phone, this doesn't exist
anymore.
I was just, wow.
(19:38):
From that phone call, I got twomore phone calls identical, and
within a span of 72 hours.
Half of my business haddisappeared completely.
So not only was the my client,the contractor out of business,
the developer or owner was outof business, the bank that lent
the money was out of businessand it became this house of
(19:59):
cards that affected, thenational construction market.
I found myself now with 51employees, a debt service, debt
machinery, suppliers and reallydid not know what I was gonna do
at that point.
And so we began literallyhaving, which sounds crazy now
(20:20):
but having yard sales everyweekend.
We were rolling quarters to makepayroll, to get men to job
sites.
Just some really.
To do and at the time whatreally worried me was.
Not the fact that we would notsucceed, but it was the fact
(20:41):
that failure to not do what Ihad promised I would do.
That was the looming factor thatI owed people money and I did
not want to say, I can't payyou.
Or I had signed a contractsaying we're gonna do a job, and
I did not want to not finishthat job.
That haunted me more than just.
I'm not gonna make money.
(21:01):
We began to call suppliers, tryto work out deals and at the
time, everyone was so nervousthat no one was willing to take
a risk.
So supply houses began leaningjobs upfront.
So that they would get theirmoney first before it came to
me.
All of a sudden I'm waiting fourto six weeks to get a check from
(21:23):
the pe from the other half of mycompany.
So I have pennies left afterthey get paid.
I ended up make, making adecision with my wife that we
would then sell our company toour distributor who was also, in
some respects, my competitor.
For the debt.
And so the agreement was if youwould pay off everything that I
(21:46):
owe, I will hand you the keysand there would be nothing left
over for us except thepossibility that he would retain
me as an employee.
Wow.
A lot of times people don'trealize when you're running your
own business that, that you havethose responsibilities and you
have those 51 employees, and I'msure all those things, there
(22:07):
were sleepless nights where youwere trying to navigate all that
and you feel responsible for'em.
I know I didn't, haven't everowned my own company like that
where I had employees, but justrunning.
Plants and running differentoperations, you feel that
responsibility for those people?
Yeah, absolutely.
That was some of the hardestdecisions and we probably.
(22:27):
In retrospect, maybe waited alittle too late.
We kept people on, but thesewere people that we had done
life with.
They just weren't workers.
In some cases, they werefriends, they were family, they
were people that we went tochurch with.
We had really invited thecommunity to join us on our
journey and telling thosepeople.
That I, either in some cases Icouldn't even meet the last
(22:48):
payroll check for'em or tryingto lead them on as long as I
could.
That was probably the mostpainful season.
You came out on the other sideof that and now you're in a
little bit different role in thesame industry, but you're
working for a different type ofcompany from where you were at
that particular time.
Can you just bridge us to whereyou came out, you went through
(23:09):
some really hard times, but likeyou said you got people.
That started with you 30 yearsago that are still part of your
team now, or have come back andjoined your team or however that
has worked out.
Can you bridge that for us?
How you wrote through that hardseason and now you're Yeah.
You're back in a good place.
Yeah.
It was it was a hard season andI think that, sometimes I've
(23:31):
learned in my leadershipjourney, that there is good in
the heart.
We don't like to think aboutthat, but there really is, we
think of those as polaropposites.
But in some cases there is goodin the heart.
So one of the things after Isold my company to my
distributor, I ended up from dayone becoming really a bonafide
(23:52):
salesperson.
I was working for a generalmanager who was actually my
former competitor.
He took great joy in humiliatingme.
I'll never forget the day afterI sold my company, I came to my
office and he had moved into myoffice where I sat and had set
(24:13):
up a folding table in a broomcloset at the front of the
building.
I said where's my spot?
He said, your spot's in thecloset.
So here I am, on a Friday beingthe owner of this company.
And on Monday I'm relegated toliterally the broom closet Wow.
(24:37):
I hope you got a lot out of thatepisode today.
We will see what happens afterRobert got relegated to the
broom closet.
Today.
Robert Owens gave us a raw andhonest look at what it means to
lead when you unprepared underpressure and out of options.
He took us from a story oftaking over a business he did
not even ask for, to leadingthrough concrete soaked weekends
(24:59):
and economic collapse.
Robert's story is a masterclassin servant leadership, grit, and
humility.
Here's what I hope you took awaytoday.
Leadership isn't about polish.
It's about presence.
It's not about titles.
It's about trust, sometimes thebest leaders are forged, not in
the boardrooms, but in the broomclosets if today's episode spoke
(25:22):
to you, share it with someonewho's in the trenches.
make sure that you get your copyof today's Leader Notes.
This is a summary that gives youquotes, key takeaways, and gives
you some insights into today'spodcast.
Make sure you download LeaderNotes.
It's in the show notes if yougot some great value out of
(25:43):
today's content, pleasesubscribe, share with a friend,
and give us a five rating onyour favorite podcast player of
your choice.
Let others know about theLearning to Lead Show so that we
continue to help leaders grow onthe go and go from being a good
leader to a great leader whoinfluence their communities,
their families, and theirorganizations in a positive way.
(26:07):
Until next time, keep learning,keep leading, and stay humble.
To this day, if you come into myoffice, I have a picture that
(00:02):
one of my workers took of me andmy wife on the pump covered in
concrete, and it's one of thesweetest memories that I have
because at that point it was myvery first leadership lesson
that you have to be a servantleader in order to lead and to
influence people.
(00:24):
Hello.
Welcome to the Learning to LeadShow where we help leaders learn
and grow on the go.
Today I have the privilege ofhaving a long time friend Robert
Owens on the show.
Robert has been a friend of minesince early two thousands, about
20 years now.
(00:44):
We have been members of the samechurch for many years until I
moved away.
He has just been a pleasure toknow.
One of the things I alwaysremember when I think about
Robert Owens is he's always gota smile on his face no matter
what's going on, and he's alwaysgot a hug for a friend.
Robert has been a long-termresident of Paulden County where
(01:06):
he was just recently namedCitizen of the Year for his many
volunteer endeavors.
He has been a long timeRotarian.
He has served on many boardslike the WellStar Ping Hospital
Regional Board.
He's been the vice chairmanthere.
He's been on the.
(01:26):
Pauling County Fire AdvisoryBoard, the Pauling County Zoning
Appeals Board, the Paling CountyWater and Sewer Advisory Board.
He's also been a board memberfor a long time of Kaya.
Come as You Are ministries inDallas, Georgia, a non-profit
that really helps theunderserved and needy in the
(01:48):
community.
Robert has been a dedicatedvolunteer for Caye Ministries
for many years.
In addition to serving on theboard professionally, he is the
regional Vice president ofStratus Construction Solutions
Company, a contractsubcontractor specializing in
multifamily apartments,renovations, and commercial
(02:09):
projects such as hospitals andoffice buildings.
With offices in Atlanta,Pensacola, Tampa, Nashville, and
Memphis.
Shortly, we're going to learn alittle bit about Robert's career
journey, the ups and downs, howhe started out working in Lowe's
many years ago and worked intohaving his own company for a
while, suffered through theeconomic downturn that many did
(02:33):
in the construction industry inthe 2008 era, and then recovered
from that to now be a top leaderin the construction industry.
For this company that he'sworking for now.
Today we're gonna learn a littlebit about his leadership
journey, learn about how he hasrisen to the tops of his
(02:54):
profession through many trialsand tribulations.
He's learned a lot along theway.
I'm excited for you to learnfrom Robert today.
He's married to his wife Tammy.
They live in Paulden Countystill, and he is a proud
grandfather.
See his pictures on Facebookwith his grandson Joshua.
(03:14):
He's just a great family man, agreat friend, and has some great
leadership lessons for us today.
So stay tuned and enjoy myinterview with Robert Owens.
One thing I want to ask you, areyou busy and still need to learn
and grow and develop as aleader?
If so, I've got the perfectsolution for you.
(03:35):
Today's podcast is sponsored bymy own newsletter, the Learning
to Lead Newsletter that comesout every Monday with five to
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(03:59):
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And then I wanna also encourageyou to download our leader
notes.
Every episode I put togethersome leader notes that summarize
the podcast interview or showthat we did that day.
And give you some insights thatyou can grasp.
(04:19):
If you're out there driving andcan't take notes or you just
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Those are in the show notes, soif you would stay tuned and
enjoy this great interview withRobert Owens.
Hello, Robert.
It's good to see you today heyMark.
(04:40):
Good to see you today too.
Tell us a little bit about yourcareer journey and your
leadership journey.
Where you started out, how yougot into the construction
business, and where that'staking you over the years.
It was an interesting story.
My father was in construction.
He was selling specialtymillwork staircases, windows for
developers and, residentialcommercial projects all over the
(05:01):
southeast.
So as an early child, I spent alot of time traveling with him.
During summer breaks fromschool, we would visit job
sites, so I got an interest inconstruction early on.
And as I moved on to college, myfather actually helped me get a
part-time job working for Lowe'sin Marietta, Georgia.
(05:23):
I would come back.
In the summers or even on theweekends, and I would stock the
shelves.
And during that process I beganto interact with customers and a
mentor of mine who is actuallynow the mayor of Ackworth.
His name is Tommy Allgood.
Tommy saw something in me.
As I started working thosesummertime jobs, he moved me
(05:44):
into what they called insidesales, and that was mom and pop
or building a deck.
They're doing some electricalwork and our job was to not only
consult them, but to sell themall the materials they would
need.
And so that kind of sparked aninterest in me in selling.
I continued to do that and anopportunity came.
(06:05):
I.
Where a salesman was leaving andI got the opportunity to then
become an outside salespersonand call on multifamily builders
and residential builders.
As I progressed in my careerwith Lowe's, in and out of
school they decided to put methrough what they call the
Lowe's Leadership School.
They sent me to Boone, NorthCarolina.
(06:27):
I went through eight weeks oftraining there where they taught
me how to read blueprints andhow to sell and everything
internal within the Lowe'sorganization.
Was on a career path to landtheir newest store, which was
gonna be in Douglasville,Georgia.
So I was pretty excited aboutthat.
And about that time, Lowe's andHome Depot.
(06:50):
Began the competition and theystarted entering into the big
box store concept.
So it went from that mom and popbuilder relationship to this
mega big box store where we wereselling retail.
At the time I just could not seemyself doing that probably too
(07:11):
young, I wish.
Sometimes I wish I would'vestayed because of just the
stock.
But I just thought, I don'twanna sell dishwash and soap and
appliances, I wanna sell lumber.
And I left and went to work fora residential supplier of doors
and windows in Marietta and didfor a little.
(07:33):
Then I saw an ad one day and itwas for this specialty concrete
called lightweight.
And they were looking for asales rep.
They were based out ofBirmingham, Alabama.
And I thought that soundsintriguing.
So I went and interviewed a manand he hired me right on the
spot.
And so I got into this industryof subcontracting that I'd never
(07:57):
even heard of or been exposedto.
Now the funny little side storyof that was he hired me and the
first day I got there I went tothis little house.
They had rented a room.
There were stacks of leads onthe desk and there was no one
there.
I went to that office every dayfor two weeks.
Never saw one human being,didn't know what to do, didn't
(08:21):
know how to do, I just waitedfor the phone to ring.
Sure enough, one day the phonerang and I picked it up, hello?
And he was like I'm glad you'rethere.
I live in Birmingham, but I'mmoving, just.
Continue to kind read the leadsand I'll be there soon.
So he came over I started, likecleaning up and going through
what they call dodge leads.
(08:42):
That was our referrals forstarts and organizing and he
came and he began to train me onbeing a concrete subcontractor.
Fast forward just a little bitfrom there.
Nine months to the day that hecame that I met him in the
office, he passed away ofcancer.
(09:04):
His partner who lived inBirmingham, who was the
financial arm of thepartnership, called me up and he
said listen, Harold really likedyou, so I have full confidence
in you and good luck.
You can run my company.
That was the beginning of mycareer, like talking about being
(09:25):
thrown to the fire.
I was thrown to the fire.
I began trying to learneverything I could, working with
the crews, going out there Iwould say, I would use the word
raw, I was just trying to figurethis out.
I would get a little bit ofadvice from him.
He would come over about.
Once every two or three monthsand spend a few hours with me.
(09:46):
I went from there.
He eventually allowed me to buyhis company two years later and
financed it for me.
Then I began the process ofowning my own company.
So that, that's a lot to unpackthere.
That is a lot, isn't it?
So let's dive in on a couplethings.
You had that leadershiptraining.
(10:07):
There at Lowe's.
Were some of those things thatyou carried throughout your
career, did you get some goodleadership skills from that?
I'm sure I did.
I think the biggest thing Iprobably had going for me was
really my father who hadinstilled a work ethic of me and
a tenacity not to give up.
(10:28):
And to chase my own dream.
So that was bred in me from anearly age.
My mentor at the time, TommyAllgood, I probably learned more
from him on how he led.
I watched him, he was and I'msure we may talk about this
later, but he really poured intohis employees.
He really, cared about us aspeople.
That sort of propelled me towant to please.
(10:52):
Because his success was tied tomine and mine to his.
He was very much of a, or of aencourager.
He was really the first person Ihad come into contact with who
instilled in me kind of theconcept of what we do for a
living is what we do.
It's not who we are.
Then who we are will instillwhat we become.
(11:15):
I loved that.
I'll never forget the day onetime as a early young guy I had
been working really hard and Iremember him walking in one day
and telling me to take theafternoon off.
I said what for am I in trouble?
He said, no, I would just likeyou to go out and enjoy the day.
You've been doing a really goodjob and I just want you to just,
(11:36):
to go.
I'm gonna pay you the full dayand you just go and relax and
come back energized fortomorrow.
As a young guy with a bossworking for a retailer.
That was just beyond mycomprehension, that someone
would care enough about me tosay at the time, Hey, why don't
you go clear your head?
Why don't you go, relax a littlebit.
(11:59):
That's all.
It's great to have such a greatmentor starting out early in
your career like that, that tohave you.
Sure.
Absolutely.
Yep.
So when you jumped in the deepend and you started running this
company it sounds like overnightalmost how did you get your
bearings from a leadershipstandpoint to go out and run
this business?
I think at the time when Ireally say it was raw, I would,
(12:21):
looking back it was really raw.
I did have some help along theway.
I realized pretty early thatpeople were willing to help you
if you were willing to helpthem.
There were some clients therethat kind of took me under their
wing and taught me the aspectsof what they needed.
What I learned was if I met theneeds of my clients, they would
(12:44):
reciprocate back to me.
And and so it became thispartnering relationship with the
clients from the internal aspectof it.
When I say the wild West, it wasthe wild west.
I was in a an area ofconstruction that I had no
expertise in.
It wasn't lumber or sellingmaterials.
It was an installation.
(13:05):
It was a subcontracting.
So we were very basic.
At the time, fax machines werejust coming on and I was trying
to figure out, rather than handdeliver these bills, what if we
could fax?
These invoices to save timebecause we were working in
multiple states.
Then the other thing that, thatI think served me well was I
(13:26):
really invested into my men whoat the time not knowing what we
did.
I would show up with jeans andboots on and just get covered in
concrete and let'em.
Let'em laugh at me and make funof me.
All along the while I wasbuilding relationships with
these people that would 30 yearslater be part of the management
(13:47):
team that I still have today.
Wow.
Yeah that, that's amazing.
That's a great.
Tell us a little bit how youtransitioned from working for
somebody to running the company,then owning the company.
So once once he was willing tosell me the company my wife and
I, that was a.
All in risk type situation tobecome this entrepreneur of
(14:10):
starting or owning my owncompany.
I remember, for the first timehaving to go to banks and
signing.
Letters of credit personally andthe impact that had on me.
One little interesting thingabout that I think was
pivotable, a pivotal part of mystory was I.
(14:31):
We were on a shoestring budget.
We're getting a check from thecontractor and I'm giving half
of it to the supplier and halfof it to meet payroll and half
of it to the bank, and thelittle bit that was left, we're
buying groceries and we're doingthat.
Kind of going on along.
And I'll never forget this dayor this period, we're behind
(14:52):
schedule.
I only have one pump.
I have one crew and one of ourlargest clients we're behind and
they come to me and they say,Robert, we've really gotta have
this pour done before Monday.
We have cabinets coming in fromout of the country, you've gotta
hit this mark.
Here it is on Friday night andI've gotta work the weekend and
(15:14):
I'm calling my crew and noteveryone is available.
So I'm two or three men short todo this poor that I've gotta
have done.
I make the decision that.
I'm gonna go and my wife Tammy'sgonna go, my kids are gonna go
and we're gonna go to this joband I run the pump and bust the
bags and my wife is running thebobcat and along with my crew,
(15:39):
and we get this this poor done.
At the moment.
It was out of desperation.
That's the truth.
It was just outta sheerdesperation of having to meet a
deadline.
But what I didn't see at thetime was what it was doing to my
men was showing them that I wasall in and that I was willing to
(16:02):
do anything that I would askthem to do.
To this day, if you come into myoffice, I have a picture that
one of my workers took.
Me and my wife own the pumpcovered in concrete, and it's
one of the sweetest memoriesthat I have because at that
point it was my very firstleadership lesson that you have
(16:22):
to be a servant leader in orderto lead and to influence people.
Wow.
That's really amazing.
And it's still paying dividends30 years later, as you were
saying.
Relate to us some of thechallenges, maybe some things
that early on when you weretrying to figure out this
leadership journey that you wishthe Robert, that you are now 30
(16:46):
years later.
Wishes he knew then.
Yeah.
So what are some things that youwould've done differently if you
had had some wisdom packed inthat maybe we could share with
others?
I think my first biggest mistakeI made early on was really
making assumptions about thingsand people.
Not being intentional withproviding them expectations.
(17:10):
So because I was wired to bedriven and because I was wired
to do certain ways, I had thismisconception that everyone was
like me.
So I became this roller coasterof becoming frustrated when
people didn't.
Do what I thought they should door what I needed them to do.
(17:31):
So looking back, I think Iwould've saved myself a lot of
headaches if I would've justbeen really intentional with
laying out expectations.
And then understanding that noteveryone is equally yoked with
you as far as what your desiresand passions and drive is.
Not everyone's gonna be thatway, that was something I had to
(17:53):
learn the hard way.
No that's some good leadershiplessons there for sure.
The one thing that I haveadmired about you from our
relationship is your resilienceover the years, because you've
had some really, like you said,times where things are going
good and businesses busting out,but you've also had some
challenges when things, theeconomy went south on you and
(18:14):
you had to reboot your career,walk us through from a
leadership standpoint whenyou're responsible for all these
people and you're running yourown company and you're going
through challenging times, whatdid you learn through some of
those journeys when you'vetraveled through some challenges
over the years?
Sure.
It was as you mentioned and youwere there with me for a lot of
this as we started rock andRolls, we started having great
(18:37):
success.
I would say early on thebusiness was rolling along
pretty good.
The construction as a wholenationally was good.
And then one day outta leftfield I get a phone call and
that phone call swung from a oneof my largest accounts.
The guy picked up the phone andsaid, Robert, I owe you a phone
call.
We're closing up.
(18:57):
We're closing up today, and Inot only can I not pay you the
money that I owe you, but Ican't pay you the retainage of
the money, which is the kind ofthe profit in our industry for
work.
We've already done that.
They held back.
So you're gonna lose that.
You're gonna lose the money thatyou're currently doing.
(19:18):
A portion of that money is whatI owe to the suppliers.
For the payroll and he said, Idon't blame you if you want to
start litigation, but I'll justtell you there's nothing to do.
We're an LLC and when I hang upthis phone, this doesn't exist
anymore.
I was just, wow.
(19:38):
From that phone call, I got twomore phone calls identical, and
within a span of 72 hours.
Half of my business haddisappeared completely.
So not only was the my client,the contractor out of business,
the developer or owner was outof business, the bank that lent
the money was out of businessand it became this house of
(19:59):
cards that affected, thenational construction market.
I found myself now with 51employees, a debt service, debt
machinery, suppliers and reallydid not know what I was gonna do
at that point.
And so we began literallyhaving, which sounds crazy now
(20:20):
but having yard sales everyweekend.
We were rolling quarters to makepayroll, to get men to job
sites.
Just some really.
To do and at the time whatreally worried me was.
Not the fact that we would notsucceed, but it was the fact
(20:41):
that failure to not do what Ihad promised I would do.
That was the looming factor thatI owed people money and I did
not want to say, I can't payyou.
Or I had signed a contractsaying we're gonna do a job, and
I did not want to not finishthat job.
That haunted me more than just.
I'm not gonna make money.
(21:01):
We began to call suppliers, tryto work out deals and at the
time, everyone was so nervousthat no one was willing to take
a risk.
So supply houses began leaningjobs upfront.
So that they would get theirmoney first before it came to
me.
All of a sudden I'm waiting fourto six weeks to get a check from
(21:23):
the pe from the other half of mycompany.
So I have pennies left afterthey get paid.
I ended up make, making adecision with my wife that we
would then sell our company toour distributor who was also, in
some respects, my competitor.
For the debt.
And so the agreement was if youwould pay off everything that I
(21:46):
owe, I will hand you the keysand there would be nothing left
over for us except thepossibility that he would retain
me as an employee.
Wow.
A lot of times people don'trealize when you're running your
own business that, that you havethose responsibilities and you
have those 51 employees, and I'msure all those things, there
(22:07):
were sleepless nights where youwere trying to navigate all that
and you feel responsible for'em.
I know I didn't, haven't everowned my own company like that
where I had employees, but justrunning.
Plants and running differentoperations, you feel that
responsibility for those people?
Yeah, absolutely.
That was some of the hardestdecisions and we probably.
(22:27):
In retrospect, maybe waited alittle too late.
We kept people on, but thesewere people that we had done
life with.
They just weren't workers.
In some cases, they werefriends, they were family, they
were people that we went tochurch with.
We had really invited thecommunity to join us on our
journey and telling thosepeople.
That I, either in some cases Icouldn't even meet the last
(22:48):
payroll check for'em or tryingto lead them on as long as I
could.
That was probably the mostpainful season.
You came out on the other sideof that and now you're in a
little bit different role in thesame industry, but you're
working for a different type ofcompany from where you were at
that particular time.
Can you just bridge us to whereyou came out, you went through
(23:09):
some really hard times, but likeyou said you got people.
That started with you 30 yearsago that are still part of your
team now, or have come back andjoined your team or however that
has worked out.
Can you bridge that for us?
How you wrote through that hardseason and now you're Yeah.
You're back in a good place.
Yeah.
It was it was a hard season andI think that, sometimes I've
(23:31):
learned in my leadershipjourney, that there is good in
the heart.
We don't like to think aboutthat, but there really is, we
think of those as polaropposites.
But in some cases there is goodin the heart.
So one of the things after Isold my company to my
distributor, I ended up from dayone becoming really a bonafide
(23:52):
salesperson.
I was working for a generalmanager who was actually my
former competitor.
He took great joy in humiliatingme.
I'll never forget the day afterI sold my company, I came to my
office and he had moved into myoffice where I sat and had set
(24:13):
up a folding table in a broomcloset at the front of the
building.
I said where's my spot?
He said, your spot's in thecloset.
So here I am, on a Friday beingthe owner of this company.
And on Monday I'm relegated toliterally the broom closet Wow.
(24:37):
I hope you got a lot out of thatepisode today.
We will see what happens afterRobert got relegated to the
broom closet.
Today.
Robert Owens gave us a raw andhonest look at what it means to
lead when you unprepared underpressure and out of options.
He took us from a story oftaking over a business he did
not even ask for, to leadingthrough concrete soaked weekends
(24:59):
and economic collapse.
Robert's story is a masterclassin servant leadership, grit, and
humility.
Here's what I hope you took awaytoday.
Leadership isn't about polish.
It's about presence.
It's not about titles.
It's about trust, sometimes thebest leaders are forged, not in
the boardrooms, but in the broomclosets if today's episode spoke
(25:22):
to you, share it with someonewho's in the trenches.
make sure that you get your copyof today's Leader Notes.
This is a summary that gives youquotes, key takeaways, and gives
you some insights into today'spodcast.
Make sure you download LeaderNotes.
It's in the show notes if yougot some great value out of
(25:43):
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Let others know about theLearning to Lead Show so that we
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leader to a great leader whoinfluence their communities,
their families, and theirorganizations in a positive way.
(26:07):
Until next time, keep learning,keep leading, and stay humble.
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