March 18, 2022 • 44 mins
Billy Roberts President Brown & Brown of Pennsylvania.Adit Gupta Co-Founder & CEO Lula. William Toms Co-Founder/Chief Creative Office REC Philly. Andrew Sentyz President Delaware River Stevedores
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:10):
Welcome to Executive Leaders Radio, yourspot in the corner office, the radio
show where executives share their secrets tosuccess. Executive Leaders Radio. You're listening
to Executive Leaders Radio. That's yourhost, Herb Cohen with my co host
Jim Wilson, Newmark Calpapas, Hanlinand Matthew Shapiro Obermeyer. We have a
(00:30):
great let up of guests who inour show today. Matthew, will you
please give us the rundown. We'relooking forward today's show. We're starting off
with William Tom's, the co founderand chief creative officer of REC Philly.
Then we have Billy Roberts, presidentof Brown and Brown Pennsylvania. Following that,
we have Andy Sentis, the presidentof Delaware River Stevedoors. And we're
(00:51):
wrapping up today with a deep gupto the co founder and CEO of Lula.
Let's get to know our first guest, William Tom's, co founder and
chief creative officer of REC Philly.What is rec Philly? William so,
rec Philly is an ecosystem that webuilt specifically to empower creative people to do
more of what they love to do. We do that with a creative space
and a creative agency here in Philadelphia. Have you raised any money to start
(01:14):
the business? I have, sowe bootstrapped in the very beginning, but
to expand to our new facility andto other cities, we raised about five
point five million dollars to date.Uh huh? Why did they invest?
Who? Why? Why would theyinvest five and a half million dollars in
you? I believe our investors investedinto us because you know, we have
a very new perspective, and withthat new perspective, we're bringing out How
(01:34):
young were you when you were comingup with new perspectives. I've been coming
up with new perspectives and solving problemsmy entire life. Were you from originally?
How many brothers and sisters? Andwhere are you in the packing order?
I'm originally originally from the Germantown sectionof Philadelphia and then later on moved
to Bucks County in once there,and I'm the oldest of five. Oldest
five got you eight to fourteen?What kind of stuff were you up to
(01:57):
eight to fourteen? Eight to fourteen? After school? Everything I was in
sports, so tennis, basketball,football, but also chess, club and
dancing and doing everything I could toexpress myself, Matthew. Yeah, well
you talk about new perspectives. Soyou grew up in Germantown, which is
an urban area of Philadelphia, andyou moved out to Bucks County. That's
(02:20):
a whole new perspective. Tell meabout Tell me about why you moved.
Yeah, it was. It wasa whole new world. But I moved
because, you know, I startedin very humble beginnings. You know,
my parents had challenging situations as Igrew up. My father's been incarcerated for
over twenty years and my mother battleda drug addiction. So after that,
my grandmother, who raised me,knew would be a great decision for me
to be able to go to BucksCounty and get a better education. Whose
(02:43):
idea was that for you to goout there? Your grandmother's, Yeah,
that was my grandmother's idea. Howdid you react when you heard that idea?
It was a bit of a shock. It was removing me from the
community and everything that I had knownand placing me in a space that most
people didn't look like me. ButI was down. I was excited by
it because everyone around me respected mygrandmother and I trust her as well.
(03:05):
How did you adjust to that?New community. Where did that come from?
Yeah, it was a bit ofa challenge in the beginning, you
know, again being the what feltlike the odd person out. You know,
no one where I was looked likeme. They weren't doing the things
that I was doing. But itallowed me to get to a space where
I could understand how to get connectedto people who had a lot of differences
(03:25):
in their backgrounds and figure it outhow to how to be able to connect
with people and make people feel safe. So what does that transition from Germantown
out to Bucks County you have todo with what you're doing today at rec
Philly. Yeah, at reck Philly, I feel like one of my major
roles is being a bridge building andI learned how to do that in the
transition from the city to the suburbs. And I now understand how to bring
(03:47):
people together and make you know,exciting spaces for folks who may never be
you know, connecting outside of theirspaces. Echild. Mister Wilson William you
mentioned chess club. When did youfirst get into chess and who got you
into that? Yeah? I fellin love with with chess as a kid.
Um. It was one of thethings that my father and I one
(04:08):
of the few things that we reallyshared and bonded over early on, and
I fell in love with the gamebecause of the strategy involved. Um,
it's all about understanding how to makethe best move you can with the position
that you're in and with the piecesthat you have on the board at the
time. So just like when youwere talking to Matthew, it sounds like
you know your your life is aboutmaking the right moves, right decisions.
(04:30):
Right. There's a famous chess quotethat says, good positions don't win games.
Good moves do. What what?What? What do you bring with
you to to Philly? Wreck thatwreck Philly? Sorry that that has to
do with making the right decisions?Yeah, it's I consider myself the visionary
of our company, um, andit's about understanding the world around me where
we are and seeing what's possible inthe future, and then being able to
(04:55):
communicate that to my team. SoI think the game of chess and thinking
many moves ahead has been helpful becauseas an entrepreneur, I built a business
over eight years ago at this pointand made a big bed on where we
beat today. But well, whatkind of sports did you play when you
were growing up basketball, football,and tennis, and then you did a
lot of social activities as well.You had friends, groups and different kind
(05:17):
of things that you did with them. Tell us about some of those activities.
Yeah, outside of sports, um, all the creative arts. You
know. I grew up writing poetry, you know, almost as a way
to understand the world around me,as well as filmmaking and dancing. So
when you were involved with dancing,were you on that solo or you had
a group that you that you wouldget down with. There was a group
(05:38):
of us, you know, theclosest friends around me. We would you
know, create that group and goto events and as soon as we'd walk
in, you know, folks wouldcreate the circle around us, knowing that
that the show was coming. Sowhen you're an athlete, you kind of
have a team assigned you, buta dance group, it seemed like you
kind of built a team there.Yeah, absolutely, So what did you
do How did you get people involved? It seems like a lot of people
didn't look like you probably weren't doinga lot of the types of dancing you
(06:00):
were doing. What do you doto make them feel comfortable? Yeah?
I think at first it was leadingby example. Before there was the group.
I was dancing, I was doingmy thing, and I think folks
were gravitated towards, you know,my confidence to express myself. And I
think I had a knack for beingable to help people feel safe and and
you know, be able to seethe vision of what their best selves could
look like, and together we'd beable to kind of go after that.
(06:23):
And now moving on to wreck Philly, what's the revenue model? How do
you guys make money out there?Yeah, so a part of it is
we have a membership, so folksare paying, you know, to have
access to a yearly membership kind oflike a gym membership, if you will,
but for creatives as well as anagency model. So it seems like
with these creatives then a big partof it's probably making them feel comfortable when
they come into your business, makingsure they're going to be able to get
(06:44):
their best selves. Is that fair? Very fair? What do you do
with people coming into the business,I'm sorry, what do you do with
people coming into the business to makethem feel comfortable? Yeah? I think
for me, it's it's about onedesigning the space, you know, as
one of the folks who are responsiblefor architecting and designing our space. It
was about being intentional to the needsof our community, knowing exactly what our
(07:04):
folks want, because I'm a creativemyself, and then being able to design
that with that intention. Folks feelit right away when they walk into our
space, and it was built forthem by folks who had their best interest
in mind. What's this? Youmentioned the words safety, and I'm trying
to figure out what safety have todo with building a business. I thought
business was all about blood and gutsand bring the revenue in and keep the
(07:28):
customer man. What are you talkingabout safety? Yeah? I know for
the folks that I serve, whoare traditionally young, creative entrepreneurs, you
know, I'm talking not physical safety, but more so psychological safety. You
know. I think of our spaceas the space that maybe the only space
in our members lives where they're actuallyapplauded and celebrated for their differences and to
(07:49):
be able to be their best versionof themselves. Well, if we go
back eight to fourteen, what wasthe physical space where you felt safe and
creative when I was When I wasyoung in that age group, my grandmother
actually built a gazebo in our backyardwhen we first moved to Warminster, and
that was the start of it all. That was a space where I could
(08:09):
have my wildest ideas and conversations withmy friends and almost created that moment in
capsule for us to be our bestselves. And that's what we do now
at rec Philly. We built thatsame ghebo energy. Tell me how your
space, Tell me how your spacerecognizes the gazebo. Tell me the physical
similarities. Yeah, I think youknow. In framing it up this way,
(08:31):
it's it's so clear to me that, you know, what I do
in my role in my organization nowis to pass on the feeling that my
grandmother gave to me, which wassaying, here, with this space,
you literally have access to what youneed when you need it, and not
many of the distractions that you don'tneed. And you know the confidence of
saying, hey, this is yourspace, do with it what you will.
(08:54):
Is Grandmama still around nowadays, Yes, she is. You know what
you what you're doing for living.Absolutely, she's very proud. Why I
think she's she's proud mostly because youknow, she's seen, you know,
the realities that were in front ofus, especially again when I'm coming up.
You know, she raised four sons, most of which have experienced some
(09:18):
level of incarceration or or was murderedto due to gun violence. So when
she's seen what I've been able tocreate with the opportunity that she gave me,
I think that makes her proud forfor both of our efforts. You
think she understands about how impressive,how impressive that Zebo has been on your
life. She knows. Now,so what's the best part of your job?
(09:39):
The best part of my job isis actually a very specific moment.
It's when a member comes in andthey look me in the face and they
say I did it. And assoon as they say that, I know
it's because they meant that they gotan opportunity to quit that job they hated,
because now they're earning money through theirpassions and they're going full time as
a creative. Wow. And you'reproviding a a space for your for your
(10:01):
members, for your buddies to joinyou in the gazebo. Huh, that's
exactly it, and learn how toget paid to be themselves. Wow.
And this has been one of yourmany ideas emanating from when you were a
kid, and you would keep yourselfbusy with all these after school activities.
What's the website address for this organizationknown as rerec Philly. Website is rerec
(10:22):
Philly dot com, r ec Phillydot com, r ec Philly dot com.
We've been speaking with William Thom's,co founder and chief creative officer of
rec Philly here on Executive Leaders Radio. Don't forget to visit our website,
it's Executive Leaders radio dot com tolearn more about our executive leaders. Stick
around, be back at a momentright after this quick break, don't go
away. This is Herb Coo andyour host of Executive Leaders Radio. And
(10:50):
if you're a business consultant, ifyou consult to business owners or to business
owners team members, then we'd liketo speak with you because we're getting requests
from people all over the country,from entrepreneurs all over the country that are
(11:11):
starting and building their businesses where they'relooking for help and maybe we can help
connect you. Why don't you emailus at consult at Executive Leaders Radio dot
com. That's consult at Executive Leadersradio dot com, and perhaps we can
(11:31):
connect you to folks to entrepreneurs andtheir team members all around the country that
are looking for help. That's consultat Executive Leaders Radio dot com. We're
(11:52):
back here listening to Executive Leaders Radiothis year. Host Herb Cohen like to
introduce Billy Roberts, President of Brownand Brown of Pennsylvania. Yeah, Billy,
what is Brown and Brown of Pennsylvania. Brown around one of the largest
insurance brokers in the world. Wehandle our risks for our clients from a
property and casty perspective, an employeebenefit were you from originally? How many
brothers and sisters and where are youin the pecking order? Grew up in
(12:15):
a small town called Keyboarton, NewJersey, in Mama's County, would across
the Bay from New York City.I have a younger sister, so it's
myself and her and I am theoldest already eight to fourteen. Where were
you up to eight to fourteen yearsold? What kind of stuff are you
doing? You know, it's oneof those things that the kid is all
gas, no break mentality, justrunning around, never sitting still, sports
(12:37):
bikes, I mean, never,never sitting on the couch and playing video
games. It's constantly just chasing,you know, whatever that is at that
age. You don't know, butit's just consistently just going I understand you
mentioned that you have you had aspecial relationship with your younger sister. What's
going on there? Growing up?My parents worked really hard. Both of
(13:01):
them own their own businesses. Theywill work sixteen eighteen hours a day,
and from a very young age,I always was there to take care of
my sister, whether it be walkerto school, at home from school,
make sure that she was always okay, just getting her to try to be
a better person. You mentioned yoursister dough with some addiction or something like
that. Yeah, my sister hada little bit of some pickups in the
(13:22):
road. It's kind of one ofthe things that inspire me to try to
figure out what makes other people tick. And I've never went down that road,
but to watch her go down thatroad it pains me. So my
goal is to try to make herbetter as a person and give her a
life and help her get to alife that she can lead something. It's
(13:43):
interesting you use the word it painsyou, so you're you have a deep
empathy for other people, which Idon't. I didn't think that presidents and
CEO's had empathy, but I'm wondering, has this empathy for other people,
the fact that there's things that happenedwith your sister that pained you, has
that helped you build this business calledBrown and Brown in Pennsylvania. I have
(14:05):
a fear in life and the fearof letting other people down, so I'm
constantly giving my all, so othersare trying to follow my lead. Matthew
could excuse me, Caleb, couldyou give me a HND please? Yeah?
Sure, her Billy, it seemslike you played a lot of sports
growing up. Which one was yourfavorite favorite sports? Basketball? Were you
(14:28):
a pretty good player? Did itcome easy to you? It did after
I got cut from a basketball teamheading into freshman year, where that's basically
where my life turned around because Iwas pointing fingers at everyone, and what
it really boiled down to it wasI thought I was better than I really
was, so learned a lesson andfrom that day moving forward, I said
(14:48):
to myself, I'm never going tolose again. So went on to play
basketball in college. So I hadde five. The Yachts was specifically,
was the change between your freshman andsophomore years. I grew up majority looking
at yourself in the mirror and saying, Hey, this is your fault or
I did this. When you sayyou grew up, you mean you grew
to be six five and you puton forty pounds in between those two years.
(15:11):
I grew up in between my ears. So it was a big mental
maturation for you in between those twoyears. Absolutely. Do you think that
has something to do with learning aboutpersonal accountability? Yea, sir, So
what does that have to do withhow you interact with your employees teaching that
personal accountability? Look, I mean, I think the biggest part of being
(15:33):
a team is the ability to communicatewith other people. And everybody's different,
So with that, you have tobuild a culture around me, like high
achievers, people that just want toget in the weeds and just get shit
done. Because there's not a lotof doors in the world. So when
you find them, you got totake care of them, because those are
the folks that are going to takecare of your business. Matthew, Hey,
(15:56):
Billy, you talked about your parentsand striving to be better and at
some point you switch schools in yourchildhood, right, could you tell me
a little bit about that. Yep, we're ubing a very small town one
spare a mile, grew up withthe same people, same family. Some
of the kids that I was growingup with, we're not going down the
right track. So my parents sideto send me to a private school that
(16:18):
was completely out of my element.With all every single person I was going
to school with, I knew noone. So how did you adjust to
that? What was that? Like? You have to adapt, You have
to figure out who you are asa person and try to navigate a maze
of dealing with all these different peoplethat have things that you do not have
in figuring out a way to relateto them on a level that everybody becomes
(16:41):
the same people person, same groupof people. Was there any teacher or
other kid in your class or someonewho helped you adjust to that, who
helped you relate to this whole newworld? Unfortunately, I mean there wasn't.
It was me. I mean Iwas in a world where, like
I said, there's people that theyweren't like me. We were all different.
(17:02):
So it just forced me to adaptand expand who I was as a
person, to be a chameleon andbe able to communicate with people. I'd
never had the opportunity of communicating whatso I'm curious you had this experience of
being out of your element, ofbeing an outsider and having to kind of
adjust on your own. What doesthat have to do with running a business?
Let me run into business. It'sabout adaptability, and as you get
(17:25):
your business gets bigger, you'll realizethat mediocre people don't like high achievers,
and high achievers don't like mediocre people. So if everyone doesn't buy into the
same high standard, you don't haveteam chemistry. So it's kind of fits
right into life as well. JimBilly. He said, when you were
younger, you're fishing and crabbing inthe bay nearby. Can you tell us
(17:45):
a little bit more about that?Yeah, I always wanted something out there
that was better, So I said, my parents were hard workers. We
didn't have a lot, so ifI wanted I had to get it.
And one of the ways to getit was to figure out a way at
a very young age, what canI do to help other people and myself
get the things that I want?And that the bay was there, the
water was there, there's fish andcrabs, there were people that want it.
(18:07):
There was a demand for it,so you figured out a way to
sell it. To the dots andto the local fish market. So you
came up with that idea on yourown. So it sounds like you're pretty
entrepreneurial and a self starter when youwere younger. What what do you What
lessons do you learn from fishing andcrabbing with your buddies that you take to
Brown and Brown Pennsylvania. It's verysimple. You wake up in the morning
(18:29):
with a purpose, you go dowhat you're set out to do, and
you execute and just get it done. Kill it Billy. We've heard you
mentioned a few times throughout the interview. You know, as a leader,
you seem like being a good person'simportant to you. Listen, we hear
CEOs and leaders say that all thetime. I get the sense that it's
really genuine with you, though,So what does it take to be a
(18:51):
good person? Yeah, I thinkit's just living by your word. I
mean, your word is your bond. And my dad, at a young
age taught me your lesson and youknow, I was quote still to this
day, followed me, it's whatyou do. Speak so loudly, I
can't even hear what you're saying.Wow, that's a that's a good line.
Another sense I'm getting is it's reallyblack and white with you, things
(19:11):
are pretty clear. In the greenroom, you mentioned kind of a slogan
it Brown and Brown GSD. We'llclean it up for radio and we'll just
say get things done. Can youtell us a little bit about getting things
done at Brown and Brown? Yep. It's it's this execution, everybody getting
in the boat and rowing in thesame direction. Everybody has a role and
it's very simple. If everybody doestheir job, we're gonna win. Mister
(19:34):
Wilson, Yeah, Billy. Youmentioned in the green room also that you
have four kids and by extension throughyour sister, almost like a fifth child.
Tell us what's so important about themand being a father just again living
my life for them. I dowhat I do for them. I want
them to have nice things and thingsthat I never had the experience to have,
(19:56):
and that's what makes me text andkeeps me moving. And I look
at our team the same way Iworked for them. So you mentioned that
I got the sense that nothing's evergood enough, where you always want to
keep striving and keep building, andyou want to provide for other people stuff
that you didn't have. Is thatfancy cars and fancy houses or what is
(20:18):
that you're talking about that? Imean with hard work that will come.
It's worth waking up with the purposeand giving your all and not being satisfied
with being average. I mean,the world is average. Who the hell
wants the average? I think thateverybody can always wake up and take it
to another level. It's what isthat level? Everybody has that, but
they have to find that with them. I have to try to get that
(20:41):
out of people. So you're inthe employee benefits and other insurance related industry.
Do you ever hang out with anyof your clients? Do you ever
get to know any of your clients? I mean absolutely when I first started,
prior to being a leader, Istill have the same clients that I
took on fifteen years ago, andyou know, we take ideas around your
business and we fed each other's mindsup about what's working, what's not working,
(21:06):
how do we innovate all. I'mconstantly surrounding myself with people that think
like me, and when I we'retalking, it's kind of like the light
goes off with one another. Soyou're all about relationships, I mean,
you're all about crabbing and fishing withyour buddies and figuring out how you guys
can go do stuff together. Itjust happens to be making money, whether
it's with your teammates, whether it'swith your clients. You're you're all about
(21:27):
relationships. Well, what's the websiteof this organization and known as Brown and
Brown of Pennsylvania BB Insurance dot com. Let me have that one more time
BB Insurance dot com. We've beenspeaking with Billy Roberts, president of Brown
and Brown of Pennsylvania here on ExecutiveLeaders Radio. Don't forget to visit our
(21:48):
website Executive leaders Radio dot com learnmore about our executive He was back in
a moment right after this quick break. Don't go away. We're back here
(22:11):
listening to Executivities Radio. This yourhost, Herb Cohen liked to introduced and
decentis president of Delaware River Steven DoorsAndy. What's Delaware River? Stephen Doors?
What are you guys doing? Sowe unload ships that come up and
down the Delaware River house cargo andwork with our business partners on the bring
ships into the port. Where you'refrom originally? How many brothers and sisters
(22:33):
and where are you in the peckingorder? Yeah? So I grew up
until I was ten in Philadelphia andthen Rube moved to a rural part of
Pennsylvania. I am the oldest ofthree three children, all right eight to
fourteen. What kind of stuff wereyou up to? What were you doing
in the city. A lot ofbaseball, playing basketball upstate, fishing,
(22:55):
hunting, riding dirt bike, stillbaseball. When you move to a rural
Pennsylvania from a rowhouse I believe inSouth Philadelphia. How many kids were you
did you have to play with?And what was your role amongst the kids
when you moved Yeah, rural Pennsylvania. You live far apart, so there
(23:15):
were only a handful of us,three or four close friends, and we
did a lot of outdoor activities.Anything you could do outside, whether we
baseball, football. In a ruralarea, there's a lot of fishing and
hunting that goes on, riding quadsand dirt bikes. And what was your
role with the other three or fourkids, the other two or three or
four kids, what was your roleamongst the group? As a high energy
(23:37):
kid, I would use you theones initiating those activities and trying to get
things moving along. It wasn't comfortablejust sitting around. What's that have to
do with your role as president ofDelaware River Steven Doors. Well, you're
the one that's got to kind ofinitiate it on all fronts and keep things
moving, keep things moving forward andpeople motivated, and that's directly related,
(23:59):
James. Yeah. Andy, Um, tell us about a little bit more
about baseball. What position did youplay? I was primarily a catcher when
I played baseball. So what's therole of a catcher. What kind of
role did you play on the teamthere? Well, you're managing the team,
I mean all the other players onthe field, keeping them motivated,
letting them know where they're at onthe field, and moving everybody forward.
(24:22):
So you know, they say alot of you know, catchers make good
managers. There's a lot of managersin baseball that were former catchers. You
know, it makes sense being involvedin kind of every decision, knowing when
to take time outs. What whatdo you bring with you from your catching
days to how you run the stevenDoors. Well, there are ups and
downs in all games, and keepingpeople motivated. Um, that that there's
(24:45):
constantly the possibility of a win isthe primary focus. I think as a
catcher and as a business leader.Mum, so, so Landy, if
I got this right? When you'reten years old, up to ten,
you're living in a row house inSouth Philly, right, that's right,
And at ten you moved to upstaterural Pennsylvania. Right, that's right.
(25:10):
Okay. So was there like abig family meeting where you decided that this
was the movie you were going tomake and you had your input on it?
Not at all, Not at all. It was not much opinion.
I didn't have much of an opinionwhen I was ten. It was more
or less this, this is whatwe're doing, and get on board.
So how did you feel when yourparents told you you were moving from South
Philly to upstate Pennsylvania. Scared wouldbe the first feeling that I had,
(25:34):
all of the unknown, leaving allmy friends behind, new school, new
community, everything that goes along withit. So, now tell me,
when you get to upstate Pennsylvania andyou're scared and you're uncertain, you don't
know what's going on? What didwhat did you do? How did you
handle it? I got comfortable beinguncomfortable and learning to adapt and assimilate to
(25:57):
a different type of community and cultureand how people they are view things as
opposed to in a city. That'sa fascinating phase. You just use you
got comfortable being uncomfortable. Tell mea little bit more what that means.
Yeah, Well, trying to adaptin a new situation is uncomfortable from a
(26:18):
city. For someone who grew upin the city to move into a rural
area, and it was constant momentslike that where it would be not just
school, but sports and church,getting to know different people and how they
viewed the world as opposed to howI did. So what does that transition
from city to country and learning tobe comfortable being uncomfortable? What does that
(26:42):
have to do with being president ofthe Delaware Reverse Steva Doors? Well,
you learn you have to learn tounderstand various different types of people and how
to communicate with them and find howto find common ground on issues you might
not necessarily agree on. Caleb Andy, how young were you when you first
started making money? I was twelveyears old. I had a farm job.
(27:07):
What were you doing on the farm? I worked on a dairy farm,
So I would show up before schooland then after school and help milk
cows. Was there a whole groupfor you? Now? There was only
three of us. There was thefarm owner, he had one hand,
and then me. So a lotof work to be done. And now
you rose all the way to thepresident of the Delaware River steviadors remind the
(27:30):
listeners again, what is estevedore?So we unload and load the commercial ships
that are bringing cargo and taking cargoto and from the US to other areas
of the world. It's like workingon a farm, except next to a
waterway. Yeah, I guess youcould say that, Yeah, yes,
so help the listeners are late towhat you learned growing up, when the
(27:52):
farm working early, working late,how does that relate to be an stevedore
and more so managing the stevedors Well, talk at a very early age that
there's no replacement for hard work.A farm is three sixty five twenty four
to seven and you don't have anydays off. And if you want to
get somewhere in life, that's thesame type of work ethic that you have
(28:12):
to bring to it. Matthew,and you told us in the green room
you have two kids. I'm curious, what do you learn from your kids
that you bring to work with youevery day. They teach me to be
humble. I guess you know.The other part I enjoy about being a
father is just to set good examples, to show them that working hard is
(28:37):
meaningful and that you could do anythingyou want to if you put your mind
to it. Those were both fascinatingthings you just said. Tell me more
about being humble and the importance ofthat. Well, I mean, as
you as you gain some success inlife, I think it's important to recognize
that, you know, the familyis important. All of your relationships that
(29:00):
you have, even as you grow, remain important. And you know you
talk about growing and keeping those relationshipsimportant. I think you told us you
married your high school sweet part right, that's right, that's right. Tell
me how your wife supports you inyour job. Well, there are many
times where I had thought about givingup along the way, and it's been
(29:22):
a long road, and she's beenmy constant supporter and telling me I could
when I thought that I couldn't,and drove me on a lot of initiatives
where I didn't think they were actuallypossible. So do I understand that one
of the reasons you may be enjoyingsuccess as the president of Delaware River,
(29:44):
Stephen Doors, is because of yourwife. I would absolutely say that that
she's been an integral part of megrowing as a human being and pursuing my
goals. Hm. That's interesting.So at home, who's who's the boss?
I mean, is your wife theboss? For you the boss?
(30:07):
How's that workout at home? Well, I like to say, a happy
wife, happy life, so wecoordinate on decision making. How's that and
how's that concept of happy wife,happy life fit into your role as the
president of Delaware River Steve Adoors,Well, I think that anyone who's working
for any any business, that youhave to get gain some type of satisfaction
(30:32):
or be it pleased with what you'redoing, otherwise it's going to be short
lived. And I think that thatsame concept applies so as opposed to you
being a dictator, it doesn't soundlike that that's the way you operate at
home or at the office. Itsounds to me like your role you're more
collaborative. I mean, it soundsto me like, you know, it's
(30:56):
hanging out with those neighbors when youwere a kid. You know, it's
it's it's getting everybody engaged all thetime. It's not being the boss.
Rather, it's helping set it directionand encouraging others to It's gaining commitment as
opposed to demanding compliance. Am Iseeing that correctly? Yeah? I think
you have to get everybody behind avision. You know, you set high
(31:18):
goals or you have a vision,and then getting people on it's not necessarily
something that you dictate to them.It's something that you that you want to
have them on board willingly, andto do that you have to be persuasive
and encourage them. And that's howwe get things done here and flexible and
adaptable. It sounds like as well. It sounds to me like, you
(31:40):
know, you're really just a bigkid. Well, I guess you've learned
some stuff along the way, andyour wife certainly has helped. So this
organization Delaware River Stephen Doors. What'sthe website addressed for this organization? It's
d D d S dot com.We had that again. What's the website
address for Delaware River Stevendoors DRS dotcom. We've been speaking with Andy Sentis,
(32:07):
president of Delaware River Stevendoors here onExecutive Leaders Radio. Don't forget them.
Visit our website Executive Leaders Radio dotcom. That's Executive Leaders Radio dot
com. To learn more about ourexecutive leaders will be back in a moment
right after this quick break, don'trun away. This is herbco and you're
(32:28):
hosted Executive Leaders Radio dot com.Regarding your career. If you're trying to
figure out how to make the mostmoney and also enjoy your career, that's
enjoy your career, I mean,really enjoy your career and make the most
money. You ought to talk toour CEOs. They've got the bird's eye
view of where the really profitable jobsare, where the really profitable jobs are
(32:53):
going to be, and they're willingto speak with you regarding their vision for
the few sure and where you mayfit into it. In order to make
the most money and really enjoy yourcareer, email us consult at Executive Leaders
Radio dot com. Death consult atExecutive Leaders radio dot com to get help
(33:15):
from our CEOs regarding where you maywant to go in your career to make
the most money and really enjoy yourcareer. Consult at Executive Leaders Radio dot
com. We're back. You're listeningto Executive Leaders Radio. This is your
(33:47):
host, Herbcohen. Like to introduceand gentman by the name of Adet Gupta.
Co founder and CEO of Lula atWhat is Lula? What are you
guys doing her? Lula is adelivery service. We like to joke around
we're the only delivery service that doesn'tdeliver. We built software for brick and
mortar stores like convenience stores to beable to deliver on every platform online,
(34:10):
grub Hub, Uber, DoorDash,etc. All from one place. And
where you from originally? How manybrothers and sisters? And where were you
in the packing order? I amfrom Warhees, New Jersey, oldest of
one, I'm the only child andeight to fourteen? What kind of stuff
are you up to? What wereyou doing as a kid? Eight to
(34:31):
fourteen? Was was an interesting time? I was. I was traveling,
traveling around U visiting grandparents, livingin India, starting a tennis business.
Went to high school early, enrolledat eleven. So crazy time in my
life. Um, Matthew, yeah, deep I listened to you say that.
(34:52):
So you skipped a couple of yearsof high school, a couple of
years of school? You just saidright, yes, And you lived with
grandparents and I think you said inthe green room you lived with your aunt
for a while too. Yeah,I was fortunate to be able to travel
to almost most every state and idiain an year and a half two years,
(35:12):
uh, you know, living withmy grandparents and which was really an
awesome experience. But it's awesome asthat sounds. It's a little bit non
traditional, right, Like you recognizeI think that you grew up in a
somewhat different way than most people.I think, so, you know,
I've I've always uh not realized thatuntil recently, but I would agree with
(35:36):
that. So so tell me whatwas it like experiencing that and how does
that impact who you are today?You know, at the time, I
didn't know that was a different kindof path. I thought everyone did that,
But when I was traveling so much, I was just sort of taking
it in. And how that hashad an impact for me today's I've had
(35:57):
more of an appreciation for people,aciation for differences cross people around different countries,
different languages, and have that's reallybuilt more empathy as someone now that
started a business and was that kindof I mean, I don't want to
ask too much about your parents yet, but like, did your parents do
(36:19):
you think they did that deliberately?You know, I'm not sure they tell
me they did but you know,I'm I'm not too sure, but I
am really glad that it's had sucha big effect on my life. And
how does your happiness at that effecton your life? Tell me? How
does that play out in what you'redoing today at LULA. Yeah, so
(36:40):
at LULA today, we're empowering thousandsof amazing entrepreneurs, these business owners that
own convenience stores, liquor stores,or the backbone of American economy. Having
traveled around the country in India andhere in the US of the last decade,
it's helped me meet a lot ofpeople and understand from their shoes,
(37:00):
their perspectives, and now getting tobuild for them is just a really amazing
opportunity. So indeed, I wantto fill the audience in right away about
some stuff that's going on with LULA. Seems like it's on a meteoric rise.
I mean, you said you raisedseven million dollars already. I think
you're in five thousand sports store.So I want to hear a little bit
(37:22):
more about your upbringing. What didmom and dad do for a living?
Yeah? So, yeah, wewent through two rounds of funding. We're
in about five hundred stores, butgrowing really quickly towards that bigger number hopefully
soon here mom and dad. Dadwent to Drexel, so go Dragons.
I also graduated from Drexel undergrad gradschool and my mom's a school teacher.
(37:45):
Are they originally from the States?No, They immigrated to the US in
the nineties and from Delhi, India, So they had four time jobs when
they came over here. Are theybusiness owners themselves? You know, growing
up, a lot of folks don'tknow that their parents are entrepreneurs when they
have stores, these jobs, they'restarting things. But they started a convenience
(38:10):
store when I was just in highschool. Didn't realize that they're starters or
entrepreneurs until now where I'm starting somethingof my own. So were they working
full time in the business or itseems like it was kind of more of
an investment business, the convenience store. It was. It was a side
sort of thing. It was just, you know, they had full time
(38:30):
jobs as engineering and teaching jobs,and so this was the side business.
And did you work in the business. I did. After classes and on
weekends I would often go. Iwould help them restock go to bj Sam's
Club by big palettes of things torestock the store and got to learn a
(38:50):
lot about the industry and business fromdoing that. So you were an employee
in this investment business, So Iguess there's probably some responsibility to your parents
make sure you don't screw things upon the job. Now with Lula,
you're out raising all this money foryour company. So I'm wondering when you're
in those meetings with those investors whenyou're the co founder, I'm sure you're
talking to these people one on one, are you able to get across that
(39:12):
responsibility you have of being in chargeof other people's money. Yeah, that's
that's a really great question. Andwe're lucky to have some incredible investors here
from Philadelphia like Ben Franklin, TechPartners and some some angels that have made
a big impact in Philly. Ithink first and foremost everyone believes in this
problem that we're solving. COVID hashelped identify the need for SMB stores and
(39:37):
other stores to need to innovate andreally come to the twenty first century.
And you know, there's there's thisthing founder market fit, which is a
unique here. I've experienced this asa prior human that's been a customer for
the product that we're building, andthat's really the kind of big reason why
(40:00):
so much. So many people havetrusted us with their capital. We were
the customer when I worked in myparents convenience store, and now where we
have the blessing and opportunity to beable to build for those folks. Jim,
you told us tennis has been beena big part of your life.
Can you tell us a little bitabout that. How how young you were
(40:21):
when you started playing? Yeah.Absolutely, I've got to admit I started
to to, you know, losea little bit of weight, hair,
but it slowly became my favorite thingto do. Started playing tennis early days
in high school, and you know, I was first the worst person on
the team, number thirty six outof thirty six people almost got cut,
(40:44):
but really loved the challenge of beingable to rise up in the ranks from
number thirty six to number one inmy high school top hundred in the country
for my age group. And thathelped me realize that, you know,
whatever hardship or challenge, you haveto put in your ten thousand hours and
work through it and never give up. And so that really had a big
(41:06):
effect on me as an entrepreneur,but starting to teach tennis, which happened
completely by accident, also became abig part of who I am. I
started teaching tennis also in high schooland realized that what I put into it
has a direct output of what comesout of it. From the people that
I go to start taking lessons,to the random things I would do to
(41:30):
bring awareness for that there is anew instructor in town that they can start
taking lessons from, would bring moreclients to me, and at such a
young age, understanding all these thingslike marketing and word of mouth had been
very powerful for my growth. Howwould you have characterized your style play when
you were a tennis player. That'sa great question. It's certainly shifted over
(41:52):
the years. You know. Istarted playing quite aggressively in early days with
frustrations of high school. I wouldtennis as an outlet to hit the ball
as fast as I could to todominate the court. And over time as
I matured a little bit more andbuilt a more well balanced play. Now
(42:14):
nowadays I'm I play more strategically.I think out points before hitting the ball,
and that's been the biggest difference inme as as an entrepreneur also a
tennis player. How does that balancein your your risk taking decisions? Now,
how does that carry over to bulah? You know, not every decision
is fast as hard as fast asyou can. Some things you have to
(42:36):
be offensive, some things you haveto be defensive. But uh, you
know the thing that correlates the mostfrom tennis is, you know two things.
Everything is preplanned. You can basedon pre planned preparation affect the output
of what's going to happen in thegame. But second, there's curveballs.
There's sometimes things happen where you justlose a point or two or a game
(43:00):
or even upset, but there's alwaysan opportunity to come back and win later
on. And that's kind of whatkeeps us going as entrepreneurs. And here
at LULA, that's part of yourjob, it's part of my job.
You know. Sometimes team members havea good day, sometimes they have a
great day, sometimes not a goodday. And the goal is to keep
morale really high, to keep everyonereally pumped because we are solving a tremendously
(43:22):
exciting problem. M you really turnedon by this opportunity? How high is
up? What do you mean bythat? How big? How big guys.
Okay, can you guys go prettybig? So you know, over
the next year, we're hoping tobe in almost every convenience during the country.
We're all ready in about thirty statesand growing pretty rapidly. Here,
(43:46):
what's a website address for this organizationknown as LULA Lula Delivery dot com.
You've been speaking with A. D. Gupta, co founder and CEO of
LULA. You want executive leaders radio? Can you guys a Rundown who we've
had the opportunity to sea with Matthewsure Ken. It's been a great morning,
herb. We started off with WilliamToms, the co founder and chief
creative officer of rec Philly. Afterthat we had Billy Roberts, president of
(44:09):
Brown and Brown Pennsylvania. We followedthat with Andy Sentis, the president of
Delaware River Stevendoors, and just nowwe wrapped up with A. Deep Gupta,
the co founder and CEO of LoueLuck. I'd like to take my
co host Jim Wilson, Newmark,Caleb Poppez Hanlin and Matthew Shapiro Obermeyer for
giving me a hand structure in thequestions, hopefully providing our listening audience and
(44:30):
educational and entertaining show. I'd liketo thank our listening audience for listening,
Otherwise we wouldn't have a radio show. Don't forget to visit our website Executive
Leaders radio dot com. That's ExecutiveLeaders radio dot com or more about our
executive Leaders. Thank you for joiningus today and have a nice day. Bye bye
Welcome to Executive Leaders Radio, yourspot in the corner office, the radio
show where executives share their secrets tosuccess. Executive Leaders Radio. You're listening
to Executive Leaders Radio. That's yourhost, Herb Cohen with my co host
Jim Wilson, Newmark Calpapas, Hanlinand Matthew Shapiro Obermeyer. We have a
(00:30):
great let up of guests who inour show today. Matthew, will you
please give us the rundown. We'relooking forward today's show. We're starting off
with William Tom's, the co founderand chief creative officer of REC Philly.
Then we have Billy Roberts, presidentof Brown and Brown Pennsylvania. Following that,
we have Andy Sentis, the presidentof Delaware River Stevedoors. And we're
(00:51):
wrapping up today with a deep gupto the co founder and CEO of Lula.
Let's get to know our first guest, William Tom's, co founder and
chief creative officer of REC Philly.What is rec Philly? William so,
rec Philly is an ecosystem that webuilt specifically to empower creative people to do
more of what they love to do. We do that with a creative space
and a creative agency here in Philadelphia. Have you raised any money to start
(01:14):
the business? I have, sowe bootstrapped in the very beginning, but
to expand to our new facility andto other cities, we raised about five
point five million dollars to date.Uh huh? Why did they invest?
Who? Why? Why would theyinvest five and a half million dollars in
you? I believe our investors investedinto us because you know, we have
a very new perspective, and withthat new perspective, we're bringing out How
(01:34):
young were you when you were comingup with new perspectives. I've been coming
up with new perspectives and solving problemsmy entire life. Were you from originally?
How many brothers and sisters? Andwhere are you in the packing order?
I'm originally originally from the Germantown sectionof Philadelphia and then later on moved
to Bucks County in once there,and I'm the oldest of five. Oldest
five got you eight to fourteen?What kind of stuff were you up to
(01:57):
eight to fourteen? Eight to fourteen? After school? Everything I was in
sports, so tennis, basketball,football, but also chess, club and
dancing and doing everything I could toexpress myself, Matthew. Yeah, well
you talk about new perspectives. Soyou grew up in Germantown, which is
an urban area of Philadelphia, andyou moved out to Bucks County. That's
(02:20):
a whole new perspective. Tell meabout Tell me about why you moved.
Yeah, it was. It wasa whole new world. But I moved
because, you know, I startedin very humble beginnings. You know,
my parents had challenging situations as Igrew up. My father's been incarcerated for
over twenty years and my mother battleda drug addiction. So after that,
my grandmother, who raised me,knew would be a great decision for me
to be able to go to BucksCounty and get a better education. Whose
(02:43):
idea was that for you to goout there? Your grandmother's, Yeah,
that was my grandmother's idea. Howdid you react when you heard that idea?
It was a bit of a shock. It was removing me from the
community and everything that I had knownand placing me in a space that most
people didn't look like me. ButI was down. I was excited by
it because everyone around me respected mygrandmother and I trust her as well.
(03:05):
How did you adjust to that?New community. Where did that come from?
Yeah, it was a bit ofa challenge in the beginning, you
know, again being the what feltlike the odd person out. You know,
no one where I was looked likeme. They weren't doing the things
that I was doing. But itallowed me to get to a space where
I could understand how to get connectedto people who had a lot of differences
(03:25):
in their backgrounds and figure it outhow to how to be able to connect
with people and make people feel safe. So what does that transition from Germantown
out to Bucks County you have todo with what you're doing today at rec
Philly. Yeah, at reck Philly, I feel like one of my major
roles is being a bridge building andI learned how to do that in the
transition from the city to the suburbs. And I now understand how to bring
(03:47):
people together and make you know,exciting spaces for folks who may never be
you know, connecting outside of theirspaces. Echild. Mister Wilson William you
mentioned chess club. When did youfirst get into chess and who got you
into that? Yeah? I fellin love with with chess as a kid.
Um. It was one of thethings that my father and I one
(04:08):
of the few things that we reallyshared and bonded over early on, and
I fell in love with the gamebecause of the strategy involved. Um,
it's all about understanding how to makethe best move you can with the position
that you're in and with the piecesthat you have on the board at the
time. So just like when youwere talking to Matthew, it sounds like
you know your your life is aboutmaking the right moves, right decisions.
(04:30):
Right. There's a famous chess quotethat says, good positions don't win games.
Good moves do. What what?What? What do you bring with
you to to Philly? Wreck thatwreck Philly? Sorry that that has to
do with making the right decisions?Yeah, it's I consider myself the visionary
of our company, um, andit's about understanding the world around me where
we are and seeing what's possible inthe future, and then being able to
(04:55):
communicate that to my team. SoI think the game of chess and thinking
many moves ahead has been helpful becauseas an entrepreneur, I built a business
over eight years ago at this pointand made a big bed on where we
beat today. But well, whatkind of sports did you play when you
were growing up basketball, football,and tennis, and then you did a
lot of social activities as well.You had friends, groups and different kind
(05:17):
of things that you did with them. Tell us about some of those activities.
Yeah, outside of sports, um, all the creative arts. You
know. I grew up writing poetry, you know, almost as a way
to understand the world around me,as well as filmmaking and dancing. So
when you were involved with dancing,were you on that solo or you had
a group that you that you wouldget down with. There was a group
(05:38):
of us, you know, theclosest friends around me. We would you
know, create that group and goto events and as soon as we'd walk
in, you know, folks wouldcreate the circle around us, knowing that
that the show was coming. Sowhen you're an athlete, you kind of
have a team assigned you, buta dance group, it seemed like you
kind of built a team there.Yeah, absolutely, So what did you
do How did you get people involved? It seems like a lot of people
didn't look like you probably weren't doinga lot of the types of dancing you
(06:00):
were doing. What do you doto make them feel comfortable? Yeah?
I think at first it was leadingby example. Before there was the group.
I was dancing, I was doingmy thing, and I think folks
were gravitated towards, you know,my confidence to express myself. And I
think I had a knack for beingable to help people feel safe and and
you know, be able to seethe vision of what their best selves could
look like, and together we'd beable to kind of go after that.
(06:23):
And now moving on to wreck Philly, what's the revenue model? How do
you guys make money out there?Yeah, so a part of it is
we have a membership, so folksare paying, you know, to have
access to a yearly membership kind oflike a gym membership, if you will,
but for creatives as well as anagency model. So it seems like
with these creatives then a big partof it's probably making them feel comfortable when
they come into your business, makingsure they're going to be able to get
(06:44):
their best selves. Is that fair? Very fair? What do you do
with people coming into the business,I'm sorry, what do you do with
people coming into the business to makethem feel comfortable? Yeah? I think
for me, it's it's about onedesigning the space, you know, as
one of the folks who are responsiblefor architecting and designing our space. It
was about being intentional to the needsof our community, knowing exactly what our
(07:04):
folks want, because I'm a creativemyself, and then being able to design
that with that intention. Folks feelit right away when they walk into our
space, and it was built forthem by folks who had their best interest
in mind. What's this? Youmentioned the words safety, and I'm trying
to figure out what safety have todo with building a business. I thought
business was all about blood and gutsand bring the revenue in and keep the
(07:28):
customer man. What are you talkingabout safety? Yeah? I know for
the folks that I serve, whoare traditionally young, creative entrepreneurs, you
know, I'm talking not physical safety, but more so psychological safety. You
know. I think of our spaceas the space that maybe the only space
in our members lives where they're actuallyapplauded and celebrated for their differences and to
(07:49):
be able to be their best versionof themselves. Well, if we go
back eight to fourteen, what wasthe physical space where you felt safe and
creative when I was When I wasyoung in that age group, my grandmother
actually built a gazebo in our backyardwhen we first moved to Warminster, and
that was the start of it all. That was a space where I could
(08:09):
have my wildest ideas and conversations withmy friends and almost created that moment in
capsule for us to be our bestselves. And that's what we do now
at rec Philly. We built thatsame ghebo energy. Tell me how your
space, Tell me how your spacerecognizes the gazebo. Tell me the physical
similarities. Yeah, I think youknow. In framing it up this way,
(08:31):
it's it's so clear to me that, you know, what I do
in my role in my organization nowis to pass on the feeling that my
grandmother gave to me, which wassaying, here, with this space,
you literally have access to what youneed when you need it, and not
many of the distractions that you don'tneed. And you know the confidence of
saying, hey, this is yourspace, do with it what you will.
(08:54):
Is Grandmama still around nowadays, Yes, she is. You know what
you what you're doing for living.Absolutely, she's very proud. Why I
think she's she's proud mostly because youknow, she's seen, you know,
the realities that were in front ofus, especially again when I'm coming up.
You know, she raised four sons, most of which have experienced some
(09:18):
level of incarceration or or was murderedto due to gun violence. So when
she's seen what I've been able tocreate with the opportunity that she gave me,
I think that makes her proud forfor both of our efforts. You
think she understands about how impressive,how impressive that Zebo has been on your
life. She knows. Now,so what's the best part of your job?
(09:39):
The best part of my job isis actually a very specific moment.
It's when a member comes in andthey look me in the face and they
say I did it. And assoon as they say that, I know
it's because they meant that they gotan opportunity to quit that job they hated,
because now they're earning money through theirpassions and they're going full time as
a creative. Wow. And you'reproviding a a space for your for your
(10:01):
members, for your buddies to joinyou in the gazebo. Huh, that's
exactly it, and learn how toget paid to be themselves. Wow.
And this has been one of yourmany ideas emanating from when you were a
kid, and you would keep yourselfbusy with all these after school activities.
What's the website address for this organizationknown as rerec Philly. Website is rerec
(10:22):
Philly dot com, r ec Phillydot com, r ec Philly dot com.
We've been speaking with William Thom's,co founder and chief creative officer of
rec Philly here on Executive Leaders Radio. Don't forget to visit our website,
it's Executive Leaders radio dot com tolearn more about our executive leaders. Stick
around, be back at a momentright after this quick break, don't go
away. This is Herb Coo andyour host of Executive Leaders Radio. And
(10:50):
if you're a business consultant, ifyou consult to business owners or to business
owners team members, then we'd liketo speak with you because we're getting requests
from people all over the country,from entrepreneurs all over the country that are
(11:11):
starting and building their businesses where they'relooking for help and maybe we can help
connect you. Why don't you emailus at consult at Executive Leaders Radio dot
com. That's consult at Executive Leadersradio dot com, and perhaps we can
(11:31):
connect you to folks to entrepreneurs andtheir team members all around the country that
are looking for help. That's consultat Executive Leaders Radio dot com. We're
(11:52):
back here listening to Executive Leaders Radiothis year. Host Herb Cohen like to
introduce Billy Roberts, President of Brownand Brown of Pennsylvania. Yeah, Billy,
what is Brown and Brown of Pennsylvania. Brown around one of the largest
insurance brokers in the world. Wehandle our risks for our clients from a
property and casty perspective, an employeebenefit were you from originally? How many
brothers and sisters and where are youin the pecking order? Grew up in
(12:15):
a small town called Keyboarton, NewJersey, in Mama's County, would across
the Bay from New York City.I have a younger sister, so it's
myself and her and I am theoldest already eight to fourteen. Where were
you up to eight to fourteen yearsold? What kind of stuff are you
doing? You know, it's oneof those things that the kid is all
gas, no break mentality, justrunning around, never sitting still, sports
(12:37):
bikes, I mean, never,never sitting on the couch and playing video
games. It's constantly just chasing,you know, whatever that is at that
age. You don't know, butit's just consistently just going I understand you
mentioned that you have you had aspecial relationship with your younger sister. What's
going on there? Growing up?My parents worked really hard. Both of
(13:01):
them own their own businesses. Theywill work sixteen eighteen hours a day,
and from a very young age,I always was there to take care of
my sister, whether it be walkerto school, at home from school,
make sure that she was always okay, just getting her to try to be
a better person. You mentioned yoursister dough with some addiction or something like
that. Yeah, my sister hada little bit of some pickups in the
(13:22):
road. It's kind of one ofthe things that inspire me to try to
figure out what makes other people tick. And I've never went down that road,
but to watch her go down thatroad it pains me. So my
goal is to try to make herbetter as a person and give her a
life and help her get to alife that she can lead something. It's
(13:43):
interesting you use the word it painsyou, so you're you have a deep
empathy for other people, which Idon't. I didn't think that presidents and
CEO's had empathy, but I'm wondering, has this empathy for other people,
the fact that there's things that happenedwith your sister that pained you, has
that helped you build this business calledBrown and Brown in Pennsylvania. I have
(14:05):
a fear in life and the fearof letting other people down, so I'm
constantly giving my all, so othersare trying to follow my lead. Matthew
could excuse me, Caleb, couldyou give me a HND please? Yeah?
Sure, her Billy, it seemslike you played a lot of sports
growing up. Which one was yourfavorite favorite sports? Basketball? Were you
(14:28):
a pretty good player? Did itcome easy to you? It did after
I got cut from a basketball teamheading into freshman year, where that's basically
where my life turned around because Iwas pointing fingers at everyone, and what
it really boiled down to it wasI thought I was better than I really
was, so learned a lesson andfrom that day moving forward, I said
(14:48):
to myself, I'm never going tolose again. So went on to play
basketball in college. So I hadde five. The Yachts was specifically,
was the change between your freshman andsophomore years. I grew up majority looking
at yourself in the mirror and saying, Hey, this is your fault or
I did this. When you sayyou grew up, you mean you grew
to be six five and you puton forty pounds in between those two years.
(15:11):
I grew up in between my ears. So it was a big mental
maturation for you in between those twoyears. Absolutely. Do you think that
has something to do with learning aboutpersonal accountability? Yea, sir, So
what does that have to do withhow you interact with your employees teaching that
personal accountability? Look, I mean, I think the biggest part of being
(15:33):
a team is the ability to communicatewith other people. And everybody's different,
So with that, you have tobuild a culture around me, like high
achievers, people that just want toget in the weeds and just get shit
done. Because there's not a lotof doors in the world. So when
you find them, you got totake care of them, because those are
the folks that are going to takecare of your business. Matthew, Hey,
(15:56):
Billy, you talked about your parentsand striving to be better and at
some point you switch schools in yourchildhood, right, could you tell me
a little bit about that. Yep, we're ubing a very small town one
spare a mile, grew up withthe same people, same family. Some
of the kids that I was growingup with, we're not going down the
right track. So my parents sideto send me to a private school that
(16:18):
was completely out of my element.With all every single person I was going
to school with, I knew noone. So how did you adjust to
that? What was that? Like? You have to adapt, You have
to figure out who you are asa person and try to navigate a maze
of dealing with all these different peoplethat have things that you do not have
in figuring out a way to relateto them on a level that everybody becomes
(16:41):
the same people person, same groupof people. Was there any teacher or
other kid in your class or someonewho helped you adjust to that, who
helped you relate to this whole newworld? Unfortunately, I mean there wasn't.
It was me. I mean Iwas in a world where, like
I said, there's people that theyweren't like me. We were all different.
(17:02):
So it just forced me to adaptand expand who I was as a
person, to be a chameleon andbe able to communicate with people. I'd
never had the opportunity of communicating whatso I'm curious you had this experience of
being out of your element, ofbeing an outsider and having to kind of
adjust on your own. What doesthat have to do with running a business?
Let me run into business. It'sabout adaptability, and as you get
(17:25):
your business gets bigger, you'll realizethat mediocre people don't like high achievers,
and high achievers don't like mediocre people. So if everyone doesn't buy into the
same high standard, you don't haveteam chemistry. So it's kind of fits
right into life as well. JimBilly. He said, when you were
younger, you're fishing and crabbing inthe bay nearby. Can you tell us
(17:45):
a little bit more about that?Yeah, I always wanted something out there
that was better, So I said, my parents were hard workers. We
didn't have a lot, so ifI wanted I had to get it.
And one of the ways to getit was to figure out a way at
a very young age, what canI do to help other people and myself
get the things that I want?And that the bay was there, the
water was there, there's fish andcrabs, there were people that want it.
(18:07):
There was a demand for it,so you figured out a way to
sell it. To the dots andto the local fish market. So you
came up with that idea on yourown. So it sounds like you're pretty
entrepreneurial and a self starter when youwere younger. What what do you What
lessons do you learn from fishing andcrabbing with your buddies that you take to
Brown and Brown Pennsylvania. It's verysimple. You wake up in the morning
(18:29):
with a purpose, you go dowhat you're set out to do, and
you execute and just get it done. Kill it Billy. We've heard you
mentioned a few times throughout the interview. You know, as a leader,
you seem like being a good person'simportant to you. Listen, we hear
CEOs and leaders say that all thetime. I get the sense that it's
really genuine with you, though,So what does it take to be a
(18:51):
good person? Yeah, I thinkit's just living by your word. I
mean, your word is your bond. And my dad, at a young
age taught me your lesson and youknow, I was quote still to this
day, followed me, it's whatyou do. Speak so loudly, I
can't even hear what you're saying.Wow, that's a that's a good line.
Another sense I'm getting is it's reallyblack and white with you, things
(19:11):
are pretty clear. In the greenroom, you mentioned kind of a slogan
it Brown and Brown GSD. We'llclean it up for radio and we'll just
say get things done. Can youtell us a little bit about getting things
done at Brown and Brown? Yep. It's it's this execution, everybody getting
in the boat and rowing in thesame direction. Everybody has a role and
it's very simple. If everybody doestheir job, we're gonna win. Mister
(19:34):
Wilson, Yeah, Billy. Youmentioned in the green room also that you
have four kids and by extension throughyour sister, almost like a fifth child.
Tell us what's so important about themand being a father just again living
my life for them. I dowhat I do for them. I want
them to have nice things and thingsthat I never had the experience to have,
(19:56):
and that's what makes me text andkeeps me moving. And I look
at our team the same way Iworked for them. So you mentioned that
I got the sense that nothing's evergood enough, where you always want to
keep striving and keep building, andyou want to provide for other people stuff
that you didn't have. Is thatfancy cars and fancy houses or what is
(20:18):
that you're talking about that? Imean with hard work that will come.
It's worth waking up with the purposeand giving your all and not being satisfied
with being average. I mean,the world is average. Who the hell
wants the average? I think thateverybody can always wake up and take it
to another level. It's what isthat level? Everybody has that, but
they have to find that with them. I have to try to get that
(20:41):
out of people. So you're inthe employee benefits and other insurance related industry.
Do you ever hang out with anyof your clients? Do you ever
get to know any of your clients? I mean absolutely when I first started,
prior to being a leader, Istill have the same clients that I
took on fifteen years ago, andyou know, we take ideas around your
business and we fed each other's mindsup about what's working, what's not working,
(21:06):
how do we innovate all. I'mconstantly surrounding myself with people that think
like me, and when I we'retalking, it's kind of like the light
goes off with one another. Soyou're all about relationships, I mean,
you're all about crabbing and fishing withyour buddies and figuring out how you guys
can go do stuff together. Itjust happens to be making money, whether
it's with your teammates, whether it'swith your clients. You're you're all about
(21:27):
relationships. Well, what's the websiteof this organization and known as Brown and
Brown of Pennsylvania BB Insurance dot com. Let me have that one more time
BB Insurance dot com. We've beenspeaking with Billy Roberts, president of Brown
and Brown of Pennsylvania here on ExecutiveLeaders Radio. Don't forget to visit our
(21:48):
website Executive leaders Radio dot com learnmore about our executive He was back in
a moment right after this quick break. Don't go away. We're back here
(22:11):
listening to Executivities Radio. This yourhost, Herb Cohen liked to introduced and
decentis president of Delaware River Steven DoorsAndy. What's Delaware River? Stephen Doors?
What are you guys doing? Sowe unload ships that come up and
down the Delaware River house cargo andwork with our business partners on the bring
ships into the port. Where you'refrom originally? How many brothers and sisters
(22:33):
and where are you in the peckingorder? Yeah? So I grew up
until I was ten in Philadelphia andthen Rube moved to a rural part of
Pennsylvania. I am the oldest ofthree three children, all right eight to
fourteen. What kind of stuff wereyou up to? What were you doing
in the city. A lot ofbaseball, playing basketball upstate, fishing,
(22:55):
hunting, riding dirt bike, stillbaseball. When you move to a rural
Pennsylvania from a rowhouse I believe inSouth Philadelphia. How many kids were you
did you have to play with?And what was your role amongst the kids
when you moved Yeah, rural Pennsylvania. You live far apart, so there
(23:15):
were only a handful of us,three or four close friends, and we
did a lot of outdoor activities.Anything you could do outside, whether we
baseball, football. In a ruralarea, there's a lot of fishing and
hunting that goes on, riding quadsand dirt bikes. And what was your
role with the other three or fourkids, the other two or three or
four kids, what was your roleamongst the group? As a high energy
(23:37):
kid, I would use you theones initiating those activities and trying to get
things moving along. It wasn't comfortablejust sitting around. What's that have to
do with your role as president ofDelaware River Steven Doors. Well, you're
the one that's got to kind ofinitiate it on all fronts and keep things
moving, keep things moving forward andpeople motivated, and that's directly related,
(23:59):
James. Yeah. Andy, Um, tell us about a little bit more
about baseball. What position did youplay? I was primarily a catcher when
I played baseball. So what's therole of a catcher. What kind of
role did you play on the teamthere? Well, you're managing the team,
I mean all the other players onthe field, keeping them motivated,
letting them know where they're at onthe field, and moving everybody forward.
(24:22):
So you know, they say alot of you know, catchers make good
managers. There's a lot of managersin baseball that were former catchers. You
know, it makes sense being involvedin kind of every decision, knowing when
to take time outs. What whatdo you bring with you from your catching
days to how you run the stevenDoors. Well, there are ups and
downs in all games, and keepingpeople motivated. Um, that that there's
(24:45):
constantly the possibility of a win isthe primary focus. I think as a
catcher and as a business leader.Mum, so, so Landy, if
I got this right? When you'reten years old, up to ten,
you're living in a row house inSouth Philly, right, that's right,
And at ten you moved to upstaterural Pennsylvania. Right, that's right.
(25:10):
Okay. So was there like abig family meeting where you decided that this
was the movie you were going tomake and you had your input on it?
Not at all, Not at all. It was not much opinion.
I didn't have much of an opinionwhen I was ten. It was more
or less this, this is whatwe're doing, and get on board.
So how did you feel when yourparents told you you were moving from South
Philly to upstate Pennsylvania. Scared wouldbe the first feeling that I had,
(25:34):
all of the unknown, leaving allmy friends behind, new school, new
community, everything that goes along withit. So, now tell me,
when you get to upstate Pennsylvania andyou're scared and you're uncertain, you don't
know what's going on? What didwhat did you do? How did you
handle it? I got comfortable beinguncomfortable and learning to adapt and assimilate to
(25:57):
a different type of community and cultureand how people they are view things as
opposed to in a city. That'sa fascinating phase. You just use you
got comfortable being uncomfortable. Tell mea little bit more what that means.
Yeah, Well, trying to adaptin a new situation is uncomfortable from a
(26:18):
city. For someone who grew upin the city to move into a rural
area, and it was constant momentslike that where it would be not just
school, but sports and church,getting to know different people and how they
viewed the world as opposed to howI did. So what does that transition
from city to country and learning tobe comfortable being uncomfortable? What does that
(26:42):
have to do with being president ofthe Delaware Reverse Steva Doors? Well,
you learn you have to learn tounderstand various different types of people and how
to communicate with them and find howto find common ground on issues you might
not necessarily agree on. Caleb Andy, how young were you when you first
started making money? I was twelveyears old. I had a farm job.
(27:07):
What were you doing on the farm? I worked on a dairy farm,
So I would show up before schooland then after school and help milk
cows. Was there a whole groupfor you? Now? There was only
three of us. There was thefarm owner, he had one hand,
and then me. So a lotof work to be done. And now
you rose all the way to thepresident of the Delaware River steviadors remind the
(27:30):
listeners again, what is estevedore?So we unload and load the commercial ships
that are bringing cargo and taking cargoto and from the US to other areas
of the world. It's like workingon a farm, except next to a
waterway. Yeah, I guess youcould say that, Yeah, yes,
so help the listeners are late towhat you learned growing up, when the
(27:52):
farm working early, working late,how does that relate to be an stevedore
and more so managing the stevedors Well, talk at a very early age that
there's no replacement for hard work.A farm is three sixty five twenty four
to seven and you don't have anydays off. And if you want to
get somewhere in life, that's thesame type of work ethic that you have
(28:12):
to bring to it. Matthew,and you told us in the green room
you have two kids. I'm curious, what do you learn from your kids
that you bring to work with youevery day. They teach me to be
humble. I guess you know.The other part I enjoy about being a
father is just to set good examples, to show them that working hard is
(28:37):
meaningful and that you could do anythingyou want to if you put your mind
to it. Those were both fascinatingthings you just said. Tell me more
about being humble and the importance ofthat. Well, I mean, as
you as you gain some success inlife, I think it's important to recognize
that, you know, the familyis important. All of your relationships that
(29:00):
you have, even as you grow, remain important. And you know you
talk about growing and keeping those relationshipsimportant. I think you told us you
married your high school sweet part right, that's right, that's right. Tell
me how your wife supports you inyour job. Well, there are many
times where I had thought about givingup along the way, and it's been
(29:22):
a long road, and she's beenmy constant supporter and telling me I could
when I thought that I couldn't,and drove me on a lot of initiatives
where I didn't think they were actuallypossible. So do I understand that one
of the reasons you may be enjoyingsuccess as the president of Delaware River,
(29:44):
Stephen Doors, is because of yourwife. I would absolutely say that that
she's been an integral part of megrowing as a human being and pursuing my
goals. Hm. That's interesting.So at home, who's who's the boss?
I mean, is your wife theboss? For you the boss?
(30:07):
How's that workout at home? Well, I like to say, a happy
wife, happy life, so wecoordinate on decision making. How's that and
how's that concept of happy wife,happy life fit into your role as the
president of Delaware River Steve Adoors,Well, I think that anyone who's working
for any any business, that youhave to get gain some type of satisfaction
(30:32):
or be it pleased with what you'redoing, otherwise it's going to be short
lived. And I think that thatsame concept applies so as opposed to you
being a dictator, it doesn't soundlike that that's the way you operate at
home or at the office. Itsounds to me like your role you're more
collaborative. I mean, it soundsto me like, you know, it's
(30:56):
hanging out with those neighbors when youwere a kid. You know, it's
it's it's getting everybody engaged all thetime. It's not being the boss.
Rather, it's helping set it directionand encouraging others to It's gaining commitment as
opposed to demanding compliance. Am Iseeing that correctly? Yeah? I think
you have to get everybody behind avision. You know, you set high
(31:18):
goals or you have a vision,and then getting people on it's not necessarily
something that you dictate to them.It's something that you that you want to
have them on board willingly, andto do that you have to be persuasive
and encourage them. And that's howwe get things done here and flexible and
adaptable. It sounds like as well. It sounds to me like, you
(31:40):
know, you're really just a bigkid. Well, I guess you've learned
some stuff along the way, andyour wife certainly has helped. So this
organization Delaware River Stephen Doors. What'sthe website addressed for this organization? It's
d D d S dot com.We had that again. What's the website
address for Delaware River Stevendoors DRS dotcom. We've been speaking with Andy Sentis,
(32:07):
president of Delaware River Stevendoors here onExecutive Leaders Radio. Don't forget them.
Visit our website Executive Leaders Radio dotcom. That's Executive Leaders Radio dot
com. To learn more about ourexecutive leaders will be back in a moment
right after this quick break, don'trun away. This is herbco and you're
(32:28):
hosted Executive Leaders Radio dot com.Regarding your career. If you're trying to
figure out how to make the mostmoney and also enjoy your career, that's
enjoy your career, I mean,really enjoy your career and make the most
money. You ought to talk toour CEOs. They've got the bird's eye
view of where the really profitable jobsare, where the really profitable jobs are
(32:53):
going to be, and they're willingto speak with you regarding their vision for
the few sure and where you mayfit into it. In order to make
the most money and really enjoy yourcareer, email us consult at Executive Leaders
Radio dot com. Death consult atExecutive Leaders radio dot com to get help
(33:15):
from our CEOs regarding where you maywant to go in your career to make
the most money and really enjoy yourcareer. Consult at Executive Leaders Radio dot
com. We're back. You're listeningto Executive Leaders Radio. This is your
(33:47):
host, Herbcohen. Like to introduceand gentman by the name of Adet Gupta.
Co founder and CEO of Lula atWhat is Lula? What are you
guys doing her? Lula is adelivery service. We like to joke around
we're the only delivery service that doesn'tdeliver. We built software for brick and
mortar stores like convenience stores to beable to deliver on every platform online,
(34:10):
grub Hub, Uber, DoorDash,etc. All from one place. And
where you from originally? How manybrothers and sisters? And where were you
in the packing order? I amfrom Warhees, New Jersey, oldest of
one, I'm the only child andeight to fourteen? What kind of stuff
are you up to? What wereyou doing as a kid? Eight to
(34:31):
fourteen? Was was an interesting time? I was. I was traveling,
traveling around U visiting grandparents, livingin India, starting a tennis business.
Went to high school early, enrolledat eleven. So crazy time in my
life. Um, Matthew, yeah, deep I listened to you say that.
(34:52):
So you skipped a couple of yearsof high school, a couple of
years of school? You just saidright, yes, And you lived with
grandparents and I think you said inthe green room you lived with your aunt
for a while too. Yeah,I was fortunate to be able to travel
to almost most every state and idiain an year and a half two years,
(35:12):
uh, you know, living withmy grandparents and which was really an
awesome experience. But it's awesome asthat sounds. It's a little bit non
traditional, right, Like you recognizeI think that you grew up in a
somewhat different way than most people.I think, so, you know,
I've I've always uh not realized thatuntil recently, but I would agree with
(35:36):
that. So so tell me whatwas it like experiencing that and how does
that impact who you are today?You know, at the time, I
didn't know that was a different kindof path. I thought everyone did that,
But when I was traveling so much, I was just sort of taking
it in. And how that hashad an impact for me today's I've had
(35:57):
more of an appreciation for people,aciation for differences cross people around different countries,
different languages, and have that's reallybuilt more empathy as someone now that
started a business and was that kindof I mean, I don't want to
ask too much about your parents yet, but like, did your parents do
(36:19):
you think they did that deliberately?You know, I'm not sure they tell
me they did but you know,I'm I'm not too sure, but I
am really glad that it's had sucha big effect on my life. And
how does your happiness at that effecton your life? Tell me? How
does that play out in what you'redoing today at LULA. Yeah, so
(36:40):
at LULA today, we're empowering thousandsof amazing entrepreneurs, these business owners that
own convenience stores, liquor stores,or the backbone of American economy. Having
traveled around the country in India andhere in the US of the last decade,
it's helped me meet a lot ofpeople and understand from their shoes,
(37:00):
their perspectives, and now getting tobuild for them is just a really amazing
opportunity. So indeed, I wantto fill the audience in right away about
some stuff that's going on with LULA. Seems like it's on a meteoric rise.
I mean, you said you raisedseven million dollars already. I think
you're in five thousand sports store.So I want to hear a little bit
(37:22):
more about your upbringing. What didmom and dad do for a living?
Yeah? So, yeah, wewent through two rounds of funding. We're
in about five hundred stores, butgrowing really quickly towards that bigger number hopefully
soon here mom and dad. Dadwent to Drexel, so go Dragons.
I also graduated from Drexel undergrad gradschool and my mom's a school teacher.
(37:45):
Are they originally from the States?No, They immigrated to the US in
the nineties and from Delhi, India, So they had four time jobs when
they came over here. Are theybusiness owners themselves? You know, growing
up, a lot of folks don'tknow that their parents are entrepreneurs when they
have stores, these jobs, they'restarting things. But they started a convenience
(38:10):
store when I was just in highschool. Didn't realize that they're starters or
entrepreneurs until now where I'm starting somethingof my own. So were they working
full time in the business or itseems like it was kind of more of
an investment business, the convenience store. It was. It was a side
sort of thing. It was just, you know, they had full time
(38:30):
jobs as engineering and teaching jobs,and so this was the side business.
And did you work in the business. I did. After classes and on
weekends I would often go. Iwould help them restock go to bj Sam's
Club by big palettes of things torestock the store and got to learn a
(38:50):
lot about the industry and business fromdoing that. So you were an employee
in this investment business, So Iguess there's probably some responsibility to your parents
make sure you don't screw things upon the job. Now with Lula,
you're out raising all this money foryour company. So I'm wondering when you're
in those meetings with those investors whenyou're the co founder, I'm sure you're
talking to these people one on one, are you able to get across that
(39:12):
responsibility you have of being in chargeof other people's money. Yeah, that's
that's a really great question. Andwe're lucky to have some incredible investors here
from Philadelphia like Ben Franklin, TechPartners and some some angels that have made
a big impact in Philly. Ithink first and foremost everyone believes in this
problem that we're solving. COVID hashelped identify the need for SMB stores and
(39:37):
other stores to need to innovate andreally come to the twenty first century.
And you know, there's there's thisthing founder market fit, which is a
unique here. I've experienced this asa prior human that's been a customer for
the product that we're building, andthat's really the kind of big reason why
(40:00):
so much. So many people havetrusted us with their capital. We were
the customer when I worked in myparents convenience store, and now where we
have the blessing and opportunity to beable to build for those folks. Jim,
you told us tennis has been beena big part of your life.
Can you tell us a little bitabout that. How how young you were
(40:21):
when you started playing? Yeah.Absolutely, I've got to admit I started
to to, you know, losea little bit of weight, hair,
but it slowly became my favorite thingto do. Started playing tennis early days
in high school, and you know, I was first the worst person on
the team, number thirty six outof thirty six people almost got cut,
(40:44):
but really loved the challenge of beingable to rise up in the ranks from
number thirty six to number one inmy high school top hundred in the country
for my age group. And thathelped me realize that, you know,
whatever hardship or challenge, you haveto put in your ten thousand hours and
work through it and never give up. And so that really had a big
(41:06):
effect on me as an entrepreneur,but starting to teach tennis, which happened
completely by accident, also became abig part of who I am. I
started teaching tennis also in high schooland realized that what I put into it
has a direct output of what comesout of it. From the people that
I go to start taking lessons,to the random things I would do to
(41:30):
bring awareness for that there is anew instructor in town that they can start
taking lessons from, would bring moreclients to me, and at such a
young age, understanding all these thingslike marketing and word of mouth had been
very powerful for my growth. Howwould you have characterized your style play when
you were a tennis player. That'sa great question. It's certainly shifted over
(41:52):
the years. You know. Istarted playing quite aggressively in early days with
frustrations of high school. I wouldtennis as an outlet to hit the ball
as fast as I could to todominate the court. And over time as
I matured a little bit more andbuilt a more well balanced play. Now
(42:14):
nowadays I'm I play more strategically.I think out points before hitting the ball,
and that's been the biggest difference inme as as an entrepreneur also a
tennis player. How does that balancein your your risk taking decisions? Now,
how does that carry over to bulah? You know, not every decision
is fast as hard as fast asyou can. Some things you have to
(42:36):
be offensive, some things you haveto be defensive. But uh, you
know the thing that correlates the mostfrom tennis is, you know two things.
Everything is preplanned. You can basedon pre planned preparation affect the output
of what's going to happen in thegame. But second, there's curveballs.
There's sometimes things happen where you justlose a point or two or a game
(43:00):
or even upset, but there's alwaysan opportunity to come back and win later
on. And that's kind of whatkeeps us going as entrepreneurs. And here
at LULA, that's part of yourjob, it's part of my job.
You know. Sometimes team members havea good day, sometimes they have a
great day, sometimes not a goodday. And the goal is to keep
morale really high, to keep everyonereally pumped because we are solving a tremendously
(43:22):
exciting problem. M you really turnedon by this opportunity? How high is
up? What do you mean bythat? How big? How big guys.
Okay, can you guys go prettybig? So you know, over
the next year, we're hoping tobe in almost every convenience during the country.
We're all ready in about thirty statesand growing pretty rapidly. Here,
(43:46):
what's a website address for this organizationknown as LULA Lula Delivery dot com.
You've been speaking with A. D. Gupta, co founder and CEO of
LULA. You want executive leaders radio? Can you guys a Rundown who we've
had the opportunity to sea with Matthewsure Ken. It's been a great morning,
herb. We started off with WilliamToms, the co founder and chief
creative officer of rec Philly. Afterthat we had Billy Roberts, president of
(44:09):
Brown and Brown Pennsylvania. We followedthat with Andy Sentis, the president of
Delaware River Stevendoors, and just nowwe wrapped up with A. Deep Gupta,
the co founder and CEO of LoueLuck. I'd like to take my
co host Jim Wilson, Newmark,Caleb Poppez Hanlin and Matthew Shapiro Obermeyer for
giving me a hand structure in thequestions, hopefully providing our listening audience and
(44:30):
educational and entertaining show. I'd liketo thank our listening audience for listening,
Otherwise we wouldn't have a radio show. Don't forget to visit our website Executive
Leaders radio dot com. That's ExecutiveLeaders radio dot com or more about our
executive Leaders. Thank you for joiningus today and have a nice day. Bye bye
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.