Harry Smith from The Rise Companies

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to iHeartMedia CEOs you should know. I'm your host, Michael Berger,
and today we are joined by HarrySmith, founder chairman of the Rise Companies.
Thanks for joining us, Harry.Yeah, glad to be here.
Absolutely So listen, Harry. Oneof the things we found out is we
revamped CEOs you should know is thatwe want to know as much about you
as we do the company. AndI think there's probably an overlap of both

(00:22):
those things because you can't really separatethose two. Here's what I do know.
Yesterday you were at Haven's Wharf.Now you're here. Yeah, my
family has taken a trip to TybeeIsland next week for the first time.
We're going deep sea fishing for thefirst time ever. I know you are
the man, the expert when itcomes to that stuff. What do I
know? And what's the best thingyou've ever caught? Yeah? So,

(00:42):
I mean, you know, Ithink from the best thing we ever caught
would probably be the twenty eleven BigRock fish, right, So we won
the Big Rock in twenty eleven.Travis Stevenson, who've been with me,
a long time lifelong friend. Hewas my angler and so we have been
chasing them a long time. We'llbe chasing them really hard next week.
Uh it's uh, it's and thatevent into itself has turned to be out

(01:03):
be pretty incredible, and so youknow, it's an economic driver for the
Carteret County. And that's really howI look at it now. I mean,
I've been fishing a long time,I've been blessed enough to win it.
But when I look at the boatsto come in, hotels, hotels,
fuel, you know, restaurants,it's just it's just a huge economic
incubator and we try to do everythingwe can to help with that. So

(01:23):
all right, I'm a paint apicture for you. And the reason we're
going through this is I want peopleto know about you and how you got
here, and then we're going totalk all about the rice companies and all
the great stuff you guys are doing. But right now you're out on the
water, sunset's approaching, waves hittingthe side of the boat. Two part
question, What song is playing?And what drink is in your hand?
Okay, well that's a great one. We've we've got a bunch of theme

(01:47):
songs, you know, and andI don't know that we've got one in
particular that stands out but we've gotsome pretty good theme songs, most of
are played very loudly, and we'veprobably got the most diverse playlist uh in
off Shore Fish and it goes fromeighties rock to country and all in between.
And so, uh, I'm aneighties rock guy. Everybody gets sick

(02:07):
of hearing it by lunch time anduh and at that point we're listening to
Toby Keith any other guys. Andso that's the kind of how it goes.
I'm a medella guy. Uh,you know I Uh I like cold
beer. Uh. We have thefull bar on the boat and uh,
and so if you're on the doubleb uh, you're gonna have access to
anything you need on the alcoholic sideof things, that's for sure. I

(02:29):
love it. I love it allright. Do you remember your first concert?
And if you do, what wasit? Uh? I don't you
know, I'd have to probably haveto go back to high school and uh,
I don't know that my brain goesback that far anymore. Hey,
that's all right, I'm I'm Theseare questions off the top. I didn't
give you any warning on this.There's no prep time. What did you

(02:50):
want to be when you were achild? Yeah, so you know,
I mean, my career path isis uh, you know, has evolved.
I think as most people do.You know, I grew up in
uh, in a little community calledArsi's Lodge and uh and you know,
middle class kid. I was notcollege bound in any way, shape,
for or fashion. I think alot of people know that. I talked

(03:13):
about it on some other podcasts.I actually, uh, you know,
most of the classes I took inhigh school were trade classes. That was
back when you could take you know, carpentry, Uh, you know,
masrea and all those classes. Andso I took a combination of two,
but I was not college bound.I started dating, uh who is my
wife now in high school and shewas college bound, and I was like,
I better get college bound, andso uh, I jumped on the

(03:37):
bandwig and put put my shoulders downacademically and and uh and and really didn't
start focusing on academics until my senioryear. I crushed the S A T.
Which is really what helped me getinto college. And uh we both
went to East Carolina University. AndI always give easy credit for for helping
me. Uh, you know,my current pathway, I'm still not an
academic I had a strong using opinions. As most people know, I've got

(04:00):
to see behind the curtain on highereducation and there's a lot to see there
and there's a lot to talk aboutthere. I spent seven years in grossed
in the space, and I've gotstrong views and opinions. But you know,
that's kind of the track I took. And and you know, I
got out of college, went intointo capitalism, started at the very bottom,
and just kept swinging. You know, got to break in my mid

(04:23):
thirties with a company I had toturn around and turned out to be a
great, great deal, and soyou know, I literally went from living
in a mobile home in college andin my mid thirties, you know,
I got a multi hundred million dollarexit and and I kind of looked around
and said wow. And you know, for a little while I tried to
walk away from it. I waslike, okay, I'm going to check
out. At a young age,I got all these hobbies. I absolutely

(04:45):
failed at the hobby side of things, and so my wife said, you
got to go back to work.And really, what I've been doing ever
since then is building and developing companies. I mean, I love to do
startups. We understand disruption really reallywell. I think that's something that a
lot of people struggle with. Butwe understand disruption really well. We've had
several big disruptions that we've started fromzero and built all the way out and

(05:05):
uh, and that's what we do. I mean, we build by companies.
We don't sell as much anymore.I mean a lot of people know
about the Pamela Co. Exit.Uh. We founded that company in twenty
nineteen. You know, it exploded. You know, we had uh plant
two plants in North Carolina, abig plant in Florida, Texas, Nevada,
and Illinois. I think we addedprobably fifteen hundred jobs at the state

(05:29):
of North Carolina. Uh with thatcompany, just just in North Carolina.
And we didn't have that company forsale. They caught us, we didn't
call it him, and uh,we walked away from the deal, walked
away from the deal, walked awayfrom the deal, and it ended up
just you know, coming together.And uh we had a great, great
transaction there. And I'm not intoexit business anymore. You know, we're
hoping to buy one or two companiesyear. We've got a great portfolio now,

(05:51):
you know, we've kind of expandedour geographic region. We bought our
first asset in Florida, uh FortuneLecture, which we're terribly excited about.
And so we got, uh,you know, a great strong operational team
and and uh we focus on culturea lot. But uh, you know,
we're looking about one or two goodassets a year, and that's that's
what we're trying to do. Andthe great thing about us is, you

(06:12):
know, we close all cash andit's our own cash. We don't have
any debt in our portfolio at all. And uh, and our portfolio creates
a lot of cash. And sowe're at a great advantage. When we
find the right asset with the rightperson, we can move quick. Yeah.
And that's the track I'm gonna stayon. Yeah. No, I
mean that's smart. You mentioned thatyou had a bunch of hobbies and then
your wife told you need to goback to work. I think everybody's like,
I want to retire, and thenthey retired, and like, what's

(06:34):
what's what's next? You know.I mean, I've got a lot of
highly successful friends that that have builtcompanies. And you know, one of
the guys that I've been close witha long time, and I'm telling you
he's a. He's a Titan inthe state of North Carolina. He's probably
one of the best business guys thatI've ever had to honor to work with,
quite frankly, and that's Rusty Cardthat owns Atlantic Package and that's headquartered

(06:57):
in Wilmington, companies much large thatmost people know. He runs an absolute
first class organization. And Russy hasbeen building that company his whole life.
He got it from his dad.But what he's done with it has been
pretty spectacular and it's a story intoitself. But I mean years and years
ago, and Rusty probably didn't evenremember it. But we were having a
conversation on exits and Russy said,Smith, I got to have a reason
to get out of bed, andI never forgot that. And you know,

(07:21):
I've had chances to exit the portfolioswe've got now at some pretty incredible
returns, and we're just done withthe exiting because you know, I have
to have a reason to get outof bed. And I do have hobbies
now. I mean, I'm abig offshore fisherman. You know, I
like the outdoors, certainly like spendingtime with my family. But you know,
what I learned is one of myhobbies was building and developing companies.

(07:43):
And a lot of people don't understandthat. They confuse work with what a
lot of entrepreneurs do. And entrepreneursdon't see it as work, they see
it as their hobby. And youknow, for me, one of the
greatest things that I feel, youknow, in your walk in life,
when you have a sense of satisfactionis when we when we we we accomplish,
you know, putting companies together.Uh, they're performing, folks are

(08:05):
happy. We focus incredibly on culture. Uh, we have very little turnover,
if any and uh, and wetry to be the quickest, smartest,
fastest in that space. And welove the scale. And so what
I learned is, uh, workto a large part is a part of
who I am. And and I'llnever quit. People ask me all the
time, Uh, when are yougonna quit? And the answer is never.

(08:26):
The answer used to be in mymind at some point I'm going to
Uh, I'm gonna swing at ituntil my last day. In capitalism,
and uh, it's a big partof who I am. I think it's
a big part of who most highlysuccessful entrepreneurs are. Well. It's interesting
because I think coming in I wasprobably thinking you guys were leaning more to
the private equity side. You know, coming in here, it sounds to
me like you're more on the VCside. We we we know we got

(08:46):
a mix. I mean a SteriLabs is our big VC play. Uh
and you know all the other companiesare are are just core operating companies and
so we're really we're really a largefamily office and uh and and you know
that's what I refer to us atwhen I'm looking and talking to people are
looking to sell their companies. Isay, you know, we're a large
family office and we are. Ithink we've got twelve or thirteen hundred employees

(09:07):
today, and you know we're lookingnow we're always going to keep a venture
capital play in our mix. Youknow stair Labs which is when it was
just on the Canada, but theO which side. You know, there's
a lot of discussion as everybody knowsright now in North Carolina about medical you
know, we looked at that yearsago, kind of on the same platform
we did Pamlico Air when we launchedthat company and said, you know,
the space needs regulation, let's doit. And so you know, we're

(09:31):
making those products to pharmaceutical grade productsand try and you know, we were
significantly ahead of the curve. AndI think that's I tell everybody. You
know, a lot of people maketheir money by knowing when to get in
and when to get out, andso we think our our entry into that
space was right on time. Webuilt an incredible facility in Nash County.
We were very fortunate that we havevery strong cash flow in the in our
main portfolio, and so we're ableto fund it with no prom at all

(09:54):
and no outside capital. And soyou know, we fully fund all our
assets and we're very excited about astair Labs. But we will always have
a startup, scale up and venturecapital in our portfolio. And you know,
when we go buy a company,we buy a platform company. It's
been operating and it's got products,it's got revenue, it's got sales,
and so you know, we buythem, we bring them into our operating
side of the company. But youknow, Rise will always have an entrepreneurial

(10:18):
piece of it. You know,if we you know, get in a
position with a stair Labs where it'splatformed out, or we end up with
an exit, or we end upgrowing it, we'll again start a new
venture capital play and fund it.And you know, for us, it's
it's a much better use of capitalthan than than than uh, you know,
sending it up to Washington, dC. So we balance all that
out and it works really really wellfor us and the team we have.

(10:41):
I mean, Susan Rothacker is ourCEO. She's just a powerhouse. I
can't say enough good things about her. Been blessed to work with her.
And you know, we talked aboutdel Jenkins, our chairman. You know,
Robbie Moore who's on our board,so, you know, very successful
entrepreneur in North Carolina say, youknow, I'm surrounded with really smart people
and uh and I'm blessed to beable to do that. And so you
know, we you know, everybodygets excited when we're launching one out of

(11:03):
the ground because I mean that's reallywhere you know, I tell everybody when
you're building a company, the airgets thin when you're climbing a mountain,
and a lot of people can't breathethe air because it gets so thin.
It's tough, but the view atthe top is pretty spectacular, and so
you know, I've been blessed toclimb a few mountains and catch the view
at the top. And if youever do that, in the sense that
you get from the accomplishment of creatingthat kind of enterprise, you'll never quit

(11:26):
doing it. And that's where we'reat. We're never gonna quit doing it.
Well, one of the things youjust mentioned, and I didn't have
this down in our notes to talkabout, but I think it's really important.
You mentioned how good the team aroundyou is. And I think so
many people, especially when they're startingout, they figure out they have to
be the smartest in the room andthey have to do it themselves, and
I think they limit themselves a lotby doing that. Tell me more about
how important that is for you guys, just having the best team. Yeah,

(11:46):
you know, for me, Imean everything I've done in my career,
I've had what they call a kitchencabinet, and you know, I
did it the same thing when Iwas doing civic duty on the Board of
Governors. I had a group ofpeople that were quick, smart and fast.
I actually had a greet people onboth sides of the isles because I
wanted to, you know, getdifferent views and opinions. And you know,
during that tenure, we took onsome incredibly tough situations and we did

(12:07):
it with with the strength that graceand dignity, and we always operated in
proper governess. But that's what Ireally realized, the strength of your team
is. You're only as good asthe strength of your team. And so
when we started putting Rise together,you know, we we build it with
some of the most quick, smartfasts people to stay of North Carolina.
And you know, and look,I I mean I consider myself lucky and

(12:28):
honor just to work with the folksthat we have on our team. I
mean, our board is a powerhouseboard. And you know, and and
and you know the knowledge in theroom and and the gravitas in the room,
and you know, we're always goingto do the right things at Rise
cap and we're always going to stayon the high road. We're always going
to operate with grace and dignity.But the group I get to work with,

(12:48):
if you look at their track recordhistory of success, it's pretty spectacular.
And you know that's one thing.I get a chance to do a
lot of coaching now with folks thatare looking to get into the entrepreneurism that
won't want to do great things andand and uh, you know, it
makes me appreciate more and more ofthe kitchen cabinet that I have because if
I have an issue, I canpick up the phone and call one of

(13:09):
our team members and the advice isalways resounding. That's yeah, that's that's
special. You mentioned earlier the exitman and Humble came in pamlic Go Air.
Ye tell me what you kind oflearned through that process. Yeah,
you know, we didn't have thatcompany for sale. You know, we
were getting a lot of phone calls. I mean, you know, modern
Humble is an incredible organization. Imean I was just blessed to be able

(13:31):
to work with them. I learneda lot from them. Tom Fish,
or their chairman, is probably oneof the smartest guys I've ever worked with.
Their CFO Msha, she's just powerhouseMark Muser now that's running the Pamlico.
He's one of the smartest guys I'veever worked with. And so they
obviously have a different approach, youknow, they're you know, five billion
dollars and and uh, you know, and and so I learned a lot

(13:54):
about, you know, how alarge company operates. I would tell you
that that you know it was itwas a great transaction for us. I
mean, we didn't have it forsale and uh we ended up doing a
deal that I think was a bigwin for them. It was a huge
win for me and my team.Uh. You know, in my walk
in life, I mean one ofthe greatest things that I've been able to
do is, you know, I'vebeen blessed with some some pretty significant exits.

(14:18):
Uh. And starting at an earlyage. You know, when we
when we sold Flanders, you know, that was a pretty special exit too.
And so you know, I've hada lot of exits and and you
know, when we're able to writechecks uh to team members and that they
were getting checks, it's pretty specialstuff. And you know when we when
we sold that asset, uh,we wrote a whole lot of checks to
team members that had no idea thatwe're going to get one. And uh,

(14:41):
you know, in my walk inlife, I mean I've been working
progress for myself, right, Imean, you know, I was much
more driven and much more difficult andin my early days as a CEO,
and you know, in my walkin life, you know, I've worked
to try to be a better leader, better person. Uh, I've got
flaws, just like we all do. But I'm focused on them. I
understand it. And but you know, that was some touching stuff. You

(15:01):
know. We we we realized thatwe were truly changing people's lives, and
so, you know, now that'swhat we try to do. I mean,
it's it's you know, it's it'skind of a unique thing because I'm
still working really really hard. I'mblessed not to have to work for the
money. And so, you know, when you're not having to work for
the money, I think it givesyou clarity in your decision making, and
it also gives you a much longerterm you know, look at assets and

(15:24):
where you're going to what you wantto do. And you know, we've
had some some some big inquiries onour current assets and you know, we're
our returns are pretty staggering, youknow, and how we return uh,
you know, it's it's it's kindof twenty five thirty x every time we
do a deal. You know,we've we've had some more than that,
and so but we're focused on thelong term growth. I mean, I've

(15:46):
got some you know, I'd liketo take it to a billion. I
think we can. I got powerhouseguy John Anderson that joined me from Trust.
He's you know, he handles thebanking and finance for us. We
just got an awesome setup and andI got to tell you, I'm having
more fun now than I've ever hadmy capitalistic career. It's just a joy
to work with the folks. Wegot great customers, we got great assets,

(16:07):
and you know, we're having alot of fun well the time.
I mean, the stock market historicallyaverages ten percent. You're averaging twenty to
thirty times returns. That's not atleast Yeah, it was funny because you
know we were doing we were workingwith our our financial advisor firms out in
New York. They're a great firmand we love them. But you know,
John Anderson and I were having aconversation this week and he was going,

(16:27):
Man, these guys getting touch,you know, because our track record
is really really good, and youknow, most people would be shocked at
what we do with the assets wegot and how we create returns. But
it's it's it's super strong, andyou know we're going to stay on that
track. And you know the assetswe buy you for a large part of
below the big pe radar, andwe want to stay that way. You

(16:49):
know, we don't want to getto a point that we're competing for assets
that we have to overpay for andthen create leverage platforms, you know that
create challenges within the portfolio. Rightnow, we reinvest one hundred percent of
all of our profits back into theassets every month. We don't take dividends,
distributions. Uh, I don't eventake a salary. Uh, you

(17:10):
know. And and so we reinvestand our assets create a lot of cash
and we put put them back.The reason we put it back in is
making them quicker, smarter, faster, and better. And so been blessed
in that regards. And uh,you know, we're gonna keep plowing dirt.
We've we've changed our geographic location.You know, we're bought a really
nice company in Florida. We wantto buy more assets in Florida, South

(17:30):
Carolina, Georgia, Texas, thosekind of markets of what we're looking in.
Now, are you just trying toget a place you can put your
boat down there? Yeah? Man, Yeah, Well I got a place
in Florida, so I'm not goingto deny. I've got a pre sposial
place in Florida. We spend thewinters down there. But I mean,
you know, outside of that,I'm a North Carolina kid. Yeah,
yeah, uh, I love it. You know, I was reading an
article the other day and it waskind of talking about some of the trends

(17:52):
in VCN and private equity, andyou know, the competition's increasing, knee
sectors are expanding, uh, environmentalsocial that is that's becoming more costly in
a bigger plan, a lot ofdirect investment in public companies, greater use
of technology. Any of those worryyou, any of those excite you.
None of it worries me, andnone of it excites me. And so

(18:14):
you know, I've got some experience. I sold my first company to a
private equity company. I learned alot. I would say mostly that I
learned it. Leverage is bad.You know. I've got a lot of
friends that's made a lot of moneywith leverage, and you know, I
don't, you know, think leverageis good at all. I mean,
I've had high leverage in my earlycareer because I had to. You know,
one of the things I found outwas I didn't like it, you

(18:36):
know, because I mean, ifwe owe you, we're going to pay
you. And so you know,we have no leverage now, and we're
not going to have any leverage,and you know, we're just going to
stay on our current platform. Youknow, our model yields strong returns.
The spaces we're in yield strong returns. You know, the PE guys are,
you know, looking for large,complex assets, and you know,

(18:56):
we're looking for twenty five to fiftymillion dollar assets that we can scale.
One of the things I learned aboutprivate equity is most of them don't know
how to grow, to know howto buy. We know how to grow,
and so you know, we knowhow to recruit quick, smart,
fast people. We look at ourcompetitors, we figure out who's the quickest,
smartest, fastest, We bring themon board, we create opportunities for
them. We really have much ofthe same platform that the early PE guys

(19:18):
had where you could come to workfor us and you can create a lot
of wealth for yourself. And sothat's the platform we create for all of
our team members. And we've gota history of doing that for folks.
You know, I've been blessed toto help a lot of people on their
pathway to to you know, financialfreedom, and it's a great feeling.
And that's what we do. Imean, you know, all of our
presidents, everybody in the in thecompany has an opportunity to participate, and

(19:41):
and so we create opportunities and that'show we grow. And we love disruption.
I mean we're good at disruption.And so you know, nobody in
any way, shape, form orfast when any assets we have. I'm
not worried about anybody. I mean, you know what I tell everybody,
if you want to come compete withus and get in our sandbox, you
need to bring an excavator. Don'tbring a shop. So you know,
we we we we uh we we'repretty pretty good at it, I think,

(20:03):
and at the size we're at,and uh, you know, we're
gonna continue our strategy. We getphone calls all the time that do not
fit our strategy. And uh,I've had a lot of my friends that
jump around on their on their youknow, how they you know, deploy
capital. And we're very very uhdetailed and and and and very very uh

(20:23):
focused on how we deploy our capitaland the spaces that we get in and
we're not gonna change that. Wellsounds like you guys almost taking Dave Ramsey,
uh, one of our on airtalents on on T k K is
the whole You don't don't be leveragedand use all of your money. And
I'm not saying both ways. Yeah, I mean you know, I mean,
look, I'm it's easy for meto say that because I mean I've

(20:45):
had I've had I've had some greataccents and so you know, people tell
me all the time you can saythat, but most people can't. Well,
you know, we created that.I mean, you know, I
mean I I started in the hole, uh in in life, and so
you know, you can do itif you want to do it. And
I'm telling you I think right now, I met with a young guy yesterday.
I was looking an opportunity to getout of it. You know,
he didn't want to be a paycheckguy. I tell everybody you know,

(21:06):
sign the front of the checks,not to back. And you know,
he came in, quick, smart, fast guy. And you know we
talked about, you know, howdo you get started? And I'm telling
you, if you look at thedata of this out there, which we
follow closely, there is a massiveamount of exits to come and family owned
businesses over the next ten years.And these are businesses that you know,
Dad or granddad has been building forforty years. He doesn't have kids,
or the kids are not interested,and neither are great businesses to create tons

(21:29):
of cash. Most people have noidea how much some of these folks are
worth because they don't live the lifestyleand do it and uh and uh.
But there's gonna be a huge exodus. And you know, these are the
type of assets that you know,for the most part, fly below the
large pe guys. So there's gonnabe a lot of opportunities out there to
be an entrepreneur. And that's whatI encourage everybody to do. I'm telling
you the end of the day,I can tell you if I can do

(21:52):
it, anybody can do it.You just got to set your mind to
it. And you know, look, the sense of satisfaction of creating something
on your own is as h youknow, it started to describe. Yeah,
so do you guys, do youhave a boating manufacturer's part of your
portfolio? Yeah? Yeah, AndI'm boat poor. God, I'm lining,
you know. I mean it is, as I tell everybody, it
is absolutely my weakness. I loveit. I mean I love sport fishing

(22:17):
boats, I love center consoles.I've got way too many of all of
them. Uh, and we'll alwayshave it. The double Bee has been
very special in our family. Everybodyasked me, what does the double bee
stand for? My kids are BrookingBlake and so you know, that's where
it came from. But we'll alwaysbe in that community. I've got just
incredible friends and uh. And youknow one thing I'll tell you about the
allshore fishing crowd is there's some ofthe realest people you ever meet. I

(22:40):
mean, there's no pretension. Uh. You know, I I despise egos.
I've learned to hate politics. Soyou know we were talking earlier about
it. When I was doing civicduty. Uh. You know, I
used to look around the room andgo go out of mind and how did
some of these foots get in here? And that's why I don't do it
anymore. I still get a lotof phone calls asked me to do civic
duty year set on boards that thatare that are you know, comprised of

(23:03):
mostly political picks. And you knowthat's why I just focus on capitalism because
at the end of the day,I think that's where it's at and we
control our own destiny there. Butyou know, uh, I don't think
I'm a by boating company. Iknow too much about them, but I'm
I'm gonna own them for them.I'm gonna be a customer for sure.
Uh. You know, one ofone of the words you just mentioned was
authenticity. And I don't want tosound like that old guy, you know,

(23:23):
screaming about my lawn. But inthe day to day business, it
is harder to find authentic people.Sometimes I think so too. I mean,
in our companies, we always seeyou, no egos, no politics.
You know, we operate with aton of humility. You know,
I don't wear a suit, andthere's a reason I don't. You know,
when I was doing civic duty,I was wearing a suit all the

(23:44):
time, and you know I wassitting in a room full of people with
suits and two thirds of them didn'tbelong in the room. I mean,
you know, I mean I toldyou. You know Scott Lampy, who's
one of my best friends, oneof the smartest guys in the state.
He and I used to discuss itall the time. And you know,
I've been called from from Paul politiciansasked me to you know, come back
help this that, and you know, my pain answer is no, and
you know, I don't have itso much time left and so you know,

(24:07):
we love to do stuff we canbe productive at. And you know,
in our companies, you know,it's down the earth. We work
hard and there's no egos, nopretension, and we're just having a ton
of fun. And you know,there's no politics allow. I mean that's
one of our rules. I mean, we don't play politics in our company.
We just put all the cars onthe table. And I think that
is why we're successful. I mean, you know, we just got a
bunch of people that have bought inand they see it for what they are.

(24:30):
Our leaders are servant leaders. Imean our board is a servant board,
you know. And I'm proud toto not just work with them,
but to call them my friends.So what does the future look like for
Rise Companies? Yeah, I meanyou know, we're we're onward and upward.
I mean we're looking assets now.I mean, you know, we'd

(24:52):
like to buy one, two orthree assets a year. And uh,
you know it's like I said,you know, I'll never with you know,
I've got two kids that I hopeat some point in time will join
us. I've I've got Uh,I've got a real uh quick, smart,
fast future son in law that uhthat that could do great things with
us too, and uh and andso in between now and then, uh,

(25:15):
I'm gonna keep swinging at it.Uh, We're going to keep buying
assets. We're going to keep developingpeople. One of the things that we're
doing now we're really hyper focused onit is developing youth within the companies.
And uh We've got some really smartinterns this summer that are doing great things.
But we're gonna start bringing in becauseyou know, we do uh,
nuts and bolts, bread and butter, manufacturer, service companies, metal fabrication,

(25:37):
electrical, those are our big assets. And uh and so we're recruiting
youth to bring them into them.I mean, there is a huge shift
uh in sentiment across the country backto the trades. I think we all
know that. I mean that thehigher education model is is really struggling,
and as it should, right.You know, one point seven trilli in
a student debt and half of themdid never get a degree. And so
you know, if you take alook at at h where the opportunity is

(26:00):
at, it's really uh, youknow, in the trade spaces, the
blue collar jobs. You know,they're paying a lot of money. There's
a lot of satisfaction in it.And you know, for a long time,
there was a sentiment created in theeducation platform where if you didn't go
to college, you weren't smart.And that's turning around. And you know,
there's a program called Tradesformers that we'revery involved in in North Carolina and
and we're bringing back the pride ofgoing into the trades. You know,

(26:22):
we have signing day, you knowwhere if a kid's going to work,
I saw that. So kid comingto work for Peddle Electric or one of
our competitors, they get a hat, they get to sign and we're creating
you know, pride back in thosespaces. And you know, you know,
if I was a tell the policymakersanything in North Carolina, I'd tell
them the super fun of community collegesand uh and and that's the very best

(26:42):
thing you could do for the stateof North Carolina to continue moving it forward.
Yeah, no, that's great.Yeah, So let me let me
ask this because I know we wesaid we were going to carve aout about
half an hour. We can goa little bit over. You may have
already covered this, but I wantto make sure you have a chance to
wrap it wrap it up. Whatsecrets have you learned throughout your career and
what's one piece of advice you wouldgive your sixteen year old self. Yeah,

(27:03):
that's a great deep question. Andyou know, I think for me,
you know, what I've learned inmy walk in life is you know,
look, Adele Jenkins told me thiswhen I was on the Board of
Governors. He's you know, heprobably didn't remember it, but it was
some sage advice. He said,Look, at end of to day,
if you're leading, you're gonna havea few haters and you got to learn
just to accept that. You know, I'm a work in progress and I'm

(27:27):
gonna stay a work in progress.But I mean, that's one of the
things I learned. I mean,I think if I was telling my sixteen
year old self something today, itwould be you are not who you're gonna
be every year of your life.And so you know, in your walk
in life, every single year you'regonna you know, you know, grow
mature, your your whole approach andintellect's gonna change and how you see things

(27:48):
and view things, and uh,and I think, you know, and
I think that's a great thing.I mean, at the end of the
day, I mean, in mywalk in life, I've really had a
chance to to evolve. It's likeI told you, I mean, if
you were to talk to people whoasked me who I was as a CEO
of my thirties, it's not whoI am today. And that's a good
thing, you know. I telleverybody, I keep that hairy in the
closet and you know, but it'sit's learning, I mean. And I

(28:11):
think in your walk in life,you know, one of the greatest things
you can do is, you know, to self help yourself. You know,
whether it's you know, reading,you know, surrounding yourself with quick,
smart, fast people, which I'vedone a lot of, and your
views and opinions are going to change. And I would tell everybody that's the
greatest thing that you can understand.Who you're at at sixteen is not who

(28:32):
you're going to be at at fifty. And the biggest thing I'd say is
enjoy the ride. I mean,we all know it's quick, smart and
fast. Nobody gets out of lifeand so you know, Harriet fifty four
is not Harriet sixteen. I'm thankfulfor that, but I'm also thankful for
the journey and the scars along theway. Yeah. Yeah, well,
I think so many times people gettrapped and they view it as an end

(28:53):
They're an end product, and what'shappened to them in the past. They
can't overcome it, and so I'mstuck at whoever I am at thirty one
thirty to I can't get past it. So when you say, you know,
you're not who you're going to benext year, I think people have
to realize that. And sometimes it'shard in the moment to realize you're going
to continue evolving. You're like,well, this, this, this what
happened in the past is it's broughtme to who I am today, and
I'm stuck here because of that.But yeah, and look, what I

(29:15):
tell everybody is don't let anybody definewho you are. You decide who you
want to be, and don't letsociety or people define that. I mean,
you know, look, I'm tellingyou, you know, some of
the most successful people in the country, you know, are people that you
know didn't have the opportunities to havebig launches, you know, because they
came out of big name families.And I'll also tell you this, some
of those folks that came out ofbig name families, you know, they

(29:36):
can't run quick smarre fast companies.I've been around a bunch of them.
And so at the end of theday, you know, I will tell
anybody, don't let society and don'tlet anybody define who you think you should
be. I mean, you know, and once you get that mindset,
you know, I think you cando and accomplish anything you can. I
mean, I think that's what makesthe country great, right. I mean,
the country has plenty of problems.I think we all know that,

(29:56):
but end of the day, agreat thing about America is capitalism. You
can and create opportunities for yourself ifyou're willing to work quick, smart and
fast. And I'm going to tellyou this, if you're quick, smart
and fast and you're working hard,there's plenty of capital that will find you.
And so you know, that wouldbe one piece of advice I would
give everybody in their entrepreneur walking lifeis you know, and look, I
mean I tell our teams all thetime, you know, we make a

(30:18):
lot of mistakes, and we don'tconsider the mistakes because we learn from them.
And so as long as it doesn'thave malice and bolve, we're fine
making mistakes because every time we makewhen we learn. And so you know,
if you make mistakes in your walkin life and you learn from them,
and that's okay, you know,and and uh look at you know,
for me, I mean, I'dlove to see you know, everybody
get fired up on entrepreneurialism. Andyou know, I couldn't imagine, you

(30:42):
know, working for these big,large bureaucracies. Uh, when there's so
many opportunities out there and uh,and they're out there, you just got
to seek them out. Yeah,all right, last thing, I know
this is an important thing to youand your wife. Charities have always been
a part of what you guys havedone. Tell me about the ones that
are close to your heart. Yeah. So you know, we just did
a carter at hospital. You know, we did one point five million there.

(31:02):
And the reason we gave such alarge gift there is you know,
look, I believe in health care. I've had a close up view of
it, you know when I wasin civic duty and I did my homework
and I studied it. You know, I believe there are assets that are
ran well and assets that are ranpoorly. One of the things I tell
everybody when we're looking at an assetis don't fall in love with the personality,

(31:22):
fall in love with performance. Andone of the things I dealt with
on the civic duties. A lotof people fell in love with the personality
and they didn't look at the decliningperformance of the assets, whether it was
a hospital or a school. ButI got a lot involved in health care.
You know, when I went tovisit Carteret with Virginia and Kyle,
I gotta tell you, I waspretty blown away. You know, it's
a debt free asset. People walkaround smiling, They pay cash for everything,

(31:44):
They have very little turnover. Andthe fact is healthcare is key and
critical to every community in the stateof North Carolina. If you don't have
health care, you can't build andkeep quick, smart, fast jobs.
And that is why we gave there. And you know, the cancer thing
had a special purpose for us,based on the conversation you and I had
earlier. You know, I lostto somebody that was a friend, and

(32:05):
we've all lost too many. Youknow. The other thing we've given back,
I mean, you know every year, you know, the double b
donates one hundred percent of any winningsthat we get. This year, we
picked the quarter at Humane Society,we picked Hertford Humane Society, we picked
quarterret health Care, and we pickeda big rock foundation. And so,

(32:27):
you know, I tell people allthe time, you know, I don't
know how much learner I got,but you know every year, you know,
Tam and I will be giving backsignificantly to to not only those causes,
but others. And you know,look, I think there are people
that can give a lot larger thanI can give, and they are,
but at the end of the day, I mean, you don't need it
so much. And I think that'swhat a lot of people get hung up

(32:47):
on. They keep squirreling it back, squirrelling it back, when the fact
is, you can have an impacton your local community and in areas that
are important to you if you've hada lot of success. And I think
people that have had a lot ofsuccess absolutely have a mandate if you will,
to give back, because I mean, look, you know, I
didn't build these companies to have theexits by myself. There's a whole lot
of things that went on around it. And so we're focused on you know,

(33:10):
our remaining ride here on giving backand we're gonna keep doing that every
single year and look to more successfullyare the more we're gonna give back.
Listen, I've done a lot ofthese. I appreciate you coming in and
chatting with us. I see yourfuture outside of the Rise Companies as a
motivational speaker, quicker, better,smarter, faster. We'll go back and
count how many times that was sevenwhen he gets the T shirts if they

(33:31):
haven't already been printed. But HarrySmith, founder of the Rice Companies,
thanks for joining us for iHeartMedia CEOsyou should know yep, my pleasure.