Neil Dudley: The Cowboy Perspective, well, it might be hard to define, but I guarantee if you think about it, you’ve got one in mind. Whether you’re building a legacy, an empire, or a fan base, I bet when your friends look at you, they see some cowboy in your face. Y’all come along, let’s talk about this or that. Maybe when we’re done, you’ll go away with another perspective to put under your hat.
By golly, thanks for coming, I’m so glad you’re listening. And let me be the first to welcome you to the Cowboy Perspective. If this is a first timer or if you’re a listener that’s been following this podcast from day one, all the different episodes, the way we’ve grown, the amount of change in the episodes, you know right now I’m kind of in this process of exploring and telling stories of cowboy mentors, those people that have really had a big effect on me and my perspective, my cowboy perspective. Today’s episode I’m really excited about. I’ve got my best friend since kindergarten on the podcast. And we’re going to talk about his career and a lot of things that just he and I have lived through together and thoughts on stuff, business, faith. I’m excited for you to get to experience a little bit of that. So, thanks for listening. And here we go with Mr. Cody Lane, President of Peterson Natural Farms, a dang good guy, a cowboy hero of mine. Hope you enjoy.
Cody Lane: Does this have COVID on it?
Neil Dudley: No, see everything in here is COVID free. So, folks, if you’ve just joined, this is my best friend since kindergarten Cody Lane, he’s joining the Cowboy Perspective today. I’ve been begging him to do it. I’m just surprised as hell I got him in here. So welcome to the Cowboy Perspective, Leonard. See, that’s another thing how many people even know that you could be called that?
Cody Lane: Not many.
Neil Dudley: I don’t know why I even said that.
Cody Lane: Moment of weakness. That’s kind of my moment of weakness to join you I think.
Neil Dudley: Yes. Well, you probably did have some weakness. Anyways, I think your story is really cool. I look up to you. You’re a guy that I aspire to be like in a lot of ways. And I’ve been doing this cowboy mentor thing. So, I’ve been trying to talk your dad into it. He won’t do it. I got my dad on, lots of people. And so now we’ve got you in here, so let’s explore some of that. I want to ask the question, did you ever picture yourself being president of a manufacturing, a food manufacturing company? How did you get here? How did we get here? I ask that question a lot, man, it’s wow, it’s like God’s plan.
Cody Lane: Yep. Absolutely. So, I got married in actually July 3rd, 1999, just had an anniversary and I still had a year of school left. And so, Chrissy moved to [college station ] with me, and I finished school, and then, we moved back home so she could finish school and she was at Tarleton. And I started day working. And I thought I was living the dream. I thought it was good, but it was good times in the spring and fall and not so much in the summer and winter. So anyway, there was an ad in the paper, and Chrissy actually sent in my resume without even telling me and applied for this marketing position open at Peterson Natural Farms in Hamilton, and they called back. And of course, they left – this was before everybody had cell phones – so, they called back and left a message with Chrissy at the house, “Hey, would we want to schedule an interview with Cody,” and she said, she just went ahead and scheduled it for me. So, I got home that night and she said, “Hey, you got an interview in two days over here in Hamilton.” And so, I showed up for the interview, and I got hired, and I was going to start a week or so later. I showed up and they said, “Okay, there’s a small change. You’re not going to be the marketing manager anymore. You’re going to be the quality manager instead, but don’t worry the pay’s exactly the same.” And so, I thought, well, I didn’t know much of what I was doing on the marketing side anyway, so what’s the difference? I got to learn it either way.
Neil Dudley: Was this kind of the first time you ever went, out maybe aside from college type jobs or really going and looking for a – I don’t know what to call it – like a nine to five type job?
Cody Lane: This was my second interview only.
Neil Dudley: In your life?
Cody Lane: In my life, yeah. Well, the job interview. The only other job that I interviewed for was the appraisal district in Stephenville, and they didn’t hire me, and I was crushed. How in the world-? I mean, I’m sure the guy’s a good guy and all, but he was a Longhorn. So, he was a diehard UT, and I was like I’m an Ag-y, and I don’t know if this is going to work. And I said it in a joking manner, but I don’t think he took it that way. So anyway.
Neil Dudley: Well that probably worked out for the best anyway. Just for anybody who doesn’t know, he said day working a minute ago. Well, day working is where a guy just kind of goes and takes day jobs – gather these cattle, I don’t know what all it could include almost anything, build this little piece of fence. And so that was his career prior to taking the interview. Okay. So, you did the interview, they hired you, now you’re the QA director or running the QA for Peterson’s.
Cody Lane: Yeah. And I didn’t know a thing that was going on. So, I called some of my buddies at A&M, and one professor led me to another professor, and next thing you know, there’s a guy that shows up, a grad student shows up the next day and comes in here and writes a whole HACCP plan for us. And one of our good sales guys, George Hyde, he was selling chemicals at the time, he came in here and he wrote, he spent all day with me and wrote all of our sanitation SOPs. So, I didn’t know any of this, but I just was fortunate to know people that were willing to help me and get it all lined out and get it going at first until I did learn what was going on.
Neil Dudley: Yeah. I think the piece of that that really stands out to me is you thought you were coming in for one job and they gave you a different job, you took it. It’s like a lot of people may go out there thinking, well, I want to be the next electrical engineer for Boeing or whoever, I don’t know, and then they don’t get that job and they don’t take the one that they’re trying to give them, which could have been- So just keep that open mind when you’re out there, folks, you might be actually walking into something that’s going to be great for you and you don’t know it.
Cody Lane: So that first year, we did the math after my first year here, I averaged $4.25 an hour is what I made my first year at Peterson’s.
Neil Dudley: And I think earlier, I was talking about, did your family let you in on like- I never got big pictures of my family’s ranching operations and what dollars those added up to or any of that stuff. But I do kind of remember coming to Peterson’s and getting a look at some of that early on, like $2 million in sales. And I was like, holy shit, that’s a lot of money. To me that was like, oh my gosh, we’ve just hit the lottery. Well, there’s a lot to that and a whole other probably podcast underneath that one layer of just what that actually taught me or what I ended up learning of how I was so wrong in that thought process. Anyways, we won’t chase that rabbit. So go on, keep telling the story because I think it is, well, I just love hearing it.
Cody Lane: Well, that was pretty much it. So, I was hired as, and it goes to your point, I was hired as the quality guy, but it wasn’t long before I was doing a lot of the buying and helping a lot with a lot of the production, even helping with some sales. And so, the real promotion didn’t come until I actually I quit. So, we had a guy running the place that maybe wasn’t-
Neil Dudley: Well, how hard was that for you to quit?
Cody Lane: It was real hard for me because- Actually, because of some of the things that- Well, the guy running the place at the time wasn’t the most honest man. And he kind of asked us to do some things that I knew weren’t right. And so, I just, so that’s what- otherwise I probably wouldn’t never have quit. I probably would have just kept grinding it out, but that’s why I did, because he asked us to do some things that I didn’t think were right. Anyway, I did it on the phone. I called while he was leaving for vacation. He was actually on his way to the airport when I called and let him know that I was going to leave. And he said, “Well, just stay until I get back.” I said, “Okay, that’ll be two weeks. So that’s my two weeks’ notice.” And the next day, the owner of the company called, and I’d only met the owner once or twice, and it was just kind of shake his hand, hello, and that was it. And he said, “Well I understand you’re going to quit.” And I said, “Yes, sir, I’m planning on it.” And he said, “What would it take for you to stay?” And I said, “The only way that I’ll stay is if I’m the boss.” And he said, “Okay, I’ll see you in a couple of weeks.” So, I didn’t know what that meant. But a couple weeks later, he came over and he said, “Okay, Cody, you’re the boss.” And that was it. My salary didn’t change or anything, but life got a lot better, I guess. I started to learn a whole lot then.
Neil Dudley: That’s right. It certainly showed some faith. I think that people can just see that in you kind of even from a distance like, hey, this guy’s going to be trustworthy, hard working, and he’s smart enough to figure about anything out. And so it wasn’t that hard of a bet to make, but it’s still a bet.
Cody Lane: It was. And I don’t know if I knew anything, but I think that they knew that I knew people that were willing to help me. So, and that’s here come- This was when you came in. Well, I need somebody that’s a hard worker and willing to learn. And so, I called Neil.
Neil Dudley: Which just starts a whole nother chapter of the thing. And I want to get into some of that stuff, because I was there for all of that. Like I hadn’t really been a part of Peterson’s up until kind of this point, you’d got promoted. I think it’s kind of valuable for people to hear, like you got made president of this company at like 23 years old, 22, whatever you were, and that can be intimidating, that can be a bit scary and hard. But what I think you did was exactly what you just said, you started thinking well how can I get people that I can trust, that I know can help, will help me. And I mean, I didn’t know anything. Hell, at that point I had dropped out of graduate school, working on the ranch, rodeoing, just bachelor guy that needed about 50 bucks in his pocket once a month and could make it all go. So anyways, then I came over here and we started learning about the meat business, which I had no clue about. I mean, I was raising meat my whole life, but didn’t know anything about what happened to it after that really.
Cody Lane: Well, that’s another dynamic is as we learned and as we grew here and as Peterson’s grew, we people ask, well, how come you’re not more sales focused? Because, well, for everybody listening that don’t know, I mean, I helped with sales some, but Neil is in charge of the sales here. And I kind of take care of like how to focus on the- I’m more of an operations kind of guy. But I think either one of us could have done either job. People ask me sometimes, well, why, how come Neil’s sales and not you? And, well, Neil could do what I’m doing now I think, it’s no different. I just had a family, and he was single, and he was willing to travel for those early years. And so, he just drifted that direction just because it worked out best for all of us. And so, that’s how we ended up in our roles now, I guess.
Neil Dudley: We do have a lot of those interchangeable qualities. And even just this podcast thing, it’s probably not something you would just start just because man, I want to have, I want to do this and talk to people, and it’s a little bit more my personality. So, I think even though we gravitated a little to the thing that might fit us better, you know dang well, I can’t read a legal document or sit in front of a spreadsheet all day long and really give it the just attention it needs. So anyways, that’s how it all plays out. I think people as you’re working and building your companies or within some company, finding those people that compliment you is a real good thing to think about and how you put that together.
Cody Lane: Yeah. And that’s one of the lessons that I’ve learned too, and I’m sure you will agree – sometimes people aren’t best suited for what you think they’re best suited for. Sometimes, you get a great employee, and you want more out of them, and you want them to do something different because they were great at one thing, and it turns out maybe you should have left them where they were, or maybe you think you’re doing great at something, and they’d be even better at something else. So, that’s a fine line. And always a learning curve to place people in the right positions to get the most out of them. Both for themselves and for the company.
Neil Dudley: And we sit here talking a lot about people, I mean, ultimately you get on business and what are you start talking about a lot? People. And in a manufacturing scenario, people are expensive. I mean that labor adds cost to your product. And so, there’s all kinds of things to consider on that front. But I think it does parlay us to talking about your business philosophy a little bit and what you think about when you think about how you build a successful business or what you want Peterson’s to be into the future. Give the listeners a little bit of a just insight into your thought process there.
Cody Lane: Well, I don’t know if it’s an overall philosophy, but there’s a few things that I thought early on. And you tend to focus on, when things get tough, when the business gets rough, and we’ve been in very rough waters here at a time or two over the years.
Neil Dudley: Even today.
Cody Lane: Yeah. Well, you never know, but I mean, some financially tough years we’ve gone through, and your initial focus is to always cut costs, cut costs, cut costs, which is good, you should do that. But the other side of it is, alright, grow. I mean, start figuring out how to get more revenue in, and it gives you more options. Cashflow gives you more options to figure out how to cut costs and to grow. And so, one of the things that I had to learn early on, because I kept just trying to tighten things, and you spent too much time trying to tighten things and then that’s what we need an ideal guy like you, like okay, let’s grow things. So that’s a big principle that I had to learn early on. In general though, I haven’t really stopped and considered how big Peterson’s could really be. And I know you spend more time dreaming about that than I do probably. I think that sometimes we’re limited, or we limit our growth based on our experience, our past experience. And that keeps us, like sometimes keeps us down. So, I am trying to open up and say, okay, how big could this thing really get? So, I’m trying to learn some of that too. But in general, my philosophy is back to your people statement. I mean, this company is only going to be as good as the people that are working at it, and it’s only as good as the products that we’re producing. So, I tell everybody all the time, they get sick of hearing it, but our priorities are safety and quality and then efficiency. And so, I think that if we just turned everything loose and decided, okay, we’re going to cut every corner we can to make every dollar we can, I think we’ll start sacrificing that quality and then we’ll lose customers.
Neil Dudley: So, we stay real diligent on quality. That’s the thing we’ve hung our hat, hanged our hat. See, I still can’t speak sometimes. But we’ve hung our hat on that. I think it’s ingrained in our bones that we say we’re going to do something, we do it. We stand behind our products. We stand behind the company. And we talk about thinking big, and like if I could go back and give my 20-year-old self a piece of advice, it might be think bigger. Because just like day one or the first time I saw 20 million, not 20, but $2 million sales, I thought, oh my gosh, what if we get to $5? And dollars aren’t always the measuring stick. A lot of it is. I like to measure our success on the families that we support as a company and the good we can do in the community. So, it’s not always dollars that you should measure it by, but it is a pretty universal tool that almost all businesses measure themselves with. So of course, yeah, let’s go big, get some big dollars, always moving forward. I don’t know how many times you’ve told me, and we’ve at least agreed on the statement, if you ain’t growing, you’re dying. So be sure you’re growing not going backwards. Even just sitting still, you’re still dying a little. You need to be going forward.
Quick pause just to say I hope you know who Peterson Natural Farms is. If you don’t go check them out, www.petersonsfarms.com. If you have any questions, hit me up. I’ve been working with Peterson’s and my best friend since kindergarten and his wife and my wife and a whole bunch of other really great people for about 20 years now, building a brand and a bunch of products that we think really add value to people’s healthy lifestyles. And I like to say the Cowboy Perspective Podcast is a labor of love that I kind of do in my spare time. And I hope to just bring value, tell stories about people that affect me and give me the perspective I have. And I don’t want to steal that labor of love line from Mr. Douglas Burdett, the host of the Marketing Book Podcast without giving him some credit. There’s another something I’d tell you, if you are into building a brand or an entrepreneur of any sort or salesperson of any sort, go listen to the Marketing Book Podcast. He reviews great authors’ books about sales and marketing. So, Peterson Natural Farms, go check them out. Thank you for listening to the Cowboy Perspective. Here’s some more.
Alright. We paint this picture of, hey this is what we’ve done. So, I like to talk about failures and what we learn from those and different things. Have you got anything that stands out in your mind easily or quickly, man, this was the one we really messed up and could have done better?
Cody Lane: There’s a lot, but the big ones are, some of them, I think my biggest failures might’ve been on people management.
Neil Dudley: Oh, yeah? Well, you don’t just wake up day one knowing how to do that. You got to get in the fray and you got to fail. You got to mess up. You got to treat that one incorrectly or hold them to- It’s like we talk about this quite a bit. It was like, sometimes you have this tendency to expect everybody to be like you. And that’s not going to be true, nor do you want it to be true.
Cody Lane: And different things motivate different people. And you’ve got to talk to people in different ways. And those are the things that I learned, and that’s some of the failures early on, because you just learn how to deal with these different types of personalities. So those are some definite failures. We’ve had some product idea failures. But I tell everybody that we, that you and I are the luckiest guys that anybody’s ever going to meet because some of our dumb ideas actually teach us something else that helps us down the road. Like the Barney bacon, like the purple bacon. I mean, so things like that are big mess ups while it happened, but we gained some valuable knowledge, and it made our company better from it.
Neil Dudley: One I think about is when we first started hearing about high pressure processing, and it man, we’re on the cutting edge, [inaudible], which is kind of, they’re still high-pressure processing avocados into guacamole all over the place. But at that time, we’re like, man, we’re fixing to explode our careers and our bank accounts, and every other thing. We’ll go try to get invested in this company that’s doing high-pressure process and we’ll play around with the machines, some of the first ones came over here. And then the, well, what I attribute it to just ignorance and youth and immaturity, put a bunch of money in and never saw it again. So that can happen to you as you’re going along. And I mean, I still kind of encourage you to have that experience because it’s made me certainly a lot better, didn’t end up killing me or ending my career or any other of those kinds of things, but it sure taught me a valuable lesson.
Cody Lane: I would say that I ultimately might fail in business. I mean, I’m not going to fail in life. That’s going to be good. But ultimately might fail in business, but it is not going to be for lack of try. And I think you and I are alike in that aspect. We’re not afraid to try something new. So.
Neil Dudley: What is your, what is life’s success? What does that mean? Or you just said pretty confidently well, I’m not going to fail in life. So how do you know that?
Cody Lane: So, because I’m his, because I’m God’s. So that’s why I can’t fail in life.
Neil Dudley: Yeah, you talk about that, and I think we both play faith in our perspective on almost everything or try to. I mean, I know I don’t do it as well as I wish I would a lot, but we have some of that assurance in what God has done for us and what he can do for us. Then I think it’s worth exploring for anybody out there that had never heard that. I mean, we both I think would highly recommend you to explore what God is and what Jesus did.
Cody Lane: And would say, so we have all these goals in business, and we spend a lot of time focusing on them, but if I want to get down to my real goals in life, it’s to know him more. And the only way to know him more is to spend time with him. And that’s in word and in study and prayer.
Neil Dudley: Being around other people willing to challenge you- Yeah. Okay, cool. We got that. Oh, well, and we need to probably mention Chrissy and Stacey and the things that they do in this company. And we married up in both cases, but I can remember early on when I first came to work, you were having a family and Chrissy would be in doing invoices, bouncing a baby on her lap. I mean, how many people have done that? I think there’s probably a lot of people that have built companies and their wives have been right there by their side, doing that work and raising those kids. So, I think that’s a big shout out to Chrissy and the role she’s played.
Cody Lane: Chrissy loves to tell the story. So, Chrissy taught high school English for a year and a half, I think, in Comanche. And you were here; you were already here. Cause she came that summer.
Neil Dudley: That’s right. I think she came after me.
Cody Lane: She came that summer. You came in October ’02. She started I think in May of ’03. And she was just going to help us out for the summer, and then she’s been here ever since.
Neil Dudley: Yeah. My mom did the accounting for us back in those days. Cause we’re like-
Cody Lane: We needed help wherever we could get it.
Neil Dudley: We needed a person that cared about every penny because we needed every penny.
Cody Lane: So, then Chrissy loves to tell the story about when she was in the hospital having Ace, I was still calling stores and taking orders. Chrissy loves to tell that. And then she was, I don’t know, Ace wasn’t, I don’t know, he’s four or five days old and she was already back in the office with him here.
Neil Dudley: So, we were kind of talking about failures and then we got off on a lot of things. One of the things, I think a lot of times you just don’t know what you don’t know, or you don’t know what you don’t think about. And this is kind of highlighting Stacey and some of her perspective that came along, but healthypork.com never struck me as odd, it was just our website. And the day I met, or kind of got reconnected with her and told her this is how you emailed me, I think she immediately said in her mind she’s going to have to get that changed.
Cody Lane: Oh, well, I’m glad she did.
Neil Dudley: That’s right. And it’s just been this compilation of smart people teaching us something along the way and us working together. The production team back there, I mean, I got where I could speak Spanish pretty good for a little while when I was back in the throes of the production crew with those guys. They’d help me and I got to learn that. Now I look back and man, I appreciate that time learning something and getting challenged in that way. Alright, so then let’s talk a little bit, or give me, or give the listeners your perspective on how this industry has changed and how it’s in 20 years of dabbling in the niche of natural, better for you, what have you learned? What do you see coming?
Cody Lane: I’ll be honest when I started 20 years ago, whatever it was, I hadn’t really thought about it much, even working here a year or so, we still made both natural and traditional cured products, but I hadn’t really thought about it much. And it took a good maybe two years of starting getting, maybe I think it probably was like a letter or two from a consumer saying, hey, thanks, or my kid had ADHD or something, and we took all the nitrites out of their diet and now they’re off medication or something. It took something like that I think to kind of open my eyes and say, well, golly, if this helps people that are really looking for help, it’s got to be good for people that really don’t know they need it yet. And so that’s, I was one of those, I was one of those that think I’ll eat whatever, it doesn’t matter. But I think, okay, now then if I have a healthier option, why don’t I just go ahead and choose it. I think that’s what you’ve seen over the course of the last 20 years, people starting to realize, hey, I may not have a health issue that requires me to adhere to this particular diet or something, but they’re going to think, you know what, it’s a better option for me, why wouldn’t I do it? And so, I think you’re, and Whole Foods is a great customer of ours, and I think you can see the progression and the growth of Whole Foods, and that’s kind of how people- that’s kind of a measuring stick of people’s acceptance or of these better for you, clean label products. I think it’ll continue because now you’re seeing it in mainstream grocery and regular channels. And I think it will be a continued thing where everybody just becomes more aware, I’ve got this option, I’m going to take it. So how big, will it ever overtake the traditional products? I don’t think so, because it all comes down to the price probably. But I think it’s going to continue to grow as more people become aware of it, absolutely.
Neil Dudley: Yeah. Well that just makes me want to ask the question. So how about Beyond Meat and Impossible Burger and all that stuff? What’s your take on that?
Cody Lane: I mean, I think it’s got its position. I think it’s got its place in the market. I think you know, I don’t think that we should, even though, whatever my personal opinion of the product is, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is, will it sell? If it sells, that means that there’s a consumer out there wanting it.
Neil Dudley: That’s such a valuable comment you just made, which we have tried. I have to refocus on pretty often is do I love it doesn’t really matter. Am I providing something to consumers that they want and solves a problem for them? I think Beyond Meat and Impossible Burgers, I’ve tasted them, they’re not terrible. I mean, I’m not- I really think they’re doing a thing. We wanted to do it.
Cody Lane: We tried, we were just early.
Neil Dudley: That’s right. That’s another great thing. Like the amount of times we’ve been a year early with a product or an idea and it’s flopped, and then a year later it’s successful for somebody else, there’s a lot of those. So, dang, I wish we would’ve just thought a year later, okay, try it again. But we take a pretty hard try every time we try anything. And if it kind of doesn’t go, then that might be a way we can get better. It’s like, okay, cool, just because it didn’t hit today doesn’t mean it won’t be next year or five years from now.
Cody Lane: And your comment on just because I don’t like a product or something – just for the listeners out there, Neil’s not our official taste tester. He kind of just eats when he’s hungry and he likes it all.
Neil Dudley: Yeah, that’s really good. I mean, if you ever meet me and I blow my nose, it sounds like I’m starting a chainsaw or something. I mean, my whole system, my smell and taste and all that is not good. But the partner across the table there, he can with one nostril smell and tell you six different ingredients that are in the product. So, there’s another piece of the puzzle that helped us a lot I think. You had a great pallet, and you could say, man, that’s offensive, that’s not. I didn’t really care, I just trusted what you said and let’s do it. And we’ve had stuff, I mean, there’s items in the hopper today that are on our mind and on this company’s mind that you like, and I don’t think so much about. And then the same thing for me, I like this, I think this is a home run item and you’re like, ah, I can’t buy it yet. So those items are always one day we might come together, we might not, but when we find stuff that we both think, oh, this could be good, generally, we’ve got a pretty good bet to take it out there to the people.
Cody Lane: What is your take on the market, on this natural market we’re in?
Neil Dudley: I think it’s only going to get bigger and bigger and bigger. And the reason I say that is look at the GenZs and the kids all over TicTok. And just think about even your kids. I mean, that might be a bad example. My kids, well, will your kids eat beanie weenies? So, my kids have never seen a can of beanie weenies in their life. They don’t know what it is. So, there’s that just kind of progression of what’s even in their thought process of what they understand is food. So, I think this is part of that thinking big thing. Like I try not to limit it because I really have no control or I’m not in charge of what it can do or can’t do. To me, well, I mean, and I’m extreme like that in about every way. It’s like I thought bison was going to overtake red beef at one point, which was a real stupid perspective.
Cody Lane: Well, we were selling a whole lot at the time.
Neil Dudley: Yeah. And I’m willing to kind of jump out on that limb and say stuff, like that’s part of my personality maybe. I don’t mind just saying it. Like, I think at times you’re like, dude, why do you have to say everything that pops into your head? But sometimes that just willingness I think can spur us on to exploring something that’s worth it. So that’s what I mean, I don’t know if that even really answered the question. I think the market’s strong. I don’t think it’s going to regress unless we go through a major depression, which might happen. But unless we just run into real financial strife in the country, then this better for you, all-natural kind of niche of the market’s only going to get stronger and bigger. I mean, every player that we grew up against, every competitor, name of them – Applegate, Wellshire, Nyman, Coleman – they’ve all been gobbled up by big multinational company. So, you think those people aren’t paying attention to something? So that’s another good example of why I would probably say it’s just going to grow and grow and grow. And it’s not too late. Get in, if you’ve got a great idea, get in. We love the competition. Don’t necessarily every single second enjoy it, but the competition is what makes us great.
Cody Lane: It makes us better. Absolutely.
Neil Dudley: I mean, you’ve been there. I’m not the most gracious loser. I mean, you could probably tell a million stories about that, but one comes to mind – we’re playing on the freshmen football team, and I threw like six interceptions and cried the whole way home on the bus, wearing my helmet. Every friend in the whole bus is like Neil’s an idiot. And you’re kind of like the only one, like, come on, man, you’ll be alright, get over it. Do you remember that?
Cody Lane: Yeah, I remember that.
Neil Dudley: But I mean, I just, I think that was important to me, that stuck out, that showed me some real friendship. And we were already really close before that. But if you get an opportunity to try to build somebody up, I think that’s that Christian thing too. I want to lift people up. I tell people on the team all the time, we want to get others what they want. If you spend your life trying to help others get what they want, you’re going to have what you want. Anyways, that’s another tangent. Okay, we’ve got a couple more topics, things to talk about. So, tell everybody your favorite book. Do you have one? Do you read?
Cody Lane: Yes, I read. So, the Bible of course, number one. I’ve been really into CS Lewis. It’s all kind of Christian stuff, but it’s like a whole other level deep. So that’s definitely on the top of my list right now because that’s what I’ve been reading for the last- I think I read most of all his books this year.
Neil Dudley: Hey, there’s another accomplishment you have that I know I don’t. You’ve read the Bible cover to cover probably multiple times. See, I’ve never done, I’ve never actually done that. And I don’t even put it on the list as something that I want to do.
Cody Lane: Well, you don’t have to.
Neil Dudley: I don’t even feel bad, but I look at that and I think, man, I kind of wish I had that resolve or relationship with God even to do it and enjoy it. Anyways.
Cody Lane: The thing that’s fascinating about it is because every time you read it, even if you just do the New Testament over and over, every time you read it, you’ll get something new, you’ll see something different.
Neil Dudley: Is there not a good lesson for everything in there? In every story and every relationship. If the world would get over all the things that are going on, all this I hate that person, that person, I don’t like Democrats, Republicans, whatever, pick it, and just think, how can I love on people and how can I be-, what would that-, what would the world be like?
Cody Lane: And we’ve only got two Commandments really – love God and love your neighbor. If they did that, everything else is summed up in that. So, the other thing I’ll admit that I cheat, I got this Blinkist. Yeah, this app on my phone and it’s so instead of reading all the self-help books for real, I just read the ten minute, the Cliff Notes version of all those books.
Neil Dudley: Which you know this about me and probably everybody listening knows because I say it almost every podcast, but I never read. I mean, up until two years ago, I never read a book or cared to read a book. I hated it. It was just not something I did. And now I’m not really read them, but I’m listening to them and I’m listening to podcasts. And man, I love it. I enjoy it so much. And I want to get sad because dang, I gave away all that learning and education, like who knows where I could be today if I had tried to plug some of that into my brain earlier. Then you’re back to God’s plan, whatever, this is my journey and it’s been a good one. One of the questions I like to ask everybody that comes on is the value of a dollar, like in your mind, what value does a dollar have? Not actual exchangeable value, but what other value might you find or does it have in your life?
Cody Lane: Well, it’s one of those things, it’s a tough one because it’s, I mean, we all got to have it. And we all think we need more of it. And there’s a point where you don’t want to let money be the driving focus of your life, but it does provide certain levels of security. So, I don’t know, that’s a tough one. I don’t-
Neil Dudley: This may be more for me than anybody, I mean, to me, growing up my granddad had a real, a dollar was like very important. When you have a dollar, don’t go buy ice cream with it; figure out how to turn it to another dollar, like don’t waste it, it doesn’t come easy. So that was my initial introduction into it. Then as I go along in my career and business, I’m kind of thinking of it as a lot more of a, it’s just this thing floating out there that’s leverage. I mean, just have it as kind of, it’s leveraged to make a move with or use. It’s not a life defining thing. And then, I interviewed Billy Albin and I asked him what he thought the value of a dollar was. He said not much to me; I just want to do what I want to do; that’s all I really- so a dollar doesn’t matter. Past needing food and those kinds of things. But I like, I mean, I like dollars. I like kind of just like that competitive side of me, I want to be able to measure this company up against the competition on the dollars front and say, yeah, hey, well, we ain’t beating everybody, but we ain’t behind everybody either.
Cody Lane: Well, I don’t know, the people that, you can tell, identify real quick, the people that are just in it for the money. I mean, whether we’re talking business or personal or whatever, they’re just in it for the money. And I mean, those are the people that I don’t know, I was going to say, I start to feel sorry for them. But I don’t really. I don’t know. I think it’s just, maybe they haven’t got the right idea of what that value of that money is. I think that, because I think that you take rich people, you take a Donald Trump, he’s going to chase money just, and then you take somebody that’s really poor and all they think about is money, too. So, I mean, it’s your mentality and money doesn’t depend on whether you have it or not because you can still have the wrong outlook on it, whether you have it or not.
Neil Dudley: Yeah. Money will never define your happiness. I’ve heard you say, and I use it on my kids pretty often, you choose your happiness. Like when you wake up each morning, you get to choose am I going to be happy today or am I going to let every little thing in life that could tear me down or I could be whining about, let it- I mean, so I like to, I really love trying to take that approach to life as like, hey, I’m going to choose to be happy. And I know I’m not guaranteed it. It’s something I have to earn for myself and give myself. And you can see it in professional athletes or just think of anybody that kind of thought the answer to everything in their life was going to be in big money and they get it, and then they’re unfulfilled. You just have to build your fulfillment on something other than money. And then if you have a bunch of money, good, great, enjoy it. You’re not going to take it with you. I wanted to spend just a little time because I hope, or I imagine I got this – I don’t know if I even hope is right word – but I just think there are going to be some people that work inside Peterson’s and with us and help us be who we are, I just want to say thanks to them. If you’ve ever been on the Peterson’s team, if you’re on the Peterson’s team today, these two guys right here attribute all the success to you guys and helping us along the way.
Cody Lane: That’s absolutely right. And even current employees that are awesome and working hard and even employees that have already gone or quit, or we let go, we learned from all of them. They helped us learn and they helped us grow. So, yes, absolutely. Thank you.
Neil Dudley: Yeah, we hadn’t done it all perfect, and there’s been mistakes in a million ways. And that’s the, what I kind of makes me sad sometimes it’s just the feelings that go into it. I’m real feelings – how many times have you said, look, you can type the email, just don’t send it. Let me look at it.
Cody Lane: Yeah. That’s a rule with Peterson’s. No emotion in written format. If you want to call and gripe out somebody, you can do that verbally, but you can’t type them an email that does that.
Neil Dudley: And that’s a really good lesson for everybody. And by the time you get around to it, what good does griping somebody out ever do? None. I can’t think of one time it’s ever been a great result.
Cody Lane: Well, most of the time, people already know that they messed up.
Neil Dudley: Yeah, they’re already feeling bad about it, or they’re just not a good fit for the company and they need to go do something that they would be a better fit for. Anyway, so all you Peterson’s team members, ex-team members, I’m thinking of a million of you right now, all the different maintenance guys we’ve had over the years and how they helped us, just so many different people. Thank you. We appreciate you so much. I’m glad I got Cody in here to talk a little bit about it. We could probably go on for another hour. I’m already thinking of a couple other stories I’d like to tell, but I do know he’s got some other things to do in life. So, thanks for coming in here and spending this time and hiring me.
Cody Lane: Well, thanks for being here. Alright. Be nice, have fun.
Neil Dudley: Well, I just got to say, I mean, I really enjoy that. I can’t necessarily come up with the exact words to put in this outro for this episode. But I do know I really enjoyed it. I hope you guys heard something, found some nugget of information in there that you could take into your mind and put under your hat or put into your life and your perspective about things, anything really. And I want to ask you, just humbly say, if you did like of the podcast, share it, tell a friend about it. If you didn’t, share that information with me. I’d love to hear things that I could do better, make it more valuable. I know if you’re to this point of the podcast, you’ve spent quite a bit of your time giving me your attention. I want to say thank you for that. And until the next episode airs, God bless you. And we’ll see you around the bend.
The Cowboy Perspective is produced by Neil Dudley and Straight Up Podcasts. Graphics are done by Root & Roam Creative Studio. And the music is by Byron Hill Music.