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.
Hey everybody out there in TCP land, welcome to the show. I’m glad you’re here. This episode is going to be a good one. If you’re interested at all in entrepreneurship, a Christian businessman’s mindset, and well, just a really cool guy, his name is Bob Howard. Hey Bob, if you’re listening back to this, I want to say first thing, thank you so much for coming and lending your insights to the audience, and audience, stay tuned through the whole thing because the real good gravy is towards end when we start making fun of ourselves, because we figured nobody else is listening to a two-hour podcast. Anyways, thanks for listening. Here we go.
All right, let’s do this thing. Hey, everybody, the Cowboy Perspective is live on location. Actually, you know what? This podcast is never live. It’s always prerecorded. But I’m actually in Waco, Texas, visiting with a really interesting guy. I’m excited for everybody to hear about his story, who he is, and I’m going to learn a lot because I’ve only ever had lunch with him one time. So, this is going to be exciting for me. It’s going to be informative. I know this much, Mr. Bob Howard has had an interesting career and we’re going to dive into that here on the Cowboy Perspective. And Bob, if you don’t mind, just let the TCP Nation know who you are, where you came from, and let’s talk about your story and we’ll get into all those questions. Just in full disclosure, everybody, Bob’s the only one that brought the questions. So, if we get off track here somewhere, I’m going to say Bob, look on that piece of paper and pick a question you want to talk about. All right, sorry. Go ahead and tell us about yourself.
Bob Howard: Well, that’s funny. Really, thanks for having me on. When we met, got to speak together for the first time after being sort in a business relationship for a while, it was a great lunch and a good experience. I grew up in Stephenville, Texas.
Neil Dudley: Jackets, yellow jackets. Hi, everybody out there.
Bob Howard: Yeah, yellow jackets all the way.
Neil Dudley: Maybe I should say Texans too. Tarleton, I think, is starting to take a little bigger chunk of that attention around there.
Bob Howard: Well, they are. Tarleton’s turned up their game for sure. And long story short, met my wife there and got into the corporate world, moved up and up and up, and have been mayor and elder and business owner and multiple business owner.
Neil Dudley: Did you say mayor?
Bob Howard: Been a mayor, too, yeah. Business owner, and I’ve recently sold a business. Another reason you and I are going to talk today, which is going to be a great conversation. And that’s the 50,000-foot view of where we are. A buddy of mine called me a serial entrepreneur. There’s some truth in that. But at the end of the day, I started out and I ended up as a bug guy.
Neil Dudley: Yeah. Well, so maybe let’s plug your most recent business that has got so much stuff I want to talk about within 855Bugs and your exit and all those things and how hard that is. And I’m just looking at the white board over there and all the things that are marked off and, oh, when you sell a business, the pain of it. I kind of think there’s a lot of little ticky-tacky details that everybody doesn’t necessarily think about until the deal’s done. Did you think about all those?
Bob Howard: I really did. So, part of my background back in the day is I’d worked myself up in the pest control industry for a national company, and that company was Terminix. And so, I worked my way up from a termite helper, answering a $7.50 an hour ad, up until I was running 55 employees and flying to Memphis to meet with people in the penthouse suite. And so through that experience, at the end of that, I did acquisitions for Terminix. And so I knew what an acquisition looked like in our industry, I’ve since learned what it looks like in a number of industries in different ways. But in saying that, to go back to your point, we engineered it, and I primarily engineered it, for the results that it’s given. So, I exited after 20 years, exited-
Neil Dudley: If I ever end up selling a business, I’m calling you because I know I haven’t done it enough – I’ve never done it, actually – to understand just stuff like who owns the iPads after this? Who owns- just all the different things.
Bob Howard: And I would say I consult a couple of small business guys, and you said it earlier, I brought in the questions today, and that’s the key to it. And I have a couple of people who are my right hands that really help take care of the details while I can go focus on where we’re going and what we’re doing. So, it’s true blessing, true blessing. I mean, that’s God, to God give the glory. Like I would not be here without the grace of God. And there is no question about that.
Neil Dudley: Oh, you know what? And that is so beautiful. And I thought in honor of both of our faith, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to say a little prayer to begin this podcast off so that God leads us. Do you mind if I do that?
Bob Howard: I would love that. Thank you.
Neil Dudley: That’s good. Because I think everybody listening knows about my faith and how I feel about it. And I don’t pray before every podcast, but this one makes a lot of sense that we might do that. So, everybody, if you don’t mind just join us wherever you are, wherever you’re listening, whatever you’re doing, and let’s go to the heavenly father and just ask him to be a part of this podcast. Dear Lord, I just come to you and in humble, asking for your favor in the most humble way to just be a part of this conversation that Bob and I have, be a part of this Cowboy Perspective podcast, so that your will be done in this world we live in today. There’s just a lot of things I totally don’t understand and scare me, but every time I get that way, I just look to you and try to find your direction in life. I hope everybody that may ever hear this can find you again, get closer to you, or if they’ve never met you, come to find you for the first time, just be with us. In Jesus name. Amen.
Bob Howard: Amen. That’s good stuff. Thank you.
Neil Dudley: Oh yeah. That’s I think maybe let’s even explore that a little bit. Where does your Christianity come from? How does it play? You were just kind of giving the glory to God. Why would you do that?
Bob Howard: A great way to phrase it. And I’m going to slide the questions over to you. So, you-
Neil Dudley: Get back on the questions.
Bob Howard: Yeah, we’re good.
Neil Dudley: I’m terrible about staying on the script.
Bob Howard: Well, you’ll find me to be open and transparent too. And sometimes my vision may be a little skewed, but this is the way my life is lived out and seen. And quite frankly, I grew up in a very, I’m not going to say a strict Christian environment, but a strict biblical environment. And so, the law, God’s law is ingrained in me in a lot of ways. It took finding really the whole package, finding Jesus Christ in a personal sense in my mid-thirties. And then, my whole world shifted upside down and everything I started to do shifted upside down. And then it became about a conversation with me and God at times, going, hey, everyone’s telling me I shouldn’t do that. And me being right with God saying, no, actually you need to go with your gut on this one and do that. And God’s blessed some of those things that have turned out spades and turned out awesome. And then there’s been two or three that I should’ve listened to God a little bit better, but it’s about the relationship with him.
Neil Dudley: Yes, absolutely. And learning along the way. I mean, I know this, I have the- I kind of start talking for other people and I shouldn’t do that. And I don’t- I just have to catch myself because I’m about to say everybody – I could say this, it helps me. When I don’t have somebody, I feel like I can go to, there’s always God, the greater just thing I know and feel in my life that I can lean on for guidance. So, man, it has been really valuable to me, and I think that’s right. Give the glory where it’s due, and that doesn’t hurt. It just feels perfectly fine.
Bob Howard: And you say- you’re absolutely correct. It feels perfectly fine. And then, but when you really look into scripture and then you look at the founding of this country, what is the first thing they built? They built churches. Why’d you build churches back then? The churches did what? They taught you how to be with God, but what else did they teach you? They taught you also, the people in those churches taught you how to grow your crops. They taught you how to start business. They taught you how to educate people.
Neil Dudley: That’s where the community started.
Bob Howard: That’s communities where the community started. And so, businessman, I’ve been blessed with a lot of smart men and women, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying just men, but in the circles I’ve been in leadership at the church and other places, who just wanted to give, like you give, like I give. What a blessing, God puts those people out there.
Neil Dudley: Absolutely. Last thing to touch on, on this, and then we’ll get to some of the questions because there’s- anyways, there’s just going to be no way, great information ain’t here for anybody listening to have. But I did a podcast not long ago with an elder in our church, a deacon, just a beautiful man. He was talking about his salvation and how he had just kind of floated to the front of the church and was saved. And then he got home the next day and was wondering, man, is that real? Did I dream what just happened? What’s that all about? He just didn’t know. Well, he’s out in the pasture chasing a horse and this horse wouldn’t typically let him catch him good. And typically, he’d be beating him and yelling at him and screaming at him. And the second he picked his reins up to do it that time, he thought, oh, God’s watching. I don’t want to act like that. So now all times prior to that, if mom and dad didn’t know it, whatever I was doing was going to be okay, as long as- it didn’t matter, if they couldn’t see me, I could do whatever I wanted to. Now I can’t go anywhere God doesn’t see me. So, I got to be taking care of my life all the time. I just thought that was one of the greatest illustrations of what it is.
Bob Howard: Yeah, that is excellent.
Neil Dudley: Yeah. Okay. What’s a question? Name one of the questions in there that you wanted to or that I put out as a conversation starter and let’s chase it.
Bob Howard: Let’s chase it. Well, to me, a good one you had on here really is leadership, what is it? What is leadership? And I defined it in a number of ways here. I just- it’s sacrifice. Leadership is time, it’s money. Leadership is answering the call. Leadership is being willing to be and step out of your comfort zone, to be insecure or fearful if those are things. It’s being able to, when God who’s always paying for what he orders and through us, when he’s putting you through those moments, it’s staying true to that. That’s leadership. But I would say the biggest one to me is answering the call. And I say that not because, it’s not for the leaders listening to your podcast, that’s for the people who do not consider themselves leaders right now as I did going- that’s all I did, Neil, through this whole thing, God, I answered the call. And so, answer the call and see where God will take you.
Neil Dudley: Do you think there’s a person that is unqualified to be a leader?
Bob Howard: Philosophically, you would say yes. I think practically, in reality, no. And the reason I say that is you only got to lead one person. If every Christian led one more person, where would we be?
Neil Dudley: Absolutely. I love this because I don’t necessarily agree with that. I think every person can be a leader, even if it’s of themselves. You could put the work, should put the work into the idea that you can be and will be. I think our confidence, our self-esteem in this society is so broken on so many fronts and so many people that they think they’re not leading. Actually, when you think you aren’t leading, you’re still leading because somebody is watching you. And I don’t know anybody that’s in a vacuum.
Bob Howard: Neil, I was elected to city council. I got two phone calls to step onto the Woodway city council. And one came from far right. And one came up from far left and both called me up and said, hey, you there’s an opening, you ought to throw your name in the hat. And I threw my name in the hat at four o’clock, the expiration date. Nobody else had. Seven years later, I’m elected mayor.
Neil Dudley: And then that’s of Woodway?
Bob Howard: That’s of Woodway.
Neil Dudley: See that’s more than getting elected mayor in Comanche. I don’t know if it’s more, but it certainly feels like more.
Bob Howard: Yeah. Well, I stepped up. We had an event right after I found- right after I was nominated. I didn’t go looking for the votes. I was nominated and elected mayor. Right after that, I’m standing on the front of the stage of our annual event, festival, the Woodway festival, and I’m asking where the interim city manager is, and when he’s nowhere to be found, I’m asking who’s getting up on stage and making this announcement. And at that moment, I realized I was mayor, and I was the leader. So that’s the situation I laugh at all the time. God said, hey, you’re going to do that role, and you’re going to do it well, it’s a wakeup call. You’ve got listeners right now who they’ve been hearing the call, Neil. They’ve been hearing it for a month, a year, five years, answer it.
Neil Dudley: Absolutely. And don’t feel bad that you haven’t answered it yet. I get called to do things and I don’t do it. It sometimes takes God working on you while or even just some other thing in life. I think about this podcast, there might just be one person that ever listens to it, and that’s the one person that needed to, to hear that one statement we just made. It’s just, I can’t control what happens. I can only be the best version of me. And then me and my dad were just talking about this. We’re a speck of sand and a speck of significance in the big picture of all things. I mean, just ultimately in what has happened before us, what’s going to happen after us, the amount of people, the amount of things that God’s in control of, but he bothers spending that time on us. And that makes me feel pretty special.
Bob Howard: Amen. That’s good stuff.
Neil Dudley: Okay. Leadership, back to it because- so how did you become a leader or are you good at it? Do you think of yourself as a good leader? I guess that’s my question. So, are you a good leader? And if so, why or why not?
Bob Howard: I think I’m a good leader. And what makes me a good leader is I focus on unity. When I talk about a business playbook or a life playbook, then the playbook of scripture and Paul [Stringer 16:11] speaks of unity of his folks, of his people, it makes sense from a practical perspective in which the lead out on the organization, which you’re on it. Now, what does that mean, unity? It means you have honest conversations, you have difficult conversations. You have a positive outlook and positive vibe, but you’re not afraid to grab a two by four or grab a leash, like either one of those things to get where it needs to happen. But I think that God said, hey, plan and work hard and he’ll determine the steps. And I mean, man plans, God determines the steps. And so, am I a good leader? Yeah. Would I have said that 10 years ago? I would’ve told you 10 years ago I wasn’t even a leader. I mean, I had to go through that learning process and that’s the other thing I’d say for your audience members who are listening to this, like don’t be afraid of the inexpensive online profile to kind of see what energizes you, what sort of activities get you going, and then how does that align with your leadership?
Neil Dudley: Well, we got connected through Root & Roam, which is this agency my wife started and works with you, and everybody that works there does one of those personality tests because it gives everybody else some insight into what turns their clock. And they’re not perfect, but they’re a real good- like I’m an entertainer personality type. Yeah, okay, that fits me pretty good. I do. I enjoy people. I enjoy seeing a smile. I enjoy doing what it takes to get a smile or even just having the conversation. And then there’s people that just would never want to be on the camera or on the mic but have so much to offer in other ways. So, it’s really fun to have all that kind of outlined throughout the team and rings pretty darn true.
Bob Howard: And what’s really great, what’s discoverable to me, and you’ll appreciate this, when I was an elder or pastor, the lead pastor came in and said, hey, we’re going to do a prophet, priest, and king. So, we’re going to put each of us in the top three categories, you’re a prophet, you’re a priest, you’re a king. And on this piece of paper – I can get you a copy of it, you’ll find it fascinating – on this piece of paper basically was the characteristics and then the nature where you’re prone to sin. And I considered myself a prophet and maybe a priest, and the elders across the board came back in tied king, priest. And so, it was eye opening to me. It was when I went God’s looking at me to be a leader. Like I can sit here and want to deny that all day long, but the God’s saying, hey, go lead out, continue to lead out. Now, I’ve been leading out in the company for 20 years. And so, I’ve never viewed myself as a leader to come full circle.
Neil Dudley: That’s just a hard question to ask. Like you’ve got to have some confidence, some willingness to just have somebody say are you a leader? And then be able to say, yeah, I’m pretty good one. That takes- you need to live through the experience of that.
Bob Howard: Yeah, that doesn’t mean I want to go lead anything else. Let’s be clear with that too. I’m in a pretty good spot.
Neil Dudley: Yeah. Now then, and I think just from an outsider’s perspective, I look at your company, I think I see a family there. Am I reading that right? Or is that off base?
Bob Howard: No, I think- Yes, you’re reading that right. It’s a family atmosphere. Now family atmosphere is like of a lot of other cliches. How do you define it? What does it look like? I think your leadership, it’s flipped upside down. The people are not here to serve the leadership, the people with the titles. The titles, and we flipped it upside down, is to serve and support the breadwinners. And then the human side of that. And that’s mine and mine- If you’re in my leadership team, that’s the expectation. If your people have something going on in their lives, we’re going to be in their lives for them as much as they want us to. And if they don’t want us to, that’s fine, nothing wrong with that. But we’re going to be there to support and help as much as we can, as much as they want us to. And it’s worked out. We’ve brought in people, moved in from California, that fit our culture, fit our team, fit our sort of mindset. But those things are a challenge as companies grow, and every industry is different.
Neil Dudley: Well, let’s explore that a little bit. As your company grows, as you get bigger, as you get pulled a few different directions, you’re mayor, you’re the elder at the church, you’ve just got a lot of things on your plate, how do you manage to keep that connection? Because your time starts to just be spread really thin. And a lot of, I would say, employees or partners in a business, just team members in a business, your time is kind of the thing that proves to them you care. So, what do you do outside of that? Or am I missing that point?
Bob Howard: Everything I do is probably overly rigid in some fashion. So I have rules of engagement. And the rules of engagement are this: If you need an answer on something and it’s not time sensitive, email it to me. If you need an answer today, you text me. If something’s on fire, you call me.
Neil Dudley: I’ve never heard it put that way. That’s pretty cool.
Bob Howard: And quite frankly, new people coming on board that are in relationship with me understand sometimes my texts are thumbs up. Sometimes they’re a dissertation, rarely they’re a dissertation because I don’t like to text, but they’re pretty short and to the point, my emails are kind of the same. Because I believe in function over form. I don’t need it to look pretty or smell nice, I need it to work. And that helps me be free in my opinion. And the past now it’s coming back around now, again, the word spare time now that I’ve unloaded Bugs. But in saying that- unloaded wasn’t a good word to put on that- make sure that goes away, I’m going to back up on that. I put the principles of that in place and just I respect other people through those same sort of avenues. And then it frees up my time to help the folks who need it, to help the folks who need some advice. And it’s just who I am. I’m not saying everybody needs to lead their leadership life. This God put me in this little world and said this is what you’re going to do. And sometimes they’re going to call you crazy.
Neil Dudley: Well, would you agree with this statement: it is lonely at the top?
Bob Howard: I would.
Neil Dudley: Yeah. I think it’s inevitable. There’s people that I work with at Root & Roam, at Pederson’s, and the other things that I’m involved in will listen to this, and I don’t know if they understand that, but when it comes down to the hard conversations or the hours spent thinking about how am I going to survive this pandemic or whatever it might be, that’s on me. It’s on a small group of people to kind of come to work every day and still be smiling and still be popping around like, hey, we got this, but at the end of the day, you don’t know what the heck you’re going to do. I mean, it’s like, man, I don’t have a playbook for this. We’re having to figure it out on the fly. I think everybody that says, ooh, I want that spot, I just encourage you get in the fire a little while before you just think you’re ready for it. I’m not even ready for it all the time.
Bob Howard: I think that the way I’ve offset the squeeze, and that’s a big squeeze, and that is the major decisions that have to be made, good, bad, or indifferent, the parties that are affected, the major decisions, you are the only one that can own them. And I’ve surrounded myself with about half a dozen people, not even that are close to me day to day, but folks in which I might interact with once every three months, six months, or a year that over time and very smart people and had the ability to say, hey, here’s the situation I’m in, tell me what you would do. And that makes a big difference. And I believe God puts those folks in our lives for a reason to help us. At the end of the day, the world is broken, and no matter our relationship with God, it’s still ugly out there.
Neil Dudley: That’s right. I mean, it paints this, it has been said on the podcast before, network is just a huge key to success and business. Knowing those people that will help you, can help you, and then being of assistance to somebody else. It’s just like, it’s the pay it forward idea.
Bob Howard: It’s really stronger now than ever, Neil. And if you think about it, and I don’t know if you guys have traveled at all recently or gone anywhere, but we’re seeing a big gap in customer service. We’re seeing, quite frankly, a big gap in people that give a darn and don’t give a darn. And the future for those to take that choose to stay positive and leaders who choose to stay positive through some trying times. Hey, it doesn’t mean put your head in the sand and don’t pay attention to what’s going on either.
Neil Dudley: Absolutely. It’s funny you bring that up because we went to the beach, Destin, Florida, rented a car. And you get off the plane, the rental car line is two hours long, one lady up there taking care of everybody. And everybody’s, it’s just like you feel the angst and stress building with everybody as time just gets longer. Everybody’s ready to get to the beach or get to where they’re going. And now it’s just taking forever. Plus the rates are already high. Well, why am I paying these big rates for these rental cars while I stand here in line for hours before I can even get it. And you get up there, guess what? She is a human with problems of her own, already been there for 12 hours. Nobody else will work so she gets to do it all and she’s getting ready to quit. We’re going to look up and a lot of businesses won’t have employees because nobody else is working. And the people that- where was her boss? He should be there working too. Where was his boss? Like where’s the CEO of Avis, Budget? Hey guys, are you all listening? You could be out there working beside your people because they don’t feel it.
Bob Howard: I was at a- Lisa and I, my wife, were at a national chain eating dinner – I won’t say who it was –the other night sitting down, and the thing was so understaffed, Neil. And you could tell over in the corner was a table of six executives from that restaurant. And I know they’re their executives, I saw their name tags in front of the restaurant, and we couldn’t get refills on water to save our lives. And I told Lisa, we talked about this very thing. And I told her, I said some people still don’t get it. Some people still don’t like, just don’t get it. There’s six of them in ties sitting there too good to go each of these things one at a time right now needs my help. And you know what, I’m here, I’m going to take off my jacket and my tie, and I’m going to get this place got up. You know what, they’re too good for that. Right? I mean, come on. It’s not bad enough yet.
Neil Dudley: I could be held to that same standard. If you were to go to Pederson’s right now, our packaging line is short of people because somebody is sick or whatever. I’m not running back there to jump on the line first thing. I think it’s a deeper conversation because I’m accountable to that too. And do I do it as much as I could or should? No, but I’m never not doing anything.
Bob Howard: Well, let me ask you, this is your customer service suffering?
Neil Dudley: I don’t know. I don’t know if I ask them-
Bob Howard: Well then shame on you. I think I see what you’re saying. It is a matter of bigger and deeper priorities that only appearance look. And so, I agree with you, you jumping back on the line is a debatable thing. Those guys getting from the table is a debatable thing.
Neil Dudley: But it would have sure made them look real good if they had.
Bob Howard: It would have. But if you think about what’s the model – is the model your mom and pops restaurant. Or is the model the corporate restaurant? To me, the winner, good, bad, or indifferent, is mom and pop, get up and help them out. It may not be affecting your business, but in the restaurant industry and where you’re struggling. Anyway, yeah, probably too judgmental on me. I’m saying it.
Neil Dudley: Sure. But I didn’t really mean it that way. I actually felt convicted that I probably look like those guys sometimes. And I want to take that in and own it and say, you know what? People are looking at me and thinking that about me some. So, I kind of appreciate you saying it. And I’m trying to be honest to the listeners. Sometimes people that do this, even me, might get thought of as special or better or something. I just want everybody to know I’m no special or better than anybody. This is just the thing I like and want to do. And I fail all the time, and I promise there’s people at Pederson’s that look at me and think, well, that guy, he’s just over there not doing anything, and we need help. So, I kind of took that as I was just feeling convicted like, oh, dang man, I bet I look like that sometimes. I want to try to avoid that in the future. That’s why I was pulling on that string.
Bob Howard: A fat cat’s a fat cat any way you slice it. I don’t think your people look at you that way because, you know what, I can tell by talking to you, you’ve got a caring spirit.
Neil Dudley: Well, that’s true now.
Bob Howard: And they see that, they trust that you’re looking after the organization, you’re doing everything you can that you can do also. And so that’s- I love the- I do it. I love those moments when we reanalyze what we’re thinking.
Neil Dudley: I think that’s the greatest thing I get from this podcast is that, a guy I really look up to and think knows a lot and is willing to put it out there, say something and make me- That just made me better. Look people, when you feel a little embarrassed over that, oh, that’s a chance to make yourself better. Grab it. Don’t be oop- Don’t hide it, nobody needs to know that I’m actually not good. Yeah. Yeah. Grab it and say, oh yeah, I’m not good sometimes, I can get better.
Bob Howard: Amen, man, we can get better. And that’s just, yeah. Well, I think one of your questions here is what is an example of a failure that you feel you learned the most from? To speak to your story then, this question made me think about the most, because I would love the Bob Howard of the day leader to be able to go back and be on that elder board again. Or I’d love the Bob Howard of the day to be able to go back. But at the end of the day, it made me think and chew through and realize that God pays for what he orders. And it’s an exciting way to look at your life backwards and sort of forgive yourself too of those embarrassing moments. God’s already forgiven the times you’ve- It’s not anything worse than anything else.
Neil Dudley: Nobody else really remembers it either. You’re the only one that wants to wallow in that embarrassment.
Bob Howard: Yeah. So, then I looked at that question practically and said really it’s bad partnerships. I’ve had a lot of partners over the years. None of them have gotten to the point of the legal or anything like that ever. Most of these guys gentleman’s agreements are gentleman’s agreements. But philosophically, some of them and the way in which they conducted business was not to just my standard. And so, a good friend of mine gave me advice a few years ago; he said pick your business partners like you would your spouse. Both sides need to be in it for the long haul and for all the reasons.
Neil Dudley: Absolutely. I work with my best friend since kindergarten and it’s such a great partnership and it was just a lucky partnership really. He was made president of the company, hired me, and we’ve kind of just been- His wife’s involved, my wife’s involved. Now, this is at Pederson’s. So that has just been a fun partnership because the truth is neither one of us can BS the other one. I mean, we know each other too well. Where when you form partnerships that don’t have that long of a relationship, I can see how what you’re talking about can happen because in just even two, three years of knowing somebody, you haven’t been through enough stuff to know what’s going to happen when the rubber meets the road.
Bob Howard: Yeah, no, that’s right. So now I just have it spelled out very well and we need goalposts and boundaries and a written agreement and a gentleman’s agreement because at the end of the day, there’s I found- and understand, I’ve been a lot of things, including the mayor of a city. Well, a lot of written agreements don’t matter. A lot of handshakes don’t matter unless the person- I mean-
Neil Dudley: Absolutely, who’s got the best lawyer, that’s what it comes down to.
Bob Howard: Yes, that’s right. Or who can afford the most. So, amen. But anyway, go ahead.
Neil Dudley: I sit on the school board, I’m curious, bureaucracy is not a thing I thrive in. Let’s put it that way. How did that mayor thing end up working for you?
Bob Howard: It worked out great because what got me there is who I was when I was mayor, and I am who I am. I don’t hide my emotions very well. I’ll tell you what I think at times, and it can be unsettling to people, I think. I don’t mean it to be internally, I really don’t. I’ve gotten better at that; I’ve gotten better at talking softer.
Neil Dudley: Do you think it’s volume that unsettles people or the actual content?
Bob Howard: I think content.
Neil Dudley: Okay, see, I think it’s volume. I think you can say even hard stuff, but if you have the wrong volume on it, and it could just be a personality thing, but I think what you’re saying be totally it. But I think to get anywhere, that’s the only way. Everybody has to say what they mean when they mean it as fast as they can, then we can all operate.
Bob Howard: And it might be that way out Comanche, Texas, where I grew up. But it’s not that way around Waco, Texas.
Neil Dudley: See, I think that’s what I mean about bureaucracy. Like I can’t function that way.
Bob Howard: It all comes down to power and it all comes down to pride for people. And those are the things that keep- you talked about what’s the bureaucracy like? I was able to make my time, I was able to make everybody happy, everybody sad, everybody unsettled about something. Everybody questioned something. And I think that’s the value of my leadership as mayor. And so, there weren’t politics. We didn’t discuss political things that you’d read- see on Fox News or CNN or someplace, it was about the city of Woodway and what’s best for the city of Woodway. And everybody there had a vested interest because they lived in city of Woodway, and they love Woodway. And it was a great time. But I had to grow through it.
Neil Dudley: Well, that’s good for me to hear too, like this is going to end up being a therapy session for me, what it turns out to be, because I would be very, against is probably the wrong word, I want to just say bearish or just kind of hesitant to ever take a political position in county government just from my experience on the school board and the way I like to operate. Like if whatever rules are surrounding us don’t make sense and don’t allow us to get better, forget the rules. Let’s do it a smart way that’s not going to hurt somebody, but like when you start getting into government funded kind of things, somebody’s laying out a bunch of rules and they don’t make sense in our context, in our particular district, you can’t have any innovation. It’s just like, nope, can’t do that. And that just drives me nuts.
Bob Howard: I’m going to put this one in a package for you. Maybe it’ll help you. There’s rules driven and principal driven. And what you’re talking about, even in the- let’s take the context of the school board or context of the city, with all the state and the government regulations, at the end of the day, here’s the questions I ask. Did it make sense or not make sense? Is it a rule, is it a goofy rule? Can we reinterpret the rule? Number one. Can we say we reinterpreted the rule, and this is how we came and reinterpreted that, because at the end of the day, there’s nothing behind a governing authority that has any sort of penalty over the rule. Those kinds of things will drive the attorneys in the room crazy. But at the end of the day, we don’t hire attorneys to tell us what to do. We tell attorneys what to do. They need to go get it done. To me, it’s principle driven versus rules driven. And I’m principal driven, your principal driven too. Hey, the rule may not say to speed. Well, if mom is fixing to have the baby in the backseat, we’re going to speed.
Neil Dudley: Absolutely. The rule says these people can’t make more than these people. Well, these people are the ones doing all the work, pay them- that’s just the stuff that drives me bonkers. So, I’ve been so lucky to kind of grow up in a career where I had those freedoms. And I made mistakes too within all of that, and oh, cool, yeah, actually that was terrible. But now I know a little more for the next time. You got a couple of books there. What’d you bring the books for?
Bob Howard: Well, you asked what the favorite book or podcast was, and this one is one that’s special to me. It was given to me by some guys back in my early days when I was with Terminix. It’s called The Go-Getter, Peter Kyne, I guess is how you say his name, last name. Anyway, it’s a good motivational book. It’s skinny and it’s got big print. So, it’s a quick read, and that’s the way I like them.
Neil Dudley: I’m going to tell Johnny, the guy that helps me put this together, be sure and link that in the show notes. Oh yeah, and hi everybody. Good job, Bob.
Bob Howard: Did you like that? I just realized.
Neil Dudley: Yeah, me too. Hi, everybody out on YouTube watching.
Bob Howard: We’re still out here going live. So, the other one is dear to me and I’m giving this one to you. And so, my uncle was head of the Southern Baptist convention, traveled with Billy Graham, the whole nine yards, C.B. Hogue, and it’s I Want My Church to Grow. And on your podcast, your podcast is based around leadership, and the one thing he said and used to say at the conventions is how could we grow if we could just find more leaders, find more leaders. I think the church has always known the leaders are out there. The leaders, if the leaders will step up, start asking the questions, start getting involved in whatever it is capacity you feel God’s convicting you and he’s knocking on your door to do it for the right reasons. Not the wrong reasons, not for pride and ego and look at me, but do it for the right reasons. And so, I’m giving this book to you as a souvenir coming in. And they’re not printing those anymore. And it’s probably not worth the amount of paper, but what’s in it is worth gold.
Neil Dudley: Absolutely, that’s the value of a book, not what can you get for it, but what’s the knowledge inside there. Well, thank you, Bob. I appreciate that. That’s the first time anybody’s ever gave me a book on the podcast. You win.
Bob Howard: You had another good one on here – what’s the value of a dollar or Bitcoin? So, I want to know where you got that question from.
Neil Dudley: All right. That’s good. I’ll answer it. My granddad grew up in the Great Depression and just in a time I totally don’t understand. But to him, a dollar was a very dynamic, important, hard-earned thing that you didn’t take for granted, you didn’t spend unless you had to, if you had one, you need to immediately think about how can I turn it into two. So, all of that as a little kid, looking up to him as one of my heroes, and my dad was my biggest hero, is my biggest hero. And his dad was his biggest hero. So, it’s kind of just a chain that falls down to me. In my mind, a dollar is a really powerful, cool, fun thing. Is it- I don’t know if the word worth is right in the question. It’s like, maybe I should change the question to what can you do with a dollar or what does a dollar mean to you? And then I threw Bitcoin in there just because it really brings us to present day. Do you even know what a Bitcoin is? I mean, most of the people I’ve interviewed are like I don’t even know what you’re talking about. So that’s why I ask the question because I’m curious what your take on it is. And I’ve had a million takes, just totally different. Well, it’s worth a hundred pennies. That’s what it’s worth. So that’s why I ask the question. What do you think about a dollar and a Bitcoin?
Bob Howard: I would say the difference between or the value of a dollar or a Bitcoin, I wrote down on this one time perspective shifts the value either way. If you’re talking about your great grandkids, you better embrace, not necessarily the Bitcoin, but you better embrace that movement because they’re going to be paying in all- all digital it’s coming. Whether we like it or not, it’s coming. We won’t see it. Our kids may not see it. Our grandkids might not see it. But our great grandkids probably are going to end up in it. And so, but when we came off the gold standard, to me, it’s pretty simple. It’s probably overly simple, an economist would say I’m nuts, but to me, when we came off the gold standard and had nothing that said- that gave the value to the dollar, that backed the debt, which is a dollar bill – the dollar bill was a debt. And when we went off of that, the conversation and the question almost becomes irrelevant because it’s all digital. There is no difference between a dollar or a Bitcoin. They can call it, the railroad is no different. When I say that, the railroad cars are no different, there’s nothing backing it. There’s nothing that makes it fault as long as there’s demand for the dollar. And if there’s demand worldwide, and if you look, I just saw this today, Neil, if you look, the poverty rate in the world has gone down globally in the last 10 years. Extreme poverty is from 18% down to 8.9%. And you know what’s driving that extreme coming out of poverty? The dollar. And so, the dollar in emerging markets and demand will continue to make- but when the demand leaves the dollar, crumble. And that’s the thing everybody wants to time, and that’s the thing they don’t know when it’s going to happen. And so, what’s the difference? There’s no difference. There’s no difference if you look at it on your computer screen either.
Neil Dudley: Absolutely. That’s right. It’s almost just a measuring stick. That’s all it really is.
Bob Howard: That’s all it is. But it’s all digital, it’s all digital world.
Neil Dudley: Absolutely. Man, that’s a cool take on it. I’ve not been given that one, but it’s true. I was talking to a financial guy, and he was saying, well, a Bitcoin is still based off the dollar. I mean, so I’m scared of the Bitcoin because there’s more understood investment I can make on the dollar side.
Bob Howard: But you can’t convert a Bitcoin into a dollar without a third party, or without- you can turn a Bitcoin into a can of Coke, but you can’t turn a bitcoin into a dollar bill.
Neil Dudley: What he might’ve been saying is valued based on the dollar. Like they say Bitcoin $58,000. Okay, well, why wouldn’t they say Bitcoins, 58,000 Bitcoins? The dollar is still the base measurement that everybody measures everything against.
Bob Howard: In theory, I would say he’s right. I don’t know what it’s based on anymore. It’s not based on the gold standard. So, someone’s got to convince me what is the dollar based on, what is Bitcoin based on. If it’s all based on the dollar, great.
Neil Dudley: Demand. You hit it. demand.
Bob Howard: That’s right, demand, man. And if demand-
Neil Dudley: Wanes or falters-
Bob Howard: Other countries create cryptocurrencies. As long as the dollar is accepted worldwide, in theory, in theory – I’m not advocating this – they could keep on printing it. But at the end of the day, it’s still a huge gamble that’s got to collapse or has to correct at some point in a big way. They say gold would be a hundred thousand dollars an ounce if it were to go back and stabilize compared to when we got off the gold standard. That’s deep stuff. It’s above my pay grade. It really is.
Neil Dudley: I think about who does understand that. I’m not sure anybody really does. Somebody’s just pontificating about the fact that they do.
Bob Howard: I just did. I just gave the Bob Howard simple theory. To me it’s supply and demand.
Neil Dudley: That’s right. Let’s go to some simpler things or let’s just, this is just going to zip this thing into a total different conversation. Do you think your wound a little tight?
Bob Howard: I do not.
Neil Dudley: I’m thinking, man, now, Bob, if I get hitched to Bob, we’re going to be going, which I kind of just think that is you just have stuff going in your brain. And I kind of equate that to wound tight, but it might not be wound tight.
Bob Howard: To answer your question, I go in spurts. And so, I’m pretty intentional about it. So, but I’m very measured with my time. And to unwind really, Lisa and I like to go fishing, like to take the boat out, right now looking for- and as of this podcast we’re buying some property down at the coast. And so, more unwind there.
Neil Dudley: Yeah. So, you like the big salty water more than the fresh-
Bob Howard: And I like it so much, and this will be a shock to folks who know me who end up listening this far into your podcast.
Neil Dudley: By now most people have checked out, we can say whatever we want.
Bob Howard: No, I bought a hotel down there in Sargent, Texas, and yeah, the look on your face is priceless.
Neil Dudley: No, I’ve got a good friend that just renovated an old hotel in Amarillo. Just opened two or three weeks ago. Hey, shout out Jason and Christie Beyer. They’re Stephenville people. Anyways, it’s called the Barfield up in Amarillo. So, if anybody’s traveling through Amarillo, go stop in and check out the Barfield. Now where’s your hotel at?
Bob Howard: It’s in Sargent, Texas. It’s the Fish Tail Inn.
Neil Dudley: We’ll go check out the Fish Tail in Sargent, Texas.
Bob Howard: Well, it needs some work, Neil.
Neil Dudley: In a year, right.
Bob Howard: Six months. We are going to move pretty quick. I promise you that.
Neil Dudley: That’s what they said, and that was forever. The pandemic hit. That’s the risk. Like you have risk tolerance too. Like that’s not special or any other thing, it’s just reality. Some people don’t have that much risk tolerance. But to go just buy an inn that you know needs work and yeah, we’ll be done in six months. If you’ve ever had this experience where you put a timeline on some kind of construction renovation project and you actually hit the timeline, you’ve got to be the best planner, etc., of all time, because I’ve never been involved in any equipment installation, renovation, addition to a building that ever got finished on the time-
Bob Howard: I guess the alternative is let’s not have a plan and let’s just hope it all comes to fruition. Is that what you’re telling me?
Neil Dudley: No, I’m saying the plan always has kinks in it.
Bob Howard: God will determine the steps. Man makes the plan and implements the plan and see, and I apply that in business and you apply that in life. You have an accurate timeline and go for it. And sometimes it works out. Sometimes it doesn’t. I’m with you. I mean, but I’m not going to go into it thinking no, we’ll never hit six months.
Neil Dudley: You need to say a number or you won’t.
Bob Howard: No, honestly I told you six months, I’ve already told five people on the team it’s happening in 90 days.
Neil Dudley: There you go. But we’ll hold this off, so they don’t hear that part. But Elon Musk put it pretty good too. He said if you give yourself three hours to clean your room, it’ll be clean in three hours. If you give yourself 30 days to clean your room, it’ll be clean in 30 days. So, there’s so much value in actually that, just putting a time on it, like, look, we need to get this done by then, but it’s impossible. And guess what? They start figuring out ways to do it once they know, oh, here’s the deadline.
Bob Howard: My Lutheran stepmother refers to it as one of those ambitious people. I hate to take it back to God at every turn, except I don’t. We worship a big God. And is he going to humble us? Absolutely. If we get out too big for our britches, in other words, but I think dreaming big is a beautiful thing that God has given us the ability to do. And I would challenge a lot of folks to even dream bigger.
Neil Dudley: I would say I don’t think big enough. I just don’t. I mean, I don’t even like, I don’t have the tools to get any bigger than wherever I think is big now. If I was talking about my business 20 years ago, we went way past my dreams for it 20 years ago, 10 years ago. Because I just couldn’t see it. Like I just, I have to be able to somehow get it in my brain and picture it. I don’t know how to chase the thing I can’t even picture. Sometimes when I get to that picture, oh, now I can picture another thing. It’s kind of the reality for me anyways. If somebody just says dream huge, I can’t dream how to put a skyscraper in Dubai. Like that seems like a huge dream, but I can’t picture it. I don’t know enough about-
Bob Howard: Then that’s not the dream for you. That’s the way I look at it.
Neil Dudley: Sometimes that- maybe that’s a good thing to audit your dream with is like if you can’t dream it, it’s not for you.
Bob Howard: Yeah. I mean, I’ve always found if I can get it in my mind’s eye, I can get there for the most part in a lot of things and other things, not. I mean, other things for whatever reasons, things fall apart. But it’s the risk, risk tolerance. I would love to say I don’t find my security in money. At the end of the day, in our culture and in our world, that’s a hard thing to not find your security in money over God.
Neil Dudley: I even talk about it on this podcast that I want, I would really love a private plane to travel around. Like I can picture myself having that. I think it will. Now, do I need that? Is that a real imperative thing I have to have? No. And even money, financial freedom, all these things that you hear about quite a bit, man, I’d love to have a billion dollars, whatever that number is that you think is going to make you happy or financially free, it’s kind of just a farce that you need to really consider what you want. Now, I want safety, security, and money, and I like to win. So, and if money is the measuring stick, I want to have a pile of it.
Bob Howard: Neil, the president of Terminix flew out on the private jet this last Friday to shake my hand on an acquisition that is not even a half of 1% of his total revenue worldwide that he oversees. He needed that private jet to fly here and shake my hand. And he was a genuine, genuine man, like you and I. If he was sitting there, you’d go this guy isn’t the president of a fortune 500 company on Wall Street, this is a real dude. Maybe God’s telling you to figure out how to get that private jet, because there might be a life on the other side of the world that you need to go effect with that private jet. So that’s good stuff, brother. That’s good stuff. I don’t know if God needs you to have private jet or not. And I guess he needs Joel Osteen to have two of them.
Neil Dudley: Oh yeah. There’s a whole other string we could spend a long time talking about.
Bob Howard: It’s all prospective brother.
Neil Dudley: Absolutely. Man, on that note, we’ve spent a long time talking. I think there’s been just a lot. Is there anything else you want to just touch on before we close our conversation?
Bob Howard: No, not really. I’d love to come back at some point in the future. If you have a dead spot and you want me to talk specifically about my time as mayor, how to grow the bug business, how I did that, or some of the pitfalls of the things I’ve done. I haven’t done a podcast before. This is exciting. I just want to talk forever.
Neil Dudley: Yeah, me too. But who knows what life has in store for us, let’s spend a little time right now on how you built Bugs and sold it. And like what was some of the key takeaways other business entrepreneurs, somebody out there that’s just in the tussle of building a business, what was- let’s paint that picture for everybody a little bit. Tell me about the story of Bugs, if you’ve got another 15 minutes.
Bob Howard: Yeah. So, while I started out, I was with Terminix International in the metroplex and Lisa and I, my wife, parachuted here into Waco and I took over her uncle’s personnel company. And she went, drove back to Tarleton and Stephenville, back and forth that summer to get her teaching certificate. She had her bachelor’s and she wanted to become a teacher. And I was going to take over that. Well, his idea of taking over something and my idea of taking over something are different. Two headed monsters rarely work. One person needs to be in charge. And I ended up starting a pest control company from scratch.
Neil Dudley: Was that 855Bugs?
Bob Howard: It was called bugs.com.
Neil Dudley: Am I even calling it right? I keep saying, I keep worrying-
Bob Howard: Yeah, 855Bugs. Yeah. I’ve only been a customer of yours for a little over two years now. So maybe you can say it right by now.
Neil Dudley: It’s ingrained in the back of my head. But sometimes I say people’s names wrong, and I’ve known them forever. And I’m like, oh shoot, man.
Bob Howard: You know what? Because that stuff matter to you, it’s superficial. Just like it is to me. If someone says, don’t call me Boob, but if someone says something, Rob, whatever. And so, I started building it one person at a time and built it up and brought on a partner that helped fill a need of mine. And I’m a big strength builder and fill your weaknesses and gave him the opportunity to earn equity based on numbers and a formula. And he knocked it out of the park and then I bought him out. And then I had another partner come on who moved the needle a little bit more. And that’s when we turned it into 855Bugs. And I had that partner and started a franchise model as the president. And I went out and sold 10 to 11 franchises, and within six months, half of them had already collapsed. And I stepped in and said no more dead bodies on the road, this was a failed idea, pulling the rug. And I pulled the rug. And so let those folks, the remaining ones free, let them go start their own brands. Helped a couple of them get going and doing that. And then continued to focus on building central Texas and [inaudible 57:21]. At the same time, or right after that in 2015, I was in a partnership. So, I’ll have only been in Bugs probably 20, 25% over the last 10 years. I’ve always had something else or two something elses going. And so only from a pure leadership, president perspective. And we started growing it and put together a team. And then we focused on becoming a sales company who did pest control. And that’s where you guys stepped in. And in 2017 brought on Angie, who works with your team primarily on the marketing side. And Jessica, my other right hand, had been with me for a number of years, basically HR and the financial side. And so, Angie came in and put the final pieces of the puzzle together as far as the marketing goes. I knew what I wanted our marketing to do. I knew how the racecar needed to go around the track. I just needed someone to get in the racecar and do what I tell them to do, turn steering wheel. So, I worked with Angie on perfecting the model and obviously she worked with your group on that. And so that was a key component too of really getting out there. And then 2019, we were nominated for Pest Control Technology Magazine, which is the leading industry nationwide, one of the top 20 companies in the nation and the number one website in the nation. And that’s when all of a sudden, the letters started coming in the mail. Well then COVID hit in ’20. So that was the end of 2019. COVID hit in ’20. All M&A went away. I didn’t care. It was just if someone wanted to pay enough money, we could have a conversation. Someone wanted to pay enough money so then we had the conversation of the people, and they had to hit the number first. I went through a process. You had to hit the number first. You had to satisfy me with the people second. And the third was you had to continue the brand. And so at least for a period of time to make the brand, I didn’t want my people here becoming a national company’s brand overnight. And I wanted the commitment you’d really take our brand. And so Terminix came calling, my friend, Bruce Wren, he was divisional vice president over about a half billion dollars in revenue and I, myself, and Patrick, one of the partners, went and ate lunch, and he said we’re going to make an offer. He goes but I know you, Bob, and so here’s the other two angles. And he said, we’re not going to Terminix it. And I go you mean you’re not going to roll it up? And he goes for what we’re going to offer you, we want your brand, and we want to know how you did what you did. And that was very humbling to me and very, because now they wanted to learn from me. But one of the partners, Patrick, he didn’t believe, his was like what would they have to learn from us? Blah, blah, blah. I was like we generated 400 leads last month in our branch, we generated 400 people wanting to do business with us in the two markets that we’re primarily in. They didn’t have a branch that did 25% of that. You tell me what they want to learn.
Neil Dudley: Yeah. They need that. That’s so special. And here’s a little bit of insight for everybody, go read or listen to the book They Ask You Answer by a guy named Marcus Sheridan because – have you ever listened to that book?
Bob Howard: No, I haven’t. I’m going to write that one down.
Neil Dudley: You replicated what he talks about in that book on your own. You knew how to generate leads, how to work in a digital business, digital, and Root & Roam helped you with that. But you had vision and you knew customers, people in this market have questions about bugs. Let’s answer them. And guess what? They’re like, wow, you’re answering my questions, I’m coming to you, I’m interested, can you help me with my bug problem? So, They Ask You Answer Marcus Sheridan, really great book.
Bob Howard: So then that was it. And so, we went through a long, arduous acquisition process and back and forth on things and attorneys and more accountants now I have deal with. But for a lot of folks, I’m not intimidated by any attorney or any accountant or any banker. I’ve dealt with these folks. I mean, I know they put their pants on just like you and I. I grew up in a culture though, where attorneys were a little bit step ahead of everyone else. You had to look up to the attorneys, kind of be intimidated by them, grew up in a culture where you were intimidated by these folks. So that was an obstacle personally I had to overcome. But when you stand in the room and tell an attorney, no, sit down, you don’t need to say anything else in this meeting. We’ll tell you what you need to do, when you have to make those calls.
Neil Dudley: Yeah. You’re fixing to derail this whole deal if you don’t be quiet.
Bob Howard: Yeah, you’re seasoned pretty good, and you get seasoned pretty quickly.
Neil Dudley: I mean, because I think, I mean, I don’t know, I’m only a guy that looks at lawyers and has some opinion on them. I’m not a lawyer. But to me, a lot of times, and I’ll fall into this in other ways, but it’s kind of like they’re just trying to win the argument all the time instead of trying to say, oh, this is a fair deal. Like, oh, I just want these words in there because those are the important words. I’m actually like, no, those words don’t even have to be in there. We’ve already got a deal. Just write up a piece of paper that says this is the deal, let us sign it, and we’re done. That’s been my experience anyway.
Bob Howard: I think you’re spot on. I’ve done deals with a handshake that are worth more than deals that I’ve seen where a lawyer has put together 57 pages to get the deal done. So, you’re spot on with that.
Neil Dudley: Man, that’s a great story of this whole bugs.com to 855Bugs to exiting to Terminix. What a journey. You just almost can’t wrap it into 15 minutes.
Bob Howard: You can’t. We’re sitting here in the offices post acquisition. My people, every one of them have stayed. Every one of them have gotten better benefits. They’re keeping the brand, they’re putting money behind the brand and resources. They’re doing the things that will take 855Bugs to a whole other level. And quite frankly, Root & Roam’s a big part of that. And so, they know that. They know that. I know that. It’s just a fact.
Neil Dudley: Marketing is a big part of any successful business. I will make that argument.
Bob Howard: Yes.
Neil Dudley: Telling the story, having marketing in your business is just as important as production, service, sales, all those things, because it’s just a- Without it, you’ve got a spoke missing and that wheel doesn’t just turn as good as it could.
Bob Howard: We’re building, we’re going to remodel this hotel and we’re going to do a bunch of stuff. You know what the first thing is that my first email that went out and my first conversation I had with my son that is connected down in Galveston with internet over the world, with marketing, all these folks, same like you guys are at Root & Roam, was about marketing. I need a place for people to go and we need to market the hotel. And so, it’s a micro business. It’s going to be a small business that runs, and marketing is key. And Bugs, once again, if you want to become a sales company, get great at marketing. Doesn’t mean you’re going to be any less a customer service company. We have not been. It doesn’t mean you’re going to be any less a production company or manufacturer, whatever you have to be, but a sales company and market it. And it’s fun, Neil. I’ve had people ask me what’s next? What am I going to do? This is a big one. I mean, that’s going to be a short-term project. Hopefully get it up and going and figure out what’s next. I really don’t know.
Neil Dudley: See, that’s interesting. That’s the thing I want to-
Bob Howard: That’s not me, by the way, people will tell you, that’s not me.
Neil Dudley: So that’s what I was fixing to say because most everything I’ve done, I just always do it. I never exit it, I never stop. I just keep always doing it. And I need, I want to grow in that way and experience the, okay, that thing is over, now onto the next thing. So just always having everything live in perpetuity and you never say I’m done with that one.
Bob Howard: Give me an example of what you’re talking about. Like one thing that you think that your-
Neil Dudley: Ranching, making bacon, marketing company, toy company, feed store. I just get in them and never leave. Never exit. So, I don’t know what it’s like to exit. I’ve never done it.
Bob Howard: Maybe your plate’s still big enough you don’t have to exit. Eventually you’re going to go I got to get something off my plate. You’re going to exit or God’s going to exit for you.
Neil Dudley: That’s right, you bet.
Bob Howard: That’s awesome.
Neil Dudley: That’s just little mental things. Why do I even care actually? Do I really need that experience? No, I’m just thinking, wow, that would be- maybe that is a thing I need to know about.
Bob Howard: You’ve said it in your podcast that I’ve listened to, and you alluded to it today, which is really money for your listeners if they’re listening and really just gold, solid gold, and it really comes down to this, my grandparents, my step grandparents, when he died on the farm, Granny Mildred just went to the calendar and looked and said what he wrote down the year before and went and did that. And that led to somewhat, in my opinion, outside looking in, some family members might disagree with this, but looking outside or looking in, that led to the ranch sort of trending down because it was his playbook. She needed her playbook. There’s best practices out there for all of us, but your playbook is different than my playbook, which is different than each one of these listeners’ playbooks and embrace your own playbook.
Neil Dudley: All I want to do is say some stuff that we think, and we’ve lived–
Bob Howard: Yeah, and be transparent.
Neil Dudley: Listen to it and use it in your life or don’t.
Bob Howard: No biggie. Yeah. We like to hear ourselves talks so if you like to listen to us talk, you’re in the right spot.
Neil Dudley: It’s absolutely what I do.
Bob Howard: There is certainly no one listening to this, by the way, except for you and I.
Neil Dudley: Well, we will split it into a two part or something so we got a better chance of people hearing this. Bob, thank you so much, man. I’ve really enjoyed it. Everybody out there, if you don’t know about Mr. Bob Howard, go check out 855Bugs. You’ll see a business that he built, and go visit that hotel we talked about too. Now you’ve got to go listen back and figure out what the heck I’m talking about if you’ve made it this far. All right. Thanks everybody. That’s it. See you next time.
There you go. If you’ve listened this far, you are like a champion. Thank you so much. I know there’s a lot of good stuff in that conversation for you to take and use and just think about putting it into your life in whatever way it might fit, or if it doesn’t, well, then you know now something that you don’t want to do. So, I really am glad I had this chance to talk to Bob because I certainly learned a lot. I hope you did too. If you like what we’re doing here, subscribe, share, do all those things, help me get the word out.
Hey, if you like what we’re doing here, go to the website, thecowboyperspective.com and check out all the people that sponsor the podcast. They help me make this thing happen. If you have some need that they might be able to fulfil, I’d appreciate you doing some business with them. Thank you.
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.