Intangible Balance Sheet Episode 12: Steve Fowler

Welcome to this week's Intangible Balance Sheet as Steve Fowler joins us. His life and career experience is far reaching. 

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JOSH KLOOZ, CFP®, MBA
WEALTH ADVISOR

Phone 281.719.0036
Text 281.699.8691
Fax 281.719.0156
jklooz@carsonwealth.com

1780 Hughes Landing | Suite 570
The Woodlands, TX 77380

Music by bensound.com

Transcript

Joshua Klooz  0:01  
most people are aware of their own financial balance sheet. As soon as we buy our first car or house, we become aware of it. If you're of a certain personality type, you may track it quite a bit. But I'd submit to you that we're also unconsciously aware of another balance sheet. And this one is sometimes tricky to measure and even harder to manage. Sometimes we often find it hard to put into words, but it's real nonetheless. I call this our intangible balance sheet. What I mean by this are those life principles, experiences, memories and stories that given any amount of money, we wouldn't drain. They're the memories that bring tears of joy to our faces, because we simply can't imagine life without them. We feel fortunate to have had them. It could be our first jobs, proposals, wedding days, burrs, struggles, anxieties, or fears, and maybe even some hindsight. It's all those things that melt into a memory that bring a distance stare to our face, and maybe even a smile. We feel lucky to have had them because they're what has made us us. So that's what I'm talking about when I talk about the intangible balance sheet. It's those moments in life that may be financially irrational, but which are indispensable parts of who we are. So, these episodes are focused on the stories that bring us joy, happiness, fulfillment, and ultimately may hold unnecessary keys that will direct the future for our family, friends, and maybe even neighbors. So listen in with us as we discover some of those stories that are meaningful to our guests. And maybe you'll even uncover hidden value on your own intangible balance sheet. Welcome to the wisdom and wealth Podcast. I'm Josh glues the senior wealth planner here for Carson wealth and the Woodlands, Texas. This is an intangible balance sheet podcast episode, and I'm joined by Steve Fowler today. We'll get into more of the details. But Steve's career spans both software and venture capital, and also telecommunications, wireless telecommunication space. So of course, his career, but I don't want to take anything away or give short shrift to the story. So Steve, let's dive in. Welcome to Wisdom and law.

Steve Fowler  2:20  
Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to be here.

Joshua Klooz  2:24  
It is our pleasure. But to get us kicked off, I want to share a little bit about your upbringing and just who you are. You know, from the outset.

Steve Fowler  2:34  
I am. I'm a Texan. I was raised here in the Houston area, although I didn't live here, a lot of the last 25 or 30 years. But I was raised here in Houston. I am a product of a Southern Baptist preacher and a teacher. So my parents were in sort of the service industry, if you will, and in the giving their lives kind of industry. I spent the first part of my career working primarily in high tech kinds of places, and then did a little bit of a startup of my own, but then spent the next 18 to 20 years in the wireless industry. Working as one of the very first people that was in the Houston market to ever be working for a wireless carrier, the old company called Houston cellular for any of them out there that might remember that company. And then I began to get moved around. I told everybody that I thought I was gonna spend my career in Houston and didn't work out like that company I worked for, we used to laugh and say we were getting transferred to Europe three and 400 miles at a time. And we went from here to Mississippi to Georgia, but then they threw me a curveball. And they moved me to Los Angeles where I spent 14 or 15 years before I came back here. Currently, I'm a consultant, primarily working with a lot of smaller companies, particularly in the sales and marketing area, but also in helping set vision and strategies if you will, for their senior management team and helping them try to make sure that they have a long term plan that will be successful.

Joshua Klooz  4:06  
Excellent. So grew up in Texas, and you're not still in therapy for being a pastor's kid or anything of that nature. Right.

Steve Fowler  4:17  
Actually, the, it's interesting, you brought that up because I you know, I've known all kinds of pastor's kids and, and we carry some of the worst reputations of anyone. I don't remember a time in my life that I didn't feel like it was a blessing to be a preacher's kid. I, our family was close. My dad and my mom were they were not just at church, they lived out the life that they proclaim that they did. And it was just fun. And plus, we were we didn't have a lot of money, but they had Southern Baptists conventions all over the country. So I got to see a lot of the country as a result of that. And I had to sit through a lot of boring meetings. When I got to the conventions, particularly in summer, right all the ways in the summer. Yes. And always in places that you would say Southern Baptists are not particularly strong here, but but I got to see places that I never would have got to see. But more importantly, it provided me with a framework. I not only saw my dad preach, I saw my dad and mom live. And so it was, I love it. But I probably need therapy for variety. Maybe not for that one.

Joshua Klooz  5:23  
So the concept of the intangible balance sheet is all those things that are worth more to us than money. And it sounds like that's the way your life ultimately started. Right? As far as very strong upbringing, what beliefs were most important to your parents? Do you remember what what stands out to you the

Steve Fowler  5:43  
most? Well, I. And I know that there, I don't know who all listens this. But the first one was my father and mother were completely sold out to Jesus, I can tell you that 100% sold out. And, and by that I mean that they didn't do things that they didn't Well, I mean, everybody makes mistakes, I guess. But they didn't do things that they thought didn't honor Christ. And so that in my family became really important. The second thing was, I have not experienced one minute in my life, prior to when my parents actually passed away, that I didn't feel 100% loved. And my parents were incredible, you know, and other people I understand struggle with this, because their parents weren't like that. And I really feel badly for people that weren't, I had loved demonstrated to me, and how important family and loved ones from the day I was born. My parents some time, we're almost embarrassing with, you know how much they want to tell us, they loved him and all that fortunately. The, and I have an older brother, and the only two of us left. Now, while there were only two kids in there, my parents were both gone. They both we lost them both in the last five or six years. But the family strength was also one of the things that you know, for better or worse, I'm proud of being a Fowler. And I'm proud of it because I know that I'm living up hopefully to the, the ideals, my parents.

Joshua Klooz  7:07  
Yeah. So another one of the concepts that we try to tease out in these conversations is the idea of earn success. And what we, what we mean by that is the first time that you remember, you know, work environment or independence environment I needed, right and you like that, that feeling, right? It could be sports, it could be, you know, just chores around the house, but there's typically a time in everybody's life where they, they become very addicted to that, Hey, I am a part of something larger than myself, and I feel good for having worked for someone else or serve someone else, you have a similar time that this sticks out in your mind. Absolutely.

Steve Fowler  7:50  
And I mean, there's one that was earlier that you were referring to, and then there was a little a little lighter, but the earlier one was and you mentioned sports, I always envisioned that I was gonna get to play in the NBA. Nobody bothered to tell me I was slow and in, couldn't jump and things like that. But I remember, when I first went to middle school, we call it a junior high here, I got cut in seventh grade. And it was soul crushing for me. I couldn't imagine that wasn't good enough. Well, I went back in I didn't even try in eighth grade. But in ninth grade, I decided, well, I'm gonna try again. And I not only made the team, I ended up being one of the CO captains for the team later on. And I was by far and away not the best player on the team. But I played virtually every minute every game so that from that perspective, it was the first time that I had worked really hard. And to see something before that working really hard meant mowing lawns and things like that, and I made money. And that was never terribly exciting. Like two bucks a lawn. So I lived in Houston, for those of you that don't know what it's like in the summer down here. was like it was an unfortunate amount of money I made but and if I can give you one more as I moved, I mean, professionally, there was a lot of things that happened and we'll talk maybe about them later. But about when I was in my early 40s, I got transferred to Los Angeles and I ended up in a living in Orange County. And I joined a church that most people have heard about a turn to church called Saddleback, which, if you're familiar with The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren, it was his church and I wrote him a letter about some generosity, things that I thought the church might be, I'd only been there for five months church rd was running about 12 15,000 a week. And he had somebody called me back a few weeks later said your your letter was something that Rick took to heart, and they asked me to be a trustee at a church had only been there three or four months and there were 18 or 1250 and 1000 other people they could have picked and and it taught me a lesson that because I didn't try to do anything. I just tried to ask him what his thoughts were And they told me it was a three year position by the way, I had to move 12 years later to get off the board but and that that comes to mind only because of how great it made me feel to have an opportunity to serve a church like that. Other people do or don't like Saddleback, it's okay, you're rich thing. But I got to watch up close and personal, a church that was really interested in people's lives. And it affected me in that way as well.

Joshua Klooz  10:28  
I got to ask, what what did you recommend?

Steve Fowler  10:31  
What were a board of directors for? For the Southern Baptist Convention? Actually, it was where we were raising money in Texas for retired church workers. And if you're ready for this, that's been about 2015 20 years ago, they were making less than $50 a month in retirement. I mean, you know how devastating that would be and, and, and they couldn't, they couldn't bring their $50 to someone like you because they had to live on it. And so we were trying to raise money to make sure that we gave him at least an additional another 100 150, whatever month and I wrote a letter to Rick who did who only sort of possibly casually knew me, and said, Is it possible that you could help me figure out who might be willing to help us out? Interestingly, enough bricks responsible as of course, I'm not gonna tell you the names of our church members. But he said, I would be interested in doing that, not personally. But so as the church even to this day, 25 years later, they still give four figures or more to that to help us, you know, people that are widowed and, and incidentally, the problem is almost finally got away in Texas, because they finally raised enough money. But that's so I wrote him a letter saying, Hey, I just this is on my heart, I hate to watch people literally gave their life to God. And unfortunately, Josh, what happened is, you go back to the structures, and they go, Well, God will take care of my responsibilities. They have never seen God's name on the bottom of a chair. And yes, he provides and all that sort of thing we need to help. And so that's what it was. It was Rick came from a missionary family. He was sort of used to

Joshua Klooz  12:09  
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Wow, thank you for sharing that. As you think back, especially in the early parts of your life, you know, in career, what events stand out to you that had a shaping effect, and and pushed you a certain direction in life.

Steve Fowler  12:28  
I mean, and again, I want to make sure that we keep this on all different levels. But the first one I remember was the day that my mother said, have conversations with me introduce me to Jesus. And that made a big change in my life. Who would have thought my preacher dad might have been the one of my mother, using an old concept that we don't see today, a flannel board.

Joshua Klooz  12:51  
Now, I had that in Sunday school, too. So

Steve Fowler  12:55  
she introduced me to a concept that I could understand and so that was life changing for me. I think that the the other one was that when I finally reconciled to myself that I wasn't being called into full time Christian ministry, I was being called to become a professional somewhere else and to do my ministry somewhere else. And in in I am not good at it sometimes. But I believe that God put me here to do that. So I didn't realize till I got to college, I kept in the back of my mind thinking, Am I running away from a call? And, and I knew that it wasn't, and I served as a youth pastor, it was a great event for me, I served as they didn't call them youth pastors back then we have much less important names. And that I think, were I was called the youth director. And the, sorry, okay, but the. And that was a fabulous summer for me, I got an opportunity to do that. But I began to realize that what God really wanted me to do, and what I really wanted to do was to go into into some sort of industrial or commercial kind of thing to do and, and that made a big difference. And if I don't know, you might have asked this question, and then I had a really bad experience, it really shaped my life as well, I, I got married while I was in college, and, and we, three or four years later, we had a daughter and a year and a half after that, my wife decided that she liked another guy better and she liked me. And she left and not only left me she left me was 11 month old for predominantly she helped for a little while. And if she watches this, I'll probably get a phone call. But anyway, I, in that taught me so much more because it it taught me that, that I couldn't fix everything. In all my life, things had been pretty easy and things went bad. You know, you put band aids on and you fixed them. And I knew that this was sort of evolving, and I thought I could fix it. I thought God would fix it. It didn't happen. But it changed me in a lot of ways because it made me realize that and that also made me realize it to those sorts of things that that's where You build your character, it's not when you're going. I mean, it's easy to be have decent character when things are going well, it's harder sometimes and, and it taught me those things. And I may have jumped through a bunch of questions here. But that was, that was an experience that changed everything for me. I had never, I had never experienced anything like that. Frankly, nobody in my entire family had ever been in divorce than divorced. I was the first, just in my immediate family, we couldn't find anything. And back in my grandparents or anything. My father was an only child, my mother was one of three, but all of them all their marriages, everything always worked. I did

Joshua Klooz  15:36  
what what truths Did you hang on to? To get through that time?

Steve Fowler  15:41  
I think the most important truth there was is that if you go to the Bible, where God talks about the fact that the trials are in our life to build character, then you have to do that through perseverance. And that was not easy. early on. Early on, I was the one that was going, God you could have fix this. I mean, the answer is, I mean, I suppose it could have. But But what I held on to that was that and then number two, is more worldly. I mean, I held on to the fact that my parents, I was so scared that my dad was Baptist preacher and ask your death, yeah, I was an adult, and he was gonna lose his job because I was divorced. And I remember the steadfast faith that my parents had in me, in that church, in him, and then all they did was come around love us. And so I think that the Reliance less on yourself, became really important at that point, for me to understand that there were things that I wasn't gonna be able to fix. I couldn't be, you know, no matter how smart or not smart I am, there's some things, you know, no matter how what access I had, some things are just we get to go through them. And so I think that the, and I can tell you, there were nights when I would feel like the guy was speaking to me saying, you know, Steve, this is cool. And I promised in the scripture that we're going to make everything work together for good. And a lot of people misquote that scripture and think it says that everything's gonna be good. And there was nothing good about my divorce. But everything ultimately did work together for good, I became a better person, I became a better father, because I was a single father of an 11 month old originally and, and, and ultimately, you know, things worked out really well. I've been married almost 42 years to my second wife, and she's my best friend. In addition, this all worked out great.

Joshua Klooz  17:27  
So professionally during that time, can you tell us you left college you're working in software at the time?

Steve Fowler  17:37  
Well, I was in while I was finishing, I got married while I was a junior the first time. So I got to go to work. And go to night school. I went to university Houston here and, and I had a year left on my undergraduate degree. And at the time I went from there, I had a job in the geophysical industry working with software. And then I spent three years for dresser industries actually helping write software business kind of related kind of COBOL kinds of stuff. And and while I was at dresser I worked on my master's degree, will always be grateful because Tresor pay for my master's degree, I had always wanted to be a marketing guy and do some sort of marketing and dresser was interested in that for me. But anybody got to be a marketing guy for dresser got spent a year or two in the oil field first. And I was newly married. And in this not particularly interested in doing that. So I left dresser and went to work for Texas Instruments. And for six years I was there working in a division that now they don't have. But at the time we were the worldwide leader in printers. I mean, nobody sees a TR printer anymore, but we were the worldwide leader in them at the time. And I had an opportunity to be around some really, it's an amazing division of the company. I worked in the some of the people that they ended up spawning, if you will, the three guys started Compaq and a whole bunch of other people like that that came out of there. And so that's where I went after my master's degree. And I worked there for six years until my brother and I and two other guys said what we wanted to do was to try to start our own gig and and if you want some degree up real fast, go try that.

Joshua Klooz  19:12  
What, what spawned the idea? And what was the idea?

Steve Fowler  19:16  
Well, first of all, what spawned the idea altogether? Unbeknownst to me, my brother was thinking about it. He worked for TI as well. He was thinking about it and I was thinking about it. We were actually kind of working independently with other groups. But I reported to the to pull I was in the grip all three of the guys started compact. And, and for a lot of reasons. We talked about me going there and for a lot of reasons that didn't work out. And they decided they wanted somebody else at the end but I had been working for them for a while. So we saw the success they were beginning to have and I think that I mean, I guess we're talking about I'm in my early probably 30s or mid 30s and You know, it was kind of that time where if you're going to do it, I could afford to fail, if you will, at that time, I mean, when you get to be amazed that you can't afford fail very much. And so and and we were excited about the opportunity and the idea, I wish that that we could show people the idea because the idea was spectacular. The execution, maybe we didn't get as close as we had hoped. But we built the terminal. That was the very first combination between like a regular data terminal and a PC PCs we're just getting, I mean, I'd be able to just start at the PC ATT introduced, one of the Compaq introduced the portable, portable, which

Joshua Klooz  20:38  
was relatively

Steve Fowler  20:41  
likable. And but so we were trying to do expand upon what all those other companies have done. And we had a great product. And we and we actually wrote the background software, which is called a ROM BIOS, if people bring up their laptop sometime today, it'll still say ROM BIOS, Phoenix group software. Sadly, Swedish group software didn't write their initial edition our company did in our board of directors thought that we needed money. So they sold that to them. And, and they made billions off of that. And we didn't put any case, in but the product case is the very first case you would have ever seen of what now looks a little bit like Outlook, you we could take you to either a calendar or to a phone director, you push a button, and they would actually call right there on the terminal. And we were the first people that had ever done that we were the first people to introduce what was called the full duplex speakerphone where you and I can both talk at once. Unfortunately, we had a I mean, the timing got bad, the economy turned a little bad on us. And we had an engineering issue that we didn't get fixed quick enough. And unfortunately, the company failed. But we raised $23 million worth of venture capital in the meantime, and I got exposed to those fine folks. And and when that failed, I ended up in the wireless industry from that.

Joshua Klooz  21:58  
So we're talking mid mid to late 80s.

Steve Fowler  22:01  
We'll see what was the name of the company by the way. It's called Zeiss, and it'll ziti sa N and it is a Japanese word. And I'm laughing I can't remember what it was. But we were looking for a name that was different than everybody else's. And we got to where people knew who we were. And see, it would have been earlier, my youngest daughter was born in 85. And she was born while I was in high school. And so it would have been somewhere in that timeframe.

Joshua Klooz  22:30  
And you were located in California at that time.

Steve Fowler  22:33  
We had our senator had not terribly far from where we are now the headquarters was over in champion forest area here in the Houston area and our manufacturing was off to 90. And we did we just ended up one little minor engineering issue that really crippled us for a while because we had to get loose and filled retrofits, and in the meantime, the market kind of stalled on PCs. And if you were a retailer or somebody looking to resell PCs, or work with them, and you had to make a choice between startup anxiety and or a company called IBM or Compaq, you've made the right choice. You chose the other guys. And so our business kind of got difficult at that time. But we our product was called the ES one was the terminal in the ES three was, it was a fully compatible IBM PC.

Joshua Klooz  23:16  
So how do you how do you turn that experience into a positive one? You're so you're so close? We were close? What did you take away from it that you're thankful for? In hindsight,

Steve Fowler  23:29  
I mean, you know, interestingly enough, in the very next job I had, and I will tell you how that came about in a second. But when that was Houston cellular the very next job and I was not, I was only out of work about the investors invited us to find the front door. And I you know if I can throw in a little story there we were, we had contracts and they forgot that and so they were gonna have to pay us something to lease. So they asked us to sit outside the front of we were in the building, and they asked us to sit outside the front door and this little lobby area, but we had to come to work every day. Otherwise, we weren't fulfilling our contract. And, and I can't remember I think it was fortune. But it could have been Fortune magazine, a guy had been wanting to interview us for years as we were on our way up. And he walked by and he saw us out there and he asked us what was going on and we kind of told him the story. He said, Well, I'll write an article about you and we were all excited and we had full page pictures or shells in this magazine and the day it came out and he was gonna talk about how we kind of got to the raw end of the deal from the venture VC people because they were gonna replace us and put somebody else in place and he says man, your love article and Collison, Tulsa, it will be on newsstands tomorrow morning and I literally went around Houston collecting every one I could find so we could send them to all our friends and family and you open it up the picture was great. The three of us the three of the five founders were writing this picture and we were on one side and on the other side was the article chatlines was when smartcast flub it we were glad we bought every copy at that point we still have those envelopes. The way we always thought was pretty cool. He called a smart. Unfortunately, that didn't work out. But I had worked for a really nice guy at Texas Instruments. And I called him and said, Hey, this is gonna get to the point of what I've learned that I need a job. I have a brand new kid, and I'm to child children now on a marriage, and I can't afford to be unemployed very long. And I don't know if you know much about startups, but you don't get paid a whole lot of money, if any? And isn't that a fact cost you money because you have to invest in the stock and that kind of stuff. And so we were not in a great financial place. But I called him said, Hey, I need a job. And he said, Great, Steve, I'd love to have you back. But I'm leaving to tomorrow. And then moving to Austin, then we're going to work for another company. And then I need anybody like you, but he he actually gave my name to or gave me the name of his executive hiring firm that hired demons, Russell Reynolds and Associates and he gave me that name. Remember, we got first name was Ted, I don't remember what his last name wasn't. So I called him and he says to you clearly don't know how we work. We don't work for people like you. We work for clients that are looking for people. And if we eat people, we normally find them. But he said, but it's, it's you know, Richard, just send me your resume. And we'll see if anything ever transpires. We're like sending my resume or so well, you know, I was a wasted effort and 20 minutes and postage stamp, whatever. Just literally three days later, ecobee says you're not gonna believe this, I just interviewed, a new client is looking for a director of marketing. And the first thing they asked for was somebody that had been there, but didn't quite get across the finish line that they actually kind of failed. And he said, I know that doesn't sound good as your resume headliner. But it really made a difference in this case. And as a matter of fact, in Houston Senator, I was the only guy they interviewed for that job. And I got to go to work almost immediately. So I think that the it prepared me a lot of ways it toughened me up a bunch, by the way at, I don't know how many venture capital companies you sit in front of, but they are very difficult. They're in business for one reason, one reason only invest in like big, huge profits on the amount of money they invest. And, and if you recognize that is their purpose, you understand that when you don't do that, it's very difficult for your relationships are not particularly good. And so we've gone through all that and being yelled at and probably justifiably so. But it toughened me up. But the second thing you did was, if you go back to something I said earlier, it just showed me that, that in if your life has a plan and a purpose in your follow that that God used that or somebody set all that up for me. I mean, I would I tested three years working 80 hours a week and, and had nothing to show for it. But three or four days later, I had a job in a fledgling industry. I had for almost 20 years. And suddenly, when they first introduced cell phones, the best prognostications was that maybe someday 3% of Americans would have a cell phone. And I went to that industry, not in the industry that challenged me to find 3% of Americans, including babies that don't have them now. And so it set me up for that. And I got to work for an amazing company for 20 years, I bought my company but I worked for Bell South and Lumi all over and had great experiences.

Joshua Klooz  28:09  
Now, before we dive into that I I got ahead of myself, what is your your wife think of this transition from your in? Its I sound like what what do you remember her thoughts were during that time and then about the transition to what became yourself?

Steve Fowler  28:28  
I think that we would be less than honest to say there when fear involved. When we got a new family, we've got a lot of faith. I mean, I got family, she's got family hurt she she comes from very humble backgrounds. Her parents are both cottonelle too, but incredible people that never made a lot of money in their life. And I came for teacher to preacher so we didn't have a lot of money for time out there. But But I think that the fear part was always secondary to her to the faith that she had. And fairness not only just to God, but to me, she believed that she believed that I knew what I was trying to accomplish. And the matter of fact, at times she probably had a whole lot more faith in me than I deserved and more faith and movement ahead of myself. But I think that I used to keep people say that she would nudge me to make sure I got a job pretty quick and she would say okay, the restaurants are having steak and Steve you can have a can of Beanie Weenies until you get a job. That's not true. She didn't do that. But I used to tell people that but I get all the transition was hard for her. We had a brand new baby me, you know, and you're bringing a child in the world and already had one that was really mine and she was raising it and so it was hard but I never got a sense of any kind of condemnation or critique from her. She just she she believed that we would ultimately be okay.

Joshua Klooz  29:52  
Yeah. That is such a blessing. So 3% of Houston is carrying bag phone. Walk us through those early days. Just kidding.

Steve Fowler  30:04  
We did the original ones weren't even bag phones, Josh, they were mounted in your car, we had to screw them into the base of your car. And I had cords on them and things like that. That was all one. And so will I mean no I can remember when we were when you say it was started, there was actually another company we competed with GT mobile net now for those of you who are in the Houston area now used to say it was now part of what is now AT and T and G T Mobile is part of Southwest, no, not well, Verizon. Bring it there. But the but those are several acquisitions later, but the Hauraki remember weeks when we were introducing the network, and then we originally had to buy airtime often TTS service until we could have our own service up, they were the first one to come up the Justice Department and said there were going to be never be another telephone monopoly. So they're gonna be two companies that we're going to offer. So you're at the time and one of them was gonna be an existing Bell company, if you will. That was GT mobilenet. And we were the fledgling that start entrepreneurial country that we could go raise money wherever we wanted, but it couldn't originally, at that time come from our company, ultimately did it ultimately. And we were the second company in and I can remember weeks just where we sold in the whole city of Houston 10 to 15. Phones in a whole week. And I can't remember how hard that was. And I remember celebrating the first week we sold 100

Joshua Klooz  31:38  
Cell phones in Houston kind of staff are we talking about right now?

Steve Fowler  31:41  
Well, we have quite a bit of engineering staff because we were building our own system. We now in Houston, probably ATT I'm just guessing, probably Scott in 2000 cell sites, we brought up the largest network that had ever been brought up in America. And we brought it up with 26 cell sites at the time. And we didn't have a lot of customers. So that worked. But we had a pretty big engineering staff we had, we had employed a bunch of agents to help sell cell phones for us. And those are primary at that time, people that did other kind of car work or install radios or things like that. There was no retail that did it. Actually I was I was privileged to be a part of the very first rate to hell. When Bell South I went over we we got Circuit City, if you remember them now they were bankrupt now but to sell them. And I had a staff of for marketing, just me. And then I ultimately hired one other guy, and then I'll save Customer Care. And we and we have maybe four or five people. So it was a small company. We were at that time headquartered over on 16 by the Galleria in. But I remember those weeks where we sold 10 To 20 to 30 cell phones and thinking than we do, we had a big splash when we introduced our own network. And we got to 100. And oh, wow, that's really cool. And I mean, they do 100 Every few minutes, but it was really cool. And I was privileged enough to be a part of an advertising campaign that ultimately won national awards when we introduce our service. So a real clever radio campaign that we did. So I got to do those kinds of things this week or

Joshua Klooz  33:08  
so you said be a part of can you put a little bit more flesh on that design developed?

Steve Fowler  33:14  
Well, I hadn't. Actually I was the marketing guy inside the house. But we heard a tremendous advertising agency that I actually think still here although the two original founders are both passed away now this call forwarding client, and I had actually known them from TI but they hired him and used to say it before I got there. So I didn't have anything to do with them. But they are the most creative people I've ever worked with in my entire life. And they were also incredibly patient. And they didn't have a lot of money but they put all these so I was a part of working on that campaign and responsible inside for they did all the real hard work and if there's still a business hopefully that's a good plug.

Joshua Klooz  33:53  
What was the what was the ad? What was the pitch?

Steve Fowler  33:55  
Yes, several of them we used to guy is the spokesperson. His name was Lorenzo music and most people have never heard of him before. But if you if you're old enough to watch the old rota show on TV I don't know if you remember that show, but there was a guy that only heard his verse and it was Carlton, the doorman. And then he also was the voice in Garfield. And Lorenzo had a great face for radio. And so you never saw him much. But we employed him he worked out of an ad agency in Los Angeles. And we employed him in another group of people that were really famous for writing good ad campaigns and, and we built ads around the fact that our quality was better. And he would talk about he had an ad campaign where he was just the lips. And he talked about on GTs. There was a lot of static and static clearly chatting. And we won we did we had a great ad campaign we had a brochure ads like that in it people began to recognize this based on our humorous ads and I got the opportunity to participate in that. I don't know where to get a lot of credit for it. I was the guy that took the risk and do it but they were Yes, did it.

Joshua Klooz  35:01  
So you're in Houston, you said you transition to was Mississippi first and then

Steve Fowler  35:06  
Newnan, Georgia. Yeah, I had been in Houston say, a couple of years. And we had two owners in Houston cellular at the time and one in Mississippi and one in New York and the one in New York was a little more challenging to work for. And I finally just decided I didn't know I was, was already too old want to put up with that all the time, he was pretty vulgar, and pretty hard to work for and very temperamental in. So I took a job here in Houston working for a new division of at TNT. But the other company that was in Jackson at the time called me and said, Hey, Lucky, at least OC opportunity to bring you over here to Jackson, let us see if you would might want to go work at our headquarters at the time. And I tell him, I'm never gonna live in Mississippi. I'm gonna live in Texas all my life. And I got over there and really kind of fell in love with the job. And so we moved over there. And then we were only there 18 months where they decided to alfalfa was going to own them. And so we got to meet twice in 18 months and and so we lived in Atlanta for seven years. And for all those years in Houston, I'm still a devoted Braves fan. I think we won the World Series last year. The Astros this week, by the way, so I'm gonna get this in before they get on my, you know, I went to from Jackson to Atlanta, which was how they were combining two companies, the company called Bill south and the company we had, which was an American cellular property. And we had probably about 40 properties in the country. And I was one of the marketing guys and and then the next thing that shaped my career happened, I was the liaison between the largest single cellular company in the world was in LA at the time, not the one that was owned by the Bell company, but the one that was the startup and and we had an issue with our customer care group. And we ended up having a really the VP of Customer Care. And they asked me if I would consider just going out there and maybe sitting with it until they could find somebody good. And I guess I never found anybody good because I got to keep the job and it was out there for many years. Absolutely. The best job I've ever had in my entire life was with LTE cellular three years and unfortunately Bell South, I was still Bell South employee, and they sold the property to AT and T and I had to leave, I stayed out there to do other things. But if it happened four months later, by the way, Bell South of at&t merged, but I was four months ahead. And so and that's another experience we talked about that was another career or character developing experience because I was living in Los Angeles with a fairly big house note in no job. Little those mountains when you go to Okay, God, it would be nice if you'd move quickly

Joshua Klooz  37:42  
said I'm fairly large job in LA like what? How many, you know, first personality talking

Steve Fowler  37:53  
100 People that ultimately reported through my organization, we got about 2500 in LA cellular. Early on the cellular industry, we were already a billion dollar company in that one market. The state was supposed to take care of their people so well, by the way, they were setting our rates for us. And they said, the highest in the country. And we would always just sell we hate that then we sell this church, we were literally printing money at the time in we were investing a lot in our system within the but I had 1400 When I got there, I had about 400 people in the Customer Care Organization. And I built it to a 1400 seat call center built the building for us and all that. And I can't begin to tell you what a great experience the three years was. I discovered I went out there. I thought customer care was a job you did if you couldn't do any other job. By the way, if you just couldn't get anything else you willing to let people yell at me. And what I discovered was once we got the organization shaped like we wanted it that I had 1400 people that love to help people. And he went to work every day knowing that they didn't make as much money as a lot of other people did, but how valuable their job was and how much and we got awards out there for being one of the best customer care organizations in the country. And we did a lot of great things together. But it taught me so many lessons. I I really was never planning to stay could happen as early as I got out there fell in love with being in 70 degree weather all the time. And I and I couldn't miss my wife that she would love it to her in, which was the hardest sales job I ever did in my life because she absolutely did not want to move to California. We loved her 14 or 15 years there. Probably wouldn't go back but we loved him.

Joshua Klooz  39:39  
So you transition from at&t. What was the genesis of that? And then you talk about that transition period. So it was

Steve Fowler  39:47  
only cellular transmission. And they came and told us a bell salsa, the result? Property and there were three of us that were they there were three of us that were actually Bell South employees, the CEO, myself who was Running Customer Care. And I was working in the CEO role as well in the CFO, we were all from Bell South. And they a part of our deal when we went out there is that we could never go to work for AT and T because they couldn't recruit us. And so I no longer had the opportunity, I would have stayed in the heartbeat. And, and I left a great job. And I had an opportunity to go back to Atlanta that I loved. And it never felt right. It in I can't tell you why it didn't feel right. I do know this that my youngest daughter was now going into high school and, and she was what she was saying was, look, if you want to move us one more times, I guess that's good, but promise me you'll stay somewhere till I get out of high school. That's not the way Bill companies work. I figured I was gonna get moved again. And and I literally loved my church. And I wanted to stay. I was on the board with record trustee and. And one morning, my wife and I had talked long into that. And I went to work the next day said I'm not coming back to Atlanta. I'm staying here and people said, Where are you going to sit? Well, if I wish you would tell me because I don't know where I'm going. And Josh, I can remember those few dark days. And I can remember. I call my dad. I said I just quit. And one of the things that Bell South had done for me when I moved to LA was they not only paid me well, they they gave me a delay house and made the difference up between our house notes and Atlanta in LA and that was substantial. And all of a sudden, I've got the house so I get to pay all of it plus it I have a job and and my dad, well, first thing we did was you silly goose, you shouldn't quit your job. But then he said, you know, Steve, it's a infection. It's something that sort of got in my life since and he said There's a scripture in the Bible that says that when I'm afraid I will trust a new guide. And every morning I get up every morning and I say that I don't know what I'm gonna get scared today. But something's gonna scare me, I'm gonna do it. I'm just gonna try to learn to trust in you. And, and fortunately for me, I was only out of work for just a few weeks again, if that. And one of the consultants that we used at La cellular, called the CEO didn't go back either the CFO did go back and call the CEO said I got a little role. Maybe even Steve can play for a little while. Well, it turned out to be almost a year old. And see I opened a company in and out of bankruptcy and got paid an incredible amount of money to way more than I was worth. And I'm not giving it back at the commute to Seattle. And then I ended up in another role that was PricewaterhouseCoopers. It was putting us in some roles. And I got to work with the with a guy that reported directly to Steven Spielberg for a little while. So that's where I started my consulting. And then right after that I transitioned into working. I don't know if you remember the old DSL industry that was before Wi Fi and all that good stuff. And I worked for the biggest DSL country company in the country called Flash comm. And I was head of their customer care again, unfortunately, we got real close. We were right at public offering when Bill companies actually pulled the rug out from underneath this, there was no way for us to get to their customers unless they told us who they were. But I got an opportunity to do that. And then following that I started a couple other companies and some are really exciting. Not particularly successful. They were successful for me, but they weren't like I want it.

Joshua Klooz  43:19  
Got it. So how did you when did you move from LA back to back to Texas

Steve Fowler  43:26  
2008. Two parts of that that are first of all, most people that are smart, probably were trying to figure out how not to spend money in 2008. And it didn't, it wasn't cheap to move back. And also I moved from from Southern California where it was seven degrees all the time. I don't know what I was thinking because we moved here in June. And we got off we got out of the car here instead of we're going back. I'm still not used to evaluate where I'm working on 14 years. And it's still out and grew up here. But even before that, Josh I had had an opportunity for three years to start a company called co TV networks. It was originally called something else and they were trying to develop some software using avatars on cell phones. And it turns out that that wouldn't work. And so I thought they were they had hired me as a CEO and I thought that was sort of the end of it but I decided to spin off my spin that off and let me try to find something to do with some of their technologies. And we were the first people to ever put a moving picture on the cell phone and we were producing for ABC and ESPN a variety of other people that time we I raised a substantial amount of venture capital in that and then after being able to enter sprint was the first company that carried it People laugh at me today even though they don't exist are still in sprint customer because I'm loyal to what they did for me because they put us on the service and but they kind of changed directions after we hired we got some money they I politely they asked me to leave You although the the Aimia national payout, and but we really we still work to this day, we're the first company to ever put a moving video on a cell phone, we have one of the carriers tell us that nobody would ever want to watch a video on a cell phone.

Joshua Klooz  45:14  
What was the video? You're asking?

Steve Fowler  45:16  
Well, the boy we did a we produced a lot of room. But it wasn't. It was news and sports and we had all ESPN production. And it was, it was a lot harder than because he didn't have near the memory you have now. But we had probably 10 different programs that people watched on our cell phones that they'd never been able to watch for. So much better now, because there's cellphones in the services better. But we were the first and I left and I worked for a couple other companies out there as sort of an advisory role but as the CEO, and then I came back in 2008. And what led us back here really started with my mother in law passed away. And we all suddenly woke up and dawned on us that our parents were in their 80s. And we've been away a long time we've been away for probably close to 25 years by the end. And you know, we came home but it wasn't the same. And so we started praying about that after my mother in law passed away. And then in 2007, my brother lives in San Diego and in what was called a witch fire, his house burned to the ground. He just left San Diego in the last six weeks by the way, he rebuilt another house but and people always tell you how you know are scared to death of the earthquake. So the earth rattled one time is 14 years out there. But the fires happened every year. And we finally got to San Jose, I don't want to be a part of that. So we started praying about it, we decided we really got to leave orange and we wanted to sort of reduce our our monthly expenses because I was thinking I should do something and I was gonna say hey, I want to go be consultant I don't want to work for any more VCs or anybody like that. And we ended up praying about and we ended up coming back here in 2008. I had no job had nothing to do. Big house that was in The Woodlands area. I don't live there anymore sold and downsized a little later on. But in we I kept thinking, Well, I don't know what I want to do in retirement lasted about four weeks until I was so bored. I couldn't stand it. I play golf all the time in Southern California, it was June in Houston. I mean, you're gonna be nuts. I had no job. And so I started praying, asking God, what kind of opportunities when I'd always wanted to run a business. And I'd always thought there was some ministry opportunities. And so I kind of got to combine them and my consulting work and some of the other things I do.

Joshua Klooz  47:34  
So, transition now to day to day life. Now. You know, we've mentioned this in a previous conversation, we're big Arthur Brooks fans around here. And so he's muse, former CEO of American Enterprise Institute and his his bailiwick is human happiness and what he calls kind of a human happiness portfolio. And there's a ton of research that he's done in that space. But if he has to broadly define the what he terms that happiness portfolio, its faith, family, community, or friendship, and then meaningful work. I think we've touched on a lot of those in your day to day life right now. How are you able to maintain that sense of community and friendship?

Steve Fowler  48:23  
Okay. If I could back up one step, the number one priority, number two, number one priorities and they're tied, no, you can only have one one, but are my face and my family, the community part is harder. I left a lot of friends behind and lots of places I left behind in Houston to go to Mississippi and Mississippi to go to Georgia and Georgia to go to California and then California back here. I'm a typical guy, too. I mean, I don't need a whole lot of friends. I mean, I want to be I want to be friendly with all you guys. And I would err people I like to be around them. But I don't need a lot of close friends. And we don't need to share each other's woes and off. And, and I don't mean to be cold hearted there. But I've been I'm a guy. And in my wife's exactly opposite of that she needs she wants a lot of friends and close ones. And in my case, I make a little bit of excuses here and I apologize about that the three people in my life who are not in my family that I've considered to be my very closest friends all have passed away. The last one in his 40s and one well the guy that was the CEO at La Sadler, who was also my golfing battle buddy who did the role in Seattle and Spielberg with me passed away from a heart disease about 10 years ago now and then the guy that was the executive pastor at Saddleback, in Southern California passed away of Alzheimer's in the last two years and they were my three closest friends and so one of the things that I think is a guy we tend to do in that case is that we sort of bundle up and say, Well, I'm not gonna do that again everybody if you don't know and that's probably wouldn't invited me over here to talk for fair we become friends and you I but but I, but the way that I have managed to do that is that the bulk load of my friends, virtually all of them are in some sort of either go to church with me or in some sort of ministry with me. And then my client, my one client, I met them through our church. Now they don't go to our church anymore. My biggest client we, we make treadmills in Conroe, the biggest and toughest treadmills in the world. But the and I met them there. And I don't do a great job of staying in touch with other people. But I do try with those that are close to me. And so I think I get a lesser score on that one. And to do on the other ones. I think, from a faith perspective, I do a really good job. I'm really involved in my church and I now live 30 miles or 25 miles from my church, but I'm very, very involved in my church. And I talked to my daughters every day, and I talk to my brother several times a week and his wife several times a week, and of course, my wife, but I'm not as good at the community thing as I would like to be.

Joshua Klooz  51:03  
And the reason I bring it up is Arthur Brooks highlights on that how, as men we struggle with it, right? He said, you know, females typically are really naturally good at it. And it takes honest to goodness work for most men, especially after and the tail end of their career. So that's why he says when he sees people in their post retirement years, they move he's like, Oh, no, because now now they're graphically.

Steve Fowler  51:31  
That kind of happened to me. But fortunately, I was only in my mid 50s. When I moved here. One of the guys I know you've previously interviewed before I know you're gonna put him on. There's one of my closest friends and terrible judge of character, by the way he is that is I mean, you know, I don't know why he won't say his name other than last names. Horner but anyway, so the. And yeah, I think that's hard. And I think that it I have to be constantly reminded that it's important. And again, because, you know, I spent most of my career trying to be successful in my career, trying to be successful, raising my kids and being a good husband and a good and being a friend. But you say we have to work real hard at it. My father, the one that lived in Atlanta, that was the first one of those who passed away in his 40s We got to be friends doing something really, really hard and stupid. We were running marathons together, and I had never run more than 150 yards in my life when I decided to take up running when I was, I guess it was just before I turned 40 It's good

Joshua Klooz  52:35  
a good percentage of the population that would have said you need to find some new friends. Just kidding.

Steve Fowler  52:40  
I saw shirt the other day says people run marathons. I know they don't have to read five, by the way, I finished five. I started five days in 10 ks and, and I hurt myself and the guy that I'm talking about. I was limping and whatnot. And he made fun of me enough that for something came out of my mouth along the lines of I bet you I can finish the New York Marathon this year. And he goes on a book for me that he could finish it as well, that was back when you could get in New York anymore. And we both finished together and swapped $100 bills. But we really became close friends digging through miles every weekday and on the weekends and and it was different kind of friends that some people have my wife said, which I'll talk about us a little about every other mile, let's say Are you okay? We talked to get into miles. But the was so yeah, it can be hard. And then the guy that was telling the CEO and Ally saying are we work together and and 12345 cities started here together. Who didn't go to Jackson. So you hear Atlanta, Los Angeles, Seattle. And we had another little small role in Southern California as well in another city. So we work together five different places, but that developed over professionals. We liked each other's work and enjoy it. I had his back because he always reported to him. And it is hard. And I can other than Mark that I mentioned a minute ago. I mean, I don't have a whole lot of close friends. Now I've got really good friends, but I don't know that they're, I need to work harder at it.

Joshua Klooz  54:18  
And one of the things I think both you and Mark have in common is your emphasis on mentoring and trying to find others that that you can invest into. And so I think that counts to a degree right? Friendship, friendship, I don't think necessarily has to be someone that's in our peer group necessarily. It just needs to be part of our platoon and sometimes who's in your platoon.

Steve Fowler  54:45  
You said that because a lot of guys are friends with people and they go to ballgame for them. Well I do for teams that are outside of Houston so the people Houston Astros fans have nothing to do with me the night I went to universities for there but the Uh, I, I agree with you on that. And Mark is one that introduced me to that. And right now I'm actually mentoring two different people right now and in incredibly great experience for me. I don't know about for them. But for me it's been a great experience because of I love watching them absorb things that I think not, because what I say but because something that, you know, says that we have been tweeting, so I appreciate you saying that, but but my brother's moving back to Houston. And then well, he's actually here right now, he actually broke his hip a few weeks ago, but he's moving back. And my brother's been and my wife's been my best friend all my life. And so I got my buddy back, so that will be a little easier. Hopefully, I get a little closer and closer to losing Katie and I live in cybersecurity still part of interesting enough, he lived in San Diego and I lived in South Orange County, we only live 40 miles apart, we rarely saw. You're a

Joshua Klooz  55:54  
lot closer now. So as you as you think about the next the next chapters of life, what do you see? What do you what do you hope you had a meaningful and rewarding career and life? To this point? What do you see the next chapter, what do you see in the next chapter? What do you hope is in the next chapters,

Steve Fowler  56:21  
I think that's twofold, or maybe even threefold. But the first one is, I think the least important that is that I will continue to hopefully do some consulting work and get an opportunity to meet people. I've got exposed to some really big, powerful companies through my I got exposed to the CEO of L'Oreal consulting, it wasn't necessarily the most pleasant meeting I've ever had. But another story for another day, but and I will still do some of that I love my work with the trivial company here. And I run some roundtables here, which are for Christian business guys to try to, you know, it's not about study, we were trying to improve our businesses as well. I think the second part is about five years ago, or so I started going on mission trips. Those have been sort of cut out for the last few years are kind of our churches a little reluctant to get people over when they weren't sure they could get them back. And so, and I hope to be able to do some more of that. And it kind of coincided, interestingly enough, not the first one I went, got back, but the second and the third one point to both which works Africa, went to Kenya and went to Bali happened after I was diagnosed with cancer. And it's all I'm five years on the other side, by the way, and appears that I'm cancer free. But it's great. God is good all the time. But the I'm hoping to be able to do something like that more. The trip to Kenya was life changing for me. The trip to Honduras was life changing for me the trip to Malawi was hard in life changing 1618 hour flights, only one flight 16 hours, that's a long time sitting on airplane. But in they taught me so much perspective that I needed to have jasha I was in Honduras, and we've just been there a few hours we get there on Saturday night, we ate dinner and and on Sunday morning, we actually went church on Saturday night and on Sunday morning, we got up and we were doing what we call prayer walking and we were the church had told us places they wanted to go and we went into a guy's house and there was probably it's probably maybe 10 or 12 a whole house. And it was a tilt up. No walls, had ceilings on it had a waterwheel outside in the fireplace they used to cook and probably had to offer to people living in this house. And we asked him what we could pray for it for and I will never in my life ever forget what he said. He said, Oh, by the way, he also had a broken leg. He said, I am so blessed. I don't think you need to pray for me. But my neighbor he's not been doing well can we all go over there and pray for him. I lived in The Woodlands area at the time I lived in a neighborhood in Southern California like the woodlands where I mean you know, we're sort of unwilling left or next door neighbors have better cars than us. And we are my pasture in Southern California used to say where I live the people to keeping up with their neighbors as a recognized the Olympic sport. In the end, it changed my perspective on life a lot. And so I'm hoping that I get a chance to do some more of that. I have a really close friend that's now lives in Kenya, Kenya, and he's associated with our church over there, but we're working on pharma fields over there and trying to teach everyone I mean, as you know, even money just doesn't work. You got to give them away to keep to essence success on their own. For Arthur Brooks here. I mean, you know, these people need to just getting food is nice, but earning it's better. And we have the same things in Malawi. And I'm hoping that I can take that and I can do some other things with it. So I think that would be the next chapter. If I have one goal I want to finish really strong. And I don't know that I'm doing well at that. But I want to continue to try to do that there was a book that was written by a guy named Steve Farrar. I think he's probably still alive. And it's called finishing strong. And there was some personal things that made it. A guy gave it to me. And he wrote in the front of this finishing strong reminds me of your density of health and how strong he's finishing and submit something personally, I read the book every other year, at least, if not every year. And it talks about what causes guys like me to fail, in both our Christian life and in our real life and as pass fail for the same reasons. I mean, we're either greedy, or we've got less than or laugh or we're our pride in the way or whatever. And I am really working hard on trying to figure out how to finish as strong as I can. I'm 70 I don't know how many years I got left. But I want to run the race as hard as I can. When across the finish line. One of the things I used to do in marathons, I used to fool people to finish line by sprinting in, even though I'd probably been crawling before that, and I will, that's my vision of my life is I want to run as hard as I can to the finish line.

Joshua Klooz  1:01:03  
Steve, you've been so generous to your time and I think we're we're coming up on your your finish line for this this episode. And we're gonna have there's probably a couple other stories that we need to tease out at some point in the future. Thank you so much for joining us. It's been a pleasure. And we're so grateful.

Steve Fowler  1:01:19  
Thank you so much for having me.

Joshua Klooz  1:01:23  
Thank you again for joining us for this week's conversation. We trust that your time has left you both enriched and inspired to better invest your own intangible balance sheet. As always, we wish you and your family continued truth, beauty and goodness on the road ahead. The opinions voiced in the wisdom and wealth podcast for Josh crews are for general information purposes only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. investing involves risk including possible loss of principal. No strategy assures success or protects against loss. Guests are not affiliated with Carson Wealth Management LLC. To determine what may be appropriate for you. Please consult with your attorney, accountant, financial or tax advisor prior to investing. Investment Advisory services are offered through CWM LLC and SEC registered investment advisor. Alright, dress locally is 7080 US landing Boulevard, suite 570 Woodlands, Texas 77380

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