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the Hoel Truth Podcast
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the Hoel Truth Podcast
There's Opportunity Here
Are you able to see the opportunity that exists where you are? This week, we welcomed Warren Cook, current principal at Rushville Consolidated High School to talk about the opportunity our next generation (and everyone else in the area) has to thrive - right here in Rushville!
Welcome to this edition of the Hoel Roofing & Remodeling podcast. Today our special guest is Warren Cook, the Rushville Consolidated High School principal.
So Warren, thank you for coming in here today. And, take a second to introduce yourself, sir. Well, thanks, Bob. Appreciate, the offer to come in. I'm excited to come in and talk a little bit. as you said, my name is Warren Cook, and this is my first year as principal at Rushville High School.
I've just been absolutely enjoying the community, the school, the people, and what's going on. I'm a 30 year educator. I've been doing this for a while. I spent 23 years in a classroom, made fun of administrators when I was in the classroom, never wanted to be one. And now I can't see doing anything else. so what, the 23 years that you taught, what did, what what subjects or what what did you teach?
I taught, I taught at and I was mainly a strength and conditioning coach for many years, at three different schools. So I did a lot of that. And then, I also taught health at the ninth grade and also taught, science. okay. Seeing me in the science rooms, kind of scary, but. Yeah. So strength and conditioning.
Did you do any coaching also? Yes. Yeah, I was a football coach. I played college football at the University of Indianapolis. And then I came out. what actually got me into that was my. My head football coach in college got me a job at Greenwood High School. When I did my student teaching as a strength conditioning coach there.
So I did that for a year there. I really enjoyed that and that really kind of sport. I've always loved lifting weights and exercise and things, so but that really struck my passion for doing that with groups of kids and so on. So my very first job I was up at, Northern Indiana, Kankakee Valley High School, and I was a strength conditioning coach and, and, assistant football coach.
So I bounced around a little bit as assistant coach looking for different things, you know, try to get into that head coaching position and finally landed it at, Newcastle and spent ten years as a head football coach there. And 14 is the strength conditioning coach there. So okay. Did you come from Newcastle to come down here? No, actually, I went from Newcastle, I went I went to Richmond for three years.
I was an athletic director for two, and then I became an assistant principal at the alternative school. And then from there I got my first principal job at Union County. And then. So I came from Union County to here. Okay. So that's right a little bit. Right, Robert. So what's home for you then, sir? Newcastle. I've lived in Newcastle for 32 years now.
Okay. Yeah. Okay. Raise your family there. Raise my family there. And and my wife's from Newcastle. my in-laws live at the front of my drive, so, it's it's pretty nice. So is that a good or bad thing? It's a good thing. My in-laws are great people. They're they're wonderful people. you couldn't ask for for any to better people, to, you know, to be in your family.
No, no, I'm just giving you a hard right. Yeah. I've got I've got great in-laws, too. So, tell me a little bit about your family. my wife and I have five kids. we range from, 30, 31 down to down to 22. So we got four girls. Mackenzie's married, and, just because she's been married a year now.
Just got just got a year anniversary. my daughter, Emily is, Mackenzie lives in Tampa, Florida. She's a physical therapist. My daughter, Emily, is an emergency room nurse at Eskenazi Hospital. she lives in North Vernon with my granddaughter, Cambridge. She's pretty awesome, too, though. and then, Madison is a, physician's assistant at, Henry County Orthopedics.
And then my youngest daughter is a, nurse and OB nurse at Riley Children's Hospital. She just graduated from IU last year, and then my son's in his last year, and he's, been in wildlife biology. So they get their brains from their mothers? Yes. They do not get that from me. No, no, not at all. Is your wife in nursing?
No, my wife is actually an educator as well. My wife's 30, 32 years. She's in our 33rd year of education, and she is the media center specialist at Newcastle and is in charge of all seven libraries. So I've been doing that for a while now. Awesome. Just a lot of health care with a lot of health care. Yeah, we kind of, you know, we it's not that we steered our kids away from education or anything, but we wanted to really follow them.
They want we wanted them to follow what they really wanted to do. And they, they they my my daughter Mackenzie always knew she wanted to be a physical therapist. She got an injury in middle school, running cross country, went to PTA. They she always knew that's what she wanted to do. And now Madison, she didn't know she wanted to be a PA, but,
But she wanted to be an actor. She was an actuary. Science. She said if I could just do algebra all day and get paid, that'd be great. Wow. But, she. So they all just kind of ended up there in health care, and, it's it's been really good for them now. That's awesome. I mean, they're serving their community.
No different than you and your wife serve. You know, the communities with with education. I mean, I always I always thank and appreciative of, you know, we need educators. We need, you know, nurses and you know, yeah, the whole nine yards. So that's always and you know, kudos to you. Because I feel like sometimes as parents like we want to push our thing on them.
You know where it's like you know you don't. Yeah. The only thing that we really pushed is that, you know, do a service for others. Yes. You know, that's that's where you're going to get your biggest reward because it's not the rewards, not in the paycheck. Right. You know, the rewards in, in the work that you do. And do something of service really gives you that feeling inside of some deep satisfaction.
So that's kind of the way we push them. and we always said, you're gonna go college, right? You know, so but, but that was just a route, which is. So what? so we met at a, the FFA, put on a, I don't know, was it the green Hand? Well, no, no, no, no, we're at the speaker.
Yes. Yeah. So FFA Hoel roofing, I believe Bungie was a sponsor to, brought that speaker in, and, we just had a chance to. Yes. Kind enough to, to connect. And and I appreciated the support of seeing you there and you talking about the FFA and the supporting, missions that you've you've given them a lot of support in, which is, which is huge as an administrator in my eyes, because, you know, as an FFA member, you know, you over at the AG building, sometimes you feel like, you know, always when I was in FFA, you don't have the support of the the main building.
It was them and kids over there, you know. Yeah. So yeah, that was that was rewarding and appreciative on my end to see, you know, just the principal there supporting I, I tell you, I, I mean, I, I love the ag part of it. I live on 15 acres. We've got tillable land, and, I love the ag part of it, but what I like about FFA, I mean, you think about it, they say, okay, it's a future farmers of America.
So everybody thinks, okay, you're going to go out and learn how to tell Field and Plant and then, you know, do all that. But FFA is a leadership program. And the thing that I have noticed in, the two schools that I have been in that have had big FFA programs, there's a correlation of great kids in the school, right?
Fewer discipline issues, great kids, big FFA programs. I really think that all goes together because of the leadership that is taught in FFA, and I just love it. And I think I take the world of, of, of Mister ORM and, and Missus Wagner and you know, they're really they, they're phenomenal with these kids. Yeah. Yeah. No. And I mean, and, something that we talk a lot about as a company is legacy.
Like, what is your legacy going to look like? You know, and like Mr. Orme, I don't think he has any idea of the impact that he's made on, you know, I was just one of thousands of students that he had an impact on. And his legacy. He's going to live through this company of the impact that I'm having on my team members, you know.
So, yeah, no, Mr. Orme, I mean, it's funny because, like, when you're in high school, you want to give him a hard time and you want to tease the heck out of him. And then now that, like you older you get, you step back, you're like, okay, I can't believe you didn't kill me a couple of times. And the little punk ass teenager, the just I mean, for the impact that he truly does make, you know, just in the, just in the community and like you said, like, you know, one thing that I heard when the first year the Indiana or the National FFA was in Indianapolis, was that like, you know, you
heard like, oh my gosh, I've never seen that many kids in that small that many kids in that small of an area and no problems. Like, you know, they just said, you know, we were we were putting a roof on one year. and there was a house. The house we were roofing was an Airbnb for an FFA chapter.
And men and kids were so polite and like, and they didn't have a clue who, you know, but I was like, yeah, yeah, I started after I started asking questions or like I was like, no, I was in FFA. But that was kind of cool to see them kids, you know, and like you said, like there's just there's a correlation.
Yes, there is there's a correlation to that. And we're helping it grow. I mean, we've we're expanding our FFA program at down into the seventh grade. And we're hiring we're hiring a new teacher. So we have three FFA sponsors and three ag teachers now at Rushville. and the thing I've noticed about just in ag in general is that every button, it seems like everything starts and ends in Rushville because, I mean, I'm, I mean, I was Kassidy, Red was my FFA and AG teacher at, at Union County where she did her student teaching Rushville.
You know, we just hired a young gal where she do her student teaching Rushville, and we've got two other applicants for a job where they do their student teaching Rushville. You know, that just really says something. And and everybody will say, hey, Rushville has got one of the biggest and best AG and FFA programs in the state. But unless you've seen it in action, you really don't understand when you go to that Green Hand ceremony.
And it's just like, it's amazing, right? And so I'm really look forward to the banquet I can't wait. Yeah. No. Absolutely. And I mean and yeah, you're right. Like and when we the Rushville when I was in FFA which has now been you know almost 20 years ago that's kind of crazy say out loud, you know Rushville was, was was on that climb up to me in one of the top chapters, you know, and but it it is fun to sit there and watch, you know, the success that they've had.
And, you know, for me, like we had Kelby Roberts, that's the Indiana FFA president sitting there last, last Friday, I believe. And, you know, it was it was so ironic because her dad coached me in livestock judging when I was in FFA. And then she said that she told me the story that, we'll we are going to center Christian Church.
and our newest was born, we took her to the nursery and her and her mom was like, was was taking care of our baby. And her mom was like, oh, my gosh, is a Bob's kid. And she's like, what? And she's like, your dad used to coach in the livestock. And actually she was born. That's how old I am.
When, that year, the last year I believe that he coach, I think it was my senior year. It was it was at least my senior year. Kelby was born. And I remember her being there just in a little punkin seat you know. Yeah. So that's. Yeah, that's, you know, full circle and especially with, you know, the caliber of people that Mr. Orme and Miss Wagner are pushing, pushing out of that program like several state FFA officers in the last ten years.
and that's not by accident. No, no, not at all. And you know, earlier, before we kicked the cameras on, you said that your word this year was intentional. Yes. yeah. So, you know, as a business owner, I try to be intentional on certain things. And, I guess that this kind of flows right into Mr. Arm and his leadership because he is he I can't get him behind the mic.
Always sends it off. And I was like, Mr. Orme, I see what you're doing. Yeah, yeah. And I know you're supposed to, you know, let somebody else out. But now that the old farts going to retire on me, I want to get him on now. Yeah. Here. And, yes, you know, get him in here. So, talk a little bit about maybe the challenges or, you know, something that's coming up, you know, went to school that you're excited about.
Well, I mean, I feel like we've done so many things, getting ready for next year. A lot of things I'm really excited about. you know, we they they've done a great job over the last few years, really kind of putting things together for us to be able to offer what's called the ICC, Indiana College Core, which is 30 college credits that that kids can get.
And you can even get an associates degree, if you would get 60 credits. Well, we're pushing towards getting to be early college and be able to do that. they've done a great job with that. and what we so what we have decided when when we first came together, myself and my two assistant principals, Colin McCartan, Elizabeth Meek, we came together and we said, look, we want every kid from this school to graduate with some tools that they can use when they get out of here, whether they want to go into workforce, military or college.
We want them to fall into these categories and we want to make sure we're we look at every single one of them. Where do they fall? Are they getting the proper tools? So we realized that we needed to expand on our work based learning a lot. So, you know, we we started some new vocational programs for next year.
We've we partnered with Mayor Pavey and we've so we partner with the city of Rushville, and now we have, fire and rescue starting up next year. We have law enforcement starting up next year, as well as an EMS program. So those are three new programs that we're getting going. And that's once again into the work based learning portion.
So those kids can start gaining those tools. our our building trades class, our buildings trades class, basically principles of construction. This year there's 13 kids in there. there's 55 signed up for next year. So and it's only going to grow from there. So we've got there already got things producing that they're going to produce and line of sheds that they're going to make and be able to do these things.
They built small models this year. It's amazing. So who's who you got my attention here. So I thought I'd get your attention on that one. Yeah. I mean that's I mean, I love what I'm hearing where you're saying, you know, the kids, are they going after the workforce? Are they going to college or are they going to military?
Because honestly, 20 years ago it was I felt like the only focus from any administration, any counselor, was you had to go to college, you had to go to college. And that's the way it was for a long time. You I mean, there's kids like, you know, that I talked to every day that they just want to go.
I mean, we just hired a young man from Greensburg. He graduated last year, worked tried a job, didn't really work out. Now he's on third shift, so he's trying to get out of that. I mean, the guy has no desire to go to college. but he's looking for a job. He's looking for a career. And that's what, you know, one thing as a business owner that I'm trying to work on is,
I've got Jonathan Holzback working with us, and he's leading. So right now, my kind of my main role is general manager, slash sales manager. Keep the sales guys going, and Jonathan's coming in and taking over all the operations. My wife was handling that. my wife's a really amazing woman. but there was a lot of this going on because it's either the production person's fault or the Salesperson's fault.
And when she leads production, I lead sales. It's not a good combination. I yeah. So, that's, that's been great. But me and Jonathan talk about that, one thing that I feel like God has laid on my heart lately is, I feel like we need men leading. We need men teaching young men what it's like to love their wives, be faithful to their wives, love their kids.
And I. I mess up every day. However, like, I just, you know, I want to pour into this younger generation, you know, and lead them well. So, that that's that's exciting. just just that the administration is stepping back, you know, looking at that. You know, another thing that I've noticed is there's people that want there's people that want to stay around Rushville and find a decent paying job, you know, and, you know, stay, you know, stay in this area.
So that's always fun. So, long way to get to that. But go ahead and tell me a little bit more about the the building trades class. Well, we brought in Brett Smith this year. He taught 37 years at Newcastle. And when we actually brought him in, he started up. He was going to teach the principles of building of construction.
We knew that. But he was also he also teaches what's called, facility maintenance. And the facility maintenance program that he runs is for special education kids. Okay. So he takes our special ed kids. A lot of them are life skills kids, and he teaches them skills that they need. He teaches them how to. They clean the cafeteria every day.
they learned how to plant grass, water, grass, everything they got to do to do that. And then he builds connections around the city so that when these kids either graduate or they age out, he runs a job placement program off of it. And he was he did it for 13 years at Newcastle and was highly successful. He's got kids.
I mean, he's got kids that are bought a house. They married, got their own kids and have had the same job for 20 years. And I mean, it's amazing what he's been able to do with it. So then obviously he's he's he's also a licensed contractor and he's got a big passion for building. I think he's built he's on his eight home right now that he's built for himself.
So, he's got to be crazy because we're trying to finish our first. But he is crazy. Yeah, I don't know. He keeps telling me all the time, I'm getting too old to do this kind of stuff. I said, yeah, but you keep doing it, you know? I mean, yeah. So, But anyway, he just has a passion for the building process and the and the kids learning, and it's kind of become a little bit of a lost art.
Yeah. you know, we don't teach those kind of things in school anymore. It's like, oh, we got to get in all our math. We got to get all our science and our English and, you know, and all these things. And we get we get away from the trades. And so, he came in and I mean, it's just blown up, you know.
Yes. I mean, that that warms my heart because I just I see the importance of that. And like, you know what? I just left a job site and, you know, I've got 11 Hispanic guys up there and some people want to complain. I can't believe that, you know, you hire the Hispanics. Well, I've got 11 of them up there that show that showed up this morning, like, go find me 11 white guys that's going to get there.
Yeah, that ugly roof off today. You know. So but I, I know the importance of, you know, teaching it and of course I'm, I want to connect with him because I want to help. Yeah. Any, any way that we can be a resource to help because we've actually helped the, the Shelbyville, I think it's blue River.
yeah, the blue River. yeah, we actually, we put a roof on for them because they build a house every year as part of their, as part of their schooling. so we helped them and teamed up, and we're going to work together moving forward. So, Absolutely. I wonder if we might get to build a house someday.
I don't know, you know, you just don't know. So we just the the whole thing is just about getting better every year. Yeah. You know, you do this this year and then you figure out, tweak it. How can we make it better? How can we make it better. And you got a you got to change with the times.
You know the things change. And I mean, you know as well as I do, I mean things in construction have changed and, and so, it's just a matter of learning all that stuff and being able to stay up to date and, and roll with. And Brett does an amazing job with those kids. no. That is I mean, that is awesome to hear.
And, you know, yeah, for sure. We're going to connect. Oh, yeah. And, you know, see, like I said, see see what way that, you know, we can help. So. Yeah. And I was I mean, I was excited to see the EMS, the firefighter, the law enforcement because that is something else that, you know, one thing that I've always said for several years is something I've always felt like the Amish community does well is apprenticeship, and outside of the Union, there really isn't much apprenticeship.
And that's actually something that we're working on internally. Slower than I want to be. But, building out, like, almost our own training. So if you don't know what you want to do with life, and you like construction, like you can come in here and either take the track of learning sales and sales and construction or you can take the track of production and help in making sure the jobs go smooth and stuff like that, you know, because for us, especially in sales, I would actually hire somebody that has no sales experience and no construction experience and teach them my way.
Yes. And it's, I've got three young men that they're in their late 20s that are absolutely crushing their sales guys. And, you know, the one had a little bit of construction background and the other two zero. and, I mean, they they love it because what something I've also noticed with their generation is they don't want to be tied down in a factory, like they love the freedom of.
And I'm always like, work a lot of hours in sales, but they love the freedom, where two of them came from a factory, and they're just like, there's no way. Like we take a beating every day before we had to go back, you know, to do that. So, like I said, that's just something that we're trying to work on.
And, you know, another thing that, you know, I want to connect with and be a resource because another thing that everybody complains about is not being the higher quality help. However, there's not a lot of business owners out in with the schools trying to help. Like you know you build you know I actually the young man that we hired from the Carter County I met him last year at Decatur County, opportunity fair where all the seniors come in and here, there's booths set up, probably 40, 50, 60 employers and a few of them speak, and they can walk around and talk to people.
And that's how I met him. So literally, they bus, north, south Decatur kids into Greensburg. Greensburg kids this year, they end up in, for the juniors and seniors. Oh, wow. They asked me to speak. I can't believe I had anything worth listening about, but that was, you know, you know, and I, I just pretty much sit there and go do go do what you want to do.
Like, you know, go be productive. Like, if that's to be a nurse, like, if it's going to be a nurse, go to school. If you want to go be a plumber, like go learn the trade, you know. So, so kudos for, kudos for you. you know, you guys stepping back and looking at that just because they love the kids are going to be so beneficial or something else I'm not talking about.
I didn't even kind of, like, tee you up. How's the School of Work program looking these days? Like, How big? Because I actually, participated in that. When? Many moons ago. So. So you were you involved the ice program or. You know, it's called it's called I.C.E., which is basically, a program where kids go out, for, they go out for half a day.
They work, and I work the second half today. We're actually expanding on that as well. we have more kids involved in ice for next year than we've ever had. Awesome. but not just ice, but Julie Wainwright has become our work based learning coordinator now. Okay, so she has the licensing and everything to be able to do this, but we've also expanded on her internship.
Okay. so we want kids going out doing internships. We want kids going out and having these experiences. If they can't do the ice, then we can set them up for a period internship, 90 minutes where they want go. That's when you really sparked my interest, when you started talking about, you know, pulling people in and teaching them your way, right?
You know, and then and I've always said that there's so much more to it than just like, for instance, when somebody thinks of a, of a, a job in construction, they think, okay, I'm going to be driving nails, you know, building houses, putting, putting roofs on way up in the air, you know, and all this stuff. There's so much more to it.
There's so many more opportunities that kids don't know. So that's why we're reaching out and trying to partner. I can't believe Julie had called you yet, but we're reaching out, trying to part people and say, what all do you have to offer for our kids to come out and have that experience and, and to be able to see if that's something they really want to do and get down that avenue and they have a passion for it.
There's an opportunity right here in Rush County, right? There's not to me right here. Right. And so and, and for for some of these kids, if it's something that they, they find out they don't want to do, well, they didn't spend any money trying to do it so great. But, you know, so they can and even in an internship like coming here, you could even say, well, you don't like the sales part.
Well, let's see what you can do right here. I mean, that's just that's perfect for our kids. And that's the way that's the way we all have to be educating our kids. And and when they say that, you know, you got to get everybody in in the county involved, you do, you know, because it takes all of us to get these kids to where they need to go and where they want to go because they really they don't know, right?
They don't know what they don't know right now. You know, they they have no clue what is even out there. And and I didn't as a, as a high school kid and, you know, I wanted to go to military. That's all I ever wanted to do. My dad talked me into, you know, trying and say, if you get a college scholarship, you try to play and go to college.
And I did, and I don't regret a day of it, because it led me to where I am right now. But but, but kids need our community support. They need us. They need the school partnering with as many people out there as possible so that there getting that same language everywhere they go to. You know, when we've got a partner, let's say we got a partner with Hoel Roofing.
You know what? We speak to our kids, we know what you speak to our kids and we're both speaking the same language. So they're hearing it from everywhere. They're thinking, well, it's not just school, I guess. You know, it's that's the way life is. So, you know, I'm tired of kids graduating with just a piece of paper. Right?
You know, I'm tired of it. They don't deserve that. then they've then it's twice as hard to get get to where you want to go. So let's give them those tools. High school is going to look very different. We're going to have kids coming and going. You know we're going to we're not going to have to bus kids everywhere, but kids are going to they're going to leave the school.
They're going to get the car. They're going to go somewhere in the community. They're going to work for a little while. They're gonna come back to school. I mean, that's that's what schooling needs to be, because it's not just about college. Hey, if you want to go to college, Rushville High School has a great plan for you. We offer the Indiana College core.
You can get a associate's degree before you even leave high school. You can go any route you want to go, because we got the dedicated teachers that are very, very good at doing that. And now we're getting that work based learning going, and now we're starting to hit the hole. We're starting to get everybody now. So we got to get this whole community involved in knowing that we offer whatever you want.
And if you come in with something very obscure, we're going to find something for you. You know, we're we'll find it. You know, I'm interested in equine. Okay. We'll find a horse farm for you to work on. I mean, we'll find anything because they deserve that, right? So that's kind of education they need to have. Yeah. Yeah. No.
And, Yeah. And I mean, that's like Adam behind the camera in the mix, like, I mean, he he's a he's my media guy. You know, he's my tech guy. And there's a, you know, he lives two blocks away. We used to go to church with them like, man, my wife used to lead him in the office manager in, in small or in, youth group.
So. Yeah. Yeah, that's you know, so yeah. And that's what you know, and that's, you know, some people are like, you know, why are you trying to grow a business in Rushville? And, you know, because all I did was take the business models of the big companies out of Indy. And I moved it out here and I'm like, I want to make this, you know, we're going to we're going to make this work, you know, and I mean, I try to also say that we try to have a heart and soul also, you know.
Yeah. But it's like, you know, and like I said, for us, like one of the biggest struggles right now is, is help. I always laugh, the all three of my sales guys are from, they all grew up in Shelbyville. I was like, I can't hire a sales guy from Nashville to save my life. And we're in the process of maybe hiring one now.
So it's just it's I'm gonna get you one. I got I'm gonna get you one. So it's it's funny because, I just had an interview yesterday, but, you know, and I just, I see the, the the longer I'm in business, the more important that I see of working, you know, with the school, with the city, you know, whatever that looks like, just because, you know, you know, for me, I worked with doctor Rob Jackman.
I just, I need money to make during high school. family friend or veterinarian? You know, I knew I wasn't going in the veterinarian, but, you know, I clocked out every day and went down there, you know, my senior year, so. And, you know, there's just, there's, I mean, that I just learned a lot and really enjoyed working with him.
turned into my wife working for him before we had kids, and, you know, just that kind of stuff. And, you know, speaking of in our speaking of equine and stuff, like they're they literally are getting ready to break ground on building a small, a large animal building. I know. So that's that's cool to have that, you know, because he's really good about having college interns and high school.
He's he's got one of our high school kids next year. So we've got a young lady hooked up there and, I'm really excited about her getting out there because Jackman's got an awful lot to offer our community. So. And, I mean, you talk about somebody that gives back a lot. Yes. I haven't got his butt in the seat yet.
but he he's on it. He's on the list, and he knows we're just working. I know he's dealing with a lot because he's been talking to me a lot about that, building for probably the last six months or a year. So I know he's got a lot going on there, but. Yeah. No, I mean, like I said, like, it's to me, it's exciting to see that the school has taken that, and that you guys are you realize the importance of, you know, the whole the whole picture there.
So yeah, everybody, every, every kid that walks through that door, you know, I feel like we've got the obligation to get them where they need to go and at least give them some tools to be able to get to where they need to go. So, they can't say that they left high school and now they get anything out of high school?
Yeah, you did right. You know, we we got you there, and now it's up to you to take it and use it. And I, like you, say tools because, you know, and another thing that excuse me, we, we sponsor the, principal financial, the Dave Ramsey principals, used to be Miss Liger. you know.
Yeah. She said to have a baby on us, but, you know what? I. I always go in there. We talked to that class every year, and I always tell them, like, hey, it's been unfair. my, when I was in high school, I felt like we were. We were pushed it. You know what you want to do when you're for the rest of your life when you're 17 years old?
I always laughed and say, I'm 37 now, and I still don't know what the hell I'm going to do when I grow up. But you know, I least like, I just want to speak that into the high schoolers. Like, it's okay. Like you said, if you come out here and intern in, you know, they think they want to be in sales or they think they want to be in production.
Like, you know, you can pivot and like, you know, look at this. And like you said, especially at 16, 17, 18 years old, it did. They made a little bit of money and they figured out they didn't want to do that like that. Yeah, that's a win win. Like you figure that out before you have bills and responsibilities.
Yeah. You're a lot better off. Yeah that's for sure. But yeah. But yeah. So for sure. Miss Wainwright. Yeah, I wish she was. I'll make sure she was in contact, because, like I said, any because even, like I said, like, we've got media stuff. Yeah, that he can hand off, you know? Hey, look at this.
There you go. And, you know, we got media stuff. we're actually in the process of looking to bring on a bookkeeper in-house, so, you know, now, now we now we're going to eventually have accounting department. Now you can't you have tally of everything. Yeah. I mean, so there's there's going to be a there's going to be several opportunities there.
So that's great. what I know we've thrown a lot out here and talked a lot about different things. What is something that, that I can help you guys, that I can help with the school or help you with? Well, I mean, I know you do an awful lot for for our school, for our programs, for different things.
And I think one of the biggest things right now is to get you connected in with Mrs. Wayne, right? And get this thing figured out to become. Because you have so much to offer here for kids to be able to do some internships and things. and then, you know, besides that, just, you know, getting getting the word out to the community that, that, hey, we want to partner with everybody that's willing and we want to be able to know what everybody has to offer.
Just like Hoel roofing. And we want to be able to hey, if a kid wants to go in here, what do you think? You know, would put them in different places. And we want quality, you know, we want quality, experiences for these, these kids. So, and that's the thing I just love about Rush County, it seems like everywhere you turn, it's it's quality here, quality there, quality there.
You know, you talk about, you know, people asking you, why would you want to build a big business in Rush County? Why not? Right. Why not right. I mean, I mean, this this is a great place and it's a great place to come raise your family to to be able to, you know, kids got to understand it and graduate from high school and stay here if they want.
Absolutely. Now, you know, as a kid, as a kid, I always said, I'm getting out of town and I'm never coming back. Well, and I did. I, I grew up Terre Haute, but, but, you know, so many kids that you never forget your hometown, right? Never forget your hometown. So. And to have that ability to come back to Rust County and do something because of the experiences that you had when you were in high school is just, to me, that's,
I love that part of it. Yeah. There's, there's there's this something, you know, about a hometown of, you know, who you know is around and just. I mean, to me, that's just that's who me and my wife are. She grew up in Centerville, but still, like, that's just. We're just east central folks, like east central Indiana. So. Yeah, like, it just I mean, honestly, it's like, you know, and, you know, it's, just no matter where you go, like, you run into somebody that, you know, and like I said, there's just there's that trust of knowing who who's watching your kids or, you know, like, you know, we've got an awesome team and, you
know, we've got a five, seven, almost nine year old. And the other night. So part of our interview process is we, we go to dinner with them and our significant other and their, their spouse at the end. This because we want to ball and team with them, you know, and my dad was coming in to watch the kids and he was running a little behind like my dad always does.
So, cam, one of my marketing guys, he, he he stayed back and watch the kids. And the joke was, the kids are like, are we watching cameras, cam watching us because he's 21, 22 years old. And, yeah. So, I mean, like I said, and you know, that young man grew up in Carmel and he was attracted to work for us in Rushville.
So, like, you know, you know, like you said, why not? You know, why not? and, yeah. No, it's like I said, it's it's it's a blast and it's fun. I mean, I'm one of them that I like people telling me I can't do something so I can do it, you know, but, you know, I'm super grateful that we connected.
glad that you have the contacts, the contacts, you know, the bring in, you know, building construction, building trades. Because, I mean, that's one thing I don't think restaurant has really ever had. If they have, it hasn't been to a big a large extent. I know we kind of we're we're revamping the woodshop area and a lot of those tools we can't use anymore.
they're old now today. So we're going to slowly replace those things. we're going to actually use that, that whole facility to build barns and do different things. And, and, it's just going to be it's amazing when you see and when, when they built the models and we put them on the senior circle to, to to display, just to, to see the names that were actually on there.
These are names that most people probably said that kid's not doing anything, you know. Well, no, they're not an academic kid, but you put them in this class and they'll tell you what everything on that model is. They'll tell you what all all the pieces are called. What all the layers of the of the flooring and everything. They'll tell you it all, but.
And why? Because they like it. They love it. Yep. And that's their passion. So we so you know, we teach some math skills through using the measuring tape. I mean that's that's the way you learn it. And it's just it's just a matter of finding what they're super passionate about. And then tapping into that and making sure that we have the programs to be able to back it so that they can get that while they're in high school.
So why do you say that? last week, me and my wife and a couple of our leaders were at, a Dave Ramsey leadership event, and Mike Rowe from Dirty Job spoke. And, actually, me and my wife got our picture taken with them. But what I loved what he said was, you know. Yeah, he's doing a big push.
He's got a big scholarship. So if anybody's, like, looking, to go in the trades, like I think he said, last week they had $2 million setting in an account that they were ready to, like, practically like you apply, you're going to get something. Oh, that. So if anybody's listening that that can be beneficial. And I don't even know some of that may help with the school.
That may be worth something. The school looking into because I know he's really he understands the importance of the education too. But what one thing that he said that really stuck with me is like, you know, there's, a you got to have these guys hands on that. They're mechanical. They want to do that. So but he also is like, well, we need to also do is make sure that them guys are educated, like they're not just a stupid plumber like, you know, maybe maybe they are educated on world history or something, you know, because, I mean, sometimes the trades gets like, well, you're just a stupid educator.
You don't you don't know anything about my world. But, you know, if as trades, if we got to understand more about your world and vice versa, like, it's like you said, it's just all coming together. And that was something that he said. I can't remember exactly how he said it, but pretty much bring in, you know, bring in plumbers, electricians that actually know something about philosophy and stuff like that.
Yeah. So they're educated in that manner also. And they see that connection between their. Yeah. And I mean, just like just like for us, my sales guys, I mean, they they build rapport with the customer, like my one sales guy, he's a Star Wars nerd. And he sold this lady, and a job. And he's like, I don't think we talked about the job for five minutes.
He goes for two hours. We talked about her this and that. Yeah, and I don't Star Wars. I've never got into it. I could have I really never sold that lady. He. I mean, he was still telling me about it a week later. Like, man, that was so fun, you know, so like I said, like, but he's, he's found his gift of, you know, working with people and like you said, like there was actually a kid last year at that Decatur County, opportunity fair that was real shy.
I could tell academics wasn't the best. And I wish I could have got my hands on that person because, like, I could just see the drive in, like, you know, like in a program in a classroom to build sheds or something like that, for sure. that could, yeah. Yeah, that would I mean, it just like you said, you know, we it seems like we always have this expectation of the kids saying, you got to know what you want to do.
Well, now the state's trying to make it more difficult for us and saying, when you come out of the eighth grade, you got to figure out what you want to know to do. And then and then you got to take this pathway or this past where at this point, well, what if I changed my mind? I want to do this.
Well, it's too late. You didn't do this right, you know? So we're already we try to stay a step ahead all time. So the state's coming up with this new diploma plan. So we're literally reformatting to be able to say if a kid wants to, wants to pivot in this junior year, we're gonna make sure that we can get it done right.
And so we got a lot of hard working people that are willing to say we're going to make still make it happen for our kids no matter what they want to do, because I, I mean, 13 years old, all I want to do is ride my bike and, you know, go flirt girls and, you know, do whatever I didn't why I wasn't thinking about what I wanted to do.
I was playing sports, you know, basketball, football, wiffle ball. We were doing all kinds of stuff, and we weren't thinking about that stuff. So, kids, it seems like kids don't get to be kids very much anymore. So, you know, we want them to be able to do that. But if they change their mind, they want to pivot.
We want to make sure we have that opportunity in place for them to be able to pivot. Yeah. No, I mean, like I said, I this is a fresh breath. This is a breath of fresh air, just like, you know, I enjoyed your energy and your uplift ness and I mean your positivity when we met. And that's why, like, as soon as we met, I was like, all right, I gotta put him on the list.
And then, you know, it was something that I got done. And God knew that it was intentional, because now the building trades and all that, and you know that that's a fun part of my job. Like my what I'm trying to really do is I'm trying to, you know, work on the business, not in the business. Like I was at a job site this morning, had a little bit of fire to put out, you know, but most of the time, like, I'm trying to build relationships just because I know build a relationship with you start helping the school.
Like, how many kids can we impact? You know, there. And like, we have a young, we have a gentleman that he's he's he's our in-house labor. and, Jerry's getting ready to retire. Jack of all trades know so much like, man. Like, if I had an 18 year old kid, I'd almost make him work for Jerry for a year.
So no pay. Just because Jerry has a wealth of knowledge. Like he can change the flooring in here, change the baseboard, hang the doors, and you know, there's times I call him as the owner like, hey, Jerry, how would you do this? Like, I call him a couple times on my house, like, hey, Jerry, I want to make sure I'm thinking this through properly, you know?
So, you know, that to me that honestly, that's that's the fun part of, like, of running the business and given, you know, given the opportunities and, like you said, like it's okay to come here and find that, hey, construction start for me. Well, I gotta work outside when it's, you know, 15 degrees. Yes. Yeah. You do, you know, but, yeah, I was actually just talking to a mentor earlier, and he was talking about, like, ramp and stuff up in the summer and that kind of stuff, like his son's in college and his son is out selling like, pest control, and his son can make enough money in the summer, as he can,
with, he made enough money selling pest control in the summer to pay for his college and have livable money. Oh, wow. During the year, you know. So he was asking me like, okay, how can you bring that into your business and pipe in more people during the summer, you know, so, like I said, I, I'm all ears, like, I this is this is what gets me jacked up.
Well, you know, you know, leaving it, you know, put leaving an imprint in the, in the community. Well, you know, in the way you say your approach and my approach are actually very similar. if you're the smartest guy in the room, you're in the wrong room. You know, you have the ideas and you have these things, and you hire smarter people than you.
Yeah, you know, to get it done. And then once you get them in place, you listen to them, you shut your mouth and you listen to them and what they have to offer, and you give them the autonomy to go out and do the things that they do best. And, and that's that's always been my approach on things.
I was that I had that approach as a football coach. I had that approach as a, as a, as an athletic director. and I've got that approach as a principal, and I'm going to hire smart people around me so that I can I can do what I, what I feel I do best. And then I have these visions and then they can go and carry out those visions.
And, and I got I'm I'm extremely fortunate to have hired two great assistant principals but also inherited some unbelievable people. And and they just they want they're behind everything and they've had their own visions that they just haven't, haven't voiced. And it's like, no, I want to hear them. Let's go. There's no bad idea. Right. You know, we may be able to fit that in and really make that work.
And so I've had teachers come to me and say, I've got this idea, okay, y'all. Great. I'm all ears. Let's go. Right. And and I want to know that because, you know, they're the one the teachers, they're the ones in front of the kids every day. So if they've got an idea of how something can work a little bit better, great.
Let's go, let's, let's, let's what's the worst that can happen? Right, right. You know. Oh, it didn't work. Right. Okay. We'll tweak it and do something else. I mean, you know. Oh, yeah. You can't be afraid to take chances. You can't be afraid to fail. you just got it. Yeah. I want those driven people that are ready to get after it.
And, that's just can't see no getting me all fired up. Now I'm getting. I'm getting jacked up now. So, but I just, I and people say, you know, how do you have so much energy? How do you, you know, why are you so happy on Mondays? What's this deal? That's it. I literally wake up this way.
Right. And it took years ago. I realized that I was very energetic person as a young child. But, I really thought by the age of 55, I may settle down, but nothing's happened. So, I drive people crazy all the time, but that's okay. But I literally wake up like this. I make the choice to be this way every day.
Now, do I wake up all the time and think I'm like, no. I see everybody has their days, but I talk myself into having a great day. That's just the way I go about it. And, and, and it's not it's not fake enthusiasm. It's me. And it's the way I am at school, the way I'm sitting right here.
It's the way I am at home. That's just me. And so, I just get. I don't even know where I'm going with all this. I just got you got me all excited and fired up, and I start to talking about some things. But does your does your wife tell you to shut up and yell at the same line?
Yes. Yep. She's like, I am not even awake. Haven't even had a single cup of coffee. What are you doing? You know, so yeah, I think maybe I should start waking up and leaving the house first and then, like, having her call me, like, after she's, But. Yeah. No, I mean, and it's it's it's a joy to be around.
And, you know, that's that's one thing that I even tried to preach to my team. Like, if you don't want to show up, like, don't, don't be here. Yeah. I mean, like, you know. Yes. Like I want you to look forward. I mean, there's too many people I talked to that Sunday nights, like you're bad mood. You're depressed because they absolutely hate come Monday morning.
And, you know, unfortunately, as do we. Yes. Unfortunately as leaders, there's stuff that we have to deal with on Monday morning sometimes that absolutely suck. Yes, we're being honest. But you know, we also get that opportunity like, you know, and that's one thing I'm working on. Like it's just how I approach things and how but that leadership event, there was, a test you had to take and it was, are you warm?
Are you competent? And I scored five out of six competent, one out of six warm. And technically that one was a little iffy. It could have went to competent. Well, my problem is I'm extremely competent and not near enough warmth. My wife, of course, is polar opposite. She's completely warm and not competent. So like that's one thing I've been I kind of smack me in the face, like, okay, I need to focus on like, yes, I've got to stay competent on running the business, but I've also got to be warm, you know, and kids, you know, five, seven and almost nine year old, like they challenge, you know, you know, especially like the first
time you have to discipline yourself out of your kids. You're like, man, you know, they're my son. I love them to death. But I hear myself in him and it's scary, isn't it? Like, hey, it's scary here. Come here. You know, approach this a little different, you know? Yeah. But, you know, it's, it's it's awesome to be able to raise kids and, you know, and, you know, be part of a community and, you know, with, with good education, educators like yourself in the school, you know, and all that kind of stuff.
So I mean, it like, I, I want to help as as much as we can. I'm going to take you up on that. Absolutely. So, as we wrap this up, any I mean, you pretty much laid it out. You're pretty fired up, like, you know, so any any final remarks? Well, you know, and we talked a little bit about intention when we talked about that being like, I have a year, I have a word that I like to kind of guide myself through and just make sure that I've always got that word at my desk and thinking about it.
And just funny, you just said as soon as we sat down, because intentional is my word this year, and I believe that you've got to be intentional in everything you do, especially when you're in the leadership position. You have to be intentional and I've heard it said that you have to be intentional. The way you talk, the way you act, the people you hang around, all of that because that's what everybody else sees.
That's what they model. And in my profession of, of of education, I've got not only kids but I've got adults watching me as well. So I am pretty intentional about the things that I say. I think about it beforehand, I, I don't get I don't let things get to me personally because people get mad at situations, they don't necessarily get mad at people.
So I don't take things personally. I try to listen and then I'm intentional with the words that I give them. I'm intentional with the actions that I take and what you know, what I think when there comes change and stuff, like at to school and especially change is difficult for people. It's hard. And so what what what I'm hoping people start to realize is that every decision that I make is intentional.
It may be for next year, it may be for five years from now because there's a lot of frontloading it has to take place. But I'm always thinking years ahead. And so every move I make is very intentional. The things that I say to people, very intentional. I'm big on relationships. I like talking to people. I like talking, period.
Here I am, I love talking, you know, I can talk all day. We could go for another hour if you want. You know, we talk about all kinds of stuff, but, but I just feel like, you know, people say, man, you're really motivated. No, I'm not really motivated. I consider myself disciplined. Right? You know, motivation is what kind of get you there.
And then it's gone. Yeah. And then but I stay disciplined through the process because that's where all the fun is in the process. You know, building everything, getting everything going. Because, you know, when you're an athlete, you know, you practice and people a practice. Yeah. But that's the best part because the game that's it. When it's over, it's over.
It's like, oh man, now it's let down, you know. So that process is just what I love about about everything. And I just think life's a process. So, you know, and every kid, every kid that we have in our school deserves to have the choices that they can. They can take the processes that they want to do and the directions that they want to take in life.
And we need to be able to offer it to them. And and like I said, if we don't have it, we'll find it. Right? So that's that's just what we want to do. And we're very intentional with everything that we do. And I've tried to teach my PS the same thing, you know, but don't take it personal and be intentional and do these things and and, and it's it's work.
It's worked out. So for me so far this you know that my in my life anyway. So I feel pretty good about it. Yeah. Have you ever heard of the Four Agreements? I think so, hit me on those, so don't take it. Don't make assumptions. Okay. always do your best. Yep. be impeccable with your word.
Yeah. Don't. Against the merciful. Yeah. And don't take anything personally, because, I mean, like, if I come in here in a bad mood, it doesn't have anything to do with. That's right. You know, and, you know, same thing. If if a kid lashes out at you at school like, it's, you know, it's it's it's most likely at home, bro.
It's not at me. Yeah. You know and it's and and that's where. And I know it's difficult. You know when you're in the classroom it's difficult because you got, you got 30 kids in here. And then the next hour you got 30 more than 30 more. And it starts to, you know, things start to grade on you. But you have to be able to sit back and say, it's not personal.
It's not personal, right. You know, that. I just go with it and everything will be all right. Because education, just like business and everything, it's all about relationships. Absolutely. So you build those relationships with the kids, and they know if they're comfortable enough to come in my office and if they want to go off, they go off. You know, I want them to feel that kind of adults, kids, everybody.
We'll shut that door. And just the four walls are here and that's it, you know? And then when we leave here though, right, we're going to be all right. Yep. And so that's kind of the space I try to offer. And I want, I want our school be a safe place for kids like that to be able to, to, to do those types of things and be able to release some of those things, you know, and, I just think that, you know, the school's a hub of the community.
Right? So we've we've got to be, intentionally a great place. Yeah. So, so that's, that's real important to me. You know, I mean, as we wrap this up, I mean, I just want to thank you for your time, sir, and, honestly look forward to growing this relationship. Definitely. Yeah. Very intentional about that. And, you know, we're going to get and help the school as much as we can.
So thank you for your time. And, if, if we can help anybody here, you know, Mr. Warren there, he's, you know, if you're in high school or getting ready, get in high school. You got an awesome principal there that's willing to help out and give you everything that you can. And, you know, also know that you got a community, you know, around you, that's that there's a lot of business owners like me out there, like doctor Rob Jackman, that genuinely just want to pour in the kids in and help out.
So, we're just, you know, we're here to help because our success is your success. So thank you, sir. I appreciate your time today. Thanks for having me here, Bob, I appreciate it. It's been fun.