From Pharmacist to Auctioneer: The Risk That Paid Off

Why would someone leave a 13-year career to go back into the family business? In this episode of The Hoel Truth Podcast, Bob sits down with Jonathan White of White’s Auctions, White’s Realty, White’s Farm Flea Market, White Storage, and White Dumpster Rental to talk about family, business, risk, legacy, and what it means to build something that lasts.

Jonathan shares the history of the White family business, which started in 1922, and how it grew from livestock auctions and sale barns into real estate, auctions, storage, flea markets, and more. He also talks about leaving pharmacy after 13 years, working alongside his wife and father, raising kids in a family business, and why relationships, reputation, and doing what you say you’ll do still matter in small-town business.

This conversation also covers entrepreneurship, community connections, working with your spouse, learning from the previous generation, coaching kids, taking risks, and the books and ideas that have shaped Jonathan’s leadership style. If you care about family businesses, small-town entrepreneurship, or building a life that keeps you close to the people who matter most, this episode is worth watching.

Learn more about White’s Auctions and White’s Realty here:
https://whites1922.com/
https://www.whitesrealty.com/

Transcript

Hey, Jonathan, why did you leave a 13 year career in the world to go back to the family business?

Just had a lot to do with family, Right? Had a lot to do with the tradition and feeling the weight of those that came before me and thinking about what my grandfather would have done and what my parents have done, and my great grandfather and and mostly and more than anything, it probably had to do with with my children and wanting to be present for my children, showing them what, what working in that business looks like and, and just having them, you know, potentially someday be a part of that.

And it just has to do with family.

Welcome to this edition of the Hoel Truth podcast! Today my special guest is Jonathan White. And from White Auction and Realty is what you guys are calling it now, right? Or has it always been called that? Well, it's White's Auctions and White's Realty, they're kind of independent arms of the same company. We have White's Farm flea market, white storage and recently gotten the dumpster rental business as well.

So tell you- introduce yourself, where you're from, your family. And I'm kind of excited about this episode because you've come back in the family business from a different corporate job. So I think it'll be an interesting episode. Sure. Well thank you. I appreciate you having me excited to be here. I think you got a great thing going here.

And when you asked me to be on, I've kind of jumped at it. I think it's a great opportunity to love to sit down and talk about business, young entrepreneurs and that kind of thing. So,

I'm from Brookville, Indiana, born and raised in Brookville, Indiana, went to Frank County High School, graduated in 2000 with the University of Kentucky undergrad, actually pre-med, and walked on to the football team.

Played a year there on the kind of practice squad, JV type thing. And as I was looking into medicine, I was thinking I was going to sports medicine. Well, the more I was in a locker room, maybe at a collegiate level and not at the high school level, we were all banding together and, you know, going to be part of it.

I realized it wasn't the right environment for me. So then decided to go into pharmacy, went to pharmacy school, did my MBA at the same time as I did that pharmacy degree. So it was a dual MBA, farmed degree, came home and just sort of started to kind of get involved with the family business, but at the same time practice pharmacy practice as a retail pharmacist for 13 years at George's Pharmacy, I was in the Brookfield location.

But I'm sure a lot of your viewers and listeners have heard of George's. It's a regional brand now and they've expanded quite a bit, had a wonderful experience there, didn't leave for any other reason besides I was just being pulled in too many directions and it was time to sort of really dig in on the family business. So the family business started in 1922.

My great grandfather, Russell White, was actually had an auction barn in Rushville, and then his two sons, Stanley, and which my grandpa Bud and his brother Ivan worked in the business. And then my dad came along. I continued to work in the livestock business, expanded it to a little bit more real estate auctions and those kinds of things.

Also ran a slaughterhouse for quite some time there in Brookville. And then my wife Andy and I came along, and in that time my parents also started the flea market in Brookville, which is Whites Farm. It was originally part of the auction there in town. And then there were some, I don't know, I was a little young when it happened, but government regulations came along, said you couldn't have an auction house and a slaughterhouse on the same at the same location.

So like many things with business, you know, you think it's a problem, you think it's going to be a concern. It ended up being the biggest blessing that we could have had because they moved the flea market out of town and they moved the auction business out of town. It gave them room to expand, and it went from just a large auction, small flea market to large auction, largely market.

And in that time, they also decided to start promoting the business with live concerts. So they had some live events with Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Reba McIntyre, George Jones...

Again, I was young when those were happening, but it was a pretty cool way to grow up. So that's that's sort of I know I kind of rambled on there about where we are, what we do, whatever, but that's kind of a nutshell.

So where was the auction at and feel it was right out here? Alan Flynn owns it now. It was right on the road to Connersville, right side of town. I think the one they just tore down, the one they just tore down Doc Meyer and Doc Meyer. That's right. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Me that before they tore down, they actually cut out some of the external boards that said Russell White sale barn.

And like, our checks are, are good. You know, make sure yours are that kind of thing. So we took those boards, reassembled them, and they're on display in our auction. That's awesome. Yeah. Because I, I've always been around livestock. And when Eric Atkins ran that 25 years ago, like, somehow my dad was always looking for us to have something to do, and we would somehow end up there on a lot of Sunday mornings cleaning out them semi-trailers.

Yeah, of 4 to 5in of just pure shit. Somebody's got to do it. Yeah. That rolls downhill. Yeah, yeah yeah. So now that's, that's cool because I grew or I was born in Camden, Ohio. And it's funny, like a lot of people remember the horse sale barn, you know, like when you. Oh, I'm from Rushville. Oh, yeah. We, we go to the horse sale barn.

I mean, once again, that's been several years, but so, I mean, what we've met a couple years ago, me and my wife purchased some property, built a house, and then I've gotten to know Kenny. All bought pretty well over the last few years and, you know, so. And then we just happened to buy another property. That seems like when you guys have auctions and I go to it, my bank account gets well.

Well, I mean, we appreciate your patronage. It's good. It's good. I think, you know, to that point and you mentioned Kenny and what a wonderful kind of relationship that is there. And that's probably the thing I didn't know as a young man that I'm starting to realize this as a man in my Middle ages, that the relationships that you gain through this and you never know where that path is going to take you.

And I didn't know Kenny when I was young. And and now I consider him a wonderful friend and wonderful resource. The interesting thing about that was sophomore year of of college undergrad. I was on my way with my buddy's girlfriend to go get some beer or something for a party or heaven, and we just got to talk, and I don't know why.

It was just she and I. And so where are you from? She said, E-Town, Kentucky. I said, interesting. I said, what's your family do? Oh, my dad's an auctioneer. I said, wow, that's wild. Small world. And she said, yeah. And I said, well, what's his name? And she said, Tim Orbach. And I said, oh, there's an all black road in Brookville.

And she said, oh yeah, my whole family's from Brookville in Franklin County, in Rush County. And so, you know, it is such a wonderful small world. If you're willing to put yourself out there and find out and talk to people. So. Well, it just in business in general, just like, you know, I just I preach to my young kids like your word is everything, you know.

And like I especially in a contracting world like, you know, and it really is in a lot of different businesses, but contracting especially, nobody says what they're going to. Nobody does what they say they're going to do. Right? When it comes to the suppliers. Like, I'm friends with a lot of this, you know, a couple of supply houses and they're like, man, there's so many guys that don't pay their bills.

And it's like, well, you guys get paid well, I know, you know, and it's like, and I mean, even Tree City Metals, we buy a lot of metal off of it. And they've since switched ownership from when I started. But the one one of my subcontractors was the old owner's father that was his father in law. And I was like, he never builds me.

He goes, oh, he knows you're good for your money, he said. Because there's certain guys that they don't leave there without a check being given to him. Right. And I just, you know, and I just, I pride myself of that because, like, I mean, my dad, he wasn't I mean, you know, I always said my dad worked an 8 to 5 job and he had a side hustle before.

Side hustles were cool, you know. But he always said, work hard and be honest. And he's like, that'll get you so far in life, you. That is the essence of business that you have to be able to to back up what you say. And it's been one of the more difficult things, I think, for long term clients of our business when they're dealing me on a real estate transaction.

And I said, well, I need you to sign this contract and this and this and this. And it has gotten outrageous the amount of paperwork. And they say, why, when your grandpa and I did this, we just shook hands and I said, well, every one of these pieces of paper is is trying to keep somebody in the past.

Somebody has hurt somebody. And so that piece of paper has been introduced to keep, you know, that. And I appreciate them saying that, hey, you're going to stand by your word. You're going to do what you say you're going to do. That handshake means more than that piece of paper. But sitting here in 2026, it is something we have to do.

It's because I think the world's gotten so much smaller. I mean, we're all so much more connected. You know, when my grandpa was doing it, it was such a regional based business. Everybody in that region, everybody in that community knew one another and they could stand by your word. The more you grow, the more you begin to expand your market, the more you got to kind of back yourself up with that paperwork and those kinds of things.

So it's just an evolution of business, right?

So what is your focus on the business then? I mean, are you umbrella everything or pretty much yeah. So we do like I said we have those those different arms. My wife Andi is our managing broker for the real estate side of things. We're up to nearly 20 agents now in the brokerage.

We have offices in Brookville, Connersville and Harrison and soon come into Liberty when we can kind of get that project going. We have the building. We just need to get a little bit of a remodel done. But Andy's I mean, it's amazing to get to work with my spouse. I mean, we started dating when she was 15. I was 17, been together all through college and and two kids.

And, you know, to be able to work with your best friend and it's awesome. So she takes care of the real estate side of things, which is a tremendous, you know, part of the business. Dad and I worked together on the auction side of things and then the storage and, you know, as we've begun to grow the flea market and that kind of thing.

So, yeah, I'm more over, over arching umbrella, kind of looking at all of it, trying to help where I can to stay out of the way where I can. A lot of it's important, I think, to remember to stay out of the way when, when you're not value added and let people, you know, use their skills and, and move the move the ball forward.

So on the realty side, you're doing a lot of listings also then is that something new or not? No. Let's see.

It was about 2017 or so. Just noticed that there were a lot of relationships that we had with folks that said an auction. It's great. And I think you guys are doing a wonderful thing you're doing, but it just doesn't fit for what we need in this moment.

And I think the I read a book when I was doing my MBA, it was called The Machine That Changed the World. It was about to. And one of the most important lessons from that book is you don't tell the market what it wants, let the market tell you what it wants, and then provide that product. And the market was telling us they wanted us to list homes.

And so it was time for us to to bring that. I mean, for 75, 80 years, it had been auction only, and it was time for us to adapt and give the market what they wanted. So then we began to go more into what they call the private city private treaty real estate listing. And it's been wonderful. And the best part about that has been, you know, for 80 years it was Bud White and Stanley White, Ivan White, daylight.

It was one individual person. And at the end of the day, there's only a finite amount of people that one person can help. But now that we are helping our agents to help others, it's expanded the, you know, size and scope of the the people we can touch and the the people we can help. So it's been probably the most rewarding thing that I've experienced in my in my time doing this.

Now, that's - I just I've noticed in probably the last year, year and a half, I feel like you just see more white Realty signs up, but maybe because maybe because you're getting up closer to Rushville, Connersville, you know, the carnival expansion has been a big part of that. And, you know, it's interesting. I love I love Connersville and I, I grew up in Blooming Grove, so which is on the north side of Franklin County there.

And Russell White came from, which is in Fayette County. So we we have a connection there. And when we were kind of looking at expanding our market, I looked at I pulled our data off of our mailing list, and I did a kind of sorted it by zip code and that kind of thing. We had as many clients from Connersville as we did from Brookville, just more people, obviously.

But I said, you know, again, when the market's telling you they want something, you need to provide that to the market. And so that's that expansion. Connersville has been phenomenal. I love the culture there. I feel very comfortable in the community, and we'll be at the forefront next week with a booth set up and just trying to be out there in the community.

Yeah. And I mean, and that's, you know, that's another thing you say, just like connections and everything, because we're we're currently doing a fairly large roofing job for roots. And my wife's had two uncles that work there. My uncle worked there. I mean, I remember going to visit my uncle at work with my aunt, you know, so like it's, you know, and then you show up and then the head maintenance guys, like, you know, telling stories on my wife's uncles, you know what I mean?

It's just it's just it always it always cracks my sales guys up. I've got three sales guys from or from Shelbyville and Nixon with me, like five and a half years. And that poor guy, like, people asked him if he's my son. His last name is good, but like, he's like, everybody freaking knows you. Yeah, he was up.

He was up by Muncie. And it was a guy that I used to work with. And unfortunately, we lost him a cancer last year. But he goes, my, my sales guy had no idea that. I mean, I used to work. We used to have the same job at the same company, like we worked together, you know, and when I did environmental consulting and so Rogers's name, we signed a contract gives deposit.

He's like, hey, so is Bob going to be here? Is Bob going to be doing this repair? Nick kind of looked at him and he's like, no. And then Roger's like, was Bob going to be here? He's like, I can't say that he won't, but I can't promise that he will. And at this point, he still has no idea if this guy knows me really well.

Right. And finally goes, does Bob do any damn thing? And then and then Nick's like kind of look down and he goes, I worked with Bob for like six years and he's like, oh. And like, man, I never know. Like I mean around Rushville, he expects it. He goes, I got the Muncie. I didn't expect the guy was going to know everything.

I mean, the guy was at my wedding, you know what I mean? So but isn't that the beauty of our community, of our southeast Indiana community, that there are those connections and they mean something to people? You know, I get that a lot. I get that a lot at the market where people want to pop in and they knew this person from, you know, down the line or whatever.

Well, you know, it's ironic and we're going to have to talk about that book off when I get down or have you text it to me, but it's like, that's what started this company for us was I was working for a couple of big companies out of Indy, and I, I've always wanted own my own business from when I was little.

I, you know, bailed. Hey, I mean, no way to work harder and make less money in your entire life. But it taught me a lot. But it just everything fell together. And, like, then I kind of realized that once I started doing construction. The funny thing is, I went to Cincinnati State for college. My stepmom worked at the Harrison Branch, so I got free tuition and my dad's like, you're going to college, you're going to college.

He goes, I don't care if you go to university, but I want you to go to an associate's degree. I was like, well, this is kind of dumb not to go to this school. If all I got to do is pay my feel to get there and, you know, some tech fees and stuff, and my dad's like, I was like, I want to do construction management.

He's like, why don't you get the same degree? I got environmental engineering because my dad was like, he was afraid I was going to go do like, road construction and not have a life, not be around for my family. So it's this kind of ironic how I eventually ended back in construction and, you know, but I also enjoyed that the environmental years, like, I'm not cut out for that kind of work because too much of it is just, I mean, government bureaucrat crap.

We'll leave it at that, you know. But it's but still the cool people that that you met, you know. But yeah, we every time I sold a job out this way, the big companies I worked for, they would they would complain like, oh, we got to go to the field, put a roof on. And it's like their money spends the same way as that was probably one of the most important lessons I learned growing up was how we all deserve services.

We all deserve to be treated with respect. I had a friend that was over to the house in high school, and I tell the story, and we were sitting there and he he disparaged another community in the county, and he was talking badly about people from this town. And my dad stopped and put this fork down. I mean, I can close my eyes and remember it.

And he said, you better be careful. And my friend was like, what are you talking about? You know? And he said, you better be careful, he said, because the way you're speaking about them is how others are talking about you here, here in Brookville. And it's how other people in, you know, what other community, he said. You better know that everybody deserves respect and everybody's got their own story to tell.

And I think it's wonderful that you say that. And again, it goes back to the culture of our little area here. I'm just so proud of the culture and the way that people bind together and take care of each other and, well, just and and also like there was a classmate of mine and, you know, my graduating class was like 170 people.

So it's not huge, but it wasn't real small. And my wife went in to help with fair cleanup after the fair the other day. And she walked up. And my wife, I'm going to try to say this as nicely as I can. My wife's not. She's I I'll reach out and say, hey, Jonathan, you sit down and do a podcast like she'll talk to you, but, you know, like I'll reach out a little more.

And so, like, she's not the best at, like, this, going up and striking up conversations like she's there to do something, she's going to do it. And, you know, and this girl walked up to her was like, hey, she's like, hey, I'm so-and-so. I graduated with Bob. She's like, it is so cool to see, like your business be so successful and like, yeah, like for to me, like, we just started.

I wanted selfishly, I wanted a better life for my kids. That's why I started. And then I hired this person. And then, you know, this person moved over here and, like, you know, and like, I looked like sometimes I got to step back and like, Holy cow, the amount of revenue we do in a year, the amount of people that, you know, eat through this business, you know, and it completely in a humble like, thank God.

Like it's it almost scares me more than, oh, look at me. Like I'm not trying to say that. But if you would have started with the idea of I want to grow this thing to this wonderfully success, I maybe wouldn't have been successful. You got to grind it every day, and it's the everyday little bit of grinding that adds up and builds into what the outcome you want it to be.

Well, and it's the team. It's it's it's Adam that has this talent that's so cool that the crazy thing is two people in this building that's been with us, not the absolute longest, but quite a I mean, there, there. Adam will be your fifth year this year in a couple of months. And then Ellie is a little over four years.

They were a part of youth group, and me and my wife used to volunteer and help at church. That's awesome when we first got together. But you know. But Adam, he went to school. He has this technology mind. And it's cool to employ somebody from this area for the job that he gets to do. And like he thoroughly enjoys doing the podcast, doing Small Business Spotlight and like to me that's the fun part.

And you know, and I remind my wife, it's like, and I even tell her our, our team like, hey guys, we've got stuff to do today that's going to impact in 2 or 3 years. So when we hire because we kind of never hired Adam five years ago, if we hadn't started nine years ago, you know, and you know.

So yeah, I mean, it's the small community, like a lot of people, you know, custom. But it's like to me it's like, no, this is what you know, my wife was raised around Centerville. Like, this is what raised us like this. This is who we say it often. I live here because I want to live here, right? I mean, this there's nowhere else I'd rather be raising my family.

And you know, when you have a shared history and a built in history with all the people in your community, this is it. Well, because, I mean, I had people say, oh, you can't grow a roofing business in Rushville, like you're going to have to go to Indy and start one. I'm like, I love doing work in Indy.

When we do work in Indy, do not get me wrong. But that's not I mean, I'm raising my kids in Rushville, you know, like that's just, you know, that's that's who we are. So but no, I, I appreciate it. Tell that little story or tell the story more of like when you when you stepped away from, you know, the pharmaceutical world because like, I mean to me on the outside.

I'm like what? It was carried off Jonathan. Like he was you got an established business that you're stepping into, you know. Right. Well, okay. So, I was finding I was leaning on the other people in the pharmacy a lot because I was I coached football coach, my son's youth football team. This is our sixth year, but I've been coaching since first grade, and it was a lot I would have to say, hey, can you cover this weekend?

Can you cover that? And I just started to feel like maybe I wasn't pulling my weight. And you're right, it's terrifying because you're walking away from this. Guaranteed. You know, I've had people say, what's wrong with you? You went to school nine years to get this degree, and now you're walking away from it, which I still keep my license active, and I'll go help them every once in a while if they need help and that kind of thing.

But, I don't know if we're allowed to cuss on here. Like I said, it was like, there's a there's a quote from Parks and Recreation and Ron Swanson said, don't half ass two things. Whole last one thing. And I felt like I was absolutely half asking two things, and I wasn't thriving in either of them because I was trying to straddle both sides of the fence.

But the decision was tough because you're walking away from guaranteed weekly paycheck, you're walking away from guaranteed insurance and all those things. But if you don't take a risk, you're not going to get a reward. And the time that I've had been able to invest with my kids and I told the I told the folks at George's, I mean, Blake Gilman's a wonderful man.

I would, you know, so proud to have gotten an opportunity to learn from him and work with him. But I told him when I left this, not me being mad about the business or anything that we're doing here, I need to be there for my family. And so now I get to work with my dad, I get to work with my wife, I get to beat at absolutely every single thing my kids do.

Is there more risk involved? Sure. There's more risk involved, you know, but if you don't take the risk, then you're not really going to know what's going to be on the other side of it, you know? And and one thing that I, that I appreciate now, I mean, my dad raised me as a single dad and, you know, a lot of headbutting as boy, you know what I mean?

Like, and, you know, my dad did the best he could like, you know, I think everybody as a teenager is like, oh, you suck as a parent. And then you become a parent and you're like, oh shit, I do suck at this, you know? So but it's fun. Now that just my dad's mellowed out, I've matured and like, he'll come in and help.

Like, he's running trailers right now so I can be in here and he gets me around my kids. He finally retired a year ago or nine months, whatever that was. And like, I enjoy, like I'm actually going to have my dad help me kind of manage building the new office. Just I want to be able to do that.

I want to be able to look back and like have them memories and, you know, and, and and there's a lot of long hours in what we do. But like being around our kids and being like, I tell my kids, it's like, you guys, you have no idea. Like how how a lot of kids don't have their parents, like, you know, I mean, one of the greatest lessons I learned was the way.

And this played a lot into my decision to leave the pharmacy as well, the way that my the retirement that my dad gave my grandpa and my great uncle, those guys were involved the whole time, all the way up till the end. My grandpa Bud lived to 85, 86 years old. He was still at sales every week. He was still involved.

My dad made it a point to make sure that he was still involved, and still knew that he was an important part of the business. I realized in the pharmacy that I was asking way too much of my dad, and I wasn't going to get to give, you know, give him or be able to participate with him in the end of his career, which is, you know, what?

He's approaching. We all get there. Right? So to I love the story you tell about the generational aspect of that. And my dad likes to say, you got to watch your parents work. That's important. You know, yes, we were there for everything. But you also saw us work and learned how to work because you saw us work. So it was it's been a wonderful lesson I've learned, and I hope it's something I can continue to pay forward and do for them as well for the next general.

Are your kids my daughters, 15 and sons 11. Awesome, awesome. Yeah, yeah. You know, and also, like, I didn't realize you worked with your wife until you said that. Like, to me, I always say that's the greatest blessing and kind of a curse. I mean, the worst problem here is I'm in charge of sales. She's in charge of operations.

Okay? So, like, sure, some days I wish she was, like, in charge of marketing. And I was in charge of operations that, you know, they don't they don't overlap as much, you know, but like, once again, like to spend that much time with your spouse, you know, we've been married 15 years, which seems like it's flown by. But then you step back and you're like, oh my gosh, like, how dumb were we 15 years?

You know, I mean, we knew each other for a few months. We got engaged a few months later we got married, you know, and so, you know, fortunately, my wife is like always been a big supporter. And, you know, like, my wife's the hardest working woman there is out there. Like, I mean, there's she was at apartments until 8:00 last night cleaning it up.

We did some we went behind another contractor for some part in Richmond. We'd done the roof and they're like, man, we're struggling getting these interior stuff done. And they're like, you guys are so great to us on the interior or on the exterior, on the roof. So like, like I said, but you're building that with your spouse. Your kids are seeing that, like, I mean, there's, you know, more is caught than taught, you know, and our board meetings happen at the dinner table.

I mean, I still vividly remember the evening that she told me she wanted to purchase the building we're in now for our Harrison real estate office. And she showed it to me and I said, you are nuts that that is that place is old and decrepit and needs work. And but that's everybody needs to know their shortcomings. I really struggle to see a vision like I can see a finished product.

And I said, well, that's very nice, but to see a vision is tough for me. And we were at the dinner table, kids, kids right there with us. And she said, this is the building, this is the place, this is the spots going to be great. And so we talked about it, came to a decision, purchased it. And I am so proud of our Harrison office.

And she was right. It is. It is a cool cool building. It's an old build if you're ever driving down in what they call historic downtown Harrison on Harrison Avenue, just check it out. It's a it's a really neat old building and we're very, very proud of the office. And if not for her vision and her insistence at the dinner table that we make that happen, we wouldn't be in that building.

Well, so that's funny you say that because the building we're in currently, we were looking for an office space and like there was nothing in Rushville at that time for like, sale for sale, really. There was a couple, the one building like I had, I was like, we could do this, we can do that. We'll make it work.

And she's like, no. Literally part of it fell down six months after she said that we weren't buying it and there was no parking there. Like, you know, like I wanted the building bad enough because I knew we needed it. And then she's like, but what are we going to do about this? I was like, well, we can buy this house behind here.

And she's like, okay. And like, I was like trying to make it happen. And you know, they Dave Ramsey always says, like, if your wife has a feeling, you better trust it because he says every time that he's went against Sharon's feelings, you know, it's cost him 10,000 or more. So, so but this was like everybody was like, oh my gosh, this is such a nice office.

And I'm like, yeah, you're right. Thank God. My wife was like, I listened to my wife and like, I mean, I was a couple times I'm just like, I was like, I'll listen to you, but I don't want to. And then I ended up reaching out the guy that because I was calling people that had buildings like they're really, really wasn't even anything like listed for sale per se.

And then, you know, well, I don't know, I may sell it to my nephew and I'm like, there was one building that sold that's not been touched in four years, over four years, because I think we've been here in most four years. And so, yeah, like I said, like it's it's for me it's so rewarding, you know, but it's also for me like I look back at like say my dad raises as a single dad.

My dad remarried. I won't go into that situation at all. But like, I mean to be able to work with my wife and build to build the life that we've been able to build, you know, and it's just. And your kids are seeing it too. Yeah. You know, and she Andy is a wonderful partner. And my kids see it too.

Right. And they not only do they see their mom and dad be a mom and dad and be a husband and wife, but they also see them be business partners. And and the way that those conversations evolve, we don't just go to the other room and talk about it. We'll just have, you know, have the dialog right there.

And I think they're learning a lot from that, too. So it's a generational thing as well. So what what are your kids interested in doing? My daughter is very much about the rules. She she is she she believes in the rules and believes the rules should be followed. So she's on a she begins her freshman year of high school this this fall and she's on a track I think she would like to do law and with an intent to go into like the judiciary branches of law to kind of decide this is the rule and that's the way it should be.

Our son is just an amazing character. You know, he he, he could talk to anybody and is in lives life with such a joyful, you know, spirit. I have no idea what he's going to do. I mean, maybe he'll come work with Andy and I and maybe he'll go to the moon. I don't know, like, he's a really cool kid.

And and we have a history of having exchange students from Mexico. There's a certain family there. That part of me my dad formed relationship with in the 70s. And so we've had generations of that family come stay with us. And one of the the third generation stayed with Andy and I 4 or 5 years ago, I guess would be about eight years ago now.

And the night before he left, he was 17 year old kid and he was kind of depressed and down. I said, what's wrong, man? He said, I just don't know what I'm going to do with myself. I don't know what I'm going to be, I don't. And I said, well, first off, you're 17, you'll figure it out. And I said, and the second thing is, you have the ability to form relationships and talk to people and care about people.

Like empathy is such a gigantic part of success. And I said, don't worry about it. You will figure it out. Find something you're passionate about, do it every day and it will build into something just like you've made in your business. Found something you're passionate about. You did it every day because you're passionate about it. It just so happened to grow into a very successful enterprise.

And so I think getting back to what does my son want to do? He'll be fine. Like, I know that no matter what he lands on because he he has empathy, he has a big heart and and he doesn't mind working hard. I think you put those things into a package. It's going to be fine. Success will be there.

Yeah. And I mean, and kids are so fun like mine are seven, nine and 11, you know, and it's just to see how different they are. Like my oldest is my boy and I mean, he's he's all boy always trying to tear up something, you know, tinker with something can convince me we should do this or that. And, and then my middle one is like just she looks just like my wife, but.

And acts a lot like her. But she likes to talk like me and and like she gets up in the morning talking and my wife's one of them that like, she, she would commit murder about the first 30 minutes that she's awake, even doing her own children. So like, you know, and she's like, oh my gosh, Reagan this and you know, and I just I start laughing and then, you know, and then my youngest one, she does it.

She's a girl, but she does anything whatever her older, her brother wants to do. Like it's I mean, they beat the freaking tar out of each other every single day and they enjoy it, you know? And like this morning when I ran over the Connersville to the roots job, like my oldest, my young's, they were in the truck with me, like, you know, Riley's like, well, if it's going, I'm going.

I was like, what are you going for? Like, your brother's going to go help grandpa unhook and hook up trailers so grandpa don't have to get out of the truck 20 times, right? She's like, I just want to go with my brother. I was like, yeah, I know Riley. Well, that's awesome though. I mean, I don't know, as a parent, that's what we want.

I mean, the, the, the number one, I mean, gosh, the drive of my life is to, to try to have my children have a relationship. And, and I tell them a lot like, look, we're going to be gone someday, like you guys are, are what you got and take care of each other. I love the story of your son from the most recent sale we did when when you said Emily knew that, that you had some intention to buying it, but you could kind of talk about what?

Yeah, yeah. So we buy the property to build a new office. And Rhett decided to text. His mother said, dad bought it, right? And I was like, and I didn't realize that till after the fact. I will understand someday, I think when he's married, that maybe that some things need to come from next time, buddy. It's not buying a four Wheeler at an auction or an old truck or something like we bought the property, like, but he's he had just got that phone and he liked the text and he and he was excited about it.

Yeah. And and I love his heart for his mother and like, it truly brings me great joy because my mom left when I was too, so like, I this sounds weird when I tell most people this, but I it's almost like. And I've had, I've had women's step in there and fill that void, don't get me wrong, but it's almost like I didn't have a mom.

So like just to see like his heart for like because literally last night I dropped him off to feed calves and I had to go pick up a dump trailer. And I texted my wife and she's like, I'll call you here in a minute. I'm on the phone with her. So like as soon as I drop them off, like he had to call and chit chat with his mom.

So like, and my mom's such a or my mom. My wife is such a good mom to the kids that like, you know, I'm just, you know, and we're like every other parent that owns their own company. Like, she's really hard on herself. Like, am I doing enough for the kids? Like, am I too involved in the business?

And I'm just like, honey, I don't think it's bad for the kids to see us grow and build this business because they get a lot of luxuries that from this business. I was like, and it's okay, because like, my fear is like, I don't want to I don't want to raise a trust fund kid, like, you know, like me and Emily grew up very poor, very, very, very humble beginnings.

But I don't want to be one of them parents. It's like, well, you got to start from the bottom like I did, kid. Like, why not set them up on their shoulders and point them right so they can even go for, you know. Right. That's just kind of that's my mindset on that. But but again, going back to the way that I grew up, watching mom and dad work, right?

That's so important because I think the kids realize it doesn't just appear like you have to work for it, and you got to put the effort in in the time in. So it's good raising a family and a family business. Not a lot of people get to experience it. It's a it's super, super rewarding. Yep. As we as we finish up here, any other good books.

Because I love a good book. And as soon as you said that, I was just like, I got I got a chat with him. So before we got started here, you know, you and I were tired of talking about the working out and those kinds of things. I, I don't know when some guys hit 40 years old and they try to go buy a Corvette, some guy, you know, I decided I need to get better and and further myself with reading.

And so I dove into some books. If you're familiar with an author named Simon Sinek, Simon Sinek is like my Yoda. I mean, everything that got like the way his outlook on things of of trying to build others up and trying to build cultures like that. Anything. Written by Simon Sinek. Leaders Eat last, you know, the infinite game.

Those are both two that I really probably try to read once a year and try to pass on to my football players and my little boys. I mean, they're only, you know, ten, 11 years old. But I oftentimes tell them, you know, like these, you can't just depend on what's on that scoreboard. Like we're playing the game of getting better every day, working every day, whatever the outcome is, it's what you earned, right?

My daughter was getting ready for a math test once, and she was kind of stressed out about it and worrying kept asking me, how am I going to do? I said, finally, I said, you're going to get the grade you deserve. And she said, what do you mean? I said, if you work hard and you study, you get a good grade.

If you don't, then you won't. And she goes, well, that's really simple. I said, yeah, you get the grade you deserve. It's fine. Mark Manson has a couple books. Subtle Art of Not Giving a blank is a is a wonderful book. I mean, there's some there's some touchy stuff in there. I probably wouldn't recommend it just for just anybody because the language is pretty raw.

But, you know, he talks about choosing your pain. You can't you can't avoid pain in life either. You're in either you're going to go through the pain of of going to the gym or working out, or you're going to go through the pain of being in poor health. You're either going to go through the pain of working really hard and trying to make a good living, or go through the pain of not having all the, you know, material things in life you'd like to have.

So I think Mark Manson does a really nice job. And finally, Adam Grant, Adam Grant wrote a couple that were wonderful. He wrote one book called Give and Take, which is kind of the thesis of that is you raise yourself up by helping others to write. And ever since that I read that book, it was impactful on me and things like this.

When somebody calls and says, would you come on a podcast? Absolutely right. I mean, because making relationships and getting just the chance to sit and talk with somebody, I'm getting as much out of this as the viewer or you guys or whatever. So it's important, I think, to keep those things in mind that, you know, we can improve ourselves by improving others.

So yeah. Adam Grant, Simon Sinek, think about the one I was recently reading. Andy just finished Sam Walton's book. We're trying to travel to every state with the kids. And where do you go in Arkansas for for a tourist attraction? It's got to be Bentonville and go see Sam's original five and Dime. And there were so many lessons that she discussed with me out of Sam's book.

A lot of what you just said on about fears, about what do we do with the next generation after we've had a little bit of success, and I think you'd enjoy that one too. So this has been wonderful. I'd welcome the opportunity anytime. Sit down with you, Bob. Whether it be here in front of a microphone or sit in a coffee or a bar or whatever.

Man. So it's been wonderful, Adam. Appreciate you too. It's been very good. Thank you. Yep, yep.