The Wealth Blueprint

Family, Faith, and Future: How Victoria Whitehead Is Shaping Lubbock's Development

• Addison Thom • Season 2 • Episode 2

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When Victoria Whitehead was just eleven years old, her father had a heart attack that changed their family's trajectory. Recognizing the precariousness of their situation, he established a forward-thinking estate plan that gave each child ownership of semi-trucks and trailers leased back to the family business. This early entrepreneurial education would shape Victoria's approach to both business and family planning for decades to come.

Now an attorney, policymaker, and CEO of the West Texas Home Builders Association, Victoria brings a wealth of experience from working at both the Texas Legislature and in Washington DC. Her journey reveals the stark differences between policy-making in these environments and why the Texas approach tends to foster more collaboration and practical solutions.

What makes West Texas special? It's a question that weaves throughout this conversation. Victoria articulates how Lubbock's growth stems from more than just business-friendly policies and tax advantages. The region offers a unique combination of economic resilience, affordable housing, strong infrastructure, and most importantly, a community that genuinely cares about its future. Unlike larger metropolitan areas where posturing often replaces action, Victoria describes how West Texas maintains its "cowboy spirit" – a commitment to hard work, integrity, and reinvesting in the community.

The discussion also explores Victoria's innovative approach to estate planning for her own children, her leadership philosophy centered on purpose rather than accomplishments, and how she manages the delicate balance between professional ambition and family life. For anyone interested in community development, family wealth planning, or understanding what makes certain regions thrive while others struggle, this conversation offers valuable insights from someone who's both shaping policy and living its results firsthand.

Addison Thom:

Welcome to another episode of the Wealth Blueprint. Today I'm honored to have our guest as Victoria Whitehead. Victoria is an attorney, a policymaker and the CEO of the West Texas Home Builders Association. She provides a lot of insights on the growth and expansion of Texas and West Texas in general and some of the changes we can expect to see in the coming years. So I hope you enjoyed this episode. Please welcome, victoria Whitehead.

Victoria Whitehead:

And then nine times out of ten. It's not good. I'm like. This is why you're getting headaches. You're not drinking enough water, You're not getting enough protein or nutrients. He's like well, one nugget's good like no, it's not.

Addison Thom:

How old is your son?

Victoria Whitehead:

six and three.

Addison Thom:

The oldest is six I have a six, three and two. Oh nice, you're old and we're working on girls right now.

Victoria Whitehead:

I have all girls. Okay, yeah, I have all girls.

Addison Thom:

Okay, yeah, I have all girls Uh, but my IVF, our IVF, my IVF doctor, my wife's it could be yours.

Addison Thom:

I mean, I'm represented by them, but they, they belong to my wife, yeah, um. So they called yesterday. We've been waiting. So we got like eight eggs or 10 eggs, sorry, and sent them off to be tested and all that stuff and I've got six boys all healthy and four girls all healthy, so all 10 of them are viable. I'm like, should I go for 10? Should we just do all 10? My wife was like no, we'll have to get surrogates if you want to do that. But we wanted to have a boy. So that was the whole plan and the healthiest one is a boy. So I'm very hopeful about that.

Addison Thom:

You got to even the playing field in the house a little bit.

Victoria Whitehead:

Yes, I'm the only girl of four boys. So I think the dynamic of like all one gender and then one other is pretty it's a pretty fun dynamic.

Addison Thom:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. What was that like growing up with your? You have three brothers. I have four brothers. You have four brothers. Okay, what was that like? Are you the youngest? I knew how to fight really fast.

Victoria Whitehead:

Yeah second to the youngest. Okay, yeah, but, um, I thought it was great like I I grew up, I think, having a, an environment around me where, like I was, I was raised to be tough and I was raised to be, like, confident and, um, I had to make sure that I could hold my own, um, but also like I had the biggest protectors in my corner, um, but it was great. And like we range 47 to 31. So, like I was, you you know, in elementary school, with a cool brother who played for hereford high school's football team and so it was just cool like dynamics yeah, um gives you like an elevated status in school a little bit.

Victoria Whitehead:

Yeah, like you don't mess with me, I've got a guy who's a lineman on the high school football team as my brother.

Addison Thom:

I'm sure dating you in high school was probably a scary proposition. She's got four brothers.

Victoria Whitehead:

Just a little bit, a little bit.

Addison Thom:

I had all sisters. I was the only boy.

Victoria Whitehead:

Okay, so that would be your dynamic.

Addison Thom:

Yeah, right, okay.

Victoria Whitehead:

How many sisters?

Addison Thom:

I have two sisters, but then I had three stepsisters, okay yeah, so I was in a house with all women and then, when my mom and dad got divorced, she left my dad and got into a gay relationship. So I had two moms and then five sisters total. So that was insane.

Victoria Whitehead:

After I had my first and we had two boy dogs yeah and like I really wanted a girl, because in my head I was like, okay, if I have a boy and a girl, then I solidly know we're okay to be done. Um, but came up with a boy, which absolutely love him. Uh, but I sat there and like jeffrey got so mad because, like the next week I was like going to home, I'm gonna, I need a feminine up my house, like I need like soft curtains.

Addison Thom:

Like when got a bunch of day course that?

Victoria Whitehead:

no, I didn't, because I was like now I know we're having a boy and it's like a boy fest in here I need to like make our house have a little bit of a feminine appeal to it because, I don't know, my style is like very modern, um, like woodsy, I don't know, modern wood, earth. But I was like we need here's some flowers, like we're going to put some flowers on the wall to make it girly, because this is the only girlies that I have.

Addison Thom:

Yeah, my house is very girly, and so I just stay at my office the whole time. I light candles that smell like tobacco and leather, and that's mainly as it gets.

Victoria Whitehead:

And you're in financial planning.

Addison Thom:

No, real estate development.

Victoria Whitehead:

Real estate development, yeah, so do you have specific areas of your portfolio where you're like this is girl A's wedding plan, this is girl B's wedding plan. Do you plan business-wise? That is a great question.

Addison Thom:

Yes, I do, um, so I set up companies for each one of my kids and I own property in all of those companies for their benefit. Basically, um, and yeah, that's like their college savings plan, but like another reason I set up this podcast and like the Instagram channel, and all of that is because you can actually like. If your kids are on you know camera and on your Instagram account, you can pay them up to $15,000 a year. Oh, yeah.

Addison Thom:

As like a marketing fee or, like you know, modeling or whatever. And so I started doing that so that one I could teach them how to manage money and then also, like, once they have money in there, they're going to have to make a decision on where they go to college and how to pay for it, and it's going to come out of their own money. And then, from that 15,000, you can contribute $7,500 a year to a Roth IRA and so that can grow tax free, um, and whatever they invest in.

Victoria Whitehead:

We do that, um, and that we had started that with my six year old, when he was four and when I was working with our financial advisor last year so son would have been too I was like hey, I mean he picked up sticks at the ranch, like is that not work? And she goes yeah, it does work. I was like solid 15 grand a pair, like yeah.

Victoria Whitehead:

But when I grew up in Hereford big ag feedlot area, my dad like I think he had heart attacks when I was 11. And so he had this like realization that, oh crap, like we have a small family business it was a trucking company at the time, okay, and he was like if I died, you guys are literally screwed because no one else knows how to run this business. Yeah, so he was on this huge mission of getting everybody set up, but basically it was like a wheel and spoke type system for a family business where he owned the trucking logistics company, for a family business where he owned the trucking logistics company. And then each one of us, even at 14 to 17, owned semi-trucks.

Victoria Whitehead:

We all had semi-trucks and trailers and we leased those back to the family business that then operated it, which helped from a financial security perspective if you had issues with one of them or different things. That's what helped pay for my undergrad. I went into undergrad with three semi-t semi trucks and two trailers. That made revenue that I didn't have to necessarily manage because I leased it to the family business. Um, but a huge passion to make sure. Like hey, I'm setting you up with your own little company so that you had income streams and didn't have to necessarily go waitress throughout college.

Addison Thom:

Yeah, that's genius. So you're an attorney, right? Yeah, so you went to undergrad, and then did the trucks pay for law school too.

Victoria Whitehead:

No, law school was more expensive than the trucks and at that time I decided I was like, on this mission of, like I'm going to go do my own thing, so I sold them, Sold them so that I could kind of help fund. I actually went to law school because I wanted to work in policy Um, in undergrad I had worked two legislative sessions and worked in DC Um, so that's free labor in many instances. So wanted to go that route but, uh, ended up doing debt for law school One of the worst decisions I've ever made on the debt side of things. But wanted to go for policy and so had to kind of fund working in government, which is sometimes very poor.

Addison Thom:

Yeah, you need some like rich benefactors to really make that work out what was that like working in policy in DC, like seeing how the you know the sausage is made, so to speak.

Victoria Whitehead:

Absolutely loathe DC, so I had worked in Austin for a season.

Addison Thom:

That means you're a good person, I think, the fact that you hate Washington DC I say that about people that hate Los Angeles too I'm like, oh, you're probably a good human being. Well, I mean, I'd gone to Austin. I'm like, oh, you're probably a good human being.

Victoria Whitehead:

Well, I mean, I'd gone to Austin, I'd worked for a senator who is an excellent leader from West Texas, and it's 180 days, start to finish, no matter what. And so you saw like within that time frame, bills start and bills end, and like you have to work hard because if you don't finish it by the end, it's a year and a half, two years before.

Addison Thom:

Oh, you're working on actually passing, or putting together legislation to pass as a policy. Yeah, Wow.

Victoria Whitehead:

So I saw that whole process in Austin and it was awesome because we solved problems in 180 days and then went to DC to work for Senator Hutchison, and it was right after Obama's second reelection and I worked for a Republican Senator, so there was absolutely nothing going on.

Addison Thom:

Yeah, everything was stonewall oh stonewall.

Victoria Whitehead:

I mean I was there during a cool historical time Like that was when the Affordable Care Act went through the Supreme Court and gay marriage went through the Supreme Court. So I was there during like a cool season to see a lot of history. But from a policy perspective it was so disheartening because I was like I literally did. I didn't do anything to help anybody, so immediately went back and worked another legislative session and found passion there.

Addison Thom:

Do you think that that's like why the system works so well, though, is because it's hard to make changes like? I know that there's a couple different like theories about it, but basically the way that the constitution's written is that making any big swinging changes is hard to do, and that's been, you know, loosened a lot, I think over probably the last like 20 years. But do you think that's the purpose? Is like make it hard to get anything through, and then, when you do get something through, it's so chalked up and, you know, edited that you know only 15 percent of your bill still remains.

Victoria Whitehead:

Well, I think it's. It's set up to make sure that more minds come together so that greater representation is had to make sure like policy is actually good for the whole. I think you see a lot of usurping of that nowadays with the amount of executive orders that presidents do Like. This it's, I think if you talk to most especially like conservative Republicans, like executive orders, while do serve some benefit to help push some policy that is needed, it's not, that's not how this is supposed to be, and it's easily reversed when the next administration comes in, and then they're like oh, we're going to double the amount of executive orders and it skews, I think, for the American public, the idea of how law is actually made, because it seems like, okay, well, I can elect this guy, and then I can elect this guy and things are going to happen.

Victoria Whitehead:

And it's like, well, it's not technically the process, it needs to like go through House and Senate, but even in Austin most like really good major ideas. I mean, it's always a general rule with them that it takes three sessions for it to pass. So you like you do one session where you plan it, you start the discussion. The second session, you really like grow the idea and the third is like all right, let's get it past the finish line.

Victoria Whitehead:

Um, so a lot of like your bigger reform type stuff. Like it takes, it takes a while.

Addison Thom:

So do you think that the Texas house of representatives and the way bills are passed here are more efficient than DC?

Victoria Whitehead:

Oh yeah, yeah Like in in comparison.

Addison Thom:

How would you compare them?

Victoria Whitehead:

Well, and if you look at Texas and general statistics, like we still actually and you don't see it in the news media, it's not reflected accurately, but there's really only 10 to 20 bills a session, the last couple of sessions that actually get passed on party lines, and almost everything else is passed um unanimously or super majority Um, and you don't see that cause. That's not the story. It's like the party line bills are the ones that get 90% of the coverage, um, but like we actually still work together Um, and and a lot of times too, it's not necessarily ours versus these, it's rural versus urban. That's interesting. You don't see that in DC. I didn't even think about that. I mean, if I was a Republican in DC and I voted for a D bill, I am going to have mailers at the wazoo against me next election cycle saying I voted with the Democrats and it's like, well, it might've been a good bill. It might've been for, like a highway coming through Lubbock, texas.

Victoria Whitehead:

Isn't that crazy Um but it's just, it's a different, it's just such a different beast.

Addison Thom:

Um yeah, Like you're you're supposed to be, like, so loyal to your team that you would never vote for, even if it's a really good idea that you would never vote for something proposed by a Democrat or Republican. If you're on the other side, that's. But you know, maybe that's, you know, slows the wheels of change.

Victoria Whitehead:

Well, and I think that's like, uh, especially in, even in out here in West Texas, and home building and different things like policy is not politics. Um, so, like when we talk about school vouchers or we talk about impact fees. When we talk about school vouchers or we talk about impact fees, we talk about all these things like when you're looking at policy, it's you know, school vouchers can be upwards of 1400 different ideas in one. Yeah, we talk about it as, oh, it's just a school voucher program, it's one you're either for it or against it, and it's like well, what are, what's the policy and the details you know, and how does it affect me and how does it affect this person?

Victoria Whitehead:

I mean, there's so many different dynamics that go into it. So to generalize, some of that stuff is so tough and and that's how elections get won in some instances, but um, it's because we have short attention spans.

Addison Thom:

They're just like give, give.

Victoria Whitehead:

we need three talking points on a very complex yeah I used to do a ton of work in groundwater um in austin and it's like groundwater, even like something so general, is so different across the state. So it's like, okay, so we're going to regulate something statewide that when you pump it in Hereford, texas is different than Abilene, is different than Dallas and the coast, and so you can't necessarily regulate it all the same because it's just.

Addison Thom:

but so do you still work in policy in your law firm?

Victoria Whitehead:

So law firm um is closed now. Um so when I took over as CEO of the Home Builders Association, wound that down a little bit. But at Home Builders, though, I still do legal and lobby work as part of my job.

Addison Thom:

How did that change come about?

Victoria Whitehead:

How did you make the transition from owning a law firm was geared towards general counsel services for small businesses as well as lobbying efforts from a local perspective. So one of my clients was the Home Builders Association and so I represented them for almost two years prior to coming into this role, with all of their work before the city. So when this opportunity came up, they saw like and it's a general trend in business associations to kind of have a different hire as your CEO, someone who can do the legal and lobby work in addition to like managing the association. So when it came up, I voluntold God voluntold me. Like it was just kind of a it was. It was a lot of things coming together at once from a journey perspective, but also a professional perspective.

Addison Thom:

And so that's been what? Two years now. How long have you?

Victoria Whitehead:

been Almost two years in August. Okay, um, yeah, wow, two years.

Addison Thom:

Yeah, does it feel like shorter or longer?

Victoria Whitehead:

It feels longer. I don't know. Yeah, Does it feel like shorter or longer? It feels longer, I don't know Cause. I have that merge of like. Um, even when I was a lobbyist, I attended all the board meetings, was very active, I was the program chair, Um. So, uh, people are like you've been there for just a little bit and I'm like I've been around, been around for a little while, but um.

Addison Thom:

So what is the home builders association working on right now, like what's your, what's your momentum?

Victoria Whitehead:

so a lot of what we're gearing up towards is really advocacy, um and advocating for um homes and home building in west texas. Um, I think we've kind of seen a dynamic in in the lubbock area of maybe just some misrepresentation of what new home building brings to a community and it's the health and the heartbeat of the economics of the community. How many new homes are being sold? You know that's what the mayor looks at when he does his state of the city report. But so from an advocacy perspective we are trying to do a much better job of like let's tell the story of what it means. So it's not like old Lubbock versus new Lubbock, like new Lubbock growth, while you know it maybe puts a strain on infrastructure or timing or different things, like the property tax and sales taxes that come from that or subsidizing other parts, and so really trying to be an advocate for those businesses.

Addison Thom:

And rooftops is really what drives everything else too. So residential rooftops drive. Commercial investment drive. You know infrastructure, you know all the things that fall after. That starts with the rooftop and then incentivizing the city like, hey, you need to run, you know infrastructure and roads further out. That expands the city, provides more opportunity, you name it. So yeah, I love that. And so you're not just what, what? What is west texas like? What's under your purview?

Victoria Whitehead:

so we have, I think, a total of like 23 counties okay um, from our hba perspective, uh, as far as like, because we're part of a state and a federation, so Texas Association of Home Builders, national Association, but predominantly in this neck of the woods, like Lubbock, is the spoke of eastern New Mexico, like eastern border of New Mexico to the Cap Rock, and then we go as far north as like Tulia, down to La Mesa, kind of that North. That's where we hit the North Midland area.

Addison Thom:

Okay, and so what are you seeing from a home builder's perspective on like, why is West Texas growing so fast?

Victoria Whitehead:

We, we have some great resilience, I think, from an economic perspective. I people talk about us being on an island kind of out here, and it's an island but it's also a shield. So, you know, even during some of the tough recession times coming out the last couple of years, and even with high interest rates, like, there's still a need for new home growth. And I think it's just because we've got a great economy. We've got you know, people don't see it, but we do have a diverse economy. But there's just a constant need too, and I think the need is also tied to our affordability factor. I mean, we need new homes and people are growing and jobs are coming here, mainly because, too, we can, like people can, afford it.

Victoria Whitehead:

Right can like. People can afford it, right um, you know you can't talk to a new home builder in town too that hasn't sold a house to somebody from utah or california or um the west coast. I mean, there's just a lot of people coming to west texas and a lot of times looking for more conservative, tax-friendly, um, neck of the woods but they can actually work without regulation uh, you know, restricting their ability to expand their business too.

Addison Thom:

I mean, I see that all the time we we we've been here seven years now, maybe longer when we first started looking at this market, everything I do is like build for rent. So we build a bunch of property single family duplex we lease them out. We either sell them to investors or we keep them for ourselves, and especially during COVID. But even still now we get so many people moving here renting from us that, yeah, it's like California, oregon, washington State, arizona, you know the Sunbelt States still a little bit, but mainly you're getting like Northeast, southeast, uh, in the Pacific Northwest.

Victoria Whitehead:

Oh yeah, and I saw that in my law firm. Um, I did a lot of like new business development. So people would move here and they're like, okay, I need to get an LLC in Texas, and what does that look like? And man, I felt like Santa Claus sometimes because I'm like no, you don't have to do that, you don't have to do that, you don't have to do that reporting.

Victoria Whitehead:

This is the only franchise tax. This is the only thing you got to worry about when you get above this amount and they're like, wow, I can run a. I mean just seeing people and how they reacted of like I can run a business without handcuffs, and it's the Texas story.

Addison Thom:

It really is, and I think that's why you can throw a dart almost anywhere in Texas and hit a city that's growing. It's because it's like the way that it's set up, business friendly. And Lubbock specifically and I've said this so many times I'm sure that our podcast listeners are tired of hearing me say it, but when a municipality is willing to spend its money, like on good infrastructure and building, you know, building the freeway system, the loop, trying to attract economic development and encourage businesses to move here and set up shop, what else could you ask for from your government If they're doing the opposite, where they're restricting you, regulating you, taxing you, making it hard to get licenses, all of those things? That's a great way to lose your high net worth individuals or people that could be high net worth individuals in the future, and they'll leave like a Chicago. They'll leave a Chicago. Tyson's Chicken just moved their entire headquarters to Arkansas and Southeast Missouri because they're like what are we doing? We've got 5,000 employees, we got to move, we got to do something. Yeah.

Victoria Whitehead:

Well, and even in Texas, um, we have at the home builder association a liaison committee and we meet monthly with leadership in this from the staff, uh, with the city of Lubbock, and we meet monthly by monthly, monthly with the city of Wolf earth even, um, and we sit down and we're like, hey, you know, we understand and recognize we're partners in this and so, you know, it's such a great time for us to be like what are you seeing here? You know they come and say, hey, we're struggling with this, can you guys help us? And it's like we don't always have to go do a city ordinance to correct something. When the business association says let us get communications out, association says let us get communications out, let us try to fix the problem.

Victoria Whitehead:

So there's a huge partnership there and it's not always as easy. I mean, the city's got strengths and constraints sometimes that, like us home builders, you know, with the impact fee discussion or infrastructure, like how do we pay for roads? Like what's the best solution? Um, and it's, it's tough sometimes and they're hard conversations to have. But our partnership that we have here is unique. In texas, like you can't do that in dallas, you can't do that in austin, the the government sometimes don't even talk to the home builders associations and it's like no, here we.

Victoria Whitehead:

We understand and recognize that for us to both succeed, we have to come to the table and so it's pretty cool, like I especially as, like a government, former government staff member or something, it's cool to see relationship, but also like healthy discussions yeah, I couldn't agree more, I think I mean I've built and developed real estate in 25 different states and I don't know triple that in municipalities and planning departments you have to work with and deal with.

Addison Thom:

Lubbock is so unique in the sense like they're still kind of like a sailboat and not a cruise ship. When you're trying to make quick turns, you know like you can. First of all, you have access so you can sit down and talk, like you were saying. It's more of a partnership. And then when a decision is made even though sometimes it takes a little longer than you would like, it still gets done and through, Whereas in other municipalities it's like molasses. You're just like oh my, this is going to take two years to get through and I can't even start developing until that is, you know, through.

Victoria Whitehead:

Yeah.

Addison Thom:

So I love seeing that and I also think that, like, the impact that can have on growing a community is so beneficial when everybody is like just kind of working together. So what are you like? The loop itself right, and you're talking about putting in roads and all of those things. What are the impacts that that has that people should know about that. They don't know Because they just look at it as like, oh, this is going to raise my property taxes.

Victoria Whitehead:

Yeah.

Addison Thom:

Like what's the overall plan?

Victoria Whitehead:

So we're working and pretty active. We've had two very successful road bonds in the last couple of years and I think when you're looking at like, what are my tools in the toolbox to fund infrastructure, texas, under state law, gives you a variety of things you can either like do it as general obligation bonds with the city, and what that means is like the city is actually using property taxes or sales taxes to pay for things. But the road bond, for example, is like a start and finish investment from a citizen in the community and we're going to say, okay, over the next 10 years we're all going to pay 25 bucks each and this is going to help build this road. Home builders, especially new home builders, now pay impact fees, so it's a pure tax that ultimately it gets taken out when you pull a permit, but it ultimately goes to the homeowner right In certain areas of town only where the new growth is needed. So that's a tool in the toolbox. And then so I think like we're seeing a continued discussion of we as a city did not vote for, did not bond, did not do what we needed to for quite some time, and so now we're behind and the last two road bonds I would say, get us to where we're like caught up to today, right, um, but we're still growing, like cooper isd, friendship isd, these, the schools are still planning new schools, because they see the growth, they see what's coming, and so it's like, okay, well, we have to continue to have a plan. So we're very active and like, okay, well, let's find a solution, let's find a plan. What's the best economically without putting huge burdens on the citizens?

Victoria Whitehead:

I think road bonds are great. I think it's like for me as a citizen. I'm like, okay, I know, this is a bond, it's going to take care of X, it's going to start here and stop here. What I don't like is for government to say, okay, we're going to have to, like increase property taxes by X amount to cover infrastructure. Well, there's no like idea of, okay, well, when can that go down? Like once the infrastructure is built, or and and there's so many regulations on it.

Addison Thom:

That never goes backwards.

Victoria Whitehead:

It never goes backwards, right, and there's regulations on when, how much they can, when they can't, how much they can decrease. So like it's not a to me a fiscally manageable, good, manageable way to pay for stuff like that and it's different than like water, wastewater, things that are fee based because the fees pay for that and it's proportionate fees can easily go up and down. But roads, in particular, that infrastructure side, I'm team bonds, yeah.

Addison Thom:

I like the bond as well, but so what is the impact of putting those in like the loop going in, right? You're saying that's helping us catch up. What does the future look like after that? Um, like, where's the growth coming from? Why is Lubbock? I have my own theory, but I want to hear yours.

Victoria Whitehead:

I think this is one of the best places to grow a business, but I think the difference that we have from the business perspective is it's also one of the best places to raise a family. I could have a solid career in Austin or DC. I'm not raising my kids there and I think people choose to come to Lubbock or even Amarillo or Midland or Wichita Falls, san Angelo because there are certain environments where I think this, especially my generation, is saying we want lifestyle, we want faith, we want community and and love. It's got it. So I think that's a lot of times what we're seeing is, yeah, the business side is there, it's gonna be there, it's great. But what's that next level? And you're seeing people choose based on family yep, I mean, I can't disagree with that.

Addison Thom:

All I think that's very well said. On the the business side, you mentioned our economy being diverse. But outside of medical and agriculture, what else drives the Lubbock economy?

Victoria Whitehead:

Medical education, manufacturing. I mean the business development park up by the airport has almost doubled in the amount of like business occupancy out there. We say agriculture, but also recognizing that agriculture is multiple different facets. So you do have like manufacturing for agriculture. Leprino and the milk plant is a whole new market in agriculture that we never had.

Victoria Whitehead:

Growing up in Hereford and being in the Panhandle, my agriculture was cows and never did I really ever see row crops and even when I came down here they're like well, you didn't grow up in ag, I'm like I grew up in cattle and they're like well, this is cotton country. So even though it's one type, there's varieties in there. But I see huge leaps and bounds coming in here. Also for tech, um and and opportunities. We've got some legislation going through this session that's going to help us be a lot more marketable. Um with lita for different tech companies that are they keep going to plano or they keep going to flugerville or these places and it's like those places can't take the heat that you're needing and they don't have the workforce.

Victoria Whitehead:

We do, we've got the environment you want, come on out here. So I see potential expansion for that too.

Addison Thom:

There's so much opportunity from that. Also just like to maintain or retain the like higher education of people graduating. How do we keep them in this economy?

Victoria Whitehead:

Oh yeah.

Addison Thom:

And I think that's going to be a huge part of it. But the other thing that I think is huge and everyone complains about it, which is seven years ago or ten years ago, whatever it was when we first started coming down here, people were complaining about traffic increasing and they were complaining about the city's growing too fast. I'm like you guys. It's so funny because in comparison it's nothing. I lived in Las Vegas, chicago, austin places that have horrible traffic, and you're just like that's. It's not even close. But one thing I think that really has a leg up here is the location that Lubbock has on the freeway system throughout the United States, just from an infrastructure and a logistics standpoint. And then if you mix that and the other complaint that they had was like lands getting too expensive, well you're still. You can still buy land for like even $50,000. An acre.

Addison Thom:

Like in the South side of town is so inexpensive when you're talking about attracting large corporations that one need access to available land. So where do you find that? It's not outside of like large, major, major metropolitan areas. You want to be in a business friendly state. You want to be on a freeway corridor that makes sense for your logistics and transportation of whatever you're producing, and you have affordable land with all that infrastructure tied in, and then you have Texas Tech. So I think I mean it's only a matter of time, but I think that the ability to draw businesses here and to keep them we have such an interesting proposition for that Like, look at what happened with Waco. Why did they buy in Waco? Because you could buy land for, you know, $50,000 an acre and you have access to Dallas and Austin and all the logistics pieces.

Victoria Whitehead:

Well, and one thing too, that I'm such a geek of like what's your story, I don't know my dad always instilled in me like, always, like, always ask people kind of where you're from, how'd you build yourself? And like, take the nuggets that apply to you and like, and and and build upon your, your house. But, um, so, like, when I first started over here and I'm seeing talking to these builders who are building two $3 million homes in Lubbock, I'm like what do these people do? Like what, how they're? They're not all doctors over here.

Victoria Whitehead:

Like what are these people doing? You know, like trying to figure it out. And they're like, well, that guy's a professional bowler, that guy owns an oil and gas company in North Dakota and different. And I'm like what the heck in there? But our airport system like that's also a huge highlight of Lubbock is it's super easy to get in and out. Um, so a lot of people are choosing, like I can come and build an amazing house, have a great community, raise my kids, um have have access to to great land resources, but if I need to go and be transportable, it's super easy to get in and out of here.

Victoria Whitehead:

Yeah, um, and I wish there was more direct flights to places, but yeah those are the two three million people that are having their own planes sometimes, but yeah, no yeah, yeah, we can lobby southwest again, yeah yeah, well, yeah, if you have private plane, it really doesn't matter where you live, you just live anywhere.

Addison Thom:

But that is interesting. I mean like, yeah, like in my neighborhood, same thing. It's like you meet people like, oh, I own like assisted living facilities or I have you know, everyone watches land man and it's like, are you everyone's just oil and gas out there? I'm like no, it's not. But that is so.

Addison Thom:

It's such a big deal to have conservative, business, friendly people that made a lot of money in oil and gas like to build around a community. I think that's like. It's so like DC everyone makes money by. They're like a lobbyist or like a consultant for a special interest group. They're not interested in doing anything for the community or reinvesting in. You know why is Washington? Dc has like one of the most expensive, richest developments in all of the United States and then right a couple of miles from there, it's like the poorest, the most expensive, richest developments in all of the united states. And then right a couple miles from there, it's like the poorest and most broken down communities, like they're not reinvesting in their people or trying to improve anything, and I've seen nothing but that in texas in general, but lubbock specifically. That's why we stayed.

Addison Thom:

Yeah, it's like my, my kids love their school, the, the people are amazing. I know all of my neighbors, although the other day I called my trainer and I was like, hey, can you connect me with so-and-so? And he's like, yeah, I could, or you could walk across the street. He lives across the street. I'm like I'm a horrible dude, I've never even met him. Like I'm a horrible dude, I've never even met him. But like just that access and the fact that I really do have a genuine feeling here that, like the business owners that I know and that I deal with, and even myself, are interested in taking the money that they've made from this community and reinvesting it and trying to improve it.

Victoria Whitehead:

Yeah. Like you can't put a dollar amount on that.

Victoria Whitehead:

I don't think, and I'm pretty active in the nonprofit sector here, in town and you know, it kind of goes back to that question. You had asked me, like why go from the law firm to this? And I've always felt and my husband he used to make fun of me so much about it. But I'm like I feel God's calling to just serve my community. Like I feel God's calling to just serve my community and so, like, I opened my law firm because I saw a need to, like I want to serve, provide affordable legal services for small businesses and even at like, home builders, like part of like where I felt God was calling me was, you know God says like hey, you know, here's your 200 clients. I'm opening a door for 700 businesses like come serve and and serve.

Victoria Whitehead:

Through all of this I've gotten involved in nonprofit work and stuff. What I love about this area that I didn't see in Austin and I was in Oklahoma City for a little bit, didn't see it there, didn't see it in DC was your big wigs in town. Your people with money are constantly giving and they give without any hesitation.

Addison Thom:

Or with a need for recognition, or with a need for recognition.

Victoria Whitehead:

yeah, we run West Texas Hero Homes, which builds mortgage-free homes for disabled veterans and first responders and I don't have enough veterans signing up for the program to meet the amount of people that want to participate and help the program and so, like the generosity factor there I think is so pivotal in the success of a community too. Like to say, not only do I want to run a business here and, like you know, pour out of the business, pour out of the community into my business. I want to give back in because I see the investment of if I bring up others in the community, it's going to be great for everybody.

Addison Thom:

Yep, I love you, know my friends, cause I lived in all these like large major metropolitan areas, right, and my friends like have no understanding of why I live in Lubbock and like genuinely will never leave. Um, I mean, when my kids are grown and out of college you might have a second home somewhere and vacation, yeah, whatever. But the truth is is like it is the people and it's like it's still full of cowboys and like the cowboy spirit and real like, not in a way that's like a drunk bunch of drunk people at a saloon having shootouts in the street, but in like I'm going to do what's right. There's no moral posturing. So when you go to places like Austin or Chicago, it's a lot of moral posturing of like I want you to know how good of a person that I am by the things that I say, how good of a person that I am by the things that I say, and here you can tell the community is rich in spirit, um and giving because of the things people do.

Addison Thom:

There is no posturing with that. It's like hey, I'm just going to like build a house for a veteran and they're not like on CNN, like this is what we do past my bill, like trying to posture themselves to do that, and I think more people could benefit from kind of ignoring all of that and doing exactly what you said, like once your family's taken care of, you're raising your kids the right way. You want to help your local community make an impact, like on your neighbors? Start with that. How about in your HOA? Then Lubbock itself. Like stop sitting around tweeting stuff and putting stuff on Instagram about what's happening in Washington or you know, this senator did this. Like just put your effort into your family and your community and your life will improve tenfold.

Victoria Whitehead:

Yeah, I can't that was a long-wind tenfold.

Addison Thom:

Yeah, that was a long-winded way forward.

Victoria Whitehead:

No, I absolutely love it, and kind of like it's twofold. We're still a community that will like when someone calls and says, well, my home builder is awful, my roof is leaking, blah, blah, blah, and I'm like, well, did you call them? Well, no, but I posted on Facebook about it. I'm like, no, no, no, this, well, no, but I posted on Facebook about it. I'm like, no, no, no, this community, you can call him or her and they will respond to you. There's two or three bad actors out there Great, they're not members of my association, but there's people out there.

Addison Thom:

You want to name them right now.

Victoria Whitehead:

No, I will not be naming anybody, but I love that spirit. It used to annoy the heck out of me me, though, when I ran a law firm, because I'd have people come in and I'm like, okay, so now you need a contract for your business, and they're like, oh no, we shook hands. I'm like gosh, I grew up with that and I love it. But as a lawyer, I'm like, no, don't do that, let's have a one-pager, like a one-pager contract. We don't't gotta get crazy, right, um, but it's I. I love it about the spirit is people genuinely and and when you say cowboy spirit, that's I think of like like the old, I don't know kind cowboys like, but like I'm caring about you, but I'm gonna work my hiney off because I want something better, um, for everybody and and so that the grit, the mentality, the heart of it. You just see it and it's amazing across the community.

Addison Thom:

Yeah, and there's also like a lack of patience for nonsense, oh yeah, which I also think is awesome. You know, it's not like this social pandering where you know everyone's kind of like two-faced you have some of that, you have that in the South. In general, it's like, oh, bless your heart, whatever, but people actually genuinely do care and if you rub them the wrong way, they don't have a problem. Just addressing that and they're not passive, aggressive, which I think is also important. Yeah, like, hey, you know where you stand, I know where I stand, and let's figure out if we can work together or not, instead of, you know, tiptoeing around it.

Victoria Whitehead:

Well, especially like I think a lot of people here realize we've got bigger, better, other things to do, and especially a lot of times where I had clients that had disagreements with other businesses or different things and they're like, well, we need to sue them. I'm like let's just sit down in a room, let's like, hey, save both businesses thousands of dollars in mediation or different things, and see like can we sit down in the room and just chat it out and I love that environment because I have lawyer friends in major metropolitan areas and it's like you don't even like remotely start with that. You start with like filing against them and it doesn't. But there's, there's nothing good that comes out of that, especially when a conversation cause it's probably like a small, just like misunderstanding, you know can fix something.

Addison Thom:

I think that is a byproduct of this new like generation Like. My grandparents weren't like that. My parents aren't like that. It's a byproduct of like you can say things online without any consequence, so you're not getting beat up at school because of it and in fact, if there's a conflict at school, regardless of what happened, everyone gets expelled. It's not like learning hey, like what happened, Um, and people don't like.

Addison Thom:

I read a statistic the other day that like people under 25 interviewing for jobs only make eye contact with a person interviewing them at like 30%. Yeah, they don't even have the social skill to make eye contact during a conversation, so they definitely don't have the skill set of conflict resolution or just working things out. And we have this culture that you just post things on Facebook or just I'm going to sue you, let my attorney deal with it, and you're bypassing the human needs of like. Why don't we sit down? Let me hear what you have to say and let me explain how I'm feeling. Let's figure out if we can have a resolution here. What do you think that is? Why are people like hiding behind that?

Victoria Whitehead:

I don't know Um. I used to advise for a sorority in recruitment um efforts and that's kind of one of the most brutal.

Addison Thom:

We could do a whole podcast just on that Like literally Um.

Victoria Whitehead:

but like you know, I would sit there and tell a young lady you know, hey, you need to talk a little louder and like like concrete, good feedback.

Addison Thom:

Yeah.

Victoria Whitehead:

And she would quit the next day. And it was like you didn't even talk to me. You didn't even like't, even like what's going on. They don't know how to handle it and it freaks them out, um, but what?

Victoria Whitehead:

I think constructive criticism, yeah, constructive criticism would just like send them over the edge, but a lot of times it's because they have never been put in the situation where they're forced to. Like how do you do this? And I talk a lot with my staff about, you know, networking, communication, conflict management, all these things Like we don't think about it as exercise, but like these are exercises that 4-H and some of these student like council, like some of these other things that I did and was forced into, like made me practice and so, like I think, as a leader, I'm having to, which the older generations didn't have to with us per se, but like, as a leader, I'm having to coach them and saying no, we're going to exercise this today. Like we're going to exercise, like we're going to sit down and talk about hey, you didn't meet this expectation in the office, let's chat through it. Um, and I can see sometimes when I'm having those conversations like distress or anxiety or different things, I'm like hey, I need you to like understand this is where we're going.

Victoria Whitehead:

I care about you early and but it's just, it's social muscles that they've never really worked on, um, and it's not until like I see it with the young professionals sometimes, like you go to a happy hour and it looks like a Sadie Hawkins dance, yeah. Like you're in your little business corners and it's like, hey, no, come on, we're going to go talk and introduce. But it takes the leader sometimes to say, okay, hey, we're going to go exercise this muscle, come on, let's go meet and learn about it.

Addison Thom:

Yeah, I have a theory about that too. Well, that happens in large social situations in general. But, like you were saying, it is a muscle you have to build and I think that confidence and a lack of confidence are built the same way. It is a string of doing like, taking action and making decisions, one small increment at a time. That builds confidence.

Addison Thom:

Like no one's born with confidence. No one just like comes out and is like hey, like, I'm really good at this, like, and there's a difference between that and cockiness. Cockiness is like a false sense of confidence that you like have to explain. But when you meet somebody that's confident, it's like understood, yeah, like they're not boisterous. It's like, hey, this person's confident in what they do.

Addison Thom:

Well, how did you do that? You did that by doing the right thing, having discipline, and doing it every day for long periods of time, like learning how to play the guitar or hit a baseball or whatever. You didn't just wake up being able to do that. You had to learn how to play the guitar or hit a baseball or whatever. You didn't just wake up being able to do that. You had to, you know, learn how to do it. And and lack of confidence is the same thing, and I think that the problem is is that no one's struggling enough to actually build the confidence that they need or they don't, um understand we're such an immediate it's an immediate generation, immediate that they don't understand that, you know, to build that confidence.

Victoria Whitehead:

It has taken time, right, like I'm not. Like I went and stood in front of a big group of people this morning and talked about home builders and did these things and my new staff member was like, wow, how did you just do that? And I'm like, well, I didn't learn it yesterday. It has been 15 plus years of practicing and let me tell you, Victoria at 27 wasn't doing that, but Victoria at 35 is probably pretty decent at it now.

Victoria Whitehead:

And so I think there's that frustration, especially when it doesn't immediately Like well, I did it three or four times, yeah, they quit, I should be good. It's like well, that's just not how it works.

Addison Thom:

The immediate gratification culture is a problem and, like my mom, I'll give her huge credit for this. But part of the reason I had confidence and had a foundation to build upon that is because if I ever wanted something I mean from like a young age, when I ever wanted something like my mom would make me go like order for myself at restaurants, go into the grocery store and like go pick those things out and meet her at the front to pay for it. Like those like little small things or like you know, if I wanted to sign up for basketball camp, for instance, I had to be the person that called my mom, didn't just like pick up the phone and like negotiate. She's like you call him, like she'd help to make sure I didn't do anything stupid and tell him I was like in. You know, the 15 and under is when I was 10 years old or whatever.

Addison Thom:

But just allowing your kids to actually experience that social transaction builds confidence. And then, if you get enough reps doing that, when you have conflict resolution or you have constructed feedback or criticism, you're not taking it personally. Like, oh, like, I'm quitting. It's like, oh, this is that thing I need to do to get better.

Victoria Whitehead:

Yeah.

Addison Thom:

And instead of looking at it as like a personal insult, you look at it as like this person actually genuinely cares about my success, like how did that get lost?

Victoria Whitehead:

Yeah.

Addison Thom:

Do they think you're just being mean instead of like Victoria really cares that I get better at this thing? Like how thing? How do you tether that back together?

Victoria Whitehead:

I feel like and similar to you. My dad was that person and if you would ask me at 22, I'm like man. My dad was so hard on me, he was tough, but now that I look back I'm like, no, that was love, that was investment in me as a human. And so I think, with some of the young ladies that I work with, it's like I got to be hard, but I also got to recognize that I got to change the tone a little bit or make sure they understand the why, Because that generation yearns, they want to know the why, and so I'm going to be hard on you, I'm going to be tough on you, I'm going to be hard on you, maybe tough on you.

Victoria Whitehead:

I'm going to push you. I'm going to push your boundaries a little bit, like we're going to, we're going to put ourselves out there, but here's the why. And so, like I think it's kind of a cool mesh of the generations a little bit, because, like my dad did not have anybody telling him the why, like I told you, you're going to do it type mentality, and then you've got kind of this pendulum swing of a generation of that All they care about is empathy and understanding and recognizing your feelings recognizing your feelings and stuff, and so it's like we have a cool opportunity to wield them, to say, hey, look like we're going to push and move, but I will let you know like, cause I also would have loved to have that, other than like my dad's just being hard on me, you know.

Victoria Whitehead:

Um, but a cool opportunity to kind of mesh the two a little bit.

Addison Thom:

So, being a leader and you know you're still very young and extremely accomplished but being a leader like in this environment what are some things that you think are important and have like made you successful as a leader?

Victoria Whitehead:

Um, I think for me one of the biggest things and it's really been a journey that I've had the last two years, um was really honing in on my identity. Um, you know, you look at my resume and the journey I've been on and a lot of times I was embarrassed of it but also frustrated by it because I would be sitting in a room at 30, 32, having a resume of a 47-year-old and not getting respect because I looked 30, 32. And it's like no, no, no, I have worked with the CFO at the tech system, I understand higher education finances, I know how to solve this problem. And it's like no, I'm like no, I got good Botox. Like what are we? You know, give me some credit.

Victoria Whitehead:

Um, but you know, I used to take so much identity in my resume, um and uh, it used to put me down or I used to always qualify my answers like well, based on this experience, I think this or in, especially as a woman, like in certain rooms, especially being in a lot of male dominated rooms. But you know, these last two years like really honing in my identity is who God has called me to be and knowing that, no matter where my journey has been, like, first off, he's the one that sent me through all of that. But my identity is to serve people and serve his calling and serve this community. And when I reset that every day, what's on my resume and who I've been doesn't matter. God equips those he calls right. Yep, you know, god equips those he calls right.

Victoria Whitehead:

And so, sitting in a room and like I used to just think, man, they're not going to look at me or they're not going to listen to me because I look young and it's like no, he put me here, speak and lead and be what you're called to be in this moment and don't let those inhibitors get in there. And I think that's something like cause. My generation, like we were, had a resume like crazy by the time we graduated high school, and so it's not unheard of. But I see so many, especially women like they. They put themselves down or they put their resume down or they're not being the leaders that they're called to be, because they're mismatching their identity to that of like well, I'm the CEO or I'm this or.

Victoria Whitehead:

I'm the mom or I'm these things. That's like no, your, your purpose and your identity and your calling are all completely different things.

Addison Thom:

And you're not defined by your resume either. No, I think so many like, especially I think people have always done this actually where and I've made this mistake too where, like, you have success or accomplishment earlier and then you think that is like the qualification for, like, the rest of your life's experiences. You know what I mean. It's like, oh well, I did this at 25. Like, I sold my first company when I was 27 and like, when travel around the world and I was, I just thought I was hot shit. You know, I'm like, I've done all that. I had no clue how much I still needed to learn.

Addison Thom:

And if you can kind of get out of your own way and not rest on your accomplishments and still be humble of like, hey, I have something else to learn, a new skillset to build, whatever, um, that can go such a like long distance for you in life in general as a skill set, like never. Like my grandpa, your dad, had that quote I can't remember what you said, but it was very similar to my grandfather's which is basically, if you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room and the only way to get in rooms that people are smarter than you is one. You have to be humble and be willing, like you're, not stop being so convinced that you belong there.

Victoria Whitehead:

Well, and there's something else too that I think, as leaders like you don't we don't always talk about is like you think I'm a leader, so I'm like, I'm going up and it's this positive trajectory, Um, and it's like I, you know, one day, when my, my oldest son is older, I'm going to ask his forgiveness Because I spent this whole time when he was an infant and a baby, like I had a six-month-old and I was traveling to Austin Monday through Thursday every week lobbying, and like didn't have a relationship with my kid when he was little, because I was going to be this, you know, bad day lawyer, mama. I was going to prove that I could do it and I'm going to be a working mom and all these things. And it's like because what? The reason I hustle so hard was because I saw that as a go down.

Victoria Whitehead:

I did not see that as like if I was on this trajectory as a leader and I'd chosen this season to be different, that I was failing and it's like no, no, no. This season, succeeding means this, and so I think the identity goes hand in hand with that, but also being flexible and knowing like what does success mean to you in this season? It's not always up and down, especially as a leader.

Addison Thom:

I think every high output alpha personality deals with that. I dealt with it. My wife told me a story after our disciple group one time. I was the same way I call it my dark passenger.

Addison Thom:

He's gotten me a lot of very rewarding places, but he's also caused a lot of damage and my wife would sit at the top of the steps with our newborn holding her, praying to God that the next person I called didn't pick up the phone because she just wanted me to spend time with them while I was trying to, like, build a business Right. And that one it broke my heart. But two, I'm like what really actually matters, that next phone call matter, but you're so in that you know tunnel vision. I have to achieve this next thing. I have to get the company to this place that you lose sight of the things that actually matter, and I think anyone that plays that scenario out to the end without recognizing that is like rotting from the inside out. You might have all the money in the world. Your kids don't like you. They don't know you.

Victoria Whitehead:

Well, and again, it's okay, it's okay for this season to look different. Who Victoria is when my kids are in college or something, it's going to be completely different level, like that's what I'm gonna open up, all these extra businesses, all these things that I have, like all these ideas for. And it's okay if that timing is different, because in this season, succeeding to me means having a good family, loving my, serving the community, and the pace of it is different, like that's okay.

Addison Thom:

Yeah. So on the leadership, I mean I think that's really well said and that's also great that you've adjusted that, because most people don't.

Victoria Whitehead:

Well, and I don't succeed every day. Who does? No, nobody, yeah. But it's something that you know, I strive for. I strive for. There's anyone who asks a woman like how do you balance being a mom and a working life? The fact that there is no such thing as a balance like whatsoever. It's what car are you on a racetrack? Are you putting more gas in and more nitrous in at one time? And it's like, okay, well, gotta get the other ones to catch up. So I'm gonna stop fueling this car. I'm gonna feel this other car so what's working for you like?

Addison Thom:

it sounds like you've put a lot of thought into that and you're obviously still operating at a high level professionally. But how do you kind of organize that in your life?

Victoria Whitehead:

I think for me is I do I do quarterly assessments of my calendar, like I. I go back and audit my calendar and where am I spending time? Does it match my goals? Um, and where I want time to be spent, um. But I've had to really like I have a relationship with my calendar and I have to. I follow it because if I don't, then I'm not meeting my goals. So like I take my kid to gymnastics on Mondays, like that's his gymnastics, his mommy me time. My husband and I have specific times every week with each other and it feels regimented. But for me, like if I go and look at that quarterly audit and say I did all that, I feel good about where I'm at and adjust it accordingly. Like we've got the parade homes coming up, so that's just going to be 22 days of pure work, um, so you know I've got vacation planned after that to balance it out and stuff.

Addison Thom:

But where's the parade this year?

Victoria Whitehead:

Um Crescent ranch, which is kind of South friendship, isd, um the vineyards, which is kind of 50th, and Upland and then Stratford point over here on Quaker and 138th Gotcha. So some cool houses.

Addison Thom:

Yeah, that sounds like a crazy time. You know that's funny. You say that, like me and my wife had to do the same thing and it's the best thing ever, because when I first suggested it I was like man, scheduling date nights just sounds so unromantic. It's literally been the best thing ever. And then I take my daughter to tennis practice and spend that time and I just leave my phone in the car, I sit on the tennis court and watch her play and I think it does a lot for her, but I think it does a lot more for me. Like just being able to, you know, see her uh, attempting to get better at something, and like watching her personality bloom has been amazing and the date night thing, so we don't drink alcohol.

Addison Thom:

Uh, it's something I'd changed about, I don't know, nine months ago. It's been a game changer that opens up a lot of really fun things that you could do. So like we'll go eat sushi and then go get like foot massages next door and no one in there speaks English, or if they do, they're you know just pulling the wool over her eyes. There's, like you know, speaking in Cantonese behind our back, but we'll just like sit there and like hold hands and sometimes we'll talk the entire hour and sometimes we won't say anything, and just like be able to exist with each other. That doesn't sound super romantic. It's not always like a rose and like a spontaneous date, you know, like when you first start dating somebody, but it's been the most beneficial. You know, schedule item for our marriage and for, like, our household.

Victoria Whitehead:

Um, so my dad's passed away. But right before he passed away, uh, one of the funniest things he said was like what is this gypsy crap you and Jeffrey are doing? Um, but we were like actually strategic planning Um, it was a faith-based, strategic planning type deal um, for our family, for our marriage, for our finances and all these things. And and he was like what are y'all doing? Like we're watching, we're strategic planning for our family. And he's like that's so weird. I'm like, but this is how, like, like this is how I think of things. Like I, you know, I'm a entrepreneur, I listen to podcasts all the time like so why would I do strategic planning for my business and not for my family? And so like for us. Like, if Jeffrey and my goal is to make our marriage better, well, we got to put little metrics in there.

Victoria Whitehead:

And you know the date nights my husband's a vacation dude, so like we have to get out of town, even if it's just Rio Dosa. That's how my wife is. He husband's a vacation dude, so like we have to get out of town, even if it's just rio dosa. Um, he is like constantly, like sometimes we'll come back from vacation. He's like okay, let's go to south lake tahoe next. I'm like I need to. I gotta work that's a great.

Addison Thom:

Yeah, I love south oh, we love it.

Victoria Whitehead:

Celebrity golf tournament, um. But like a strategic planning for our marriage and so, like you don't do that and build it in and hold it accountable to me, I'm like we spent the years where we looked up and we're like crap, we haven't gone on a date night in five months yeah and well, no wonder our marriage is not maybe the best yeah, no wonder we're a little annoyed with each other yeah yeah, great, I love that.

Addison Thom:

I the organization and discipline in that. I think it's just made a huge benefit for us. Um and I I've even done that, like in my prayer life and um, like scheduling that. I know that sounds crazy but, like you know, a lot of people do that crazy but, like you know, a lot of people do that. I had to struggle with it at first because I didn't feel like I was praying with like an intentional heart because it was scheduled. So I was like, okay, now's, when I'm going to pray, yeah.

Addison Thom:

Right. And so then I had to, and I was like what, what is going on? Like I don't feel, like I'm like hearing God's voice or like you ever pray, and just like say things that you don't really mean fully, or like you haven't thought it all the way through, and you're like what am I talking about? What have I even said?

Victoria Whitehead:

Well, so I was talking about this the other day Like no one taught us, like I got taught to pray in Christian schools. Like, okay, we're going to pray for the poor, the military bless our food, these things, and what I think is so cool about like especially where my family's at in our journey and our walk with God, is like no, we're reconnecting with the fact that this is a relationship. And so I struggled with like I can't, like I'm struggling to wake up in the mornings and have my prayer time. Well, that is just not when the Lord has made me to do my prayers, and refocusing my prayer is my talking with God. And I'm like, okay, what part of my day is the most quiet, the most calm, the most opportune time for me to hear Him and have conversation and grow with Him? And it's like it's driving. So when I drive from school to work or work, to home like close your eyes on the road.

Victoria Whitehead:

I don't close my eyes. No, no, no. But like that that's the time where I can you know they're on some Brandon Lake and like, just sit in his presence and talk with him. And um, it wasn't. I had a friend who we were in a CEO women's group, um, with this entity called kingdom at work, and um, she challenged me. She's like I just kept telling her like prayer times tough for me, Cause in the mornings, like I'm sitting here, I'm like, okay, I'm giving five minutes. And then I'm like, okay, it's been four minutes, uh, and it felt like such a construct and it's like, no, no, no, that's not, that's not what it's meant to be, by any means. Um, and so you know how do you have?

Victoria Whitehead:

those conversations and what does it look like? Looks different for everybody, Um, but and the.

Addison Thom:

I think the other aspect to that too is are you listening for God or are you just talking the whole?

Victoria Whitehead:

time.

Addison Thom:

I think that's a big missing part too, at least for me, and I'm still, you know, learning how to pray also, and and um, especially, just like with a intentional heart and to like sit and listen without distraction. And a couple of things that I learned cause I I listened to podcasts all day long. I love ambient noise, but I'll have an audio book on or a podcast on while I'm working or doing anything or in the car. Well, that's also a distraction, like your brain is preoccupied with that. Yeah, so, or I'll come home and turn a football game on or whatever. It is Right.

Addison Thom:

So I've tried over the last week and this has been extremely beneficial. I won't watch tv in the evenings and I turn off my podcast as soon as I like leave, work, like I'm not driving and listening. So I just have that quiet time in my car home just to kind of like reset my brain. And then I try to spend a few minutes before I pray, like literally, literally, just like listening, and even if I hear nothing, I'm like my mental reset is like, okay, I'm ready to pray. I've kind of thought about things I want to pray about and ask God for, or, you know, give gratitude for, and then after I'm done praying I try to sit there.

Victoria Whitehead:

Still I'm not praying for like four hours, I'm just saying it's like you know and I I posed this to you via a story, um, but I had a moment with my six year old, probably a year and a half ago, um, and he came home and he said mommy, I, um, I'm really sad. My, my friend in class told me he missed his daddy. And I was like, and he started crying and I felt really bad for him and I was like, well, why does he miss his daddy? Well, his daddy died. And I was like well, palmer, let's pray for him, let's pray, and like, let's pray for his heart, let's pray for him.

Victoria Whitehead:

And he looked at me and goes well, mommy, it's not nighttime or dinnertime and, as a faith-based mom, I mean that was like a stab to the heart right, Because I was like is that what I'm teaching my kid is prayer, and so I pose that to you because you've got some kids too. How are you growing and teaching your kids about?

Addison Thom:

what prayer looks like. So I actually I started scheduling my prayers, uh, but I pray all day, like literally like I'll get in my car I'll say like 10 second prayers or five second prayers or whatever, and so I try to do that. I'm trying to do that with my kids, and then I try to pray over my kids whenever I can, um, just so they one hear me doing it, and two like so that it doesn't feel like this is just something that happens before we eat. You know what I mean yeah, for sure.

Victoria Whitehead:

And.

Addison Thom:

I'll just say, like little prayers, like I'll take my daughter to tennis practice. I'll just, you know God, like I hope that Charlotte has a great time doing this and I hope she, you know, finds enjoyment from it, and just keep her safe. Something small and short, right, and she's like thanks. Yeah it, small and short, right, and she's like thanks. It's like a blessing. My, my, my middle child, will like be really happy when I pray for her sometimes, and then other times she just like mocks me and makes fun of me because she doesn't understand you know what I'm doing. She's like daddy, you're so silly. She's like why are your eyes closed? And you're like I have my hand on her head.

Addison Thom:

She's like stop touching me.

Victoria Whitehead:

Yeah, I also enjoy when the kids are like dear God, please let this broccoli leave my plate.

Addison Thom:

Amen, and I'm like that's not a prayer. Like stop.

Victoria Whitehead:

That's, and put the broccoli in your mouth Like that's not a prayer.

Addison Thom:

Yeah, I pray with my wife. I'm just like please make sure that all the laundry is folded tomorrow by 2 PM, because I need.

Victoria Whitehead:

I did that one time as a joke and it didn't go over very well. I actually prayed for our home builders golf tournament, uh, before each flight, uh, with everybody on the mic, and I was like and Lord, please be with us and help us make good choices, amen.

Addison Thom:

Everyone was like Lord, please be with us and help us make good choices, Amen.

Victoria Whitehead:

Everyone was like, oh yeah, we're going to make good choices, yeah make good choices.

Addison Thom:

So, as far as your nonprofit, do you want to let everybody know what that is and where they could find it, how to donate all that good stuff?

Victoria Whitehead:

So West Texas Hero Homes it's actually part of our main page. We're building out the new website right now so you find it through home builders. So just call me, um if you want to support or be a part of it. Um, we've got a build going right now for corporal Michael Anderson Um. He's a combat veteran um and his disabilities come out of his combat service Um, and then we will be announcing another veteran um coming up here in about a month and a half. But there's lots of opportunity, whether it's financially donating, partnering with us in a program. We host two events a year that support that. The first one we had actually this past Friday Looking at me, you may not know I am the only licensed combative sports promoter, uh, in lubbock county, uh, so we had a professional boxing like don king I you know, that's what I am uh of lubbock, texas, and everyone's really confused by it.

Victoria Whitehead:

But, um, so we had a professional fight night this past friday, um, and so we'll have that again next spring, uh, but in september, uh, on september 11th, out at cook's garage, uh, we'll have Sawyer Brown and Cat Hasty. It's concert for heroes. So two big fundraisers, um, and that's really uh, we, we don't want to like there's a lot of things I think that's really cool too about the community, like there's a lot of other chefs, so like we don't want to like host everything. But, um, we'll have partnership opportunities, whether you're someone who wants to partner with your hands and laying tile, or you know framing a house, or you want to go to a concert and support the effort.

Addison Thom:

Awesome, yeah, so cool. Well, thank you so much for coming on and we'll have to have you on again. I really appreciate you.

Victoria Whitehead:

Thank you. Thank you so much for the time.

Addison Thom:

Appreciate it.