Riding the Waves of Leadership: Mayor J B SCHLUTER

What does it take to build a six‑decade business, serve your community, and still love what you do every day?

 JB Schluter—Mayor of Gulf Breeze and longtime owner of Innerlight Surf Shop—Shares and unpacks a remarkable journey that blends entrepreneurship, resilience, faith, and public service.

From surviving hurricanes, oil spills, and pandemics to scaling a family business alongside loved ones, JB shares hard‑earned lessons on leadership, owning real estate instead of renting your future, navigating adversity, and leaving a legacy that goes far beyond the balance sheet. It’s an honest, insightful conversation packed with Gulf Coast grit and timeless wisdom for business owners and community leaders alike.

CRN202904-10961959 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to Beyond the Balance Sheet with your host Rich Wright. This podcast goes behind the curtain of the entrepreneurial journey. We explore how business owners got their start and navigate the highs and lows of building a company. Each episode unpacks two major successes and two significant setbacks, offering real-world insights and lessons you can learn from.

SPEAKER_02 0:28

And welcome back to another episode of Beyond the Balance Sheets. I'm joined by JB Schluter, mayor of Gulfbreeze, longtime community leader and local business owner. JB was elected mayor in November of 2024, building on nearly two decades of public service that began in the city council in 2006, including time as the mayor pro tem. Outside of City Hall, he is the owner of Interlight Surf Shop, turning his passion for the coastal lifestyle into a successful local business. He's also deeply involved in regional efforts around transportation, environmental stewardship, tourism, and economic developments, all focused on preserving the quality of life along the Gulf Coast. A lifelong resident of Gulf Breeze, Florida, high school graduate, JB is married to his high school sweetheart, has three children and 10 grandchildren. Mayor JB, welcome to Beyond the Balance Sheet. Thank you so much. I appreciate you inviting me. Oh, it's my pleasure. And uh I've been looking forward to this one for a while, and I know you're busy, so I appreciate you carving timeouts. As I've been a Pensacola Beach and Gulf Breeze proper resident for about 18 years, and surfing is also one of my passions as well, even though I'm not very good at it, but you know, I pretend I am. But uh so very exciting to hear your story in more detail. So it's a it's a big honor. So thanks again. So usually we kind of jump right into the professional part, but because I think your childhood kind of probably influenced your business career. Can you just kick us off a little bit? Like what was your childhood like around Gulf Breeze being raised?

SPEAKER_01 2:15

So I was the I'm the youngest of five children. Uh Yancey was my oldest brother, Yancey Spencer. Um I was born um here in Pensacola, 1958. And um so my our mother uh divorced our father when uh I was eight years old. Yancey was 16. My other brother, who's a pastor here in town, he was 13. Uh Yancey had just started surfing at that point. And so Yancey and my other brother John kind of started off into a surfing career. I, you know, I was just a kid growing up, you know, trying to figure out what was what. Uh my mother remarried when I was 12 to uh a German man by the name of Ernie Schluter, and that's where my name changed. I ended up taking my stepfather's name. So I was born a Spencer and then became a Schluter when I was actually, it didn't finalize until after I graduated high school. But this man was such an impact in my life uh that I honored him and wanted to honor him by taking his name on. So people a lot of times, so when I graduated high school, I was J.B. Spencer. And then a year later, when I got married to my high school sweetheart, I was J.B. Sluter. So it's quite confusing on our wedding invitations when we sent those out. But that's kind of how we got started. We actually moved to Gulf Breeze in 1971. Um back then, I don't know, you're too young to remember this, but that's when all the bussing happened and they were moving kids from one school to the other to try to get things more equaled out. And a lot, and so a lot of a lot of people moved to Gulf Breeze during that time for the schools like they do nowadays. So that's how we ended up in Gulf Breeze. We moved right there on the corner of Florida Avenue, around those, right around the corner from the police station, the fire. Actually, back then, the road to the police station was a dirt road, and the rest of Florida Avenue was still a dirt road. So that tells you how how long ago we've been in Gulf Breeze. Too bad I didn't buy a bunch of property back then. Yeah, right. So anyway, so we ended up like I graduated Gulf Breeze High School in 1976. Uh, ended up going to PJC, where I ended up getting my AA degree. During that time, I ended up working for a large department store by the name of Gafers, which is became Dillard's later. So that's kind of where I got my taste into the retail world. Uh, worked there, they were getting ready to ship me off to my to run my own store either in Jackson, Mississippi, or Dillard's. I became the personnel manager uh for the store. That was my my qualifications in business. So I had about 400 employees that I was going to be over, and my brother Yancey was losing his man manager through a divorce, uh, a guy by the name of Mike Hayes, who also grew up in Gulf Breeze, and he asked me to come into business with him in 1984. And it was a really hard decision because Yancey only had one, I would say one and a half stores, kind of down there by the corner of Ninth and Cervantes, and a little bitty store right across the street from where the Island Authority is now. There were all these little cottages. And uh so Yancey had a little store there. So I stepped into uh that world, the surfing world, 1984. Probably by the time of 1989, we had 13 stores and uh from Orlando all the way to uh Pensacola and Gulf Shores, Alabama, and and some and one and one in Mobile, actually. Um it was quite a kickoff to the surf world back then. It really blew up kind of like it did in the 60s. Yeah. So that kind of got us into the where we are now, you know. It it slowly grew.

SPEAKER_02 5:38

So the uh do you think your uh experience in retail at Gafers gave you more of a confidence to step? Because at the end of the day, a surf shop is retail. Yeah, did that do you think that was a big that that unknown step at Gafers gave you more comfort to to step in as a business owner?

SPEAKER_01 6:00

I think it gave me the problem, my brother, and he would be the first one to tell you that when the surf was up, he wanted to shut the store down and go surfing. You know, he didn't really run it like a business, he ran it as more as a part-time thing so he could surf. And when he hired me, I ran it more like a business. And I ran it, you know, with structural hours, this and that. So to answer your question, yes, because when I started working at Gayfers back then, I went from the bottom as a porter all the way up to one of the top managers in the store. So I learned every aspect of running a department store, and I kind of run my business now under that same structure of operation person. One of my daughters is more the operation person, my other daughter's more the buyers and the merchandising person, and I'm still involved in the merchandising portion of it as well. So, yes, I structured my business after the way I saw the success of that business being run.

SPEAKER_02 6:51

Wow, that that's very interesting. And uh yeah, that's you guys definitely have grown quite a business. And for the listeners who aren't from the Gulf Coast, Inter Interlife Surf Shop, and JB probably wouldn't, you know, brag it, say this out loud, but it's it's the you know keep Keystone or Hallmark name of surf shops along the you know Gulf Coast for sure. And it's de definitely well known. It's got a great brand, and you guys are thank you. I mean, for for real. So who did was there anyone? It sounds like your stepfather was a huge influence. So him or anyone else, uh teenager, you know, young adult that really influenced you to be, or where did that entrepreneurial business owner spirit come from?

SPEAKER_01 7:38

I guess you're born with that to a certain amount. You know, some of us have different drives. Um, I mean, I had a lot of great role models in different businesses, you know, that I was involved in. My brother Yancey was a big influence in my life, you know, his Christian faith and everything gave me a good because Yancey was more of a father figure to me because our father was abusive, alcoholic, had to other other issues. So Yancy's stability, you know, he became a Christian at a young man. He was uh 19 when he got saved. So that kind of trickled over into and gave us because we were in the surf culture in the 60s, so you know what that was like. It was drugs and and this and that. And a lot of my friends that uh we had back then are either in jail or dead, you know, because of that culture that they lived in, they never got out of. So that that was a big influence in my life and keeping me on the right role. But as far as entrepreneurship and this and that, I think that God just gives us different talents, and I think that he just and I and I love what I do. I mean, people ask me all the time, I'm 68 years old, and they go, Well, when do you think you see yourself retiring? I said, Well, as long as I still can get up in the morning and love what I do, I don't see that in my future. So Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:44

Interesting. Yeah, yeah, I and I agree. You know, deaf for sure. So you mentioned before we started recording, you you listened to a couple other podcasts, but one of the common themes that I've heard from business owners who have had partners is that partners are both can be a blessing and a curse. But I've never had the opportunity to interview someone who had a partner that was also related. So even if he did, you know, uh split ways, which you didn't, um you're not really splitting completely, you know? So it sounds like you guys were able to identify strengths for Yancy, strengths for you. How did that working relationship go? Were you guys able to stay in your own lanes and whatnot?

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Yeah, I would say they were because it goes back to kind of what I said. I didn't have a kind of a competitive relationship with my brother like a lot of brothers do. You know, I heard Kaipo and Lapaca's story, you know, and they and they've had some turmoil, but because Yancey was so much older than me. I didn't when Yancy would be out surfing and this and that, I wasn't jealous that I had to be at the shop and I had to be working. I I enjoyed that. That was, you know, surfing is not is a very addictive, kind of like golf and some of these other lifelong sports. But to me, it was just an act activity I enjoyed doing. I was okay at it, but it wasn't my drive every day. So I didn't have the bitterness that you see in a lot of um partnerships or brothers or something like that when they work, when they feel like one is not working as much as the other. I never had that thing. And Yancy was very gracious and always gave me the credit of what I did. When you hear some of his uh interviews and podcasts, he was always up front going, hey, I'm just the face of the business. My brother is really what got us to what we are. That I guess that freedom to have to be able to walk in both of now when I'm not saying we didn't have our conflicts, but we did have some conflicts, but usually it was over customers, how we treated them, what we didn't do, what we did do, that kind of stuff. Yancey was kind of from the old school where you don't give refunds, you don't do this, you don't do that. And as as retail changed, you had to be more flexible in that kind of stuff. You couldn't hold tight to the old mom and pop type of rules. You know, you go into some of these stores and and you see no cash refunds, exchanges only all over, all this negative stuff. And that was kind of where he was when I got into the business. And so that was probably the biggest rub we had at times. Right. Yeah, small stuff.

SPEAKER_02 11:02

But yeah, that's amazing that you guys had such a great working relationship because that easily could not be the case and cause more problems than just the business. So that that that's fantastic. And uh and that's kind of my observation too of the business is you know, Yancey was the the face and he's in the water, and you're you're you're running operations and growing the growing the business, so that's good. Obviously, you know, unfortunately your brother passed away and he's uh honored uh all the time and a statue on Pensacola Beach and is considered the you know the father of the Gulf Coast surfing. Did when when he passed, did did that um change your passion for the business in any way? Uh increase it or decrease it or anything like that?

SPEAKER_01 11:52

You know, anytime you have a um a sudden death like that, you know, when when you're you're at home on Valentine's Day night and his daughter's calling you from California saying, hey, my dad's dead. And I went, wait a minute, I just talked to him a few hours ago. You can't be dead, you know what I mean? And so anytime you have that kind of of cut in your life in a relationship that like I have with my brother, it changes you. You know, you go through, I I would say you go through the um shadows of that, you know, you go through the the the the grief of that. Uh my brother's passion was the surfboards and the the the the make the hard goods, I call it of our business. And mine was more of the soft goods and the clothing where we made money. We really don't make money on surfboards and paddle boards, and people think that that's where we make our money because oh, it's a $1,000 surfboard. Well, I might make $150 on a thousand dollar surfboard, you know what I mean? So so that part of it I had to kind of really del dive into and and learn more about it. You know, he his his passion, he would, he would uh engulf all the magazines, the culture. He would travel all over the world and surf. So he was uh more in the depth of the new changes, the new new uh because technology is always changing to surfboards, like when surfing, like foil boarding now. So he was more into that part of it, and I was more into the numbers and this and that of running a successful business. So in that respect, I had to get myself more into it or bring more people around me that were had that same passion.

SPEAKER_02 13:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:19

So that was the hardest part was trying to keep that same because his he fought because he wanted more surfboards and I wanted more clothing. So we had to try to, we were always jockeying for floor space. Yeah, and he usually wants.

SPEAKER_02 13:30

I I have a funny story that's kind of uh related to what you just talked about. So I have an uh one of my old lawn boards, it's a 9-0, and it's it was one of your branded Interlight boardworks style boards that he kind of either picked the shape or shaped it and you know mass-produced it with you guys' logos on it. But um, even though I'm not a NASCAR fan, it it must have been in that era where NASCAR became real popular because it had NASCAR like logos or NASCAR-like flags on it. Yep, yep. And I was like, I was when I pull that out and look at it, I'm like, yeah, that was, you know, them trying to be brand and keep up with the times. And it wasn't intra- I still have it.

SPEAKER_01 14:13

Um I have one of those models too myself. I keep it out at the beach, so I know exactly what you're talking about. And they had a rebel flag on it, so it was a little controversial too. Yeah, it was and we were down at Ninth Avenue Cervanti, so we'd have those boards merchandise. It was kind of a little controversy back then, you know.

SPEAKER_02 14:29

So all right. Well, so pivot a little bit uh before we move on to the next chapter. You know, with business, business ownership, entrepreneurship comes, you know, internal pressures, external pressures. Uh so I want to talk briefly about some external pressures that you had to deal with that were completely out of your control, that a lot of business owners in this area have to deal with. I'll give you a couple of examples, and then maybe you can talk about just, you know, high-level how you dealt with that adversity and what decisions you made to over, you know, overcome those type of things. So uh, you know, obviously we've had hurricanes, we had COVID, which prevented people coming into the retail store to some capacity, I would imagine. BP oil spills, and then Hurricane Sally, which knocked out the main bridge that people could get from the city of Pensacola over to uh some of your stores, which that would definitely have to drive down traffic. So, how did you guys manage some of that adversity, which was out of your control?

SPEAKER_01 15:33

Well, you know, I'll go back to the BP oil spill. We had just opened up a store over in Gulf Shores, Alabama, beautiful store, and like in a big open mall. And six months later, the BP oil spill hit over there. So um that store where we had a lot of money invested in that store. We had a lot of inventory and this and that, and and it the further west you went with the BP oil spill, the worse business got, you know, because you were closer to where the oil was coming in and everything. We really didn't see a lot of the oil coming in on Pensacola Beach. It was just the rumors of oil. You know, there would be four or five news trucks out there waiting to see one seagull show up with a little bit of oil on them, and they're all filming, you know. But you know, when you came time to try to f file claims with the BP oil spill, you had to have history of what your sales were and how they reflected and how you were detrimented. You would think having surf shops and surf camps and stuff like that, it would have been huge. But I never really got, you know, some of the money you hear some of these other people did for the BP oil spill compared to the money I lost. I'd rather have my business. So the long and short of it, we end up losing that store over in Gulf Shores, Alabama, which really almost bankrupt in a light, because I was contractedly uh tied to a really high-end lease in uh in a in a really aggressive outdoor mall. And it uh almost bankrupt us trying to get through that. I learned a little bit in that respect there as far as what I want to do. You know, Yancey and I made a decision years ago that we would try to be the landlords. When we built buildings like we did in Gulf Breeze, we always tried to build it where we had another tenant. Like when we first did Gulf Breeze, we had Smoothie King. When we did our shop in Navarre, we had Merlin's Pizza. When we did the shopping center over in Pensacola where Scotty's used to be, we built a whole strip center. So that when we did have downtimes in our retail, we still had a commercial business can't coming in. So that was one of the things that we kind of learned through that is tried to be the landlord and not the tenant, you know. So then you go into let's all let's talk about COVID, you know, or the or the and that was kind of the same time with the with the bridge going out for Sally. Yep. It uh, you know, it was really not a bad thing for Gulf Breeze because I felt like Gulf Breeze locals really supported us. And they said, hey, I'm not driving all the way around to go to the mall. You better find something here at Interlight or somewhere here in Gulf Breeze. So we really didn't struggle too much until um I would say when around May, when uh the brid, you know, everybody was driving around. I mean, 98 in front of me was a cul-de-sac, you know. You could play kickball in 98.

SPEAKER_02 17:58

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 17:59

You know, uh but the the uh we had a great governor and he opened us up that May, that weekend, uh Memorial Weekend, and our business, and everybody went to the beach for a year and bought surfboards and paddleboards. So it kind of m made up for that loss of that void we had. And anytime you have a hurricane like Ivan, you know, when you destroy your beaches and your breaks, and you know, uh I don't know if you were living here at that time, you probably know you grew up here. We never saw anything like what Ivan did. But we we just kind of kept our head down, worked hard, and tried to my brother always said, you know, you watch your pennies and your dollars will take care of themselves. So we were really watching our pennies and trying to make sure that we did everything right and smart in that respect.

SPEAKER_02 18:38

Yeah. I've I've noticed that your online shopping presence has evolved and expanded over the years. Did did that kind of did that and you know, embryos start with that or just started because everyone else was kind of doing it?

SPEAKER_01 18:57

You know, in in my world, you know, we we have our own branding as as far as Interlight because we've been in business since 1969 and we have a great following. But also in my world, um all our major brands in the past 10 years went bankrupt. Quicksilver, Billabong, all you know, most people don't know that, you know, but so they all have their own online presence to try to get through them through this through this uh era too. So I it's hard for me to compete online with their with them having their branding and the depth they have on their websites. So we've been able to do okay, but it's mainly with our stuff Interlight, you know, Interlight t-shirts, hats, stuff like that. But it's also just the advertising presence that we get through Instagram and uh Facebook and all that too. It gives us a lot more visible. Keeps us a lot more visible.

SPEAKER_02 19:46

Some of the other things that you guys do, I I don't know how that affects the the bottom line, but the community events, like the surf contests, and I like, you know, my my son and kids like they've always I spent years doing the you know like surf camps and that's like a sellout. You gotta sign up for that, you know, like already, you know, it's booked solid, you know. Um how how did that I mean it was great for the community, um, and I'm glad that you guys do that, and it's probably good for the branding. But did do those those things uh come back on the bottom line at all?

SPEAKER_01 20:21

Or is it just well the the con the contest started back when uh a kid by the name of Matt Martin, a local uh surfer, his dad Robin Martin was my brother's age, died in a skateboard accident down there off Oreo Beach Road. He was holding on to the side of a truck and skating boarding next to it, and ended up the truck ran over him. And so we started doing this memorial Matt Martin surf contest to benefit about a guy by the name of Tom Davis, who died. Well, he's dead now, but he broke his neck surfing over in Gulf Shores, hit the bottom, and another local Cobia family had a boy, Cody, who was handicapped and worked in the shops and stuff. So we did fundraisers and all that for years. So we did those annual contests for years and years to raise money for these two people to help benefit. So that wasn't really a money thing for us so much. Now, surf camp is a different story. I got the idea from a uh surf shop over in uh St. Augustine, Florida, called the Surf Station. He kept saying, JB, you got to do surf. I said, We have no surf in the summer. We have no surf in the summer. There's no surf in the summer. But uh what a little over 20 some years ago, we finally started doing it. And uh what you what you come to realize is really small surf is better than big surf when you're trying to teach eight-year-olds how to surf. For sure. Because they see a two-foot wave and they think it's pipeline. You know, they there's a that's huge. Uh I don't know how I can surf it. So I I I like to see about shin the knee high out there when I'm pushing little eight and ten year olds on. And and it's m more of a a way to teach them to appreciate the beach, how to keep it clean, how to be courteous when you're out in the water. Give them all the rules that most of us grew up surfing didn't get. We learned it the hard way when we cut somebody off or we got in their way and got. yelled at and stuff like that. So m s more of the culture of surfing and more of the respect of the beach. And also, you know, the rip currents and how they work and the different jellyfish, stingrays, you know, this more of a a broad brushstroke of the whole Gulf Coast and how how to enjoy it. And because we look at surfing as a lifelong sport. So if we can get this seven, eight, ten-year-old kid surfing, we see that his kids are coming, his kids' kids are coming into the shop to this day. You know? So Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:28

Yeah, that's fantastic. Well I great, I'm glad you guys do that because it's I mean just giving back to the community and I mean plus we're making future, you know, shoppers for you guys.

SPEAKER_01 22:38

Yeah. Future customers. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:40

Yeah. Yeah. So successful business. Obviously it's still going. I mean it's been operated for six decades, give or take now.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

Yeah. We st we started in 69. We were we're probably the only uh bus oldest business in Gulf Breeze that is still have a brick and mortar store. I would say uh I I don't I can't think of another one in Gulf Breeze that's been a business since 69. So yeah. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 23:01

So we'll kind of take a big leap forwards and step into kind of I guess kind of the next phase of of your life which is uh public service. So in 2006 um you ran and won and got elected to the Gulf Breeze City Council and that kind of kicked off a long-term public service um uh where you're still doing that.

SPEAKER_01 23:27

So what what initially got you interested in in public service and I guess politics I guess is a way of saying it you know it's it's kind of funny Richard because you grew up here like when when my kids were small and in playing baseball and softball and stuff like that up here at Shoreline Park at the rec center, you know, I I started going up there with my kids and and I was frustrated because I thought well the coach is not doing this and the coach is not doing that. I need to be you know so next year I was the coach you know and then then you start so long story short you instead of sitting back and complaining about stuff you get involved next thing I knew I was the commissioner of the of the of that series and then the next thing I know I'm the vice president of the sports association. So um and then when a seat came open uh Rick Altson um who was the independent newspaper guy decided he wasn't going to rerun for city council. He had been on the city councilman for years, did a great job. A guy by the name of Jim Lively who's son on the lively one fishing boat came to me and it was JB because I was still involved in the sports and we were getting ready to build that extra football field uh right there by City Hall and there was a lot of people pushing against that that they didn't want that there. They didn't want the lights there and all this so they kind of I got I got uh teed up as a as a real sports person real sports friendly type person to run against a another gentleman who who ran against me that year. So and and plus I grew up in Gulf Breeze. I always like to give back to the community you know you you got to do something. I mean and you only make a dollar a year. I mean I only make a dollar a year as mayor and I and I spend many, many hours I've read more in my past eight years with pamphlets and different boards that I sit on than than I than I want to think about. So you want to give back you know we love this community. You know one of the when I when I first ran one of the things that was the beautification of the community. So that was a big push I had through we totally redid all the medians and landscapes throughout Gulf Breeze and I continue to work like on that I and I know it frustrates a lot of people because I almost like to want to run the Gulf Breeze like an HOA. I want it to be the best of the best. I want people to come here to this town and go, wow, this is a neat town. I want to live here but we have the best parks the best walk paths with but everything and I want the people when they come through Gulf Breeze to kind of stop and pause and go, it's different here, you know, what is this? And so it's kind of a a passion of wanting to get involved and not just sit back and complain and at the same time loving the town I live in and raising my children and my grandchildren here.

SPEAKER_02 25:54

Well you hit it the nail on the head because I mean you have execute on that and that that community well the past and that new turf field I mean it's so much happiness and kids playing on that and they bring you know the new flag football league and that that was great that you guys got that push through and I spent a lot of time there myself doing kind of similar things. So what where have there had have there been any parallels that you've learned as a business owner that has been specifically helpful in public office?

SPEAKER_01 26:26

Well you know when you know of course when you're on city council you just have one vote or when you're in the mayor you still only have one vote. Now you can try to swing your other city councilmans one way or the other but you know as a small businessman it's very frustrating to be involved in government you know the money that you see spent on stuff you're like that is crazy and the time it takes. I mean nothing moves fast in government. I mean it is so frustrating I mean I worked for a year and a half just to get a turn light at that hospital so people you know a designated turning light coming out of the shopping center and coming out of that hospital because people were getting hit there all the time because there was not a design I mean it took me a year and a half to get an arrow. Where in my business I would have made the decision I would have repainted I would have changed the light and it would have been done in a week you know but unfortunately in government it doesn't work that way and it's very frustrating. So and and and and also you know I've had to meet payrolls I've had to meet pay insurance for my employees I can't raise taxes or I can't do this and that I still have to earn the money in a certain perspective. So you know we have a really good city council right now we have a guy by the name of Randy Abair who's a business owner a retired attorney I have a lady who's in the in the industry business world and a lady who's a real estate and they're all pretty diversified people and they and we all work really well together. And so that has helped so this past council wasn't as as balanced I would say some of them were maybe all a lot of governmental like history with military and this and that. Not that that's a bad thing but it kind of helps I think a little bit when you run your own business and you've had to not take a paycheck one week because you had to cover payroll. Yeah. So that that was see that's been the interesting part.

SPEAKER_02 28:04

I I I feel like Elon Musk learned that lesson when he tried to take over Doge and then realized things move at a snail's pace and he, you know he's a he's a rocket ship so that makes a lot of sense. Yeah. So uh I'm just kind of gonna name off a couple more things um and then we'll talk about it. But yeah you served multiple terms um in the city council um and then eventually obviously became mayor and you took that role in December of 2024 and um you know your your focus you know has like you mentioned has been on expanding you know recreational you know opportunities and improving waterway access and investing in community spaces and stuff like that. You mentioned one about the the the turf field but any any other particular particular projects that you know you've been involved with over the last 10 years that you're particularly proud of?

SPEAKER_01 29:00

Well you know I think that you know the the multi-use path and the continuing of of those has been you know although some of those I was not 100% in favor of but now that they're done I'm I I really like and I I enjoy them I use them. One of the things that we're the I would say the hurdles we're dealing with right now is the explosion of the e-bikes and e-scooters and electric motorcycles and so we want our kids to be able to have the freedom to ride their bikes and this and that to school but at the same time we got to do it in a safe way. So that's that's becoming a big hurdle and it's becoming a big hurdle all the way across the state of Florida. When I when I meet with other municipalities I mean some of them have had banned them all together because the the unsafety of it so we have such a unique area here I I really consider Gulf Breeze an island because we have water all the way around this and we have the live oaks reservation. So we really have like a little you know we can really get it right I feel like you know we can really look back and let's try to get it right because we're talking about what 7,000 people about 3500 households unless somebody tears down their house and really not any new households coming in so we really have a great opportunity to get it right. So that's kind of what we want to do and we want to do that as things change as we're seeing you know right now we're getting ready to do there I mean you can see down in Destin they're doing these multipath and they're going to bring them all the way through the Highway 908 all the way to Gulf Breeze. They're planning to loop around Gulf Breeze and then join back onto the three mile bridge or the Chappie James Bridge and takes it all the way to there. So there's a lot of things going on in that respect. And and of course one of the big hurdles we have coming up as far as government wise is the um the 399 overpass or as me, you would probably know it is the beach overpass. You know that pinches Gulf breeze right there to two lanes when we do that. So we're working with the DOT to make sure that we don't become a flyover from that point all the way to the bridge and we're underneath a a flyover the whole city of Gulf Berees but we're trying to do it in a healthy and and safe way because eventually that's going to have to be addressed is that pinching point or 399 right there by the hospital and everything. We're trying to be proactive and working with the uh park rangers and stuff like that as they widen it through there and as they try to look at widening it through Gulf Breeze. So yeah I imagine that's that takes a lot of forward planning for sure.

SPEAKER_02 31:20

Yeah. Well I asked a similar question earlier but I kind of want I want to flop the question now. What lessons have you learned in public service that have helped you as a business owner?

SPEAKER_01 31:32

That's a good question. You know I I've always kind of been a I guess a people pleaser you know I like to fix problems and stuff like that. So it's given me more opportunity to as as people come and and with problems they're having like trying to build something to do something in the city to try to solve it. And sometimes we can solve it and sometimes we can't you know because of rules and regulations. But I guess it's given me it giving me um a little bit more perspective on how to be more diplomatic about that. Because a lot of times you know in my business I can fix it pretty easily because the buck stops with me. In my government part part of my job it doesn't work that way. So sometimes I have to be the bad guy and it helps because I don't like to be the bad guy. I want to be the I want to be the hero, the fixer you know and you can't always do that. So it's given me I guess a little bit more of um experience in that part of it.

SPEAKER_02 32:24

Yeah that's interesting. Yeah yeah that makes sense yeah to interesting okay all right so we we kind of like to wrap up things a little bit again that talking about successes and failures that's all part of the story. And so you know if you can share one or two key successes or decisions that you made that significantly you know improved or create a nice successful impact on your business or and two lessons learned from mistakes that you made that you learn from that you can share with other business owners well you know it mistakes I think most of us make as business owners is that it's it's all about cash flow.

SPEAKER_01 33:07

You know if you let your cash flow or you don't watch you know like I said earlier you don't watch your pennies, it catches up with you pretty quick, you know we've I you know like I alluded to earlier most of our money we made as businessmen has been in our real estate you know and the property we bought how long we held on to it how because it was if we can get our tenants to make the mortgage payment and we have a business there that is not costing us anything for that respect, you know, during that time, then we're good. And then as the business and the property gains value, of course that's where the the really becomes good. Like we sold our Scotty's business down out there on the Ninth Avenue property about three years ago. We bought it 20 years before that right after Ivan had hit actually and so um I would say that was been one of the best business decisions we made was to buy our own land and try to become landlords and uh have tenants to help pay the mortgages and and and the insurances and the property taxes. And that and then of course it's a two-edged sword that now you've got 18 tenants that want to complain to you about their air conditions not working, the parking's bad somebody needs to pick up the garbage and so it was a learning experience both ways. I would say it's a two edged sword as far as become but but all in all that has been one of our best decisions we made. And I tell like I I met with Sean Fell who owns Waterboys several years ago after a friend of ours died. I said Sean you need to buy that property you know if if you don't do anything else you you need to own your own property and because we we see a lot of guys in our world who who owned surf shops and malls for years and years and when it was all over they had no assets. All they had was old t-shirts to sell in racks that were worth nothing. You know that the mall had uh you know had charged them $10, $1500 a month for 20 years and they had all the assets. So that is one of the biggest lessons I would tell people is that is to try to buy your own property try to continue to invest in property because it and and that's really where you're gonna make it and I know you do that too yourself. So I know that that's a smart investment. You know some of the mistakes I made I would say is getting JB's ego out of the way and and and you know because I have a tendency I want to you know do the right thing and this and that but my ego gets in the you know I I had Pensacola Beach Marina I ran that for eight years and I worked very hard out there and it it was when you own a marina it's very draining financially you know because you're always fixing something you're always this and that it's always uh you know we we sold it about seven years ago but we had it for eight years and I think a lot of it was tied up with my ego that I thought man I own a marina you know this is really cool I own a marina you know but uh it was not really making us any money at the same time you know because of the and it's like and we thought that you know our shop would be do really well we had a shop there and we had a we I actually started a church a upper room started a church above us and you know and we we we felt like we did a good job with the marina and the boat captains and all that that were there and and afterwards they they they asked me to come back. I said no we'll be back to run the marina again we're we're all done with marinas. So you know I say you know the bad thing is getting my own ego out of the way and you know and now my children are running the business and they're much smarter than me and and me letting go is is a hard part to do. So I tell you because most small businesses if family owned have a tendency to fall apart apart after generations and generations because of conflict. You know I have a great staff right now my brother's kids uh Sterling and Yancey are not so much involved in the daily operations of the business but they're kind of fill their father's role in a sense that they're great surfers. Yep they're in the they're out in the water they have a lot of exposure. Sterling has his own podcast uh Pinch My Salt which he does real well with across everywhere I go people say they they they hear it they see it they love it. And Yancey was a lot like that. Yancey he had the reputation of being a shameless self-promoter you know that he when he did magazine dads it was usually pictures of him and this and that. So we would go all over the world and people would see that say the same thing. So I would say that to keep your grassroots uh tight and to try to keep you know as much as you can uh the family so that it doesn't destroy itself as your as your business moves forward. So I don't know if that would answer the question the best things and worst things but you know it's it's it's it's a tough thing because running a small business nowadays with you know my biggest competitor is Amazons. Your son and my sons can sit at the red light and order a new pair of rainbow sandals and a pair of Billabong shorts and a hat and by the time the round red light changes he's got an order and it's coming in two days. You know what I mean? And so luckily we live in a tourist town and people want they don't want to sit at their beach in their condo and and shop Amazon. They want to go to the local flavor stores and we have a we feel real blessed to have a pretty good reputation of being a store that they want to come to yeah I agree 100% yeah I I wasn't gonna wrap it up but you made me have to ask another question I mean because your your kids are fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 38:03

You've done a just a remarkable job raising them. They're great community people and professional business women and um what what has that been like seeing your kids turn into professional business people and thrive at their roles and stay cohesive and not cause problems.

SPEAKER_01 38:26

I mean that's gotta be difficult you know I mean you guys have mastered it well I have a I have a great wife so I can't I can't can't I can't take full credit of that. M Midgey um is has been a very big anchor in my family. And I I would say too you know our our Christian faith is it's a big part of that too because we all go to church together we're all real tight you know in that respect. We don't have a lot of conflict in the family um you know everybody has a problem you know I heard somebody say everybody looks pretty good until you lift the lid a little bit and look in you know so there's always something going on but I do feel real blessed. I have I have two great daughters in the business. I have a great son-in-law Billy who runs my um Gulf Bree store and I've got some key managers I've got one girl manager has been with me since 1987. I've got another kid who's been with me he runs my Destin store and he went to high school here his dad was a doctor and he's been with me for over 25 years. So I have a lot of great key employees other than my children who love love the business and have been very faithful. And you know it it goes back you know you you treat people how you want to be treated. And I I was the same way as a landlord or in this and that I try to cheat my tenants the same way that I would want to be treated too. So I think that goes a long way.

SPEAKER_02 39:37

Yeah for sure well I mean just a remarkable story. I mean I definitely learned some things that I I didn't know but this has been a lot of fun. So we'll wrap it up and uh JB, I think thank you so much for taking the time to join us today, for sharing your story, your leadership journey, your commitment to Gulf Breeze community. It's been great hearing how you balance public service, business ownership, father figure, and you know just your real genuine passion for the quality of life along the Gulf Coast. So uh thank thank you so much. And it's conversations like this that remind us that leadership isn't just about decisions. It's about people, values and long term impact. So I'm Richard Wright and this has been another episode of Beyond the Balance Sheet. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time