American Hustle

From Broke Cowboy to Texas Boss: Marty B’s American Hustle

• Austin Moody • Season 1 • Episode 2

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Some stories don’t start with a business plan. They start with a gut punch, a promise, and a long road of work no one sees. Marty B went from a small-town kid paying with food stamps to the creator of a thriving Texas hospitality campus—steakhouse, coffee, ice cream, bowls, live music, and an event venue under way—built on faith, grit, and relentless care for people.

We dive into the moments that forged his edge: caring for a paralyzed father at 12, the sting of welfare, and the quiet vow to never be poor again. That pressure created a code—country values, chivalry, respect—that later became operating system and culture. Marty explains why service is the checklist but hospitality is the feeling, and how a four-part customer creed—look at me, smile at me, talk to me, thank me—turns a table turn into loyalty. If you’re leading teams, you’ll hear a practical blueprint: hire for heart, tell the truth both ways, hold standards with accountability, and model the behavior you want repeated.

Here’s a sharp lesson for operators navigating growth and investment: when analytics eclipse humanity, culture decays. Marty breaks down how selection mistakes balloon HR, why good people drown under policies designed for bad fits, and how visible leadership cleans up more problems than memos. He also shares the founder’s focus that scales: vision, culture, concept creation, and product development. From starting with 2.2 acres and maxed-out cards to securing vendor trust and expanding parking to unlock demand, every decision reflects a simple belief—life rewards action.

If you’re building a restaurant, a service company, or any customer-first brand, you’ll leave with tools to strengthen culture, improve guest experience, and grow with integrity. Press play, then tell us the one action you’ll take today. Subscribe, share with a friend who’s chasing something big, and leave a review to help more builders find the show.

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Credits

Host: Austin Moody

Guest: Marty Bryan (“Marty B”)

Videography & Edit: Brad Wygle — The Good Podcast

Graphic Design: Zack Knudsen

Executive Production: Mid Century Western

Creative Direction: Brandon Carswell

Recorded On-Location At: Marty B’s — Bartonville, Texas

Special Thanks: Jeff Capps & The Marty B’s Team


Speaker 2:

You ever meet somebody who just gets it? The kind of man who didn't wait for permission. He just rolled up his fleas, bet on himself, and built something real. That's Marty B. From busting tables to owning some of the biggest, most respected restaurants in Texas. Marty built his empire the old-fashioned way. With vision, discipline, and a whole lot of sweat. In this episode, we talk about what it takes to build a life and business that lasts. Not just profits, but purpose, people, and pride. So if you're out there hustling, dreaming, or starting your own thing, pull up a chair. I'm Austin Moody, and this is American Hustle. Let's get to work. Sitting here with Marty B today at Marty B, the man we met a while back in Nashville there, and uh we're able to connect through your guy, Jeff Caps, and Brandon Carr as well. So uh second time down here, man. Thanks for having me back. Thanks for being here, Austin. I knew the first time you and I met each other that I wanted to know more about you. You know, and uh um so here we are. So I want to roll it back way before uh you started out on your own, before the restaurants, before the Marty B's empire. Um where are you from? You know, want to know about that early Marty B history, you know, your parents, uh and kind of what built you early on in your life as a young man.

Speaker:

Yeah. Well Austin, thank you. Thanks for being here. I know we had a great time in Nashville. Yeah. I don't know that I've done as much in that 15-hour time that I was there as we did that day.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And uh long day before it was a long day, but it was fun. And thanks to you, I got to meet some great people. And so thanks for being here. Uh, you opened for Pat Green last night, you're playing here on the stage tomorrow night, so we're excited about that. It's good to have somebody from Nashville. We're so used to we're so inbred in Texas, right? We're doing Texas stuff all the time. Uh but you know, we love it. Yeah. Uh Marty B. So I grew up um in a small town, very small town. And uh I grew up as a fat kid, believe it or not. So I was picked on a lot and uh in grade school, and so learned pretty quickly uh how to defend myself uh from all the harassment and all the uh things that kids say to you at an early age. And then about junior high kind of kind of grew into my fatness, and uh, and so uh that was interesting. And then it was in 1980, my parents got a divorce, and then uh that was kind of a pivotal moment in my life. My mom married a few times. My dad ended up marrying a lady that was just a terrible person. She was an alcoholic, very abusive physically, verbally. And then uh so we lived in that environment for a couple years because my dad, we were my brother and I were living with my dad. And then um in 1984, October 19th, 1984, my dad was on his way to work. It was his last day at this job, and a deer ran out in front of him and he hit the deer, threw his car into a bar ditch, he leaned over in the seat, horseshoe a tree, crushed his spinal cord, and uh paralyzed him from the waist down. And so once that happened, of course, he was in the hospital for six months. And the day it happened, uh the school came and got my brother and out of class and said that my dad had been in a very serious car accident. Wasn't sure if he was gonna make it, that we could either stay in school or we could go home. We chose to stay in school. Uh we didn't know the extent of my dad's injuries at the time, but shortly thereafter learned that he was paralyzed from the navel down. Um, and he was gonna be in the hospital for quite a while. My dad finally made it home, and my brothers, my brother and I kind of became his primary caregiver. So we we bathed my dad, we turned my dad in the middle of the night, we changed my dad, we cooked for my dad, we basically did everything for my dad for about six months.

Speaker 2:

How old were you then?

Speaker:

I was uh 12 and my little brother was 10. And uh and so before my dad came back from the hospital, we were kind of migrating. We lived with cousins, we lived with aunts and uncles, kind of lived with a number of different people, and then uh about six months, maybe a year after my dad got home, he kind of got into a place where he was kind of starting to become more independent. Uh, got a car with all the gears and all the mechanics to be able to drive the car without using his feet, and uh got a job and uh and then ended up moving, we ended up moving to um a town called Navasota, east of here, east Texas. And uh and we didn't last here very long because we hated the school. My dad's, you know, trying to get acclimated, and we're just miserable. And so my dad, even despite his condition, allowed my brother and I to move back to where we grew up, um, and moved in with my uncle. And uh, which I had to can't imagine how difficult that must have been for my dad, you know, after that two years or a year and a half we'd spent with my dad caring for him, and then he gains independence, and then all of a sudden his two prized possessions are no longer living with him. And so I think about that as a dad, um, you know, how unselfish that was of him to really focus on us and give us a healthy environment to be in. And we had always wanted to rodeo and rope, and my uncle did that. So he taught us how to rodeo, ride horses, break horses. And so from seventh grade all the way through high school, we rodeoed. And a lot of that was as a result of um, you know, living with my uncle. My dad was a rodeo cowboy too, but obviously in his position, he couldn't teach us how to do it, right? And um so we did that, and then um graduated from high school in Calwell, and uh that's where I met my wife, Roxanne. You met her. That's where my brother met his wife. Um, and I say all that because that pivotal moment, October 19, 1984, basically changed our life forever. And because of the difficulty and the challenges of going through that. And then during that time, we were on welfare. And so my dad um wasn't working because he was trying to get rehabilitated. And so two of the most humiliating moments of my life is when we would go to the grocery store and pay with food stamps. Back then it was a paper, it's paper, right? It wasn't a digital card like it is today. And so we would circle the grocery store waiting for no one to be at the checkout counter so we could pay with food stamps. And then on Monday, when I was in school as a seventh grader, they would bring me this free lunch card and put it on my desk in front of all the other classmates, which to me was humiliating because when you're seventh grade, you're worried about how your hair looks, what what you're wearing, are you a cool kid, all those things. And getting a free lunch card isn't a cool thing. Right? And you know, um, so that was pretty humiliating, and it just made me realize that I just don't want to be poor. I want to make something, I want to create something, I want to be able to make money. I mean, then I got into the ninth grade, and the most liberating thing happened was I paid for my lunch. I can't tell you how that how much that meant to me internally to just be able to pay for my lunch after what I'd been through the first couple of years, not being in the place to do that, you know. Um had great four years in high school, and then I got in the restaurant business in 1991, uh Outback Steakhouse, and uh started there, moved to Houston. My mom moved to Houston because I knew in a small community there wasn't gonna be a ton of opportunity. Of course, growing up in a two-A school, three A school, it was gonna be oil and gas or a teacher. I mean, that's kind of what you did, or ranching, which I grew up on a ranch, familiar with that, but it's a lot of work for not a lot of return.

Speaker 2:

Sure. Um same way with my hometown. We had I was being a being a farm boy, you know, I don't know where you were from, but like I don't know if being a ranch guy was a normal thing. If you had a lot of ranches where you're from. Oh yeah. In East TC, there was a lot of farms, but there wasn't a lot of farm boys. So, you know, I was made up fun of through middle school and you know, but mostly in middle school, it was just like I'm the guy coming in, tucked in, shirt, yeah, boots, you know, looking gentlemanly.

Speaker 1:

Right.

Speaker 2:

And uh, but that all changed in high school. But the um we had Eastman Chemical and you know, bad health care up there. That's the two annisters. And it was like, you know, but at some point you go, I can't, there's no room to grow up, you know. So I get that. You gotta how far was Houston away from where he was?

Speaker:

Uh about two hours.

Speaker 2:

Oh, okay.

Speaker:

You know, but I Austin, you know, like like you, I think there's so much you learn by growing up in the country. And I mean, you have to learn, you have to figure stuff out, right? Like how much balin wire and duct tape did you use growing up? I mean, we we were using that stuff all the time. And uh and it teaches you to be, you know, think on your feet and be a problem solver. That's what you're solving problems all day long when you're on a farm, right? You got something to take care of. You can people are counting on you. Yeah, like livestock, other people. Um, and so you learn just to work hard. Yeah. I mean, I always say you can take a country boy and put him in the city, he'll be fine. You take a city boy, put him in the country, he's gonna be lost. Right. Be clueless, right? And so people that grow up in the country and have that small town, to me, I like to call it chivalry. Like being a gentleman, like tilting your hat to the ladies, removing your hat during the Pledge of Allegiance or during a prayer. You know, there's something to be said about wearing a cowboy hat. To me, this cowboy hat means more than just a hat cover. It means respect for my country, faith in our God, means hard work. My word is my vow, it's my honor. Um, and so when I wear a cowboy hat, that's why I'm wearing it. I'm wearing it to represent the way I grew up and things that really have kind of lost its popularity or luster today. You know, very often are you, do you engage another man where they practice that chivalry that kind of maybe it died with John Wayne, I don't know. But, you know, John Wayne, Robert Redford, yeah, you know, Gene Awtry, you know, all those classic cowboys that we all grew up learning. There was something about them that was just special. And all they did was, like Pat Green said, like they they were kind, they were gentlemanly, they were courteous, they had so much respect. Yeah. And so poetry too. And they they were country. Patriotic. And loved the exactly patriotic. And so I do it because it's part of our culture, but to me, it's more meaningful. It's it's more than just a cowboy hat, it means something. And so our team, we talk about a lot of our team members wear cowboy hats. Uh so I love that part about it. Um, but I got in the restaurant business because I've known early on that I've had a gift for hospitality. I think God gifted me with that, and I knew it early on. And so being in the restaurant business is probably the greatest alignment of my gift because I get to be hospitable, I get to lead by example, I get to show care for other people. We can create a lot of unique experiences for folks, and I love that.

Speaker 2:

So, what was your first restaurant give? Not 91, you went to Outback.

Speaker:

Yeah, I was at Outback, and uh I started out, I didn't I had no experience in the restaurant business other than what I'd done at the house. Yeah. And so I started out, uh I could either bust tables or cook, is what they told me to do. So that's what I started cooking. Yeah, I wanted to be a server, but it was like, well, they weren't gonna hire me with the serving experience. I was like, you don't know what type of service I've done over my life, but not in that setting. But uh so I did that and for about a year, and then I was actually getting ready to, I was because I was going to school and working, and I was thinking about going back to college station, finishing my degree at AM. And then the JVP, whose name was Donnie Everts, he was kind of in charge of all the outbacks in Houston at the time, approached me and asked if I was interested in being like a food and beverage manager training coordinator role. At the time I'm 18, 19, I don't even remember. I think I'm 19, Austin. And uh, and he goes, if you take this job, he goes, you won't be able to finish school. It's gonna be a full-time gig. You'll have to be, you'll be going out and visiting all the restaurants, you'll be making sure all the food quality and coolness and safety is all being accountable and and being managed. And I ended up taking the job. And uh and from that point, I traveled around the country, opened up 20 outbacks. I was a training coordinator, and then I maintained kind of uh standards of food quality at at all the existing restaurants in Houston. I think we had 12 or 14, I can't remember. Um so I learned a lot about that, and and and and I'm now I'm like I'm like 19, 20 years old, and I'm leading all these people, uh, which to me is interesting because that guy saw something in me that no one else saw. Otherwise, why he would have put me in a position like that to be responsible for all these restaurants and opening these brand new markets, uh being 19, 20 years old. You know, this was an awesome gift for me to be able to go and do that and and prove, you know, that I that I could do it. So I did that for four years. I was a manager for three years, a managing partner for five years. And then in 2003, I left out back and came to work for a company here in Dallas. Let's look uh called Cotton Patch. And I knew the original founder from my hometown and who had a partner. They were 50, 50 partners. And so they came, I came to work for them. They had nine restaurants at the time. They wanted to grow, they wanted to expand. That was my background. And so in the 13 years I was there, I grew grew them from nine restaurants to 45 restaurants. And then in 2015, they did an exit. My last five years, I was uh vice president of operations, and so I helped actually helped me, the CFO, and the CEO. We actually helped sell the company. We took the company to market, presented to 11 different private equity groups, and ended up selling to a group out of California, uh Altamont Capital. And so they took over Cotton Patch in uh January of 2015. I left in January of 16, and not so much on my own accord, if you know what I mean. I was kind of given an opportunity to sign this little piece of paper with a little incentive to leave. And it was the greatest gift they ever gave me. And let me tell you, working for an owner or a founder-ran organization versus working for private equity is a totally different thing. And I learned real quickly that private equity private equity probably wasn't for me, at least not the way this organization was running it, because everything became about analytics and not about the people. And I'm I'm a people guy. I want to know how my customers are doing, I want to know how my employees are doing. I genuinely care how their experience is. And and the the the straw that broke the camel's back for me and for them is they took me out of operations my last year and put me in an office. Could you imagine me being in an office every day? All day? Austin. Wait, what about you? You grew up in the country. You you wouldn't be in a you couldn't be in an office either. Biggest fear. You go crazy. And so I did. I went crazy. And for in within six months, I went to the emergency room three different times for kidney stones. I'd never had kidney stones up until that point. I've never had them since. Because I was a caged gorilla doing something that wasn't in my skill set. That's not what I'm so why'd they do it? It's a good question. I think mainly to kind of get rid of me. Uh and what's interestingly interesting too is that when that happened, they cut my pay by 60% and reduced some of my benefits too. And their selling point was well, we'll give you an opportunity to participate in an exit if things go well in the next five to seven years. Well, can I tell you what happened? Things didn't go well. Sure. It went to shit. Service changed. Yeah. Now I'm not saying it's because of me, but I can tell you this when I was there, it wasn't happening like that. The best year we ever had was the year 2015, the year they sold.

Speaker 2:

So do the math. So you think the culture changed too? Like, yes.

Speaker:

Like what they well, let me tell you this. Never we had never had an HR department. You know why? Because we had good people. You hire good people, you don't need an HR. The reason HR companies exist, at least on the human uh capital side, there's a lot of good things HR comp HRs do. I mean, they onboard, they take care of benefits, they track vacations, they manage all the administrative aspects of an employee. But what gives HRs a bad name is then they end up becoming, they become the complaint department. Why do people complain at HR? Well, here's why. Most of the time it's a result of hiring the wrong person. When you hire wrong people and try to put them in a role or a culture they're not suited for, they're not going to be happy. And then you have all these amazing people that end up being complained on by the people that shouldn't be on the team. They go complain to HR. HR implements policy that compromises the work that the good people do. So then the standard goes from here to here because the company keeps hiring the wrong people and then have to create policy to solve the problems that were created by the wrong people. And so I was at Outback Statehouse for 13 years. We never had an HR. You know why? Because we hired good people. If you hire good people, you need an HR. And always say, if you got a problem with someone, what's the best way to solve it? Go talk to them. Go to the person. There's no sense in gossiping and bitching and taking a problem here, taking a problem there. You got an issue, address it. Easy. But nobody wants to do that. You know why? Because they fear confrontation. HR is a great place to go. Soften the blow. And then you keep feeding HR all these problems. Well, they're going to try to create a structure, system, policy, process to solve it. And then all the next the next thing you know, your HR booklet's this thick. Well, what are we doing about the employee and the customer? Okay, let's not forget about those two important pieces. Well, we've already screwed up the customer employee experience because we continue to hire bad people, penalize the good people. And uh and then, you know, again, they're looking at all the analytics, they're looking at all the data, and like, well, who's connecting with the team? Who's in charge of making sure we're hiring the right people? And who's who's really following up on the customer experience? And so always say the three things that make Marty B's what it is is selection, truth, and accountability. It's who we hire. Always say, if I'm gonna teach an animal to climb a tree to train a horse, hire a squirrel. Squirrels are naturally gifted at climbing trees. Now, the horse could be a Kentucky Derby winner, he could be in the swim pond every day, he could be genetically inclined to be the most amazing horse ever, but he ain't climbing a tree. And but companies all day will hire bad people, not bad people, let me phase that. They hire people with a different skill set that's needed, and then they try to make them into something they just aren't gonna be. I had a guy I worked for once and he said, never try to teach a pig to sing. It frustrates you, it annoys the pig. Well, most managers spend more of their time dealing with 80% of the problems on the bad people and they're neglecting the good people.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker:

So it's who we hire. Number two is the truth. Right? I want everyone on my team to know exactly what our goal is. I want to tell them the truth. If they are out of line, I want to let them know. If I'm out of line, I want them to let me know. But it needs to be reciprocated. We have to have a place where we can dialogue with one another, be respectful, but be truthful. And truth today is, you know, it's fuzzy. Um, and so I feel like being an organization that's focused on telling the truth gives us a huge advantage. And Matt and I talked about it earlier. We don't have a lot of drama here, and the reason we don't is because we deal with it head-on. I mean, uh an employee comes to Matt the other day and says, Hey, well, Ponch said this. I go, Matt goes, well, okay, well, let's go talk to Ponch. Oh, uh Okay, well, if there's an issue that's important, let's go solve it. If you're not interested in solving it, well, now you're part of the problem, right? Let's go solve the problem. No problem. Easy. Right? Uh, and then accountability. Now, if you can have truth, but if you don't have accountability, it's that's meaningless. In fact, I would suggest that most companies that have a culture problem have a truth and accountability problem. And I would also suggest that most organizations today, if you ask big companies what the mission of the company is or what what do they do individually to contribute to the overall success and growth and vision of the company, I don't know if they could tell you. You know, they may get sidetracked here or there, but I feel like we're pretty focused on it. We we created our Ten Commandments to Amazing. Ten Commandments to Amazing is is the drivers of all the things we do to create the culture, right? So number one is hospitality, number two is personal grooming, number three is speed of service, right? So we got all these things. It's on my TV screens. It's on that screen there, it's inside. Our staff sees it, they have to study it, they have to know it before they come to work here. So that's the action, right? So there's service and hospitality. Service is the steps, it's all the things we're doing. Greeted me on time, refilled my drink, took my order, got my order correct, brought my order on time, refilled my drink again, pre-bussed my table, brought me the bill. That's service. Hospitality is how did we make you feel while we were delivering the service? So you can give me great service and make me not feel welcome. You don't look at me, you don't smile at me. In fact, that's what's the customer creed? Customer creed. Look at me, smile at me, talk to me, thank me. Yeah, pretty basic. Sure. But how many places do you go where they actually practice just those four things? So serve hospitality is how do we make you feel? My Angelo says, No one remembers everything you've been told, but they always remember the way they made you feel, right? Sure. So how we make people feel is the definition of hospitality.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. You're in the people business. We're in the people business. You're in the people business. We're in the people business. That was my biggest fear when I was scaling my home service company was how do I how do I train this culture? How do I keep this culture that I snarted? And you know, you you had that thing and you started and your culture and the way you are in the service you, you know, that was one of my biggest fears, and what sh was the biggest thing holding me back from hiring was like, How am I gonna do this? And you know, I learned, I think I had a good picker when I picked employees, but I was looking for who is this man, not how good is he pressure wash him. I could teach him how to pick up. Hey man, yes, but how's he how's he make people feel? How's he talk to people? You know, how are his mannerisms, you know, and what is his reason for needing this job, too, you know, and uh why do you want to be here? So that was important to me. It's like you could teach somebody how to do anything, yeah. A great one. Like you said, I go to a bunch of restaurants where it's like, yeah, I got my drink, I got my food, I got my bill, all the things, but it didn't make me feel warm and happy, you know. And if they had it, they would have got a bigger tip or I would have gone and wanted to go back. You know, it made me feel like a regular, you know, uh guest. So so how did you create the culture um through your employees? Like what you have inside of you, how do you implement that into?

Speaker:

Yeah, that's a good question. So at the beginning I always said I want to hire people that have heart, but like have genuine care uh and concern for other humans. And just kind of like what you said, you're you're looking to hire the right personality, kind of the right mindset, if you will. And then if you hire those people, then it's the culture's a lot easier because really you teach culture by example. And so the best the best way we do that is, you know, Matt, myself, Dale, we have 14 managers here, so we're all practicing what we preach. You're gonna see a manager here sweeping the floor, you're gonna see them busting tables, you're gonna see them helping servers, you're gonna see them running checks, you're gonna see them running food. Well, we're doing that because we want our team to duplicate exactly the way we do it. That's how we create cultures through duplication or through um, you know, repetition. Yeah, repetition and just seeing the way we do it. Yeah. And so the first been open eight years, the first five, six years, I was here, I was basically running this place for five years, and then I hired Matt five years ago. Well, the last three years, he's I'm just here for show. Really. Matt takes care of the business, and uh, and then I'm really here for vision, culture, creativity, and concept creation. Those are the four things I bring to the table. And so I create all the brands, I create the food menu. I'm culinary gifted, I can do food. I don't call myself a chef, I just think I'm a good cook. Um, because to me, being a good cook means you can make great food, but then you gotta you gotta do it where it's duplicatable. A chef, all the things they do isn't always highly duplicatable and easier to do. That's why most the super foo foo high-end restaurants have less seats. I have 1,200 seats. Yeah. I can't be like, I gotta it's gotta be fast, right? And it's gotta be delicious. So we have to be mindful of that.

Speaker 2:

And and and and in most of the restaurants, but so it was a moment like after you were done with private equity, corporate America type stuff, like that you said I'm gonna go all in and go out of all and like that is what was that moment?

Speaker:

Yeah, that's a great question. So the first three months I didn't do anything. I was heartbroken, I was disappointed. You know, as men, we put our identity in our jobs. So much of our identity is in what we do as a career. In fact, to have a friend, his name is Jason Adams, and that's what he does. He helps professional athletes transition from being an athlete to normal, whatever that looks like for them. And that's hard because they go from having all this fame and notoriety and all this income to now they're like, well, that's just Joe Smith, right? So they they struggle with that. Uh but um the thing was I once I once I left and I didn't do anything for three months, then I started consulting. And so I was going to Shreeport a lot, and I was helping a guy open a new restaurant, uh, and I did that for two months. And then from there I met a guy that had five restaurants, and he wanted me to come in and kind of help him put systems and processes together, which I did. And then from there I went to work for a plumbing company, did the same thing. A waste management company did the same thing, concrete cutting company did the same thing. And what I learned is that all businesses are the same. The only difference is what you're selling. A business is a business. You have expenses, you have revenue. That's a business. Okay. You either have a lot of expenses and not a lot of revenue, that's not a good business. Or you have a lot of revenue, not as many. Okay, that's a great business. Uh but it's all the only thing that's different is what you're selling. And uh, so in May of 16, I'm out riding my bike one day, and uh Bill, my buddy, says, You know what we need around here? Oh, what? He goes, barbecue place. I go, that's a damn good idea. That's kind of how it started. And then we open, so we put it all together, and like everything you're seeing out here, this was all raw land, even where my coffee shop. There was a creek bed going through here, it was heavily wooded. Uh, the front parking lot, every all this over here. So I have 23 acres out here. Uh, but when I first bought, I bought 2.2 acres. So wherever you see concrete is what I started with. Um on this on Marty B's parking lot. And uh and that was just a result of asking my architect, what's the least amount of space I need to build this? And he goes, 2.2 acres. Which I needed that answer because I didn't have any money to do anymore. And that original parking lot seats or parks 88 people. Well, fast forward to today, I now have 488 parking spaces and we have 150 employees working on a Friday or Saturday night. So Friday night, we'll have 150 employees.

unknown:

Well,

Speaker:

That's why I have them parking way over there. So I have these other 488 spaces available for the customer. And I've learned every time I add parking, I do more business. So that sounds That's fantastic.

Speaker 2:

That's basic to me.

Speaker:

Oh, one night. We have over 300 employees here. I have 800 employees between all 10 restaurants. So it's a big payroll.

Speaker 2:

We got a few minutes here, but so for sure, Marty B. When you said you're gonna go out and do this, like you you did you create did you already have the community here that knew Marty B?

Speaker:

Yeah, you know, to to a degree, Austin. Yeah, I mean, uh people have always called me Marty B. In fact, that was never my intention was to call it Marty B's. That was the farthest from my mind. I was gonna call it the Great Taste of Texas. Okay, and uh, and all of my friends said, Why would you call it that? Everybody calls you Marty B already. You should call it Marty B's. And uh, which I think they teach in business school is a terrible idea to name something after your name. Uh, but we'd lived here at that point uh for 15 years, and we had been involved in the community, we were very involved in our church, and so we had a good network. Um, so when I opened, you know, luckily we had people show up. Um and then, you know, when I opened, we didn't have this kitchen that this wasn't here, uh, the rooftop wasn't done, restrooms weren't here. I mean, it was pretty. I think I sat when I first opened like 360 people. Well, I've added all this seating over time. Um, and so it's just been now I think this past year I did three times what I did my first year in eight years. Tripled the volume from my first year. Uh this is the original bill.

Speaker 2:

This is the original, what you know, millions of people. Well, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker:

Certainly my goal is I hope that we could we could fill it up, but in the beginning days, you're just so focused on just I just gotta get open. Yeah. I was only focused on that. And I gave everything I have worked for in my whole life to this business. I mortgaged my house, mortgaged my ranch, mortgaged all my vehicles. Uh we took out $200,000 worth of credit card debt. I had nothing, I had zero left to give. And then the bank called me about two months before I was scheduled to open and said they weren't gonna complete my 7A loan, which meant I needed that money to buy equipment, food, and all that. Well, thank God Benny Keith, my vendor, uh gave me 120 days to buy all that stuff, but then pay it all back. And I'm grateful that we did pay them back after 120 days because we had customers, right? Praise God for that. Um, and then I opened uh Rustico in 19, 1845 and 20. We opened Coffee and To Go in 22, 24. We opened Mardi B's Ice Cream, uh, branded bowls, cactus canyon, and we opened a Mardi B's Coffee inside of Fellowship Church. Uh, and then we just opened two weeks ago another branded bowls in Lakeside. So that's 10. Uh, and then we've got the wedding venue under construction here. Got a property out in Ponder, it's like 20 minutes north of here. It's gonna have steakhouse, saloon, speakeys, the outdoor live music area, and that should be open next spring. Um Wow man, that's incredible.

Speaker 1:

I mean, one after the other.

Speaker:

That's nuts.

Speaker 1:

Well, you know, but it is, it really is. This is working, this is working, this is working.

Speaker 2:

But yeah, so it's and people ask, will say that, but what, 30, 35 years of preparation the whole life there. That's right.

Speaker:

And I mean But it took me 27 years to be an overnight success. Right? And then uh, but when I was VP of ops, I had we had 2,500 employees, I had 45 restaurants, so I got 10 restaurants. It was like the bigger you get, the more you the more resources you have to hire more people, which which then validates my real focus, which should be on culture, vision, concept creation, and creating the food, product development. Yeah, and that's really what I try to focus on. So when I'm out and about, I'm trying to do that. I'm you know, trying to do things that add that only I can do like only Marty B can do a podcast with Marty B, right? Uh and there's a lot of things that only I can do. And so I try to focus on those things. And if I'm doing something that somebody else that works for me should be doing, then that's wasting my time. Right. You know what I mean? Sure. So God gives us all the same amount of time each day and try to put as much in it as I can. Absolutely. Um, you know.

Speaker 2:

So if you kind of round round this off, I know we got we got to get you out of here. Um, if you could go back, you know, to when you were a young blue-collar kid and rodeo guy, uh, like for other young blue-collar entrepreneurs out there, like what's one piece of advice you would give your younger self?

Speaker:

Yeah, I think most people underestimate the planning their life and overestimate, they overestimate the planning and underestimate the action. Most people have a relative plan, but they fail to take the action. You know, so I'm I my approach is ready, fire, aim. I'm gonna take the step. I don't know where I'm gonna, I'm just gonna do Psalm 119, 105. The word is a light unto my feet, right? He says feet for a reason. You know, you take the step, he lights the path. You take a step, he lights the path. If God gave us the whole entire path in its entirety, and we saw the whole thing, it might scare us. Right? So just have the courage, take a step, God will light the path, take a step, even though if you don't know where just take the step. And I believe God is I think God honors entrepreneurs because it requires faith. What is faith? Taking a step towards an unknown outcome. That's faith. I don't I don't know. God, I don't know where your plan is for me. I don't know your I don't know where you where you get what your direction is, but I know I'm gonna trust you. I'm gonna take the step. I didn't know anything about coffee when opened a call. I don't know anything about ice cream, I don't know anything about a wedding venue, but I take the step. God will put the right people in my place. And then I had a call today with a guy. He has 45 wedding venues. Well, that's probably a good person to talk to from someone that doesn't have but one and it's not even open. Okay, well, how did that happen? Because God is honoring my faith and the action. Phil McGraw wrote a book called Life Strategies, three-word takeaway. Life rewards action. Most people overestimate the planning, underestimate the action. That's what I would say. Take the action. Don't it's like God, please give me direction. Please tell me what to do. Yeah, well, you're playing for direction. You're in the parking lot, your car is in park, and you're asking for God's direction. Well, if you put the car in drive, proceed down the street, start praying for direction. Okay, he might start talking to you. He ain't gonna say anything to you. If your car is in the parking lot in park, put it in D. Go. Okay, now I'm starting to know which direction to go. You know?

Speaker 2:

And sometimes my my mom says she goes to the uh the teacher's usually silent during the test. You know? Well, it's like it's that leap of faith. And that's why they say a lot of guys with high IQs, engineers, uh they're they think about things too much, so they won't pull that trick, right? Yep. You know, that's exactly right. It worked in my personal life, is when I go, all right. My gut's telling me this is what I need to do. My brain's telling me don't do it. Close my eyes, pushing the chips. I mean, what can go wrong? Either it works or it doesn't.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2:

You know, you you you either And at least you know, so you can keep going this.

Speaker:

Yeah, you either learn or you or you succeed. You don't fail, you're always learning. Learning. Okay, okay, I won't do that again. I learned that, I won't do that again. Yeah, but I think the other thing to me is my faith is important. I've always been a person of faith, and we've we've we we're pretty bold about it here. You don't have a 10-foot cross on my stage, you can see it's present. Uh we play Christian music on Sunday. I do a worship night once a month. We have a men's Bible breakfast once a month here. We have a ladies' Bible breakfast here once a month. Um, so we've really kind of become a place for the community to congregate, you know, come together. And I say our purpose is to create spaces for people to come together, connect with their friends and family, celebrate life. And so all these events, like last night was a great example. The community, they came together, they connected with one another, and we celebrated life, listening to you and listening to Pat Green. And it was an amazing night, right? Oh, yeah. But we created that. That didn't just happen. We had to create that. We've planned that and we made it happen and we delivered it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker:

So we're gonna do the same thing next month with Casey Donnelly. We're gonna do the same thing with you tomorrow night on the mainstage.

Speaker 2:

I appreciate you being such a big advocate of music, too, man. Yeah, that's for me, that's part of things that I'm most grateful for being able to do music is the relationships. It brings people together. Totally. Food brings people together. Music brings people together. It's a beautiful thing. Thanks for having well, having me on.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for being on.

Speaker 2:

Well, that was my conversation with Marty B. A reminder that success isn't luck. It's showing up every day and doing the work when no one's watching. If you took something from this episode, share it with a friend who's chasing their own dream. Subscribe wherever you listen and head over to American Hustle.com to stay in the loop. Until next time, stay humble, stay hungry, and stay free. I'm Austin Moody, and this is the American Hustle.