H&H Products - The production of a culture

Jimmy Hartley's grandfather Len started H&H Products Company in 1964 with a $200 loan co-signed by his father, mixing syrup at home while his wife Betty Jean taught school during the day and bottled products at night.
Sixty years later, H&H manufactures over 3 million gallons of beverages and syrups annually out of Orlando, FL, supplying theme parks, restaurant chains, cruise lines, hospitals, and convenience stores across 22 states and 12 countries. Now Jimmy, the third generation at H&H and fifth generation in the beverage industry, is running operations, navigating the real tension between honoring a legacy his family spent decades building and modernizing the business for what comes next.

In this episode, we talk about:
→ The origin story most family businesses wish they had
→ Why his grandfather made his dad work somewhere else before coming back
→ What it's like walking onto the production floor as the founder's grandson
→ Faith, family, and what he wants his kids to see when they're old enough to listen

This is one of the most honest conversations about generational leadership. 
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🔗 H&H Products Company: https://hhproductscompany.com
🔗 Connect with Jimmy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmy-hartley-b40173130/
—
ABOUT OWNER OPERATED
Owner Operated is a podcast for the people actually running the business, not the investors, not the board, not the consultants on the sideline. 

Hosted by Chance Sweat, business broker with FitzGibbon Alexander, Inc. and founder of Foundry Leadership.
🔗 Personal Site: ChanceSweat.com
🔗 Brokerage: fitzgibbonalexander.com
🔗 Follow Chance: https://www.instagram.com/chancesweat

ABOUT PERSONAL BETS

Person Bets is a podcast for the people actually running the business, not the investors, not the board, not the consultants on the sideline. Hosted by Chance Sweat, business broker at FitzGibbon Alexander, Inc. and founder of Foundry Leadership.

🔗 Personal Site: chancesweat.com
🔗 Brokerage Site: fitzgibbonalexander.com
🔗 Follow Chance: @itschancesweat

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

How long have we known each other?

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Let's see. We it was men's theology. Was it three semesters ago? So you're what a year and a half? So I joined Because BLT has been three three sessions.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

BLT. Back left table. Oh. I'm so hungry this morning that I'm just thinking of.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

We'll go pick up Chick-fil-A after that.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Oh, that's a great idea.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Not sponsored.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Not sponsored. Shout out Chick-fil-A and Popka. Um, I think it's been new location is running great. It's probably been three plus semesters. I joined Grace August of 24. Yeah. So last August would have been a year.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

So that makes sense. So your first semester would have been spring of 25?

SPEAKER_00 0:50

No, I did the fall. I just didn't sit at the back left table. I sat at a random table. So we met in that spring then. Yeah. So it's been a year.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

So about a year.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Feels like three.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

So specifically three. Jimmy, what do you do for Workman? So I um I'm in charge of the operations for H products. So how I translate that is everything that goes on within our business related to manufacturing or supply chain, most of which is underneath me, and my job is to make sure my team has the resources to be successful. I am fully making sure that I am giving resources and capabilities to our teams to continue to excel and improve in our business.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

Did you go to school for this?

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Kind of. Yeah. So study business and accounting in school. My career didn't start off operations. My career started off in sales. So we got that little thing to share there. We uh started in sales, um, sold for a forklift and warehouse equipment company. Uh but what I ended up finding is that the products we were selling, I went into hundreds of different warehouse and manufacturing operations, and I was I approached sales as a solutions-based. I didn't want if I didn't solve a problem, I didn't want to make a sale and ended up giving me a little bit of success in there for a couple of years. But that also allowed me to go into an operation, see an operation, and put on my thinking cap to improve their operation. And then little did I know that that was the gap that we needed at the time that I was joining back at H products. So that fit really well because coming in on the surface, if you look at resume, I should have never been hired for the position I took on. Right. Yeah. Uh but it ended up working out.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

So now what does the H H stand for in H H Products?

SPEAKER_01 2:40

So this is funny. Uh it stands for Hartley and Hartley, which makes sense. Family business. I'm the third generation, so you have my grandfather, Len Hartley, who started the business currently, uh, has been president since 2001, and then uh myself, Jimmy Hartley. And everyone would think the H H would be, you know, oh well, my grandfather and my father, right? It was actually my grandfather and his father, who was the H. So for a little while there, my grandfather had uh background in bottling and in the industry as well, uh, needed some work, wanted to help his son, my grandfather, and ended up, he was his primary salesperson, so to say. I mean, a little bit of everything when you're a two-man operation, but uh he would go out on my granddad would go out on sales calls with his dad. So the H was the Hartley and Hartley of those two. So even though we're third generation, I'm third generation from founder, there's actually four generations of Hartleys that have worked in the business, right? I haven't put my son to work yet, so we'll we'll get there. Yeah. Maybe when he turns five. Um the uh so yeah, so H and H is the Hartley and Hartley. And there's a funny story behind that, is one day there is some you know, some sort of Florida storm or something going on. So we have H and H products independent letters on the building, and one of the H's falls off the building. And my my dad, who's running the plan at the time, goes into my granddad's office. He's like, Hey, you see that one of the H's is off the building. My granddad goes, Well, you better go fix it. It's yours. He's like, What do you mean it's yours? He said, That's your H. He said, How do you know which one's yours? He's like, Because mine's on the building. I own the building. I own the building. I've determined that is now yours.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

So I want to go back to the beginning because I think the story with H H that I think people would resonate with is like I I feel a bit that you've been kind of groomed for this position, but it you weren't, you know, that the there's all the talk in the news over the last couple of years of like these Nepo babies, right? Have you heard this term? Like, you know, you only got the job because of your parents. Yeah. But uh we'll get to the why I think you're actually not one of those because you weren't hired into the business. I appreciate that. Um but I I want to start in the beginning because we're in a how many thousand square foot warehouse?

SPEAKER_01 5:01

It's 36,000 square feet.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

Okay, 36,000 square feet. Uh is this what 200 gets you?

SPEAKER_01 5:08

This is what 200 can get you with a lot of work and overtime. So what's the $200 story? So the two $200 story, um, and it's funny, I was thinking about this uh last night when we were talking too, and you know the $200 story really is a zero dollar story, but the $200 sounds a little better.

SPEAKER_02 5:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

Uh so my granddad, he realized that he did not work well for other people, and he realized that in order to excel at that time and period in the industry of what he wanted to do, he needed to do it on his own. He was too poor, he didn't have any money, zero, zero dollars to start up. Went to the bank, bank would not approve him anything. So he went to his parents. What year is this? This is 19, probably around 1963. Business started in 1964. Um so he goes to his parents. Now his parents were poor, and so he asked his parents for a loan and they didn't have the money. So, but his parents were a little bit better off than he was. He was still living at home, still trying to make it work. Uh he had just moved back to the Orlando area. So he uh went to his parents and they went to the bank, and his parents had to co-sign on a loan for $200 for him to pretty much buy his first tank, ingredients, supplies. Um he started now, he had a background working in different bottling plants, bottling routes, manufacturing a little bit of everything for you know that that was back in the day when every small town had their independent, you know, RC Cola bottle or coke bottle or Pepsi bottle or and so every town had these manufacturers. It isn't the massive distribution that's there today. So he had worked in in many of those, so he knew enough to get by um from just what he had collected over the years. So he bought ingredients. Uh a guy at Pepsi had sold him a tank for $15, which even back then is ridiculous. Tanks today go for multi, multi-thousands of dollars, five-figure type purchases at least. So um we actually still have that tank because it's a stainless tank, you know, it it just never dies as long as you keep it clean. And so we actually still have that as one of our holding tanks in operation, which is kind of cool. Um, so he gets his 50 gallon tank for 15 bucks, uses the rest for his ingredients, and he makes syrup. Makes syrup on his parents' side porch. And uh not nearly the food safety regulation. That's where I was gonna go next things we have today, right? Um we no longer use side porches, we use back porches. I'm just kidding. We uh so he mixed it on his parents' side porch, filled it in bottles, like kind of siphon-filling type uh type operation, put it in his parents' station wagon. And this is back when your independent restaurant franchises bought independently. So you could go to a McDonald's or a Wendy's or those guys and try to sell the restaurant. You know, obviously it doesn't work that way today. Um so yeah, he just flipped that enough times till he had a business.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

What was the actual syrup for?

SPEAKER_01 8:10

Was it like a like a soda or was it like Yeah, most of it, so back then, I'm not sure at the very, very beginning, you know, first production, what did it go towards? But a lot of times it went to towards some sort of syrup product. Um the soda fountain that we know today really wasn't around until close to like the 80s and 90s, is really when it became more common. But there was something called cup vending, so it would it would drop a cup. And you've probably seen this in like um I they may even still be like I I think of them in TV shows and hospitals and things where it drops a cup and pours your coffee. Yeah, basically that for sodas.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

You see this in uh TV shows now where they're doing flashback to like the 80s and 90s.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

Yeah, right, right, yeah. So um, and you know, sugar-based syrup can be used for a lot of different things, but restaurants usually use for beverage. And so I'm sure that was where it was going. And you know, went around and sold it, made a little profit, went back and bought more ingredients, made a little profit, bought more ingredients, made a little profit. And in 19, let's see, I think it was 1966, I believe he was able to afford rent on his first um wasn't a standalone property, it was a little um like store side actually near downtown Orlando. Uh still exists today. Um it's it's obviously something totally different now. Um rented 1200 square feet, grew it to 2400 square feet, and then took the pool chemical company that was next door. He actually bought the company, ended up renting that space and turning it into agent, you know, agentation space 3,600 square feet. Um as he grew through the late 60s. So kind of cool.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

Yeah. And so in the beginning, that sugar-based syrup was the initial product. How many products do you guys actually put out?

SPEAKER_01 9:54

So I I looked at this uh end of the years, we're looking at end of year numbers, and we sold five it was over five hundred different uh types of items. Um now many of those could be um you know similar type flavors or formulations, right? But you can, you know, we have probably a dozen or more strawberries in there, right? Just different formulas, different types of ingredients that are in there.

SPEAKER_00 10:17

Because in addition to this space that we're sitting in now, your actual production plant is down the road where you're producing all of these items.

SPEAKER_01 10:25

Yeah, so our production plant is over uh near Maitland, uh in the Lockhart area, kind of older older area of Orlando. And we have 41,000 square feet over there. So that location was actually our first standalone building in 1971 built 5,000 square feet. Um if you want me to move around and turn that on.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

Um just wave your arms. As long as all the lights don't turn off, we'll be good. Oh my god, I can't believe that worked.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

That's good. That's solid right there. I'll let the building company know. Shout out to the building company. The so yeah, so 1971 he built 5,000 square feet, and it's so funny. When he built the 5,000 square feet, he actually said the words, he goes, This is the last space I'll ever need. Because he thought he had he had had it. He thought this was big business. You know, he's like, I started on my parents' side porch. Like this is you know such a d such an interesting perspective that he had in just you know in his creation of the business versus what it is today.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

So in the family, the Hartley family lore, do you guys have like a like do you remember what like what was the interest rate on that $200 loan? Like, do you guys no clue? I I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

I know uh I'm sure there's some documents in a box somewhere that may may tell more of a story. Uh that would be uh that'd be an interesting thing to find.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

I'd be I'd be super curious on what that actually turned out to be. Because obviously what you guys have built. We've paid it off, by the way. Yeah, good, yeah. Um it's just compound interest, you know, it is what it is. Uh it it's it's just a wonderful thing, I think that you know, as as I've seen in my career in Central Florida, and I I thought that my family had old roots here, right? Like people ask me if my family's from Florida, and I have a picture of my great grandfather sitting on the back of an alligator. Like that's that's about a old Florida right there. Um, but my grandfather wasn't starting a business, right? I mean, he had a bunch of side hustles, but they weren't anything legal. Um we'll leave it at that. So how does the original H H, so great grandfather Hartley, grandfather Hartley, when does your dad kind of come into the mix?

SPEAKER_01 12:37

Sure. So my dad actually has a similar story to me coming in. So he came in, let's see, like like any family, small family business, he was working there, you know, middle school, high school, doing random things. Um and uh around the business, he's got all sorts of crazy, funny stories as a kid coming in and helping my granddad on the weekends and you know, just the the random things you do when you're the the son of a of an entrepreneur. Um and so he was always in the business. And I actually had a conversation with my aunt here around Thanksgiving last year, and I asked her, I was like, you know, what was what was the what was the relationship like with the siblings and like around you know, my dad was his own the only sibling to come back into the business full time uh as a you know adult later in life, and I was like, what was that like? She said he always just wanted to be a part of it, just always was in him almost like a calling. Yeah. Um and he kind of says the same thing. He's just like, I just I don't know, I just always was around it, always was fascinated by it, it was interested by it. So he uh he worked, let me see, he graduated, graduated college in I believe it was 90. Um, so he worked, you know, in and out, you know, throughout random times after school or whatever. Um up until then. He came into the business officially in I believe it was 1992 or 93, it was early 90s. Um came into the business officially um as plant manager, uh running some of the production. And then uh in 2001, I believe it was he officially came over as uh as president of the company.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

So your your grandfather ran the business for about 30 years, kind of not on his own, but he was the head of of everything. When your when your dad came on as the president, did your grandfather just retire? Did he take a step back? Or I I have a feeling that someone who starts working on the side porch doesn't stop working once Yeah, not it not exactly, right?

SPEAKER_01 14:42

It's his it's his baby. Okay, and that's that's the foundation of the entrepreneur is that your business is your baby. Like, you know, uh I've heard jokes around the family of like you know, granddaddy had five kids, right? He he had he had his four human kids and he had H and H. Um and just there's a certain sense of pride around that. Um so when the transition to my dad as president happened, it was during a actually a pretty tumultuous time uh for the business. Uh just lost a major customer of theirs that was the majority of their sales. Um and my my granddad came in, it was not a formal succession plan, it wasn't a written up, this is what we're gonna do, and we're gonna plan this over the next couple years. It was like uh one day you're not, one day you are running the business. Now, my granddad, to answer your question, he because it's his baby, he was always around. All the way up until I remember he passed uh two summers ago. And I remember even like when he was going through the health stuff leading up to that, he was, you know, he's getting reports and asking questions, and he called my dad from his hospital bed, like, what's going on on this this number that I'm seeing on the email? And it just, you know, it was always we we learned to adjust to it because it was it was his baby and his love, right? We had to we had to serve him and honor him for the founder and foundation, even though it was as a you know business conversation type. Um it didn't make sense for him to be calling my dad over something that is something the production manager's handling kind of thing, but that was his that was his piece. And so he really didn't my dad says he really didn't officially retire until probably another ten years after that. Uh and even then he was still getting reports, he was still around, he would show up and walk through every now and then, and just it was cool to see him later in life just really. I feel like the last couple years of his life really loved seeing what the business became without him and had a sense of pride in what he in his part, but also in my dad's part, which is really cool.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

Is there a bit of that spirit of his still around?

SPEAKER_01 16:52

Uh definitely, definitely. Uh, I think uh a lot of it is foundational in our culture. I think a lot of it I hear a lot of people who, you know, I knew him as a grandfather, I knew him in a very specific lens. A lot of people, including in still in the business today, that worked with him, knew him as a as a business owner and as a a younger man um that was you know a little bit more intense and a little bit more of a the to use a word a good friend uses, he was a force to be reckoned with. Um he was a he was a serious dude that you don't mess with.

SPEAKER_00 17:23

Because you came back into the business formally four years ago, five years ago? Almost four. Almost four years ago. So formally. So you know, those last two years of his life that overlap there, he he wasn't you never truly saw him with within the business. You probably saw him growing up as the business leader alongside your dad or that that uh patriarch of the business, but you never sat across from him in a in a boardroom meeting when you guys were having difficult conversations around a complex issue.

SPEAKER_01 17:53

C correct, correct. And I think that changes my perspective on I think I have an interesting perspective in that because it changes my perspective because a lot of my perspective of who he is as a business owner is whatever's stuck around. Right? And so you ask that question, is he still around? And what I see is what's stuck around. And a lot of that is in our culture. You know, you have uh usually with founders that are successful and have a good culture, you have culture by osmosis, right? The culture is what everybody sees and how they interact with the owner when you're small enough that everybody interacts with the owner. And so I tell people our culture today is way more defined. We've got a mission, um mission and core values, right? We've got uh we call basics that are kind of the functional, you know, how are we gonna operate as employees of H H? How are we gonna serve one another? We have all of those things that are much more defined. My grandfather ran a culture because of who he was as a man and a person and a follower of God. Um just forced to be reckoned with, very strong man, very good man. Um had his uh shortcomings. He was a very hard man, but he ran the business based off of who he was because he didn't know any different. He just and so that created a foundation for our culture. I think one thing my dad has done really well in the last probably a decade to 15 years is defining that culture. How do we how do we turn that into what can be translated to what you know we're at you know, 90 something employees now, 98 employees? How do you translate that to 98 employees? Because not all 98 employees can have the relationship with my dad that he had with his employees. And so how do you scale culture? And I think my dad's done a really good job in continuing to build that foundation and define it. And it's really cool to be able to be back and and a lot of people say that I am much more, and I I tend to agree, I'm much more of my grandfather than I am my father. And so it's very natural for me to jump in to our culture and say, Yes, absolutely, this is who we are. Like undoubtedly, unapologetically. This is this is who we are and how we're gonna operate, and this is our non-negotiables as a as a business of um what we're gonna put is the most important. And so it it's a lot of fun being like my grandfather, and knowing him in the perspective that I knew. Uh, I think that it also shields me against some of his downfalls as I hear those stories too, but I didn't see that in him largely as a grandfather later in in his life, uh, as I was a kid.

SPEAKER_00 20:38

So I would imagine that there was probably some I don't know the right term here, but some sometimes where that line between father and son got blurred between your grandfather and your dad, and they had to have that difficult conversation and then sit across from each other at Thanksgiving. Ha how have you guys navigated that as a family? Because 90 employees, the scale that you guys are operating at, like the problems that come up for you guys are not the problems I saw in my small business with nine employees. It's very different.

SPEAKER_01 21:14

The that's the hardest part of family business is that you are a family in a business. And I think I think everybody needs to figure out what works for them, right? I think what we determine that works for us is that there's a healthy blurred line, right? It's not we we go to you know, my dad and I we go to family dinner. If something work comes up, we talk about it, but like we also know that we can leave it there and talk pick it up, you know, Monday, or we can pick it up the next day. Um but it's not a stressor to us because we we love what we do. Uh that's the other part of it. And um but my my dad and my grandfather uh was a much more difficult transition. Um there are still employees in the business today that were around during that transition. Um that was uh it was not an easy one. Uh it was a difficult one. Again, my grandfather, this is the baby. This is his baby, right? Uh he um has a sense of pride over it, and as it grew, the only way that he knew to manage it was to hold on to it. You know, it's just kind of that you know, knowing how to be an entrepreneur to get it thriving versus being able to get it scaling, you know, he kind of reached his limit on what he was able to do, which is you know, my dad took over at the right time and was able to do a great job in getting that to the next level. Um, but yeah, I I could I I've heard many, many stories of really between my dad and my grandfather, the business relationship threatened the father-son way more than it should have. Um and I have to give a lot of credit to my dad for certain times throughout that, and I can tell specific stories, but maybe you can have him on to tell those stories uh in in better detail. But um he had to stand up to one of the most powerful men in his life and say something. And that's hard. And we we got together a group of guys last night, we're talking about strong men, and we're talking about how in today's society you need to be a strong man and you need to balance that with being a tender man to be open to things like your son coming to you in a time of need. Um and you know, his generation that wasn't popular, uh my granddad's generation. So a lot of credit my dad there, and then you know, yeah, he he and I have our things, like but our things are all in an effort to balance it out, and he and I know at the end of the day, if this, I don't care how big this is, I don't care how profitable it is, I don't care any of that, if it's gonna threaten our relationship, we'll sell it. Forget about it, right? Our relationship comes first, and uh, we've been able to like manage that in a fantastic way, you know. Some hard conversations, some much easier conversations, a lot of fun conversations. When uh you know, my I always looked up to my dad growing up, so getting to work for him and work with him is is a cool thing. But that's the hardest part of family business is family in the business. Um because when you when you're somebody told me this one time as a as a piece of advice, you know, you've got to put your work hat on when you're at work, you gotta put your family hat on when you're at at home. But when it's the same hat, right, uh it's it's a little trickier to navigate. And uh what I've learned, and I think comes back to you know, there's a lot of conversation today, and I think healthily so between work-life balance. When you're an entrepreneur, work-life balance is work and life together. And you need to make time for your family. You need to make time for your wife, but it's not a formulaic this hour in my calendar is for my family, this hour of my calendar is for my work. If you love what you do, and as an entrepreneur, I hope that you do, if you love what you do, it should be a whole lot easier and less stressful. Not that it doesn't have an impact on your family, but it you have to balance out that that scale to just, you know, it's not a formulaic way. There's a lot of blurred lines, and that's I think that that's healthy. Now, don't go working, you know, 100-120 hours and forget you know, not seeing your family, right? Don't see your family once or twice a week. Like, you know, be a good steward of what you have in business and family and life and personal and church and relationship with God, all of it together. But it should you should be one person of which all of those are pieces, not you know, events on your calendar.

SPEAKER_00 25:59

You use the word steward there, and I was hoping that you would during this conversation. You're technically the fourth generation, right? But third, you know, uh call it third for for sake of confusion.

SPEAKER_01 26:12

Yeah, for for the formality of the well, my great grandmother was also in the business, too, so it's a that's a real family business.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

So do you see yourself as the steward for the next phase? I mean, your your dad's got plenty of time left, right? And you guys have have from in the time that I've known you, you've mentioned some of the the the difficult conversations, but I think you guys have excelled because you're trying to make it better. You're not trying to put down what your dad has done, right? Because obviously it's worked. You're trying to take it to that next level and kind of introduce your own ideas. So I guess how do you reconcile that next level of stewardship, right? And Jimmy, you're a young guy, but you've done a great job since you've gotten here. How do you reconcile that? Um are do you see yourself as a steward for the next fifty years?

SPEAKER_01 27:06

I I definitely do, right? There's this um there's this concept of how far out is your horizon, right? And as a leader of the business, your horizon needs to be the furthest out. You need to be able to see the vision for the next you know, three, five, ten, twenty years of the business. And being young and coming back into the business, coming into what has been my dream for so long gives me the circumstances to have a 50-year uh horizon to be able to want to see what is in the 50 next 50 years. Uh somebody gave me some good advice here probably close to two years ago now, um, that I have an interesting and and we've grown a lot in the last few years that's forced us to change some things. And so what you know, to come into the new generation, but somebody gave me some good advice. Like my job and my responsibility, I see very clearly as stewarding the future, which is it that just comes naturally to me, vision comes naturally to me. If you ask me to, you know, what does this look like in 50 years? Like uh by no means do I have details, uh, but like I can kind of see a direction. It's hard to put into words, and that's a challenge that I have, but um, I can I I can see it, I can see the vision ahead. But the challenge that I have is honoring the past at the same time of stewarding the future. Because there are still people in the business that have been here twenty, twenty-five years that have seen the business go through a ton of change and see worked with you know all three generations now um that you know knew my granddad closer to his, you know, uh you know, the end of his prime, um, that knew the you know the the the man that he was and what that impact was on the business. And so I think stewarding the business comes with the responsibility of any entrepreneur uh or family business um that's healthy. I think that stewardship just it comes naturally to me. Um it's a stewardship of the business, you know, for the sake of our our purpose and our mission, uh, which is to serve. Um but the challenge that I had and I've you know I think is a proper one is how do you honor the past at the same time? Sometimes we can get looking so far ahead, we forget where we came from. And that where we came from is honoring the people that have put in years and decades of work to be where we are today. Um and and hearing them, and yeah, that means you know, somebody that's been here twenty, twenty-five years is gonna have a little bit more old school than new school, uh or than the new school people will have, right? You know, I can't I don't know what we did twenty years ago as a kid, right? Um but we've gotta honor that. Um and then you know, honoring all the way back to our foundation, our culture, who my grandfather was, that built our culture, that made us special, that gave us a foundation that made us something that somehow in the eyes of God that we were worth growing. Um and uh so yeah, you have to steward the future as well as steward the past, and you have to find that balance. And I think that's I think if you steward the past, it sets you up really, really well to be able to better steward the future.

SPEAKER_00 30:30

So is there any is there anyone in the business that's been around longer than you've been alive besides your dad? Ooh, definitely my dad.

SPEAKER_01 30:39

I think we might have one or two people in the business that probably started it's close. It's close. I'd have to ask them.

SPEAKER_00 30:52

So I asked that question to to transition to my uh Nepo baby question from earlier. Um you obviously came back in the the business four years ago, so you were well into your mid-20s at this point. You didn't just graduate high uh college and just come in as the VP of operations. Like the the way that I've kind of seen your story, and I'd love to for you to correct me on this, but I feel like your dad and your family was kind of like, go get some real experience.

SPEAKER_01 31:24

Yeah, it kicked me out.

SPEAKER_00 31:25

Yeah. So you go to school for for business and um business in uh accounting. Accounting. I was gonna say economics, but that's broader. Uh so what'd you go and do out of college when you when dad didn't call you and offer you the board seat?

SPEAKER_01 31:42

Yeah, right. Uh I got a small million dollar loan from no, I'm just kidding. I uh yeah, I mean, and and he and I talked about this since high school, right? And I think that's the other part of what makes my dad and my relationship um healthy as well in a family business, is we've been talking about this for decades. Even back to when I was a kid, right? I haven't been to him alive that many decades, but we've been talking about this for so long. Um so even going back to high school, I can remember he's like, work somewhere else. My granddad did it with my dad. He made him, he kicked him out, make him go work a job for a year and a half. So out of college, my dad challenged me. He said, he he gave me a few challenges. I don't know if he defined it like this, but this is what I heard. Go work somewhere else. Number one, find out if you love it. Because if you find something else that you love, don't come back. Wow. Like no pressure, no grooming, no come back into the business because it's a family, because it's gotta be. It was you've gotta love it. And I see now being in the business and being more mature, that needing to love what you do, if I found something else that I loved, it wouldn't have made me love what I do today. Um and if I don't love what I do today, I'm not fit to lead the company, to lead the business, to lead my teams that I have today. So he said, go find something you love. If you find it, stick with it. If you don't find it, you know, then then we leave the option open and coming back. So number two, so learn to work for somebody else. You know, when I came back into the business, my first boss was my dad, right? So go learn to work for a different boss. Because that's that right there, I think it's one of the biggest challenges that, and you can see us from the leader side and from the the associate side, but that's one of the biggest challenges our generation has today is learning how to work for a boss, a good boss or a bad boss. Um so he's like, go go have that experience, go figure that out, go learn how to deal with conflict when you don't see eye to eye with the person that's managing you. Go learn how to negotiate for a raise, go learn how to fight for a promotion. That was the third thing. He said, find out a way to be successful or get promoted. And um, because if you don't learn how to excel in some other type of work, that process of learning how to excel and succeed and determine um to do your job better than you did yesterday is a process and a learning and a skill that is non-negotiable for family coming back in the business. For me to come back into the business and be able to exercise that here. Because when your family coming to the business, you got a target on your back. Um, and I think that our culture and our people like didn't see it that way, but uh you have a lot higher responsibility. Um our our VP of commercial development, Emily, she's one that she's been here 20 years, she told me the other day, she goes, it's a lot different when your last name is Hartley, right? There's just a higher pressure with everything, and it should be. I think it should be in any family business. And I have a pride around the second, third, and and the the children's generation coming up in the business and the pride they need to work with. So he told me, he said, see if you find something you love, learn to work for somebody else, learn how to be successful or get promoted. So out of college, I worked for that the forklift warehouse equipment company uh for two years. Of course, uh I started in summer of 2019, so we all know what happened in 2020. That was a lot of fun. Uh learned a ton, learned how to go through a pandemic, learned how to have hard conversations with customers, with bosses, with uh you know, peers, um, because we were all fighting a fight way bigger than ourselves in the supply chain of impacts of COVID and all sorts of different things going on. So that you know, that two years' experience was golden uh looking back. And then like I said, getting to go and yes, I was selling, but I was I was solutions selling. So going into operations and trying to know what questions to ask about their operations to learn, but then also know what questions to ask to see if anything that I had that I could offer could help them solve solutions or solve anything. Um so I did that for two years. Um I I enjoyed it, I love it. Um I but I didn't enjoy I didn't enjoy the organization that I worked for as much. It was uh you know a much bigger organization, a little bit more corporate structure. Um and you know, the supply chain and the industry and the economy just made it really, really difficult when you're you know based on commission sales. But in that I was able to go from a lead generator, you know, calling and just my knuckles hurt from knocking. I mean, you're just you're you're trying to drum up business everywhere you get. I remember my manager going with me on uh a follow-up visit to a customer to present a quote, and he looks at where we're at and he's like, Where the there's people here? I'm like, yeah, I am everywhere that we need to go, I'm drumming up business. It it doesn't matter. Uh it doesn't matter if it looks shut down. I see a dock door, I'm gonna see if I can sell a pallet jack. Kind of so I was I was hustling, which is cool.

SPEAKER_00 37:02

Knuckles hurt from knocking. Knuckles from Jimmy Hart the Jimmy Hartley. Jimmy Hartley. Um that might be a straight to movie, uh, a straight to DVD movie, but yeah, there we go.

SPEAKER_01 37:12

I'd watch it. Just find it on Blu-ray. Um Blu-ray still around. It is still around. It's gotta be. So that got me promoted into like a full account manager role, um, where it was much more commission based, and then was where the economy was, where lead times got crazy long. We didn't get paid commission until our lead times, and I knew my path. I knew I I'd already known, I said, I know that I'm not gonna be here forever. I know this isn't something that I love. I was like, so then therefore my my path is you know H. Um, but I didn't feel like it was time. I was in North Carolina at the time, too, and I just graduated college, stayed around the area. So I uh I stuck around. I'd also met my uh who would become my wife, and so she was living in North Carolina, so life things meant I'm not moving to Florida. Um but work was like, well, I've kind of I've kind of checked the boxes. I was like, you know what, let me go work, you know, this is a really big company. This is kind of a corporate structure. Let me go work for a smaller company and see see what that's like. So then I was a project manager for a signage company um out of uh right near the North Carolina-South Carolina border. Great company. And it was interesting because it that was very similar size to HH products, very similar path. They grew very quickly. Um I was a project manager, so my responsibility was working with the client with what they wanted for their signage, uh, working then with each department, whether it's our purchasing department or our pricing team or design team, to just see the project all the way through until it got manufactured and installed. Um so I got to see more of the operation side of the business, even though I was client-facing. I got to see the operations that have that impact of the client and work very closely with those teams, and it was it was a smaller company, so I'm I'm out walking the production floor. I knew everybody out there, um, got to form relationships there. And then um, so that was a lot of fun. And I had kind of your uh I had kind of your your your fun accounts. Um I'll tell you who they were afterwards if I haven't before, but I had the the accounts that were like this is the cool factor accounts. Oh but they were uh very difficult to work with to say. Um because they're they're big accounts, there's a lot of there's a lot of levels, there's a lot of approvals, there's a lot of different things. Um but that was that was such a cool experience. Um being able to go through that. So leading up to that, um I was about to get you know married to now my wife, Alex. Shout out Alex. Shout out to Alex, she's awesome. Um she's awesome. We uh so we're about to get married and I look up and I am I'm doing you know classic, classic small business, almost they they had a saying around there that we're like we're a we're a 50-year-old startup because they were growing and so much of their culture and growth was so so similar to a startup because they were just hustling. And I was like, I love that. That's that's me, right? So on paper, I should love this. I'm hustling, I am a part of something bigger than myself. I'm I mean this company is growing, and I am uh every I thought I had times where I had gotten burnt, burnt out at uh my first job, and this was this was this was way worse. Um, and it was less than a year, and so I'm sitting here like, what is going on? I'm looking back at my checklist and looking at number one, do you love it? And I couldn't figure out what it was, couldn't figure out why, I couldn't put a definition to it, which frustrated my type A self. And I was like, I don't love this. I should circumstantially on paper, but I don't. And so again, shout out to my wife Alex. We get married in April of 22. I'm having conversations before we're getting married, like, hey, by the way, I'm I'm I think I'm gonna quit my job. She's like, okay. She was a nurse at the time, so we wouldn't have been without income. Um, she was going through her own challenges in her career being a nurse in the ER during uh pandemic time. And I was like, I don't know what that means for our income, but I know in the next few months, within six months of being married, we're gonna be moving to Florida. Uh I feel God's call. I feel like this is the right time. There were things going on in the business here that made sense for me to come back. There were spaces and positions and opportunities for me to learn and also serve in the business, not just be a Nepo baby. Um and she was like, okay, I'll follow you, I'll trust you. We had always we had always talked about it. She always said she always wanted to live in Florida. She loves it. She loves the warmth and the weather. Um and she was just supportive from the get-go. And she uh so so I quit my job, gave my four weeks' notice, um, because I always like to outdo everybody. So instead of two, I gave four. I don't know, just I don't know. I like that. I'm competitive. Uh even in my even in my exit notice, even in my exits. Uh which I I got one of the best compliments uh leaving that company, actually. I looked up at the end of four weeks and the COO at the time looked at me and just like this weird look on his face. I was like, what's you know, hey, what's what's going on? You're okay? He goes, I just don't get it. I was like, what? He goes, I've never seen anybody put in their notice and double down on their work and do better work and try to get things done, which is a cool compliment. But again, that was a hustler that I was. That was the like on paper, this should make sense. But it didn't. So in between transition, I get married. Um, in between transition, I worked at a nonprofit Beds for Kids, shout-out beds for kids. Uh, good buddy Zach Smith over there runs all operations. Amazing organization, uh, nonprofit organization helping families furnish their homes and apartments when they can't afford to, um, and coming alongside them and serving them in that capacity. So for two months, I delivered furniture to families in need and prayed with them. One of the most rewarding things I've ever done in my life, but it was just such a reset point, and then it allowed me to be able to hear God's calling and go, yeah, it's time. Right? It wasn't you know the audible, like, you know, mystic thing that we see, you know, may see in movies or think about, but it was just a tug of my heart, it was like it's time. And Alex was like, okay, awesome. And it was perfect because she was she was starting to you know have some difficulties with her job. She needed a reset too, and we moved down here. Um, and then on the H H side, the the few months leading up to me coming back to H H was several different plans of how to come back to H H. And then at the end of it, it was just like we had had um some things in our operations staff going on. My dad was just doing a lot that he shouldn't president of the company shouldn't be doing, and I was like Let me fill the gap, let me do some of those things. Um, I was starting off scheduling production from North Carolina, which is when the operations in Orlando is not the easiest thing in the world. Um after a couple of months of that coming down, he you know kind of reset some of the operation stuff. He's like, Well, I've got a gap. And he's like, I that gap is the plant manager, you want to run the plant. Now, I'm a competitor, I'm a hustler, I'm uh I know, I'm uh I I want to um succeed succeed, right, and and achieve and accomplish, um, especially for the sake of others around me. I wanna I want to be able to help others and but I I never manage anybody, let alone multiple teams, and never managed an operation. I've never done any of this, but my my dad's message wasn't during the time we're growing in 2022 when I came in, we grew 50% as a company in one year. And I that's that's a whole story in itself how we grew out of COVID. Um I'll ask him that one. And it wasn't uh, okay, I've groomed this position for you. Here you go, here's this position. Don't don't don't let it fall apart. Yeah, don't let it fall apart. It was it's in pieces, I need help putting it back together. And he makes a comment, and this is another interesting thing about family business. He's like, it's hard sometimes because he's got a lot of experience with a lot of other people in the business. He's got 29x years of experience knowing me. And he's that's that's hard to balance because in a profession that doesn't, you know, you know, four years is the experience, but he knows me so much more and deeper than that. And so um that's where he was like, if he looked at my resume, he would have been silly to hire me. Absolutely silly. But he was like, I know that you can come in and be a benefit here, and was able to, you know, through the grace of God and a lot of lot of difficulty, a lot of long days, a lot of stressful nights, a lot of early mornings and 4 a.m. phone calls with the plant and crazy stuff. We built out a structure to where we are today, to where now I can say today, you know, it's a whole lot more fun, but it's a whole lot more fun because we can we can keep going.

SPEAKER_00 46:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:17

You know, we've got a structure to keep going, which is which is awesome.

SPEAKER_00 46:21

So do you see yourself as an entrepreneur? It's funny, it's I feel like this is it's such a hot topic of a word. Anyone could say they're an entrepreneur. Yeah. And for you, I'll give you my opinion in a minute, but like you didn't start this. Right? You went and worked for a couple jobs before, but do you see yourself as an entrepreneur?

SPEAKER_01 46:43

So is this funny? My my buddy and I in California, um, shout out Connor. He uh he and I, ever since college, so like we realize we have known each other probably close to 12 years, and uh he and I, for these 12 years, have had this conversation of are is he and am I, because he has his own uh career and professional pursuits and service and ministry pursuits as well. Are we entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs? Right? And the definition the the primary difference between that, and you can look up the definitions, and different people have different definitions, is your entrepreneur is willing to risk it all to get it going. And your entrepreneur is much better at coming into something existing and using the entrepreneurial spirit to continue the path. Um, so circumstantially, I'm I I I consider myself an entrepreneur, but that entrepreneurial spirit, I think a lot of people love the title of entrepreneur. I think a lot of people love the title of manager, director, VP, president, owner, all of these hot, hot button titles. I was like, the title we should be worried about is you know, and if you're a business owner, is entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial spirit, like we we gotta have that. You gotta be able to, and entrepreneur has its own sense of risk as well, but you gotta be able to risk a lot for the sake of the business. Um I had a vendor's uh say something, this is a I think a major um major compliment to my dad, is at a vendor we've been working with for decades. And we went to lunch with him a few weeks ago, and he said, he's like, I know that if it's your last dollar talking to my dad, if it is Morris Hartley's last dollar, and he has people to pay, he's paying that dollar. He's not keeping it for himself. And it's like that's such a compliment, but that that right there is the entrepreneur. That right there is is you know entreprene or entrepreneurial spirit, is that at the end of the day, your service is something bigger than yourself to be able to give your last dollar if that's what you got, and it's not going to yourself.

SPEAKER_00 49:00

Yeah, it's um willing to bet on yourself, yeah. And I think I would call you an entrepreneur, even with the definition you gave, because you are betting on the next 50 years of your life of being successful in this company, right? You're a young guy, I mean, you lived 80, 90 years old, like you got another 50, 60 years that you got to stand on what you've built here, right? And and what you're building on top of what have been built before you. Um you you mentioned about serving something bigger than yourself, and so there's two questions here. And the first one, I I actually want to turn a little attention to Alex and your mom and your grandmother, and apparently your great grandmother. I didn't know that part of the story. Yeah. How have the women that have been supporting the men of the Hartley family in this family enterprise shaped the the organization and and who it is?

SPEAKER_01 49:56

Foundational. I mean, that's the word that comes to mind. Um one of our best-selling brands is it's here on the table, is Betty Jeans Lemonade. Betty Jean is my grandmother, my my granddad's wife. And that was actually my dad's decision, uh, starting that brand saying this is to honor, it was in 2016, this is to honor the woman that made it possible. And you know, I think as business owners or as you know executives and leaders, we we work in a world of numbers and metrics and uh achievement factors. We can look at a business that's at X sales yesterday and Y sales tomorrow and see if that's better or worse. Those women who support the men in their by you know providing for the families and serving in their role in that family, they don't have a metric. And so I think if you're if you're the type A business person, like you you can look at and you can look at some metrics to determine quote unquote success. And I think that's one of the greatest that's what makes those women so humbling, is my my grandmother, my mom, my wife, can they don't have a number to look at and go, oh, okay, well, here's this number. This number got better. I'm doing a great job supporting our family. They just serve without expectation of return of service. And in and such a, you know, it can be in the background, but if it doesn't exist, none of this exists. If my nana didn't do what she did, or my mom didn't serve in the way she did, this doesn't exist. It just doesn't. That's that's that's a non-negotiable fact. The business would have been sold, would have gone under, would have whatever. Um and so it's it's it's a major shout-out to the people who support us and who um sacrifice with us. They may not be here, they're not in the trenches, but you know, we go home and they help us reset, they help take care of the things in our life to allow us to have that blurred line work-life balance. Um, you know, and I think there's a challenge to the men, too, to make sure like your responsibility is also outside of your business. Your responsibility is to go serve your wife as Christ loved the church, is what scripture tells us. It is to go love your family as well. Um it's a two-way street, but yeah, no, this wouldn't exist without the women serving without asking for anything in return. To this day, my nana doesn't ask for anything in return. She's one of the most humble people that I know. Um, and she is just there's such a sense of contentment that I can't even describe that's so um powerful.

SPEAKER_00 53:00

I asked the question earlier when we were setting up if it's weird to have your name on these products, right? Like I'm looking at some Hartley uh pancake and waffle syrup here on the table. Uh, which, quick aside, when I was doing research for this, even though I've known you for a year and a half now, I was like, man, I've ingested your products, and I didn't even realize it from you know travels and whatnot. But um my question is actually to how do you think Alex would answer this? Um and did you guys have conversations about what the future what the future first lady of H H products looks like? Was like was she prepared to like there's 90 employees that look up to this family that I'm marrying into and you know yes I'm a a wife and one day a mom and you know shout out for her to holding down the house with two uh very close two under two uh little ones. I mean, did you guys have that conversation before you got married?

SPEAKER_01 54:07

Yes. We did I hesitated because you know, I I think you say first lady of age and age, I think is a is a funny way of looking at it. Um I don't think that we I don't think we did in detail because I don't think either one of us knew what that detail would be, right? It's not gonna say, hey, here's the here's the ten lines of responsibility or the ten details or changes in our life that'll happen as a result, but we talked about it as a calling is how our conversation was phrased. And we don't know what the details of that calling look like. We don't know, especially at the time coming in and just like, hey, there's a bunch of pieces and I need help gluing them back together. I didn't know what the you know next position or title was, or I didn't know what the next problem to solve was, um, my next learning lesson. But um with Alex, she just was you know, it was this is a calling to serve. Uh this is to serve the business, and and my my my granddad, because of the culture of who he was, served his people, right? His employees were everything, his customers were secondary to his employees because his employees help serve the customers. Um and that culture of just serving people, I was like, this is a calling. I was like, I don't know what this looks like, and but you're a part of this, and um, and Alex just is so she is so calm and wise, more than she realizes. She's gonna see this, and and she's like, I'm not wise, no. She absolutely like has such observational wisdom to look at and say, Hey, like, just to either call things out or to I'll I'll run work ideas by her, and she's like, Well, have you thought of this? And I'm like, Yeah, yeah, that makes that that solves the problem. That's the answer I'm looking at. I've been struggling with this all week, and in 15 minutes you solved my problem, so thank you. Um, but she you know, she I think she sees it as a calling too, and the calling for her to serve in our family, she understands that a direct impact of that is being able to serve here at work as well, in addition to family. Um I think that's an interesting conversation that enough time has passed, I can I can have that with her again because I think that's a different conversation today.

SPEAKER_02 56:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 56:35

Um in a good way. We just have a little bit more detail now.

unknown 56:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:39

So as we kind of wrap up here, I have um a few rapid fire questions, and I have one that I've been thinking about uh for weeks leading up to this that I wanted to ask you that I think we'll I know what your answer is gonna be, but I want us to close on that high. So um books, podcasts, things that you recommend to the the owner operator out there, someone with that entrepreneurial spirit, that you would recommend that they digest, take home, think about. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 57:06

Um so what I think really started adding definition to my leadership. This is in college when I discovered Simon Sinek, who's you know, very popular author. Um he calls himself uh an optimist, which I love that title, um, speaker, and he he has two books primarily that were that were golden. I I highly recommend, you know, it's shorter to go watch the the YouTube video. Highly recommend watching the talks as um Start with Why, Understand the Purpose starts with starts everything, and then Leaders Eat Last. Um, I think two great concepts. He's got books or uh talks on you can find on YouTube or wherever. Um on the books, the books are great too. Um and the uh highly recommend that. Uh couple books read recently, I think. One one's kind of an old school book, Good to Great by Jim Collins. Okay, great book. Um great book, great concept. I think good to great is a great concept when you start having more people around you and you got to figure out how do I help when you get to the point as an entrepreneur where you have to realize my job is not just being a leader, my job is to grow other leaders. And how do I grow other leaders to become a great business? Good to great is a great, great resource. Uh and then I would say the last one, and this changed my perspective on serving our people through the you know the management side of leadership, uh, is no ego by Cy Wakeman.

SPEAKER_00 58:30

Okay, I haven't heard of that one.

SPEAKER_01 58:32

That's that's a great read. Kind of flips the the lid on traditional, um, I would I would argue maybe more corporate um style management on you know the open door policy. Oh, it sounds great on the service, but really you know what that's creating is inefficiency in your employees and yourself, or uh things like um you know your you're you you're you don't want a culture of people who fell out of survey with good responses. You want a culture of accountability. What's the difference? Um so really, really good stuff. Again, both those books great when you start having a team around you and you gotta figure out, okay, because a lot of entrepreneurs start off with a great idea, and then they start getting other people around them that go, uh-oh, I gotta be a leader. And then when you start getting to the level of like, uh-oh, I gotta start building other leaders, um, those are some great resources. Why H products? Why you guys? Why us? Um You know, it just came to mind. Uh it's gonna be so cool one day standing before God and asking that question. Why did He favor us? Um cool thought. We serve, our mission statement is to serve with excellence, innovation, quality, and integrity. Our core values being those service, excellence, innovation, quality, integrity. There are not a lot, and I I actually I actually would say that there's probably more, which is a great move in the marketplace. Uh great thing happening is your mission starts with to serve in service. That's that's our that's our why. Um our why is to serve our people, our partners, as our vendors, our suppliers, and our customers. Um we're not starting with serving ourselves, and we we we imitate that from the servant leadership of Jesus that we see in the scriptures. Um I think that that greater purpose drives us to greater excellence. It doesn't mean we're perfect today, uh, but it means that we're getting better every day. Uh we have a mantra, um, shout out Lindsay, our director of quality and regulatory. Uh, she coined this a few years ago and has made it all the way into our definition of innovation in our core values is uh hashtag continuous improvement. Everything we do is to be better tomorrow than we were yesterday. Um and for the you know, for the sake, that's the how. The why is to serve our our our people, our vendors, our customers better. Um so why H partner with us to help serve others?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:20

And my last question to kind of wrap this up, um, and I I've stayed away from this question during the course of our conversation because I know that we could talk for hours on this topic alone, but what and who do you serve, Jimmy? As a person, as an individual, what and who do you serve? Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:41

Everything I look around, I asked I asked that question before. I was like, it'd be so cool to ask that God that question one day. Um serve Jesus Christ, he's my savior, right? And there is the element of salvation that scripture tells us that says that we have fallen short of God's standard, and therefore we need to be saved. And then God offered his son Jesus to save us to be able to, you know, there's there's two elements of that. There's there's the eternal element to be able to save us so that we may be in the kingdom of heaven in the presence of God one day, which is amazing, and that is that is a miracle, and that is the the gift of Jesus on the cross to take the punishment for our breaking of God's standard. But the other part, and I think that is God's favor upon us in this life, which by the way, isn't worldly success. Not always, it can be, right? You look around, our business is succeeding. You can look at that in a worldly definition and say, Yeah, we're successful, awesome, great, sweet. But am I successful in the eyes of God? Am I successful in the perspective of growing in the kingdom of God? Right? That's that's who we serve ultimately. If if our end does not result in the glorification and service of God, we've missed the mark. Um so it just raises us to a higher standard and perspective, right? Everything starts off with the truth and the provision of God and ends with us glorifying and serving Him. Um I think the throughput of that when you look at it is you know, our service of our people. Like I said, our people, our vendors, our um, our customers professionally, personally, my family, Alex, Oliver, Leo, uh, friends, you know, you, Taylor, um, you know, shout out Evan and Page, uh, shout out some some other cool friends that we got. Um, Davis, Riley, right? Um, some some cool people that we have in our circle. Uh, I want to be available to serve them as well. But ultimately, if I serve any of those people and I do not connect it to the greater service of growth of the kingdom of God, I have fallen short in my perspective of what we are attaining towards.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:59

Well, man, I'm so grateful for you as a friend. I'm thankful for God bringing you and Alex uh into my life. Uh, you set a standard for what it means to be a good friend, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart. And I'm not here ever in the warehouse or at the plant, but you know, there's that idea of like being the same person in every single room that you're in, and I know that that's you, and I know that that comes from a culture that was built before you, right? You didn't just spin that up on your own, right? It was between your mom and your dad, your grandparents, uh, great-grandparents, like all of that has a generational effect. Uh, I think the standard of servant leadership is very apparent in the Hartley family and in the Hartley H H products. And um I'm so grateful to be alongside this journey with you to see where the next 50 years of H H goes. Maybe it has to be H H and H when you know Oliver or Leo earns their H, but uh I gotta earn mine. That's true. That's true. Um, but I am grateful for you. Thank you for coming on, thank you for talking about yourself and your family's uh history, and and that's it, man. That's the pod. Of course, man. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:13

Blessed to know you as a friend, your family. Um blessed to be a part of your life.