Latest / Success Story with Scott Clary / Billy Busch - Anheuser-Busch Heir | The Dark Side of Building a Family Empire

Transcript

Billy Busch - Anheuser-Busch Heir | The Dark Side of Building a Family Empire · Success Story with Scott Clary

• 0:00
  I was so busy living the dream and living what our family was doing that I really didn't realize
• 0:05
  the impact of what was going on around me. Took me years to realize that.
• 0:09
  What does it take to survive over three decades in one of the most cut-throat industries in America?
• 0:13
  Bill Bush has coached at some of the biggest programs in college football. Ohio State,
• 0:18
  LSU, Wisconsin, and Nebraska. Yet he's remained one of the most humble,
• 0:22
  hardworking minds in the game. Living with the elephants was one of the highlights of my life and
• 0:27
  still is today. They would remember me because they it's true what they say they have a very
• 0:31
  large brain and they never forget. My dad should have made it more black and white on how to leave
• 0:36
  grants farm. If you don't, it creates a lot of infighting. Now my brother and sisters
• 0:41
  unfortunately and myself don't talk to each other anymore. From a small town kid in Pender,
• 0:45
  Nebraska to winning a college football national championship with LSU in 2019, Bush's story is
• 0:51
  one of grit, reinvention, and relentless belief. If you're a money person make sure you have a great
• 0:55
  marketing person. If you're a top line thinker then we'll make sure you have a good numbers person.
• 1:00
  Biggest success in life is if your kids want to come and be with you once they grow up.
• 1:05
  In this episode we dive into the mindset behind surviving the coaching carousel lessons
• 1:10
  from coaching legends and elite programs. This is about how to lead, adapt, and rise again.
• 1:15
  You're going to learn a lot more from your failures than you are from your wins. Always have faith
• 1:19
  in yourself to never lose that faith. Believe that God is out there and that with God you can do
• 1:25
  anything. Welcome to success story. I'm your host Scott Clary. The success story podcast is part of
• 1:33
  the HubSpot podcast never but HubSpot doesn't just have great podcasts. If you're an entrepreneur,
• 1:38
  if you're a builder they've got your back. Now why is that important? Because if you're building
• 1:42
  anything you know that marketing in 2025 is absolutely wild. Now why is that important? Because
• 1:47
  you know if you're an entrepreneur, if you're building anything marketing in 2025 is wild. Savvy
• 1:52
  customers spot fake messaging instantly. Anything AI generated they sniff it out. Privacy changes
• 1:58
  make ad targeting a nightmare and everyone needs more content now than ever and that's why you have
• 2:04
  to have HubSpot's new marketing trends report. It doesn't just show you what's changing. It shows you
• 2:09
  exactly how to deal with it. Everything's backed by research but focused on marketing plays that you
• 2:15
  can use for your business tomorrow. If you're ready to turn marketing hurdles into results for your
• 2:19
  business go to HubSpot.com slash marketing to download it for free. Fresh books is supporting
• 2:24
  today's episode and if you've ever wondered how successful entrepreneurs stay on top of their
• 2:28
  finances while growing their business the answer is fresh books. The numbers don't lie. Over 30
• 2:32
  million people have chosen fresh books processing more than 60 billion in invoices and saving an
• 2:36
  incredible 192 hours every year on accounting tasks. Think about it. That's nearly eight full days.
• 2:41
  You can get back to focus on what really matters growing your business. Fresh books is more than just
• 2:46
  accounting software. It's your all-in-one financial command center create professional estimates,
• 2:51
  track time, automatically build clients and capture expenses on the go plus it integrates seamlessly
• 2:55
  with over 100 business tools you already use all backed by award-winning customer service. If you're
• 3:00
  ready to stop drowning in receipts and you're ready to stop chasing down payments here's what I want
• 3:05
  you to do. Head over to freshbooks.com to start your 30-day free trial no credit card required and for
• 3:11
  all you success story listeners out there I've got something special. Get an exclusive 60% off for
• 3:15
  six months when you visit freshbooks.com slash pricing dash offer transform your business with
• 3:21
  fresh books today that's freshbooks.com slash pricing dash offer for 60% off today's episode is
• 3:27
  brought to you by Vanta now listen up this matters for your business in today's digital landscape security
• 3:33
  isn't optional it's essential without it deal stall sale cycle stretch on and scaling becomes
• 3:39
  very difficult now why because investors customers and partners all expect businesses to
• 3:44
  demonstrate strong security practices before they commit if you can't prove trust you lose
• 3:50
  opportunities so whether you're a startup founder trying to land that first big client or an
• 3:55
  established company scaling your security program. Vanta helps businesses of all sizes prove that
• 4:02
  they're trustworthy by automating compliance across 35 frameworks like sock to ISO 27001 and hip up.
• 4:10
  The exact certifications your prospects are demanding here's why you need to pay attention
• 4:16
  Vanta gives you back precious time that you're currently wasting on compliance their platform
• 4:20
  automates up to 90% of the tedious compliance work it helps you respond to those endless
• 4:25
  security questionnaires at the five times faster and it connects you with experts to get your
• 4:29
  security program running immediately the results speak for themselves a recent IDC report found
• 4:35
  that Vanta customers achieve over $535,000 per year in benefits and the platform pays for itself
• 4:43
  in just three months so you're going to join over 10,000 global companies like Atlassian,
• 4:48
  Korra and Factory who use Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real time and don't miss this
• 4:54
  for a limited time only my listeners can get a thousand dollars off Vanta that's real money
• 5:00
  backing your pocket visit vanta dot com slash Scott right now before the software expires that is
• 5:06
  Vanta dot com slash Scott
• 5:19
  Billy before we dive into business you have to tell me about living with elephants as a kid what was
• 5:26
  that like I gotta tell you Scott living with the elephants was one of the highlights of my life
• 5:33
  and still is today as a matter of fact when I was training the elephants a grants farm the farm
• 5:40
  we opened up to the public back in 1987 and doing the elephant shows I met my wife who we've
• 5:47
  been married now for like 35 years and we have seven kids and she was the monkey trainer that summer
• 5:54
  at grants farm and I was the elephant trainer and we got to know each other and started dating
• 5:59
  and really the elephant is what brought us together but I grew up with elephants and you know
• 6:04
  they're amazing animals they're very emotional they farm a very tight bond with people who work
• 6:12
  with them day in and day out and I noticed that and fell in love with the the the elephants we always
• 6:17
  had some elephants a grants farm when I was growing up in the summertime they would come to us from
• 6:22
  bush gardens in Tampa, Florida and they would be there for the summer tour season a grants farm
• 6:29
  and I worked with them all day long each and every day and just fell in love with them and they
• 6:34
  I had one in particular the fell in love with me and we formed a very close bond and uh you know
• 6:42
  in the in the book family reigns as you might have noticed um she actually protected me from bullies
• 6:48
  and uh so they really are amazing animals and they never forget so year in and year out they would
• 6:53
  come back and forth from Tampa and uh they would remember me because they they it's true what they
• 6:58
  say they have a very large brain and they never forget you know that's a really interesting uh
• 7:03
  childhood obviously not the norm for most people to be spending summers with elephants maybe
• 7:08
  just tee it up for the audience because we can talk about grants farm we can talk about even
• 7:13
  just the whole childhood and the upbringing and what you experienced um but I think that's a
• 7:18
  good place to start because it tees up where you come from and and tease up your origin story and
• 7:23
  it tees up for your family so talk to me about what life was like growing up in this family
• 7:30
  it was um always there's never a dull moment um growing up a grants farm was so much fun because
• 7:37
  we had all the animals there and I worked hand in hand with the workers on grants farm and
• 7:44
  became and they became some of my best friends and mentors actually and uh you know working with
• 7:50
  them learning how to drive a tractor learning how to work hard get my hands dirty um and um you
• 7:57
  know be right there alongside the people that worked at grants farm um and just very it kept me
• 8:04
  grounded it kept me it kept things uh very natural for me um and you know we were milking goats
• 8:11
  in the morning in the spring that when we when we bring up hundreds and hundreds of little baby
• 8:16
  goats and uh for the for the people who came that summer to grants farm to feed that was the
• 8:23
  biggest attraction at grants farmers a matter of fact that was feeding the goats was was everybody
• 8:28
  said that was their favorite thing to do there but um you know and then being able to interact with
• 8:33
  the with the all the animals I just explained to you a little bit about um the elephants but also
• 8:39
  you know I got to grow up riding horses um working on the farm we wrote a lot of horses my dad and mom
• 8:44
  were both in the equestrian sports big time they showed horses my dad was a great whip which is a
• 8:49
  driver of horses he learned to drive the eight horse hitch the glide zells of course and then he uh
• 8:55
  he loved to drive each and every day the four the coaching for the four hackney horses that he had
• 9:00
  and I talked in the story about what it was like when I used to go coaching with my mom and dad
• 9:05
  on grants farm and you know we were just very connected to nature there and uh we understood the
• 9:12
  seasons and it was a lot of fun growing up and um you know we we got to do so many interesting things
• 9:19
  so many unique things that a lot of people don't experience like uh you know taking the private
• 9:24
  railroad car the adult is from st. Louis to uh Tampa, Florida where the cardinals um which we
• 9:32
  owned the baseball team my dad bought the cardinal baseball team back in 1953 to promote the
• 9:37
  products from that from anizer bush it was an ingenious marketing ploy that he came up with
• 9:44
  because everybody drinks beer of baseball games right yep oh it was um you know to to to ride
• 9:50
  the railroad car down there and then later on we had the private planes to go back and forth on
• 9:55
  and um you know to see some of the parties that my mom and dad hosted were amazing and
• 10:00
  some of the dignitaries and some of the celebrities that came through grants farm like you old
• 10:04
  Brenner and um and before my time Harry Truman but uh you know uh uh mom and dad were good friends
• 10:12
  with Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson and um you know so many others that I could go on and on
• 10:18
  Frank Sinatra was at our house several times because he was he was used as a uh marketer for
• 10:25
  for the products too um much like they used today um the people in uh to market uh products
• 10:33
  on social media wouldn't call celebrities influencers yeah influencers exactly and um so
• 10:40
  you know it was just it was a great time to see all that to watch what was going on and uh to learn
• 10:46
  to learn so much and then to be around the friends that I had a grants farm and like I said all
• 10:51
  the employees um was a lot of fun I learned how to chew tobacco come on I mean you can learn how
• 10:56
  actually as a kid you're doing something that that was a different time that was a different
• 11:03
  that was definitely a different time Scott Beverly you've um you joked before that most kids
• 11:10
  bleed blood but you bleed beer and I love that that's that's a great line why did you start to
• 11:15
  realize what was the age when you started to realize that your family was very different than
• 11:20
  other people's families it's unbelievable I didn't realize it for years because I was so busy
• 11:26
  living living the dream and living what our family was doing what our family was all about
• 11:31
  that I really didn't realize the impact of what was going on around me honestly and um what my
• 11:37
  forefathers had built and where it was going the direction my dad was taking it in during my dad's
• 11:44
  tenure as head of the brewery it was the greatest growth of anisour bush they went from three
• 11:49
  million barrels and sales to 35 or 40 million barrels and sales so it jumped incredibly he built
• 11:56
  eight new breweries around the United States and put the theme parks like bush gardens around him
• 12:01
  he opened up our home grants farm to the public to promote the beer and there were so many things
• 12:06
  going on we had the cardinal baseball team but you know it was um it was something that really
• 12:12
  it was it just came natural because we lived it day in and day out as kids um of our father and
• 12:17
  mother and uh you know we had to work on grants farm and we had to keep that wonderful image of
• 12:24
  quality um intact when we were at grants farm to make sure everything was always beautiful there
• 12:30
  so when the public would come through they would see the beauty and the cleanliness of everything
• 12:37
  and that would then of course uh be part of what anisour bush and the products were all about the
• 12:42
  quality of of the products do you feel like as as a kid um did you feel like you wanted to work
• 12:53
  I mean because so you had your you had your lineage and you had your forefathers that obviously
• 12:58
  built this and then your father was running it for a period of time did you feel as a kid there was
• 13:03
  pressure for you to sort of follow in their footsteps and to and to take up this this that's a
• 13:09
  family business in quotes because obviously it's an enormous business but it is a family business
• 13:14
  when you're a kid at this point you know I have um my dad had 11 kids and I was one of six
• 13:21
  five boys excuse me and um and we had I had two three older brothers one
• 13:27
  older half brother and then two older full brothers and um I knew that you know if as far as
• 13:35
  running the brewery and becoming a big major player at the brewery would be kind of a long shot
• 13:41
  for me because um usually the oldest the yeah the oldest that went to the succession so I was
• 13:48
  looking at other things to do you know I was I was involved um in in the horses and and um and
• 13:55
  growing up on the farm and I really love farming and I wanted to you know possibly be a rancher or
• 14:00
  farmer um because I love the outdoors and you know being in the brewing business um wasn't that important
• 14:08
  to me but then later on in life um we realized I realized that um you know we might not have
• 14:16
  avenue in the in the manufacturing part of the business and then I was a bush itself
• 14:22
  but we might be able to do something in the distribution part of the business and own a
• 14:26
  distributorship so that's what we did we got into the distributorship business and I lived down
• 14:31
  in use in Texas or where we had our own distributorship and worked that um and worked that business
• 14:38
  and enjoyed the heck out of that so um yeah as far as bleeding blood in the in the in the business um
• 14:43
  you know I was on the entertainment side with Graham's farm and being a part of that and keeping
• 14:48
  Graham's farm looking beautiful and doing the shows out there and the different things that I did
• 14:53
  and then I was in the distribution side of the business uh learning the distribution um distributing
• 14:59
  going out and meeting with retailers and suppliers and people like that and that was always fun
• 15:04
  and um you know I guess it was not until I was like oh I don't know um I had this wonderful polo
• 15:12
  career with uh with my brother and we won pretty much every major tournament in the United States
• 15:19
  and we were the Bud Light polo team excuse me and uh listen this is all about family so you can't
• 15:27
  have a podcast if you're out and find my daughter and thank you so we uh we I was so much fun so
• 15:34
  I was in the polo you know and horses and what I grew up with and and um and then when I was about
• 15:41
  40 years old or something like that and the kind of my my best playing polo was waning and I was
• 15:48
  starting to um you know kind of come down instead of going up any longer and um as a polo athlete
• 15:55
  um I started really realizing how interesting the business was and I read this book it was called
• 16:03
  it was called making friends as our business because that was a big slogan that and I was
• 16:08
  robust used that I think my grandfather um came up with making friends as our business
• 16:14
  and um they wrote a book and I read the book and I was completely amazed by my great grandfather
• 16:22
  and how he started the business and then how it was passed down to my grandfather who loved the
• 16:28
  outdoors and I'm so much like him because he didn't really even want to be in the brewing business he
• 16:33
  he wanted to be a rancher and I tell the story about how his father sent him out to New Mexico
• 16:41
  to be a rancher um although he really wanted him because he was very competent and very capable to
• 16:47
  be in the to be the successor of anizer bush he said go out learn uh be the uh rancher that you
• 16:55
  want to be and it didn't take long it took maybe six months to a year he came back home and said
• 17:01
  you know what I don't necessarily want to be a rancher I'd like to be more involved in the brewery
• 17:06
  and then he took over the brewery from my uh great grandfather and it's just very very interesting how
• 17:13
  it was all passed down and I loved I loved how they grew the business the heart and soul they
• 17:18
  put into it and how family was so incredibly important to them and how a dolphins and lily
• 17:25
  teamed together to grow the business and then how my grandfather August Sr and his wife Alice
• 17:32
  were together and they worked the business together and they those two took anizer bush shrew
• 17:38
  the hardest years of anizer bush's history and that was during prohibition 13 years
• 17:44
  where they couldn't sell alcohol 1920 to 1933 and they kept all the employees over 2000
• 17:50
  employees employed during that time because my grandfather and grandmother cared so much about
• 17:56
  the employees and their well-being that they looked for every possible thing they could do
• 18:03
  and the innovation they could come up with in order to keep the anizer bush going during that
• 18:08
  difficult time which they were able to do and then of course you know when they came out of
• 18:13
  prohibition they were one of the very few breweries that were left standing and you know it took
• 18:19
  off because he kept going but it did take a toll on his life August Sr my grandfather
• 18:26
  and he ended up committing suicide in 1934 because he was so sick from all the stress of keeping
• 18:34
  anizer bush going through that 13 years but it's just incredible what I read and what I learned
• 18:40
  and then my father he left me all these he left all these notes and relics from the past and
• 18:46
  even notes from some of his mistresses he was a he was a very gregarious guy he was he had a lot of
• 18:53
  fun in life he kind of naughty at times I will say but he loved to keep all his notes and my wife
• 19:02
  and shooting my wife and I were able to go through boxes and boxes of notes and that's how I was
• 19:07
  able to put the book family reigns together and talk about the history of Grand's Farm and talk
• 19:13
  about it from a true perspective of a bush descendant and a bush has never published a book about
• 19:23
  the family before so this is the first one out there there have been books published about us
• 19:27
  but none of them right from the heart of the family so I think this is much more authentic than
• 19:31
  anything anything out there I think it's if it's coming from if it's coming from you I think it
• 19:37
  it is very authentic but it was stuff that you collected after so this was not so even some of the
• 19:43
  stuff you learned about your family now I'm just realizing you didn't you didn't know all of this
• 19:47
  stuff firsthand this wasn't your father telling you all of these stories there's some of the stuff
• 19:51
  that you discovered later on in life that's exactly right Scott my dad and I you know when my
• 19:58
  when I was born my dad was 60 years old he was married to a third wife he had seven kids from my
• 20:04
  mom Trudy and she came from Switzerland they met over in Switzerland and he brought her back to
• 20:10
  the United States and he was 28 years older than her and when I was born he was 60 so when I got
• 20:18
  to be older and then interested in the history of what was going on my dad was now later on in his
• 20:26
  years and he really never talked about it that much so I didn't get a lot's first hand from him
• 20:31
  I got it more first hand from the notes that he left and from the books that I read
• 20:36
  and and that's how I learned so much about our history and about our family and and how it got
• 20:42
  going and you know again it's a to build a dynasty the way my family did I'm very proud of it
• 20:49
  lasted five generations in our family most most family businesses last three generations so
• 20:56
  excuse me we made it for five generations and the work and the fortitude and the innovation that
• 21:02
  had to go in and determination I want to mention that had to go into building this dynasty
• 21:09
  and revolutionizing the beer industry was just really really incredible and it's the thing
• 21:15
  of the past and you just don't you know it's a part of history and I don't think it should be
• 21:19
  forgotten and that's why I wrote the book and I want my kids I guess seven kids and I want them
• 21:23
  to know about it no it's a beautiful story and and you're right it is it is a piece of history
• 21:28
  that shouldn't be forgotten and I think that well I'll ask you I'm curious you you you have an
• 21:35
  opinion as to why your dad didn't speak about it as much I'm sure there's trauma there's
• 21:41
  stress there's things that happened in in the history of the family that that if you've lived
• 21:47
  through them they're not things that you really feel like chatting about with your kids but was
• 21:52
  there a particular reason something that you can sort of pin down as to why he didn't want to
• 21:57
  speak about it sort of tell you all these stories firsthand you know when when I was growing out
• 22:04
  as a youngster he ran the brewery till 1974 where he was basically kicked out by his oldest son
• 22:12
  of that position of running the brewery and I talk about that that story in the in the book
• 22:19
  and he was so busy with the brewery he'd come home late every day when he wasn't traveling he'd
• 22:24
  come home late every day he'd have a couple drinks and you know have dinner with my mom we'd
• 22:28
  all sit at the table he'd talk a little bit about what went on during that day he'd ask us
• 22:34
  us kids about how grants farm is doing how are the animals are and the different animals that we
• 22:39
  had on grants farm you talk about those he really didn't talk too much he eat about the history he
• 22:46
  was so busy with with Aniser Bush and what was going on at that time that he didn't go back in
• 22:52
  history too much he would once in a while talk about how his father and how his grandfather
• 22:59
  always cared so much about quality I remember one time he came home from the brewery and he had
• 23:07
  a test tube bottle of hops one had the natural flower hop and the other one was made of a synthetic
• 23:14
  hop now this the synthetic hop when I looked at it as a kid I looked terrible it looked like mud
• 23:22
  in a test tube and the flower in the in the other test tube looked much more appetizing and he said
• 23:30
  this is what our competitors are going to they're going to this synthetic hop because it makes it
• 23:36
  cheaper to make the beer to brew the beer than than the real hop he said but you know my dad
• 23:44
  and my grandfather would never would never cut corners it would never skimp on quality they would
• 23:53
  always do the right thing and one day the public will realize what you know how how we
• 23:59
  stick to our guns when it comes to quality and he couldn't have been more right it that's exactly
• 24:03
  what happened and he kept the real hop a lot of the other companies went to the synthetic hop
• 24:09
  and it was a downfall of several other companies that for doing that and it's what made Budweiser
• 24:16
  the king of beers so again he was very busy he talked a little bit about certain things but for
• 24:23
  the most part and then he got older I think he went through some trauma he he lost our little
• 24:29
  sister was killed in a car accident his his his oldest son kicked him out of the brewery which
• 24:35
  was a traumatic thing for him he got divorced from my mom and now he was getting on later in years
• 24:42
  and he just you know as he got older and he got remarried again to a fourth wife
• 24:48
  we still taught yeah dad was something we still talked but we never really talked about the
• 24:54
  history and part of that's on me I will say I think back to it and I should have sat down with
• 25:00
  them and said dad what was your father like what was it like when you used to go to the brewery
• 25:06
  with your dad and he would have told me stories that I read because I looked at the notes and his
• 25:11
  letters that him and his father would send to each other and it would have showed me that you
• 25:16
  know what his dad took him through every facet every part department of the of Anheuser Bush and
• 25:24
  taught him each department and how each department worked and he had to learn from the bottom up
• 25:30
  and that's what dad did he basically went to the school University of Budweiser to learn the
• 25:35
  business and that's what made him such a great leader at Anheuser Bush but yeah it took me years
• 25:40
  to realize that a big thank you to indeed for supporting success story because hiring people is
• 25:45
  one of the hardest things you're ever going to have to do as an entrepreneur as a founder as
• 25:48
  somebody who's trying to build a business it's important to hire well and find the right person
• 25:53
  but it takes so much time and it's so labor intensive because like most entrepreneurs you have a
• 25:58
  thousand things going on and there's a good chance that you just realized your business need to
• 26:02
  hire somebody yesterday so how can you find that great amazing right fit candidate fast it's easy
• 26:08
  just use indeed because you don't have to waste time struggling to get your job post seen on all
• 26:13
  these other job sites if you're using indeed you can just use their sponsored jobs to help you stand
• 26:18
  out and hire fast your post jumps right to the top of the page for relevant candidates so you can
• 26:22
  reach out to exactly who you're looking for faster and the results really speak for themselves
• 26:26
  according to indeed data sponsored jobs posted directly on indeed have 45% more applications than
• 26:32
  non-sponsored jobs and you know what I love most about indeed it really just makes hiring so fast
• 26:37
  because everything is streamlined in one place no more juggling multiple platforms or waiting weeks
• 26:43
  for the right candidate and how fast is indeed in the minute I've been talking to you 23
• 26:47
  hires were made on indeed according to indeed data worldwide there's no need to wait any longer
• 26:53
  speed up your hiring right now with indeed and listeners of success story will get a 75 dollar
• 26:58
  sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at indeed dot com slash clary terms
• 27:03
  that just do apply just go to indeed dot com slash clary a huge thank you to net sweet for
• 27:09
  supporting today's episode now what does the future hold for business if you ask nine experts
• 27:14
  you're going to get ten answers bull market bear market inflation up inflation down honestly at
• 27:19
  this point you just need a crystal ball but until we get one over 41,000 businesses have found
• 27:25
  the next best thing they future proof their businesses their operations with net sweet by oracle
• 27:31
  which is the number one cloud ERP imagine having your accounting your financial management your
• 27:36
  inventory your HR all flowing together in one fluid platform and here's what makes net sweet
• 27:42
  different it gives you one source of truth for your business you get the visibility and control
• 27:46
  to make quick confident decisions while others are guessing you're working with real time data insights
• 27:51
  forecasting you're basically looking in the future of your business with actionable data whether
• 27:56
  your company earns a couple million or even hundreds of millions net sweet helps you respond to
• 28:01
  immediate challenges and helps you grab your biggest opportunities and speaking of opportunities
• 28:06
  they put together the CFO's guide to AI and machine learning and net sweet dot com slash scott
• 28:11
  clary this is the playbook for understanding how to use AI for your business the guide is free
• 28:16
  that is net sweet dot com slash scott clary because there's a lot of is on just looking over some of
• 28:22
  the things that obviously is the transition of power away from your father that was very stressful
• 28:27
  there was a battle over grants farm as well and that was stressful for the family
• 28:33
  if you think about all these events and you can you can touch on even link you like a little bit
• 28:37
  of context as to what these stories mean and what happened but what did these events teach you
• 28:44
  about family business or how did these events sort of shape your perception of family business
• 28:49
  well I did learn a lot from it I will say I think in any family business I think when you
• 28:55
  when you go to pass the baton to the next generation the leader of that company they really
• 29:02
  need to do everything black and white I think I think my father I think he it was time he had
• 29:12
  lost his his oldest daughter or excuse me his youngest daughter and that was very traumatizing to
• 29:18
  and he wasn't making the the greatest decisions any longer not that it was right for my
• 29:26
  half brother to form a coup in the board and have him removed from his position because I don't
• 29:34
  think that was right but I think there would have been a much better way to go to my father our
• 29:39
  father and say hey this is it is getting too hard on you and you need to step back and allow me
• 29:47
  to run things now or something along those lines and I think you know every business owner should
• 29:52
  realize that at one of time when their time's up and they should pass it on and they should you know
• 29:58
  write up the documents make it very black and white say this is how it is is you know when you do
• 30:03
  that that kind of stuff you keep the lawyers out of it you don't have as much argument going on
• 30:08
  everybody's not going to be as happy but at least there won't be any infighting and so when it comes
• 30:14
  to those kinds of things definitely it's like he left his grants farm he left myself and my
• 30:19
  five siblings grants farm and and we we there came a time where it was in a trust and we knew we
• 30:27
  had to take it out of the trust because each of our families were getting bigger and there were more
• 30:32
  and more successors because we're all having kids and we're all married and we needed to make sure
• 30:38
  that okay what are we going to do with the grants farm it can't stay in a trust all the time it
• 30:43
  eventually needs to be bought out so my father and his will he put in there that he would
• 30:49
  his biggest wish was to see one or more of his kids buy grants farm out of the trust from
• 30:55
  whoever didn't want to stay in so I offered to buy grants farm because I was the only one in the
• 31:01
  beer business at the time I had a beer company I felt like it would be similar to what dad did my
• 31:08
  father did with the breweries that he built he built breweries and he put theme parks around those
• 31:14
  breweries to attract people kind of like an overgrown craft brewery is today you know you get to
• 31:19
  go there and have food but here you got to go not only have food and try the products but also
• 31:26
  visit all the all the incredible animals and do the rides and all those sorts of things so I
• 31:31
  thought it would be a great way to promote our company a great way to promote our beer so I
• 31:36
  offered to buy grants farm and then you know jealousy comes in and and the one one of the quotes
• 31:45
  from a sister was there should not be one one one lord of the manner something like that and
• 31:55
  you know we didn't follow dad's wish at that time so my family wanted to sell it to another entity
• 32:01
  and not one of us and we got into a big argument over that talk about it about it in the book
• 32:09
  almost had the play spot but then at the last minute well actually after the last minute happened
• 32:14
  because our trustee at the time which was Wells Fargo gave a deadline that whoever makes the final
• 32:22
  offer by five o'clock at PM on a certain day if we don't get a counter offer that person would
• 32:30
  own grants farm so I made the final offer the counter offer came about two or three hours later
• 32:35
  from my other siblings four of my siblings and another relative and they ended up bidding higher
• 32:43
  going to a place I couldn't go to so they ended up buying my brother and I out so I'm no longer a
• 32:47
  part of grants farm you know I miss it it was like it was where I grew up but but again you know
• 32:53
  um my dad should have made it more specific and made it more black and white on how to leave
• 33:00
  grants farm to a family member or what he exactly wanted to do with it because if you don't it
• 33:08
  creates a lot of infighting and now my brother and sisters unfortunately and myself don't talk
• 33:12
  to each other anymore even still even still yep that's so silly it's so stupid to it's so stupid like
• 33:23
  uh I guess I like listen a lot of people that listen to this are are probably first generation
• 33:32
  entrepreneurs they built the business now they're trying to figure out what to do with that
• 33:35
  business and I and I hear a lot of this this is going to be this huge transition of wealth because
• 33:41
  people are all retiring and they don't know what to do about succession planning and this is
• 33:46
  the perfect example obviously at a much larger scale in a first generation entrepreneur but
• 33:50
  there are people that build businesses that they don't sell and they want to pass them over to
• 33:53
  their kids and I don't know how much energy or thought they put into it before it's time and I
• 33:59
  think that's going to come around and bite them in the ass and I also don't think they think about
• 34:04
  what are the implications of the relationships between siblings they're thinking about what happens
• 34:09
  to me when I want to retire but kind of like your example that you just mentioned you've actually
• 34:15
  broken up family bond now because of this not only just not only just uh you know the the fact
• 34:22
  that your dad didn't make it clear or whatnot but now between you and your brothers and sisters
• 34:27
  you don't have the bond that you should have oh you're 100% right Scott and that's why I urge
• 34:32
  any business owner family business to make sure that when they do go pass it down my family always
• 34:39
  pass it down to the most competent child it might not have been the the the oldest although for
• 34:46
  the most part it did work out to be the oldest of the of the children oldest male and and and
• 34:54
  and it worked out great for three generations and then when I went to the fourth generation it all
• 35:01
  changed and the irony of it is the fourth generation took it basically took it from the third generation
• 35:09
  and then the fourth generation basically lost the whole company because that I really do think
• 35:16
  that that line of succession was broken um the way to the way to properly probably succeed
• 35:23
  and it went then to the fifth generation and the person that took it over which would be my nephew
• 35:31
  was not unfortunately competent because he had substance abuse problems
• 35:37
  and he was still given the control of anizer bush and an outside competitor in bev saw that it wasn't
• 35:46
  being run correctly saw the problems that anizer bush was going through and they realized it was a
• 35:52
  perfect time to take it over which they did in 2008 so where does that leave you in in your life
• 35:59
  I mean you've done a lot so we can talk a little bit about your journey but all this is leading up to
• 36:04
  okay so how is Billy going to architect his life now because right now your nephew is running the
• 36:11
  company uh always that he's not he's not you know right man sorry uh uh historically when
• 36:17
  when your nephew is running the company you weren't thinking I'm going to step in line for
• 36:22
  succession he's the one running it um and you probably saw the decline and you probably saw
• 36:27
  where it was going and then the in-bed acquisition yeah it was unfortunate but it probably
• 36:34
  wasn't a surprise to you at least because you saw what was happening I saw what was happening I
• 36:39
  was getting feedback I really didn't have a lot to do with anizer bush at that point um I was still
• 36:44
  we still had the polo team we were playing um the professional polo from the bud light polo team
• 36:50
  and um uh but I was hearing from people at the breweries some of the of the higher up executives at
• 36:57
  the brewery that there were problems going on that um he was having difficulties um talking to
• 37:04
  people making speeches, wholesaler conferences things like that that he was um he was not competent
• 37:11
  any longer to even make a speech and uh and then and then I then when I heard that he opened up
• 37:19
  the distribution system here in America to an outside company somebody came to me and said
• 37:26
  that's exactly what this company was looking for it was in bed and so now they were selling
• 37:29
  Stella R. Twa and Bex and some of the other beers and in-bed was making in the United States through
• 37:35
  the anizer bush wholesaler system and it gave them uh in bed the opportunity to look at the books
• 37:43
  look at anizer bushes books and figure out a way to buy it so yeah so I I I did see I could see it
• 37:49
  was coming I was hearing from the executives about what was going on and um you know I still thought
• 37:55
  it would be a incredibly tremendous tremendous feat to be able to take over the biggest
• 38:02
  company the biggest beer company in the world but no longer it was andizer bush the biggest beer
• 38:07
  company because in-bed had formed with other breweries and they actually became um internationally
• 38:13
  the biggest brewery in the world um and so they were able to swallow the smaller fish at that point
• 38:19
  and that's exactly what they did and um as soon as that happened I started thinking okay you know
• 38:26
  what how do I keep this tradition alive after reading everything that I read and this is
• 38:32
  during the time I was really getting involved into understanding the history of of our family
• 38:38
  my life where I've been leaving some of that to my kids so they knew it was running through their
• 38:43
  blood and to understand um where they came from and actually it was good for me too it was very
• 38:51
  therapeutic for me to be able to understand where I came from and I I just felt this desire to
• 38:59
  keep that beer tradition going because I thought about my great-grandfather and the love he had for
• 39:05
  his family and for his wife and and for all the people that worked at thatizer bush and how are
• 39:10
  you revolutionized the beer industry with pasteurization and refrigeration and how he grew his
• 39:17
  product and how he how he even came up with the recipe for Budweiser and I know you read that in
• 39:22
  the book Scott and that's one of the great stories that I love is how he went to Germany and came
• 39:27
  up with the recipe um and then I think about my grandfather about how he takes it over kind of
• 39:37
  unwillingly at first but then willingly when he realized that he wanted to be in the brewing
• 39:41
  industry and not so much a rancher any longer and how he worked his tail off and um through love
• 39:50
  and through determination and grit he um he kept the company going through that 13 years of
• 39:57
  prohibition and how it affected him after prohibition negatively and um he took his life because of that
• 40:04
  and then how my dad and his brother kept it going and how it became a household name and um the
• 40:10
  Patriots that my father and my who was a colonel in the army during World War II and um the Patriot
• 40:18
  that my uncle Adolphus his older brother was and how he uh he he he he designated 90% of his marketing
• 40:27
  to support the war efforts during World War II and really put the products on the back burner
• 40:33
  because he loved this country and knew what it had done for him and his family and um you know some
• 40:40
  of those things and then to see how my dad worked and how he loved the industry I just felt
• 40:45
  it was in my blood and like you said earlier I felt like I blood I bleed blood beer and so I wanted
• 40:51
  to keep it going and so I started the William K. Bush Brewing Company I couldn't call it um the
• 40:55
  only way I could use a bush name was by using my full name I started the William K. Bush Brewing
• 41:01
  and it was a difficult time because at that point it was a 2011 at that point the craft beer
• 41:09
  industry was taking off and I came out with a uh with with more of a everyday beer um like a
• 41:17
  Budweiser or Miller or of course so you're standard you're standard beer and um people were
• 41:24
  turning towards a heavier more tasteful beers full full body beers and I came out it was kind of
• 41:30
  bad timing to come out with that but um I did and uh you know to get any traction um in the
• 41:37
  mainstream part of the beer industry where you're going against the behemoths like Budweiser
• 41:42
  Miller in course is very very difficult and they're all you always got to target on your back so
• 41:48
  for 10 years I worked hard to try to grow that business and we got into five or six different
• 41:55
  different states as far as distribution goes but we never could get any traction so um we have to
• 42:02
  end up we ended up closing that down um and we got in uh we now are are doing our own uh we built
• 42:10
  our own brewery right outside of St. Louis, Missouri in an area called St. Charles and we invite
• 42:16
  people to come out to our place to our farm and enjoy the beautiful farm atmosphere out there
• 42:21
  nature um we've got animals around there we've got great food for people we make 12 different beers
• 42:27
  out there we have our own brewery and we're actually starting to distribute um locally in the area
• 42:32
  so you know what I love the beer in beer business um my family my immediate family once in a while
• 42:38
  looks at me and says dad you know um why do you keep doing this you work really hard you're not
• 42:42
  making any money doing it and it's it's just that uh you know I just I just I feel
• 42:50
  that it's my destiny basically I feel like it's something that I need to do to honor my ancestors
• 42:58
  I think that's beautiful I think there's nothing wrong with that I mean it it is definitely not easy
• 43:03
  you have the name behind you but at this point the market is very different than when your great
• 43:09
  grandfather tried to build something right it's it's a slightly just slightly different competitive
• 43:14
  environment do you find that it's been easier or harder because of your name to build something
• 43:21
  in the in the beer industry you know it's funny you say that because one of the things that my
• 43:26
  father always said was uh you know what would a dolphin stew whenever he had to make a big decision
• 43:33
  he would think about his grandfather and he would ask them self the question what would um
• 43:38
  what would my what would a dolphin stew and um I asked that question because the
• 43:45
  of the saturated market how would a dolphin uh handle the beer business today and I really
• 43:51
  haven't come up with the answer to that yet but I know that he would have figured it out a way
• 43:55
  because he was so innovative um as far as the question you asked me about um what was the question
• 44:03
  I'm sorry Scott it was whether or not your name the bush name makes it harder or easier
• 44:10
  to build something in the beer industry in the spirits industry or I guess beer yeah
• 44:15
  well I think it's harder um and I'll tell you why I think you it puts more stress on the person
• 44:22
  is trying to build the um the uh to keep that tradition going of brewing and because you're
• 44:30
  filling you choose I mean you're you're going back to a time when your ancestors your father your
• 44:37
  grandfather great-grandfather were so successful in the business and it did so well and you want to
• 44:43
  try to bring that back to America and make it make the American beer because you know and in
• 44:49
  bev is not American and um you know is Budweiser Budweiser no longer the number one beer and it's um
• 44:58
  it's daunting it's a daunting challenge to try to reinvent that and and to keep that going
• 45:05
  I took the pressure off myself to say I don't need to be that big I don't need to grow that big
• 45:09
  especially at first you know we can do this slowly what happens is when another beer company
• 45:16
  hears about a bush um in their space and they see that uh that you're you're in that space you've
• 45:26
  got that story to tell you're making a great beer because the beer that we made made um one
• 45:30
  metals all around the world um incredible metals we had a great beer again I followed what I
• 45:36
  learned from my ancestors and that was quality is everything we never cut corners and we made a very
• 45:43
  very wonderful wonderful beer but what happens is and it happened within Beth they put a target on
• 45:50
  our back as a matter of fact I heard the name of the target they called it the kill bill campaign
• 45:56
  and the Anasar Bush wholesalers kill bill campaign it was kill me get us out of there don't let us
• 46:02
  get any traction don't let us get started so every time we would get a promotion you know a
• 46:07
  major promotion like in bush stadium at the baseball park or something like that the Anasar
• 46:13
  Bush in Bev would go in right away and they would say they would tell the vendor in there no you
• 46:19
  guys can't do that are we're gonna pull our beers out and of course you know the vendor couldn't
• 46:23
  I wouldn't allow their beers to be pulled out of there because their beers are the biggest selling
• 46:29
  beers and um and so they would then drop our promotion right away and um you know this happened
• 46:37
  time and time again we get a promotion they'd come in and they would kill it so uh those kinds
• 46:43
  of things were we're very very difficult I guess the advantage of of it is that we have that
• 46:47
  wonderful story I can tell that story like I'm telling it to you Scott and I think every product
• 46:53
  needs a story or it's very helpful to have a story behind a product so that they um can get
• 46:59
  that out there especially today with social media and all the um interesting outlets that you
• 47:05
  have out there to tell your story a quick shout out to the HubSpot podcast network for supporting
• 47:10
  success story now if you like success story you're gonna love other podcasts in their network one
• 47:14
  of my favorites is create like the greats it's hosted by Ross Simmons obviously brought to you by
• 47:19
  the HubSpot podcast network you're gonna join Ross on create like the greats Ross dissect the
• 47:25
  genius behind histories most remarkable creators and their legendary work so you're gonna get this
• 47:30
  blend of history and business and creativity his a great voice always good for a podcast and he
• 47:36
  has a decade of practical experience he's gonna break down some of the best creative processes that
• 47:41
  built influential companies brands and stories in a way that anyone can apply so whether or not
• 47:46
  you're fascinated by history creative thinking or you simply want to improve and systematize your
• 47:53
  own creativity without sacrificing productivity this podcast is your perfect listen go listen to
• 47:59
  create like the greats wherever you get your podcasts a huge shout out to Lingoda for supporting
• 48:03
  today's episode now if you're ready to master a new language Lingoda is the online language platform
• 48:09
  trusted by over 100,000 students worldwide Lingoda offers live classes with real teachers available
• 48:15
  24-7 you can choose from German English business English French Spanish or their newest edition
• 48:21
  Italian what sets Lingoda apart the smallest class size in the market it's just you and up to
• 48:27
  five other students or if you want you can go one-on-one for personalized attention their native
• 48:32
  level teachers don't just teach language they share culture too and you'll speak confidently
• 48:37
  from day one with Lingoda's flexible scheduling and proven curriculum students report being able
• 48:43
  to navigate real conversations in weeks not years and if you're using Lingoda for business their
• 48:48
  CEFR aligned courses ensure that you're learning internationally recognized language standards
• 48:54
  that employers value between sessions you're gonna reinforce your skills with downloadable materials
• 49:00
  and bite-sized practice exercises and all success story listeners they put together a special
• 49:04
  deal try Lingoda free with three group classes or one private class plus you save on any course with
• 49:11
  my link try dot Lingoda dot com slash success story and code Scott 25 don't miss this chance to
• 49:18
  transform your life through language learning when you look at when you look at how you built
• 49:24
  your brewery and how you now you work on businesses now what is fundamentally changed because you've
• 49:29
  gone through sort of your own entrepreneurial journey as well so how do you think about
• 49:34
  business building you can talk about some of the things that you work on work on today but how do
• 49:40
  you build businesses now what are some entrepreneurial lessons or things that you've learned from your
• 49:45
  family from I don't want to say like failed venture but you shut down the brewery so you moved
• 49:50
  on to other things what are some lessons well first of all you're gonna learn a lot more from your
• 49:55
  failures than you are from your wins so definitely learn from your failures and I think I've learned
• 50:00
  a lot from my failures in the beer business we're now called the bush family brewing into stilling
• 50:06
  company and you can look up our website at bushfamilyfarm.com or bush family brewing into stilling
• 50:13
  and check out our website but I think what I've learned is to not give up if you have a dream
• 50:24
  go for it and you know I'm not there yet but it keeps me going and gets me up early every single day
• 50:33
  and keeps me passionate and and I think know your numbers I mean I think one of my big things was
• 50:44
  if you're if you're not a numbers person and you're more of the top line thinker in the business
• 50:50
  make sure you have somebody very very competent who can tell you your numbers so that you know
• 50:56
  each and every day what your numbers are and that you're either if you're losing money you know exactly
• 51:02
  how much money you're losing if you're making money you know exactly how much money you're making
• 51:07
  if you think you are where you think you are because sales are good guess what you might not be
• 51:13
  selling that much or excuse me you might not be making that much money because maybe your
• 51:19
  expenses are running higher than you realize or maybe your margins aren't as strong as as as you
• 51:25
  thought they were and so even though you could be selling like crazy and you're doing a great job
• 51:31
  at that you could still be losing money so those are the kinds of things if you're if you're a money
• 51:35
  person make sure you have a great marketing person someone who's a top line thinker if you're a
• 51:40
  top line thinker and you're looking and you're and you're and you're pushing for new ideas
• 51:46
  and the future and what you're going to do next then make sure you have a good numbers person
• 51:52
  those two things look so incredibly important when you look at even the look at your family dynamics
• 51:58
  you and Christy you clearly take a different approach to raising your kids then your own
• 52:04
  upbringing you take a different approach to family what are some specific things and you've
• 52:09
  been talking like in a family context in a business context because family obviously is a central
• 52:16
  team for you have a beautiful family what do you do differently than how you are raised well thank
• 52:23
  you for saying I have a beautiful family sky yeah I'm very proud um Christy and I are very proud
• 52:27
  of our seven kids and we raised them completely different than what I was raised you know I was
• 52:34
  pretty much raised by the people on grants farm the people that worked there the help my dad mom
• 52:40
  were busy running the brewery and growing the the business and so I completely understand what
• 52:45
  they you know that they had to do that but I think you know in a family business in any business
• 52:50
  I think you have to have your priority straight I think it's very very important that you always put
• 52:56
  your family first even ahead of your business as hard as that can be at times because sometimes
• 53:00
  your your family and your business are all intertwined right I mean in order to send your kids to a good
• 53:05
  school you got to make sure you're making money in order to go on nice vacations you got to make
• 53:09
  sure you're making money so it's it's very difficult to do that sometimes to separate the two but I
• 53:15
  think it's very important and you have to have the discipline in order to separate and keep your
• 53:20
  priority straight and make your family uh the your number one your your number number one responsibility
• 53:28
  in life and everything comes after that and I just think that that that's very important and it's
• 53:34
  very easy to lose side up side up and so what Kristie and I do today is uh we're much more involved with
• 53:40
  our kids than um my parents were with me uh sometimes to the point where you can get to involved with
• 53:46
  them too you don't want to be that helicopter parent right you gotta let them learn for themselves
• 53:50
  and let them fail for themselves but um you know we support them and everything they do my
• 53:56
  oldest son Billy senior or excuse me Billy junior I'm Billy senior um Billy junior is now married
• 54:01
  he's got two beautiful kids so we have two beautiful grandsons or twins or you're in a half old now
• 54:07
  and he has his own uh hunting apparel company called Geistgear Geist means ghost in German
• 54:14
  is g-e-i-s-t as a matter of fact I'm wearing a guy's very good I saw when you jumped on camera it
• 54:19
  looks quite good it looks quite good yeah it's so warm and so comfortable so cold outside today so
• 54:25
  I'm wearing it and he um so if you're a duck hunter if you're a deer hunter if you're any kind of
• 54:30
  hunter um he has on his website pretty much everything for hunting apparel that you can imagine
• 54:38
  and if you go to geistgear.com um he only sells online and uh you can find find his is very high
• 54:45
  quality apparel great stuff and I think you'll love it especially for you hunters out there you
• 54:50
  really are a ghost in the woods um as Geist um means and then um and then you know um we support
• 54:59
  him all they've all gone to college they've all done uh um they all they've all worked hard our
• 55:03
  youngest son just graduated from high school he's the only one that's not going to go to college
• 55:08
  but you know I'm kind of okay with that today Scott I think um college might be a little overrated
• 55:13
  um he's getting in the um in the real estate business he's gonna start doing some developing
• 55:18
  we also have a hotel that we're renovating in south beach Miami right on the beach
• 55:24
  which uh which one because I'm in Miami so I got to go check it out. You're getting out drive by it
• 55:29
  so it's right across from the palm hotel um in the iina district it's 3010 Collins 3010
• 55:35
  college but it's the shell right now and um when it's all said and done it's gonna be 89 rooms it's
• 55:41
  gonna be a five star luxury boutique hotel with a great restaurant and a great rooftop
• 55:46
  and a great spa and a and a recording studios we're gonna have in there so um yeah check it out
• 55:53
  Scott I think we're looking forward to that being done so we're we're partners in that with another
• 55:58
  family the acilene family so it's a bush and acilene that are that are involved in that my son
• 56:04
  Gussie and um a couple daughters are very much involved in managing it and uh Peter's not getting
• 56:10
  involved in that our youngest son and then my other daughters are all you know uh someone
• 56:15
  selling a house they're also in the real estate business um selling houses residential homes
• 56:21
  and uh you know we support them all doing do we support each and every one and what they want to do
• 56:26
  in life and they're all becoming productive really good members of society and we love to see that
• 56:32
  and they I shouldn't say becoming they are um I wish they were more interested in the beer
• 56:37
  business but it's been a rough go it truly has when we had the first company um it didn't go
• 56:42
  as planned uh we hit a lot of challenges and that's what happens in business um so we had to kind
• 56:49
  of reinvent the um the strategy on how we were gonna the model the business model how we're gonna do
• 56:56
  it the next this time so we've done that and I think things are gonna go much smoother so maybe
• 57:01
  just maybe if I'm lucky they'll see that um it's it's a good business and that they they might even
• 57:07
  get interested in it you know I kind of got to do what my great grandfather did with his son
• 57:12
  and let him kind of figure it they got to figure it out on their own and then if they ever want to
• 57:16
  do it hopefully they'll come and be a part of it but um you know it's up to me right now to make it
• 57:21
  happen they uh so it's it sounds like um outside of all being successful and figuring out their own
• 57:27
  path and whatnot everybody kind of still works together to some degree they're all supporting each
• 57:32
  other that's that's correct yet we all work together we're a very very close family we take
• 57:37
  vacations all of us together um we spend a lot of time you know especially holidays uh together
• 57:44
  and yeah I'm thankful because they say the biggest success in life is if your kids want to come
• 57:51
  and be with you once they grow up and um we are very successful when it comes to that when you
• 57:57
  think about everything that you've witnessed in your own family and there's been conflicts and
• 58:01
  stress with your own you know your own brothers and sisters uh but it seems like everything's
• 58:06
  going well with your kids and and they're very close so what would be the advice that you'd get for
• 58:12
  people who want to mix family and business how did you do it right well I think um I think you
• 58:22
  have to have a a a really strong um and a very black and white uh will or what you how you're
• 58:34
  gonna leave them things okay and and I spent a lot of time working on that so that the same thing
• 58:40
  that happened with my siblings won't happen to them and that is okay here's what you're here's
• 58:46
  what you're left here's how things are are done and um you know it's as fair as I could possibly be
• 58:54
  uh for each and every one of you and they'll realize that um you know might take them wild to
• 59:01
  realize that uh for but at least they won't have the fighting because it's all black and white as
• 59:06
  much as possible and they won't be able to hire lawyers and give them money and make the lawyers
• 59:12
  rich and them lose money to lawyers to um to go through all that and I think um I think you know while
• 59:18
  I'm still alive I have to kind of follow those same kind of um thought that thought that thought
• 59:24
  pattern and just keep everything black and white and keep it as fair as I possibly can um and even
• 59:31
  those sometimes it may not be as fair as you want it to be it still beats a hell out of infighting
• 59:37
  and uh nobody needs that try to keep that out of your life you think about all the different
• 59:44
  aspects of sort of the bush family legacy which which parts of it do you want to preserve
• 59:50
  through your kids what are the parts of the bush family story that you want them to take forward
• 59:55
  because obviously you're not forcing uh beer and brewery down their throats you want them to get
• 1:00:00
  involved they like it but what are some parts of that legacy that you do want them to carry forward
• 1:00:06
  hard work um I want them to all be hard workers and and and um and be productive in life and to give
• 1:00:15
  back and to leave a good legacy where they showed good will to their communities and to the people
• 1:00:23
  that surrounded them be great family members be a good husband and a wife um when when those days
• 1:00:28
  happen um be great parents have their priorities straight keep their priorities um the way they
• 1:00:36
  should be and it seems like uh as generations went on our priorities kind of uh slipped um I look
• 1:00:43
  back and see what migraine grandfather my grandfather and I see how they always kept family very very
• 1:00:52
  close and very very important to them I think I honestly have to say I think my father lost a little
• 1:01:00
  bit of that um and not you because I think that I think he was you know I think there's reasons for
• 1:01:08
  that and I think the reason for that basically is because he was running this company and he let that
• 1:01:13
  company become as important if not more important than his kids to a certain degree and um and I think
• 1:01:25
  up until then that never happened and that's why I think there was an easier transition from
• 1:01:33
  one generation to the next generation but I think it's as time went on and I think this is why
• 1:01:40
  you don't have multi multi multi generational businesses is because it starts to slip and it's
• 1:01:47
  easy to forget what's important and what's not as important and lose your priorities and I think when
• 1:01:55
  you do that things start to get start to fail yeah I agree with that and and I think you see like
• 1:02:02
  this is the scary thing right like in one generation I see people building businesses that
• 1:02:08
  replace their families as the priority and that's when you see people with broken homes and
• 1:02:14
  no relationships with their kids and you know how many divorces later but in in their life
• 1:02:21
  they are financially successful but there's no there's no legacy there's nothing beyond their life
• 1:02:27
  right because that attitude it never survives it will never survive and you saw it and for generations
• 1:02:37
  that wasn't the case in your family until it was and that's when things start to fall apart
• 1:02:42
  exactly Scott that's exactly right and I think to leave that legacy I think um you know that you
• 1:02:48
  have to have your priorities um keep your family close to you and then everything after that is um
• 1:02:56
  falls in place and you know um that's just the way it is and to and I think that good will
• 1:03:05
  and I think what what does family do for you family actually inspires you to do better and to be a
• 1:03:10
  better person and to grow your business because now you know you're going to leave that to your
• 1:03:15
  kids and you're going to leave it to them in a way this kind of makes sense and I think that
• 1:03:21
  you know to be able to leave that legacy and to have that inspiration from your family to
• 1:03:26
  leave that to them but not only to them but to society itself is very important and I think
• 1:03:32
  that's what Adolfis and Lily did I just watched this old clip that they made about Adolfis and
• 1:03:37
  Lily um and they built a beautiful gardens it was the first bush gardens that ever built I
• 1:03:44
  talked about this a little bit in the book in Pasadena California and they built this incredible
• 1:03:49
  gardens it was like 40 acres of horticulture they had hundreds and hundreds of um horticulturists
• 1:03:56
  and gardeners working there uh to to make this place beautiful and they built it for their family
• 1:04:02
  but then they started inviting people there and they left this beautiful estate for people to come
• 1:04:08
  and visit and it lasted you know and uh for for for several years um way past my father's my
• 1:04:14
  great-grandfather's death and the last little um you know up until I pretty much my my uh
• 1:04:21
  grandmother my great-grandmother died but they left a beautiful legacy and wonderful goodwill and
• 1:04:26
  that's it they talk a little bit about that and one of their inspirations was for their family
• 1:04:32
  but to leave something for society that's beautiful in life I think that's I by the way just that
• 1:04:40
  line that lesson I think is a beautiful thing for people to work towards in general if you're
• 1:04:46
  building anything leave something beautiful behind I think that's a great north star for people
• 1:04:50
  to have when they're building anything um what's next for the Bush family brewing tradition what's
• 1:04:58
  next for you I mean talk about if somebody is is a beer lover what what do you want them to know if
• 1:05:06
  people just are more interested in projects that you might take on in the future uh will be next
• 1:05:13
  you know um basically I think the last time we opened up for brewery the the brewery that we had
• 1:05:19
  the William K. Bush brewery one of the reasons that failed is I think we started running before
• 1:05:23
  we could even walk and I think in any business you have to kind of um uh crawl then walk then
• 1:05:31
  you know I'm hopefully you can run and take off right and I think that uh right now we're kind
• 1:05:37
  of in that crawling stage and you know we've opened up the brewery um to the public people come and
• 1:05:44
  it's very much uh you know an extension of what I did when I was a uh how I grew up
• 1:05:50
  opening up our farm to the public we're opening up now the new farm to the public um we've got the
• 1:05:57
  animals there we're serving beer we're making wonderful beers we make the Gussi Bavarian
• 1:06:02
  which is a wonderful hellis beer we make a great pilsner called the Adolphus Pilsner we still make
• 1:06:08
  creftig light which is which came from our old brewery and people love and uh we make several
• 1:06:13
  others that are they're in they're called by family names and um you know we're starting now to
• 1:06:20
  slowly go to host sailors and host sailors are picking up our beer now and they're um they're
• 1:06:25
  starting to take it to the to retail so we'll see how that goes you know we'll see we'll uh we'll
• 1:06:31
  kind of see that scalable we'll also see honestly if um you know this this this small kind of
• 1:06:39
  craft type brewery is scalable um after we we we see if if our proof of concept here works out
• 1:06:49
  in St in St Charles Missouri if that works out then what's to say we couldn't go to outside
• 1:06:55
  another kind of major metropolitan area like outside of Dallas or Nashville or I'm just throwing
• 1:07:01
  some cities out there that that might be cool places to to build another one like that and to um
• 1:07:08
  and to tell to tell our story and I don't know if if the public here is all into it or
• 1:07:14
  into the history but you know if this does prove out to be something that works well I think this
• 1:07:21
  is a way to get into the beer industry right now I think trying to get into the beer industry like
• 1:07:25
  I did in the past is very difficult because you've got the big boys out there that are trying to
• 1:07:30
  kill you I think if you're a craft brewer I think you're good within about a 25 mile radius
• 1:07:36
  once you go past that radius is very hard to sell your beer because then you have your next craft
• 1:07:42
  who people are buying from locally and it's just um and there's so many darn breweries around now
• 1:07:48
  that does it's very hard to get traction so maybe this is a way to kind of start getting traction
• 1:07:55
  and become um you know a major player in the beer industry again although I will say Scott uh
• 1:08:01
  the beer business is hurting right now there are a lot of the young people like your age and
• 1:08:05
  even younger are um are not drinking as much any longer um so you know the beer itself is down
• 1:08:14
  as far sales go and will that come back maybe it will maybe it won't but we'll see yeah I mean
• 1:08:20
  you're right I didn't the whole market is probably going through a shift right now when I
• 1:08:25
  when I'm going to a restaurant or a bar well especially in Miami everyone's drinking tequila but
• 1:08:29
  right right yeah but uh I think that listen I think that if anyone has a shot of
• 1:08:37
  of bringing back an industry or being successful it's it's a brand with a story stories do matter
• 1:08:43
  to people I think that stories matter the most people don't necessarily love huge conglomerate
• 1:08:49
  without a story I think that feels devoid of any soul so I think that the story is important
• 1:08:55
  and I think that like you have a good one so that's uh that's that's that's a competitive advantage
• 1:09:02
  if nothing else um it's a start yeah it's a start yeah it's a start a lot of work but it's still
• 1:09:07
  it's still a good it's still a good basis um so your book family reigns they can get that anywhere
• 1:09:14
  they can get books and get on Amazon they can get it do you have a website as well that you
• 1:09:18
  want to send people to uh no I don't have a website on that but you can go family reigns the
• 1:09:24
  extraordinary rise and epic follow of an American dynasty if you go wherever like you said it's
• 1:09:28
  got wherever books are sold um you can find it uh go to Amazon and get it from there it's a great
• 1:09:34
  read I think people I've been getting nothing but positive feedback as well those kinds of books
• 1:09:38
  that you can't put down once you start reading it it's not that long of a book some people read it
• 1:09:43
  in three or four days so um I think I think there's a little of something there's something in there
• 1:09:48
  for everyone everyone's got a story to tell I told my story is fairly unique and I think
• 1:09:53
  people will enjoy it I think so too oh this was this was great um we spoke about a lot uh before
• 1:09:59
  before we wrap up was there anything that I didn't go into or any question that I should have asked
• 1:10:05
  you that you think would be useful insightful for the audience I don't think so Scott I think
• 1:10:11
  we've covered a lot I think uh you asked wonderful questions and I hope I didn't go on and on
• 1:10:17
  too much about with my answers but I gotta tell you okay good I'm really happy with the questions
• 1:10:26
  you asked and that I was able to verbalize them to you no you're you were amazing I appreciate your
• 1:10:31
  time uh last question I like to ask everyone and I'll ask you to go like a little bit deeper only
• 1:10:36
  because you have touched on this a little bit but it is it is the it is a way that we close this out
• 1:10:41
  so out of all the lessons in the wisdom and the and the ups and downs the highs the lows uh
• 1:10:47
  you've experienced over your life if you could only pick one lesson that you can leave your
• 1:10:52
  kids with you can only choose one the most important thing that you've learned that you've experienced
• 1:10:56
  what would that lesson be that's a really tough question um I think the lesson would be to
• 1:11:06
  always have faith in yourself to never lose that faith to believe in yourself
• 1:11:15
  believe that there is that God is out there and that with God you can you can do anything
• 1:11:23
  that you have a path in life and that you should find what that path is and go for it with all your
• 1:11:30
  heart, mind and soul