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Heights of Victory with Larry Allen · Heights of Victory

• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: From the Mass Rider Capital worldwide headquarters in Lubbock, Texas, this is Heights of Victory, a program showcasing businesses and leaders from across the region.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: You can expect to hear stories of success with bounts of adversity and resilience, which, when paired with hard work in a little West Texas grid, culminate in the Heights of Victory.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Heights of Victory.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Jeff Horn, the CEO of Mass Rider Capital, and we're excited that you've joined us today for our third episode.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited today because I'm here with my good friend Larry Allen, who's the CEO of People's Bank and uh known Larry uh quite a long time.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh pretty much the expanse of People's Bank back to whenever I first started my career.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: I was training and uh in the bank hardware and and uh maintenance uh deal.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: And remember coming over to your office there on uh I think it was 27th Drive or something like that.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: And y'all were getting ready to uh get People's Bank started, and that was where I first met Larry.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: But Larry, appreciate you being here today.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, glad to be here, Jeff.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Larry has nearly 50 years uh in the banking uh industry, um, described by by me and and most people, uh pretty much everybody that I that I know is an honest man and a good person.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_03: And and uh You haven't talked to enough people, Jeff.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I don't I think I think that that is true that uh that that you're a good person, good leader uh and and great people per person.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's it's a big day too here on the on the heights of victory because People's Bank just completed a you know a big transaction merger with Cornerstone Capital.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: We'll talk a little bit about that.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: But um, you know, as everybody knows, we like to dig in a little deeper uh here.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: First off, going through your history, then uh getting to, you know, more business related uh questions, and then we'll finish with the around the horn.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so anyway, Larry, you're a you're a West Texas guy, you know, through and through, and you have an incredible story.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so why don't you tell us a little bit about your childhood growing up here and what that was like?
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_03: Great.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_03: Uh obviously grew up out in the Wolfrath area, uh lower middle class, I would say, as as uh uh my sisters.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_03: I have two older sisters, and my mom and dad grew up in a trailer house.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_03: Uh we we never had everything we wanted, we had everything we needed, but had a had a really great mom and dad.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_03: Uh they were uh neither one of them were educated.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_03: Uh my dad worked in civil service out at the the airbase.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_03: My mom was a stay-at-home mom.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, but uh growing up around the Wolfrath area, went to church there.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um obviously started first grade at Friendship back when it was a little 2A school.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_03: Uh obviously over uh my business partner, Todd McKee, that I know a lot of people will know.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_03: Uh he and I started second grade, he came to friendship in second grade.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_03: And uh so he and I have been together for 58 years, either as schoolmates, friends, or business uh partners.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_03: So uh obviously growing up around Wolforth, a great community.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_03: Uh a lot of uh, you know, you couldn't get by with much because everybody knew everybody.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_03: So it was just a fun time.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_03: It was a good community to grow up in.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, I think a lot of my values were instilled on uh upon me during that time.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_03: Uh just a uh just a great, great community out there.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, you know, it's not the same as it was, you know.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_03: Now friendship is a six A school, I guess fixing to be two five A schools now that they're open in the other school.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_03: But uh I had 107 kids in my graduating class.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, you know, my my son and daughter, they both went to friendship.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_03: I think my son, he had 800 in his class out there.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_03: So big change over time.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_03: I served on the school board out at friendship.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_03: Uh always wanted to give back to that community.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_03: We uh we we did a big sponsorship with friendship.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_03: We have People's Bank Stadium out there.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_03: Uh so the that place is really important to me.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_03: And uh as as um I look back over the years, whenever Todd and I decided to do People's Bank, you know, I I wanted to be in the Friendship School District because I knew that's where our our pool was.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_03: Because when we started People's Bank 26, 27 years ago, uh Todd and I had already been in the banking business for 20 years in Lubbock.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_03: And so we felt like uh a lot of those customers were transitioned, and they did.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_03: But uh but growing up in Wolforth was just it was just a fun time.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_03: It was, you know, I had driver's license.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't have a driver's license, but I had a car when I was 14.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_03: The uh the the guy that was chief of police out there, his son went to school with me.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_03: He knew I wasn't old enough to be driving, but he'd just wave at you as you'd go by, you know, just kind of the the Mayberry RFD kind of stuff, you know.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_03: You just think kind of think from that perspective.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I know your parents were big in your in your life.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: What are you most thankful for of some of the things that they they instilled in you?
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_03: Uh number one, just honesty and integrity.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_03: Just, you know, doing uh kind of a cliche saying is but doing things, uh doing the right thing no matter what the cost.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_03: And and you know, that's that's one thing that I've always prided myself on is is just treating people fairly and and and just doing the right thing.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_03: So uh but but again, so blessed to have great parents and and and again, you know, my I'll tell you a funny story, my my grandson, uh he's 10 years old.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_03: He asked me the other day, he said, he said, Pops, are we rich?
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_03: And I said, Well, what's your definition of rich?
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_03: He said, Do we have a lot of money?
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_03: I said, that has nothing to do with being rich.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_03: I said, it has to do with, you know, are you loved?
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_03: You got a you get you got a God that loves you, uh, you got a family that loves you.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_03: I said, Yes, we're very rich.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, but most folks don't look at it from that perspective.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Funny how you paint it full circle.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's full circle now.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you decided to attend Texas Tech, stay close to home in Wolfort, you know, Texas by going just down the street and uh tell us about that decision and what what that was like.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_03: Obviously, growing up as a tech fan, um, you know, used to go to a lot of the football games and uh just and and fortunately or unfortunately, financially, going somewhere else wasn't an option.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, as I said, I grew up kind of lower middle class.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_03: Uh my mom and dad, I I have I have 26 first cousins on my dad's side, and I was the first one to ever go to college.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_03: And so always knew that Texas Tech was where I was gonna go because I could live at home.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I had to work.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, and that's when obviously when I started my banking career was uh as soon as I graduated high school, uh got a job, got a job in uh at Texas Commerce Bank, uh, which uh worked there for a long time.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_03: That's where I f that's where I met uh, you know, my first mentor.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_03: But uh but there was no other choice but Texas Tech.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm looking back, I'm it was the right choice and uh not a better place to be for me because it afforded me a lot of opportunities.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: You started off in electrical engineering, I believe, and then made the transition over to finance and the banking world.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Tell us a little bit about that decision and what how that came about.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_03: When I started uh when I started at uh tech, electrical engineering major, uh, and and uh was choking on all the math.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it was wearing me out.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_03: And so I decided uh I was I had a job at Texas Commerce, and I thought, you know, this this might be a little better road than uh than going the electrical engineering route.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_03: Made the transition to the business school way easier.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_03: Way easier.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_03: Uh and I admire those that when I, you know, those are really smart people on the engineering side.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_03: Those of us on the business side, we're not necessarily as smart as those guys are, but uh, but no, just knew uh knew immediately when I started working at a bank that this I found my love right off the bat.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_03: So very fortunate for that.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_03: Didn't have to change majors multiple times.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you um you you you've mentioned your first mentor and you started in banking.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: You know, tell us a little bit about that early experience and what those mentors or mentor mentors meant to you and how they kind of directed your path.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_03: Uh the the first the mentor I was referencing a minute ago was Eddie Schultz.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_03: Eddie is he's president of Lubbock National Bank, a good friend.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_03: Uh to this day, I give him uh a lot of the credit for my success.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_03: Uh Eddie's Eddie took me under his wing early on and basically taught me all the operations side of banking.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I think that's where a lot of CEOs miss out.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_03: They go straight to the lending side and they never understand or have that operational background.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_03: I think that's been critical for me.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's it's what's helped me be uh a better banker because I understand the whole bank, not just a piece of it.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_03: But uh Eddie was tremendous and uh under his tutelage for about three years, and uh he gave me lots of opportunities.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_03: And uh when I graduated from college, Eddie offered me a job.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_03: I stayed there, had other opportunities, but I stayed here because I wanted to stay close to my family and I love love it.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's pretty neat.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: We know we know Eddie as well here here at Mass Rider, and and uh I'm glad to hear you say that.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: Almost everybody that we talked to here on the Heights of Victory has some sort of early mentor that that really that really guided your path.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: I want to go back to what you said about the operational aspect of the bank and it made you a better leader, you know, most of the time in a CEO role.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's a more entrepreneurial, it's a sales role, it's you know, trying to bring in people into the bank and all of that.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: But I I I'm intrigued by your thoughts of, you know, you're still doing a lot of that, but understanding how the operational aspect affected everybody from loan ops to tellers, things like that.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe expand on that a little bit of how that's helped you become a better, better leader and banker.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_03: I for me, it it was a uh it was a situation where, you know, I I worked in the accounting department, I worked in the bookkeeping department, I worked in the old proof department, uh got to learn about the investment portfolio, just all all of the pieces.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_03: So, so today uh I've had three or four uh chief operations officers work for me, and I this sounds bad, but I could call BS on them.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_03: You know, when they start telling me a story about this is going on, I said, it doesn't work that way.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_03: That doesn't happen.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_03: And so I think that's what's uh uh it's given me a one-up.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_03: I can, you know, the the lady runs our deposit ops, and she has a question, she can come ask me, and I generally will know, not always, but I think that that gives the people that are working with me at the bank, I think it gives them comfort to know that you know the guy sitting in the the high seat has a little more uh has a little more knowledge than than and can help me fix this problem or get out of this trap, whatever the case might be.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: So you take all that early experience and you and Todd decide to go on a journey, you know, to start People's Bank when I free first met you.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: You probably don't even remember that, but I I remember, and again, back to your roots.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: You started in a trailer house here on West 82nd Street when there was nothing else out there.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: So tell us a little bit about that decision and and and what led to it.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_03: Well, whenever two two other mentors that I had, and this kind of ties into that story, Jeff, uh, number one, Jim Beavers.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_03: Jim was president of ABC Bank for a number of years.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_03: Uh Jim was a uh he was a master of people.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_03: He knew how to, he knew how to handle customers and employees as good as anybody I've ever seen.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_03: He was not a very good technician, but he was a great people person.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_03: Uh then I I I worked for the Ford Bank Group and Tom Nichols for a number of years and learned a lot from Tom.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_03: Tom was a very good technician and uh taught me a lot of things about credit and some other operational issues and things like that.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_03: But the uh the the transition uh and the decision to open the bank, Jim told Todd and I one day, he said, you boys need to leave.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_03: And we're like, uh-oh, what do we do wrong?
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_03: He said, I'm just saying there's not there's not going to be a future here for you guys.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_03: You know, you guys need to go and do your own thing and make you know, you make money for yourself as opposed to every as opposed to everybody else.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_03: And so uh we we had had a lot of encouragement from various customers and our some of our shareholders.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_03: They were they were they were like, you guys need to do this.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_03: We're behind you, we'll put some money in, let's do it.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_03: So we did.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_03: We fired up and we did, and it was about a year.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_03: Uh we said we were gonna initially we were gonna charter a bank.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_03: Uh that did not uh the process just got bogged down.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_03: There were there were some folks trying to keep us from coming in because they knew that there was they were gonna lose business if they did.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_03: And so uh an opportunity came up to buy Lorenzo State Bank, and uh we made a deal and we bought the bank.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_03: It was a little$25 million bank at the time.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_03: And uh we immediately branched back into Lubbock.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_03: We started in the trailer house that you talked about there at 80 just off 82nd in Frankfurt where our headquarters is at right now.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_03: And it was a uh uh, you know, we had customers come by and they'd they would they would kind of poke at us and they'd say, yeah, when you take the tongue off that trailer, then we'll come bank with you.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_03: As long as somebody can come pick that thing up at night and drag it out of here, we're not we're not gonna we're not gonna bank with you.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_03: But uh it was a great start.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_03: Uh we immediately started building a building there.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_03: We've added the building that's there now, it's been added on four times.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, you know, we started with uh, you know, about five or six people.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_03: Now we have 165 people.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, but all of our most successful branches, talking about the trailer house deal, every one of our most successful branches all started in a trailer house.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_03: Uh matter of fact, we we we had we actually bought one and we just moved it from side to side as we were expanding.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_03: And so to the to this day, that holds true.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_03: Those are our most profitable branches.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_03: And and with all that, I'm just saying never forget where you came from.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I could tell in talking to you before the show here that that meant a bunch to you.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's a good idea.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a great reminder of your roots and and uh all of that.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: Also, a neat story about the land acquisition, shrewd negotiating on the land.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't you share a little bit of that?
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_03: I am a poor negotiator, I'll say that.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_03: Whenever we were starting the bank, we were looking for a location and uh where where the bank currently sits, right there at uh next to United, uh we wanted to buy that piece of dirt.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_03: United was not there.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_03: United was the owner of that dirt.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_03: So I called Kent Moore, he was the CEO of United at the time, and I said, Kent, I said, we we'd like to buy some land, we're gonna put a bank there.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_03: Well, Larry, we we hadn't started on plans.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know how much of land we're gonna need.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_03: So I said, I'm really not prepared to do that.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_03: So we went across the street where Plains Capital is currently located.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_03: Randy Nogabauer owned that dirt, and so we we did a deal with Randy, we put earnest money down, we had$25,000 in earnest money down.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_03: We uh uh we were just fixing to close on the land, and I get a call from Kent Moore.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_03: Hey Larry, I'm ready to sell you some of that dirt.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_03: I got gosh.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_03: And it was really it was there was enough that we needed an acre and a half.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_03: What we had there where the Plains Capital Place was was about an acre, so it was really gonna pinch us anyway, and especially if we had any growth.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_03: So uh Kent says, Oh I want to sell you some land.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_03: I got three acres.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I don't need three acres, Kent.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_03: He goes, Well, you got to take it all, or I can't sell you any of it.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_03: So I immediately uh scrambled around.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_03: I met with Joyce Bigham, Bigham's barbecue, and I said, I said, Joyce, I said, you want to be interested in buying some of this land?
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_03: I said, you can put a restaurant there or whatever.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_03: She goes, sure.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_03: So Joyce bought, uh, Joyce bought the land.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_03: She bought part of the land.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_03: We had uh we bought three acres, paid$3 a foot for it.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_03: I immediately sold half of it to Joyce for five bucks a foot.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm thinking I'm pretty smart.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I wasn't so smart after all, because I had no clue how we were gonna uh how we were gonna grow, how well it was gonna go.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_03: And uh so anyway, I after three or four years, I started calling Joyce.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_03: Joyce, I need to buy that land back.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_03: It's not for sale, Larry.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_03: Not for sale.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_03: Call her the next year, it's not for sale.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_03: So I did that for four or five years, and I mean, we are busting at the seams.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_03: We are out of room.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_03: We need that land really bad.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_03: So I called her up one day, and I guess I caught her just at the right time.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_03: I said, Joyce, I said, I gotta have that land back.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, Larry, I'll sell it to you.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_03: So we bought it for$3, sold it to her for five bucks.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: Are you on top of the world?
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, oh yeah.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_03: I thought we almost paid for our whole deal here and bought it back from her a few years later for$12 a foot.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_03: And uh she knew she had us, and uh, you know, hey, good for Joyce.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_03: She she helped us at a time when we needed help.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_03: We were just trying to get a bank rolling, and and you know, money was tight.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_03: Money was tight.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_03: But it it looking back, is it's a funny story.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, I'm glad Joyce made some money off of us because we've made plenty being there right there where we're at.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, that's great.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's really an incredible story to be in the same location for you know, where you started 27 years later.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's just an incredible deal.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh for those that aren't familiar with People's Bank, you know, 1.2 billion, you just we'll talk about Cornerstone here in a minute, but what would you say people's niche in banking is and what y'all are best at?
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_03: Uh we're a commercial bank, primarily focused on ag and commercial, commercial real estate.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_03: Uh we do uh we do a lot of home builders, uh, very little consumer business.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_03: But our our our real thrust is commercial uh and agriculture.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_03: We're probably we're probably one of the largest ag lenders on the South Plains.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_03: And that's a piece of business we love, we're very focused on.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_03: It's been tough with you know, with no farm bill out there, but uh it it's it's just a great piece of business.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_03: You're dealing with high integrity people, and they'll do whatever it takes to get you paid.
• 20:09
  unknown: Yeah.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: My grandfather was in the uh cotton business, and uh as well as my wife's father, who who you helped uh bank as well.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, most uh a lot of people know, but some don't, that you know, one-fourth of the of the United States cotton is produced right here, right on the South Plains.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is a a major fiber supplier for the country, a major food, and also just south of here, major fuels.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: So you know, I mean, in a way, you are helping helping support the nation there with what y'all are doing there with supporting the work.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_03: We just it's just it's just a tremendous, it's a tremendous piece of business.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_03: And if you and if you you understand it, you know, you can't be in it one day and out the next.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_03: You you know, you gotta stick with them through thick and thin, and that's that's that's what we've done, and that's how we've grown our portfolio.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_03: It's been really good.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: So you buy Lorenzo State Bank uh uh right at the turn of the millennium, I guess.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and and uh 27 years later, you know, it's$25 million in assets, um, you know,$1.2 billion you know, at the close of the cornerstone, you know, walk us through a lot of that growth was organic.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: Going and putting a trailer house up.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I know that your first, you know, and talking with you and knowing uh what you're all about, that your employees really mean a big uh a great deal to you.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, but you you did a lot of that growth organically.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: Describe how you did that.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_03: Well, we had uh we've done two acquisitions over the 27-year period.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_03: Once was one was when we bought Lorenzo State Bank, again 25 million.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_03: And we did in 2021, we did another acquisition.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_03: We bought Baylor Bank Shares, which was uh Uh they had banks in Seymour, Princeton, which is in Collin County, just right by McKinney, and Whitney.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, and that was a$150 million acquisition.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_03: So uh$175 million of our assets were through acquisitions.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_03: Everything else, so the one point a little over$1 billion has been just growth through uh number one, uh expansion of branches.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_03: Uh our attitude is we find the right person, then we go to the community uh and we build.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_03: And so uh and and what we what we try to do in those small communities is we try to be uh, you know, one of my mentors told me a long time ago, the three things for a successful community, you gotta have strong churches, you gotta have strong schools, and you gotta have a strong bank.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_03: And we've tried to be that in every community that we're in, in those, in the small towns.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_03: You know, we have uh Nazareth, Texas.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_03: You know, Nazareth, uh, whenever we decided to go there, uh only thing I knew about Nazareth, Texas, they had a heck of a basketball team, boys and girls, state to state every single year.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_03: And so whenever I was approached about us going to Nazareth, uh I went up there and and looked around, and I'm I'm I'm struggling with what what this person has seen.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_03: But we've we operate that bank with four people.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_03: It's about a$65 million branch.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_03: The community is unbelievably loyal.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_03: It's a German Catholic community, and uh and and we've gone in there because they've never had a bank.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_03: And uh I I guess other folks, if they would have known the asset potential that was there, they'd have been there sooner.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm glad nobody did.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_03: But uh it's just that that's what we try to do, is just go there and just try to be a good citizen.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, take care of the, take care of the community, uh, try to meet the banking needs all of the community, but more than anything, just treat them like family.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_03: That that's always been our deal, is whether it's employees, whether it's customers.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_03: And the pecking order at our place is our employees are our most important asset, customers are second, shareholders are third.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_03: And obviously, whenever you become a public institution, that flips over and becomes the shareholders the most important, customers second, employees down here on the bottom.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_03: We we have we've built our organization with that attitude.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's a great point, and you're you're so right.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: And that's it's one of the challenges businesses face as they grow, is really is how to maintain what got them to that point and yet meet the demands and the needs of being a bigger business.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: And uh it's really hard to do.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and and uh and so anyway, what do you what do you consider your greatest achievement um at Peoples during, you know, right up until the the cornerstone um merger?
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_03: Greatest achievement has probably been just putting together an amazing team of people that's extremely loyal, not only to me, but to uh to the People's Bank family.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_03: Uh and that that and and I don't I don't use those terms loosely when I say People's Bank family.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_03: I my I start my morning before I came here.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_03: I start my morning every day.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_03: I walk through the whole bank and I talk to every single employee.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_03: I know their spouses' names, I know their kids' names, I know what their kids are involved in.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_03: Because, you know, that that old saying, you know, until you until you show them that you care, that there's never going to be a relationship with those people.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_03: And so, you know, we we huddle up, somebody's having a hard time, we huddle up and pray together.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's a family.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it really is.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_03: And that's that's been the that was one of the hardest things for me in in the merger with Cornerstone.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_03: You know, as as we searched out uh and and we, you know, we had a lot of folks that came after us wanting wanting to acquire the bank.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_03: And we turned a lot of people down.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_03: But Cornerstone is a family-oriented, uh, very Christ-centered institutions, family-owned.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_03: Uh they fit the mold for what I was looking for because I wasn't gonna dump my people with anybody.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_03: They're keeping all of our people, not some of them.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_03: You know, most of these deals that come in and there's a 40% cost save day one, and it's people.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_03: And all of our people are staying.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_03: They're they're building a banking franchise.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_03: They've been a large mortgage lender.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_03: They're the 10th largest mortgage lender in the country.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_03: And uh they they wanted to get in the banking business.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_03: They did that four years ago with an acquisition of another small bank, uh, a friend of mine, his bank.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_03: And so when they approached us, uh just all the things clicked.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_03: Just really, really quality group of people.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: So the combined, you know, cornerstone and people's four billion dollars, you know, they've got a big corporate division that, you know, Houston, Dallas, I believe.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know you talked about the mortgage company, but people's will continue to will lead their community bank division.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: Is that correct?
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_03: That is right.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_03: That is correct.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_03: We're we're still gonna be uh we're still gonna be People's Bank.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_03: The name's not changing.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_03: We'll be we're we'll be a division of Cornerstone Capital Bank, but uh people are staying, uh names not changing, core values aren't changing.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_03: So uh it was just it was it was a perfect fit.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it really was.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I can tell you're at really at peace with it.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: It just happened and and and um has to also be pretty neat to just take a look back and you know, you don't oftentimes when you're leading, it's you know, you know, you go on this journey and you really don't think about it, but when you think about going from 25 million to 1.2 billion, I mean it's quite a journey, you know, for you know, where you started and and coming from, you know, you live the American dream.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_03: Well we Todd and I were talking about that the other day, and and and I asked him, I said, Did you really think when we started this thing that it'd ever get this big?
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_03: And we we were laughing about that because it's just like we we had no idea, you know, a couple of couple of redneck West Texans friendship boys that you know just happened to be lucky, you know.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_03: I and I know you create a lot of your own luck, but uh it's the good Lord has blessed us.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_03: That's all I can say.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I we can't take credit for anything.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_03: The good Lord has blessed us.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_03: He's he's opened doors for us, he's closed doors for us and kept us out of trouble.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, but we have uh, man, it's it's it has been a fun, fun, fun ride.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_03: I would, I would, uh, I would do it again in a minute.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_03: My my wife and Todd's wife were probably two of our biggest supporters because Todd and I a couple times we were like, we're done, we're quitting, where this is over with.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_03: And our wives, we'd get back together the next morning.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_03: I said, I told Debbie we were quitting.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_03: He said, I told Laurie too.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_03: And she told me, no, we're not.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_03: I said, Debbie told me the same thing.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_03: She said, You boys are not quitting.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_03: So our wives kept pushing us along.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_03: So uh yeah, just thankful for having godly women in our lives that uh maybe were listening better than we did.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't you tell us?
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna turn the page and dig a little deeper, but why don't we start with how you met Debbie and you know how all that came about?
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_03: Debbie and I uh she had come here from Houston to go to school.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_03: She she went to tech, and uh she was already, she had already graduated.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_03: I was a I was just about to finish, and uh we were uh there was gonna be a couples' Bible study that I was gonna lead.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_03: And uh right before the Bible study was to start, uh my girlfriend and I broke up, and uh so I told the group, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna lead, you know, I'm I'm not gonna come.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_03: Oh no, we still want you to come and we want you to lead it.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_03: So we started and the first the first Bible study, uh, you know, we'd all get together, we had five or six couples there.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_03: When it was over, you know, everybody we'd go somewhere and eat.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I was by myself.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_03: So the next the next meeting, the next weekend, Debbie and I are uh uh it is at hers and her roommate's house.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_03: Her roommate dated one of my good friends, and so uh we show up and I meet Debbie for the first time, and the phone rings and she goes to the back and she doesn't come back out.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_03: And I thought, this girl's kind of rude, you know, got all these people over here, and she's in the back.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_03: I found out later it was her grandmother that I absolutely adore.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_03: Um it was her grandmother, and she couldn't get off the phone with her.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_03: And after I met her grandmother, I understood that.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_03: But uh so Debbie started coming to the Bible study, and uh everybody would get up to leave, and she'd be sitting there, and I'd be sitting there, and I said, Hey, you want to ride with me?
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_03: We're gonna go to Shaky's Pizza.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know if you remember Shaky's Pizza.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_03: We'd go to Shaky's Pizza and eat.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_03: And so we just got to be good friends for four or five months, and then she was going home for Christmas, going back to Houston for Christmas.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_03: And I just one day I said, I'll just I'm gonna give her a call and tell her Merry Christmas.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_03: So I called her and we were talking, and I said, Hey, just want to call and wish you a Merry Christmas.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_03: But I said, maybe when you get back, we can maybe we can have a date.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_03: She goes, I'd like that.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_03: So anyway, uh nine months later we got married.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_03: There was no correlation with anything else on nine months, I assure you.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_03: But nine months later, we were married, and we had we had our first child five years later.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_03: And uh uh it it's she's an amazing, amazing, very godly woman.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_03: I'm so blessed.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_03: Uh she she is uh she is the strength of our family for sure.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: What a what a story there.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, and then also your you know, Haley and uh and Craig.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: I believe Craig works at the bank, and then Haley's husband works at the bank as well.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: Talk a little bit about that dynamic as well.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_03: I have two kids.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_03: Uh my daughter Haley, she is almost 38.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_03: My son, Landry, is almost 34.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_03: Uh they both live here in Lubbock.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_03: My my daughter Haley, she is a dyslexia specialist at Friendship.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_03: Her husband, Craig, uh, he's my favorite son-in-law.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_03: He's my only son-in-law, so he can be my favorite.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_03: But uh Craig works for us at 112th Street.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_03: He's a lender there, has been with the bank about 12 years.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_03: My son, Landry, Landry runs our treasury management uh department at the bank over here.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_03: His wife, Lauren, is a uh, she's a school counselor at Whiteside Elementary School.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_03: Uh Landry and Lauren, they have they have two children.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_03: They have a they have two girls.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_03: They have a four-year-old named Harper, and they have a one-year-old named Jesse.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_03: And then uh my daughter and son-in-law, they have a 10-year-old son named Grayson, and uh and they have a eight-year-old daughter named Ellie.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_03: And uh as a matter of fact, tonight is Pops and B night.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_03: So every Friday night, the grandkids spend the night with my wife and I, and we have a big time.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_03: And uh that's the highlight of my life of my whole week is is is that night with them.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's and then your wife will go to bed and then y'all eat late night ice cream.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_03: We do, we do a mid, we do a we do a midnight snack, and uh Debbie's usually in bed, but we wake her, usually wake her up and get chewed out because we woke her up.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_03: But uh yeah, we uh nothing better than grandkids.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry I fumbled that a little bit, but Landry and Haley are your children.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: Perfect.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: Looking back, what advice, you know, you've banked a lot of uh business people, but what advice would you give to somebody looking to start their own business and and and uh you know, as they as they undertake that endeavor?
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_03: Uh number one, I'd give them a big old high five that they're trying.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_03: I I I love that.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_03: You know, until you're an entrepreneur and you've actually done that, uh, you know, it's tough.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_03: Uh it is and the biggest reason that businesses fail, Jeff, is is uh they're undercapitalized.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, you know, I tell people all the time, cash is king.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I don't care what your net worth is.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_03: Uh if if you don't, if you don't have cash, because the electric company isn't going to take your net worth for the electric bill at the end of the month.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_03: You better have you got to have cash.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_03: So, you know, businesses fail because they're undercapitalized.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_03: And that I I try to be real with people and I just tell them it's it's fixing to be the hardest thing you've ever done.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_03: It'll be be the most gratifying thing you've ever done.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_03: But you need to understand you're fixing to go from being the first one to get a paycheck to the last one to get a paycheck.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_03: And that's a very real thing.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, you know, again, it's you got people working for you.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_03: They get paid before you do.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_03: You hope there's something left at the end of the day.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_03: But uh that's what I would say to folks.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_03: Number one, awesome.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_03: I I have so much admiration for folks like you that have jumped out and and done that, like we did with the bank.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, you know, there's there's some folks call it uh crazy.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_03: Uh some folks, you know, they're tipping your hat to their hat to you, the other entrepreneurs because they've done it.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_03: But it is, it's it's tough.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_03: It's tough.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_03: And just surround yourself with people smarter than you are.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_03: Just don't let them know they're smarter than you are.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: I think both me and you both have a lot of people around that smarter than No doubt.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: My uncle, you know, talking about that that's a great statement of going from the first person to get paid to the last person.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: My uncle used to always tell me uh he goes, until you've signed both sides of the paycheck.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's exactly you know, and I think that's another good way to look at it.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's exactly uh, you know, of what that's like.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, we've talked a little bit about you know building the team and how you've established the culture.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um talk, I guess just to put a bow on that, you know, as you came into Cornerstone, one of the things that that struck me, and I know a lot of your team members also, but just the tenure of your people and then and having that culture that it's hard to do that.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, and you you were able to do that.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you know, they're very kind to say that, but you know, it it's it's one of those deals that uh I think a lot of folks that the something that I have zero tolerance for is arrogance.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, can't stand that.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, you know, one of the one of the things that we do in in all of our reviews for all of our people, we they're there, we call it humble, hungry, and smart.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_03: And on a scale of one to ten, you know, one being the lowest, ten being the best, I tell I tell all of my people, I said, if if you don't rate at least an eight on humble, hungry, and smart, you're not gonna be working at people's bank.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_03: Because I think those those things are uh being humble.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_03: Uh that that is that's critical.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, that is critical.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_03: The folks that that uh that that don't have that uh trait, they're not gonna last long at People's Bank.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_03: And then we want people that are hungry.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I I want somebody nipping at my heels, making me better.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_03: And that's what happens when you have hungry people, they make other people better.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_03: And then obviously smart that kind of speaks for itself, you know.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_03: Uh so those three things are critical.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: I think in describing the hungry, humble, and smart, you know, in a lot of ways you're describing West Texans, you know, who who feel a little bit, you know, underappreciated.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, sure.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, some people have mentioned it as West Texas grit to toughness, you know, and and you know, I think that that's that's pretty neat when you think about, you know, the the the team and culture that you've built at People's.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and and something else we do, we we celebrate, we celebrate all of you know all our successes, no matter how small.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_03: You know, you got to let people know that they're doing good things and and reward them and recognize that.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, you know, the culture that we've that we've that we have at People's Bank and that we saw as we're as we transitioned to Cornerstone, they're they very much aligned.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, you know, that that is that that's what I was looking for.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_03: It was just someone who would continue.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_03: And and the the night we announced the transaction, Mark Laird, that is uh, he's chairman and the founder of Cornerstone, uh, you know, it was it was a hard time for me.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_03: It was very, very emotional for me because I these people, we we had 18 people at this dinner, and we had uh Mark and Adam Laird, and then we had Scott Almy.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_03: Scott is the president and CEO of Cornerstone.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, you know, we're going around the table, and my people are, you know, and again, we got folks that's been with us 25 years, yeah.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_03: That have been with Todd and I almost since we started, and we have a couple that have been with us since we started.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_03: But as we're going around the table and everybody's telling their story, I think the Cornerstone folks were surprised at the tenure that some of our people had.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_03: Number one, but as I was listening to them talk about what they did at the bank, what the, you know, how long they've been at the bank.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_03: It was an emotional time for me.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_03: But Mark Laird came over to me and I stood up and Mark gave me a big hug, and he said, Larry, he said, I'm gonna promise you two things.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_03: He said, I'm gonna promise you that I'll always take care of your people.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_03: And he said, number two, I won't let your legacy die.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, what else could I ask for?
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_03: You know, that's doesn't get any better than that.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's means you made the right decision.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_03: And so uh, but that's that's that's kind of how all that came about.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that is awesome.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_00: I know this area is special to you, West.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you haven't left, you've been here the whole time.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so um what is to it's kind of a two-part question.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: What is it about this area that is special to you?
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then secondly, what do you foresee for Lubbock in West Texas and what it's gonna look like maybe in the year 2050?
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, great questions.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_03: Um number one, I think that uh uh it's the people.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_03: The people here are just amazing.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_03: You you don't get that, at least the places I've been, you don't get that anywhere else where people will still speak to you, you know, driving down the road.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_03: I'm I'm continually waving at people, and my wife goes, Who is that?
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_03: And I said, I don't know.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_03: You're just waving at them, you know.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_03: And and again, I I love that.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_03: I love that about Lubbock.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_03: Uh the churches, the just the community, uh how we care for other people.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_03: Uh it's just Lubbock is, and again, I've never lived anywhere else, so I don't have a reference point beyond that, but I visited lots of other places, and I don't get that feel when I go to the other places.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_03: So uh, you know, again, it's the people, and I know that's maybe cliche, but that's that's what it is for me.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_03: I just love the people here.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then the growth 2050, like what do what do you see for this area?
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_03: It's interesting.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_03: I was uh I had uh had lunch with Clay Cash yesterday and and then was with uh Brandon Creighton, the new chancellor, had lunch with him last week, and and uh just hearing all the great things that Texas Tech has going.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it's a it is amazing.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it is like the switch finally flipped and everybody's figured out what an amazing place that is and all the things that they're doing.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_03: You know, we've got a great border regions, but I think in 2050, I think that I think Lubbock will be a million people.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_03: Uh it sounds like there's some great technology things that are coming down the pike that's gonna bring a lot of jobs here.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I think that uh agriculture, not sure what that's gonna look like by that time, because I'm concerned about water, and especially if we continue to do build all these AI facilities that's gonna tax that structure even more.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, you know, uh, but I think that uh Lubbock's gonna be it's gonna be a great place to be.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's, you know, it I'm I'm a little afraid, Jeff, that it's might start looking a little bit like Dallas.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I could leave my house now and be to the bank in about six or seven minutes, and it's gonna really gripe me if I have to spend 15 minutes to getting there.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_03: So at least it's still better than than DFW or whatever.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_03: But uh my gosh, we we're so blessed here that there's so many great things to do.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_03: There's you know, the buddy Holly, Texas Tech Athletics.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it just goes on and on and on.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_03: But I think that I think by 2050, Lubbock will be a million people.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_03: I really believe that.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, at Mass Rider Capital, we're right there with you.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_00: We're bullish on Lubbock and Texas Tech and West Texas.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I think that's one of the things you can talk about, the traffic, but it's it sounds simple, but Lubbock's done a fantastic job with planning and laying out roads and building the roads before, you know, all of the, you know, take Milwaukee, which is right by you guys.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: 82nd Street was expanded.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, you know, now we're building the outer loop that really connects South Lubbock, you know, almost between, you know, uh out at Cooper all the way down to Shallow Water, which is you know, running you know around where People's Bank operates.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, just done a fantastic job.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope we never lose that either.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you know, uh, I remember when the loop.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_03: Open loop 289.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_03: It was like 1970.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_03: My dad and I we get in the car one day.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_03: He goes, Let's go see what this loop looks like.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_03: So here we go.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_03: We drive all the way around the loop.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_03: And my dad's like, I can't believe they built this highway way out here in the middle of nowhere like this, you know.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_03: And now you look at the loop, and now you're out here at loop 88, and you're thinking, I'm not sure they went far enough out this time.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_03: They maybe should have gone a little further out.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_03: But uh, you know, I thank goodness there's folks that have vision and foresight that I don't.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_03: So uh uh again, I just think it's gonna be tremendous what the what the possibilities are for Love.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's great.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna shift gears.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna finish up here.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna go through the uh uh uh a segment that we call around the horn.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_00: And uh these are faster, quicker answers than uh you're dealing with me, so it may not be faster.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_00: But uh anyway, some of these I think you know you'll be some of them may catch you a little off guard too.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_00: And it's meant, you know, so anyway, but what is one thing people would be surprised to learn about you?
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_03: Hmm.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_03: That's that that may be the hardest question you've asked today, Jeff.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_03: Uh you know, I I'm I'm pretty much an open book, but I'm I'm a I'm a and my people at the bank, they know this.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_03: I'm I'm a very passionate, very emotional person, especially when it comes to people I care about and I love.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_03: You know, most folks that probably that probably see me outside of that, they're they're probably seeing a little harder exterior, but I'm I you know again, I've my my I I cry regularly with my people, and I you know, I don't apologize for that's great.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_00: A little bit of a softy, is what you're saying.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's awesome.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_00: Golf or hunt or fish?
• 45:53
  unknown: Oh man.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_03: Oh man, fishing.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_03: Fishing, yeah.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, boy, you hit three of the top ones, but yeah, fishing.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_00: So where's your favorite place to fish?
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_03: Costa Rica.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_00: What makes Costa Rica special down there?
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_03: It's a beautiful place, but there there is just so many different varieties of fish that you can catch, and it's just uh uh I don't know, that that is just a cool place.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_03: I fished in Canada, Alaska, Guatemala.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I don't know.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_03: It's just the the the kind of fishing.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_03: You never know what you're gonna catch there, but uh just a beautiful place too.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_03: Beautiful place.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_03: I might could retire there, I'm not sure.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_00: What's the most memorable fish you've caught?
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, golly.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_03: Probably uh about a hundred and fifty pound uh shark that we at co in Costa Rica.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_03: And uh I worked hard for about an hour and a half to get that thing in, and I get him right up to the edge of the boat, and the and the fishing guy just he just snaps my line.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_03: And I thought, I wanted a picture with that thing, you know?
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_03: My arms are about to fall off.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_03: Um I just want I just wanted a picture with my fish.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so that was probably the Yeah, that's awesome.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_00: I know you've spent, you know, you've you've mentioned Todd McKee, and and I have this down here in the around the horn section, but very unique that you meet somebody in the second grade and then business partners for life.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_00: What has he meant to you?
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_03: Oh gosh.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_03: Uh he's we're we're we're brother, we're brothers.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_03: You know, he would say the same thing, you know.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_03: He I am closer, I am closer to him than I am my two sisters.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_03: And he's the same way.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_03: Todd has a deceased brother and a sister, and I think he would say the same thing.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it's just we've we've I I was best man at his wedding.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_03: He was best man in my wedding uh again, growing up since second grade.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_03: Our dads worked together.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so you know, we couldn't, we couldn't pull anything.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_03: I couldn't, I couldn't say I'm gonna go spend the night with Todd, and we'd go out and hang out all night or do something like that because our dads were talking every day.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_03: His mother just passed away.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_03: She was she was like a second mom to me because my mom, my mom's been dead for 35 years.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_03: So Todd's mom gay.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_03: She was my she was a mother to me.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_03: And uh I always uh, you know, her her funeral the other day was as hard on me as it was when my well uh when I lost my mom.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_03: And so, but Todd, Todd's one of a kind.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_03: We we we can have a we have a relationship where uh you know I always know at the end of the day that he's got the bank's best interest at heart, just like I do.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_03: We may knock heads.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_03: And uh as a matter of fact, just a quick story, a lady that was my secretary, she made a comment one day, and Todd and I we locked horns right there.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, we we we we had words and and Todd goes his way, I go my way, and Maggie comes in my office and she says, she goes, I'm she's crying.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_03: She goes, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to cause that problem.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_03: I said, What problem?
• 49:17
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, and then you know, two hours later, Todd and I are leaving to go to lunch together, you know.
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it's just one of the we're like just we're brothers.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it's just the way it is.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_03: And and uh I, you know, he knows I've got the best interests of the bank at heart.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_03: I know he does.
• 49:31
  SPEAKER_03: And whenever he voices his opinion, he's giving his honest, honest thoughts on how it should be, and I'll do the same.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_03: And then we try to find a middle ground, and it's worked well for us.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_03: It really has.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's fantastic.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_00: A change in banking you'd like to see?
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_03: Uh it has gotten better as far as the regulatory environment, Jeff.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, you know, uh, it's it's really interesting.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_03: And what we found out through the cornerstone deal back during the Biden administration, it was taking 18 months to get approval on an acquisition.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_03: Now that the Trump administration has gotten in there, it took us about 67 days to get approval.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_03: Major difference.
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, but but some of the the regulatory burden has gotten better.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_03: There's still some things that need to happen.
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I think they need to spend more time at the big banks and less time at the smaller banks.
• 50:23
  SPEAKER_03: We're not their problem.
• 50:23
  SPEAKER_03: We're not the one that's gonna that that's that's gonna cause the economy to go into a tailspin.
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_03: It's those guys that that are that they're in my opinion, they're under regulated.
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_03: They would probably disagree with that statement, but that's that's what I think needs to be done.
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_00: Favorite Texas Tech memory?
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_03: I guess I think the the you know, I the two in particular, obviously I still remember when the women, when they won their national championship, but uh when when our guys, when they went to the to the championship game, when Beard was still here, uh, you know, that that was just that was a cool time.
• 51:01
  SPEAKER_03: It was amazing to me how everybody came out of the woodworks to uh out of the woodwork to support them.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_00: It was it was just a fun, fun time.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_03: No, we did we did not go.
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_03: We had a we had a grandbaby on the way, so we did not get to go.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_00: But uh about a hundred thousand Red Raiders in Minneapolis.
• 51:16
  SPEAKER_00: It was unbelievable.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's that's that's what I heard.
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_00: So it was incredible.
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_03: But uh it was it was that or a grandbaby, and I chose the grandbaby.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_00: So couple more at your your place on your bucket list to go travel to?
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_03: Uh my wife, mine of my wife's favorite place to go in Europe is Italy.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_03: And uh probably gonna try to do that again pretty quick.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_03: But you know, I don't know that I have a bucket list place per se.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_03: Uh we just we we just love to travel and see other parts of the world.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_03: You know, we were talking about this the other day, you know, and in the U.S., if it's 200 years old, it's old.
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_03: You go over there, you know, if it's not a thousand years old, it's not old.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_03: And uh we my wife is a she's a big history buff.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_03: She likes that kind of stuff.
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, and you know, she has uh she's probably taught me more about a lot of that stuff than than what I ever imagined, because again, I didn't know anything about it, didn't grow up being a part of that.
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_03: And so we just we just like to go.
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 52:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Larry, I can't thank you enough for spending time with us today on the Heights of Victory.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we're excited for this next chapter for you and for People's Bank, and also with uh can't wait to meet some of the people with Cornerstone Capital as well.
• 52:37
  SPEAKER_00: And appreciate you making the time to come here and talk and visit with us.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_03: It's been my pleasure, Jeff.
• 52:41
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you as always.
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I think an awful lot of you appreciate that.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 52:45
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, sir.
• 52:46
  SPEAKER_00: That does it for this episode of the Heights of Victory.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_00: To our audience, if you want to leave us a comment or ask us a question or send us an email, you can do that at heights of victory at masterider.com.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for catching this episode, and we'll see you next time on the Heights of Victory.