Latest / Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis Brothers / Ep104 "PRODUCT PASSION MEETS BUSINESS REALITY" GUEST DONNY HUBBARD

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Ep104 "PRODUCT PASSION MEETS BUSINESS REALITY" GUEST DONNY HUBBARD · Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis Brothers

• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: Hey everyone, welcome to Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis Brothers, where we aim to share real stories about running a successful family business, working through adversity, and pouring back into the community that keeps our door open.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: We're your host, Matt, Shelby, and Taylor, and we bring you relevant local business advice and automotive insights that are sure to change the way you look at running a business.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe even throw in a plug for you to do business with us.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, welcome back to Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis Brothers, episode 104 today.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: And we've got our friend Donnie Hubbard here in the house.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to talk about product passion meets business reality.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: You know, everybody gets into business when they love something.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: In our instance, it might be cars, clothing, food, or some type of hobby.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: And then the business shows up.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: The people, the payroll, the inventory, the marketing, the cash flow.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and here's where we dive into when something turns into, hey, I think that'd be cool to get into.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: I like that idea to now we got to figure out how to run it, who we've got to hire, how we put them on payroll, where we invest the money, and where we get the ROI.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and before we completely dive into Donnie, where he's come from and where he's at today, let's talk about last episode, last week, episode 103.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_03: We did a uh crossroad rewind where we went back and looked at several episodes that stuck out for where we flopped or it stuck out where this really had attention and we wanted to recap that there.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_03: So check that out.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_03: Crossroad conversations at any previous episode.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_03: That was 103, where we did a remash.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: Here's a good one.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, all the content of all of our specials we've got going on at LewisSupersore.com.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: Crossroads conversation for the 104 episodes we've done.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_02: What's in the garage?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna give you a quick look under the hood today.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_02: What I love is we've got, we've talked about trucks, we've talked about fleet vehicles, we've got super duties rolling in, but uh what I've loved for 27 is they took all the choosing out of it and they just put the high output motor and everything.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_02: So we've got the best cream of the crop of XLs to XLTs to Kingrances to Platinum, Platinum Pluses, and all of them get the 1,200 foot-pound torque, diesel motor, 6'7 motor, and we have the best selection we've ever had of it.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, Donnie, to put that in perspective, um, because we hadn't got into how much of a car guy you are, but 1,200 foot pounds of torque in a three-quarter ton is the same amount of torque as that you had in a semi in the 90s.
• 2:26
  unknown: Yep.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: In an F-250.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's crazy.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know how that's illegal.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_03: It's pretty over the top.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_03: It's not necessary, but the You got to pull your bass boat fast.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_03: The manufacturer got in these horsepower and torque and towing wars.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_03: It was always who had the lowest starting price, right, to get in there.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_03: And then it was who had the most horsepower, and then it was the most torque, and then it was who can tow the most.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_03: So now these trucks, like an F-450 with 1,200 foot pounds of torque, can tow over 43,000 pounds.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_02: Like your average Joe needs to be able to pull them.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_03: That's big.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_03: 43,000 pounds is a lot.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_03: That's a lot.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_03: So I think we're 10,000 off all super dudes across the board, including the standard uh 6'7, 1,200 foot pounds of torque.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_03: And it's finally fun.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_03: Like we'll get into the the things that Donnie likes and enjoys, but we uh talk XL and XLT, which is the everyday truck.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_03: We've been trying to order high trim Lariat Platinum King Ranches.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_03: And I saw again this morning we had another King Ranch that was a two-tone, had another platinum that came in.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_03: Uh just super nice trucks that are so hard to get.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_03: So those are out there on the lot.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_03: We've got them in there.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_03: So absolutely.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_03: All right, Donnie, what got you into the product passion?
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_03: Before we go fully and I start just quizzing you about this.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_03: Uh-huh.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_03: You're in the clothing business.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_03: Correct.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_03: Been doing this 30 years-ish.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_03: 31 years.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_03: 31 years.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, if no one knows anything about you, before we go rewind all the way back, tell us what your current product is and kind of an offering, your elevator style speech.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_03: I say, Oh, good to meet you.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_03: What do you do?
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, I own a men's luxury clothing store.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_04: It's uh called Hubbard Clothing Company.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_04: It's the final iteration of uh a few different projects.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_04: We'll we'll talk about that.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_04: Uh and just keeps on getting better.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_04: Uh we sell predominantly Italian luxury clothing, not by design, just kind of navigated through the weeds and found I just liked all the things I saw in Italy, and we buy beautiful things and they sell.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_03: I love that.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_03: So but it's it's more than a clothing store.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_03: Correct.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_03: You've from all that I've read and all that I've looked at, you're a very smart businessman and entrepreneur.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_03: You just kept seeing opportunities and opportunities.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_03: So is there a recurring model to it?
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_04: So uh the the flip side of that was before everybody was, and I'm not like trying to say that I was ahead of the curve.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_04: Um but I think you are.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_04: Before everybody was screaming experiential selling, I I I I wanted it to be an experience, like a real, like you walk in and this is very different from anything we've ever seen.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_04: And uh I actually had pitched a lot of these ideas to another store that I was working for for a little bit.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_04: And uh I was like, man, this is I if you're not gonna do this, I'm gonna do it.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_04: And so we leaned into, you know, the barbershop thing is just something that felt really easy to have barber in the store, keep people walking through the door, and it was cool.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_04: And it's sure, you know, make it beautiful.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_04: And even if we're not taking care of guys' hair, if they walk in and they see a barber chair and a barber, it's just cool.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_04: So part of the experience.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and then the the speak easy in the back that was more or less we we've always had people gravitate towards a spot in the store, whatever store I've ever had, and they would hang out and have a beer or whatever, and on a couch while people were shopping around them.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_04: And I was like, yeah, it'd be really cool to have a dedicated space that didn't have clothing in it where we could get guys to come for a reason other than clothing and then sneak attacked, you know, sell clothes.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_03: I love that.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_03: And then you there there's a locker aspect.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_03: Correct.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_03: Tell me about these lockers.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_04: So the original idea was it'd be even better and more enticing to get guys to come in the store if they had a spot that, like, say you're a great client, we hey, listen, um just throw a bottle of booze in there, and anytime you want to come in, you'll have your own bottle.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_04: And then during our build out, a few clients came in to see the build out as it was progressing, and they had put the lockers in.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_04: And and three people in a row were like, How much are the lockers?
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_04: And I was like, yo.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I'm on the subject.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I was like, I haven't figured that out yet.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_04: And then like the next guy who came in, he was like, How much are the lockers?
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_04: And I was like, you know what?
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_04: I I I've got to I've got to figure this out.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_04: And at the time, you know, this was nine years ago when we opened the space.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_04: Uh our our rent was relatively low and and still not bad, but relatively low back then.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_04: And uh I did the math on what come on, what the store cost me for the year, divided it by the number of lockers, and made that the locker fee.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_04: And within two months, I paid my rent for the store for the year.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_04: For the year.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_04: Because we sold out of lockers almost immediately.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: In our business, we call that fixed absorption.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: So what you did is go, how can I get my fixed, my rent covered there without having to sell one piece of clothing?
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_04: And so I I I call my business partner partner, Steve Clark, and I was like, so I think I think I just fell into something really great.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_04: He was like, that is crazy.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_04: Because we literally, at that point, you know, your rent's paid, basically.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_04: And we can just focus on servicing customers and selling clothing and you get to focus on what you're good at, right?
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_03: You're not pulling your hair out every morning saying, How do I pay this rent?
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_03: Whatever that may be.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_03: Totally accidental.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_03: What I love about that, as a good entrepreneur, you don't have to be the originator of an idea.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_03: But as a good entrepreneur, you do have to take that swing when a fat pitch comes your direction.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_05: Heck yeah.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_03: And that was so good.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_03: It maybe took two or three or four.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_03: And what I've loved, uh, and I've I've researched to understand you and kind of what what you offer.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_03: And the more I heard it, the more I leaned into it, the more I loved about it, was like, this guy, he's doing he's doing so good and so well.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_03: And uh the fishing club that you had that aspect of it.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, man, he just keeps seeing opportunity, making a business out of it.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_03: And it becomes a club style, which was a thing.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_03: And then I feel like kind of went away.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_03: You know, my family, my grandfather, uh, you know, none of us golf anymore.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_03: I I guess we don't find the time to do it, but we're part of Fayetteville Country Club, and that that was that club style aspect that, you know, it was kind of, you know, and there's other different styles of clubs that you were a members-only style club, and it was exclusivity.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_03: And I felt like as times got hard, maybe those went away.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_04: And I I think the the allure of that situation is at the end of the day, everybody wants to feel like they're a part of something exclusive, right?
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_04: And uh I mean, we all like doing all the public things.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_04: But then when you can be around like-minded people, then and in our business, we've kind of taken it to the next level of being very on purpose about giving people a place to wear the clothing that we sell.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_04: So not only are we asking people to come and spend a lot of money on clothing, sometimes not a lot of money, but we're known for being luxury and more expensive.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_04: Uh but then my guys and I are constantly like thinking about what events are are in town that people need clothing to wear to, and how can we help create events that give people a place to wear the clothing that we sell.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_03: I love that.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_03: That uh that is so good.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_03: And that's entrepreneurial thinking as well of like, okay, because we see that when we sell somebody a car, it's like, okay, we know what they paid for the car.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_03: We know how hard it was to get that specific car.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_03: Then how do we help them enjoy that car?
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_03: You know, and so you're doing that exact same thing.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_04: You essentially do that, right?
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_04: Like that was um the first time we we did a New Year's Eve party.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_04: We one of my guys, I I won't take credit, my guy Caleb, he was like, you know what, we should do it.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_04: We should we were selling tickets for it.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_04: He said, We should tell anybody who buys a tuxedo because we were gonna do it black tie for New Year's Eve.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_04: Anybody who buys a tuxedo, they get in free.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, that's dumb.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_04: You know, because I was like, Yeah, people will just pay the 150 bucks.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_04: It's like, but if we sell a tuxedo, we sold like 18 tuxedos because at$2,000 a piece, because they're like, oh, really?
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I need one anyway.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, I was like, bro, genius, genius.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_03: That's fantastic.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_03: That's good.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_03: I love that.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_03: Like this experience that like the haircut thing, that that's like our oil changes of like, yeah, get them back in here.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_03: Like we sell a car, yeah, and on average, we won't see them to buy another car for like 38 months.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_03: And it's like there's a lot of love lost in the relationship that we built in 38 months.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_03: Life can happen, they can run into somebody else.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_03: Like, how do we get them back?
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_03: And so the haircut thing, yeah, that's so great.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_03: The speakeasy thing, this like once again, like, how do I get them coming back in?
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_03: And I don't want to take their money every time.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_03: That's right.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_03: But when they see that fresh new Ralph Lauren bright thing, it's powerful.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's powerful.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: I'll tell you what's really powerful there, and we've talked about this previously, but I want you to expound on it a little bit.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: Just by a few things you've said, I've already developed a respect for the type of leader and entrepreneur you are.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: Because one of your other employees brought a great idea.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: It didn't have to be your idea.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you just supported it.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I think and and you're around other leaders too, that we see that if it's not the leader's idea, they're not gonna do it.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_04: Sure.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_04: And I'll I will uh I I will completely put all my tips on the table.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_04: I used to be a massive ego head.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_04: And I I I was so protective of like I I I just I grew up super poor, you know what I mean?
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_04: And then I I fell into this industry through a mentor, and uh then when I about 15 years ago, I had made a little bit of a name for myself within my industry because I was so young and I had a store that I built and I didn't get it given to me by a family member, or you know, I did all the work and I carried crazy brands that only certain levels of store could.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_04: Dude, I thought I was the best thing in the world, and that all my ideas were the best, and I had an ego that was out of control.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_04: And and then uh I feel like God like said, Oh yeah, here's some autism.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_04: That'll happen.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_04: We had a little boy that has autism, and it just that's a whole nother story.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_04: It just rocked our worlds, and we we've got three kids now.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_04: A older daughter, our center a middle child is Lukey, he has autism.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_04: And then just, I mean, it was like one of the classic uh just brought me to my knees and every aspect of my life.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_04: Business started failing, and you know, it it was it was just a whole thing.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_04: And uh I I made a very conscious decision after that to just be more like my wife and be humble and not not try to be the guy all the time.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_04: And uh I think that's translated to having really, really great people around me.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: What what advice would you give to others out there listening just to be able to embrace your team and to what to have a platform where they could bring ideas and they felt safe to that?
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_04: Man, uh I hate giving advice because then you know it's on me.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_03: Nah.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_03: Just an idea, right?
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: But but but but what are your teammates felt comfortable enough to say to challenge you?
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_04: I think it's just a humility thing of they I I've I hope my guys know, and I think I can say this, speak for them, that uh I view them and there's a weird uh line of being friends with your employees and then being employees, and and I I lean way more on the side of I want them to be my friends, and that makes it a lot harder whenever they screw up and I gotta be their boss.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_04: And I I I'm so uncomfortable with them calling me the boss.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_04: Sure.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but I think that just I I've been over the top of you know, there's a certain way I like things done, and they know that, but I'm I'm so open to everything because I I just don't care about being the guy that has the credit anymore.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: Being on both sides of it and then both sides of success, too.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: Which would you rather pick, the big ego or the humble part?
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, definitely humble.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_04: Because then then when things do go bad, you don't look like a jackass.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's so good.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_03: That's probably everyone's answer every single time once they've experienced that.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_03: But I think without experiencing whatever they may be, you never get that.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_03: You would never pick that.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_04: Bro, it's embarrassing.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_04: It's bad.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_04: When you have an ego and things go bad, you know, is it's it's it's the whole uh Mike Tyson thing, right?
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_04: Everybody's got a plane.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_03: Like, oh my gosh.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_03: Like it and it you try to teach that wisdom is like, let me save you.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_03: Like, let me tell you what I what Donnie's learned, I've learned from him.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_03: Well we've seen, what we've seen people before us, like slow down.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_03: It's okay if you don't get the light on this one, as long as your team's winning.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_04: At the same time, we we love celebrating the wins.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_03: Oh no, no, no, no.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_04: Certainly we yeah, it'll come off as egotistical, but you know, we we love it when like I mean, man, right now we're we we've been absolutely killing it.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_04: And my guys are, you know, um, you you get this, and I I I think my business partner has instilled this in me a lot of yeah, but you know, so as good as things are, you're like, this could go bad.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_03: And you definitely have to celebrate those wins.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_03: So walk us back a little bit.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so you were working for a clothing company, had figured out you, you know, you were out selling everyone, you know, you were you were doing really good.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, then you tried to be a part of that, uh, tried to open your own store.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_03: How how did that go?
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so really it was more I worked for a family business, and the the main face of that company was the oldest son of the founders.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_04: And uh, you know, it it would be, you know, like, you know, if you were kind of the the main face of the company, right?
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_04: Uh I just fell into a very mentorship kind of relationship with this guy.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_04: And he uh I mean he just taught me how to be a man.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_04: Not that my dad didn't.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_04: My dad was a Vietnam vet and the most manly man that I was.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_04: He killed this guy.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_04: But there was something about him that, you know, the way he dressed and the way he presented himself, the way he publicly spoke and things like that, that I was super attracted to that persona.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_04: And uh he gave me a job.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_04: I worked there for a long time, outsold the family pretty quickly.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_04: He was he I was not academic.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_04: I did not go to college.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_04: In fact, I I I went for a couple semesters, and like I was like, well, here I am embarrassing myself.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_04: This is not good.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_04: And uh he's he was like, I'm not telling you to drop out of college, but if you if you want to do this for your career, you do not need to go to college.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, Salt.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_04: Gotcha.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_04: All right.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, I'll take it.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_04: And so he mentored me into the business and was just I'll look back on it now as a 19-year-old kid, the things this guy did for me and took me to markets to be a buyer and just handed me the keys of the kingdom.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_04: And then when it was time, I had just gotten married, and I went to him and I was like, Man, I gotta figure out like what my future is.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_04: And he just looked at me as, and this is kind of how he he mentored me.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_04: He was very blunt.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_04: He was like, Donnie, I'll I'm just gonna tell you this, and it's not my personal feelings.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_04: He said, But your name is not Rainwater, and it's never gonna deep.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, got it.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_04: All right.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_04: So I was like, so I need to figure out what the next thing is.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: And you gotta appreciate that honesty though.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, yeah, that was the thing.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_04: He was brutally honest.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_03: Not what you wanted to hear, nope, but like he didn't tiptoe around it, you know, and like, hey, let's see, like, keep working, see if we can get you in, you know, like not just hit you straight.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_04: He's still such a great friend, and you know, he it goes way beyond our yeah work relationship.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_04: He he helped my daughter, like three or my daughter, my my wife, three days after she was born.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_04: Uh she he knew her family and there.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_03: So then it's like, okay, Donnie's on his own.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_03: What are we doing?
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I I love this that you're like, crap, I gotta figure this out.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_04: It's how my whole life has been.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_03: It's made you who you are.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_04: Everything I feel like everything I've ever done was, wow, I gotta figure this out.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_03: School for knocks, like just like grinding.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_03: So so you were you had to one figure out your clothing that you were selling, and then you had to find clients, and you didn't have a storefront, right?
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that was wild because Rainwaters, the first store I worked at, they were a they were in the nicest store in Port Smith, okay, but did not carry anything high end.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_04: Gotcha.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_04: No Italian clothing, nothing like that.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_04: They they their bread and butter in the nineties was Tommy Hilfiger.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_04: And that was kind of the highest end collection they ever had.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_03: But you had been to market, you had seen what was to offer.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, yeah.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_04: And uh reading Esquire GQ, all the you know, every magazine out there, Rob Rob Report, you you see the names of all these brands and You know, you're what why is ketone$10,000 for a jacket, you know?
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_04: And and then you you just kind of start learning more and more about it.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_04: But um when I moved over, uh I basically make a very long story short, I put my resume out there with a bunch of the sales reps in the industry because I'd been going to market and knew them.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_04: And then store and Little Rock Bowman's, they they heard about me uh through one of the reps and got my resume.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_04: They're in Arkansas, I'm in Arkansas.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_04: And uh much credit to Wayne Ratcliffe, my my kind of secondary mentor, uh, who unfortunately just passed away this year.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_04: Um he saw in 2002, I guess is when he hired me, uh he saw the trajectory of what was happening in northwest Arkansas back then.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_04: Right?
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_04: And so he wanted somebody up here to be the Bowman's guy in Northwest Arkansas.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_04: So he he wandered in my store one day.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_04: I never forget this.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_04: I was fitting a client who used to live in Little Rock, and Wayne comes walking in, and I'm I'm marking this guy up, and he turns around and he goes, Wayne?
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_04: And and I didn't know who he was.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_04: He's like, What are you doing here?
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_04: And he was like, dude, like you know, he was recruiting me.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_04: And uh we finish up and I talk, I I I talked to Wayne, and he's like, Hey, listen, I got your resume and I'm interested in doing something.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, How do you know Brandon?
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_04: He's like, ah, he's a little rock guy.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_04: And then I talked to that guy later on.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_04: He goes, Donnie, listen, I I like your shop and I like what you're doing here because I'd opened a store for Rainwaters up here.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_04: And uh he goes, If you went to work for that guy, it would be the best of both worlds for me.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_04: Because the clothing is next level.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_04: And so all that to say, okay, went to work for him and uh went from selling top level$600 suits to now I'm slinging Brioney and you know it it drastically reduced my customer list.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yes is the point.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_04: And and then I'm like walking in selling pants across what the suits did as well.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_04: And it it was just a grind of figuring out the metrics of how many and it's phone book days.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_04: So I was like So talk about that.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_03: You literally were in the phone books.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_04: I I was like, all right.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_04: Attorneys.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_04: And I started going down the yellow pages, calling law offices, and you forget college, man.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_04: That's an education.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_04: Oh yeah.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_04: Oh yeah.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_04: That's an education.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_04: That's that's like you figure out real quick, all right.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_04: I can't get embarrassed at this.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_04: I think these people are never gonna see me again.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_04: Right, that's right.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_04: And I I honed a skill of being able to call office, know exactly who the gatekeeper was that I'm in it in interacting with, and I learned the things to say to just get in front of them.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_04: And then I figured out the more you take away from people, the more they want something.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_04: Right?
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_04: And so I would I would ask for an appointment just to introduce myself and hand them a business card.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_04: And then when I would show up for an appointment to introduce myself, I would specifically not bring any product with me because I didn't want to seem like the eager guy that was like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, let me let me show you something.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_04: And so I'm I multiple times I would get in law offices and I'd have the appointment just to shake hands and say hello.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_04: And they'd come out and be like, uh, yeah, yeah, I just want to give you my card, introduce myself, and let you know if there's anything you I can ever do for you.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_04: This is what I do, and consider me like the guy in your closet helping you do everything.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_04: And this is my office, right?
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_04: Like I don't have a store, I'm coming to you.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_04: And they'd be like, Well, do you have anything with you?
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm like, nope.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_04: And they would just look at me like I was stoned and be like, you're selling something, but you don't have anything to sell me.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, uh, this is specifically for me to make an introduction and gain a little bit of your trust that I'm not here to try to sell you something.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_04: I'm here to help you.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_04: That's good.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_04: Right?
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_04: And I I got in more doors like that, but it took about a hundred call phone calls to get in one.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_04: Sure.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_04: And and that was the metric, man.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_04: That was like, I gotta make a hundred phone calls to get an appointment.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_04: And out of six appointments, I'm gonna sell one thing.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_01: But once you figure out the metrics, and we talked to our guys about that too, once you figure out that it's a mathematical equation, and you can hone in on your skills to have a very better conversion rate from this to that, but it's a mathematical equation, then you can become a little bit okay with the word no because you know you've got to get we're not to a hundred yet.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: I gotta get to a hundred.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_04: The the no's come in different forms as some feel better than others.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_04: All right.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_04: That's right.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_04: Some no's are like, oh, that's that's that's cool.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_04: And some are like, really, dude?
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_03: You definitely learn how to handle uh rejection, right?
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_03: And what that looks like.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_03: So you've been doing this 31 years, you've built good relationships, starting with the yellow pages, creating that connection.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_03: Tell us about some of the fun ones, some of the cool ones of connections uh that you've built along the way.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_04: Uh you know, in those metrics, there are anomalies, right?
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_04: There are things that don't fit into the metrics, right?
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_04: Just explode.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_05: Yep.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_04: And my first fun connection and just kind of a layup was I was uh I had been selling clothing to Don Decker, who used to be the head strength coach for the football team.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_04: And back then there was the Broyles Athletic Complex, and that's where all the coaches were, was in that north end of the end zone.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_04: And that's where all their offices was.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_04: And I was delivering a pair of pants to him and a pair of pants to Fitzhill at the time.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_04: And walking through, and I was like, just be bopping on, and I stopped dead in my tracks, and it's like had an assistant golf coach.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_04: It's weird, they're in the football building.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_04: Back then they just didn't have a place for them, so they put them in the Broyles Athletic Complex.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_04: And so it was Mike Ketchum and John Sadie.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_04: And I was like, eh, I'll just go in and say hi.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_04: I walk in, and these two guys are the nicest dudes ever.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_04: And they just welcome me into their office.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_04: They're like, What do you do?
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_04: You're so close.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_04: I close, you know, that that was literally their attitude.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_04: And I became just such good friends with these dudes.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, and this is where the anomaly lies.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_04: I was out playing golf with Mike, and I'm not a good golfer at all, but these guys humored me.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_04: I was out playing golf with Mike when we were at Pinnacle Country Club.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_04: We go back to the clubhouse, and he just liked me so much.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_04: He he had a flip phone and he goes, Donnie, get a pen and a piece of paper.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_04: He goes, I want you to write down every single one of these numbers, and I want you to call all of these people and tell them that Mike Ketchum told you to call and that I think you'll like what you do.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_04: And I was like, Let's go, you know.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_04: And that was where it was 90% of the phone calls were fruitful and only 10% weren't.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_04: Because of a referral.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_04: Because of a referral.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_04: And I was like, oh, referral.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_03: It's completely changed your business of realizing that, oh, hang on, if I know somebody and somebody can refer him, I just alleviated 90 phone calls.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_03: And the better person is the better role, the referral.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_04: And who wanted to?
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_04: This guy was like, Mike was the sweetest, most fun dude.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_04: And he was the head golf coach.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_04: So everybody wanted a piece of him.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_04: You know, he was he was on the team with Daly back in the day when they played together.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_04: And so he had the Daily Connection.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_04: And he was fun-loving and a great golf coach.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_04: And so it was such an easy phone call.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_04: I'm calling, like, hey, yeah, Mike Ketchum told me to call.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, really?
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that was your leading every time.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_03: What are you selling?
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_04: I want it.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_04: And then the most recent, obviously very fun one is it's a whole different story, but I spent a year in Kentucky while I was there.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_04: I met this guy who is a Kentucky super fan.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_04: He lived in Louisville.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_04: And he calls me up and he's like, hey, I got to go to Lexington to go to basketball practice.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_04: Do you want to come with me?
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, heck yeah, I'll go with you.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_04: That's cool.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_04: And so we go down to Lexington and he introduces me to the entire Kentucky basketball staff.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, most importantly, this guy named Chris Ward.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_04: And uh I started selling Chris some clothes, measured them up right then and there, and uh we would interact, went to a few Kentucky basketball things, and uh Chris became a super good friend for the year I lived there.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_04: When I moved home uh and opened Hubbard Clothing Company, the first time I was here in Kentucky was coming to play Arkansas, I knew all those guys, but Chris hits me up.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_04: He goes, Donnie, we're having dinner at Vetro, we're staying at the graduate.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_04: You want you want to come hang out with us?
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_04: Because I was the only person in Northwest Arkansas they knew.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_04: And so I'm like, heck yeah.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_04: I go into Vetro, I'm like, oh my God.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_04: They're all wearing blue, right?
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_04: Like, there's me, and everybody knows me.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm sitting with the enemy, you know, and I'm like, hey guys, dinner with Kentucky here.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_03: They invited me.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_04: And then we went over to my Speakeasy on Block Street, and we hung out, and they were just having a great time.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_04: We went up to the store afterwards, they shopped, and every time they would come back to town, we would do this.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_04: And then one morning I wake up and this this guy has texting me.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_04: He goes, It was a news article that we just hired John Calapari.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_04: And I started texting all of these dudes.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, bruiser, Chris, Chin, you guys coming?
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_04: And they were all like, maybe.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_04: Is that real?
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_04: Is this actually and they're like, oh, it's it's definitely real.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_04: And uh, so that's been such a great connection.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_04: Like the fact that when they came to town, we me and my guys were the only people they knew.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_04: So we were hanging out with them all the time, and just even more so solidifying that friendship and relationship, and uh it's just been super fun.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_04: And and that strangely, uh I I never interjected myself into Cal Parry's world while I was there.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_04: And then because of Chris and the guys started taking care of Cal.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_04: And he's the he's a freaking sweetheart, right?
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_04: Just such a good dude.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_03: Those are the such great relationships that you never edge, you know.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_03: You're just like, hey, I'm here if you need me, hey, I'm here if you need me.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_03: And then slowly but surely they're like, even the top dog is like, hey, I've got some FOMO.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_03: What are you guys doing?
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_03: Who's this guy?
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_03: And so then finally that relationship you've proven yourself is like you always deliver what you say you're gonna deliver.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it's always good quality.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_03: The experience and the expectation was always delivered at crazy high level.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_03: And so now you got Coach Cow wearing your H-pan, right?
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_03: Dude.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I I used to carry a brand that had a pen that that was their stick.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_04: And when when I mean just it there was a lot, again, this goes back to the ego thing.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_04: There was so much ego involved in this brand, and it wasn't as good as they thought they were.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_04: And but they were known for that stupid pen.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_04: And I literally did the H-PIN as a little bit of a poke 'em in the eye kind of thing.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_04: And then uh the the first time I was at an event and I'd sold this guy who was kind of leading the event a jacket that day, and we got it ready real fast and put the H-Pin in.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_04: And then we all showed up to this event, and there were several people in the room wearing an H-Pin, and somebody came up to him and just went nuts about his jacket and asked about the pin.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_04: And he comes over to me and he looks at me and he goes, Donnie, three people have asked me about this pen in my jacket, and I think you're on to something.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_04: And then the people at our table saw another client wearing it, and that was when I was like, Oh, this can this can kind of be a good one.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_04: This could be something.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_04: And then there was the night we went to Ruperena for the first time and played Kentucky, and Cal was wearing a new jacket that I had made for him as a dark red plaid, so it really stood out.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_04: And Chris Ward texts me right before they went out on the court and he said, Hey Donnie, I just want to let you know Cal's wearing the new jacket you made him.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_04: And I was like, nice.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_04: And he goes, He's got the pin in.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_04: And I was like, No way.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_04: And I was up in Kansas City for a wedding, and we after the reception took off straight to a sports bar, and we're watching it on this massive TV, and then Cal comes out with that smirk on his face, you remember, and hit this gold H-Pin is like just glaring.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_04: And I was like, Yeah, and then it just went nuts.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_04: That's awesome.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_04: And and what's really funny now is if you Google what does the H-Pin on Cal Party's jacket mean, AI has this crazy narrative about my relationship.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_04: And it's outlandish at all.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_03: Check it out.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_03: It's like I'm not gonna deny or confirm, you know.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_04: It's like it's a good story.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, right.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_04: But uh no, it's been really fun.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_04: And and I I ran into a client uh last week as a new hotel up in Rogers having dinner, and I saw her sitting at the bar and walked up to say hi.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_04: And she sees my pen and she goes, Oh my god, the pen.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_04: She was like, I was at an event last week, and she goes, It's weird and it's cultish, and there's too many people wearing it.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, I think it's so important, and I I hope everybody is really enjoying this interview and and you know just our discussion that the power of the referral.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_01: Oh now you had to step through the door, you had to play your cards right in your approach, but the power of the referral.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_01: And and we talk about this in in our business, and you just nailed it.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_01: When you get a referral, you get to jump ahead of some steps.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_01: The people already trust you and they know you because you came from a trusted source.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_01: So your conversion, like you said, moves up to the 90 percentile.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_04: That's right.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're out there in business, and I and I know it's tough when you're in a small business and you're wearing the HR hat and the advertising hat and the CFO hat and all the rest of it to go, Matt, I don't even have time for referrals.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, you do.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_01: You have to make time for it because it'll change your business, and you just prove that with your stories.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's uh listen, it's been almost all by accident.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_01: You took action though.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_01: The fat pitch came across a plate and you stepped up and hit it.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you stepped up and hit it.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_01: You didn't let them call strike three.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_01: They might have called strike one and two on the lockers, but before you struck out, yeah, you stepped up.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_01: You stepped up.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_01: That that that's amazing.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_01: Great job.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_01: Great job.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, diving into I got a quick myth buster deal for you here.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_02: And a lot of people say this in different aspects of business, but do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_05: So you exactly.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_02: So bust it, you know, loving the product doesn't make payroll, right?
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_02: Hiring or a slow month any easier of the downfalls of anything you run into there.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_02: So um to love the job, I really think is is the fuel.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_02: That's the fuel that fires you and continues to push you forward.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_02: It's not the job description that says that it goes through and pushes over everything there.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of people, I think they they get in this modern day world when everybody is, hey, do this, and you don't have to work, and you don't have to really do anything, they get so hung up in there's still work you have to do, even if you love the job that you're doing.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_02: Oh boy.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_04: No, no question to it.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I didn't get the gray hair for nothing.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_04: My my wife tells people all the time there were seasons where I went whiter and whiter and whiter, like in short periods of time.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_04: And they were always something super stressful.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but yeah, man, the the I I don't know if you guys know, uh I'm I'm going through a a build-out of a new location right now.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_04: Uh I always said I would never do it again.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_04: It's so much work.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_04: And it's not the fun part of what we do, right?
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_04: Like it's not the picking out of fabrics and helping clients and putting it on it fits perfectly.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_03: Approvals and the all the stuff.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_04: Lighting packages.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_04: Oh.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_02: That's kind of the six years of we just finished up.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I've gone to probably 10 construction meetings, and I've let Matt, I'm like, I'm not interested.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_02: You keep going to the construction meeting.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you can see why Matt has the gray hair.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_03: It's not because he's way older than us, it's because we let him be in charge of construction of 150,000 square feet.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_03: Like you figure that's out.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_03: I'm I'm working on 7,100 kilometers.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_01: Next month.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_01: Now you just gotta tell you this, because they brought this up.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_01: Next month we finish our final building in the back, which we're really excited about, but we finish it up, and it has been six years.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's been seven years of construction, 15 years of planning.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_01: And what started off of amazing and exciting has had a lot of cycles of ups and downs.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_01: And like you said, you know, um, you know, trying to figure out the plumbing and the lighting and the contingencies in that all concrete.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_04: You know what's funny is I was driving here and I passed your entrance and I was like, I was going on the other side.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_04: And and uh no kidding.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, yes.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_01: I I gotta tell you a story about that.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_04: I came in down this street and I was like, ah, no exit.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_04: And I and and it literally, because of everything I'm going through right now, it went through my mind.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, I bet they planned it that way because they wanted to be able to keep everybody funneled in through a certain way, and that was like part of their like I'm having to think about so many things with the layout and the the parking lot, and that like we're not doing anything in the parking lot.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_04: I'm just saying like ingress, e-grass, where does the other thing?
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm like, no, that was that was probably part of the plan when they built it.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_04: That that that's what went through my head.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_04: Not why don't they have an entrance on this side?
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_04: Right?
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_01: You know, so two things, two things.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so glad you brought this up.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_01: Uh two things is is one from the interstate.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_01: We looked for land for a long time and we don't have long enough to go over that.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_01: But one of the reasons we picked this is it's got two ways you can get to it.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_01: So if you know you're coming here, you can get off on the Sam's Club exit.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_01: If you happen to pass it, it's not like, oh shoot, I got to do a U-turn.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_01: You can grab the next exit and it comes back.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_01: The reason it has one entrance in it, our old location had eight or nine entrances, ways you could get in.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_01: Nightmare.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_01: Especially for the customer that had never been here before.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_01: So we always look through the scope of if it's a U of A student, if it's somebody which people are moving here every day, it's the first time they're here.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_01: How can we direct them where it will more than likely dump them into what they're here for?
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_01: And about 80% of our business is service.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_01: So when you come in, you have to turn to not get dumped into the service department.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_01: Nice.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_01: So that was intentional.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's awesome.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_01: I'm glad you noticed it.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_01: That just made me happy.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_01: Isn't that funny?
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, they probably yeah, that that's that's awesome.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_03: I get it.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_03: So so fun fact for you, Donnie.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_03: During any for the last before we started construction, for 10 years, we researched, because this was we were at our last store for 55 years.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_03: Our great grandfather started in 1946 on the square.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_03: It was like, hey, this is gonna be a generational move here.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_03: And so every time we went on vacation or we traveled somewhere, we went to other businesses we wanted to mirror.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_03: So we went to a hundred different locations to learn what does the entrance look like and what does the signage look like and what's the display?
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_03: You know, you think of all the things that you've designed in your and so we kept like, let's take note from this person.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_03: We would go in and ask them, we're like, hey, how do you do your parts receiving?
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_03: And they're like, it's like, would you change anything?
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_03: They're like, Yeah, I would change this.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_03: And like, note it down.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_03: And so we did that for 10 years.
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_03: Like, we'd be on family vacation, like, hey, let's stop at the local X place.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_03: And a lot of them were dealerships, but we went to Sam's Club and we went to uh Blue Cross Blue Shield and and all these places to say, Hey, tell us about your employee space.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, Oh, what do you mean?
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, where do they spend their launch at?
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_03: And do you have a gym and what does that look like and all these things?
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_03: And like, let's learn from all these people's headaches and heartaches and just do it once correctly.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's cool.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_03: We put all the effort we can into it, right?
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_01: All we know.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_01: Trevor Burrus, Jr.: This one we actually got, the one we're in right now, we got all the design in.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_01: The other one we're franchised at the new car dealerships.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_01: So we got to design part of it, but the colors and the stuff can't change.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_01: The furniture, you got to order their furniture pile number.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_04: That's why this one looks so cool.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_04: I couldn't figure out what this was going to be for the longest time.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_04: Whoa.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_04: That's what we love.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm like, yo.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_04: A car dealership?
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_05: Dealership.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_05: What is happening?
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_01: Our architect's out of Benton.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so he deals with all he designs all the little rock guys stuff down there.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_01: And every one of them is like, what's that black building going to be?
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_01: What's the black man building?
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_01: Did you design the black building?
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's really cool.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, I want to I want to get into business.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_01: So I get into the details and I want to talk kind of about like what actually grows it.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_01: And this is the stuff that nobody else sees.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they see the fun stuff, and and they see you, you know, measuring somebody to get them that jacket on and all the rest of it.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_01: But what would you say the hardest part of your job is that nobody else sees?
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_04: Um I I guess it would be the most stressful thing is just managing people.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_04: You know, whether it's and and more often it's clients than employees.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_04: My employees are amazing.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_04: Um but uh just I I'm most stressed out about yeah, I'm I'm I just turned 50 and I'm I'm starting to like having to write down everything.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_04: Because I used to be able to remember everything I needed to do, and I'm so scared to forget something and then you know disappoint a client's expectations.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_04: And uh I I think it's just managing people's expectations is the most stressful part of what I do.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_04: The buying's easy, the the selling is easy, the the putting you know, being a circus barker, that's easy.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_04: Um yeah.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_04: I guess it's just customer and time management is the hardest part.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's a common theme when we talk to business owners.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_01: The you know, we talk about Saturday is our favorite day because we can just go out and talk to somebody about a car.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's the behind-the-scenes stuff and the rest of that on a on a Monday through Friday.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_01: So what we and you already got into this part.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_01: What do you think the percentage of your week is actually about close?
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, quite a bit, really, because I mean if I'm if I'm yeah, I'm constantly writing seasonal orders, I'm constantly writing custom orders.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_04: Um I'm we're we're merchandising the store, I'm receiving product.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_04: So I mean, we're we're putting our hands on clothes in every step of the process.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_04: Um and and then there's the occasional the Taylor Shop sewing machine broke down, and I've got to either order a new one, but we're down for the time that we're waiting on that one to deliver, so yours truly gets to be the sewing machine mechanic.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_01: You still got somebody waiting.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_04: Still got to order it.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_04: Freaking out like this happened a couple weeks ago or last month.
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_04: My seamstress comes over and she's like, uh, Donnie is I don't know what's happening.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, I sell clothes.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, well, does it look like I work on sewing machines?
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but you get to.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_04: I figured it out.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_04: That's right.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_04: There's a very specific timing for a certain part of a sewing machine that you have to like the needle has to be coming down, and this thing has to rotate at the exact right time to catch the thing.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my God.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_04: That was not fun.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_04: But you figured it out.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_01: But I figured it out.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_01: But you figured it out, you know.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna be able to do that.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_04: So it turns out I can fix industrial sewing machines now.
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_01: Love that, right?
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_01: Add that to your resume, you know?
• 48:10
  SPEAKER_01: Add it there for sure.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I'm sure you've had a few of them, but talk about a tough call you had to make, you know, involving a person.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_01: And that could have been an employee, that could have been a client that really wanted something one way, and you're like, they don't need to do that.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_04: Um I I have had to part ways with the client before, and that sucked.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_04: Where I just nothing we were gonna do was gonna make him happy.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_04: And it it just got to a point where it it didn't make me feel good to do it, but I I I just had to let him know that like I just didn't think there was anything that we were gonna do that was going to satisfy him.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_04: And I would like to recommend other places that I thought would be more the truth is no place.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_04: I just needed to get up here.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, at some point you and there's a lot of money involved, but you you're just like, dude, it's not it's just not worth it.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_01: You can see far enough down the tracks that even if I do this and I do this, yeah, the record's just gonna keep repeating itself.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_01: We got to move on because we can dedicate that time to another client.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm I'm I've got a few clients that are problem children that I kind of like having.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_04: They haven't gotten to that point yet.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_04: I'm sure my employees would be like, Yes, you do.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_03: Some of them, some of them you can manage, right?
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_03: We've got customers like that.
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_03: And it's it's it's fun.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_03: Sometimes it's fun to be able to wrestle that horse.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_03: When it becomes not fun, that's when you have to.
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_04: Correct.
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_03: When when they're and when they're destructive to your other employees or your other customers, then you're like, hey, come here, bud.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_03: We've always worked through this and you've always given everybody a hard time, but now you're just look at my employees.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_03: When you walk in, like they're like, oh gosh, Larry's here.
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_03: And then the other customers are like, they don't know how to take you.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_03: And so when you're coming in here yelling these things and things, and it's funny, it's not so much to them, right?
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_03: So it's like, hey, we either got to get back down a couple notches or I need to recommend you down here.
• 50:27
  SPEAKER_03: And it's not because I don't like you.
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_03: You and I get along just great.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_03: But if I'm not here, if I'm in Italy buying or with my family, how does the rest of everybody handle you?
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_03: They can't.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_04: And and I've had to address some situations where a customer is put in one of my my my right-hand guy, Caleb.
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_04: There was a long, long time ago.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_04: Caleb didn't have the authority to give this guy a discount.
• 50:51
  SPEAKER_04: Or you know, and uh this particular client came in and uh Caleb was like, dude, he was like hammering me for a discount, and like I I just felt like I had to do it.
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm he was like, Man, I'm really sorry.
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_04: I I didn't know what else to do.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, you did the right thing, it's totally fine.
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_04: I picked up the phone and I called this client and I was like, How dare you put my employee in a position where that's something that could get him fired because he was so uncomfortable because you were pressuring him to I was like, listen, man, I I like you and I've always enjoyed selling you clothes, but if you if you ever do that again, don't ever come in my store again, and you need to respect Caleb enough to never put him in that position either.
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_04: That was that was a tough phone call, but I I I wanted for Caleb to see that I was always gonna stand up for him.
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 51:51
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, absolutely.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_03: Like one customer is not worth that him not realizing that for Caleb to realize that.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_03: Like, hey, you did the right thing, you should have been nervous.
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_03: Like dis it's not like they can shop your product, no one else has it, right?
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_03: So I was like, why should I discount it?
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_03: But then he's like, Well, crap, it's tough to find another client.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so what should I do in this scenario?
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_04: And then the guy came back and respected it, and he he became an even better client and never asked for a deal again.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_04: That's great.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_01: What intrigued you to get exclusive clothing versus just mainstream?
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_04: Ego.
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_05: Fair enough answer.
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, uh I I just wanted to be the best for a while, you know.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_04: And like when uh I I touched on that a little bit earlier, that I was so young to and when when I realized kind of what I had, uh and I realized I kind of had lightning in a bottle, and that I was I I was cognizant of the fact that when I was buying in showrooms and I it's a very small community of luxury retailers, right?
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_04: So it it's everybody knows everybody.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_04: And you run in the same people in the same showrooms, and you kind of become friendly with the entire network.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, this person's dad started that, this person's grandfather started that.
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_04: They've been in business for 105 years, they're in Chicago, his dad started that, or you know, he he bought it from his father-in-law, and here I am.
• 53:22
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, oh, I started it like five years ago.
• 53:25
  SPEAKER_04: Here we are.
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_04: We're in one of the fastest growing spots in the country.
• 53:29
  SPEAKER_04: Very fortunate.
• 53:31
  SPEAKER_04: And I I realized it was special, and uh I knew there were other stores where you could get other things, uh, and it kind of just drove me to be that much more specific and that much more elevated.
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_04: And I I I brought Peter Millar to Northwest Arkansas, right?
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_04: And I kind of pride myself on this.
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_04: Obviously, I left money on the table doing it, but uh when Peter Millar started selling to freaking everybody, uh this is 15 years, 17 years ago.
• 54:07
  SPEAKER_04: I I took a stand and was like, nah, I'm out.
• 54:11
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 54:11
  SPEAKER_04: And they were like, Really?
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, dude, you're you're literally selling to another store on the same street.
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm I'm good.
• 54:23
  SPEAKER_04: I'm uh there's my business model.
• 54:25
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 54:26
  SPEAKER_04: And and it was kind of how I developed my business model of man, and then yeah, all these all these retailers got so pigeonholed into that one brand.
• 54:37
  SPEAKER_04: They're so dependent on it.
• 54:39
  SPEAKER_04: And uh I always kind of wore it as a badge of honor, and I'm like, I don't, I don't care that.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you know, like it wasn't a I had it and I lost it, and I was like, nope, booted them out a long time ago.
• 54:51
  SPEAKER_04: Because what it did for me was, you know, when brands start blowing up like that, and it's very different than cars, you guys have one brand, right?
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_04: Or or each church.
• 55:02
  SPEAKER_04: Whatever.
• 55:03
  SPEAKER_04: When a brand starts blowing up like that, they start getting a little bit like, oh, well, you know, we're doing really well, and we're gonna need you to buy this category.
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_04: If you want to continue to have an exclusive, or do you want to continue carrying the brand?
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_04: We need this kind of growth, we need this kind of presentation.
• 55:22
  SPEAKER_04: You and the what they're doing is just trying to grow their positioning within the store.
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_04: No doubt.
• 55:28
  SPEAKER_04: And there was one Italian brand that I carried that they just ended up owning my store.
• 55:33
  SPEAKER_04: And I was a I was one of the last accounts they'd ever opened in the US.
• 55:39
  SPEAKER_04: And uh it was it was a reason people were like, I I I can't believe you started this store and you have that brand in your store.
• 55:47
  SPEAKER_04: But they owned my store, man.
• 55:50
  SPEAKER_04: So when I came back to Northwest Arkansas after moving away for a year and started Hubber Clothing, everybody wondered if I was going to bring that brand in.
• 55:58
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, absolutely.
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_04: It's very prestigious, but they own you, man.
• 56:03
  SPEAKER_04: They they just push and push and put I I heard after I opened the store about five years ago, they sent letters out to all their accounts saying, Hey, we appreciate you being a great account for us.
• 56:16
  SPEAKER_04: Wanted to let you know, here's your new number.
• 56:18
  SPEAKER_04: This is what you got to spend when you come to the showroom.
• 56:21
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 56:21
  SPEAKER_04: And then when they got to the showroom, it was uh you know the number.
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you for coming.
• 56:29
  SPEAKER_04: We're gonna do business.
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_04: Here's how you're gonna spend it.
• 56:32
  SPEAKER_04: You're gonna buy this many suits, you're gonna buy this many shirts, you're gonna buy it, you know, and and then it became at the end of that appointment, oh, by the way, we're no longer gonna have a showroom in New York.
• 56:43
  SPEAKER_04: From now on, you have to come to Milan to see us.
• 56:46
  SPEAKER_04: And I was like, oh my God, think about it.
• 56:48
  SPEAKER_04: I don't do business with these guys.
• 56:49
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 56:49
  SPEAKER_04: You know, it was just such a relief that is a relief.
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_04: You made that decision.
• 56:53
  SPEAKER_04: I'm not enslaved to one brand in my store.
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_04: And it made my store that much cooler because I was able to go out and source cooler stuff.
• 57:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 57:02
  SPEAKER_01: That's correct.
• 57:04
  SPEAKER_01: You've been in it long enough that this is an easy one to talk about consistency.
• 57:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 57:09
  SPEAKER_01: And how consistency has helped you prevail through the ups and downs, and especially when the excitement wears off.
• 57:17
  SPEAKER_01: And we we all can kind of reset ourselves and get excitement back going, but that consistency we see is what pushes people through and leaves them relevant in today's business.
• 57:28
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 57:29
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 57:29
  SPEAKER_04: You know.
• 57:30
  SPEAKER_04: I I've preached that for a while to my guys, and they again to give them a lot of props, they they are wildly consistent and just some of the best dudes I know.
• 57:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 57:46
  SPEAKER_04: Our customers love them.
• 57:48
  SPEAKER_03: That that's so good of realizing that because learning your story of realizing that it hasn't been a gravy train by any means.
• 57:55
  SPEAKER_03: It's been the complete opposite end.
• 57:56
  SPEAKER_03: And you've opened and closed stores because of COVID, you know, because of opportunity, because of supply shortage or whatever it may be.
• 58:06
  SPEAKER_03: And I felt like it just, it's like you've trimmed fat, and it's just like like printing a tree, and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
• 58:14
  SPEAKER_03: And you're like, what?
• 58:15
  SPEAKER_03: You know, you you opened a couple other stores, uh, then the the Favel Sword became a speakeasy exclusive, you know.
• 58:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 58:23
  SPEAKER_03: Uh opened one in Bentonville, I believe, and then it's like, uh no, we're gonna stick with our main store.
• 58:28
  SPEAKER_03: Like in a in a year, close both of those stores.
• 58:30
  SPEAKER_03: It's uh the the same month.
• 58:32
  SPEAKER_04: Same month.
• 58:33
  SPEAKER_04: Happened to be uh 2020.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_04: All right.
• 58:39
  SPEAKER_04: And we had to protect the mothership.
• 58:41
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_04: You gotta do that.
• 58:43
  SPEAKER_04: Those were those were the two projects that you know, we were so excited about the success of what we were doing.
• 58:49
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 58:50
  SPEAKER_04: And it was going so well so fast that my partner was like, hey, let's let's assume the independent.
• 58:57
  SPEAKER_04: You guys know Judd Lee, right?
• 58:58
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, he's one of my best buddies, and we did the independent together for a while, and he still had that store.
• 59:03
  SPEAKER_04: And so Steve was an partner in that, and we we bought them out of that and we assumed that space and turned it into Hubbard Clothing up on the square in Bentonville.
• 59:13
  SPEAKER_04: And then within a very short period of time, we opened denim shop down here in Fayetteville.
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_04: And we were only open for seven months in Fayetteville when COVID hit, and and it was just rally the circle the wagons, rally the troops, and like let's protect the mothership, let's get out of that, let's get out of that.
• 59:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 59:30
  SPEAKER_04: And we but we were only open for seven months, so we had a lease on Fayetteville space.
• 59:34
  SPEAKER_04: And I was like, you know, it'd be cool.
• 59:37
  SPEAKER_04: There you go.
• 59:38
  SPEAKER_04: No inventory.
• 59:38
  SPEAKER_04: That would be that would be so cool, right?
• 59:41
  SPEAKER_04: That'd be cool.
• 59:42
  SPEAKER_03: That's where I know your ego is you've grown out of your ego.
• 59:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 59:45
  SPEAKER_03: Is that you didn't stand on, no, we opened this and we're gonna write it to the ground, right?
• 59:49
  SPEAKER_03: At all expense spared, you know, because then your mothership is paying for everything, and then there's no money left at all.
• 59:55
  SPEAKER_03: And then no matter how been there and done that, man.
• 59:58
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 59:58
  SPEAKER_03: No matter how much you love it, it still doesn't work.
• 1:00:01
  SPEAKER_03: Like you go home and you can't leave it at the door.
• 1:00:04
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, with the independent, we opened a store in Little Rock, and uh actually some guys that worked for Bowman's came over and they they opened the independent Little Rock for me.
• 1:00:14
  SPEAKER_04: And the result of that was me moving to Louisville, Kentucky to go work for somebody else for a little while.
• 1:00:18
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, gotcha.
• 1:00:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 1:00:21
  SPEAKER_03: I love that.
• 1:00:22
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 1:00:22
  SPEAKER_03: Well, fast answers, no explaining, guest and brother.
• 1:00:26
  SPEAKER_03: So we'll go around, I'll ask all three of you guys.
• 1:00:28
  SPEAKER_03: Just play it here.
• 1:00:29
  SPEAKER_03: All right, so Matt, best day.
• 1:00:32
  SPEAKER_03: Your first sale or your first great hire?
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_01: I'd say first sell.
• 1:00:36
  SPEAKER_01: First sell.
• 1:00:37
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, first sell.
• 1:00:38
  SPEAKER_03: All right, Donnie, harder.
• 1:00:39
  SPEAKER_03: A bad product or a bad employee?
• 1:00:42
  SPEAKER_04: Bad employee.
• 1:00:43
  SPEAKER_03: Correct.
• 1:00:44
  SPEAKER_03: All right, Taylor, more fun picking inventory or reading the profit and loss.
• 1:00:49
  SPEAKER_02: Come on, Taylor.
• 1:00:50
  SPEAKER_02: Picking inventory.
• 1:00:53
  SPEAKER_03: All right, Donnie, would you rather be the best salesperson or the best manager?
• 1:00:59
  SPEAKER_04: Best manager.
• 1:01:01
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 1:01:01
  SPEAKER_03: All right, I like it.
• 1:01:02
  SPEAKER_03: And Matt, biggest surprise when you became the owner.
• 1:01:08
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my god.
• 1:01:10
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, it's all on you.
• 1:01:12
  SPEAKER_03: It is all on you.
• 1:01:15
  SPEAKER_03: That that's so right.
• 1:01:16
  SPEAKER_03: I love those, right?
• 1:01:17
  SPEAKER_03: And there's a different feeling and the thought from every single person.
• 1:01:20
  SPEAKER_03: Donnie, I know we could have spent another hour and a half uh at least unpacking all the things.
• 1:01:25
  SPEAKER_03: Um this was so great to understand your story, what you're doing, the good things, and how it's not just a clothing company.
• 1:01:33
  SPEAKER_03: Like I learned that.
• 1:01:34
  SPEAKER_03: I heard another story uh without opening another can of I love that you guys sell a crazy high level, right?
• 1:01:42
  SPEAKER_03: Crazy high level.
• 1:01:42
  SPEAKER_03: But because of the barbershop, because of the speakeasy, anyone's welcome.
• 1:01:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:01:47
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 1:01:47
  SPEAKER_03: And the way that you treat everyone just as everyone's equal, you have to.
• 1:01:54
  SPEAKER_03: Like, do not judge someone.
• 1:01:55
  SPEAKER_03: And I love that.
• 1:01:56
  SPEAKER_03: It's cliche, but it's true.
• 1:01:58
  SPEAKER_03: It's so you don't know who, you know, who you're talking to and what their experience and how you can help them, right?
• 1:02:04
  SPEAKER_03: So it's been so much fun breaking this down.
• 1:02:06
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you so much for taking time.
• 1:02:08
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you guys for having me.
• 1:02:09
  SPEAKER_03: This is awesome.
• 1:02:10
  SPEAKER_03: We know you're busy, so absolutely.
• 1:02:12
  SPEAKER_03: We look forward to uh continue relationships and everybody out there, crossroad conversations podcast.com, Louis Superstore for all your automotive needs.
• 1:02:19
  SPEAKER_03: Donnie, thank you for joining us, and uh, we'll see you soon.
• 1:02:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, thank you.
• 1:02:24
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, thanks for joining us today, and we hope you enjoyed this episode.
• 1:02:27
  SPEAKER_01: Make sure to give it a like, share it with your friends and family, visit our website, and send us some questions.
• 1:02:32
  SPEAKER_01: We want to know what you'd like to hear, who you'd like to hear from, and what you want to see, or maybe even some questions for us to answer about either the automotive industry or just business in general.