1.png)
Charge Forward Podcast
The Charge Forward Podcast: Dedicated to those who choose to Charge Forward into the Storm when hit with challenges. This is what makes them different and has lead to their success. When in doubt.... Charge Forward!
Charge Forward Podcast
From Factory Floor to IT Director: Brandon Hurst’s Journey of Innovation, AI, and Leadership
What happens when a manufacturing expert transitions into a cutting-edge IT leader?
Brandon Hurst, Director of IT and Business Systems at Troy Industries, joins the Charge Forward Podcast to share his journey of adaptability, innovation, and leadership in the tech-driven world of manufacturing.
🔹 From managing operations to leading digital transformation, Brandon’s unconventional career path highlights the power of curiosity, mentorship, and problem-solving.
🔹 Discover how he leveraged AI and automation to modernize outdated systems, saving over $100,000 in development costs.
🔹 Learn why internal customer service matters just as much as external service—and how IT can become the backbone of efficiency in any business.
This episode is packed with insights on career pivots, leveraging AI, and mastering cross-functional leadership. If you're looking to level up in tech, business, or leadership, this one’s for you!
🎧 Listen now & Charge Forward!
Want to connect with Brandon Hurst?
🎙️ Troy Industries: Website
📱 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brhurst/
Charge Forward Podcast Links:
🎙️Podcast Page: Charge Forward Podcast
📱 Facebook: Charge Forward Podcast
📱 Instagram: @ChargeForwardPodcast
📱 TikTok: @ChargeForwardPodcast
📱 X: @ChargeForwardX
Special Thanks to Our Sponsors:
💳 Charge Forward Solutions – Merchant Services: Charge Forward Solutions
📈 Sense Development – Executive & Data Services: Sense Custom
🌟 Rosemary Salazar – Virtual Assistant Services: Find A Way with Rose
🎥 HitLab Studios – Podcast Studio: HitLab Studio
💡 New episodes drop every Thursday!
#IT #AI #SuccessMindset #Development #ProcessImprovement #Leadership
You are the cap for whatever goes on in your store, in your company, in your district, in your household. However excited you are, what you believe is possible, whatever that threshold is. Hey team, jim Cripps here with the Charge 4 podcast. I have a great treat for you today Mr Brandon Hurst. He is the Director of IT and Business Systems at Troy Industries. They're a small arms manufacturer here in Middle Tennessee and I'm excited to have him on the show. Brandon, welcome.
Speaker 2:Thank you. It's good to be here. I've been enjoying your podcast every week and it's good to come down and talk to you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, so small arms manufacturer. I mean, is that you guys work with Lego, or what I mean? Tell us about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not quite that simple. So Steve Troy started the company. He's a former military, former state trooper, had an idea for sights that would go on your gun and started the company that way and it's grown into an actual manufacturer of arms.
Speaker 1:That's fantastic man, and they're in Clarksville Tennessee.
Speaker 2:Yes, the company relocated to Clarksville from Massachusetts almost four years ago now.
Speaker 1:Okay, and then you relocated to Clarksville from Gosha Illinois, Gosha Indiana, Gosha Indiana.
Speaker 2:Gosha Indiana correct, northern Indiana, kind of like that Notre Dame territory. Okay yeah.
Speaker 1:And were you looking to move to Clarksville, or how did that all play out?
Speaker 2:I don't believe that I had heard of Clarksville, tennessee, at that point. Obviously, everybody knows where Nashville is at, but it wasn't exactly something I was looking to do at the time. No, Okay.
Speaker 1:So I mean, how did you end up here?
Speaker 2:I worked at a company, a successful door company, running the IT department up there, and we were so successful that we were purchased by a big publicly traded company. Were so successful that we were purchased by a big, publicly traded company. Um, uh, you know, that was good, good for the owners. But, uh, you know, the big companies don't typically buy companies for the people. You know they're buying the business and the machinery and the plants. Um, so it was really, you know, time to look for something else at that point.
Speaker 1:Okay, I gotcha. And you know when, when they I'm assuming you moved for this job.
Speaker 2:Yes, A recruiter happened to reach out to me around that time, so it was. It was really good timing. I did some research on Clarksville. I saw that it was, you know, listed as one of the best places in America to live. Sounded interesting. So you know, almost four years later, here we are.
Speaker 1:And I remember you telling me when we talked before that you really didn't want to relocate. It was just, it was kind of like, uh, maybe I don't know, and then everything just kind of came together.
Speaker 2:You know, if you live in northern Indiana, there's kind of this saying up there that if you're from Northern Indiana, you don't leave Northern Indiana. I'm not sure why that is. You know a lot of people I went to high school with still live in Northern Indiana. So it wasn't something I was pursuing, but you know, the opportunity was too good to pass up and had to jump on it.
Speaker 1:I got you Now. From when you came there to Troy Industries as the IT director, were you the IT director out of the gate?
Speaker 2:No, originally it was IT manager and the Epicor administrator, which is our ERP system.
Speaker 1:Okay and then. But you've worked your way up the ranks and now I mean, you're basically the guy that holds it all together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, recently got the title upgrade to IT director and all of our business systems, so really anything software related also. You know any improvements we're going to make with software, any of those kind of projects. I'm over that also.
Speaker 1:I got you and you know I've got a lot of experience in that. I've hired IT directors and I've hired people in those roles. In those roles and you know, one of the things that I always looked for is probably what I would say makes you special in that role is that some people do their job and don't really take into consideration how it affects people in the other parts of the business. And I know through our conversation that is a big part of what you do and how you do. What you do is to have as little negative impact on or causing people to, you know, kind of rock the boat and at the same time getting everything to work together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I didn't take the traditional path to be an IT manager or an IT director. I started off more manufacturing related. So, you know, going all the way back to my early 20s. You know I didn't go to college right away. I got a job right out of high school in a shipping department. Eventually that kind of led into doing purchasing and some sales and some marketing.
Speaker 2:Eventually I was plant manager over a plant of around you know, 35 people and through all of those experiences I learned what I was really passionate about was process improvement and I was also the only young guy in that company.
Speaker 2:So kind of by default I was doing our server backups on the old tape drives and learning Active Directory and that kind of stuff. And I really enjoyed that kind of stuff to the point where I would go home at night after work and teach myself things you know, buy some books from Microsoft, learn how to do some coding, so kind of taking that different path where I did manufacturing first and then seeing how technology can play into that. I kind of have a different perspective now as an IT director I can sit and talk with our purchasing manager and really understand what they're trying to get out of what they're asking me. I understand how it's going to affect them. I can you know if our shipping manager is looking to do something different. You know I started off working in shipping. I understand what they're asking for and what they're looking for, and I think it really helps me get the job done when it comes to improving efficiencies and helping the business.
Speaker 1:That's one of the missing pieces for a lot of people in IT and I don't mean that to be mean, because there are absolutely roles that need to just stick to what they're doing but I think in a director level it's important that you know what kind of impact you are having on the frontline team or in the back office team with whatever it is that's going on in IT.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I really believe that you have external customers in a business and that is who is buying your product. But what's even more important in some cases is your internal customers. If your job in a company is to put a part in a package and then that goes to shipping, well that next person in line is your internal customer, and with IT, pretty much everybody in the company is an internal customer. So you really have to you know, treat them that way. What are they looking for? What would help them, what is going to improve their quality of work? And really just try to bring all that together.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well, and I can say this for many of the people that I've hired in, it is it's not like they had a master's in information technologies. That wasn't what I was looking for, and so I mean, you were really either self-taught or you decided to take certifications, that kind of thing. You didn't necessarily go to college to do what you do.
Speaker 2:No, I've got an associate's degree in business management. I've never taken any IT courses. It was really, like I said, just buying books and getting into it and if you really enjoy doing something that doesn't feel like work. I wasn't taking out big student loans to get a degree. I was doing it because I liked it and then found a way to make money doing it.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I mean turning that passion into, uh, a job that you get to enjoy every day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. And you know, if I didn't have a job in it, um, I would probably still go home and be learning active directory or C sharp coding or, you know, messing with servers. I would still be doing that stuff because I enjoy it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, uh, so you move, move here to Clarksville and, uh, you're an IT manager over there and you know, I think one of the things as we've talked is that really kind of accelerated your growth path, is taking that holistic approach and going, okay, well, how can I help this along, how can I help the company get better? And you know whether, whether you thought about this or not but really how can I help these other individuals along the way? So that and I mean kind of proof, positive, positive as to why you're now the director of not only it but but business systems.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know it's definitely worked out if you can gain other people's trust. Yeah, you know it's definitely worked out If you can gain other people's trust. You know I've worked in companies where you come in and try to help someone, you know kind of automate their process and you know you kind of get shunned right away. It's you know you're trying to tell me what to do. You're in my lane and one of my best stories is that a job that I had where a purchasing manager did not want to talk to me, did not want me in her office, and you know we made some simple Excel macros and automated some of her processes and it was not a couple weeks later she was coming to me with ideas that she had on how we could automate stuff and she was super excited about it. So you know that was a complete 180 and really opening someone's eyes to how we can, you know, use technology to automate some processes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well, I mean the most, I mean the notorious or famous thing for businesses is we've always done it this way. Because we've always done it this way, yeah, I hear that a lot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, and kudos to you, because you know, every time we talk, you're you're talking about how you're trying to um. Every time we talk you're talking about how you're trying to help this person by automating this or that. I know recently there was a new software rollout that was missing some code or missing some things that you guys had built before, that you needed to adapt quickly, and so, if you will kind of walk us through that, yeah.
Speaker 2:So one of the first projects I did when I joined Troy was we used Epicor as our ERP system and we were still using Epicor 9, and it was past due time to move to Epicor 10. And that upgrade, you know, went really smoothly. But here recently we came across a situation where we needed some of the code from Epicor 9. Really, you know, we need to get that into Epicor 10, but it's based on different coding. You know Epicor 10 is C Sharp. Epicor 9 was based on, you know, progress Database, some other coding that I don't even remember what it was now right.
Speaker 2:So you know I've messed with C Sharp a little bit, but you know I'm not a software engineer. I'm not. You know I've messed with C sharp a little bit, but I'm, you know I'm not a software engineer. I'm not, you know, prolific at coding. So I opened up, you know, my, my AI. I've got one dedicated to help me with coding and I explained to AI hey, this is what we used in Epicor nine. I need you to uncomment the correct lines, turn this into C sharp coding. So it's going to work for us in Epicor 10. And I had my doubts about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So, uh, you know, it spits out all this code, I put it into, uh, into Epicor 10 and comes out with an error message. I was like, okay, you know I wasn't expecting this to work, but you know, let's, you know, let's keep going with this. So I'll go back to AI and I put in exactly what that error message was. It gave me an explanation and spit out a whole new bunch of code and put that into Epicor 10 and it worked. You know, I didn't have to try to rewrite that code, it just did it for me. And you know, I got to move on, to move on to something else, and we've got the benefits of you know that code now.
Speaker 1:That's fantastic Without spending significant money on new developers or waiting on the software company to try to put that into their next wish list and those types of things. I see this in a lot of IT people. They're quick to adapt. Now, that's not all of them. Some of them are stuck in their ways. How much do you think it's important to you in your role that you are quick to analyze and then decide, make a decision on how to adapt?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think one thing that IT people have in common is we're not scared to push the button right. As long as you've got good backups and you've got a plan for what could happen if things go south, we're willing to try something out and see what happens. It's, you know, going into your sandbox environment and running some test code. You know, convincing some people to. You know, let's just try this for a couple weeks. Code convincing some people to, let's just try this for a couple of weeks. As long as you've got a good contingency plan, you just got to try something new and believe that it's going to work out and then, if it doesn't, you can get back to where you started.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, and I love what you said. There is that IT people just by default, most are not scared to push the button.
Speaker 2:It's kind of funny that a lot of IT people are scared of a lot of things, but when it comes to computers, we have this confidence level that a lot of people don't have, and we have faith that if something goes wrong, we'll be able to fix it.
Speaker 1:Spending a little bit of time on AI. What do you think is the most shocking or the most interesting thing that you've seen so far? And it can be in work, it can be in any part of AI, I guess what interests you the most or what has kind of been like wow, I didn't realize it would do that.
Speaker 2:AI continues to amaze me every time I try something. You know I've told you this story. You know one night at bowling me. Every time I try something. You know I've told you this story. You know one night of bowling.
Speaker 2:I think the true power of AI is going to be that it can identify problems that maybe a human would miss. For instance, on our house I noticed I had a gap between the trim and the brick next to the garage door. And you know, I'm a computer guy, I'm not a handy guy. I've got a few tools, but you're not going to see me with a table saw, right, that's right. So I've got an idea of how to fix this, but I want to see what AI says. But not only do I want to see what it says, I want to see if it identifies the problem.
Speaker 2:So I just took a picture of this gap in the trim, loaded it into an AI chat that I had started about home ownership. I think it's important if you're using something like ChatGPT to not mix your conversations. You want to have like a focus of each chat. So I already had a home ownership chat going. I loaded this picture in with no context and I was floored. When it spit out and it said it appears you have a gap between the brick and the trim here on your garage door. Here's a list of materials that you need to purchase, along with instructions on how to fix it, and I was like whoa. I was like if we can identify problems with technology, that is like next level stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, and then, at the same time, it helped you dive in further um, in order to kind of figure out how to fix it.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, you know, not only is here here, here's your problem, here's what you need, here's how to fix it and you can go about your day. And I followed the, you know, went to Lowe's, got the, got the stuff, some things I wasn't aware of, like some filler, like foam filler material. An hour later I've already been to the store, got it fixed and to this day it still looks good.
Speaker 1:I don't know that I knew this at all. In fact, I don't think we'd ever talked about this before. But the spirit of guests that we have on the Charge Forward podcast is really people who default to charging forward when other people would give up, and that can be all kinds of scenarios, whether that's in career, that could be in life, that could be in an entrepreneur's journey, just could be a health problem. But you lived through something pretty traumatic at your workplace and so, given that scenario, it does kind of shock me that now you work for an arms manufacturer. So if you will kind of walk us through that, if you, if you can do that, yeah, so a company I worked at called Newwood and Goshen back in 2001.
Speaker 2:And this was only three months after 9-11. So we were kind of fresh off of that, worked at a factory where, you know, long story short, we had an individual come in with a shotgun and started shooting. The plant manager was killed, some other people were injured and I was located in an office that was right in the front and actually saw him walk in and start shooting. We locked that front door and hid under some desks, called 911 and really just got lucky that he decided to walk past us. Um, you know, it was on CNN.
Speaker 2:Um, crazy experience. You know what you think you're going to think when something like that happens is not what you think. Um, you know, I I think it's uh, sort of uh, adrenaline or like a panic mode, like I just kept thinking, wow, this, this is probably going to be on TV. Like you know, I wasn't. It was odd that I wasn't scared, just having weird thoughts like that. So it really took a couple of days to sink in. And you know, all these years later, now I'm working at a firearms manufacturer. It is a little, a little ironic Sure, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Um. And then I mean did you stay at that company? Or I mean, what post post that event, what? What happened to the company and your role there?
Speaker 2:And yeah, so the plant manager was also kind of the general manager. He was really our top salesperson, so the company, um you know, struggled a little bit. After that. I stayed on an additional seven years probably.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just the. That gives you some context for what you do in IT and how you can help other people or the other other players that make this whole thing come together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you kind of you talked to you kind of hit on personalities of, you know, willing to to get things done. I think you know we talked a little bit about this. I'm kind of hit on personalities of willing to get things done. I think we talked a little bit about this. I like everything just to be calm and nothing rocking the boat. So if something happens or there's an opportunity for improvement or something, I kind of hyper-focus on that. It drives my fiance crazy, but if there's a problem with the house, I focus on wanting to get that fixed. If there's a new dashboard that I'm creating for work that I think can help with some time, I kind of hyper-focus on that. I think I get that from my dad. He's the same way, but he might be worse than I am when it comes to really focusing in on something. But yeah, I just like that neutral level and I'll kind of do anything I can to get back to that space.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, we were talking about personality profiles and I've got a lot of experience in using the DISC profile and you know, when we were talking, you were like I hadn't really done that and I said I didn't tell you. Right now You're a high C, high S. One because you're methodical about you know checks and balances, and then two, uh, an S. A lot of times, an S gets overlooked and, in my opinion, an S is very powerful because an S will adapt to become any of those things in order to keep from allowing the boat to rock, and so I think that's that's probably what makes you so good at your role and making sure that all those systems work together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I've definitely got that analytical, you know, mindset. I love to see stats. You know we'll talk later how we met through bowling, but you know, when we bowl I keep track of all that stuff. I can go back and look at graphs. I don't think I'm your, you know, typical computer nerd, because I didn't come up that way. But I definitely still am, though, cause I love, I love stats and keeping track of things and seeing, you know, progress and trends and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:Well, and you're kind of a techie at home too. Tell the viewers out there about, about your TV setup.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So a while back I built a home server and it's running Unraid, which is a Linux system, and it really just kind of started with. I wanted to see if I could do it. A lot of the things I've gotten into, started with I wanted to see if I could do it. Um, a lot of the things that I've gotten into, started with I want to see if I can do this. And then it kind of builds from there.
Speaker 2:So I've got a home server that runs some virtual machines that if I want to learn something new, you know, in the it world, I'll kind of play with it on there. And I've also, um took one of our spare bedrooms and built like a full-blown movie theater. So I've got the projector, 140 inch screen, I've got, you know, the typical surround sound, but then I've got the four ceiling speakers so you get that full atmos experience. Um, for anyone who's not familiar, clarksville is very close to fort campbell and, uh, if we watch a war movie in my movie room it sounds like fort campbell is descending upon the house, like it's.
Speaker 2:It's a pretty, pretty sweet setup yeah, absolutely well, and you've also got it segmented so you can watch four or six different things on the actual screen itself yeah, so it's 140 inch screen and I was watching I think I had a nascar race or something on one day and they did the kind of picture and picture commercial where they take the the race and put it up in the corner and then the rest of it is the commercial screen right. So I'm sitting there looking at this. I'm like they minimize the race to this small little screen, but my screen is so big that I can still watch the race like it's a normal tv. So that got me the the idea, and this is how I get into these IT projects. I wonder if there's something that would do that. So I found an HDMI box. I don't recall the exact name of it, but basically you can feed four inputs into this box and then get a four split screen. And as long as you have something feeding each one of those, you can put it on different channels. So you know, for instance, I use YouTube TV, um, I pay a little bit extra so I get the unlimited streaming.
Speaker 2:So March Madness um is awesome at my house. I've got all four games on on the four different screens. Um, I can hit a button to change the audio. So if, uh, if, I want to hear what they're saying on this game. I can switch over to that. Really. The only downside to it is if you have someone over watching this with you, I might be focused on one screen, they're focused on another screen and they're getting excited about a dunk or something and I missed it because I was looking somewhere else. But it kind of gives you that B-dubs experience right in your house. So that's pretty cool. That B-dubs experience right in your house. So that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:That is cool. Well, it sounds like here in just a couple weeks, it may be March Madness at your place.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, If you want to come over. Yeah, Brink Castle, we can get it set up and see who can win the bracket contest.
Speaker 1:That's right. That's right Now. Along the way, I know you've had some mentors that have really kind of spoken into your path and how you think about things and and your success who, who would you, who would you say, is probably some, some of the biggest contributors.
Speaker 2:Oh, without a doubt. Um, there's a gentleman named John Greco. He um, he was sort of like the division manager. I believe it was at my first job, so, uh, like I mentioned, I didn't go to college. Right out of high school I started a shipping receiving position and he was over that facility as well as a couple other facilities and just working with him over the years I heard him talk a lot about how the CEO of that company had kind of become his mentor and he had John had worked a lot and gained a lot of experience from his mentor and gotten opportunities. And I really kind of, when I heard him talking, I thought, well, you know, hey, you know, maybe john could be my mentor someday and so I tried to learn as much as I could from him and and everybody else that worked there. And I've actually worked with him at three different places now. It was the original job and then at one point he took over as the CEO of Newwood After the shooting he had come in, and at the point I decided that I wanted to kind of flip careers and get out of business management, plant management, and really focus on IT.
Speaker 2:He was at a different company, as the vice president there and had an opportunity for an IT project role. So I went to work for the third time for him there and he really gave me the opportunity to get into IT. And it's been a couple years since I've seen him. He actually owns his own business in the Indianapolis area. Um, they do uh, mirrors, uh, you know closet type of stuff or new construction. They'll come in and and, um, not only sell the parts but do the installation of your racks and mirrors and all that kind of stuff. Um, so he's really doing uh, doing good up there. But to this day, you know, I'll call him and be like hey, you know, um, you know, I, you know I moved to Clarksville. I, you know I talked to him about you know. Hey, you know, shouldn't, you know, do you think I should do this? And I really value his opinion. And to this day I still talk to him, you know, whenever I get a chance.
Speaker 1:Well, and I think you value his opinion because he's looking at it from his perspective, but keeping you and what's good for you in mind, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Um, you know when, when just recently I put this new um title on my on my LinkedIn page and he was one of the first ones to congratulate me and um, almost as if that has become like a like a work dad in a lot of ways, you know he said he, you know he said he was proud of the progress I've made and it makes you feel good and it's kind of awesome to have uh to to meet someone like that who has paid it forward and helped me, and hopefully I can do that with somebody else.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. Well, I think you already do in that, the fact that you are willing to kind of be the one that speaks up first. What I mean by that is, you know, I think they said they studied people that had the most friends or the most influence, and it was because they were quicker to smile and interact with someone in a positive way. They weren't waiting for the other person, and I think when somebody new comes into the company, or you guys work with a new partner, you're pretty quick to jump in and say how can I help?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I try to be um, you know, it people, we are not known for being the most friendly and the most most approachable, and I, I, you know I've got to say I'm, I'm guilty of that. Um, when you've got a lot on your plate, you got a lot going on, uh, you kind of overlook trying to be friendly and be nice to people. But, uh, something, um, something I need to improve and and, and I'm still trying to work on.
Speaker 1:Well, I look at it like this and you know, I had, uh, um, I had a, a tech one time that we were no longer going to have texts and he was my top tech and we allowed texts to interview for sales roles, even though a lot of them that was not what they were going to do. They weren't, they weren't necessarily skilled at that. And this guy moved over into that role and he was a tech tech. I mean, he was borderline antisocial. You know, I did not feel good about the transition and fast forward. Three months later he was our top sales rep. So I literally I drive to Sevierville, tennessee to sit down with him and find out how. And he goes, jim, he goes.
Speaker 1:I've always had tools a screwdriver, a screen, a battery, a wire, my soldering iron in order to fix people's problems. And as soon as I figured out that the only tools that I had to fix problems anymore were the things that we sell, then that's how I fix problems. And so he would ask two or three times as many questions, and so much so that some people would get aggravated with him. But then, when he would prescribe the solution for the problem, he knew their entire problem and he knew whether or not it would fix it, and so I almost look at it like that. You're really solution selling when you go to somebody to help them with you know to to automate some things or to take some things off their plate.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I used to hate the saying that you don't know what you don't know. Like when I was younger I thought that just meant like one equals one right, like that doesn't make any sense. But you get older you really learn what that means. You might have a problem and there might be a solution that you've never thought of. But someone else might have the experience and have you know, has seen this issue before. You don't know what you don't know, but now you do. And how can we implement this to solve a problem?
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, and my, my favorite best practice, for that is as a leader someone comes in and asks their team to help brainstorm or to give their suggestions, without them giving their suggestion first, Because otherwise you're going to end up with some yes men or some yes women where they're just like oh yeah, that sounds like a great idea. Get the collective first, Get you know, pick their brain so that they're not just agreeing with you brain so that they're not just agreeing with you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think, um, one of the things I've learned from from past jobs and some things I've heard described really well Um, if you've got an idea, you don't like you said, you don't want to come in and say like this is what we're doing.
Speaker 2:Um, you have a lot better chance of getting people from point a to point B If you convince them on their own terms to get on the bus. You can lead a conversation towards a goal In my mind. I'm thinking we can use IT to do this. But with the purchasing example, I'm not going to tell you and try to get in your lane and tell you how to do purchasing, but steer the conversation where you get them going with you in that lane and tell you how to do purchasing. But, you know, steer the conversation where you get them going with you in that direction and having that cooperation, it's going to be a lot easier to get to that end goal and you and they you know they're doing the job you might there might be something that you overlooked that they're going to help correct and the idea is you're both on the bus and you're going to the best destination.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so a lot of people are resistant to change, just in general, uh, but especially when we talk about automation, why or what would you, what would you give as your best argument to, to, to encourage people to be open to automation and cause some people they take, um, I'm not saying, say, pride they, they kind of of hold on to. This is what I do, this is how I do it. What would you say to them?
Speaker 2:I think the best way to explain that and we've been talking about the purchasing role, so let's stick with purchasing. If you have someone in purchasing, people want to feel valued and they also can be a little worried that you know automation is going to take their job away. So if you have someone in purchasing who's going to sit at a computer and enter purchase orders and you've got an idea to help them automate that and they're resistant, you know, just kind of explain that. You know we're not trying to take your role away from you. This is going to be good for you If I can automate how we're getting POs into the system, how we're receiving POs, how we're paying for POs and you take that time that we're saving you and you focus your efforts on talking to vendor relationships, getting us better pricing. That's going to make you look a lot better for the company in the long run, that you're contributing to the bottom line and not just doing some busy work. So if you can get people thinking in that mindset, that definitely helps.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, uh, it's that whole analogy of stepping over dollars to pick up pennies. Yeah, absolutely Um well, you know, we touched on it just a minute ago. You brought up bowling and, uh, you know, yes, we're on the same team and it was just kind of haphazard. You moved to town and we're looking to pick up on a team, but this bowling pin over here is really your fault.
Speaker 2:You know I joke that I should take a little bit of the credit. I know, when you bowled your first backwards 300, you were interviewed by was it Bowlers International? Bowlers Journal, bowlers Journal International? Yeah, yeah, so they also talked to me because I convinced you to bowl in this doubles tournament. And you know, without my guidance I really don't think this would have ever happened, jim. So it's a good thing I talked you into this, that's right, and the encouragement lane side.
Speaker 1:There you know the conversation, all the things.
Speaker 2:How big a part has bowling been in your world. I've made a lot of connections through bowling. If it wasn't for bowling, I wouldn't be sitting here right now. If I look at my friend group that I've maintained over the past 20 years, it's almost exclusively related to people I've met through bowling. I used to be a lot better, exclusively related to people I've met through bowling. I used to be a lot better. You know, as I've gotten older and don't practice as much, my average has definitely tanked. So I get more out of our Thursday night league, just like chatting with you guys and hearing about your business and you know hearing how Troy's doing at the shop and how Andrew's doing down at the courthouse, and I think Thursdays have become more about that than just my average. You might not be able to tell cause if I'm doing bad, I don't look very happy, but uh, I am still, you know, enjoying the experience of being there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, same here. And uh, you know to give. To give Andrew a bit of a shout out. He has gotten so much better in the last 18 months.
Speaker 2:Andrew is doing really well. What Andrew needs to do is work on his confidence. I think once he shoots that first 700, I think it's going to become second nature. He just needs the confidence to make the right moves and believe in himself. I think that's what he's still missing in his bowling game at this point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now you guys bowl a mixed league too, right?
Speaker 2:Correct. So my fiance had never bowled in a league before and my neighbor, anthony, who got me on your guys' team to begin with. We bowled a mixed league with him and his wife last year Tara, no bowling experience. She averaged 97. So she's throwing an eight-pound ball and she used to make fun of me for um, you know, complaining about all my timings off. You know I'm in the house like pretending to do my release and she didn't understand any of that. And then I got her in this first league and now she's like. You know, I felt that I felt like this step was off just a little bit and I forgot to follow through on that one. So I think I've I'm not going to turn a bowler into her, but she's um, she's enjoyed it and I think I've got her kind of understanding. You know how I can get so frustrated with it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's great. Well, and that kind of leads me to the next thing, and I mean this this was not a plan when I started the podcast, but it has come up in most podcasts early on it was just kind of organically. And now I, now I just ask it. But you know how important is spouse selection to your overall happiness and success and just all the things in life.
Speaker 2:I wish I knew who I saw that said this on LinkedIn yesterday. Uh, the other day it was a big business leader Um, it wasn't Jack Welsh, but it was somebody sort of on that level said that one of the most important decisions you can make in your life and contribute to your success is your selection of a partner. I don't know if I used to believe that, but Tara and I have been together for four years and I 100% believe in that. Now I don't think I could have pulled off moving to Clarksville without her help and and talk about a leap of faith Like we were living an hour apart in Indiana. We had only been dating for six or seven months when I got this job and I was like, hey, I've got this job in Clarksville, why don't you quit your job and go with me? Like, looking back, that sounds kind of crazy for me to say, right, but she was on board and it's and it's worked out and, um, love her for it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, and she's fantastic. Um, in fact, you know you guys join us for Thanksgiving and all those things, and we love having you guys around and she comes to bowling every once in a while. Um, you know, peaks in and make sure that we're doing the right things on Thursday nights.
Speaker 2:Yeah, since I got her bowling the mixed league I have. You know she doesn't pop in on Thursdays quite as much. I think she gets her fill of a of the pinnacle of one night a week. Oh yeah, um yeah, it's been a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:Now something crazy happened about a year ago. Uh, so we were. We were headed to the state tournament and you get a phone call right as you're pulling in Ball people through that one.
Speaker 2:So, uh, you know, I used to bowl the state tournament in Indiana every year and, bowling with you guys, I was like hey, you know, you know, do we bowl? I'm assuming we bowled the state tournament and it was like no, you know, we've never really done that. I'm like all right, so we're doing it Like we're going to go. It's not that far away. We're going to go down to Murfreesboro and bowl the state tournament and Tara works at the local jewelry store there in Clarksville and she had a little Kia Soul that she loved.
Speaker 2:Loved it. We called it her little green toaster, which in hindsight was probably the wrong name when we find out here in a second what happened. But yeah, so I'm pulling into the waffle house in murfreesboro or somewhere and, uh, I'm getting a phone call from tara. Now she is notorious for doing the butt dial and it's not really her calling me, but you know I always pick up just in case. And I hear her talking to somebody. I'm like, yeah, you know it was a butt dial. But then I hear you know, I hear some sirens in the background I'm like, well, this might not be good.
Speaker 2:So basically, what happened was she was having some issues with her car. She didn't want to worry me because I was out of town going to this bowling tournament. And she's driving down Wilma Boulevard, which is like the main drag there in Clarksville, and the bottom of her car is on fire and she doesn't realize that it's on fire. And she's just driving and she's got people yelling at her to pull over and she doesn't know if she trusts them. But you know, luckily they talked her to get out of the car. She sees it's on fire.
Speaker 2:You know, the police were awesome. They give her a ride back to the jewelry store and I joked with her. I was like you know, I leave town for one weekend and you end up in the back of a cop car, like what, what is what is going on up there? Like the timing the timing of it was was was crazy too, but thankfully. Thankfully she was okay and wasn't injured and, um, you know, that car was good for her but, like I said, calling it the toaster ended up being being a bad move.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I totally get that. Well, you know, one of the things that shocked me in that moment, on that day you have an incredible work ethic, but so does she, because most people would have lost their mind and, you know, in a heartbeat would have not been going to work. She went back to work.
Speaker 2:She went back to work. I mean her, her car is charred on the side of the road and and yeah, she went. She went back to work. She is, um, I wish I had a quarter of her energy. I mean she just she doesn't stop. If there's, if there's no customers coming in, she's cleaning, or I mean she is, and she's the same way at the house she does uh, she does not sit and watch TV.
Speaker 1:She's always busy with something and just always on the go and and cares a lot about people and what she's doing. Oh yeah, Well, again, I think it speaks to her work ethic and, uh, they really rely on her.
Speaker 2:there Is it McKenzie, smiley Yep McKenzie.
Speaker 1:Smiley Yep, and she's been there four years.
Speaker 2:Uh, yeah, she started there, you know. I mean talk about things just kind of working out. Like you know, we had moved down and she took a little bit of time off to help get the house situated and get us settled. And she worked at a jewelry store up in Fort Wayne, indiana, and had been there for a few years and when she went to look for a job it was bam, right there, they were looking for somebody, and it worked out perfect.
Speaker 1:That's great, that's great. Now you guys have got some big stuff coming up. Uh what? Four or five, I believe April, april, 5th four or five to five.
Speaker 2:There you go. So Tara is not great at remembering dates. Um, I'm not. I'm still not sure that she knows when my birthday is. Um, she can tell you what outfit I was wearing three years ago when we went to Yotta downtown Clarksville to eat. She can tell you that numbers not so much. So we went with four, five, two, five, because it's got kind of a ring to it. So, um, it's not only going to help me, which is super important, but, uh, I think it's going to help her. You know, remember that date also that's great.
Speaker 1:Well, we're looking forward to that. We're looking forward to you guys uh, making it official and uh, we've had a lot of fun over the last year or so with you know, the picking out of the ring and all those things, but you had a little help with the ring this time.
Speaker 2:You know, there's a big benefit to having her work at a jewelry store. We got a good deal. We got a good deal. She got to pick out you know what it is that she wanted. She gave me a few options and I was smart enough to talk to her boss to figure out which one she really wanted. That's the one that she went with and she still loves it. So we were good there. That's great.
Speaker 2:Now, aside from that, what gets you excited about the future? I'm really curious to see where AI takes us. I'm excited for the future of Troy Industries and my role there. You know, going back 20, some years now, I've always been charging forward, trying to, trying to learn more, trying to be better, trying to take on more responsibility, and I'm over halfway to retirement. So I'm getting. I'm getting to where I can see like an end to all this, right, and I don't know. So I'm getting to where I can see an end to all this. I don't know that I really want to retire. I'm pretty sure I'm still going to be at home messing with a server when I'm in my 70s if I'm lucky to make it that far, just continuing the journey and see what happens.
Speaker 1:I think you got a good shot at getting well past 70 because your dad's in his 80s, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, my dad is about to be 83 in a couple months.
Speaker 1:And getting around pretty good. I've seen him at the bowling center when he comes to visit.
Speaker 2:He's still out golfing. I mean, if it's warm in northern Indiana, he is at the golf course. He's shooting his age now, a stubborn man. It took a long time to get him to play from the senior tees. Um, he, he once told me, if I have to play from the senior tees, I'm not playing anymore. Um, but you know, with a little persistence, um, he finally started doing that and is enjoying it.
Speaker 1:And he loves, loves golf. If he's not golfing, he's probably watching the golf channel. I got you. That's good. Well, do they? Do they travel, they? They get any golf in during the winter, or or they stay pretty well local there.
Speaker 2:Uh, pretty local. Um, even when we were kids we didn't, we didn't travel a whole lot. Um, my grandparents um had a house up in the mountains in Eastern Tennessee so we would make that trip once a year. Uh, you know, went to Dollywood uh, one time. My, my parents and my family not big travelers- Okay, I got you.
Speaker 1:Now this one is slightly controversial, but we're not trying to get anybody canceled or anything. But what is something that you think is a truth that just needs to be said, and I can't take ownership of this one. This one came from the Goat Consulting Podcast, so a big shout-out to both Colby and John over there. But it's things we think but do not say.
Speaker 2:I think, uh, something that everybody's thinking and maybe more people are starting to say it, is that College is just too expensive. The return on investment is going to get to the point where maybe it's not worth it for everybody 22-year-olds coming out of college. What is college costing these days? Tens of thousands of dollars, $100,000?.
Speaker 1:To put it in perspective, I think Austin Peay is about $35,000 a year. You're looking at $35,000 a year.
Speaker 2:So you're looking at what? $140,000? Yeah, no-transcript, I'm not saying that you shouldn't pursue your degree. You know I don't want, um, I don't want a doctor operating on me that didn't go to college, right, I don't want a pilot who's not qualified flying me across the country. But I think, just because you didn't go to school for something, that means you're dead in the water.
Speaker 2:Um, you know, we've heard a lot about trade schools for a long time. You can, you know, make good money being a plumber or doing some things, but I think it's also getting to the point where you can learn IT, you can learn accounting. You know it's crazy, you pay so much for a college degree, but those books that you have to buy to take those classes, there's no rule or law that says you can't go buy those books and read them and learn something from them and maybe teach yourself some things out of them. Now, have I missed out on some opportunities because I don't have a master's degree in computer science? 100%. Have I been able to, you know, have a decent career having an associate's degree in business management and nothing above that? 100%. So I think, if you're passionate about something and you're willing to work on something, you don't have to borrow all that money for a piece of paper. It's not 100% necessary.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I think just alternative education or alternative ways to look at it are really kind of a lot of the future will be in that. You know, if you were trying to learn AI from a book right now, the books so far outdated, it's not even relevant at the moment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there, there has never been a better time, um, to teach yourself something. There's never been a better time to find, uh, the knowledge, whether it's, uh, youtube videos. I, you know, swapped out my own water heater from watching a YouTube video. There's Reddit, forums. There's really smart people that you're bowling with that you can find out things. I had first heard about ChatGPT from you and now it's a huge part of what I do at work.
Speaker 2:Knowledge is powerful. Going way back to one of my first jobs and I can't credit exactly who told me this but they said, uh, if you want to make more money, then you have to be more valuable to the company that you're at, and to be more valuable to the company you're at, you need to learn as much as possible. Um, you know, if you're going to work to be, I started off as a shipping clerk and I can go to work and just do that, or I can show interest in becoming more knowledgeable. I can learn about purchasing, I can learn about sales, I can learn how the business operates, and I think I really took that advice to heart and, 20-some years later, I still remember that. So, always looking to learn new things and and and just be a smarter, a smarter person.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well, I think, I think if you, um, if you've decided that you're not going to learn anymore, well then you might as well go ahead and retire.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean whether, whether it's you or a business. I mean they say if you're not growing, you're dying, right, so you gotta, you gotta, keep charging forward. It's right there behind you, well, and you know, uh, your point to that.
Speaker 1:You know I can remember sitting in a sales training September of 2015. And you know I'm sitting in this, this sales training. We each, everybody paid five or 600 bucks for a one day ticket and it was a presentation with the Jack Daly. And Jack goes around the room. He's asking people you know how many of you are growing? At least 10%. People raise their hands. How many are growing? At least 20% people raise their hands. I did. And then, um, you know they go 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 100, 200, 300, a few people still raising hands.
Speaker 1:And I'm sitting there looking around the room and he says just point blank if you're not growing at least 20% year over year, you probably won't be in business in a couple of years. And at first I was defensive to that because you know I'm like the owner's making the kind of money he wants to make. I'm making good money, people make good money. And the next day I had a different attitude and it was I'm going to see how hard I can make this thing go. What can we rev this thing up to? And sure enough, four months later, we had doubled our accessory sales and my competitors were really in disbelief.
Speaker 1:How did you do that? There's Amazon, there's this, there's this. We just decided to, and you know whether, regardless of which side you wanted to win this past election, you know people get worried about the economy and is there going to be recession, and this and that, and you get to decide whether there's a recession. You get to decide whether you adapt. You get to decide what your goals are. You get to decide the the um morale of your team, and I think that's that's powerful. You've got to decide.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think, um, whether it's personal life or business, like if, if you're not pushing uh, pushing the boundaries and moving forward, well, your competitors are and you're losing ground. Um, I just saw um an interview um that Kobe Bryant did that he talked about, uh, anybody can be motivated to do something when you feel like doing it. It's it's that morning that you wake up and you don't feel like going to work, or you don't feel like going to the gym and you do it anyway. That's what separates successful people from getting by people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's. It's when motivation has faded and now we're operating a discipline.
Speaker 2:I need to remember this conversation. Um, next time I'm supposed to go to the gym and I don't feel like going.
Speaker 1:I'll hold you accountable. Um, well, you know, as as as we kind of move through this, and you know to your point that classic education, classic higher education, is maybe starting to price itself out of a lot of spaces. You know, I think of Lightspeed. Lightspeed is a great online learning platform, whether you're an entrepreneur, that is, you know, putting your courses out there. You know, it could be a bookkeeping course, it could be a, it could be an IT course, all those types of things. If you want to learn it, it's probably out there in a way that you can consume it and be educated on it tomorrow or in the process by tomorrow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and if you're not sure where to start, just pull up your chat GPT and ask it like I'm interested in learning this and you know what should I do and it's going to give you some answers. Um, whether you need to follow through on all of them or not and you know I'm not sure it just depends on your situation, but, um, it can get you pointed in the right direction for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, and I think people maybe missed the boat in that they think that they're too old to learn AI or those types of or that's not something I'm ever going to need. I can remember my first conversation with my dad, who's a little bit younger than yours, but dad is 76. And so this would have been about a year ago and I was on the phone with him and he was talking about he needed to draft a um, um, a legal briefing, and of course, I know nothing about a legal briefing. And I said, well, you should probably use a legal briefing. And I said, well, you should probably use AI for that. And he goes, oh, I'm not going to learn how to do that, I don't know how to do that. That's not something I need to do. I'm going to have to research this, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 1:And so I just started asking him about what he needed to write it on and it probably took me 20 minutes. I'm just asking, question after question. He's, he's telling me all the details and I said, well, the briefing's in your inbox. And he goes, excuse me, and I said, well, while you were telling me about it and also telling me that you don't need AI. I was using AI to create your legal briefing.
Speaker 1:It's in your email and he spent about a week on that legal briefing, trying to tear it apart, and about a week later he called me and goes. You know, this thing is over 90% correct. He goes even one of the things that it cited. It took me four days on the internet to find that case and you know it was just already in here. So he was like you know, it didn't get me all the way there, but it got me a lot further than I would have been otherwise, and I think that's that's how I use AIs, you know, instead of me spending time on the structure of something or figuring out the first three steps on how to get started on something.
Speaker 2:I'll just ask it.
Speaker 1:It's no different than asking me, picking up the phone and asking you or somebody else that's a um, an expert in the field or has a significant amount of knowledge, and then go from there use it as a tool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. Um, you know, talking about our parents, uh, and and ever being too old to learn, uh, my parents are probably my first IT clients and talk about, you know, internal customers. I'm not getting paid. I was floored the first time we were visiting and my dad picked up his tablet and he hit a button and he said what's the Walmart stock price? I kind of look over at him I'm like, is he? Is he using, like, the voice command on his tablet? And sure enough, like I think that's probably all he does with it is check the Walmart stock price.
Speaker 2:But hey, he's using it and it really goes back to being adaptable. Really, if you look at being successful, whether it's in business or bowling, it's being able to kind of predict what's coming next. Is that stock price going to go up? Did the oil? Did the oil pattern change a little bit and I need to make an adjustment off of that. So it's figuring out what you think is going to happen next and being prepared for that, but also, if that doesn't happen, being prepared for that too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well, I think that's the key to adaptability is not being so focused on being right that you inflict harm on yourself or the situation you know. Some people are so married to being right that they'd rather be right and in pain than be wrong and okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can't do that in IT. If you have realized that you're wrong and you can, you know, continue down that course. You might have some serious server problems or you got you know, definitely, definitely adaptable and willing to listen to advice. I mean, it is a vast subject, right? Whether it's AI or somebody you used to work with. It never hurts to get an opinion before you move forward with the plan.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what would you say is something that you see in IT that's outdated, or people's perception of it is outdated and they need to fix that?
Speaker 2:Oh, that's a good question. Mac computers I love it. Uh, you know, they say that all it guys hate Macs and there's a reason they're they're not business friendly. Um, I, I worked, uh, at a company where the owner insisted on using his Mac and it was like an hour long process is to connect a printer. Um, hopefully we don't have any like Apple lawyers watching your podcast today. But, um, yeah, if you, if you want to take it seriously, like I have a Mac book computer. I got it, so I'm familiar with it. Um, yeah, just just get, get an Android, get a Dell laptop. You know, move in that direction, I understand.
Speaker 1:Well, and I think, I think, if you're in a creative space, then you're probably you want to be on the Mac, and if you're, if you're in business, if you're in manufacturing, if you're in uh data, you're probably going to want to be on on the PC side of things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, mac has its place. If you're a media creator, I mean that kind of stuff. It's definitely powerful. Like I said, I've got one and I basically use it to remote into a virtual Windows machine. So that's what I use it for. Definitely has its place. But in an IT career you're probably going to be looking at Windows or even Linux systems for servers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what's a piece of advice that you'd give out there to somebody that is maybe looking to come into IT or looking to advance their career or feels maybe stuck in the role that they're in?
Speaker 2:I think if you feel stuck in the role that you're in, you just got to take a leap of faith and jump into it. You know, I worked my way up to plant manager and just said I don't like this and changed course and had to start over in the IT field. I think you know. If you're looking at IT as a whole and you know how to prioritize things. Maybe you're a small business, has grown to a medium business and you need to focus on your IT. The best explanation I've seen of IT and how to handle it is there's the Maslow's hierarchy of needs. I believe it was 40s or 50s.
Speaker 2:This gentleman came up with this pyramid of you know what you need as a human, and on the base level of that pyramid are your physiological needs. You can breathe, you've got food and water, you can sleep and that's the foundation to your structure. And only after that is taken care of can you move up a level and at that level you've got safety. And then, as you progress up, you have you know your human human interactions, your relationships, your fulfillment in life, and if something at the bottom of that pyramid goes wrong, you need to go down and correct that before you can move back up, and the best explanation I've read about IT is really that same idea. So your structure and your foundation is your infrastructure, whether you're going to have that in the cloud, whether you're going to have on-premise servers and your switches and all that kind of stuff. That is really your foundation to your pyramid. And then your next level up is going to be your security. Cyber security has never been more important.
Speaker 2:And then, as you move up the pyramid, you get to. You get to where you know you have users requesting a new report. Hey, I need this new report. Can you make that for me? But at the very top of the pyramid is what I enjoy the most is where you are proactively looking for things to help the company, things that other people didn't think of, that you could implement.
Speaker 2:There are some different companies now that can tie your ERP system in with your WooCommerce. If you have a website, they can pass that data back and forth Not something that anybody was asking for, but being able, as the IT guy, to see that need, implement it, run the project, see it all the way through, see the return on investment. That really lives at the top. Now you know if you're really into that project and one of the switches goes down, you're gonna have to go back to the bottom of your pyramid and take care of those needs first and work your way back up. So I think if you're new to IT, if you're a company that needs some it stuff and you've gotten big enough to get started, I really think that is the best explanation of how to handle it.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I would say just just in general. I mean, really that is the best advice that I think I give to a lot, of, a lot of people. That, from a coaching standpoint, is you've got to quit really being behind. You've got to get ahead a little bit, because you can't work on optimization if you're still two weeks behind. You've got to leverage your resources. You've got to work a little more. You've got to hire somebody else. You've got to do something in order to get caught up, so that then you can be proactive instead of reactive and get out of that chaos.
Speaker 2:Yeah, always trying to catch up is just exhausting, right, like when you're trying to catch up, you're not doing something that you like to do, you're doing something you have to do, and if you've got yourself in a position to be working on the things that you enjoy, like quality of life, is just way better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and how has that mentality played out for you there at Troy Industries?
Speaker 2:Um, and how has that mentality played out for you there at um, there at Troy industries? Um, you know when, uh, when, the company moved to um, clarksville, um, we've got a lot of new stuff, um, like infrastructure wise, so a lot of that has, as you know, it's gone really smoothly. I didn't have to spend a lot of time on that, um, so, yeah, I've got to spend a lot of time at the top of the pyramid working on things that I enjoy. You know, it's a common saying that if you enjoy what you do, you'll never have to go to work, and I've been very fortunate to enjoy what I do. I'm off work today and I've got some ideas for, you know, an Epicor dashboard that I'm thinking about, that I might go to the you know Starbucks by the house when I get home and work on it, Not because I have to but because I enjoy it. And if you can get to that point in your career, um, you're just going to be a way, way happier person?
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, and I think you guys, you guys have four day work weeks, is that right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're, yeah, we're doing four tens and then, um, you know, that really gives me some time to, like I said, to work on some of the things that I want to work on, as opposed to reacting to. You know what's going on, sure.
Speaker 1:Um, when and we had not talked about this before, but I know bourbon is is a passion of yours. So what's uh, what's your favorite, or what, what's uh, what's the next bottle that you're looking to add to the collection?
Speaker 2:When it comes to bourbon, there's two different categories. There's the unicorns that you're probably never going to see. It's because they don't make a lot of them and they're really good. So probably the best bourbon that I've tried would be King of Kentucky. Got it for my birthday at the casino up in Oak Grove, kentucky. Just phenomenal. I've got a buddy that kind of first told me about it. He said he cried when he had it. It was so good. I don't know if he was serious or not, but I'd like to picture that he was actually, you know, shedding tears as he was drinking this glass.
Speaker 2:You know, from a personal level, one of my problems is that when I get into a hobby, I'm all in, you know, just like building a home server when I got into IT, right. So I'm all in. Uh, you know, just like building a home server when I got into it, right. So you know, uh, bourbon collection has grown. Cigar selection, um, has grown, so I don't think that I need to be out trying to find anything else at this point. I'm pretty content with what I've got. Um, but yeah, king of Kentucky is, uh, if you're a bourbon fan and you have a chance to try it, I would highly recommend um paying the price to at least try once.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's cool. Um, you know, one of the conversations that we have frequently is, uh, about finances and frequently that Dave Ramsey comes up. Um, you know how, how? How is? How does Brandon and Tara's um plan for for money and and how to structure life, kind of? Does it? Does it line up with Dave Ramsey? Is it close, or where have you pulled mythology or thoughts from?
Speaker 2:So I was first introduced to Dave Ramsey from my mentor, ironically enough, when we worked in the office. We weren't allowed to listen to music and stuff back then, but we were allowed to put Dave Ramsey on because it was informational and helpful. And if I could go back 20 years and talk to Brandon that was sitting in that office, I would tell him to stick with it. Um, if I would have, you know, stuck with the plan, um, I'm sure I'd probably be in a better place. I mean, not that you know things are bad, but, man, I mean if you, if you can stick to Dave Ramsey's plan, you're going to come out ahead. I mean, there's just no way around it.
Speaker 2:Dave talks about people doing the Dave Ramsey-ish plan where you know you're chugging along really good but then you see that bottle of bourbon that you don't really need and you get those you know endorphins going and you buy it anyway. You can steer clear of that kind of stuff You're going to be doing pretty good. Um, uh, tara and I have had the talk about, um, you know the day Ramsey plan and where we're going to fall in the baby steps and what the plan is going to be. And, um, she's on board, assuming that she doesn't change her mind after she gets the uh, you know additional ring. So hopefully that doesn't. Yeah, I think we're on the same page and looking forward to doing a good job with that. I know Dave Ramsey is right here, close in Nashville, right, and you've been on the show.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah, and they've got a beautiful facility. These days I mean it was great before, but just I mean they've got a campus. Yeah, even if you don't agree with everything that Dave Ramsey says if you watch his show, listen to the radio show, you're going to get motivated. You just, you can't help it. Yeah, Um, well, and which one was it? Was it four B or three B? For for quite some time the ring was, was, was in that in that step.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So if you have a purchase like that that you're going to make, uh, from what I've heard Dave say, you know you've got baby step one, two, three and if you have a little, a little, something that you want to save up for and buy before you move to the next step, it's three B. So we we referred to Tara's engagement ring as three B for a long time. Yeah, um, you always got a kick out of that. I don't think she thought it was that funny, but uh, you know that's what it is.
Speaker 1:I like. The great thing is we're just. I mean, you guys, wedding date is just right around the corner and we're ecstatic for you guys. Now the next part we have a alive or otherwise, bowlers or not, but the whole point is to get so many people watching this thing that we raise a ton of money for charity. Who's on your team with you?
Speaker 2:So I got to go. Pete Weber, If you're. If you're going to have a you know anybody you want you got to have Pete Weber on your team. If we're going to have anybody you want, you got to have Pete Weber on your team. If we're going to go back in time a little bit, my dad's favorite bowler, Marshall Holman, From back in the day my dad loved watching him, I think for selfish reasons. I'm going to pick Mookie Betts here, A baseball player who's got probably a lot more famous than a lot of bowlers are, and, if I'm correct, he just purchased the bowling alley that we're bowling at, Is that?
Speaker 1:correct His investment group. Yes, they're in Clarksville, Tennessee. The Pinnacle Just changed hands.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I'd love to get his ear while we're bowling to see what he's going to do at the Pinnacle and suggest some things that the bowlers like to see there. So I'm going to be selfish and pick him for the third guy.
Speaker 1:Okay, you've got one more. It's a five-man team.
Speaker 2:Oh, I don't get to bowl on the team.
Speaker 1:You can yeah, but it's you Pete it depends.
Speaker 2:Are we having fun or are we trying to win? Because if we're trying to win, I'm going to pull in. Maybe the win is raising money, rais. So who is going to tune in to watch? I'm going to have to go. I'm going to pick Ronnie Russell just because he's from Indiana. I bowled some tournaments with him before he was making TV shows up in Auburn, indiana, so we'll put Ronnie in there.
Speaker 1:Okay, and then you get to pick one celebrity commentator, so this is the person that's going to be the emcee that's going to get everybody fired up.
Speaker 2:Oh, I have to go. Pat McAfee, right, I mean, who's bigger than Pat right now at commentating and getting people fired up? Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:I love it.
Speaker 2:And I'm a Colts fan too. He was the punter for the Colts, so yeah, double meaning Can't go wrong there?
Speaker 1:Well, that's cool, and we've had all kinds. I mean literally, we've had everything from Jesus to oh. On the other end of that, somebody suggested that P Diddy could be the oil man.
Speaker 2:Well, you want to hire for experience, right?
Speaker 1:That's right, that's right Um.
Speaker 2:Jesus, that's a great one too. I mean, if you want to guarantee 300, he's. You know, that's your guy. Yeah, I mean done.
Speaker 1:Now we have fun with this one too, and it's two truths and a lie. So you're going to tell me three things, and I've got to try to detect which one is the lie.
Speaker 2:You know, you warned me about this one and I've been thinking because I really want to win. I want to stump you, so I'm going to go. Number one I used to have a four-pound chihuahua named Chloe, Chloe. Number two I've got a cursive bee tattoo on my shoulder. That's like my dad has.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And number three, I never took the SATs.
Speaker 1:Wow, okay, tell you the truth. One of them was a lie. I would have instinctively gone with the B, but you added like your dad does.
Speaker 2:Can we get the Jeopardy music in the background while you contemplate this?
Speaker 1:Okay, I can't picture you with a chihuahua, so I've got to go with a chihuahua.
Speaker 2:Chihuahua is incorrect. I had a little chihuahua for 16 years. She lived long enough to come to Clarksville with us for a few months, not your Taco Bell looking Chihuahua, but more like a cow. She was white, had black spots. They say Chihuahuas are stubborn and not very smart. But I taught her how to shake hands roll. I taught her how to sneeze on command. She loved treats so she was willing to learn anything. That one is true. Give you another chance with the last two.
Speaker 1:Well, again, I'm going to go with the SAT.
Speaker 2:You're wrong again. So I accomplished my goal of stumping you. I stumped you twice, you had a 50% chance and you still missed it on the second go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you did, because I mean honestly the fact that you threw in your dad in there. It made it so I was like, did he slip up and tell me that, or you strategically?
Speaker 2:told him that was strategy. My dad has one. He had one. It might have faded at this point, because I think it was like my dad grew up in eastern Kentucky. I think it was something that him and his buddies just did. I don't think it was professionally done, but I remember as a kid that he had it Okay. So I've always thought about doing that, but I haven't done it.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Okay, all right, and I'm not wearing sleeveless shirts to the bowling alley, so I knew that you wouldn't. You wouldn't have an inside track. No, I did not, absolutely not.
Speaker 1:Um, and so last one is um, what is a problem that you see, either in your business or in other businesses, that you think people should tackle right away, or that you're just like man, you could do this if you just fill in the blank?
Speaker 2:I think it would probably just be. You know they call it low hanging fruit, right it's. I just had one with our you know, weapons assembler manager this week. There was something that would really help him narrow down his information on a dashboard and I was able to create a filter in five, 10 minutes. Um, so that's something that's going to help him. That cost me almost no time. So, um, you can do big projects, like I've been a part of. That can take a year to implement, but if you want some immediate hits, you want to gain some people's trust, just look for that low-hanging fruit and help people with results they can see right away.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, and I think I heard this on another podcast earlier this week and it was this guy was known for his TED Talks about how to learn a new skill. I was known for his Ted talks about how to learn a new skill and he said that the most impactful, the most important hours that you will spend will be the first 20 hours of that new skill, because of how proficient you can become in almost any discipline in the first 20 hours and the rest of it is really kind of sharpening that skill but the amount of of knowledge and kind of usability that you can get in the first 20 hours.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think you're also motivated at the beginning too, right, you're really going to focus. Especially nowadays, the problem with self-education is it's so easy to become distracted. There's a YouTube video, there's a text, you got your phone, you got your tablet. There's all kinds of things going on. I'm going to send you a link to a podcast I listened to.
Speaker 2:There were some scientists that studied this. I believe it was on this American Life or I think it might have been Radiolab. These scientists had worked with different hallucinogenics and they found that as you progress, progress in life, you have windows that open where you are hypersensitive to learning. I wasn't planning on talking about this kind of a little off topic, but, um, so you know, when you're one, two years old, you're hypersensitive to language or vision or whatever that is, and that window kind of closes and then your window for something else opens and they've found that through these experiments and things, that they can reopen windows. So if you have a stroke and you've lost some motor skills, they're developing ways that you can reopen those windows. To be hypersensitive to learning how to walk again Sure. Reopen those windows. To be hypersensitive to learning how to walk again Sure.
Speaker 2:And you know not only your podcast. I love listening to other podcasts, especially if I'm driving, and that one was super interesting to me. I'm not suggesting by any means that anyone goes out and gets some magic mushrooms, because there's different things they talked about, but definitely listen to that podcast. Yeah and yeah, just learning anything. In general, you've got to stay focused. That was one way they talked about helping train your mind. Again, that goes back to what I was saying earlier If you enjoy it, it's not going to seem like work and you're going to want to do more of it.
Speaker 1:How does somebody get in touch with you?
Speaker 2:If you're interested in what Troy industries has to offer? Um, our website is worldoftroycom uh, an online store. Uh, you can also, you know, call and talk to customer service. You have any questions? Um, open and all that kind of stuff and um.
Speaker 1:And you're on LinkedIn too, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, personally, personally I'm on, uh, I'm on LinkedIn. Um, uh, I need to get that updated with some new things. You were nice enough to kind of look that over for me and I don't know that I've really updated that since I made one. So it's on my list to kind of get my LinkedIn up to date. But, yeah, if you want to reach me personally, I'm definitely on LinkedIn.
Speaker 1:All right, Well, good stuff. Well, Brandon, thank you so much for coming in today and giving our listeners some insight in how they can go about their career, maybe without you know having a mortgage as far as a college tuition goes, and really kind of creating your own luck, kind of making sure that you end up with some mentors along the way and then how to give back and mentor to other people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. You know, if my story can help anybody else out there that wants to try something different and not be afraid to do it, that, uh, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Well, thanks so much, man. Thank you, team. You heard it here. On the charge for podcast, I'm incredibly grateful for Brandon Hearst being in my life Cause again, this 300 pin wouldn't be here without him and, um, you know, think about people that are in your world, or think about people that might be a mentor or a source for inspiration for you. Hopefully that we bring amazing people and continue to bring amazing people here to the podcast. So please check those past guests out and be looking forward to the next one that we'll bring, so that maybe you can take a piece from their podcast, a piece from their life that they've used in order to improve their life or their trajectory, and make yours better as well. Again, until next time. I'm Jim Cripps with the Charge Forward podcast. Special thanks to our friends here at HitLab Studios here in Nashville, tennessee, as well as our partners, sense, custom Development and Charge Forward Solutions. Until next time. We'll see you later.
Speaker 1:Team is Jim Cripps here with the Charge Forward Podcast. I just want to tell you I love you. I appreciate you listening, I appreciate you for subscribing and sharing the Charge Forward Podcast with people you know and you love, because that's what we're here for. We are here to share the amazing stories, the things that people have been through, the ways that they were able to improve their life, so that you can take little nuggets from theirs and help improve your story and be better tomorrow than you were today. I hope that this is the tool you needed at the right time and that you find value in the amazing guests that we bring each and every week. Thanks so much and don't forget new episodes drop every Thursday.