My philosophy

Our neighborhood in Jasper had beer night every Thursday (about 25 people most weeks) and a block party once a year. My dad organized all of it. I’d stay out until 11:30 with the older guys, listening to their stories, and I’ve been an old soul ever since.

Listening is still where I start. An owner who’s run a company for thirty years knows it far better than I ever will. It takes a while before they’ll tell you what’s really going on. So I ask, and I let them talk.

If I see a problem, the owner hears about it that week. I’m direct. I know it rubs people the wrong way sometimes, and it comes from caring how things turn out. I could keep everyone comfortable and nothing would change.

Expectations get set up front, before any work starts, because once they’re set wrong they’re hard to reset.

The same goes for me. When I brought a partner into my own firm, he called me out on things I’d call out in anyone else’s business. In your own head everything’s perfect. It usually isn’t. When I miss, I’d like to be the first one to say so.

Most people in a small company stay because they respect the owner and like their work. They’re hard to replace. Lose the wrong one and you get problems nobody saw coming, so you can’t walk in with a plan and start moving pieces around.

Earning a team’s trust takes about six months. You earn it by showing up and doing the work next to them. For a lot of owners the business is also the family’s security, and I want it strong enough to hold its value if the owner stepped away tomorrow, whether they ever sell or not.

It’s a lonely world, even though we’re more connected than ever, and owning a business can be one of the loneliest jobs in it. I once told my dad I wanted a group of people I could call on a Saturday if something went wrong, people who’d show up and help get it done.

There’s plenty of opportunity here for anyone willing to work. When owners, buyers, lenders and advisors help each other, deals go better and businesses last longer. I’ve watched it happen in a room. One owner admits a problem, and half the table says they’ve got it too.

When owners live in the community where their business is, everybody’s better off. The money gets spent here. The decisions get made by someone who has to live with them.

A lot of Indiana companies will change hands in the next ten years, and I’d like as many as possible to end up with people who live here. I always thought I’d end up in New York. I still love the energy there. I built my life in Indiana because people here help you get things done.

Reputation is everything to me. I’ve spent ten years running member organizations in this state, mostly as a volunteer, and a lot of those hours never turned into business. I’d do it again.

If my name’s on something, people should know it’ll be done right and it’ll still be here in five years.