Driven By with Sam Coates

My guest today is Rick Spell. Rick is the owner of Spell Restaurant group. Before acquiring and operating restaurants around the Southeastern United States, Rick spent decades building a highly successful career as an investment banker for Morgan Keegan (now Raymond James).  Rick employs over 500 people through their ownership group. As you may know, currently, more than 11 million jobs are open, and over 6 million people are unemployed around the United States.  This is an excellent episode with Rick where you will hear:

• While his career trajectory changed when he went back and graduated after dropping out of college
• What he learned from Allen Morgan, the CEO of Morgan Keegan- what happens when you determine if someone has talent, put them in a position to use it, and give them a platform.
• Buying a restaurant chain out of bankruptcy- why corporate spending can tank a restaurant group
• Developing people and building a bench. How he develops and moves talent across the southeast within his restaurant group
• And much more!

Please enjoy this week’s episode with Rick Spell!

Links:  unemployed Jobs open spell restaurant group Morgan Keegan

My guest this week has a story that’s nuts! So far in my life, I have yet to meet someone who has overcome more obstacles in their life to become an entrepreneur in the United States and benefit from capitalism. My guest this week is Sandra Xing. Sandra’s parents were taken away by Mao Zedong’s red party when she was 8. She raised her brother and herself. She witnessed her Mother be shamed and punished because her family came from the Black party. Eventually came to the United States when her sister declined the opportunity. Sandra came to Atlanta and worked every job you could imagine from babysitting, to cleaning dishes, to working in a warehouse; she eventually founded her first company and now she owns three companies. This is a tell all episode where you will hear:

• What Mao Zedong’s leadership was like in the People’s Republic of China in the 1960’s
• How she went from making 1 dollar a month in China to working in the United States
• How she started her first business with no credit and only $4,000.00. The difficulty of starting your own and how she got through it
• Why she’s using the money she’s earned to give back
• Plus much more!

Please enjoy this week’s episode with Sandra Xing! Links: Sandra Xing  Mao Zedong

My guest today is PGA Tour Champions Golfer Doug Barron. Doug turned pro on the PGA Tour in 1992, played for nine years, and then was out of the game professionally for seven years. In 2019, when everyone thought he was crazy, Doug flew to Europe, qualified, and finished 5th at the Senior British Open. Since then, he has won the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open in 2019 and The Shaw Charity Classic in 2021, also known as the Champions Tour Workhorse… Whether you’re a golfer or not, this is a great episode where you’ll hear Doug cover:

• “They have to beat me too” how Doug thinks about the legends he plays with and how he stays locked in on his game

 

• Raising money from friends and going all-in at 50 

 

• Forgiving yourself and playing your game. How hard lessons learned don’t have to end that way.

 

• Why he’d give anything to play one more round with his Dad

 

• And much more!

Please enjoy this week’s episode with Doug Barron! Links: 5th Place Finish at Senior British Open Champions Tour Workhorse Dick’s Victory: Shaw Victory Doug Barron

My guest today is Will Chase. Will is the former CEO of Triumph Bank.  Triumph Bank was started right before the Financial crisis of 2008 with just a few million dollars and sold for over 130 million dollars. The number of new banks opening around the United States has drastically changed since the 2008 financial crisis, and I wanted to find out why. This episode will give you much more than that and the future of banking. This is a great episode that also covers:

• What it actually looks like to quit your job at 50 and go all in a start-up bank even when you don’t know if you’ll make it
• How to win in the service industry when big banks keep acquiring market share
• Being 5 million dollars in the hole and working your way out of it after the 2008 financial crisis
• Why it makes no sense to start a bank anymore
• Plus much more!

Please enjoy this week’s episode with Will Chase! Links:

https://money.cnn.com/2015/07/29/investing/dodd-frank-new-banks/#:~:text=Only%20three%20new%20banks%20have,agency%20that%20approves%20new%20banks https://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/09/financial-crisis-review.asp https://www.americanbanker.com/news/simmons-first-doubles-up-in-tennessee-with-two-bank-acquisitions#:~:text=The%20%2423.3%20billion%2Dasset%20Simmons,%2C%20Tennessee%2C%20for%20%24146.3%20million.

My guest today is Steve Glenn. Steve is an entrepreneur and CEO of Plant Prefab. After closing its series B round at $30 Million, Plant Prefab is locked in on changing the game of how homes are built...   Plant Prefab is backed by high-profile investors, including Amazon, Asahi Kasei, Gerdau Paris Ventures, and Obvious Ventures. They recognize the massive market opportunity that Plant Prefab is capitalizing on.

 

We all know the pain points. There’s an undersupply of homes, rising material costs, increasing construction timelines, lack of subcontractors, harmful environmental impact, I could go on.

 

This interview is a great episode where you will hear:

 

The challenge of wedding profit and purpose when what you need to do is scale

 

The good, the bad, and the ugly of an achievement personality. How this has shaped who he is today and Steve’s own entrepreneurial journey

 

A deep dive into why their solution solves critical issues and the impact for the future

 

Who is James Rouse? His influence, his story, and how his impact even lives on today

 

Plus much more!

 

Please enjoy this week’s episode with Steve Glenn!

 

Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveglenn/

https://www.plantprefab.com/

https://www.plantprefab.com/press-center/Plant-Prefab-Announces-$30-Million-Series-B-and-the-Opening-of-a-Second-Factory

 

https://obvious.com/

https://www.aboutamazon.com/

https://www.asahi-kasei.com/

https://www2.gerdau.com.br/paris-ventures

 

Short homes: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/14/america-is-short-more-than-5-million-homes-study-says.html

 

James Rouse:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/james-w-rouses-legacy-better-living-through-design-180951187/

 

Market and opportunity- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877705817317344

 

The future: https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2021/02/08/the-future-of-real-estate-is-modular/?sh=67c2f19873ec

 

Who says crowdfunding has to be sketchy? There's a new way to access investment opportunities since the jobs act of 2012, and this real estate family is bringing direct access to the marketplace. My guest today is Adam Kaufman. Adam is the co-founder of ArborCrowd. Based out of New York City, ArborCrowd is the only commercial real estate crowdfunding platform backed by a publicly-traded mortgage REIT. Arbor Realty Trust. This is a great conversation with Adam where you will hear:

• What's the history of crowdfunding? Did you know that the Statue Of Liberty was the first crowdfunding project on record?
• Why things have changed and where it is headed, how they are giving people a chance to have equity where previously only institutional capital could access
• The lessons learned in the 2008 financial crisis and why their experience and hard lessons learned set them apart
• Building a platform from scratch
• And more!

Please enjoy this week's episode with Adam Kaufman! Links: Crowdfunding https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/crowdfunding.asp Jobs act 2012: https://www.sec.gov/spotlight/jobs-act.shtml Linked in: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamkaufman1205/ https://www.arborcrowd.com/ https://arbor.com/ Hudson- statue of liberty  https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21932675

I couldn’t think of a better way to kick off 2022 than with an interview like this!

My guest today is Mason George. Mason is an entrepreneur and business executive with IMC Companies. IMC Companies was started by his Father, Mark George, 40 years ago with just one driver. Today, it is one of the top Intermodal Carriers in the United States. At close to a billion dollars in revenue, it’s quite the story to take a company from one driver to where it is today.

Our supply chain is more critical today than ever before. The United States is the largest importer globally, and it’s no secret that there have been many challenges with how goods come to the USA and how they move throughout the rest of our country. This interview is much more than just about this company and what success looks like. 

I had a great time with Mason, and this is a great interview where you will hear:

• The skillsets it takes to take a company from one driver to over a billion in revenue.
• Being all in with your capital and time while inspiring people to build something they are proud of
• Hard lessons learned and how these painful experiences teach you how to operate better
• The future in trucking. Are autonomous trucks worth it? How their techniques are being used to accelerate the movement of drayage across the USA
• Building technology from the bottom up versus others doing it from top-down and why they have an advantage
• And much more!

 

Please enjoy this week’s episode with Mason George! Links: https://www.imcc.com/ https://www.ttnews.com/top100/intermodal/2021 https://www.statista.com/statistics/268184/leading-import-countries-worldwide/#:~:text=In%202020%2C%20the%20U.S.%20were,about%202.41%20trillion%20US%20dollars.&text=Import%20and%20export%20are%20generally,a%20country's%20imports%20and%20exports. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-11-27/supply-chain-shortages-are-at-historic-levels-will-they-peak-before-christmas https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevebanker/2021/05/11/the-autonomous-truck-revolution-is-right-around-the-corner/?sh=1f886d1e2c96 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mason-george-61004588/

My Guest today is Garrott McClintock. Garrott is the COO of AcreTrader. AcreTrader is a hot new start-up out of Fayetteville, Arkansas, that recently finished a series its 12 Million Dollar funding round. AcreTrader matches investors with farmland while giving Farmers the land they need to grow their operation.

  

Did you know that In 1935, there were 7 million farms, and now there are only 2 million in operation?

  

What’s changed? Why is farming so hard? What is often hard for farmers to grow their operations? What’s the fulfillment a farmer feels by growing the crops that drive our world today?

  

I had a great time talking with my long-time friend Garrott McClintock. Garrott is a 5th generation farmer, and I wanted to have him on this show where you’ll hear the following:

  

What’s in the DNA of a Farmer? The fulfillment they feel with the work they do  The non-linear path his own career has taken The barriers he and his team break down  The future of farming- growing demand, decrease acreage, and lower number of farmers And More!   

 

Please enjoy this week’s conversation with Garrott McClintock!

 

 

Links:

AcreTrader.com

My Guest today is Gary Wunderlich. Gary is an entrepreneur and investor. At the age of 26, Gary founded Wunderlich Securities and he and his team turned Wunderlich into a national full service and investment banking firm. 400+ employees and two decades later, Wunderlich Securities sold to B. Riley for 67 Million Dollars.  In 2020, Gary Co-Founded Live Oak Merchant Partners. Since the founding Live Oak has launched four SPACS (also known as blank check companies) where they are investing in biotechnology, innovative semiconductors, mobility and motion technology, and environmental sustainability. Just wait, as you listen to this interview you’ll hear how Gary plans to roll out 1 to 1 and a half SPACS a year moving forward. I had a great time with Gary where you’ll hear:

• The impact of having strong advisors when you’re 26 and naïve
• Managing through chaos and why he’s more comfortable that way
• Investing in the future- his process, deal flow, and the value of each of his investments and what they have to get right to succeed
• The joy of pouring into other entrepreneurs when you know what they’ve been through
• And much more!

Please enjoy this week’s episode with Gary Wunderlich!

 

Links:

https://www.liveoakacq.com/ https://navitassemi.com/ https://danimerscientific.com/

Before we get started, I want to share a few things about the value with this week's episode. Over the last 20+ months, the world has been in a unique place. There's been a record number of people quitting their jobs, and our country's supply chain has been challenged in extreme ways. Even with these challenges, there are men and women across the United States committed to buckling down and producing the things we utilize daily. Even with all of these obstacles, there has been tremendous demand and increased opportunity. My guest today is Andrew Green. Andrew Green is CEO of Parkway Products. Parkway is a national injection molding company across the United States and Mexico. After spending the first 16 years of his career with the multi-billion dollar publicly listed company Sonoco Andrew decided to take a different path where he wanted to take some risks and become a CEO one day. This is a jam-packed high-value episode where you'll learn:

• What it's like having a significant life experience and re-evaluating is this the path you want to be on the rest of your life.

 

• What about the people that have a passion for manufacturing. Without us, the service economy wouldn't exist.

 

• There's a benefit of being backed by private equity. When the model works, you can't grow fast enough.

 

• Adapting to change. Why robotics and automation creates more opportunity for those willing to learn and evolve

 

• And much more!

Please enjoy this week's episode with Andrew Green! Links: https://www.parkwayproducts.com/ https://www.sonoco.com/ quitting their jobs: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2021/11/15/weve-become-a-nation-of-quitters-44-million-americans-left-their-jobs-in-september/?sh=55ab01b6893e supply chain issues: https://www.businessinsider.com/supply-chain-crisis-when-it-will-be-over-end-2021-11 injection molding: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Injection_moulding