ELS Mentor Interview: Richard Odom – Owner of Country Pines, Blessings and Hope Nurseries

Richard Odom
Words of Wisdom

• Never try to cover up anything with your banker. Show credibility by your background and the integrity you display in your business life. It all boils down to trust between you and your banker.
• Know everything about your business before you go off chasing rabbits or looking for greener grass on the other side of the fence, because that isn’t always the case.
• Friends and mentors are very important because everybody in business hits a wall and gets discouraged. We need somebody we can talk with to encourage us and help us get over the rough spots.
• You cannot change people. You have to identify their good qualities & refine those. Early relationships will follow you all of your career, so it’s important to develop them, nourish them, and make sure you give back what you can. People always perform better, work harder and reach farther with respect, appreciation and credit for their efforts.
• You have to go out on a limb sometimes, but it has to be a measured amount. You can’t ‘do it all.’ Be conservative and don’t get carried away. Gain wisdom from mistakes you made, and learn not to make them again. Take the blame for mistakes yourself; don’t put it on your employees or your customers. Ask yourself ‘What is my part in this?’ so you know what not to do again.
• Every organization, every business entity, is basically in the people business. Customers and employees who help grow the business and make profit are the most important assets you have.
• You can’t succeed without good work ethics. You have to roll up your sleeves and go to work. Businesses are not built overnight and there are no get-rich schemes. Success comes after a long period of doing the right thing and doing the hard things.
• A leader must set the bar of excellence and communicate it to his or her associates in such a way that they want to be a part of it. One must lead from the front—not push from the back.

Entrepreneurial League System
Mentor Interview: Richard Odom – Owner of Country Pines, Blessings and Hope Nurseries
Date: September 10, 2009
Location: Forest Hill, LA
Interviewer: Felix Mathews

Felix Mathews: “Tell us about your background, where you were born and raised, etc.”

“I am glad to be part of the mentor program. I hope that through my experiences somebody else might have an easier job of being successful. I grew up between Lecompte and Cheneyville, on a little road called Lloyd Bridge Road, right next to Lloyd Hall. We lived on a small farm, growing cotton, corn and soybeans. I was one of three children, and my parents were older when I was born. I don’t think I was a mistake, but certainly an accident. Anyway, I’m glad I’m here.

“My father was a Christian and a deacon in the Baptist Church in Cheneyville. He only went to the 5th grade in school and regretted that he did not get a formal education. He thought education was important, but had to stop going to school to help provide a living for his family.

“My mother obtained a degree from Louisiana Normal College, which is now Northwestern State University in Natchitoches and became a teacher. She read to us all the time and all three children developed a desire for knowledge. I thank my parents for the work ethic, honesty, Christian roots and principles they gave my siblings and me.

“I graduated from Lecompte High School and worked on the farm with my Dad while attending school. It was a good country life. I went on to McNeese, but dropped out in my second semester to join the Air Force. I worked in a clerical position in personnel, where I became a supervisor. After I got out of the service in 1968, I attended LSUA, not because I wanted to; I went there to shut my Mother and my fiancé up.

“I got married in April of 68 and we had our first child a year later. My wife and I worked, and I went to college, took every course I could at LSUA, then went on to Northwestern and majored in agri-business. Agri-business is a degree that served me well in my farming career and the nursery business because it allowed me to have a working and general knowledge of both business and agriculture. I had a little bit of accounting, a little bit of marketing, a little bit of management and that sort of thing. That, coupled with the office management experience I had in the military, helped me tremendously.

“After graduating I started farming. I spent one year in a farm partnership with my brother, then farmed on my own from 1972 until 1983. I had good yields and was making a good living, but I could see the ‘handwriting on the wall’ in agriculture, and it looked like it was going to be floundering. It just was not a good business to stay in. I started looking around and felt like God led me into the nursery business, even though I didn’t want to get into a business I didn’t know a lot about. I knew farming and how to grow plants, but not the nursery business. Even so, in 1980, I started my nursery business.

“I knew I needed to talk to customers, growers, vendors, bankers and people in the Extension Service. Everyone told me it was going to take five years before I made a living from my nursery business, and the worst decision I made was to continue farming for those five years. I’d already made the decision that I should get out of farming, then I reversed it, and as a consequence, lost a lot of money in 1981.”

Felix: “From farming?”

“Right. In 1980, I was just beginning to get the nursery started, but I was still managing the farm. I made good money in 1980. In 1981, I took my mind off the farm. I had a very capable manager, but lost more money than I thought was possible. In 1982, I lost another $70,000, with a different farm manager. Then, in 1983, I broke even without a farm manager. I didn’t recoup my earlier losses, but I decided to quit farming. However, I still had to carry all the excess baggage (debt and interest payments) into the nursery business.”

Felix: “What caused you to lose money farming? As you look back, what would you have done differently?”

“The real cause was that I was in two separate businesses or industries at the same time, and attention was split so that I could not give farming the concentration it required. I should have liquidated my farming operation before entering the nursery business.

“I don’t blame my farm manager. The fact was I was a good farmer and he was a good manager, but in 1981, things happened very quickly in the farming community. The prices dropped and, at the same time, farming costs increased dramatically. Even though my attention was diverted, I still made sure I had a good crop. We did make a decent crop each year, and I was going to my banker and kept him apprised of what was happening.

“Never try to cover up anything. I had a lot of credibility with the banker because of my background and because of the integrity that I try to display in my business life. I went to him told him that I felt that I was going to have a $50,000 short fall. We started harvesting in September, and two weeks into the harvest, I went back to him and said, ‘That $50,000 is not going to touch it; it’s going to be over $100,000.’ He was not glad to hear that, but he was glad to know the situation before the ‘fat lady sang.’ This helped him realize he could look for similar results from other farmers.”

Felix: “Who was your banker at that time and what bank did you use?”

“It was Wade Jones at the Bank of Lecompte. I have a lot of respect for Wade, and did a lot of business with this bank.”

Felix: “Did he did serve as an advisor when your company was young? It was good you had a very good relationship with your bank.”

“We did have a good relationship. After a year of farming with my brother, he decided he didn’t want a partner, so I got out with $8,000 cash money after I paid income tax. I didn’t owe any taxes because I hadn’t made any money in the past few years. I needed to get a loan to buy equipment and a crop loan for 375 acres. I only had $8,000.00.

“I went to Production Credit and talked to them. They told me they thought they could do something for me if my mother or my brother would co-sign. At that, I took a deep breath and said, ‘No sir. I appreciate it, but I have an education in agriculture, grew up on a farm, and know how to farm. I’m married, have a child, am a Veteran and I have $8,000. I also have a very detailed and professionally done farm plan and budget. Now, either you decide that you will go with me, or I’ll go somewhere else.’

“He told me to come back the next day. He and the loan committee had decided to make the loan.

“The interest rate quoted started to bother me. Two years later, I went to the Bank of Lecompte to borrow money. I asked Wade Jones, who was vice-president at that time, if the bank would take me on as a long-term customer. I said, ‘Wade, I’m going to give you a budget every year. I want to tell you now that I will need to borrow more money than you are used to lending to other farmers, but I will show you exactly where it’s going. I need barns to keep my equipment under so it will last, and an efficient shop so my farm will look clean and neat. I will level my farm land, which means more equipment and labor.’

“They never lost a penny with me. In those times when it got bad, Wade would smile when he looked across the desk at me because he knew I was going to pay him back.”

Felix: “So your advice to entrepreneurs, especially the ones just going into business, is that they have to build a relationship with their lending institution. They need to communicate with them and provide them financial data, during good times and bad.”

“That’s right. I felt like the most important thing for me to do was cultivate a relationship of trust and respect with my banker. When I was a young man, I thought I was going to have to beg my bank for money, but as time went by, I realized that banks are there to lend money. You’re not asking for a favor, because they make their livelihood by lending money. However, they need to lend money to people who will pay them back. They don’t want to foreclose on anyone’s property or equipment.

“One of the most important things I learned was that bankers lend money to people, not just because of assets. Character is important. My peers told me ‘Never let your banker know all of your business. Always have some money somewhere else that he doesn’t know about.’

“I never subscribed to that line of thinking. My banker knew exactly where my money was; he knew exactly what my situation was. It all boils down to trust between two people.

“Another piece of advice I would like to offer to young entrepreneurs starting out is to try to get as high in the lending chain as you can. Try to talk to the president or the vice-president in charge of lending. Then, as you become successful, you have a personal relationship with him or her. You need to develop a relationship with someone who has a higher loan decision authority.”

Felix: “You’re correct. Junior bankers have limitations on what they can lend. Also, they are very concerned if they lend the money and it’s not paid back, it might cost them their job.”

“One other point, which is paramount, is that you can borrow more money in the coffee shop than you can sitting across the desk. Once you cultivate that relationship with your banker, you get to the point where that person knows you well enough to say. ‘Come on, let’s go get a cup of coffee.’

“Everybody has a fear of the unknown, venturing out and struggling in the muck and mire. Even when they know that their present situation is severe, they are afraid of getting out into another industry. One example would be a story about acres of diamonds. During the diamond rush in South Africa, a guy sold his farm to search for diamonds. He died penniless. The person who bought the farm accidently uncovered a large black stone down at the riverbank, which turned out to be a diamond. It didn’t look like a diamond, but the farm turned out to be the largest diamond mine in South Africa. The moral of the story is to know everything about your business before you go off chasing rabbits or looking for greener grass on the other side of the fence, because that isn’t always the case.”

Felix: “Did you have an advisor or mentor to explain what goes on in the nursery business?”

“The first one was my banker, because he was knowledgeable about lending money to the farming and nursery communities. I knew I wasn’t a salesman, so I realized I would have to grow a plant that was good enough to sell itself. I was able to outgrow some of my peers by learning the ins and outs of the marketing. On the farm, you grow the product and you know somebody will buy it at some price. The nursery business is better than farming because of product identification; the producer can be identified with a particular product. On a farm, a soybean is a soybean. In the nursery business, your integrity, the appearance of the nursery, and your credibility, along with your plants, creates a total product.”

Felix: “In our ELS program, we always discuss marketing and advertising. How did you develop your marketing skills?”

“I was lucky in that respect. I knew that I had to gain knowledge and learn all about the nursery business. The first thing I did was visit major markets to ask people what they wanted in a plant before I began growing them. I listened to what they had to say, and then applied that knowledge to my business.

“My wife and I realized that we also had to become a part of the nursery industry at large, so we went to trade shows, educational seminars, etc., where we met Sidney Meadows, an icon in the nursery business. Not only did he manage a large nursery, he was also a ‘people builder.’
“I also met his brother, Warren, a Ph.D. and the head of horticultural research at LSU. We are still friends today. They shared information with me and encouraged me. Friends and mentors are very important because everybody in business hits a wall and gets discouraged. We need somebody to talk with and encourage us and help us get over the rough spots. I was lucky enough to have two of the most respected people in the southeastern United States to do that with me. I listened to them and did what they said.

“One thing Sidney Meadows did was tell me what they were doing, even though I was a potential competitor. He showed me everything they did, but didn’t explain the details. Then, when I worked it out, I’d go back to them, and they both would tell me something else. In other words, they wanted to see if I was going to take their knowledge and apply it, put some sweat in it. Then, if it did or didn’t work, I would go back and get more information. That’s a wise thing for any employer to understand. You can’t do it for somebody else, but if he or she is willing to put in the sweat, and figure out the details, then that’s the person who will always benefit from your time and your knowledge.

“I can’t thank them enough. Sidney Meadows had a plaque hanging on his wall that someone gave him. It said ‘Meticulous Attention to Detail.’ He lived by that. He once told me, ‘You cannot change people. You have to identify their good qualities & refine those.’

“Early relationships will follow you all of your career, so it’s important to develop them, nourish them, and make sure you are giving back what you can. I can’t say enough good things about those two people, because I would not have become as successful without them.”

Felix: “How long were you in the nursery business before you made a profit?”

“I was making a profit in the nursery business within four or five years, but it took me seventeen years to pay off the baggage I brought from the farm. We had a freeze in 1983 and I lost $200,000 worth of nursery plants. Then, in 1985, we had another freeze that damaged them, and in 1989, I lost another $200,000 to freeze damage.

“The only thing I say that contributed to my success other than the Lord and his direction, my mentors, and my family’s hard work and support is the fact that I have so much grit that I wouldn’t quit. At one point, my lawyer asked if I was familiar with Chapter XII bankruptcy that was only available to farmers. He suggested that I file for bankruptcy, but I said I didn’t want to. I got some concessions from the Federal Land Bank, a low-interest nursery disaster loan, worked hard and got back to even. In my business career, I have not cost anybody anything, and I am proud of that, but those were hard times. In 1991, I got back to even and started to rebuild my new worth.”

Felix: “It was a learning experience.”

“Every young entrepreneur needs to know that if a young man has something in him, has the drive, he will eventually accomplish things. Pride sometimes takes over and he sticks his chest out and says, ‘I can do anything.’ Unfortunately, sometimes people spread themselves so thin they become over-extended. They cannot pay attention to everything, which leads to problems. You have to go out on a limb sometimes, but it has to be a measured amount. We can’t ‘do it all.’ Be conservative and don’t get carried away.”

Felix: “Once you started making a profit in the nursery business and overcame your farm liabilities, how long was it before you thought about expanding?”

“Before I started expanding, I was doing well at a certain level, making a little money. When I was able to buy the first additional nursery, it gave me some breathing room. My sales and profits increased to the point where I could hire more people and every mistake wasn’t so critical it would put me out of business.

“In prayer one night, I relinquished control to God and told him that if he wanted me to be successful, He would have to do it because I had given it my best shot and I couldn’t. The next morning, had I gotten up, got a legal pad and filled it up with all the good things that I would like to happen, it could not have compared to things that did happen.

“I continued to work hard and long hours. My wife supported me and was patient with my absence from home because the many hours of hard work. She sacrificed a lot, but we both gave God control.

“I was able to buy the second nursery within six months after I prayed that prayer. Less than a year later, we were able to buy the home my wife had wanted for years.

“Everything began to fall in place. Five years after that, we bought our third nursery, and my wife and I named it Blessings. One thing, however, about business is that the overhead always grows. You have to increase your sales in order to keep or increase your profit.”

Felix: “Another skill we try to teach our entrepreneurs is how to manage their personnel. So many of them don’t want to let go, don’t want to delegate. At what point did you start delegating and managing your business?”

“I probably did it too late. Today my personnel situation is great. One thing I know about business is that if it’s bad, it’s going to get better. And if it’s great, it’s going to get worse. You always lose key people that you wish you would never lose; it’s a constant training situation. Every organization, every business entity is basically in the people business. Customers and employees who help grow the business and make profit are the most important assets we have.

“I have always said that if we can keep our customers long enough, we can solve some of our in-house problems, but if you lose your customers, you don’t have time to solve your problems. With employees, it’s the same thing. The training process is people building. Most people don’t realize that people have different personalities and those personalities don’t change. Everybody has strengths and weaknesses. As a leader, I have to identify those traits and put people where they can do the best job. I can’t correct people’s weaknesses, but I can create an environment in which they can recognize their own weaknesses and begin to grow if they want to. I focus on people’s strengths, catch them doing something right, and praise them. Always give credit for successful jobs to the people who are doing the jobs. I want my employees to invest themselves in their job, to be able to think, use their brain and not be afraid to speak up.”

Felix: “You have to have communication. You have to have staff meetings so employees know your goals and how the company’s doing, etc. Communication is essential.”

“Leadership and communication are essential. A leader must set the bar of excellence and communicate it to his or her associates in such a way that they want to be a part of it. One must lead from the front—not push from the back.

“Employees have to know the company’s goals. People don’t work for companies. People work for people. They work for the right leader. These people are not working for Country Pines Nursery. They are working with Richard Odom. I hate it, and it embarrasses me to hear somebody say I work for Richard. Employees will treat your customers when you are not around the same way you treat them. If you are gracious and supportive and appreciative to employees, then that’s how they are going to treat customers. People always perform better, work harder and reach farther with respect, appreciation and credit for their efforts.”

Felix: “If you could, what would you do differently?”

“I tell people it’s a wonder that I’m a success because of all the failures I had.”

Felix: “But you apparently learned from those failures.”

“You learn from your mistakes, and that’s what I try to get people that are working with me to do. I’ve even gone so far as offering to pay people $25 for every mistake they made, owned up to, and told me about so that we might discuss the reasons for the mistake and the corrective action. We find, in most cases, that the system needs to be corrected, rather than the employee.”

Felix: “That’s a new one on me on me. I like that.”

“I’ve made terrible mistakes. I set the pinnacle of price for farmland in Rapides Parish. It still stands today. I paid the highest price for it—just before it went down. I only retained two things out of my college management class. One thing that was encouraging was, ‘It’s said, and research confirms that people, on average, will accomplish more between the ages of 55 and retirement than they do all the way up to 55. The probable reason for that is those people that make it to 55 in business, have come up against a wall, figured out how to go around it, over it, or under it. People who say, ‘Oh, that’s a wall and didn’t go around it are not in business at 55.

“Gain wisdom from mistakes you made, and learn not to make them again. Take the blame for mistakes yourself; don’t put it on your employees or your customers. But, don’t dwell on them. Concentrate on your strengths and successes.

“The other thing I remember from that class was that the instructor passed a piece of paper around and said, ‘I want you to read this and do whatever it says, and do nothing until you have finished reading the entire page.’ We’ve all heard of this, but there were about 40 people in the class. I was a slow reader, but I was going to follow his instructions. The paper said to clap your hands, stomp your feet, etc. I saw other people doing it and so I started doing it too, even though I hadn’t finished reading the paper. When I got to the end, it said ‘Do nothing of the above, pass the paper forward.’

“The way I applied that to business is ‘Take your time to learn all the facts, especially the ones you think are necessary.’ Too many times, we get part of the information and we’re done with it. You don’t want to sit too long and watch your competition pass you by, but you don’t want to have a knee jerk type of reaction where you can’t take the time to assess the situation. A wise old Chinese Proverb says, ‘He who decides to ride the tiger must first determine how to dismount.’ We all figure out how to get into something, but we don’t figure out how to get out of it. One point Steven Covey makes in his book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, is ‘Begin with the end in mind.’”

Felix: “Is there any advice that you would give entrepreneurs of today?”

“I place great importance on education. However, I place no importance on formal education. An education in life taught me to open my mind so I could acquire knowledge, and realize where to go to find it. Educated people have an open mind. You can’t succeed without good work ethics. You have to roll up your sleeves and go to work. Businesses are not built overnight and there are no get-rich schemes. Success comes after a long period of doing the right thing and doing the hard things.

“My father told me, ‘Boy, you should just always do the best you can and that will be good enough. If a person with more capabilities is to do his best, more is required of him to do his best. However, if a person is not blessed with those same capabilities, as long as he does his best, that’s good enough.’

“Products don’t sell themselves. Products and services are bought by people. Learn to be a student and leader of people. Too many people don’t understand the true definition of delegation. A lot of people think delegating means turning a job over to somebody else and then you don’t have to do it. People need to be trained, educated and nurtured so that they can accomplish jobs as well as you can or close to it. Once they are trained, then you have to get them to accept the job. Delegating a job to someone who doesn’t have the capability to do it is not delegation, it’s abdication. The person delegating to someone first needs to understand the end results. Then, that person needs to verify the job is completed before they sign off on it. Let the person doing the job know that you will help them, but you are not going to do it for them.

“Young people need to understand that if you are in business and you are afraid, you are not the only person who’s afraid. All of us have been fearful at one time or another. Focus on your good points and strengths rather than fear of failure. People who are successful didn’t get that way without a lot of failures and without help from other people.”

Felix: “Richard, in closing I just want to say how much I and the ELS Program appreciate you being a mentor.”

“Remember to finish what you started. Make sure you provide excellence in production and customer service. Remember not to become a victim of your success. Grow your management as business grows, if you don’t, bad management and bad leadership will hurt you in the end. I think there are four keys of management:

1. Formulate your mission statement and goals
2. Develop a strategy
3. Provide leadership, training and motivation
4. Control, as much as possible, factors that affect production and sales.

“Remember, if you are going to be successful, you have to put in twelve, fourteen or sixteen hour days. Some days you might put in twenty, but it will pay off in the end. You cannot start a business, sit in the office and then go home eight hours later. It just doesn’t happen.”