The Learning To Lead Show with Mark J. Cundiff

"Muddy Boots, A Broom Closet, & Broken Expectations: The Grit Behind Great Leadership” my interview with Robert Owens Part 1

• Mark Cundiff

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In this episode of The Learning to Lead Show, host Mark Cundiff interviews long-time friend and leader Robert Owens. Robert shares his fascinating career and leadership journey, which began with his work at Lowe's and culminated in owning his own construction business. He offers raw insights into the challenges he faced, including the 2008 economic downturn, and how he navigated them with resilience and servant leadership. From being unexpectedly handed a company to overcoming personal and professional trials, Robert's story is a testament to the power of humility, dedication, and the importance of investing in people. Tune in to hear valuable lessons on leading with integrity and purpose.

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Episode Timeline

00:00 Introduction and Sweetest Memory

00:22 Welcome to the Learning to Lead Show

00:32 Meet Robert Owens: A Dedicated Leader

02:17 Robert's Career Journey Begins

04:41 Leadership Lessons from Lowe's

07:52 Thrown into the Fire: Early Challenges

15:25 Servant Leadership in Action

17:59 Navigating Economic Downturns

22:56 From Business Owner to Employee

24:37 Conclusion and Key Takeaways


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LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go.

It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.

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To this day, if you come into my office, I have a picture that one of my workers took of me and my wife on the pump covered in concrete, and it's one of the sweetest memories that I have because at that point it was my very first leadership lesson that you have to be a servant leader in order to lead and to influence people. Hello. Welcome to the Learning to Lead Show where we help leaders learn and grow on the go. Today I have the privilege of having a long time friend Robert Owens on the show. Robert has been a friend of mine since early two thousands, about 20 years now. We have been members of the same church for many years until I moved away. He has just been a pleasure to know. One of the things I always remember when I think about Robert Owens is he's always got a smile on his face no matter what's going on, and he's always got a hug for a friend. Robert has been a long-term resident of Paulden County where he was just recently named Citizen of the Year for his many volunteer endeavors. He has been a long time Rotarian. He has served on many boards like the WellStar Ping Hospital Regional Board. He's been the vice chairman there. He's been on the. Pauling County Fire Advisory Board, the Pauling County Zoning Appeals Board, the Paling County Water and Sewer Advisory Board. He's also been a board member for a long time of Kaya. Come as You Are ministries in Dallas, Georgia, a non-profit that really helps the underserved and needy in the community. Robert has been a dedicated volunteer for Caye Ministries for many years. In addition to serving on the board professionally, he is the regional Vice president of Stratus Construction Solutions Company, a contract subcontractor specializing in multifamily apartments, renovations, and commercial projects such as hospitals and office buildings. With offices in Atlanta, Pensacola, Tampa, Nashville, and Memphis. Shortly, we're going to learn a little bit about Robert's career journey, the ups and downs, how he started out working in Lowe's many years ago and worked into having his own company for a while, suffered through the economic downturn that many did in the construction industry in the 2008 era, and then recovered from that to now be a top leader in the construction industry. For this company that he's working for now. Today we're gonna learn a little bit about his leadership journey, learn about how he has risen to the tops of his profession through many trials and tribulations. He's learned a lot along the way. I'm excited for you to learn from Robert today. He's married to his wife Tammy. They live in Paulden County still, and he is a proud grandfather. See his pictures on Facebook with his grandson Joshua. He's just a great family man, a great friend, and has some great leadership lessons for us today. So stay tuned and enjoy my interview with Robert Owens. One thing I want to ask you, are you busy and still need to learn and grow and develop as a leader? If so, I've got the perfect solution for you. Today's podcast is sponsored by my own newsletter, the Learning to Lead Newsletter that comes out every Monday with five to seven minutes worth of valuable content to help inspire you, encourage you, equip you. And put you on your way to learning and growing in your leadership journey. You can subscribe by going to Mark j kdu slash newsletter Mark j kdu slash newsletter, and you can get that in the show notes as well. And then I wanna also encourage you to download our leader notes. Every episode I put together some leader notes that summarize the podcast interview or show that we did that day. And give you some insights that you can grasp. If you're out there driving and can't take notes or you just wanted to remember a book that was mentioned, I'll put all those in the leader notes and you can download those as well. Those are in the show notes, so if you would stay tuned and enjoy this great interview with Robert Owens. Hello, Robert. It's good to see you today hey Mark. Good to see you today too. Tell us a little bit about your career journey and your leadership journey. Where you started out, how you got into the construction business, and where that's taking you over the years. It was an interesting story. My father was in construction. He was selling specialty millwork staircases, windows for developers and, residential commercial projects all over the southeast. So as an early child, I spent a lot of time traveling with him. During summer breaks from school, we would visit job sites, so I got an interest in construction early on. And as I moved on to college, my father actually helped me get a part-time job working for Lowe's in Marietta, Georgia. I would come back. In the summers or even on the weekends, and I would stock the shelves. And during that process I began to interact with customers and a mentor of mine who is actually now the mayor of Ackworth. His name is Tommy Allgood. Tommy saw something in me. As I started working those summertime jobs, he moved me into what they called inside sales, and that was mom and pop or building a deck. They're doing some electrical work and our job was to not only consult them, but to sell them all the materials they would need. And so that kind of sparked an interest in me in selling. I continued to do that and an opportunity came. I. Where a salesman was leaving and I got the opportunity to then become an outside salesperson and call on multifamily builders and residential builders. As I progressed in my career with Lowe's, in and out of school they decided to put me through what they call the Lowe's Leadership School. They sent me to Boone, North Carolina. I went through eight weeks of training there where they taught me how to read blueprints and how to sell and everything internal within the Lowe's organization. Was on a career path to land their newest store, which was gonna be in Douglasville, Georgia. So I was pretty excited about that. And about that time, Lowe's and Home Depot. Began the competition and they started entering into the big box store concept. So it went from that mom and pop builder relationship to this mega big box store where we were selling retail. At the time I just could not see myself doing that probably too young, I wish. Sometimes I wish I would've stayed because of just the stock. But I just thought, I don't wanna sell dishwash and soap and appliances, I wanna sell lumber. And I left and went to work for a residential supplier of doors and windows in Marietta and did for a little. Then I saw an ad one day and it was for this specialty concrete called lightweight. And they were looking for a sales rep. They were based out of Birmingham, Alabama. And I thought that sounds intriguing. So I went and interviewed a man and he hired me right on the spot. And so I got into this industry of subcontracting that I'd never even heard of or been exposed to. Now the funny little side story of that was he hired me and the first day I got there I went to this little house. They had rented a room. There were stacks of leads on the desk and there was no one there. I went to that office every day for two weeks. Never saw one human being, didn't know what to do, didn't know how to do, I just waited for the phone to ring. Sure enough, one day the phone rang and I picked it up, hello? And he was like I'm glad you're there. I live in Birmingham, but I'm moving, just. Continue to kind read the leads and I'll be there soon. So he came over I started, like cleaning up and going through what they call dodge leads. That was our referrals for starts and organizing and he came and he began to train me on being a concrete subcontractor. Fast forward just a little bit from there. Nine months to the day that he came that I met him in the office, he passed away of cancer. His partner who lived in Birmingham, who was the financial arm of the partnership, called me up and he said listen, Harold really liked you, so I have full confidence in you and good luck. You can run my company. That was the beginning of my career, like talking about being thrown to the fire. I was thrown to the fire. I began trying to learn everything I could, working with the crews, going out there I would say, I would use the word raw, I was just trying to figure this out. I would get a little bit of advice from him. He would come over about. Once every two or three months and spend a few hours with me. I went from there. He eventually allowed me to buy his company two years later and financed it for me. Then I began the process of owning my own company. So that, that's a lot to unpack there. That is a lot, isn't it? So let's dive in on a couple things. You had that leadership training. There at Lowe's. Were some of those things that you carried throughout your career, did you get some good leadership skills from that? I'm sure I did. I think the biggest thing I probably had going for me was really my father who had instilled a work ethic of me and a tenacity not to give up. And to chase my own dream. So that was bred in me from an early age. My mentor at the time, Tommy Allgood, I probably learned more from him on how he led. I watched him, he was and I'm sure we may talk about this later, but he really poured into his employees. He really, cared about us as people. That sort of propelled me to want to please. Because his success was tied to mine and mine to his. He was very much of a, or of a encourager. He was really the first person I had come into contact with who instilled in me kind of the concept of what we do for a living is what we do. It's not who we are. Then who we are will instill what we become. I loved that. I'll never forget the day one time as a early young guy I had been working really hard and I remember him walking in one day and telling me to take the afternoon off. I said what for am I in trouble? He said, no, I would just like you to go out and enjoy the day. You've been doing a really good job and I just want you to just, to go. I'm gonna pay you the full day and you just go and relax and come back energized for tomorrow. As a young guy with a boss working for a retailer. That was just beyond my comprehension, that someone would care enough about me to say at the time, Hey, why don't you go clear your head? Why don't you go, relax a little bit. That's all. It's great to have such a great mentor starting out early in your career like that, that to have you. Sure. Absolutely. Yep. So when you jumped in the deep end and you started running this company it sounds like overnight almost how did you get your bearings from a leadership standpoint to go out and run this business? I think at the time when I really say it was raw, I would, looking back it was really raw. I did have some help along the way. I realized pretty early that people were willing to help you if you were willing to help them. There were some clients there that kind of took me under their wing and taught me the aspects of what they needed. What I learned was if I met the needs of my clients, they would reciprocate back to me. And and so it became this partnering relationship with the clients from the internal aspect of it. When I say the wild West, it was the wild west. I was in a an area of construction that I had no expertise in. It wasn't lumber or selling materials. It was an installation. It was a subcontracting. So we were very basic. At the time, fax machines were just coming on and I was trying to figure out, rather than hand deliver these bills, what if we could fax? These invoices to save time because we were working in multiple states. Then the other thing that, that I think served me well was I really invested into my men who at the time not knowing what we did. I would show up with jeans and boots on and just get covered in concrete and let'em. Let'em laugh at me and make fun of me. All along the while I was building relationships with these people that would 30 years later be part of the management team that I still have today. Wow. Yeah that, that's amazing. That's a great. Tell us a little bit how you transitioned from working for somebody to running the company, then owning the company. So once once he was willing to sell me the company my wife and I, that was a. All in risk type situation to become this entrepreneur of starting or owning my own company. I remember, for the first time having to go to banks and signing. Letters of credit personally and the impact that had on me. One little interesting thing about that I think was pivotable, a pivotal part of my story was I. We were on a shoestring budget. We're getting a check from the contractor and I'm giving half of it to the supplier and half of it to meet payroll and half of it to the bank, and the little bit that was left, we're buying groceries and we're doing that. Kind of going on along. And I'll never forget this day or this period, we're behind schedule. I only have one pump. I have one crew and one of our largest clients we're behind and they come to me and they say, Robert, we've really gotta have this pour done before Monday. We have cabinets coming in from out of the country, you've gotta hit this mark. Here it is on Friday night and I've gotta work the weekend and I'm calling my crew and not everyone is available. So I'm two or three men short to do this poor that I've gotta have done. I make the decision that. I'm gonna go and my wife Tammy's gonna go, my kids are gonna go and we're gonna go to this job and I run the pump and bust the bags and my wife is running the bobcat and along with my crew, and we get this this poor done. At the moment. It was out of desperation. That's the truth. It was just outta sheer desperation of having to meet a deadline. But what I didn't see at the time was what it was doing to my men was showing them that I was all in and that I was willing to do anything that I would ask them to do. To this day, if you come into my office, I have a picture that one of my workers took. Me and my wife own the pump covered in concrete, and it's one of the sweetest memories that I have because at that point it was my very first leadership lesson that you have to be a servant leader in order to lead and to influence people. Wow. That's really amazing. And it's still paying dividends 30 years later, as you were saying. Relate to us some of the challenges, maybe some things that early on when you were trying to figure out this leadership journey that you wish the Robert, that you are now 30 years later. Wishes he knew then. Yeah. So what are some things that you would've done differently if you had had some wisdom packed in that maybe we could share with others? I think my first biggest mistake I made early on was really making assumptions about things and people. Not being intentional with providing them expectations. So because I was wired to be driven and because I was wired to do certain ways, I had this misconception that everyone was like me. So I became this roller coaster of becoming frustrated when people didn't. Do what I thought they should do or what I needed them to do. So looking back, I think I would've saved myself a lot of headaches if I would've just been really intentional with laying out expectations. And then understanding that not everyone is equally yoked with you as far as what your desires and passions and drive is. Not everyone's gonna be that way, that was something I had to learn the hard way. No that's some good leadership lessons there for sure. The one thing that I have admired about you from our relationship is your resilience over the years, because you've had some really, like you said, times where things are going good and businesses busting out, but you've also had some challenges when things, the economy went south on you and you had to reboot your career, walk us through from a leadership standpoint when you're responsible for all these people and you're running your own company and you're going through challenging times, what did you learn through some of those journeys when you've traveled through some challenges over the years? Sure. It was as you mentioned and you were there with me for a lot of this as we started rock and Rolls, we started having great success. I would say early on the business was rolling along pretty good. The construction as a whole nationally was good. And then one day outta left field I get a phone call and that phone call swung from a one of my largest accounts. The guy picked up the phone and said, Robert, I owe you a phone call. We're closing up. We're closing up today, and I not only can I not pay you the money that I owe you, but I can't pay you the retainage of the money, which is the kind of the profit in our industry for work. We've already done that. They held back. So you're gonna lose that. You're gonna lose the money that you're currently doing. A portion of that money is what I owe to the suppliers. For the payroll and he said, I don't blame you if you want to start litigation, but I'll just tell you there's nothing to do. We're an LLC and when I hang up this phone, this doesn't exist anymore. I was just, wow. From that phone call, I got two more phone calls identical, and within a span of 72 hours. Half of my business had disappeared completely. So not only was the my client, the contractor out of business, the developer or owner was out of business, the bank that lent the money was out of business and it became this house of cards that affected, the national construction market. I found myself now with 51 employees, a debt service, debt machinery, suppliers and really did not know what I was gonna do at that point. And so we began literally having, which sounds crazy now but having yard sales every weekend. We were rolling quarters to make payroll, to get men to job sites. Just some really. To do and at the time what really worried me was. Not the fact that we would not succeed, but it was the fact that failure to not do what I had promised I would do. That was the looming factor that I owed people money and I did not want to say, I can't pay you. Or I had signed a contract saying we're gonna do a job, and I did not want to not finish that job. That haunted me more than just. I'm not gonna make money. We began to call suppliers, try to work out deals and at the time, everyone was so nervous that no one was willing to take a risk. So supply houses began leaning jobs upfront. So that they would get their money first before it came to me. All of a sudden I'm waiting four to six weeks to get a check from the pe from the other half of my company. So I have pennies left after they get paid. I ended up make, making a decision with my wife that we would then sell our company to our distributor who was also, in some respects, my competitor. For the debt. And so the agreement was if you would pay off everything that I owe, I will hand you the keys and there would be nothing left over for us except the possibility that he would retain me as an employee. Wow. A lot of times people don't realize when you're running your own business that, that you have those responsibilities and you have those 51 employees, and I'm sure all those things, there were sleepless nights where you were trying to navigate all that and you feel responsible for'em. I know I didn't, haven't ever owned my own company like that where I had employees, but just running. Plants and running different operations, you feel that responsibility for those people? Yeah, absolutely. That was some of the hardest decisions and we probably. In retrospect, maybe waited a little too late. We kept people on, but these were people that we had done life with. They just weren't workers. In some cases, they were friends, they were family, they were people that we went to church with. We had really invited the community to join us on our journey and telling those people. That I, either in some cases I couldn't even meet the last payroll check for'em or trying to lead them on as long as I could. That was probably the most painful season. You came out on the other side of that and now you're in a little bit different role in the same industry, but you're working for a different type of company from where you were at that particular time. Can you just bridge us to where you came out, you went through some really hard times, but like you said you got people. That started with you 30 years ago that are still part of your team now, or have come back and joined your team or however that has worked out. Can you bridge that for us? How you wrote through that hard season and now you're Yeah. You're back in a good place. Yeah. It was it was a hard season and I think that, sometimes I've learned in my leadership journey, that there is good in the heart. We don't like to think about that, but there really is, we think of those as polar opposites. But in some cases there is good in the heart. So one of the things after I sold my company to my distributor, I ended up from day one becoming really a bonafide salesperson. I was working for a general manager who was actually my former competitor. He took great joy in humiliating me. I'll never forget the day after I sold my company, I came to my office and he had moved into my office where I sat and had set up a folding table in a broom closet at the front of the building. I said where's my spot? He said, your spot's in the closet. So here I am, on a Friday being the owner of this company. And on Monday I'm relegated to literally the broom closet Wow. I hope you got a lot out of that episode today. We will see what happens after Robert got relegated to the broom closet. Today. Robert Owens gave us a raw and honest look at what it means to lead when you unprepared under pressure and out of options. He took us from a story of taking over a business he did not even ask for, to leading through concrete soaked weekends and economic collapse. Robert's story is a masterclass in servant leadership, grit, and humility. Here's what I hope you took away today. Leadership isn't about polish. It's about presence. It's not about titles. It's about trust, sometimes the best leaders are forged, not in the boardrooms, but in the broom closets if today's episode spoke to you, share it with someone who's in the trenches. make sure that you get your copy of today's Leader Notes. This is a summary that gives you quotes, key takeaways, and gives you some insights into today's podcast. Make sure you download Leader Notes. It's in the show notes if you got some great value out of today's content, please subscribe, share with a friend, and give us a five rating on your favorite podcast player of your choice. Let others know about the Learning to Lead Show so that we continue to help leaders grow on the go and go from being a good leader to a great leader who influence their communities, their families, and their organizations in a positive way. Until next time, keep learning, keep leading, and stay humble.