April 8, 2025 • 36 mins
Alan Barnhart is the CEO of Barnhart Crane & Rigging, which gives away 50% of its profits and he believes is God’s company. His personal commitment to earn a normal person salary makes Alan one of the most unique members of the Army.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
It's Bill Courtney with an army of normal folks. And
we continue now a part two of our conversation with
Alan Barnheart. Right after these brief messages from our general sponsors,
I think I've read, and I'm going to mess this up,
but I think I've read that you had like a
(00:23):
financial advisor buddy that you told all about this and
now he's doing something similar.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Has that done? Miss up?
Speaker 3 (00:30):
We've told the story quite a lot, many people have
done something similar. Matter of fact, that financial guy was
just at my office. I just dropped him the airport
of the way. Here the guy I'm talking about. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
well that's weird. I mean, I swear that was not
a setup.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
He's out of Houston.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Yeah, And so he has given a chunk of his
company away and plans to give away more of it.
It makes perfect sense. It's not it's not crazy. It's
because of the way that we're owned, our tax bills lower,
and but mainly this transfer the company can go on
forever because it's not owned by an individual. We're trying
to set all of the businesses. We have seven businesses now,
(01:05):
trying to set them all up to go on forever
and to have an impact on our employees. Part of
that fifty five million dollars goes to things we do
for our employees. It's a relatively small part, but you know,
some money goes to we want to do something in
each of the communities where we have an operation. We
want to do something for our families, for our employees,
and then we also want to do things for the
(01:27):
most needy areas in the world. So that's that's our
that's our mantra.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
So what does that leave you today? You're the CEO
of a company that you don't even own any of. Yeah,
but I would assume then that the days today are
no different than the days twenty years ago, except you're
probably not operating a crane anymore. But the point is when.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
We wrote that, when we signed those documents and gave away, well,
this was two thousand and eight.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Okay, my balance sheet changed a lot that day. Personal
balance sheet.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
I bet my life didn't change it on my motivation
to work didn't change it all. We've quit saying we
gave away the company. We just transferred the stock of
the company. We still own the company. From a stewardship standpoint,
we're still trying to push this company to be great.
We're trying to create great value for the for society,
(02:18):
so we're I'm still working hard. I'm actually about to
transition out of being the CEO after thirty nine years.
Have another guy that's going to step in and do
that relatively soon.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
What are you going to do. I'm gonna stay, I'm
gonna keep working.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
I'm gonna be working for him, and I don't need money,
and my lifestyle is pretty pretty small. My salary has
actually gone down over the years because all my kids
are gone now.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
And yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
When you go from two point fifty to a being
in sales, might as well get yourself a pay cut.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Nice job backwards. Bro, It's no.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
I just don't have the need, and I don't think
that more money would make me any better off as
a person, So I just have no. I don't think
of money. I don't think we're built to be happy
with money. I think contentment is Bible says contentment is
great game, and that's.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
What we found.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
It's not been it hasn't been some sacrificial If this
had been really hard, I think I'd have bailed out
a long time ago.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
I think it's been.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
It's been an exciting, fun life and not sacrificial. And
so it's that's the God we serve, you know, he's
worthy of our obedience completely. But he's also a loving,
heavenly father that wants to give us good things. And
so it's it's again, it's not been. Please don't feel
sorry for me at all.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
I don't feel sorry. I've had a wonderful tree, but
I don't I kidding, you know, I don't think that.
But I do have a question. Your customers know this,
don't they.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Most of them don't. We don't lead with this at all. Yeah,
it would be you customers don't know this now. Some
might be listening today, but but no, it's not something
we lead with. We want people to hire us because
we're a great company and we do work well and
we're honorable. We don't want them to hire us because
we give money away. We think that's not that wouldn't
(04:12):
be appropriate. So we don't lead with that at all.
There are customers that learn of it. I mean, if
you google me on there's my wife and I have
a video where we're telling our story. And so people
some people want to check you out and they'll google you.
And if they do, what they'll find is several times
where I've been telling the story and so so some
of our customers do, customers do find out, and some
(04:32):
of our vendors do. But it's not it's not something
we lead with.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
So tell me about the Generous Giving thing.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Sure, there's a group out there called Generous Giving that
their whole purpose is to help people discover generosity and
the benefits of generosity, and so we connected with them
pretty early on. But we they do a thing called
a Journey of Generosity, And I've been on a bunch
of these where you sit around for the day with
(05:00):
about a dozen people or so fifteen, and you talk
about generosity, and you look at some scripture, and you
look at some stories of other people you and you
just spend twenty four hours together talking about generosity and
it's life changing for people.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
And there's no asks, nobody, no.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
That's part of you know, you can't pay to be
part of it, and you can't. There's no asks, there's
no expectations. This is a foundation that spends a big
chunk of money saying all we want to do is
help people understand generosity because for two reasons. One is
if people are more generous, that three percent will go
up and more people can be helped. But I think
the biggest reason is life change of the givers. And
(05:42):
when people grasp generosity, it sets them free. And you know,
we've we've found that, you know, in our in our case,
we put constraints in our life financially and came to
realize that putting in constraints in your life leads to freedom.
Living a life without constraints like freedom, but in almost
(06:02):
every area it leads to bondage if you don't constrain
yourself and how you act. And so we you know,
that's part of the message of generous giving is that
the generosity sets you free.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
You can end up a slave to the desire for more, absolutely,
because there's no end to that.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
There is no end. That's infinite. Yeah, and when is
enough enough? There's never enough? Do you say it's enough?
Speaker 2 (06:25):
So if somebody's listened to us and they can just
google this thing.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Yeah, generous giving dot org I think is and there's
on that there is there's a video. They have a
whole bunch of videos. There's a video of our story
on there. But there's a video of thirty or forty
other stories and they could connect on how to get
involved in a job and highly recommend.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Actually, Bill, that's how we found Brandon n Ashley's status.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
That's it.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
So the people who they were in Austin and their
group of friends came together and paid off their student debt.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Yes, yeah, they were sitting here they told you the story.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Oh yeah, and I'm trying to book right now. She's
agreed to do it, Rene Lockey. So she's the doctor
who decides to live like a nurse. I think is
a great story to point out too. You don't have
to have a billion dollar company to consider this. You
could be a doctor and consider.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
This absolutely not. I mean, I think generosity helps. I'd
say develop generosity if you're six years old or eighty
six years old.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
It is a great thing to develop.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
I mean, what I'm gaining from all this.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Really is.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
If you leave the three percent become the ten percent,
or if you go from three percent to fifteen percent,
or if you're an eight percenter and you go to
sixteen percent, you can get so much more out of
what you give than the percentage that you raise.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Can't outgive God it's giving set you free, holding what
you have with an open hand and saying this is
not mine. I'm willing to deploy it in any way
that you want me to. Sounds scary to people, but
it's not. It's it sets you free.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
And you don't have to be a billion dollar company
and founder to go from three percent to ten percent.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
No, the widow's might is a great example. You know,
I think God is not impressed with the commas and
the zeros. You know, that's not the issue. I think
there are lots of very generous people that are making
forty grand a year and given ten percent, and a
lot of people at a zero and are given zero.
(08:38):
And I think that those people that are making forty
grand are are happier. As I travel all over the world,
I mean, I meet people that are making three dollars
a day and are happy. I don't think money is
the answer to happiness. I think it's almost inversely proportional.
But I think I think generosity is proportional to happiness.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Steve's not the alan, You're not the only fifty percent
or too.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
I think it's just important to say.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
I mean, like the green hobby lobby family, Steve Trice,
I've interviewed who does it too. There's a Jewish financier
with a several billion dollar company and they're at fifty percent,
so it's yeah, I mean there are other people doing
this too.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Yeah, I mean it makes perfect sense when you look
at there's a huge tax benefit to give me, and
you know to the now it's sixty percent. But the
first if you don't give, you're going to pay forty
percent or so in taxes. So Uncle Sam is sort
of subsidizing your gift by by giving you a tax deduction, and.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
So quit walking away from the opportunity.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Yeah, and to wait until you die to give is
really bad math because you you don't get a tax deduction.
You don't have to pay a state taxes, but you
don't get so all your life you've been paying taxes
on this money, and then you give it away and
don't get a deduction, and you don't know where it's going,
and you're not around to see the blessings.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Say, the coolest part is can be around to actually
see the fruits of absolute you've done.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
And I think to start that when you're ten years
old and just you know some of the things I
did when I was in high school and college, you know,
sponsoring a kid and Zimbabwe for fifteen bucks.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
A month or whatever back then shaped me.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
And and so I think to start at a very
young age. My oldest son, when he went to college,
he started doing a thing at the door at the
in his apartment where he'd invite people over for dinner
and all they would have is a bowl of rice,
and each person would bring five or ten bucks that
they would have spent on dinner.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
And they'd come and.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Learn about a country where a bowl of rice would
be there their whole day's food. And then they'd pray
for that group and they'd bunch of that money together
and bend mowed off or whatever to an organization.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
And it's really.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Cool, and you know, it's it's it's I don't think
it's changing that organization that much, but it's changing them.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Yeah, And it's just little.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
So I think everybody can get in on this, and
I think it's a great benefit to everybody.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
It's just normal folks doing what.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Normal folks absolutely and we're all I mean, I'm a
very normal guy, so I serve an extraordinary God.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
And it's it's been a great pleasure to do it.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
We'll be right back. I canna ask you question, what
did your kids go to high school? White State Achieving Houston.
I went to White Station Houston High School. Houston High School,
(11:36):
which is for everybody most of you not from Memphis.
Houston High School is in the suburbs and it's a
nice public high school out in the Germantown Carville area,
which is east of Memphis and a nice suburb. Your kids. Now,
kids are kids, and I know what my kids wanted
(11:56):
for birthdays and Christmases. And I also know the kind
of trips my kids wanted to go on, like Disney
World and all that stuff.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
And I gotta.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Believe you know, you can say what you want to,
but the walls have ears in a family with six kids,
and they got to be picking it up. And at
some point it's revealed to these kids and their teens
that hey, we don't live like my dad's got a
two hundred and fifty million dollar business, and there's there's
(12:31):
got to be an evolution for the kids. And I
just got to know, did you ever feel pressure from
them because you love them, did you ever feel pressure
to maybe highten it up? A little bit, so maybe
you could offer them some opportunities that maybe you didn't
have as a kid, or maybe you just got sick
(12:54):
of listening to them ask for more or something.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
You know what I'm saying, I did.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
I mean, we resisted the temptation to just get tired
of it and just give them things we thought weren't helpful.
And you know, we we taught them the theology of
the Rolling Stones. There's the song the Theology of the
Rolling Rolling Stones.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Well, there's something I wouldn't expect.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
There's a song that says you can't always get what
you want. And so I taught them that song as
young kids. And uh, they thought I wrote the song.
And later they heard it on the radio and said, hey,
Dad's song. But you know, and so there were times
and we said, you know, at first they were young,
and we grew up out in the country and we
(13:33):
homeschooled for several years, and we went camping, and we
just had a ball living out in the country.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
And uh, and that was enough until you're about cell phone.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Started getting older and cell phones come along, and so
we didn't want our kids to have cell phones for
their protection, you know, So that when they got older,
when they started driving, we.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Let them have cell phones.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
But but and even that, we had to be careful,
especially with the guy the males that there's shoes there.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
But we had to be careful.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
But my kids, you might think they'd be pissed off
about us giving away this their inheritance.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Yeah, you know, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Yeah, I mean this thing, we never saw it as
ours and therefore they never saw it as theirs.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
And I think they really adopted the same mentality.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
I mean, well, they're not all exactly. I mean, they
all are individual people, and as they're all on their
own now, some are very in line with what we do,
some less a little less so. But none of them resented.
I mean we we had to say no a fair
amount to them, but we also showed them the alternative.
One of the things we spent a lot of money
(14:39):
on is taking our kids around the world. So my
kids have been to all over Africa, to India, to
Israel and Egypt and Turkey and China, and we took
our kids all over the place and have them meet
these amazing people. These weren't terroist trips. They were We
had a lot of fun, but it was it was
going to see some of the ministries that were involved in.
(15:03):
And we also had these guys at our dinner table,
a whole bunch talking about what was going on in
their country, and and they'd come visit us. And my
kids grew up hearing all these stories and meeting all
these amazing people.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
And so, you know, we didn't take the family.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
To Disney World, but we we took them on some
really cool trips.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
And to take them to Disney World, you took them
to the world.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
The world, the world and meeting really cool people, and
that's so much more fun.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Now. We did special treats too. That one of our
theologies was special treats.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
There's in the Bible, there's feasts, and there's and so
there's times we would go to the beach and we would.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Just screw around at the beach, go to Cracker.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Barrel on the way down there, and go to get
ice cream. And you know, we didn't have cable TV,
and so the kids when they go to a beach
and had Cartoon Network, it was like nirvana, you know.
And so my wife did such a great job of
teaching them contentment, you know, and kids don't get contentment
by getting what they want. They get content by enjoying
(16:00):
what they have. And my kids learned that and I
think it was a great gift to them. And we
also taught them a work ethic. And you know, we
let them. We let them pay for half of their college.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
You let them pay for out love You say.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
That, yeah, we And you know some people would think
of that as child abuse, but but we think of
them that.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
They did they have to get loans or did they
work or.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
If they got scholarships that counted. We didn't let them
do loans.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
But that was our rule. At Lisa and I did
the same thing, no kidding. It was, here's how much
you're going to get a year for college. Well we
knew that was not going to cover college, so we
didn't do the half. We just put a number out there. Right,
here's the thing. If you work hard enough and get
a full ride, you're still going to get that number.
(16:45):
So I had one kid. I won't mention this one.
They got a such a good full ride at ACT
score and everything that not only was it all covered,
but the end of each semester she had so much
scholarship made that they gave.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Her a check back.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
In that sweet she still graduated with studard debt, and
we let her, in your words, we let her learn
the pain behind that too. We let her have that.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
It's so great to let kids experience pain. I think
I love the word that you use because so many
parents want to say I don't want my kids to
go through what I had to go through. I want
to say, why not? It made you who you are.
I mean, struggle and pain is a great teacher. And
I think we rob our kids when we protect them
from pain.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Let us struggle.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
I can't stand the helicopter pain, iron sharpens iron, all
of it. But that's so they bought in by and large. Yeah,
that's a miracle. They were teenagers to buy into anything.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
There was never any There was some resentment when one
kid wanted to hummer and we're not going to buy
a Hummer, you know, or something like or I want
a better phone away, So there was They're human beings
and there was a few times where they were not happy,
but there was not a deep resentment. Even when we
gave the company away. My oldest son, who was old
enough then to he was maybe sixteen or eighteen, he
(18:16):
came and said, Dad, thank you for getting that done,
because if something had happened to you, this would have
been a mess and I'd have been in you know,
thank you for getting that done. So none of my
kids felt like we ripped them off by by giving
away the company. And they're good kids. They you know,
they've they didn't grow up as rich kids, which I
think is a great benefit to them. But they they've
(18:38):
had I'm proud of all of them. And you know,
some of them have struggled a lot, made bad decisions.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
We let them struggle.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
They all do the Yeah, they don't come out with
an owner's manual.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
No, no, no, you do the best you can. Yeah.
Six Yeah, and you love them all the same ages.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Now the oldest is thirty seven and the youngest is
twenty four.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Are we had four have four one two three and
four one two, three and four.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
That's how old they were. Wow.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Now they're twenty nine seven, twenty six, meaning there was
no break.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
You were busy. Yeah. Yeah, Well it's funny.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
I'm glad you said that because when you said you
had six kids, I thought, well, there's one of the
benefits of not making much money.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
You don't have much to do. Sept sit around the
house and make kids. Two of ours are actually adopted.
So okay, yeah, yeah, well that's still four.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Still four still for so.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
For perspective, when people hear a billion dollar company, you
have machines that the truck to transport them requires like
hundreds of tires and stuff.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Right, yeah, I mean our our biggest cranes take about
eighty truckloads to move from one place to another.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
I mean the big, big pieces of a.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Quick eighty truck loads to then assemble the crane.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Yeah, so you take you shipping in pieces because it's
too big to over the road, and then you get
to the job site and you put it together and it.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Makes it lift.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Oh man, it's all kinds of heavy stuff. So we're
we've done some stadiums.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
We did. We had a big crane out at the
stadium in Las Vegas. What'd you do?
Speaker 2 (20:13):
What did you do on this? I've been in the stadium.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Yeah, they were safe.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
At the new football stadium. Put me up a new
football stadium. They were setting big trusses and big, you
know big. They wanted to do the steal in big
pieces because it's up high. So we did that the
Nashville air.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
About the roof.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Yeah, so that kind of translistent roof those diamond looking
trusses that hold it up. Yeah, you set those things
up there.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Yeah, there was other cranes too, but one of our
cranes was out there doing that. We didn't do the work,
we were just providing that crane. Similar in Nashville Airport,
they built a big terminal there and we put a
crane out there. But sometimes we do do the work
and so we're go to a plant. We did a
job in Detroit taking down a big piece of duct
work at a at a big steel mill there and
takes a huge crane because you got to reach way
(20:57):
back with a heavy load.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
So and we have a whole bunch.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
We have about eight hundred cranes, but that's those we're
talking about, the really big ones that take those.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
You do something with nuclear or something, Yeah, we do
a lot.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Of work in the nuclear industry removing and replacing components
of old nuclear plants.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
All the nuclear plants are pretty old.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
They're built in the seventies, sixties, some of them, maybe
the eighties will be the most recent. There's been just
a couple built in the last thirty years and not know,
not very many at all. So they get old and
they need to replace pieces and they weren't really designed
for that, so they have to get into tight places.
And we have a bunch of engineers that build special tools,
so we're not doing cranes so much, but we're doing
(21:35):
special ways of getting in and picking up.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
A heavy load and moving it out.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
And we love we love those challenges where the customer says,
this can't be done, there's no way to do it.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
And we said, let's tell me about the interstate underneath Seattle.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Oh the tunnel boring machine. Yeah. We Oh your eyes
lit up. Oh man, that sounds like a fun toy.
It was a huge job. It was. Tell us about it.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
So they were they dug a tunnel. It's the large
diameter tunnel I think that's ever been dug. And it
was like sixty foot diameter.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
To a healthy foot diameter all the way around. Wasn't oval,
it was round, it was round. Yeah, no, it's sixty foot.
That's huge, sixty foot diameter hole. Oh yeah yeah. And
so they they do it. They're doing it horizontally. But
they have this machine that was I think it was
built in China or Japan up maybe Japan. They shipped
it over and we had to take these pieces, some
(22:24):
of them weigh a thousand tons and move them into
the to the where they're going to start a thousand
tons on the machine.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Each each piece. Yeah, holy smoke. So we didn't use
a crane.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
We used a lyft system for that because it would
take a huge, huge crane to do that.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
But so we built it.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
We have a lift tower system that picked these pieces
up and rotated them ninety degrees and put them down
in a hole.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
And you build this thing. It's like a train.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
I mean it's it's the cutter heads up front, but
then the driving mechanism and then all the processing cars
behind it.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
So when this thing is going through the rock and
it's chopping up the rock to make then where does
the rock? It does have a conveyor belt that conveyors
it backwards.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
It does.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
It has a whole series of cars behind it that
process all the stuff coming out. And then as you're going,
you're putting concrete segments up to.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Secure the roof, and so does it do that too?
It does that. So this machine is amazing.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
We do it's cutting rock and laying concrete buttress structure.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Lack of a better word.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
And full disclosure, all we did is picked up and
picked the stuff up and set it in.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
You get it that somebody else designed the machine. Yeah,
it was.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
It was a very cool machine. But we were our part.
Like a lot of times, our part is just to
pick up the heavy pieces and put them in place.
We don't build these machines.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
We don't. In that case, we didn't operate the machine.
Did you go look at it? Oh?
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Yeah, it was cool. That had It's pretty cool. Yeah,
that had to have been insane.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
All from a couple of twenty five year olds who
take over a small family business out of two bedrooms
and the upstairs while their parents go sell the world.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
It is wild. It's a pretty cool story.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
That's what you mean by an answer to prayer?
Speaker 3 (24:06):
Yeah, a lot of hard work. I mean that first
year I probably worked one hundred hours a week.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
I mean it was I know what that is.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
You're replacing mom and dad both, Max. My mom was
harder to replace than my dad.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
So what'd your parents do when they got back from Salem?
Speaker 3 (24:32):
They came back into the company a little bit just
on some special projects. My dad did, my mom did not,
And then they bought a couple hundred acres up in
Shelby Forest and they live up. My dad just passed
away about a year ago, but my mom still lives
on that two hundred acres and she's out working. She's
almost ninety one, and she's the hardest working person I know.
I went over the other day and she had her
chainsaw out ninety one years old.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
I was hitting me cutting down trees. So that's the
stock I come from.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Yeah, I've also read that later they came to share
your faith.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
They did, both of them both embraced their faith and
uh later in life and became very generous in their
own right and had just the benefit of being around
generous people. You don't find many sad generous people. Generous
people are fun to be around, and so they moved
into those circles and connected with a bunch of other
(25:27):
generous people and it really fulfilled their life a lot.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
I'll tell you something, Allen.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
When Alex and I were talking about you as a guest,
you're obviously a typical and many many many ways, but
you're also atypical for a guest for us, because most
of our guests are, you know, really average normal folks
who saw an area need and filled a specific area
need and changed lives doing it. And we celebrate that, right,
(25:54):
But you're a guy who hasn't just worked hard to
do that. Your guy who's worked hard to be an
average normal guy, your guy who has turned his back
on what societal preconceived notion is about success, and you
illustrate what real success looks like. So many of your
(26:16):
want I want to compliment you on that. I don't
know how you handle compliments or if you even get
them like that before, but I want to say to you,
that's that's really inspirational.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
I mean, so many of your other guests I think
are similar. Their production didn't come in the form of
profits being generated, but they did come in the form
of lives being changed. And so I think each of
us using our skills and gifts to serve others is
a great way to live life.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
It's not. It doesn't suck something away from you. It
gives you things. And I read in Alex's prep for.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Interview that even in the Christian community, the average person
only gives about three percent of what they make away,
and that includes tithing. Yeah, three percent. I think that's
interesting because I recently learned from another guest, pretty much
(27:14):
every single one of us in life before we die,
will either us or someone extremely close to us, will
need blood. If you're having a routine operation, if you're
having your appendix outs, you gotta have blood. If you're
in a car wreck, you gotta have blood. If you're cancer,
you gotta blood. If you're diabetic, so you're probably going
(27:34):
to need blood or platelets. If you have cancer, you're
certainly going to need platelets in blood. If you're in
the hospital older and you have some minor surgery, you're
gonna need blood. One hundred percent of us are going
to need blood. Do you know what the percent of
donors are that give blood in our population?
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Probably not even one three the same number. Interesting, It
is fascinating it has the same number.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
When I read that, I was like, Wow, Yeah, not
only is it three percent of our money, it's three
percent of something as easy as sitting down for an
hour and giving blood.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
It's probably also three percent of our time.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Probably is. And so here's the call. We've been doing
this now for a year and a half, two years,
and we keep saying an army of normal not government,
not people on CNN and Fox, an army of average
normal folks seeing are your need and filling it is
what changes the world. And right now and money and blood,
(28:40):
we're at three percent, wow, and yours is fifty. I
don't think we're going to get people that think in
terms of fifty dude, because you're weird.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
I hope more due.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
Maybe not everybody, but I do hope more due.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Yeah, but what if we could get it to that
would triple our giving?
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Yeah? Think of that be billions and billions, it would
it would.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Be forget the money. Think about the lives that would
be changed.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
Absolutely, and not less significantly the lives of the givers
that would be changed.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Oh, I think absolutely.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
You know, I think the lives of the recipients could
be changed. You know, given way, money is not easy,
and you can do more harm than good by giving
away money. It's not a given that every time you
give money it can it's a good thing.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
I think.
Speaker 3 (29:35):
I think Christian welfare can be as damaging as government
welfare in terms of some of the negative.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Elements of that. So I don't I think you got
to be careful in how you give money.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
And I think that's why some people don't give is
because they don't know where to give and they've been
disappointed or whatever, and they get frozen.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
I think that's true. Yeah, I think that's absolutely true.
It's it boiled down to the simplest metaphor. Or You
walk in a grocery store at the corner of Poplar
in Cleveland, and the dude's standing outside and he's clearly homeless,
and you think he's probably got drug or alcohol problems,
and he wants five bucks.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Because he says he's hungry.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
If I knew for a matter of fact that that
five bucks is going to go in his belly and
make his knife life that night a little warmer and
a little more satisfied and a little fuller, I think
I'd give the five bucks to everybody stand on a corner.
But what I worry about is he's going to go
buy weed or get drunk on it and worse than
his life.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
That's what you're talking about. Now.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
That is a metaphor. Expand that to fifty five million dollars.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
It is.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
It's got to you've got of that and be careful
and make sure that you're supporting good stuff.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
Yeah, and we would say we're not giving money, we're investing.
We're investing in life change. That these organizations we're asking
them to tell us what they're going to do.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
We hold them accountable for it.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
We're looking for a turn on our investment, not a
financial return, but a return. You take a businessman's approach
to your giving exactly exactly, and we ask hard questions.
We're not if an organization doesn't want a partnership, if
they want a donor instead of a partner, then we're
not interested. But so we ask them all kinds of
(31:19):
hard questions. Sometimes the best thing we do for organizations
is help them think through their strategy and ask them
hard questions and give them no money. There's a lot
I think a lot of philanthropic organizations need business thinking,
and I think business people need ministry thinking, and I
think we can help each other, and so we're looking
(31:41):
for partners.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
You ever heard of slim shot? Yes, yeah, pretty awesome.
I love those the same idea.
Speaker 4 (31:47):
Yep, slink shot. Well, they kind of helped make this
interview happen. So Frank Smith, who's one of Allen's good friends,
set up this interview and Frank helped starts slink Shots.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Is that how or whether it is, or we could
have just called Alan and he'd probably just shown up.
So slink Shot sling Shots been a guest on the
show before good because as we talk about this hour
mean normal folks, engaging and everything else, it's important that
we have data driven results and hold ourselves accountable to
(32:18):
the work we're doing.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
Yeah, and I think for forgivers to find people like
Slingshot to help guide them is really wise. It is
you know, everything looks good on the video.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
And well they're not handing out pamphlets say how bad
they are, that's for sure.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
I mean some things are just pure Charlatan's and some
are just mediocre, and some you know, just not very good,
and some are highly effective. Some of those highly effective
organizations are the worst at fundraising, and so you've got
to go dig and find them. But when you can
find somebody that you have a confidence, and I think
it's better to give to a fewer groups more deeply
(32:57):
and get engaged more deeply.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Like you said, partnerships, Yeah, you can become a partner.
You ain't flying over a city and an airplane and
throwing out hundreds.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
You know, I go to that that that Kroger you're
talking about it Poplar and Cleveland.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
I go. That's all my way home. And I go
to that a lot.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
And and when somebody approaches, I don't give them money,
and I will say, I've got grocery bags. Is there
any of this food that you want? I'll give you
whatever this food you want. And they never want any
of my food. If you're hungry, please take whatever you'd like.
And so, you know, to be a sometimes sometimes saying
(33:39):
no is the right thing, and it's it's hard. I
mean sometimes I do give money, but a lot of
times I do not. I try to carry candy bars
or whatever.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
To You could also say, hey, man, my kids left,
I took a pay cut.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
I can't afford it. I'm down to my last few bucks.
I'm struggling.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Barnhart co founder and CEO of Barnhart cranon rigging. But
most importantly, an absolute inspiration. And if this man can
do what he has done, and we are working on
three percent as a national average in our country, let's
let's maybe use this story as an inspiration to maybe
(34:21):
not get to fifty.
Speaker 4 (34:23):
But certain discouraging people from getting the fifties.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
So I'm not discouraging anybody, but baby steps. Three to
fifty is pretty tough. But three to ten I think
we can do. And that also includes your time, your energy,
your effort. Everyone has a resource to give and if
you want to be a member of the Army in
normal folks, let's get above three percent.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
What do you think? Allen? Amen? Amen, Amen, thanks for
being here. Thank you, It's been a treat. Really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
And George and I thank you for joining us this week,
don't we George bring the bell.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Great.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
If Alan Barnhardt has inspired you in general or better yet,
to take action by considering what lifestyle and generosity commitments
you could make, or something else entirely, please let me know.
I'd love to hear about it. You can write me
anytime at Bill at normal folks dot us, and I
promise you I will respond. Will not George say it loud,
(35:27):
I'll respond wanna Okay?
Speaker 1 (35:28):
Good?
Speaker 2 (35:29):
And if you enjoyed this episode, share it with friends
and on social subscribe to the podcast, rate and review it.
Join the Army at normal folks dot us. Consider becoming
a Premium member there, Any and all of these things
will help us grow an army of normal folks. I'm Bill, Courtney,
Me and George. We want you to do what you can.
(35:52):
We'll see you next time.
Everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
It's Bill Courtney with an army of normal folks. And
we continue now a part two of our conversation with
Alan Barnheart. Right after these brief messages from our general sponsors,
I think I've read, and I'm going to mess this up,
but I think I've read that you had like a
(00:23):
financial advisor buddy that you told all about this and
now he's doing something similar.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Has that done? Miss up?
Speaker 3 (00:30):
We've told the story quite a lot, many people have
done something similar. Matter of fact, that financial guy was
just at my office. I just dropped him the airport
of the way. Here the guy I'm talking about. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
well that's weird. I mean, I swear that was not
a setup.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
He's out of Houston.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Yeah, And so he has given a chunk of his
company away and plans to give away more of it.
It makes perfect sense. It's not it's not crazy. It's
because of the way that we're owned, our tax bills lower,
and but mainly this transfer the company can go on
forever because it's not owned by an individual. We're trying
to set all of the businesses. We have seven businesses now,
(01:05):
trying to set them all up to go on forever
and to have an impact on our employees. Part of
that fifty five million dollars goes to things we do
for our employees. It's a relatively small part, but you know,
some money goes to we want to do something in
each of the communities where we have an operation. We
want to do something for our families, for our employees,
and then we also want to do things for the
(01:27):
most needy areas in the world. So that's that's our
that's our mantra.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
So what does that leave you today? You're the CEO
of a company that you don't even own any of. Yeah,
but I would assume then that the days today are
no different than the days twenty years ago, except you're
probably not operating a crane anymore. But the point is when.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
We wrote that, when we signed those documents and gave away, well,
this was two thousand and eight.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Okay, my balance sheet changed a lot that day. Personal
balance sheet.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
I bet my life didn't change it on my motivation
to work didn't change it all. We've quit saying we
gave away the company. We just transferred the stock of
the company. We still own the company. From a stewardship standpoint,
we're still trying to push this company to be great.
We're trying to create great value for the for society,
(02:18):
so we're I'm still working hard. I'm actually about to
transition out of being the CEO after thirty nine years.
Have another guy that's going to step in and do
that relatively soon.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
What are you going to do. I'm gonna stay, I'm
gonna keep working.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
I'm gonna be working for him, and I don't need money,
and my lifestyle is pretty pretty small. My salary has
actually gone down over the years because all my kids
are gone now.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
And yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
When you go from two point fifty to a being
in sales, might as well get yourself a pay cut.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Nice job backwards. Bro, It's no.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
I just don't have the need, and I don't think
that more money would make me any better off as
a person, So I just have no. I don't think
of money. I don't think we're built to be happy
with money. I think contentment is Bible says contentment is
great game, and that's.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
What we found.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
It's not been it hasn't been some sacrificial If this
had been really hard, I think I'd have bailed out
a long time ago.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
I think it's been.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
It's been an exciting, fun life and not sacrificial. And
so it's that's the God we serve, you know, he's
worthy of our obedience completely. But he's also a loving,
heavenly father that wants to give us good things. And
so it's it's again, it's not been. Please don't feel
sorry for me at all.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
I don't feel sorry. I've had a wonderful tree, but
I don't I kidding, you know, I don't think that.
But I do have a question. Your customers know this,
don't they.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Most of them don't. We don't lead with this at all. Yeah,
it would be you customers don't know this now. Some
might be listening today, but but no, it's not something
we lead with. We want people to hire us because
we're a great company and we do work well and
we're honorable. We don't want them to hire us because
we give money away. We think that's not that wouldn't
(04:12):
be appropriate. So we don't lead with that at all.
There are customers that learn of it. I mean, if
you google me on there's my wife and I have
a video where we're telling our story. And so people
some people want to check you out and they'll google you.
And if they do, what they'll find is several times
where I've been telling the story and so so some
of our customers do, customers do find out, and some
(04:32):
of our vendors do. But it's not it's not something
we lead with.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
So tell me about the Generous Giving thing.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Sure, there's a group out there called Generous Giving that
their whole purpose is to help people discover generosity and
the benefits of generosity, and so we connected with them
pretty early on. But we they do a thing called
a Journey of Generosity, And I've been on a bunch
of these where you sit around for the day with
(05:00):
about a dozen people or so fifteen, and you talk
about generosity, and you look at some scripture, and you
look at some stories of other people you and you
just spend twenty four hours together talking about generosity and
it's life changing for people.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
And there's no asks, nobody, no.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
That's part of you know, you can't pay to be
part of it, and you can't. There's no asks, there's
no expectations. This is a foundation that spends a big
chunk of money saying all we want to do is
help people understand generosity because for two reasons. One is
if people are more generous, that three percent will go
up and more people can be helped. But I think
the biggest reason is life change of the givers. And
(05:42):
when people grasp generosity, it sets them free. And you know,
we've we've found that, you know, in our in our case,
we put constraints in our life financially and came to
realize that putting in constraints in your life leads to freedom.
Living a life without constraints like freedom, but in almost
(06:02):
every area it leads to bondage if you don't constrain
yourself and how you act. And so we you know,
that's part of the message of generous giving is that
the generosity sets you free.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
You can end up a slave to the desire for more, absolutely,
because there's no end to that.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
There is no end. That's infinite. Yeah, and when is
enough enough? There's never enough? Do you say it's enough?
Speaker 2 (06:25):
So if somebody's listened to us and they can just
google this thing.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Yeah, generous giving dot org I think is and there's
on that there is there's a video. They have a
whole bunch of videos. There's a video of our story
on there. But there's a video of thirty or forty
other stories and they could connect on how to get
involved in a job and highly recommend.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Actually, Bill, that's how we found Brandon n Ashley's status.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
That's it.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
So the people who they were in Austin and their
group of friends came together and paid off their student debt.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Yes, yeah, they were sitting here they told you the story.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Oh yeah, and I'm trying to book right now. She's
agreed to do it, Rene Lockey. So she's the doctor
who decides to live like a nurse. I think is
a great story to point out too. You don't have
to have a billion dollar company to consider this. You
could be a doctor and consider.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
This absolutely not. I mean, I think generosity helps. I'd
say develop generosity if you're six years old or eighty
six years old.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
It is a great thing to develop.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
I mean, what I'm gaining from all this.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Really is.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
If you leave the three percent become the ten percent,
or if you go from three percent to fifteen percent,
or if you're an eight percenter and you go to
sixteen percent, you can get so much more out of
what you give than the percentage that you raise.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Can't outgive God it's giving set you free, holding what
you have with an open hand and saying this is
not mine. I'm willing to deploy it in any way
that you want me to. Sounds scary to people, but
it's not. It's it sets you free.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
And you don't have to be a billion dollar company
and founder to go from three percent to ten percent.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
No, the widow's might is a great example. You know,
I think God is not impressed with the commas and
the zeros. You know, that's not the issue. I think
there are lots of very generous people that are making
forty grand a year and given ten percent, and a
lot of people at a zero and are given zero.
(08:38):
And I think that those people that are making forty
grand are are happier. As I travel all over the world,
I mean, I meet people that are making three dollars
a day and are happy. I don't think money is
the answer to happiness. I think it's almost inversely proportional.
But I think I think generosity is proportional to happiness.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Steve's not the alan, You're not the only fifty percent
or too.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
I think it's just important to say.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
I mean, like the green hobby lobby family, Steve Trice,
I've interviewed who does it too. There's a Jewish financier
with a several billion dollar company and they're at fifty percent,
so it's yeah, I mean there are other people doing
this too.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Yeah, I mean it makes perfect sense when you look
at there's a huge tax benefit to give me, and
you know to the now it's sixty percent. But the
first if you don't give, you're going to pay forty
percent or so in taxes. So Uncle Sam is sort
of subsidizing your gift by by giving you a tax deduction, and.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
So quit walking away from the opportunity.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Yeah, and to wait until you die to give is
really bad math because you you don't get a tax deduction.
You don't have to pay a state taxes, but you
don't get so all your life you've been paying taxes
on this money, and then you give it away and
don't get a deduction, and you don't know where it's going,
and you're not around to see the blessings.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Say, the coolest part is can be around to actually
see the fruits of absolute you've done.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
And I think to start that when you're ten years
old and just you know some of the things I
did when I was in high school and college, you know,
sponsoring a kid and Zimbabwe for fifteen bucks.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
A month or whatever back then shaped me.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
And and so I think to start at a very
young age. My oldest son, when he went to college,
he started doing a thing at the door at the
in his apartment where he'd invite people over for dinner
and all they would have is a bowl of rice,
and each person would bring five or ten bucks that
they would have spent on dinner.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
And they'd come and.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Learn about a country where a bowl of rice would
be there their whole day's food. And then they'd pray
for that group and they'd bunch of that money together
and bend mowed off or whatever to an organization.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
And it's really.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Cool, and you know, it's it's it's I don't think
it's changing that organization that much, but it's changing them.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Yeah, And it's just little.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
So I think everybody can get in on this, and
I think it's a great benefit to everybody.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
It's just normal folks doing what.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Normal folks absolutely and we're all I mean, I'm a
very normal guy, so I serve an extraordinary God.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
And it's it's been a great pleasure to do it.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
We'll be right back. I canna ask you question, what
did your kids go to high school? White State Achieving Houston.
I went to White Station Houston High School. Houston High School,
(11:36):
which is for everybody most of you not from Memphis.
Houston High School is in the suburbs and it's a
nice public high school out in the Germantown Carville area,
which is east of Memphis and a nice suburb. Your kids. Now,
kids are kids, and I know what my kids wanted
(11:56):
for birthdays and Christmases. And I also know the kind
of trips my kids wanted to go on, like Disney
World and all that stuff.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
And I gotta.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Believe you know, you can say what you want to,
but the walls have ears in a family with six kids,
and they got to be picking it up. And at
some point it's revealed to these kids and their teens
that hey, we don't live like my dad's got a
two hundred and fifty million dollar business, and there's there's
(12:31):
got to be an evolution for the kids. And I
just got to know, did you ever feel pressure from
them because you love them, did you ever feel pressure
to maybe highten it up? A little bit, so maybe
you could offer them some opportunities that maybe you didn't
have as a kid, or maybe you just got sick
(12:54):
of listening to them ask for more or something.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
You know what I'm saying, I did.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
I mean, we resisted the temptation to just get tired
of it and just give them things we thought weren't helpful.
And you know, we we taught them the theology of
the Rolling Stones. There's the song the Theology of the
Rolling Rolling Stones.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Well, there's something I wouldn't expect.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
There's a song that says you can't always get what
you want. And so I taught them that song as
young kids. And uh, they thought I wrote the song.
And later they heard it on the radio and said, hey,
Dad's song. But you know, and so there were times
and we said, you know, at first they were young,
and we grew up out in the country and we
(13:33):
homeschooled for several years, and we went camping, and we
just had a ball living out in the country.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
And uh, and that was enough until you're about cell phone.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Started getting older and cell phones come along, and so
we didn't want our kids to have cell phones for
their protection, you know, So that when they got older,
when they started driving, we.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Let them have cell phones.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
But but and even that, we had to be careful,
especially with the guy the males that there's shoes there.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
But we had to be careful.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
But my kids, you might think they'd be pissed off
about us giving away this their inheritance.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Yeah, you know, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Yeah, I mean this thing, we never saw it as
ours and therefore they never saw it as theirs.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
And I think they really adopted the same mentality.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
I mean, well, they're not all exactly. I mean, they
all are individual people, and as they're all on their
own now, some are very in line with what we do,
some less a little less so. But none of them resented.
I mean we we had to say no a fair
amount to them, but we also showed them the alternative.
One of the things we spent a lot of money
(14:39):
on is taking our kids around the world. So my
kids have been to all over Africa, to India, to
Israel and Egypt and Turkey and China, and we took
our kids all over the place and have them meet
these amazing people. These weren't terroist trips. They were We
had a lot of fun, but it was it was
going to see some of the ministries that were involved in.
(15:03):
And we also had these guys at our dinner table,
a whole bunch talking about what was going on in
their country, and and they'd come visit us. And my
kids grew up hearing all these stories and meeting all
these amazing people.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
And so, you know, we didn't take the family.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
To Disney World, but we we took them on some
really cool trips.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
And to take them to Disney World, you took them
to the world.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
The world, the world and meeting really cool people, and
that's so much more fun.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Now. We did special treats too. That one of our
theologies was special treats.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
There's in the Bible, there's feasts, and there's and so
there's times we would go to the beach and we would.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Just screw around at the beach, go to Cracker.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Barrel on the way down there, and go to get
ice cream. And you know, we didn't have cable TV,
and so the kids when they go to a beach
and had Cartoon Network, it was like nirvana, you know.
And so my wife did such a great job of
teaching them contentment, you know, and kids don't get contentment
by getting what they want. They get content by enjoying
(16:00):
what they have. And my kids learned that and I
think it was a great gift to them. And we
also taught them a work ethic. And you know, we
let them. We let them pay for half of their college.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
You let them pay for out love You say.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
That, yeah, we And you know some people would think
of that as child abuse, but but we think of
them that.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
They did they have to get loans or did they
work or.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
If they got scholarships that counted. We didn't let them
do loans.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
But that was our rule. At Lisa and I did
the same thing, no kidding. It was, here's how much
you're going to get a year for college. Well we
knew that was not going to cover college, so we
didn't do the half. We just put a number out there. Right,
here's the thing. If you work hard enough and get
a full ride, you're still going to get that number.
(16:45):
So I had one kid. I won't mention this one.
They got a such a good full ride at ACT
score and everything that not only was it all covered,
but the end of each semester she had so much
scholarship made that they gave.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Her a check back.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
In that sweet she still graduated with studard debt, and
we let her, in your words, we let her learn
the pain behind that too. We let her have that.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
It's so great to let kids experience pain. I think
I love the word that you use because so many
parents want to say I don't want my kids to
go through what I had to go through. I want
to say, why not? It made you who you are.
I mean, struggle and pain is a great teacher. And
I think we rob our kids when we protect them
from pain.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Let us struggle.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
I can't stand the helicopter pain, iron sharpens iron, all
of it. But that's so they bought in by and large. Yeah,
that's a miracle. They were teenagers to buy into anything.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
There was never any There was some resentment when one
kid wanted to hummer and we're not going to buy
a Hummer, you know, or something like or I want
a better phone away, So there was They're human beings
and there was a few times where they were not happy,
but there was not a deep resentment. Even when we
gave the company away. My oldest son, who was old
enough then to he was maybe sixteen or eighteen, he
(18:16):
came and said, Dad, thank you for getting that done,
because if something had happened to you, this would have
been a mess and I'd have been in you know,
thank you for getting that done. So none of my
kids felt like we ripped them off by by giving
away the company. And they're good kids. They you know,
they've they didn't grow up as rich kids, which I
think is a great benefit to them. But they they've
(18:38):
had I'm proud of all of them. And you know,
some of them have struggled a lot, made bad decisions.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
We let them struggle.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
They all do the Yeah, they don't come out with
an owner's manual.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
No, no, no, you do the best you can. Yeah.
Six Yeah, and you love them all the same ages.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Now the oldest is thirty seven and the youngest is
twenty four.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Are we had four have four one two three and
four one two, three and four.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
That's how old they were. Wow.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Now they're twenty nine seven, twenty six, meaning there was
no break.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
You were busy. Yeah. Yeah, Well it's funny.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
I'm glad you said that because when you said you
had six kids, I thought, well, there's one of the
benefits of not making much money.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
You don't have much to do. Sept sit around the
house and make kids. Two of ours are actually adopted.
So okay, yeah, yeah, well that's still four.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Still four still for so.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
For perspective, when people hear a billion dollar company, you
have machines that the truck to transport them requires like
hundreds of tires and stuff.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Right, yeah, I mean our our biggest cranes take about
eighty truckloads to move from one place to another.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
I mean the big, big pieces of a.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Quick eighty truck loads to then assemble the crane.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Yeah, so you take you shipping in pieces because it's
too big to over the road, and then you get
to the job site and you put it together and it.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Makes it lift.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Oh man, it's all kinds of heavy stuff. So we're
we've done some stadiums.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
We did. We had a big crane out at the
stadium in Las Vegas. What'd you do?
Speaker 2 (20:13):
What did you do on this? I've been in the stadium.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Yeah, they were safe.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
At the new football stadium. Put me up a new
football stadium. They were setting big trusses and big, you
know big. They wanted to do the steal in big
pieces because it's up high. So we did that the
Nashville air.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
About the roof.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Yeah, so that kind of translistent roof those diamond looking
trusses that hold it up. Yeah, you set those things
up there.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Yeah, there was other cranes too, but one of our
cranes was out there doing that. We didn't do the work,
we were just providing that crane. Similar in Nashville Airport,
they built a big terminal there and we put a
crane out there. But sometimes we do do the work
and so we're go to a plant. We did a
job in Detroit taking down a big piece of duct
work at a at a big steel mill there and
takes a huge crane because you got to reach way
(20:57):
back with a heavy load.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
So and we have a whole bunch.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
We have about eight hundred cranes, but that's those we're
talking about, the really big ones that take those.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
You do something with nuclear or something, Yeah, we do
a lot.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Of work in the nuclear industry removing and replacing components
of old nuclear plants.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
All the nuclear plants are pretty old.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
They're built in the seventies, sixties, some of them, maybe
the eighties will be the most recent. There's been just
a couple built in the last thirty years and not know,
not very many at all. So they get old and
they need to replace pieces and they weren't really designed
for that, so they have to get into tight places.
And we have a bunch of engineers that build special tools,
so we're not doing cranes so much, but we're doing
(21:35):
special ways of getting in and picking up.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
A heavy load and moving it out.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
And we love we love those challenges where the customer says,
this can't be done, there's no way to do it.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
And we said, let's tell me about the interstate underneath Seattle.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Oh the tunnel boring machine. Yeah. We Oh your eyes
lit up. Oh man, that sounds like a fun toy.
It was a huge job. It was. Tell us about it.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
So they were they dug a tunnel. It's the large
diameter tunnel I think that's ever been dug. And it
was like sixty foot diameter.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
To a healthy foot diameter all the way around. Wasn't oval,
it was round, it was round. Yeah, no, it's sixty foot.
That's huge, sixty foot diameter hole. Oh yeah yeah. And
so they they do it. They're doing it horizontally. But
they have this machine that was I think it was
built in China or Japan up maybe Japan. They shipped
it over and we had to take these pieces, some
(22:24):
of them weigh a thousand tons and move them into
the to the where they're going to start a thousand
tons on the machine.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Each each piece. Yeah, holy smoke. So we didn't use
a crane.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
We used a lyft system for that because it would
take a huge, huge crane to do that.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
But so we built it.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
We have a lift tower system that picked these pieces
up and rotated them ninety degrees and put them down
in a hole.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
And you build this thing. It's like a train.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
I mean it's it's the cutter heads up front, but
then the driving mechanism and then all the processing cars
behind it.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
So when this thing is going through the rock and
it's chopping up the rock to make then where does
the rock? It does have a conveyor belt that conveyors
it backwards.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
It does.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
It has a whole series of cars behind it that
process all the stuff coming out. And then as you're going,
you're putting concrete segments up to.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Secure the roof, and so does it do that too?
It does that. So this machine is amazing.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
We do it's cutting rock and laying concrete buttress structure.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Lack of a better word.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
And full disclosure, all we did is picked up and
picked the stuff up and set it in.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
You get it that somebody else designed the machine. Yeah,
it was.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
It was a very cool machine. But we were our part.
Like a lot of times, our part is just to
pick up the heavy pieces and put them in place.
We don't build these machines.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
We don't. In that case, we didn't operate the machine.
Did you go look at it? Oh?
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Yeah, it was cool. That had It's pretty cool. Yeah,
that had to have been insane.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
All from a couple of twenty five year olds who
take over a small family business out of two bedrooms
and the upstairs while their parents go sell the world.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
It is wild. It's a pretty cool story.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
That's what you mean by an answer to prayer?
Speaker 3 (24:06):
Yeah, a lot of hard work. I mean that first
year I probably worked one hundred hours a week.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
I mean it was I know what that is.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
You're replacing mom and dad both, Max. My mom was
harder to replace than my dad.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
So what'd your parents do when they got back from Salem?
Speaker 3 (24:32):
They came back into the company a little bit just
on some special projects. My dad did, my mom did not,
And then they bought a couple hundred acres up in
Shelby Forest and they live up. My dad just passed
away about a year ago, but my mom still lives
on that two hundred acres and she's out working. She's
almost ninety one, and she's the hardest working person I know.
I went over the other day and she had her
chainsaw out ninety one years old.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
I was hitting me cutting down trees. So that's the
stock I come from.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Yeah, I've also read that later they came to share
your faith.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
They did, both of them both embraced their faith and
uh later in life and became very generous in their
own right and had just the benefit of being around
generous people. You don't find many sad generous people. Generous
people are fun to be around, and so they moved
into those circles and connected with a bunch of other
(25:27):
generous people and it really fulfilled their life a lot.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
I'll tell you something, Allen.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
When Alex and I were talking about you as a guest,
you're obviously a typical and many many many ways, but
you're also atypical for a guest for us, because most
of our guests are, you know, really average normal folks
who saw an area need and filled a specific area
need and changed lives doing it. And we celebrate that, right,
(25:54):
But you're a guy who hasn't just worked hard to
do that. Your guy who's worked hard to be an
average normal guy, your guy who has turned his back
on what societal preconceived notion is about success, and you
illustrate what real success looks like. So many of your
(26:16):
want I want to compliment you on that. I don't
know how you handle compliments or if you even get
them like that before, but I want to say to you,
that's that's really inspirational.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
I mean, so many of your other guests I think
are similar. Their production didn't come in the form of
profits being generated, but they did come in the form
of lives being changed. And so I think each of
us using our skills and gifts to serve others is
a great way to live life.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
It's not. It doesn't suck something away from you. It
gives you things. And I read in Alex's prep for.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Interview that even in the Christian community, the average person
only gives about three percent of what they make away,
and that includes tithing. Yeah, three percent. I think that's
interesting because I recently learned from another guest, pretty much
(27:14):
every single one of us in life before we die,
will either us or someone extremely close to us, will
need blood. If you're having a routine operation, if you're
having your appendix outs, you gotta have blood. If you're
in a car wreck, you gotta have blood. If you're cancer,
you gotta blood. If you're diabetic, so you're probably going
(27:34):
to need blood or platelets. If you have cancer, you're
certainly going to need platelets in blood. If you're in
the hospital older and you have some minor surgery, you're
gonna need blood. One hundred percent of us are going
to need blood. Do you know what the percent of
donors are that give blood in our population?
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Probably not even one three the same number. Interesting, It
is fascinating it has the same number.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
When I read that, I was like, Wow, Yeah, not
only is it three percent of our money, it's three
percent of something as easy as sitting down for an
hour and giving blood.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
It's probably also three percent of our time.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Probably is. And so here's the call. We've been doing
this now for a year and a half, two years,
and we keep saying an army of normal not government,
not people on CNN and Fox, an army of average
normal folks seeing are your need and filling it is
what changes the world. And right now and money and blood,
(28:40):
we're at three percent, wow, and yours is fifty. I
don't think we're going to get people that think in
terms of fifty dude, because you're weird.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
I hope more due.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
Maybe not everybody, but I do hope more due.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Yeah, but what if we could get it to that
would triple our giving?
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Yeah? Think of that be billions and billions, it would
it would.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Be forget the money. Think about the lives that would
be changed.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
Absolutely, and not less significantly the lives of the givers
that would be changed.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Oh, I think absolutely.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
You know, I think the lives of the recipients could
be changed. You know, given way, money is not easy,
and you can do more harm than good by giving
away money. It's not a given that every time you
give money it can it's a good thing.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
I think.
Speaker 3 (29:35):
I think Christian welfare can be as damaging as government
welfare in terms of some of the negative.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Elements of that. So I don't I think you got
to be careful in how you give money.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
And I think that's why some people don't give is
because they don't know where to give and they've been
disappointed or whatever, and they get frozen.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
I think that's true. Yeah, I think that's absolutely true.
It's it boiled down to the simplest metaphor. Or You
walk in a grocery store at the corner of Poplar
in Cleveland, and the dude's standing outside and he's clearly homeless,
and you think he's probably got drug or alcohol problems,
and he wants five bucks.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Because he says he's hungry.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
If I knew for a matter of fact that that
five bucks is going to go in his belly and
make his knife life that night a little warmer and
a little more satisfied and a little fuller, I think
I'd give the five bucks to everybody stand on a corner.
But what I worry about is he's going to go
buy weed or get drunk on it and worse than
his life.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
That's what you're talking about. Now.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
That is a metaphor. Expand that to fifty five million dollars.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
It is.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
It's got to you've got of that and be careful
and make sure that you're supporting good stuff.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
Yeah, and we would say we're not giving money, we're investing.
We're investing in life change. That these organizations we're asking
them to tell us what they're going to do.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
We hold them accountable for it.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
We're looking for a turn on our investment, not a
financial return, but a return. You take a businessman's approach
to your giving exactly exactly, and we ask hard questions.
We're not if an organization doesn't want a partnership, if
they want a donor instead of a partner, then we're
not interested. But so we ask them all kinds of
(31:19):
hard questions. Sometimes the best thing we do for organizations
is help them think through their strategy and ask them
hard questions and give them no money. There's a lot
I think a lot of philanthropic organizations need business thinking,
and I think business people need ministry thinking, and I
think we can help each other, and so we're looking
(31:41):
for partners.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
You ever heard of slim shot? Yes, yeah, pretty awesome.
I love those the same idea.
Speaker 4 (31:47):
Yep, slink shot. Well, they kind of helped make this
interview happen. So Frank Smith, who's one of Allen's good friends,
set up this interview and Frank helped starts slink Shots.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Is that how or whether it is, or we could
have just called Alan and he'd probably just shown up.
So slink Shot sling Shots been a guest on the
show before good because as we talk about this hour
mean normal folks, engaging and everything else, it's important that
we have data driven results and hold ourselves accountable to
(32:18):
the work we're doing.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
Yeah, and I think for forgivers to find people like
Slingshot to help guide them is really wise. It is
you know, everything looks good on the video.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
And well they're not handing out pamphlets say how bad
they are, that's for sure.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
I mean some things are just pure Charlatan's and some
are just mediocre, and some you know, just not very good,
and some are highly effective. Some of those highly effective
organizations are the worst at fundraising, and so you've got
to go dig and find them. But when you can
find somebody that you have a confidence, and I think
it's better to give to a fewer groups more deeply
(32:57):
and get engaged more deeply.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Like you said, partnerships, Yeah, you can become a partner.
You ain't flying over a city and an airplane and
throwing out hundreds.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
You know, I go to that that that Kroger you're
talking about it Poplar and Cleveland.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
I go. That's all my way home. And I go
to that a lot.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
And and when somebody approaches, I don't give them money,
and I will say, I've got grocery bags. Is there
any of this food that you want? I'll give you
whatever this food you want. And they never want any
of my food. If you're hungry, please take whatever you'd like.
And so, you know, to be a sometimes sometimes saying
(33:39):
no is the right thing, and it's it's hard. I
mean sometimes I do give money, but a lot of
times I do not. I try to carry candy bars
or whatever.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
To You could also say, hey, man, my kids left,
I took a pay cut.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
I can't afford it. I'm down to my last few bucks.
I'm struggling.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Barnhart co founder and CEO of Barnhart cranon rigging. But
most importantly, an absolute inspiration. And if this man can
do what he has done, and we are working on
three percent as a national average in our country, let's
let's maybe use this story as an inspiration to maybe
(34:21):
not get to fifty.
Speaker 4 (34:23):
But certain discouraging people from getting the fifties.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
So I'm not discouraging anybody, but baby steps. Three to
fifty is pretty tough. But three to ten I think
we can do. And that also includes your time, your energy,
your effort. Everyone has a resource to give and if
you want to be a member of the Army in
normal folks, let's get above three percent.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
What do you think? Allen? Amen? Amen, Amen, thanks for
being here. Thank you, It's been a treat. Really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
And George and I thank you for joining us this week,
don't we George bring the bell.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Great.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
If Alan Barnhardt has inspired you in general or better yet,
to take action by considering what lifestyle and generosity commitments
you could make, or something else entirely, please let me know.
I'd love to hear about it. You can write me
anytime at Bill at normal folks dot us, and I
promise you I will respond. Will not George say it loud,
(35:27):
I'll respond wanna Okay?
Speaker 1 (35:28):
Good?
Speaker 2 (35:29):
And if you enjoyed this episode, share it with friends
and on social subscribe to the podcast, rate and review it.
Join the Army at normal folks dot us. Consider becoming
a Premium member there, Any and all of these things
will help us grow an army of normal folks. I'm Bill, Courtney,
Me and George. We want you to do what you can.
(35:52):
We'll see you next time.
Host
Bill Courtney
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