During a 75-minute talk to Monmouth College’s “Midwest Entrepreneurs” class on Feb. 17, local businessman Bryon Robbins gave students plenty to think about.
Along with his brother, Jason, Robbins is one of the founders of Robbins Resource Management, the parent company behind such businesses as Plastic Pallet Pros, Wood Pallet Pros, Quality Roofing Pro and Clear Profits. Also under its umbrella are Monmouth’s radio stations, the Birthplace of Wyatt Earp and several Airbnb locations, including The Loft in downtown Monmouth.
A “natural entrepreneur” since childhood, when he had a Kool-Aid stand and filed taxes at the age of 8, Robbins shared his story with the students, offering personal advice, as well as passing along some of the best tips he’s received from brilliant business minds along the way.
Turning points
In second grade, Robbins was held back because he was not at an appropriate reading level. In response to that news, his mother marched the family’s television to the curb. Robbins would not watch TV in his house again until his junior year of high school. And speaking of being a junior, that was the grade-level he was reading at by age 11, as he was forced to ditch all his hours of screen time for books, which he devoured – a behavior he continues today.
That was a turning point in Robbins’s life, and so was a conscious decision to seek out mentors. Robbins has made scores of connections in the business world, but he has a group of around a half-dozen mentors – some connected to his faith – upon whom he relies for regular counsel and accountability.
Another key moment occurred more than a decade ago when Robbins had a heart attack in the Dallas airport.
“When you’re in that position, all the success you’ve had doesn’t matter,” he said. “All that matters is your health. If you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything, so we’ve made health a priority at our company.”
Can you love pallets?
“I don’t believe in the ‘find the thing you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” principle,” Robbins told the students. “I never grew up wanting to sell lumber and pallets. But being successful at it allows you to do the things you love and support the people you love. It’s the means to the end.”
Robbins explained he got into that business by making a rash decision during a conversation three decades ago in Galesburg with a Maytag official. Maytag was unhappy that a prior arrangement with another company to take their surplus pallets free of charge was no longer being honored.
“We’ll start taking your pallets,” said Robbins. “He said, ‘Great.’ I asked him when he wanted to start, and he said, ‘How about next Monday?’ The lesson there for entrepreneurs is ‘Commit first. Figure it out later.'”
Today, that “filling a niche” business of brokering pallets and lumber drives around $30 million in sales for his company.
Breaking through the lid limit
Robbins introduced the students to John Maxwell’s concept of “the three leadership lids.” There’s an operational lid and a management lid, but Robbins spent the most time discussing the belief lid, which is a self-imposed restriction on how successful a person thinks they can be.
Asked by a management consultant how much sales he thought Robbins Resource Management could have, Robbins’s pie-in-the-sky number was around $40 million. The consultant said he believed that number was $2 billion, which would shatter Robbins’s “lid.” That raised Robbins’s belief lid “substantially,” and so did a meeting with a lumber broker just up the road in the Quad Cities who did very similar work to Robbins. His company was doing $4 billion in sales.
Other nuggets for entrepreneurs
“If you want to make a lot of money, sales is where it’s at.”
“Build relationships. There’s so much joy that comes with it. It’s not about the product. It’s about the people.”
“You guys live in the absolute most perfect time for business.”
“A positive attitude is more important than talent.”
“Private equity is a big deal now,” he said of the type of financing where investors provide capital to a private company in exchange for an ownership stake.
“‘No one wants to work anymore’ is a broken belief. If you can’t find any good employees, look in the mirror. There is a tremendous amount of good people here in Monmouth, in this region, nationally. If you want to do well in the workplace as a manager, the No. 1 thing you have to work on is you. If you’re not leading yourself, how can you expect to lead someone else?”
***Courtesy of Barry McNamara, Monmouth College***
