Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 246 | When Phil Robertson Baptized the Burger Man

Episode Date: March 22, 2021

Phil and Al are joined by Kenney Moore, affectionately dubbed "the Burger Man" by Phil. Kenney shares the story of how his Hwy 55 restaurant chain increased sales during the pandemic, how he was converted, and what it took for him to go all in on Jesus. Al recalls the hilarity that ensued when Phil baptized Kenney in the river. And the guys talk about mixing religion and business, how Kenney got his cussing under control, how he's sharing Jesus with customers, and how to share the Gospel without being shut down. -- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? So, as advertised, we have another guest. This has been amazing. This has been the week of guests. Yeah. Every podcast we do, you know, normally we sprinkle in some guests, but it just so happened that this, this particular time everybody came through at the same time. Plus multiple skill sets.

That's right. That's a little bit of everybody. You know, hamburger makers. Duck call makers, table makers, this table. You know, Carmen is artists. They draw things. You're like, the kingdom is made up of a lot of different times. Well, and we have to send Jace out from time to time just to have these awkward run-ins with people to be able to have stories to tell on the podcast.

He needs new material. So we have to send him out, just say go. And then, because when he comes back, it'll be something you've never. imagine possible to happen to somebody. You know, is that not right? Every time, Jay's... Like Kenny, Kenny, where did this thing start in your life? You're over there?

Where in Mississippi? No, North Carolina. North Carolina. North Carolina. You're in North Carolina. By way of Mississippi. I knew it was east somewhere. I did come through, Mississippi, yes, on the way here.

So you're over there. When does you first say you had a moment? What? Oh, look, I got a... I'm in Jason's chair, so I get to tell a story. Okay. You do get told them. Well, let me tell this story.

I was actually raised in an agnostic atheist family. Yeah. But even at age like 12, I used to sit down and watch Dr. Robert Schuller at the Crystal Cathedral on Sunday mornings because I knew something was there. You know, even though, and sometimes I'd even get teased a little bit by the family. Oh, there's Kenny getting his church this morning. And I'll never forget. I reached out, wrote a letter, I guess getting one from a little 12-year-old boy. They weren't asking for any money or anything.

And they sent me a cross. and I wore that cross until I lost it in the Atlantic Ocean Life Garden. Basically, I wore it. Then I kind of went crooked, met a, was an athlete, just like you, Phil, played college baseball, ran with a rough crowd. And we, because look, people don't think athletes don't have a good time. They don't understand. Yeah, okay. We'll tell some stories later on.

We'll share some back and forth. And long story short, married a wonderful woman. Been married to her for 35 years. She was raised in a church. probably the second time I stepped in the church was the day I got married in it. I was really glad I didn't catch on fire when I was up there at the front of the place.

But then she put up with a lot. And in my early 30s, I got baptized because I thought, you know, that'd be a nice thing to do for her. But I remember I didn't want to do it in the sanctuary in front of everybody. It was almost like I was ashamed of it. You know, and it's funny, I'm on unashamed now,

but I was almost like I was ashamed of it a little bit. And, you know, and maybe deep down, I didn't think I was worthy of it or whatever the case may be. But started my company in 1991 with $500. And this is where God starts working in my life. And I've deviated. You mentioned one time, Phil, on the podcast. You said, you know, as you get on this journey, you will zig and you will zag.

That's it. Well, I did some zagging. Okay. There's no doubt about that. We all do. Well, I did. I did. And so about 1991, I had been fired from a job, had $500 to my name, found a closed restaurant,

found the people that owned the equipment, and basically, long story short, got them to in-house finance me the equipment. And I vowed I never wanted to get fired again. That felt horrible. And so I want to control my own fate. And once again, not a strong Christian at this point at all, but had a good work ethic. And I'd followed all these professional speakers that had always said, hey, if you are passionate and you work hard, you'll be a big success. Well, I said, you know what, I can do those two things. And Karen and I'd have a lot. our first son, Andy. So I got the restaurant. I finally got a lease. I had to beg to get a lease and named it after my son, Andy. And back to that lease thing real quick, y'all, y'all get a kick

out of this. So I called some people I knew who had money because I had to have a co-signer on the lease because we know about co-signer. Yeah. That's how we start. They have a cosigner. And they all, they all were like, ooh, that's probably the worst lease I've ever heard of. I can't, I can't step out on that and finally called my father-in-law. and asked him if he'd co-signed, and he said yes. And I thought, wow, you know, that's amazing he believes in me. But then I found out later, I think he was really afraid we were going to move in with him. I really think that's the reason.

He said, we'll give him a shot right now. Let him. He was basically just cosigned to keep you at him. He was keeping him in arms. He was covered his bases by now. I'll tell you that right now. I like it. So anyway, in 91, you know, I opened up.

I worked hard. I worked open to close. I was cooked every burger from 10 in the morning until 10 at night, and did that seven days a week. And I was in a mall. And so we did get off a little early on Sunday. So you highlighted burgers. Highlighted burgers, cheese steaks, full service. So I had weight staff, but I only had four tables and 16 bars stores.

I had a little tiny spot. And you were the guy in the kitchen. Oh, I cooked everything. Matter of fact, I would race to the back and the burger that I burnt, I would eat that. That was my lunch. You know, if I burnt one, I'd keep it in the corner. I'd eat that crunch burger in the back. And, well, anyway, so at the end of 91, I looked up and I'd actually done three more

deals because I had this idea that if I built more stores that we would have name recognition, brand recognition, and thus people would come and eat with us. And at the end of year one, I was 35,000 behind on my food bills. And passion, if you back then, Phil, if I'd have bumped in, you said, hey, man, how's it going? I'd have given you 30 minutes of the best of how. was going, I was passionate. I mean, I was fired up about what I was doing. I was, I had the second coming of burgers, if you will. It was fresh and, you know, and, but I was failing. I was 35,000 behind of my food bills. And I'm riding home one night. And, and finally, I'd kind of

hit that wall. I was tired. Feet ached a little bit, standing on that hard floor, cooking that food, it smelled like onions and peppers from the cheese steaks we cooked. And, and, and basically working your tail off. I was working my butt off. And not winning. And I wasn't winning. Because you're below the line. You're below the Mendoza land, right? Yeah, well, absolutely. I mean, we were, you know, now once again, I was positive and all that, but I was

right now and I missed a family reunion and I'm missing my son grow up, basically, too. I'd catch him for an hour or so in the morning, but he'd be in bed when I got home at night. So I'm just kind of having a little pity party. And I swear y'all, this is the first time God really stepped in on me. And you would think it would have been enough to make me really leap in. I heard a voice and the voice is as clear as I'm sitting in front of you today and it said, hey man, it's not about you.

So what do you mean it's not about me? I'm the guy that's not seeing his child. I'm the guy that's not really being a very good husband right now. I'm the god as well. What do you mean? It's not about you. What have you done for others lately? How have you served them?

So I got home that night and I stared at the ceiling for about an hour. Finally dozed off, got up the next day, changed the direction of the company. He said, you know what? I started announcing it out loud. guys, if you do a great job, I will sell you that restaurant, I'll make you a franchisee, I will help you become successful. And I'm proud to say that here we are now at 120 plus restaurants in multiple states, and I've still got over 50 to 60 former minimum wage employees that own stores today.

Oh, you know. Now, here's the cool part. Six months later, we were into black. Six months later. Now, once it wasn't a pretty good sign, Phil, but I wasn't in yet. Okay. I wasn't all in yet. I was, like I told Al, I said, I had about 75% of my chips in, but I wasn't all in.

And then, any time we ever struggled, it was when I made it about me. I can't believe that franchisee did that. And I had some people around me that loved me because I have my staff, bless their hearts. They've been around for average over 20 years. And they enabled me, if you will, to my pity party sometime. And then we would, the company would struggle in 08, 0.8, 09. It was a tough time when the economy went down. But, sure, let me tell you how I ended up at this table, because this was the conversion.

So 2019 October, former baseball buddy of mine, Billy Godwin, and he's a head coach at UNC Greensboro now, he was getting married. And he asked me to marry him. Well, my first response was, I think we can get somebody a little bit more qualified than me. Now, think about your previous life, Phil, if you'd have had a friend. Now, I wasn't quite where you were. Okay. I was saying that.

But if somebody had said, hey, Phil, how about, you would have probably said, can we get somebody a little more qualified? But I thought about that thing and I took it serious. I actually went online and became ordained, which you can do for about 40 bucks, by the way, okay? And matter of fact, I closed the wedding with, by the powers invested in me and the almighty internet, I now pronounce you husband and wife. One of my nephews said he took it upon himself to go in and to get me for 35, 40 bucks. You know, to ordain you. They're ordained me. And I'm like, I don't even know whether that's legal.

I do. It's not only have to be on the premises? Well, sadly, sadly, even to do it locally, it doesn't take much. I mean, if you go down and sign a paper at the courthouse, you don't have to show any qualifications to anything. And then you're, you can do waiting. So if it helps your feelings, I'm not, I'm not legally a preacher. Well, as long as the check doesn't bounce, you can be one here.

leave today, I believe it's as long as the check clears, you're good. I'm not sure I wanted to start at the Internet churches. So pick it up from there. Well, so here we are, and I had really started to work on myself, and I did it privately. I didn't even share this with my wife. I didn't share it with my close friends or other people. I just started to, God started to work on me is what happened. And that was, well, so now kind of flash forward to around February, right before the pandemic.

that same guy who I married, he had a stroke. And he's about three years younger than me. And he was down in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. They had an opening weekend series with multiple teams. And I found out on Sunday, I didn't go watch them, but a friend of mine texted me, said our friend had had a stroke. And so I told my wife, I said, hey, honey, I'm going to be going to Myrtle Beach in the next half hour. If you want to go with me, I'd love to have you and hop into car, but I got to go see him.

And I gave her 45 because that's what we do for our wives is she was not ready in 30, but I gave her 45 and fed her on the way down too, so she'd be happy. But long story short, as we're riding down there, I started thinking he was a scout the year before for the Yankees. He would have been in a hotel going to scout teams without all those people around him. And he may have laid in that bed until the nurse, I mean, until the maids showed up to clean the room. and y'all know as well as I do if you have a stroke you got about a two-hour window to get that shot to reverse it and he might have missed that window so that I started thinking about that as we were riding

karen looked up the hospital and said Kenny you're not going to believe this it says north myrtle beach medical center we specialize in strokes and that's where he was and that's where he went so he was at the best facility he could have possibly been at and I don't know I just got real emotional I walked in the room He had tears in his eyes. I had tears in my eyes. And look, now, we are two alpha males, too. I may tell you, I'll go ahead and share that with you, but we were both, you know, we make sure to say, I love you, brother, all the time when we hang up the phone together.

Now, unashamedly, I might add, but walked in the room, and I was just emotional. Well, let me tell you where y'all come in. So while I was on that path of working on myself, before I'd go home at night, I'd go on YouTube and watch a Duck Dynasty episode. This will make you feel good, Phil, because I know there's some parts of that. experience that kind of make you roll your eyes from time to time, but this will make you feel good. Because I would watch it and the prayer and the voiceover at the end, I would close my day of work with that and walk in my house with a smile on my face. And like I said, I was in the process

of God working on me and me working on me. Well, then underneath that on YouTube, this podcast popped up. Well, right before I saw I started watching that instead. And Al gave his email address out on there one time. And do you remember doing that out? Stupidly, yes. No, I'm just kidding. It was a God thing because I got that. Billy had his stroke. I had your email and I just said to myself, you know what, I'm ready to go all in. And I love that family because they're authentic. They are 100% authentic in their faith. And I'm just going to fire an email out to that address that he stupidly. I say that laughingly. No, I know. And I send a it out and I thought I probably won't get anything back, but something's telling me I got to reach

out to them. That's who's got to baptize me. And within 24 hours, I'll respond it. And I knew you did your homework because I knew you Googled our restaurants and whatnot and probably making sure I was who I said I was. And your story, I mean, the short bit you gave me intrigued me because, you know, I knew if you had had the wherewithal to have a chain of restaurants that you were the sort of person that would impact people. And not meaning that we all, anybody can impact anybody, but I knew you had a wide range. And I thought, I at least want to find out who this guy is and what his story is. And so that's what compelled me to respond once I read it and checked you out.

Let's take a quick break. It's a wonderful story. You responded right back. And then look how all this stuff falls out. So here we are in late February. I look at the date. My actual birthday is March 15th is on a Sunday. which is the day to be baptized on.

So I thought, perfect. That fell out. That fell out just right. This must be real. Al and I had contacted through email a couple of times, and he was like, come on down. Well, then around March 12th, the world ended. You know, when you're in a- The country shut down from the microbe.

And so the 15th was coming up, and I knew I had to get in the car and start heading this way. And so we called the church that morning on a Friday morning, and they said, we're going to be open. And I said, all right, I'm coming. And Al and I had still not talked. I found out later, you were meeting your new sister at that point, so I give you an out on that for not really responding to me quickly. Okay. I had a little bigger issue that you were dealing with there than the hamburger guy from Mount Olive, North Carolina. But anyway, so I started driving and get to about Birmingham, decide to check my emails, and sure enough. And that's how I ended up down here.

And I ended up with you guys. And then Phil, you took. me out in that river and and and well we found we found kennie's number because i didn't have his number we were just email and so lisa tracked him down somehow and we got his number and so i called him i'm driving home from branson friday night and we just decided i just got on phone with mike we decided we weren't going to meet sunday i mean the church was we were shutting down and we were just going live straight so then i remembered that kenny was coming so i called him basically to say don't come because we're not even meeting and y'all weren't you know the university was shut down as well.

And I said, have you already left North Carolina? He said, yeah, I'm in Birmingham, Alabama. And I pulled off an exit in Birmingham. I said, well, you're almost here. I said, well, come on, and we'll figure it out. Just come on, come to the building on Sunday, and we'll figure out what we're going to do. And so he did. And it was ironic because we were talking about that on the last podcast.

We didn't, the first day, I was going to preach my sermon, but then everything was like, we felt like we had to tell our church what was going on. We didn't know how long we were going to be locked down. I mean, everything was just up in the first. air. So Mike and I just sort of did a, we're going to be okay through this type lesson. We're going to trust God. We are going to try to protect our vulnerable people because we've got older people here. So we don't give them this thing if it might kill them. It was all still so fresh. And so Kenny happened to be here that day because he's ready to get his life going

and, you know, to basically complete what God had been doing all this time. Right. So he's there. He's got his camo t-shirt on with his. That was my staff. They gave me a new one. It had it as like your birthday on it or something. It had Peter, the verse from Peter, a baptism in my birthday across the front. That's right. Yep. And so he was there in that audience. And like I said, we only had just a handful of people.

And so after it was over, I said, well, I said, dad's not here because, you know, he's out on the river. And I said, do you want to be baptized here? I said, I can baptize in the baptister here. I said, we can run down to the river and do it down there, you know, which we don't do a lot of river baptisms anymore. And so Kenny was like, I'd like to go to the river. I needed the river.

Yeah. I like your choice. I did. I needed the river. So we went, so we came out and it was high water. You know, we've had high water five years in a row. So it was this week, you know, five of a year ago. We had the same high water today.

And so we just went down there right off the road. And of course, Kenny, you know, I don't know if you had what you had waiters on because water's still pretty cold. Yeah. So we put a pair on Kenny and we cinched them up around the waist because the idea was is that you're going to get wet up top, but maybe it won't go through. But did that work? All right. There seemed to have been a little controversy on the podcast.

First off, Jace thought I was a wimp because I went out there with waiters on. What he doesn't understand is the walk out there was great. But as soon as I went under, the water rushed in to the back. And it was, by the way, it was cold. We were in the middle of a cold snap that way. You may not remember this, but my feet popped up and my body was down. So you were struggling to get me out. I figured God needed to just keep me down there.

We need this guy to stay down here just a hair longer. Some people care so bad. We hold them under for a little longer just to make sure. Sometimes the new birth has certain ups and downs, as well as his original birth from his mother. That's right. Time it's painful for everybody. Some come out easy and some come out difficult. I like the idea that you were born again on your birthday from your mother.

It was his re-birthday. It was perfect. And, you know, when the water rushed in and when you pulled me back up, you know, I think I told you when I was baptized in my 30s, I didn't even want to do it in the sanctuary. First thing I did was ask Al, because Al took a video. I said, do you mind if I put this on my Facebook page? And I've got 5,000 or so people on there who follow our company. and he followed me and I plop that thing right on there. I was totally unashamed.

I wanted everybody to know there was a new Kenny Moore in town. Listen to listen to this, Kenny. At one time, we two were foolish, disobedient, deceived, and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy. being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, when God becomes flesh, he saved us.

Not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. Listen to this. He saved us through the washing of rebirth. down on that river, and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Christ Jesus, our Lord. That's just in Titus, you know, John 3.5, you must be born again. Titus 3.5, that way it's easier to remember, ladies and gentlemen, 3.5, 3.5.

Titus says, the washing of rebirth. Your faith moves you to say, I need to be reborn again. You say, the washing of rebirth. You say, it's a cool thing, you know? Yeah, it's awesome. Oh, it is. Let me give you a neat postscript about how God's worked with us on this, too. So I leave here on fire.

I think I'll tell you. I was like hugging him. I love you, you know, and he's like, I had to get this guy off of me. Get him out of him. He's a little crazy. But I drove, I think I left about noon, and I drove to Mount Olive, North Carolina that day. I mean, I got to remember. You just flurking all the way.

I was gone. From now on, you'll be the burger man. The burger man. Did I not call that? Yeah. What you got to remember is weirdness is in. Well, I want to tell you because I want all your listeners out there to really hear this. Not that you're weird, but I'm a little weird.

It's okay. He owes it. You could use that one. But I want you. So March 17th, the governor of North Carolina shut down our stores. So this is two days later. Yeah. I had a piece of.

about me that I've never had leading this company. I had a calm about me. And we have a way of communicating through video and I just would do video saying, guys, stay positive. We got this. And our stores are mostly in strip centers. So we didn't have drive-through. So we were really, really going to take a hit. Listen to this. The end of March was brutal. April was really tough. May we were down same store sales a little bit. June, July, August, September, October, November, December, January, February, same store sales increases. Our sales went up in a pandemic. We were so much more successful this past year than we were in 2019.

It's frightening. Yep. God is good. God is real good. Yes, sir. And I now, because here's the guy that when he was 32 that didn't want to get baptized in the sanctuary, now not only, Not only do I wear this, if you will, and literally on a tattoo on my arm, this philosophy of love your neighbor, but I'm putting it on our restaurants. I'm putting Corinthians and Galatians on the side of the wall without putting the scripture up there, but I want people to ask questions and think about it.

Just like you just described, duck call sales, it hits from the same time frame you said, the same months. And it starts. and look here's duck call sales yep I'm like let's see if you get a viral infection a pandemic that's good for duck call sales I said

why would that be good for duck call sales I said I guess the almighty says that's right don't worry about it just somebody stoned them said maybe more people stay at home or what they're going outdoors I don't know there's a lot of theories about it let's take a note right

there's a duck call sales along with burgers sell well you take hamburgers and duck calls what else you want could it could it maybe could it maybe uh in all that it might might be that if if the verse it says if I can trust you with a little I can trust you with a lot you know the idea that the surrender is you you spoke up for me whether it was going to hurt your business or help your business you didn't know and yet you did it because I love what you're doing with the stores with and that's what the shirt is right yeah by the way the ath is would said, well, you were just lucky. And I raised my hands. And what about me? He said, you were lucky too. But, I mean, how much luck do you think? You look up and you're like, life is good.

I mean, we're... Every day, I go on my computer, which, by the way, Phil, Al is convinced that I am the younger version of you when it comes to technology. But anyway, I do know how to go on a computer. And I'm reading about restaurants that are Chapter 11 bankrupt or Un't Gone Under. And these are players that are a lot bigger than us. And so, yeah, I'm sorry, I can't just put it all off. And it's not my fabulous leadership. It's, this is God's business. And he's helping us right now.

But the spirit that resonates within the company right now is amazing. It really is. It's amazing. Well, it's ironic that we had on the podcast yesterday, the whole thing that Noah does, now he's an artist. Yep. And he's very successful artist. He's in California.

He's done all these big contracts for all these big Disney and all these people. But his passion, as he described on the podcast yesterday, is working with people having their business. He said, take your company and turn it into a cause was the way he phrased it. I thought it was brilliant. And then we had, you know, we had you on the podcast today because you hadn't to be coming through. But you're an example of just what Noah was talking about on the podcast yesterday. Of someone that says. And it fits all three of us, whether it be those artists yesterday.

My daughter's husband is an artist, whether it's these prints, you know, everybody has their own thing. Everybody's worth something. Some people can draw ducks on a page, can look at things differently like an artist. Some people are good at burgers making. Some people are a duck call maker. You're like, well, that's a strange bunch to all come together under one head. Jesus Christ, I'm like, I don't know the workings of it, but I'm just watching it.

It's pretty awesome to watch. I'm not sure that I've told the story on the podcast before. Kenny probably know before I would because we do so many. I forget the stories would tell. But I still remember vividly the time when dad sort of went public because, you know, he was doing a lot of DU banquets early. I mean, he's a Christian and, you know, he's sharing with people, but it's mostly individually or church.

So it hadn't really, you know, you're getting these DU things and it's just a drunk fest, most of them. You know, we quit doing them after a while. just you know they're doing it to raise money i get it but you know it's just not it's hard to put a godly conversation so we were in new orleans and dad was speaking uh they had like a main stage and so they would have these seminars you know so all these hunting guys would get up and tell about how to cast or you know tell about this or this product or that so dad was the duck call demonstrator that day and so he gets up and there's there's about four or five hundred people

that have gathered there to hear him and so he goes through his calls and man it's good and it's mostly Cajuns and people from that area down there in New Orleans and oh yeah don't come out eat good you know and they're they're like you know but everybody's drinking their Budweiser and so dad standing underneath this big sign I was a teenager so it wasn't long after you were converted and it said Anheiser bush king of beers and so dad you know he gets to his duck calls and I'm seeing he's kind of gathering up his stuff and that way he's wrapping up because you know I'd seen him do his his duck call speech but then I saw something clicked in you you know and you pulled your Bible out.

And it got just deathly quiet because everybody's looking like it. Not really expected. Exactly. They got their beer. And he brings out the Bible. And I'll never forget what you said. You pointed up. You said, you know,

Anheuser-Busch, he is the king of beers. He said, yeah, I used to drink a many of one back in the day. I was romping around, Stolphe. He said, but I discovered something from this about the king of kings. And it changed me. And then he just shared the gospel of it. And it was kind of a short version because it was kind of the wrap-up. And so, you know, I was shocked he did it, you know.

And they were, too, because the beers were behind the leg. Everybody's like kind of awkward. It got quiet. It has been known to shut down parties, you know. You buzz kill Phil. Yes. So he walks off and they're not quite sure whether, do we clap? How do we respond to this?

And there was a guy there named Paul Dubasson that was our rep in New Orleans. And Duboson, he could come running up there. He said, Phil, Phil, you can't do that. you can't do that. And dad's like, do what, Dubazahn? He said, you can't mix your business and your religion. You lose both. And that dad looked at him, and I remember dad saying, he said,

Duboisin, were you not listening to what I was talking about? You know, you not hear me talk about dead men coming out of the ground? You know, if it wasn't for Christ, I'd had no business. And what I realized in that moment, looking back all those years ago, I was 40 years ago, is that dad took a public stand. that this is who we're going to be. And so the culture at Duck Commander was always Christ First. And duck calls sales, they eb, they flow, they do good, we eat, we try to make a living.

It got so bad not long after that that that's what sent me to seminary to be a preacher, which was all part of my plan. Sure. Because we couldn't afford to feed three families. So God blessed us in that whole thing. But I really think in our podcast audience, it's great discussion to have because so many people wonder, how public do I go all the way. Yeah.

I mean, it's who we are. And so there's no holding back. From that one session, five different preachers in the denomination of world, said, would you come to give that speech where I am down here? They come up with the whisper, right? Yeah, they would say, would you come to peace you guys? I said, yeah, I'd do it. So I would go to the next one, and then I would get two more.

asked me to go to the next two, and then I will go to that one, and the more. And that went nationwide at the speed of light. Then I just started traveling around for about 15 or 20 years. Speaking of a wild game banquet. And we looked, and we just looked up one day, and duck-call sales went out the roof. I'm like, then here comes TV people showing up. Now we have a, you say, none of it was playing, all we did was speak out, go forth and speak out and point people to. Jesus. Well, the internet rumor was, Dad, that you had a...

I didn't expect the rewards to be as substantial as they were. They said you had a PhD in marketing. That was the internet rumor. You know, that old dude down there with a beard, he's got the... That's all just an act. I am a C-plus man through and through. Trust me, in junior high and high school and college, you said, what stood out about you? C-plus. You're a plus ahead of me, okay?

I told them when they said, man, he said, man. a C plus is that it? I'm like, I'm smarter and hey, but that's right. So that was, dad always used to tell us, he said, boys, you can be smart and act dumb, but you can't go the other way. You know, you can't be dumb and act smart. I just tell them up front, I'm a C plus man. Now, don't get thinking I'm going to be, they won't get that high. Look, I promise you all that last year when you did that, I promise you, I'm bold. Okay. Like I said, I put it on our restaurants, the Love Your Neighbor that I have on my arm. I love what you're doing.

I'm putting on some words on the restaurants. Yeah, tell about that. Hang on, let's take another break. Yeah, tell them about that too, Kenney. Yeah, well, the love your neighbor, let me get that over there on a camera. You can see it lit up. Yep. Yeah.

And also, that's going to be on. Turn a little more, yeah. There we go, on the side of the building as well. You read those words because I think that's. Yeah, the words are pretty, pretty interesting. interesting, Phil, I think you might know where they come from. Especially in today's culture. Yeah, yeah.

Grace is on here for one. Look, I had an epiphany on that, and you guys can take this one and make this one your own, because what was that again about a... An original thought is a forgotten source. Okay, so you can forget that I told you this and make it your own, okay? I guess it is my point. But when I tell our young people, see, that's what I feel like I'm trying to impact, Because they still look at me and they, you know, they, I guess they like the way I lead.

And I have an impact on them that even their mom, the dad, or maybe their preacher wouldn't even have sometimes. And I tell them about love your neighbor and what that means. But I finally have the verb. Okay. You think about all the IST words that we deal with now. You know, if you're a racist, you're a white supremacist, you're a, you're a sexist, you're a, well, I got a new IST word. I'm a gracist. with heavy on the G.

I like it. I'm a gracious. When you think about it, this is what I tell our people, I said, you know what, I was in one of our managers meeting, I said, you know what, half of you in here didn't vote the way I did. Half of you in here probably don't think like I do. Some of you in here are a different color skin than I have, but I can show you grace. That's loving your neighbor.

And you can give it back to me. We can show it. And instead of getting on Facebook and beating each other up or somewhere else, let's just show each other some grace. I believe that's our step into love another neighbor. And, but anyway, grace is on here. Charity, respect, compassion, smile, generosity, empathy, enduring, selfless, forgiving, gratitude, caring. All these words sound familiar. The only ones that are missing are self-control. And by the way, that one took me a while to learn. And I'm, and it's coming. It's still rears its head from time to time. But what I love about the idea is that, I mean,

in today's world and culture, so many people understand. And the pandemic has been through the roof, which is another reason why I'm sure sales are up everywhere, because people are in a drive-thru line. In fact, I've noticed it because at least in our back to Fort Alabama all the time. So sometimes we have stopped and eat somewhere. And it was like, this is insanity. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, there's a long line at the drive-thru.

In the old days, you know, at lunchtime, it was like that. But so what's happening is everybody's, they've gotten used to now going, getting their food, and then taking it somewhere. And so what I love about your idea, is someone's waiting there. So I've spent time as well, 10, 15 minutes, waiting to get your food. And you're just sitting there, usually looking at your phone, whatever,

because you're in a line, you're bored. But you've got something now for people to look at and contemplate. Wonderful. And also, if you'll notice, there is a little bit of business in this, too. The biggest, boldest one is patience. Okay. So if you are in line and we're messing up inside, patience. And grace.

That helps the person to work at the window, right? Exactly. Biles a little time here, okay. You know another thing I think is abrid about what you're doing. So dad has showed on the podcast several times when we share the gospel with people, we have these little symbols we use because the guy that shared with dad first came up with that. And it was just a visual because we were talking about different people looking at things differently.

A lot of people learn visually. Some people are audio. there's different ways. So there's just another way to show what Jesus did, rather than just maybe necessarily reading the verses. And so it's the arrow and the cross and then a little tomb and then across him going back to heaven and coming back. Just five little simple symbols tell the story.

And so Bill Smith, the guy that converted Dad and led him to Christ, he came up with that and he used to use it. And so we thought it was pretty cool. We started and then people started putting it on stuff. I see it all over the country now. It's out there. It was interesting that the guy who came up. with it was here was the one that led us to the Lord but but what you're doing is the same thing with

your symbol yeah is that people ask right they do i had i had the uh it had a go like to it's exactly right well the the lilly look it's already doing that within the company yep okay and i had our first new from the ground up you know brand new prototype store i was talking with the staff and i said is anybody out there ask you what is that and they all went oh yeah And I went, awesome. Because that's exactly. And what we're probably going to do is come up with a little card that has that symbol on it and talks about grace and on the back. So that if I don't get the most vocal person get asked that question or we have failed in training somewhere, they can hand them a card anyway.

So we're going to spread that love your neighbor. I mean, we're going to spread it. And we get to share a meal too, Phil. We get to cook them a great meal too. You bet you. And spread love your neighbor. and I get to teach a younger generation what it means to love your neighbor. One of the things that Dad did, you know, from watching the show from Duck Dynasty,

is that if Dad ever tried to be overt with the Bible, it got cut. I mean, that's not going to make it on air. So he figured out wisely, not too long into the process, that if he's just doing his philisms and he sounds like he's 900 years old, which he's talked about, But a lot of times those were Bible verse. Dad would just do the verse in a conversation. Well, these people don't know the Bible. So you were sneaking in.

You were sneaking in the Word of God onto the show that they weren't going to really put it on there. That's right. By knowing it, which we talked about. What's the verse in Hebrews that says you train your mind by the constant use of the... Yeah, yeah. Crain it with righteous, you know how to distinguish good from evil.

Right. Right, by constantly having the word of God in there. And so I think that's, that was dad's philosophy. And so it really started to, well, and that's kind of like with this. These are biblical themes. You're not taking the Bible and beating nobody's head, but you're speaking the words that Jesus spoke, which is the power of it. Because that's how you do it in our culture, because they're going to shut you down

if you just try to go. Oh, yeah. You know what I'm saying? If you just try to go in there and say, well, here's the book chapter verse. I mean, they're just going to write you all. Long hair, tattooed, holy roller. Okay, yeah, no. That's what they do with that.

You get a little blowback, but just remember, solid food, these scriptures, and you ingest these through your ears, and they go into your heart, out of the overflow of the heart, your brain, the mouth speaks. So solid foods for the mature who by constant use have trained themselves to do something incredible, to distinguish good from evil. pretty simple when you get right down to it. It really is.

We all know what evil is. We know what good is. That's right. Train yourself to know the difference. Yeah. So let's take one last break. So our last segment. I want to ask you two questions.

Okay. One is, so you had this year now under your belt. God was already working on you, but obviously this last year, you went, all the chips went in, you know, as you described, which is great. I love that analogy. So what do other people? So you got a lot of people work for you. You got a lot of people in your life.

What have other people noticed about that? Or what had they said to you? Or, you know, how do people remark about what they're seeing your life? Let me tell you, the neatest thing was on my birthday, and they wouldn't let me open it because I was traveling. I was on my way here. And they said they gave me a box with a buffalo on the front because I call our company a buffalo culture. When storms come, we lean into the storm. Buffalo lean in.

They don't run away. They lean in. And so they had a little buff And they all had a little card in there With their favorite scripture on it And kind of And a note to me And I'll tear up talking about it right now

And they've seen a change There's a calm about me That I haven't always possessed I'm still intense I haven't lost my warrior spirit I've got to have that To try to whip those competitors out there And all that stuff

But they've seen a calm of me a kindness in me that I don't think I had before. And I'll tell you, overtly, one of the things, I was a world-class cusser. Okay, I mean, I was not only good, Phil, I was world-class, okay? I mean, if you can imagine, well, this past- Remember out of the overflow of the heart. I'm with you. I'm with you.

I'm going to tell you a good story here. I have, the first couple weeks, I even text Al after I got, I said, Al, I put a swear jar in my office, and if I said something, I had to put money in it. And I don't really like to part with my money. So that was as punishing as I could possibly be to myself. And in the first couple weeks, I think I told you, I let a couple go. And he said, hey, that's not bad. That was kind of his accountability. Yeah, it's not bad. But I'll tell you, I have, I think that's the first. And the reason that I pick that, because that's, that's not a heart. That's, I wanted, that's an overt difference that people could see immediately. How do I

respond and with what language do I respond with. We talk about it, by the way, a lot on the podcast because a lot of people listening have the same issue. And dad says all the time, that's how people are going to get their impression of you. That's right. It's what comes out of your mouth. 100%. And I'm going to tell you, I think you could poll them and they would all tell you that he's good. He's got it. He's got it linked. Now, there are times I go flim, flam, flam, flum, you know. Good trees cannot bear bad fruit. Bad trees cannot bear good fruit. According to Jesus, and you look at that,

you say, have to be careful on what they hear coming out of me. That's right. Which is a great thing for anybody. Even on the golf course, too. Even on the golf course. I actually taught Andy when he was little that one time I let one go, and he was my caddy. He was driving the cart.

And I said, hey, don't tell your mom, I said that. That's a golf course word. Yeah. Okay. So I tried, I tried. Here I was manipulating my son. All right. So he wouldn't go home and tell on me. But I'll tell you, I've been good on that. And you'd have to talk to my wife. You'd have to see if she sees a change in my daughters and my kids and the people around me because.

Any way you cut it. I think they have. So if you don't use filthy language ever cursing, you just are easier to be around. 100%. It just is. It is what it is. Well, because usually it's out, and I read your book, which by the way, your book is called Beyond the drive? Behind the drive. It's excellent, by the way.

So I feel like I know you pretty well. I have to read your book because you read somebody's life and their story. But it was not just the cursing, but it was the anger and everything they went with it. And so that calm you mentioned now, and I love the Buffalo. I had never heard that before, but I love that idea, is that, I mean, things are going to be challenging. And if you have done what you've done and have this many people that are, you know, in your life, every single day and some people not doing their job and some people have to be fired unfortunately and all the things that can happen and reading your story along the way it really helped me

understand how then that puts you how the evil one can come in and press the right buttons and so that's what you have to give up and that's what you gave him last year you said that the last of what i've held back is yours now i said i'm out i'm out on all that other stuff right now and and please hold me accountable yeah you know i ask my people the only time recently that I've gotten a little upset was we had a we had an operator of one of our stores who was 35 ask a 17 year old girl to send him some nude picks so we terminated his employment immediately well the community kind of came after one of my guys because he had fired that guy because they liked him and and threw a chair across the store imagine that

because and we didn't want to bury that guy by telling them the reason why so my poor guy I took a bit, and I got a little intense that day, okay? As a matter of fact, I had to catch myself a couple of times, but regretted immediately how I, but it was because of the way they treated my guy, you know, it wasn't. But for the most part, though, once again, well, big time human becoming, not a being yet. I'm still working, and definitely, I'm definitely all in and hopefully sending the rightness. Kenny, may your burgers never burn. So last question, we've got just a couple of minutes left, is what would you say?

A lot of folks listen to the podcast. A lot of people have had similar experiences to you. Some have even come here. There'll be some more come. Although we've said all along, like you, you can come here. Every Sunday, this is what we do. But at the same time, you don't have to come. You still turn your life over to Christ wherever you are any day of the week.

But what would you tell folks that maybe are where you were that just haven't put the chips in, you know, yet? What would be your encouragement to them as they're listening today? Because I guarantee you if people are listening today and they hear your story and they're like, man, that's me. I'll tell you what, if you just literally think about a restaurant chain without a drive-thru, sales growing. Because I'm running God's business. I mean, he owns it. I'm just the steward. And if you don't, if you, if it's economics that moves you, if it's the spirit that moves you, if it's whatever, let me tell you, I am a happier.

I am a more joyful. I am a more loving man than I used to be. And if you want those things, man, don't hesitate. Do not at five. Life and immortality has been given to you. Amen. That's all we're so important. Life and immortality.

Man, that's a cool position to be. And, you know, from our perspective, it's really interesting because, you know, we didn't plan to do this podcast, I mean, we started out doing Dad's show calling in the woods with Phil. And it's just kind of dad's musings about what he does every day in his life. Of course, that includes a lot of Bible and a lot of helping people. But it's also about running crawfish traps and, you know, doing stuff on the land. And so that's where we started this.

And then because of Blaze TV, which is our network, they had the vision and say, hey, we think you guys need to do a podcast. And, you know, we'll provide the ability for you guys. to produce it, which they have, and put the platform out there for you to do it, and said, you know, it doesn't, most of their shows are about politics, you know, their political commentary. A few of us, like Allie, Best Stucky over in Dallas, or more biblical. And they've embraced that, which think about it. Now in our culture, almost every network doesn't want anything biblical or anything like that, anywhere near it.

You know, they don't want that. In fact, we were trying to pitch a show to A&E after our show, which I thought was a really cool concept about forgiving people. And they were like, oh, we want edgy, not earnest. That was the word that came back to me. And I was thinking, like, that's while the crap was on TV. So, you know, we have this opportunity and then to have a back-to-back podcast where we're talking to Noah yesterday, who's on the other coast, doing what he's doing, the same kind of thing you're doing. And then having you on the far east coast. In the other coast, right.

In North Carolina, here we are in the middle. I hope people will follow you're right. I hope people will follow you. You're thinking. I hope so. Because your thinking is correct. So if you're ever, especially most of your stores are in the Carolinas, but they're spreading route.

Yeah, they're Carolinas. So Highway 55. So Highway 55, we're wearing our hats today. Thank you for wearing a hat. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You send me some swag and so I wear it on here for you. If you want a good bar, I still haven't tried one because I haven't been. We'll get your fixed up.

Yeah, we're going to have to try one. And started out kind of a 50s theme. Now you're moving to 80s, which is probably a good idea. 80s and Americana. And like I say, they're going to get a little bit of Jesus, even if they don't know what hit them. So that's going to be all right. So when you were here a year ago, you came over to our house and had supper.

And Jay Stone, my son-in-law, grilled up a beef tenderloin that you really enjoy because you're a meat guy. I was very impressed. Yep. And so. Perfect, medium rare. We didn't plan this. well, I have the last two days, but we didn't plan this when you were coming. Guess what we're having for lunch?

Beef tenderloy. Back on them tenderloy. So let's go hit it. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click that little bell to get notified about new episodes. And for even more content that you won't get anywhere else,

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