WHOA That's Good Podcast - What You Don’t Know about the Other Side of My Family | Sadie Robertson Huff | 2Mama & 2Papa

Episode Date: October 4, 2023

Sadie welcomes her grandparents, Johnny & Chrys Howard, also known as 2Papa & 2Mama. They delve into the history of the Howard family, which is more interesting and impactful than most people realize! 2Mama and 2Papa share advice on how to make marriage last for 52 years and counting, as they have, and explore the legacy of entrepreneurship and faith on both sides of Sadie’s family. Fans of "Duck Dynasty" will be delighted to learn how much of that show's success began with the Howards' business too! Sadie & Christian's book "How to Put Love First" is available now! https://bit.ly/46C0hyH https://www.hatch.co/whoa — Get $20 off your purchase of a Hatch Restore plus free shipping! https://www.drinklmnt.com/whoa — Get 8 single serving packets FREE with any LMNT order! Get a 4-week trial, free postage, and a digital scale at https://www.stamps.com/whoa - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

These days, the topic of money is everywhere, but sometimes it can be kind of hard to understand. That's where the Perspectives podcast comes in. Perspectives is a weekly show from Scotiabank. I'm Stephen Marice. I'm Arminna Lagaya, and each episode our Newsroom team interviews experts to break down what you need to know on everything from inflation to housing, personal finance tips to markets, sustainability, the future of work, and more.

So you'll come away feeling like you actually understand the world of money. Follow perspectives wherever you get your podcasts. What's up? Well, that's good fam. Happy Wednesday, everybody. I hope y'all are having a great week. We sure are having a great week because this is the week that our book came out. Christian and I, Christian and I, two almost corrected me on my English. So I just got to go ahead and say my grandma's watching me talk and it's making me nervous. We had a book come out and we are so excited about it. It's called How to Put Love First. Go get your copy. It's a 90 day devotional challenge. So you can go through 90 days by yourself

or we encourage you to do it in your community and do it with your boyfriend, your husband, your girlfriend, your mama, your daddy, whoever is in your community that you wanna go through this challenge with, we encourage you to do it. I just believe it's gonna be so strengthening for your life. This is not just for the people who are married or dating.

This is for the single, this is for everyone because how to put love first is not talking about how to put a man first. It's time I how to put God first in your life because if God is first in your life, then love will flow from there. So we're so excited about it. We hope that you love it. If you take the challenge, if you're reading it with us, please tag us on Instagram. But today I have two very special guests on the podcast. I already mentioned two mama is here, which I know you are so excited about because you all love two mama, but many of you have not met two papa. And so I have two mama and two mama and my grandparents, my mom's parents on the podcast. And I am just so excited that you all have joined me today. So thank you.

To be here, we're excited. Yes. And I have to say I did bring two mama along with two papa because you just never know What this man is going to say so so I brought two mama for help just in case you started telling lifey-tavvy jokes And I don't know if you can see it, but if she grabs my arm, you'll know why no, I'll just be like gently To go to some other direction If the store needs to go to some other direction, I can't. Tima is the best. I can't wait for him to get to know him, but he does say some crazy stuff sometimes.

So we gotta have two moments there for it helped. But okay, how long have you all been married? 50, two years. 50, it'll be 50, yeah, 52, yeah. And December? 52, December 27. Yeah, that is crazy. That's amazing.

So they've been very 52 years. They are just the best grandparents ever. And you all are pretty much two-moment to pop it to everyone who knows y'all. Can't ever pop it. And since you're older than a like. It's true. Most of my friends are like, I don't even know their real names.

I know people tell me that it's a conference. Yeah, but at least they're like, I don't even know your name. Yeah, it's so funny. Yeah, but at least they're like, I don't even know your name. Yeah, it's so funny. They're the best. So before we jump into all the things that I want to ask you all about, just the reason why I wanted to momentarily about to come on the pie gases,

Tuba gave the speech the other day in Westminster where we live, and it was at the... Chamber of Commerce. Yes, and they'd asked him to talk about just the things that he's done with business and things he's even done for our city and stuff. And so he was sharing and I was like shocked.

Me, Bella, John Luke, Rebecca, we were all there. And we, some of the things you were saying, I would look at two of them, I'd be like, what? Y'all did this? You did that, what? And at the end of it, you asked me, did you learn anything from that?

And I was like, I think the biggest thing I learned is how humble you are because of how much I just learned, because I didn't know so many of those things. And I mean, that is just who you all are. Like you all do a lot and you make a huge impact, but not everybody has to know. And a lot of people know my other grandparents, which is awesome, Malik Kempel, a filler, amazing.

But you all have done so much, it just might amazing, but y'all have done so much. It just might not be on TV. That has made so much impact around the world and on our family. And y'all are truly like second parents. So I just am so excited for people to get to know all the stuff that y'all have done. And who y'all are? But first, since our boat did come out yesterday, I just want to ask y'all the question. After we married 52 years and living life together. How are they y'all put love

first in your life? How do we put love first in our life? You know, I think when you've been married 52 years, I was 18 when we got married. And if you put God first, you don't know any other way, you know, because it's just a reflection of who you are if you continue to put God fresh in your life. Now in 52 years of marriage, can we say that we didn't ever fight or any of those kinds of things? No, that's ridiculous. Of course we did. But again, because God was first in our relationship, we were always able to work things out and get back to the love and you know. And there's things we always did of course to keep God in the marriage is go to church, never

miss the Sunday morning unless we're out of town and took the kids and the grandkids and so he was always most important. And one thing we've always done, which is, really makes a difference, is just every time there's a prayer, public, private, or whatever. First thing that happens is we hold hands. And so doing that for 53 years, even before we were married, it's something that draws us together and gives you good feeling when that happens.

That's so silly. A little connector, you know? I love that. And I think that like sometimes like even on the way to church, everybody knows there might be a faster fight, but then you get there and then you reach across for prayer, then you go, okay, we're centered back again where we need to be. Yeah. It's awesome.

I love that so much. That's so good. That's so sweet. I can't imagine every girl is seeing this podcast being like, oh, the circles right there. That's so good. And also, let me say to you that we did those intentional things like you and Christian are already doing, you know,

with we went to marriage retreats and went on dates and traveled out of town, you know, those kind of things and those years that you're starting right now when the kids are all little, that's when it's really important to continue to do that because you're going to have so many more years without kids. Yep. So you've got to at least like the person. This is so true.

Have a relationship with that person? Yeah. When that's all setting that. Because that's all super fun. You know how much I love that. You know, I'm the ball game and I'm at all. I want to be at all the thing. Yeah.

But you're going to go back to that first couple relationship. And here's something to remember, too, is that I read somewhere one time that people change about every 10 years. And so 10 years after you're married, you're going to wake up and say, who's that guy? Who she? And you've got to follow the love again, all over again with that new person that you're with now.

That's good. And grow together and change together. Which that's so good, because you know, you hear lots of people never change, but I've heard you'll see that before that, you do change. People do change and falling in love with who you change to be together and not letting that make you go apart, but refalling in love and making that an intentional thing.

And I love that you said that because one thing that I think we talked about in this book, but I'm also already writing my next book and I'm making a big point about this is that, you know, we make this thing with God. It's like, oh, we have to have like, our 10 minutes of quiet time, or else like we didn't do our time with God. And I'm just trying to like relieve you

of the pressure of that, that God's not mad at you because you didn't spend the 10 minutes with him. In fact, like, it's not just about 10 minutes. Your relationship with God should be 24-7, you know? It's an always thing. Just like for me, a Christian, do I love to go on a date with him? Yes.

Does that help me fall in love with him? Yes, but that's not all of our relationship. We're gonna go back home to the kids and that's just as much a part of our relationship and we're gonna have mundane moments and that's just as much a part of our relationship and all those different things. And so I view like those 10 minutes or the quiet times

that we get with God as like a date with God. You get that sweet time, you get that intentional time, but then it's a 24-7 relationship. And that way you're not beating yourself up because you're like, oh, I didn't have that specific 10 minutes. It's like, oh, well, maybe you didn't get to go on a date today, but you're still in relationship. You're still in communication with him. And so I love that. Yes, being intentional about your relationship, keep dating each other, do the fun things, but also know that like they're going to be seasons of your life that are not going to be a fun or not going to be as exciting, but you still have to be in that love together. But we have to remember that God never changes even though we do. Yeah.

And so he's always the center. Yeah. Always go back to him for your anchor. It's good. To then mend any relationship issues you're having. As Tipava tells more of his story like in the business world, then you'll also see as he tells, because he was super, super busy, young dad. And I was a young mom with three little kids. And so, you know, we live through all the things so the super busy and am I am I are we're gonna have a chance to go out to eat or we get which sometimes they're weeks without that you know yeah but you know you still

still move on. I love that. I know so many people are like leaning into this conversation already now because they're like, okay, I'm young married. I want to be 52 years down the road. Some people here are listening and their moms and they've been married for 15, 20 years and they're like, how do we make it the long haul? And so you're in a good place, listen to a good place and maybe some of you are single and maybe you're pursuing business, we'll just get ready because too far as a business career, it might shock you because there's so many different pieces to your business

career that shocked me because of how much impact you made on these big things that so many people know about but maybe people don't know you're the guy that was such a big part of it. But before we get there because I know you listened to my podcast, two of them is my biggest fan. Literally one day on Facebook, it's like my public Facebook page, has like a million followers or whatever. It was like, who are your top fans? And no joke. On my top fans, I have a million people not knowing this man is my grandpa.

It was John Howard. It was John Howard. He has every newspaper article that's ever been written about me. He has every like, land nerd of any, hello thing he's come to of mine. So this and I know listen to the most good podcast. So what is your best piece of advice that you've

ever been given? Well, as it relates to marriage and it's something for all you young marriage to remember. And those seven year itch marriage that you may be wondering about is that I'm not sure if I read this somewhere or heard it in my mind I made it up but I don't know if that's true or not. It either way is possible. So it occurred to me or again I read somewhere that the golden rule, I know this is mine, the golden rule is not for marriage. The golden rule was written for your relationship with your unrelated people, you know, doing to others as you would have them do unto you because you don't know how they want to be treated. But in the marriage

relationship it's important that you treat, you practice the platinum roof, do unto others as they want to be treated because I know in our early years I treated Chris as I wanted to be treated. Well, she didn't really like that. She didn't want to treat it that way. And just think of all aspects of marriage. The there are ways that she prefers not to do it that way. And as I learned that, then I realized it was not right for me to continue to treat her, as I want to be treated, but I need to start treating her to how she wants to be treated. That's good. And so that's the key point.

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Sleep deeply and wake up gently with restore to go to hatch.co slash woe. Sleep deeply and wake up gently with restore to go to hatch.co slash woe to get $20 off and free shipping. That's hatch.co slash woe. That's so good. I love that because people are so different. Like, Christian, I are so different. And it is important. Like we've learned to communicate the way that we want to be treated because I wouldn't even think about those things for Christian because he's so different than me and he wouldn't think about those things. You're really because I'm so different than him. But that communication is so key because then you're like, oh, well, I can do that. Like I can treat you like that. And then you learn

those things. You have to learn those things. Person. Then you can be better at treating them the way they would rather be treated. Skim, not the way you would be treated. Do mama still hope and I could get around to doing it? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Yeah, more time. You're always like, good. You're working on it. Okay, so let's get into some of your stories about this. So I mentioned, you've been a part of some big things that I think most people might be shocked to hear some of the things that you've been a part of. One thing I think is so cool about your dad, and people won't know,

out and howard, and all the things that he's done for, especially this town, but even the world, tell a little bit about your dad as a businessman and entrepreneur. And some of the things that you just got to see growing up that your dad did. Cool. Okay, so when he got out of World War II,

he came home, didn't have a job, didn't know what to do, his older brother. He had come home before my dad did, and he found a job at a shoe store in Mobile, Alabama So he tells my dad come down. I get your job and so he goes down there He gets one and they end up becoming the managers two different Tom McAnstores in mobile and of course They learn a lot about business there and so that was a really good stepping stone for them They came back home Because their older brother the E said y' all need to open a jewelry store Munro.

Now, we come to find out, he said, I'll give you a lot of my merchandise, just give it to you. And what they didn't realize is it was all his over stuff and junk that they couldn't sell. They had a store full of stuff like that. And then of course, they bought other stuff too. So it was an interesting beginning of their business, but it was very successful. So that was an interesting beginning of their business, but it was very successful.

So that was their first John into business together as partners. The early 1950s, a guy by the name of HR Gibson, opened up a novelty gift and health and beauty aids wholesale business in West Texas. Well, this town he was in was too, didn't have enough retailers to really sell enough merchandise to them to stay in business. He's going out and go busted. So he said, what am I going to do? And he put up a sign on the side of the building that said, wholesale to everyone. And he let the public in.

And of course, it went crazy because, you know, the public was used to paying retail at every place else in town. And here they go in here and get it for half price or whatever. So he just went crazy and it went crazy. And he started opening others. And so the East saw that, that brother that lived in Texas. And so he and the two brothers here went out to visit with Mr. Gibson and said, we would like to do this in our communities. Why don't you start franchises and franchises? Let us be your first franchisees. And so they worked out a deal and

Ultimately, the minister gives them had over 700 franchises around the country. So your dad's was the first But my dad and and the brother so they opened the first one in Greenwood, Texas Dad and uncles opened the first one here in West Monroe the same year in 1959 and the same year in 1959. And so, in fact, initially on the side of our buildings, we put up that thing that wholesaled everyone because no one would know what it is. It's just another general store or whatever it is. And so that told people the kind of prices we were going to have.

So anyway, it was a great start. In 1962, other entrepreneurs saw this thing phenomenon in Texas and Louisiana and everything and decided to copy it. And so Kmart, Walmart, and Target, all three opened their first discount store in 1962, three years after we did. Wow. So that was the beginning of the discount store industry. That's crazy. That's so cool. You grew up seeing that, seeing your dad do that. Your dad also did a lot of things in the church too,

which is really cool. And that's a whole nother story. But just entrepreneur and a heart that loved the Lord and wanted to make a big difference in the world So then you go to college or fast-forwarding a lot here But you go to college and you come back home and you start taking over The business with your dad start working with him Mm-hmm. We've had by the end we had in actually in 1969

We went public and dropped the Gibson's franchise and the Gibson's name. We became Howard Brothers discount stores. Inc. And so when public raised a lot of money, started open a lot more stores. I got there in 73. I took over budgeting and created an open-to-by system and wrote an employee handbook for the employees and everything.

Which is all amazing to me when I think back. It's crazy. It was just 22 Yeah, and He goes to work as vice president of this major company that at that point had how many stores did y'all have at that point? We must have had about 60 40 40 That point okay, tell us the girl we were you know working on all these spreadsheets and didn't you say like you didn't have a computer? Yeah, the computer we had was this big monster thing. It was this big is this room.

The biggest is room. And all it did was just take care of the accounting. You couldn't program it to do all the stuff that like I was doing. So I had this spreadsheet that columns, 60 columns that you folded out to. Wow. And I had to write the store number and the store name at the top, and then all the calculations, whether it was a budget or whether it was the open to back down. And you're doing all that on a calculator.

And a calculator. And a pencil. For years. Wow. If I asked him any town, he could tell me the store number. Well, it's like 33, you know, 47. Yeah I see he would remember them because he had to do all this accounting by hand. Well another thing that's fascinating to me is that he when when we were young married I used to have I've never seen somebody work

a calculator that fast but that's what he had to do so much. His hands were like super big. Well you said the other day you like burnt out so many characters and I was like I didn't even know they could burn out. I never got that for. I never. They were they were taking the old days. They came out. You know, you can keep them paper in. I was like what? The whole thing you stop. Yeah. So you get another one. It wasn't like trony. That's crazy. Oh my stopped. Yeah, so you get another one. It was like, Toronto. That's crazy.

Oh my gosh. Okay, so you're doing all this. You have all these stores and then what happens? And so in 1978, we sold the company with 78 stores to Gamma, Skogmo. Stayed on and helped them for a couple of years. Actually grew it from 78 to 110 stores. Wow.

It was lots of money to expand. So I would hope it's more store. But then just two years later, they decided they want to be in that business. So they sold it to the Wix company. And then Wix started operating it by then with all left. And that didn't work out well for them sadly. Over us, because we were sad to see those stores closed, but they went file bank reps and closed all the stores. And so I had to scramble, we had to get all those

stores rendered or show very quickly so that we could pay our mortgages. And so I spent the, really still today, but exclusively for a couple of years, that's all I did. I sold them to our rented them to Kmart, Walmart, Brookshurst, Super One, other retailers around. So we found a place for all of them in a fairly short period of time. Back before cell phones, every time we went on vacation or anywhere, we stopped at nearly every pay phone.

Yeah, we had to have a pocket full of quarters because he was always calling and checking on a property or checking on something. And I'm supposed to every town we went to just wanted to look at, because we had and sometime every day during the vacation at the condo, I'm supposed to every town we went to. Yeah. It was one to look at, because we had- And sometime every day during the vacation at the condo, I had to go into town to find the pay phone.

Well, and college, it was too long. Okay, so I want to ask you, because we're in a generation where what I'm seeing from a generation is, and we even saw this last night on Survivor. So if you watch Survivor, we just, we've watched Faithfully since I was three years old. And this new cast, it's the kind of sad because it kind of feels like it's showing us a glimpse of what our generation's looking like.

And it's like people just don't like to work hard. They tend to be more sought, they don't want to work hard, they're like scared of burnout, they don't really want to work You only work to have a paycheck, but then like you do your other things on the side and it just feels like we don't want to work hard But you work super hard and not only did you work hard, but it seems like as a generation you know worked hard Not to mention your parents like your dad who you just said once you got home from the war Then he's are at a shoe shop.

Then he started to become, to learn how to be an entrepreneur than he would take things, you know, stuff. It just seems like that was such a value back then. And now it's like such a, oh, I gotta work, you know, and then, oh, it's too hard and all this stuff. But like, what have you seen just,

like the benefits and the value of working beyond just like getting a paycheck the value of working beyond just like getting a paycheck. Do you think working hard I actually like made you have a better life? I am all about staying hydrated, especially as a nursing mom, it is hard to stay hydrated, you just cannot keep up. And that is why I am such a big fan of daily electrolytes.

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Yes. than an element. You have nothing to lose, friends. Go check it out today. Yes, and I think the one idea is because you have to look at all that stuff that you're doing working hard. It's for others, is that you're doing it to help others have good jobs. I remember that we had 3,500 employees when we sold our brothers just count stores. And I remembered in one sense the sigh relief

because I worried about those 3,500 people every night that we were doing the right things for them so that they could have good jobs and earn more and that kind of thing. And so if you understand I'm doing this for others, not for myself, then you're going to do the right thing. You're gonna work hard because those people deserve it. Yeah, that's so good.

That's so good. And you know what's sad is I think maybe the reason why we don't work as hard is because we also are a generation that looks out for ourselves. It's like we want, we want to succeed. We want to reach the top. We want to have the most followers, we want to have the success. And it's like that's not how you should look at working. Maybe that's why it's so exhausting because it's all for you. But if you view it for others and you're giving to others, maybe it's even for your family, for your community,

for your people, then you're like, oh, I can do this because I want them to have a better life. And I think that you have to remember that everything pendulum swing in life. And we did go through a time where we were a very work oriented, seemed like society to young people are looking back at arturations and other were just so work oriented. But I think you do have to answer the question, why?

For one thing, I think God designed us to work. Yeah. And that's what we're here for is to carry on jobs. And then like Johnny was pointing out when you realize that you're who you're working for, you're working for the Lord. Yeah. And so that you can do more things with the money that you gain from that. You're able to do the good things that maybe we'll get a chance to talk about later on, but you know, you have to, I think you just have to realize it was a different time. But at the same time, maybe some of the things that some young people are experiencing today, they would benefit from just going out and doing something and working a little bit harder

and self-satisfaction that comes with that and you know, good work and all those things which are really good. I love that. That's so good. That's so needed. So y'all did that. You have so many. There's so many parts of the story and we could spend forever on each part of the story but then fast forward to when y'all open up a publishing company. So this for my understanding came out of because Pepple Howard wanted to write, he started writing songs like hymns, and then he was like, where do I put my, my own. So he decides to write his own. And back in that, those days, there's no computer, no CCLI, that where you can look at and you can see the best songs to the top 100 songs in America sung in churches today. And you can pile a hymnal with the best songs.

Well, back then, he had to write churches all over the country and say, give me your top 10 songs or the songs you're singing. So in fact, we have a trunk full of himnals that he pulled from. That's a cool. To create the himnal that he created because you couldn't Google anything. It's everything is more tedious work. Wow. I'll finish anything.

That is crazy. So we published the first one in 1971 and of course it was he was going crazy with the discount stores and the jewelry store and everything. So it was just a hobby. You know, he just, we don't know how church has found out about him. I mean, it were a mouth, you know, there was no advertising or way to contact him or anything. Wow. The social networking.

The word got out. And so right out of his garage and his his kitchen we were shipping books. Chris, we were building a house at part of that time and so she was living at the house and so she was taking books to the post office. That was shipped them in those days with my dad's station wagon. And my sisters did that too. The kids with no car seat. And so that just rocked along all these years as just a hymn of love or sure. When we saw Super saver, I always said, okay, what's my next thing? And I said, I think I can take the publishing company

and turn it into just a full spectrum publishing company. Not just him books, but books, Christian Living Books and everything. So in 1990 I took over how republishing as president and hired our best friends from college and said let's do this. You had no publishing experience. Wow. None of us did. And so it was all from the job training. And we were going to go after the biggest authors, you know, and Christian them. And we learned that we had to have a history of selling books before they're going to come with us. And so we were brainstorming one day about what we could do. What else we could do? how else we could do to sell more books.

And by then we maybe had a dozen authors and some success, but not bestseller success. And so somebody was talking about one of our authors had a book of stories. And those stories were just so sweet. And somebody said, you know, his stories are like a warm hug. And somebody said, that's it. Let's put together some books with some of his stories in a little gift book. And it'll be different. Most gift books, I think, was just a scripture and a picture. And there are quotes.

A quote. The quotes were beautiful. Yeah. So this had a two or three page story. Yeah. And a so beautiful. Yeah. So this had a two or three page story. Yeah. And a quote. And a script.

And a script. And so that made Irish more interesting and palatable to the public. And so we put those out and they went crazy. In 1993's when the first one came out. In just a few years we had 30 different titles. Starting out hugs for mom, hugs for dad, hugs for friends, that kind of thing. In fact, your parents did hugs for dogs.

Pat Labrous, hugs for parents. I was in the pictures of some of them. Yeah, yeah. You're on the cover of hugs for grandma. Yes. And if you follow Tima on Instagram, you see her Monday hug. So this is what she used to do with these hug books

So Monday hug is a continuation now of what was so successful back then and tell how many copies your soul so in No time and the difference was we weren't now no longer just in Christian bookstores because these wanted the longer just in Christian bookstores because these wanted the hallmarks of the world. There was at that time like 8,500 Christian bookstores, there were 65,000 general market gift stores. Also, we have a lot bigger market and the Barnes and Nobles and those kind of people wanted to carry them. We just opened up and so we sold 11 million copies. I love it.

I love it. During that. So let me just put this into first-renda for y'all. If you follow me on Instagram, I've a pretty large following. I've been putting up books for a little while now and a lot of you guys have bought in my books, which is, bought my books, which is such a blessing and it's huge. So Liv is probably my biggest book. I have like a plaque from the book company that sent it to me,

uh, sent me a plaque because I reached 250,000 book sales, which is huge and I was so excited about and they celebrated that for me. But just for reference, 250,000 books is huge enough that my publishing company would send me a plaque and they sold 11 million copies of these hug books. So this was not just like a small thing. Y'all were running a publishing company with no publishing experience from Westerners, Louisiana, and there's 11 million copies being sold of the gift book that y'all started.

Which then made the public go, who is how are publishing? And so then y'all started getting big authors to some of the authors y'all worked with. I mean, y'all worked with, oh. Maxicato. Maxicato. Maxicato. Rick Warren. Just like the big.

Zigg Ziggler. Yeah. The Ireland. So big piece of well-chall. This is crazy. And lots of music industry people. Yes. Because of our ability to get into the gift store market,

that lent an opening for music musicians to use their words in a gift book. So we call it the artist devotional scene. Point of grace for him. A lot of the older ones. Now that opened up. A big door. Even for me, like so many people that I meet are like, oh I know your grandparents because I worked with them. So like Lisa Harper. Yeah. She was on my podcast. She was like, I love your grandparents. Before anyone knew I was, they helped me with my books and stuff like that. So it's cool for me because in the world that I'm in now, so many people know you all from Howard Publishing.

And when we started writing books, I once dug Dynasty Haven, which we're gonna get to that in just a second. That's next because Tupalba had a big part to play. And even us being in the warehouse where I'm filming this podcast right now, y'all helped us write our books, y'all helped us edit our books because you edited for so many years, you know so much about the book industry.

And so the wisdom that y'all had to help us with what we've done is just huge. I mean, even Christians like working on devotional right now and he was like, I'm going to send my edits to two mama, like let her edit it. So it's just really crazy because no one knows that, you know, like that y'all did all that kind of stuff. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ Y'all, if you own a small business, you know that when the holidays come around,

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Get started with stamps.com today. Sign up with promo code woowwhoa for a special offer that includes a four week trial plus free postage and a free digital skill. No long-term commitments or contracts just go to Samps.com, click the microphone at the top of the page and enter the code, whoa. And we think it's just a God thing. Yes, it is a God thing.

It is a God thing. It's just a God thing. We think that God was preparing us. When I left teaching school to join the publishing company. Knowing nothing about the publishing company. I think God put me in training to help y'all down the road. I mean, God was just like, wait, you don't know why you're here. Yeah.

You really left teaching, but for some reason I'm gonna put you in this desk in this publishing company and with me going, I don't have a clue what do I do today, my first day. And now I know he was just saying, you're in school. I'm teaching you so that down the road, when Dardannasie happens, your family's gonna need support. Miss Kay's gonna need a cookbook written.

Yeah, so Tumama actually wrote Memal case cookbook for her. Tumama's not really a cook, but she's a writer. So she tookaze cookbook for her. Two of them is not really a cook, but she's a writer. So she took out her recipes and made it into the book. And so you've been a part of so many of the duck and sea books. And pretty much all of the, you had a hand in it, but you even wrote some of them. And so, I mean, this is crazy. Like no, I bet you know that.

And it's so shocking. But that just to say, I love what she's saying, because some of you are in places in your life where you're like, why am I here? What is this job? This feels so random. I don't have any experience in here. I thought I was going to be teaching. I'm better at teaching, but somehow I'm in this desk publishing editing books, but you just don't know what God is doing in your life. What tools he's putting in your toolbox that you're going to bust out later and be like, thank God I was sitting in that publishing seat,

you know? And what seems insignificant in one season could actually be like the most significant skills that you have in another. That's right. And Chris started writing books too for us. And so during that, which was a shock. During the time that we own our publishing,

we sold over a million copies of hers. Yeah. And back to the him, we sold three million himmels. That is crazy. So, it's been so much success in that. So then there comes a point where Simon and Schuster, which many of y'all probably heard of Simon and Schuster, if you know anything about the book world, it's a big publishing company and they came to buy Howard Publishing. And so y'all sold it.

Yeah, 2006, they came calling. They had been in the publishing business before and and just the Christian publishing business before and just used one of their own editors to try to do it. And so they didn't really know the market and everything. So they closed that and then they saw how bit much how big the other New York City publishers, Christian divisions, were doing well.

So they decided we got to get back into it. We're going to do it right then. We need to buy one of the publishers. And when they heard about us with the gift stores that they weren't in, they saw that as 65,000 more customers to sell to, even our own books other publishers books within the imprints within Simon Schuster. So they came calling same thing happened made his offer we couldn't refuse and so we sold it to him Chris and I and the whole team stayed on for three years They made me executive vice president of Simon Schuster and the publisher of the Howard Imprint for them. And so I spent going back forth between New York and West Monroe taking care of

that business for those three years. Three years out they decide that Nashville is the Christian mecca because several other people. It's quite by West Monroe being it. They just didn't know, we've got it yet. We've got it. That other Christian publishers had headquarters in Nashville. So they said, we're going to move your imprint to Nashville. And I said, we're not going. And so that's when we retired.

And that's awesome. That's crazy. And I remember when you're retired because I was so happy because you were home more and we love you and with two mom and y'all were working so much because y'all were running a publishing company that was hugely successful. And so that was all crazy. So all of this is before Doug Dynasty. Now what's about to happen I think is really crazy. So one cool story is two pop up actually is the one that bought Duck Commander dot com and started a website because Pebble Phil if you know

anything about how to feel doesn't have a phone doesn't have a computer and didn't you tell him like you need to do this and he's like yeah well I saw Amazon you know they started in 93 just selling books and 97 they added music and it's sort of going crazy. I said, feel, it's 1997. You gotta be on the internet. You got to have your products out there. And he said, I don't know, I think about that. I'm not buying a computer.

And I said, can I use the name, documenter.com and buy products from you to settle the public. And he said, sure, go ahead. There was another side to that, though. Over those few years as he was growing his business, he was needing to buy more and more inventory and needed the money. And so he asked us if we would loan him some money

for a period of time. And so those loans began to grow because he was growing. You have more inventory you need, you got to borrow more money. And so, man, how are we ever going to get paid back because it keeps growing, which is a good thing. And so- Like you don't have a website. So you're like- Okay, I'm going to sell this, do this website, but here's how we're going to do it. I'm going to take the product from you, but instead of paying you for the products, I'm going to pay your loan back. And I mean, you're going to pay your loan back with the money I give you for the product. And so, in no time, he's out of debt. He's making money

off of us on documenter.com. And in 2010, we sold it to your parents. For the, just the value of the inventory that they were taking on. And sort of- They were their best purchase, I've ever been to. Yeah, they're my best purchase, I've ever been to. So my dad, my mom and dad decided to take over Duck Commander. And that was whenever I was younger. And I remember like, I guess- They were somewhere around that same time.

Probably close to middle school age for me and they were running Duck Commander out of our garage. So like our garage was like all t-shirts, duck calls. It's back to the early hair function. Yeah, all of the things. Yeah, so it was like craziness. And then you know, of course my dad ended up getting us to show on Duck Commander,

let me say Duck Commander family Show on the outdoor channel, but this was before it was big or anything like that. This was when you're helping, their, my parents are just taking a risk out of our garage. It was pretty small business at the time. Well then, it's crazy because this warehouse, where the Duck Command or warehouse is, if you have watched Duck Dynasty,

you've seen the warehouse and many of you have even stopped by on your interstate stop to see the documentary house. You might have done the tour here. We record podcasts here. This is the documentary warehouse. But before it was a documentary warehouse, it was the Howard Publishing Books warehouse. So what year was it that you sold everything?

Okay, we sold the company in 2006. In 2009, we still hadn't sold it. It's been sold the empty building yet. Yeah. And so we hadn't sold the empty building yet. And Willie coffee one day and says, pop the, there's a flood coming on the West Star River. And of course, you know when that happens, it floods right up to Phil's house. And Phil's warehouse at the time was storage buildings in his front yard. So every time he'd need more room for him, he'd just buy another storage building. We're just still there. So the front yard has all these storage buildings around it.

So of course, Willie said, we're fixing to lose everything in the stock in these buildings where they're going to go into water. So, could we borrow your warehouse for a few weeks, put our stuff in, kind of operate out of there until the flood subsides and then we'll bring it all back down here. Well, it's 2023 and they're still here. They never left. Yep. So that's how they got in the warehouse. Now, the happiest person in that whole deal was Miss Kay, because she had to cook for all her old employees that worked down in her yard and in her house every lunch. So she had a whole bunch of hungry boys at her table every single day of the week. And now she's like, oh, they're up there.

And then go to McDonald's if they want to eat. And so, sure. So Willie moved it to the warehouse, which was way bigger than he needed, because storing books is more than a little duck haul. But he was convinced that he was gonna grow the company. And then of course, what happened was. Yeah, so 2012, the time started. So get this, 2009, the floods coming.

So my dad's like, can we move everything to this warehouse? Well, it seemed massively big for what they had at the time because it was relatively small business for 30 dollars for our feet. They needed, yeah, they did not need the space. Well, then in 2012, when Doug Dynasty started, so just for reference, before then, in a typical year, they would sell about 80,000 Doug calls.

That would be pretty typical. The year Doug Dynasty started, they would sell about 80,000 dot calls. That would be pretty typical. The year Doug Dynasty started, they had to, I think they sold 1.2 million dot calls. So in one year, 80,000 dot calls to 1.2 million dot calls. And so then they absolutely needed a 30,000 square foot warehouse. And it was like scrambled. It was crazy.

I remember everybody being up here for Christmas, people who didn't work here, people who were just friends family Just to get these orders out and now this warehouse is not only Yes, it still has the duck commander stuff. There's even another building that has that commir stuff. It's hosting podcasts It's where my parents like have all the like it's hosting so many different things But at the time it just felt like can we just move there while it floods? And so it was just crazy how God just provided and all the provision along the way for what we needed at the time when we needed it.

And then too Papa because Cory and Willie were so busy filming the show, he came to work for Duck Command. Yeah. And stayed here until 2020. So you know again, God's just like the whole journey. I'm in office here and everything. All the way through, yeah. Yep. So it really is crazy how much of your story

has been a part of all of our story. And one of the things I learned when I was listening to you is I would not have thought I'm so much like you until I heard everything that you shared. And I go, that's where I get that from. I'm thinking much like you until I heard everything that you shared and I go That's where I get that from you know, I'm thinking that's how I get from mom But that's what she got from you, you know and just seeing the legacy trickle down It was just really really cool the the heart for even some of the things that you said I mean

y'all how are publishing one you said five years in a row the best Christian place to work and Christian like atmosphere environment to work in and some of the things that you said five years in a row, the best Christian place to work, and Christian like atmosphere environment to work in. And some of the things that you said, I was like recording because I was like, I want to do that at our office. And I was like, we do that at our office. And it's because I've seen y'all do that. I've seen my parents do that. I want to do that. And you just created such an amazing legacy. And I think this is really cool too, because like I mentioned, a lot of people know my other grandparents and a lot of people know the Robertson family name, but without the Howard family, the Robertson family wouldn't be doing what the Robertson family is doing because of who

y'all are and what y'all have done. And I think sometimes, like I said, we're all looking up for ourselves, sometimes in this generation, we want to be the name, we're going to be the thing. But some of us, you might not be the cover photo, you might not be the big name, it'll be the thing. But some of us, like, you might not be the cover photo, you know, you might not be the big name, but your role and who you are and you shown up to work is so important because if it didn't happen, the impact would not happen. Like, today, actually, as we're recording this podcast, the blind movie came out and this is a story of Phil and Kay's life. But, you know, all of the things that Doug Dynasty happened, it might not even happen if Tuporb never said,

feel you need a website, we need to get.comitter.com up there. And so your part has a huge part to play in the story of history. And just don't under look your part because your name isn't known around the world. What if your impact is, you know, and your impact certainly is all around the world and so many cool spaces and unique spaces. You said a quote that day when you shared the speech and I loved it and it was in reference to kind of Pebble Howard when you talked about your plant trees so that others can be the same. Orn Buffett said, someone planted a tree that someone else will be resting under the

shade of many years down the road. I love that. But I love that you said, we're not just supposed to sit under the shade though, but we have to plant more trees so that we can create kids. And the next generation can do that. And I just love that because I even think about the neighborhood that we all live in. And many of you know that that's a thing. We kind of all live in the same place. And that was started by my great-grandfather out in Howard. And he literally planted trees that were

literally sitting under the shade of. And I'm like, I am so grateful to sit under this legacy and to sit in this place. But at the same time, I'm like I am so grateful to sit under this legacy and to sit in this place, but at the same time I'm not just going to sit because we have honey and hay then coming up. We have their future kids coming up. What seeds can we plant for that generation to get to enjoy? But then what are they going to plant? You said it earlier, we are meant to work.

We're designed to work. God put Adam in charge of the garden, he got to name the animals, he got to tend that place. And we get to do that with our spaces. And I just love seeing the beauty of the generations. I love that y'all, you know, didn't just move to Nashville, but you said there's something here special in its family and it's things that we've created and started. And we have more to do and we have more to give to this place. And y'all's life has just lived so selflessly. One of my favorite things about y'all is how many people have lived in your home. Um, because two pop only counts if you've lived in his home, if you've lived there for over six weeks. So how many people have lived in your home for over six weeks?

I think we just crossed a hundred and ten. A hundred and ten. So what is the importance of not only working hard, but giving back in your mind because one thing I have seen with you, you've never been selfish with the things that you've been given. And in fact, I know all the successful things in business, I've never heard you say a number. I made you say 11 million books because I just wanted them to know. That's really crazy in reference to what my books sell, which is really amazing too, but that is just one of them to know.

But you never say numbers, you never buy about, like, I know more of what you have done for others than what's been given to you. And so what is that importance of giving back and what does that practically look like for you all right now? Well, it's critically important, you know. Chris and I have always been, you know, big givers and help a lot of ministries and stuff around the world. And the impact that those ministries have on the world is more than pays us back for

whatever we invested in it. In fact, my father, he started, in fact, this is its 60th anniversary this Sunday, one kingdom. It started out as war radio. 60 years ago, my dad started and it it it preaches the gospel on radio stations and now on the internet around the world. And they've got followers from 70 countries now. And that continues to be a big legacy. You don't think about that until podcasts came along about how important then in 1980s, we started a relief ministry. That's part of that same ministry.

And we've raised over $80 million for those. And that's all about relief work. People in disasters, taking care of them all around the world and of course in the states too wherever the disaster We're there we try to be first on the thing and we want to be the last to leave We do it all through churches We don't do anything direct from us to the hand. It's all a church that they're going to to get the money Mm-hmm or get the supplies or whatever we're providing them so that the church becomes known in that community as givers and helpers.

So that those churches can grow and not just feed their bodies but feed their souls. That's amazing. And not to mention Kamshoka, which Pepple Howard bought the land for, and you'll have to continue all these years and two more how many years have you been at Camp and Work that Camp? Well, it started in 67. I've been there every year except the second year when my parents want to vacation that year because back in those days Camp was just that one week so you didn't you didn't have any choices so I missed that second year But other than that I've been there every every year. It's crazy And now she's basically running it. She did every job. She was a camper, a counselor,

charged crafts, a lifeguard, a lifeguard, and a director, a Bible teacher, and a director. That's amazing. And this year, 70 years old, you're out there with two boots, and you ran the entire thing because y'all believe in the mission. You believe in the mission.

Yes, medical boots. Not cowgirl boots. That's right. But she, they just pour in, because they believe in what they're doing. And just real quickly, do you even know how many businesses that you did start? I think there's probably about 30.

Okay, so I love how he said this in his speech. He said, just in case you think everything I did turn to gold, it's not true. He started about 30 businesses, and about five of those were very successful. And I love how you said it. The five of those made up in abundance for the 30, the other, the 25 that didn't necessarily work out.

But I love that he said that because, you know, you're gonna have to just try things in life. You're just gonna have to go for it sometimes. And some things is not gonna work out, but that doesn't mean you are a failure. That doesn't mean you missed it. That doesn't mean you missed your call. And we put so much emphasis on like,

and you know, if we have one fail, where we are a failure and then you just quit. Like don't quit, get back up, learn from that. Start something different. Elon Musk is the same way. You know, he started like all these different things. And like four of them have been extremely successful in building our businesses. And nobody's talking about the other ones, you know, he started like all these different things and like four of them have been extremely successful in building our businesses and nobody's talking about the other ones, you know.

And so sometimes even along the journey of trying one thing, that's what leads you to the next thing, which leads you to the next. And in all of those things, you grow when you learn and it helps you, again, put more tools in your toolbox. And so we can learn so much from you, we can sit here forever and we can talk about a million different things. But I hope that was so much from you. We can sit here forever and we can talk about a million different things, but I hope that was so encouraging to you all. I know you've learned a lot of life lessons in the midst of those things.

And just one thing I just keep hearing what they're saying is, you know, wherever you are, like, so into that place, water the ground there, let it flourish, give it time to do so. I think we're so quick to move to the next thing to the next place. Water the ground there. Let it flourish. Give it time to do so. I think we're so quick to move to the next thing, to the next place. And if everyone moves to LA, and everyone moves to New York, and everyone moves to Nashville, you know, that's cool, you know, but why don't we stay planted where we're at?

Give it time to grow the roots. Give it time to see something water from the ground. Give it time for a harvest to grow. I just think, you know, we've seen such a blessing from generations, planning seeds in one place and we've seen such a harvest from that. And I just wanna encourage you, where you are at might seem insignificant,

where you are at. You might be looking at everyone else around the world. It seems that they're gonna success faster, but just because they're gonna get faster, doesn't mean it's as long-lasting, doesn't mean it has as much longevity, Does it mean it has as much longevity as having as much fruit that can grow? And so trust the process. Trust where God has you. Trust your hands to keep working. Cleasy S-E-116 it says, I'll continue to put your seed in the ground and water.

I won't get idle with my hands in the evening. I'm just gonna keep putting messy on the ground. I don't understand what God's doing. I'm gonna let him bring the rain and water. And one day I just believe that this is gonna turn to something special. with my hands and the A&M. I'm just gonna keep putting messy on the ground. I don't understand what God's doing. I'm gonna let him bring the rain and water. And one day, I just believe that this is gonna turn to something special. So I hope that encourages you right where you are at. And we love you guys.

We hope you have a great rest of your week. And I hope that you learned so much from this awesome podcast. you