And good evening.

You've got More Than Money, you've got Gene Dickison, your host, your personal financial adviser.

Happy to be with you this evening.

We are live to tape.

So this is exciting stuff.

Anything could happen.

Hopefully all of it really, really good.

If you're a loyal viewer of More Than Money, you know that we explore so many different topics, whether they're investments, income taxes, estate planning or business - business being one of the operative words of tonight's show - if you have questions about any of those issues or anything else in your financial life - after all, the title of the show is More Than Money - all you have to do is ask.

And the way we ask, the way you ask our show is by sending us an e-mail.

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I can't promise you that your e-mail will be on a future show.

Not all of them can be.

We get so very many.

But what I do promise you is that you will get a personal answer to every single e-mail.

We will help you in any way that we are able.

Speaking of help, it's a challenging time.

It's getting better.

I hope you sense that as well.

But it's been a challenging time for well over a year now.

And we've been encouraging you to show some courage, some creativity, some compassion for sure as we go through these challenging times.

But I'm also going to encourage you, think of yourself as part of a team.

Think of the contribution you can make to all of us as a team in successfully meeting these challenges of this pandemic.

I think the word team is going to be a very, very important one as you stay with us throughout the show, because in our first segment this morning - this afternoon, this evening, wherever and whenever you are listening - is with a very interesting American story.

I want to welcome to our More Than Money studios via technology... We've got Deb and Barry Schlouch.

Good morning.

- Good morning, Gene.

- How are you?

Everybody... You look well, you look vibrant.

Everything's good on your end, I hope.

- Well, I woke up happy, healthy and terrific next to Deb, so it's a great day.

- Fantastic.

Let's turn our attention... Schlouch Enterprises, Schlouch Inc, is a site preparation company.

We're going to get into that pretty quickly.

But before we do, there are two of you sitting here today.

This is a company that's been around 38 years, and the two of you have been running this from day one.

I want to talk a little bit about that.

How did this all get started?

- Well, it started with a very good friend that ended up being...taking care of us and supporting us in our company, but he just...

He, after seeing how good Barry was doing with running another company, said, hey, Barry, you can do this too.

And I'll let you take it from there.

- Well, Gene and our friends watching.

it actually started before that.

So I grew up on a farm, so I always loved dirt.

And in farming, I learned to become an entrepreneur.

So I learned three things.

To get up, show up and give it my best.

And the fourth is get a little better tomorrow each day.

So the farming is where I got my degree in entrepreneurship.

And as far as...

I'm a high school graduate, C average.

Nothing special here.

I met Deb, and when you meet the person you love - we were 18 and 16 when we met - and you fall in love and we had a little boy at 19 and 17... We moved into a little 10 x by 50 house trailer and we thought we struck paradise.

So it gives you purpose.

So when I speak to people at colleges and universities and high schools, you want to get purpose, have a little boy or little girl, and it really worked myself up.

And also Deb.

And so I left the farm.

I was earning two bucks an hour with no benefits.

So we had a little boy coming, with no health care, I knew that we needed to expand ourselves.

So I got a job in construction with my dad, who was an equipment operator in his career, and worked two years in construction, went to school at night, fell in love with surveying and civil engineering and dirt.

Worked for civil engineer for a year at 21 and then I got hired.

I was staking out a new job site and I ran that small company for four and a half years.

So I always...

I believe in the book Outliers that they talk about the 10,000 hour rule.

That's five years of getting good at something.

And so I did put my five years in and got good at something to make...

The stars were kind of aligning.

So that's kind of how we got the foundation to start a business.

I was 25 and Deb was 23 in March 1983.

- So for everyone viewing this evening, Schlouch Enterprises many years later, 37, 38 years later, nearly 300 employees, they have done site prep for names that you would recognize literally from throughout the region and well beyond.

But it didn't start that way, obviously.

Deb, in particular, at what point early on... You're 23 years old, you're the mother of two little ones.

Your husband is suggesting that you become entrepreneurs and start your own business.

He's got that spirit.

He's got that spark that came from the farm, which is fantastic.

But was there excitement for you or was it just terrifying?

- I don't think...

Excuse me.

I don't think... ...terrifying even entered into the picture.

If anything, it was just a pure belief in Barry.

Everything that we've done up until this point, it was just a big support of each other.

And even though our kids were that small, I just had faith and knew that everything would work out.

- And going with that faith, and that, of course, is at the heart of almost every successful entrepreneurial story that we've ever been able to host on our More Than Money show is that faith in our own innate talents, our own ability to kind of go with the flow.

But the two of you were partners in this operation from day one.

There's a lot of husbands and wives out there going, not really sure I would be successful working on a day by day basis with my spouse.

How did the two of you make that work so successfully?

- We worked really well together because we were able to tap into the network of skilled people around us, talking to people that Barry had come into contact with through the other business, and along the way, people that would come to our home and teach me and teach us how to handle book-keeping and how to... Because it's more than just answering the phone, it's greeting customers that were coming into our home because this was...

This was all being handled in the basement of our home, so customers would come, employees would come to the back door, and go downstairs into the basement.

So every day we would see people on an ongoing basis.

So there was a lot to learn just to keep going with that.

So we had an amazing crew of people that would teach us how to do all these things.

- Barry, if you could select one or two people, either in your growing up years, your young adult years, or even in the young stages of your company, the two or three people that maybe taught you the most, inspired you the most, kind of brought you to that point where you were the most capable, what two or three people would you suggest had those roles in your life?

- Well, growing up on a farm, it was my uncle.

He ran the farm.

My cousin operates the farm today, so it's still a family farm.

So he ran the farm.

It was my grandparents' farm.

And then he eventually took it over and he would take the time...

The old saying - first you watch, then you teach.

I'm sorry.

You watch, you do, and then you teach, Watch, then teach.

So I would watch my uncle do the work and then I would do it.

And then I could teach others to do it as well.

So he was very good at showing me each day what's next.

And then I would do it and then I would embed it and get good at it and then I could teach somebody else.

So that was really helpful.

And he took the time.

I'll never forget, one time I was out cultivating field corn on a farm nearby.

We live on a farm now as well.

And there's farms across the street from where we live today.

And the night before, there was a really bad thunderstorm and it washed the ditch out in the middle of a field that I didn't see.

And I'm coming through the field with a cultivator on this farm, and the front wheels hit this ditch that I didn't know...

It wasn't there the day before.

And the tractor broke in half.

Thank God the cultivators were on and it didn't flip.

So I was OK.

But the tractor was in half.

It broke...at the engine.

So I go to the phone, I call him up.

I say, Uncle Dave, you better bring the low-bed - it's like a truck that you winch equipment on - because I'm not going to be able to drive this home.

So he comes and he shows up and, believe me, I am like unbelievably upset because of what I did to the tractor.

And the first thing he did is he looked at it, looked at me, said, are you OK?

And that really taught me something.

And the second thing he said is, well, let's load it up and go fix it.

So a week later, I was back in that tractor working again.

So that was a defining moment in my life with David.

Second was Dwight.

I met Dwight when I was running a small excavating company.

When I went there, there were like six people and the owner pretty much let me run the whole thing.

And I built it to like 30 people.

And it was Dwight...got the name of Dwight that, seeing what I was doing, and he's like, wow, you're really good at this.

You should start your own business.

Now, when Dwight said that to me... And Dwight was a seasoned professional engineer, 20 years in business at that point.

He's passed away a couple of years ago.

I did a eulogy at his funeral and shared the story of Dwight.

And so he kept saying it to me.

And at first I'm like, who you're talking to?

Because I never thought about starting a business.

I didn't grow up with a business background.

I had no college degree in business.

I was just working hard.

So I talked to Deb about it.

And next thing is, OK, we'll do it.

But the problem was that we had a one-year-old, a four-year-old.

We just bought a house, had a mortgage, and we had like 2,000 bucks.

Now, I had to buy a backhoe, a bulldozer, a truck.

How do you get going?

And this is an incubator story, is what I'm sharing with you.

An incubator story with a mentor.

So Dwight said, I'll help you do a business plan, We needed $50,000 of credit to... You have to pay your people till you get paid... You do the work, you bill it, then you get paid.

That could be 90 days but you still have to pay your people every week.

So we needed $50,000 of credit, $50,000 equipment line as well to buy a backhoe and a dump truck.

So Dwight said, well, I'll sign personally for you.

So he signed personally for us to get a loan.

We were 50-50 partners for the first six months and then we had bought his shares down after six months.

So it's a true incubator story.

So we were surrounded with a person that I could go to to get guidance.

And each...

I'd call him every day, like, oh, my God, I'm not sure what to do.

He was a professional engineer.

Here's how you do it.

So on a daily basis, I'm talking to Dwight about the things that I didn't understand and he just mentored me right through to success.

What I did is I showed up and listened and learned.

- Fantastic.

Deb, Barry used a word in his explanation.

The word is incubator.

When you started this business, a four-year-old, a one-year-old and a business, the word incubator really does fit for anybody who has started a business.

They know it's like creating a new life.

It's like creating a new child.

So you, in essence, had three children.

Well, I'm not counting, Barry.

It might be four.

You had three children.

You had your own son and daughter.

and then this business.

Was it... Did it actually help in raising the children?

Was it a struggle raising the children?

How did you balance those demands on your time while Barry was out building roads and moving dirt?

- Well, it was one of those things that we just went ahead and... ..did what we felt was right, so whenever there was work that needed to be done regarding the business, I was there doing what I could, what I knew how to do.

And any time there was more that needed to be done, that was out of my expertize, we tapped into more people, or at that point we would start to hire more people.

But in the very beginning, it wasn't easy.

But it was... You know, thinking about it, it was not something that I really, really thought about every day.

I just knew that my main priority was caring for the kids, so caring for the kids, caring for our home and caring for each other.

And then the business came into...caring for that as well, and the employees.

But there were other things in front of the business.

So we just did our best to balance it out as best we could.

And for, I'd say, the first two years, the business, it grew in leaps and bounds and it stayed at the house.

And at some point, I think it was probably within the year, the first year, we hired someone to come in and answer the phones and to start to take over more of what I was doing.

So then I could focus primarily just on the kids and the family.

And then Barry and everyone else that we hired then could follow in the footsteps and take care of the company.

- Fantastic.

- Because we just kept going.

- One foot in front of the other.

- Yeah, a day at a time.

- Absolutely.

Barry, when you started this... You had to know.

You came from a farm family.

You moved dirt as part of the business of running a farm, and extending your services, your skills out, it was a natural extension.

But the vast majority of these kinds of companies end up with one truck, one dozer, one backhoe, a couple of guys.

And at the end of 40 years, they sell off that equipment.

They really don't have a business.

What did the two of you do that allowed you to take that and then accelerate that growth to the point now where you have nearly 300 employees?

- Well, that describes the golden goose.

At the time, in 1983, we were doing good work.

So when you do good work, good things can happen.

If you do crappy work, crappy things happen.

And anybody can do crappy work.

Not everybody can do good work.

So we set ourselves apart.

Remember I talked about the 10,000 hour rule to get good at something so you can do good work.

Over the 38 years, we've taken that good work to great work, and now we've taken that great work to extraordinary work.

And when you do extraordinary work, you attract and you work for extraordinary clients.

One of our best clients is Hershey Entertainment.

We did the new Hershey Park, the whole park expansion.

It was a two and a half year project, £150 million.

And we're getting picked for those kind of projects.

I mean, Hershey has a very, very tight selection.

Whereas Lehigh Valley Health Network, we have three hospitals under construction, two new ones - LVHN Hecktown Oaks and LVHN Carbon.

So the extraordinary... LVHN wants extraordinary work, because they want it done safe, they want it done right and they want it done on time.

And we do all those three consistently.

So every project that we'll do this year will be done right, on time and be done with quality people.

So.... To really do extraordinary work... Let's back up.

You've got to have extraordinary people.

It's the only way you can get extraordinary work.

So we set out to really... We probably invest eight times the average in training that an average company does in construction.

It may be more than eight times.

So it takes a lot of...

If you want to be a professional team, you've got to have professional training.

So we have a whole university in our company.

It's a world-class training center.

So we're training the construction trades.

We're doing leadership.

We're doing project management.

We're doing supply chain management.

We're doing world-class training in our company.

And when you when you take people and you invest in them, you care for them, you believe in them, you lift them up, and they continually advance...

They continually grow in your business.

We still have our first employee 38 years later.

I was going to mention him as...

I talked about David and Dwight.

Steve...

So, Steve was pumping gas out of the local Agway.

I met him through the previous company, hired him as a laborer.

And this guy is world-class.

He has gone right with us and, matter of fact, has helped lead the way.

And not even Bill Gates kept Paul Allen... What did they keep him?

Ten years?

Paul Allen was instrumental in starting Microsoft.

And you take Steve Jobs with Wozniak.

He had Wozniak for ten years.

I have our Wozniak 38 years later and world-class.

So that's what we're doing.

We're investing in people.

We're caring for them.

We're helping them achieve their success and their family as well.

- Fantastic.

I would encourage everybody watching this evening, check out the Schlouch website.

You're going to find their mission statement.

And what Barry just described brings that all together rather beautifully in the mission statement, talking about the development of their employees, talking about their commitment to relationships, both with their clients and with their team.

Deb, I'm going to ask a tough question.

Under today's circumstances, most businesses are tremendously challenged in finding good employees.

38 years ago, you could stop by the gas station, check out the guy pumping gas for you and maybe end up hiring him and end up with a 38 year relationship.

It is a different world we find ourselves in these days.

And as I drive by your Hecktown Oaks campus that you've been working on - that's just a mile or so from our office, I drive by that that operation almost every single day - there's a lot of quality people there.

Where today are you finding quality people?

- Well, Gene, I would say it still boils down to relationships.

- Very good.

- Talk to anyone in our company and they will tell you the same thing, but especially with Barry, with the network of people that you meet every day...

There's so many people that you talk with every day and that you share life with.

Just mentioning something about how good a day it is or how things are going with you, making someone feel good.

It's those connections that work.

And I am just watching everyone in our company handle those kinds of situations every day.

- That's a fantastic answer, and I think a lot of companies are missing that piece of the puzzle, which is that personal connection.

Barry, I don't find you reluctant to express yourself.

I'm guessing that you're a pretty outgoing person.

Is that maybe one of the keys, that secret sauce to where you've been able to attract so many good employees?

- Well, I'm a hardcore introvert, I always have been.

So I've adapted.

People are surprised when I share with them that I'm an introvert.

When I come home at night, I got to go out and just be myself in the dirt, maybe take a backhoe here on the farm or go out and mow.

And I refresh myself here.

It's great living on a farm because I refresh myself, and it's an active farm as well.

But to add what Deb said, I was out this morning.

I got up at 4.30.

I like going to the morning safety huddles because every day we start with a morning safety huddle.

Because the top three priorities of our company are simple.

Number one is safety, number two is safety and number three is safety.

When you have the same three top priorities and end up doing the same thing, which is safety, because in our company, the most important thing each day is everybody goes home to their family.

There's a lot of inherent hazards.

You see it at Hecktown Oaks.

There's overhead power, there's underground power, there's trenches where people are down in trenches.

We're up on at height, so you could fall.

So we're making sure that everybody is aware of the hazards and that they practice safe work habits every day.

So if you practice safe work habits in everything you do, everybody is going home.

So to truly care for the people, safety is how you care for people, number one.

And then with that, you pay them well, you have great benefits, but safety actually makes us more productive and actually paves the way for quality.

So I want to mention that - that that's a core.

That's a core value of our company is a safe work environment.

- That's very powerful stuff.

And you're absolutely right.

It doesn't matter how well you pay someone or the benefits you might provide, if they don't make it home tonight, all that means nothing.

So that's fantastic.

I'm going to ask each of you just to take 30 seconds or so, and if you were meeting with a young couple... You're coming out of church and there's a young couple and they say to you, we're thinking about starting our own business.

What advice, what 30 seconds of advice would you give a young couple starting their own business today?

We'll start with Deb.

Go right ahead.

- I would say talk to each other on a regular basis, keep each other in the know, share your thoughts all the time.

Don't be afraid.

- Fantastic.

Barry?

- Yes, I would add to that - get good at something first.

Whatever you want to do, just get good at it first.

If you want to be in the business world, work for the best and spend about five years getting good at it first, so that you can put out good work.

Second is make sure you have a good mentor as well, and it could be each other.

So always pull yourself up with good mentors, Third is just show up consistently and give it your best each and every day and get a little better tomorrow.

- Barry, Debs, thank you so very much.

There's an absolute sense coming from the two of you how close you really are.

I think Deb really hit a key issue on the head when she said talk to each other, communicate.

If we stay in communication, we're likely to do very, very well.

I want to thank both of you for being with us this evening.

It's a great American story.

Thank you.

And for all of you listening, if you were impressed, inspired by their story, of course, reach out to us.

It's More Than Money, after all.

And sometimes that means helping somebody sort through how to start their business, maybe sort through where to get that mentor to help grow their business, maybe even sort through who's the person, who's the right person, to succeed you in your business so that the legacy that you've created can go on and on.

Barry and Deb have created a tremendous organization that's likely to outlive them as well and hopefully continue to safely bring home employees, having done a tremendously good day of work for lots and lots of worthy organizations every single day.

If you heard anything on tonight's show that you'd like information, or you have a personal financial question that you would like answered, all you have to do is reach out to us.

Gene@askMTM.com.

That lets you reach us.

Your questions will always be answered directly to you.

And maybe, just maybe, in a future show, you'll get to see or hear your question answered on air as well.

That's our commitment to you.

That's our willingness to serve you.

So I am absolutely thrilled that you had the chance to hear from Barry and Deb this evening.

Hopefully you picked up a little bit and hopefully you'll return next week when we come back to you with another episode of More Than Money.