A Year in Rear-view

It’s hard to believe that I’ve already been with Agracel, Inc. for a year.?In celebration of that anniversary, I thought I’d share some thoughts from all my windshield time this past year.?

Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker was once quoted saying “Football, that’s just athletics.?But in the business world – doing everything – people are competing.?So, you need good work ethics, and I think it helped me to develop good work ethics, being in a small town.”?

Growing up I always lived for my visits to a couple of small towns in South Georgia and South Alabama to see family.?Somehow, I always found myself on those family farms.?That mental reset was good for the soul; and even more so now.?While I may have grown up in a larger city, I went to college in a small town, I married a small-town girl, my daughters were born in a small town, and we love visiting those small towns where we still have family today.?

There is truly something special about small town, rural America.?When it is only about 20 minutes from the deer stand to the conference room!?When visiting with a client or industry partner, lunch takes close to two hours because the person you’re meeting with knows half the town.?They all stop to say hello and ask how the family is doing.?These downtown diners and town squares are where life happens.?The last two years have certainly magnified how much we crave community. Organic community happens on these main streets!?It should not surprise us that every major suburban, mixed-use development has attempted to recreate the original community felt on small town main streets.???

?Over the past year, since beginning with Agracel, I have spent much less time on airplanes and much more time behind a windshield visiting these communities.?I have renewed my appreciation for the people and work ethic of small-town America.?The residents of these communities are truly the heartbeat of our country and our economy.?I have often found myself catching up on emails between meetings in some local coffee shop I have never been to before.?Or, circling through downtown one more time after my meeting just to see how cool the local main street or town square looks.?That morning run from the hotel before setting out on my day of meetings has taken me off the beaten path and to some cool places.?I’ve had the opportunity to meet some amazing people that lead and work in our facilities in these same small towns.?These are the people that have the work ethic that made Herschel Walker the player he was.?

Years ago, while doing business development, I overheard a conversation through the paper-thin walls of my suburban office building.?One of our VPs was telling a superintendent that we really did not yet have the next project to move him to and he could take a week off.?If we still didn’t have anywhere for him after that week, we were going to have to lay him off.?As a business development person, that conversation motivated me.?I was not going to be the reason we had to lay someone off.?As Agracel's Regional Development Director, that same motivation keeps me going today.?Agracel’s mind set takes changing lives and communities to a whole other level.?

We often say at Agracel that we are "focused on where America is growing".?Fewer things are more important in the communities we work than the jobs our clients are creating for the people and the communities in which they locate.?Meeting a local plant manager and discussing the trials and tribulations of what they do make me want to work harder!?To look up at a ribbon cutting and see that the jobs created an Agracel building have truly changed the lives of local families is humbling.?

To date, Agracel has completed projects across 22 states that have created over 18,000 jobs for a total of $1.03 billion in investments!?I’m a huge fan of Simon Sinek and the idea of finding your “why”.?Creating value for communities is our “why”.?I am humbled to have spent the last year working for a company who places such intrinsic value on building communities and providing for families across rural America.?I'm thankful for all our partners I've met over the last year. I cannot wait to grow those relationships and make new ones too. I’m excited to see where the future takes us!????