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Speaker 1: thirty day Audible trial and your first audiobook plus two

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Speaker 1: heart or text I Heeart to five hundred, five hundred.

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Speaker 1: My guests, who's on the phone right now? You know

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Speaker 1: Steve h t That's the famous name, you know, because

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Speaker 1: Steve Harvey, Steve Harvey, you know, I know he's been

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Speaker 1: getting RIBB dollar his life these last ten years. My

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Speaker 1: guests is the president CEO of High Towers Petroleum, leads

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Speaker 1: a three hundred million dollar business enterprise consisting of five

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Speaker 1: national international businesses, all providing injergy solutions. Is self made entrepreneurs.

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Speaker 1: In eighteen seventy nine, he was featured in January and eight,

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Speaker 1: two thousand seventeen segment of CNBC's Blue Column. Millionaires. Please

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Speaker 1: welcome to Mindy Making Conversations Stephen hi Tower, how are you, sir?

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Speaker 1: I tried to I try to get all your credits

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Speaker 1: in Stephen, appreciate that, well, I appreciate you. Night seventy nine,

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Speaker 1: you an entrepreneur? Does the word entrepreneur right now? Everybody's

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Speaker 1: using it now, you know, entrepreneur? You know, because that's

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Speaker 1: just that's the millennials. They just want to be entrepreneurs.

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Speaker 1: Millennials at that age group eighteen and thirty four, eighteen

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Speaker 1: seventy nine, you become an entrepreneur. What does that mean

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Speaker 1: to you? Back in n eighteen seventy nine, well, nineteen

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Speaker 1: seventy nine, I had already made a decision that I

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Speaker 1: wasn't going to work in the steel mill here in Middletown, Ohio,

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Speaker 1: that I was going to spend the next thirty years

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Speaker 1: working for myself. And having made that decision at age eighteen,

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Speaker 1: um it was a probably the best decision that I

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Speaker 1: ever made in my life, was to say that I'm

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Speaker 1: going to start today and continued to be an entrepreneur

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Speaker 1: and I'm not and I'm going to forego working out

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Speaker 1: in the steel mill for the next thirty years. So

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Speaker 1: of which I felt that I would receive a gold

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Speaker 1: watch and a pension or what would I get if

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Speaker 1: I did thirty years into myself? And uh, fortunately I

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Speaker 1: made the right decision. Okay, now, Steve, that sounds very simple,

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Speaker 1: and I respect you because guess what, eighteen Rashawn was

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Speaker 1: nowhere thinking about trying. I just wanted a job, okay,

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Speaker 1: And I admire individuals who get it so quickly eighteen

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Speaker 1: years always said, look, I'm onna bet on me. What

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Speaker 1: what What background allowed you to be able to make

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Speaker 1: that decision? Well, as a youth, my family we grew

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Speaker 1: up in the jeditorial business, so I had already been

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Speaker 1: working in the cleaning business with our family. Uh probably

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Speaker 1: since I was six years old, remember dusting the bottom

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Speaker 1: of chairs and doing base boards. But by the time

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Speaker 1: I was thirteen and fourteen, I was out on a truck,

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Speaker 1: actually working in people's homes and in the industry. And

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Speaker 1: by the time I was eighteen, I actually negotiated my

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Speaker 1: first commercial contract, So I was I was somewhat on

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Speaker 1: a fast track. Had already had visibility of what was

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Speaker 1: possible and and what I saw my father doing and

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Speaker 1: my mother, and uh just wanted to always be that person.

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Speaker 1: You know. It's really I was at Bishop T. D.

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Speaker 1: Jakes on the phone, and you know everybody knows him

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Speaker 1: from being a bishop, a religious leader, and his background,

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Speaker 1: his parents, you know he's from West Virginia or entrepreneurs.

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Speaker 1: His mom so houses, his dad had a ganatorial service,

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Speaker 1: and so it's that background that kind of gives you

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Speaker 1: that leadership, of that guidance that you can do this

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Speaker 1: that makes you step away from being I would have

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Speaker 1: to say normal, because everybody goes through life saying, you know,

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Speaker 1: graduate high school, get your job, getting married, and your

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Speaker 1: your family was look work for yourself. You can win

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Speaker 1: being yourself. So you had mentors and parents that could

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Speaker 1: guide you through when you made this decision. It wasn't

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Speaker 1: like some unconscionable thing, what bet on yourself? That's impossible.

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Speaker 1: They said, like you said a ten, you'd already negotiate

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Speaker 1: your first contract. Absolutely well. You know many that example

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Speaker 1: is is tremendous because in our communities, UH many of

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Speaker 1: us see the uh the money making examples as the

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Speaker 1: gentleman on the corner who has a lot of cash

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Speaker 1: making it illegally, but you know, to be and then

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Speaker 1: other has examples of their parents are going to work

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Speaker 1: eight to five in the steel mill, and that's what

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Speaker 1: they want to be. Others have seen their family go

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Speaker 1: to school, have higher education, become teachers, doctors, and lawyers,

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Speaker 1: and do you have a tendency of those children following

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Speaker 1: in those footsteps as well? Uh. The one thing that

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Speaker 1: we lack in our community is entrepreneurship. And they to

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Speaker 1: see at a very early age, your parents actually out

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Speaker 1: there working uh in the business world, developing customers versus

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Speaker 1: developing a job. And even though my father worked at

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Speaker 1: a case still which was arm corel Still at the

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Speaker 1: time for forty years, uh and had his business at

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Speaker 1: the same time, I just chose not to go into

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Speaker 1: the steel mill, but to continue the business, the family business,

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Speaker 1: and continue to grow that particular business into something uh

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Speaker 1: for my family. And at a very early age, even

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Speaker 1: by the age of twenty three, I had four children

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Speaker 1: of my own, So you know, I was somewhat I

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Speaker 1: was going to school full time, working in the business

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Speaker 1: full time, and then growing a family all at the

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Speaker 1: same time. So I've always been a busy body. I

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Speaker 1: would say, you're a business, You're a business. I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: let that slide, but you a business. Stephen L. High

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Speaker 1: Tower was business, but I'm on the phone talking to

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Speaker 1: He's on the phone Stephen high Tower. He's the president

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Speaker 1: CEO of High Towers Petroleum. UM uh leads a business

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Speaker 1: over three hundred million dollar business enterprise. Tell us about

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Speaker 1: that business, because they're saying that listed by Black Enterprises

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Speaker 1: one of the United States top ten most profitable African

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Speaker 1: American owned businesses. Well, you know, getting in coming transferring

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Speaker 1: from the janitorial business into the petroleum business. When your

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Speaker 1: family has been in the janitorial business for so many years, Uh,

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Speaker 1: you really wasn't accepted, uh to become anything other than

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Speaker 1: a janitor in your own community. And so we really

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Speaker 1: had to leave and and not physically from my business

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Speaker 1: where I live and sleep, but actually had to go

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Speaker 1: into other cities to start selling fuel because it's just

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Speaker 1: not something that your community would accept you for being

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Speaker 1: anything but a janitor. And I tell everybody, it's not

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Speaker 1: where you sleep that determines your outcome, it's where you go.

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Speaker 1: And one of the things that I learned very early

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Speaker 1: was the business is going to come to Middletown. I

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Speaker 1: had to go to the business. And as a result

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Speaker 1: of that, I continue to first of all, go regionally

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Speaker 1: dating Cincinnati, then throughout the state, and then through multiple states,

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Speaker 1: and now today I worked throughout the entire United States, Mexico, Canada,

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Speaker 1: and South Africa. Uh and and it's just a philosophy

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Speaker 1: of wanting more, uh, knowing that more is available, and

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Speaker 1: that if you know how to do business, somebody in

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Speaker 1: this world will do business with you. And you have

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Speaker 1: a billion possibilities of somebody saying yes to anything that

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Speaker 1: you've got to offer. We just say, before we go

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Speaker 1: go into the next break here, I want you to

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Speaker 1: say this about you and UM, it's important to have

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Speaker 1: mentors and parents who see your vision. My father's truck driver,

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Speaker 1: I remember, Um, he just couldn't understand why I wanted

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Speaker 1: to not work a normal job. He's just he's just

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Speaker 1: couldn't wrap his head around there because that's all he did.

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Speaker 1: He worked a normal job trucks. And so that mentorship,

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Speaker 1: as you said, it's really important. And your parents were

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Speaker 1: your mentors, they have no problem. You know, then you

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Speaker 1: understand the value of betting on yourself through proper planning

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Speaker 1: and proper engagement. So when we come back, I want

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Speaker 1: to talk a little bit more breakdown exactly what does

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Speaker 1: your business do he's on the phone, Steve, a high tower.

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Speaker 1: You know, he's president CEO. He's doing his thing, and

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Speaker 1: you know how you're based on the higher right, sir?

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Speaker 1: That is correct, ohioed between dating and scandatic could be

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Speaker 1: right back for more. It's the high tower on money

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Speaker 1: making conversations. We're here, Steve, You're still there with me.

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Speaker 1: I would just tell my friends off air producers that

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Speaker 1: you know, I did not have that that that that mentorship.

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Speaker 1: And I'm not saying nothing negative about my parents, first

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Speaker 1: of all, let's get that clear. But I know that,

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Speaker 1: like you said, that guiding force is why you are

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Speaker 1: in the position you are in today. But you also

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Speaker 1: said that you're in the cleaning business to transition to

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Speaker 1: this all and gas bill. People didn't understand that. They

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Speaker 1: didn't see that. They didn't see that as a possibility.

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Speaker 1: So you are if you are, you had to recreate

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Speaker 1: the mold. You had a mold, would you have to

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Speaker 1: recreate it to get to where you are today? Correct?

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Speaker 1: That's correct. So if you look at where we started

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Speaker 1: in the janitorial business and how did I transfer over

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Speaker 1: into the petroleum business, was the state of Ohio had

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Speaker 1: a set aside, uh in nineteen seventy nine, and in

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Speaker 1: one of the commodities that they set aside was was petroleum.

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Speaker 1: I was selling industrial materials, so anything the state would

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Speaker 1: set aside, I literally went out and got a supplier

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Speaker 1: and then quoted that particular product. And literally we were

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Speaker 1: selling everything from lumber, UH, drywall, UH, guardrail, pental beings.

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Speaker 1: It didn't matter the state by everything, and so we

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Speaker 1: would try to sell everything. And one day we actually

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Speaker 1: UH had a contract for a gas selene and diesel

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Speaker 1: for the entire state. I was transactional enough to go

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Speaker 1: out and find a supplier, the contract was big enough

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Speaker 1: that the supplier would support it, And my first contract

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Speaker 1: in the petroleum industry was the entire state of Ohio.

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Speaker 1: Not that I knew anything about petroleum, but I was

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Speaker 1: transactional and knew enough about business to go out, invoice

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Speaker 1: and then pay my bill. And that's how I literally

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Speaker 1: got into the petroleum business with an opportunity of an

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Speaker 1: affirmative action tool, which many people frown on and look

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Speaker 1: look bad at. But however, that was how I got

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Speaker 1: that opportunity, and that's why I fight for the opportunity

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Speaker 1: for other African American youth to get you know, be

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Speaker 1: a part of these programs because it doesn't guarantee success,

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Speaker 1: but it guarantees an opportunity, and that's many things. Many

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Speaker 1: times what we're lacking is that opportunity and that's how

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Speaker 1: that's how we're asking for that opportunity. So, right, so

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Speaker 1: you take that opportunity and then you actually turned it

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Speaker 1: into a business. And within a couple of years I

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Speaker 1: knew I had something. So I changed from Landmarks Supply

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Speaker 1: Company to High Towers Petroleum in and specifically began to

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Speaker 1: uh start selling jet fuel hauling jet fuel for BP,

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Speaker 1: of which BP at that particular time supported me for

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Speaker 1: my p U c O hauling authority after I had

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Speaker 1: taken the contract from the state from them actually because

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Speaker 1: they could not bid it and they would not support

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Speaker 1: me on that first contract. But they began to work

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Speaker 1: with me as a as a hauler for jet fuel.

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Speaker 1: And that's when I really knew that I had arrived,

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Speaker 1: because I had actually had some credential in the petroleum

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Speaker 1: industry as a contract carrier for BP. But even with that,

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Speaker 1: that was just a drop in a bucket. And over

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Speaker 1: a period of time, going through courses and the executive

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Speaker 1: management courses, I began to know that, uh, it was

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Speaker 1: time to try to grow this into a real business.

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Speaker 1: And and once I began to focus on that as

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Speaker 1: a business, many of the other things that I was

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Speaker 1: selling kind of fell to the side because I knew

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Speaker 1: that was a real opportunity to grow. The banks would

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Speaker 1: not go along with me, so I had to figure

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Speaker 1: out how I'm going to be sustainable in a business

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Speaker 1: in the industry where I can't get banking. However, the

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Speaker 1: major oil companies would not deal with you because you

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Speaker 1: don't have a bank. How do you go from zero

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Speaker 1: into this industry without any money? And what I was

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Speaker 1: able to understand was that if the opportunity is big enough,

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Speaker 1: you can find a supplier that would be interested in

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Speaker 1: that opportunity. If you show them away, they can get paid.

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Speaker 1: And that's when I became to get creative enough to

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Speaker 1: try to come up with instruments banking instruments that were

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Speaker 1: not lines of credit. Was not the bank loaning me money,

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Speaker 1: but the bank being able to hold our money and

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Speaker 1: then allow our suppliers to take this first. And that

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Speaker 1: was my key that I began to stay in the industry,

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Speaker 1: began to grow from one supplier to the other. Once

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Speaker 1: I figured out that formula of showing them how they

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Speaker 1: can get paid, even though the bank would not loan

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Speaker 1: me any money. I continued all the way up to

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Speaker 1: two hundred and thirty five million dollars in revenue before

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Speaker 1: I got my first bank of a loan. And you know,

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Speaker 1: so can you do it without any money? Absolutely? We

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Speaker 1: got to be creative. You know, Uh, what's his name,

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Speaker 1: Eli Lily Uh? Or what's his name? Eli that invented

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Speaker 1: the cotton gin. He invented the cotton gin because he

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Speaker 1: was tired of picking cotton. You know, I was tired

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Speaker 1: of not being in the business. So I figured it out.

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Speaker 1: And we have that creativity and that desire and drive

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Speaker 1: that just because we don't have a tool, I eve

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Speaker 1: if that's money, we figure it out and we continue

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Speaker 1: to play until you get to a point where you

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Speaker 1: don't need their money, and then they're ready to give

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Speaker 1: you all kind of money. Miss High Towns blue chip

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Speaker 1: customer base includes Duke Energy, General Motors Corporation, the Kroger,

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Speaker 1: the Kroger Company, fed X for A Motor Company, Ups, Honda, Khin, Edison, Nissan,

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Speaker 1: United Rentals, Dominion Transportation, pep Co, and the state of Ohire.

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Speaker 1: My man, you are blue chip and you said you

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Speaker 1: said you had you got up to tunit in thirty

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Speaker 1: five million before you heard at your first Bankaba loan.

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Speaker 1: That is correct, you know, and and and during that

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Speaker 1: period of time having blue chip customers and it was not.

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Speaker 1: It's it's very easy for the African American community go

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Speaker 1: towards government and government contracts. But the key is to

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Speaker 1: understand how to do business to business in the commercial

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Speaker 1: space because that's what's sustaining those customers. They do what

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Speaker 1: they want to do. You can have those customers as

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Speaker 1: long as they want to have you. There's no government

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Speaker 1: regulations that they've got to bid every year. Uh, you

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Speaker 1: got to be low bidder. You just have to do

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Speaker 1: a good job. You've got to perform every day and

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Speaker 1: give that customer what they want. And so the private

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Speaker 1: sector business, the business is what we need to begin

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Speaker 1: to teach our community as a space that's sustainable and

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Speaker 1: where we really need to be in order to scale

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Speaker 1: and become viable in this economy. It's high tower. How

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Speaker 1: about your kids. Are you kids engaged in your business.

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Speaker 1: I've got three kids, a daughter who's been with me

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Speaker 1: since high school. Uh. Two sons. One works on the

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Speaker 1: construction side. Another son is the chief operating officer of

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Speaker 1: High Towers Petroleum. Uh. And then I have a nephew

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Speaker 1: who is a my chief technical officer over the I T.

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Speaker 1: And my father, who is eighty seven. He still comes

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Speaker 1: into the office every morning at Severn. So that was

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Speaker 1: a smile on your face. Doesn't absolutely as long as

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Speaker 1: I have a business. He's got a business to uh

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Speaker 1: to come to every day. Well, I love the fact

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Speaker 1: you said over over the I T Department CEO construction,

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Speaker 1: key positions, key intellectual positions in your company, uh, controlled

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Speaker 1: by relatives who could do the job, not because they

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Speaker 1: just nepotism. They can do the job. That has to

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Speaker 1: make you feel good. Well, you know, they had to

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Speaker 1: grow into it. They didn't just get it. And and

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Speaker 1: that's the other thing about having family and your business. Uh,

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Speaker 1: it's it's either can be the best thing or the

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Speaker 1: worst thing if you have family that will do the

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Speaker 1: right thing. And you know, I've had family that don't

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Speaker 1: work for me um and have been fired. Uh. And

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Speaker 1: that's just you know, because they weren't in align with

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Speaker 1: the values that I had for where I was going.

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Speaker 1: And you have to be willing to whether that's a

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Speaker 1: child or a brother or even a mother if that's

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Speaker 1: if it comes down to that, be willing to make

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Speaker 1: those types of decisions where you know or you're going

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Speaker 1: and either they hit you on or they got to

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Speaker 1: you know, unclapped and get out the way. Well, this

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Speaker 1: is a beautiful conversation I'm having with Stephen L. High Tower,

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Speaker 1: President CEO of High Towers Petroleum. Some of his blue

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Speaker 1: chip customer base are Duke Energy, General Motors, the Crower Company,

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Speaker 1: and fed X for a motor company, ups, Honda kan

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Speaker 1: and as a Nissan United. Reynolds is based in Ohio.

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Speaker 1: Sir Um, I don't have time to talk. Can I

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Speaker 1: bring you back on the show to talk about your

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Speaker 1: community efforts? Because I just wanted first to get your

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Speaker 1: story out and that's the purpose of money making conversation?

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Speaker 1: Can I can? I? Can I get you back on

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Speaker 1: the show? Absolutely? And I love I love to bring

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Speaker 1: you the CEO CEO on it. Your son and if

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Speaker 1: you're dak, I'd love to get that three generational interview.

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Speaker 1: Can I do that? Well? We can, we can reach

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Speaker 1: for that. At age eight seven, he doesn't do many

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Speaker 1: interviews but you know we could just tell just say

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Speaker 1: pop hell out. How long let's say how long he

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Speaker 1: can't say hello? Thank you. I want to appreciate you

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Speaker 1: calling my show to keep winning because you've got something

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Speaker 1: great going on in Ohio, Hi Ohio, and thank you

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Speaker 1: for coming to my show telling your store. Thank you

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