Welcome in to the cool grandpa podcast. This is the podcast where we talk to grandfathers, adult grandchildren, and experts in areas of importance to grandfathers. Whether you're a new grandfather, a seasoned pro, or somebody interested in learning about relationships, this is the place for you. So come on in, join us as we learn together, laugh together, and support each other on the cool grandpa podcast. Hey cool kids, welcome into this week's episode. I have Ricky Dixon on to talk to me about life, his perspective as a grandfather, as well as his new book One Scoop at a Time. Now this is going to be a fun conversation because we get to understand and learn about Ricky and his journey from being a student at Baylor University, doing a marketing paper, and then his journey with bluebell ice cream, starting out doing sales, and then working his way up to becoming CEO. We are going to dive into a lot of different topics, including faith, his perspective about being a father, as well as a grandfather. So we are going to have a blast with this conversation, and I know you will enjoy it. Now before we get started, I just want to remind you we've got the holidays coming up. So I've got a few items over in my bookstore on the website. So please feel free to jump in, go take a look, and maybe find a great gift for the grandfather in your life. So without further ado, let's jump into this awesome conversation with Ricky. Hi Ricky, welcome to the cool grandpa podcast. I'm excited to have you on to talk about your book, one scoop at a time, as well as how your experiences has influenced you as a grandfather as well. So this is a great conversation for us. Well it is absolutely great to be here. When I heard the title, I just, I mean, you should have seen my face because I smile from ear to ear. I mean, what's better than ice cream and grandkids? I mean, they just go together. So thank you so much for having me. Hello, you're welcome and you're absolutely right about that. That's one of the questions when I'm asking grandfathers like, hey, do you have a special thing you do? Like do you go out for ice cream after the tea ball games or do you go get a milkshake after this or something? Surprising number of people is like ice creams all around those kinds of grandpa grandchild activities. Very much so. One's banana split, the other one's shervard. So you can go either direction, but we have to have both and plenty supply here at the house just so when they come over, we're ready to go. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, it's interesting as the kids get going, there's a certain list of unwritten demands that, you know, grandpa and grandma have got to have these kinds of trends going for us. That's right. Now, I'd love to start out with kind of a brief overview about where you grew up and then how you joined Blue Bell and maybe how your career progressed. That's certainly in the book, but I'd love to get kind of a brief overview of this. Wouldn't sounds great. In fact, the title of my book, One Scoop at a Time, is really the heart and soul of my journey to Blue Bell in college. I like to say in high school, actually, I had a girlfriend that wanted to go to Baylor and I really didn't have a choice. I mean, there was the same number of options, but she had a passion for Baylor and I had a passion for her. And so therefore, we ended up in Baylor and as soon as we got there, we break up. And so there I am at Baylor, but that one step or one scoop gets me into a marketing class where I'm given the assignment to follow a company for the whole semester and in a process of talking with my dad, and he was reading an article. He said, "I need to start this article over again because it's this little livestream company down in Burnham, Texas." And so my journey to Blue Bell actually started as a project in college and was so taken by what I saw. I thought, "You know, I'm going to go back and interview for a job there and we'll just see what happens from there." And so I was definitely blessed. Got open that door. He had it open for me and I recognized it. Then ended up starting a little over 43 years ago, just retired this past March. But the journey took me all over Texas, Oklahoma, up into Kansas City, back down to Oklahoma, and then back down to Texas. And so it's all in the book. It's a fun run at the same time. Along the way, there were some rocky roads. We don't have a heavily hashed, but we need one so I can use it in my pond. But it's been an incredible career. And so therefore, the one scoop at a time just came natural. Oh, I love it. And one of the little stories in the book that you talk about too, I think it was before you went down to meet with the folks at Blue Bell, was you and a college buddy, roommate, took off to go run to the nearest town, picked up a half gallon, and then you too polished off. I think maybe it was Rocky Road or something. Well, it actually was strawberry and that's strawberry. One of the reasons why strawberry ended on the cover of the book, because it was my first taste of Blue Bell, but you're right. We were in Waco, but Blue Bell was not in Waco at the time. We were only in Houston, Austin, and up in the Dallas market. And so I had to write a paper. You have to do research. And what better way to do research than jump in the car and go down. And Temple, Texas, had it out of Austin, the stores there. And so that's where we found it. And I think we devoured that whole half gallon of strawberry before we made it back to the city limits, Hoeiko. No, that's certainly one of the fun road trips that you remember. I mean, road trips are part of a kind of a college experience when you go away to school, but having an ice cream run is a fantastic memory. One of the questions that I always love asking grandfathers when they're on the Cool Grandpa podcast is take us back to when you found out you were going to become a grandfather for the first time. Kind of what was going on professionally and personally, and how did that news affect you? Yeah, there's nothing more special than to find out that you're going to have your own child, much less a grandchild. I had always heard that grandchildren are such a blessing and I thought that's great. I can't wait till that experience happens. Now that we have a total of eight grandchildren, it, boy, there is nothing better because you, you know, you hear you can spoil them. There's just a different type of relationship that you have with a grandchild versus your own child. I won't say you're in your teaching moments, especially grandchildren just seem to just gravitate to you. And so they hang on your words, especially with their young. And so when that happened, I remember, I have to confess my wife had some issues back in the hospital. So we went back after my first grandson was born. And I remember just walking him down into one of the empty rooms and turned on the TV and there was an Oklahoma University basketball game on it. So as I held him, his dad was a big OU fan. Again, I think I mentioned just now I went to Baylor. And I thought here I am introducing my first grandson, my first grandchild to Oklahoma sports and thought, boy, he is an Oklahoma sooner. So it worked out good for him and maybe that was my fault. But the special moments, just the, it's just a, I can't put into words how special they are. Oh, that's awesome. I always love hearing these stories because sometimes we get hit with, you know, I'm way too young for this to, boy, I thought we would never become grandparents. And so I always love hearing these stories about how people react to to getting that news and to put it into perspective. And I feel like I'm young. I just turned 65, but that little baby grandson got married two weeks ago. Wow. I know. So now all of a sudden, and now, you know, great grandparent, maybe a different experience. Maybe it'll be a different podcast. Anyway, I'm real happy for him. I'm glad that he's happy. Yeah. Well, we definitely have had some great grandfathers on. And that's been a fantastic journey too to watch that and have that experience. That's great. Your book, One Scoop at a Time, who did you write this book for? Because it's not a traditional, I would say business book, and it's not a traditional like autobiography book, but it's kind of in between. Yeah, it's a, it's a great question. And I've been asked from different perspectives and different angles on why, why did you go this way? Or why did you go this way? I really, as I mentioned, I wrote a paper on Blue Bell to start my career. And I was approached at the very end of my career about this time last year. In fact, you need to write down your thoughts, your memories, your experiences. And so I tried to tie that into what I call a faith journey. You know, if you, if we live long enough at all, we're going to have situations in life that just start, we're not going to like very strong trials. And so one of the things that I've always been fascinated by reading scriptures, how do you find the peace that passes all understanding? How do you get to a point where you, when you're in the middle of the storm, how do you find that peace? And so I really tried to combine the two, my journey, how I really, truly believe got open and shut doors all the way to some fun experiences, all the way to how we picked flavors and how ice cream's made more and not just a technical book and not just a ricky book. But I wanted to have the blend of how all that is woven together. It really comes down to a relationship, a relationship, my children, my relationship with my family, but most importantly, relationship with Jesus Christ. And so that's what I was trying to achieve. I, right at the very beginning, I have a good friend, Mark Madison, who's a pastor out of Washington, D.C. And when we were talking about it, he said, you know, when you're doing this, you're writing a book for your great, great grandkids because they won't ever have the opportunity probably to meet you. And so what a better way to just pour yourself into a book so they can not just read about what you did, but maybe really feel how you lived your life, how you made decisions, which are highs and your lows were. And so I'm hoping we accomplished that. I had a blast writing that, but at the same time, yeah, it's not a tradition. You know, we had a hard time. Where do you categorize it? Well, we put it on Amazon, but it's got a blend of leadership. It's got faith. It's got fun. And so every chapter really kind of stands on its own, but at the same time, the thread through the whole thing is finding peace in the middle of the storm and again, for me, it's Christ. Well, and I love that because I think, too, one of the things that I haven't seen a lot with business books is people being really open and honest about the fear and even some of the anxiety that comes into it. Coming up through and getting my MBA in the late '90s and things like that, we're reading the Jack Welch books and all these things. And it seems like everybody that ends up leading these large companies or these older companies, it seems like they come out of school and it's success on success on success. Oh, here's a crisis, but then here's how I managed through it and then success and success. You were really open as far as, hey, here's some fear and trepidation, here's some success, here's the setback, here's in being able to overcome that fear. And like you said, developing that relationship or strengthening that relationship with Christ seemed to be really huge. And so that was one of the big things that I took away from it. And I can totally see this being a message not only to your grandchildren, but your great-grandchildren as well. Absolutely, absolutely. And you're right, again, the mountaintops are unbelievable, but they're usually the peak or the very tip. And it's a journey up and down. The valleys seem to sometimes be real wide, whereas the peaks are, and you need to be able to enjoy both. No one likes trials, but again in James, it says, "Count up pure joy." And so that's really one of the passages that stuck out to me is pure joy. I mean, I can think of a lot of things that right, you pumped up about. But at the same time, resting when trials do come, and that's not an easy thing to say. I mean, it's easy saying to say it's hard thing to do. But the more you're in that position, especially leading a company, leading individuals, families, and then consumers, and all the weight that comes with that, you just try to take it as serious as you can and devote yourself not just to it, but also find the guidance, in my case, for my Heavenly Father on day to day, on how we get through things. You know, folks, you need to pick up this book because there's really touching and open and honest discussions about navigating and going through some of those. And I know we're going to take just a little bit of a left turn, but I feel like I want to ask you about the story that you have in the book about, I think you were at the Leadership Conference. Yes, it was by far the most turning point of anything in 43 years that I can look back at and say, okay, I'm so glad I was in tune to what God was actually doing. I was in San Antonio running our branch in San Antonio. We just opened the market. I was young in my 20s and two miles from where I grew up, my sister, two brothers, the whole family, nephews, nieces. And then I got the request or the offer to be able to move into Oklahoma. The first time Blue Bell was going to cross state lines for the branch. In that, there was most likely the opportunity to start a new region. And so you got this dilemma that you're going back and forth. Do you go for the promotion? Do you go for the newness? Do you go for the job? Or do you stay where you're comfortable? And I wrestled and in fact, I looked back and said, I don't know if there was a wrong answer, but I really was seeking it at that time what God wanted in my life. And if this was where he wanted me to go, then by faith, pack up and let's go. And so we did get up in Oklahoma and then it got real, real quiet. And then so twice a year, we'd have these, these quarter, what we call quartering meetings, even though they were only a couple of them a year. And they told me before I got there, they wanted to meet with me after the dinner. It was over with. And I thought, okay, this is a big moment. I'm excited and things are going well. And I remember walking in the room and you could just sense immediately that this wasn't, you know, we weren't, there weren't any balloons, there was no confetti, there was no, hey, come on in. I said that there was something different. And sure enough, we sat down and for the probably next 30, 45 minutes, we walked through things that I was either not doing that I was previously doing or things I should be doing that I wasn't doing. And for a page and have single space handwritten notes by my boss, it was a very eye opening experience. And so I remember going back to the hotel, sitting on the end of my bed and just looking, you know, really praying out loud, God, I thought I came to Oklahoma for you. I thought this is where I was supposed to be. I thought I was listening to you and as clear as his day, even though it wasn't audible, I sensed him saying, you're here for my purpose, not for your promotion. And that just, you know, to this day, it just comes over me to say, you know, we can get off track and sometimes not even realize and that's what had happened to me. I got so focused on the next position, the next title, the next whatever, that I had lost the things that had got me into the position to be considered. And yet at the same time, I still, I say angry, but I cannot believe here I am, but yet it just sunk in and I thought, you know, I've got a choice. I can either get back on track where I was. If I truly believe this is where God has me and do whatever it is that he's asking of me for his glory, then everything will fall into place or I can just pack up and let's start another journey with another company. And I'm so thankful that I took the first option and that is get back on track with what God was doing. What I didn't see is down the road, I ended up running our manufacturing plant in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma for six years. Now fast forward to 2017 when they asked me to become president CEO, eventually of the company, all that was being molded. I was not just being molded on the cell side of things, but to then run the production side gave me the opportunity to see both areas of how the company operates. And it's so easy to see now looking back, but at the time it was very, very, I will say dark, but it was very cloudy, but trust and that's where trust comes in. Okay, if this is where you have me, this is where you want me, then I trust you and we're going to make the most the only request I have, Father, is to put within me the passion and give me the patience. And so when they asked me to run the plant, you'd talk about a funny day. That was a funny day because I'm a marketing journalism major. And now you want me to go in and run an ice cream plant. And yeah, at the same time, the beauty of it is we had great people. And they knew how to make the ice cream. They just, you know, what they needed was someone to guide the ship to keep us going in the right direction. And so knowing your role and then knowing what you're good at and what you're not good at and then staying out of the way, there's a great story about trying to step in that I'll leave that up to the reader to read. But those are some strong, strong life lessons, but that one was key for me because I truly believe that I was working for Blue Bell because the door hit open that God had led me to. And I didn't have anything inside me to say leave the company. And so thankful as I look back now, but it's all him. It's not me. What's unique about that, I think, is that as a 20-year-old, there's a couple of different ways you can take that, right? If you can take it as like, hey, this is a sign that I'm not in the right place and I need to leave. There's another part of that that can get a little bit angry too because hey, if I get this promotion, then I'm able to do more. I'm able to bless a little bit more with giving a church or whatever that might be. So I need to move up so I can help out and do some of these things. But being able to have that sense of like, no, you know, it's almost like being checked a little bit. Absolutely. Absolutely. And in a way, and I look at these athletes, especially pitchers, it's not as much quarterbacks because it seems like they get wrapped and immediately they get put into the game. But pitchers, for whatever reason, need that time in the minors and then just the process of all those things you learn. And I can only imagine if you're young and you're good, you can't help but it was to be cocky, but they know better. In this case, God knew better. And God said, you're not ready. You know, you're young and I've got a lot of work on you before I get, you know, but if you listen, if you trust and follow, then I can use it in a way that will not glorify you but glorify me. And I think that's the key to the whole fight. Absolutely. And it's being humble enough to be open to that message and then being said, okay, I need to step back into that fire and get tempered a little bit more. I may not know everything there is to know about running a plant or running a division or something. That's right. Now, I do want to ask you too, with your experience though, have coming up through Bluebell and running the organization, did you ever find it tricky to take the management hat off and put the dad hat on or now the grandfather hat on and take off that management hat? Yeah, I think that's probably one of the strongest skills that we need to teach. I don't like the word boss. I do like the word lead or leader. My dad was a master at this and so that was a great template growing up. I remember a time I wanted to invest in an oil well and my dad said, well, how much are going to cost you? And I said, what's me and a friend, we're all going to put in, I mean, we're both going to put in $2,500. And he said there for many, he goes, yeah, I think you ought to do it, which blew me away. So why is that? And he goes, you know, you're going to lose your money, but $2,500 to learn a good life lesson sounds pretty good. So I remember that so well. I think that again, not just dad, but also those that I worked under. I had some great, great teachers that would allow you to think which helped me as a manager or as a leader to be able to step back when you see that they're really not taking the right step. But to weigh out, okay, this is a good life lesson. So I'm just going to allow that to happen versus, okay, this one can take you down the wrong path completely. I had my daughter call me last night, where should I put my money? What 401k? And so I laughed. I'm honors me that they call, but at the same time, that process of thinking through and helping to natural to want to answer the question, not necessarily on that particular topic. But just stepping as a dad or as a manager versus a teacher or a leader, you want to be able to teach them to get to a place that they can move, whether it be move up or be better at what they do on their own. And so I think that's just a strong, strong leadership skill that's so, so important. And I think too is, and I don't know who came up with this, but I like the term non-fatal error. That's good. Like you're talking about $2,500, because it could have been like, hey, I want to get into investing in muscle cars or classic cars. And I want to buy this, I don't know, GTO. And it's a beater. It's $2,500, but I'm going to fix it up. And they know that you don't like working on cars. They know that you don't. Yeah, go ahead, do that. We'll park it out front for a while. And in six months, you'll sell it. Yeah, no, it's a great, great example, no doubt. Now, what are some of the ways that you get to spend some one-on-one time with the grandchildren? And how do those interactions kind of go? They're all different, certainly, but I'd love to hear what you do for one-on-one time. Oh, what's we retired? We have, as I mentioned, eight grandchildren, four of which are teenagers and are in their down 20s. And so seasons of life are critical and also can dictate the time that you get to spend with them. So my older grandchildren, I was in Brunham, Texas when they were in Dallas. So it became the special moments, the Christmases, the holidays, the special events, but not necessarily or not nearly as much as I would have liked the important time to do the one-on-ones to just take a trip to go get ice cream or whatever. The four that we have now here up in Oklahoma, it's really why we moved back to Oklahoma. Their ages are from four years old up to 12 years old, and you're exactly right. They're independent and they're unique in their own, but they're also special. And so we had our little granddaughter here for a couple nights this past weekend. And I've learned after two days you go from a grandparent to a parent. So two nights is good, three nights, you things start to change a little bit. You start having to discipline a little bit more and have to be a little bit more stern. But we do everything from swimming out in the swimming pool to we've got a little property we go out and we ride in the Polaris just to get them and allow them to sit in the lap and drive a little bit without getting into much trouble. But the key thing is to be there for them. And I'm seeing that with the older children that they don't mind picking up the phone and giving a call and just asking for your advice on something. And to me that's the biggest reward is the fact that they have the freedom and the comfort to be able to do that. And so they each so do have their own personality. You are so right. So that's special. Were there anything in particular that you remember doing with the older group to create that bond and create those memories? Some people talk about the importance of getting down and playing with the grandkids and being at their level. Other people have different ways of doing that. And I didn't know if you would like to share how you built those relationships. So when they are teenagers and they don't want to talk to anybody, they still will text or call grandpa and grandma. Yeah, I think you just nailed it. I think that having more than one at a time can be great. Sometimes we have three. In fact, a couple of moments we've had four on the weekend. But the one on one time, and my wife and I talk a lot about this, if we can have one on one time, you can break some walls down or barriers down. The younger they start, the relationship starts more innocently and more childlike faith where you can't do wrong is grandpa. But yes, so whether it be watching my 12-year-old granddaughter and I love to watch cooking shows, she loves to cook. And we'll sit there and watch the competition cooking shows. It sure beats, I got to say, Power Rangers or whatever. Bluey or whatever. But I'll do bluey. If I need to do bluey, let's do bluey. But things that you can relate to and then also pivot out of when you discuss. So Saturday morning, we're making pancakes for my granddaughter, the 12-year-old, and teaching just how to flip a pancake. But you're having relationship, you're building trust, you're building. So I think that the one on one time, I say this in the book. Some of the special times I have on my dad were going hunting, but it wasn't the hunt. They were just sitting in the car. There were times we didn't say a word, but just sitting there with my father meant the world. I had dad all to myself, and I relate that to our Heavenly Father because he's here at all times. So I remember how important that one-on-one time was. And I think the earlier you could start the better. Oh, I love that. And I love that memory of you and your dad going to hunt camp and all of that because I know for a lot of women, it drives them crazy to take a road trip or do something and you're not having conversations. But for guys, I mean, you could drive two thirds across the country. Absolutely. Besides asking for bathroom breaks and grabbing a soda or something, like not say anything and have the deepest moment between two friends. Absolutely. It was a pastor. I was listening to the other day and he talked about men for whatever reason have an empty box in one of their mainframes and there's nothing in it. And that's when we get into that nothing category and we love it. What's in there? Nothing. Right. But at the same time, I think it's just, I say, the presence. And yeah, there's a lot of the why dad, why dad, you know, the series of why does the sun come up on the east, you know, those kind of things. But I think just as special is just the fact that you're together. And I think it's really, really important to develop. And again, I go back to the word relationship. One of the stories that you have in the book that I really love was the one about Christmas. And I know you've been asked about this one before and I'd love for you to talk a little bit about that. But then also talk a little bit about, do you have special traditions or activities that you do with grandkids? Maybe you've tried to recreate that one Christmas before. That was a very unusual Christmas. And unfortunately, we haven't gone back to doing it. But when we got up and ran into the room, like you normally do on Christmas day and not to see anything into the tree is basically what happened. So if you haven't read the book, the story basically goes as we walk in, there's nothing there. And we think, oh, my gosh, what's going on? Now, I was little. I think I was nine or 10. But I had younger brothers. Mom and Dad set us down. And it was going to be a one on one. And we saw four individual cans, like a can of peas or a can of corn, but had our name on it. And so my sister started, she was the oldest. She had to use the can opener to open it. And we actually went a little scavenger hunt around the house that, you know, Mom and Dad had to lead us. They were helping. But it put the element of not just running in and ripping open, but we're going to go on this trip. But at the same time, it led us back to the tree. It led us back. And in her case, and I remember it very vividly, she had a necklace she wanted. It was hanging right there on the branch the whole time. I wanted a toolbox. It was sitting right there on the shelf that I missed the whole way. I don't remember. I asked my brothers, what did y'all have? And they don't remember. But it made an impact on me. But the key to it was Mom and Dad, and as Christmas, it was so special about the presence and being together. It was also the fact that the birth of birth of our Savior. And so traditions that we have include Christmas Eve service, making sure we don't lose focus on what we're celebrating. And it's fun and it's exciting and anticipation of opening and ripping paper and being together and eating great food. And in some cases, some good football, the heart and soul of it is, and you want to make sure the kids know this, grandkids know this. It's all about Christ coming into the world. And so that in itself would be the tradition. I would say that we make sure that we don't forget, let's read the story of the birth of Christ and just instill that into him. That was a fun story. That was a great memory as a kid. Where my head goes sometimes with this story is probably been wrapped up into a kind of a talk at church or something like that is like, sometimes I feel like, you know, a heavenly father might have done the same thing. You're looking over in this direction, but it's like what you need, what you want is right over here. Yeah. And he can't quite tell you, like, hey, you got to go, here it is, but the jumping up and down, like, you're getting warm, you're getting cold. You're right. You're getting warm, you're getting cold. You know, yeah, that's kind of where I go with some of that. No, you're exactly right. In fact, I think the chapter is called in plain sight, because I think sometimes we flat miss God. He's right there in front of us. He's doing miracles right in front of us. And in this case, the sound right there, the brightest star ever is shining right over the manger, and they missed it. They missed it. So anyway, great. I do want to pivot over to one of the big experiences that you had, and it's in the book, but it's the Listeria outbreak that hit Bluebell. And I'd love for you to talk to us a little bit about that, the crisis. And then also, how did that change your perspective with managing people, managing through crisis? Because you did get it out. Spoiler alert, Bluebell's still around. Amen. But you could have, and I'll let you tell the story, but sure, seeing these things with different organizations, it would have been easy enough to close up shop and sell the brand off. Let somebody else let another creamery come in, take over the brand, but you guys actually rallied in your back on shelves, your everybody's enjoying the ice cream. Yes, absolutely. Well, and it's almost been an incredibly, but 10 years ago, 2015, back, I want to say before that, but in general, ice cream is what they call a low risk item or low risk food to have Listeria because it's a pasteurized product kept at minus 20. And so for Listeria, even coming to the product is a very abnormal thing. And because of that, are very low risk, I should say. So because of that, your ways of going about operations, we're based around that still are today for a lot of companies that I'm talking and gotten to be good friends with. But when it hit us, we first thought, when we shut down that we could come back and start making ice cream, we get back on the market and test everything. But when we went to the outside sources and when I say that, the microbiologist talking with the different organizations, it was very clear. We didn't need to put a band-aid on it. What we needed to do is totally, totally revamp. And so that's exactly what we did. We tore out the floors, we took all the equipment out. We redid and refabricated equipment that would present an issue or a potential risk. It was all about the risk. And so today, we have the most unbelievable environmental program. Listeria is very common all over. At the same time, we don't want it in our plants. So we kind of reinvented the well in a sense. I wouldn't say reinvented, it's probably not the right word, but we took it to a whole new level. And it took months to do. But I think the key thing to the question is to own it. We've got an issue. And so stay humble, keep your head down, stay on your knees, work hard, get it right, and keep it right, and don't let it happen again. And so that's exactly the steps that we took. We're going to get this thing right. We're going to ask for outside help in all capacities. To this day, we have outside companies come in on a regular basis and rate everything that we do. We test everything that we make before it gets sold. So before you could be making, you could make ice cream on a Monday and it could actually be in the store on Tuesday. This time, it takes about a week because we want to make sure the test results come back that there is an issue with that particular lot or that particular run of whatever the flavor is. But what I would tell kids and grandkids and anybody for that matter is when situations like that happen, whether you like it or not, do the right thing. Own it in a minute and then get after and affix it. And that's exactly what we went about doing instead of trying to hide or trying to run from it, but do the right thing. And I love that you say that because it is so hard to do that. Whether you're a little kid and you scratched your dad's car with your bicycle and you didn't mean to, everybody knows you did it. To sit there and try to create an excuse, create a it wasn't me. I didn't do this. It's not easy and it's hard to take ownership of those things and do that corrective action. But I think being able to see that Bluebell did this, that you and the leadership team were able to do this is like, you can make it through. It's definitely going to be really hard up front, but you're going to gain so much more credibility on the back end of this and you're going to learn too, right? You're going to go, oh, I didn't know we could have bacteria come into the plant this way. I didn't know we could do. So you learn a lot from that. So I appreciate you sharing that message. Absolutely. One of the, not exactly the last chapter of the book, but close to the last chapter of the book, is this story about Tanya. And you kind of are starting to wrap up the book with that. The last chapter is called Choices. But what made you want to share that particular story? And can you share that story with us? Sure. Yeah, I think again, I wanted to talk about my journey. I wanted to talk about how God had moved in my life. I wanted to talk about not just Bluebell, because I knew a lot of people would be interested in not just not even just Bluebell, but ice cream in general. Ice cream is such a fun product. And it's in a unique in the sense that it can brighten a really bad day, or it can help you celebrate a really good day. I mean, it's on both ends. So when there's, when there's just a, you know, you've lost a baseball game where you've just got really bad news. For some reason, it can at least seem to soften whatever that mood is. In Tanya's case, it kind of brought it to a different level. And it really, for me, it impacted the, in Tanya's stories like Tanya's. No, what we do is really, truly more than just make ice cream. I mean, we truly are making memories. And in Tanya's case, it was her sister that called, I think it was December 28th on a Friday at 4.30 in the afternoon. We're getting ready to go home. I mean, New Year's Eve was right around the corner. Most people are already gone. The place is pretty quiet in my administrative assistant, Tally Toodle, which she loves her name, by the way. And I love it, too. She's very unique and love working with her. But she came in and she said she had just gotten a phone call from this frantic lady whose sister had just been told, I mean, actually, they had been told that her sister, who had been dying of cancer hospices had been called in. And they didn't know how much longer she was going to be able to make it. And she had two requests. Once she wanted to live to, she was 59 years old, which would have been the following Monday. And the second was to have Bluebell ice cream at her celebration of her life, because it meant that much to her. And again, the way that product had impacted. So Tally went to work. And what we did is we found out where the family was, where Tanya was, which was in Alabama, and worked it out to wear in the event that the news came about Tanya, that we'd be able to step in and help out. The beauty of that story, though, was she did make it not only to 59, but they were able to tell her that they were going to be able to celebrate her life with Bluebell. And in her final, really final days and hours, but more importantly, her love for Christ, and that one of her favorite passages was one of the Psalms, and oh, taste the goodness of the Lord. And she wanted that on every one of the wooden spoons, the packages of the wooden spoons, to be able to share her faith through the ice cream of all things, on how good God really truly is. And so what a better passage than that. And so that message not only went out then, but as follow-up stories came, it was shared over Facebook. And I can't remember. It's in the book. I think like 11 countries, 14 different countries, it went out. It was just an amazing way that God used Tanya's life to glorify him. And I just thought it was just it brought everything back together that we're here for a purpose. We're here for a reason. And yes, making ice cream to Psalm is, you know, okay, it's not that big of a deal, but this is what we did. It's all we did. And to see how that impacted lives, especially that beautiful way that would glorify Christ, I just thought there was not a better story to bring the book to a close than that story. Well, and I love it for that. And I love it for another reason too, which is I think people would be surprised about how generous sometimes companies and leadership teams can be. I know it's popular to bash everybody about record profits this and this and this doesn't work and this doesn't. But when you step back and you hear stories about what you were able to do with Tanya and other people where they might pick up funeral expenses for an employee or for a grandparent of an employee or something. So many different times we lose these things. And I think it's good to reflect not only on how God can use us to help other people, but then also to remind us that, hey, there's organizations, there are people out there that are doing good work that do more than worry about what this quarter statement is going to be. And I think you nailed it. I think that's so, so important, especially for me, speaking for me personally, that profits, yes, of course, you want to make money, you want to make profit, but it's so much more important than that is people relationships. When people say what makes Blueville special, well, obviously, the natural answer would be the ice cream. But really, the heart and soul, it's the people. It's what goes into the product, the lives that go into the product. And in coming to work, that's why I came to Blueville. I mean, again, marketing journalism major, and I'm going to go apply to an ice cream company, sure, the benefits are great. But at the same time, the culture that was there and is there, the fact that you show up to work with family and not just show up to work was huge. And so, but yes, I think you're exactly right. I think we sometimes can get lost in money or the profits. And I think we have to look past that. It's about relationships, it's about people, it's about making memories. All those other things will put the profits where they need to be. But it's a gift. And it's an intentional gift, I think, for organizations and families in the sense of being intentional about building the culture that allows people to take ownership, and they see a need, and they step into that to fulfill that need. And we don't just all wake up, and our families are service-oriented, and looking to help out people in the community or the church. It's like, no, it's dad setting an example. It's mom setting an example. It's grandpa setting the example of, I'd love to come to your T-ball game, but I'm going to go build a ramp for this person that needs help getting in and out of their house. Now, I know we got a little bit heavy there. This episode is going to be coming out right around Thanksgiving time leading into Christmas time. So I've got some questions for you. All right. If I get invited over to somebody's home for Thanksgiving or Christmas or a holiday dinner or something, what's the best flavor of ice cream for me to take over? That I don't show up in there like, oh, Greg's a ruby. He doesn't know what's going on. Yeah. Oh, man, that is a great, great question. Let me go two directions. You cannot go wrong with homemade vanilla because no matter what, or what's being served, for whatever reason, if there's a pie or a cake or brownies or whatever it might be, you can't do any wrong by taking our number one flavor in that's helmet, vanilla, because it goes with everything. But if you're looking for the, you're the dessert person. You're supposed to be the one that brings the unique. We've got a few flavors and I keep talking in the present because I feel like I still work there even though I'm retired. Christmas cookies has been a really, really popular flavor every Christmas. It's just a great, great flavor. Peppermint bark is another one. Those two would be my go-tos that you really can go wrong with either one. Peppermint marks, I don't want to say a little bit more adult in the way I think, where's Christmas cookies? It's a sweet, it's got the green icing. I mean, it just, you just can't go wrong though with either one. Or if I could really give a good advice, take two and take all my vanilla and the Christmas cookie and you're out. That's a grand slam. Well, I love that. And you do have a story about you taking two to go up and see the bushes and that's a great story that's in the book. So folks should learn about that and there are ways to pack up Blue Bell and transport it to areas that are not, yes, blessed enough to have Blue Bell in their market. That's good. As we start to wrap things up here, Ricky, what advice would you have for new grandfathers or men that are learning that they're becoming grandfathers that maybe you've learned over the years? Wow, great question. I think especially as we get over that it really does come to mind as far as time is precious. The moments that we have, we so often when we're younger, take for granted. You know, when I start thinking I'm 65, how many more summers do I have? How many more winters do I have? How many more opportunities do I have to take my grandson out to the woods and ride in the Polaris or sit just watching wildlife? Our granddaughter in a flute contest or a flute, she's a fluteist. But my advice would be it sounds so cliche, but at the same time it's so true. It's just gravitate to the times that you have and make the most of them. To time is special and we can sometimes get caught up in our own world that we forget the impact that we're going to have for this generation that's coming up. I just cherished my time with my grandparents. They happened to live across the street once set of them anyway. And whenever I even came in for college, if I came in and they found out that I didn't come over, I mean, it was not pretty. And you know, it's a college student that's, you know, want to see friends and all that. But man, do I miss those times, just sitting and talking about everything, you know, the sun from politics to investments to just tell how life was. So I know that I will say it sounds probably as a normal answer, but man, do I recognize that now that time is precious. That's awesome. And I love you, you sharing those examples with us. Before we wrap things up, in the book, you are very open and honest about your wife being the best fisherman, fisher person in the family. Did she take the green kids out and go fishing? Oh, absolutely. Yes. Oh, no. Anytime there's a fishing pole. I don't even care if there's bait. She'll find grasshoppers in the grass. She loves to fish. And she, you know, really honestly, moving back from Branham, Texas, which is between Houston and Austin for those that may not know, up to Oklahoma City really was for her. She supported me and we were in Branham for 20 years. We became empty nesters when we left to Oklahoma. I mean, yeah, to go to Branham and I realized that to move back to where she could really spend time with grandkids was going to be a win-win for everybody because she had supported me. But what I love is she really truly looks at this as her ministry. And so she just pours herself in those kids, maybe even more than I would say that's healthy, but yet it's all healthy. Don't give me wrong. If she was in here, she'd be thought something about me. But she just has a passion to love on them and to teach them. And so she's an awesome wife. She's an awesome grandmother. And so, but a great fish or woman. She will fish me nine out of 10 times. I don't even try. I mean, because I mean, I will be on the fish and she will have nothing on her side of the boat. And yet she's still, you know, the worst words that she can say is, do you want to reel this one in? I'm on hammy at her pole. It's like a dagger in the heart. But no, it's a very blessed to have a wife that likes to fish. Well, we've got some decent lakes and reservoirs here in Georgia. So, if you guys ever want to pack up the fishing poles and head on out here, we'd be sure to work those. Yeah. Now, Ricky, where can people best find you? Where should they go to buy one scoop at a time? Great question. Thank you for asking too. Amazon's a good go to Amazon has the book for sale. Also, rickydixon.com. I've got a website that tells a little bit more about my life and a little bit more about the book. Once scoop at a time.com is another site. So, really one of those three for sure, you can't go wrong. Once scoop at a time does give a little bit more backdrop of the book and some little segments of the book. But any one of those three would be great. Okay. And I'll be sure to put links into the show notes for all this. So, we'll make it easy for folks that are out walking the dog or whatnot. Absolutely. And if it's coming around and around Thanksgiving, I can't think of a better Christmas present for grandpa. So, you know, I say that seriously, because it's got a lot of life lessons in it and a lot of fun. I think the people that have told me that they've read it said it's a light read, but a fun read, but a deep read, it's all wrapped up. So, I think that's special. It is. You threaded the needle on that because sometimes it can be a little tough, especially when you're writing some stuff around grandfathering and fathering and church related topics and business. That can be a tricky one to get through. But you did it. It's a fabulous book. And Ricky, thank you so much for being on the Cool Grandpa podcast. I really have enjoyed this. Likewise, Greg, thank you. And best of luck. And keep doing what you're doing. It's special. But thank you. Hey, cool kids. What did I tell you? This was a fun conversation with Ricky. We got a little bit heavy at times, but we had a lot of fun during this whole conversation. I will let you know that I will have Ricky back on to talk to us about his relationship with his grandparents. You heard a little bit about that when he was talking about coming home for the holidays. And then if he didn't ring up the grandparents that lived across the street, he would get an earful about that the next time he was in town. I want you to know that I've got links to Ricky's website, his LinkedIn page, also one scoop at a time. So you can go there, find the links and order this book. It's a great book. It's an easy read, but it's an impactful read as well. So I think Ricky did a great job threading the needle, like I said, on being able to talk about life and talk about business and just leave a great message for his great-grandchildren that will be coming along and having this record of what he was thinking, what he did, what he went through. So it's a fabulous opportunity for us to learn from this. But then it's a great opportunity that I think Ricky has been blessed with to leave a legacy for his great-grandchildren and their posterity too. So I know you have enjoyed this. I know that we covered what ice creams to be bringing and picking up as you go through the holiday season and you go to Thanksgiving and any other holiday parties you have coming up. So we covered a lot of ground. We had a blast and do me a favor. If you enjoyed this conversation, please share it with a friend. That's a great way to help spread the news about how important this role of grandfather can be within the family. So until next time, remember to stay cool. Thank you for listening to the Cool Grandpa Podcast. If you've enjoyed this episode, please do me a favor and share it with a friend. That's the best way you can help us to expand our community as well as get the news out about how valuable grandpas are in the lives of those kids. If you'd like to leave me a comment or shoot me a potential topic for this podcast, please go to www.pool-grandpa.us, look for the comments tab, fill it out, hit submit, it's as easy as that. Until next time, remember to stay cool. [Music]
