In the apparel industry, it’s important to embrace who you are. This is the purpose and passion of Dean Wegner. Instead of creating clothing lines for cheap overseas, he’s doing it right here in the US. Dean transitioned out of the military to become an entrepreneur. He explored many fields until he found what he truly loved, and that was in selling American-made products. This is why he opened Authentically American, an American-made apparel brand. Join Andy McDowell as he talks to Dean Wegner about his journey out of the military and into entrepreneurship. Discover why he is so passionate about patriotism and why it’s so important to support American-made brands. Find out how he built and grew his brand all across America. Learn how you can discover what you’re really passionate about because that is how you can really make a difference. Start finding your why today!
LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE
Building An American-Made Business With Purpose With Dean Wegner
THE IMPORTANCE OF “WHY” IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Welcome to the show. Thank you for joining us. Andy, it is good to see you. Also joining us is Dean Wegner. He’s got a heck of a story to tell. Andy, I’ll let you tell our audience a little bit about Dean.
Welcome to episode 2 of season 3. We’ve got a great episode for you. I can’t wait to tell this man’s story. Put your seatbelt on and pull out your American pie and hotdogs out of the refrigerator. Let’s go on a journey of Americanism and Mr. Dean Wegner. Dean is the Founder and CEO of Authentically American, a veteran-owned, American-made premium apparel brand. They are a company that celebrates patriotism, believes in the American worker, and honors our American heroes by intentionally donating 10% of profits to veteran and first responder charities.
Dean is a West Point graduate. He served seven years as a helicopter pilot and an Army Ranger. He holds an MBA in Finance from Cal State. The majority of his business career was spent in business development, marketing, and strategy with Mars and Procter & Gamble. As a former Division I ice hockey player, he is highly competitive and possesses a tireless work ethic.
His primary focus is on growth team building and creating a winning culture. I can guarantee you we’re going to talk about that topic here in the episode. Dean is happily married to his bride of 25 years, and they have four children with the youngest being adopted from Ethiopia. Dean is active in his church and has served on the board of several for-profit and nonprofit companies and organizations.
I’m honored to be a guest of yours and Zach’s, my two new friends here from Atlanta.
Dean is up in Nashville, Tennessee. He is only a four-hour drive up by I-75 and I-24. You got to switch over to Chattanooga to get over to Nashville. It’s a great drive if you haven’t done it, particularly from Chattanooga to Nashville. I know both Zach and I have been to Nashville a couple of times or several times. It’s a great city, particularly if you like music.
It’s a music city and it’s that “it city.” There are a lot of great things happening in Nashville.
As we were talking before we hit the record button, I want our audience to know your story. With stories, you start at the beginning. Let’s start at the beginning. You are a West Point graduate. When did you feel that you had this bug and wanted to serve the country this way and go to West Point? What kind of experience were you expecting to have out of that process?
First of all, the interest was based on two primary interests. There were two primary goals I had coming out of high school. One was to play Division I hockey. Number two, I wanted to get the best possible education I could. I was aware of West Point but didn’t know about it until the hockey coach from West Point called. They saw me in a tournament and said, “You’d be a great fit for our program,” and looked into it. They had a strong Division I program, but what was even more impressive to me was when USA Today released their annual rankings of colleges and West Point was number one. I thought, “Here is the perfect opportunity to go ahead, play Division I hockey, and get an incredible education.”
I hate to admit it, but back then, if you think about that timeframe, there was not a lot going on around the world. It was a relative period of calm. I didn’t even think about the thought of going in harm’s way. I didn’t think as much about going into the Military, but I was so impressed from day one, in those four years, by the incredible men and women I served with, the incredible women that taught me, and the leaders that I was surrounded with.
I am thankful for that experience. You mentioned donating 10% of our profits to veteran and first responder charities. That’s where it started. It was at West Point. The stories of the men and women, not only there at West Point but who served with me for those seven years, have left such a lasting impression and a big part of who I am.
What position did you play in hockey?
I was a forward left winger. I wasn’t that good, so I didn’t have an illustrious career there. I have reached the pinnacle of my hockey career. Whether you’re in the NHL or whether you play high school hockey, all roads lead to the men’s beer league. That’s where I’m playing.
Are you still on the left wing or did you mature?
I shifted over to the center. It has a little more skating and a little better workout. I’m always trying to burn as many calories as I can. I love it. They’re a great group of guys. A lot of my fellow teammates are veterans in Fort Campbell, which is north of us.
I enjoy hockey a lot. I grew up with it as a kid. My high school, for its division, won some state championships in New Jersey. I have been a lifelong fan of hockey. I wish hockey could stay in Atlanta.
It was surprising when the Trashers left.
We tried twice and failed both times. I still have hope.
As a Georgia native, I can say hockey is far foreign to a lot of people here.
Being in Charlotte is probably as close, but I watch the Preds and route for them into NHL.
If you guys make a trip to Nashville, let’s try and coordinate it with a Predators game.
Is the arena right on or off Broadway?
It is right on Broadway.
You could walk out the door, walk two blocks down the road, and catch some great music after the game.
To your point about hockey being foreign to Atlanta and Georgia, it was the same way here in Nashville. It’s a tribute to the Predator’s leadership and ownership because they realized that. They have made it not only a great hockey game but an incredibly entertaining experience. We’ve got four kids. My two youngest kids are boys. My older daughters are soccer players. They don’t have any interest in hockey, but they always say, “Can we go to the Predator’s game?” It’s a great, fun fan experience.
At what point in the process did you end up with an aviation track within the Army?
That is a decision you make your senior year. You choose which branch. I had no idea there were eighteen different choices. There’s infantry, armor, tanks, field artillery, and all these combat arms. There are a lot of combat support arms as well, whether it’s transportation, finance, Military, police, or logistics.
There are eighteen different choices and I narrowed it down to two. One was infantry. That’s the heart and soul of the Army. If you want to be a general, that’s the best path to go. The other one for me was aviation, where you are flying helicopters. The second Top Gun came out. The very original Top Gun was one of my favorite movies growing up. That was ultimately what influenced my decision. I thought I would look ultra-cool in a flight suit.
The infantry is the heart and soul of the army.
I had an incredible experience. I was wondering, “Did I make the right choice?” They’re two polar opposite ends of the Army. The infantry were Special Forces Rangers and then the opposite end is the flight school, which were aviators. At flight school, the commander made an announcement and said, “Once in a lifetime opportunity, we’re going to have a competition and send one of you to Ranger school.” I thought, “Here’s my chance to go ahead and see how the other half lives.”
I was fortunate. I won that competition and went to Ranger school. It was miserable. It was awful. It was one of those experiences that were so terrible that you look back at it with the fondest of memories. It’s interesting looking back because I didn’t know it back then. Ranger School was such great training for leading a startup. There are a lot of Military doctrines and tactics, but at its core, it’s a leadership school.
Ranger School is great training for leading a startup because, at its core, it’s a leadership school.
What they do is deprive you of everything you think you need to survive, namely food and sleep, and then put you in an incredibly stressful situation. There were 340 of us on day one. For 72 days straight, if you make it straight through, you live on one meal a day and 2 to 3 hours of sleep a night. It was incredible stress. Over those 72 days, we lost 80% of our class. There were only 70 of us left on graduation day. It was all about no sleep and incredible stress. That’s the life I’m living.
How was moving out of the Military track into the corporate world? How was that transition for you?
It’s interesting. The context I gave is so often, we’re a product of our environment. Growing up, I had amazing parents. My dad was a 30-year engineer for a Fortune 100 aluminum company. Most of his friends and most of our neighbors worked for big companies. What did I think I was going to do when I left the Army in 2000? It was to work for a big company.
I spent the majority of my career after the Army in two big companies. One was Procter & Gamble. They owned brands like Crest and Tide. The other was Mars. They owned brands like M&M and Snickers. Both are world-class marketing and branding companies, but that’s how the initial choice was. I was like, “I see what my dad and all his friends do, so I’m going to do something similar.”
That is as most people do, right?
Yeah.
Follow the example that’s been led before us, whether that’s the right route for us or not. I’m a testament to that. For those that are in the same spot, they’re in the Military looking to transition out, what are the biggest pieces of advice you’d give them?
What I tell my own kids and anyone that asks is to try and do some introspection and find what you love. Find what you’re passionate about. Being an Army Ranger, having spent time at West Point and the Army, I’m not shy of hard work. For the last couple of years, we had our fifth anniversary with Authentically American in July 2022. I’ve never worked more and never spent more time.
I don’t compromise family time or anything like that, but it doesn’t feel like work to me. It feels like I’m pursuing my passion. Sometimes, it’s easier said than done, but if you can truly find what you’re passionate about and feel like God has called you to do it, and you are making a difference, that makes all the difference in the world.
You’d say for them to start with their why in mind.
There can be a lot of thinking, prayer, introspection, and discussions. You’re not going to figure it out alone. The other thing is to spend a lot of time talking to people. I’m happy to share my contact information if you want to learn about being an entrepreneur or working for a big business because there are opposite ends of the spectrum. Ask me. Ask a friend. Ask your parents. Ask as many people as you can because when you start here and all these stories, you start to get some perspective on what that interest would be.
As a leader within Boeing, 80% to 90% of the people that I hired were Military folks coming out from the air traffic control arena, either in the Air Force or the Navy. What I try to instill in them is, “Your paycheck’s now coming from a customer. It’s not guaranteed. It’s not coming from the entity that prints the money in our country per se. We got to go out and earn it. The customer is king at this point. Remember that as you go forward. You already got great skills in leadership and so forth. It’s just a matter of understanding the customer and keeping the customer happy. Everything falls into place. Keep that in mind going forward.”
When you did come out and work for these two large corporations, you chose strategy and business development. Did you fall into it or did you consciously make that choice? What is it about those topics within the business that excites you?
This is the journey of learning. I had a brief stop for almost two years right after getting out of the Army with KPMG, a former big five consulting firm. I was a project manager. I had some incredible clients. I loved the work I was doing with them but loved my family more. I never saw them. My wife, Kelly, and I have been married for 28 years. We’ve got four amazing kids. I realize if I’m on the road Monday through Friday, it’s going to be hard for me to be an amazing husband and amazing father. That ultimately landed the transition.
As I thought about those two years, I thought about, “What did I enjoy and what did I not enjoy so much?” I was tasked with driving the project and making sure that it was on time and on a budget to make sure we completed it. They also said, “See what other business you can open up. See what other opportunities with the clients.” That’s what I loved. I’m a big relationship person. I invest in people and those relationships. That’s where I found out that I enjoy the sales or marketing side and being an engine that drives the business.
It goes after the notion that everybody’s a salesperson. I tried to instill that with my team members because oftentimes, I’d be heading for China and they might be heading for somewhere in Europe on a project. I’m not there present to be a business development salesperson, so we’re all business development salespeople. Your personal brand that you bring, the way that you lead your projects and so forth, and how the customer experiences you are going to tell a lot about whether or not they want to keep doing business with us. Always keep that in mind when you’re in front of the customer.
On that note, with the transition from Military to corporate to entrepreneur, you hit on it a little bit as far as the leadership with ranger school, etc. Can you expand on how that experience in the Military and the corporate world combined ultimately led to being your catalyst or your launching pad for being an entrepreneur and doing what you’re doing?
Absolutely. That’s one of the questions I get often. They’re like, “What was that motivation? What was that catalyst to become an entrepreneur?” It is born in this insatiable desire I have to know that I’m making a difference. P&G and Mars are both phenomenal companies, but any P&G like Boeing is a massive company. It’s an $80 billion company. Mars is half the size but still a $40 billion company.
I had fairly big jobs and was very well paid, but at one point, I realized, “If you pull me out, the next guy steps right up.” It doesn’t skip a beat. It is a machine. I wrestled with, “Am I truly making a difference if I’m that replaceable?” That was the initial catalyst to becoming an entrepreneur. I tell everybody, “I’m a veteran and I’m an entrepreneur,” but when I left the Army in 2000, I couldn’t even spell entrepreneur. I had no idea this whole world even existed.
My first step into becoming an entrepreneur was buying an existing business in 2012. The reason being, I didn’t think I had it in me to start a business from scratch. I didn’t think I had the wherewithal and the abilities to make it happen. In 2012, the business I bought was a government contractor that produced dress uniforms for the Military. A neat aspect of that, the old dress pants I used to wear in the Army were one of our contracts. We had thousands of uniforms every week for the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines.
One thing I learned was the tragic history of the apparel industry. When I graduated from West Point, 93% over 50% of the apparel was made in the US. Now, it’s 3%. 3% is all that’s made here. My initial thinking was, “I want to go ahead and win more contracts.” I thought that would help us create more jobs, but as I started to understand the industry as a government contractor, we’re not just creating jobs because it’s a bidding process. Zach, if you and I are bidding on a contract where you had it before and I won, in essence, your job transfers to me. There’s no net job creation. To me, that’s when the light bulb went off and then the wheels started turning.
I thought back to the days that P&G and Mars were working on brands like Crest, Tide, and M&Ms. I thought, “Instead of being a government contractor, what if we built a brand? Instead of what 97% of the brands do chasing cheap labor overseas, what if we made the intentional choice to produce right here in the US? If we were successful in delivering on our vision to build this iconic American brand with the same recognition as Nike, Polo, or Under Armour, think of the difference we could make. Think of the jobs we could create.”
“Ultimately, if we do deliver on this vision, think of the incredible legacy we could leave.” That was years ago from a blank sheet of paper. I’m exhausted. It has been far more than I ever imagined. Back in the days at Boeing, P&G, and Mars, there was so much I took for granted from the systems, processes, and everything that was already built that we’ve had to build from the ground up.
Boeing has years of history of making airplanes. All the nooks and crannies and processes about building airplanes have already been done by those that preceded us, so to speak. Whereas being an entrepreneur, unless you’re bringing expertise from the corporate world into a business and going to compete against the company you used to work for and have all that knowledge set, you’re starting it over from scratch.
What would you say is the number one challenge in the apparel business here in the United States about creating jobs and keeping manufacturing in the United States? What comes first is the cost structure of the labor and so forth, but maybe it’s something else. That’s why I asked the question. I don’t want to assume anything here. What is the number one and maybe even number two challenge for your business as an entrepreneur trying to do everything in the United States these days?
I’ll hit on two things. One is the apparel industry, it is a massive $300 billion industry. I joke that unless you live in a nudist colony, we have an opportunity to impact every single American. Every day, when you wake up, you make a choice on what shirt you’re going to wear. You make a choice on what socks you’re going to wear and how you dress. Our tagline based on that 3% number is, “Where’s yours made?” Zach, you and I are introduced. My hunch is prior to Andy sharing, “Here’s one of our new guests. Here’s authentically American,” you’ve probably never heard of us. That is inherent.
The apparel industry is a massive 300 billion industry. Because every day, you make a choice on what shirt you’re going to wear.
Our biggest challenge is apparel is a massive $300 billion industry, but there’s Nike, Polo, Under Armour, Patagonia, and Adidas. There are all these big iconic brands, and they all have a lot of money. They’re spending massive amounts of money on marketing. The number one biggest challenge is brand awareness and getting the word out. I’m thankful to have two new friends in Atlanta. I’m equally excited to have an audience that will hear our story for the first time.
The second challenge that you asked about very intuitively is price. We’ve got amazing t-shirts we produce in Texas that everyone loves. Relatively speaking, it’s a higher price versus if you produce in China. There’s a gap there. People love our product. That’s first and foremost that we’ve got an amazing product. They also love that it’s American-made.
We have to be competitively priced. The only way we can do that is through a business model choice. We have, for example, Fortune 500 clients like Pepsi, Comcast, and Bridgestone. We have big veteran charities like Wounded Warrior and Tunnel to Towers. Usually, what they do is buy their apparel from a third-party distributor. For us to be competitively priced, we’ve had to cut out the middleman. If you’re a company, charity, or business and you want to partner with us, the only way we can make that work is direct.
We don’t have as many points of distribution as we would like. We don’t have to take a massive haircut from a pricing standpoint, which makes it hard for us to have a viable business model. Southwest is an example. If you want to fly on Southwest, you don’t go to Travelos or Expedia. The one and only place you can go is Southwest.com. That’s our model. If you want amazing American-made apparel and you want to partner with Authentically American, if you’re an individual consumer, business, or charity, everyone will start to learn that you got to come to us. You can’t go to Amazon. You can’t go to Dillard’s. You can’t go to a distributor. You have to partner with us and go to our website at AuthenticallyAmerican.us.
If you do that, you could be price competitive. How do you find the price sensitivity in your market? In other words, it’s a T-shirt. Your price is within a dollar or two of an Adidas t-shirt. You’re telling people that it’s made in the USA, so your impact of paying that extra dollar or two is helping to keep and create jobs here in our country. Do you find people are willing to spend that extra dollar or two on your t-shirt because of that?
I absolutely do. The one study that I have is not just apparel, but it was across all categories, all industries, and all products. I’ve met some people that are so patriotic and so into American-made. They will tell me, “I don’t care what it costs. I will play double or triple. It doesn’t matter to me.” They also have a lot of financial wherewithal to make that decision. That’s on one end of the extreme. I’ve talked to people that will say, “I love American-made. I will buy American-made all day long as long as it’s not a penny more.” Those are two extremes.
Generally, this study that I read said is, on average, people are willing to pay 12% more. Some are willing to pay a little bit more and some a little bit less. What I’ve found is that we are roughly parody prices with a Nike, Polo, North Face, or any known national brand. It’s very interesting because if a client, business, charity, school, or someone reaches out to us and the very first question they ask is, “How cheap can you get me a t-shirt?” We know it’s not a fit.
On average, people are willing to pay 12% more.
What we love is when people wear our product, they’re like, “I love it. I know I wore it today, but I’m going to wash it. I want to wear it again tomorrow. It’s my new favorite.” That is ultimately what we want to build. We don’t want somebody that’s looking for the cheapest option. It’s another lesson I learned about business.
Back to that $300 billion apparel industry, we want to build this iconic American brand or this iconic billion-dollar brand. What we’ve realized and embraced is that we don’t need to be all things to all people. If you look at that market share, that’s 1/3 of 1%. If we line up 300 people, we only have to have one person that is a passionate fan of ours that is all in, buying from us and ultimately telling a few friends. That’s the way the numbers prove out.
When building your brand, know that you don’t need to be all things to all people.
As entrepreneurs or business owners, we have a desire for our brand to be a certain way. We sit down, figure out our company’s why, and say, “This is what I want our brand to be out in the marketplace.” The reality is it’s the public, our customers, and so forth that confirm that or generate what the brand is. If you had to pick three words that describe your company’s brand as you hope it to be, what would those three words be?
I don’t know if I’ve got three words, but I’d say it is an amazing product and it is all American-made. Those are two very simple messages. I always say the amazing product intentionally first. I’ll tell you a brief story that ties into the biggest challenge around brand awareness. We have been incredibly brushed with some phenomenal national media exposure. For our fifth anniversary, we had a feature story in Forbes magazine that highlighted our work with Fortune 500 companies and veteran charities. We’re also back on Fox & Friends.
Over the last couple of years, we’ve been on national TV 21 times. I can’t afford that level of exposure. Last November 2021, we were on Small Business Saturday on Fox & Friends. It’s incredible because 2 million people a day tune into Fox & Friends. In front of the 2 million people, the host said, “This specific pair of socks I’m holding up here is my favorite pair.” It’s a mismatch. One is with red stripes and the other one is with blue stars. It was such great learning because he didn’t say anything about them being American-made. He said, “They’re so soft and comfortable. They have this fun patriotic design.” That’s why he wears them all the time.
When you have an experience like that and enjoy the product, you want to learn more. You’ll read the fine print where it says, “Designed in Nashville. Made in North Carolina.” When you learn that, go back to that 3% number, and realize that nothing in your closet’s American-made. That’s when you go to our website. You learn the story and ethos behind our brand and everything we stand for. Unless you have an amazing product first, nothing else matters. If you wore our socks and you’re like, “They stink,” you’re never buying them again. We’ve got to deliver that amazing product experience.
Your primary focus is growth, team building, and having a winning culture or creating a winning culture. This is a very deep question. Why is it exactly that your focus is on those items, and how important are they to not just your business but any business?
There’s a very specific answer for each one of those. The first one with growth, if you go to our website on AuthenticallyAmerican.us and look at our vision to build this iconic American brand, the heart of our mission is our passion for creating American jobs. If we’re not growing, we’re not creating American jobs, which ultimately means we’re failing in our mission. It’s been an exhausting five years, but we have been growing and building. What’s even more exciting is we are all about American jobs. We just happen to be in the apparel industry. Even if you’re buying apparel and it’s not from us, but it’s still American-made, we’re equally happy.
What was highlighted in the national TV experience was the specific numbers in the apparel industry. In 2017, when we started the journey, if you carry the decimal out one more, the per spent made in the US was 2.7%. Five years later, it’s 3.5%. That is a 30% increase in the industry. It doesn’t seem like much, but if we go from 3% to 6%, that doubles in the industry. That’s why growth is listed there first. Even if it’s not apparel but you’re intentionally embracing that, “Where’s yours made?” tag and looking at, “American-made. Made in USA,” that’s creating American jobs.
What I’ve also embraced, and this goes back to being a hockey player, being at West Point, and being in the Military, is the importance of the team. My wife and I were the ones that started this, but I will tell you that the only reason we’re here five years later is because of our team. I’ve got an amazing leadership team. Pat and Sarah do a phenomenal job. They’re equally passionate about it as I am. I wish they were on the call with me.
Five years from now, if we’re celebrating our ten-year anniversary, the only reason we’ll be here and we have another call like this is the folks that we hire. That is why that highly engaged team and winning culture is so critical and so important. Here we are on a Zoom call. People like to work from home. If we don’t have that engaging, winning culture, we’re going to have a high level of turnover. We won’t be growing and we won’t be building this iconic brand, which ultimately means we won’t be creating jobs.
A highly engaged team and a winning culture are critical to building an iconic brand.
I love the fact that you talk about, “The why here is about American jobs. We chose the apparel industry as the method to the madness or the way that we’re going to experience business. Even if you’re not buying us but buying American, we’re cheering you on. That’s our why. It’s about creating jobs in America and so forth. We just happen to be using the apparel industry as the mechanism to participate in that exercise to create more American jobs.”
To me, that speaks that you are intentional in developing a why. You built a business around it and you are communicating it to the world. Your exercise is, “We’re okay if you go buy from somebody else as long as it’s American-made. Help us. Join us in that exercise to create more American jobs.” That’s phenomenal. I don’t see it enough out there in the world. It’s something that we preach on this show about the why. I know Zach’s tired of hearing me talk about it, probably. It’s one of the biggest reasons why I wanted to bring you onto the show and talk about this.
Studies have shown that companies that have a why or a purpose and live it out may take them a year or two longer to make the same revenue levels as some other companies, but the long-term potential of the company in terms of revenues, growth, and everything you were talking about a winning culture, the chances of success in that are higher.
Even though it may take a little bit longer to get there, take the long-term strategy and viewpoint in it and be intentional about the why of your company. Let others know what it is because that’s what’s going to attract your tribe to your business. I applaud you for it. I’m cheering you on. That is the reason why I wanted to bring you on to the show.
That is well-stated. That is exactly it. The tagline for us is not, “Where’s your polo made? Where’s your shirt made?” It’s, “Where is yours made?” That was another intentional choice that it’s bigger than us. It is that movement that you talked about. We want to go ahead and have more people make a choice to choose American-made when it’s possible.
What would you say is your style of leadership? You’ve been in the Military. You’ve been in the corporate world. You are in the entrepreneurship world. You didn’t start this journey of yours called life. You’ve been around the block for a while. What would you say is your style of leadership, and how did you involve in that?
I summarize my leadership style as servant leadership. When people ask, “What’s important to you?” I talk about my priorities in life align with God, family, and country. My Christian faith is first and foremost, and that’s where servant leadership starts. That was further reinforced in my time at West Point and my time in the Army.
People will say, “I get the idea around servant leadership, but what does that mean? How does that manifest itself to you?” It’s intentional because I start my day every way in the same way. It’s on my knees and in prayer. I then have some thought and say, “What is it my team needs? Is there something I’ve not provided? Is there something I’ve not gone ahead and put in place that’s going to enable them to be successful?” Another 5 or 10 years from now, we’re not going to be here because of me. It’s going to be my team. That’s the leadership philosophy around servant leadership that I embrace. The way it manifests is every morning, I think about, “What does my team need to be successful?”
You’re talking to two guys that preach servant leadership as well. You’ll find servant leadership sprinkled through almost every episode.
That’s fantastic.
We’re two big believers. Why do you think servant leadership is so effective? What is it about human beings and so forth that servant leadership is such an effective way of leading others?
I don’t even know who this saying’s attributed to, but nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care. I’m not the smartest person in the room. I’m not the smartest person on the call. I’m not even the smartest person in my family. What people will say about Dean is, “He genuinely cares about me and wants what’s best for me.”
Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.
I found if I have that philosophy and want to help people along that journey, whether it’s our core team and who’s working directly on our business or our contract manufacturers, banker, attorney, and everyone that works with us, business is the ultimate team sport. I’ve found that when you have that philosophy, they will go out of their way tenfold to go ahead and help you.
I don’t know if he created it, but I know a famous coach at my alma mater, Georgia Tech, stated that statement quite a bit. You’ll find it all over the place in the halls of the athletic department at Georgia Tech.
It works.
His name is Bobby Dodd.
What I found is the old authoritative Military barking commands and, “Here’s an order,” will probably get you more in the short-term, but unlike the Military, you’ve got a choice. If I’m not in the right environment that I like to work in and it’s not a highly engaged winning culture, you’re out on the job board. You’re looking for a new job. I’ve found it’s, in my experience, best for the long-term.
That’s the infinite game versus the finite game we’ve talked about ad nauseam, probably. You’re caring for people. That leads great into this next question. Everything you do seems to be intentional, which is a whole other episode. You listed community service at the top of your list of hobbies and interests. I know that was intentional. I’m not going to ask that, but why is that?
That is one of my favorite words, intentional. It sounds that over a glass of bourbon, there are a lot of things we can talk about being intentional, servant leadership, and hockey.
That is the mainstay of the show, but go ahead.
With the insatiable desire, I talked about making a difference. That’s why we made the intentional choice to go ahead and have everything produced in the US to create American jobs. I believe you should be very actively involved in the community you live in and in which you work. My wife and I and our kids are active in our church. We’re involved in other organizations.
For example, if you’re familiar with the Exchange Club, it’s a civic organization that has like-minded values, as I do about God, family, and country. They invited me to speak. They’re all about being service-oriented. Another one is the Rotary Club. There are a lot of organizations out there. That’s who I always try and choose. I align line myself with those that are equally passionate about making a difference. That is the whole tribe mentality in aligning yourself with people with like-minded values and interests.
We’re running out of time, unfortunately. I could sit here and talk to you forever. If people resonate with your story, your cause, what you’re trying to do for the company, and so forth, what’s the best way somebody could reach out and connect with you?
The best place is always to go to our website, AuthenticallyAmerican.us. That .us is an intentional choice given the equity of our brand. If you run a business where you’re a small business owner or an executive and you run a charity, whatever it is, we have an opportunity to partner with you. That is the best place to go. It is AuthenticallyAmerican.us. You can also search for my name. It is very easy to track down my email. If you’re an entrepreneur and would like some perspective, I’m happy to go ahead and share my thoughts and perspectives. It is easy to track me down. Go to AuthenticallyAmerican.us.
I’ll be visiting. We always wrap up our interviews with this one question. There is no right answer or more correct answer, but just your answer. What does the phrase generate your value mean to you?
First of all, I love the name. I don’t know what the inspiration was behind it, but as I looked at those three words, there were three different things that came to mind. Generate is a very active word, meaning you’re doing something to create something. That’s impactful. Value, to me, is another one that is tied to my insatiable desire to make a difference.
The word in between your is the most critical one. God has wired each and every one of us uniquely and differently. I talked about my experience, for example, at KPMG and being a project manager but finding that I gravitate more towards the business development, sales, and marketing side. First and foremost, what we need to be active in finding out how we can make a difference is to generate value. When you find out that sweet spot, that passion, or what you truly love, that’s what makes all the difference in the world. For me, that’s what generating your value is all about.
When you find your passion and what you truly love, that’s what makes all the difference in the world.
He’s reading our minds. That is the whole reason why I came up with that tagline for my business. The three of us could have very long conversations about life from that perspective.
Whether it is in Nashville or down in Atlanta, we need to be intentional and make that happen.
We know your time is valuable. We greatly appreciate you coming on to the show and sharing your wisdom, experience, and life story. It’s truly inspirational. All we can say is keep generating your value. You’re creating and generating a lot of value in this world. We greatly appreciate your efforts and being intentional in that from that perspective.
To the audience, what can I say? I hope you read this episode 2, 3, or 4 times. Take all the golden nuggets out of Dean’s story and his efforts. Investigate his business. Buy American and create American jobs even if it’s not with Dean’s business, but it’s still American. The point of this whole conversation is about living your why both in your life and in your business.
One item we’ll have to talk about is something Zach and I have talked about quite a bit. They are three small words, be, do, and have, and how you use those words in your own life. You’re a living example of it. You’ve created your why for your life and your business. You’re being a certain way in this world, and then you’re lining what you’re doing in terms of your business, your life, and so forth around that be. Maybe we will have to do an episode of that. Let’s bring Dean back on and talk about the whole be, do, and have a model that we talk about and why that’s so important.
There is so much that you can extract from this episode. I hope you’ll read it 2, 3, or 4 times and get as much out of it as you can. Once again, we know your time is invaluable. To the audience, we greatly appreciate you tuning in to our show and this episode. We greatly appreciate it and have a lot of gratitude for it. If you think the messaging and the storyline in this episode can help others, please share it with others. It is free. It doesn’t cost you anything but your time. Please share it with the world so that others can get the same golden nuggets out of it that you did.
We’ll see you next time at the same time and same channel, so to speak, with another great guest. I’ve got guests lined up out the door for you in this particular season. I can’t wait to share all of these great people with you and their stories from that perspective. With that being said, thank you very much. We’ll see you next time at the show. Take care.
IMPORTANT LINKS
ABOUT DEAN WEGNER
A majority of his business career was spent in business development, marketing, and strategy with Mars Inc. and Procter & Gamble. As a former Division I ice hockey player, he is highly competitive and possesses a tireless work ethic. His primary focus is on growth, team-building, and creating a winning culture. Dean is happily married to his bride of 25 years and they have 4 children, with the youngest being adopted from Ethiopia. Dean is active in his church and has served on the board of several for-profit and non-profit companies and organizations.
