00:18:16 · Charlie Lamar, Ian Dallimore
[00:18:16] S1: Basically. [00:18:16] S0: Yeah, so he didn't like lawyers, but he liked the collection side. And a lot of people just to kind of set the stage, a lot of people may not realize this in the out of home side of things, but owning a lease and being on the good side of the legislators is extremely important, because during this time, we're not there yet, but during that time you have the, Lyndon B. Johnson has the Beautification Act by his lovely wife, which almost tried to cripple the out of home space to beautify the out of home space. So having a lawyer and having someone that's really fine tuned on both the government relations side, as well as the leasing side is imperative. I explain this to people all the time, like snap of a finger if legislation comes off and says like, hey, we no longer allow billboards. It's gonna be a very tough day in the out of home space. Obviously, there's guardrails that are set in place now. But back then, that's a real thing. If you wanna grow your company, you're gonna have to be in with these local municipalities in these local, laws that are passed or favorability towards it. So you're in my opinion, humble opinion, I think that that role is extremely well needed, especially in that time.
00:19:30 · Charlie Lamar
[00:19:30] S1: And this time too, I mean, we still have cities that have prohibited billboards and we have cities and counties that are trying to eliminate the billboards that are there. There are four states of the union that have banned billboards for years. And so it's still relevant, but it was very relevant starting in 1965 with the Highway Beautification Act that imposed federal rules restrictions on billboards and particularly in the rural areas. However, yet again, as is theme of the book, Signs of Opportunity, by the way, bad luck was good fortune. So a lot of people in the industry when that bill passed over the period from 1965 to 1975, our industry was very decentralized. It was basically, there was a couple of really big companies in the major markets and then literally hundreds and hundreds of companies spread across America, mom and pops everywhere. I mean, almost every billboard company was a local company in that town in maybe one or two little areas. So Kevin Sr, he would basically scour the South particularly, but also other, we got out in a couple of, got to Dayton, Ohio, got to Colorado Springs, Colorado and those places. But talking to the families, family to family, these are family owned companies. Ours is a family owned company. Theirs is almost always a family owned company, corporate outfits. And these people were nervous. They wanted to cash out. They didn't know the future of the industry. And Kevin Sr. Had the foresight to know that no, we're going to be around and maybe it was his legislative experience, but he saw that anyway. So we started buying up companies and extraordinary period of expansion. I mean, the company is huge now. I mean, we couldn't imagine back in the 60s, we'd be where we are now. But if you really got down to the numbers, Kevin Sr, or under Kevin Sr. Leadership, the revenue of the company multiplied 10 or 20 fold. So under Kevin Jr, it was fantastic because it reached a billion dollars in value but it still has a multiple. Wasn't near as what his father had done. So when you start well, of course, it's the old scale. When you start off tiny, you can get
00:22:03 · Ian Dallimore, Charlie Lamar
[00:22:03] S0: a [00:22:03] S1: multiple. It's not an absolute number. [00:22:06] S0: But you're right, like what a brilliant and very gutsy move at the time, because it's not like money is readily available just to be passed off to purchase companies. Today there's a lot of liquidity, there's a lot of backing. When we go to banks, it's a bit different conversation now, obviously than it was in the 50s and 60s. But obviously you're getting deals by buying these mom and pop companies, but it's also not very, on the Lamar side, it was a gamble as well, because we didn't know how this would all turn out as well. But you also leaned heavily on that initial as you'd mentioned, you're more powerful, the bank's gonna lend to you, if you consolidate those few markets as one company, less lenders, less ownership and it really kind of made sense, but it was a gutsy move then as well. It was a gutsy move for twenty, thirty years as well.
00:22:56 · Charlie Lamar, Ian Dallimore
[00:22:56] S1: Ian, not to correct you, We didn't get a bank loan until probably 1983, 'eighty four. So back in those days in the 50s and 60s and 70s, the banks would not lend money. Well, the big banks would not lend money to us. We had a great relationship here with what was then the Louisiana National Bank and is now part of Chase. But as far as acquisition, borrowing millions of dollars, that's not what Kevin did. We have great stories of his basically swinging into a town like Fort Myers, Florida and there's a little company there and basically smoozing with the owners there who are thinking about getting out. And the big part of that, was not only did they had to come terms with the sale, but he had to talk the families into financings. Oh wow. Self financing, self financing, financing for the company. So basically we would put together or he, Kevin Sr. Would put together some local investors from the family and some local business people who became eventually our board members for a down payment. And pay maybe 20% down and 80% of it was owner financed. But the people knew, they knew the business, they knew us in the business. And so, he was able to buy, I don't know how many, five, 10, 15 companies along the way before we got into the bank financing. [00:24:37] S0: I just hold Just another shaking hands and kissing babies and maybe pay for a steak dinner.
00:24:37 · Ian Dallimore, Charlie Lamar
[00:24:37] S0: I just hold Just another shaking hands and kissing babies and maybe pay for a steak dinner. [00:24:41] S1: Yeah, really. But the banks didn't understand the business. So they saw on the books that we never made money because on the books, we never made money because billboards are depreciated over a short period of time. We all know billboards last a very long time. [00:25:00] S0: A long time, yeah. [00:25:01] S1: So as long as you kept buying new companies with new depreciation, our depreciation was greater than our net revenue. So even though our cash flow was tremendous, the banks just didn't understand it. Apparently the banks understand it now. Real well. Yeah.
00:25:01 · Charlie Lamar, Ian Dallimore
[00:25:01] S1: So as long as you kept buying new companies with new depreciation, our depreciation was greater than our net revenue. So even though our cash flow was tremendous, the banks just didn't understand it. Apparently the banks understand it now. Real well. Yeah. [00:25:22] S0: So you're in the business at this point and in 1982, you're joined, you're obviously, and highly recommend everyone listen to one of our first podcasts with Sean Reilly, who really goes into great detail about his kind of journey throughout the company as well. And he has a lot of great stories as do you. There's a lot of work and there's a lot of people that are doing a lot of things. We sit in this beautiful three story building here with 200 to 300 corporate employees, and we have over 3,000 plus across the country. Now, being a lawyer doesn't mean the only thing that you're doing in the job is being a lawyer. So talk to us a little bit about that. You said you did a little bit of the PR, you did a little bit of collections, you did a little, what does that look like for a company that next thing you know, you're going from three to four companies, 12 companies, 50 companies across. So the dots on the map start to add up. So the job responsibility on your end begins to increase and grow. What does that look like? And what does that look like around you?