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Creating connections is essential to building a community. It’s even more important when the people you’re trying to connect with aren’t in the same location. Businesses and companies have always found geographic distance to be a challenge to building a really great community-oriented culture. At Empowered Ventures, the same challenge holds true, which is why we decided to start Empowered Owners, the podcast that takes you inside Empowered Ventures.
In each episode, CEO Chris Fredericks will have a discussion with one of our employees to discover and highlight their distinct personalities, perspectives, and skills while also keeping you in the loop with exclusive news, updates on company performance, and a glimpse into the future plans of Empowered Ventures. Not only is this an opportunity for Chris to learn more about our amazing employee-owners, but it’s also an opportunity for you to hear regularly from Chris and others from within Empowered Ventures.
00:00:00:09 - 00:00:27:19
Chris Fredericks
Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of Empowered Owners, the community Building Podcast by and for the employee owners of Empowered Ventures. Join us as we take you inside the world of employee ownership, discovering the stories, insights, and sometimes surprising adventures in a family of businesses where everyone is an owner. Now let's dive in. Hello! I'm excited today to be joined by Scott Krieger, president of Whitney Brothers.
00:00:27:21 - 00:00:29:16
Chris Fredericks
Scott. Welcome to Empowered Owners.
00:00:29:16 - 00:00:31:02
Scott Kroeger
Good to be here like you, Chris.
00:00:31:04 - 00:00:47:19
Chris Fredericks
Yeah, yeah, this is awesome. Meeting in person. So usually I don't do these in person. Yeah. But you'll you'll share a little bit about why we're meeting in person here in a second. So, want to thank you for joining and, share that you had joined Whitney Brothers in June to, to lead Whitney brothers.
00:00:47:19 - 00:00:53:10
Chris Fredericks
So, why don't you share a little bit about your journey and what led to you joining Whitney Brothers this this past year?
00:00:53:11 - 00:01:15:04
Scott Kroeger
Sure. Well, let me just quickly kind of say I just want to thank you. Queensway College here, too. We're sitting in a in one of their state of the art studios here in their media arts center. It's been a phenomenal partnership that we've been developing with, over the last year. We have, really enjoyed, you know, working with them on our social media strategy and starting to kind of build things forward.
00:01:15:06 - 00:01:33:16
Scott Kroeger
In that, whole media arts kind of world for Whitney Brothers. It's a new venture for us all together. We've had really the the opportunity and privilege to work with one of their great students in this semester as an intern who's helping us build the foundation of our social media strategy and going forward. So we're really excited about that.
00:01:33:18 - 00:01:51:02
Scott Kroeger
And the partnership with Keene State has just been phenomenal that way. Think it's growing and developing. We have a lot of things ahead of us. I think that we can do together. We're in this wonderful media arts center that is just built out with studios and podcast, you know, studios like this as well. And the program is phenomenal.
00:01:51:02 - 00:02:13:22
Scott Kroeger
It's kind of the heart of their journalism program. And they, the students that you see around here, if you walk around the halls, they're not just sitting in classes, you know, looking at lectures and doing all that. They're actually doing a lot of work within studios like this and building kind of a resume and portfolio of work, you know, that gets them to a point where they've got some really good foundation before they go out into the world after they graduate.
00:02:13:22 - 00:02:20:21
Scott Kroeger
And so it's just a really incredible and unique program. So we're so happy to be here at Appreciate Keene State College for hosting us.
00:02:20:23 - 00:02:24:21
Chris Fredericks
Amazing, amazing. Yeah. So how did you end up winning brothers?
00:02:24:23 - 00:02:44:01
Scott Kroeger
Yeah. So, so I've spent the last couple of decades in public and private companies and, you know, larger companies, essentially, they have a global presence. And I think I had a little bit of an epiphany around, Covid. I think, like a lot of people did as well. If I look back at the, you know, phenomenal career building for me to be with larger companies, I traveled the world.
00:02:44:01 - 00:03:09:14
Scott Kroeger
I got a chance to be able to see different cultures, different business styles, the way people do things in other countries, very different than we do here as well. And I think that informed a lot of my leadership style and the way you know, I kind of bring myself to work every day. But, you know, at the Covid level, you know, kind of after spending a couple of decades there, I recognized that public companies had more of a quarter to quarter kind of mentality.
00:03:09:14 - 00:03:31:09
Scott Kroeger
There were much more short term focused than I really like to to see. Right? So in my leadership style, I'm looking more long term trying to help build out strategy and build out, you know, what's next, you know, for the company. And so I did something that I think even surprised me at the time, which I, I left the public company space, started my own company.
00:03:31:09 - 00:03:54:01
Scott Kroeger
And I think the real reason was to try to find some purpose and meaning in what I was doing and trying to build something a much longer term value. Right. So I did that. But that journey ultimately led me to the employee ownership world, right? So a couple of years after I started that business, I started to lead a company, an employee owned company down in Massachusetts manufacturing business.
00:03:54:06 - 00:03:56:10
Scott Kroeger
And, that was a wonderful thing.
00:03:56:12 - 00:03:59:05
Chris Fredericks
So tell us a little bit about the Eupen program that you joined.
00:03:59:06 - 00:04:20:18
Scott Kroeger
Yeah. So the Eupen program was a phenomenal, you know, start to my, employee ownership experience overall. So when I look at that, it was a group of about 16 CEOs and presidents and executives of Esop companies. And honestly, it was probably one of the best leadership, challenges or classes that I've ever taken in my career.
00:04:20:18 - 00:04:21:13
Chris Fredericks
That's amazing.
00:04:21:15 - 00:04:42:03
Scott Kroeger
You build a great network with other CEOs that, you know, is it really helps you to grow and develop in your own role as a leader of an Esop company. I really felt strongly that I kind of found my people and my place in the Esop world, and that was foundational, just phenomenal. So leading an employee ownership, setting, it's a program that continues today.
00:04:42:03 - 00:04:48:06
Scott Kroeger
And I would highly recommend that for anybody. It was just great and foundational for me. And so I really enjoyed it.
00:04:48:09 - 00:04:54:12
Chris Fredericks
It's incredible. I'd love to hear maybe an example of one thing in that program that it was really, like, struck you. Well, you know.
00:04:54:12 - 00:05:18:20
Scott Kroeger
I think again, it's the relationships, you know, so there's a lot of really good foundational kind of information you get on esops technically. And, and how you, you know, operate within a, a leadership setting and an employee owned company. But it's the relationships you take away. Right? So the group that we had of 16 people, we still are in communication today a couple of years later and we have bi bi monthly meetings.
00:05:18:20 - 00:05:33:00
Scott Kroeger
We talk, you know, about different topics throughout the year. And we we just stay in touch. And so it's a really good kind of small knit, community of like minded people, right, that have the same kind of mission and experience. So that's a big takeaway with it.
00:05:33:01 - 00:05:43:23
Chris Fredericks
That's really cool. So you ended up joining that program because you had already signed on to kind of lead an employee owned company. That's right. And then then you ended up coming to Empowered Ventures and with your brothers a couple of years.
00:05:43:23 - 00:06:03:15
Scott Kroeger
Later, right? That's right. Yeah. Yeah. So what's interesting about that is, you know, there was a transition going on with the company that I had there, and I was looking for another opportunity. And so, you know, with the brothers. Yeah. And when I met in Powered Ventures, but you and the team has empowered ventures and then met, Mike Lansky at the time, who had sold the company, early last year.
00:06:03:20 - 00:06:19:19
Scott Kroeger
I just I felt like it was, it was a company that really was aligned with the kind of values that I brought, you know, to the business. And so, so I felt like it was a really, really strong fit coming in and with the brothers has a phenomenal history behind it. And that story just drew me on.
00:06:19:20 - 00:06:23:19
Scott Kroeger
And so that rest of the story is, here I am. Yeah. So I'd.
00:06:23:20 - 00:06:35:18
Chris Fredericks
Love it. So just just a little bit of additional reminiscing. Ten years ago, could you have ever imagined being in an employee owned company that makes makes what, when brothers makes no. 120 years old?
00:06:35:22 - 00:06:51:21
Scott Kroeger
No. Absolutely not. I mean, that's that's the incredible part of the the journey, right? Right. Yeah. Ten years ago I was in a public company, probably somewhere over in China, you know, you know, traveling the world and so on, which was again, was phenomenal, part of my, my career building. But no, I, I would never even manage imagined it.
00:06:51:24 - 00:07:02:01
Scott Kroeger
Yeah. And to me, at this stage of my career, I think it's a pinnacle. It's a great you know, it's it's kind of what I had hoped I would get to at some point. But just just an amazing path, you know, forward.
00:07:02:01 - 00:07:18:22
Chris Fredericks
It's awesome to hear that you feel that way. And we feel really lucky to have you, Scott. Like, you know, and obviously we've been able to work with you now for nearly a year at this point. We're getting closer. Absolutely. And it's been a joy for all of us. So thank you. Just so you know yeah, we're we're ecstatic to have you leading Whitney Brothers for sure.
00:07:18:24 - 00:07:34:05
Chris Fredericks
So you had mentioned a little bit about your leadership style and your management style and kind of how that had developed and maybe even with the employee ownership, how you really found your people, or so to speak. So why don't you tell us a little bit more about how you think about leadership and management and what style you bring?
00:07:34:06 - 00:07:34:21
Chris Fredericks
Absolutely.
00:07:34:21 - 00:07:58:19
Scott Kroeger
Yeah. So I think, you know, again, going back to some of that foundational stuff, I talked about years ago when I traveled the world, I had the the ability to go to Eastern Europe and to China and, you know, all the other places as well. But, you know, I think that also helped to inform, you know, kind of a vision of, you know, how people operate in different cultures, different kinds of you know, roles and so on.
00:07:58:21 - 00:08:20:16
Scott Kroeger
And it kind of opened my eyes to a whole variety of ideas and, and initiatives out there as well. And so as I look at that, you know, that was, I think, foundational in helping me understand that there are other opinions that matter and other people that have different ways of thinking and having that kind of enrichment of all those people and ideas is just a phenomenal thing to to kind of build leadership.
00:08:20:16 - 00:08:25:03
Chris Fredericks
Kind of amazing how travel will open your eyes and to, to new ways of thinking.
00:08:25:03 - 00:08:53:16
Scott Kroeger
Absolutely. Yeah. And in the middle of that, too, I actually had a couple of short term mission trips that I did. Yeah. Which were, you know, personal as well. But, you know, there's where you kind of see some of the challenges of life to people that don't have a lot, you know, at that point that, you know, you just recognize that, you know, you're in a position that, you know, a privilege in many ways, but, but you just see people that are, you know, suffering a lot of areas, but, you know, also have some resilience and capability to, to, you know, push through all of that as well.
00:08:53:16 - 00:09:24:09
Scott Kroeger
So really kind of interesting. But what that inform later on is what I call real. It's, it's Oriel which stands for respect, empathy, accountability and learning. So when I come in as a leader, those are kind of the three letters, the acronyms that I lead by. Right? So if you look at respect, it's all about, you know, respecting people where they're coming from, the knowledge base they have, they all have different experiences and exposure that they can bring to, you know, idea generation and, and so on.
00:09:24:11 - 00:09:44:10
Scott Kroeger
And so just respecting people where they are, what they bring to the table. Yeah. Giving them a voice, I think is a big part of the way I lead forward as well. So it's not just coming from me. There's a whole bunch of people contributing to that as well. And then the E is empathy, right? So, I spent a lot of time kind of developing emotional intelligence.
00:09:44:10 - 00:10:04:07
Scott Kroeger
IQ and empathy is right at the heart of that. Right. So I think a lot of people misunderstand the word empathy. Yeah. They think empathy is just being soft and, you know, and so on. But empathy is about meeting people again where they are. Right? So different experiences, different things going on in their lives at different times. Right.
00:10:04:09 - 00:10:26:10
Scott Kroeger
But having that empathy, this is a real human that you're dealing with on a day to day basis and recognizing, you know, that humanity is big. So moving from empathy then accountability. So accountability actually when you have respect and empathy together, accountability I think naturally flows from that. You're developing really strong relationships in that respect area.
00:10:26:10 - 00:10:48:15
Scott Kroeger
Listening to people helping to understand them and empathy. And then I think in the it kind of the accountability just naturally falls through with that. Yeah. Learning is the next piece right. So the L is is again, if you're a learning organization, right? You're growing and you're building capability and knowledge. Right. And I think that learning organizations are the best companies going forward.
00:10:48:15 - 00:10:50:19
Scott Kroeger
They're the ones that grow the best right down the line.
00:10:50:22 - 00:11:02:05
Chris Fredericks
Sounds like an amazing framework for leading and a people oriented kind of setting where people will ultimately feel both valued and also kind of encouraged to be their best self, I suppose.
00:11:02:05 - 00:11:02:17
Scott Kroeger
Absolutely.
00:11:02:17 - 00:11:04:02
Chris Fredericks
Is that kind of how you would put it?
00:11:04:02 - 00:11:18:05
Scott Kroeger
Most definitely. Yeah. And I think that's really what it all comes down to, is just leading and understanding and where people are helping them to grow and develop where they are, and to be the best that they can be for the company and for themselves. Yeah, right. Overall, and I've seen that, you know, time and time again it would be brothers.
00:11:18:06 - 00:11:29:04
Chris Fredericks
What a great aspiration. Yeah. So yeah. What is it like leading with any brothers. You've been there, you know, a little for a little while now and you've settled in and it's, tell, tell everyone a little bit about winning brothers as well.
00:11:29:06 - 00:11:49:14
Scott Kroeger
So, Woody brothers, 120 year plus company. Right? 122 years this year, actually. And so when you think about that legacy, it's it's an incredible responsibility, number one, coming in and leading a company like that. Yeah. But what's amazing about Whitney Brothers I mean we make, you know, early childhood education furniture today. It's a phenomenal product, high quality.
00:11:49:14 - 00:12:11:11
Scott Kroeger
It's innovative. We have a great mission to to develop and build the best possible furniture and learning systems for those young minds, right. That's a big thing. But over the years, I mean, they started out as Whitney Toys and, you know, 1904 and, I think you had a podcast recently with Mike Blonsky as well and went through some of the, you know, kind of the challenges of the business over the years.
00:12:11:13 - 00:12:32:01
Scott Kroeger
Yeah. It survived the Great Depression. It survived World Wars, you know, it survived a couple of fires, you know, some pretty catastrophic things. Yeah. And the company's been really resilient along the way. Right. It's built, I think, a strong perseverance, you know, through those challenges. And so, so I think that's a really strong foundation. Yeah. Right.
00:12:32:01 - 00:12:52:11
Scott Kroeger
Overall. And so thinking back on that, there's there's 122 years worth of people that were part of that story. Right? That's the amazing thing going forward is a lot of people had the same connection to that mission and purpose of developing something for early childhood education that is hard to replace. Right. And so that's a neat thing to to lead.
00:12:52:16 - 00:12:54:00
Scott Kroeger
Yeah. From this point forward.
00:12:54:00 - 00:12:57:22
Chris Fredericks
Yeah. That's amazing. So what have your first what eight months been like.
00:12:57:24 - 00:13:13:23
Scott Kroeger
Yeah. So it's been good. You know it's been I would say you're coming into a situation like this where you have a 120 year old company. You expect that you're going to have a lot of people are kind of, you know, stuck in their own ways and kind of, you know, maybe not so flexible and so on.
00:13:13:23 - 00:13:30:18
Scott Kroeger
But honestly, I have found a team that has been incredibly open, welcoming, flexible. One wanted to change and kind of build the company and grow it forward. I've been really impressed with, you know, the people and their, you know, their commitment to the mission of the company. It's it's really pretty amazing.
00:13:30:18 - 00:13:41:17
Chris Fredericks
And some changes are happening already in Iraq because everyone is I mean, most people are excited for the company to move forward. Things are actually really happening. Absolutely. Any changes you'd want to highlight so far?
00:13:41:19 - 00:14:04:14
Scott Kroeger
Yeah. So I mean, I think, you know, we've been focusing a lot on internal development of people. So we've got a couple of people that we're bringing up through some leadership training that, you know, have been strong, had strong potential essentially. And we saw that in the right. So if you go back to respecting where they've been, you know, having empathy and going through that understanding that person, we found some people that were ready to to kind of grow and build and develop their careers.
00:14:04:14 - 00:14:22:16
Scott Kroeger
And so we've got a couple of new people that are on there on a great track. So we're doing that really investing in the people and helping them to, you know, do more as we go forward. I think the other thing is that we're looking at opportunities to grow, right. So our company's done extremely well in the, the private education space.
00:14:22:16 - 00:14:36:14
Scott Kroeger
As you go forward, we're looking to kind of expand our market into public education, expand our geographic reach, you know, kind of work outside of those, you know, traditional markets that we're in today. And so we're working tremendously on that.
00:14:36:16 - 00:14:37:06
Chris Fredericks
That's exciting.
00:14:37:11 - 00:14:37:19
Scott Kroeger
Yeah.
00:14:37:23 - 00:14:40:18
Chris Fredericks
How about you personally, any learnings from your first eight months?
00:14:40:20 - 00:14:57:22
Scott Kroeger
You know, so it's interesting. So I think, again, a learning you're coming in, you have some expectations, like I said before, of the way things are going to be. Yeah. And I think you kind of gear yourself up to that as you come in, you know, like how much am I going to have to overcome here in terms of, you know, helping people kind of get on board with new strategy.
00:14:57:22 - 00:15:13:18
Scott Kroeger
But but I found that, honestly, there were a lot of people, again, with that foundation to build and grow the company. And so I had to pull myself back away from my own kind of thoughts of, how am I coming into this? Right. And, recognize that, you know, people are really, really committed to this company and mission.
00:15:13:18 - 00:15:16:06
Scott Kroeger
Yeah. Like for it was really neat to see.
00:15:16:08 - 00:15:21:03
Chris Fredericks
I there's a phrase for that or something, but it's something like have a plan but then basically be ready to change your plan.
00:15:21:03 - 00:15:24:13
Scott Kroeger
Exactly. I agree with that 100%.
00:15:24:13 - 00:15:39:09
Chris Fredericks
Yeah. How about so this is also been Whitney Brothers first year as part of Empire Adventures. Yeah, we're a little bit past that. So their first year of employee ownership and this big change. So how has the employee ownership experience been so far at Whitney Brothers?
00:15:39:09 - 00:16:01:17
Scott Kroeger
I think it's been a really positive experience overall. So one of the things I'll say about Empowered Ventures as well is just the, you know, the ability to, again, respect the company where it's been. It's like getting 122 plus year company, not try to meddle too much with the formula that's been working for that period of time. And respecting that, you know, kind of legacy and so on.
00:16:01:17 - 00:16:20:09
Scott Kroeger
And I think having empathy for the organization going through change. Empowered ventures, has a phenomenal way of of dealing with that. Right and integrating companies in us. And I think with that in mind, you know, just leading forward through real as well. I think we've seen a lot of people feel very comfortable, coming into the employee ownership world.
00:16:20:09 - 00:16:30:16
Scott Kroeger
It was a natural transition from a family ownership into, again, an extended family ownership in the, employee ownership world. And I think people have adapted extremely well.
00:16:30:21 - 00:16:47:19
Chris Fredericks
That's great. That's great. What's, what do you see in terms of how the culture will continue to take hold and specifically to, to you up? You know, a lot of companies have a lot of employee owned companies create committees. They make common ownership committee or communication committee. Is that something you see happening at with your brothers? For sure.
00:16:47:19 - 00:17:08:05
Scott Kroeger
So we have done that. So we have, what we call two TWA, which is together we own and a couple of committed employees that have really done some great stuff in the last year. They've they've done some events and some education and training and so on. They've done a newsletter. They've done really great things. I think foundationally building that, and I'm pretty excited to see that grow and develop in the next year or so, too.
00:17:08:07 - 00:17:29:23
Scott Kroeger
Yeah. Coming from another employee owned company, I bring some practices, best practices in to that that I hope I can also, you know, help them grow and develop, the, the EO summit that just happened, with all the other companies underneath the umbrella. Yeah, I, I really anxious to learn from that and understand best practices there and apply those here too.
00:17:29:23 - 00:17:39:14
Scott Kroeger
I think that's one of the advantages of being part of a larger group of companies is being able to share those best practices. So yeah. So I see to becoming even stronger. Yeah.
00:17:39:17 - 00:17:56:21
Chris Fredericks
Going forward it's not a race and it's and definitely not to compare. But I do think it's always interesting to see the journey a new company goes on as they go through employee ownership. And there's some, some common touchpoints, like an internal newsletter tends to be one of those things that either they get inspired from someone else or they discovered on their own.
00:17:57:02 - 00:18:18:20
Chris Fredericks
And Whitney Brothers was by far the fastest I've ever seen to be like, really to do that and like to create one that's like super impressive too. I mean, I've seen it and it's it's a really powerful tool. And so just kudos to your team for that. They're doing that. Yeah. How would you what would you say about just how the first year for Whitney Brothers, the last year has been, from a business perspective, industry, like all those kind of things.
00:18:18:20 - 00:18:31:06
Scott Kroeger
For a business perspective, it's been it's had its challenges, you know, for sure. So we started the year out, with a much lower, you know, business book order book than we had imagined. And, the the industry was a bit could.
00:18:31:08 - 00:18:33:08
Chris Fredericks
Unlucky necessarily in terms of timing.
00:18:33:08 - 00:18:55:23
Scott Kroeger
Probably. Unfortunately, yeah. Unfortunately, I think that is true. Right. So if you look at our normal ramp into what's a really busy season for us over the summer came really late right. And so so that challenge of just kind of bridging that, that gap of lower business in the beginning part of the year into what actually ramped into incredibly high amounts of business in a very short period of time.
00:18:56:00 - 00:19:13:05
Scott Kroeger
We had to hire people, train people, move faster, I think, than we've had to in the past. Right. And so that in itself was a challenge, right? Bringing new people on board, getting them up to speed. At the same time, you're trying to push a lot of product out the door. Is a challenge in the business.
00:19:13:05 - 00:19:34:13
Scott Kroeger
And so I think we've seen that, you know, that little bit of turbulence in the beginning. Yeah. We managed it. But I think one of the things that is, is key again, going back to real is that learning piece. Right. So what did we learn, you know, from that. Yeah. You know, a lot of it is about employee development retention training making sure we're ready for that ramp when it comes along.
00:19:34:13 - 00:19:50:12
Scott Kroeger
Right. Those are big things for us. Looking at ways we can improve our lead times and work on inventory and reduce bottlenecks and things like that. So despite the adversity and that, I think we're starting to see a real path forward that is going to be a much more efficient organization.
00:19:50:12 - 00:20:06:18
Chris Fredericks
Yeah, it's been impressive from afar to see the resiliency and and the leaning into coming together, figuring like the learning, you know, not not despairing basically that, you know, we're going through a tough time. Right. So I've been impressed for sure. So how Whitney Brothers has navigated its first year.
00:20:06:19 - 00:20:06:24
Scott Kroeger
Yeah.
00:20:06:24 - 00:20:11:24
Chris Fredericks
That's great. What are you celebrating most looking back so far and in 2025.
00:20:11:24 - 00:20:41:04
Scott Kroeger
So I am I'm celebrating just again that resilience for the company. Right. You know, coming into it despite the fact that maybe, you know, my, my expectations coming in were that we're going to be ramping faster and going through that and, you know, kind of putting all that aside, the company persevered and and I celebrate that. And we have people that didn't put their heads down and say, oh, man, I you know, I give up, they took it and said, okay, yeah, this is a bump in the road.
00:20:41:04 - 00:21:08:03
Scott Kroeger
Let's get past it. And, and then their willingness to say, we're not just going to get past it, but we're going to do something better, you know, down the line. I think that's great. I would also celebrate, you know, the leadership team in general, even all the way down through it, I'll say that through the leads on the floor and even people that are working within small kaizen groups on the floor and so on, I think everybody plays a bit of a leadership role, but they have been willing to kind of look at the business a little differently.
00:21:08:03 - 00:21:22:12
Scott Kroeger
And strategically, how do we change things for the better? And so I celebrate just the attitude there of being able to say, this is a company we're going to steward and build and grow. And, and that's neat. So I celebrate the people facing this.
00:21:22:14 - 00:21:26:14
Chris Fredericks
Amazing. What are you excited about for 2026 and going forward?
00:21:26:16 - 00:21:45:05
Scott Kroeger
Yeah. So 2026 I think we've got some great initiatives already going at this point. So I'd mentioned just briefly earlier, one of the things we're looking at is is expanding geographically, helping to move ourselves further west in the United States for instance, grab a little bit more market share in places where I think we've got untapped potential.
00:21:45:07 - 00:22:01:23
Scott Kroeger
We're also looking at, new markets. Right. So just again, from the private space kind of moving into the public education space and building, you know, plan there as well. I think the other thing is just keeping ahead of the market, right, in terms of product development and innovation.
00:22:02:01 - 00:22:04:17
Chris Fredericks
So which is something Whitney Brothers does really well.
00:22:04:17 - 00:22:35:21
Scott Kroeger
Absolutely. And we want to make sure that we we maintain that, you know, that innovation presence and so on. And so we've got, you know, we're actually going to say we're staying 1 or 2 generations ahead of the competition all the time. Yeah. And so to do that you have to have a good process and in place to be able to say we're going to we have a whole bunch of bank ideas coming in and getting to the ones that really make the most sense, communicating with customers and, and users to make sure those are the right products to develop and go through that and then building them through right.
00:22:35:23 - 00:22:57:15
Scott Kroeger
So we have an incredible, I think, momentum going in that area. And I applaud our engineers, you know, for instance, who are just hungry for that. Yeah, right. They do a great job with it already. But I think they're just hungry to continue to develop and innovate forward. And so there's a couple of product launches that we have coming out this year that I think are going to be pretty cool.
00:22:57:15 - 00:23:02:17
Chris Fredericks
I'm always blown away at the products you guys come up with. So I'm excited to see what's coming out this year.
00:23:02:17 - 00:23:03:00
Scott Kroeger
It's good.
00:23:03:00 - 00:23:06:18
Chris Fredericks
Stuff. What about you personally? Anything you're excited about this coming year?
00:23:06:18 - 00:23:29:13
Scott Kroeger
Yeah, I mean, I'm excited about the, you know, the growth potential for Whitney Brothers, right? So I think, you know, personally, yes, that's it's, it's gratifying to see, you know, get a team that is kind of pushing forward with you as well. I'm just really excited to see what we can do. You know, it's one thing to kind of start planning your way through it, but the next step is execution on that.
00:23:29:13 - 00:23:32:09
Scott Kroeger
And I think, you know, I'm excited for what that that's going to bring.
00:23:32:09 - 00:23:54:15
Chris Fredericks
That's cool. Yeah. Scott, this has been awesome. I love doing these in person. Hopefully I can find more more excuses to do them in person in the future. But, to wrap up, I thought we'd finish with a fun, fun question. So I know you a little bit, and I know you like cycling. So why don't you talk, share with us your top four kind of cycling experience?
00:23:54:15 - 00:24:11:17
Scott Kroeger
Sure, absolutely. Yeah. So, so I started cycling. Gosh, I think it's probably been about 20 plus years ago or so, and, and it was just one of those discussions with a friend that said, hey, we're going to do a charity ride together. And I didn't even have a bike at that point. It was New Year's Eve.
00:24:11:19 - 00:24:31:05
Scott Kroeger
We're going to do this thing. And I bought my first bike, and that first thing was, again, it was the Pan Bass challenge, which is, which is a Dana-Farber is a big cancer institute here in the Boston area that sponsors that ride. And they, they, every year, they, they produce millions of dollars toward cancer research.
00:24:31:05 - 00:24:36:15
Scott Kroeger
And, and so I trained hard, you know, got through that and had my first charity ride and just got hooked.
00:24:36:15 - 00:24:38:14
Chris Fredericks
Out of curiosity, how long was that first?
00:24:38:16 - 00:24:58:23
Scott Kroeger
That one was 178 miles in two days. Wow. And so it started around Springfield, Massachusetts, and ended up on the Cape, right at the end of Cape Cod. How cool. Yeah, just a neat experience overall. And so just the community aspect of that too was phenomenal, right? People coming together, you know, raising funds for that as well.
00:24:59:00 - 00:25:17:04
Scott Kroeger
And then that led me to one called the Trans New Hampshire Bike Ride, which is a charity event for, for MD. And that was personal for me because I had a friend who had two sons, actually with muscular dystrophy and raised a lot of funds for them as well. So that one was three days over 270 miles or so.
00:25:17:08 - 00:25:41:06
Scott Kroeger
Well, it's, but those were phenomenal experiences. Yeah. Thank you for that. The next one for me, if I look at, you know, kind of different types of rides. Right. So there's a charity side of it. I've actually done one called the Five Tour in New York, which is an experience for any cyclists. You know, that, you get to kind of clear out the roads in New York and ride your bike to home, you know, these huge avenues and so on.
00:25:41:06 - 00:25:52:24
Scott Kroeger
Wow. Yeah. Just you see people in all kinds of bikes and outfits and things like that. It's a social event, right? But it's kind of a fun, you know, community, you know, oriented type of, ride as well. Pretty neat.
00:25:53:02 - 00:25:54:06
Chris Fredericks
That sounds amazing.
00:25:54:08 - 00:26:03:20
Scott Kroeger
And then there's the personal challenges, right? So I, I did something called the assaults on Mount Mitchell, a couple of years in a row, and it's just what it sounds as an.
00:26:03:20 - 00:26:04:20
Chris Fredericks
Assault on your legs.
00:26:04:24 - 00:26:25:23
Scott Kroeger
Imagine kind of like that. That's, 103 miles. It sounds shorter than the others. Still long, but 11,000ft of climbing. And so this was kind of the personal side of my, you know, my personal best kind of side of competition, feeling that, you know, I wanted to beat myself year after year. And really make it faster.
00:26:25:23 - 00:26:28:02
Scott Kroeger
Right. So that was kind of a neat, competitive side of.
00:26:28:02 - 00:26:29:04
Chris Fredericks
That's awesome.
00:26:29:06 - 00:26:49:05
Scott Kroeger
You know, but then there's also the, you know, the rides in the back roads of Pennsylvania and New Hampshire that are just more, you know, to clear my head and, you know, kind of get myself in a space where I can start kind of building, you know, more upon, like the strategies and so on. So, so I really enjoy those, those casual rides, you know, on the country roads do amazing amazing.
00:26:49:07 - 00:26:52:20
Chris Fredericks
Thank you Scott. This has been so fun. I really appreciate you coming on in part owners.
00:26:52:20 - 00:26:54:05
Scott Kroeger
Thank you. I appreciate the time.