David Novak 0:04 

Welcome to How leaders lead where every week you get to listen. And while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world, I break down the key learnings so that by the end of the episode, you'll have something simple you can apply as you develop into a better leader. That's what this podcast is all about. Well, my guest today is Jr. Bridgman, a former NBA player who's now one of the greatest entrepreneurs in our country and a real hero in my eyes. When he retired from the NBA after 12 years, he jumped headfirst into the restaurant business. Now it didn't start out great, as you'll hear him talk about but eventually he owned 450 Wendy's locations all over the country. And now he's doing it all over again in a totally different category, this time becoming one of the leading coke bottlers in the United States and all of Canada. And if all that wasn't enough, in 2020, he surprised a lot of people when he bought jet and ebony, which like a lot of magazines were really struggling. But as you'll hear him talk about Jr sees the opportunity to preserve and amplify the stories those magazines have told over the years, something that's so important year round, but it's especially top of mine right now during Black History Month. In fact, Jr was recently honored with Louisville as prestigious keepers of the dream Freedom Award for all the ways he exemplifies the ideals of Martin Luther King Jr. So, you know, it's easy to see why Jr. Bridgman is the real deal for so many reasons. And at every step along the way from playing basketball to serving his community to building these incredibly successful businesses. He's all about the power of teamwork. As leaders, you know, we use the word team a lot. But when you listen to Jr, you realize that true teamwork doesn't just happen because you've assembled a group of people together. It has to be nurtured and led, you're going to hear exactly what Jr does to create that kind of teamwork driven culture, where people truly feel cared about and where they're motivated to go farther together than they ever could by themselves. So here's my conversation with my good friend and soon to be yours, Jr. Bridgman?

I have to ask you this. You know, I understand your first name as you listen. When did you become junior and why?

Junior Bridgeman 2:31 

Everyone called me Ulysses growing up, elementary school, high school, even playing basketball, no one called me Junior until I came to the University of Louisville and Bill Olson was the assistant coach. He had been to my hometown recruitment, your mother called you Jr. Because you were a junior. And so he said, I'm gonna call you the same thing your mother calls you. And here we are a whole bunch of years later, and it just never went away?

David Novak 2:59 

Well, you least these are our junior, whatever you want to be called. I think I'm gonna stick with junior because I've been calling you out for a while. When do you realize Junior that you had the talent and the passion to really play basketball high level,

Junior Bridgeman 3:11 

there was in between my junior and senior year at the University of Louisville, I was able to be on the universe, the well, it was a USA team that played against the Russians, the at that time. The Olympics were every four years. And that was the only time they had any real international games. And so we had lost the 72 Olympics. And so the Russians came over, they had a team that came over to play against the United States and all college kids, which was what the Olympics were about at that time. So I was fortunate enough to be on that team to play against Russians, but I barely got the play. I mean, it was David Thompson and Burleson people like that, that started and played. So I really questioned whether or not I could play at the next level. Because you couldn't play with these guys, obviously, you're gonna have a difficult time playing with the pros. And so I think what that forced me to do was really go back and work on every aspect of the game before the season started. And really it was that not playing that was really the impetus to me becoming a better basketball player, and I think really pushed me to try and get to the pros to kind of tell everybody that Well, I got better and I was able to make it at that next level. So it's really interesting not playing how that was the driving factor that gets you to play 12 years in the NBA.

David Novak 4:35 

You know, I know your high school team was literally famous and went 2901 the state championship. Tell us about that experience and what it was like

Junior Bridgeman 4:45 

growing up in East Chicago and an Indiana basketball is king. I remember seventh grade eighth grade, even before that elementary school when the high school team was in a tournament. It wasn't on TV so you would listen to it on the radio but every It would be in one room listening to the high school team in the state tournament pulling form. And if they lost I mean it was it was just a downer for a whole week. And that was from elementary school up. I remember listening to the team lose one year and walking the next school day with the other guys on it. I was in a class with me. We swore if I ever got the chance, and we were going to play we were never going to lose the game. And you know how little did we know that that would happen my senior year. But everything was around basketball. I mean, the whole community was driven kind of like Hoosiers, the movie Hoosiers I mean that that reminded me of how it was like growing up or everyone was focused on the team on basketball and in winning and to win the state championship and to go undefeated was something that I could have never imagined any of the play with the guys that I played with Turkey vich, who went to UCLA started went to North Carolina State. Bailey went to Montana, Adel played in North Carolina State awesome. We had seven guys from that team, they got Division One scholarships. So it was one of those things that happens I would say once every 50 to 100 years and I just happen to be at the right place at the right

David Novak 6:11 

what did you learn at that time? You know, put you played around with seven guys who all played division one basketball, all that talent? What did you learn about talent and teamwork with with that kind of talent?

Junior Bridgeman 6:22 

Interestingly, the team my junior year had more talent than we did my senior year. And yet we lost in the sectionals, to a real good team at Chicago Roseville. But we have more talent. What happened my senior year is that everyone realized in order for us to win, it couldn't be about who was leading scorer it couldn't be about who got the publicity, we had all be focused on trying to accomplish that one goal. And that was winning and interesting. The first five games, we had five different leading scorers. And so even a target, which was a better score, so obviously scored more as the year went on, but no one cared about that everyone cared about winning the championship. And it was a team effort. And it really taught me that the aspect of of what a real team means and a team unity and something that I think I've carried forward and all of these years in the business world,

David Novak 7:23 

you know, I know that you were then highly recruited and you end up going to the University of Louisville. What What made you select Global,

Junior Bridgeman 7:32 

you know, it wasn't the university because there wasn't anything impressive about the University of Louisville at that time, it got down to my freshman coach at the high school there. And my parents were real good friends. And so he had a big influence on what's going to have an influence on where I went, and somehow he and Denny Crum became friends. And actually, he had helped target his go to UCLA. And after he went there, he said, you know, Coach Crum, you need to look at this other kid who was me. And so he came and visited and he really influenced me being my high school freshman coach was really the reason why I came to the University of Louisville. He was the one that influenced me to come. He

David Novak 8:15 

was your high school freshman Coach, your your big mentor. He was

Junior Bridgeman 8:18 

but what he would do at that time is his family owned, they owned the local restaurant in town. So he would pick guys up and take them there to eat. And he kind of befriended everybody and was really the person that tried to help people with life. And so I think with that he became more than just a basketball coach and really more than a mentor but also a competent to a lot of families and families that had issues going on. And so people trusted him to look out for their sons and to help them make the right decisions as they were growing up. And you Chicago, Indiana,

David Novak 8:56 

you did play for Danny kromm who became a Hall of Fame coach and what do you learn from him about how to motivate people on how to create a winning team?

Junior Bridgeman 9:05 

Danny? Coach Crump came from obviously the John Wooden system era. And one of the first things he told us was guys, if you're looking for me to give you a motivational speech before every game to get you pumped up to play, then you'll never be as good as you can be. If you can't find it within yourself to play as hard as you can for 28 games. You'll never be successful and more importantly, if you can't motivate yourself you'll never be successful in life. And so I remember him saying that like it was yesterday. And so you had to find it within yourself that dry not just in basketball but also in everything after that and I credit coach crammed with really getting you to focus on you. And if you're going to be successful, you have to figure out what it takes to motivate you drive you well just get you to be the best that you can be, you know, when

David Novak 10:02 

you were in college, were you a serious student with designs on what you're going to do after basketball? Or were you focused on just getting the next level in basketball?

Junior Bridgeman 10:11 

No, I actually was hoping and probably if I hadn't played well, in that probably I would have gone to law school, I have taken the LSAT and had gotten, you know, admitted to law school here at the time at the University of Louisville. So that was really what my focus was, you know, almost went to North Carolina State thinking because they said, If you come and go to school here, we can guarantee you a job after you graduate in the textile industry, making $10,000 a year. And I thought that was great, you know, because I had never known anybody to make that amount of money. So I almost went there. But no, basketball wasn't the motivation. It was looking, because I didn't know whether I would be able to play on a next level. So I was focused on what can you do to be successful in life with the opportunities you have today?

David Novak 11:01 

Well, you went on to be a number one draft pick in the NBA, I think you're the eighth pick of the entire draft that year, which was amazing. And well, what was it like to go from college basketball to professional basketball, what was the biggest thing you had to learn

Junior Bridgeman 11:16 

how good the guys were. And you come out thinking that you can play on that level, you know, all these things that are in your mind, people are telling you about how good you are and a pic and on and on just filling your head and your ego. And then you get there. And you really see these guys are good, too. That's why they're here. So and it was a humbling experience, to really realize that you still had to improve to be able to play on that next level. And so even though I had an opportunity and got there, I said, Okay, for me to stay, I'm gonna have to continue to work and to get better at the game of basketball.

David Novak 11:58 

Well, you obviously got pretty good advocates your number and your name hangs in the banners of Milwaukee. So congratulations on that, that great career. But you were only I think 31 years old when you retired from basketball. How did you think through the next steps on what you wanted to do in your career,

Junior Bridgeman 12:14 

I had the opportunity to continue in basketball, the Bucs offered me and Assistant General Manager's position when I retired. And I thought about that long and hard. But it really went back to when I represented the players going to collective bargaining. And we would sit around the table and to me at that time, basketball was the most important thing that we would discuss and argue of everything from per diem. And you know, we had to get this and we had to get that because what could be more important than basketball. And when we would take a break, I would notice that we'd go to our little corner of the room and the owners would go to their corner of the room and, and where they're talking about the bargaining session and basketball, but the owners are talking about everything except basketball. I mean, they're talking about business deals and and then I noticed how they got more excited, as they talked about business and not the business of basketball, but other businesses that they were in. And it dawned on me that maybe I'm missing something here, maybe the business world is more interesting, more exciting, and be more fun. And so I started spending time with Jim Fitzgerald that owned the Bucs team at that time and just talking to him about this because he was involved in other things other than basketball, and that really got me interested in doing something other than basketball. And I just wanted to see, you want to prove to yourself that you could do something become something other than basketball player or basketball General Manager or I just wanted to prove to myself that I could do something else in life.

David Novak 13:54 

You were offered the Assistant General Manager with Milwaukee and then you representing the players in the bargaining. So obviously, you had some inherent leadership skills that people gravitated to, I mean, who really kind of picked you out as the person to be the leader.

Junior Bridgeman 14:09 

It was Larry flash who represented the union at that time, he was a big part of it, but it was also you know, the coaches Don Nelson mean they would they'd ask you to do certain things and even when I was representing players, which was opposite of being involved with the the team, but they still what's the right word, I guess give you that confidence that or say something that lets you know that they thought more about you than just a basketball player and they they saw something there. And the only thing that I would say that I did that was probably the best thing that I ever did you know, through all those years as I tried to take something from every person that I encountered to help me be better at business whether it was Jim Fitzgerald bucks or what One time we played at a charity golf tournament in Bentonville, Arkansas, and I got to spend time with Sam Walton, and really see how he did things at Walmart at the time and how he interacted with his people. So I was just fortunate enough to have a lot of instances and situations where I could learn and take things from people.

David Novak 15:19 

I visited Walmart and learned a lot about Walmart just as because there's such a great company. I never met Sam, the great Sam Walton, what was the single biggest thing that stuck out from you when you met him?

Junior Bridgeman 15:31 

He at that time was the according to Forbes magazine, the second wealthiest person in the world, Sidney, my peoples from Arkansas. So he was playing in a charity tournament, we got invited to his house. So I thought pulling up to his house, there would be all these guards and all these kinds of people like that. We pulled up to a ranch house, just drove right up to the front door. And it was as modest and nice as saying he, his wife had always wanted a Japanese garden. And he'd built that for in the back. So that was the first thing that got me was just how down earth he was, but visiting with him at Walmart. It was amazing. Because I'm expecting to see this palatial office and you walked in, and it was just a regular office with stuff everywhere. I mean, it was more stuff. But we walked around Walmart with him, and he knew everybody by name. And he knew not just their names, but he would tell us a little something about everybody that we encountered. And it was just amazing to me that here. Sam Walton knew something about the Secretary and everybody that we met as we walked through Walmart.

David Novak 16:39 

Well, so you had this real inkling that you were going to get into business. And you were really starting to become a student of business. But how did you get your toe in the water?

Junior Bridgeman 16:48 

Well, I looked around for opportunities, and had a banker friend who in Chicago that had a couple of guys that were clients that were Popeyes, chicken franchisees. And so he said, Well, why don't you talk to these guys not about that, but they're getting involved with Wendy's. And maybe they can, you can get involved with them and figured out a year or two left playing, but he said, you can get involved with them. So when you stop playing, you won't have to take the first job because you know, they'll hopefully be making money. So you'll be able to kind of use that as you decide what you want to do. So that's what I did. I got involved with these guys in Chicago, we opened a Wendy's restaurant on 53rd and Hyde Park. And things didn't go as well as we had hoped they would go. And so as came the end of my career, I knew that either one of two things that happened, either I had to get out of the situation with them or figure out something else. And when he was international got involved, and they said, Well, if you want to continue in this business, you spent all this time in Milwaukee, why don't you get involved in Milwaukee. And so that's how I began, I bought five stores from the company in Milwaukee, and we just kind of went from there. But even at that time, I never thought that that was what I was going to be doing for the next 30 years. I thought okay, we're gonna get these stores going and then I'll then something I'll figure out really, at that point, what I really want to do.

David Novak 18:16 

So how'd you learn the restaurant business?

Junior Bridgeman 18:20 

I actually went and did everything went through training in the restaurant, I mean, everything from making and hamburgers and sandwiches, to cleaning the bathrooms to on and on. I mean, I went through all the training because I figured that like basketball, if you're going to be successful at something, you have to know you have to work at it, you can't just rely upon someone else. And so that's what I did. I mean, I spent, I don't know, 1012 weeks going through training. And then I went to spend time with other people who were franchisees, just to make sure that the business side of running a restaurant I understood and got some great systems and ideas from people on the way.

David Novak 19:10 

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So you started out with those five restaurants in Milwaukee. And then how many restaurants did you build into your restaurant? Empire over? I think over 500? For sure. Right?

Junior Bridgeman 20:11 

Yeah, well, about 450.

David Novak 20:13 

That's almost 500. It's pretty close all around 500. But one of the things I know you've done Junior's you've, you've bought markets gone into markets that really were not being run that well and turn them around. What did you find? When you went into those markets? What did you say the leaders hadn't done that you were able to do to get markedly better results?

Junior Bridgeman 20:33 

It's always about people. And I went back to the team aspect of basketball. And when we were successful, we played as a team. So well, how does that translate into the restaurant business? A lot of times, people don't focus on her don't approach it from the same team aspect, they approach it from this managers knee of the crew. And what we did, we tried to understand what was important to everybody in the restaurant. And that meant really understanding the crew, and realizing what's important to them, I guess the best example I can give in Milwaukee, and we had to five stores and they were low volume stores. No one really cared. And so we did what most people would do, we came in, and, okay, we need to get rid of people. So I mean, one store and the inner city, we turned a crew over three times. And yet, it wasn't until we realized that if you're gonna get these people to care about this store, and this business, they need to know that you care about them. And so, in Milwaukee, at that time, if you got stopped for a traffic violation, we went right to jail, boom, they just took me crazy as rule or law, but they took you right to jail. And so we would go bail out all of our employees the next day, and we needed them to work. But what it did was it showed the people that we cared more about them than just, you know, someone coming to work. And that started the whole changing of the mindset. And they started to think that Well, these guys do care. And then you know, there's a ton of things where you know, Rodney, I remember, he has apartment burned down. And so we helped him with all of that. But it wasn't until the people realized that we cared about them more than just someone that worked for us it then things started to change. And as they did those stores volumes really started to pick up.

David Novak 22:29 

How much time did you spend just working on creating that kind of culture.

Junior Bridgeman 22:33 

That was all we did. And I don't know if that ever really stopped. You know, I think we still you still work on the culture, you think that it's set, and it's how we do business, how everybody looks at the business, but you still have new people coming in. And, and people may hear about things but not until they really see proof that this is how you're going to be this is the type of culture company you have, do they really buy in. So I don't think it ever stopped. I think we've gotten hopefully better at it. But also that everyone's come to understand over all these years that this is how this type of company we

David Novak 23:09 

understand you actually have staff that you use to go in and monitor the culture in every every one of your restaurants. Tell us about that person and what they do?

Junior Bridgeman 23:17 

Well, it started with just the as you you know, thing, you'll know the district managers or area operations people going in and just talking to the truth employees about how things are going on in store. And then it got to the point where you know, okay, maybe we're getting most of the true feedback. And maybe we're not getting all of it. And so then we really brought in a company, Chaplain, kind of like that is what he does, but but he gets involved with the all our crew members on a different level, because he's now involved with them personally, and does a lot of things with what's going on in their life. And so once you really get to that level, then you really understand what's going on in everybody's mind. And you see what they really think about how you're trying to run the business, what type of culture you really have, not one that maybe you think you haven't. So that's been kind of eye opening. And it's helped us turn and tweak and do some things differently to make sure that everybody understands what type of culture

David Novak 24:22 

you mentioned, align and I and a phrase that I think is really powerful for all the listeners, which is nobody's going to care about you until you show them you care about them. And so that's what this Chaplin type person would do is go in and show an active interest in that person. So you build this restaurant empire, you go from five stores to 450 restaurants, you know, how did you manage that kind of explosive growth? You started out as a burger flipper, you know, or you're in there watching every detail now you have almost close to 500 restaurants, you know, how do you manage that?

Junior Bridgeman 24:52 

It was never about the number of stores it was never about trying to have a company with That was x, y size, it was always about trying to present more opportunities for people to better their lives. And so when we had five stores, you know, you had one district manager that might have been making, at that time 50 $60,000. And then when you got to 15, stores, now you could have three and when and you could promote from within, and when you got them 50, you could do these. So it was always about that, I think it's a Kenyan proverb that if you want to go fast, go by yourself, but if you want to go far, go with other people. And so ours was always about bringing people along to improve their lives, so they could make more money so that they could better their lives. And that was really the only strategy we had. And when we looked around, you know, we were, we'd gotten to 100, and some restaurants but and we were I think operating well. So everybody wanted you to be involved in that was really how we grew,

David Novak 26:01 

you know, your obvious care for people, you know, comes through to I read that you also for the NBA even today, you go in and the commissioner, as you mentor incoming players, you know that not the high draft picks and and try to coach them to success? What do you tell somebody who just made $50 million? You know, when they're drafted, I might have underestimated.

Junior Bridgeman 26:21 

Yeah, it might be a little more than that nowadays. But you know, the one thing that is interesting is that most of the kids are, even though the money is bigger, and world changed, and there's a lot more pressures on them social media out there. But they're still basically the same type of kids. And they come from the same type of backgrounds, not that much different than maybe I came. And so they have no idea how much $100,000 is or how much million dollars is compared to $10. They didn't grew up talking about that around the dinner table. But the main thing I try to get them to realize is that basketball is only for this amount of time, yet their life hopefully is for this amount of time, much longer time, and not to focus on everything happening. Now. As far as I got to acquire everything, I have to have everything, but let's look at it in a long term perspective. And what's really important, you try to get the most and what's really important in their life, and they've got all the outside pressures coming in. But when they really get down to what's important for them, are the same things that are important for all of us, one being successful, to the best of their ability, being happy. And happy means, you know, taking care of their family are your immediate family, on and on. So we talk about really life skills, and we talk about getting them to look at themselves from another position if they weren't the one being drafted if they weren't the one, but now they're looking at it as other people outside would look at it and and really trying to get them to see what the pressures are that they're going to be facing and and how do they deal with those because a lot of them don't even think there's even gonna be any pressure. They think money solves everything.

David Novak 28:15 

You built the restaurant business, and I think you've shifted that over to your other family members. And now you've acquired some coke bottling plants and I think around four or five states in the Midwest, what drove that decision to move from the restaurant business now into the bottling business?

Junior Bridgeman 28:31 

I was born? No. It was a legacy. So what does that mean? When I looked at the bottling business, or the Coca Cola business, it was amazing to me that there were families that were in their fourth and fifth generation of dang bottlers, but when I looked at the restaurant business, you know, there was maybe second generation, but there just wasn't the longevity. And so I bought back to, you know, collective bargaining owners in a corner talking about business again, and I said, Well, maybe I'm missing something here. Maybe this is something that I should seriously look at. It really was another blessing because Coca Cola has only added three new bottlers in the last 40 years. And then as I've gotten more involved in I've gotten to meet a lot of the others only 63, bottlers and meet some of the guys meet I as I thought, third and fourth generation I've met four guys at their fifth generation bottlers. So that was a big part of it and thinking about the kids and hopefully something that they'd be able to do and passed down and passed out. Well, how

David Novak 29:35 

are you getting up to speed on this new business?

Junior Bridgeman 29:38 

It's an education. You know, there's a lot more to it than just than I'd ever thought a lot more goes into putting a bottle of Coke on a grocery store shelf and what I'd ever imagined. But then again, it's still goes back to what I learned a long time ago. It's all about people. You know, we're just doing something different but if you have the right people and They have the right motivation that hopefully come from the right culture, you can be successful. And that's what we're trying to do there.

David Novak 30:08 

What do you have to have to be a really good entrepreneur?

Junior Bridgeman 30:11 

Probably two or three things. One, you have to have a sense that you can accomplish whatever you're after. And you have to really believe that because then entrepreneur, you're going to have ups and you're going to have a lot of downs. But when you have the downs, you just have to say to yourself, and believe that I just haven't figured out how to be successful. It's not a knockout blow, it's just teaching me that I need to go a different direction. And I think, to some extent, you have to be not afraid to maybe lose everything. Not that you want to do that. And not that you go out there and do something stupid. But in my mind, it was never about acquiring money, or making money or having a lot of money, that to me, that was never a motivating factor. It was always about trying to build something. And I think when you try and do that, you're going to take some chances. Hopefully, they're well thought out. And you know, you've put a lot of examination into whatever move you're going to make. But even with all of that sometimes things just don't go well. And you have to then have the competence, as I said earlier that you can figure out how to make it go better how to change things, what did I do wrong? What can I do? Right? Really, the bottom line is, it's not about you. For me, it's always been about what can you do to make someone else's life better? Or the people that come to work with you their life better? How can you make them make more money, if that's important to just have a better life? And I think if you add all those things, to me, that's why we've been successful.

David Novak 31:54 

As a leader, Jr. You're accomplished. But what are you doing now to to make yourself even more effective? What are you working on to get better,

Junior Bridgeman 32:01 

I still like to read or read your books, which have been very helpful. The biggest thing that I've had is I've taken from other people like you, you know, Ken Blanchard, just ideas, thoughts, you're always trying to improve yourself. And there's always someone out there that's doing it a little better than you little smarter than you have got different insight to you. So I've always tried to just take from other people in the meet as many people that are better than better than I am. And just understand and learn from them. I'll be the first one to tell you that. You know, I wish I was as smart as people think you are when you get to this point. But the only smart thing I've done is realize that there are a lot of people out there that are smarter, better, no more, and you need to read about how they got there or talk to them and take whatever nuggets of advice you can get from them along the way.

David Novak 32:55 

Junior everybody says you're one of the most humble people they've ever ever met. You've had so much success, how do you stay humble,

Junior Bridgeman 33:01 

it's realizing that it was never something that I did. There's been many people along the way, there's everyone in our company, whether it was the restaurant, or the bottling, you know, have all contributed to our success. It was never about me, when I say that I truly was not the smartest, most innovative, most whatever it is, you'd want to put their person. I mean, that's the truth. And I think if you if you look at yourself, realistically, a lot of people would say that, but I think when people have success, and people start telling you that you're this and you're that people start to believe that about themselves. And then I think that's when they really lose sight and get off point and, and start to believe that they really are those things when deep down inside, they know that it's normally a lot of people have helped them or they've been very fortunate, very blessed.

David Novak 33:58 

You know, as a as an entrepreneur, the people you surround you with is key. And so every person truly counted when you are hiring. And as you're building your team, what are the must haves you have to have from anybody that you hire?

Junior Bridgeman 34:11 

Well, I think it's no different than back to the team aspect. And when we were great teams there was caring for what the other people on the team were doing. So caring about the other people you're involved with. But you always have to have, in my mind, you got to have integrity, you can't exist without integrity, or you can't be a part of organization if you're going to have integrity and you have to have loyalty. And you have to understand that we have an absolute truth that I tell everybody in our company that we believe in and so they always say well, okay, well what do you mean absolute truth. I say that always whether it's the bottling company or the restaurant from day one that you know this company is based on biblical principles. And so whether they were Christians or Jewish or Buddhist or Hindu, it really did matter what was interesting was that people just want to know what you stand for what you believe in. And then I know that we're going to go this direction, but it's going to be based on this foundation. And so to me, that's been a big part of also why we've been different, or maybe the success that we've had.

David Novak 35:21 

I know you have young adults as your kids coming into business, and what advice do you give them and other people that you know, really aspire to be a leader as of yet, if you had to give one or two, you know, the most important bits of advice, what would you tell somebody?

Junior Bridgeman 35:36 

And I do, I said, you know, okay, you're in this position of leading, but you're only a leader, when somebody wants to follow you, nobody follows you, then you're not a leader. So if nobody's following you, you need to understand why that's not happening and what you're doing wrong. And I tell him, the other thing is, is that when it's all said and done, it can't be about what you accomplished. It can't be about what the top two guys accomplished. I said, if it's, if you're really successful, when you hit a goal, it should be everyone should say, Look what we did. And if they focus on looking what we did, not what one person did, then I think you're really leading people because now you've got to buy in, everybody understands everybody's understands the goal. And they're all trying to accomplish it as a group and what we did not one person to

David Novak 36:23 

speak in a family, I know you have a wonderful family, and how have you balanced the demands of the business and building the empire that you built with, you know, and still stay connected to your family?

Junior Bridgeman 36:35 

You know, Doris, so I'm going to give her all the credit, because a lot of times, let me go go back to basketball, what basketball taught you and made you focus on what's good, you are the most important person and everything had revolve around you. So I had to get out of that. To where especially started having kids were no, you're not the most important person, they're the most important person. And then when you get in the business world, it's not it doesn't become harder, because you're trying to grow something and you're trying to accomplish something you got now you got all these other people that you are responsible for? And how do you balance everything, and a lot of it was her image, she did a great job raising the kids, you know, whenever you go into role playing or trying to, to go see stores and do all these kinds of things. So I was just fortunate to surround myself with the right main person who was a wife at that time, but I made mistakes. And he tried to make all the soccer games, the league games, all that stuff. But then again, I don't think I was any different than anybody else. You're there. But you're thinking about what's going on with this store that store or all these kinds of things. So I fell into a lot of the same traps that I would tell people not to do today. But I was just fortunate that as I said she was there and she let it go far enough and then she just let me have it.

David Novak 38:03 

That's it takes a strong woman, Junior Bridgman, I can tell you that

we'll be back with the rest of my conversation with junior Bridgman in just a moment. You know, leaders from the world of basketball seemed to really understand the power of a collective team effort, because that's also a key leadership idea that Steve Kerr uses as the head coach of the Golden State Warriors. Listen to this.

Speaker 1 38:31 

I inherited this warriors team that was already really good. They had Steph Curry and Klay Thompson and some amazing vets like Andre Iguodala, and Andrew Bogut. And I could see we had the talent. But I wanted to connect with the bench because I had been there. And so my first year I came up with this idea that our team mantra could be strength in numbers. And it was something that I talked about. From day one, we had so much talent, we had so much depth that we were going to overwhelm teams and it really became part of our persona.

David Novak 39:01 

If you want to unlock the power of your team. Don't miss my conversation with Steve, Episode 62 here on how leaders lead.

This has been so much fun, and I want to have some more with my lightning round of q&a. Are you ready for this?

Junior Bridgeman 39:22 

I hope so.

David Novak 39:25 

What's one word others would use to describe you?

Junior Bridgeman 39:29 

Quiet?

David Novak 39:30 

What would you say is the one word that best describes you?

Unknown Speaker 39:33 

introspective?

David Novak 39:36 

If you could be one person beside yourself for a day, who would it be and why?

Junior Bridgeman 39:41 

There's probably admire a lot of people but I can't say there's one person I would want to be no.

David Novak 39:50 

Fair enough. Especially when you're Jr Bridgman. I get that you know, favorite Wendy's product

Junior Bridgeman 39:56 

frosted.

David Novak 39:57 

I'm with you on that man. Favorite coke product?

Junior Bridgeman 40:01 

Cherry coke out of a cherry coke person,

David Novak 40:03 

you and Warren Buffett have that in common? What was your favorite basketball arena to play it? And why?

Junior Bridgeman 40:09 

Madison Square Garden? No question. It was almost as if it was the mecca for basketball, which in some ways it was. Everybody wanted to play well in the guard, it was just something about the setting. You know, I grew up watching Walt Frazier and the early knicks and getting a chance to play against them at the end of their career was a highlight. But it was always fun to go to the guard,

David Novak 40:33 

what would I hear, if I turned the radio on your car, two stations,

Junior Bridgeman 40:37 

you would hear the r&b or soul station and you'd hear the 70 station,

David Novak 40:42 

what's something about you that few people would know, I really

Junior Bridgeman 40:45 

am not a person that really likes to be around a lot of people, I would probably be just as happy, you know, with just a couple of two or three people that that you know, and kind of have some things in common with and leaving it at that. And I think that a lot of people would say that that's a surprise because it you know, you make yourself do certain things or be in certain situations, but I've just never, never really enjoyed just being around a lot of people.

David Novak 41:18 

It's interesting that you make that last point, because you may not like to get up in front of people, but you're a great public speaker, I've seen you speak you're really really good at it. You're a broadcaster, you're really really good at that. I guess it is sort of a real sort of dichotomy of being someone that is more quiet introspective, yet you are in this public role all the time where you've got to speak up and stand out,

Junior Bridgeman 41:46 

I guess I've kind of trained myself for convinced myself that you know, things that you have to do. You know, I was fortunate enough to get the award from the the city and the Martin Luther King award in a week and a half ago. They give you a probably a better way of looking at it. There were three or four times I wanted to call the city and say that I don't want it. You know, I appreciate it. but no thanks. Because I just dreaded having to accept it. And having to say something, you know, in an acceptance speech, just worried me. And then to make matters even worse, they gave Don G who's great. In Louisville. They're a great a newscaster, and they gave her an award. And so being a female I said, Well, you can go ahead, go before me and give your acceptance speech. And she was unbelievably fantastic. So I just said, I knew I should have said no. But you know, it's all over you. But you're just thankful. So

David Novak 42:52 

I'm sure you were great, too. Hey, Jr, I want to have a little fun here. I'm going to say a few names. And I'm curious, the first thing that comes to mind as you think about who they are and how they show up. Let's start with Kareem Abdul Jabbar

Junior Bridgeman 43:05 

who a person with many personalities. He was a person of many, many MSA personalities, probably the wrong way to analyze them. But he was interested in a lot of things from jazz to history and very, very intelligent, obviously invented the sky hooks, so to speak to where art perfected it. But when you spend time talking to him, in the early days, he didn't want to be bothered later on in life. And I've got to be around him later on in life. And it's a different Kareem someone who, you know, finally enjoys who he is and enjoys being around people. Dr. J. Dr. Jay was a great player, probably someone I had to guard too many times. But he was a great player. But he was also great off the floor. He'd invite the opposite opposing teams over to his house for dinner. And, you know, he knew that we played him in the playoffs and he'd have over for dinner and then they beat us. So why do we say we're not going over his house eat anymore? You know, he's just setting this up. And his wife at the time came to the game. She was all upset and she'd made all this food for us. And nobody showed up. And you know, we couldn't tell her. Well, we're just trying to get beat by Philadelphia and your husband, so but he was a class act. Everybody always said you know what a class person he was and being around him and spending time with him. It was not a facade. It was not a put on. That's exactly who he was on and off the court. Just a great person and obviously a tremendous basketball player, Michael Jordan. Well, Michael, obviously a lot of people think he was the best player to ever play the game. I'll tell you my story. And it's hard to argue with that over some of the things that he did great competitor No matter what he was doing, he was a great competitor. So he was our guest, a few years for the Kentucky Derby. So one year, I was talking to him and I said, Michael, let me tell you what the scouting report on you was when you came into the league. And so he said, scouting Parsa Yeah, let me tell you, you know, when we played you guys with the bulls, what, how they told us to play you. And he said, Well, what's that I said, well, they said, to push you out on the floor, to get on your right hand keep you from going right, don't let them throw the lob and let you get a lot done. Because that gets the fans all going and give you the outside shot. So you couldn't really shoot, Oh, he got fired mad. He was new, I couldn't tell you that. I said, Mike, that was a scatter report. I didn't make them scattering pour it up. But obviously, he became you know, a great all around player and a lot of ways that you can make the argument and it's hard to argue against them. You know, being one of the best, if not the top two or three to ever play the game

David Novak 45:57 

youngness I

Junior Bridgeman 46:00 

am amazed at what he can do at his size. But even more I had the opportunity to meet him at his brothers and his mother and father before he lost his father in Milwaukee. And they were as humble and as down to earth as any family you'd want to meet. And obviously the two or three the brothers played an NBA but and even after he became you say Well, well, you know, he wasn't a great star that he is today. And yeah, he wasn't then but I'll just follow that up with as he became a star, he would still go by. We had a pizza restaurant in Milwaukee at the time. And he would come in at by himself. And he'd order a pizza, and he sit at the table. And you know, obviously all the crew, people would want to autograph and picture and he do that fans would do the same thing. And he would sign and take pictures. And when he was done, he'd get up and eat come back the next week and do the same thing. And he'd come back the week after that and do the same thing. And it was just amazing to me that someone who had achieved and was going to become as great as he is today. Was that type of person, just humble and just willing to give himself or interact with whoever it was it didn't matter to him. And that had a lot to do with what I saw his mom and dad, you know, a few years earlier.

David Novak 47:27 

What's your top memory of your NBA career?

Junior Bridgeman 47:30 

It's not a game. It's not, you know, a game where you might have scored a lot of points or it's not playoff series. You know, people say, Well, you slept Boston one year when you had Larry Bird that had to be a highlight, you know, all of those things were Yeah, they were fun. They were exciting. But what I see in us back then, compared to the guys today is the camaraderie that was built and developed amongst the guys on the teams back then that I don't see today. I mean, give me an example after a game, we take the bus back to the hotel on an away game, and we're getting off the bus, somebody would say, all right down in the lobby and 10 minutes, let's go to dinner. And that's all you had to say. And 10 minutes later, there'd be six, seven guys in the lobby, and we'd all go to dinner together and come back to the hotel. And that was how it was being on the road, there was just a camaraderie that is something that was special. And you know, saying about, you know, going to war with people creates a whole different relationship. And the same thing going go into battle with those guys over all those years in the NBA developed and created something that is very special, and a lot of people will not get to experience in their lifetime.

David Novak 48:45 

We talked a bit earlier about Coca Cola, and I'd like to dig more into what you're doing as a Coca Cola bottler. Talk me through into your expansion into Canada, and how that's different from the US part of the business. I'm sure that's been a big learning experience. Oh, yes, definitely.

Junior Bridgeman 49:01 

It has and, and, you know, we got involved. As I said, we were the third bottler. And they they added another bottler in New York because New York is such a difficult place to do business and nobody really wanted to do it. But they they found someone to take it over. And so once they did that the only place left that in this re franchising effort that Coca Cola had going on, was Canada. And so I said, Well, you know, let's see if we can expand or if they'll give us the opportunity to take over in Canada. And so we put our name in the hat and went through the process. And so they said, Well, it'd be great if you had a Canadian partner, Wayne Embry, who just happened to be the general manager at the Milwaukee Bucks when I was there was now working as a consultant for Larry Tannenbaum, who was the owner of the Toronto Raptors NBA team. He said, You know, the Tanenbaum family has a great family, why don't you talk to them and see if they'd be interested in partnering with you. And so I talked to Larry and met with them. And everything that Wayne said was correct. They were a great family. And so we formed a partnership. And we were able to win the award, or I should say, when the, the Canadian bottling franchise, so we got all a Canada. And so as they told us, the first day, when we started meeting with the people, they said, We are Canada, we are not the northern part of the United States. And so we, ourselves, you know, and we believe that what we do and how we do things, and so there are some things that are different from healthcare to how they see life in general. But the thing that amazed me the most, when I started going up there was seeing just how integrated Toronto and parts of Canada are, I mean, it is the most integrated country, they were saying, on this whole planet, people from everywhere, and all different kinds of people. And yet, you can walk the streets, which we did of Toronto, which is almost like a New York, you can walk the streets at night, and see women walking by themselves at 10 o'clock, 10 3011 o'clock, and no concern about safety or anything like that. And that's what really kind of amazed me the first time few times we went up there. The other thing that I would say there is a great sense of pride in the Canadian people, how much pride and love they had for who they were and how they do things. And we've been successful in Canada because of that. And because of the work ethic of the people up there. It's just been great to see and great to be a part of

David Novak 52:05 

what leadership qualities do you see in the people running the best bottling businesses?

Junior Bridgeman 52:11 

First thing I would say is just understanding, as I think when we were in, you know, really heavily in the restaurant business, and you can only make one sandwich at a time. And so if you're going to be successful, you've all got to be on the same page, you all have to understand that we're all in this together. And no one should feel like they're any less or any more important than the other person. And that's what I think what I've seen, and from the leadership, now they've had a revolving door the last few years, and upper leadership. But when you look at our, our company, whether it's heartland and United States, or, you know, Canada Canadian bottling company in Canada, what we've tried to do is to instill that hometown attitude that you're in this city or that city, you know, you are part of that community there, you are there to make a difference in a community, and to make a difference with the people that are involved with you. And to just make it a great place not just to work but a great place for the community. And I think we've instilled that hometown attitude, that hometown pride, I mean, we just won the bottler of the year, by beverage digest here in the United States and Canada, we were awarded one of the best places to work in the whole country of Canada. So I think we're doing something right. But it's all stem from the fact that has been about, we say, not just the people that work there, but the families because you know, when you hire somebody, someone comes to work with you. And you're basically hiring their family. And so we say, in the United States, here, we've got 2300 families that we're responsible for. And we don't take that lightly. Because what we the decisions we make don't just affect that one person that's coming to work, but it affects that whole family, and in a positive way or negative way. And so that's something that we don't take lightly and really focus on, you know, in every decision that we have to make. You also

David Novak 54:15 

own Ebony and Jet magazines. That is a business has been totally disrupted in the past several years. And I can't imagine you being the business person that you are going into that unless you thought there was some sort of opportunity. What do you see in tackling this business? And what's the upside?

Junior Bridgeman 54:32 

I grew up, as you know, outside of Chicago, Illinois, and when we were old enough to drive into Chicago along Michigan Avenue, one of the big big signs you would see on one of the buildings on Michigan Avenue was an ebony sign. And you know, way back when when you were a kid that gave you a great feeling to know that Ebony Magazine was here headquartered there and that magazine that, you know, as a black family was so important growing up, reading was on the dining room table or coffee table, whatever it was that that's where it was headquartered at. And so when they fell on hard times, and they fell on some pretty hard times, why would you go and buy a magazine when people weren't reading magazines anymore? They can get all the information they wanted online. Why would you go do that? And the reason why we did it is because ebony has 75 years, they've been around 75 years, but they 75 years of not just black American stories, but 75 years of American stories, 75 years of history of things that have gone on in this country. And that's really where the true gem is. And what do I mean by that there are the content for those 75 years is so important that we've been approached by everybody from all you know, the Hulu's, the HBO the prime, everybody wants to have access to that content. Because there are stories in there that need to be told or need to be made into movies or into series. You look at the movie that was a success, Hidden Figures that came out that was first written about an Ebony Magazine a number of years ago, people still talk about the Emmett Till story that became a movie, they always refer to the picture on the cover of jet magazine, him during the funeral that was kind of an eye opener for the time and change a lot of people's thoughts about what was going on in civil rights at the time. So there's just story after story, not just a political, there's entertainment, there's sports, there's just stories about what was going on in this world in this country over the last 75 years and things that need to be told. And so that's really what we saw and where we think the real future is of ebony will still make which we're doing you know, a digital magazines. But just getting into the process with my daughter is not I'm not she is just getting the process of categorizing all of the stories and then seeing what direction you want to go. And what needs to be made here are there.

David Novak 57:27 

Now one thing that I know is not going to be a moneymaker for you because you and I are in this business together is that we along with a couple of our friends bought Valhalla, which is a championship golf course, in Louisville. You know, I know why I got involved. Why did you get involved,

Junior Bridgeman 57:43 

we all have an affection and affinity and a love for golf. It's a great game. It exposes every aspect of your personality, your character, everything you plan a game with the ball and a stick, so to speak. That's not baseball, but it's a diamond in the rough. And why can you say that even though they've had, you know, four PGA A's and a couple of Senior PGA championships, but it's still a golf course that never reached its full potential. It should be one of the top golf courses in this country. I mean, it's got everything there, except being polished, so to speak, it needs to just, you know, take that rag and pause his buffet a little bit, and I think it'll be there. And that's what we're doing. And so okay, even though that probably not gonna make any money for anybody, but what it will do, it will instill, I think, an increase the pride in the city of Louisville, a state of Kentucky, over a venue that is not just nationally known, but internationally known. And you look at Kentucky, I mean, aside from maybe Churchill Downs, the only thing that anybody really knows, if you've mentioned it by name with being Val Hall, we all feel like this is something that we can do that will last and live long after you know, we're not involved and maybe not even around.

David Novak 59:06 

I want to thank you so much for being on the show. And you're just an incredible person. And I would say a great man. There are very few great men in the world, great people in the world. And you are and you're proof positive, that if you do the right things, the right things happen. And you've always put other people ahead of you. And I don't know anybody that's more humble than you. And I'm just so proud that I can call you a friend because you're an amazing, amazing person. Thanks for being on the show. Appreciate it.

Junior Bridgeman 59:39 

Thank you. Thanks for all you're doing and the impact you're having and I've given your book to almost everybody in our office so you're still making a difference in lives. Thank you for all you're doing

David Novak 1:00:03 

Well, there's no doubt Jr Bridgman is just in a class all of his own. What an extraordinary person, I'm so happy, you got to listen in on that conversation and learn from a great man. For Jr. It's all about the power of people working together. I love that. Whether it's winning championships or turning around a Wendy's restaurant, the idea is the same. When you care about your people more than yourself, when you care about the big goal more than who gets the credit for it? Well, that's when magic happens. So as you go about your work this week, ask yourself, Does my team really work as a team? Do we put the big goal before our own individual contributions? Do we value each other's unique skills? Do we know how to combine our efforts to do more? When you can create that kind of teamwork driven culture? I know you and your people will celebrate some incredible stuff together. So do you want to know how leaders lead? What we learned today is the great leaders know that we go farther together. Coming up next on how leaders lead is Dr. John Noseworthy, CEO emeritus of Mayo Clinic. over the

John Noseworthy 2 1:01:15 

decade, we were able to drive out a lot of waste, drive up our margins. So we had enough margin at the end of the year to invest in research and education and in our staff, and our quality got better. And the Mayo Clinic always had great quality, but it got much better. Because people were focused on what is it that we do that makes a difference to the outcome of that patient.

David Novak 1:01:36 

So be sure to come back again next week to hear our entire conversation. Thanks again for tuning in to another episode of how leaders lead where every Thursday you get to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world. I'm making a point to give you something simple on each episode that you can apply to your business so that you will become the best leader you can be