SEASON 2: EPISODE 04 TRANSCRIPT
James Archer
James Archer: I really believe that I can do more than I'm doing, because I want to make a difference in people's lives. And any way that I can do that and leave the legacy and leave this place in a better place than when I found it, I think it's God's gift to me to be able to do that.
Dr. Greg Jones: Our world is facing significant challenges and at every turn, another conflict seems to await, yet we survive, we overcome, we even thrive by relying on an intangible and undeniable gift. Hope. It fills us, connects us, highlights our individual purpose, and unites us in the goal to do more together. Hope fuels us toward flourishing as people and as a community. My name is Greg Jones, President of Belmont University, and I'm honored to be your guide through candid conversations with people who demonstrate what it really means to live with hope and lean into the lessons they've picked up along their journey. They are The Hope People.
Today's agent of hope is James Archer, CEO and Co-Founder of MV2 Entertainment. Though his career path as a successful entrepreneur has varied greatly from oil and gas to Music Row, at the core, James carries with him an allegiance to the mighty three: mission, vision, and values. Today, James and I explore the importance of values-based leadership, his involvement in healthcare initiatives, and his support for continuing education through scholarships like Belmont's Archer Presidential Scholars, where James and his wife Lois encourage tomorrow's leaders to align their values and pursue further education to make a difference in the world.
You've been successful in a variety of different kinds of businesses. Talk about that and how you've thought of your own vocation as an entrepreneur.
James Archer: Well, I think the big difference is it's really who and then what. And it's all about the people and how they align with the core values of the organization. That is the most important thing. If you can manage the passion with the job, you just need to stand back. But people do amazing things under the right direction and leadership.
Dr. Greg Jones: You were trained as a chemist originally, and that's part of what gave rise to your work in the oil industry. Talk about going from the laboratory to business and the building of your business.
James Archer: Well, a lot of people think it is pretty simple to start a business from ground floor, but it's really not. It takes a lot of loyal commitment, hard work, dedication, and the will to continue on when things don't exactly go your way. And so we were able to start the company in the garage, Lois and myself in September 1993, and build it to the fourth largest production chemical company in the world, and operate at some 78 locations in North America and 16 countries. So it was quite the ride, but I couldn't have done it without fabulous people working around our core values of ethics, commitment, excellence, and innovation.
Dr. Greg Jones: That's great. One of the things I admire so much about both how you built and led that company, and then how you talk about leadership in terms of values-based leadership. How did you discover the importance of that in your own company, and why does that matter so much to you more generally?
James Archer: Well, after starting Multi-Chem, about seven years into my operation, it felt more like I was just managing tasks and not really leading people. And I chose to visit with my brother who had developed value-based leadership at a company called Hope Caterpillar. And I went to visit with one of his associates and we talked about, "Do you have a mission? Do you have a vision? Do you have values?" And we said, "Yeah, we got it." And he says, "Does everybody know it? Is it wrote down? Is it something you have on the wall? Does everybody know it?" And I said, "Well, probably not." And he said, "Well, we need to establish what that is, and then we need to train, develop, and hire to value-based leadership."
We started, of course, with the executive team we had at that time. And as the executive team grew, we continued to train and develop. We did four trainings a year, which is about twelve days. And we also were assigned a book each month. So we tried to read twelve books a year on leadership. And so we continued to develop our leadership skills and hone those and start moving that into the organization at every level. That becomes more of a difficult task, but it starts with new employee orientation where they hear me talk about the core values and why that's important. And one of the things I always said, "You want to be with this company and you want to be here a long time and you want to make a difference, the first thing you need to do is be aligned with these values. And if these values don't meet your values, you're probably in the wrong job."
Dr. Greg Jones: You said you started the company, you and Lois did in the garage, and then you built it to the point where you sold it to Halliburton. You've always been a future-oriented person and a future-oriented leader as part of what it is for you to be an entrepreneur. And so you're one of those people who conveys hope to your employees, to your community, to your friends. How did you discover that future orientation and that sense of being an agent of hope to all those around you that just, you're such a source of encouragement?
James Archer: Well, I think everything starts with a positive attitude and you got to have the hope, the will, and the vision to see where you want to go. And fortunately for me, God able to give me a gift, a vision. Now a lot of people have vision, but can they execute on that vision? And so, fortunately for me, I learned that skill, early age, of working hard and making a difference, using Christian values to make a difference in what we do and say every day. And it made all the difference in the world. But I'm a visionary and I see things usually before they happen.
Dr. Greg Jones: That's beautiful. When you talk about both vision and execution, I say if you have a vision but don't execute, that's a fantasy. But if you have execution with no vision, you have a bureaucracy.
James Archer: That's it.
Dr. Greg Jones: When you sold Multi-Chem to Halliburton, reaped a significant financial benefit out of that, and yet you shared a lot of the proceeds with your employees, talk a little bit about that and what motivated you to want to do that at that time.
James Archer: Well, it's all about who and then what. And we just were able to, through the years, attract very key people to our organization. And at the time, I just felt like I was able to make a difference in their lives because they made a difference in Lois and my life and been with me for years in thick and thin. And so it was a chance to reward a large group of people for what they had done. Not beyond a paycheck. Just here, take this, because thank you so much for all you did for me and Lois.
Dr. Greg Jones: That's wonderful, and a sign of the relationships that you've built. I love your phrase, "Who, then what." That there's a sense you both convey in your hospitality and the ways in which you relate to people that you appreciate people, and that sense of caring about the who really matters.
James Archer: Well, I always say, "They don't care how much you know, they want to know how much you care." And we truly care about the people that we're around and all the stakeholders that we come in contact with on a daily basis. So whether we're here at Belmont doing something or somewhere else, these are people that we care about.
Dr. Greg Jones: Yeah, that's great. Is there somebody or some people who inspired you with a sense of that values-based leadership and hope that gave you a North star beyond your faith?
James Archer: Getting to spend some time with Ken Blanchard was an outstanding deal. And looking at his knowledge, wrote over 300 books, he's the one-minute manager, the one-minute parent, and he wrote a number of books on leadership, and he was very inspiring. And then we used some of his models to start the initial deal. As we advanced in that part of the deal, we searched for a little higher, deeper level leadership deal. And we worked with a guy by the name of Art Wilson who was an IBM executive who started his own consultant. And then we moved on to the Flip Flippen Group and really started digging into 360s about how we're wired and what makes us good and what are our constraints every day with our personality, the way we're wired. So if you don't know yourself, you probably don't know others.
Dr. Greg Jones: That's a good point and important in leadership. So it's going to sound like the beginning of a joke, a chemist and businessman from Texas decides to go into music. After selling Multi-Chem, you come to Nashville to start a music publishing company. Talk about MV2, its meaning in its name, and why you wanted to do that. And talk about your love of music.
James Archer: Well, I've always had a love for music. I started playing the guitar back in '92, and of course loved country music from the old stuff to some of the new stuff. One of the things, I had a close friend, Tony Harold, who was a lifelong friend since 1972 that was my neighbor and used to go with us on vacation, and he was between my age and my younger brother. And Tony used to sit down and play piano. Of course, he's a 32-year studio keyboard player here in Nashville. And he says, "Hey, why don't you just come up and stay at our house out at Franklin and let's visit and it'd be good to catch up and all that. So I said, "Man, that sounds like I got a little bit of time, I'll come out." So we came out and we just got talking and he said, "I do this studio deal all the time, been doing that, but I'm really wanting to do a publishing company and then establish a record label and do the full 360."
And I said, "Well, tell me a little bit about it because I don't know that side of the business." And he set up meetings with Sony, Warner Brothers and others for us to go visit with. And we went and visited with them and asked them questions. And I was so green, I didn't even know what questions to ask, but we were able to get a sense of what that business is. And so we leased a place on 17 and opened the shop. It was pretty funny. We brought a card table in and a few chairs, and we sat around there and we started talking about mission, vision and values. I said, "If we're going to do this, what is our mission?"
So we brought in a couple of my other leaders in some of my other companies, and then a few songwriters and stuff, and we started this deal, what do you want to be? How do you want to be? What do you want to be known for? What values do you create? What is our mission here? And so we just called it MV2, which is Mission, Vision and Values. And so we established that early on and then started bringing writers and interviewing writers and people that truly aligned with our values to start that business. We're going to be nine years in May.
Dr. Greg Jones: Wow.
James Archer: And we moved over to 16 because we needed more room and had an opportunity to take the place there. But we now, moving right along, work with Sony and others, writer, major publishing companies around town, and been pretty successful with breaking out a few number ones.
Dr. Greg Jones: That's great. It sounds like it's been a really successful venture for you. And your engagement with Belmont actually began through MV2. Tell us about that journey and becoming familiar with Belmont.
James Archer: Well, when I started MV2 and I started talking to the leadership team or the group, I said, "I found that we're stronger if we get with other people and better understand what we're doing." And I said, "Isn't Belmont a music school? I mean, we should be doing something with Belmont and see what they're doing. See what that is." Well, they had the pipeline project for the MBA students, and we applied for that deal and we ended up doing that. And so I came and talked to the MBA students about mission, vision, and values, even though we're doing this pipeline deal, but it helped us get over a hump. Sometimes you said, "Well, I think it needs to go this way, and then you're kind of stuck."
Well, with these smart young adults, we were able to give them those things and help create solutions for us in a go-forward method. Well, come to find out, it was more than... It ended up being three years that we did the pipeline project with the MBA students. And the more I came to Belmont, I said, "I love the culture over here. Just feels good." Every time I went, I met other people, I went to different buildings, I met students in the cafeteria. I said, "This is the kind of organization I like working with." And so we continued to do that and then was able to do some other gifts and stuff with Belmont. And one of our very first ones was The GIG.
Dr. Greg Jones: Yeah, The GIG, The Gallery of Iconic Guitars is really a special place. And for someone like you who plays the guitar, it's got to be special just to go over there and see those iconic guitars.
James Archer: Oh, they have some amazing classic vintage guitars and fiddles and other string instruments.
Dr. Greg Jones: One of the ways in which you've gotten involved with Belmont, in addition to serving on the board of Trustees and providing great leadership on the board, you and Lois gave a significant gift to set up the Archer Presidential Scholars, and we've just been interviewing candidates for next year's Archer Scholars. Why do you and Lois care about investing in younger people, and what's been your experience of those interviews and developing some connections with these young people?
James Archer: Oh, it's been motivating to see these talented young adults flourish also in high school, but have an opportunity to come here to Belmont and continue their education, and then move into their careers. But the reason we did that is because they're our future leaders of tomorrow. We've got to continue to educate people in the right way. They're going to go out into the workplace and make a difference. And so now we get to help these young students fulfill their dreams. It'll be up to them to execute, but they'll get a great education right here at Belmont.
Dr. Greg Jones: Oh, thanks. And we're grateful for you all's generosity and support. One of the things I was thinking about this morning as we were interviewing those candidates is, they give me a sense of hope and excitement for the future. Because I can get discouraged when I look at the news on a daily basis, but then when I see these young people, sometimes what they've already done in high school, as you were describing, and then to imagine the kind of people they can become, their character, their values-based leadership. I love the way you ask them questions about their core values, and they're pretty articulate in talking about those, and that's encouraging.
James Archer: Well, you know when you talking to somebody who's going into the nursing or medical business, that's a servant leadership role, and servant leadership is real important. And if you're not wired for service, then you really don't need to get into that business because it pulls at your heart string when you lose a young child or guy that looks like your grandpa or your mother or somebody like that. We hope every result turns out the best we can, but we know in that profession that it doesn't always happen that way. And so it's got to be somebody that is a servant mind, and is all about service, and has to be dedicated and committed and very loyal to what they want to achieve. And they have to have a caring mode, caring personality to do that type of job.
Dr. Greg Jones: Yeah. That's so impressive. You talk about nursing and medicine. You and Lois have been involved in healthcare and you serve on the board at MD Anderson and healthcare has been really important to you. How did you get interested and involved with that?
James Archer: Well, in 2012 when I formed the foundation, I didn't have any family member or anything that had cancer. My mom had had cancer back in '76 and it went into remission, and she lived for many, many more years. But I had always heard of MD Anderson and what great work they were doing in this disease called cancer, and how it's striking more and more closer to you. So when I established a foundation, I said, "I want to make gifts to MD Anderson." And so we set up Mission, Vision, and Values around our foundation. And one of our missions was to help the pediatric young kids. We started with the children's brain cancer. We also had a calling, Lois's mom had Alzheimer's, and so we helped MD Anderson at that time with Baylor Medical and another group start the study to come up with a cure or pill that slows down the progression of Alzheimer's. So we looked at the young and that. As we've been involved in those type of things, the majority of people are not adolescent or in the pediatric, but in the mid-range. That cancer research that we're doing crosses all those lines, whether it's neurology over here or it's children pediatric brain cancer or what it might be. And so our mission was to help medical for young kids originally, and then the seniors, but we now bridge that gap to take in medical as a whole.
Dr. Greg Jones: Well, that's really impressive, and you're doing such great work through MD Anderson. You've also been a significant champion of our new College of Medicine here at Belmont and our broader emphasis on health. What do you see as the opportunity for this new College of Medicine at Belmont?
James Archer: Oh, I think the sky's the limit. First of all, y'all have exceeded my expectations, and I've just seen the facility one time. But we need more doctors and we need good, trained, professional, caring doctors. And everybody needs it. It's not something that's going away. We have the baby boomers who are getting older, but at the same time, more and more health issues, even in younger people. And so starting this and training and developing great doctors, physicians, nurses, the whole medical deal, it tugged at my heartstrings to think, Hey, let's get the best, the brightest in here, and let's help them get their education right here at the Frist College of Medicine here at Belmont.
Dr. Greg Jones: Well, thank you. We're grateful for your generosity and support and encouragement as we look to it in the changing character of the healthcare workforce and helping doctors and nurses and pharmacists and other health science professions, occupational therapy and physical therapy. It's working together as teams that we see that kind of possibility and impact, and it improves the quality of life for everybody. What words of advice would you have based on your own experience and journey?
James Archer: Well, I think a lot of times you get examples set by your parents, but I think the biggest thing is relationship capacity that you have with a fellowship of students here. Take in that. There's a lot to be learned from each other, but at the same time, associate yourself with people who have similar values and principles and character that you want to be like. And get the best education and go out into the workplace and make a difference. And so if I was talking to a student says, "I'm going to probably talk about core values, and I'm going to talk about mission, vision, values. But at the same time, your values have to align with maybe your husband to be or your wife to be or partner. And really, those have to align for you to be in sync with one another. And so take in the fellowship we have here at Belmont and add to those values that mean the most to you."
Dr. Greg Jones: I want to ask a question you often ask our candidates as we're interviewing them for scholarships. What adjectives describe James Archer?
James Archer: Well, I'm a man of honesty and integrity, and I'm also have a caring heart. And I really believe that I can do more than I'm doing, because I want to make a difference in people's lives. And any way that I can do that and leave the legacy and leave this place in a better place than when I found it, I think it's God's gift to me to be able to do that.
Dr. Greg Jones: Thank you for participating in this conversation with The Hope People. Our aim is to inspire you to become an agent of hope yourself, and to help us cultivate a sense of well-being for all. To join our mission and learn more about this show, visit thehopepeoplepodcast.com. If you enjoyed this conversation, remember to rate and review wherever you get your audio content.