We start with his move from Wisconsin to Florida and end with new therapeutic products soon to be available this year and an announcement from me.

Before I go on, I want to share an essential aspect in healthy relating that surfaced in my conversation with Phil. We are more than our individual beliefs and the systems we were born into. To find safety in our connections, we do not need to agree. Instead, we need to be heard, show respect, and strive to understand what each person tells us to meet their needs.

I may disagree with someone’s hobby because I find it harmful. However, my opinion does not mean I can’t appreciate the joy Phil finds in being an outdoorsman and fisherman. I am not here to judge or force my beliefs onto Phil. We all grew up in a meat-eaters world full of traditions supporting the industry. I understand how Phil developed his hobby.

I am here to connect with Phil and understand the intensity of his journey over the past few years sharing what he has learned with you and offering insights where it makes sense. I have tremendous respect for Phil and appreciate his leadership, innovativeness, savvy business acumen, the therapeutic comforts he manufactures for others, and how he has implemented an employee stock option plan (ESOP) for employees. A win/win/win for his employees, leadership team, and himself. Are you ready for his fishtail?

Moving from Wisconsin to Florida and re-engaging Phil’s love of fishing.

I find Phil sitting in his car in Crystal River, Florida, hoping the rain won’t start during our conversation, which it doesn’t. The house he purchased is not what it seems. A few touches turned into an extensive remodeling project.

Phil developed a love of flying from his Dad, who was a professional pilot in the military. The fishtail begins here. You will learn about specialized trout and redfish in the Gulf and Charles from Trinidad and Peacock bass, Galy, arctic char, fish in the Amazon, and swimming in rivers with piranha. This fishtail sounds true.

Phil uses a cow analogy to calm COVID’s pandemic fears.

Now we’re cows? This is how an innovative mind works. Coming up with analogies that fit the population you work with, something about Manhatten’s population of 1.63M people in 23 square miles and 70,869 people/square mile compared to Polk County, where two of Phil’s manufacturing companies are located in Chetek and Osceola, WI. Polk County is 956 square miles and has 44,000 people or 46 people/square mile. They are already physically distanced by proximity, Phil emphasizes. That analogy might have calmed the fear of some employees but didn’t keep Phil and other employees from getting COVID. Phil discusses what happened when COVID arrived at CORE Products International, Inc. and how their sales volume percentages changed between healthcare providers and consumers. It is worth hearing how they scaled up and down their manufacturing production of masks and hand sanitizer finishing with a surplus of products when product demand changed.

Divorce and Divvying Up Ownership Assets.

Initially, Phil was concerned that his divorce would destroy his $20M business. Find out how he worked out ownership and saved CORE Products.

Education and Employee Profit Sharing Plans (ESOPs).

At CORE Products International, Inc., Phil implemented an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) that can reduce wealth and wage inequality, economists say by educating employees on the business’s financial structure and seeing their monies potentially grow from year to year. However, the Toronto subsidiary of CORE Products is set up differently. Phil discusses how he ran his business without being able to cross the border.

Shared ownership and education can be a strategy to begin bridging wage inequality. A different strategy than minimum wage and job creation policies that are helpful but not as effective as showing employees how to create wealth through employee stock option plans writes economist Jared Bernstein¹. ESOP’s can reduce wealth and wage inequality as long as employee wages are not lowered when they participate in a company’s ESOP. We don’t go too deep into the weeds but discuss enough for you to understand how the implementation is going for Phil.

“Employee ownership can be accomplished in a variety of ways. For example, employees can buy stock directly, be given it as a bonus, receive stock options, or obtain stock through a profit-sharing plan. In addition, some employees become owners through worker cooperatives where everyone has an equal vote. But by far, the most common form of employee ownership in the U.S. is the ESOP, or employee stock ownership plan. Almost unknown until 1974, ESOPs are now widespread; as of the most recent data, 6,460 plans exist, covering 14.2 million people.

ESOPs are most commonly used to provide a market for the shares of departing owners of successful closely held companies, to motivate and reward employees, or to take advantage of incentives to borrow money for acquiring new assets in pretax dollars. In almost every case, ESOPs are a contribution to the employee, not an employee purchase.” 

Phil uses Anderson Windows as an example of a successful ESOP where employees received 84% profit-sharing checks one magical year. In 1988, Anderson Windows paid out a whopping lump sum of $105.8 million to employees through their employee profit-sharing plan. Listen in for the details.

Also, find out new products and opportunities on the horizon. DOWNLOAD

Enjoy all the festivities we missed last July! See you August 2, 2021, for new episodes.

F.Y.I. In our 1^st podcast conversation, we talked about how Phil started Core Products International, Inc. through discontentment and bootstrapping, his growth strategy in acquiring 14 other small companies, and building a culture focusing on customers and employees.

Phil employs 140 employees, generating $20M in annual sales. He described his business growth cycle in a recent presentation at Club E as steep growth, followed by flat revenues to steep growth again, and so on. As you will soon learn, Phil is fully engaged in life, is a calculated risk-taker, a savvy business owner who has a long history of building solid relationships. As Mike Kabeya (sound engineer and videographer) and I had videotaped his manufacturing facility for their internal use, employees came up to us and shared how Phil has made a difference in their lives. It brought Phil to tears. He says the benefits of being a big fish in a small town are its positive impact on its town and those living there.

In our 2^nd conversation, Phil gave us tips on working with business bankers to gain a banker’s perspective on your business and the industry you are in. We also discussed how he organizes meetings and how he used the TRACTION method to transform how he leads by adding structure, accountability, and it helped him learn how to share power. During this time, Phil researched Employee Stock Option Plans, known as ESOPs, which he shares today.