Brave Men S1E11: Ed Preston - A Stunning Comback

It's Brave Men with Paul Lewis Cole, wisdom and courage for the journey. Brave Men starts now. It's good to have you with me, Ed Preston. Ed Preston, you are the owner of Biscuits Cafés, restaurants. You've got an amazing business going there, but there's a little backstory to it, so it's great to have you here and talk about this and help some of us in our journey through life begin to tweak some things, because you found yourself, am I right? You found yourself in a tough spot, so you're a senior executive with major corporation. Then you end up driving a truck, is this right? It's right. By doing too many headlines there. Then you're driving a truck, and then from driving a truck, you end up owning your own restaurant corporation. How does that happen? What happened in that corporate world to you, Ed? Well, it just happens lonely and painful, and so I grew up the latter in a big restaurant corporation, and at the end of all of that, basically I was burned out, because that business was grown and representative from doing business from a world standpoint of you, and being as I was raised in the church, it just got to the point that rub me the wrong way so much that I decided that I was going to leave that corporate world not knowing what I was going to do, but I wasn't going to do the restaurant business. Wow. You were in a restaurant corporation, and now how old are you when this happens? I mean, you've burned out, you've worked hard, you've done all this stuff you're supposed to do for success, and here you are burned out. Yeah, it's 40 years old, right in that area, and I just made up my mind that I was never going to have another boss as long as I lived, and I was never going to march to another man's quarters that I felt that was opposed to a godly system. Yeah. So now, what were things like in your personal life? I mean, what was family and all that sort of thing? Well, growing up in a church, a very traditional religious type church with a lot of rules and regulations, I was trying to manage a family from that aspect, and it just simply wasn't working. And everything I put my hand to in that situation seemed to fail, okay, where I got to the point that the kids didn't like me, and I didn't like them, and wife didn't like me, and I didn't like her, and basically everything was falling apart, it was sort of like a domino effect when you tip the first domino, getting it stopped, it's like you need a miracle or you need something to intervene to stop that tumbling. So here you are burned out, you're living on the west coast, right? And here you are, you've done the corporate ladder thing, you've worked your way up, didn't you? Yeah, 20-some odd years. Wow, and you worked your way up to a high level in that corporate restaurant corporation. Now everything's falling apart. What happens that you end up driving a truck and then something begins to shift into your life and your thinking? What happened there? I had this friend, he was a new acquaintance, and I met him at the church, I was attending at the time, I was a newcomer there, and so was he, and so one day he asked me to go to this men's event on Saturday, and I thought, well, you know, I'm not working right now, I don't have anything else to do, so I'll go with him. And he took me to a big men's meeting, and there was probably 7, 800 guys there, and the speaker that day was Dr. Edwin Lewis Cole. My dad. Your father, yes. That's amazing. And that was, for the first time in my life, I heard things that made sense to me. Really? In a Christian setting. Right, and the religious setting, you know, there was always things that were said or things that were done or performances that just rubbed me the wrong way. I remember setting in church when I was about 17, 18 years old, and I thought, there is something really wrong, but I don't know what it is. And so that was in me until I was like 40 years old when I met Dr. Cole, his ministry. And it seemed like that day, everything started changing. And so at the end of the day, you know, at this men's event, at the end of the day where I felt like that out of 7, 800 men that Dr. Cole was speaking directly to me, and somehow singled you out. And then you were going through so far. He said three things that day that made complete sense to me is that when men quit reading, they quit learning. And I hadn't done that since high school. I might read a newspaper once in a while, and they had lines only. Yeah, but the truth is, you probably hadn't even read it in high school. I haven't even, well, probably so, yeah, I had other things on my mind at that time. And so that resonated with me when you quit reading, you quit learning. When you quit reading, you quit learning. And he also said that day that men learn to hear messages and not study the word of God. So in other words, we're trained to hear sermons, but we haven't really studied the word. Right. Wow. And so I was based in my life on things that I had heard from the Popehead or from ministers or rules and regulations and regulations instead of the word of God. And then the last thing I remember Dr. Cole saying that day is when you decide to do those things, it's like soap, it's useless until it's applied. Or the word is applied to your life. And so I left the meeting that day and I stopped in the foyer on the way out and bought all of Dr. Cole's tapes and all of his books. And I took him home that night and the family had gone to bed and I remember laying him in the living room floor. And I got my Bible off the mantle and dusted it off. And I laid that down in front of the books and the curriculum. And I prayed and I said, God, I'm going to do this. I'm going to read this and study it. And I'm going to start applying it to my life and if it doesn't work, it's your fault. Really? You said that. I mean, you prayed, okay, God, I'm going to do all this stuff. I'm going to read the word of God. I'm going to do all this. And if it doesn't work, it's not me, it's you. It's on you. And that started the journey. And this guy that took me to the meeting, he was a log truck driver. And I didn't want to be around people anymore. I didn't want to answer the phone 50 times a day and the corporate job that I was involved in. And I just didn't, I just wanted to be left alone because for the first time, I think I'd found something that I needed to really concentrate on, curriculum, and Docker Co's ministry. And so I, he told me about this guy down the road that had a log truck for sale. And of course, I was also broke at that time. And because nothing was working. Yeah, you're out of the corporate world and you're going to try to do things right? Right. It's going to try to do things right. So I went down to see this guy and I didn't have any money to buy a truck. And but I remember that my father one time did a deal that he couldn't do and he talked the guy in to let me make payments on what he wanted to do. And so that just popped my head and I said, I want to buy this truck from you, but I don't have any money where you take payments. Well, he knew my father personally and he says, yeah, I'll trust you with that. So the next day I was in the logging truck business. Really? Didn't even know how to drive a logging truck. So you went from a corporate, you know, white collar, if you will, that sort of setting. And next year driving a logging truck truck, like a Mac truck, Peter bill, a big truck, 18 wheeler. Really? Yeah. And so for four years, I drove that truck from Northern California to Los Angeles because it was converted into a lumber truck instead of a logging truck. And then above the windshield of the truck was this cassette player. Oh, yeah. I know a lot of the younger guys probably doesn't really know the cassettes. But anyway, it was up there. And so I had all these cassette tapes from Dr. Cole's ministry. And so I'd plug it in. And you know, I was driving truck probably 10 to 15 hours a day. And so I'd listen to Dr. Cole all during that before I'd go to bed at night. I'd make notes of what I heard on the tapes on the console of the truck. Really? And then at night, I would look the scriptures up to back it up. Really? So you'd stay someplace overnight because you're driving up and down the state. And then you'd actually sit in a little motel room, take those notes, take the materials and look it up in the word of God. Right. Because I wanted, you know, all I wanted to know is what truth was. That's incredible. I didn't want another cliche or I didn't want another minister that had said something to me that didn't make much sense. It doesn't work in real life. Yeah, it doesn't make the minister a bad guy. Yeah. But I was dealing with myself. Wow. And so this became your college, your four-year college. Yeah. So I did that for four years. Did you go to college? Yeah, I went to college for three days. You did for three days. Well, that's when I found out I was going to be a father. So you've just gotten married. So you've got to make a living. And three days in, you find out that you're about to have a baby. So that's what started the corporate world. Yeah. So now here's your four-year college. You're in this logging truck. What was happening in your heart and your spirit at that time? Basically, what was happening in my heart and my spirit was like a complete washing. And you know, washing that old traditional stuff, think out of my mind and out of my heart. And then when you wash something out of your mind and out of your heart, you have to replace it with something. Yeah. And I replaced it with the word of God and the teachings of Dr. Cole's ministry. And then I would meditate on it. I would ponder it. I would think about it. And I remember one day I was listening to Dr. Cole's tape on lust. And you know, where lust is what you can get from others, for yourself, at their expense. You know, versus love, what you can give to someone at your own expense. What you give, what you give. And so forth. And then I remember that meeting when Dr. Cole was there and I was telling him, hey man, this stuff is really working good for me. So I'm going to go home and tell my wife about this lust thing. And he says, you don't do that. She has eyes. So don't go tell her how well you're doing. She has eyes. Don't tell her how good you are or how well you're doing because she has eyes. Or how good you're going to do. Right. So I think most of us, I think most of us is men, we make that mistake. You know, we say, okay, here's my intention. Here's where I plan on being. The real thing is when we actually live it and people see it. Right? Otherwise, what happens is you keep giving, you know, her your word pretty soon, she doesn't want your word. Right? That's right. She's done. Yeah. And so, yeah, you know, that was a big change for me, letting her see the difference. Well. And instead of me telling her what the difference was. And that basically shifted and changed your marriage and everything. Right. And then how did you get back into the rest of the story? Well, I was, that is a little bit of a long story because I was so amazed at Dr. Cole's ministry, I would look and find out where he was doing meetings at. Really? Okay. And if it was within four hours of where I was at, then I would go see him, okay, if it was sometimes I'd even save up my money to fly to a location. Well, back in the day, Dr. Cole did open seating and so I would always get there early and set on the front row. And even if he did a break, I wouldn't go and break because I didn't want anybody to get my seat. So I remember one day I was in Sacramento, California at one of the breaks. I was sitting there and he comes down and sets down beside me. He says, I notice you've been shown up into my meetings frequently and I'd like to officially introduce myself. Well, I believe when we shook hands that day, that God ordained in my life that he would be my spiritual father. Wow. And then his time went by and he got to know him better and he got to know me better. And he said to me one day, he said, how are you doing with the truck driving? And he says, it's time for me to quit. Yeah. But I don't know what I want to do. And he says, well, what you need to do is work your power base, do what you know to do. Do what you know best. Well, what I knew the best was the restaurant business. And he said, well, I think you're just as smart as those people are. And I think you have the ability and the fire and the belly to do it as well as they do. So do your own. And that was when I decided to get back in the restaurant business, but I'd do it on my own. Yeah. So what did you do? You just went and bought a big restaurant somewhere? No, it wasn't like that. I started looking in the newspaper for buildings availability and so forth. And you got to remember, I didn't have any money. You just drive the truck? Yeah. So back in the day, when I was working for big corporations, you know, without knowledge, you just live pay day to pay day, raising kids and all that. So I didn't have any money. And so I found this building. It was a little storefront building that was like a hamburger joint. And so I went to the guy and I said, I see your buildings for sale. And he said, yes. And I said, what do you want for it? And he says, I want $50,000. Well, that's not a lot of money today, but in 1998, it was quite a bit of money. It's still a lot of money. Right. It was $50,000 that I didn't have. Exactly. And so I didn't know what to do. So I called my mother that night and I knew she didn't have any money, money either. And she says, well, you have an aunt that was in the restaurant business. Maybe you should talk to her. Well. So I called her out and she came down and met with me. And I showed her the building and had lunch with her. And where was this? This was in the suburb town of Portland, Oregon. So you're in Portland now? And so this is in a suburb, Oregon city, it's Oregon city, which is just right there part of Portland. Right. Okay. And she says, well, I'll loan you $25,000 at 10% interest. 10%? Okay. Okay. This must be a God thing. So you have 25 grand. He wants 50. He wants 50. So I go to him and I says, I want to buy your business, but all I got is $25,000. And he said, sold. Well, kind of find out later, he had had open heart surgery. And he needed to get it. He was ready to go. He was ready to go no matter what the cost. Oh, man. So anyway. I was in the restaurant business, got my wife and my son. He was in culinary art school at the time. Okay. So he cracked the first egg in biscuits cafe and Barbara waited tables. Your wife waited tables? And what did you do? I did dish washing. You were washing dishes. The first egg. The first egg. Then I went out and bought a commercial dish machine. After one day of washing by hand on paper. So the next day you bought a dish washing machine. Right. Yeah, I'm a little bit smart enough. That's a funny story, man. Now, you had a concept though when you started this. I mean, you felt like God had dropped something in you. Right. For a concept. For a restaurant. Well, in the restaurant business, I always work breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Long days, you know, away from the family. Right. And that was another world concept of the big corporation is they were number one in your life instead of your family. Part of your issue with the corporation was they just chewed people up. They chewed people up. Yeah. Just used people, right? Yeah. And switch created a lot of turnover. And a lot of training all the time. So you didn't want to do this? And you came up with a deal. Right. So I just said, God, there's got to be a better way. And so he taught me to do a breakfast and lunch, only concept, and still how to be profitable at it. And I allowed. Because dinners, in that sense, dinner is a profitable time. So now you're going to do breakfast and lunch and still make the thing work. Right. And breakfast foods are a lower food cost than dinner cost. And so to make a decent profit is easier in the aspects of buying food than buying dinner products. And so I knew that. And so we put that all together and lined it out and built a menu from it. Wow. And we gathered on the first day and held hands and pray and said, God, if this doesn't work, it's your fault. Yeah, it's the same prayer. So far, that prayer has been working so far. It's been okay, yes. And so we started and we struggled for about two weeks. And then the local newspaper came in and did a feature article on it, which didn't cost us anything. So now that's called favor. That's called favor. So God gave you favor. You were faithful and He gave you favor. Wow. That's a huge principle, Ed. I think that any of our friends that are listening or watching right now would say, okay, that's something I need in my life. Where does that come from? Where does favor come from? Favor comes from, in my particular situation, is allowing the Holy Spirit to teach me how to do this and do it right. So you prayed over your business. Right. And we told God that we would build this business from kingdom principles instead of the world system. You know, that we would treat the people that we do business with, like people where you purchase food from and our insurance contracts and our building contracts and our employees. That we would treat them with the same frame of mind that we treat ourselves with a God in principle. You treat others as you treat yourself. So now you're treating people right. God begins, you know, He's downloading you how to do things. And then, but this thing began to expand. How long before you ended up? Well, after that newspaper article, it seemed like the very next day the flood gates opened. Wow. And we've been very busy ever since to 23 restaurants now. You have 23 restaurants. You have 23 restaurants. So last one opened a week ago Monday. And you're in multiple cities, multiple cities. We're in Seattle, Portland, and Phoenix, Arizona, and Phoenix. Three major markets. Okay. Which means you can be in Portland during the summer and Phoenix during the winter. Yeah, you figured that out, did you? Yeah. Yeah, I got this weather down past. And so, yeah. And, you know, building business from a business standpoint as far as God had was concerned how He would run business. You know what I'd like to do? I want to do two more programs with you for Achieve Lab and for a Brave Men podcast. And I want you to run down the business principles. Okay. Negotiations, all the different things you went through. But I want to go back to, I want to finish up our time together right now with this. How did you, how do you listen to the voice of God? I mean, here we are, we're guys. We've got the world going on, stuff happening, chaos, whatever it may be. And yet somehow in the midst of some difficult time, you're driving a truck. You've been a major corporate executive. Now you're driving a truck. How did you, how did things shift that you begin to listen to the voice of God? How does that happen? Well, the scripture kept resonating to me where it says to go into your closet and get quiet before Him. And shut out the outside world. And so back in 1998 when we started the business and before driving the truck, I decided to make that a pattern for my life. It's to get away from shutting out the world and spending time with Him and being quiet before Him. Instead of just constantly praying, God, you need to help me with this. You need to help me make my house. But you need to help me take care of the kids. You need to help me do this. You need to run. Yeah, run. You need to help me. And I learned through that process that God is always speaking to us, but we're not always listening. And then I like to refer to that as like, why don't they call doctors practicing physicians? Because the more they practice it, the better they get it. So I would practice just getting quiet before Him and allowing the Holy Spirit to talk to me. Wow. And teach me how to do this. So that began to grow, but you had to take the first step. And then I learned that it's abiding in Him instead of just visiting Him once in a while. That He is always present in my life and that I need to learn from Him because He's got it all figured out I don't. So as a businessman, as a business person, your business is not separate then from your walking with Christ. No, it's the same. So Sunday isn't separate from Monday. No. And so how do you instill those principles with your business? Well, there's several methods that I use. And you know, whenever I'm approaching a situation with an employee or another businessman or a contract or anything, I always set down and I ask God to teach me how to handle this situation. And then throughout the day, when I'm doing those things, I can feel Him maneuvering me because I've practiced that for 20 years now. And do I still make mistakes? Sure. But then I also learn that if I do make the wrong decision, that if I do that same process, He will teach me how to get out of it or overcome it. And it's become a lifestyle. And how many employees do you have now? Over 300 employees. Plus you have franchise stores. Plus you're still franchising. And as we do this taping today, you've actually just opened another new restaurant last week. Last week, we could call Monday. So this is an ongoing process and you're growing people up in it. Now your grandson, your son is running restaurants up in Seattle and federal way. It's an amazing story yet. It is. And it amazes me sometimes. Yeah. And it's some guy in your, were you guys living in an apartment or a house or something? And when that guy invited you to the men's meeting? No, I lived in a home at that time. Okay. But you had a neighbor. Yes. Who that guy was? No, he wasn't a neighbor. He was a acquaintance at church. Okay, a guy that you knew. And he invited you to this men's thing. Right. And it changes everything. Changes everything. And this man probably doesn't even know all the details of where your life has gone now. Right. He would not go back to another meeting of Dr. Kozik. Because he thought Dr. Ko was too harsh. He was too tough for this logger boy. You know, and so. And so bottom line is, somebody invited you. God changed your heart and life. But you applied it and you listened to the cassettes. Of course, now we get to listen to it online and all that stuff. But you know, you listened to it. You put it in there. You did the work. And if we're faithful at doing the work, it's amazing how if you actually follow Christ, he begins to speak to your life. This is one of the most amazing stories. You know, and you and I know each other and we travel together. But every time I hear this story, I'm always asking to tell people the story, right? Right. And so thank you for telling it with us today. But I just want you to know that I believe somebody listening right now, we're going to pray in just a moment, somebody listening right now, will have this sense of, you know what, I need to do that. And what would you say to them right now? I would say that we as men or women, we don't really know how to do this thing, this life or this business. Okay, we might think that we do, but we really don't. And because God has a method, method, and God has a way to do it right and it will prosper. And if we just create a relationship with Him, just start and allow Him to teach you and allow Him to direct you. And you learn to follow Him in that. Yeah. Then, you know, we serve an extravagant God. Yes we do. The Scripture is very true that He will do abundantly above all that you can ask for. Amen. And I'm a great witness to that. Awesome story, though. Let's pray, Father, in the name of Jesus, we pray for our friends who are listening watching right now. Praise God. And Ed and I agree that right now, and we pray, Father, our friends will just take the first step. Share this story with somebody else, bless them in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks, Ed. Love you, bro. You've just experienced Brave Men with Paul Lewis Cole. Paul is president of the Global Fatherhood Initiative. Connect with Paul, like BraveMen.Men. That's BraveMen.Men. Amen.