This year, Dow Smith Company CEO Joey Rhyne celebrates 20 years with the company.

He recently talked about the highs and lows of the past two decades in an interview on our From The Ground Up podcast.

For Joey, the best part of working at Dow Smith Company is the people.

“There’s a story behind every one of our employees,” Joey says on the podcast. “The highlight for me is when that next person comes on board and becomes a member of the Dow Smith family. Every one of those people are a highlight. Their story before they came and how they ended up here, but not just how they ended up here … what happens in their life for the better once they come here. Obviously, we can’t take credit for that but I hope we provide a culture for people to become healthier and more well-balanced in their lives and to grow.”

Joey also talked about some of the tough times in Dow Smith Company’s history – and how they made us better.

“9/11 had happened a few years before I got here. We were still recovering from that when I came on board,” Joey says. “We didn’t really start feeling the effects of the Great Recession until 2010, but we barely made it out. We barely made it out. So when we have endured those hard times, it has really made our core values very clear, our mission very clear and we have identified who we are at our core as a company and as a people who work here.”

You can listen to Joey’s conversation with Chief Marketing Officer Taylor Loyal below.