RCC founder prepares to hand leadership reins to next generation

When you talk with Brian E. Sheehan about his life, be prepared for lots of laughter. And then a suspicion that it can’t all be real.

Kangaroos in Minnesota? Segway scooters in the office? Meetings with the pope, presidents and other world leaders? Home for only 10 days in two years? All while running a groundbreaking company serving hundreds in the propane industry?

But he’s so darn genuine. So you’ll quickly realize – it’s not an act.

Brian, who founded Rural Computer Consultants (RCC) with his older brother Kevin, has made it his mission to serve others in every capacity, bringing joy wherever he goes.

With a ready smile, exuding warmth for everyone he meets, Brian lives a life that draws others in and inspires them to trust him and get on board.

“It’s been a phenomenal ride,” he says.

As the pair was launching RCC in 1979, on the cutting edge of the consumer computer age, they quickly discovered they could make a huge difference for propane marketers like their dad. Forty-six years later, Brian is preparing to turn over the company’s reins to the next generation.

“We’ve had fun,” he says simply. “We’ve had an absolute blast.”

Like father, like son

Fabian “Fabe” Sheehan, an entrepreneur in his own right, was an electrician, and then a plumber, before learning heating and cooling systems and starting Sheehan’s Plumbing & Heating in Bird Island, Minnesota, in 1939. In 1952, as the nation was emerging from the second World War, he decided to jump into the propane business.

“He had a vision that propane was going to be where it was at,” Brian says. “He bought a 2,000-gallon truck, would drive [to buy propane], then come back home and sell it.”

That same year, Fabe built a propane bulk plant east of Bird Island. Then in 1969, he and his son Mike helped bring natural gas to the landlocked small town Brian still calls home (population 956), developing a natural gas distribution system that Mike designed as a college class project.

“Dad was a great visionary,” Brian explains. “He tried different things. He was not afraid. He worked his tail off.”

His eight children learned to do that, too. Brian, “the caboose,” says that if you were old enough to hold a paintbrush, Fabe put you to work painting trucks.

“I drove a bobtail in college,” he adds. “I would get $1 a day, and if I’d do Friday and Saturday, I’d get an extra $1 for Sunday.”

Ten years later, Brian was studying mechanical engineering in college as his brother Kevin was trying new things with computer programming. In 1979, the pair started computerizing their dad’s records, demonstrating how much faster they could produce statements compared with his running them off on a mimeograph machine.

“We would just push a button, and people would go ‘Oh my God’ at how fast you could get this out,” he recalls.

They quickly deduced how much independent mom-and-pop marketers like their dad needed a computer system. Two classes short of graduating, Brian left college to dive into the computer business. He never did finish college. Fabe bought his sons two Apple computers, and they set up shop on a makeshift desk made of a door atop two filing cabinets.

Relying on their experience and accounting knowledge, Brian and Kevin designed a program to primarily help small independents who couldn’t afford expensive systems. In 1984, they rewrote their program to run on a lot of different platforms and headed to their first Southeastern propane convention.

That’s where they discovered they weren’t the only ones forging this line of work.

Devising a successful business model

Brian and Kevin knew they couldn’t compete with the big companies, so they focused on small independents. In doing so, they found that their program was dynamic enough to accommodate different scheduling and delivery processes without having to rewrite unique systems. That gave them the flexibility to serve customers at a competitive price – and a distinct advantage.

“We recognized extremely early on that we could throw a bunch of switches out there. We were extremely flexible; we designed a system that would fit more customers rather than the customer having to change their business to fit us. And that was very successful for us,” Brian says. “We had the same set of software running hundreds of companies, but we didn’t have a custom one for every one we sold.”

The other factor that differentiated RCC from day one was its commitment to service. In those days, computers were prone to crashing, so Brian and Kevin worked many late-night hours to get their customers back in business.

“I worked on Thanksgiving Day every year for a number of years,” Brian says. It was how they were raised: “My dad built his company around service, 100 percent. And still to this day, we do too.”

Herman Dickens, owner of L.H. Dickens & Sons Inc. in Louisburg, North Carolina, was part of one of those Thanksgiving holidays, some 37 years ago, hunched in front of a computer.

“Brian spent most of the day helping me get the server back up and running,” Dickens recalls. “We have never had an issue that wasn’t handled the same way.”

RCC’s big break came in 1987, when it signed Jenkins Gas & Oil – at the time its largest account – and it started to develop programs for corporate accounts.

That year, it also acquired a software company to expand into the insurance industry and eventually bought nine or 10 competitors. When RCC sold off that business around 2010, its annual revenue dipped a bit, so it began designing mobile fuel management systems for bobtails and delivery trucks.

Now, RCC offers everything a propane customer would want, Brian says: “We don’t offshoot anything.”

The company has become a leader in software, support and hardware, specialized for the fuel and propane industry, and boasts 70 employees, many of whom work remotely in 13 states, affording a unique work-life balance.

Treating everyone like family

Positioned at the cornerstone of the company’s mission is a commitment to treat everyone – from employees to customers – like family. Brian understands from personal experience that a marketer’s livelihood depends on its ability to provide for its people.

That’s why, for example, when RCC buys a company, it keeps the employees and familiar systems as long as possible. New processes can be especially frustrating to learn amid a transition.

“This is the best family in the world,” Brian says. “When they have babies, we give them gifts. We have a great relationship with them.”

Sometimes, though, when you’re working side by side in a real family, those relationships are tested.

“We’ve had our arguments,” Brian admits with a laugh. “We’d throw things at each other now and then, but at the end of the day, we’re family and we got along.”

Beyond business

He might have worked 80-hour weeks when necessary, but life’s not all business.

Brian raised horses in the 1970s, but he sold them as he got busier and bought llamas. On their 80-acre farm, he and his wife, Lori, and their four children raised and showed 15 llamas around the country, once winning Reserve Grand Champion at a show in Omaha, Nebraska.

Then he got a pair of kangaroos, pygmy fainting goats and a Sicilian miniature donkey. The family would bring the llamas and kangaroos to schools and nursing homes.

“We could bring them to their bedside, and they loved it,” Brian says.

The community got involved when the gate was accidentally opened, and for a time, a pair of kangaroos was roaming the Minnesota countryside.

“We’re a little bit adventurous,” Brian says. “We not only think outside the box; we throw the damn box away.”

Lion-hearted

Inspired by his charter member father, Brian joined the Bird Island Lions Club in 1991 and has served in dozens of leadership roles. The self-described introvert served 2022 as international president of Lions Club International, a worldwide organization of 1.4 million members, often requiring him to speak at major events, once before 100,000 people.

At the Lions headquarters in Chicago, he travels around the office on a Segway, just for fun. He admits to rolling over his wife’s foot with a hoverboard on stage in front of 30,000 people.

She must not be too mad, though: Lori continues to accompany him on all his travels, which took them on the road the last two years for all but 10 days at home. (She, too, is a Lion and Progressive Melvin Jones Fellow.) They both deliver motivational speeches all over the world. Later this year, they’ll travel to England, Turkey and Honduras for talks.

In 2023, he served as chairman of the Lions Club International Foundation, which put him in front of both the poorest victims of natural disasters and the leaders of nations. Each encounter touched his heart.

The lifelong Catholic had hoped to give Pope Francis a stress penguin at their meeting (this is a “thing” he does) but refrained after a fellow Lion convinced him it might be disrespectful.

“It’s the only regret that I had, not giving the pope a stress penguin,” he says with a laugh.

Industry support

Joe Erskine, president of EDPRO Energy Group Inc., says that Sheehan’s corporate values and approach to life mirror those of the propane industry overall, which accounts for RCC’s success.

“It’s family-owned and very proudly so, as so much of the propane industry is,” Erskine says. “RCC is rural-based and with full understanding of what is important to those of us in the propane industry. When something needs doing to help a customer, Brian does it.”

When EDPRO was getting off the ground, Brian made multiple trips to train employees in using the systems, often on weekends.

“And through it all, Brian brings a smile, joy and friendship that makes this industry worthwhile,” Erskine says.

As one of RCC’s first customers, Dickens marvels at the way Brian’s servant leadership has permeated the company to this day.

“With their innovations and customer service, they have changed the propane industry and operations for the better,” Dickens says. “It’s nice to be able to say that after all these years.”

After 46 years in business, Brian appreciates the support he’s received from those in the industry and others he’s met along the way. But what’s even better is knowing that he was able to use his talents to make a difference for others.

“We don’t take anything for granted,” he says. “We’ve absolutely been blessed.”