In Montgomery County, leadership is often easier to recognize than to define. It is not limited to a title, a platform, a board seat, or a corner office. More often, it shows up in the daily choices that make a place stronger: the decision to serve beyond the job description, to build with care, to mentor instead of compete, to keep faith and family close, and to keep showing up when the work is quiet, difficult, or unseen.
For this Gentlemen’s Issue, Conroe City Lifestyle looks at men whose lives reflect different forms of strength. Some lead companies. Some lead teams. Some lead through service, hospitality, healthcare, craftsmanship, civic engagement, or the example they set at home. Their stories are not identical, and that is the point. Montgomery County is not shaped by one kind of man or one kind of work. It is shaped by people who bring their experience, values, discipline, and relationships into the places where they have been called to serve.
Across these profiles, a few themes repeat. Work matters, not only as a means of earning a living, but as a way to create stability for others. Faith matters, not as a slogan, but as a compass for decisions, service, humility, and perseverance. Grit matters because every meaningful path includes setbacks, risk, long days, and lessons learned the hard way. Service matters because success that never reaches beyond the self is too small a vision for a growing community.
These men represent businesses, organizations, families, and causes rooted in Conroe, Lake Conroe, Montgomery, The Woodlands perimeter, and the broader county. Their work touches homes, outdoor spaces, resorts, clinics, chambers, nonprofits, neighborhoods, churches, and community gatherings. In different ways, each one helps shape the everyday experience of living here.
That matters in a county changing as quickly as ours. Growth brings new homes, new businesses, new families, and new opportunities, but it also raises a question: what kind of community are we building while we grow? The answer will not come from plans and projects alone. It will come from the character of the people leading, serving, hiring, volunteering, coaching, building, and welcoming others into the life of this place.
Readers will find accomplishment in the pages that follow, but accomplishment is not the only story. The deeper story is stewardship. These are men working to leave something stronger than they found it. A better company. A healthier team. A more connected community. A place where family, faith, craft, service, and responsibility still matter.
Taken together, these spotlights offer a simple local invitation: notice the men who build well, serve quietly, lead steadily, and invest in others. Then consider where that same kind of work is being asked of you.
In Conroe’s business community, leadership is not an abstract idea. It shows up in how teams communicate, how companies serve clients, and how people handle pressure when the next decision matters. For Bob Goshen, those lessons have been tested across boardrooms, stages, military service, and business turnarounds around the world.
Goshen is a global keynote speaker, entrepreneur, author, and leadership coach who has traveled more than four million air miles speaking to audiences across the world. Known for humor, directness, and high energy, he has spoken for major universities, the U.S. Army, Chambers of Commerce, large banks, and hundreds of smaller organizations. His audiences have ranged from corporate teams to packed colosseums in China, Russia, the United States, and Canada.
His message is rooted in real-world leadership. Throughout his career, Goshen has helped companies transform culture, develop stronger leadership teams, and raise performance across entire organizations. One of his most notable business experiences involved helping turn around a struggling company and grow it to more than $2.9 billion in sales while serving more than four million new customers.
At the center of his philosophy is a simple but demanding goal: help organizations find their unified voice. Goshen believes companies perform better when leaders, teams, and front-line employees move in the same direction with clarity, trust, and shared purpose.
That perspective was shaped long before the keynote stage. A U.S. Navy veteran, Goshen served in intelligence, tracking and intercepting global communications to help locate threats around the world. He also played college football as a linebacker, where teamwork, discipline, and resilience were learned under pressure.
His work has earned personal endorsements from well-known leadership figures, including Lou Holtz, Zig Ziglar, Jim Stovall, Lt. General Don Campbell, and Ty Boyd. Today, Goshen serves on two major college boards, supports more than 30 philanthropic organizations in the United States and abroad, and is the author of eight books.
He is also a husband, father of three, and grandfather of five. For local leaders, his example offers a practical challenge: build teams around a clear voice, stronger culture, and a shared commitment to serve well.
In Harper’s Preserve and Creekside, Ryan Eisenbath’s work in natural healthcare began long before the clinic doors opened. His story starts in St. Charles, Missouri, where he met his wife, Jen, when they were both 15. High school sweethearts, they built a life shaped by faith, family, and a willingness to follow where God was leading.
After earning a petroleum engineering degree from the University of Missouri-Rolla, now Missouri S&T, Eisenbath began a career in oil and gas. That first chapter took Ryan and Jen more than 1,000 miles from home. Later, it took their family across the world to Southeast Asia, where they experienced cultures and healthcare traditions very different from those they had known in the United States.
Living overseas expanded the way Eisenbath thought about health. He saw communities place a strong emphasis on natural healing, body awareness, and whole-person care. One unusual marker of that season is that he has now visited more countries than American states. More importantly, those years helped shape a conviction that the body is designed with an extraordinary capacity for healing.
After more than a decade in senior oil and gas leadership, Eisenbath felt called toward a different kind of work. The move into entrepreneurship was not only a career change. For Ryan and Jen, it was an act of faith and a chance to build something their three daughters could watch up close: a family saying yes to a calling.
That calling became HealthSource of Harper’s Preserve, followed by HealthSource of Creekside. Eisenbath leads with a servant’s posture, modeling his approach after the example of Jesus: listen first, meet people where they are, and treat each person with patience and dignity.
His clinics focus on chiropractic care, rehabilitation, and natural wellness strategies for people seeking better movement, recovery, and daily function. For Conroe readers, the takeaway is practical: do not normalize pain or limited mobility. Ask questions, understand your options, and work with licensed professionals who can help create a responsible plan for care.
For Eisenbath, the clinics are not simply businesses. They are an expression of faith, family, and service to neighbors as Harper’s Preserve continues to grow across Montgomery County and nearby neighborhoods.
On Lake Conroe, hospitality is more than a room, a meeting space, or a weekend by the water. It is the feeling guests carry home. For Tom Faust, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Margaritaville Lake Resort, Lake Conroe-Houston, that understanding has been shaped by decades in the hotel industry and a career that began with an unforgettable turn.
Faust joined Margaritaville Lake Resort in September 2020, bringing experience from some of the most recognized names in hospitality. Before arriving on Lake Conroe, he spent nine years with Omni Hotels and Resorts as vice president of sales. Prior to Omni, he worked eight years at the Anatole in Dallas under both the Wyndham and Hilton flags. He also spent 18 years with Sheraton and Starwood Hotels in operations, marketing, and sales roles at both the corporate and field level.
His introduction to the industry, however, was anything but ordinary. While in college in St. Louis, Missouri, where he grew up, Faust was working at a gas station when he was robbed and put into the trunk of a car. Afterward, his parents insisted he change jobs. The next day, he was on a Bi-State bus headed downtown for an interview to become a bellman at Stouffer’s Riverfront Towers, located between Busch Stadium and the Gateway Arch.
He got the job. He also met the woman who would become his wife.
The human resources director who hired him was Michele Catena, now Michele Faust. Their shared hospitality story became a family story, and Tom and Michele have now been married for 48 years. They are the parents of Adam Faust and Lauren Larkin, and grandparents to Poppy, Phoebe, Thomas Wolfgang Faust, and Olive Larkin.
Today, Faust’s work at Margaritaville Lake Resort helps connect the Lake Conroe area with guests, groups, companies, and families looking for memorable experiences close to home. His career offers a practical reminder for Conroe readers: the best hospitality is built on service, consistency, and people who know how to make others feel welcome.
Around Conroe and Lake Conroe, the best outdoor spaces often begin with a simple question: how will this family live here? For Loren Goodrich, founder of Houston Deck and Shade and Loren’s Lumber, that question has shaped a business built by hand, refined through leadership, and grounded in faith.
Goodrich started building decks at 16 and launched Houston Deck and Shade at 19 in 2009. He is quick to say the early years taught him hard lessons. He knew the trade, but business required a different kind of growth. Trying to carry every responsibility himself only took the company so far. The turning point came when he learned to lead, delegate, and trust others with responsibilities he no longer needed to hold.
That shift changed more than the size of the company. It changed the kind of leader he wanted to become. Over the last several years, Goodrich has focused on strengthening company culture, sharpening sales systems, and building a team that can serve homeowners and contractors.
In 2021, he opened Loren’s Lumber, creating a supply hub for Houston Deck and Shade and for other contractors who need reliable materials and support. Today, his companies employ 26 people and continue to grow.
Behind that growth is a personal philosophy shaped by mentors, coaching, reading, faith, and family. Goodrich credits good men in his life for speaking truth and helping him become a better leader, husband, father, and man. He also points to his wife, Bianca, as one of his greatest influences. Married for 14 years, they have three children, and he describes her as a steady voice through every season of building business and family.
His friend Howard Partridge often says, “All of business and all of life is about relationships.” Goodrich has taken that to heart. For him, success is not measured only in revenue, projects, or expansion. It is measured in service, leadership, family, and what is done for Christ.
Away from work, his best memories are made on the lake, crappie fishing, deer hunting, and spending time with family. For readers planning an outdoor project, his story offers a practical reminder: build the structure, but do not neglect the people around it.
In Montgomery County, some leaders are easiest to find by looking where help is needed. For Scott Harper, service has never been limited to an official title. It has been a career, a habit, and a way of staying connected to the people and organizations that shape Conroe, Lake Conroe, and the surrounding community.
Harper has more than 26 years of nonprofit experience, with leadership roles spanning the Conroe and Lake Conroe Chamber of Commerce, YMCA work in Tampa and Houston, and service across civic, education, healthcare, and community boards. His professional path began at Wal-Mart’s corporate fitness center in Bentonville, Arkansas, after he played football and earned a degree in Sports Management and Recreation from the University of Southern Mississippi.
Those early experiences helped shape a leadership style built around relationships. Harper is known as a connector, a supporter, and a steady presence in community life. When he is not officially working, he is often still serving: volunteering on boards, supporting nonprofits, helping community organizations, or lending time where it can make a practical difference.
His civic resume is long. His service includes roles with New Danville, HCA Houston Healthcare Conroe, United Way of Greater Houston’s Montgomery County Advisory Board, Leadership Montgomery County, Conroe Noon Rotary Club, Education for Tomorrow Alliance, CASA, Assistance League, Lone Star College Small Business Development Center, Lone Star Family Health Center, and multiple Conroe ISD committees.
Harper’s work has also been recognized beyond Montgomery County. He has spoken for chamber professionals across Texas and Alabama, received Leadership Montgomery County’s Core Values Award in 2023, earned Rotary’s Paul Harris Fellow Award, and was honored by the YMCA of Greater Houston for excellence in financial development and fundraising.
Still, his story is not only about meetings, boards, and committees. Harper and his wife, Jennifer, have been married for 30 years. They live in Montgomery with rescue dogs, cats, and horses, and in their spare time they run Revel Ranch, a horse boarding facility. Their daughter, Laine, is a Baylor graduate, and their son, Ethan, is a Texas Tech graduate.
For Conroe readers, Harper’s example is direct: strong communities are built by people who keep showing up. Join a board, volunteer for a cause, support a chamber event, or simply help connect one person to the next right opportunity.
In Conroe and Montgomery County, homebuilding is rarely only about floor plans. It is about land, family, trust, and the kind of long-term decisions that shape how people live. Matthew Reibenstein, Chief Strategy Officer of Story Built Homes, brings that perspective to his work with a rare mix of business strategy, technical building knowledge, and Texas cowboy discipline.
A proud Texas A&M graduate, Reibenstein first built his reputation as founder of Royal Design Build Co., where craftsmanship, transparency, and client trust became central to the brand. Royal’s success eventually led to its acquisition and integration into Story Built Homes, where Reibenstein now helps guide long-term strategy, business development, land opportunities, and custom home growth.
His credentials reflect serious industry depth. Reibenstein has earned advanced designations including Certified Graduate Associate, Certified Green Professional, Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist, and Graduate Master Builder. He was named the Texas Association of Builders’ inaugural Excellence Under 45 recipient in 2014, received GHBA Custom Builder of the Year honors in 2017, served as GHBA President in 2024, and received the 2025 B.E.A.M. Award for Builders Engaging Associate Members.
For Reibenstein, leadership also means showing up for the broader industry. He serves as a Texas Builders Foundation Trustee and is known for mentoring young builders, supporting association work, and advocating for residential construction through groups such as the Greater Houston Builders Association.
Away from the boardroom, Reibenstein is a professional competitive roper. The sport requires timing, discipline, partnership, and steadiness under pressure. Those same traits carry into his work: measure carefully, trust the team, and execute when the moment arrives.
At home, faith and family remain the foundation. Reibenstein and his wife, Katy, have been married for more than 14 years and are raising their three children, Paxton, Brinlee, and Reagan, on acreage in Montgomery County. Their family life includes horses, hunting, Aggie football, church, Bible studies, and time outdoors.
For local readers considering a custom home or major building project, his example offers a clear takeaway: choose builders who understand both the structure and the life that will happen inside it.
"A strong community is often built quietly, by people who keep showing up when the work needs doing."
“All of business and all of life is about relationships.” from Howard Partridge (Loren Goodrich's mentor and a good friend)