With over 27 years of experience in business strategy, scaling, and operations, Lee V. Partee is a faith-driven executive and entrepreneur focused on building and transforming purpose-driven companies.
As the leader behind Skyview Partners and its portfolio of businesses, Lee is committed to creating organizations that not only perform at a high level but also make a lasting impact in the communities they serve.
He is deeply passionate about creating opportunities for individuals in recovery and re-entry, helping provide second chances, meaningful work, and pathways to restored lives.
Grounded in his faith in Christ, Lee integrates biblical principles into leadership, decision-making, and business growth. He is dedicated to helping other Christian leaders align their work with their calling, lead with integrity, and build with eternal purpose.
Outside of his work, Lee is a devoted husband and father who values faith, family, and meaningful impact.
Transcripts
Speaker:
Welcome to 12 Minute Conversation with Jesus Believers.
Speaker:
God chose first to have a conversation with us, His creation. Our prayer is
Speaker:
that this listening space brings growth and transforms your life forever.
Speaker:
Praise God for you, Lee. What parts of the world are you in today?
Speaker:
I'm in just south of Cleveland, Ohio.
Speaker:
Oh, very cool. Born and bred?
Speaker:
No, I was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and my dad moved up here to take a ministry position
Speaker:
when I was three and a half years old at a Christian high school. He was the Bible teacher
Speaker:
and history teacher for two different Christian high schools.
Speaker:
Do you play any instruments?
Speaker:
I used to. I used to play the piano, and I've actually been thinking about taking up the guitar
Speaker:
just to help with my hand dexterity as I'm getting older.
Speaker:
What made you put the piano down, though?
Speaker:
Just kind of started doing martial arts and playing soccer, and just didn't have time for it,
Speaker:
and got away from it.
Speaker:
So tell me about how you came to meet Jesus.
Speaker:
I accepted Jesus when I was eight years old in the basement of the church that we attended at
Speaker:
the time, and was a good little Christian boy for a while, and then got to be a teenager and
Speaker:
kind of rebelled pretty hard. I was the poor kid at a rich kid's school, and so I got more
Speaker:
with their money and worship money for a long time. Then in my mid-thirties, I had another
Speaker:
moment with Jesus where I just kind of laid out prostrate on our living room floor, and what felt
Speaker:
like 10-15 minutes was really about six hours of just pouring my heart out and really feeling the
Speaker:
Holy Spirit come down. From that point on, I've rededicated my life to Christ. Even after doing
Speaker:
that, I dealt with some consequences of some poor decision-making as a businessman, and
Speaker:
ended up spending some time in federal prison. Then that was used by God even more. I started
Speaker:
teaching and preaching there and doing ministry there. I led a Bible study where we had 42 guys
Speaker:
come to Christ, and 53 guys rededicate their life. I saw marriages getting healed in the visiting
Speaker:
room and came home and had a job. COVID got that wiped out because I was the lowest guy on the
Speaker:
totem pole. But I found another great job with a friend of mine who owns Faith-Based Behavioral
Speaker:
Health Company, a drug and alcohol addiction company, and Sober Living as a non-profit,
Speaker:
and helped him scale that business over three years. I was interviewing for a job to help people
Speaker:
in Houston that were coming in re-entry. I didn't get the job, but a friend of mine said,
Speaker:
wrote this big vision, go do it. We launched Skyview Partners. We own a roofing company. We
Speaker:
own a mechanical group. We do some real estate development advisory and some other things like
Speaker:
that. What was life like doing jail time and having reflection time? It was more of a pain
Speaker:
for the sins of the past, consequences, action. It was tough. It wasn't what you see on TV
Speaker:
necessarily, but it was definitely a journey of two and a half years. God put some really good
Speaker:
godly men around me. The most real church I've ever been a part of was the church
Speaker:
that was there in prison I was at. They'd lived out what Acts tells us to live out.
Speaker:
They did it in a way that made sense for the environment we were in. It was just awesome.
Speaker:
God used that time in my life. I could sit here and say it was hard and it was
Speaker:
all the other stuff. It was, but it was really a refining period and really a direction setting
Speaker:
period for me. Fortunately, I had all the time in the world to study the Word and be in Bible study
Speaker:
with other men. We really dug into quite a bit of stuff during that time period. Like I said,
Speaker:
we were able to see lives saved and marriages saved. A lot of good came out of a bad situation.
Speaker:
Is it accurate to say that the peace that you felt was only possible
Speaker:
through that relationship you had with Christ?
Speaker:
If I had not humbled myself enough to get to where God could actually be heard,
Speaker:
it would have been a completely different experience.
Speaker:
What does your family life look like? Do you have children?
Speaker:
Yeah, I'm married. My wife and I have eight kids.
Speaker:
Wow. Come on. You should say that slower next time.
Speaker:
My oldest is going to be 24 this year, and he's expecting his first. I'll be a grandpa sometime
Speaker:
in July, hopefully. I've been married. This October will be our 25th wedding anniversary.
Speaker:
Congratulations.
Speaker:
We've been together for quite a while, and God's blessed us with a full quiver, as they say.
Speaker:
Yeah, I love that.
Speaker:
Our age range goes from four to 24, five boys and three girls. The last three are all boys.
Speaker:
They're all boys.
Speaker:
The business side of you, was it something that was ignited after prison,
Speaker:
or there was something that you were doing?
Speaker:
No, I was an entrepreneur before that. I did most of my career in the mortgage space
Speaker:
and financing real estate space and real estate investment and stuff like that.
Speaker:
I already had an entrepreneurial career. The first job I had, probably in 20 years,
Speaker:
was one job I had when I came home, because I was required to have a job.
Speaker:
Was it tough, though, getting a job and doing prison time?
Speaker:
It was tough. It was tough, but I worked for a great company selling construction equipment.
Speaker:
Learned a lot. It was by God's grace that it even happened and enjoyed it.
Speaker:
But one of the issues I had is I was used to being a leader,
Speaker:
and it put me in a position where I was several rungs down the ladder.
Speaker:
I think God used that, too, to really help open my eyes about
Speaker:
the type of leader I wanted to be and doing the work, really relearning
Speaker:
habits that are good versus some habits that may have been bad.
Speaker:
What is it like leading the company now and the culture that you're setting up?
Speaker:
You'd have to ask my employees what that's like, but I enjoy it.
Speaker:
We actually follow along with C12's Buffalo Culture, which is buffaloculture.com.
Speaker:
They have a code of conduct, and we use that code of conduct as our cultural setting.
Speaker:
We use it in HR settings. We use it in how we treat people,
Speaker:
whether it's employees, customers, vendors, whatever that is.
Speaker:
I didn't go into some deep meditative spot to come up with that.
Speaker:
It was already pre-done, and if it's not broke, you don't need to fix it, so we deployed that.
Speaker:
Our mission statement is real simple, too.
Speaker:
Bring hope to anyone that we encounter.
Speaker:
We are a company that wants to be in a position to hire people that are
Speaker:
coming out of prison and are in recovery and give them a real hope for a real career and
Speaker:
position them to be able to make a living that can stabilize their families.
Speaker:
We want to see families restored. We want to see men and women restored,
Speaker:
and we want to see them all come to Christ.
Speaker:
Five years from today, you're listening to this conversation.
Speaker:
What's a message you'd leave for future you?
Speaker:
Don't quit. Galatians 6.9. You reap what you sow, and so long as you don't quit,
Speaker:
you'll reap the harvest.
Speaker:
What's your wife's mindset been seeing the evolution of Lee?
Speaker:
I think her mindset's been skeptical. She's known me for 27 years, so it kind of
Speaker:
has come with some skepticism, but she's done a lot of work to really love hard,
Speaker:
and even in tight situations, she's done her best to stick through things and support.
Speaker:
Her main part of her life is being a stay-at-home mom and raising our kids, so
Speaker:
she has sometimes more to do in a day than I do.
Speaker:
Lee, this has been a good pleasure. Before we leave in closing,
Speaker:
is there anything else you'd like to share with our amazing audience?
Speaker:
Seek Jesus. We live in a time where His return may be imminent. It may be 100 years from now,
Speaker:
but at the end of the day, seek Jesus and make Him the Lord of your life.
Speaker:
Lee Pate. Links are in the show notes. Amazing audience. If you want to find out more,
Speaker:
find out about what this guy's doing. Why are you up on my roof is the question I ask.
Speaker:
Thank you for being on What is Inspired by 12-Minute Convos.
