Latest / Quarterback DadCast | Intentional Fatherhood & Leadership at Home / Matt Brownlee - Injuries, Faith, and Building Communities

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Matt Brownlee - Injuries, Faith, and Building Communities · Quarterback DadCast | Intentional Fatherhood & Leadership at Home

• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, I'm Riley.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm Ryder.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_03: And this is my dad's show.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_03: Hey everybody, it's KC J.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_03: Cox with the quarterback Dadcats.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_03: Welcome to season seven.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_03: Can't wait for this season as there's a lot of great guests ahead.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_03: If you're new to this podcast, really it's simple.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_03: It's a podcast where we we interview dads, we learn about how they were raised, we learn about the life lessons that were important to them, we learn about the values that are important to them, and really we learn about how we can work hard to become a better quarterback or leader of our home.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_03: So let's sit back, relax, and listen to today's episode on the Quarterback Dadcast.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_03: Hey everybody, it's Casey J.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_03: Cox with the Quarterback Dadcast.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_03: We are in season seven, and uh it's funny how the wide world of LinkedIn connects people.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_03: And uh this podcast is another example of how that's happened.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_03: Um, Mr.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_03: Weiss brought us together with our next guest, uh Matt Brownley, who has spent nearly, I'd call it maybe 20 years of staffing excellence, the likes of AeroTech and such.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_03: He is a fit, faith-based father of four, who also is a big endurance sports gentleman.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_03: He's also the founder, um, CEO of a company called MPH, which is a sales talent and sales leadership development firm.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_03: He's also a Duke, not from Duke, but from James Madison.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_03: So we'll we'll learn more about that.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_03: He's a golfer.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_03: Uh and he also has empathy, everybody, because before we start recording, your host might have might have got a little sad telling a story about his his beloved daughter, Riley Jacobs, who uh is a is a basketball stud and and has had a really bad injury, and so it's really kind of shooking the family a little bit.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_03: So you might be hearing more about this every every episode.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_03: So I apologize, but the more I get it out, the more I feel it's like therapy for me.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_03: But with all that said, we're gonna learn about Matt the Dad.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_03: We're gonna learn how he is working hard to can to be that ultimate quarterback or leader of his health.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_03: So without further ado, Mr.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_03: Brownlee, welcome to the quarterback deckcast.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, thanks, Casey.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_02: Blessed to be here.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_02: Congratulations on season number seven.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_02: That's an incredible accomplishment.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: And truly thoughts and prayers for Riley and the whole family as she goes through therapy and the rehab.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_02: I know it's incredibly difficult in the moment.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_02: I've been an injured athlete myself.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_02: I had L5S1 back surgery a few years ago that knocked me out.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm also I've also been a parent to injured young athletes, and I I pray that in time she gets perspective and that this is just part of her journey.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_02: But I know that right now it's very, very fresh and it's very difficult to see that forest through the trees.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: So I know we're all rooting for you and for her.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_03: I appreciate that, man.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_03: It's definitely uh definitely I feel in love, love and support from a lot of people uh in my life, and but as people say, it's God's plan.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_03: And I I know that when I when I when I went through my injury back in high school, almost a 50-year-old guy now, I wouldn't have chanced I wouldn't have any other way.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_03: I'm glad I went through it.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_03: Now, in the moment, I don't want to see my daughter or me get super sad, which has been happening, but I know that this will make her stronger, it will make me stronger.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_03: There's a blessing that's gonna come out of it.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_03: I don't I don't see it yet, but even even funny, last night I was I was awake from four o'clock to five o'clock and I thought maybe me and her will write a book together about this.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_03: Like tying my story, her story together, and how we can help my family.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it was just like this it woke me up in the middle of the night.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I don't know.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_03: So anyway, but this is not about me, it's about you, brother.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_03: So we always start each episode without with gratitude.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_03: So tell me, what are you most grateful for as a dad today?
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_02: You know, today, Casey, I'm grateful to have a community of other men, other dads, to help me go on this journey.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: This is a bit recency biased, but I began my day today working out as I often do most weekdays with a group of men from a it's a leadership group massed as a fitness workout group called F3 that I participated in quite a bit in Phoenix.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_02: I they've become my immediate circle of guys that I lean on most heavily for the past two years since my family and I have relocated to Overland Park, Kansas.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I got to spend 5:30 a.m.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_02: this morning.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: I was standing there working outside in 40 degree weather with another 15 or so other men, all most, if not all of whom are dads.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_02: And it's I'm just grateful to be part of that community and just know that this isn't an individual sport.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_02: I think conversations like this, and it seems like, at least in my world, a lot of opportunities are cropping up for dads to get together.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_02: I was invited last year to uh attend a meeting with a group called the Front Row Dads.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_02: F3 is very much a supportive community of other men, male leaders, uh your podcast.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm just very grateful to be surrounded by other other men that are in the thick of it as well, and and none of us are alone.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_03: So love it, man.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I'm I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna hold my curiosity because it's already like the alarms are going off internally, so I but I have to start with my gratitude.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_03: I'm grateful for you, man, for for um uh literally everybody.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_03: Like we before we started recorded, I I lost it.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_03: And uh you were super empathetic and just listened and didn't make me feel like a weirdo.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_03: And uh so I'm grateful for you for that.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_03: And uh I hope that if there's another dad going through a tough time, like it's okay, man.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_03: Let it out because we're all we're all flawed, uh, we're all raw, we're all human, we're all full of emotion, just like Will Farrell says, I'm in a glass case of emotion.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, but it's real, and I think that's what why I started this thing seven years ago with my buddy Ty Nunez.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_03: Shout out to him, Uncle Rico moment, great wide receiver, Harvard of the West Coast, Central Washington.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_03: But we all have that in common.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_03: And um, I know I've become a better dad by interviewing 340-something odd dads, and I my goal is to get to a thousand, and my goal is to become a better dad tomorrow and keep finding ways to become a little bit better.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_03: So um thank you for that.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, hey, I mean, in my coaching practice, I'll say it to salespeople and leaders all the time is rule number one is don't suffer in silence.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_02: And inevitably there's somebody else that's going through it with you, and there's a power in, hey, name it to tame it.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_02: And so I you you gave me a gift uh of of being comfortable enough to share and share that with me and now with your audience as well.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_02: So right back at you.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you bet, ma'am.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_03: Well, uh, bring me inside the uh the Bramley huddle.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_03: Talk about how you and your wife met, and then a little bit, a little bit about each member of the squad.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_02: Well, it's a big huddle, so I'll try not to take too long, but we've got we we roll deep.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_02: We're we're a six-pack as a family.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_02: So Emily and I will celebrate 18 years of marriage this coming April.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: She's a phenomenal mother of four.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_02: She's an 11-time marathon finisher.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_02: She's been a better salesperson than me since the moment that we met.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_02: And that's actually as you and I are men of a certain age, you'll appreciate this story quickly.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_02: So Emily and I met working as sales leaders during a summer internship for a company called University Directories, which is now brands themselves, I believe, is the on-campus group.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_02: Phenomenal company.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_02: And what University Directories did is they were the publishing company for 300 plus on-campus telephone books at colleges and universities all across these great United States.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_02: So what that meant is when you would show up to old Central Washington University in the fall, in August, and at some point at the end of one of your two a days, you might get back to your dorm or your apartment, and there would be a phone book that would have arrived.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_02: And in that phone book would be all the phone numbers for all the students, the faculty, staff, professors, office hours, and somewhere in the back of that was a bunch of hopefully a bunch of yellow page ads.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_02: And university directories hired a fleet of college-age summer salespeople that would then be that would come to Chapel Hill, aka Chapel Thrill, North Carolina, for a week of work hard, play hard sales training, and then be dispersed back around the country to literally go door to door selling yellow page advertising to every pizza joint, car repair shop, DUI lawyer, you can name it, in their respective college hometown.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_02: So Emily is a Hawkeye, uh, but she was running the sales team out in Boulder, Colorado that summer.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_02: I was in my second year with second summer with that company.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_02: So I was serving the sales teams across the great Commonwealth of Virginia that summer.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_02: And we met in Chapel Hill.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm sure this will be tough to imagine, but you put a couple hundred young, motivated, 21-year-old, college-age, aspiring salespeople together.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, you know, there's a lot of relationships that get made in that environment.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_02: And Emily and I met there.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_02: We were long distance, not only that entire summer and fall, but then I left and went to Australia for six months with my best friends from James Madison the following January.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_02: And we were 100% committed, faithful, and together long distance for what ended up being the first full year of knowing each other.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_02: And then from there, our journey's taken us to Charlotte, North Carolina, out to Scottsdale and in Arizona, where we spent 15 years and had our four beautiful kids.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_02: And then now, like I said, we've been in Overland Park, Kansas for the last two years.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_02: So Emily's phenomenal.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_02: And then our kids, easy ages to remember.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_02: We do have four, two boys and two girls.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_02: We've got a 14-year-old son who is total stud.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_02: He was up and he went and did his workout at his golf, uh, kind of golf academy this morning.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_02: He rolled out of bed at 6:30 and got his work in uh early this morning.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, he's great.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_02: He's also coming off a really difficult injury this summer case.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_02: He broke his wrist in May.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_02: We thought it was just going to crush his summer golf goals.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_02: He worked his butt off to rehab.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_02: I'm so proud of I don't really care if he hits buttery smooth seven irons.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm thrilled when that happens, but I'm not proud of that.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_02: But I was so proud all summer.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_02: He chipped one-handed, he rucked with a weighted vest around the neighborhood.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_02: And yada yada yada, as George Costanza says, by November, he helped his team qualify for junior PGA nationals down in Frisco, Texas, and got to hit a few shots on ESPN and had a great end of the summer.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_02: So he's our leadoff hitter in the huddle.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_02: We've got a 12-year-old daughter who is maybe the best person I know.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know where she inherited all of her goodness, but it certainly wasn't from her father because she's uh she's a delight.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_02: She's a runner, she's a lacrosse player, swimmer, uh, and most importantly, a great kid.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_02: She's got a younger sister who's 10 years old as of yesterday.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_02: So we celebrated her birthday yesterday.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um, she's wonderful.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_02: She's smart and feisty and all the things and keeps me on my toes, and I still get to carry her up flights of stairs to bed every night.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_02: And then bringing up the rear is the stereotypical fourth kid.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, he's almost eight years old and is the epitome of the fourth kid that's been chasing around bigger siblings his whole life.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely fearless.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_02: He was outside shooting hoops and hitting the golf ball around our backyard this morning when I left to come to the office.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_02: So that's uh that's the Brownle huddle.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we've got four blessed with four kids and uh you know, knock on wood, healthy marriage, uh, not without its ups and downs for sure, but that's uh that's our crew.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_03: Love it.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_03: I I me being a very sarcastic, weird person or something.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_03: I uh I I literally was like when you were saying the word faithfully a couple times, I was almost like, can we cue the music and play uh journey?
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_03: But uh 11 marathons.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's insane.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and well, and here's the best part is Emily was a what what brought us together was Emily's high school basketball team went 27 and one with their alone blemish being the high school state championship game.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_02: And that was the about some high school athletic trauma.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_02: So, hey Riley, like you're not alone.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_02: We've all been through some some tough stuff.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_02: And that was Emily's kind of not so fun, fun fact that she shared in front of a room of a hundred other people at at the aforementioned sales training where we met.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_02: And that caught my attention because it was the opposite of a humble brag.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_02: And that was that's kind of what I use as my opener.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_02: Having been a varsity basketball player myself in high school, that was my opening line.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_02: And we joke that our first date was a two-on-two game of half-court with a couple other guys that were at that sales training, where to this day she holds over my head that her and her teammate beat me and my teammate, to which I remind her that I was really just trying to impress her.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and that also that her teammate was a six foot five tight end who was on my sales team at James Madison that summer, and that I was playing with uh, you know, a five foot six kid who you know was close to being on the bowling team.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, but yeah, that was she's uh she's a great athlete.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_02: But then she came and once we started dating, started watching me run my races and realized that not only were runners kind of you know tall and lean and you know, maybe looked like her her new boyfriend did, but if you waited a little while closer to the middle or the back of the pack, and that's the beautiful thing about endurance sports for me, Casey, is that there's people of all shapes, sizes, colors, credos, ages, all the things.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_02: We're it's a super inclusive community, that that being distance running, endurance sports in general.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_02: And she started seeing like, oh, wait, I'm younger than that person, I'm fitter than that person.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_02: Like that, and so her competitive nature started firing off, and she got into it.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_02: And next thing you know, uh 11 marathons later, we it's still a core portion of our of our life.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_03: It's funny as you said that the longest race I've ever run.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know a runner because football guys, we're good for seven seconds and we rest in the huddle for another 30 seconds.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_03: But I did a like a 8K, I think what is that, over five little over five miles or 10k?
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe it's 10k.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_03: I think it was a little over five miles.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_03: I remember like at the three mile mark, I ran by somebody that was at close to it looked like 300 pounds.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, how in the Sam's pardon my friend, shit, did you get here?
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_03: And how were you in front of me?
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_03: And then there was like a mile later, freaking grandpa's out there.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, you had to have like hump snuck out of the bushes.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_03: There's no way.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_03: And I had these like epiphany moments, and then I was like, damn, this is but is it yeah, to your point, it was like, this is actually pretty cool.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_03: We're all, you know, no one's pre-fontaine here, no one's qualifying for the um Boston Marathon, but hey, we're trying to get a little better and running.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_03: But um That's it.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_02: It's almost like there's there's some life lessons in there somewhere.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_03: Um, before I go back to you um and some of the the way back time, uh tell me how did you how did you learn about F3?
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_02: Great question.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_02: So interestingly enough, for a while, so for a while now, I I came up with this.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_02: I was doodling on a on a scratch piece of paper somewhere and came up with this really breakthrough idea that I'd have these certain pillars, these things that were core in principle to my life.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_02: And it was family, and I actually even very cleverly shaped it kind of like a Pentagon, like a house.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_02: So family, and then faith and fitness were the were the walls, and then up top were finances and friends.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_02: And I've even centered, I just did some goal setting for the year.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_02: So I just I centered it around those five things and tried to come up with goals, at least for the first quarter.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_02: Kind of a I'm more of a 12-week year guy than an annual planning guy.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_02: So the the idea of kind of that that F alliteration was top of mind for me.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_02: And when I left AeroTech, wonderful organization after 15 years, and you know, hung my own shingle to do leadership and sales coaching and training.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_02: My very first client was a one-on-one sales coaching client.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I was get as I was getting to know him, he told me about this men's workout group he was with called F3.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_02: And he was back in Charlotte.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_02: I was in Scottsdale, Arizona, but obviously the the F synergy started sending firing off signals in my synapses, and he was espousing all the benefits, and it was an interesting moment of what I had just walked away from after a 15-year corporate career was the ability to be part of a bigger community.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_02: And I very quickly was missing that because as you know from your time, it after a while you can walk into a lot of rooms and there's a lot of familiar faces and pats on the back and that sort of thing.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_02: And I had just very intentionally parted ways with that.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_02: So I was like, well, gosh, that seems to align with me.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_02: And I just walked away from one really big professional community.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_02: I wonder what this will be like.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_02: So I showed up to Arcadia Park at 5.25 in the morning in Phoenix, Arizona, one Wednesday morning, and introduced myself around, half expecting it to be some cult or expecting it to be kind of just, you know, kind of weird guys.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_02: And sure enough, it was a lot of men like us.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_02: It was a lot of former athletes.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody was, you know, kind of self-deprecating, said they could stand to lose five or 55 pounds, and we got after it.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_02: And it was a 45-minute, pure-led, high-intensity interval training type workout completely for free.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_02: And ever since then, that community of guys was huge to me in Phoenix.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_02: When I moved here to Overland Park and knew practically no one, those guys have become some of my dearest, dearest friends.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I recently invited eight of them to join me to travel back to Arizona, and we just did a big, big run in the Grand Canyon together.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_02: So it's a wonderful, you know, for all the dads, all the men listening, or you know, for the for the women who want to nudge their the man in their life to look into it, uh, F3 Nation is the is the site.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_02: I'm actually traveling tomorrow.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_02: I'm getting on a flight to Charlotte to go see a customer for a couple days.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm plan on working out on Thursday morning with the guys in Charlotte.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_02: Then I'm gonna go see mom and dad and my sister up in Virginia, and I'm gonna work out with the group up there on Friday and Saturday morning before I fly back here to KC on Saturday.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_02: So it's a it's a nationwide community.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_02: We brand ourselves, it's it's a leadership organization, and the three F's stand for fitness, fellowship, and faith.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_02: Probably should have mentioned that.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_02: The fitness part is obvious, it's 45-minute outdoor workouts completely for free.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, the fellowship is just we grab coffee afterwards.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_02: There's a there's a bunch of guys meeting up for happy hour this Thursday.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then the faith piece, it's not any sort of dogmatic religious doctrine.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_02: It's simply a shared belief that there's some sort of higher power, whatever you want to call that, or whatever you want to believe it.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_02: And at the conclusion of every workout, we finish with what we call a circle of trust, which is an opportunity for men to be vulnerable with one another, share what's going on in their personal, professional lives.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: And then it always ends in either a moment of a moment of silence, or someone might prayer share just a prayer intention of what's going on in their world.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_02: And obviously what's what is said there always stays there.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_02: But I can tell you that what you'll what you'll hear there will rival anything you've ever heard at the most vulnerable of corporate retreats from discussion.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_02: Around addiction, divorce, you know, injuries to self or to children, whatever the case may be.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_02: So going back to 15 minutes ago, and I share that's what my gratitude is.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's where that comes from.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's from getting to start as many days a week as I choose with that group of men and what it might lack in body part specificity of the workouts.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I may not hammer back and buys the way that I would if I if I went to lifetime.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you immediately pick that up on the on the back end with the with the fellowship.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_02: So it's not just a bunch of dudes with AirPods in, not looking at each other, but trying to max out on you know decline bench.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_02: It's a bunch of guys very much looking at each other and kind of sweating alongside each other and then sharing as much or as little as they're comfortable with when it's all said and done.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_03: Love it, ma'am.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_03: That's awesome.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_03: I uh F3 for listening, you you'd make a fantastic sponsor of my podcast.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_03: This is like that's what I I mean a lot of what I why I did this was like trying to create space for dads to be vulnerable.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_03: And as I mentioned in the opening, we're all flawed, we're all we all got that in common, we're all dads, and regardless if you're an executive, uh like when your episode comes out, I would already have interviewed a guy named uh guy named people might recognize, Coach Mike Holmgren.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, he's a dad.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it there's still there it's easy to kind of like wrap yourself up around like these big moments of like, oh, you do that, you yeah, but you're still a dad.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_03: Um so okay, we'll bring me back to what was life like growing up for you and uh talk about the impact the mom and dad had on you as you reflect now that you're a father.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, thank you for asking.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_02: Very blessed.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like I hit the genetic jackpot with regards to my parents, not because they were Olympic athletes.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_02: That may have been pretty sweet.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_02: I'd be a little taller, a little fitter or better looking, what have you.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_02: But mom and dad were are and were still great.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_02: They're they're still knock on wood, uh healthy, happy, happily married.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_02: Like I said, I'm gonna I'm gonna go see them in a couple of days.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and that's I might come back to that in a little bit as to why.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I grew up, I got a baby sister who's three years younger than me, and we grew up in Northern Virginia, 30 minutes outside of Washington, D.C.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_02: Every field trip I ever took was into DC to see the Smithsonian of some sort, so I was pretty fortunate with that.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_02: But mom and dad were great.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I think they taught me a lot about stability and consistency.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_02: My mom taught high school Spanish for 35 years in the county that we grew up in.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_02: So, yes, she was in the same halls that I was walking as a high school lad uh and retired very successfully there.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_02: Luckily, she was a very well-liked teacher, in addition to being a wonderful mom.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_02: And then dad was similarly stable.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_02: He had two jobs his entire life.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_02: He was insurance claim adjuster, uh, which meant when the the big earthquake hit the Giants versus A's World Series game.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_02: He was on a plane and flew out and uh you know, spent a month in San Francisco doing whatever insurance adjusters do.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_02: And then when that company started getting sold for parts, he finished up the back half of his career working for the American Red Cross at their national headquarters there in DC.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_02: So just always had a tremendous work ethic, both of them.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_02: They're always super supportive of me.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_02: I can count on one hand the number of games, either baseball, basketball, soccer, or then later in life, track meets, cross-country races that they weren't in attendance at.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_02: Uh dad was an assistant coach at a lot of those teams along the years.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_02: And we had a we sort of uh everything we needed, nothing we didn't.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we didn't didn't have a Rolls-Royce in the driveway.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I got a POS 1988 O'smobile when I when I turned, you know, hand-me-down when I when I turned 16.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_03: Was it a wagon?
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_02: No, no, no, you know, big six-cylinder, just four-door uh, you know, red sand.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_03: My dad had a sick brown cutlass Wolf's bill.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_03: That thing could turn on a dime, dude.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, big, big uh bench seats.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_03: Good bump.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, and then I mean we're of the generation.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I thought I was hot stuff when I I splurged and sent the spent the money that I had earned working at the local footlocker to buy a nice head unit for that thing.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_02: So just you know, I didn't have enough money to buy a subwar to put in the trunk or anything.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_02: I I wasn't balling balling out like that, but you know, the that the head unit that when you would walk into school, I would pop off and put in a case and put in my put in the Jansport backpack, you know, just so it wouldn't get boosted on in the mean streets of of Sterling, Virginia.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_02: So that's mom and dad, and they're still they're still a big part of my life.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I'm yeah, I'm very lucky in that regard.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_03: So uh the good good news that mom and dad are still alive.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_03: I lost my dad December 29th, 2021.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_03: So I I um I'm I'm I'm always reminding people like give my mom and dad all those hugs because when they're gone, it's it's it's not it you don't get that time back.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_03: So it's cool that you still have mom and dad and that they're still married.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_03: Fantastic.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_03: What a what a great example they're setting.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_03: Um as you think about the values, if you had to pick two or three values that like immediately come to mind as I ask you this, and maybe even a story of how you learn those values that maybe have impacted you as a dad or that you've shared with your kids.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_03: Tell me what comes to mind.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_02: I think number one as a dad is being just being present.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_02: I can't tell you how many evenings we spent throwing a baseball back and forth in our cul-de-sac.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_02: Just back and forth, back and forth.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_02: And I have no doubt that there were many times, I doubt that there were many times where he just jumped up and clapped his hands, just like, yeah, I can't wait to go throw my arm out in the cul-de-sac with you.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sure it was much would have rather been doing other things uh than doing that.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_02: But it was just the value of just being present and saying yes to those things was was really huge.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I think that and and stick to itiveness, there was certainly the mantra of, hey, we're gonna start with what you finish.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_02: And there may have been a team or two along the way for athletics where either myself or my sister, either after a couple practices or uh you know a game that went sideways early in the season where it would have just been easier to to call it in or go do something else.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_02: But it was very much a hey, you don't have to keep playing soccer forever, but you're gonna finish this season because we signed up for it.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, going back to what's what's required, whether to be an endurance athlete or a dad or a sales professional or fill in the blank.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I think those two big things of just being present, you know, showing up is 90% of the battle.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_02: The the best of ability is availability, as some might say.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_02: And then when you start something, have the integrity and courage, if you will, or fill in the adjective just to see it through and be a person of your word.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_02: And at the end of the day, if you do those two things, I think good results will tend to occur more often than not.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_03: Mm-hmm.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_03: No, I love it, man.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, these are sometimes, as people listening, you're like, people might be thinking, well, duh, well, they're they're simple things, but most people don't talk about them enough.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_03: And self-shameless plug book book I wrote is about relationship building and really six common sense things that most people aren't good at.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_03: Most people don't talk about, like, yeah, if I'm gonna be late, maybe let somebody know.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_03: Like if you tell your kid, hey, I'm gonna be uh I'm gonna be late to your band concert.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you either can show up late or you can let them know.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_03: Let your let mom know, or let someone know, or even after the concert, apologize to them like little things about and I I sometimes I I tell people this all the time.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I'm I'm so bent on EQ over AI.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_03: You know, AI, AI is important, but the the power of like how we connect with people, how we ask questions, how we show up to what you said, how you how you're present, how you're all the little things that just how you make people feel that my Angelo experience.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, um, most people, I don't think we don't talk about this stuff enough.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_03: And um in a in an age of you know, Instagram and social media and reels, and you know, we're on our phones way too much.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_03: Like the power of like maybe just sit down and talk more about some of these things.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_03: I think that's how really when you say be we can be present, but being present to another level is like, okay, have a present conversation, ask follow-up questions and listen.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_02: So a quick comment and a question on that.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_02: You mentioned a story.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_02: I remember the you know, the handful of times if I would step out of line, I remember being required to write handwritten notes of apology to maybe a babysitter that I did something wrong to or someone else I may have have crossed.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_02: And wouldn't you know it?
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_02: That's certainly something that I've passed down to my own children.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_02: But then even in business, and I never intend to monetize it, I would like to think that I I do it because it feels like the right thing to do.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_02: But I I had a client, uh now a new client, tell me recently who's who's engaged with me to help coach and lead their sales team and their salespeople.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm a big fan of asking, hey, why?
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_02: Like, why'd you pick me?
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, there's there's a lot of there's a lot of really talented people out there, much more so than me.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_02: Why'd you pick me?
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_02: And and one and the answer I got shocked me.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_02: And the person said, Well, hey, like you wrote a handwritten note to our president and mailed him a book nine months ago.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_02: And so if that's how you sell, we would die for our sales force to sell in that same manner, to write handwritten notes.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_02: And then, I mean, you you sent a book, and I actually didn't just get it off Amazon.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_02: I actually sent my copy.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_02: So it had things highlighted and things written in the margin and et cetera.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_02: And so, you know, you flashback three decades ago, as I'm being for, as I'm, you know, probably crying at the kitchen table, being forced to write an apology letter to somebody, and wouldn't you know it, years and years later, it felt like the right thing to do, and and that was something that um was memorable.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_02: And as much as I hate to say it, I actually had forgotten that I had done that.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_02: Not to say that I'm sending out eight books a week or anything or that it wasn't significant, but it was just so long ago that I I didn't immediately remember that I had sent that the leader of that organization a book, uh, but they obviously did, and it helped create you know an opportunity that now is going to help put food on the table literally for my family.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um have your kids experienced the power of writing handwritten notes yet?
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_02: 100%.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_02: 100%.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_02: I I teased my oldest, my 14-year-old, that COVID crushed his handwriting ability because he was he was in the kind of that formative third or fourth grade period when when COVID happened.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_02: And uh so his handwriting was awful for a a little while, and and now it's it's back to a good spot.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, they have they actually have their own stationery just from you know, 10 bucks on Etsy.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, you know, my daughter comes back from summer camp and is now still pen pals with half a dozen girls that she was at camp with this summer, and it's it's definitely a love language.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_02: And in fact, quick story, I know you're a golfer.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_02: So my son, when he was going through the injury that I mentioned, he watched the the full swing documentary that's on Netflix, and he saw Gary Woodland, who I believe had a cancer diagnosis, but thankfully has made a full recovery and I believe is back healthy now.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_02: Gary Woodland had a quote to the effect of you never realize how much you love something until it's taken away from you.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_02: And then you work to get it back.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_02: So my son, who here I think he's just a knucklehead, you know, early teenager, can't be inspired, that really stuck with him, and that motivated him throughout his rehab this past summer, specifically for golf.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_02: Well, wouldn't you know it?
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_02: His new golf coach, where he does some training, and we're in Kansas, Gary Woodland's a Jayhawk.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_02: His golf coach now, Casey, is was literally Gary Woodland's roommate at KU, had a cup of coffee as a professional himself.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_02: So the other day, I I wish I would, I'll stop short of saying that my son's an angel and he thought of it, but I said, You should like that's an impactful story.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_02: I go, you should share that with him.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_02: So he wrote a handwritten note that he then gave to his coach to pass along to this PGA touring professional about how that quote and that appearance on that document documentary was meaningful to him and how it's it helped shape his his recovery and rehab and you know, whatever his future may or may not be with that sport is you know, irregardless.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_02: But as a young man, it was a significant event.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_02: So as a story to back up the the yes, that has definitely been passed down.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_03: Um did he hear back from Gary yet?
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_02: Not yet.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_02: He he literally just gave it to him like over the holiday break.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_03: So I will uh I'll keep you posted on where this goes.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_03: Because those those stories are, I mean, and it just again about being present, showing up.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_03: You talk about like that's an example right there.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_03: Someone's gonna write that letter.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_03: Why not you, son?
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_03: Someone's gonna reach out, someone's gonna send that book to that executive.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_03: Why not you, Matt?
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_03: Um, my uh my daughter's on my daughter's basketball team, they have a family that they're her her brother-in-law has really good seats to the Seattle Kraken, and we're like diehard hockey fans out here.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_03: No, I can't skate worth of shit, but I love hockey.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_03: Like I watch every game.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_03: We're one point out of first place, no biggie, to say him.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_03: Uh we were like on this heinous 0 for 7 run, and now we're on a complete, you know, different run.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_03: I digress, but we get a text over the holidays when my son was home from college, and she's like, Hey, do you guys think you can use these tickets?
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, uh, yes.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_03: So I told my wife, well, hey, can we have nothing going on?
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna take Ryder.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_03: She's like, Yeah, go for it.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_03: And so I texted, I let Ryder know, we text him back, and I don't know how good these seats are, but the seats are two rows from the glass.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it was the best seats.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_03: I've I mean, you could see the guy's face while he's getting about to get blasted into the the boards.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_03: And and as we're walking back to the uh car, I said, Hey Ryder, what do you what do you think we're gonna do when we get home or tomorrow?
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, Thank you letters.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_03: I said, They had a boy.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_03: So I said, I'm gonna write something, and you're gonna write something too.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_03: And uh maybe actually you're you're gonna, I want you to write first, actually, because I don't want you to even take a look at what I wrote.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_03: I want it to be from your heart.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_03: And um, we're not doing this for anything anything other than just to pure gratitude and let them know how much we appreciate it.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_03: Well, um, and I don't say anything to my friend who opened up the door for this, but we saw her on a recent basketball trip, and she's like, Hey, my my he's he goes, he got your letter and he goes, they were blown away.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely blown away.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_03: And it took me 10 seconds.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_03: But like these are the things that I hope that people, as you as you as you're listening to these things, doesn't take a lot.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_03: It just takes a little bit of intention, whether it's doing we're talking about hand handwritten notes or um going out of your way to play catch in the in the driveway, or going out of your way to like I interviewed someone last night who his ups will come out in the future of he has nothing in common with his kids.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_03: Now you have golf, I have golf, we're lucky.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_03: I I love sports, my daughter loves basketball, I have lucky.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_03: But let's say, for example, there's a dad listening that you have nothing in common with your kid.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: Intention, integrity, IT recruitment.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: We are McCann Partners, and I am Megan McCann, the CEO and founder.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: McCann Partners is a Chicago-based IT recruitment firm.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: We support a growing portfolio of innovative organizations, from Chicago-based startups to companies with a global footprint.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: We are dedicated to creating a more equitable and diverse workforce and are proud that more than 70% of our talent placements since 2020 have been diverse hires.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: We take pride in our work and invest time to hone our skills.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: Case in point, our work with Casey.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: Casey helped me and my team learn new habits of success and unlock the skills we already have been using.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: The superpowers of humility, vulnerability, and curiosity.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: If you, the listener, are curious about our experience with Casey and his impact on the team and our business, please reach out to me via LinkedIn.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_03: There's two choices.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_03: You either can check out and say, well, this sucks, or you can put your ego down and say, you know what, I'm gonna try to find something that he wants to do or she wants to do.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_03: And that's what this dad did.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_03: His his dad, this dad is a big, big time executive, um, big into like sports, and he literally went to a like straight butt rock, acid rock concert with his kid.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_03: And that's what he loves.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_03: And I just I go just the visual of seeing him, you know.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_03: It wasn't like, you know, kiss or something, but it was like some hardcore stuff.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, I've never heard the word MF more than my entire life.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_03: But I was like, that's those are stories that I want dads to hear.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_03: It's like you we you either can be the victim of your own story, you can find a way to be your own hero.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_02: Well, the other piece, too, kudos to you for not just telling Ryder that he was going to do that.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_02: Well, a kudos that he knows this is obviously learned behavior where he knew the answer to that question.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_02: But also I think the fact that you modeled that as well.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_02: I think we can kids hear everything that we say, whether they choose to listen or not, it's a different story, but they certainly they're but they trust their eyes.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_02: And the fact that you also wrote that note, I think is is really, really huge.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, that's good for you.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_03: That's massive.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_03: Matt, tell me tell me an area of your dad game that maybe's not where you like it.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_03: That you feel like, man, if I was coaching myself, here's an area of my dad game that I I can be a better dad if you feel like I'll throw myself under the bus too, but I either I can go first or if you want to go first.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_02: No, I'll I'll go I'll go first.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um You know what?
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_02: I think I can I'm not quick to anger by any stretch of the imagination, but I can kind of be like a a steeping teapot where it just it just slow boil, slow boil, slow boil, and then it can just it can go from zero to to to popping real quick.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_02: And I've I've got that awareness about me.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_02: So I know now to I mean I said earlier, kind of kind of name it to tame it.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_02: Like I'll just I'll kind of say out loud, hey, I'm starting to feel this kind of way.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_02: We need we need to do this or that, or or even as recently as this morning, I was walking through the house and I took I was paying attention to what I was paying attention to.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_02: And by that I mean there was nine lights that were turned on in rooms where nobody was in.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_02: There was eight different pairs of shoes, laundry, this I mean you can you can just picture it.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_02: And then I had to I'd had to just reframe that to remind myself, like, okay, you're you're not they aren't bad kids.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_02: They're actually on their final day of Christmas break.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_02: They've been having a ton of fun, etc.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_02: etc.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_02: But I I certainly wish I could flip a switch and have my default setting to not be to notice all the laundry strewn about my home or or the lights flickered off.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_02: And kudos to Emily.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_02: I'll come, you know, she's got a line where if you know the kind of the house gets a mess or there's board games everywhere, somebody built a fort, whatever the case may be, that instead of saying the house is a mess, we'll say, hey, it looks like there's a lot of memories here made here today.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_02: And we kind of laugh, and it's just a great way to bring the pressure in the room down a little bit.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, sometimes that gets the best of me.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_02: I'm certainly not throwing a perfect game by any stretch of the imagination.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I I try to minimize it, but that's definitely something that.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_02: I I would love to get a little bit better at.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_03: How about for yourself?
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_03: I share very similar.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_03: I think you probably because you're a competitive person, and people who are competitive, the impatience is the opposite usually that comes with that.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I envisioned you as you're saying that, uh, Will Farrell in old school, Frank the Tank, where we got to keep our composure and slam on a chair against locker and the tidy whiteys.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_03: I don't think that was you this morning, but as you said that, I was like, I hate when the lights are turned on when they're doing there.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, but it's but yeah, I think as we kind of go through these journeys of life, does it really matter?
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, sure it matters.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, little things, but does it really matter?
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_03: And I think your wife says it perfectly.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_03: Like, what a great way to reframe it.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_03: Hey, we're creating memories today.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_03: Um and the the kids, I they definitely watch they are watching.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, even now I have friends that are like, they'll say, dude, Jacob's Ryder is so you.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_03: Like he'll he went to Canada recently for the first time as a 19-year-old.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_03: And as you know, Canada, and you can go to the bars.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_03: And he was like living his best life, him and his girlfriend, his best buddy.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_03: And he was sending me like Snapchats of like, Dad, it's like I'm at a Hells Angels bar.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_03: And I like always drop Hell's Angels from like Caddy, what is this, Hells Angels from you know, Caddyshack.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_03: And oh yeah, people were laughing, like, he is so you.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_03: And now it's not I didn't teach him to say that line, but he's heard me say it so many times through his life that he's now dropping that sarcasm to his buddies or his, you know, and they are watching.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_03: Um for me, man, it it is 100% patience.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, when I was in corporate and top of the game there, and life was great and busy and stressful.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_03: Sometimes I'd be like so, you know, stressed.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_03: I'd but and I do realize, do you want to be?
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_03: And shout out to my dad, rest in peace, pops, but you were not the patient guy.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, I don't want to be that guy.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_03: And I want to I want to be the dad that takes a deep breath before he responds.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, I don't want I want to respond, not react.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_03: I want to listen to learn versus listen to persuade.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_03: Um I want I want to be the dad dad that like people can they can come up to you and not scared shitless about what you're gonna say to them.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know, and that takes practice, it and it takes continuous practice, and it takes when I'm not my best, I either can keep that inside or I can tell my wife, man, I was an absolute tool.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_03: I'm sorry.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, perfect, move on.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_03: And she's not gonna be like, you're right, you're an idiot, you suck, you you're div we're divorcing.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_03: She's like, hey, thanks for saying sorry.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_03: And I feel better about her saying sorry now because I'm like, okay, I'm not perfect.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_03: I got goosebumps just telling that story.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_02: How how often, or that'd be the best way to ask that?
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_02: How often do you apologize or can you tell and tell any stories, kind of Ted question, tell any stories of apologizing to your own kids and and what what impact that has had?
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, I'll give you a second to ponder.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_02: I asked because I don't mind, Casey, I don't think they see that coming.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_02: And again, I don't do it intentionally or I'm not trying to weaponize it as some sort of jujitsu trick.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_02: But when I have, they just they can't be mad at dad because I I don't think they see their their parent, the archetype of a typical parent is not one to be to show contrition or to apologize.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_02: So when I when I do and when I when I owe it to them to do that, um it's it tends to go tends to go pretty well.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm curious how that looks with yours.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's different now because they're older, but I think when they were younger, um I I didn't it didn't happen often, but and I wanted to do it in times where I was maybe I really lost my shit or um when I shouldn't have.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_03: Um but when I do it, I would I'm very intentional.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_03: I would sit them down and say, listen, um, and I even we even did an episode, shout out to Darren Ballmer's episode, I think it was episode nine, a long time ago, on just the power of saying you're sorry to your wife or your kids.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_03: But um I think the story that I think of was when they were in my son was in fourth grade or fifth grade and we're playing a basketball game, and um I could give two Fs if they score 40 points.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_03: Um I know that F's not one of your five F's, but um I could you know, but it's I don't care if you have 38 steals, I don't care if you have 36 rebounds, what I care about is your face red after the game.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_03: Not from crying, but from effort.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_03: Like that is in your control.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_03: Is there a loose ball?
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_03: Are you diving for it?
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_03: Are you competing?
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_03: Are you trying your best?
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and that's one of the biggest things I taught my kids.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_03: And so one game I felt like Shout Out Ryder, which he's uh such a great kid, but he I don't think he gave his effort.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_03: And I could I don't know if it was my own ego of like that's not who I raised, you know.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_03: And it was and I literally said, get on your bike.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_03: And I and I literally I went for like a run.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_03: That's back when I used to run, and I literally said, just follow me.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_03: You're going for a bike ride.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_03: And I had to run it out, and this was not a proud dad moment, but I was like, what am I training Rocky and frickin' Drago here?
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_03: Like, what is going on?
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_03: And I said, Riley, you're coming too.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, What did I do?
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_03: I said, get on your bike, you're following me.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_03: And because mom was doing something else.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_03: And I got home, I said, Listen, I know you probably are confused, you think dad's mad, but I like I apologize to him.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_03: I said, Listen, I was more frustrated maybe because of maybe my own insecurities of what I wish I would have done differently, or or or my expectations, you didn't meet my expectations.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_03: Well, that's not fair because if I don't clearly set expectations properly, well, you know, you're not a mind reader.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_03: I said, but the good news is we just spent really good time together, and your face is now red, and my face is red, and I'm tired, and um that's not the best way to handle it as a dad.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_03: But um, I hope you guys can you know laugh and you know make fun of dad, whatever that.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I think I've told that story in years, but that was definitely not a proud dad moment.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_02: But um well, I'll I'll I'll share one with you that it wasn't related to an apology, but that was talk about a bit of a swing and a miss.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_02: So I think my oldest son was in first grade, and they give the kids iPads or Chromebooks or something, and he had done something that he wasn't supposed to, probably because we don't really have any of that in the house.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_02: I think my this is a separate topic, but I I think my son's the only eighth grader to school that doesn't have a phone.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so he had done something he wasn't supposed to, and I was like, you know what?
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_02: Like this is gonna be a my this is gonna be a turning point, like in you know, his career.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, you know, break breaking bad, like I'm gonna fix this behavior.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_02: So I get him up, and we're in Arizona at the time, at like five in the morning, and I drive him out to this trailhead, and we do this like mile and a half hike up to this vista kind of you know pre-dawn, right near sunrise, and I'm setting up you know a pretty decent pace.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I'm not leaving him behind.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_02: I I brought water, so you know, to anybody don't get litigious on, you know, we're we're we're well equipped and it was perfect.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_03: He gets airlifted and dehydration.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what boy did that backfire?
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_02: But I get up there and you know, and I have what I thought to be this big, this, this perfect dad of the year conversation about ethics and integrity and being respectful of teachers and classmates and you know, whatever wrong he had he had committed on his little first or second grade iPad.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_02: And he's just looking down, he's like, so can we hit like jumba juice on the way home?
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_02: Or like, you know, can we stop at first watch for some breakfast?
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_02: And then I think two weeks later he did like the same thing at school and got kind of got in a little bit of trouble, you know, kind of harmless, harmless trouble all over again.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, Well, so much for that dad of the year, you know, hike to the mountaintop that I uh that I had planned out.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, best laid intentions that uh that he will never remember, you know, as as he does the accounting on was I was I halfway decent or was I crummy at being you know the father, uh he'll never remember that.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_02: But it was uh, you know, in the moment it certainly felt like it was gonna be a life-changing event and not so much.
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, that's we're all doing the best we can.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_03: We are, man.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_03: And I think when we're not our best, we have a choice to admit it.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_03: And um, I think in summary of that topic, I'll I'll just always tell myself, if I'm coaching myself, is meet your kids where they are.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_03: Don't try to and they and help them be their best version of them.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_03: Like my, you know, my son's playing golf in college.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_03: Is he gonna be on PJ tour?
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_03: Probably not.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_03: But dream big.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_03: And if you don't, if you get to a point where maybe golf's not what you don't do, that's okay.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I think you know, this wide world of psychotic AAU and sports and hoop and football and all this stuff.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_03: I wish there was a metric of success of are your kids happy?
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_03: Do they smile?
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_03: Are they having fun?
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_03: You know, and I think that's I want I'd love to see that celebrated more like not because what we want them to do, but like, are they doing what they want to do?
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_03: And are they having a good time?
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_03: And there's so much pressure on kids these days versus when I was growing up, we were growing up.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, there was sure there was pressure, but I feel like it's just in so intense right now.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_03: And you got transfer portal and crazy, that's another conversation, which is an absolute joke.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_03: What's going on in college sports?
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_03: NAL is off the charts.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I saw a quote recently that said SMU, I think SMU, I think it was, or Texas Tech, I can't remember.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_03: They got fined back in '87 for paying$61,000.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_03: And now they just signed their quarterback to a$5 million deal.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_02: That's nuts.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_02: Well, and to to kind of bring it together a little bit, you know, Troy Aikman, I believe, recently had a quote where he said he's, and I want to misquote quote Troy, but he said he's out on NIL at UCLA because he said he wrote, I think what he coined, a very big check for somebody, and he said, he said, not only did the young man leave, but he goes, I never even got so much as the thank you note.
• 50:07
  SPEAKER_02: So tying this back together, that you know, whether Ryder or you know, or my kid, you know, do or don't play it at whatever level, I would I would hope that you know if Ryder got a fruit basket from an NIL deal, uh, you know, for him and his girlfriend, that there'd be a thank you note coming.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_02: 100%.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, that that wasn't uh that wasn't Troy's experience.
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_03: Well it's funny you say that.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_03: So I I I have um given back to my college um in many different ways, not just financially, but just like through time and everything.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_03: And one of the things, the last like commitment I made to them was I said, the only thing I ask is um um, I want to teach them the power of writing a thank you note.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_03: So you I'm that I'm gonna put that on you guys.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_03: You teach them to write me a note and um let them know that I'd love to have a conversation with them if they're open to it.
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_03: And when they graduate, they're gonna have someone in their corner.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_03: And they're gonna have someone that's they can call whenever they want, because we have central Washington in common, and I want to be able to help them either try to make a connection or try to help them find a job, or just to kind of give them the confidence that, hey, I've I've been in your shoes.
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_03: I know what it's like to graduate, and like, what am I gonna do?
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_03: Like, that's all I ask.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_03: And so it's been fun to like have those people start reaching out and have these conversations, and you know, I'll make it more about curiosity-based about like, hey, so going to campus you totem getting burgers, like, oh yeah, you've been there too.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_03: It's like immediately connection, people.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_03: So um, do you think that's the stuff that's important?
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_03: It again goes back to relationship building, which I'm assuming that that's both passions of both of ours.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_02: I'm curious, you mentioned the NIL and the transfer stuff.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_02: As a how did you navigate steering or not steering your now college athletes or both both of your you know, college-bound, you know, very athletic kiddos toward on the topic of specialization, toward toward not?
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_02: Because I I hear coaches at different levels claim that they don't want that because it leads to overuse injuries, or they they want a more well-rounded kid.
• 52:07
  SPEAKER_02: But then I sometimes I I wonder, yeah, but you know, it it sure is nice if if that kid's a plus four.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't know that he's gonna get that way if he's also playing JV hoops in in the winter.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_02: So I I can't have my there's a portion of my skeptical brain that wonders is that just a nice sound clip?
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_02: And and then what what do we do as as parents with that?
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_02: So again, getting curious, how did you navigate that?
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_02: And and your wife want to give her credit too, as your own children have gone through that journey.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_03: I think every kid's different, I'd say.
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, Ryder was a COVID golf made him, COVID helped him become a better golfer because everything else shut down.
• 52:43
  SPEAKER_03: He made the high school basketball team his ninth grade year, probably would have made it his sophomore year, might have got cut his junior year, but he made Varsity his freshman year on a golf team.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_03: And I said, Hey, bud, this is your journey, but I'm gonna give you a if I go, I always act, I always like to ask a question before I give advice.
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_03: I said, Tell me what, Bretter, would it be helpful if I shared a story what my coach did but helped me realize that it was this time to specialize in football?
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_03: Sure, dad.
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_03: He's not gonna say, No, you idiot.
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_03: He said, sure.
• 53:11
  SPEAKER_03: So I said, my high school coach said, You can be our starting quarterback, but you got to quit playing baseball and basketball.
• 53:19
  SPEAKER_03: And you gotta go all in as a sophomore.
• 53:22
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, I'm in.
• 53:22
  SPEAKER_03: I'm in.
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_03: And I said, You could be a really good golfer.
• 53:25
  SPEAKER_03: You're a you have a lot of blessings and gifts there, and you could maybe even take it to the next level if you want, or you could try to play basketball as long as you want and maybe try out for baseball.
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_03: But you this is your journey.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_03: And he kind of came to his own realization.
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_03: Um, that was at, you know, whatever, ninth grade, tenth grade.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_03: My daughter, on the other hand, she's we've tried so hard to get her not to specialize.
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_03: We've tried so hard to get.
• 53:49
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, she played soccer growing up, and she's so she's like a 5'4, 5'5, really physical player.
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_03: Um, she would like Lily just steamroll girls, and I'm like, like that's that's a red card.
• 53:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you should be ejected.
• 54:01
  SPEAKER_03: And she just was like super aggressive.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_03: I'm obviously joking, but um she uh she played in one golf tournament as a nine-year-old, shot 51, took second, qualified for districts.
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_03: I'm done, dad.
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, wait, what?
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_03: No, she just doesn't like it.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_03: She and she's got a fantastic golf swing.
• 54:18
  SPEAKER_03: She can hit it probably like 150, 175 with the driver, just rips it.
• 54:23
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but doesn't wanna she loves basketball, loves hoop, loves everything about it, and so she's played year-round since like sixth grade.
• 54:33
  SPEAKER_03: Takes like two months off.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_03: Now, maybe that's why we're dealing with an ACL right now.
• 54:39
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but I've also done, we've been researching and reading.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I even saw a stat recently said sometimes ACL injuries can be tied to when a woman's cycle is at.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_03: And there was a girl that had an ACL injury, she was just walking.
• 54:54
  SPEAKER_03: It's all about like just they're fluke, they're fluke things, and she's because she's a stocky, strong kid.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but yeah, anyway, long wood answer, Matt, I'd say every kid's different, and you gotta like listen, let your kids listen really listen to them and don't look don't fall into the pressures of what society tells you because I think it's easy to once you once you fall into that trap that you're trying to keep up with the Joneses and and you get wrapped up in things that really aren't important in life because they're not they're not gonna remember uh he's not gonna remember a golf tournament at like you know Kansas City when it's 42 degrees and he he didn't hit the six arm like he wanted to.
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_03: He's gonna remember the buddies he met or the the car ride home and how you treated him.
• 55:35
  SPEAKER_02: That car ride home for us dads is huge.
• 55:37
  SPEAKER_02: I I really, really enjoy coaching my kids' teams, and I I feel like I add value.
• 55:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um I coach our kids in cross country this fall.
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_02: I help out with basketball as well, but the run running, especially, I'm very passionate about.
• 55:50
  SPEAKER_02: But I I heard once that the that two of the most influential people on a young person's life will be their father and their sports coach.
• 56:01
  SPEAKER_02: And you should, and it's it's and basically so don't don't deprive them of of of either.
• 56:07
  SPEAKER_02: And that wasn't encouraging you know dads or or moms for that sake to not be coaches.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's just saying wear the appropriate hat at the at the appropriate time to the best of your ability.
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_02: So um it's an important line to walk, I think.
• 56:21
  SPEAKER_03: Love it.
• 56:22
  SPEAKER_03: All right, ma'am.
• 56:23
  SPEAKER_03: Well, we could keep going on forever, and it's funny, we're everybody we're gonna when this episode comes out, Matt and I will have actually met.
• 56:29
  SPEAKER_03: We're actually gonna spend time together.
• 56:31
  SPEAKER_03: We found out, yeah, I found out yesterday, which is actually called serendipitous for sure.
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_03: Um, we're gonna be at the same customer um helping them out in different ways.
• 56:39
  SPEAKER_03: And so I can't wait to meet you, buddy.
• 56:41
  SPEAKER_03: It's gonna be great.
• 56:42
  SPEAKER_03: And um I want to now, uh, before we before we go into some fun stuff, you you just I guess launched or relaunched MPH.
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_03: Um and you got a ton of experience to share.
• 56:55
  SPEAKER_03: But talk about if people are like MPH, that's not miles per hour, maybe it is, but uh talk about the work you do, how can and how can people learn more about the impact you're having on many companies out there?
• 57:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, sure.
• 57:07
  SPEAKER_02: Well, just because you mentioned jokingly, it's it's not miles per hour, but it is an allusion to it as a endurance athlete and as a triathlete.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, our and then also my my children's initials.
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um, there's four are our MP, I got a couple M's, a P and an H.
• 57:22
  SPEAKER_02: So it's it's a nod to my children first and foremost.
• 57:24
  SPEAKER_02: And then it's a sort of a double entendre with an allusion toward miles per hour because uh MPH talent, I mean, we exist to accelerate the results and the skills and the development of sales teams, both leaders as well as individual salespeople.
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_02: And we do this through building playbooks, but then more importantly, sticking around to reinforce it through training, coaching, ongoing development, even fractional support models.
• 57:50
  SPEAKER_02: So um I'm very active on LinkedIn.
• 57:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I gave up all the other socials for Lent about five years ago and didn't miss it one bit.
• 57:59
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm not don't have much of an online presence, but on LinkedIn, folks can find me and can find MPH talent there.
• 58:05
  SPEAKER_02: And and yeah, be certainly be happy to have a have a conversation.
• 58:09
  SPEAKER_02: I think the one piece I would share just with with dads is is this venture was born out of at the at the what ended up being the conclusion of a relatively successful corporate run for a wonderful organization with whom I spent 15 years and and I imagine myself self-spending 30 years.
• 58:27
  SPEAKER_02: I got to a point where I listened to, you know, no no pun intended, but it was listening to a lot of podcasts and reading a lot of books that had some version of, hey, go for it.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, bet on yourself.
• 58:39
  SPEAKER_02: And I kind of laughed and said, you know what?
• 58:41
  SPEAKER_02: It's and I think go for it, Casey.
• 58:43
  SPEAKER_02: In my one man's opinion, I think that would mean different things to different people at different seasons in life.
• 58:49
  SPEAKER_02: At one point, that might have encouraged me to move to Australia.
• 58:52
  SPEAKER_02: At another season of life, that would have been, hey, you should probably propose to Emily.
• 58:56
  SPEAKER_02: At another season, that should be, you should sign up for that marathon.
• 58:59
  SPEAKER_02: Well, in this season, it that go for it was this voice that was talking to me of, hey, you should, I think it's time to spread your wings and try doing your own thing a little bit.
• 59:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I and I did.
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_02: And so that would be more so than any elevator pitch or sales spiel.
• 59:14
  SPEAKER_02: Certainly don't never try to be a the sage on the stage around NPH would just be an encouragement too.
• 59:20
  SPEAKER_02: There have been so many blessings, relationships, including this one, opportunities, interesting conversations that have come as a result of taking of betting on myself and going forth and doing that.
• 59:31
  SPEAKER_02: That to for you know, for you for that matter, for for your family or for anybody that happens to be listening, just I would just say just kind of go for it.
• 59:40
  SPEAKER_02: And and for me, MPH talent has been the the professional result of that.
• 59:45
  SPEAKER_02: And uh and lots of good things happen.
• 59:47
  SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm peeking at my phone real quick because just before we got started, I'll share this.
• 59:52
  SPEAKER_02: This might be, I don't mean this for this to be a brag, but just this is how a good friend of mine, this is the type of things that come as a result.
• 1:00:00
  SPEAKER_02: Of just being in the arena with that.
• 1:00:02
  SPEAKER_02: One of my good friends had a friend who's a COO of an organization over to their house last night, and I've actually coached uh his wife, also my friend, Shannon.
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_02: I've been a bit of a career and sales coach to her recently.
• 1:00:16
  SPEAKER_02: And yada yada yada.
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_02: So my friend sends this text message to the CEO that says, Hey, I want to introduce you to my great friend and dearly missed training buddy, Matt Brownlee.
• 1:00:24
  SPEAKER_02: Outside of being an outstanding guy, family man, newly minted Midwesterner, an endurance athlete junkie, he is the owner of MPH Talent, which specializes in anything talent related with a focus on sales.
• 1:00:36
  SPEAKER_02: You two should talk.
• 1:00:38
  SPEAKER_02: And I say that, not to intentionally infuse what some of my dear friend had to share, but that's not a that's not an introduction I would have often, if ever, received, you know, kind of uh in a past life.
• 1:00:54
  SPEAKER_02: But uh, you know, having the courage to to hang a shingle and better myself and try and serve clients and and their young leaders based on the experience that I've gained from a million cold calls and 10,000 meetings and a lot of time prospecting and a lot of wins, but a lot of losses and lessons learned along the way.
• 1:01:14
  SPEAKER_02: Uh that it's what brings me here.
• 1:01:16
  SPEAKER_02: So just like you, I probably do it with a little bit of humor, a little bit of sarcasm, you know, some some movie quotes, and uh, but also uh also a lot of reps from just having carried a bag and led and hired and also fired and promoted and demoted a lot of people along the way.
• 1:01:33
  SPEAKER_02: And I try to bring that forth with the customers that I serve and work with.
• 1:01:37
  SPEAKER_02: So uh it's it's an adventure, and and yeah, that's what I do to take care of the uh the those folks that are in the huddle.
• 1:01:43
  SPEAKER_03: Love it, man.
• 1:01:44
  SPEAKER_03: Well, we will make sure that's linked in the show notes, and that's easy as you thought about that.
• 1:01:47
  SPEAKER_03: As you can see, everybody, this is you can't see it because this is an audio podcast, but behind me is a believe sign.
• 1:01:52
  SPEAKER_03: And what you just said is betting on yourself, you gotta believe what you do matters.
• 1:01:55
  SPEAKER_03: That was a great question I got from a mentor of mine.
• 1:01:57
  SPEAKER_03: Shout out to John Kaplan.
• 1:01:59
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I it's now a question I give him a lot of credit, but I ask a lot of companies I work with.
• 1:02:03
  SPEAKER_03: It's like do you if you you start the day with belief?
• 1:02:07
  SPEAKER_03: And most people don't think about that.
• 1:02:09
  SPEAKER_03: And if you believe in yourself, if you believe that what you do can help somebody, your confidence is already better than most when you pick up the phone.
• 1:02:15
  SPEAKER_03: Your confidence is already better than most before you go to that meeting.
• 1:02:18
  SPEAKER_03: So um, and this is not just about business, but like dads ask that's a question you can ask your kids.
• 1:02:23
  SPEAKER_03: Help them, help them still believe.
• 1:02:25
  SPEAKER_03: Like I I've told the story before.
• 1:02:26
  SPEAKER_03: Shout out to my buddy Steve.
• 1:02:28
  SPEAKER_03: His son is now playing in the juniors hockey.
• 1:02:31
  SPEAKER_03: He his name was Riley too.
• 1:02:34
  SPEAKER_03: His name Riley was convinced he was gonna be in the PGA tour, um, MLB, and NHL until he's like 13.
• 1:02:41
  SPEAKER_02: Why not?
• 1:02:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, why not?
• 1:02:43
  SPEAKER_03: You know, chance of that happening, probably negative eight, but he never once made him.
• 1:02:47
  SPEAKER_03: And I I love that.
• 1:02:48
  SPEAKER_03: Like, let kids don't get a dream enough in their imagination, and the world tells us too much what we can't do.
• 1:02:54
  SPEAKER_03: And I I think we should create situations about why not you.
• 1:02:58
  SPEAKER_03: So, all right.
• 1:03:00
  SPEAKER_01: Love that.
• 1:03:00
  SPEAKER_03: It is now time, Matthew, to go into the lightning round, which is where I show you the negative hits of taking too many hits in college and not bong hits, but football hits.
• 1:03:08
  SPEAKER_03: Your job is to answer these questions as quickly as you can.
• 1:03:11
  SPEAKER_03: My job is to try to get a giggle out of you.
• 1:03:15
  SPEAKER_01: Love it.
• 1:03:15
  SPEAKER_01: I'm here for it.
• 1:03:17
  SPEAKER_03: Um, true or false, when you run, they yell go Beetlejuice.
• 1:03:23
  SPEAKER_02: False.
• 1:03:23
  SPEAKER_02: A lot more uh run for us, run.
• 1:03:26
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 1:03:27
  SPEAKER_03: Um, if there was to be a running movie, Prefontaine, part du, who would star you?
• 1:03:33
  SPEAKER_03: Ryan Gosling.
• 1:03:35
  SPEAKER_03: Hmm.
• 1:03:35
  SPEAKER_03: You kind of got a little gosling look.
• 1:03:37
  SPEAKER_03: I can see that.
• 1:03:38
  SPEAKER_03: Um, last book you read was that's the nicest thing I'll hear today.
• 1:03:42
  SPEAKER_03: What was the last book you read?
• 1:03:45
  SPEAKER_02: I am the last book I finished reading was a kind of is a Jack Carr, uh kind of James Reese, CIA shoot 'em up special ops thriller.
• 1:03:56
  SPEAKER_02: I come of a sucker for Navy SEAL type books.
• 1:03:59
  SPEAKER_02: But then I just picked one up I'm halfway through called Thoughts on Being a Man by Scott Galloway, who hosts the Pivot podcast.
• 1:04:07
  SPEAKER_02: And it is fantastic.
• 1:04:08
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Thoughts on Being a Man.
• 1:04:10
  SPEAKER_02: Thoughts on Being a Man by Scott Galloway.
• 1:04:12
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 1:04:13
  SPEAKER_03: I'm actually looking for a new book, which is my thoughts on being a man.
• 1:04:16
  SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna maybe go pick that up today.
• 1:04:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um I would I would say please don't, please let me uh finish it.
• 1:04:23
  SPEAKER_02: Get gift it to you.
• 1:04:24
  SPEAKER_02: So please, so don't stop.
• 1:04:26
  SPEAKER_02: There's none for sale.
• 1:04:27
  SPEAKER_02: You should not even look for one.
• 1:04:30
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 1:04:30
  SPEAKER_03: Um, if I went into your phone, now that we have the one only Blaze Bassell, a former uh podcast guest as well.
• 1:04:36
  SPEAKER_03: If we went into your phone right now, what genre of music might surprise Blaze that you listen to?
• 1:04:40
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know a lot of 90s hip hop in there.
• 1:04:44
  SPEAKER_03: That's so good.
• 1:04:45
  SPEAKER_03: Biggie.
• 1:04:47
  SPEAKER_02: Biggie, Pac, uh, Lost Boys.
• 1:04:51
  SPEAKER_03: Um what was your one go-to dance move?
• 1:04:55
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of fist pumping.
• 1:04:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, fun fun fact related to 90s hip hop.
• 1:05:00
  SPEAKER_02: I was recently talking about birthdays with my with my oldest son, and on my 18th birthday, uh I took the stage for the senior class talent show.
• 1:05:09
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, and with two with two backup dancers, shout out Kim and Megan, um saying uh back that thing up in front of my entire high school.
• 1:05:20
  SPEAKER_03: Um look good when you back dang it.
• 1:05:22
  SPEAKER_03: Gonna hang on anyway.
• 1:05:26
  SPEAKER_02: Who are you playing with?
• 1:05:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:05:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:05:28
  SPEAKER_03: That was a Macy's birthday.
• 1:05:30
  SPEAKER_03: Will we see this next week?
• 1:05:33
  SPEAKER_03: God, I hope not.
• 1:05:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um if we do if we do, something either went terribly wrong or terribly well.
• 1:05:40
  SPEAKER_02: Terribly well.
• 1:05:43
  SPEAKER_03: Um, if there was to be a book written about your life, tell me the title.
• 1:05:47
  SPEAKER_02: It's worth it.
• 1:05:48
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 1:05:49
  SPEAKER_03: Now, It's Worth It um is sold out everywhere.
• 1:05:53
  SPEAKER_03: And um the executives at Netflix just found out about it.
• 1:05:55
  SPEAKER_03: They're gonna make a critically acclaimed hit new movie about you.
• 1:05:57
  SPEAKER_03: Can't be Ryan Gosling because he's on a different movie about you.
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_03: I need to know who's gonna star you in this critically acclaimed hit new movie that Netflix just speed out Hulu to get the rights to.
• 1:06:08
  SPEAKER_02: Well, shout out Ryder going to Canada.
• 1:06:09
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm gonna go to another Canadian uh Ryan, uh, Ryan Reynolds, who I think is just phenomenal.
• 1:06:16
  SPEAKER_03: He's a beauty.
• 1:06:19
  SPEAKER_03: And then last question, tell me two words that would describe Emily.
• 1:06:21
  SPEAKER_03: Beautifully strong.
• 1:06:23
  SPEAKER_03: Hyphenated, or just two words.
• 1:06:25
  SPEAKER_02: Uh passionate.
• 1:06:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, well, I think beautifully strong.
• 1:06:28
  SPEAKER_03: We're gonna hyphenate that one.
• 1:06:29
  SPEAKER_03: You snuck a third one in, which I'm gonna give you, I'll give you a pass.
• 1:06:32
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 1:06:33
  SPEAKER_03: Um, lighting rounds complete.
• 1:06:34
  SPEAKER_03: We both giggled.
• 1:06:35
  SPEAKER_03: I usually giggle at my own jokes, which is most dads do.
• 1:06:38
  SPEAKER_03: I got it actually, I'm gonna end it with a great dad joke.
• 1:06:41
  SPEAKER_03: Fire away.
• 1:06:42
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, how do you get a s uh how do you get a squirrel out of a tree?
• 1:06:46
  unknown: Apple.
• 1:06:47
  SPEAKER_03: Show them your nuts.
• 1:06:50
  SPEAKER_03: And I end them that one.
• 1:06:52
  SPEAKER_03: You can tell your kids that one.
• 1:06:54
  SPEAKER_03: Say Uncle Casey gave them that one.
• 1:06:55
  SPEAKER_03: Uh Lightning RAM's complete.
• 1:06:57
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, this has been a fantastic conversation.
• 1:06:59
  SPEAKER_03: Um sometimes people ask me, like, hey Casey, why do you interview sometimes people that do exactly what you do?
• 1:07:04
  SPEAKER_03: I said, why wouldn't I do it?
• 1:07:06
  SPEAKER_03: There's millions of companies out there, and I would rather I'd rather become friends with people that do similar work that I do and be able to send and connect people with um I got I think of Chris Weiss, I think of Chris Mater, and I think of you, I mean the David Fisher, who I told you about, you're gonna connect with him on since you guys are knife slingers.
• 1:07:26
  SPEAKER_03: Um uh but I think there's there's so much opportunity for our people, and I'm a I'm a guy of abundance versus scarcity, and I'd rather surround myself with people who do really good work.
• 1:07:34
  SPEAKER_03: And um I got I got big ideas about like a a golf sales event that like could be coaching, so maybe you and I can talk offline about that, man.
• 1:07:44
  SPEAKER_03: Um but we will make sure this is linked in the show notes.
• 1:07:48
  SPEAKER_03: I'll make sure that everybody can find you.
• 1:07:50
  SPEAKER_03: If this episode hit you, everybody, please share it with another dad.
• 1:07:55
  SPEAKER_03: And if there's um yeah, if there's a you know, if you've not taken time to leave us a review, please go ahead and do that right now.
• 1:08:02
  SPEAKER_03: But more importantly, everybody, thank you for listening.
• 1:08:03
  SPEAKER_03: I know these episodes are gonna go a little bit longer, but um, I got a page full of notes, and I hope you do too.
• 1:08:08
  SPEAKER_03: But Matt, it's been a blessing and honor spending time with you, and I can't wait to meet you next week.
• 1:08:12
  SPEAKER_03: But thank you again.
• 1:08:13
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Casey.
• 1:08:14
  SPEAKER_02: It's been a big gift, appreciate you.