Latest / Quarterback DadCast | Intentional Fatherhood & Leadership at Home / Greg Symons - Juggling Parenting and Business Dreams

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Greg Symons - Juggling Parenting and Business Dreams · Quarterback DadCast | Intentional Fatherhood & Leadership at Home

0:03
Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Riley.
0:04
Casey Jacox: And I'm Ryder and this is my Dad's Show.
0:06
Casey Jacox: Hey everybody, it's KCJ Cox with the quarterback Dadcast.
0:13
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0:20
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0:28
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0:38
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0:40
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0:40
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1:01
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1:03
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1:09
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1:18
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1:24
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1:25
Casey Jacox: The majestic views will blow you away and, as I mentioned, I cannot wait to get there in June.
1:30
Casey Jacox: So with that, let's welcome LatitudeSitka to the podcast and get right to today's episode.
1:35
Casey Jacox: Hey everybody, it is Casey Jcox with the quarterback dadcast.
1:39
Casey Jacox: We're in season four and I'm really, really excited about our next guest, which I say a brief, but I truly do mean it and our next guest is someone I worked with back at the lovely finds of K-Force back in 2011 to 2013.
1:54
Casey Jacox: His name is Greg Simmons.
1:55
Casey Jacox: He is the president and founder of a fantastic company called Assemble, which we're going to hear all about.
2:01
Casey Jacox: He's also, I think, a sales force expert, because he helped me as an entrepreneur, get me up and started on sales force.
2:09
Casey Jacox: So shout out to sales force.
2:10
Casey Jacox: He's a Sigma Pi, I believe at the esteemed Loyola Maramond he was not Iggy DeLion.
2:17
Casey Jacox: We'll find out if that's true or not.
2:19
Casey Jacox: And for those scoring a home, you can't see it on because this is just an audio podcast, but I'm wearing a hot, hot chicken, live music, cold beer shirt, which he, greg, told me that that's dangerous to eat.
2:31
Casey Jacox: It might be a ring of fire.
2:32
Casey Jacox: We'll learn all about that shortly, but without further ado.
2:34
Casey Jacox: Mr Simmons, welcome to the quarterback dadcast.
2:37
Greg Symons: Wow, thank you for that intro.
2:38
Greg Symons: Casey Glad to be here and it was Sigma Pi Epsilon.
2:42
Greg Symons: I feel like I need to set the record straight for Sigma Pi.
2:45
Greg Symons: Dang it For all of my fraternity brothers out there.
2:48
Casey Jacox: Were you, iggy DeLion, no it definitely wasn't.
2:51
Greg Symons: I thought we're going to dangle that carrot for the end, but hopefully we have enough excitement to keep the people tuned in Perfect.
2:59
Casey Jacox: Well, we start each episode with gratitude, so tell me, what are you most grateful for as a dad today?
3:04
Greg Symons: Oh gosh, I mean that's an easy one.
3:07
Greg Symons: My wife makes my job as a dad so much it makes it even possible, I think.
3:11
Greg Symons: I mean I work a lot to help, you know, provide support for the family, and it truly it takes a village and my wife is a rock and she's a great mother and makes my job as a dad, like I said, possible.
3:25
Greg Symons: But I think the best part about being a dad is also being a dad.
3:29
Greg Symons: You get to have kids and hang out and see them grow and develop and you know hope that hope that they grow up and are safe and healthy and then gives you a lot of perspective of all the crazy stuff I did as a kid.
3:43
Greg Symons: So it's very humbling.
3:45
Casey Jacox: Love it.
3:46
Casey Jacox: I'm going to go similar.
3:48
Casey Jacox: I usually I try to get creative with my gratitude, but I'm going to show gratitude towards and you and I talked about this before.
3:54
Casey Jacox: I'm grateful that my son threw a massive wrench in our life by making a 12 foot birdie putt on the last hole.
4:00
Casey Jacox: That we did not realize was the putt that qualified for him in the state tournament.
4:03
Casey Jacox: He's never done so that and that was not in the cards.
4:06
Casey Jacox: And so now, as I shared with you, we've had to change our vacation.
4:10
Casey Jacox: My wife is, you know when my wife she's actually out of town right now.
4:13
Casey Jacox: I'll see her next week and we're recording in July.
4:15
Casey Jacox: This episode will come out here in about a month.
4:17
Casey Jacox: So you re, you quickly realize things that magically get done around the house and I feel like I'm a hands on dad.
4:27
Casey Jacox: I'm like I try to do everything I can but like there's still things that just magically get done, and so I'm very grateful that my wife is massively detail oriented and she's helping from afar, but like even having her not here it's just puts a little bit more excess pressure on, like the car pooling and trying to figure out rides and kids, and I'm grateful for a wife who is psychotically detail oriented and always keeps us in line.
4:53
Casey Jacox: So that's great.
4:54
Casey Jacox: She's good at life, she's the family project manager.
4:57
Casey Jacox: Oh, and she also works too.
4:59
Casey Jacox: She works at Clear Edge and doing like providing marketing support.
5:03
Casey Jacox: Yeah, a bunch of other stuff there.
5:05
Casey Jacox: So, yeah, nice, Okay.
5:07
Casey Jacox: So let's hear about the.
5:08
Casey Jacox: I want to go inside this the Sim and title and tell me about each member of the squad and tell me a little bit about how you and your wife met.
5:16
Greg Symons: Yeah, so my wife and I, oddly enough, so I have a younger sister, so we can let all the all the chirps get out there, right?
5:26
Greg Symons: So my sister's about three years younger than me.
5:28
Greg Symons: So my wife was friends with my sister growing up, but she and I had never actually met each other.
5:33
Greg Symons: You know, I was always a senior in high school when they were freshmen and senior in college when they were, you know, also freshmen.
5:42
Greg Symons: So my wife's name is Lauren and she and I knew each other.
5:46
Greg Symons: She knew who I was, as you know, her friend Jenna's, you know, older brother, and she knew my family and all that, which was great.
5:53
Greg Symons: But I was living in Los Angeles at the time and flip back up to the Bay Area in San Francisco to surprise my mom for Mother's Day, and this was in 2011.
6:03
Greg Symons: And my sister and I met up at a bar with another buddy of mine and my sister brought Lauren with her, and that was the first time that I actually met my wife, and that was on May 6th, right before Mother's Day and May 6th 2011.
6:20
Greg Symons: And ever since then, she and I there's not a single day in our life since then that we didn't talk on the phone, see each other.
6:26
Greg Symons: It's been just a great journey.
6:29
Greg Symons: We've built a great life for ourselves so far, a couple of great kids, and it's why I'm a dadcast.
6:34
Casey Jacox: So there we go, but, yeah, my sister to thank for that one Go Jenna, yeah, and then talk about your kids ages, boys, girls, and what are they up to.
6:46
Greg Symons: So Jack is five and a half now.
6:48
Greg Symons: He's just told us that he's now five and a half, smart boy, good with numbers, as you could probably tell.
6:54
Greg Symons: And then my daughter, emily, is three, going on 13.
6:59
Greg Symons: And I think that you know what are they into.
7:05
Greg Symons: They're both very active and outgoing kids.
7:07
Greg Symons: They're super, super social, which is a lot of fun and also crazy at the same time.
7:11
Greg Symons: They, majority of the time, get along well with each other.
7:17
Greg Symons: I remember when I was growing up, like my sister and I used to, I remember just always bickering with each other, not fighting, but just like.
7:23
Greg Symons: And now, as a parent, I know that that was probably just drove my mom crazy.
7:28
Greg Symons: But Jack is love swimming.
7:33
Greg Symons: He's a fish.
7:34
Greg Symons: He the only reason he gets out of the waters because we, like, have to leave.
7:38
Greg Symons: So he loves something.
7:40
Greg Symons: He's a great swimmer, loves playing soccer.
7:43
Greg Symons: I am selfishly getting him into golf so that I can plant the seed and have my excuse.
7:48
Greg Symons: So to spend some little bit more time on the golf course, I should say Smart man.
7:53
Greg Symons: And then Emily is Emily's great.
7:55
Greg Symons: She's very smart, she knows how to push Jack's buttons.
7:58
Greg Symons: Jack's very emotional.
7:59
Greg Symons: He's got a high EQ.
8:01
Greg Symons: We'll say so, we got to work on him being able to understand that Emily is teasing him.
8:08
Greg Symons: I guess he could say which, for a three year old, is scary, knowing that she can already figure that stuff out.
8:14
Greg Symons: And Emily's super fun.
8:16
Greg Symons: I mean, she loves, she's, just loves life.
8:18
Greg Symons: There's not one thing that she's more or less gravitated towards.
8:22
Greg Symons: Both of our kids are pretty well rounded, but I feel like most parents will probably say that.
8:26
Greg Symons: But they keep us on our toes and yeah, man, they're, they're great.
8:30
Greg Symons: I know you can't see my face, but I can feel my face kind of light up when I talk about them, so happy and healthy.
8:36
Casey Jacox: That's all we can ask for 100%, man.
8:39
Casey Jacox: Well, I would also encourage you to get get Emily into golf, because there's a number of female golf scholarships that go unused, and even like our high school team where my sons played golf hard to believe he'll be a senior this year, which is still that sounds so weird to say out loud yeah, or there's a few golfers, but there's not.
8:57
Casey Jacox: There's not many.
8:58
Casey Jacox: When the girls brought and they need more female golfers.
9:00
Casey Jacox: I used to be on the board of what's called the first tee.
9:03
Casey Jacox: You ever heard of that?
9:04
Casey Jacox: Yeah, yeah.
9:05
Casey Jacox: So that's a great thing to get your kids involved with.
9:09
Greg Symons: Shout out to them yeah, she loves golf.
9:12
Greg Symons: I mean, she's, she's really good, really good hand-eye coordination.
9:16
Greg Symons: I don't think my kids will listen to this podcast, but I can say that she definitely has better hand-eye coordination than my son does, even at this age.
9:26
Speaker 1: Sorry.
9:26
Greg Symons: Jack.
9:26
Greg Symons: Yeah, sorry, buddy, I still love you, but yeah, I think I would.
9:31
Greg Symons: I was so worried.
9:32
Greg Symons: We'll say about that, and I know that you and I have.
9:34
Greg Symons: We talk a lot about golf and it's a big, a bigger partner life I guess you especially with with what you've got with your family.
9:41
Greg Symons: But one thing that I've always really appreciated is, you know, I grew up playing baseball before.
9:47
Greg Symons: Golf was cool, I guess right.
9:50
Greg Symons: So, like you know, I graduated from high school in 04.
9:54
Greg Symons: So Tiger really only had just kind of come onto the scenes and as a you know 97, when I was 10, 11, 12, give or take right, like golf was still just like old man sport.
10:06
Greg Symons: Nobody was really playing golf at our age back then.
10:10
Greg Symons: I say our age, I know we're probably in the neighborhood of you know plus or minus few years, but you know golf was not nearly what it was today.
10:16
Greg Symons: And so I grew up playing baseball and I my dad played golf.
10:19
Greg Symons: He got me into golf and I loved it and as a base form baseball player Like you, just smash the ball and so, like all of his friends, a big whoa, this guy can drive the ball so far, and you know it's fun, and but I continue to play golf.
10:30
Greg Symons: As I grew up and I've really I've really treasured it because I've been able to play in tournaments with my dad.
10:38
Greg Symons: Back when I lived out in California, I would go out and play golf with my mom.
10:42
Greg Symons: It's just been a great way to Continue to just have friendships with, like my parents and do some just like fun activities that they're older but they still play golf and it's really cool and I'm excited for that.
10:54
Greg Symons: I'm excited to be able to do that with my kids and just what what that sport does For for kids in terms of what you learn and how you act and behave Respect the quorum, right, honesty honesty it's.
11:10
Greg Symons: But also like it bridges generations, like I have so many friends of mine that are my dad's friends.
11:17
Greg Symons: Right, because you play golf with with a different generation and, yeah, you learn how to engage with people that you might not have as much in common with.
11:24
Greg Symons: You learn how to Red people a little bit.
11:27
Greg Symons: You learn a little bit of sarcasm.
11:28
Greg Symons: You know how to take heat and give heat and Kind of round you out, and I hope that you know whether it's golf is the medium or any other type of sport.
11:35
Greg Symons: I think sports just does that in general.
11:37
Greg Symons: But golf is unique because it's it spans generations and it's something that like I'm not gonna go out and like Throw the football around with my mom, like you know, I'm not, just not, not anymore, at least you can run.
11:50
Casey Jacox: Maybe she could run a good post corner for you never know.
11:53
Greg Symons: I think so.
11:53
Greg Symons: Yeah, I don't know if I could hit her on the on the out route, but Good college try.
11:59
Greg Symons: But anyways, yeah, I'll get her into it.
12:02
Greg Symons: It's a long one, that way of saying that.
12:04
Casey Jacox: I love it, dude, but that's what's so fun about these conversations.
12:07
Casey Jacox: We let Kira see drive it and golf.
12:08
Casey Jacox: You made me think of this year.
12:11
Casey Jacox: Writer and I played in a two-man best ball together.
12:14
Greg Symons: Yeah.
12:15
Casey Jacox: He's this afternoon.
12:16
Casey Jacox: He's gonna go caddy for a member.
12:18
Casey Jacox: The caddy.
12:18
Casey Jacox: The member texted him.
12:19
Casey Jacox: He wants him on the bag.
12:20
Casey Jacox: He caddy for him.
12:21
Casey Jacox: All is the member guest.
12:22
Casey Jacox: Yeah, this past weekend we had our member guest tournament.
12:25
Casey Jacox: I met a guy shout to Sean Van Ness, retired dude, a Boeing engineer.
12:30
Casey Jacox: Guy had a lot of soda pops, he had a lot of red wine.
12:35
Casey Jacox: He was giggly, he was.
12:36
Casey Jacox: I mean, I partied with this, almost seven-year-old was awesome, you know just stories and the wisdom he had and I obtained my son.
12:43
Casey Jacox: Like the brothers don't shake hands, probably so you know us.
12:46
Casey Jacox: We would giggle about that, but it is.
12:48
Casey Jacox: And also your point, think about the life lessons that they will learn that we've learned.
12:54
Casey Jacox: I mean, I think for sales leaders or company leaders, what a great way to interview somebody.
12:58
Casey Jacox: Take them golfing, oh man.
13:00
Greg Symons: Yeah, everything about them.
13:01
Greg Symons: Yeah, as long as they play fast.
13:04
Greg Symons: I think that's.
13:05
Greg Symons: That's the hiring criteria.
13:06
Greg Symons: Is you know?
13:07
Greg Symons: If you finish this round less than four hours, you're hired.
13:09
Greg Symons: Figure it out.
13:12
Casey Jacox: Yeah, but like so my balls out of bounds by foot.
13:14
Casey Jacox: Do I kick it back in or do I hey, my balls out of bounds.
13:17
Casey Jacox: I got to go back to the tier.
13:18
Casey Jacox: I'm gonna hit, stroke and distance like the look.
13:20
Casey Jacox: Can they hold a conversation when no one's looking?
13:23
Greg Symons: That's right.
13:23
Greg Symons: Yeah, it's.
13:24
Greg Symons: That's a.
13:25
Greg Symons: It's a good one.
13:25
Greg Symons: I remember I interned at Deloitte in college and Speaking of like non-conventional interview types, and I'll never forget this we went out to dinner.
13:36
Greg Symons: It's actually like a marathon eight hour interview with partners and all that stuff.
13:38
Greg Symons: And you go out to dinner and you're like a six-top table with A partner and this poor kid sitting next to me.
13:44
Greg Symons: He was so hungry Is it a nice steakhouse and downtown LA?
13:47
Greg Symons: And they like have the plate with Pre-sliced pieces of butter for bread.
13:52
Greg Symons: Well, there's no bread on the table, it's only butter.
13:53
Greg Symons: It's gonna so hungry.
13:55
Greg Symons: He takes his fork, stabs the butter and eats it.
13:58
Greg Symons: And I'm sitting next to him.
13:59
Greg Symons: Like you, I've got to be kidding me.
14:02
Greg Symons: Like what kind of psychopath just eats butter.
14:05
Greg Symons: He's like man.
14:05
Greg Symons: I'm so hungry.
14:06
Greg Symons: I actually think he's still got the job, but that's like all these in Caddy check.
14:12
Greg Symons: I can eat your fat.
14:13
Greg Symons: Just wow, just so hungry just to eat slice of butter, man.
14:18
Greg Symons: But yeah, it is.
14:20
Greg Symons: It's a good point and I think yeah, if you're ever in a position where you get to interview on the golf course, uh, what also I mean?
14:28
Greg Symons: I would love to work for that guy, like what a great, what a great tool to use to kind of vet that people out.
14:34
Greg Symons: So I think it's a win-win yeah.
14:38
Casey Jacox: Okay, um, I would like to go back in time.
14:41
Casey Jacox: We'll flex capacitor and understand what was life like grown up for you and Talk about the impact your parents had on you now that you're a dad.
14:52
Greg Symons: Yeah, I mean I had a great life growing up Um, which I'm very fortunate about.
14:56
Greg Symons: Uh grew up in the Bay Area With I've got, like I said, I've got a younger sister Um.
15:01
Greg Symons: My parents have been married for now 38 years, um, and so I've always just had a very uh.
15:11
Greg Symons: I always have such fond memories of grow of my childhood, grew up in the Bay Area and I, in hindsight, so my dad was always the sports Influencer, my mom was the school influencer and so they separated church and state, if you will, but it was a lot of fun because I was always playing sports, always active.
15:33
Greg Symons: Growing up um.
15:34
Greg Symons: We always, you know we traveled as uh.
15:37
Greg Symons: You know we went on on great family vacations and had a lot of family friends that we've gone on trips with Um, as you know, like I, in summers, especially gosh.
15:46
Greg Symons: We had spent so much time on like baseball trips and sporting trips and things like that Um, which was always fun.
15:53
Greg Symons: But I had a great, a great upbringing Um.
15:55
Greg Symons: What I learned from my parents gosh, my dad, uh Was my.
16:02
Greg Symons: My dad is uh, he's old school, he's a.
16:04
Greg Symons: He started his own company when he was uh gosh, probably Early 20s, maybe his roofing contractor and still runs that business today.
16:12
Greg Symons: So he is one of the hardest workers, if not the hardest worker that I know like he would work on Saturday mornings, come home and hang out and just always be there, always present, always fun.
16:23
Greg Symons: My friends love hanging out with my dad.
16:26
Greg Symons: He just likes having a good time.
16:27
Greg Symons: As a people person, he works his tail off and he also is he's the most honest person that you'll ever meet.
16:36
Greg Symons: Talk about, you know, fall out of balance by a foot or an inch or a mile.
16:39
Greg Symons: I mean he uh instilled the value of hard work, of honesty, of respect, and I have carried that with me um To today.
16:51
Greg Symons: There there are traits that I, I know that will be instilling into our kids.
16:55
Greg Symons: Um, because those, those traits are, you know, they're, they're character driven traits.
17:00
Greg Symons: Right, those are, those are learned skills.
17:03
Greg Symons: Like everybody in the world has the ability to work hard, to be honest and respect people.
17:07
Greg Symons: Like it's not overly complex.
17:11
Greg Symons: My mom is one of the most supportive people.
17:13
Greg Symons: She's, uh, the rock in our family and helps.
17:16
Greg Symons: You know you talked about your wife being the project manager.
17:19
Greg Symons: I mean my mom, my mom does so much, even today, for the family.
17:23
Greg Symons: I mean she still is.
17:24
Greg Symons: Um, she loves our, our grandkids, so much.
17:28
Greg Symons: Um, she's I talked to my mom multiple times each week still to this day um, she cares about what we're doing.
17:34
Greg Symons: Um, so loving, so nurturing and, uh, just a great, just a great human being all around.
17:40
Greg Symons: So it was always good being able to have the two different sides of the parents right, like dad is like hard nose on sports and uh, and winning and competitive.
17:50
Greg Symons: My mom is not competitive, so that was like the have fun and you know work hard kind of thing.
17:56
Greg Symons: But um, but she was always tough on school and I always had to make sure that I had good grades and and did well in the classroom so that I could go do the other fun stuff that I wanted to go do.
18:06
Casey Jacox: So cool, what?
18:07
Casey Jacox: Um.
18:08
Casey Jacox: So I love the mom and dad are still with us, which is good.
18:11
Casey Jacox: Sometimes I I can't remember if I told you, but my pops, he passed away December 29th 2021.
18:16
Casey Jacox: And so we're in season four and every episode in season three was dedicated to him.
18:20
Casey Jacox: It was kind of a fun, fun tribute to do at the start of the podcast.
18:23
Casey Jacox: Um, my mom's still with us.
18:25
Casey Jacox: She's in her seventies and very active, so she plays golf, big golfer, and so, like she, she gets, I think, nervous when Ryder competes in golf tournament.
18:33
Casey Jacox: She loves it, she follows hole by hole, lives and dies by it.
18:37
Casey Jacox: So it's, um, that's been fun to see.
18:39
Casey Jacox: But for your dad, like, as you memories growing up, you talked about, uh, you know, hard work, honesty, respect.
18:46
Casey Jacox: Um, what do you tell me what?
18:49
Casey Jacox: What do you remember about his business?
18:51
Casey Jacox: Um, as a kid, Like, what did you?
18:53
Casey Jacox: What did you?
18:54
Casey Jacox: Now that you're an entrepreneur, do you take anything from that experience?
18:58
Greg Symons: I remember one time, um, he, uh, you know he's like I didn't know what what, what you know, business, capital B business really was.
19:07
Greg Symons: As a kid growing up, you just know that adults work and they're at work and like you don't know what they're doing.
19:13
Greg Symons: Um, I remember one day I was at work with my mom on the weekend and he was like signing checks and he was just like scribbling his name on him and I just kind of like, okay, so that's work, like you're doing your side checks.
19:24
Greg Symons: But um, I remember vividly.
19:26
Greg Symons: I asked him one time I was a little bit older, actually probably two years at the time Um, he was filling out bids for customers and I was, like, you know, of the bids that you send out, like how many do you win?
19:36
Greg Symons: He's like all of them.
19:37
Greg Symons: I was like, okay, that's a flex.
19:39
Greg Symons: Like in hindsight I didn't say it was a flex when I was like 13.
19:42
Greg Symons: But um, what I remember is like, as I mentioned, like my, my dad, like people, he's a super outgoing, like just a very like the most fun, he always wants to have a good time.
19:54
Greg Symons: Um, he, he's friends with people that are his peers and older and younger and kids, like it doesn't matter, like, he's just always, always, uh, always been great at building relationships with people, and I also see that now as an adult, because I see how his friends interact with him and, like everybody, whenever they see him, if we're out, it's always like key, how's it going?
20:16
Greg Symons: You know, like, and so, uh, what I remember is that I remember he was always busy and I remember that he was always closing deals.
20:23
Greg Symons: Right, he always they do a lot of commercial deals, so he's got a lot of larger, larger contracts.
20:27
Greg Symons: Um, in that regard, I remember that kind of stuck with me of how many of these busy when he said all of them Okay, cool, um.
20:35
Greg Symons: But then I also remember in high school, you know, I worked for him during the summers, which was brutal.
20:41
Greg Symons: Um, you know, roofing is a hard job.
20:45
Greg Symons: On the best of days in the summer it's hot and you've got to wear pants and long sleeve shirts and hats and helmets, all that stuff, right, so you're just burning up and it's hard work.
20:54
Greg Symons: But you know, I appreciate the fact like he would be, he's on the roof with his guys, like he's not, you know, an ivory tower kind of guy.
21:01
Greg Symons: He started the company as a roofer, knows how to do all the things that his guys do.
21:05
Greg Symons: Gets up on the roof, you know, help, help, nail in some shingles.
21:08
Greg Symons: He'll put on some some flashings, like doesn't really matter, he didn't really care.
21:11
Greg Symons: Uh, it goes back to kind of that hard work mentality.
21:13
Greg Symons: He's not, he's not above any task, he's not better than any person, and I think that that is kind of a testament to how he's run his business and how he runs his life.
21:22
Casey Jacox: So cool, yeah.
21:23
Casey Jacox: Um, besides hard work, honesty and respect, the values that he taught you and your mom taught you as well, are there?
21:29
Casey Jacox: Tell me, are there any other key values that were top of mind or, from a memory perspective, that your parents taught you that you'll take into your, your role as a dad for Jack and Emily?
21:40
Greg Symons: Yeah, I mean, treat people the way you want to be treated.
21:43
Greg Symons: Um, it's kind of really the big one.
21:45
Greg Symons: Um, again, not, I'm not an overthinker on a lot of things.
21:51
Greg Symons: Um, I think if I I'll probably wake up in the middle of the night after this and be thinking about this and I'm sure stuff will hit me like oh my gosh, I should have said that, oh my gosh should have said that.
22:03
Greg Symons: But, um, but not complicated, I'm like I think that so many times in life people look for silver bullets and things and I don't.
22:08
Greg Symons: I don't think I have all the answers, but I've, I've made it so far and I think I've, I've been able to to get to where I'm at in life by by abiding by some, but I think are pretty elementary principles like the ones that I just mentioned there.
22:25
Greg Symons: Um, I know that you know my dad and my mom.
22:27
Greg Symons: My dad's dad was a police officer, oakland, Oakland police officers in the military as well.
22:32
Greg Symons: My grandfather, my mom's dad, was in the Air Force, you know.
22:36
Greg Symons: I mean you talk about respect and hard work.
22:39
Greg Symons: Um, my grant, my dad's dad was a police officer in Oakland in the sixties and, like the civil rights movement and I got some crazy stories just about life and my dad was, you know, obviously learned a lot and how he was formed it was through through that relationship and he's also got three brothers, two other brothers, so that kind of molds you as well.
22:59
Greg Symons: But yeah, I mean respect, hard work, honesty, treat people the way you want to be treated.
23:03
Greg Symons: Um, those are four pretty solid pillars that, um, that I I lean on every day and life in the business.
23:12
Casey Jacox: Self plug.
23:13
Casey Jacox: That's why I wrote chapter one of my book is fall A golden rule of life.
23:16
Casey Jacox: I learned that from my parents, learned it from my coaches, something I teach my kids.
23:19
Casey Jacox: My son was seven.
23:21
Casey Jacox: He was convinced my job was that I made friends for a living.
23:24
Casey Jacox: Well, I mean, it wasn't entirely wrong.
23:27
Casey Jacox: I actually I told him that my buddies gave me a hard time.
23:29
Casey Jacox: Like dude, you can't tell your kid he's going to get paid with friends, I'm like, but that's what I do.
23:34
Casey Jacox: I treat friends the way they should be treated.
23:36
Casey Jacox: If I can't help them, I find a different friend to help them.
23:38
Casey Jacox: I'm setting expectations and being honest with them.
23:40
Casey Jacox: Like that's exactly what it is, and so we kind of joke now but, um, okay, so I have a, I have a.
23:47
Casey Jacox: I want to learn you.
23:49
Casey Jacox: I love that.
23:49
Casey Jacox: You said that your those values you learned were learned skills, and I agree and I have like stories that are coming.
23:54
Casey Jacox: When you said that, like I had like these stories that came to mind for me as you think back to your childhood, are there times that you had to learn that the negative side of not understanding what hard work was, or not understanding what being honest was and why, like maybe you got caught lying about something like that.
24:10
Casey Jacox: I'm never doing that again.
24:11
Greg Symons: I got caught lying a few times, um, only a few times, because the, the wrath, uh the consequence of lying was not worth ever the lie itself, nor is it ever worth the lie of itself.
24:24
Greg Symons: Even if the, the punishment changes.
24:26
Greg Symons: It's just never.
24:27
Greg Symons: Never worth it.
24:29
Greg Symons: Um, that was an easy lesson to learn.
24:31
Greg Symons: The hard work piece, um, you know, the, the hard work piece I've I've valued in a much different way now, as as a business owner and starting uh, two companies.
24:42
Greg Symons: Now is is a lot different, like, what hard work is in, uh, in school.
24:47
Greg Symons: School is always pretty easy for me, um, but one of the values of hard work that I took away with me, I and you'll probably appreciate this right, being a college athlete and what you need to do to kind of be the, the cream that rises to the top, is in baseball and varsity baseball.
25:04
Greg Symons: Um, back in Pleasanton, go Falcons.
25:06
Greg Symons: I remember our coach, uh, angelo Scavoni.
25:09
Greg Symons: Shout out Angelo.
25:10
Greg Symons: He uh, so many coaches and seminars and stuff.
25:14
Greg Symons: It's, it's the, it's the extra work, it's a.
25:15
Greg Symons: You go to practice and then, and then who's running laps?
25:17
Greg Symons: You go to practice and then who's practicing their swing in the mirror to like figure out what all the angles are and all that stuff.
25:22
Greg Symons: It's like you go to practice and that's the end of the game.
25:24
Greg Symons: Like, what else are you willing to do?
25:26
Greg Symons: What other work are you willing to do to get yourself to the next level?
25:29
Greg Symons: And one thing that I am eternally grateful for, as I mentioned, my dad's a super busy guy, right?
25:35
Greg Symons: He's a company, building a business for the family and all that stuff, and um, working on Saturdays even, and I remember in high school we would, uh, after cause I had, you know, practice every day after school, whatever it was.
25:47
Greg Symons: Um, I'd get home, do homework.
25:50
Greg Symons: My dad would get home six, six, 37 o'clock at night and he we'd pull all the cars out of the garage and he would sit on one side of the garage, I'd stand on the other.
25:58
Greg Symons: He had a, uh, five gallon bucket full of wiffle golf balls and I had an Easton metal stick not a baseball, but it was the metal stick that was about what inch and a half in diameter, and he would sit on that, that bucket, and he would pitch these golf wiffle balls to me and I would hit the golf with wiffle balls with my inch and a half Easton metal stick.
26:18
Greg Symons: I don't know what it was called right, but I would hit a hundred and I take 150 cuts, maybe 200 cuts, a night after my dad got home from work to do that.
26:27
Greg Symons: And now, knowing how I feel after a day of work, the fact that he did that like I mean, it makes my heart like not hurt, but just like I'm proud and like I don't know what the emotion is, but it's just like man, knowing that it's not dedication for me to put in the heart, but it's dedication for him to put in the hard work.
26:44
Greg Symons: Right, I can't throw the ball up and pitch to myself Um, and let's be honest, let's let's be honest, greg your fingers are sore and your brain hurts.
26:52
Casey Jacox: His whole body hurt Right Roofing and selling softwares Like yeah.
26:58
Casey Jacox: I'm tongue in cheek.
26:59
Casey Jacox: They're like think about how tired he must have been, and yeah, it's awesome and that was a choice.
27:05
Greg Symons: Yeah, yeah.
27:06
Greg Symons: And driving around all day, like I know driving is not physically taxing but it's exhausting Like you're in traffic and you're just dealing with it's like it sucks right and like you're just tired, um and uh, but like did all that?
27:18
Greg Symons: Uh, worked my tail off, loved doing it too.
27:21
Greg Symons: That's the other difference too.
27:21
Greg Symons: Like hard work doesn't feel hard if you love what you're doing.
27:25
Greg Symons: I guess, like any type of work is hard if you're not really enjoying it, no matter the volume or quantity.
27:32
Greg Symons: But I loved what I was doing, but it was like we worked, we collectively worked really hard.
27:36
Greg Symons: And um, that year, my senior year, I set the the batting average title Nobody at that point in eballs had ever hit.
27:44
Greg Symons: I think I had 550 that season.
27:46
Greg Symons: Let's go oh yeah, but that was uh yeah and I think I struck out like three times it was just, it was fun, it was so much fun it was, it was great also just to see the output.
27:56
Greg Symons: Like it would have been pretty bitter if we put in all that hard work to just kind of be like ho hum.
28:03
Greg Symons: But you put in the hard work not because you got nothing else, so you put in the hard work so that you can win Right, and I think that's again, it's a learned trade.
28:13
Greg Symons: Everybody has the same amount of time in each day, but 1,440 minutes.
28:18
Casey Jacox: We all have the same amount.
28:19
Casey Jacox: Okay, I usually go with hours, but I respect that 1440,.
28:24
Casey Jacox: So, like when I speak to companies, I talk about that.
28:26
Speaker 1: Yeah.
28:27
Casey Jacox: And when I spoke at TaylorMade that really resonated with one of the leaders I work with and him and his dad.
28:33
Casey Jacox: They're like, obviously, big golfers, but him and his dad shout out Mark Kray.
28:36
Casey Jacox: So him and his son made me and my son a stamped ball marker with our names on it and on the back it says believe 1440.
28:45
Casey Jacox: Cool, I like it.
28:47
Casey Jacox: Yeah, super cool.
28:48
Casey Jacox: So it's like I like it.
28:49
Casey Jacox: It is.
28:51
Casey Jacox: It's life's about choices and one of the things so those nightly games of soft toss was it your idea or his idea?
29:06
Greg Symons: Man, I don't know, it might have been his.
29:08
Greg Symons: To be honest, he's so competitive, right, and competitive through me, and I also know that, like he saw I don't mean for this sound Brad Cadosh he saw that I was talented and good at baseball right, and he wanted me to go as far in baseball as possible as a parent, as a dad, right.
29:25
Greg Symons: So he was willing to do what he needed to do to help me get to whatever goal in baseball I wanted to get to right.
29:32
Greg Symons: And my goal in baseball ended in high school.
29:35
Greg Symons: I mean, I got recruited to go play in college but at that point I didn't, the fire hadn't gone out.
29:42
Greg Symons: It was that chapter in my life had closed, right, and I was at peace with that and that was all fine and good.
29:50
Greg Symons: But I don't remember explicitly like the day that we started doing soft toss in the garage.
29:55
Greg Symons: But I know that it was a sacrifice of his and I know that even if it was my idea, he wouldn't have had an eye like.
30:04
Greg Symons: He went to all of my.
30:04
Greg Symons: He missed.
30:05
Greg Symons: He went to every single baseball game I had, no matter where the time of day coached.
30:11
Greg Symons: A lot of my teams went to most of the practices that I had.
30:13
Greg Symons: So, yeah, like fully dedicated and fully there to support me with whatever direction or goal that I wanted to achieve.
30:21
Greg Symons: You know, with that and yeah, I mean that was it was.
30:27
Greg Symons: You know, soft toss was one of the things.
30:28
Greg Symons: But then it's the travel.
30:30
Greg Symons: It's going to the games and I remember there were a lot of dads who didn't go to their kids games.
30:33
Greg Symons: It's crazy to me, crazy to me.
30:35
Speaker 4: Hello everybody my name is Craig Coe and I'm the Senior Vice President of Relationship Management for Beeline.
30:42
Speaker 4: For more than 20 years, we've been helping Fortune 1000 companies drive a competitive advantage with their external workforce.
30:48
Speaker 4: In fact, beeline's history a first to market.
30:51
Speaker 4: Innovations have become today's industry standards.
30:54
Speaker 4: I get asked all the time what did Casey do for your organization?
30:59
Speaker 4: And I say this.
31:00
Speaker 4: It's simple.
31:01
Speaker 4: The guy flat out gets it.
31:03
Speaker 4: Relationships matter.
31:04
Speaker 4: His down to earth presentation, his real world experience applied to every area of our business.
31:10
Speaker 4: In fact, his book when the Relationship and Not the Deal has become required reading for all new members of the Global Relationship Management Team.
31:19
Speaker 4: If you'd like to know more about me or about Beeline, please reach out to me on LinkedIn and if you don't know Casey Jaycox, go to CaseyJaycoxcom and learn more about how he can help your organization.
31:32
Speaker 4: Now let's get back to today's episode.
31:37
Casey Jacox: I've missed barely anything, barely anything.
31:38
Casey Jacox: I remember my mom and dad.
31:40
Casey Jacox: Same thing.
31:40
Casey Jacox: My dad almost bankrupted himself going to my college football games.
31:44
Casey Jacox: I mean shithole towns, places that like no offense, some of these towns, but like I put against Humboldt State, humboldt State, arcata, I think, arcadia, yep, we went down the I can't remember the name, lumberjack Bowl or whatever it was, but they redid the field.
32:01
Casey Jacox: But like he did there, he'd go to Billings Montana and I remember that.
32:08
Casey Jacox: I have a picture right here.
32:09
Casey Jacox: It's a picture of me and my senior year in college with him.
32:13
Casey Jacox: I've barely missed any of my kids games and when I do I feel horrible, like this week my wife's out of town, I didn't get to go to the two-day district tournament and I'm like dude, this is killing me, beau.
32:25
Casey Jacox: And he's like dude, dad, you come to everything, I'm fine.
32:29
Casey Jacox: And I think because we've we've earned, we've shown him the whole way.
32:33
Casey Jacox: But he was actually because he did well, the second day he was so excited to call me to tell me yeah, that's cool and it's actually.
32:40
Casey Jacox: It was less stressful for me watching, you know, because you wanted to do well.
32:45
Casey Jacox: But I think the reason I asked about back to the idea thing, the reason I asked because there's so many, when your kids get older you'll probably be like when your kids get older, you'll probably see it and you probably remember it from your own days I think a trap we fall into as parents is making our dreams, their dreams, which is a recipe for disaster.
33:02
Casey Jacox: I've seen, and you know I love that, you you know stepped up to it, but there's times I've seen my buddies or even family like go the opposite and like they resist it.
33:14
Casey Jacox: And that's where I think like one of my favorite words in my late 40s now is curiosity, which is a superpower.
33:21
Casey Jacox: Superpowers are parents, superpowers are business leader, coach, whatever you want to do, because curiosity helps people unlock things they didn't know or unlock, you know, opportunities they didn't know existed and we can.
33:35
Casey Jacox: We make their idea our idea if we know they want to do it.
33:38
Casey Jacox: It helps them put in the hard work to go get it done.
33:42
Casey Jacox: And I think your dad he also.
33:44
Casey Jacox: It seems like he did a good job of that too, like maybe reminding you about the goals you have in baseball or what you want to achieve.
33:49
Greg Symons: and yeah, that's a good point.
33:51
Greg Symons: I mean, you can't as much as you, as a parent, want something like you can't want something enough for somebody else, like they have to want it, like they have to be bought into it, right.
34:02
Greg Symons: But yeah, no, I think about that.
34:06
Greg Symons: Like I have, you know, goals for what I want my kids to do and achieve.
34:10
Greg Symons: But I mean the world that we live in and 20 years from now, like who knows what, like I can't even comprehend the types of things that they're going to be able to do right With as fast as the world changes in technology.
34:22
Greg Symons: And you know it's a it's a crazy time to be alive.
34:26
Greg Symons: But you know, you want, you know kind of the common denominators, like those things that we talked about, those pillars, those learned traits, you know things that you can influence, are important.
34:36
Greg Symons: But yeah, the last thing I want to do is, you know, put a bitter taste in my kids' mouth because they think it's just what I want them to do and in reality, they miss out on something out of spite.
34:48
Greg Symons: I mean, kids do crazy stuff like teenagers will do stuff.
34:50
Greg Symons: They'll just do the opposite, right, like no matter what.
34:54
Greg Symons: So I think there's probably a fine line there that I'll probably come back to in a few years for some advice on.
35:00
Casey Jacox: I think the biggest thing.
35:01
Casey Jacox: I love making everything fun and you know, this podcast has given me so much free therapy that I did not anticipate getting so shout out to all the 200 plus dads who've spent their time with us, and the dads who've listened in, grandfathers and their moms and whoever else listened.
35:18
Casey Jacox: Thank you, guys for all your support.
35:21
Casey Jacox: But I think it's, you know, like we started with a blank sheet of paper.
35:25
Casey Jacox: We'll end with a couple pages of notes, and one thing I always challenge a lot of dads to talk to is like why does it take a couple of microphones and an hour of on Zencast?
35:36
Casey Jacox: Or shout out to my recording software where they we're going to have this conversation about stuff that's super, super important, about like reminding ourselves what our parents did for us, that we're going to do for our kids, and a lot of times we just get going too fast.
35:50
Casey Jacox: We don't slow down to stay present, and staying present is one of the biggest gifts we can get our kids, cause, like you said earlier, you had no idea what your dad did.
35:58
Casey Jacox: He just signed checks, and that was one of the other reasons why I wanted to start this podcast four years ago is whether you're an NFL quarterback, executive of a software company, a barista, a bus driver.
36:10
Casey Jacox: Your kids hey boys, check your ego.
36:12
Casey Jacox: Your kids could give two shits what you doing.
36:14
Casey Jacox: You might think they think it's cool.
36:16
Casey Jacox: They don't know what you do.
36:17
Casey Jacox: All they care is did you give me to practice in time?
36:20
Casey Jacox: Do you listen?
36:20
Casey Jacox: Do you want to play catch with me?
36:21
Casey Jacox: Do you want to do the things?
36:22
Casey Jacox: Do you make me feel safe?
36:23
Casey Jacox: Do you ask me questions?
36:25
Casey Jacox: Do you help me get you know?
36:26
Casey Jacox: And I think this journey of dads is about, and I'm sad that it's going by too fast, but I guess the question I have, so maybe a simple question, we'll ask anyways, how much of your dad's entrepreneurship that you saw motivated you to want to get into entrepreneurship.
36:45
Greg Symons: Oh, I mean big time right, like I always admired and respected that he ran his own business, right.
36:52
Greg Symons: I mean that's a really as a kid, especially like you see parents doing things, you hear other as kids, you hear your friends parents talk about work.
37:03
Greg Symons: You don't again, you don't really know what it is, but it's like my boss did this or my manager did that.
37:09
Greg Symons: It's like my dad's the boss like, and that was always really cool to me and I liked that idea.
37:13
Greg Symons: I haven't always been the boss and I think the second you start your own business you quickly realize that you might be on the top of the hierarchy but you're not the boss.
37:24
Greg Symons: You just got different people that you now report to.
37:27
Greg Symons: It's all relative, but you have a lot more control, right, and I like I love what I do.
37:34
Greg Symons: I love the entrepreneurial things that we get to partake in as business owners.
37:38
Greg Symons: I like there's a really good book called Zero to One that talks about the act of creating things and that, to me, is moving things from zero to one is incredibly difficult.
37:49
Greg Symons: Going from one to N is much easier, but zero to one is sometimes an insurmountable task.
37:56
Greg Symons: Sometimes you cannot get to one.
37:57
Greg Symons: It's just not possible for right of reason, but I always admired that he was, you know he was the boss.
38:02
Greg Symons: I always thought that was really cool, you know as a kid, and so how successful it was too.
38:08
Greg Symons: I wanted to be able to provide a life for my family similar or better than the life that he was able to provide to us.
38:15
Greg Symons: Similar would be fine I'm not saying similar or better.
38:17
Greg Symons: If I can match, like you know, feature parody, as we say in software, if I can have like quality of life feature parody for my kids, I had grown up huge success and so for me, like I, you know I operate well based on learned experiences.
38:33
Greg Symons: I mean, my whole learned experience growing up was seeing my dad grow a business, be successful, support the family, and that's what I wanted to do.
38:40
Greg Symons: And so that's what I've, that's what I've done.
38:43
Greg Symons: My started a company, grow the business, support the family and, like he said, you don't really talk about the stuff that much, but when you just think about it for a couple of seconds like yeah, well, I mean that makes sense, could have seen that coming.
38:56
Casey Jacox: Yeah, do you still go to your pops for advice as a business owner?
39:01
Greg Symons: You know a little bit.
39:02
Greg Symons: We don't really talk about work that much, to be honest, and I think that's also a function of work is hard Like it is, it's hard work.
39:12
Greg Symons: There's a lot of stuff that you have to do in business.
39:16
Greg Symons: That is not the fun stuff, right, I always share good stuff, like I share the wins and share the good stories, because I really value hanging out with people, hanging off my dad, especially in the time that I get to hang out with him.
39:31
Greg Symons: I do seek advice, you know, for things that I'm going through or things that I'm dealing with.
39:35
Greg Symons: But I also like to be present and just kind of understand, like, whatever is it we're doing, I'd like to be just in the moment and be more present on that side of it.
39:44
Greg Symons: But even growing up and maybe this is I've been preconditioned for this you know he'd come home from work and we'd sit around the dinner table.
39:51
Greg Symons: I was working there.
39:52
Greg Symons: Good, it's just like it's just so much stuff going on, and so maybe that's part of it.
39:58
Greg Symons: But now I do I do, you know, ask for advice in certain areas.
40:04
Greg Symons: I guess what's an example?
40:06
Greg Symons: I mean more like scenario based things, just like dealing with personnel issues or, like you know, dealing with, like things that are more generic, not necessarily specific to his business or mine, but, just like I said, he's so good with people.
40:22
Greg Symons: Like how do you deal?
40:24
Greg Symons: Like, what have you done in these types of scenarios where early on in my career, but you know, before assembling all this, like asking for a raise, or like as a business owner, if somebody comes to you, dad, asking for a raise, like what, what do you say?
40:40
Greg Symons: Like you know, just, you don't really learn that kind of stuff in college, like how to negotiate for a raise or things like that.
40:45
Greg Symons: That was something that you know, for example.
40:47
Greg Symons: Then, also just like personnel type things, you know, if somebody's not not performing or doing things in a way that you would have needed or hoped that they do, like you know, what types of things do you do to either decide are they coachable or do you have to cut them loose?
41:01
Greg Symons: And if you have to cut them loose, like what's the best way to cut them loose?
41:04
Greg Symons: Like these are people, like you know.
41:06
Greg Symons: So he's always had a gift for, for, for people.
41:09
Greg Symons: So those are things that I do like to lean on more and, all things being equal, like I'd like to be able to lean on a little bit more, but we've just never like a lot of the stuff that we we talk about is not work related, which is totally fine as well.
41:25
Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Marcy Stout, ceo and co-founder of Reveal Coach, a consulting and coaching company dedicated to cultivating leadership, building cohesive teams and fostering well-being in the workplace.
41:37
Speaker 1: At Reveal Coach, collaboration is one of our core principles, which is why I'm excited that Casey Jaycox and I are partnering together to host a monthly mastermind called the intentional sales leader mastermind, where leaders can share ideas, exchange insights and gain valuable knowledge from industry experts.
41:56
Speaker 1: It's our promise to you that joining our mastermind will provide practical insights on how to use curiosity and humility to build relationships while exceeding revenue expectations.
42:06
Speaker 1: We'll also teach techniques so you can stay committed to priorities like family health and, quite frankly, things that bring daily joy.
42:15
Speaker 1: You can learn more about me and my work at RevealCoachcom and, if you want to work with us and other sales leaders who are committed to results, both personally and professionally, visit CaseyJcoxcom for more information on the intentional sales leader mastermind.
42:31
Speaker 1: Now let's get back to the podcast.
42:34
Casey Jacox: I think it's good.
42:35
Casey Jacox: You actually well, actually, when's the last time you've told your dad like all the things you've told me in this last 39 minutes what the impact he's had on you, like when's the last time you told him, oh gosh.
42:46
Greg Symons: I don't, I couldn't even tell you, casey.
42:48
Greg Symons: I mean, I'll probably send him the podcast.
42:51
Casey Jacox: Here you go, dad.
42:51
Casey Jacox: Yeah, do it.
42:52
Casey Jacox: That's what's fun, man.
42:53
Casey Jacox: It's, like most dancers, usually shit.
42:56
Casey Jacox: It's been a while, and so then I give people homework, whether you want it or not.
42:59
Greg Symons: Yeah, no, I mean, I'm not going to do it, it's just.
43:02
Greg Symons: It's, like you said, like reflection is an important thing in life and you know, as I get older and I have such like I said earlier at the beginning of this I have such a different appreciation for my parents, now that I am a parent, in terms of what they did and, more importantly, what I did, what that probably made them feel like and the conversations that they probably had at night talking about their kids, and now the conversations that my wife and I have talking about our kids.
43:29
Greg Symons: And at the end of the day, we as parents are all trying to solve the same problems as our parents and their parents and their parents.
43:36
Greg Symons: Right, you know different variables in the world now, but at the end of the day, it's all.
43:40
Greg Symons: Why don't we raise good, healthy, happy kids?
43:43
Greg Symons: Right?
43:44
Greg Symons: And you know, life is life is tough, but but, yeah, I definitely I.
43:49
Greg Symons: You know, dr Kinsai, I will, I will send this to him because I want, he needs, I want him to hear it, and it's only to do the same thing for my mom.
43:58
Greg Symons: So I know I've been talking about dad, but I'll have to share that with my mom too.
44:01
Casey Jacox: Well, mom's, he had an impact.
44:02
Casey Jacox: You can.
44:02
Casey Jacox: You can see that the EQ and, yeah, mom's, he obviously brought, brought that out.
44:06
Casey Jacox: Shout, your dad's got good EQ too.
44:07
Casey Jacox: But like this, the caring, nurturing as an, as an entrepreneurial dad, sometimes the gap is you're always on, yeah, so talk about maybe that's a challenge, but talk about the challenges that other dads, other entrepreneurial dads, are facing, that that are challenges for you, that that might relate at home.
44:33
Casey Jacox: Tell me what comes to mind.
44:36
Greg Symons: Well, I mean, yeah, you're always on, right.
44:38
Greg Symons: I think that personality types whether you're an entrepreneur, a manager, a new hire trying to make a mark personalities will dictate if you're always on or not right.
44:49
Greg Symons: If you're, if you have, if you're wired like that and you have a competitive gene in you or you want to be successful or you want to win you're going to have a tendency to be on more than others.
45:00
Greg Symons: I'll say, right as an entrepreneur, I one, it helps that I'm wired like that.
45:06
Greg Symons: But two, as an entrepreneur in the business, I mean, you, you now have to do that right.
45:10
Greg Symons: You can't just say now I'm not going to, I'm just not going to, I'm going to log off at five o'clock and I'm not going to log on again until eight.
45:16
Greg Symons: I mean you could, right, like at someone done, you can.
45:19
Greg Symons: But my, my philosophy is is one of balance, right, and also the.
45:26
Greg Symons: The first job that I have is being a dad, right, and so during normal work hours and business hours, that's definitely my time to be hyper focused and locked in and what it is that I'm trying to do.
45:36
Greg Symons: But I also need to be more efficient with my time during work hours, like I think that if I'm doing my job correctly, eight, nine, 10 hours a day should be more than enough to do the things that I need to do, and if not, then I need to rethink what are the things that I'm doing during that day that is prohibiting me from doing the things I need to do as a business leader, to to move the needle.
45:56
Greg Symons: Because if I do get eight, nine, 10 hours a day to work on the business, then I'm surely going to value the three or four hours maybe per day that I get with my kids.
46:08
Greg Symons: And so for me it's personally it's very easy for me to disconnect when I'm with my kids.
46:14
Greg Symons: It's not not hard for me to do that.
46:16
Greg Symons: There's days when it could be difficult if I know that I've got like a big meeting in the morning or I just got out of a call that just like ruffled my feathers or whatever it is.
46:23
Greg Symons: But it's pretty easy for me to see my kids and them looking.
46:28
Greg Symons: Looking at the world through the lens of a kid's eyes is a really special thing Like they don't know the stresses, they don't know what kind of stuff I'm working on.
46:37
Greg Symons: Again, back probably when, when we asked my dad at dinner like how is working.
46:40
Greg Symons: He just said good, he's like man I just got, I went through the ringer Like I don't want to, like open these wounds, like I want to be here, you know, present the family, and so I do think that you do need to be able to turn things off.
46:52
Greg Symons: You know, at the church we go to, we there was a digital detox, the, you know, month-long exercise, right To be more mindful of how technology influences your life, and I'm pretty good with that.
47:04
Greg Symons: I don't have social media or anything like that on my phone anymore at all, for the matter, but just be mindful of, like, when you're on your phone, even right, even if you're not checking email, if you're on your phone, your kids don't know what you're doing and put your phone in a basket on the countertop for like the two hours after you get home, just to be present.
47:22
Greg Symons: Like, if you get rid of your phone and get rid of what it is that tethers you to work, that keeps you on, it's a heck of a lot easier to not be tethered to it, which rest Most of the points.
47:34
Casey Jacox: I love that.
47:34
Casey Jacox: You made me think of a sarcastic thing.
47:37
Casey Jacox: Sometimes I say to people in the speaking coaching role I'll say you know, like some people who struggle with that, I'll say, okay, I'm going to do a test real quick, so I'm going to make a phone call to you and I'll fake call.
47:49
Casey Jacox: It's like serious dad joke coming.
47:51
Casey Jacox: And I fake call and I'm like pick up and they're like what do you mean?
47:57
Casey Jacox: I go, I just called you.
47:58
Casey Jacox: I'm like no, you didn't I go.
47:59
Casey Jacox: Yeah, I did.
48:00
Casey Jacox: I said you're super important.
48:01
Casey Jacox: You said you got all these things busy.
48:02
Casey Jacox: So I cut down 911 because you're that important.
48:04
Casey Jacox: You know like F off dude, nice.
48:08
Casey Jacox: But the sarcasm is we're not as important as we think.
48:10
Casey Jacox: Can you believe that K-Force didn't go out of business when I left?
48:14
Casey Jacox: No, you believe that miracle?
48:15
Casey Jacox: I mean, I mean they don't even probably know who I am anymore.
48:18
Casey Jacox: You actually worked here.
48:20
Casey Jacox: Were you a janitor?
48:21
Greg Symons: Did they take the bronze bust out of the lobby?
48:25
Casey Jacox: Yeah, but the joke is we're not, I mean, and that's why just we, life's going to humble us anyway, so might as well say humble, you know.
48:34
Casey Jacox: And that's where I love like the things you, these things you shared.
48:39
Casey Jacox: You made me think of the story that I just shared.
48:41
Casey Jacox: Okay, tell me an area your dad game that you know is maybe not quite where you want it.
48:50
Casey Jacox: That's a gap, that's something that if I, if I say, and I'll leave my witness, mine's patience, that's something I'm always working on.
48:56
Casey Jacox: Sometimes my competitiveness takes over distress.
49:00
Casey Jacox: A moment, like yesterday trying to manage travel for my daughter.
49:05
Casey Jacox: Do I go to state?
49:06
Casey Jacox: Do I not go to state for my golf?
49:08
Casey Jacox: Changing flights, like rescheduling our podcast, like staying in the moment, taking a deep breath and like this is awesome.
49:15
Casey Jacox: Problems, these are great and I think, because I talk about patience all the time with our dads, it slowed me down, but, like for you, tell me what comes to mind and you're going to work on being a better dad.
49:25
Greg Symons: Yeah, I mean patience is a good one.
49:27
Greg Symons: I don't mean that as a cop out, but I mean that's got to be one of the most common responses you get as a parent is patience.
49:36
Greg Symons: I find that patience helps with perspective a little bit.
49:43
Greg Symons: What I mean by that is I have a far greater ability to be patient during the week versus on the weekends, as a function of we'll call it exposure, so like it's easy to be patient for an hour to a day, all right, it's a little bit more patient to be patient over longer periods of time.
50:05
Greg Symons: But what I do know is I work, I work out of a home office and so I can hear my kids and I can hear my wife.
50:10
Greg Symons: You know outside the door and you know my wife is about as patient as they come.
50:14
Greg Symons: But hearing whatever is going on outside also helps me be prepared for you know the interactions and engagement that I have with my kids afterwards and give my wife a break.
50:23
Greg Symons: And it's much easier for me to be patient if I know that I'm helping out my wife because she needs a break.
50:29
Greg Symons: Right, she's been working all day and that's much easier.
50:32
Greg Symons: But I'm never going to be perfect with it.
50:34
Greg Symons: I try so hard.
50:35
Greg Symons: I try different things to kind of like get the kids to like stop yelling or doing whatever it is that they're doing, and try the carrot, try the stick, try the kind, try the razor voice.
50:47
Greg Symons: I mean it's just there's no right answer but patience and then just having some grace.
50:52
Greg Symons: My wife tells me, like have some grace with these kids, which I think is a function of patience.
50:59
Greg Symons: But I think those are I love that word, grace, is one of my favorite words yeah it's a very and like when my wife says it, it like it just cuts me so deep.
51:08
Greg Symons: I'm like gosh, you're just, you're so right.
51:11
Greg Symons: Like, be graceful, right, and maybe that's the word is right.
51:14
Greg Symons: I just, I want to try to be a little bit more graceful with my kids and if that's patience or whatever it is, you know, maybe that's where I'll put my chips in.
51:24
Casey Jacox: You scared me there.
51:25
Casey Jacox: I thought you were literally going to transition right into an Anchorman quote, but his love of Baxter cuts me so deep.
51:33
Greg Symons: In a glass case of emotion.
51:38
Casey Jacox: That was random.
51:39
Casey Jacox: Okay, tell me how, on the SAMS, you know what.
51:42
Casey Jacox: You see a leave K-Force, you go start Talent Rover, which was acquired, and then you go start Assemble.
51:48
Casey Jacox: Tell me how on the SAMS hell did that happen?
51:52
Casey Jacox: Because I'm a fan from afar, I'm so grateful that we've reconnected and I love for others at home to understand what does Assemble do.
52:02
Casey Jacox: Why should they know what it does and talk a little bit about what you're up to?
52:06
Greg Symons: Yeah, you know I tell this story to a lot of our prospects and customers as well.
52:12
Greg Symons: I, I like so many people, I started my career in the staffing industry by chance, right, I was out of college, had an accounting degree, decided public accounting wasn't anything that I wanted to be a part in.
52:26
Greg Symons: After doing auditing I was like that's just not, that ain't it?
52:30
Greg Symons: And so I went to account temps to see if I get maybe like a temp job or just figure something out.
52:36
Greg Symons: They interviewed me that I could ever thought about this as a career.
52:39
Greg Symons: I'm like no, like don't know what it is that you guys do.
52:42
Greg Symons: And next thing, you know, I was hired and was on the beginning of what was a nine year journey working in the recruitment industry at Robert Haft and at K-Force and then back to Robert Haft again.
52:54
Greg Symons: And when I when I ended my tenure of the staffing game, if you will, I was up in the Bay Area in San Jose and I was leading our San Jose direct account team, strategic account team, up in the Bay Area and I would drive past Google and Facebook and LinkedIn and all these massive tech companies I have friends that were working there and stock options and all this stuff is like I got to figure out this tech stuff Like this is, you know, I not everybody's case of Jcox when it comes to sling attempts, so I need to go see if there was something else out there.
53:29
Greg Symons: But technology to me was always a little bit.
53:31
Greg Symons: I wasn't scared of it.
53:34
Greg Symons: But again, like I'm good at doing things based on experience, I'd never sold technology.
53:39
Greg Symons: I'd never like developed technology and not a code or anything like that.
53:42
Greg Symons: And so when I actually got recruited by Kent Gray, who was the founder of, founder and CEO of talent rover, to come on board and I thought it was great because I was like what a great opportunity for me to get get my my feet wet with technology, with a, with a software application that was built for staffing companies run their business I was like I might not know technology but I know staffing really well.
54:05
Greg Symons: Like I can go sell now to the people that I used to work with.
54:09
Greg Symons: I know what their pain points are, I know how crappy the technology is that they have access to and shout out recruit max right Camp.
54:21
Greg Symons: But, but it was great and it was a great way for me to kind of get that foray into what technology is.
54:27
Greg Symons: The, the, the talent rover product that we built, was built on Salesforce and for anybody that's used Salesforce, it's it's an incredibly user friendly application that made me feel a lot more confident that I would have otherwise been if I didn't have the same type of you know software to to, to lean on, and I think that comfort knowing who my customers were and knowing what their pain points were was great.
54:50
Greg Symons: I could have been selling anything technology widgets, you know you name it like.
54:53
Greg Symons: If you understand your customers pain points, it becomes easy to solve the problem with solutions.
54:56
Greg Symons: And so throughout that, that, that journey, that was my entry point in technology.
55:04
Greg Symons: But that was my first true startup.
55:06
Greg Symons: I mean that was in 2015,.
55:09
Greg Symons: I started, I started working there let our global enterprise team and over the course of next three, three and a half years or so I mean that was romantic idea of a startup hockey stick growth we grew from.
55:23
Greg Symons: I think I was like the 24th employee.
55:25
Greg Symons: We had 140 employees in nine offices by the time we sold was part of the, the team that sold and landed a deco as a customer largest staff in company in the world logged tens of thousands of miles around the world traveling.
55:42
Greg Symons: Luckily this was before kids, so you know, shooting I was.
55:45
Greg Symons: I was spending probably one and a half two weeks a month in London and in France and it was crazy.
55:52
Greg Symons: But what it did is that was that was a master's, like that was my MBA.
55:56
Greg Symons: That was growing a business, learning about sales, project management, customer support, customer delivery, distribution models, implementation, working in high stakes poker, right, I mean big, big time deals that you don't get a second chance on.
56:11
Greg Symons: Like this is.
56:12
Greg Symons: This is why, this is why you step in the batter's box, is why you go to the first T.
56:16
Greg Symons: Right, this is, this is your 12 foot putt that you have to make to go to state.
56:19
Greg Symons: This is the big, it's the big leagues.
56:23
Greg Symons: But then we sold that company to Bullhorn and that was that was great.
56:27
Greg Symons: Right, that was what every business owner who starts a company that wants to have an exit like that was.
56:32
Greg Symons: That was it.
56:32
Greg Symons: And it was kind of jarring at the end of it because then it's like all right, well, now what right?
56:36
Greg Symons: And so for us, started a consulting company for a few years and then and work to start helping.
56:43
Greg Symons: A couple of years ago started consulting Salesforce directly on what their go-to-market strategy could be for the staffing industry.
56:49
Greg Symons: And as good as our you know go-to-market pitch got, they still didn't have a proper ATS.
56:56
Greg Symons: Which is really the heartbeat of any recruiting company is ability to attract candidates, move them through the hiring process butts and seats right.
57:03
Casey Jacox: And ATS for for the mom at home.
57:05
Casey Jacox: That's like.
57:05
Casey Jacox: What does an ATS stand for?
57:06
Greg Symons: Yes, applicant tracking system.
57:08
Casey Jacox: Okay, keep going.
57:09
Greg Symons: So you know.
57:10
Greg Symons: So we decided that Salesforce is a tremendous platform that's investing $4.7 billion per year into their core products and platforms.
57:18
Greg Symons: So, rather than building another operating system, we decided to instead build a build the assemble ATS, which is a.
57:25
Greg Symons: It's a feature, it's a.
57:26
Greg Symons: It's an add-on product that companies in the staffing industry can use to manage to run the their job orders and their applicants and move those applicants through the hiring process all the way through to placements, and it's been such a great partnership.
57:38
Greg Symons: We started selling the product last year, officially launched the company this year and have built a great partnership with Salesforce and closed a funding round in March, growing the team.
57:50
Greg Symons: We're going to be opening up offices in London later this year, have since launched another product to help candidates, time sheet approvers manage their time sheets, and it's it's great.
58:02
Greg Symons: I love what I do.
58:03
Greg Symons: I love the people who work and love the team that we built, love the customers we have, love the relationship with Salesforce.
58:09
Greg Symons: It's a lot of fun, you know, and it's I.
58:13
Greg Symons: Everybody's got to do something.
58:14
Greg Symons: I love that.
58:14
Greg Symons: This is the thing that I get to do.
58:16
Greg Symons: It's it's been very rewarding and we've only just started, but it's it's been a great, great journey thus far.
58:25
Casey Jacox: Well, as a golfer and this is open week hopefully when you get to go to London you get to play some of the courses over there.
58:31
Greg Symons: Okay.
58:33
Casey Jacox: If people want to learn more about you, they want to learn more about assemble.
58:36
Casey Jacox: What's the best way I can connect them to you?
58:40
Greg Symons: Yeah, linkedin emails.
58:42
Greg Symons: Good, greg at assemblecom ASY MBL.
58:45
Greg Symons: Yeah, linkedin website email.
58:51
Casey Jacox: We will make sure all those connected in we were, and we will make sure all those are tagged in the show notes so that people can connect with you.
58:56
Casey Jacox: It's now time to go into what I call the lightning round, which I go completely random on you.
59:02
Casey Jacox: I ask questions that I have not thought of.
59:04
Casey Jacox: These are just going to be showing you how big of a screw loose I have upstairs.
59:08
Casey Jacox: The effects of playing college football taking too many hits not long hits, but football hits.
59:12
Casey Jacox: Your job is to answer them as quickly as you can, and my job is to try to get a gig.
59:16
Casey Jacox: A lot of you.
59:16
Casey Jacox: Okay, that should be too hard.
59:18
Casey Jacox: Okay, true or false?
59:20
Casey Jacox: You moved to Nashville because you're a hell of a drummer.
59:23
Casey Jacox: False, there's the win right there.
59:26
Casey Jacox: Okay, true or false?
59:28
Casey Jacox: You still play live music Thursday nights in Nashville.
59:31
Casey Jacox: False, true or false.
59:35
Casey Jacox: Being in Nashville, your company dress code will be chaps and boots.
59:39
Casey Jacox: True.
59:44
Greg Symons: I did one of my first pair of cowboy boots, though Pretty cool.
59:46
Greg Symons: Still don't have any chaps, though I guess I'm I think you look great in chaps.
59:50
Casey Jacox: I mean just one man's opinion.
59:51
Casey Jacox: If there was to be a-, oh, tell me the last book you read.
59:59
Greg Symons: Traction, that was the last book.
1:00:02
Casey Jacox: If you were to book a vacation right now, tell me where you and your wife would go.
1:00:07
Greg Symons: Ah, croatia, it's where we went on our honeymoon.
1:00:08
Greg Symons: We were just talking about how nice of you to go back.
1:00:11
Casey Jacox: Wow, if I was to go to your house for dinner tonight, what would we have For?
1:00:16
Greg Symons: you, we'll probably roll up a red carpet, casey Filets and red wine baby.
1:00:20
Casey Jacox: Wow, I can see like TV dinners or something.
1:00:22
Casey Jacox: Yeah, man.
1:00:24
Greg Symons: We love hosting people, we love having guests and, yeah, we also love cooking.
1:00:29
Greg Symons: So you name it, we got it.
1:00:31
Casey Jacox: There we go.
1:00:32
Casey Jacox: Love that.
1:00:32
Casey Jacox: If there was to be a book written about your life, tell me the title.
1:00:35
Casey Jacox: Boy, that's a tough I-.
1:00:40
Greg Symons: I don't know you stumped me.
1:00:41
Greg Symons: I know a chapter of the book in my life would be Mowing Lawn in the South.
1:00:44
Greg Symons: Talk about hard work and perseverance when I had a I've got a lawn here in Tennessee and I mow it and I thought a few times that was going to be the last thing I did in this world.
1:00:55
Greg Symons: So I'll give you the name of a chapter in my book Mowing Lawn in the South.
1:00:59
Casey Jacox: Okay, well, we're going to pretend that's the title.
1:01:00
Casey Jacox: I love it because I think we could make them do a title there's there's a lot of themes Now.
1:01:05
Casey Jacox: Netflix has found out about this, but Hulu wants it too, and so does, like HBO, and they're going to make a movie out of it.
1:01:11
Casey Jacox: That Mowing Lawn in the South is going to make just waves everywhere, and I need to know what Hollywood actor is going to start you.
1:01:20
Greg Symons: I think Matt Damon, I like Matt Damon, I think he'd be he's good, he's well-rounded.
1:01:26
Greg Symons: You know he played bagger Vance, so he's got the golf chops.
1:01:29
Greg Symons: There we go Right.
1:01:31
Casey Jacox: So we'll go-.
1:01:31
Casey Jacox: Would he be on a riding lawn more or a push?
1:01:35
Greg Symons: Hopefully riding lawnmower.
1:01:36
Greg Symons: Yeah, for his sake too, That'd be.
1:01:39
Greg Symons: You know, want to make sure that he doesn't pass out on set.
1:01:42
Casey Jacox: Riding lawnmowers are cool, Probably more cinematic you know Well, safety never takes a holiday.
1:01:47
Casey Jacox: You're not going to throw your back out sitting on that bad boy.
1:01:50
Casey Jacox: Okay, last question Tell me two words that describe your wife.
1:01:54
Greg Symons: Oh my gosh, graceful, new Graceful, yes, and kind.
1:02:00
Greg Symons: She's just the kindest, most sweet person in the world.
1:02:08
Casey Jacox: Lightning rounds over.
1:02:09
Casey Jacox: You giggled, I giggled.
1:02:10
Casey Jacox: We'll call the tie.
1:02:11
Casey Jacox: Greg, thank you for your generosity in talking to us here at the Port of Aged Acas for the last hour.
1:02:17
Casey Jacox: I want to say thank you, latitude, sitka, for your continued support of our podcast Supporting Dads.
1:02:22
Casey Jacox: I was able to go up and visit the Solomon team up at Sitka, alaska.
1:02:26
Casey Jacox: It was fantastic.
1:02:27
Casey Jacox: I can't believe I did it.
1:02:28
Casey Jacox: We had a great time.
1:02:29
Casey Jacox: We have pictures to come.
1:02:30
Casey Jacox: Maybe when this episode's out, there'll be pictures and videos on my website at kcjcoxcom.
1:02:35
Casey Jacox: I want to say thanks to everybody who's taken time to leave us a review, whether it's on Spotify, on Apple, wherever you consume your podcast.
1:02:43
Casey Jacox: If there's a dad out there that you think might be might enjoy listening to this conversation, please share this episode with them.
1:02:50
Casey Jacox: We would really appreciate it as we continue to grow this community of dads helping other dads Other than that man.
1:02:55
Casey Jacox: Thank you so much for spending time with us and I know we'll be talking again soon, hopefully on the golf course.
1:02:59
Casey Jacox: Greg, thanks, buddy Bye.