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Brian McKeon - Sweethearts & Heroes · Aired Out

0:49
Speaker 1: I don't do anything.
0:52
Speaker 2: You do.
0:52
Speaker 1: You do hand any gain to w do do.
2:37
Speaker 3: And good morning everybody, and welcome to a new day.
2:41
Speaker 3: It is hump day. It is Wednesday. I am so
2:44
Speaker 3: happy to have you on board with us. Thanks for
2:46
Speaker 3: tuning in, Thanks for sharing your time with us, maybe
2:50
Speaker 3: sharing your coffee with us if you're just getting started.
2:53
Speaker 3: We got a one ahead today rain showers and we'll
2:57
Speaker 3: give you more details in the weather here and just
3:00
Speaker 3: a little bit, we have an exceptionally great show for
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Speaker 3: you this morning. Brian McKeon is with me in just
3:06
Speaker 3: a little bit. First though, it is Wednesday, and on
3:10
Speaker 3: Wednesdays it's kind of like a holiday here in Central
3:15
Speaker 3: for a month because the World's newspaper comes out. Everybody
3:19
Speaker 3: is looking forward to getting to flip in the pages.
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Speaker 3: Deb Phillips from the World is with us this morning.
3:25
Speaker 3: Good morning, Depp. How are you?
3:27
Speaker 2: Good morning, jad doing good?
3:29
Speaker 3: So happy to have you on board with us every Wednesday.
3:32
Speaker 3: We love talking about the world. What can we expect
3:34
Speaker 3: in today's copy.
3:36
Speaker 2: Well, we're continuing with our shop where You Live promotion
3:40
Speaker 2: that features one ten local businesses each week, and the
3:45
Speaker 2: featured advertiser this week is Mattress Land. Mattress Lands on
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Speaker 2: the very Montpuliar Road and offers quality furniture and mattresses wicked. Yeah,
3:55
Speaker 2: so they do have a very nice selection of recliners.
4:00
Speaker 2: I mean, they do a great job. So Mother's Day Sunday,
4:05
Speaker 2: and we have a great group of advertisers for those
4:10
Speaker 2: last minute gift ideas that you need, all our favorite
4:15
Speaker 2: local businesses, and then that's that's pretty much covers the
4:20
Speaker 2: main aspects of everything we have.
4:22
Speaker 3: My dad used to say to me, I don't care
4:27
Speaker 3: what you forget in your life, but just do not
4:32
Speaker 3: forget Mom on Mother's Day, no matter what I mean.
4:37
Speaker 3: There's there's no excuse for it. Deb yep.
4:42
Speaker 2: So I do know for my tires having a big
4:46
Speaker 2: tire sale that's in this week's paper for everyone that
4:50
Speaker 2: needs to get some new summer tires, yep, So that
4:54
Speaker 2: that's going to be really exciting.
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Speaker 3: Okay, anything else that you can think of that's in
5:00
Speaker 3: the world.
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Speaker 2: Today, that's just off the top of my head here, So.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, all right, VT dashworld dot com soundtral Fromont's favorite
5:12
Speaker 3: weekly newspaper and if you're interested in advertising, so simple
5:16
Speaker 3: four seven nine eighty two.
5:20
Speaker 1: Excellent all right, thankstep, all right.
5:23
Speaker 3: Thanks, stay dry over there, say hi to Gary Forest.
5:25
Speaker 3: All right, we'll do all right. Develops from the world. Yes,
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Speaker 3: every single Wednesday morning. Love having them on, love thumbing
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Speaker 3: through the pages. Brian McKeon is sitting right next to
5:40
Speaker 3: me on the curvy couch here from Sweethearts and Heroes. Man,
5:43
Speaker 3: I'm so glad to see you, dude.
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Speaker 1: How are you, dude, very well, so glad to be here.
5:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, so you just slept down from Saint Aubins this morning. Yes, indeed,
5:53
Speaker 3: let's get right to it, man, Uh Wednesday morning. I'm
5:57
Speaker 3: I was so stoked when I found out yesterday that
6:00
Speaker 3: you're going to be with me sitting here in the studio.
6:03
Speaker 3: This is great, man. I love having you in here.
6:05
Speaker 1: Bro, Dude, I wouldn't have it any other way. This
6:07
Speaker 1: is totally better than doing it on zoom.
6:09
Speaker 3: I have Oh yeah, I have a I have a
6:13
Speaker 3: comment here from Tom Murphy, who is the co founder
6:19
Speaker 3: of Sweethearts and Heroes, along with Rick and these two
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Speaker 3: guys and you and your brother and just everyone one
6:29
Speaker 3: big family. You guys are kicking ass and taking names.
6:32
Speaker 3: You're changing so many lives with so many kids and
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Speaker 3: giving them a foundation to not only carry on and
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Speaker 3: be successful in school inside the classroom, outside of the classroom,
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Speaker 3: but also like you're really setting some pretty deep roots
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Speaker 3: for success through life, how to how to navigate this
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Speaker 3: absolutely insane world that we live in.
7:01
Speaker 1: That's for sure.
7:02
Speaker 3: Man, it's crazy.
7:03
Speaker 1: It's really wild right now. Man. Yeah, it really just
7:06
Speaker 1: couldn't be more relevant than ever. Is the stuff we're
7:09
Speaker 1: doing right now.
7:10
Speaker 3: So Tom says Brian McKeon is the and I have
7:17
Speaker 3: to quote right here if you want to see if
7:18
Speaker 3: you don't believe, if you don't believe me, I'll show
7:21
Speaker 3: it to you right here. The biggest introvert I have
7:26
Speaker 3: ever met.
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Speaker 1: Oh, yes, it's very true. It is very true.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, but here you are under the lights life on
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Speaker 3: aired out with us.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I come out of my show once in
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Speaker 1: a great one.
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Speaker 3: What's that about.
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Speaker 1: Well, I don't know. I'm just uh yeah, I'm just
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Speaker 1: I just like to I got my wife, and I
7:46
Speaker 1: got my dog, and I got my cat, and you know,
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Speaker 1: I'm just usually pretty chill, just cruising at that speed.
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Speaker 1: But yeah, it's good to come out and practice talking
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Speaker 1: to people face to face once in a while.
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Speaker 3: It's fantastic. So you don't you don't share the state
8:00
Speaker 3: with Rick and Tom and no, wow.
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Speaker 1: No, yeah, that's just it wasn't my thing when I
8:05
Speaker 1: came on. It's certainly something that actually kind of draws
8:08
Speaker 1: me now, but just the work I do, just like
8:12
Speaker 1: I can't really get into that field. But yeah, it's
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Speaker 1: it's I'm just I'm just the quiet type.
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Speaker 3: Yeah. So well, you know, Tom says, uh, and I
8:22
Speaker 3: took a lot of notes last night when I was
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Speaker 3: chatting with him. Sweethearts and Heroes doesn't work without Brian, period.
8:32
Speaker 1: He says. I'm in the engine room, you know, shoveling
8:34
Speaker 1: the coals into the battles and make it serious going.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, you are a huge behind the scenes guy and
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Speaker 3: the the the the working parts man that that makes
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Speaker 3: this the ship go. I mean, these these guys Rick
8:53
Speaker 3: and Tom, Dad the fluff.
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Speaker 1: Well, I don't know. I mean, you know, it's like
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Speaker 1: you need the person behind the scenes. But you know,
9:01
Speaker 1: obviously it doesn't work without both sides of the corn.
9:04
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, how has it been? What?
9:08
Speaker 1: So?
9:09
Speaker 3: Tom says you, Uh, you are basically doing a lot
9:17
Speaker 3: of the the what behind Sweetheart gnos, A lot of
9:21
Speaker 3: the writing, Yeah, and a lot of a lot of organizing.
9:25
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I do a lot of our course building.
9:28
Speaker 1: I'm kind of like I have my hands in like
9:31
Speaker 1: every little area. I pretty much know like everything that's
9:34
Speaker 1: going on, and I assist different team members where you know,
9:38
Speaker 1: I'm needed, and then I do a lot of like,
9:41
Speaker 1: you know, just the boring stuff, administrative type stuff. You know.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, what did you say when Tom said to you, dude,
9:48
Speaker 3: you're going on a podcast.
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Speaker 1: Well, when it first was brought up, I was not
9:53
Speaker 1: the most thrilled about it. But dude, your format and
9:56
Speaker 1: talking to you has just been the perfect introduction to
10:00
Speaker 1: cause you know, like like you said, I'm sitting down
10:03
Speaker 1: and I'm writing, but speaking this stuff out versus writing
10:07
Speaker 1: this stuff is very different.
10:08
Speaker 3: Yeah.
10:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, So this has just been great for me
10:11
Speaker 1: to just figure out how to articulate things in a
10:14
Speaker 1: concise way verbally. So it's been actually working on my
10:19
Speaker 1: human skills as well.
10:21
Speaker 3: You're kicking it, man, You're you're doing so great. We're
10:24
Speaker 3: gonna we're gonna go down. We're gonna do something a
10:28
Speaker 3: little different this morning. Of course, of course we're going
10:31
Speaker 3: to talk about sweethearts and heroes and the great work
10:33
Speaker 3: that you're doing, but we're also gonna lighten it up
10:36
Speaker 3: and have some fun. We're gonna go down a couple
10:38
Speaker 3: of Brian McKeon rabbit hole. Shoot it's buckle because it's happening.
10:46
Speaker 3: But but first before we do, and I'll let you
10:49
Speaker 3: worry about that. Now, what's up with this? This this
10:54
Speaker 3: new book? From what I understand book as it was,
11:04
Speaker 3: there's a new book and you're writing it and apparently
11:08
Speaker 3: it's called The Moment.
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Speaker 1: This whole thing started with this, so like six seven
11:16
Speaker 1: years ago now, Tom was like he wanted to turn
11:19
Speaker 1: this message that you know him and Rick give to kids,
11:22
Speaker 1: and he wanted to turn it into some kind of
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Speaker 1: Originally it was a stage play and I've, ironically, as
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Speaker 1: much as I'm an introvert, for like ten years of
11:33
Speaker 1: my life, I was doing plays. So I love acting.
11:37
Speaker 1: I love theater, so I kind of knew how that
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Speaker 1: kind of worked. I love you know, movies and stories
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Speaker 1: and writing and stuff, so you knew I liked that stuff.
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Speaker 1: So that's how I actually kind of got involved was
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Speaker 1: writing this play. And he thinks it's really good in
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Speaker 1: terms it's good in terms of the story, but at
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Speaker 1: the level of writing that I've evolved to at this point,
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Speaker 1: Like it's just so we're trying to take it now
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Speaker 1: and turn it into a book, kind of our sequel
12:03
Speaker 1: to The Thirteen Pillows, but it's it's like a kind
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Speaker 1: of different story entirely. So yeah, it's it's a it's
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Speaker 1: a work in progress, has been working progress for like
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Speaker 1: seven years now.
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Speaker 3: Tom says, this thing has h has got to come
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Speaker 3: to a head here pretty soon.
12:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, you keep every year. Every year it's we're releasing
12:23
Speaker 1: this next year, we're releasing this.
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Speaker 3: So it's basically, uh, from what I understand, a three
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Speaker 3: act play that based on a story that Tom shares
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Speaker 3: about a kid whose dad passed away in Iraq.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's about this kid named Manny Montes. And you
12:43
Speaker 1: know he's just kind of just like the average Joe,
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Speaker 1: like every like most kids. You know, he's just a
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Speaker 1: normal kid, and you know he sees these things going
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Speaker 1: on in school, you know, bullying, mistreatment, things like that,
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Speaker 1: and he just doesn't really know what to do about it.
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Speaker 1: And yeah, his father was in the millitar Harry served
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Speaker 1: and passed away during in combat. So yeah, he's kind
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Speaker 1: of like he's in this doesn't know what to do
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Speaker 1: with all these things he sees going on, wants to
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Speaker 1: live up to his father's legacy, you know, this this
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Speaker 1: very war hero, and so he's just really kind of lost,
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Speaker 1: and he goes out this one night is have time,
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Speaker 1: likes to talk, goes out this one night and there's
13:25
Speaker 1: like this flyer blown in the winds kind of breezy,
13:29
Speaker 1: almost on the cusp of a type storm or something,
13:31
Speaker 1: and it's.
13:32
Speaker 3: Just fiction and nonfiction.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, So the Cole concept is very similar to Thirteen Pillows,
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Speaker 1: where we took these real stories and kind of embedded
13:40
Speaker 1: them in a fictional narrative. The same concept. All this
13:43
Speaker 1: stuff is like based off of it's more based off
13:45
Speaker 1: of the message of hope action our ABC's of superpowers.
13:49
Speaker 1: And he kind of just stumbles upon this flyer and
13:52
Speaker 1: this advertising this superhero school and he goes into this
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Speaker 1: like rundown building and there is like these kids up
14:01
Speaker 1: on this stage and wow, they're like doing all these
14:03
Speaker 1: cool things. He's like, Oh, this is this is what
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Speaker 1: I need to be a superhero to help people. And
14:09
Speaker 1: but the person who's like training him was like, oh,
14:10
Speaker 1: you're you're a little late, buddy, so you gotta you
14:12
Speaker 1: missed the first part of the training the most important part,
14:15
Speaker 1: so you can't really join right now. So leading through
14:18
Speaker 1: the Custodian Chronicles, this janitor kind of steps out of
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Speaker 1: the shadows and he's like, hey man, you know, I
14:25
Speaker 1: can teach you some of that first stuff if you want,
14:27
Speaker 1: and maybe help you get into this thing. And so
14:29
Speaker 1: that's kind of just starts this journey of where he
14:32
Speaker 1: starts kind of this mister Miyagi karate kid type thing,
14:36
Speaker 1: where you know, he starts taking them through these different
14:40
Speaker 1: adventures in some ways, but they seem like boring to
14:43
Speaker 1: the kid. First. He's like, this isn't superpower stuff. This
14:45
Speaker 1: isn't like superhero stuff. But what he's working on is
14:48
Speaker 1: working on what we call the empathy activators. Uh, and
14:52
Speaker 1: so it's working on these skills that kids have just lost,
14:57
Speaker 1: humans have just lost. And so he's working on that
15:00
Speaker 1: and and I won't I won't get too much into
15:03
Speaker 1: it because we're gonna try to not spoil it.
15:05
Speaker 3: So yeah, so it sounds like you've you've kind of, uh,
15:10
Speaker 3: fair to say, written, already written this book in your mind.
15:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's in the old nogging I've heard time talking.
15:16
Speaker 1: It's just a matter of to me like a thousand times.
15:20
Speaker 3: Just a matter of getting it on the finger.
15:22
Speaker 1: It's just the time. And it's like, you know, it's
15:25
Speaker 1: when you start writing. I don't know, have you written
15:27
Speaker 1: Oh yes, yeah, yeah. So it's like, you know, you
15:30
Speaker 1: kind of have to let the story kind of guide you.
15:32
Speaker 1: And it's just takes a lot of time and focus
15:34
Speaker 1: and energy and attention, and with everything else we just
15:37
Speaker 1: have going on, it's just often gets pushed to the
15:39
Speaker 1: back burner. I understand that.
15:42
Speaker 3: Well, wow, so Tom says you you love this kind
15:50
Speaker 3: of reality stuff. You love the the meaning behind the
15:57
Speaker 3: story and how impact it can be, how it can
16:01
Speaker 3: resonate with with all of us, doesn't doesn't matter if
16:04
Speaker 3: it's kids, teachers, exactly, anyone human man.
16:08
Speaker 1: Like, dude, this is the stuff I'm obsessed with. Like
16:10
Speaker 1: to me, it's the most important stuff, like figuring out
16:13
Speaker 1: like what who are we? Like what is our purpose here?
16:18
Speaker 1: Like what is our you know, meaning and acceptance, like
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Speaker 1: gaining those things as individuals, sure, you know, helping people,
16:26
Speaker 1: like it's just the most important thing I think to
16:30
Speaker 1: think about to work on. And that I get to
16:32
Speaker 1: do this as a job is just outstanding, you know, I.
16:37
Speaker 3: Just I'm sitting here. Look, you know we're live. You
16:40
Speaker 3: also know that this is on the fly. Yeah, it's
16:45
Speaker 3: it's not like you. You and I are sitting down
16:47
Speaker 3: mapping out every single word we're going to say here.
16:49
Speaker 3: But I'm listening to you and I'm thinking to myself
16:52
Speaker 3: right now. Uh. You know, just recently, I was in Boston,
16:58
Speaker 3: mass and was at Quincy Market. I don't know if
17:01
Speaker 3: you've been there. It's beautiful and the weather was perfect,
17:05
Speaker 3: seventy something degrees sunshine, and the street performers were just everywhere.
17:10
Speaker 3: There was this guy from and I'm kind of trying
17:15
Speaker 3: on the fly here to connect in with what you're saying,
17:17
Speaker 3: and maybe I'm not doing a very good job. But
17:20
Speaker 3: there was this guy from Puerto Rico who was performing
17:25
Speaker 3: and playing the drums, playing the congas and bungos, and
17:31
Speaker 3: I shot a video of him. I put it up
17:32
Speaker 3: on social and he was absolutely amazing, absolutely incredible, and
17:38
Speaker 3: I was fascinated with watching him. But he stopped at
17:42
Speaker 3: one point, and honestly, there was another street performer that
17:48
Speaker 3: was not too far away who had who was, you know,
17:52
Speaker 3: juggling and doing a hell of a show, a hell
17:54
Speaker 3: of a job amazing, but had a crowd of probably
18:00
Speaker 3: a couple hundred people easily. It was. It was tremendous.
18:03
Speaker 3: It was tremendous. But this, this guy who was playing
18:07
Speaker 3: the drums was absolutely amazing, incredible. Stopped and he had
18:14
Speaker 3: along with myself, there were probably three other people that
18:18
Speaker 3: were watching. He stopped and said into his little microphone
18:26
Speaker 3: that he learned how to play. No one asked him.
18:30
Speaker 3: He was going on and on about how he learned
18:33
Speaker 3: how to play bongos and kungas from his grandfather. That
18:43
Speaker 3: is that his grandfather was always playing and that as
18:46
Speaker 3: a little tiny kid, they'd be out in the backyard
18:49
Speaker 3: or in the kitchen or anywhere in Puerto Rico, and
18:53
Speaker 3: that they were always playing music constantly, and as a
19:00
Speaker 3: two year old, he's playing the drums. And then he
19:03
Speaker 3: fell apart uh saying how much he how much he
19:08
Speaker 3: missed his grandfather, and that he believed that his grandfather
19:12
Speaker 3: was always next to him, always watching and listening to
19:16
Speaker 3: him playing the drums. He always felt like that was
19:19
Speaker 3: the one person in the audience that was always there,
19:23
Speaker 3: no matter if there were you know, a big crowd,
19:24
Speaker 3: small crowd, didn't matter. And that really resonated with me, man,
19:28
Speaker 3: and it's like, I don't know, it just made me
19:32
Speaker 3: think of that while I was while I was here, Yeah.
19:34
Speaker 1: That's deep. I mean, like, well, you know, and that's
19:37
Speaker 1: how it used to be, right, Like you used to
19:39
Speaker 1: used to work with your dad, used to work with
19:41
Speaker 1: your mom, and you used to learn those skills and
19:44
Speaker 1: transfer the skin and that's like, you know, kind of
19:46
Speaker 1: what you took with you. And that's kind of like
19:48
Speaker 1: it sounds like his legacy with his s with his grandpa.
19:51
Speaker 3: Yah. This guy's probably he was probably maybe late forties
19:57
Speaker 3: or early fifties somewhere in that ball park. Yeah. Well yeah,
20:00
Speaker 3: and I don't know, man, it's like and it just
20:04
Speaker 3: you know, when I walked away from this, I didn't
20:08
Speaker 3: want to, but we had to go. You know, I
20:11
Speaker 3: could have sat there and listened to them all day,
20:13
Speaker 3: but it just made me think more of us need
20:17
Speaker 3: to quiet the noise that's going on in our heads
20:24
Speaker 3: about all of the bullshit than that's happening. I mean,
20:27
Speaker 3: just open up your Facebook page and you'll see plenty
20:30
Speaker 3: of it. Turn your phone on, turn your TV on.
20:35
Speaker 3: We got to quiet all of that shit and get
20:39
Speaker 3: back to our souls. Like what's really really most important, Well.
20:46
Speaker 1: You know what it is, man, It's all about when
20:49
Speaker 1: we're attention. That's what we're in today. We're in a
20:53
Speaker 1: battle of attention. Everything is vying for our attention, man,
20:57
Speaker 1: and because attention, really, to be honest with you, might
21:00
Speaker 1: be the only actual like even outside of time, Like
21:03
Speaker 1: you don't know how much time you have left, but
21:06
Speaker 1: the thing you're guaranteed while you're alive is your attention,
21:10
Speaker 1: and you can choose where to direct that. And we
21:12
Speaker 1: are so just distracted by everything, man, And I really
21:16
Speaker 1: do think we really do need to localize our attention more.
21:21
Speaker 1: It's so fragmented, you know, it's like me substance, there's
21:24
Speaker 1: no and there's no substance. It's so fragmented and there's
21:27
Speaker 1: no substance behind where we're directing our attention. That's why
21:30
Speaker 1: we feel so hollow and empty and like we don't
21:34
Speaker 1: have any meeting or we don't have any sense because
21:35
Speaker 1: our attension is sucked into honestly fake realities like these
21:40
Speaker 1: digital screens and like it's just crazy, man. So it's
21:43
Speaker 1: it's really about reclaiming our attention, which really outside of money,
21:48
Speaker 1: outside like everything, Like I think your tension is like
21:52
Speaker 1: your most valuable currency you have. So yeah, and that's just.
21:56
Speaker 3: Yeah you you you uh, not only embody that, but
22:03
Speaker 3: you also exercise that. So says Tom, you and your wife,
22:10
Speaker 3: you guys go out and do some some walks together. Yeah, well,
22:14
Speaker 3: gratitude walks.
22:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, we've been we've been implementing that, I think
22:18
Speaker 1: for like a year and a half now, Like we always, uh,
22:21
Speaker 1: because we have a dogs, we have to walker like
22:23
Speaker 1: three times a day because we're in the city, so
22:25
Speaker 1: there's no real place for her to go without us
22:27
Speaker 1: being on a leash. And so they just kind of
22:29
Speaker 1: evolved and we actually it's interesting how it evolved. We
22:33
Speaker 1: were actually very because we just talk all the time,
22:37
Speaker 1: and we were noticing that our conversations during our walk
22:40
Speaker 1: we're kind of getting negative, you know, they were just
22:42
Speaker 1: venting about all this random stuff all the time, negative this,
22:47
Speaker 1: negative that, and we're just like, we don't want to
22:50
Speaker 1: cultivate that in our lives, and so we decided to
22:53
Speaker 1: change our walk to a gratitude walk where it's nothing crazy,
22:56
Speaker 1: like sometimes it's I'm just grateful for the day. I'm
22:59
Speaker 1: just grateful from my wife, Like that might be all
23:02
Speaker 1: ungrateful for Like it's it's not always you're like Chipper
23:05
Speaker 1: and happy about but like, dude, of the time, it's
23:10
Speaker 1: a lot more than that. You realize when you just
23:12
Speaker 1: look at the little things and you're grateful for them
23:14
Speaker 1: every single day, Like, dude, that just like it really
23:19
Speaker 1: changes your mindset on a lot of stuff.
23:22
Speaker 3: Yeah. And you know, I think and we've I've seen this,
23:28
Speaker 3: I've seen it on social media. I know you have
23:31
Speaker 3: to you know, there's plenty of people out there that
23:34
Speaker 3: begin their day or end their day and we talk
23:37
Speaker 3: about thirteen pillows of writing down. Yeah, just three things
23:44
Speaker 3: just that you were grateful for today. And it could
23:47
Speaker 3: have been just that great sandwich that you had at
23:50
Speaker 3: the restaurant. Yeah, it could be hot water.
23:56
Speaker 1: My wife is grateful for coffee every single time we
23:58
Speaker 1: go on my walk. Yeah, grateful for coffee.
24:01
Speaker 3: Yeah. And and but isn't it remarkable, though, dude, how
24:08
Speaker 3: that's difficult for us for some reason? It is? Why
24:12
Speaker 3: is that difficult to come up with three freaking things
24:16
Speaker 3: that were grateful for It's.
24:18
Speaker 1: Easy, easy habitual, It's hard to start once you get on.
24:23
Speaker 3: That's Joe Dispenser right there.
24:25
Speaker 1: Joe Despens. I've heard of him, I haven't looked at
24:27
Speaker 1: much of his stuff.
24:28
Speaker 3: Here you go.
24:29
Speaker 1: God, Yeah, well, it's just it's hard to start. But like,
24:32
Speaker 1: you just become what you do. Man, you'd become your habits.
24:35
Speaker 1: If you want to cultivate negative thinking all the time,
24:38
Speaker 1: then that's what you're going to experience, probably most of
24:40
Speaker 1: the time. But there's this great book, As a Man
24:43
Speaker 1: Thinketh by James Allen. I mean, there's so many great
24:45
Speaker 1: books you could point to, but yeah, James Allen, As
24:49
Speaker 1: a Man Thinketh great one. Man, it's all about your thoughts.
24:53
Speaker 1: I mean, I believe that you know that this universe,
24:57
Speaker 1: this reality that we're in is mental. You know, it's
25:01
Speaker 1: all about the mind. It's again all about where you
25:03
Speaker 1: direct your attention. It's like the Bongo guy. He has
25:06
Speaker 1: been playing that thing since he was two year olds.
25:09
Speaker 1: The reason he was so good. That's where all of
25:12
Speaker 1: his attention went. The longer you're focused on something, the
25:15
Speaker 1: better it's going to be. So you just got to
25:18
Speaker 1: direct your attention. And yeah, it's hard to start. It's
25:21
Speaker 1: always the hardest to start. But it's like working out.
25:23
Speaker 1: It's like I don't want to work out, like but
25:26
Speaker 1: once you're working out and then afterwards like, holy crap,
25:30
Speaker 1: I feel so much better. Why did I not want
25:31
Speaker 1: to work out? Sure, So it's really just that starting
25:34
Speaker 1: part in where's it's usually the hardest.
25:36
Speaker 3: Yeah for me. Yeah, you know, sometimes we have to
25:43
Speaker 3: take maybe something that didn't happen well in our lives,
25:52
Speaker 3: a bad experience or something that's kind of negative and
25:56
Speaker 3: try to say, though it's really hard for some of us,
26:02
Speaker 3: I'm grateful that that happened because I'm wiser and I
26:08
Speaker 3: can look back at that in the rear view, not
26:12
Speaker 3: hang out on it all the time. But I'm glad
26:14
Speaker 3: that I went through all of that shit that at
26:18
Speaker 3: the time, I wasn't glad that I was going through it,
26:20
Speaker 3: But now looking back, I'm grateful for that bad experience.
26:26
Speaker 1: I'll do. That is so deep. That's such a massive conversation.
26:30
Speaker 1: I mean, that's what we talk about when we talk
26:33
Speaker 1: about circle and identifying individual strengths. Yeah, most people are like,
26:36
Speaker 1: when you think of strengths, you're like, oh, you can juggle,
26:39
Speaker 1: Oh you're good at an instrument, Oh you're a really
26:42
Speaker 1: good talker or whatever. No, bro, those aren't your strengths.
26:46
Speaker 1: The strengths are the things that you struggled through, that
26:49
Speaker 1: you had adversity with, that you got through, and now
26:53
Speaker 1: that strength, that struggle builds character, and that character, you know,
26:58
Speaker 1: has endurance and that you eventually give that hope that
27:01
Speaker 1: you have inside of you to other people. And you know,
27:05
Speaker 1: it's it's a combination of shifting your perspective like you said,
27:09
Speaker 1: and being finding that gratitude for what you've had to
27:13
Speaker 1: endure and realizing you're stronger for it. And then you
27:17
Speaker 1: can't just sit in it, like you said, You can't
27:19
Speaker 1: just ruminate, can't just dwell in it. You have to
27:21
Speaker 1: put it into action. And that action is by helping
27:24
Speaker 1: other people using your strength that you just.
27:27
Speaker 3: And and Tom's talked about this. He's like, you know,
27:29
Speaker 3: this kid, that kid in the in the school, what
27:32
Speaker 3: they bring to sweethearts and heroes, what they bring to
27:37
Speaker 3: administrators or other students as real life experience, good or bad,
27:43
Speaker 3: is a gift no matter what it is. Tom's fascinated
27:46
Speaker 3: with us. He's like, dude, no, that bad thing that
27:49
Speaker 3: that happened to you, that is an absolute gift that
27:53
Speaker 3: is priceless.
27:55
Speaker 1: It's hard. It's hard to say that too, Like and
27:57
Speaker 1: it's you know, it might it might be something you
27:59
Speaker 1: can't really say initially, like losing a kid, like how
28:02
Speaker 1: can you say that your greatest strength? But you know,
28:06
Speaker 1: it becomes it becomes it when you get through that,
28:10
Speaker 1: it becomes your greatest strength. That you can then help
28:13
Speaker 1: other people.
28:14
Speaker 3: With relatability is key man.
28:18
Speaker 1: So it's not an easy thing to do, and it's
28:20
Speaker 1: not an easy thing to think about. But if you're
28:22
Speaker 1: able to shift your perspective on it, man, well you
28:25
Speaker 1: can do some amazing things with it.
28:28
Speaker 3: Tom Tom, Tom's like, you know, uh, introvert, but just
28:34
Speaker 3: a really smart guy that that Brian McKean iss, he's
28:40
Speaker 3: got great intercessive.
28:41
Speaker 1: I don't know, I'm about smart but obsessive.
28:44
Speaker 3: No, you just have you have you have great introspective
28:47
Speaker 3: on on stuff man, an amazing way of looking at life.
28:53
Speaker 3: What what have you?
28:54
Speaker 1: What?
28:55
Speaker 3: What have you been? What's give me a snapshot of
28:58
Speaker 3: the last week or two of what you've been doing
29:04
Speaker 3: with Sweethearts. In Heroes, we hear about Louden. We know
29:08
Speaker 3: what Pat fish is up to new Dad by the way.
29:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, congratulations Pat, amazing.
29:13
Speaker 3: Uh, you know we know Tom and Ricker are running
29:17
Speaker 3: around all of You guys are kind of going in
29:20
Speaker 3: different directions, but you're all very connected.
29:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, what have you been doing well? This This has
29:25
Speaker 1: been it's been an interesting month and the last week
29:27
Speaker 1: has kind of been a continuation of that month. So
29:31
Speaker 1: Tom has had some big stuff with the Linemen. We've
29:35
Speaker 1: had a circle training out in Western New York with
29:40
Speaker 1: twelve forty Local twelve forty nine IBW and.
29:44
Speaker 3: Buckman right Buckingham or Buckingham.
29:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, Bucket, But we're working with bugging In. They're a
29:50
Speaker 1: line company. They manufacture sertain products that all the Linemen news.
29:57
Speaker 1: But yeah, we're out there working with Richard sin and Sons,
30:00
Speaker 1: which is the big contract in group that we're working
30:03
Speaker 1: with right now. And then they're connected to ib double
30:06
Speaker 1: Local twelve forty nine. And we just had a two
30:09
Speaker 1: day circle training and it was kind of initially based
30:13
Speaker 1: off of our educator circle training, but we're like, we
30:15
Speaker 1: just we had to tailor it to this, you know,
30:17
Speaker 1: and and it kind of evolved into something. So over
30:20
Speaker 1: the last month, I've been working with Tom back and forth.
30:22
Speaker 1: He's been kind of building this presentation and then I've
30:25
Speaker 1: been helping him refine it, and we've just been going
30:27
Speaker 1: over it. So that's been a big one, and it's
30:32
Speaker 1: like it's a power point, but it's like each each
30:34
Speaker 1: presentation was like one hundred and fifty slides, and so
30:37
Speaker 1: you got to animate it all. You got to make
30:39
Speaker 1: it look aesthetically good, like that's my kind of portion
30:42
Speaker 1: of it.
30:42
Speaker 3: You're doing that.
30:43
Speaker 1: So it just takes a lot of time really, and
30:46
Speaker 1: then he just presented yesterday down in Florida at Incident
30:50
Speaker 1: Prevention Safety Conference five people, five hundred people, dude, and
30:56
Speaker 1: the presentation we went over it like we got it
31:00
Speaker 1: solid in like eight pm the night before. We were
31:04
Speaker 1: going over and making sure it was in good condition
31:07
Speaker 1: because it was Tom was doing it this time without Rick,
31:09
Speaker 1: so we kind of had to take it in a
31:10
Speaker 1: little bit different of a direction. But it apparently was amazing,
31:15
Speaker 1: which he always pulls it off.
31:16
Speaker 3: Man.
31:16
Speaker 1: I know, he's a fantastic speaker, so I know, and
31:19
Speaker 1: he does.
31:20
Speaker 3: He does. He go off script a lot, does he
31:23
Speaker 3: improv a lot, like.
31:25
Speaker 1: He has so much he does all the time in
31:28
Speaker 1: his presentations, though he tries to keep it very dialed
31:30
Speaker 1: in because he's got a strict time limit and he
31:33
Speaker 1: can go down millions of rabbit holes so he tries
31:37
Speaker 1: to keep it flowing in the presentation. There's just so
31:39
Speaker 1: much to say about it. Man, It's just there's so
31:41
Speaker 1: much good stuff, so much good content. What does he say, Oh,
31:45
Speaker 1: it's it's a He kind of starts off with this
31:48
Speaker 1: one in particular, kind of started off with, you know,
31:50
Speaker 1: just talking about this problem you know that we're having
31:53
Speaker 1: in the world with you know, specifically suicide, and you know,
31:57
Speaker 1: the numbers are just crazy. In the line industry, it's
32:00
Speaker 1: like sixty eight per hundred thousand up to you.
32:04
Speaker 3: Know, it's more than military.
32:07
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, dude, the countries is like fourteen per hundred thousand.
32:13
Speaker 1: The military you talk, you hear about that twenty two
32:15
Speaker 1: a day, which is like veterans and stuff. But the
32:20
Speaker 1: Marines in particular, they're at like thirty five per hundred thousand,
32:24
Speaker 1: which is just insane.
32:26
Speaker 3: But then you got this.
32:26
Speaker 1: Alignment which is almost double that. You're talking about these
32:29
Speaker 1: guys that are going off to war, they're at like
32:31
Speaker 1: thirty five per hundred thousand. And now you've got these
32:34
Speaker 1: guys that are powering our country at in our own
32:37
Speaker 1: country all the time, and they're at like almost two
32:41
Speaker 1: times that. So it's just a crazy statistic, and this
32:46
Speaker 1: industry just needs it, and a lot of industries need it.
32:48
Speaker 1: Man Like, we're doing stuff with the police right now
32:51
Speaker 1: as well, So it's just everywhere every business could benefit
32:55
Speaker 1: from this.
32:56
Speaker 3: First responders.
32:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, those high stress environment this man Like, it's like
33:01
Speaker 1: you think about you know, military, you're on a couple
33:03
Speaker 1: of tours. It's like the policeman, that's their job for
33:07
Speaker 1: like the next thirty forty years.
33:08
Speaker 3: Every day, every single day.
33:10
Speaker 1: I don't know how you even handle that kind of stuff.
33:12
Speaker 3: I couldn't. I couldn't. There's certain things that I couldn't
33:16
Speaker 3: do for yeah, five minutes, dude.
33:19
Speaker 1: It's just crazy. And what happens is and this is
33:21
Speaker 1: what we talk about. It's like there's a buildup of
33:25
Speaker 1: you know, they say eighty three percent of the people
33:28
Speaker 1: in the line industry struggle with mental health issues. But
33:32
Speaker 1: we're rethinking this because there's a great book called Rethinking
33:35
Speaker 1: Suicide by Craig Bryant, br Ya and T And it
33:44
Speaker 1: really is shifting our understanding of what that means, Like
33:49
Speaker 1: eighty three percent struggle with mental health, we don't actually
33:52
Speaker 1: really consider that as an accurate statistic due to the
33:56
Speaker 1: research it was based off of what they're finding is
33:59
Speaker 1: actually that it's really a combination of stressful situations and
34:04
Speaker 1: negative emotions. And when those two things are colliding in
34:09
Speaker 1: particular and you don't have any way of relieving it,
34:13
Speaker 1: any way of talking about it, any way of getting it,
34:15
Speaker 1: that's often what builds up. And then there's just like
34:19
Speaker 1: this Swiss cheese effect, man, where it just becomes a
34:21
Speaker 1: moment where you're just like you're hopeless, and you know,
34:25
Speaker 1: if you can get through that, you know, obviously we've
34:27
Speaker 1: always believed hold on possibilities exist, but you need somewhere
34:31
Speaker 1: to get these things off of your chest. Man, and
34:34
Speaker 1: men particularly do not talk to each other like it's
34:38
Speaker 1: just a big stigma out there. Sure, and so that's
34:41
Speaker 1: what we're trying to bring. We're trying to bring and
34:43
Speaker 1: we don't believe that everybody should be going around crying
34:45
Speaker 1: all the time. Like there's certain things you just have
34:47
Speaker 1: to like, all right, dude, you gotta just suck it
34:49
Speaker 1: up here and get it done. But you do need
34:52
Speaker 1: a certain time in a certain space with certain people
34:55
Speaker 1: where you can talk about this stuff, where you can
34:57
Speaker 1: process these emotions. And that's what's circle is, and that's
35:01
Speaker 1: what you know. That's what this whole thing is building into,
35:03
Speaker 1: where like there's this issue man, and we have this practice,
35:06
Speaker 1: and we didn't create this practice. Man. We discovered circle. Yeah,
35:10
Speaker 1: circle is pre human, pre human, your eyeball, the sun, everything,
35:15
Speaker 1: And humans discovered this when they start sitting around a
35:17
Speaker 1: fire like a million and a half years ago or
35:19
Speaker 1: something like that, half a million year I can't remember
35:20
Speaker 1: what it was, four hundred thousand, Yeah, and they just
35:23
Speaker 1: start sitting around this fire and they just start talking
35:27
Speaker 1: and most importantly, they start listening to each other. And
35:30
Speaker 1: that's how you build empathy. And that's what we're trying
35:34
Speaker 1: to bring back. We're not trying to come up with
35:37
Speaker 1: this new system that is gonna like do we discovered this?
35:42
Speaker 1: And we're just trying to elucidate the practice to people
35:46
Speaker 1: and share with them how we perform it, which often
35:50
Speaker 1: is our structure is what we've discovered works best for
35:57
Speaker 1: this world, this modern world that we're in. Like we
35:59
Speaker 1: always know, we know that play is the number, you know,
36:03
Speaker 1: one greatest reconciler for cognitive difficulties. So we start with
36:06
Speaker 1: play man, start with that motion. We get some activation going. Sure,
36:10
Speaker 1: we just have some fun because it's not all about
36:12
Speaker 1: like crying. Yeah, it's about sharing positive emotions. Sure, and
36:16
Speaker 1: so we.
36:16
Speaker 3: Just misconception there. I think that that people always think, well,
36:21
Speaker 3: I'm generalizing here, but that circle is is always going
36:24
Speaker 3: to be a serious topic exactly, but not not the
36:28
Speaker 3: case at all. It could be share a funny experience.
36:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's almost because we're not. We're This is
36:35
Speaker 1: a strength based model, which means it's upstream prevention. We're
36:39
Speaker 1: not trying to. Uh. What a deficit based model does
36:43
Speaker 1: is they identify diagnosed and treat. You know that they're
36:48
Speaker 1: treating a problem because it has arisen. Circle is the
36:52
Speaker 1: other side of the coin. Like you need intervention, you
36:55
Speaker 1: need reactionary models, but you also need preventative models, and
37:01
Speaker 1: hopefully this mitigates the need for intervention. And it's about
37:06
Speaker 1: just connecting and again building human skills like empathy, like listening,
37:11
Speaker 1: like self awareness, like social awareness, identifying individual and group strengths,
37:17
Speaker 1: and that's how we learn how to lean on each other.
37:19
Speaker 1: That's where we know who we can go to when
37:21
Speaker 1: we're struggling. And that's what that third piece is is
37:24
Speaker 1: building this armor of peer networks of support, you know,
37:28
Speaker 1: and that's just what it is. Yeah, but it's just
37:30
Speaker 1: about connecting me. It's not about having to get emotional
37:32
Speaker 1: every time. It's not about dealing with problems specifically in
37:35
Speaker 1: the circle. It's just about connecting with each other.
37:37
Speaker 3: Man, communicating. God. It's like, I'm listening to you and
37:42
Speaker 3: I'm also thinking of just walking around Boston. I mean,
37:49
Speaker 3: just recently, everybody had their head down looking at the
37:54
Speaker 3: phone while they're walking.
37:56
Speaker 1: Jeez. I know. Well it's something we all struggle with,
37:59
Speaker 1: I'm sure, but it's it's like, yeah, we gotta we
38:02
Speaker 1: gotta figure out how to fix it.
38:03
Speaker 3: Like everywhere you go, I know, even in the bathroom,
38:07
Speaker 3: I know we can't. We can't pee with without without
38:11
Speaker 3: looking at our phones. It's crazy, restaurants, bars, crossing the street.
38:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's an epidemic.
38:19
Speaker 2: Man.
38:20
Speaker 1: It's like there's something going on, and you know, we
38:23
Speaker 1: just think there's something not not good, Like whatever's going on,
38:29
Speaker 1: whatever is unfolding, we're going in the wrong direction with that.
38:33
Speaker 1: We need to start turning back around.
38:35
Speaker 3: So let's do let's do a little circle right now.
38:37
Speaker 3: I'll throw something at you, you throw it back at me. Okay,
38:40
Speaker 3: we'll do the same question. Have you have you had
38:43
Speaker 3: an argument or an uncomfortable experience uh lately with your wife?
38:49
Speaker 3: Happy We don't, are you too much?
38:53
Speaker 1: We try from the beginning, we've been trying to be
38:56
Speaker 1: very open with our communication. We obviously have disagreements and me,
39:00
Speaker 1: but we don't. We've never argued, We've never yelled at
39:02
Speaker 1: each other. We've never gotten into some kind of heated discussion.
39:06
Speaker 1: There's been like uncomfortable things and things we you know,
39:10
Speaker 1: have to talk about and disagree on, but now do
39:13
Speaker 1: we don't. We don't really argue. Yeah, it's it's it's
39:17
Speaker 1: just something we've tried to mitigate in our relationship, very
39:21
Speaker 1: very focused attention on that and uh yeah. So it's
39:26
Speaker 1: like I'm not like trying to be like, oh look
39:29
Speaker 1: at us, but like we we try our best not
39:31
Speaker 1: to argue.
39:32
Speaker 3: What's amazing any uncomfortable experiences or conversations.
39:40
Speaker 1: We anticipate more when we have kids. We have certain
39:47
Speaker 1: jabelle on that one. So we're anticipating a number of
39:51
Speaker 1: uh more, But I mean do we usually are able
39:57
Speaker 1: to work things out pretty quick, pretty quick, which is
40:00
Speaker 1: I'm just blessed, Like she's just usually the one that
40:04
Speaker 1: she's I know, all this kind of stuff. But what
40:07
Speaker 1: she's been doing the last five six years that I've
40:10
Speaker 1: been with her, Like the work she has done on
40:13
Speaker 1: herself is just unbelievable. Like I've never seen anything like it.
40:18
Speaker 1: She is like gone, She's been like teaching herself all
40:21
Speaker 1: of these all of this information kind of like I do,
40:24
Speaker 1: but very different subjects, and then it all connects. Wow.
40:29
Speaker 1: And she just has some amazing, like simple strategies that
40:33
Speaker 1: she's just she's implementing them. And it doesn't have to
40:36
Speaker 1: be complicated. Man, it can be very simple, but it
40:38
Speaker 1: takes work, it takes dedication, it takes focus, it takes commitment,
40:42
Speaker 1: and she just puts all that in.
40:43
Speaker 3: Wow.
40:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, So it's nearly no credit to me. It's really
40:47
Speaker 1: mostly credit to her.
40:49
Speaker 3: We had a we had a conversation at my house
40:57
Speaker 3: that was not anticipated, wasn't planned, could have easily gone
41:07
Speaker 3: very very much south, but I just kind of made
41:17
Speaker 3: the decision at the on the fly that I wasn't
41:22
Speaker 3: going to let it go down that that road. And
41:31
Speaker 3: even though it was uncomfortable and and private, Uh, it
41:40
Speaker 3: was something that even though it was uncomfortable at the time,
41:47
Speaker 3: that looking back was a gift. I think for our relationship.
41:56
Speaker 3: It was it was. It turns out in hindsight, it
42:01
Speaker 3: was very good experience. Huh you know what I mean.
42:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's awesome. That's good. I'm very glad to hear
42:07
Speaker 1: the communication man. Yeah, unications. But she she was reading
42:11
Speaker 1: a book on what is it called The Art of
42:17
Speaker 1: Communication by Tickna Han. I think he's like a Buddhist
42:20
Speaker 1: monk or something. But wow, some mind breaking stuff.
42:23
Speaker 3: And then oh sure, yeah, you guys are filling up
42:29
Speaker 3: my page here, so many books.
42:32
Speaker 1: But yeah, dude, I mean, you have to get through
42:34
Speaker 1: those uncomfortable stuff though, you know, and it usually if
42:37
Speaker 1: you're able to, like you said, like pause in that
42:40
Speaker 1: moment and like, yeah, not let it go down that road, man,
42:44
Speaker 1: just like don't say anything you're gonna regret, Like, take
42:48
Speaker 1: a breath, process what's going on. Like it's uncomfortable, but once,
42:52
Speaker 1: like you said, like, once you get through it, it's
42:54
Speaker 1: usually better.
42:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it was, Yeah, it's amazing, it's amazing. Let's
43:01
Speaker 3: lighten it up here a little bit. Let's Tom says
43:06
Speaker 3: that you you tend to go down some some metaphysical
43:10
Speaker 3: rabbit holes once in a while, every every now and then.
43:15
Speaker 3: What's going on with the Packers. What what's what's happening?
43:21
Speaker 3: And you're you're like obsessed. Oh my god, dude, the Packers.
43:27
Speaker 1: Right now, I know, I know, uh the Packers man. Well, yeah,
43:33
Speaker 1: it's my dad's fault. Number one, number one, number one,
43:39
Speaker 1: my dad's fault.
43:39
Speaker 3: No.
43:39
Speaker 1: We I just I grew up watching football with I
43:42
Speaker 1: never played, because you can probably tell because I'm like
43:44
Speaker 1: five foot nine, and before that, I was like sixteen.
43:47
Speaker 1: I was like I wasn't even on the charts, man,
43:50
Speaker 1: Like it was bad. I was so small, so scrwny.
43:55
Speaker 1: So I never played, but I love watching it, and
43:57
Speaker 1: I just became obsessed with the Packers for years, like
44:02
Speaker 1: I was a football haulic. Yea god. It was probably
44:06
Speaker 1: the twenty one twenty two season where they went to
44:10
Speaker 1: the freaking playoffs again and they freaking blew it and
44:13
Speaker 1: I'm just like, I'm done. I freaking really, I took
44:17
Speaker 1: my Packer's hat off, I burnt it, and I'm like,
44:19
Speaker 1: I'm done. So it's been a slow transition out of
44:24
Speaker 1: my obsession to football. What Every year I say I'm
44:27
Speaker 1: not gonna watch it again, but I end up going back,
44:30
Speaker 1: do you know?
44:33
Speaker 3: And I have friends that are like that too, better
44:37
Speaker 3: football fanatics. My my brother for him, it's the Steelers, Steelers. Yeah,
44:43
Speaker 3: he's got the Steelers, shower curtains, toothbrush holders.
44:49
Speaker 1: My dad got a freaking jeep packer jeep what Oh
44:56
Speaker 1: it was like green, yellow and everything. Man, it was
44:58
Speaker 1: I know, I know. Well he was a Brett Farr fan,
45:02
Speaker 1: but they didn't really like Rogers taking over originally kind
45:05
Speaker 1: of followed Brett into like the.
45:07
Speaker 3: Like didn't have the logo floor mats, the logo floor
45:11
Speaker 3: mat in floor mats.
45:13
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I think he did. I don't. I can't
45:15
Speaker 1: remember if he did, but I think he did.
45:17
Speaker 3: My brothers got this.
45:18
Speaker 1: It was deck dalla.
45:20
Speaker 3: Do you really need your crown?
45:21
Speaker 1: Man?
45:21
Speaker 3: Do you need the shower curtain and the and the
45:23
Speaker 3: underwear socks?
45:25
Speaker 1: You gotta get it.
45:26
Speaker 3: Got the inflatable thing in the front yard.
45:28
Speaker 1: But I'm like the cheese, come on, the cheese added
45:32
Speaker 1: cheesehead at one point.
45:36
Speaker 3: About sports though and and and football. Are you familiar
45:41
Speaker 3: with with Joey Merlino. He's a was a prominent mob
45:49
Speaker 3: boss and in Philadelphia. No skinny skinny Joey. He you
45:57
Speaker 3: should check this guy out. He goes was off about
46:03
Speaker 3: sports and the conspiracies behind all of them, really that
46:09
Speaker 3: they're all rigged. Really well, you know they're all rigged.
46:14
Speaker 3: The World Cup has already been determined. Look at what's
46:17
Speaker 3: going up. When what has happened in NCAA basketball. It's
46:23
Speaker 3: it's everywhere.
46:24
Speaker 1: I mean, it's like you want, I want to kind
46:27
Speaker 1: of buy into it, but it's like, I don't understand.
46:29
Speaker 1: I think I can only think the way that would work.
46:34
Speaker 1: That's that's what I said, Like, I just I don't.
46:36
Speaker 1: I don't. I'm not quite sure how you would get
46:39
Speaker 1: that done unless the coaches are like I know, there's
46:42
Speaker 1: like some kind of preemptive gameping.
46:44
Speaker 3: Like all right, dude, guys, you're putting it all out there.
46:47
Speaker 1: Dude, like, how do you rig that?
46:49
Speaker 3: I that's what I say. I know the refs and
46:52
Speaker 3: the refs are in collusion.
46:54
Speaker 1: It might be multi component. It might be the refs,
46:56
Speaker 1: it might be the players, it might be the coaches.
46:58
Speaker 1: I don't know.
46:59
Speaker 3: Do you think broad broad statement?
47:02
Speaker 1: I've wanted to so badly. It's it's a desire to
47:05
Speaker 1: think it's rigged, because.
47:07
Speaker 3: You think, do you think the whole NFL is rigged?
47:10
Speaker 3: Robert Craft and all his proxies.
47:13
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know. I really don't have enough
47:15
Speaker 1: information to say on that one. But I'm a conspiracy nut.
47:19
Speaker 3: So yeah, oh, I know Tom and I were talking
47:23
Speaker 3: about lean into that kind of stuff.
47:25
Speaker 1: But you have to wonder, though, I wonder quite immensely.
47:28
Speaker 1: I mean, I could see it being as simple as
47:32
Speaker 1: you give each other your playbooks and you just coordinate
47:37
Speaker 1: on certain plays. I mean, I don't know, but that's
47:40
Speaker 1: so that's so terrible to say, because these athletes are
47:44
Speaker 1: dedicating their lives to it and putting it all out there.
47:46
Speaker 1: So I really I can't I don't really have a
47:50
Speaker 1: strong opinion on it. I'm gonna lean in the fact
47:53
Speaker 1: that it's probably not rig.
47:54
Speaker 3: But wow, yeah, I've chatted with people that are like,
48:00
Speaker 3: I don't watch sports anymore, none of them.
48:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, there's a lot of other things that go
48:05
Speaker 1: on with sports though that It's like there's besides just
48:08
Speaker 1: the rigging component, Like the commercialization is just a little
48:13
Speaker 1: it's a little bit much at this point, Like now
48:14
Speaker 1: it's like all your star commercial people are athletes.
48:17
Speaker 3: It's like and I know, just.
48:20
Speaker 1: The you know, paying the college athletes, which is kind
48:24
Speaker 1: of just destroying like, I know, college community, what's gonna happen?
48:29
Speaker 3: How will this pan out? You can't you can't turn
48:32
Speaker 3: this train backwards. No, you can't.
48:34
Speaker 1: You've opened Pandora's box on that one and they're killing
48:37
Speaker 1: back in the box. Yeah. I don't know. I don't
48:40
Speaker 1: know what's gonna happen with this. Just there's so much
48:42
Speaker 1: money around it, man, And it's that kind of money.
48:46
Speaker 1: I kind of like.
48:47
Speaker 3: People you're you're not you know, the whole NFL draft
48:52
Speaker 3: and everything that I've seen it heard. These aren't human
48:56
Speaker 3: beings anywhere I'll go deep, They're not human beings. They're
49:03
Speaker 3: commodities to the world.
49:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, they are.
49:07
Speaker 3: All they are. Yeah is stats, facts, price tag on
49:12
Speaker 3: the forehead.
49:13
Speaker 1: I know. Have you ever seen Jerry Seinfeld. Yeah, like
49:16
Speaker 1: you put a different shirt on and they like hate
49:18
Speaker 1: the guy.
49:19
Speaker 3: I know.
49:19
Speaker 1: It's so it really is wild, and it's actually, you know,
49:23
Speaker 1: you think about it, it's really almost dehumanizing to the athletes.
49:27
Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, you like, oh, man, I wish I
49:29
Speaker 1: could be a star athlete, but like, dude, they gotta
49:31
Speaker 1: like sign contracts where they can't ride motorcycles and stuff,
49:34
Speaker 1: like you have to give up your freedoms. You have
49:37
Speaker 1: to dedicate all your time and energy towards this thing.
49:39
Speaker 1: And yeah, sure you're making millions and millions of dollars,
49:42
Speaker 1: but you're destroying your body, You're destroying your brain. Like man,
49:48
Speaker 1: it's just like I think there's probably pretty decent statistics
49:51
Speaker 1: on like post athletic like time, like what you do
49:57
Speaker 1: after that where it's not good.
49:59
Speaker 4: Man.
49:59
Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, they don't have any money left.
50:01
Speaker 3: They don't y know, by the time you're fifty.
50:04
Speaker 2: Yeah.
50:04
Speaker 1: It's like my brothers played soccer heavily in high school.
50:07
Speaker 1: My even brother was on a semi pro team at
50:09
Speaker 1: once in the town we were in, and it's like
50:13
Speaker 1: he's beat up, you know, physically, he's like twenty six
50:16
Speaker 1: years old. He's out of it. It's like, is he limping, dude.
50:19
Speaker 1: I think he's got some yeah, some problems. So it's like,
50:23
Speaker 1: I know, man, I'm so glad I didn't actually get
50:26
Speaker 1: pulled into football because I don't have really any problems physically,
50:30
Speaker 1: which is very, very fortunate for me.
50:32
Speaker 3: Yeah. Wow, it's it's amazing, man. It just you know,
50:36
Speaker 3: you know, for me, where it's it's at is I know,
50:41
Speaker 3: we're getting way off topic. I don't.
50:44
Speaker 4: I don't give a damn sure podcast I for for me,
50:49
Speaker 4: for sportsman, going to see now that I've got a
50:53
Speaker 4: little girl, you know, going to see.
50:57
Speaker 3: These little kids playing soft and the chanting and the
51:03
Speaker 3: cheering and how serious some of them are are taking it,
51:08
Speaker 3: and that, you know, just just being there as a
51:12
Speaker 3: dad and watching all of the players out on the
51:16
Speaker 3: field and the other team too, and some of these
51:21
Speaker 3: kids getting up to bat that frankly, they kind of sucked.
51:32
Speaker 1: I went to my number of te ball games when
51:34
Speaker 1: I was younger.
51:38
Speaker 3: And really in supper guard. Have no business being out there, Okay,
51:45
Speaker 3: I said it, you know what. It's so it's so wonderful, though,
51:52
Speaker 3: seriously heartwarming to see the coaches and the parents on.
52:00
Speaker 1: Both sides be very positive of.
52:03
Speaker 3: Center of of of home plate being positive and cheering
52:08
Speaker 3: that that kid on even even when they strike out.
52:12
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, and they they're clapping when they strike out,
52:16
Speaker 3: good job, good swing. Positivity. I love to see that.
52:21
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, well that's good.
52:22
Speaker 3: That's real. That's real sports.
52:23
Speaker 1: Yes, because you're you're praising the effort. You know, you
52:26
Speaker 1: got to praise the effort, you don't praise the outcome
52:28
Speaker 1: and the results. Yes, so yeah, it's good, and it's
52:31
Speaker 1: just I think it's unfortunate as it probably increases in age,
52:36
Speaker 1: you get that you get a lot more competitive, and
52:38
Speaker 1: you get a lot more results driven rather than that
52:42
Speaker 1: effort that the little kids are like putting out there, Like, yeah,
52:44
Speaker 1: it's it's mind numbing to watch sometimes, but on the
52:48
Speaker 1: super young and the super young side, but you know, yeah,
52:51
Speaker 1: at least they're out there like putting in the effort
52:53
Speaker 1: and hopefully having fun.
52:55
Speaker 3: Yes, you know, but I've learned, I've had some great
52:58
Speaker 3: perspective to this because I've learned it's been it's been hard.
53:05
Speaker 3: When there's a hit in a in a pop fly
53:07
Speaker 3: and it's coming right for one of my my daughter's teammates.
53:14
Speaker 1: This is.
53:16
Speaker 3: An easy catch. It's a super slow pop fly. There
53:22
Speaker 3: is no way in hell that you could miss that,
53:25
Speaker 3: and they miss it. I'm the first one to stand up,
53:30
Speaker 3: and my my initial reaction.
53:33
Speaker 1: Is like, God, damn, man could have got.
53:37
Speaker 3: But but you have to you you just have to, yeah,
53:43
Speaker 3: cheer them on.
53:44
Speaker 1: Good effort, strain that and you.
53:48
Speaker 3: Can just keep keep it, you know, throw the ball,
53:51
Speaker 3: pick it up, throw the ball, keep it going. Good job,
53:54
Speaker 3: good effort, good eye, even though it wasn't a good eye.
54:00
Speaker 1: It's like.
54:03
Speaker 3: Now and then I you know, and then my wife
54:06
Speaker 3: will look back at me and say, you couldn't have
54:08
Speaker 3: caught that either, and you know it. But I'm just saying,
54:13
Speaker 3: that's where. That's where, like it's so heartwarming, dude, that's
54:17
Speaker 3: real sports. Yeah, yeah, in my.
54:19
Speaker 1: Book, I think so that's certainly.
54:22
Speaker 3: Do you see what the did you see what the
54:24
Speaker 3: price tag is for World Cup tickets? I can't even
54:28
Speaker 3: in New Jersey. I can't two mill two million mil?
54:33
Speaker 1: What the m?
54:35
Speaker 3: How do you even?
54:36
Speaker 1: I don't even know, man, I don't even know the
54:38
Speaker 1: amount of money that. I don't know about the rest
54:41
Speaker 1: of the world. But the Americans spend on sporting events
54:44
Speaker 1: and sure sporting equipment. Yeah, it's it's cool. I've been
54:47
Speaker 1: to a couple of yeah, big games, but Jesus.
54:51
Speaker 3: These Europeans are all crazy, especially when it comes to soccer. Yeah,
54:58
Speaker 3: they don't care to know. Ever there's they're gonna They'll
55:02
Speaker 3: put on.
55:02
Speaker 1: There alone for the rest of your life to go.
55:05
Speaker 3: They'll come over and freak out and paint their bodies
55:08
Speaker 3: and shave their heads and put on wigs and whatever.
55:11
Speaker 3: They don't care. They don't care.
55:13
Speaker 1: David Puddy face Painter.
55:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, exactly, dude. I love having you on. I
55:22
Speaker 3: love chatting with you. Uh sometimes I I when I
55:26
Speaker 3: do get talking with you, I forget that or yeah really,
55:33
Speaker 3: I mean it's but it's authentic, it's it's real conversation.
55:36
Speaker 3: And and I think Tom and Rick certainly appreciate that.
55:42
Speaker 3: Sweethearts and Heroes dot com that's the website of the
55:50
Speaker 3: world's leading youth organization.
55:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's where Yeah, that's where you can find us.
55:58
Speaker 1: You can find all of our put a lot of
56:01
Speaker 1: effort into making our menu services on there, so you
56:03
Speaker 1: can find out all the stuff we're doing, uh with
56:06
Speaker 1: from linemen to police officers, to kids to educators. So yeah, man,
56:11
Speaker 1: where this gravy chains moving and it's just gets wilder
56:14
Speaker 1: every year, man, it does.
56:16
Speaker 3: And it's it's not stopping at schools. This is incredible.
56:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, which you know, you know, we need that more
56:24
Speaker 1: than anything, man, I mean yeah, So Joe and Pat
56:27
Speaker 1: Man are just crushing it this year.
56:28
Speaker 3: Yeah they are, you know, And and kids, and I
56:32
Speaker 3: say this every Wednesday, kids are are coming to school.
56:36
Speaker 3: Uh and even during the summer, they're beginning their days
56:41
Speaker 3: carrying a lot of weight. And most of that weight
56:45
Speaker 3: I think is created from the adults, yeah, that are
56:52
Speaker 3: in their lives, whether their parents or.
56:55
Speaker 1: Just the ones running the world, running the ones running
56:57
Speaker 1: the world. Yeah, it's just crazy stress and anxiety that
57:01
Speaker 1: we're heaping upon the younger generation. Right.
57:04
Speaker 3: So, you know, speaking for Tom here, you know, it's
57:07
Speaker 3: one thing to help the children carry the weight and
57:13
Speaker 3: navigate through life and think beyond the scope of just
57:19
Speaker 3: typical childhood and just being a better person, whether it's
57:25
Speaker 3: recognizing bullying and getting involved and trying to prevent that,
57:32
Speaker 3: just being a better kid. It's one thing to be
57:35
Speaker 3: doing that, which is wonderful, but the root of it
57:39
Speaker 3: is above that, which is like I just said, which
57:43
Speaker 3: is the adults that are putting things on the kids.
57:47
Speaker 3: And it could be I'm not putting it. I'm not
57:50
Speaker 3: putting any weight on your kid, but quietly you're neglecting them.
57:57
Speaker 1: Made Yeah that too. I mean Tom just saying to
58:00
Speaker 1: me last night after this whole thing at the IP conference,
58:03
Speaker 1: He's like, this is where our work is going, man,
58:06
Speaker 1: It's going out into this real world now. And that's yeah,
58:09
Speaker 1: that's where we got to go. Next is like with
58:11
Speaker 1: the parents and the educators and all these people that
58:16
Speaker 1: are leading the youth, that has to be fixed. Yeah, right,
58:20
Speaker 1: Like we just have developed these stigmas and these unhealthy
58:23
Speaker 1: social norms habits. Yeah, they become these habits, and that's
58:27
Speaker 1: what our kids are seeing. So we don't need better kids,
58:30
Speaker 1: we need better behavior modeling, sure from us.
58:35
Speaker 3: And it's so it's so tough. It is tough. It's tough.
58:38
Speaker 1: It's the most tough. It's the toughest thing it is.
58:40
Speaker 1: But that's why I think it's the most important thing there.
58:42
Speaker 3: Yes, last night I had going, going, going, going all
58:47
Speaker 3: day long, and it was literally like nine o'clock last night,
58:55
Speaker 3: and I sat, I sat down on the couch and
58:57
Speaker 3: and for me, and this will come to you at
58:59
Speaker 3: some point in your life. For me at fifty five,
59:03
Speaker 3: when I sit down on the couch, especially after I've
59:05
Speaker 3: been going all day and haven't sat down, there's a
59:08
Speaker 3: whole lot of trauma that goes behind sitting on the couch.
59:12
Speaker 3: There's screaming and yelling ah.
59:16
Speaker 2: Ah.
59:19
Speaker 3: And then when this when the feet come up, it's
59:22
Speaker 3: even more. Oh god, yes, oh who I'm done, I'm
59:29
Speaker 3: checked out. I'm done. And then my little Lily comes
59:33
Speaker 3: over a thirty seconds later, Dad, can you help me
59:37
Speaker 3: make a smoothie? I don't want to get up? Are
59:42
Speaker 3: you kidding me?
59:42
Speaker 1: Right now?
59:43
Speaker 3: I'm not getting up? But I got I get well.
59:48
Speaker 3: I got the look from from Sherilyn. And it wasn't
59:51
Speaker 3: a look of you better get up right now. It
59:55
Speaker 3: wasn't that look. The look was you know what you
59:59
Speaker 3: have to do? You well? The look? What what I
1:00:03
Speaker 3: hear in what I see in that look is someday
1:00:10
Speaker 3: she's not gonna want to make a smoothie with you.
1:00:13
Speaker 3: She's not going to give a ship. She's going to
1:00:15
Speaker 3: be more interested in running off with her friends. That's
1:00:18
Speaker 3: what I hear.
1:00:19
Speaker 1: Mmm.
1:00:20
Speaker 3: So I had to It was painful, but I had
1:00:23
Speaker 3: to retract the feet back down and I had to
1:00:26
Speaker 3: give I had to get back up. God huh. And
1:00:29
Speaker 3: now the plantar fascion eis is kicking in in my foot.
1:00:33
Speaker 3: My knees are ship and I got a limp into
1:00:36
Speaker 3: back into the kitchen to make it. But you know what, though,
1:00:42
Speaker 3: the look on her face.
1:00:45
Speaker 1: Worth it.
1:00:46
Speaker 3: It was so worth it, my man, so worth it.
1:00:49
Speaker 3: She's so happy, so she just wants to make us.
1:00:51
Speaker 3: She wants me to teach her how to make us
1:00:52
Speaker 3: smoothie dude, nice list dude.
1:00:55
Speaker 1: I look forward to, but also know that I will
1:00:59
Speaker 1: have to do a lot of growing myself when we
1:01:02
Speaker 1: have children. So yeah, haiat's off to all parents, man.
1:01:06
Speaker 1: I can't imagine it's an easy. Yeah, it's hardest job.
1:01:10
Speaker 3: Don't neglect your kids, even when you're tired, even when
1:01:16
Speaker 3: even when you don't feel well. Give them the attention
1:01:20
Speaker 3: that frankly they deserve. Yeah, and honestly, it's it's a
1:01:27
Speaker 3: gift that's going to come back and pay dividends. I think.
1:01:35
Speaker 1: No, I believe you, man, I believe you, and it's
1:01:37
Speaker 1: something that's what I want to carry into Yeah, just
1:01:41
Speaker 1: think of think of me someday I will I'll be thinking.
1:01:44
Speaker 1: JD said I had to get up. It's worth it and.
1:01:48
Speaker 3: The hips are clicking.
1:01:50
Speaker 1: I'm serious.
1:01:51
Speaker 3: I'm a mess, I am a disaster, but I had
1:01:56
Speaker 3: but I had to do it.
1:01:57
Speaker 1: You did.
1:01:59
Speaker 3: Thanks for coming in, brother, love having you on man,
1:02:03
Speaker 3: Sweethearts and Heroes dot Com. Brian McKeon, what's what's your
1:02:08
Speaker 3: official title.
1:02:09
Speaker 1: With thewday Project Management Business Operations. That's kind of what
1:02:14
Speaker 1: but I used to sign my signature at TS assistant
1:02:18
Speaker 1: to the Superheroes, like the Office, like that.
1:02:25
Speaker 3: Dude, love having you in here, man, Thanks, thank you
1:02:28
Speaker 3: so much for connecting not only with me, but with
1:02:31
Speaker 3: so many other people this morning. I know that we
1:02:34
Speaker 3: very unscripted, lots of different rabbit holes, but I had
1:02:39
Speaker 3: so much fun with you.
1:02:40
Speaker 1: This is a blast.
1:02:41
Speaker 3: I can't I already can't wait for you to come
1:02:42
Speaker 3: in next. Yeah, I'm hoping one of these days Tom.
1:02:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, might as well ask him.
1:02:48
Speaker 3: Now, we gotta get him go off the couch. But
1:02:52
Speaker 3: if Tom can maybe orchestrate a circle at a hotel
1:02:57
Speaker 3: somewhere with this sweethearts and heroes family.
1:03:02
Speaker 1: Only, Hey, summer's coming and that's our off school. Wait
1:03:06
Speaker 1: no time, so hey, we might pull something together here.
1:03:08
Speaker 3: That would be wouldn't that be wild? Pay per view?
1:03:11
Speaker 1: It would be pay per ViOS get it on Netflix?
1:03:16
Speaker 3: Were coming in?
1:03:17
Speaker 2: Brother?
1:03:17
Speaker 3: I love you man, Let me all right, bu