The Quarterback DadCast
Nurturing Confidence Across Family and Business - A power conversation with Leslie Vickrey
As I reflect on the start of my entrepreneurial journey, our next guest is one of the first people I think of with gratitude. Today, we welcome Leslie Vickrey, CEO and founder of ClearEdge Marketing and co-author of Together We Rise. Leslie also hosts the amazing podcast, "The Edge" which is a must-listen!
When Leslie steps into a room – or in this case, our Quarterback Dadcast – you know you're in for a story that will light up the corners of your heart. She's more than just an entrepreneur; she's a beacon of warmth, sharing tales of spontaneous dance parties with her son Grayson, and the nourishment found in multi-generational connections. Leslie's journey from the vibrant city life of Chicago to the awe-inspiring peaks of Colorado serves as a backdrop for our conversation, where she reveals how embracing the outdoors, nurturing passions, and striking a balance in parenting can lead to an enriched life.
Navigating the complexities of family dynamics, Leslie draws from her upbringing, showcasing the power of parental influence in building confidence and self-love. She delves into the importance of overcoming societal pressures and the continuous endeavor to instill self-assurance in our children. Leslie's reflections on contrasting family influences, and her candid discussions about vulnerability and self-acceptance, echo the challenges many of us face in parenting and personal growth. Her insights remind us that while we cannot shape every aspect of our children's futures, we can empower them to embrace their individuality.
Wrapping up our heartfelt conversation, Leslie illustrates the indelible mark of mentorship and the unexpected paths that lead to entrepreneurship. Her personal anecdotes about family history, embracing curiosity, and the importance of allyship in the workplace highlight the influence we can have on one another.
Leslie's leadership approach, interwoven with humility, vulnerability, and curiosity, offers a blueprint for inspiring change both at home and in the boardroom. As we celebrate the wisdom imparted by our guest, we invite you to join us in this enriching discussion that's bound to leave you with a renewed appreciation for life's journey and the roles we play within it.
Please don't forget to leave us a review wherever you consume your podcasts! Please help us get more dads to listen weekly and become the ultimate leader of their homes!
As I reflect on the start of my entrepreneurial journey, our next guest is one of the first people I think of with gratitude. Today, we welcome Leslie Vickrey, CEO and founder of ClearEdge Marketing and co-author of Together We Rise. Leslie also hosts the amazing podcast, "The Edge" which is a must-listen!
When Leslie steps into a room – or in this case, our Quarterback Dadcast – you know you're in for a story that will light up the corners of your heart. She's more than just an entrepreneur; she's a beacon of warmth, sharing tales of spontaneous dance parties with her son Grayson, and the nourishment found in multi-generational connections. Leslie's journey from the vibrant city life of Chicago to the awe-inspiring peaks of Colorado serves as a backdrop for our conversation, where she reveals how embracing the outdoors, nurturing passions, and striking a balance in parenting can lead to an enriched life.
Navigating the complexities of family dynamics, Leslie draws from her upbringing, showcasing the power of parental influence in building confidence and self-love. She delves into the importance of overcoming societal pressures and the continuous endeavor to instill self-assurance in our children. Leslie's reflections on contrasting family influences, and her candid discussions about vulnerability and self-acceptance, echo the challenges many of us face in parenting and personal growth. Her insights remind us that while we cannot shape every aspect of our children's futures, we can empower them to embrace their individuality.
Wrapping up our heartfelt conversation, Leslie illustrates the indelible mark of mentorship and the unexpected paths that lead to entrepreneurship. Her personal anecdotes about family history, embracing curiosity, and the importance of allyship in the workplace highlight the influence we can have on one another.
Leslie's leadership approach, interwoven with humility, vulnerability, and curiosity, offers a blueprint for inspiring change both at home and in the boardroom. As we celebrate the wisdom imparted by our guest, we invite you to join us in this enriching discussion that's bound to leave you with a renewed appreciation for life's journey and the roles we play within it.
Please don't forget to leave us a review wherever you consume your podcasts! Please help us get more dads to listen weekly and become the ultimate leader of their homes!
Hi, I'm Riley and I'm Ryder, and this is my dad show. Hey everybody, it's Casey Jaycox with the quarterback dad cast, and, as I promised, we do finally have a new and exciting sponsor that's going to be joining us over the next 13 weeks or so, and they it is called the authentic edge podcast, which is going to be launching very, very soon. It is a podcast that is led by the fantastic and successful Jason DeLuca and executive sales and people leader at Dexian, as well as with a Paul DeFrancenzo, who is a global sales leader at indeedcom. This podcast, authentic edge, as I mentioned, is, is launching in the next month and it's really about a journey into the heart and genuine relationships into the workplace. So they're going to talk about uncovering the profound impact that authenticity has on establishing instant trust, fostering long-term partnerships, as well as creating serendipitous connections that evolve into endearing business and personal relationships, which is exactly how I would describe my relationship with Jason and Paul. So, without further ado, let's get right to the next episode, and I hope that you check out the authentic edge wherever you consume your podcasts. Well, hey everybody, it's Casey Jaycox with the quarterback dad cast.
Speaker 2:We are in season five and I'm really excited for this next guest. I know in February you saw that we brought some talented women onto the show, which I thought I'd never do, but I'm so glad I did. And surprise, surprise, surprise, we're gonna bring another fantastic female to the Quarterback Dadcast. She's actually the spouse, the wife of a former guest, mr Colin Williams, and this next guest is also, I would say, probably the number one or two reasons why my entrepreneurial journey got kicked off, so we're going to show her tons of gratitude. She's a CEO and founder of ClearEdge Marketing for nearly 18 years. She's the co-founder of Aura Mentors Learn more about that. She's the author of Together we Rise and she also hosts a with her through ClearEd Edge. That's her company, the Edge Podcast, and her name is Leslie Vickery. So, without further ado, leslie Vickery, welcome to the Quarterback Dadcast.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Thank you, casey. Thank you for the introduction, thank you for having me. What an honor to be on one of my favorite podcasts. And I just want to say thank you for honoring all of the dads out there. It's so fun to hear their stories.
Speaker 2:Well, you bet. Well, I'm grateful. I love when I can just do these like first take and I have to stop over, because it's just like from the heart and I truly meant that. I think you've heard the story, but I love always telling it to people like so how did you get into coaching? It's like a, which is not what we're talking about today. Well, we might a little bit, but it's just. It's a fun story to tell, Cause you give me my first chance and you bet on me and I bet on you and I'm just very grateful for you and the team at ClearEdge.
Speaker 3:Of course. Well, we're, we're grateful for you and continue to work with you and love the partnership.
Speaker 2:Awesome. So we always start out with gratitude, so tell me, what are you most grateful for today? For your dad and Colin.
Speaker 3:For my dad, oh, my goodness. Well, I'll tell a quick story, and it's something I'm really grateful for for my dad, for Colin, who's my husband, and my son, grayson. So I have an eight-year-old son, as you know, and I am so grateful because my dad was just out here spending 10 days with us, so it was really fun. Just, I love you know how I love multiple generations and thinking about the past and the future and what impact we can make on our kids and what we can take forward from past generations to the future and, quite frankly, even our own generation. And seeing all of us together was such a moment I am so grateful for. But last night in particular, grayson, sitting there, said can we have a dance party? And I said, of course. So you know we had a movie on. We turned the movie off and he said I've got a great song I want to play. So he puts a song on and then he said and everyone, think of what song you want to have next.
Speaker 3:So we all had to think but the really cool thing was he had these dance moves Grayson did and he wanted all of us to get up so he could teach all three of us his dance moves, which was so fun to look around. I wish I had taken a video. That may be like my only regret of that moment, but looking around, quite frankly, just being present in the moment and watching all of us try to do these dance moves was pretty hysterical. And of course he had to throw a little jab into mom saying that I had the worst dance moves of all of us. But that said, just watching all of us together dancing and just being free in the moment was a super cool moment it's the best.
Speaker 2:That's the best. I mean, I love. I love when life slows down and you make the choice to slow down, because really it is a choice. So much of what we do is our mindset that I think a lot of people don't talk about enough, because it's one of our, our secret weapons that just we let life just kind of go by. Um, unfortunately, some people do. But but if you really like slow down to really think about, like, well, how every word we say matters, or what our actions, our body language, um, the questions we ask, it just can change experiences so quickly, um, I am grateful today for, um, uh, well, I'm grateful for what, carrie? From thousands and thousands of reasons, but I'm I'm grateful for, well, carrie, for thousands and thousands of reasons. But I'm grateful for my son, who is going to be graduating high school soon, like literally in two months.
Speaker 2:They were recording at the end of April this up, so we'll come out in a few weeks, and I was. I had a small gap in between meetings this morning, so I ran upstairs. I had a small gap in between meetings this morning, so I ran upstairs, got some laundry done for the family. Dad's is not only mom's job. It's our job too. So if you can help out in the house, do it. And I was putting away some of my son's stuff because he was at school and I saw his cap and gown and it literally damn near brought me to tears.
Speaker 2:I was like, oh my God, this is getting close and I now for a month out and that's already kind of getting me. I'm like, holy F, I'm going to be a disaster on graduation day and then when he goes away for college in the fall, man talk, it's going to be tough. I mean, he's my dude Like. We watched so many sports together, we play golf together, um, and just to. So I think it's just starting to get really real. As a family. We're talking about it like wow, and Lily, I was like I remember when he was born, this seemed like yesterday and all the cliches are true and all the dads who are older, they get it and they're probably giggling now like, ah, I've been through that before.
Speaker 3:But it's like when you're in it it's tough. Do you recall I don't know if when he was little? What is the name of the song? It's the graduation march that they do the song. I was going to say, maybe start playing it for yourself now to prepare. I don't know about you, but for me when Grayson they did the preschool graduation, they did the kindergarten graduation cap and gowns and I did not anticipate the song moving me as much as it did. And he was in preschool and kindergarten. And so now any of my nieces, anyone graduating for whatever reason, when that comes on, even thinking about it, it just kind of brings me a little. It makes me a little a little teary eyed, so it's unbelievable.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's going to be surreal. So well, anyway, okay, so, yeah, exactly. So I want to ask you. Well, anyway, okay, Relation In advance. Yeah, exactly so I want to ask you. So you talked a little bit about Colin and those former quarterback. Dad cast listeners out there. You know who Colin is. He talked a fantastic, he did a fantastic job in his episode on really embracing kind of the ups and downs of some of the mental challenges we all go through, which is majority, all of us. I think he's his strength about talking about it and the vulnerability sharing was super powerful. So shout out to Colin for for doing what you do, brother. He mentioned Grayson but, like just for everybody who have not heard that episode, talk about who's inside the the huddle right now. Talk a little bit about calling, a little bit about Grayson.
Speaker 3:Sure, sure. Well, we have Colin Grayson and two dogs, oakley and Murphy, so at any given time we typically have a couple of dogs in the house. But yeah, colin and Grayson, we recently moved out to Colorado. About two years ago we relocated from Chicago to the mountains. We live in the heart of the mountains in Breckenridge, colorado, and absolutely love it.
Speaker 3:Colin and I, we get our thrills and excitement on being outside and we're very adventurous as a family. So he and I are typically biking every day. I do a lot of hiking, snowshoeing, and we both love to ski. Colin's a former ski patroller and I raced through high school so we are typically on the mountain, if not biking, hiking something we took on a new challenge for the summer. We're going to do a triple bypass.
Speaker 3:It's a massive bike ride through three passes, including Loveland, which, if you've ever driven it, it's pretty treacherous. It's one of the worst passes you can drive, let alone bike, and we've taken that on, I believe it's oh gosh. I don't even want to know the total mileage, but I think it's around 120 miles in one day road biking. So it's going to be pretty intense, but that's kind of how, when I think of our huddle, we live our life. We're very much two entrepreneurs. He owns his own company, new Era ADR. He quit wanting to be an attorney and opened an MMA gym, so we've owned an MMA gym together. He played college football, similarly to you. We're just a really active family and we have a very active eight-year-old son, so he races on the Breckski team. He is in second grade, so soon he'll be going into his third grade year and this summer we'll be spending a lot of time on the mountain bike, skateboarding and doing all the things kids do here in the West. So really excited for what this summer will bring for us.
Speaker 2:Wow, Now this is. Has Grayson really taken to skiing like, like how you guys did?
Speaker 3:He likes it, he loves it because every Saturday so imagine here he gets to ski it's two to three kids to two coaches on his team, so and the kids are his best friends. Literally his very best friend and his brother are the kids who ski with him, and sometimes other kids will be put into the group, but mostly it's a three to two ratio and the two coaches he has at least he had this past season are high school students who come in from Colorado Springs over the weekend and teach these kids, high school students who come in from Colorado Springs over the weekend and teach these kids and these two girls they had. So it was three boys with the two girl coaches and I would go with them every once in a while. If Colin was out of town, I would jump in. They're feeding them candy all day to keep them motivated and going. They're doing jumps and having fun and just having a great time on the mountain.
Speaker 3:And for me, the gift I wanted to give him was the gift of loving to ski. We really wanted him to play hockey. If we're being honest, you know my, my cousin, plays in the NHL. He was a guest, nathan Gerby, on your podcast. So we, we really wanted him to play hockey. He did not take really to skating and hockey.
Speaker 3:So with skiing, we're trying something a little different, which is, you know, I would obviously love him to race. We just want him to love the sport, just love it and have fun and enjoy, enjoy doing it and hopefully maybe he gets into racing. Of course, colin's already identified colleges racing. Of course Colin's already identified colleges You'd love to get him into for skiing. And looks at you know which kids coming out of summer high school are going to which schools. Uh, that said, we're trying to tone that down a little bit and just ensure we're not imparting ourselves on him and that he just has fun. So imagine skiing every Saturday with your best friend, uh, and these coaches who are just out there to also have fun and be with these kids. Right now he's, he's enjoying it, so that's good.
Speaker 2:That's awesome, I, that's. That's good to kind of like I heard, I heard you check yourself a little bit. They're like it's their journey, not ours. But it's so hard sometimes to to to do it Like like I like being a former quarterback Uncle Rico moment right there, um, but he played, you know, playing quarterback in college like we right, I did flag football but never, I never pushed him to play tackle and he sometimes he says I wish I would have done it. But sometimes you see how dad's body's kind of still beat up a little bit, I'm like I don't, I'm glad you didn't. And it's so empowering as a parent when you help your kids find something they love to do and then just once they do it, then it's like then you spark it.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:But every kid's different. I mean shoot, I've had super athletic dads that their kid doesn't want to do nothing with sports, right, and I've had dads who were the worst athletes in the world and other kids are freak athletes. I'm like how did that happen? Like that doesn't make sense.
Speaker 3:I told him you know, just like shake your booty on the mountain a little bit when you're coming out and sing it Like what's your favorite song right now?
Speaker 3:Sing that song and dance while you're singing. And he said to me last season this is before this past one he said well, my coach told me, mommy, that I can't sing on the mountain because this is what I'm telling him to do while he's doing it, because I love to do that and I'm like you know what, just have fun. If it just have fun, don't take this too seriously at this age. He's so young and developing that we just want him to have fun. So that's the key. Even mountain biking, because I ride on these trails and I think, oh, my gosh, I can't wait to ride with Grayson on these trails. He's going to have so much fun doing it and I hope he does. I don't there's no guarantee that he's going to love, love doing it just because I do so. We'll see, We'll see. I hope so. There's trails everywhere you go outside of our house, so I'd be.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean just giving them those experiences. It's probably going to happen just organically. So I have a good buddy. Their kids race and they go all over the place, but whenever I see them I always have to be being the sarcastic one. Do you remember the movie Better Off Dead?
Speaker 3:Of course yes.
Speaker 2:The K-12?.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:When something I want you to go really fast. When something gets in your way, turn yeah, exactly. That movie is so funny, it cracks me up. So every time I see him I'm like, hey Bowden, you skiing the K-12? He's like that joke's old. I'm like not for me, I'm still going to laugh at my own jokes. Never, it's not real, okay. So one of the things dads, why ask Leslie to come on that? Not only because I wanted to show her gratitude for helping really ignite and open up doors for me in this entrepreneurial journey that I now do as a podcaster and speaker coach, but I wanted to hear how your dad inspired you, and I think there's. You know every dad who has a daughter. What they want is a talented, driven, independent, strong, great communicator, badass. I think you check all those boxes. So take me back to what was life like growing up for you and talk about the impact that your dad and your mom had on you.
Speaker 3:Sure, it's an interesting question, casey, and one I have spent a lot of time thinking about in the past several years, but I would say most recently in the past six or so months.
Speaker 3:My parents actually they divorced when I was around six months old. So my dad was kind of the every other weekend, summer dad and every other holiday, so splitting up the holidays and so forth. And he, he very openly talks about it and he, he has these stories that he'll tell of just pulling out of the driveway we were in near Flint, michigan, and he'd see me with my little pigtails and my sister next to me and we'd be bawling, standing in the window and he'd be pulling out of the driveway and just so sad and regretful of of the things that happened leading up to my parents divorcing. And even to this day he just talks about you know regret and so forth, of of how things you know go or have went and at the end of the day, he has four girls and we're all, I would argue to say, kind of daddy's girls. Quite frankly, he was a huge influence on our life. Even if it was every other weekend or summers, he played a significant role, from what my memory serves me, when we were really little and my parents were divorced, they did not get along at all, so they really did not spend a lot of time together. This isn't uncommon necessarily. And then as I got older they certainly started getting along more, especially in our older, you know now and these years kind of the let go and forgive and move on and so forth, and that can be a challenge for kids growing up in that environment when they know that one of the parents in particular isn't really fond of the other and you don't want to feel like you have to take sides or do these different things.
Speaker 3:So for my dad, what I would say is one of the things I love about him the most is that he led with love and he led with his heart, which wasn't, I would say, always common for a lot of men. And he, if my sister and I were fighting, for example, and he was driving down the highway, he would pull the car over, have us get out of the car, hug it. And he was driving down the highway, he would pull the car over, have us get out of the car, hug it out and tell each other we loved each other. He always led with love. He has a huge, huge, huge heart and when I think of his mom, my grandmother and she actually died when I was really little, she was around four, but her sisters and that whole side of the family they had both sides of the family had huge influences.
Speaker 3:But one of the things I remember in particular was just the big family dinners. That side of the family they would show up with bags of groceries to your house. They would joke to say they would give you their last dollar before they would keep it. They were just a very giving family and would give you anything. So I think a lot of my traits actually come from that side of the family. Colin always teases me. We'll have a big group over and we'll order takeout and he'll be so excited for leftovers and next thing, you know, I'm packaging everything and giving it away. He's like why are you giving away all of our food? And it's just innate in me to give, give, give, give. And sometimes then you end up giving a lot and more, more so. But that's a trait I have a hundred percent from my dad, just this feeling of love and caring. And he I talk about this. Actually you mentioned the book Together we Rise. I talk about it a little bit in the chapter.
Speaker 3:One of the things I struggled with growing up was certainly confidence and just self-esteem and so forth. And he was the one who would always say when you look in the mirror, do you love who you see? And you have to love that person first before anyone else can love you or will love you. You've got to love yourself and find that within you, that feeling of love. So then not only do you love yourself, but then you can give out love because you have it within you for yourself. Then it's easier to give it out and feel real whole about that. So for me growing up that was probably the biggest thing was just him Keep using the word just it's not a, just, it's a. He would give us that gift of love. He would give us that gift of confidence. Give us that gift of love. He would give us that gift of confidence and those things coming from you know, a male influence was really important for me.
Speaker 2:Tell me what, what, how did that change for you, the confidence, like cause I know there's dads out there with daughters that maybe aren't there. Maybe you're going through some self-confidence issues, obviously with social media right now, and how much times have changed, and the comparison when I live up to the. You know, which is never a good thing to do, but like maybe to talk through what changed for you that maybe a dad at home might be able to learn from.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's listen, it's a great question of one that I work on all the time, and I talk about the you know evil DJ playing the same song over and over in your head of why you're not good enough, why you're not pretty enough, why you're not smart enough, and for me it kind of came from a lot of different angles. I would say kids are really cruel to other kids and certainly growing up I was, you know, lebanese and Italian and I talk about this a lot. I was pretty hairy at a young age. I had, let's face it, a full on mustache when I was probably in third or fourth grade and I developed younger than a lot of girls and all of my sisters, you know we did and people tease you for those things and they're really mean and really cruel. So as much as you're born, maybe feeling confident outside influences can come inside and turn that into, you know, self-esteem and confidence issues, and that's really where someone like my dad can play a key role to continue to build you up. And it doesn't mean that it for me, has gone away, but I've given myself the tools to work with that. So how can I turn off whatever that is in that moment, so I'm not thinking about that. The other thing is, you know, if you think about being compared to siblings, you know some of it, you can make it up in your own head. And sometimes it's parents saying things and parents I don't believe necessarily think they're doing this intentionally to be mean or cruel, or kids when they say something like your sister is so beautiful, what happened to you? I would get that a lot.
Speaker 3:I had a really popular older sister, captain of the cheerleading squad, homecoming court. You know my now brother-in-law, brian, captain of the football team, went and played football at Central Michigan. You have these. You know two people who are put on a pedestal. She was really smart, got better grades than I did. I didn't apply myself as much. I was more into sports and doing different things. I got caught smoking and drinking at a young age. I was kind of the rebel baby child, but I had then, on my mom's side of the family, a just totally different upbringing where my grandpa really believed in tough love and he loved us so much. I mean, he loved us so much with the way in which they would show love was a little different and you either can take that or you can't, and for me as a young girl, I just I couldn't. So those things got in my head. You know, not being pretty enough, being hairy nicknames, not smart enough, all of the things just got in my head. So I had this kind of tale of two different worlds, of lead with love or lead with tough love, and you know that really got to me for sure. So for me, I've just had to constantly work on it. It is something I work on. There's a great book called Confidence Code. There's a confidence code that adults can read. There's also a confidence code for girls, and you know it's listen, it's a work in progress.
Speaker 3:One of the things I've come to realize, though, casey, which I think is extraordinarily important boys struggle from self-confidence and shame also, and a lot of times when we hear of stories of anger or depression or anxiety, we need to remember that. You know a lot of the things we go through growing up. As you know, people talk about girls having an imposter syndrome and all of these things. You know boys struggle with it as well. It comes out in different ways perhaps than it does for girls, or in each person's own individual experience, but having a boy now I really can see.
Speaker 3:Wow, he's so hard on himself. You know what am I doing to influence these decisions in him? Or why he talks about himself this way and he's only eight years old. You know what are people saying to him outside of the house? Or what is he watching on YouTube or seeing on? You know the videos he watches. That's influencing this really young mind. By the way, around the same age I was when I started having my own issues. So for me it's, you know, just being a parent, whether it's a boy or a girl, and whatever situation you're going through with them, it's remembering, I think, of my dad, and the best gift you can give your kids is that gift of confidence. We need to accept that gift and figure out ways, and it took me being an adult to know where it came from, that evil DJ, and how to shut it off, and I still work on it all the time. That's a work in progress.
Speaker 2:That's good. Well, if it helps. I recall my son, my son Ryder, like I mentioned he's graduating in the fall here when he was probably Grayson's age, maybe a little younger, a little older, right, right, I'm right On the same age. He was so like, if his penmanship wasn't perfect, if he didn't get a hundred, which I was not like, I was like a 3.34 guy, I didn't apply myself it, just I did not like school. I like friends, I like socializing, I liked you know, uh, but I just didn't like school until I got in college.
Speaker 2:There's obviously some certain subjects I like, but you know, when I, when you said that, made me think of writing and also made me think it was great, I want to say it's I always get this confused either Joe Montana or Tom Brady, but so apologize that I can research this, but it's, it's a question his dad asked him. He said is it more important for you to be the best or your best? And so often people think, well, I want to be the best. Well, you can't control that. You, literally no one can control that, because there's going to be always someone that's probably going to be better than you someplace, somewhere. But if you know, you can look yourself in the mirror and be your best. That could be mentally, it could be physically, it could be like in realizing that shit, we're all going to fail, we're all flawed, right, right.
Speaker 2:And you know, when you said you need to tell the story about imposter syndrome and like like one thing that I used to like totally beat myself up on is like I am not handy at all, like to a point, like dude, what's wrong with you? Like you're a dude, like no, I'm a I, I tongue in cheek. I like like I can help, like I'm a great second hand, like I can I work hard, projects, all stuff, but like I don't have the, the creative engineering mind to like look at a project, I'm like, oh yeah, that's, this screw goes here and that goes there. I just not my jam, you know, and but so it's almost like embracing that is uh, the more I've talked about it and sometimes like like you know, uh, self-deprecating humor, right, it almost I've, I found it like almost gets other dads to like, well, shit, man, I'm scared to say that, thanks, for I don't, I don't want to fix anything.
Speaker 2:My wife's more handy than I am. Like hey, welcome to the crew, right, terry's like freaking macgyver, like I don't know how the hell she fixed that. But instead of like judging myself, instead of feeling worse about myself, I'm like man. I'm what a gift I got a wife that's a badass and can fix half the stuff in her house. I don't need to do that.
Speaker 3:No, we talk about the perfection trap all the time. There's another great book called uh, how women rise and it talks about different traits that hold women back. Really, this perfection trap, it is for everyone. You know, grayson had his first race this year and he ski race. He had maybe Casey, I want to say two or three times maybe went through gates on the mountain. So you know, with the flags and the gates going through, and that was for fun. At the end of the day it wasn't like he had practiced at all.
Speaker 3:So I'm taking him up the chairlift. He's going up for his first race. I'm again thinking of myself like music. Do you want a pump up song? What's going to get you excited? And he wasn't nervous at all. He goes. I'm sure he had a little bit of nerves, but he I was blown away.
Speaker 3:He goes up to the top of the race and it was a more of like a fun race. This wasn't. You know, they were giving away prizes for the different age groups and whatnot, but they had two gates going side by side and they were just putting anyone through it and they encouraged parents and coaches to do it too. So he goes up and he's next to an adult male and they're going side by side and he just does not think anything of it. He goes up, goes down and at the end he's so upset because he lost and he didn't realize it was actually the time, like they were tracking times, it was the first time he had ever done it.
Speaker 3:So one just like the bravery of celebrating that he went right up next to this adult male and went down and, quite frankly, it was pretty close. You know, quote unquote lost it's. It's real for girls and boys. So this it's an interesting challenge as a parent and again I think about is there something that I'm doing to make him feel like he needs to be perfect? Is this innateness? How can we help them? And I love your advice, like just, he's got to be the best for himself and be proud of what he did accomplish and focus on the time if he was really into it.
Speaker 2:Well, and I think too, the best moments that shape us aren't the successful moments, they're the moments of adversity, they're the moments of struggle and the moments of and no parent likes seeing their kid fail or no parent likes seeing their kids struggle. Um, I mean, I'll tell you a story. Like two weekends ago we were at a basketball tournament and uh, at big, a pretty big tournament down in um California and rallying my daughter, I'd say she's, I would say, very good high school basketball player so far She'd get in varsity, she'll be a four-year letterman in high school, has dreams of playing college and you know if she her last game of the weekend she shot the ball really well, went like five of nine from three points. So she was, you know, shooting from play great d lock, locking people up and but, uh, the last kind of one of the like 12 seconds left. Um, her team kind of got into defensive laps, unfortunately, left a Left, a girl wide open in the corner. She makes a three. With three seconds left. It's now tied.
Speaker 2:We go into overtime, and usually most overtimes in basketball are a minute or two, but in this tournament there were so many teams, so many games, they had to keep it on schedule. They went to sudden death. So first basket wins, which is brutal right in a basketball game, but sudden death. So first first basket wins, which is brutal right In a basketball game, but it is what it is. And so we get the tip. Uh, and they do a jump ball. We get the tip go down. We get two chances to make threes. Unfortunately one of her teammates missed. That's okay, you know it sucked, but she missed them. We get back on defense. Riley tries to go make a steal, unfortunately fouls the girl she didn't realize they're in double bonus puts her to the free throw line and the girl goes to free throw line, makes free throw. We lose ball game.
Speaker 2:She grabs her head, puts her down in her knees and I was like, oh, I was like wanting to give her a big hug. I'm like, but my mind, because I talk about this often I was like what a gift this has just happened, because now we're gonna be able to talk about it in the hotel room and and we're going to be talking about you know, you didn't lose the game because she thought she did that's one play, but we and I had to literally go through like 20 other things that happened. Her coach got a technical um, her one friend unfortunately didn't shoot it, well, um, and I had to say, like, think about if you didn't go five of nine from three, we're not even in things. But you know, I just showed a story because it's.
Speaker 2:There's things when, when they do struggle and I even like to think of myself some of the worst moments that I thought the world was ending. I look back now as I was 50 year old, I'm like what a gift, like I'm so glad I went through that. So I think, as dads and moms and we can kind of embrace these moments of adversity when they go through it Not easy.
Speaker 3:No, not easy.
Speaker 2:No, not easy at all. But if we can just tweak our mindset just a little bit to stay a little bit more positive, a little bit more open-minded, a little bit more curious to see what possible, what can come out of this, I think we'll be in a much better spot.
Speaker 3:I agree, it's a great story Okay.
Speaker 2:So you've had a very successful and still do a very successful company. So entrepreneurship was. Was there your dad an entrepreneur? Was there other family members entrepreneurs? Tell me, where do you, where did that love of entrepreneurship come from?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's. It's interesting, casey, because I, growing up, never thought I want to be an entrepreneur or I want to own my own company. I always wanted to be a writer, a journalist, and tell other people's stories, and I love writing. It's something that I really enjoy doing. So I thought that would be my career path, and it wasn't until I was in my 30s that I started out to become this entrepreneur. And I was speaking to a DePaul business school class and one of the students asked me did you always want to be an entrepreneur? And it hit me in that moment no, I did not.
Speaker 3:However, here I am standing in front of you, a CEO and an entrepreneur, and the reason why it wasn't such a big deal for me to do it was because I grew up in a family of entrepreneurs. So my dad's mom and her sisters and uncles owned clothing stores throughout Michigan and starting in Detroit, and as a little girl I grew up in the stores. We would go, we always wore the dresses from the stores and you know we would visit our family working in the store and my dad, so, in Flint, had the store there, and then up in Saginaw, where I ended up going to high school. We had the store there and so at a young age I had exposure to it. Now, that said, the stores ended up closing and they did not make it. There were other stores that came to market that were chains across multiple states and we went out of business. So I also had the side of entrepreneurship adversity and looking at you know what it takes with customer service and how to do different things and treat customers. I could see that at a really young age and learn from them. But also I remember, you know not so great years when the stores were going out of business. So I knew there was an associated risk there. But in that case my dad kind of reinvented himself and he found another job. So I could see that there's a fallback plan. If it doesn't work, I can go do something else.
Speaker 3:So I learned these lessons at a really young age but they never really clicked, quite frankly, on the entrepreneur side, until standing in front of that class when someone has to be the question that dawned on me, the reason it's really not a big deal to me to do this. It doesn't feel like a big risk, it doesn't. It didn't feel like a big chance when I first started the company, you know, almost 18 years ago, because I grew up in watching that within my, within my family, and I knew I could, I could do it. And we always talk about this, you know, betting on yourself.
Speaker 3:And I knew that I had people who I had, a great mentor, bob Miano, who really pushed me to start my own company and he just felt like you know you've, you are, you would say, like the best marketer. I know you've got all these connections. People need it. There's a market need you know all of the things. So I did it. I did it without a business plan, I did it without knowing how to sell, I did it without a budget, all the things that you know. Had I gone to business school, they probably would have said don't do it that way.
Speaker 2:What are you doing?
Speaker 3:But I did and it you know it worked out. I ended up asking a lot of questions, getting a lot of help, having a lot of mentors and fortunately, you and I both know the power of our networks. I'd built a really strong network and a lot of people from my former company had gone to other companies, so I had an opportunity to pretty quickly get a client base, which was great.
Speaker 1:Hello everybody. My name is Craig Coe and I'm the Senior Vice President of Relationship Management for Beeline. For more than 20 years, we've been helping Fortune 1000 companies drive a competitive advantage with their external workforce. In fact, Beeline's history of first to market innovations have become today's industry standards. I get asked all the time what did Casey do for your organization? And I say this. It's simple. The guy flat out gets it. Relationships matter. His down to earth presentation, his real world experience applied to every area of our business. In fact, his book Win the Relationship and Not the Deal has become required reading for all new members of the global relationship management team. 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. Now let's get back to today's episode.
Speaker 2:Okay. So I love those stories. I love when you can slow down and think back to who shaped you, how did it shape you? Um, because not only I think those are good for you, leslie, but they're also good for not to share with Grayson. Eventually. There's also great to share with your company, because sometimes, when we share these things, we don't think to share these things because that requires, like, sometimes more level of like, intentional level of vulnerability. It really can open up a lot of things. I wrote down curiosity. So tell me I mean, I think any good network or entrepreneurs, they got good curiosity skills. Tell me, where do you think your curiosity came from?
Speaker 3:My curiosity. I'm sure it came. If you think about journalism and what it takes to write a good story, you've got to be really curious and come up with questions and I love thinking about and asking questions. That said, one thing I will say, casey, in working with you is a reminder to feed into and to embrace your curiosity, which really forces you to be a critical thinker and to slow down and have a gift, I think, of being able to process in that moment Sometimes take notes. You do a nice job of taking notes, of remembering what that question is you want to ask and being really thoughtful in the type of remembering what that question is you want to ask and being really thoughtful in the type of questions and that curiosity of the question.
Speaker 3:And for me, from that time of wanting to be a journalist, there was an English class I had and we had to interview another student and I had a student who was often bullied, who was often bullied, and I remember meeting him and sitting down to write this story and being so curious to get to know him and to learn more about him. And then when I wrote the story and people read about him and they had a different reaction to him. Once they knew him, I thought what if we're always curious about this and ask these type of questions and really get to know people and dig deeper than what's on the surface, what benefit that would bring for all of us as people, as humans, and what value you would get from hearing those stories, which was why I wanted to go down the path of journalism and writing, taking the time to prep for interviews. It forces you to be really curious, do background research and have that skill of listening, pausing and asking questions, which I'm not always great at. So when working with you and really thinking about you, know what makes you curious. It forces you to slow down in that moment and become curious and to tap into that skill set of wanting genuinely wanting to learn more and ask more and dig deeper. And it doesn't have to be about the person. It could be.
Speaker 3:You're on a sales call and I genuinely want to know about our clients' companies. I want to know what their goals are as entrepreneurs. I'm an entrepreneur, it helps me. I want to hear their story and understand what they're trying to do as executives and be really curious in those moments of digging just a little bit deeper in all things. And so I would say, taking that out to you, know, even being a mom, being a sister, a daughter, what mountain I want to tackle next for a mountain bike ride or what ski slope I want to ski down? That curiosity If I'm moving so fast, I don't have the time to be curious, and I move fast a lot. So slowing down for me is really important right now so I can continue to be even more curious.
Speaker 2:Well, you wouldn't have enjoyed the dance party if you didn't slow down and were curious.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right and I think, as parents, I think one of the things that helps me be curious is one I want to. I love when people say great question. That's like a, that's like a drug for me, when, when I hear that in any conversation it could be with my buddy, a friend, with Carrie, with work, because I made people think I love that. The other thing I think about asking great questions it's you leave a mark on. You'll be on someone's mind a lot more than just giving them a pretty PowerPoint or a cool business card or an awesome email. Those are all about us. But when we ask great questions and I think back to even fatherhood, motherhood and when we were asking these questions you're going to teach your kids they're going to just pick up on it. And when you know, sometimes you said slowing down, that's like it's counterintuitive to most people. But I, you know the the cliche or the phrase of slow down to go fast is so fricking true. And sometimes our kids, when they want to ask us questions, it's not the right time Cause we're busy with work and busy with this, but like mom and dad's, like slow down and say Hmm, like give them space, let them at. In the end, you will never regret that.
Speaker 2:You know I'm this is coming from. I got there's more people, a lot more life experience me, but I have a senior and sophomore in high school. Um, when my kids ask questions, I drop everything and lean into it or I say, hey, that's an awesome question. Riley, can you hold that? I want to talk about that, but I have to just finish this one thing, but then I'm all over it and then follow through to go make sure you go do those things, because I think curiosity is an absolute gift. That's why I'm on a passion to teach it to businesses and people, because it changes everything.
Speaker 3:Right. Well, and I think it builds trust to your point with people. So when you're asking really curious questions and you're leaving them in that moment of time after, and they're thinking back on it, you've built a level of trust that they may not have had innately had you not taken the time to do that. And I think of Grayson in these moments where sometimes he'd ask me a question and it would throw me, you know, like how do I answer that question? And I'm searching how do I answer this question when an eight-year-old asks? And instead of diminishing it and making him feel like it's not an important question or I'm embarrassed, I don't know how to answer it, whatever that may be, I need to in those moments, you know, embrace it to your point and do that.
Speaker 3:And I mean, I've had times where, you know, as a parent, I've had to say to him you know, buddy, I'm really sorry you asked me a question and I didn't answer it for you. I wasn't sure how to answer it. I want you to know that it's okay to ask me any question and I'm here to talk to you about it now. And then in that moment, you know, build that trust again with him so he feels comfortable and confident asking me anything he wants to ask. I may not know how to answer it in that moment, but I'm going to do my best to figure out how to do it, even if I need to get help to do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's great, I mean, because no question is a dumb question. No, and I actually tell an embarrassing story in my book where I wrote about, like I didn't know it. I remember I literally remember as an eighth grade basketball player talking about something and the guy said the coach was talking about like asphalt, or I think it was like asphalt. And I was like asphalt, like which is concrete? Like I always thought it was concrete or cement. I didn't hear about asphalt and I was like hey, what's asphalt? And everyone was like what Are you an idiot? Like what are you? And all of a sudden everyone laughed at me but like, luckily I can laugh at myself. But I was like cool. But the coach said, hey, if you really didn't know that I'm like I didn't have time, I mean I wasn't around a lot of handy stuff growing up, so like for me it's like, but anyway.
Speaker 2:So I think I think those are good, that you did that and hopefully, if there's a dad or mom or grandpa or someone out there listening that, like inspired by that story, I think it really is a powerful stuff. One of the things I think that I really intrigued about when I just getting to know you over the years. Better is just allyship and being inclusive, and I think, dads, we have an amazing opportunity to learn and to dig in what goes back to curiosity a little bit. But talk about, um, you know, your experience with working with other men who are, who are, who lean into this, lean into being an ally of women, lean into being curious, lean into being inclusive of others and talk about the benefits that you've seen and maybe talk about the benefits that can impact a dad's life out there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, allyship is so critical. We can't make change towards equality without it. Men are in the most powerful positions in the world, and in the workforce, and in government and in the home quite frankly, most homes as the CEO of families and without allyship we will never see equality. So we have to embrace everyone and be inclusive of everyone to make change. There really isn't an option to do that Now. You may have moments where you want to have an all women's event because you feel like you're in a safer spot and you know you want that kind of psychological safety to be able to talk about different things. But we also need those moments where we all come together and and learn from one another. I think for me at a young age, having you know you think about systems that fail us or don't fail us and what happens in life. And for me, as I mentioned, my dad was very loving and caring and giving and he was not perfect. He'll be the first to tell you and, like you said earlier, none of us are perfect, but we learn and whether it's in that moment or later, years later, whatever it is, it's finding those moments of learning and truth. But I think back to my mom who was single. Back in, you know, I was born in 72 and 51. When she was born, when she had us, she could not have her own checking account. She needed permission to bank and she was a single mom. She had to go back to work. She didn't have a choice and she had dropped out of college. She put herself back through school later and ended up becoming the CEO of multiple credit unions, but the system worked against her and I don't think people understand how much the system can fail us at young ages and as adults.
Speaker 3:I was very fortunate, from a system standpoint and working, that I had a great group of male and female bosses and they always believed in me as the person, as the human, as the marketer, as the communicator, as the expert in my domain. They trusted me and they gave me leeway to do my job and they were there for me. They sponsored me to be in meetings. They talked about me when I wasn't in the room in a positive way. They uplifted me. I certainly had, and I will say, more women than men who were not, as for me, would work against me. Why would she make that? Why is she in the room for that? And it was this threat, this kind of backlash of that. My male allies and most of the women allies were really there for me to support me throughout my career. So I was very fortunate in that.
Speaker 3:Now, later, as I continued starting my own company and seeing things in a different light, as I continued to kind of move up you could say quote unquote I did start to experience different things around discrimination. I did start to experience different things around discrimination and I often had a male ally who was right by my side to support me. So I was fortunate to see and again, women. I was fortunate to be surrounded, even in moments where it wasn't positive to have people speak up, use their voice. I talk a lot about Rob and me doing that. Eric Gregg is one of my strongest male allies. There's a lot of them. Jeff Bolling he just spent almost two hours with me the other week talking about my business and where it's going and what's happening. He didn't have to do that. He's a great leader and in doing that he's also a great male ally to help forward another woman. So to me it's one of the most important things.
Speaker 3:Now I have a son at home and one of the things I talk about often is it takes generations to make change. So I have a grandmother who was told she couldn't work because she was meant to be at home to take care of the family. I had another grandmother who owned clothing stores. So once again in my life you know between. If it's a strong female, you know role models, if it's divorced parents, whatever it may be, there's always these kind of two sides that you have to look at and explore and digest and think about what you want for yourself. And I think about the role of the man in the house and the role of the woman in the house. And I think about little things like curfews and chores that make a big deal.
Speaker 3:And it was Sarah Spain. She was an ESPN, she is an ESPN broadcaster. She spoke at one of our ARA women in tech events and I remember her saying she did not know that women were not really equal until she got her job in sports broadcasting and people would say horrific things to her like really, really bad. But she said she made a comment about her parents being equal in the home and I remember her talking about that. And another female entrepreneur who I knew, she said in her house it's their co-CEOs in the house. So one week if her husband's a chief cleaning officer, he may not clean the bathroom the way she wants it clean. She's not going to say a word. If he's the chief chef and she doesn't like something, he made no biggie because he's doing it.
Speaker 3:And they wanted their kids to see equality in the home.
Speaker 3:And that goes down to how you parent together, even if you disagree, trying to, you know, not make it obvious, I guess, in front of the kids or find a way to work around that, but make your kids feel like and see equality in the home.
Speaker 3:And that's something we work on quite a bit in our home with Colin. And I really think about that from a male ally standpoint, because now I have a son who I hope is one of the best male allies and sponsors out there, but it starts with me and at home. So I think back to my mom, the trials and tribulations she went through, you know, back in the day when she was doing things, and what she had to work through for myself, all of my male mentors and allies. You're a fantastic ally, casey. I see you and Carrie in the home, you with Riley, you with Ryder, and again, we're not perfect. I am far from perfect in the home or things that I do, but I'm constantly trying to learn and grow from it and teach from it so we can make it better for that next generation. It's going to take a while to find equality, but we need to work together to do that. It's the only way it'll happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, spot on. Well, I think what you just showed, you showed, you've demonstrated fantastically I call these the three superpowers that most leaders have which is humility, vulnerability and curiosity. You're humble enough to say I don't know everything. Vulnerable enough to ask a different question. I think, when we're and then just being curious, I think when all three of those things get put together, we we keep ourselves in growth mindset, not a fixed mindset of oh, we always do it this way or no, she doesn't know what she's talking about.
Speaker 2:Or F that, or F that it's like like I think a Dale favors, who I introduced you to, dale favors is one of my best, one of my closest friends, yet I've hung out with him twice. Um, whenever I need to learn and get pushed outside my comfort zone diversity I go to Dale and um like, just like. We'll never probably solve male, female equality, we're never going to solve racism, but if we can, a little few of us out there keep staying curious, just keep leaning into it, so we help make it better for the next generation. We're doing our part.
Speaker 3:Yeah, our part.
Speaker 2:And um, so anyway. So anyway, as we get ready to wrap up here I know that you're we got to get both get going as you think about, um, kind of everything we've talked about today that dads who are listening can say man, this is a bad-ass, bad-ass lady. She's doing some great things. I want my daughter to be like her. Like, tell me what are. What are some things we talked about today that dads can take from our conversation to to use to help inspire curiosity with their son or daughter at home.
Speaker 3:It's such a great question and, having just spent so much time with my dad again recently and he's still, you know he watches me, he listens to me, he he was in the car with me listening to calls that I was on and you know he's still there to listen and cheer me on and be my best champion and give me confidence. It also give me advice along the way and I really appreciate and respect that from him. Even if roles kind of switch or change or different things happen, he's always asking what's happening in my life. He wants to make sure I'm okay At the end of the day, you know he he even said I just want you to be happy. And it's so hard because we see our kids when they're not happy and they're upset and they're down. But he'll be there, right by my side for me when I'm not. He'll wipe my tears away, he'll give me a hug and he'll tell me he loves me.
Speaker 3:That feeling of love, give the gift of love and give the gift of confidence. It's so important to feel loved. And I think back to even my grandparents and different generations and what I would beg my grandfather Casey. Beg him, just say the words I love you and he couldn't say. It Finally did, but he couldn't. And it was not because he didn't love me, it was just he didn't learn that that wasn't a gift he was given and his dad died when he was really, really young and his mom had a hard, really hard life. That feeling of being loved and to know that they're always there for you, it is the best gift. So that love, caring and being there for them and that gift of confidence, I think, are the most important things you can give.
Speaker 2:Gold Almost brought me to tears. Knock it off. What are you doing?
Speaker 3:I thought I'd cry for sure today, but I did not.
Speaker 2:Oh man, that's powerful stuff, powerful stuff. That's again slow down and this might be an episode you might want to listen to twice. It's kind of like some I would joke with, like it's like a movie you watch. It's funnier the second time. But I think some of the wisdom, some of so much of the wisdom Leslie shared this day is could be listened to twice to really just really gain a lot of what you've talked about. Okay, I want to make sure people know what, what Clear Edge is. I want to make sure they know about the podcast, about Aura and the book and podcasts, like I said. So talk about. If no one has heard of ClearEdge, no one's heard of Aura, no one's heard of the book, the podcast. In your two minutes elevator speech, tell us all about how we can learn more about the ClearEdge team and connect with the ClearEdge team.
Speaker 3:Thank you, clearedge. We're now, as of this past year, a three-in-one company. We were known mostly as a marketing agency for years and years. So outsourced marketing, full service, from branding and how you go to market to demand gen and really building your company. If you're in a growth mode and a growth mindset and want to invest in your company and invest in marketing and growth and do that the right way, we're a fantastic agency to help you do that. We also help our company staff their marketing team. So fractional CMO direct hire, really invest in their marketing team. So if they outsource it to our services side or hire and build the team, that is our clear edge recruiting arm. So we have clear edge marketing, clear edge recruiting and probably not a surprise edge recruiting arm. So we have clear edge marketing, clear edge recruiting and probably not a surprise. If you know me look me up online or even based on this conversation we launched a division called clear edge rising which is really to help make a difference for companies and women in leadership. So add more diversity to the leadership team and table support the company is looking to do that and support the women looking to do that and our male allies. We offer monthly cohorts, one-on-one coaching and workshops, and the coaching and workshops are inclusive to men and women and the cohorts are for women and our goal is really to get more women in leadership roles and help move that needle in equality that we talked about earlier.
Speaker 3:Casey, ara is a company I co-founded with two of my very best friends, megan McCann and Jane Hamner. We started a company called Attract, retain and Advance Women in Technology 12 years ago. We've had about 6,000 people who have either been through some of our mentoring programs early on or our events that we host. So you can learn more at meet clear edge or ara mentorscom, and I host a podcast for executive women in recruitment called the edge. And honestly, casey, as I was talking to so many women, I realized they're really helping run the company but they're not in the C-suite or have the right title and they should be recognized. And we should help men, learn from them, our allies, and we should help the up and comer next generation who aren't sure if they can be in the C-suite or if they can raise a family, if they can continue to work or if they can be successful in our industry and move up to learn from other stories. And that's what the Edge podcast is all about, and we've had that for years now.
Speaker 2:So good, oh, together we.
Speaker 3:Rise the book.
Speaker 2:Yes, where can we find the book?
Speaker 3:All right and finally, together we Rise. I published a book with 15 women, so there were 14 other women, 15 of us really sharing our stories. You can learn more at ladyleadersbookclubcom. You can learn more at ladyleadersbookclubcom. And we do a lot of speaking engagements. We donate the proceeds from our book to. One of the groups is American Staffing. Can they do for the women they're working with, for their daughters and their wives, to better support them? And, as I said to you, the more I do this, the more I learn. We're all in this together. Inclusivity is key. Boys need it, girls need it, women need it, men need it. So if we can all kind of join forces together, as my dad would say, lead with love, love yourself first, imagine the difference we could make in a world.
Speaker 2:So good. I've listened to many episodes, everybody I've actually. I've read the book. It's fantastic, it's all I love stories, and then every female author tells their story in a concise way. I've met a lot of the women and so I think it's.
Speaker 2:This is a great book and, dads, if, if we're going to help change, it starts with us. It starts with us about, you know, getting out of our own way, being curious If we're in a fixed mindset, find out why. Maybe ask a friend for help, ask a female friend for help, ask a female friend for help, ask your wife for help Um, we're not perfect, we're so far from it, but when we can all kind of lean into that, that humility, um, it's gonna. It helps change so many things. I'm, I'm living it every day. I'm, I'm inspired by those three traits that I am far from perfect, but I, just I, I work, I focus, so laser focus, on getting better at those each and every day, and I'm seeing the, the um, the benefits of relationships, fostering and flourishing. Uh, so, uh, thank you.
Speaker 2:I will make sure all this is tagged in the show notes and it's now time for the lightning round, which I go random on you. I have no questions prepared. My, my job is to hopefully get a giggle out of you. I'm going to show you the negative hits. Have taken too many hits, not bong hits, but football hits in college. Your challenge is to answer them as quickly as you can and, I hope, to get a giggle out of you.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:Okay, true or false, you are the mascot, you are the Chippewa at Sumter, michigan University.
Speaker 3:False.
Speaker 2:False Okay, there's a giggle.
Speaker 3:Fire up chips, if anyone's listening.
Speaker 2:Go chips. Okay, If there was to be a ski race, the K-12, you and Colin. Who's winning?
Speaker 3:Oh gosh, colin, he was a ski patroller. He's such an amazing skier, he's fantastic. But I'll give it my best, I'll do it. That's the thing Casey is. I will try it. Here we go, I'll try it.
Speaker 2:True or false. I got hit by a snowboarder in the back in eighth grade and went in this little snowplow toboggan thing down the hill.
Speaker 3:I'm going to say true, I don't know that you would. It is true, super embarrassing.
Speaker 2:Super embarrassing story.
Speaker 3:Oh gosh.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I got just drilled by this crazy snowboarder and I thought I was paralyzed, done for life. Order. And I thought it was like I'm paralyzed, done for life, but it was like eighth grader, not like you know, like get up, you're okay, but I thought hopefully the world was ending.
Speaker 3:If you were older and that happened, it made the recovery. We're learning, as it is easy, but the younger you are, the easier it is.
Speaker 2:Okay, if I'm booking a flight to Breckenridge tonight and I'm going to be there in time for dinner, tell me what will happen.
Speaker 3:I have no idea what we're eating tonight.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm your guest. You got to cook for some, or give me some takeout.
Speaker 3:What's our go-to? Last week with my dad in town, as I mentioned, I was gifted actually by the Central Michigan Dean of the Business School, chris Moberg this fantastic cookbook a Lebanese cookbook and for the first time I tried making cooked kibbe, so cooked lamb and beef all mixed together, and my dad sat with me while I made it. He gave me some tips along the way of what he remembered his mom doing and my Aunt Sophie, and it was absolutely delicious. So I would happily have you over for a Lebanese dinner anytime.
Speaker 2:I've never had that. It sounds delicious. I can't wait to try it one day when we come to Breckenridge to visit you guys. If I was to go into your phone right now, what would be the one song that people would be like, damn Leslie, you listened to that. That surprises me.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, the one song that people would be okay. This is embarrassing, kind of. But not really a song, it's a playlist and it's called Kids Bop. So I took Grayson to the concert a couple of years ago and it's kind of funny. With me and a couple of other moms I listen to the Kids Bop on Spotify all the time, all the time, and the thing is like Grayson knows all the words, I know all the words, so it's kind of a connection with him, but that's, you know, it's terrible and embarrassing.
Speaker 2:But that's it. And uh, yeah, that's um, that's it. Okay, if there was to be a book written about your life.
Speaker 3:Tell me the title. Oh gosh, that is a good one. You know it's probably similar to my chapter the change we want to see in the world.
Speaker 2:Okay, the change we want to see in the world. Okay, the change we want to see in the world. Now, that's gonna be now made a movie we got, hulu we got netflix, apple tv they're all fighting over it, oh no. Two-part question, actually three-part question tell me who's gonna star you, colin, and your dad in this fantastic new hit movie.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, I have no idea, casey, um, wow, that's a really good question, I don't know. Can you name some people for me who would do this Well, like?
Speaker 2:Colin, I can think of like he's. He's kind of a tough, but like he's got, he's got both of the side, you know but yeah, so so I can see like a Wahlberg, I can see a Wahlberg, I can see a Wahlberg.
Speaker 3:We like Wahlberg.
Speaker 2:Maybe a Matt Damon.
Speaker 3:Ryan Reynolds, of course, so there we go. So there we got some old Blake Lively or oh gosh who. I'll have to think of our name. I can't think of it off the top of my head.
Speaker 2:We'll go Blake, if that's an easy one.
Speaker 3:Yeah, blake and Ryan, how your pops oh, that's a really good question, oh, dad kevin costner I don't know. I don't know keaton he's a funny guy who's like will ferrell. There you go, all right, we both giggle.
Speaker 2:We both line up, will ferrell quite the lineup Will Ferrell, blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds there you go hey, maybe it's going to be, maybe someone in Hollywood's listening and they're going to make this thing and we'll get credit for it. Yeah, you never know.
Speaker 3:I don't know, I've got to think about this one. That's a good question.
Speaker 2:I did not prep for that, that's a fun, I know. Okay, two last questions. If you were going on vacation right now, just you and Colin, no kids, no one else, just you guys. Tell me where you're going.
Speaker 3:You know, one of our favorite places is Cabo and it is probably one of the places that we will actually slow down. We are not the vacationers who slow down. Even when we go anywhere we go. We're multi-city hoppers. We exercise every day, for whatever reason. The beach in Mexico. You and Carrie just went there and celebrated your anniversary. Congratulations.
Speaker 2:We do?
Speaker 3:We're about to celebrate year 15. I believe we're going to go to the Amalfi Coast and again I kind of envision that being one where we'll actually slow down and take it in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Love it.
Speaker 3:Casey, this music thing is going to. I'm going to wake up like perseverating over this in the middle of the night. We just got back from Jazz Fest and I asked a question if you could go VIP at any concert and pay the money $10,000, whatever it is, 15, 20 to meet someone, which concert would it be? And mine always is Pearl Jam. Hands down Eddie Vedder.
Speaker 2:That's a good one.
Speaker 3:Got to meet Eddie From my city. Yeah, someday From Seattle, someday. Keep an eye out.
Speaker 2:Okay, and last question Tell me two words that describe your dad.
Speaker 3:Two words to describe your dad. Oh gosh, the mayor. Everywhere he goes he meets. He even asked the driver who picked him up today to take him to the airport from Brock. He said can I sit in the front seat with you, Cause he loves to talk? He's the mayor, Everyone loves him. He's the life of the party.
Speaker 2:Love, I don't know. So the the mayor could be two, two questions, two words, or love, we'll call it three. But anyway, lightning rounds over, we both laugh, both giggle, both had fun. This time flew by. Les, I'm so grateful for you, so grateful you came into my life and when we met back in the K-Force days and if it makes you feel better I didn't have a business plan, I started my business. This found me and if there's such thing as a calling, I'm living it. I'm inspired by you, I'm inspired by everybody I get to interview. I'm inspired by the work I get to do. It keeps me in growth mindset. It reminds me that, man, I got a long way to go, but it's so fun and we all can be learning, which our kids will see and will create better leaders of teams, of families, of schools, because they're going to be learning. And Michelangelo, at the age, ripe old age of 87, he said I'm still learning.
Speaker 3:Learning and growing. That's, if you're not learning, you're not growing. We learn and we grow every day. Casey, thank you for you again for focusing in on dads. It's so important and I'm blessed with a great dad and a great husband who's a wonderful dad, and we're both learning and growing as parents, so that learning mindset we talk about, the growth mindset can't grow if we're not learning. So learning and growth mindset you offer that to us from the beginning of when we met you, so I appreciate you so much, as does my team.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Well, with that mic drop moment, leslie, did we say thank you. Have a great rest of your week and I know we'll be talking soon. Thanks again, thank you.