The Quarterback DadCast
I’m Casey Jacox, the host of the Quarterback Dadcast. As fathers, we want to help prepare our kids—not only to enter the professional world but to thrive in each stage of their lives. Guests of this show include teachers, coaches, professional athletes, consultants, business owners, authors—and stay-at-home dads. Just like you! They share openly about failure, success, laughter, and even sadness so that we can all learn from each other—as we strive to become the best leaders of our homes! You will learn each week, and I am confident you will leave each episode with actionable tasks that you can apply to your life to become that ultimate Quarterback and leader of your household. Together, we will learn from the successes and failures of dads who are doing their best every day. So, sit back, relax and subscribe now to receive each episode weekly on The Quarterback Dadcast.
The Quarterback DadCast
From Blended Families to Blended Success - David Smith, CEO - Triple Crown
Thank you, Leslie Vickrey, for the kind introduction to make today's episode possible.
What if the key to resilience lies in the heart of family values and sportsmanship?
Join us as we celebrate a remarkable five-year milestone on the Quarterback Dadcast with our special guest, David Smith, co-founder and CEO of Triple Crown. David opens up about his journey as a father to five children, navigating the complexities of a blended family, and the deep gratitude he feels watching his children flourish. Most importantly, congratulations to everyone at Triple Crown on celebrating 20 years in business!
In this episode, you'll be captivated by two compelling stories that showcase the power of perseverance through sports. One guest's relentless pursuit of football amidst challenging circumstances and another's emotional journey of overcoming injury and finding a new purpose. These narratives emphasize the importance of support systems and the resilience required to face life's hurdles. David also shares his professional highs and lows, revealing how relationships and character triumph over financial gains and how crucial it is to foster a positive work culture even during crcrisesike 9/11 and COVID-19.
Finally, we offer valuable insights into the nuances of parenting, especially within blended families. Learn from David's experiences on different approaches to raising children of varying ages and genders and the evolving nature of parenting styles. The episode also highlights the impact of youth sports, including the transition from weight-restricted leagues to tackle football and the lessons learned from coaching young athletes.
Tune in for an episode filled with laughter, lessons, and heartfelt stories that resonate with fathers everywhere.
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. Welcome to the quarterback dad cast. Thank you for tuning in today, and let me tell you a little bit about why I started this podcast five years ago, which is hard to believe. That's how long we've been doing this thing and it's so fun.
Speaker 2:But the goal of this was to help dads learn, laugh, shed some tears, but share a story, because as fathers, we all want to help prepare our kids for what's next. We want to help them be better than we were. We want to help them enter the professional world, to thrive at each stage of their life. So guests of this show are teachers, coaches, professional athletes, consultants, business owners, authors but who cares? Because the most important job that each of them have is they are dads. And on all these episodes they're going to share openly about failure, success, laughter, even sadness, so that we all can learn from each other. So I ask you to tune in, share this episode, share a past episode, but continue to listen and support us so we can continue to keep sharing episodes of the Quarterback Dadcast.
Speaker 2:Now let's get to today's episode. Well, hey, everybody, it is Casey Jaycox with the Quarterback Dadcast. We're in season five and we are on video now, so hopefully you guys are enjoying this new wrinkle to the podcast. But I'm excited for our next guest. His name is David Smith. He's the co-founder and CEO of Triple Crown. He might be a purple cow. Find out about that. He went to Harvard, he went to Wharton and this episode only happens because of Colin Williams and Leslie Vickery. So shout out to them. And, but more importantly, we're having David on today to learn more about David the dad, how he's working hard to become that ultimate quarterback or leader of his household. So, without further ado, mr Smith, welcome to the Quarterback Dadcast. Thank you, appreciate you having me? You bet man Well, we always start out each episode with gratitude.
Speaker 3:So tell me, what are you most grateful for as a dad today? Wow that I have five kids.
Speaker 2:They range from ages 13 to 29. They're all surviving, learning, thriving, so I'm grateful for that, very cool. What I'm grateful for is, well, two things. One, I get to take my daughter to a basketball camp this afternoon. She's going to go compete for the next couple of days, where I played football in college. Yes, that's an uncle Rico moment out of the gate and we'll knock that goal out of the park, um. But secondly, last night, before my son goes off to college here in about two weeks, which is surreal to say the least, um, I, uh, we went to the Marin game last night and, um, this is I'm going to totally embarrass myself here and throw myself on the bus. That's what we do.
Speaker 2:I'm eating peanuts just like a barbarian at the game, Just crack them and, like you know, chuck them in my face like hungry men do. And the perfect timing of. I threw a peanut back, tilted my head back and then the wind picked up and blew part of the shell into my eye. Oh geez, and I'm like A who does that. But my son just absolutely torched me, like just gave me the business and would not stop making fun of me the rest of the night. I'm like, rightfully so I deserved it, but I'm grateful for a local doctor where I live in my hometown that got me in, did the eye flush this morning and I'm back, david.
Speaker 3:So it was that bad Dude. It was brutal.
Speaker 2:Three parts of the peanut went into my eye.
Speaker 3:Oh, my God.
Speaker 2:I'm like, hey, we're able to finish the game. Yeah, just yeah, because quarterbacks were the toughest guys in the field.
Speaker 3:Oh come on.
Speaker 2:No, I had to get hit. You can't get hit in practice. Back in the 90s I could.
Speaker 3:No, you couldn't.
Speaker 2:Why did you?
Speaker 3:graduate from college 98.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I graduated in 96.
Speaker 2:So we graduated in 96 and we could not hit the quarterback.
Speaker 3:True, but sometimes we'd have meatheads that would do it anyways, and that started brawls in the practice, which was fun. Yeah, once in a while, but man, we got lit into.
Speaker 2:If we hit the quarterback, yeah Well. And how about this? How about in games? You could get hit back then I feel like in games now you can't get hit.
Speaker 3:You can't or you can't get hit. You can't or you can, but then you get 15 yards for it. How would you love it? You would love to play football today.
Speaker 2:You probably still my body would feel a lot better I'd say that my backs and usually knots from all the wwf hits I took in the 90s. Um, but hey, before I get going, I want to say shout out and congrats to you and your team at triple crown for celebrating 20 years thank you, yeah it just happened this week.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I had that in my notes. It went right by me and we're going to. I want to talk about that at the end and learn all about how people can learn more about Triple Crown and what you guys are up to and what you're doing and how you serve. But before that you mentioned you have five kids. Bring me into the Smith huddle and talk about how you and your wife met and talk about how you know a little bit about what each member of the squad's up to.
Speaker 3:Okay, so I'm on my second marriage and you know so my wife and I have been married for almost eight years and we met on Tinder. So I you know, neither one of us was was trying to get clearly if you know what Tinder is. We were both not freshly divorced, but maybe two or three years coming off divorces and we just hit it off and one thing led to another and now I've got two stepdaughters. So prior to that, my first son was born when I was a junior in college. So that wasn't planned. But you know, we his mother and I went two feet in on that. I ended up graduating, still played football, graduated and married his mother and we had three more kids. So you know, each time we wanted to have a girl, but the first kid's name is Jack, second kid's Harry, and then you know the third one we wanted that to be a girl and his name's Kane. So never got my girl until I married my wife. So she brought in Lauren and Aubrey. They were six and four at the time when we met and now they're 16 and 13. So all of them are running like they run the gamut of things they do.
Speaker 3:Jack is 29 and he played lacrosse in college. He was an All-American and he works for triple crown. He works in our austin location so I work with him. I don't. I don't see him a lot because I travel a ton and you know I split time between austin and rhode island. Um, harry is a. A realtor in austin sold me a couple houses, um, so he's doing that kane in college here in Rhode Island. He goes to Salve Regina, plays football, uh, or played football. He concussed himself out, uh, last season. He's got one semester left and he's going to be the assistant quarterbacks coach, and that makes no sense to me because he was an offensive lineman his whole life.
Speaker 3:But he actually plays for a guy that I played football with in college at Williams, kevin Gilmartin. So he goes to Salve. He'll be finishing up in December. Lauren is going to be a sophomore at Portsmouth Abbey down the street here. She plays volleyball and track. She set some, set some hurdle records in in spring track. And then aubrey is a gymnast. She's in seventh grade. She goes to school locally here and um. She thinks she's going to be president united states someday, I think love it, man, we got some.
Speaker 2:We got some driven athletes. Yeah, love it, I love it. We got a. We got a hog, an o-line brotherhood that wants to get into playing some quarterback.
Speaker 3:I'd love to hear that story I mean, like, like he, you know I coached him when I was, you know, for 10 years. I coached my uh, my oldest son for a couple years, um, and then my middle guy didn't play football and then came the youngest. I coached him from when he was five until middle school and I mean he's got thick ankles like me, not fast, you know, had to work at it, um, but you know he played center when he played for me and almost all the way through his last year at Salve they moved him to tight end. So that was that was. That was pretty funny. Yeah, not good hands, you know, can't believe, but it's great because he's going to see now the offense through a quarterback's eyes and he's never seen that before. So I'm grateful to Gilbo for giving him a chance and letting him help coach quarterbacks.
Speaker 2:That's so cool, I love it. And so you got two girls that are.
Speaker 3:I imagine they're tough, different, right, like I mean the boys I don't know like we'd go to Academy Sports, right, they grew up in Austin and you know, right before school started I'd be like, all right, each of you buy five things, like five get-ups. And they would buy like athletic shorts and a t-shirt, right, they'd each buy it, they'd all share it, no big deal. Piece of cake, right, every year they'd do that and they shared clothes and it was nothing. Man, girls are completely different. I mean, you know, not as much now, but when they were younger different. I mean you know, not not as much now, but when they were younger.
Speaker 3:Multiple wardrobe changes and you know stealing each other's stuff, like, like there could be a fight, like there could be a fight that comes running down the stairs in a few minutes here that says she stole my thing, and you know I just sit here and laugh, you know, cause I've never, I've never had to go deal with that. So my wife is the disciplinarian in this situation and I'm sort of the comic relief. So I've enjoyed it. I think, you know, coaching youth sports helped me this go around. So it's a different experience with girls. It's a different experience being the stepdad, I think, but I'm enjoying it. I think they've softened me some and probably made me better at work too.
Speaker 2:I love it, my daughter's. I always joke she's one of the toughest ones in our family. She's a scrappy defender, 5'4", but plays like she's 6'8". I mean, she tries to, she doesn't back down from anybody. Uh, there's a loose ball. She's going head first. Um, really good three-point shooter. Um and just.
Speaker 2:And she never gets tired and I don't know how, because, like in football, we play for seven seconds, then we get a rest. You know, and my wife is she's. She was like a competitive dancer in high school and so she's. Maybe that's where she gets her cardio. But like my daughter, which we were in an AAU tournament basketball in Chicago recently and that her team had a bunch of injuries and they had, like normally had 10 people they went down to seven and she's normally our point guard in this team and so she'd get, you know, sub here and there, but they had five games all weekend. She came out for like a total of like two minutes. Oh my God, and just, but still never complain. Grind it. I'm like God. I just always was praying man, don't get hurt, don't get hurt, don't get hurt, so she's in great shape.
Speaker 2:She's in good shape, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, see, my, my, my oldest son, who played lacrosse, is the opposite game and not be tired. And I'm like you just because he's. You know quick and sneaky, not super fast, but great hand-eye coordination. So I was always like you're beating the system better than anybody so it's interesting, opposite does he golf he does now yeah I'm mad.
Speaker 2:That's probably to be a good sport for him too, just having to handle the court.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he's starting to get into it. We try to do it whenever me and my kids are together, which is less frequent now than it's ever been, so we're all bad at it. But he's starting to do it now as a hobby, so he's starting to break 100, which I can't do, but he's probably the most athletic one so and he's a leanest, so it'll probably come a little bit more naturally.
Speaker 2:Love it so cool. Um and so for the people home I mentioned, dave might be a purple cow. Purple cow, I have the. I was the mascot for Williams right. It is yes I had. I always loved surprising my guests with it. I don't.
Speaker 3:I have this like weird sense of humor with college mascots and I don't know why, but yeah, we keep ours. Like our rivals, they change the name, they change their mascot, but ours, ours, has been what it is for the whole time.
Speaker 2:Go purple cows, um I I like to ask my guests. This next question is take me back to what was life like growing up for you and tell me a little bit about what mom and dad did and the impacts they had on you.
Speaker 3:So I was an only child. I grew up in Massachusetts and, um, you know, it was working class family. You know, my, my, uh, my dad worked for a window and door distributor and he worked, you know, second jobs as well, and my mom worked nights as a as a telephone operator. So it was like a two, two income family and she did that so she could be around during the day while while my dad was at work. So you know that's how it was early, and then when my mom could start working night I days, she took it. So, probably second or third grade, I would like probably everybody else walk home from the bus, stop, let myself in and do my homework and just kind of wait, um, for someone to come home and feed me. Um, so you know that, that, um, that's kind of what it was like growing up.
Speaker 3:I I really wanted to play football, I want to play everything like. I want to play baseball, I want to play basketball, I want to play football. I, I want to play everything Like. I want to play baseball, I want to play basketball, I want to play football. I couldn't, like my parents' schedules were too hectic to get me there, so but I nagged and nagged on football forever, like they had me in karate, that was right down the street. They were able to do it, but I nagged on football and finally in fourth grade they let play football. So you know, I didn't want to waste it, so I I tried as hard as I could. The problem and it affected me later was I was bigger. So, like Pop Warner, you can't be above a certain weight and still play Pop Warner.
Speaker 3:So I played football fourth, fifth and sixth grade and when I got to seventh grade I was too big to play. So I had to switch to soccer. And I was awful at soccer, right, like like just god awful. And we were on a horrible team. But I did that for a couple of years until I could play again in high school. High school, you know, I didn't. My parents would get me whatever they could, you know, for clothes and food and all that stuff. And I wanted, I wanted stuff. So I I convinced them to let me start working. I started busting tables under the table at a family restaurant when I was 12 years old because I wanted money. So I worked and played football in high school, did track in high school as well, only because I knew I needed multiple sports to get into college. But I went to an all boys Catholic high school, played football, did track there and didn't really think I wanted to play football beyond that.
Speaker 3:But my senior year in high school I broke my leg halfway through the season and we were really good, like we had a really good team and you know, not being able to finish it out made me realize how much I really loved it and wanted to keep going. So you know I wasn't good enough to play D1 or anything, but my you know, my high school football coach was great and supportive and he wanted to try to get all of us to be able to play later. So you know he would send out films and write letters and you know I told him what I had narrowed it down to the schools. I had narrowed it down to. He's like why aren't you looking at Williams? I didn't know anything about it. It down to he's like why aren't you looking at Williams? I didn't know anything about it. And he encouraged me to to apply. He was friends with the coach. So he, you know he called after the deadline, sent some film.
Speaker 3:And you know I went to go visit and I was still in a cast and I think that was fortunate for me because I'm super slow like they. They had scheduled racquetball and basketball for me to play and I'm like dude, I can't, I can't do any of this stuff. I'm in a cast still. So I might've been exposed for being too slow, if I'm being honest, at that visit, but it all worked out. I fell in love with the school and ended up going to Williams Summer before my junior year I found out I was going to be a dad. So I had to make some, some hard decisions at that point. But don't regret any of it. You know it was. It was. It was very challenging, but everything since that's been hard has felt relatively easy compared to that. So in a nutshell, that's that's. That's my backstory.
Speaker 2:I love learning about people, because curiosity is a gift that we all have inside of us, if you choose to use it wisely, and so like learning. So we have a lot in common already. Not, I mean, I have. I had a sister growing up, but we broke both. I broke my foot in four spots my senior in high school and didn't play my senior in high school. Oh, wow, okay, which is why I ended up playing in a Division II school. Yeah, I was an under-the-radar guy and then broke my foot in four spots. The guy that replaced me was a guy I beat out my junior year. He then had to play quarterback and he would go on to set our single-season passing yardage record. He would be named second team all league. He would take us to the state playoffs first time in 20 years and I had to watch. Oh wow, closest I've been to depression in my life.
Speaker 2:I remember going to and I actually had interviewed my former coach in season one. Coach Marty Osborne shout out to coach and huge mentor in my life, cause after three games I went to him and I said man, coach, I'm, I'm, I need help, I'm miserable, I'm, I hate my role, I hate the team, I hate all this stuff. Because I was just so selfish and being just immature and I said I just need some help. He's like man I'm so proud of. You said how would you be proud of that shit? And he goes because you're you're, you're being vulnerable and you're asking for help. And he goes. Dude, I just I just so lost, I didn't know what to do, and he goes. You're a captain and we're going to figure out a role. He goes, he goes. I got it. You know this offense better than I do. How about you go in the booth, be my office coordinator, help me call plays? I'm like really, and right when he said that, david, it was like a vac. I mean I get goosebumps telling the story vacuum, sucked all that negative energy out and next thing I know I'm back.
Speaker 2:I was me and it's kind of a similar thing my um coach Osborne. He played at central Washington where I played and then so he made a phone call. This guy at university of Washington got him Dick Baird. He made a phone call for me and they said this guy's got no film, but he'll play for you. And so they brought me and I was like 11th on the depth charts when I got there, yeah, and I ended up being a three-year starter and I mean it's again. But it's these adversities and so, like that moment, I'm 48 years old. I remember that like it was yesterday, and so all the corporate shenanigans compared to what I went through. So I love that you share that, because that really that spoke to me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and when you're going through it, it seems like the end of the world.
Speaker 2:Oh, totally.
Speaker 3:But then when you look back, because I think about you know, prior to having a kid, that was the hardest thing I ever had to do, was you know?
Speaker 3:watch that season unfold, not be able to participate. You know, I didn't really have much of a social life I was. I would work and play football and prepare to play football and try to get good grades, and that was pretty much it. So when one of those things that was really the most important one to me was taken away, it felt like the end of the world. But I wasn't like you. I didn't ask for help, I just kind of internalized it all and felt sorry for myself. And you know it wasn't until my coach was like all right, snap out of this, it's not the end of the world, you can still play, these are your options, let's go.
Speaker 3:So it was, it was very useful and I think it gave it. You know, not that having a kid was easy at that age, but it definitely set the table for okay, okay, hard is good, right, like you're going to have harder things happen to you in your life and you know if you run away from them you're not going to be equipped to handle the next hard right. So you know Ryan Holiday has a good book, the Obstacle is the Way, and you know it sounds like we had a similar experience. That's, that's. That's pretty cool and you actually helped that quarterback be you know second team. And when did he go to college? He played in college he got drafted.
Speaker 2:Major league baseball made it to like triple a for the yankees okay so, but he had a great.
Speaker 3:He ended up ending his high school experience on a high note.
Speaker 2:Played fantastic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's funny he was going to play tight end for us and we actually in the preseason jamboree this is like a really Uncle Rico moment Everybody were bragging about our high school journey here. So it just pretty soon me and Dale would be throwing the ball with a mountain Like we were lighting it up because he was super, really way more athletic than I was. I was just smarter, more cerebral, from playbook wise, understood coverages and all that stuff. That was not his, his jam, but um, when he had to just switch into play quarterback, he was just like an athlete and he could. He did things I couldn't do, but it was um again. But that moment, that moment of adversity, it's kind of cool where I can share the story with my kids now and they understand it Like damn, that would have been hard, dad, it was. And same thing. It's like I'm a big.
Speaker 2:I think Socrates said this is, you know, life, adversity is judged when faced. I mean a character is judged when faced with adversity and it's easy in business or sports to be a leader when things are going great. But when you get punched in the face, or you get, you know, throw four picks in the first half, like I have like, or you you lose 80 contractors overnight, which I've had that happen to me. What do you do? You know you lost 80 at once.
Speaker 3:Oh what? So you're, I'm assuming, assuming your, your commissions were tied to the amount of spread you had from that.
Speaker 2:That's why I keep my hair short, just because I can stay for a haircut.
Speaker 3:Did all 80 start at the same time or within a few months? Of each other A rolling what did you have before it? That was the big client you were talking about that fell apart. So what did you have on before? How many did you have working for you before the 80?
Speaker 2:apart. So what'd you have on before? How many did you have working for you before the 80?
Speaker 3:um I had this would have been probably a little over 200 at the time. Oh wow, no, you're in a different world than us like our, for us like 40, 50 is amazing yeah, most I'll.
Speaker 2:When we get off, I'll tell you. I'll tell you the most I had on afterwards.
Speaker 3:Okay, well, it's too good to say on this well, I'll tell you, I'll tell you the most I had on afterwards. Okay, well, it's too good to say on this but I'll tell it's 306.
Speaker 2:Oh so.
Speaker 3:I just got to know what kind of bill rates are we talking here?
Speaker 2:Um, I think, average 75. Okay, okay, some lot higher. Um, people in the staffing industry this will make sense to you. People outside staffing your consulting industry this won't make sense to you. But since dave and I both come from the same background, um, yeah it was, it was a fun run. Well, it was really. Really. I always say you know right guy, right time, right place. Yeah, a lot of the quarterback doesn't throw the ball to himself at three, 300 minus 80 is a big income.
Speaker 3:hit like like big you big, you know, did D. Oh my God, I can't even imagine so it must've been. And what was the amount of time between when you landed the thing? Cause I remember reading in the book it was the biggest deal that K-4 has ever had and then it was also the biggest flop at some point. Like, what was the time span between those?
Speaker 2:Six months.
Speaker 3:So you were on top of the world and then you had to deal with that.
Speaker 2:But I looked at it, it goes back to the injury. I was like here's, I'm not going to define this, I'm not going to spend time feeling sorry for myself, I'm going to rally and I'm going to figure out. Um, it's, you know, I could feel sorry for myself or I could feel sorry about there's 80 consultants that don't have jobs now. Right, so, let right, so let's focus on them. And we redeployed like 75 of them now at my other clients okay, first I didn't get paid on it, but they did which goes back to the whole mindset of when the relationship, not the deal, it's like you're winning. If you win, people do it the right way. And um, one of the vice presidents at this client, she said later, she goes case the day you won this, the day you lost it, you're the same dude. And those were the that hearing that from people or clients drove me more than commissions.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because commissions come and go, but like your character and how people view you and the relationships you develop, that's what, to me, was a lot more important. Um, specifically as I reflect now that I mean I've been out of corporate now for five years, but, um, you know, they're not gonna when you, when we all, it's our time to go on their head, on our headstone. It's not going to talk about 306. They're going to talk about the person that was.
Speaker 3:Absolutely Like I. I, you know we were thinking like having a time to reflect on 20 years of triple crown. You know I went to a a triple crown wedding over the weekend. You know I went to a Triple Crown wedding over the weekend. Right, and it's um, she's probably going to be our top salesperson this year and she's marrying a guy that she met at Triple Crown. He's no longer there and there's a lot of Triple Crown people at the wedding and I'm like these are the things that matter to me, right, being able to come to these things and see.
Speaker 3:You know, families become things out of an idea we had 20 years ago. You know, who knows if these people would have met otherwise and who knows in what circumstances? So, you know, every time I see something like that happen. Or, you know, earlier this year we had two people that met at Triple Crown that still work for us get married, and the guy doing the officiating also works at Triple Crown and four members of the wedding party work at Triple Crown and I'm like so proud at this thing. The guy doing the wedding is incorporating our core values into their vows and I'm like welling up like this is amazing.
Speaker 3:So you get to a point where you know the commissions matter early, right, because that's that's what sucks you in, but the relationships are what keep you going. You know, and and if, if those are strong and you're always trying to cultivate good relationships, help people be better versions of themselves, the right outcomes are going to happen and you can withstand that. That big hit. That happens Right and it happened like when, when 9-11 happened, right Were you, were you doing this kind of business?
Speaker 2:then you were right, I just started Been there for about a year.
Speaker 3:Okay, so I was I don't know four or five years in and I was in the process of moving from Florida to Washington, to Federal Way or I lived in Northeast Tacoma, but the office was in Federal Way and I had agreed to do it, you know, maybe in May or June of 2001. I had my youngest son was on the way. He was born on September 9th 2001. And you know, he was in the hospital. He was. He had to stay in the hospital for a week. It was fine, but I'm on my way to go visit him and his mother and 9-11 happens Right.
Speaker 3:So you know I was the number two recruiter in the company at the time and just like that, you know half your payroll is gone right, like the fallout from 9-11 was, for me, still the worst work thing that's happened. So you know, you figure that out and you I still moved across the country and into a terrible climate, but you get through that. And then you know when the financial crisis hits or COVID hits or even kind of what's going on right now happens, you're like I got this, it's going to end eventually and let's just worry about control. We can control right now.
Speaker 3:So you know, I think, all those bad things that happen to you, really challenging to see them for what they are when they're happening. But they're actually blessings because they're going to pay off later.
Speaker 2:Tell me, where does those, those skills you have, um, come from? I mean, I guess maybe a second question Is there a time is there were there values your mom and dad taught you, that you then learn how to have that grit and resilience and kind of fortitude? I?
Speaker 3:don't know. I mean I like I grew up in a super Catholic household. You know my parents are devout and I went to Catholic school my whole life. So you know, you have that sort of hammered into you all the time. You know, you just think that that's, that's normal right? You just think that that's normal, right. It's like you see both your parents working multiple jobs and trying to make ends meet.
Speaker 3:And I never was destitute, right, it was always like my parents joke would be like oh, we paid the mortgage, we get the house for another month. That was the extent of it and it was modest, but they worked hard to make sure that I could go to Catholic school and you know I was going to be. So I saw that as an example, you know. And then I think when I worked in that family restaurant, you know it was like three, it was like a father, a daughter and a son, and you know it was the guy's restaurant and his daughter ran the front of the house and the son ran the back of the house and they were open seven days a week, like they closed three days a year and those three people were in there the rest of the time, right. So I only ever saw people that you know I didn't appreciate at the time but now look back on and say they were bad-ass.
Speaker 3:There's a lady I worked for, bonnie I mean, she set the table for how to get shit done and she was relentless and she was efficient and she was hard like she was hard to work for, but she appreciated the hard work and she let you know it. So like I think seeing that was a great example for me later when it came to work. So those things. And then you know, I think the luck part of okay, you break your leg and then you get to go to a great school anyways that you couldn't have got into if it wasn't for football, and then you get to meet great people, like my best friends today are still people that I played football with at Williams. You know, those fortunate things happen out of disaster or what feels like disaster, and then you eventually start realizing that nothing's really a disaster. So I don't know, I never, you know, no one's really forced me to articulate that until now. Yeah, but you know that's probably where I think it comes from.
Speaker 2:Um, what were the? Tell me the core values or the, the, the, the like, the must haves that your mom and dad taught you as a kid that you sometimes still reflect on.
Speaker 3:I mean, I think it was mostly you know, do what you say you're going to do. When you say you're going to do it, right, like, like all of the. I mean, if you think about the, the ten commandments, yeah, don't kill somebody, no shit, I'm not going to kill somebody, right, but but treat other people the way you want to be treated. You know that that was a big deal. Like I was a big cry baby when I was in elementary school. Like I used to cry all the time and they were worried about it, right, like, so they would put, they put me in karate, so I, so it would toughen me up. And you know, the the they knew that I was a cry baby, right. So, like they, they kind of tried to work with the school that I was with and whatever teachers I had to to get me out of that.
Speaker 3:But it, you know, my, my dad and my grandfather would tell me stories about bullies and the only way to to to do something is to do something about it. So I was either in sixth or seventh grade, I don't remember, but but we would play, you know, touch football in the schoolyard, but it was really tackle because I could play, even though I was a crybaby and the biggest kid that used to bully me. You know, I don't know what he did to piss me off, but I couldn't take it anymore, so I just I drilled him into the ground, I started beating the crap out of him. The nuns let me. I don't know why they just they let me for longer than they should have.
Speaker 3:And you know, I think I got, uh, but nobody was mad at me Like I, you know, I, I, I got, I got some kind of whatever, whatever slip you get when you get in trouble in school. But there was like not a big consequence, so it was almost like they were, they were proud of me. And then, sure enough, the bullying stopped and the people that used to bully me were, you know, they were probably more of the athletes. Um, then they started trying to be my friends. So I was like, oh, that's all I had to do is stand up for myself, like why did it take so long, you know? So you know those, I think I think thinking about, um, you know how to deal with stuff, you know how to deal with stuff.
Speaker 2:Those are some things that help me figure stuff out, have you? You mentioned second marriage and I'm always interested when, when dads have raised kids and then they, they kind of go back, they got it and then they get another season of fatherhood. Tell me what would be like one or two things you feel like you might be doing differently now that you didn't do with your boys.
Speaker 3:I mean a lot right. So like having the perspective of I even tell them, like, like my boys, you know, the first one, you know, was like a practice kid, cause you're 20 years old, you don't know any better. You know his mother and I we get along well right now, but we both worked our out. I mean, we both worked two jobs. We didn't see him much, we wanted him to have a better life than us. So it was a different kind of dynamic. You know, when I got to my second kid, harry, it was a little bit better because his mother didn't have to work two jobs. Neither did I, and then by the time we got around to Kane, I was the only person working. So I feel like I got a little bit more present with each kid and I was a little bit more involved, right, like I was able to coach Kane for five or six years. I didn't coach Harry at all, and I coached Jack for a couple of years I was bad at it, but and I coached Jack for a couple of years, I was bad at it, but all of those things made me a little bit better.
Speaker 3:Then there's a hiatus, not a hiatus in terms of parenting, but in terms of age of children and gender, you know. So when I, when I met my wife, I knew that she was. There was some like serious potential there that neither one of us was looking for. And I was scared because I take it seriously, right like I, you know I knew that if I was going to go two feet in, I was going to be there and I wasn't going to half-ass it and I didn't want to, you know, move away. So I struggled at the beginning and initially I was I don't think this is going to work and I didn't tell her the reason. And you know we broke up and I was like I screwed that up, like I screwed that up by she was. She was great, we were a perfect fit for each other. I think I can do this and I was in therapy at the time, you know, trying to deal with my divorce and all that, and you know the therapist really helped me get to a place where, hey, you're either going to go two feet in or you're not. And if you're going to go two feet in, go two feet in.
Speaker 3:So I did, and it's been very different, right Like I. I well, they're girls right. So, like my brain. I'm like, well, I can't coach them right, the only thing I know how to coach is football and they're not going to play football so I can go be a spectator like I was able to watch them do things, like I watched my oldest son play lacrosse and all the other sports that he played and all of my kids do stuff. But I was involved right with one of my kids for about 10 years and this, like like I'm not involved. I'm involved in that, I'm supportive and I show up, but I'm not coaching anything. You know, I don't.
Speaker 3:I'm more of like a third party observer that just gives feedback. And I find it to be very different, right, I find it to be less stressful, maybe because my wife is a pretty strong disciplinarian and sets a great role model. She's like the best female role model that girls can have. So I don't feel like I have to do much heavy lifting. I'm just kind of here to provide some comic relief at times and calm situations down when they get out of control. So it's a very different experience. I feel like I'm better at it with them and I sometimes look back and say, man, I wish I knew for my older kids what I know now. But you don't right, you learn as you go. So it's just been. It's been interesting and different.
Speaker 2:What might be an example of something you wish you knew then that you don't you know now you're like god darn it.
Speaker 3:That might speak to a dad at home or I mean just like, like I would be more I'm probably probably harder on my kids than I am on on the girls and the girls, right. So I'm like wrapped around their finger, but even just like handling a bad game or a shitty situation, you know, I think then you know, when I was raising my kids, I would want to address it immediately, right, like, hey, that was great, this is why it was great, but more you know, know, this bad thing happened. Let's talk about it so we don't make the same mistake later. And I think a better move is to just let them process that and then do a debrief once some time has elapsed, right? So like I watch, I watch my, my wife interact, like my youngest step stepdaughter's, big into gymnastics and she's very hard on herself and she gets like in her game face like probably sooner than she should, and she's difficult to deal with and they're at each other's throats.
Speaker 3:So I see it and I'm like I'm telling my wife hey, just calm down, she's wound up, she wants to perform and let her get through it, and then the thing will happen and she'll either do really well or sometimes she'll shit the bed, and you know, she beats herself up enough, right? So my wife has tendencies to just get in there and do the same shit that I was doing, and you know I try to caution her. Hey, just let her process this, it's going to be fine. And you know, the better, the more productive feedback happens after the fact, like, hey, what do you think you can do differently next time? Why do you think that happened? Even why you so wound up before this thing? Right, relax some, you know. So it's just different.
Speaker 3:I I find my perspective being different and then being an outsider, right, like I'm not an outsider but like, um, I'm more like a fly on the wall than in the coaching or or in the thick of it. So I think, having that perspective, I wish I had that earlier when I was younger. But you can't have both. I have friends now that are having kids now and I look at them and I'm like, whoa, this is a young man's game. I didn't know any better when I was 20. I've got a couple of friends that have four-year-olds and two-year-olds and they're older than me and they are running ragged and I'm sitting here like not me.
Speaker 1:Hi, this is Kathy Orton. I'm the director of talent management at CoWorks Staffing Services. Coworks is one of the largest staffing firms in the United States, with operations in all 50 states, over 60,000 temporary field talent. We are devoted to the success and growth of our employees and our clients. We are celebrating our 50th anniversary this year and are proud to have a legacy of treating people the right way, doing the right thing, supporting our communities and putting field talent first. Our team places candidates in administrative light, industrial, call center, distribution, third-party logistic positions with additional opportunities through our executive search, creative staffing and luxury, beauty and fragrance divisions.
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Speaker 2:I love that example, dave, because there's a fantastic human being I met on this entrepreneurial journey named Bruce Brown, and I interviewed him early, I want to say in season three. He is one of Washington state's like all time coaches. He got into like um uh speaking and he works with um like really, really high end coaches around, like athletic coaches around the United States. Um, you might've heard of his mentors, guys like um John Wooden.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Uh, Dick Vermeule.
Speaker 3:Put your socks on. Yeah, dude.
Speaker 2:There we go Exactly. So I mean I say a little bit tongue in cheek, but he is. He was such a, he's such a great dude, but he wrote an article called the car ride home and he speaks about it and it. In it he teaches what you just described. Um should be done.
Speaker 2:So most parents when we're younger, if we don't get this coaching from Bruce coach Brown, uh, we try to solve and fix and we don't want them to struggle but, like we talked about earlier in this episode, that's what shaped you and I is our adversity and what the. So how he came up with this mindset is he interviewed, like tons of high school coach, high school athletes, college athletes, pro athletes, and they said what's, what's the? What's your favorite memory Like that you, that you cherish about, about growing up in sports. He says when my grandparents would come and they're like why? Because they told me they just love watching me play and the number he goes what's your biggest thing? That was frustrating you? He goes the torching I'd get from my parents on the drive home and it's like if you or I have a bad day in staffing or consulting, cain's not saying, hey, dad, I mean you know, and it's like if you or I have a bad day in staffing or consulting, you know Cain's not saying hey dad, I mean good meeting, but your, your words. You usually type like 45 words a minute. You're down to like 32. What, what the hell's wrong with you? And that objection, you really shit the bed on that one. And, man, you talked way too much. It's like they're not torching us yet. We want to get in solution mode so quick.
Speaker 2:And so, um, I learned that when my son was like nine, and what he what talks about is when the game's over. Just, you go tell him, man, I love watching you compete, so fun. And they said, if your kid cares, if the sport is what matters to them, if they really really care, they'll come to you with and want to talk about it when they're ready. And I was like all right, I'll try this. And so I remember one day my son like had a routine plate short, went through his legs. I'm like, dude, what are you doing? Like that's not what you do. And I and instead of like do what? Like torching him, I said, man, a great game, I love watching him play. And he's like what are you talking about? Dad, yeah, I had stupid plate short. I said, yeah, but you had two great hits. And I go, did you try your best? He said yeah. I said that's all I can ask for. You're never going to be the best no one ever is but you can be your best. And um it just. It helped me.
Speaker 2:I read that article every year before I met with my kids and it just made life a lot easier. And even then, fast forward to this week I played golf with my brother-in-law, my wife's brother, my sister-in-law and my nephew, who's like 11, 12. And he's mainly a baseball kid, but he's playing golf and I think you know my brother-in-law wanted my nephew to play. Well, because uncle was there and I was like having fun throwing divots at him, just like goofing around, and he made a couple of bad decisions, like he's got you know a hundred yards in front of him with trees everywhere, and so they're just chipping out. He's like, yeah, I'll grab three wood and swing as hard as I can what the hell? And it sounds like Plinko, the ball's going off the trees and he's like Grayson just do chip out and I'm like, hey, he's having fun, who cares?
Speaker 2:And it's just such a good reminder. The home, or whoever's listened, takes that for heart, because this, this advice, has come from people that have you know. David's got three kids in his twenties who are working productive adults. I got a son going off to college here in two weeks. He's going to play golf in college. I got a daughter, who's 15, going on 16 here, and these are just things I wish I knew earlier, because they're powerful, powerful things.
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, and and you know, to hammer that home a little bit, I was. I think I was a better coach to other people's kids than my own, you know, and, um, you know, I remember a practice once where my son was centering, like once a year he would just have a meltdown where he couldn't snap Right and we're we're like trying to do shotgun snaps, elaborate plays, like we were the youth football program that feeds Lake Travis High School in in Austin, texas. Lake Travis is legit. You know. Thousands of people come to the games. Baker Mayfield went there, garrett Wilson knows my son, you know Cameron Dicker those three guys are in the NFL and they're prominent right now and so it's no joke, right, like like it's a big deal and I would get on him because, you know, at the end of practice we do team and if he couldn't snap the ball, we couldn't, we couldn't run team Right, and sometimes you're like limited on on the amount of offensive linemen you have and if he happened to be the only one there that could snap the ball, it like ruins the whole practice. So there were, there were times where I was like ridiculously hard on him during practice and it wasn't really fair Cause if he wasn't my kid, I wouldn't have been like that.
Speaker 3:You know, and I look at a lot of those kids now that are in their, in their low twenties, graduating from, graduating from, from college.
Speaker 3:They're all productive kids and you know I'm proud of the fact that they're all productive and a lot of them played in college and you know they're moving on. But, like when they would do something stupid, like that or or something that didn't make sense, I was better at pulling them aside because I, you know, I can think of one whose parents were aggressive and I felt like, oh, I don't like the way that feels. Let me give this kid the opposite experience, Right? Yeah, like, looking back on it, I wish I was able to disconnect and be able to to be that for my own kids at times, you know. So I think you know you can't change the past. All you can do is learn from it. So, fast forwarding and watching my stepdaughters now I'm like way more cerebral than I was with my own kids. So it's, it's definitely um, you know, anybody that's listening to this, definitely don't be a jerk to your own kid.
Speaker 2:Have you ever shared, but you just with your son? Probably not.
Speaker 2:No I think, yeah, I mean, I think those, I, I, um, I've done episodes of other dads about power of saying you're sorry and um, it's like sometimes the worst is like us dudes, where I'm gonna generalize here and sorry to throw us all into a same bucket here, dads but sometimes our male ego gets in the way and then when we act like a dipshit, we sometimes like Ooh, you want to like kind of protect the fact that you're being a dipshit and then try to justify why you're being a dipshit. But in the end if you just go, it's like man, dad was not his best. My bad guys, I was, I was. I need a little break. I'm gonna go outside and reset, but I'm back and and just, I mean I think one it you kind of forgive yourself because we're not perfect. But two, I think it's also a teaching moment for our kids to say, wow, my dad just apologized to me and he, he can mess up too, and but let's go do something about it. And um, I think sometimes now we talk, you know I I'll joke with my son or daughter I remember one time, uh, he just I thought his efforts sucked.
Speaker 2:And I think sometimes when they suck at least for me. I'll speak for myself. It's almost like you're seeing parts of you, I'm seeing parts of me when I was doing that. I don't want him to do that, like. So he like I get on him harder than the end they have to. That wants it, not us, right?
Speaker 2:And uh, I remember, like it was like in fifth grade or something. I'm like he just gave I think maybe they got intimidated by someone else or and I just said, uh, get on, get on your bike. And they're like, why go? We're going for a run and you're going to follow me and I just literally I ran like five miles. I made him ride his bike and uh, I'm like, what am I doing? And I remember we talked about it once. I was in a better mind's bet. This is like a long time ago, but we sometimes joke about it now. But you know, I think talking these things through and is how one we can hopefully make our kids prepared to be better than we are as dads and help and give them the tools to handle these Cause those, those moments are going to happen in the business world, they're going to happen in marriages or having friendships. But how do you, how do you respond when those things happen?
Speaker 3:Right, I'm cause. It's all about the response, it's not about the thing that happened you know, so it's, it's definitely definitely interesting.
Speaker 3:Um, you know, I've, I've actually I had lunch with with my, my youngest son, and a kid that I also coach. He goes to Harvard and he's graduating in December as well, and we're sitting there and I'm looking at them and they both had a medically withdrawal from college sports and I'm like man, I had you guys playing tackle football at five years old, right? And you know I had some shit about Pop Warner. I had a big problem with Pop Warner because of all the rules. You know, to me, the big rule of weight limits was just dumb, because if we're trying to prepare a kid, teach them to love football and prepare them for playing later, there's no weight limit once they get to high school or middle school or wherever. So what are you really teaching them? You're teaching them that in a, in a vacuum. You know they're going to be fine, but what happens when they hit reality, right?
Speaker 3:So I had that philosophical problem and we pulled Lake Travis out of Pop Warner and moved it to a no weight limit league and that league allowed, you know, tackle football at five, five through seven, where you know. Now I don't even think you can play tackle football until much later, but I'm like, oh yeah, I'm going to toughen these kids up and have them play tackle football. Now, tackle is an operative where, like, like these kids can't even tie their shoes Now, tackle is an operative word Like these kids can't even tie their shoes, so getting them to line up and execute a play was a miracle. Like I was so proud of myself for being able to go do that no-transcript, you know, knowing everything that we know.
Speaker 3:Now they weren't really bashing heads, I mean they were fully padded and barely touching each other, but it adds up right and they tried to make me feel better, like we wouldn't trade the lessons we learned playing football for anything. Nor would I like I would take that trade off all day, but I still don't know if it's the right answer I don't know if it's hard.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, it's talked about a lot right now concussions, I mean I had two confirmed um. I probably had more than I knew. Um, and you know, I'm finding myself sometimes like my god, what was that? What was that kid's name? Again, like sure, like sometimes I mean I could. So I couldn't tell you when the war of 1812 was, but I could tell you a trip's open right, 334 strategy post. Next stop, I'm gonna play from college like which is useless information now, right, but um, I definitely you know that's. I mean, we joked before about quarterbacks and, like you know, quarterbacks are not the toughest in the field. I was very joking about that but, like you know, we took shots. Like I remember getting lit up in film or if I didn't step into a throw and a guy's 6'3" 250, coming sprinting at me and picking me up Through the tackle, 1,000, 1,000, 2,000 slammed me down, like if I didn't step into those things I'd get called a puss.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean the attitude was different then right, like around water, and you know so. Even like, just like. I feel like football coaches tried to toughen you up, right, they wanted you to be tougher and I wouldn't trade any of that for the world, but I also wouldn't do it. You know, some of the stuff that was that was that was done to me, to my kids or any of the kids I coach. So you know I will credit it with like, like even okay, we talked about me breaking my leg.
Speaker 3:Well, being toughened up, like that made it so you could get through the broken leg and then get through having the kid later. So you know it's tough, because I feel like there was no better teacher for me in my life than football, right, football like. People ask me who was my best professor in college? Oh, that's easy Dick Farley. He's my football coach, right, he taught me more lessons about life and business and overcoming adversity, and nobody gives a shit and there's no division for and you know, the hardest working best person's going to get the job and the hardest working best team's going to win.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know those are all things that that no postmodern history teacher is going to going to help me learn. So you know it's a real struggle because I, you know my son is medically withdrawn after three concussions that we know of and he's probably had more and he sometimes forgets things and I'm like shit, is that worth it? The lessons that he may have learned and you don't know? You just don't know.
Speaker 2:I think that's where you got to give our. We got to give ourselves grace a little bit and we did our best with the information we had. But now there's like, like I'm, my son did not play football, he played flag up until 12. I wasn't gonna let him play tackle till 13. And I think he saw at times when my, my back will go out at times and he's like I don't know if I want that and he just he was a basketball baseball, never played soccer, but he got into golf and then when COVID hit, he went from like a you know 15 handicap down to like a three. Oh, wow, no-transcript actionable things they can take from our episode that dads can figure out like yep, I'm going to focus on A, b and C that can help me be a better dad or better leader in my home.
Speaker 3:Well, I think you know listening and giving your kids space before you criticize. You know, before you criticize you know. That's that's the biggest lesson that I've learned, right, that if I, if I could go back to you, know, 23 year old me, you know my, my biggest piece of advice would be shut up, listen and then speak Right Like like, let them process, don't process it for them.
Speaker 3:You know, I think that and that and that that applies to people that you work with people that work with you, people that you work for, people that work for you, right, you know, a lot of times we're just worried about what's coming out of our mouth. So, you know, especially with kids, if, if, you just let them, let them be and then then try to give advice, that's probably my big, biggest takeaway from this. Another one would be I probably do have to go apologize to my kid for being a dick to him, uh, when he couldn't snap the ball. So I will do that later this week. Uh, we have, we have, we have a meeting to talk about his, his future, um, and what he needs to do after college. So so I'll, I'll take a time, time there to do that, um. So those would be my, my two biggest takeaways.
Speaker 2:Love it. I love when we get homework from these episodes, but I know it was never, never planned, but, um, I can't wait to connect again and hear how that conversation went and you'll probably surprise. It might even make him feel uncomfortable, but I think those are the. I just love those moments because it's like three superpowers in life that I have realized are superpowers that I focus on every single day and I teach our. I don't want to teach myself, but I try to teach others as humility, vulnerability and curiosity, and I think you're going to display all three of those with with how you just handled that. So I hats off to you. That's that Okay. So you started Triple Crown, you're the co-founder and CEO and you just celebrated 20 years. But if people have Triple Crown, we're not talking about horsing horse races. Talk about what is Triple Crown, what do you guys do and how can people learn more about what you guys are doing as a company?
Speaker 3:Okay. So yeah, we started Triple Crown 20 years ago this week and the plan was to. You know, we saw staffing is a huge industry. Right, it's an almost $200 billion industry and you know, maybe two or three years ago there was 20,000 staffing firms. Now there's 16,000, right, that's still a lot. That's a highly fragmented business. It's not like there's the staffing company, whereas if you want to go search for anything, you're going to Google, probably, right, so there's 16,000 of them and they're all got different specialties. Right, there's a handful maybe 20 or 30 that do everything, but then most of the rest of us are specialized.
Speaker 3:So we decided in 2004 that we thought we could do a better job in the hardware, software, electrical engineering space than anybody else out there. So, you know, we wrote a business plan, got some investors and started Triple Crown. The plan was to focus in that space and be relationship-centric and candidate-driven, whereas I think a lot of staffing companies try to find the customers first and then go find the talent. We wanted to make sure that we had strong relationships with talent in our space that liked to do consulting work. They liked the idea of every six or 12 or 18 months doing something new. So, from our desire to be candidate-centric. We then built out a business so that when we found customers, we already had the answer to the test. So that's how we started the business. The goal was to reach a hundred million dollars in revenue. So I know that when we started it, we thought, hey, whenever we get there, you know we'll ride off into the sunset and be done with it, cause that that's that's the point in staffing that tells you you've made it right. I think there's something like 240 companies that did that in 2023. So you're in like the top 1%. We achieved that in 2021. So you know what is that? 16, 17 years, so you know, 29 year old me would have said, yeah, you're retired on a beach somewhere. What am I? I'm going to be 50 this year and now I'm like let's go, we're just getting started. So we've been able to, over the course of 20 years, build a reputation. I don't know if we're the best in the space, but I don't think anybody's better, and that space is very focused in hardware, software and embedded. We've added a life sciences group just a couple months ago. We're about to expand onto the silicon manufacturing business here in a couple months and you know our trajectory is okay once we establish that we're really good at what we do.
Speaker 3:We then wanted to start getting into the managed services business. So about 19, 20 months ago we launched a services group, an engineering services group, which now accounts for about 24% of our overall business. So to our customers, we provide a spectrum of services, right. We provide a spectrum of services right. If you're in the space of hardware, electrical engineering, any kind of device like this is the best example we can help. So we can either manage a specific project for you fully with our resources we can supply the manpower, talent for you to manage yourself or we can tag team it and do it together.
Speaker 3:So where we see ourselves transforming from a staff augmentation company into a services company over the next four or five years, we've been doing that steadily. Our goal this year is for 30% of our business to be some sort of managed approach or hybrid approach, and we should hit that 50% in a couple of years. And then, by the time I do actually ride off into the sunset, I would like Triple Crown to be remembered as the best electrical engineering services company in the country. So that's where we are. That's our journey right now.
Speaker 2:And where can people find you?
Speaker 3:Triplecocom. We're all over social media. You know I'm on LinkedIn. Everybody in staffing and services is on LinkedIn. We've been around for 20 years. We got seven locations, so our headquarters is Austin, where I split time. We've got a location in Scottsdale, arizona, san Jose, california, costa Mesa, california, portsmouth, New Hampshire, durham, north Carolina and Nashville, tennessee. So we're spread out across the country. You know anybody that's a consultant or a contractor that does that kind of work electrical engineering, embedded hardware you know we'd love to help you find something. You know our big ones you know are who you'd expect google, meta, microsoft, blue origin, uh, all the way down to startups. You know we don't discriminate, we help, uh, whatever you need.
Speaker 2:so we'd love to be able to help anybody, anybody that wants it well, as I mentioned, how many great staffing people I've met along this journey. Um, I'm gonna put you in that top of that list just because I think it's so cool learning. I mean, I didn't hear't hear about you guys when I was a K-4s at it, you know, but it's so cool hearing about companies with stories like yours who do it the right way relationship focused, long-term focused and you're doing it the right way, which is why you guys are exceeding your goals and why you're still driven to kind of keep serving others. So I love it. We'll make sure all this is tagged in the show notes so people can find you. It's now, dave, to try to go in to, for you to go into what I call the lightning round, which I ask you random questions. Your job is to answer these as quickly as you can. My job is try to get a giggle out of you.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:Are you ready? Let's go. Okay, true or false, you once kicked a 74-yard field goal at Williams College.
Speaker 3:Absolutely false.
Speaker 2:Okay, true or false, you declined a spot in WWF wrestling to join Williams College. Okay, we'll call it a tie.
Speaker 3:Everybody knows that.
Speaker 2:Okay, If I was to go into your phone right now, what would be the one song that your two stepdaughters would be like? What you listen to?
Speaker 3:that Every song Like. I listen to Ozzy's Boneyard and they can't stand it.
Speaker 2:So good. Okay, tell me the last book you read, yours Yesterday on the plane. Okay, that was not a self plug, I did not mean to him to say that, but I appreciate the support. Tell me your favorite eighties comedy movie.
Speaker 3:Favorite eighties comedy. I mean vacation. It's gotta be vacation.
Speaker 2:So much I love a good Griswold. Good, good Griswold comment. Um, if there was to be a book written about your life, tell me the title.
Speaker 3:Oh Jesus. Um that's the name of it. Oh Jesus, that's the name of it.
Speaker 1:Oh Jesus.
Speaker 2:Don't do this. Okay, so Don't Do. This is the book, dave. It's every airport. They're running out of copies, everyone's reading it, every staffing firm is reading it, techserve is reading it, asa is reading it, they're all pumping it. But now Apple and Netflix and Hulu and they all, they all found out about and they're going to make a movie and you are the casting director and I need to know who's gonna. Which critically acclaimed, hot hollywood actor is going to star you in this new, brand new movie. That's going to just crush it adam sandler.
Speaker 2:I've been told we look alike so I could see that, yeah, there you go like you grew up in new england, so did I, so we go with Adam. Oh solid. I don't think I've ever had a Sandler reference, but I love that one.
Speaker 3:Okay, and then last question Tell me two words that describe your wife Amazing and relentless Boom Lightning round's complete.
Speaker 2:I think I laughed more at my own joke, so I think I lose. I'll give you the dub. It's been an honor spending time with you, leslie Vickery. Thank you so much for making today's episode possible For all of our sponsors. Thank you again for your continued support For all the dads that take time each week to listen to these episodes, to find ways to challenge yourself to become a better leader in your home.
Speaker 2:I'm right there with you. I have gaps, just like you all dads, and I think I get the lucky treatment. Not only do I get to hear it once, but sometimes I'll go back and listen to it again, and so I got a page full of notes here. So I wanted to say thank you for all your guys' support. If you've not taken time to leave us a review wherever you consume your podcast, please go ahead and do that. Leave us a rating and then hit subscribe, because you'll get notified for all episodes that come out each and every week. Episodes that come out each and every week. But, dave, thank you so much, brother. I hope we, our paths, will get us to meet in person one day, but again, really really appreciate you spending time with me today.
Speaker 3:Thank you, appreciate it.