Dial The Wild
Dial The Wild Podcast is an ongoing discussion with like-minded individuals who have a desire to engage the primal nature within themselves. Topics ranging from Music, Sports, Hunting, Archery, Jeeping, MMA, Comedy, Fishing, etc. what ever dials-in your wild!
Dial The Wild
Refereeing the Game of Growth with Devin Raleigh
As the scent of fresh-cut grass on a playing field brings back a flood of childhood memories, my dear friend Devin Raleigh joins me to trace the evolution of youth sports in our quaint town of Bushnell. From the laughter-filled days of recreational leagues to the high stakes of today's travel teams, we share heartfelt tales and discuss the delicate balance between nurturing a love for the game and the pressures of competition. Devin, with his dual hat as an insurance salesman and park board member, offers a rich perspective on the role sports play in child development and community spirit.
Strap on your cleats and whistle as we explore the nitty-gritty of sports officiating with a veteran football referee. Devin peels back the curtain on the complex dance between maintaining authority and fostering approachability, while navigating the physical and mental demands that come with the role. We share laughter and wince-worthy moments that reveal the intense emotions of parents on the sidelines, and the palpable passion that drives referees to ensure each game is played fairly and safely.
Off the field, we contemplate how sports mold young minds in their attitudes toward authority, teamwork, and handling adversity. The conversation takes a personal turn, with Devin and I revealing how the lessons learned through sports have shaped our careers and daily interactions, emphasizing empathy and top-notch customer service. Whether you're a sports enthusiast, a concerned parent, or just love a good story of personal growth, this episode promises rich insights and maybe even a chuckle or two as we tackle life's hurdles together.
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And welcome to another Dial the.
Speaker 1:Wild episode. I am joined here by good friend Devin Raleigh. How are we today, Devin, I'm doing. Great Thanks for having me, no problem. Devin is an insurance salesman out of McComb Illinois and he works for Shelter Insurance. Devin is also a sponsor of the Dial, the Wild Productions for the Mean Green event and the Throwdown and the Raz at the Ritz. He donated to that. We thank you for that, Appreciate your support. And just recently got roped into doing park board work which Devin more or less turned my arm on very nicely. It was very nice. It was kind of like a WWE arm turn instead of like a real one that hurts.
Speaker 2:So that's good. It worked out nicely, though, but you're a little Ric Flair in there A little Ric Flair.
Speaker 1:You know it's a woo Speaking of that. Anyways, devin, you are Bushnell born and raised, are you not?
Speaker 2:I am yeah. Well, technically I moved here when I was eight, I guess.
Speaker 1:Got you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but now family is going to be from Calchester. My mom got me married. We moved up here when I was eight.
Speaker 1:I got you Okay and you came up through playing pretty much all the sports in the Bushnell area.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I grew up playing on the little diamond out at the park and yeah, exactly. Followed through to junior high sports and four year high school football and baseball. And now I'm just giving back to the community.
Speaker 1:It is kind of crazy how different it is now how they've incorporated like 10 you, 12 you, 14 you tight ball Cause. When I was a kid I remember like each grade had like half a dozen teams and we'd play each other, put together an all star team and then go to tournament. But like it's not like that anymore.
Speaker 2:I don't know if it's better or you know it just is what it is.
Speaker 2:It is. You know I got a kid that's playing on an actual travel team for the first time this year, you know, and we'll see how it goes. So I was pretty close minded for a long time that I talked to other kids in high school, other parents that had their kids do it and you know I was like you know I need to open my mind my kid wanted to do it so it was for supporting them in that. But you know normally we have the junior Spartan program through the park and he plays for that and you know we call it good. But you know now we're looking at probably 50 to 60 baseball game this summer.
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah, that's a whole different.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a long summer and but we'll have fun with it. You know could be a one year thing. I might go in a more, but we're going to leave it up to the kid on what we go and do.
Speaker 1:Well, when I think about it, when you talk about Wreckley, you're talking about recreation. I mean, we always had travel ball, mostly basketball growing up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you had a traveling team, but then you had recreation league and recreation is just like anybody can come play, right, you know, everybody gets put on a team, everybody gets a chance to play, everybody has a good time with it. In your traveling ball, your more competitive ball, the parents are more invested in the kids at that point and that's where it's like okay, I can see where this can be competitive. You still want to develop and you still want to grow, but you're traveling to be competitive and to be a better athlete. To where recreation? A lot of times we need to just focus on kids getting together and having a good time, but that's just my soapbox.
Speaker 2:So especially a smart time in America. You know like there's not a lot of kids signing up for these programs, so get them all together, have fun, develop them with summer and hopefully they play high school ball together.
Speaker 1:You know, that's kind of. That's the hope. You know how many I could. I didn't tell you how many guys we we probably started with because you played when it was Bushnell Avon for football. Correct, I did, and I did. I played. Well, my seventh grade year was the first year we had Bushnell Avon and that was the first year of the of the BPCA Wildcats in junior high. They brought it all together in high school. So what year did you graduate? Oh, five. What year were you 11. You were 11. Okay, so you're not too far behind me, farther than I thought. I was my wife, so she was two years behind me. So, yeah, yeah, so the I thought that that was a good co-op, it. There was a lot of good years with that co-op. Yes, bushnell, bushnell, prairie City, avon, a lot of. Were you on on any of the playoff teams that went? The?
Speaker 2:I was on the OA team as a sophomore Yep.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:That's actually the first year I got to play for our city was on that team and they really worked me up to what First city football was on that what?
Speaker 1:what was that the?
Speaker 2:That had been the year we went to the third round. Was that Trey Yocum? I was with Trey, with the year by me? Yep, yeah, but the year I'm talking about, oh wait, would have been like a Kyle Boy car. Okay, yeah, mitchell, that groupie up.
Speaker 1:So Kyle, Kyle's still around. He's a. He's a county cop. Yeah, Where'd Mitch end up?
Speaker 2:I thought Mitch would down in Texas somewhere.
Speaker 1:Mitch is down in Texas. I coached with Kyle and Mitch in junior highball one year Okay, when my little brother was coming up, and then I kind of got away from the coaching. I really enjoyed it though.
Speaker 2:Like really enjoyed it. Now you're on the, on the field.
Speaker 1:I am officiating in football now, yes, which is some days really fun, some days not so fun, but that's how it goes. That's how it goes. It's been a. It's been an experience. How many years you've done that now? That was my first year last year. Oh, do it, ref it, okay. And besides, my wife had a work function that I had to go to. Besides that, I worked a varsity game every week of the regular season, which a first year ref's not supposed to do.
Speaker 2:But With the way the refs are nowadays and the shortage right, Well, that's what's going to happen.
Speaker 1:There is a league, I want to say out east somewhere. I think it's a little league where if you get tossed out of a game, you have to become a licensed official and officiate, like so many games, before they'll let you back into the park. I thought that was cool.
Speaker 2:I can dig that for sure.
Speaker 1:I thought, that was cool.
Speaker 2:Because I do high school basketball. Oh, do you? Yeah, okay, I would love to be able to be like oh yeah, let's put you out here and let's see what you do. You know, and you see it in the football too. Oh yeah, officiating, it's a spoiler the moment call. We don't have replays. No, we don't have a viewpoint from 50 to 60 feet away or farther.
Speaker 1:No, it's a split second decision. Yeah, you.
Speaker 2:And we don't always get it right, and you are running yeah. A lot of people can't run and shoot gamma. We got to run and think, you know, and it does a lot to it you know and try to make it.
Speaker 1:You always want to try and be fair. You know You're not always going to get it right, but you always try to be fair. And I was told at one point, if you followed the I think it was the four Ps, as long as a coach doesn't make it personal, doesn't bring up the past, doesn't use profanity, or there was something else as long as they follow those guidelines when they come to talk to you, there's no reason to throw a flag. But if they come out oh, you've been calling that all night, or you called that last week and it was wrong Boom Flag you know yeah.
Speaker 1:If they use profanity, boom gone. If they make it personal, that might have been the other one.
Speaker 2:If they make it personal, it's just like well, you're a piece of crap like your father, boom Flag you know, and I even I even like it personal I don't want you to call me my first name. Okay, I'll get a friend. We are, you know, I'm blue, I'm red, whatever, but I'm not, I'm not dead when I met him.
Speaker 1:You know, I don't know if you're that way, but I just I'm not really that way because I know a lot of the coaches and stuff in the area and I'm not trying to do it like on a buddy buddy basis, but if that coach needs to get my attention, I want them to be able to holler at my name. You know I want, if they needed that time out and they need it now, then I want them to be able to holler at me. But that's the difference there, probably between basketball and football.
Speaker 2:That's true?
Speaker 1:Or baseball, because you're right there, yeah, football. I still have a buffer of 20, 30, 40 yards before I hear the parents or you know, the old.
Speaker 2:I guess I should refrain that. I don't mind if the coaches talk to me like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:The fans I don't want to call me.
Speaker 1:No, yeah, that's what.
Speaker 2:I'm getting at. I don't want to call the coaches anymore. You know I've been doing this for almost 15 years. Well, the coaches get it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a lot of them get it. It's not reference hard man it is. It's not easy work, but yeah.
Speaker 2:So quick question for you Did you lose any weight running up and down a football field?
Speaker 1:I heard a lot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it wasn't until.
Speaker 1:Like we've got a handful of really experienced referees in this area. Like to pick brains, find knowledge. You know Mark Rodifer is a great referee, a great umpire. Bill Forker is a great ref. You know there's a handful of these guys in the area that have been there and done it and has been Dave Hasley. You know Nick Noles.
Speaker 1:Nick Noles, they've been to a state championship game. I think one of them was last year, I think the first game, it was the Bushnell game. I was running backwards and the Huffman kid had a long touchdown and I tried to make sure I was there for it and I pulled my girl. You know, it seemed like every week I was hurting myself somehow. And then finally one of the older guys is like why is like to do this and to do it?
Speaker 1:Well, I started to run around like freaking 12 year old, you know and when I started thinking about that I was like, okay, it's more about putting yourself at the right place at the right time and knowing what section of the field you're supposed to be watching at your designated area. Like if I'm a lineman on the home side and there's a hold on on the visitor side, I shouldn't be throwing that flag, correct? And then I'm behind the play watching for any kind of flagrant fouls or unnecessary clips, hits in the back, stuff like that Maintaining game safety, you know. And once you learn each position and kind of what slice of the pie you're supposed to be watching, until you pass that slice off to the next guy and then you're watching the next slice behind you and I started to figure that out, to like I don't have to run out here like a day of marathon or I can.
Speaker 2:You know, some of these kids, you know, especially the running backs, are fast.
Speaker 1:Well, these guys are fast man.
Speaker 2:Especially the lane. You know I coached a high school team so I know how fast he is. I would never try it, no way, this junior high in JFL, kids can be fast.
Speaker 1:I did those games too. It was really funny. There was one game I had a dad, because in JFL you have to weigh under a certain amount of weight to be able to carry the ball. Yeah, that way you don't have a kid 200 pounds getting her.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, run in the ball against kids that are 8090 pounds, yeah, so can wet. And I had one dad. The kid was questionable as to whether or not he was under the weight limit, but as a referee, that's not for me to maintain, that's between the coaches and the administration of that league to make sure that everybody is in compliance before we manage the game. And so I actually had a dad be like hey ref, can we get a weight check on that kid? I looked at him and I was like Are you serious?
Speaker 2:Go get the skate out of my car, yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, what's sad is like I actually lived three blocks from the high school so I should have been like All right, time out. I ran home, got my scale and come back, yeah, but that's just the kind of and the guy later apologized to me. He's just like I'm sorry, I was just excited. He's like we're all excited. If you're not excited, you shouldn't be playing the game. Right, you know? And I've been told so many times hey, you got butterflies in your gut. I was like, yeah, I'm shitting a brick. Well, if you, if you ever lose that feeling, you should never be refing again. Yeah, you know, and that's kind of where I stand on that. You do baseball, though too, Don't you?
Speaker 2:I did for you for a year. This is actually the first year that. So I started in baseball at 16 years old through the summer, and this will be the first year that I've actually renewed my license on inactive. I'm not taking up any games right now. Oh really, I'm just kind of tired of being in the cool weather in the spring baseball season, and baseball now has gotten so long that I have no interest in being out there for three hours. You know like these kids will be walking through badgers in a row and then they want to try to pick the kid off first base four times. You know it's just like I get where he's coming from. But you know I'm behind the home plate, I'm cold and I just want you to throw strikes Like your strike zone getting a little bigger as time goes on.
Speaker 2:I have a strike zone anyway At Little League. You should be level, you know, honestly, like obviously my little league strike zone is bigger than my varsity. But you know, I look at the pros and they're the ones that are put to throw it over. 17 inches, A varsity kid maybe should get 20, you know. So I try to always say you know, you got to, you got a ball on that. You got a baseball with on each side you know and pop them bottom as well.
Speaker 2:Right, you know I also like kids swinging the ball and putting the ball on play. You know a lot of coaches like to teach. You know discipline and swinging it's like you know you get up. I've done. You know I've done junior high, junior college baseball games. Okay, that's, that's what I don't mind doing. I don't mind having the tight strikes, but we're in high school and two small schools that just play like cause. Otherwise we could be here for two hours.
Speaker 1:You know, it's the fifth inning and the score is, you know, one to zero, because we're just walking and waiting and well, what a lot of people don't understand is yes, there are rules through the game and you should know those rules to a very good extent, but at the same time there's so much of the game that's objective. Yeah, like my 40 seconds for delay of game. Sometimes is 43, 44 right, but I've got a timer, I've got a watch and when I see I'm getting close I reach down for my flag and if I have time to pull that flag before the ball snapped I'll throw it. But I'm giving that kid every opportunity, right, that I can to let him snap that ball so that we don't see.
Speaker 2:You know you get a game that's Three touchdowns and you know, as a ref, how the game's gone right. This team not coming back from three scores down. Right. So 41, 42, 40, whatever. You know, like you know, the ones that get bad is I've noticed a couple times where there were 50 to 51. It's like that's, that's a little too far. Like you know, have some integrity. You know and one of them was a 40 point game that we can be by Right up in Ridgewood and the ref goes look at the school where I'm like, yeah, but you let 50 seconds run off the clock.
Speaker 1:That's a little different. That's excessive, yeah. I get what you're saying, but and you being a high school coach as well like when it's Getting down the crunch time and if that game is semi-close, you're watching. I know that you guys, as an official, I know you guys are watching the seconds on the clock. Oh yeah yeah, you know where 40 seconds is that.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, and if you're, there's a really good video on YouTube about like the play clock between 40 seconds and 25 and Knowing exactly how to administer that. But yeah, as soon as the ball is down, look to the left, look to the right. There's no flags, there's no nothing. Boom, 40 seconds starts.
Speaker 2:You know most scenarios right, yeah, so at the coach perspective we just got three or four right there. Yeah, you know. So you're 44, not 48 or whatever.
Speaker 1:But that's no objective.
Speaker 2:I would really care to argue that part, because you know you still need to execute, you still need to be on top of your game. In a football game, minimal things in a football game.
Speaker 1:40 seconds is a lifetime. Oh yeah, yeah, if you're getting delay of game calls, I could see one or two, maybe a game because of certain situations. If you have more than two or three delay of game calls, it's because the team's not organized and they're not Playing very well, right?
Speaker 2:that has nothing to do with With the referee at that point and I know, I know sometimes, especially small school stuff Well, we're around a lot of is. Kids don't hustle as fast as they should be to get a play in, to get the ball snap. They walk up to the line like when we were in school.
Speaker 2:You hustle to the line, and then you hustle back to the you might be in your stance for three or four seconds, but for the quarterback finally gets there with the rest of the guys, you know, could the linemen Titans? Why do I see me do? You went out first, you know, and then the skill position followed. So, yeah, no way. Yeah, that, like you said, it's subjective, you know, like right it's well, it's cool that you referee, but you also coach.
Speaker 1:So, like you know, both were, and I used to coach football. So I I Can now look back at how stupid I was on on some of the calls that I was making towards towards officials at that time. It even affects you now as a spectator and you see a lot of these parents or or family members and stuff hollering at officials and it's just like that. Dude's got to go home and eat too. You know right, he's got to go home and cuddle with his kids for a couple hours before they go to bed. So you look at it differently, which I Think's a good thing. And then you know if you're the kind of person that compulsively Looks forward to go into games on Friday nights just so you can yell at refs, because that's the only place You're allowed to do it and nobody can do anything about it, then you need to rethink your priorities. Is the way I look at it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you got a lot of different things you need to do in life well, and I had that conversation with a couple of older refs and there's like I don't understand why. Why and there's a school around here in particular that's really, really bad about it. Yeah, we won't name that, no, but a lot of us know who it is. And they said I don't understand why they're like that, I don't understand why they got to be that way. I said, well, think about it. When you breed that culture for that long to where Everybody's looking forward to going to the game on Friday night, because that's the one place you can yell, scream, manipulate and, you know, throw the gladiators back in the Coliseum and and try to kill them, you know right that it goes back to be in primal and that's what we've allowed for, however long. So now it's like we look forward to going to Friday night games and if we don't win, it's the ref's fault and we're gonna scream about it the whole time. And so I don't have a problem asking those parents to leave.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's the best part. But you know to go one's up further than that. You know a lot of these kids nowadays. You know they watch the NBA, they watch the NFL. That's a problem yeah and you see the LeBron effect you see the LeBron flops and you see, and then you call something on a kid and he throws up his hands. That's a big pet peeve of mine. Like when I grew up, you didn't question. A call your coach.
Speaker 1:No, you go back to the huddle. You go back to the huddle and you shut your mouth.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's something else I think that we're putting into society is what letting kids question something instead of hey you traveled, or hey you had a holding penalty, or hey you hit the kid late?
Speaker 1:Whatever it may be, and that's a lot of times you can tell in the coaching. You know, yeah, you're gonna have some kids that just are gonna do what they're gonna do, but a lot of times the good coaches in 90% of them are good coaches, right, I'll say 90%, um, a Lot of them Will be like yeah, yeah, we had a game Just down the road here, an eight-man game, where we had to toss a kid because he threw a punch in a game. It wasn't a tough decision, but in Illinois when that happens that kid doesn't get to play the next game.
Speaker 1:Right and that coach came to us after the game and he was just like, hey, is there anything we have to do is blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 1:And the head official that was there was just like, well, I get to go home and write a report. But no, I think that you know I, hsa will contact you and they will talk to you about the kid has to watch a video, he has to sit out a game. Blah, blah, blah will take care of the rest. He goes and we're sorry, we didn't want to kick the kid out, but it was pretty obvious that, like when you're at the bottom of pile and Arms start swinging, like you've got to do something about it, and the kid or the coach looked both ways to make sure nobody was around, looked at us, it said, thank you, he's been doing that shit all year and he needed to learn that there are good coaches out there that don't like that kind of shit and and don't allow it, right, you know, um, but there is that 10 I'll say 5 to 10 percent that will always Back up their kids because they think that's the right thing to do, right and to an extent, they're not wrong.
Speaker 1:Yeah they should have their kids back. But when your kids Not doing things that are, I won't say, proper, but when they're, when you're doing things that are, flaker it. Yeah that's different.
Speaker 2:See a stupidity, yeah stupidity, yeah, is what it is. You know, I like to say this as a basketball represent. If it's not a basketball move or a basketball play, that's flight. You know, you're probably the same way. The football stuff, football move and football play that's where the stupidity comes in, that's when you're gonna get tossed or the unnecessary roughness.
Speaker 1:I don't know about. Well, I can tell you. Tell me if it's the same thing in basketball, but in football I would say 75% of the time that you're throwing that flagrant or that's on Sportsman like type flag is, after the plays, over a hundred percent. Yeah like you're not even playing at that point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, because you know they lost a cool or the chippy and you know they felt like something happened, that they should have got that call, and then you gave it to the other person and they just upset them well, I played for Mac, you played for Mac.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he always preached adversity. You're always gonna face adversity. Yes, like how you respond to that. Adversity is, it means everything, and that hasn't only been football. That's life, dude. Yes, you know how you handle yourself in the thick of things, when thing, when everything stacked against you. That's adversity, bro. Yeah, you know it's not fun. Having to get up, go to work, get your kids ready, blah, blah, blah, have to deal with jerks over the phone for whatever reason, and then, I don't know, you get a flat tire and you know you have days like that. But that's adversity. And like, and you know, todd Roderfer, growing up, always told us, like life is 90%, like her life is 10%, what happens to you? And 10 and?
Speaker 2:yeah, holy shit, my butchers. Are you reactive?
Speaker 1:It's always 10% what happens and 90% how you react. You know, and I've always stood by that trying to. You know you gotta learn to control your emotions.
Speaker 2:It's funny. You talk about adversity. So you know, you and I were refs and a fishy eight. We have to work a full-time job. We have kids, yeah. So you know, we get up at seven in the morning and we got our kids ready and we got to work. We have a bad day. Well, guess what? We have to flip a switch.
Speaker 1:And act like we had a great. Step on that field. You better leave it off the field because it don't matter if you've had a bad day or not.
Speaker 2:You still owe those kids a decent game, and that's one of the challenges is you out there and maybe you know you're struggling a little bit. And then you hear some some mom or dad or grandma, grandpa on the stand Say something new. Like man, I don't like today's been rough, I don't. I don't need you to make it harder than it was nine times out Ten.
Speaker 1:You can go to the coach and be like hey need to Need to tone down a chirpin and they'll take care of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if they won't, then then you take care of it, but I I am not. I've met refs who pride themselves on their ability to throw people out of a game. I'm not one of those refs. I want everybody to stay there and have a good time and share and support their team, but I won't allow anything that's profane, that's vulgar, no, that's, that's out of line. If you're ruining everybody else's experience around you because you are loud and obnoxious, then you don't need to be there.
Speaker 2:I don't usually have a quick to go and get rid of a fan, unless I that bomb drops. Yeah, that bomb comes out. I'm stopping the game. You're done like especially. You know you're sent by kids or you know that's just a family friend thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, honestly, through my years of competitively shooting and and and doing a lot of things, I can tone a lot of stuff out. Oh yeah, nine times out of ten. Yeah, those parents are screaming or saying vulgar things and I don't hear them. But that 10% of the time when I do hear it, then I know it's because you said something Inappropriate or you're being loud or you're being obnoxious. Yes, so at that point we just try to rectify the situation so that you know if we can fix the situation without having to remove the person. That's what we'll do nine times out of ten.
Speaker 1:Yep but if it can't be rectified with the person still there, then that person has to go. Yep, yep, but that's just my two cents on it. Anyways, when did you get?
Speaker 2:into the insurance game, all right. So that's actually a funny story. I was doing construction for a very long time. I'm like talking, all the old guys are in the trade and like, man, if you could find something else, do it. You know, and I've always like sales. You know, I've always like talking to people trying to sell something. Well, I've seen a lot of insurance jobs Going out, so I just I just started applying one day didn't get a single one that we got an interview, whatever.
Speaker 2:Tom Conklin, who I work for at State Farm Mm-hmm, is a basketball official. I got you. So I ran at the him at a game and I said, hey, man, like, did you know I applied for you? He's like I like 16 out of I can't say something. You know, whatever Didn't even get a call the first time around. You know, whatever, no big deal. I think a year and a half, two years goes by and he calls me again and when I was serious I was scared, like I don't know anything about insurance. You know he's like, well, we have books and training for a reason. You know, yeah, we can get you there, he's like, but if you can talk, that's what we kind of need for a sales guy. So I went through all the you know jumps and hoops and took the class and got licensed.
Speaker 2:And Now here I am and I had no intention of leaving State Farm. But I always wanted my own agency. I knew I wanted to have my own agent. I just thought it'd be a State Farm agency but you know, end up being shelter. Love the switch. You know, I get more in depth with my customers that way. I think no, versus just selling and trying to move on to the next sale. I take over everything in my book. Now it's just that I'm gonna deal with the claims state for my head to do that, you know. So that was kind of a learning more of the trade.
Speaker 1:This way is being a jack of all trades more well-rounded.
Speaker 2:Trying to get into insurance was basically because I didn't want to beat my body up Doing construction more. You know whether it is roofing, siding, you know Concrete, whatever. I was just you know. You saw every single day, yeah, and I understand that one, you know. And then I, you know, I had a heat stroke in 2018 and that kind of really put a damper on my ability to do some things and, you know, I just kind of dwindled after that.
Speaker 2:So yeah, insurance was totally different ballgame for me but Honestly, I can credit a lot of being able to handle adversity. To wrapping, yeah, you know, because I've had people yelling me all the time.
Speaker 1:I was yelling me because the rates go up, or you know, they got in an accident and when I covered part of it because they don't have the correct insurance or something, I was like you found with your career something that I kind of found with my career, and it's a skill that a lot of people take for granted, and that skill is Dealing with people in a very emotional moment. Yes, when things are not going the way they want them to like when I, when I was doing financial aid and emissions and higher ed, you know, little Johnny didn't get as much money on his financial aid package that mom and dad thought he should have, and so you get called some Choice names when mom and dad have to pay more for college or they don't get accepted. When you said you got a really good chance, well, your grades weren't very good, your scores weren't very good and the committee decided not to let you in on a probationary status. Well, you, piece of whatever. You told us that. I said you had a very good chance.
Speaker 1:I never said you were getting in, you know, and, and even at admissions, why is so and so not getting this scholarship? I don't know. That's financial aid? Yeah, you're the admissions counselor, figure it out. And so between that and then, before that, I did military funerals. So obviously I'm dealing with some very emotional people on a daily basis, not to mention the rigors of the military. And then you go into and then I went into pest control and when you go into pest control you have just about everybody's worst day ever. They just saw a mouse, they just saw a roach. They've got something getting in here, getting in there, and so you really learn how to be more of a psychiatrist.
Speaker 1:Right yeah, you did, and learn how to kind of tone people down a notch so that Once you have them calm down then you can really talk them through about any situation.
Speaker 2:So I've adapted a phrase and some people don't like it. But you know, everybody always flicks out like it's the end of the world. And I'm always it's not the end of the world, it's just close to it, yeah, you know. And they just look at me like, did you just say that to me? Yeah, but then they laugh, you know.
Speaker 2:They're like oh yeah, I get what he say you know, you know I'm a good guy like I like to lighten the mood, like we don't have to be serious all the time. You know, especially my line of work like Life insurance is gonna take its care of itself, mm-hmm. You know you're frustrated right now because it's something that just happened. Like you said, the worst day ever. You know, somebody called me. I had a two weeks ago. I didn't.
Speaker 2:I got a guy call me. He's had a. He's burnt it to action in the backyard and burnt down his neighbor's house, you know. And he called me and I was telling him a phone for a few seconds. I'm like, did I hear that correctly? So I asked him you bumped down your neighbor's house. Well, not intentionally. I'm like, okay, I praise the Lord that you did not burn down to me out intentionally. But when we talk about it, got to talking and he's like it's just been a long day. I'm like, no, I believe that you know, but here's all the info I need right now. I'm gonna let you go. We'll talk again in a couple of days Because at that point, you know, I'm gonna put the claim. They're gonna get into the system. It takes 48 hours for an ejector to reach out. You know it actually worked out pretty well for the guy. You know everything seemed to be taken care of, so not the good thing, but so you know dealing, when you said dealing with somebody's worst day on like.
Speaker 1:I get this like well, now being in, the, now being in the ag world, it's like you know this this farmer's upset because he's trying to feed his animals but he can't do it because the system's broke down and he needs that part that I have and he needed it yesterday but you can't get it there for a few more days. So you really got it is. You know? It's like my boss said he had a guy tell him once well, if I needed it yesterday I would have ordered it yesterday. You know, I get it, dude. You know, and it most of the time it's just sympathizing with the person and really making them understand that you genuinely are trying to help like you care, you're doing what you can. You're just. You're not Superman.
Speaker 2:But no, exactly, you know and and then that's what a lot of people expect. You know they call you and they call a number to get a hold of units like hey, I expect immediate fixes and 90% of what anybody does in any job is not an immediate.
Speaker 1:We live in a world now of instant gratification and as much as the older generation gripes about how kids just want something right now or they are not willing to wait. Trust me, your older generations, you guys, aren't a whole lot better. Yes, you're more patient with certain things. Well, that would you said earlier farmers.
Speaker 2:Those are the good customers right.
Speaker 1:Farmers are great customers, you know, and their families and their, their heritage and everything else have built these farms over generations, sometimes centuries, you know for them to have the life that they have and they're they're. They have a certain way of doing things and they want to do it that way because it's worked for however long and they're not going to change. Well, you throw a wrench in their system and you say, yeah, I can have this for you, but it's going to be a few days. They don't like that answer, you know. But because there's not as many mom and pop shops around that have that kind of thing just stocked up on the shelves. We live in an internet world now where everything is just. You know, we take care of a pretty good dealer network, which helps, but they're not going to have every part in their shop. Yeah, it's hard to do that.
Speaker 2:So you just you're bringing this up because I have a client that's a farmer and he bought a brand new combine. Sure, you call that in the K. I need to just sign a form because obviously that's a very expensive piece of equipment, it's a high premium. We never made it in and I got a phone call at like 9 30 the night before I checked my emails or my voice message. I got to the office and said, hey, I never signed that form but I'm hitting the field at such and such time. I got my office early that morning and read that and I'm like, oh man, like, if I call the guy I said, where are you?
Speaker 2:I drove through the field and signed it because I knew deep down half a million dollar combine out there running like he's going to be mad at me if something.
Speaker 1:something starts burning, yeah.
Speaker 2:For sure. And you know he was like obviously I was new, I was the younger guy. He dealt with somebody else for a long time. He's like I was debating on whether or not I really wanted to keep you because I didn't know you, but you just prove that you're going to do everything you can. I'm like customer service, you know. Yeah, but exactly what's.
Speaker 1:When they call you and they need something, you do what you can to help them out. You just you're not going to, you're not going to be able to move mountains for some people. You know you got to be. It's like. You know, be real with me. I want to help you, I want to be there for you but like you've got to give me a little bit of grace to like, you know I'm going to do what I do. You want an overnighted UPS? You're going to pay more but it'll be there tomorrow.
Speaker 1:You know right and you try to reason with people and, like I said, 90% of the time it's not an issue. You can work through it. You can figure it out, whether it's your wife, kids, your customers, your the kids, your coach in the people, your ref and just in life in general. You can work through it, you can figure it out. But there are that 10% of people that are just not reasonable. It will not work with you and only have one way of doing things and they will never change the way they do it and they will not show you any grace. But you just have to try and smile and be polite and show them a bit of grace so that you can move on.
Speaker 2:I think one of the biggest things I've learned in my young 31 years is I was very bad at talking at people and not to people. Once I realized that I've been able to get through a lot of people or communicate better. So I'm not just talking to them like they're an object, I'm talking to them like they're a person, that they are and that translates over in everything. Like you said, your kid, your wife, school, whatever.
Speaker 1:Well, when I first got into pest control, I worked for a different company than the one I ended with, and the first company I worked for I had a great boss who just always put things in perspective for you, and so at one meeting he was just like well, think about this, Some of you people have, or some of you guys have, monthly or bi-monthly customers, and if these are elderly people who their kids have grown up and moved away, or their grandkids have grown up and moved away and they're widowed or whatever else, you see that person more than their own family does.
Speaker 1:So you essentially become part of the family in that scenario. And it's not being money hungry, it's not all business, but it's like if you take care of people, people will take care of you, and if you're there for them and their time of need, then they're more likely to work with you. Moving forward. You just nine times. You know it all goes back to that golden rule treat people how you want to be treated and put yourself in their shoes, Because you know if you're pissed off that you got to go to this house because the lady saw a mouse, then chances are when you get home and your wife says I saw a mouse and she's freaking out. You're going to know exactly how that lady felt after that.
Speaker 2:So would also say that if you imagine about that well, you probably should get a different job, because that's literally your job.
Speaker 1:Well, you get burned out.
Speaker 1:I mean you know, you know you have your reoccurring customers right and then you're constantly trying to sell and then people are constantly calling the office want you back out on the next job and it's a grind and I did that grind for almost seven years and I don't hate it because it gave me a lot of what I have today, but it was. It's like you said, something hurt on me. Every day I'm running around with a four gallon backpack full of chemicals, so there's 3040 pounds on my back all day long crawling in crawl spaces and addicts and everything else. It's what I did to take care of my family, so I can't hate it, but I don't want to go back to it.
Speaker 2:You know, and a big thing that we were taught with Mac and football was you know, know your roots and know your past, where you came from. So you know we're expecting like the growing thing went through that, you know, gave you a house and your family and all that. It's good to respect that, so that's a good thing.
Speaker 1:On that, and we still see Mac around. He's a coach at a different school now and he's doing well there and I love seeing him around.
Speaker 2:McComb did just if you, if you got a guy that you know, just it's going to put a smile on your face.
Speaker 1:You know, max he's going to say something goofy that's going to you know, or he's got a story about somebody that's going to make you laugh. You know, that's it's in. Some of us that were kind of pain in the ass kids in school, you know. He still is just like hey, how are you doing? Blah, blah, blah, yeah. So I really appreciate about about guys like him, but no man I. So now you're selling insurance, you're on park board, you're coaching football, you're refing other sports, like, do you got time for anything else?
Speaker 2:Well, I, I uh, no, I um, I tried to do. I told my wife I was going to take a step back and, you know, start slowing down to be there with the family more. Yeah, and for some reason, you know, when I'm sitting at home twiddling my thumbs watching TV or trying to play a video game or something, I don't want to do that anymore. I think it's because I did it so much as a younger kid, but I always feel like, ever since I got to this sales job, I'm more looking for the next thing that's going to help me grow as a person, a business. No, I want to start my retirement, whatever it is I'm trying to do. So I'm always out there talking to people.
Speaker 1:Did it work. It was buzzed a little bit, you're good though.
Speaker 2:Okay, all right. So I'm always out there trying to talk to somebody and keep moving. I play a little slow pitch, still a little bit, you know, not as much as I'd like to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the old bushel warriors. When did you give that up?
Speaker 2:Oh man, I gave that up pretty quick. I think we all did.
Speaker 2:Actually, because I played for three years, I think. But I went to work one day trying to swing a hammer after a Sunday game and I couldn't lift my arm, yeah, and I'm like I can't make money, I can't provide doing this. And you know, I realized if I keep going down this road at a very young age, I'm going to have a lot of miles on this body and I'm not going to do anything Right. So that kind of put it in there for me. I remember it was late spring I don't know if we were playing a playoff game or what it was and I had a hit that just gave me a bad stinger and I knew it was going to be a sore.
Speaker 1:You know when you have one of those hits you're like right before it happens you're like this is going to hurt.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And then. But if you lay up, you get hurt more. Yeah, you do you do.
Speaker 2:It's weird, but that's kind of how I got out of that. I think my last year was like 2013 or 2014 or something like that. You know, some days I look at these guys that are in their 40s still playing. I'm like man, I wish I could do that. But then I roll out of bed the wrong way and my neck hurts because I slept wrong and I'm like I don't need to be playing football anymore.
Speaker 1:No, no, I think I was 32 when I finally was like I tried to play for a while and I was like now you, you tried a longer night.
Speaker 2:I think I would have been 24 or 25 when I finally started to stop.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I practiced for a few weeks and then I was like you know, I'm not going to be able to pull back and bow if I keep doing this, so I put an end to it. But well, thanks for coming on, dude. I appreciate you. I appreciate your support of the production side. Definitely, if you got any insurance needs, go check out what Devin's got going on there at Shelter and McComb. He's got a policy for about everything, for what you need and probably what you don't need.
Speaker 2:So check that out. You always have something you need.
Speaker 1:And we got the bracket challenge out. So get ahold of one of us Facebook Instagram call text Pony Express. Whatever it takes, put your 20 bucks towards a bracket, see if you can win some money and give some money to the Bushnell Park District. So we're going to get that running here. Check out Dial the Wild on the YouTube channel for the beer reviews. Devin and I just got done with one here, with one from Burial Brew Company which is pretty good. But yeah, check that out, subscribe, follow, share and I'm good you got anything.
Speaker 2:I just add on that bracket challenge. For anybody that might be an important area listening, if you've been out to the poke the last few years, the playground's been kind of up. That is what we are trying to rate this money for. So if you've got a kid that's out there, definitely going to be worth your $20 to throw in a bracket.
Speaker 1:That's what we're trying to do right now Trying to get the park up to snuff, and we've got good people in our corner throwing some time and money towards it. Just a little bit more. We can do that much more with. So, All right, man. Well, thanks for coming in, thanks for having me, bye.
