The Invested Fathers
The Invested Fathers
IF 85 - The One Thing Most Fathers Get Wrong (And How to Fix It) with Michael LaManna
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Michael LaManna shares his rich life journey—from growing up in an Italian family in the Bronx, struggling through school, and playing competitive soccer, to finding success in Silicon Valley and balancing family life.
As a business leader, Michael has helped companies grow from $125 million to $750 million, worked with industry giants like Cisco and General Dynamics, and built businesses with lasting impact. But his biggest lessons didn’t come from boardrooms—they came from fatherhood.
Michael opens up about the importance of prioritizing marriage, maintaining faith, and never saying no to spending time with kids. He discusses his career transitions from tire service management to consulting and how he finds joy in helping businesses thrive.
Additionally, Michael highlights valuable lessons learned as a parent, emphasizing the importance of being consistently present and intentional. Tune in for an inspiring take on resilience, family values, and professional success.
Michael LaManna - LinkedIn Profile
00:00 Introduction and Valentine's Day Plans
01:17 Early Life and Family Background
04:15 Career Beginnings and Moving to Colorado
06:26 Journey to Silicon Valley
10:37 Family Life and Parenting Insights
20:10 Building Connections with Kids
21:42 Never Say No: The Power of Being Present
23:36 The Influence of a Strong Relationship with God
24:57 Creating Special Moments with Your Children
26:49 The Importance of Consistency and Intentionality
27:02 Reflections on Life and Parenting
29:03 Investing in Your Children's Future
29:45 Balancing Marriage and Parenting
33:22 Financial Investments and Business Insights
38:34 Final Thoughts and Contact Information
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I remember to the day when my dad told me, no, I don't want to throw the ball. I don't know whether it was 14, 15, but I remember, no, I don't want to throw the ball, crushed me. So when Luke had come home from karate when he was 17 or whatever, drive it home, at 11 o'clock at night saying, Hey, he gets home. He goes, Hey dad, you want to go to In N Out? I'm in bed. I'm like, yep, let's go. So I would encourage you never say no. Hey dad, let's go out and play. Go. They want to go. they don't have anything but a t shirt on and 20 degree. Their body temperature is like. it'll melt snow, their body temperature, right? What are we worried about? We were the same way, right? We didn't care, we didn't need a shirt or a hat or we're out there playing, it doesn't matter. Did we come in frozen? Yeah. it's just Never say no if they want to play cars, let's play cars. Let's It's like they want to do it, right? Gabby when she was dancing when we gave her a car at 16 her dance studio moved away about 10 miles away. So when I got off work, at 5:30, I would just drive over there 10 miles just to walk in and say, Hey, Gabs, give her a quick hug. Stay a minute and leave. Just put in the time. That she still remembers that. But you got to put in the time. you got to be intentional about what you're doing and how you're doing it.
SpeakerMichael Lamana in the house on the invested fathers. Good morning. How are you? Good, Kenny. How you doing today? You look great, man. Thank you. Thank you. I feel okay. it's valentine's day while we're recording right now.
Speaker 2Yeah. So Valentine's Day started great. I got up early, got some flowers two days ago. they're out and about in the house. So my wife's, came out, we made some coffee. We chatted a little bit this morning, just snuggled on the couch for a few minutes. And, that was great. So it started out awesome.
SpeakerExcellent.
Speaker 2We got some good plans for tonight going over some friends house because restaurants to us are just They're tough on Valentine's Day anyway, and, we're more about, these days, being married almost 32 years, how do we want it to be? Not what it should be or what people say it should
Speakerbe.
Speaker 2I
Speakerlove that. Yes. There's, I feel like there's expectations, early marriage of what everyone else is doing and going out or doing whatever it is. And then we did that as
Speaker 2well. Right. Then we started seeing the prices on Valentine's Day. We're like, what? Wait a minute here.
SpeakerYes, indeed. It took us
Speaker 2about five years to figure it out. we really don't need to do this. You know, it wasn't, we saw it, we didn't act. It was like, okay, let's stop. Yes. We felt much better. It was awesome.
SpeakerMichael. in the brief conversations we've had, we met through LinkedIn, mutual friends, you've given me some of your journey on California. I think he said even Silicon Valley. different heads of positions and, different things. I'm not even going to try, do us a favor. Give us your bio. tell us a little about your career journey and what you're doing today.
Speaker 2Yeah, sure. So I'll just start at, 17 years old. I was born in the Bronx, lived in Brooklyn, Queens, and then we finally moved outside the city a little bit. But, to us people, it was upstate. but I spent all my summers in the city. I got them all. Uncle Vinny, he was my godfather. Uncle Vinny, Bobby, Johnny, Frankie, Pauly, Louis, Jake, Lester. It was an Italian show to, every Saturday night, every Sunday at two o'clock, dinner down in Queens with my grandma and grandpa from Italy. it was just the greatest times. Saturday nights always became, dice on the kitchen floor. my uncle's smoking cigars, throwing dice, throwing dollar bills, you know, all that sort of stuff. And, just a bit drinking too much. that's why Sunday meal was always nice. Cause it was quieter. so that was great stuff, but at seven, I went through high school and, I struggled quite a bit because I was really good in class. I was really good interacting and engaging. But, homework and test scores were just abominable. just, I was like, I got straight flatline D's, and I think the teachers just gave me D's just to get through. But, there's two things I've learned is, I really believe when you have a son, you should redshirt him till they're seven before they go into kindergarten. and there's a couple reasons why, for that. you go to any high school and you see your son, usually they're either like, they could be whatever, you know, kind of on the dorky side, on the athletic side, whatever. And you see them and they're like, they all look great, right? But they're just a little empty in the head, right? And then you look at the young ladies in high school and they look like junior senators and you're like, There's a clear mismatch here. So me graduating at 17, what I realized was my mom stuck me in school when I was four because she needed time. She needed time.
Speaker 3I was the
Speaker 2second of four. my dad, was, deformed and born in 36, had a small arm, just three fingers. And my mom was left on the guardian angel steps at one years old, never legally adopted. So we had foster kids growing up the whole time. We had, four of us and two to three foster kids in and out rotating and everybody goes, well, was it, was it crazy? I'm like, no, it was normal for me. it was just, it was, yeah, we, the foster care system is up their game so much these days that, but my mom really had a heart for that. That was uber important to us, and it was really, really cool, but, my dad struggled being deformed in that. Period. It's just you're a little bit of a freakish guy and people took you on your arm because they were, they felt sorry for you more than you can do things. but he ended up with a long career working for Xerox and all that kind of stuff. And it's like, wow. You know, that, that, that was awesome.
Speaker 4Yeah.
Speaker 2So fast forward. I at 17, I decide, I graduate high school early and I'm like, okay, mom, love, you got to go. She goes, don't you want to marry Anna Maria? I'm like, mom. Look at your daughters. No, I'm not. I'm not doing that. I'm moving. So I moved to Colorado, started playing soccer competitively, played for a German club called the Kickers in Colorado. They still out on a club. It was a feeder system to Germany. and I, and I changed tires. I was, I worked at a Goodyear store changing tires and I was just everything I did. I worked hard at, so I was really good at that, became the service manager. then the guy that owned it said, Hey, I got six stores. Can you help me out manage all these other stores? And I did. So I came be part, became part of the business. what I realized was being a 19 year old at that time going, okay, what am I going to do? he goes, be part of the business. And I was getting paid, a fraction of what he was getting paid. In hindsight good reason, right? I'm a 19 year old kind of young knucklehead, he owns the businesses, right? So we got into it about pay a little bit and I just bolted instead of really saying, okay How do we really build this right? I don't deserve what you're getting. But how do I build to that? How do I what's the path? I didn't really understand that so I decided to leave and at that point it was a tire and service centers. in Colorado and, they used to have corporate cars back then. So general dynamics folks would always come in and they said, Hey, Michael, we heard you're leaving. I said, yeah, they go, Hey, how about working for us? Oh, what do you guys do? we're in communications. Oh, call my dad that night. there was no mobile phones and I was like, dad, what's communication? He goes. What do I know? I do copiers. I have no clue what communications is. So I ended up working for General Dynamics, working at Martin Marietta when the space shuttle went up. I was one of the service techs that would handle the communications aspect of that, and it was great. You worked for US West, University Health Science Center running that, worked on a platform like a central office. That's, folks from Japan come over NEC, try to fix their system and six days into it, the director looks at me, go, what's going on? And I pulled two buses and I said, here are your problems fixed. Here's where the two problems are. I don't know how to fix that, but I know where they are. Next thing I know, I get offered, to be a sales engineer in Silicon Valley for NEC. I know this is crazy, right? so what do I do? Hey dad, what's a sales engineer? He says, I don't know what that is. Oh, here I go busting out the Silicon Valley, right? I heard about Silicon Valley like in elementary school, but I never really knew what it was. So I was a sales engineer, everybody confused me with a guy from 30 something cause my name was Michael. I wore suspenders, a white shirt and, I drove the, Mercedes starter set, the E 190. I was living large, man. it was just like, holy cow, I'm from the Bronx and I'm doing all this stuff. This is great. then, so working for NEC, in 90, I decided I'm going to take, cause in Silicon Valley you take sabbatical. So I said, Hey, I need six and a half weeks off. And they go, no, we don't do that. We're a Japanese company. I'm like, okay, then I'm going to quit. I gotta go. So I went to Italy for six and a half weeks and watched the World Cup. I speak a little Italian. but I saw 17 games just training around. it was just fabulous to me. Super, super, uber fabulous. I came back from that, went to a joint function in San Diego with the NEC folks from the Dallas area. and I met my wife, Denise. I leave Silicon Valley, go with my best buddy Dieter over to, the Grand Canyon, my first outback, five day outback, we're sleeping on top on, the first night, next thing we wake up, a foot and a half of snow. so we hiked down and I'm about third day into this and he goes, he called me McKellie. He goes, McKellie, what's going on? I said, I'm going to marry that girl. I had a lunch with her, 35 minute lunch, and I said, good thing there was no phone. She would have thought I was a complete stalker, right? So we did the long distance thing and I moved down here, got married and we had Gabrielle and about three months after having Gabrielle, our daughter. I got offered a job by Cisco, the internet guys, cause I sold SAS. I sold network management software to Nortel, MCI and all these kinds of companies, with a company called OSI. I said, Hey, we got a great. Opportunity to go back and I was glad because it was like I didn't realize in Dallas. your summer season was your indoor season it was uber hot, right? we moved back there We got pregnant with Luke and we came right back because I realized then I'm traveling too much Keeping her away from her family, friends, and the church. I said, let's get back down to Dallas. We wanna help her brother, who's been in a wheelchair from motocross for 40 years. we want to make sure we're around for him and their parents And Denise's parents. her dad's now has had dementia for nine years, so it's been really good. We've been back and I've loved it the second time coming down here. we just love our life. I know, there's big talk about a lot of people moving down to Texas, but we've been back 24 years and we just love it down here. So after my Cisco, tenure, I went to work for a manufacturing company and we took him from, I was head of sales. We took him from about 125 to 750 million. But I really didn't like the industry. It just wasn't in my heart. So after COVID I left there and now I'm, a business facilitator. So I really go into organizations and really help people understand the concept tools and disciplines. Needed to run a good business and to get some of the foundational stuff going. and then I usually work with, their operations and try to really help them along on where they really need to focus just to make that two to 3 percent change, three to 5 percent change. Because that'll direct them on a totally different path than just bumping along, right? Running into the same problems, not knowing how to organize themselves and things like that. So that's what I do these days, and I love it. I usually have five to seven clients on a yearly basis that are coming in and out and I'm loving life. It's super good. my wife married 32 years. she's a rock star. She's been in, real estate, for 15 years. She just got the award. Top producer for DFW for 2024. So super successful. now she's transitioning over the last two years as well into senior living because she's seen what her parents had gone through and she's really got a heart for that. She's on dementia, friendly boards and all that sort of stuff. It's a small boutique firm, but they do fabulous. It's great. And it's all referrals. There's no marketing, there's no LinkedIn. It's just all referral stuff. So it's super good. And that allows me to do. Focus really on my business and what I'm doing. So it's really good. So got two kids. I remember when Gabrielle was born, we drove out of the nurses said, Hey, you guys can go home now. And I was like, we're not ready. We need a couple more days of the hospital. I go, no.
Speaker 4You're ready.
Speaker 2You're going the funniest thing happened. So I get in my, the Ford Explorer. It was back in the day, realized Gabrielle's 26. Now we get in the Explorer and I'm driving down the road and people are just flying by me. Probably like I did every day, right? Just normal drive. And I'm like, these guys are crazy. I just was like, I was panicked, right? Because they didn't know I had my baby in the car. I'm like, Oh my God, what an eye opener. Gabrielle is now 26 graduated from Oklahoma university. she's been in the business world to almost three years. She does what they call interior design, which I thought was like curtains and stuff, but she's an architect. So she architects everything, but the four walls outside four walls and the foundation and the roof. She does every, all the facades, stairways, electrical, and she loves it. that's her wheelhouse for sure. she was in dance forever. I can remember, going to dance events forever, uh, doing that. So people know that, that have, their child in something, it's a full time sport and it costs a lot of money, right? that was great to be a part of that with her. And then my son is a couple years younger. He's going to be 24 in March. he's a super good kid. he is, he went and got his, I think his, Eagle Scout, when he was 16. we still go visit the bench, which is three quarters away from my house on the lake, Grapevine Lake here in Texas, and fix it up. Twice a year to make sure it's working and all that kind of stuff. So that's been, that was an awesome journey. I think I taught a hundred different merit badges to the group, to our troop. I was pretty engaged there, doing all that sort of stuff. So that was over fun, when he was, seven, going into second grade, they realized they tested him for dyslexia. And I was like, what's dyslexia. I couldn't even spell it. I was like, what's dyslexia. Let me look this up. come to find out after understanding what dyslexia is. I had to raise my hand, said, Oh, great. I gave him that gene. This is why I struggle because all the things they were talking about, I just coped with and struggled with. So they gave him a lot of tools to do this. fast forward at, 16 became his the first time he came a world champion in Taekwondo. We went to Korea. he beat all the Koreans. he beat people all over the world. and then he got it again at 17, a second world championship.
Speaker 4Wow.
Speaker 2And everybody says, Michael, your son can probably kick your tail. And I'm like, yeah, but I'm from the Bronx. I told him never go to sleep. I still got a little bit of that Bronx in me. I'm like, oh my gosh. And now he's at, Texas A& M. He graduated last year. and then now, and soon as the day he graduated, he went right from the graduation ceremony, into his master's class. So he's got three semesters to get his master's degree. And he's focused on finance, economics, and land development. it was really good, but we didn't realize how good, taekwondo or karate could be for dyslexia kids. it's really about patterns and really developing yourself in that way. So I think that really helped out. he graduates this coming summer. So that's awesome. but I'll tell you, there's a lot of things I learned, being a parent for sure. Number one, and most important for us is our faith without question. our faith really helps drive us, centers us. And I think that's what's going to be important and guides us on where we need to go and where we need to be. So that's been an awesome thing for us. The second thing I'll tell you is that, you got to focus on your marriage. Kids aside, if you're not focused on your marriage we don't think we'd be as successful as we could be with our kids.
Speaker 3And
Speaker 2I traveled the world for Cisco, right? the internet, guys, back when, 25 years ago, we were flying all over the world. Not a badge of honor. I got 5.7 million miles just on American, right? We were flying all over the world. when I was home, I had to make sure I paid attention, right? and Everybody a lot of folks ask me all the time, you know when I meet him they go, you know How are you so successful in your marriage? I'm like three things wake up committed during the day be conscious about being committed and when you put your head on the pillow be committed You know, you can let all the noise, all the distraction run around and all the things that my buddies have done and what it's like, are you guys kidding? You're killing me, right? You got to just stay focused on what you're doing. And I think that's really had a baseline for not only us, but really how we handle our kids. So there's a lot of things I learned. I think I'm up to 57 qualified line items on what I. learned with my kids the first thing I think I learned other than realizing people weren't trying to kill me going down the road when I had my daughter in the car was Trust your instincts what I mean by that was the only point that denise and I were starting to have a little friction with a newborn is When she felt like it was time to pick gabrielle up She had an innate sense. Hey, I think I need to pick her up, whatever. And then, at times, I would have that innate sense. She'd go, Oh, no, no, no, no. She's fine. Leave her be, whatever. We finally figured out where the attention was coming from, and we really learned to be conscious of our own instincts. And look, picking up the kid is not gonna damage the kid, right? It's just not, right? it's helping me be a better parent, right? Because I think I'm taking care, right? Holding it. If I feel an innate sense, that innate sense in Denise, I wouldn't try to change. I'd say, do we really need to pick her up? Absolutely. So we figured out that we had to let each other kind of grow in that and really drive each other's, need for that instinct, to pick up. And that really helped us out a lot. because there wasn't friction that there was like, okay, you need to pick, whatever, you just burp Gabrielle, she's doing fine, all that kind of stuff. It's, it was really an instinct thing. So my encouragement to everybody is really follow your instincts, what you're doing there, you know,
Speakerum. just to give the audience some clarification on this. Have you been keeping a list of the 54 things to know as a parent that like, and you've kept track of that even now?
Speaker 2Yeah, absolutely.
SpeakerWe got to see this list sometime, buddy. This is amazing. you got to write a book on this.
Speaker 2When did you,
Speakerwhen did you start it?
Speaker 2I think when I started it was, right when Gabrielle was an infant because, at the end of the day, when I figured out it was just an instinct, a need for me, whether it was from the good Lord, whether it was just me feeling that if I picked her up, I would be a better parent. I don't know, but it was then is when I started it. And I think frankly, I think, yeah. 54, 57, somewhere up there. I gotta go look at the list. I don't have the list in front of me, but yeah. That's awesome. So I just started jotting these things down and, some of the things I've learned through the years is, number one, we lived in a house in Texas. And, having a 9-year-old birthday party for Gabrielle. and I had a bigger house and a big pool and we're having a pool party and stuff and I come in to get some things and you know you have posters. Happy Birthday Gabi, you know all that stuff, My buddy Kyle comes in behind me, he goes, Hey, Michael, how old's Gabi and I'm like I said, It says it all over the posters. He goes, yeah, quit talking to her. Like she's five. Wow. So that struck me. I learned I had to grow with her and not treat her like she was five.
Speaker 4So I've
Speaker 2really learned, to grow with them, to talk to them. Like adults,
Speaker 4Yeah.
Speaker 2mean, I didn't know how to talk to her, and I just talked to her. So I figured that out. For somebody that was close to me, point out, quit talking to her like she's five. And I just was like, yeah, whatever. And then I thought about it. I came up to him later. I was like, okay, we need to go have a glass of wine or a beer or something and talk about this a little bit. it was a great moment, being a dad and somebody influenced me with an observation that I trusted. So that was, have your trusted friends around you. one of the other things I learned was, lead from behind.
Speaker 4Yeah.
Speaker 2When Luke was in second grade, Denise would go, I'm having a real hard time with Luke doing homework. He didn't want to do it. He's, crabby's, yadda, yadda. He just wants to play it, whatever. And I said, okay, let me go back to the teacher because I took him in the next day. The interesting thing was, I talked to the teacher, I said, yeah, do you see, is Luke doing well, and she goes, yeah, and I said, he's really giving Denise a hard time about, homework, she goes, give me three days, and about four days later, he comes home and says, mom, you know how important homework is? So it taught us to lead from behind with trusted people around us, right? Have people influence your kid that you can trust to really drive what we were doing and how we were doing. So I always call it leading from behind. Cause why? Cause us dads. We're the hammer, right? we're always the hammer, right? And it's really hard to take a breath and just listen.
Speaker 4Right.
Speaker 2Oh, I've really worked on that on myself for a long time and still do,
Speaker 4yeah,
Speaker 2they still call me dad. I don't want an answer. I just want to tell you something
SpeakerWell, just in case you forgot that I
Speaker 2either scarred them or I'm just not good at it yet or probably a combination, right? but I think you really need to, really lead from behind in some ways, and get your trusted people around them and get observation from people around you. So I think super, important, for kids.
SpeakerMichael, let me go a little deeper there. First off, how old was he when, that situation happened with him studying and the teacher helping
Speaker 2whatever grade, second grade
SpeakerOkay, so pretty young.
Speaker 2Yeah,
Speakerand I've heard that before in the show that the idea of, build the campfire kind of deal where it's just, it's an open space. They come and sit down, can talk and you're not necessarily, lecturing right away. It's listening. what are some other ways? cause I feel like I'm the at home and my son's eight and there's times where he just wants to talk about superheroes and his toys and whatnot. And I'm here telling him like, this is how you help society. And this is how you get a job and all these things that he's not maybe ready for. what are some other things that maybe happened that helped you and are still helping you in that leading from behind?
Speaker 2Yeah. So a couple of things that you bring, that spurs me into what you're talking about. number one, most importantly, I've learned, I was dedicated because of my, the way I was brought up, in a kind of a dysfunctional alcoholic family, all that sort of stuff. My dad being deformed, me getting a lot of grief about that with, the people around me, and things like that, Is really, the thing that came to me was never say no. I remember to the day when my dad told me, no, I don't want to throw the ball. I don't know whether it was 14, 15, but I remember, no, I don't want to throw the ball, crushed me. So when Luke had come home from karate when he was 17 or whatever, drive it home, at 11 o'clock at night saying, Hey, he gets home. He goes, Hey dad, you want to go to In N Out? I'm in bed. I'm like, yep, let's go. So I would encourage you never say no. Hey dad, let's go out and play. Go. They want to go. they don't have anything but a t shirt on and 20 degree. Their body temperature is like. it'll melt snow, their body temperature, right? What are we worried about? We were the same way, right? We didn't care, we didn't need a shirt or a hat or we're out there playing, it doesn't matter. Did we come in frozen? Yeah. it's just Never say no if they want to play cars, let's play cars. Let's It's like they want to do it, right? Gabby when she was dancing when we gave her a car at 16 her dance studio moved away about 10 miles away. So when I got off work, she'd be there from 3. 30 to 7 or 8. when I got off work at 5:30 I would just drive over there 10 miles just to walk in and say, Hey, Gabs, give her a quick hug. Stay a minute and leave. Just put in the time. That she still remembers that. I was probably the only from this area that drove over there 10 miles just to have, I didn't bring anything. it was just, whatever. But you got to put in the time. you got to be intentional about what you're doing and how you're doing it.
Speakerlet me go deeper there too, because you've talked about your background, the dad, alcoholic, dysfunction, not playing with you, in that pivotal moment. Is that, was there so much, I don't mean to put it in a horrible way here, but like a scarring that you were just like, you know what? The pendulum's going to swing hard with me. I'm going to make sure I'm with my kids. I'm going to like, how are you so wired to do? I feel like I talked to dads on here and they're like, I don't know what I was doing. I'm just running blind here as a dad, it feels like you've really, with this list, the 57 things and the stories with, dyslexia, your son and the involvement, how are you this way?
Speaker 2that's a great question. probably because of the good Lord. And I can tell you this growing up a Catholic kid, being down here in Texas, they go, are you a Christian? I'm like, yeah, as Catholics, we're a Christian anyway. I go to non denominational for years now, but it's just always a funny conversation. But I always felt like I had a good, relationship with the Lord. Just my personal relationship, even as a young kid, because you'd go through all this trauma. Who did I have to lean on? I always say, God, just help me. what do I need to do? Help me. How do I help my dad? How do I help my family? Help me. And then when I went to Colorado at 17, I can tell you for 10 years, at least I was always looking, even this business guy that I was with, I was always looking for a mentor. And then one day I realized people are asking me to help them. And I was like, okay, I don't want to get cocky here, but people are asking me. but I didn't have that void filled based on, wanting to really connect with somebody to help me along on my journey.
Speaker 4Yeah.
Speaker 2always still looking for that.
Speaker 4Yeah.
Speaker 2how did I end up the way I was? And, I just think it's focus, it's clarity, it's focus and commitment. it's not hard.
Speaker 4Yeah.
Speaker 2It's so busy around the world, worldly thing. Listen, at the end of the day, they're home, they're in your house, right? Your son's what, eight years old?
Speaker 4Yeah.
Speaker 2Yeah. Matter of fact, one thing I did with my son was I went to men's warehouse when he was probably seven or eight. and they used to sell two suits for 99.
Speaker 3Okay.
Speaker 2They give you a, it'd be like a, a suit and then, a white shirt and, clip on tie. They'd give you two sets of those. And what I would do is I would buy one his size. And when the size up because I'm thinking I'm, he's going to grow into it and he's going to use it two or three times. So we'd roll it up, staple it. So we wouldn't have to keep doing whatever. And at that point I was doing a lot of nonprofit stuff. So I was on the board, the hero's board for the women's Genesis shelter, domestic violence. I was on the board of the boys and girls club. I helped negotiate kids out of the gangs. I did a lot of different stuff, and I would always bring him along, and he was always, when he put that, and then, with the suits, I had, and I encourage every dad, once a month create a dinner deal and he loved having steaks So we'd go to a nice steakhouse and he'd be dressed in the suit and Response he got from the waiters and the servers and the concierge You know the maitre d and all that you could just tell lifted him. He wanted to be like that He sat up better, right? He ate better. You got to have that outside influence To really help you but when you go to dinner you just Okay. Where are we going to go? Okay. You want to go down to Dallas to Nick and Sam's? Let's go. It's going to cost me 150 bucks or 100 bucks, but let's go. Yeah. And same thing with Gabby. you just, she didn't want dinners. She just wanted to go out and, have a little lunch or something. And that was all great. But with Sons specifically, I'd say, I don't know if Men's Warehouse still does it, but they used to sell two suits for 99 bucks. I'm sure it's more expensive now, but, I could, send you some pictures you could post on what he looked like, what him and I look like, next to each other with our suit on before we went. And I think that's, you got to put that in the calendar. It's got to be a priority.
SpeakerI love it.
Speaker 2be a priority.
Speakerplease send those to me. I think that would be very cool.
Speaker 2No,
SpeakerThis is exactly what I want the show to be. it's memoirs, how old are you today, Michael?
Speaker 2Yeah, I'm 65 today.
SpeakerSo that's probably one of my most important questions is, you're 65, you've lived a full life. You're not dead by any means. You still have more years to go here, but through the 65 years, those twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, what stands out to you and what ended up mattering? what were the priorities that you did and everything you're saying? It feels like such a life of non regret with everything.
Speaker 2Yeah. Listen, I've made mistakes, but I don't really have regrets per se. specifically, to your question, when people meet me, they see somebody that they always tell me, man, are you always up? And I'm like, yeah, every day you're, and I just think the good Lord sprinkled some dust on me and said, this is you, this is the way you're going to feed into people.
Speaker 4Right.
Speaker 2And I don't go overly, try to be like when I'm down, whatever, ha, and I do have some down periods, like I'm pretty gregarious in a lot of ways.
Speaker 4Yeah.
Speaker 2But trust me, at, six o'clock at night, man, I want to hunker down, be calm, be quiet. Be so gregarious,
Speaker 4Right.
Speaker 2like even for parties, people always give me a hard time. I always show up late and I always leave early. Because I just think I engage and it's like, Denise knows I look over and she goes, okay, we're going.
SpeakerMichael's done. We got to go.
Speaker 2We got to go.
SpeakerI get that. I would consider myself optimistic and try to add value through. Asking people how they're doing and really trying to understand people, remember the names, and then when, if I ever get sick or if I'm not feeling great, I feel like it bothers me because people are like, why are you, what, where's the old Kenny? And it's I'm just acting normal. this is what, this is how everyone else acts. no, you're not being your normal self. You're usually like the life of the party here, like smiling and making sure everyone's okay. So I don't know if you've experienced that too.
Speaker 2Yeah, maybe I was blinded to it, but I'm sure it's happened before. Um, but yeah, I'm just generally usually pretty up, and, getting back to your son at eight. Look what he's doing today. Look. If he's not having trouble in the pool and needs your dad, whatever he's doing is going to be okay, right? If he drops a glass,
Speaker 4I
Speaker 2mean, why get on the kid? he just drops a glass, you pick it up. If he does it 30 times, just say, hey, maybe we ought to change this a little bit, And it's hard, right? It's hard, right? Not to react, right? the whole reaction thing, right? They can tell your body language. They're watching. These kids are watching everything, right? And then when they go to school, they see kids with older kids. So their kids are doing more than your kid. And yeah, no, it's a lot to manage. But fundamentally, look, if you're married, you got to make sure you're focused on your marriage. That's the way your kids are going to be. you're going to make your kids successful in my eyes. it's going to help you build those blocks to make your kids successful and your marriage successful in your life successful,
Speakerdid you give us a quick story on that? Cause I, we, we had a scuffle this morning, my wife and I expectations of Valentine's day and, me just not hitting it as I needed to, any stories, memories of. Rather something that you did really well or something that you just failed on in light of keeping the marriage, where it needed to be.
Speaker 2Absolutely. So this whole gift giving thing, whether it's Christmas, Valentine's Day. Birthdays, whatever. So I used to try to be like, wow, I'm gonna get Denise a nice shirt. when you see that same shirt with the tag on it, 12 years later in the closet, that's not the right gift. I bought a gray jewelry when I lived in, we went out to visit after I left Silicon Valley. I used to go to this. I knew this jewelry guy, so we went there and I bought some stuff for her and it's probably still in the box
Speaker 4right?
Speaker 2Okay. So everybody gives me a hard time because, even my kids, they go, what color running shoe did you buy mom this time? Did you go to now it's Lulu, right? It's Lulu, or, Aldo, whatever they are. I, it's and my wife always says, I don't need shoes. Okay. I get her shoes anyway, because in a week or the next day she's wearing them and she's she's getting compliments because I know what style and it's don't fight city hall. It's almost don't do too much and, but find out what she loves and just cater to that. Now on your deal today for Valentine's day, how long have you been married?
Speaker11 years.
Speaker 2Okay, so you're, my, my thought for you is to make a list, what's worked, what didn't work. Because look, I'm not saying you're going to hit it out of the park every day, but what is your wife like?
Speakerit happened all of a sudden, but she does like thrifting. she loves yard sales. She loves walking around stores and just looking at antique things that, I don't know. Does she buy them sometimes? I feel like, I think today she did buy a basket. I think we have 17 baskets in our house, but, that's what makes her happy is just going out and doing this like thrifty and stuff. So that's what she did this morning. Then she came back. I would say happy, but, yeah, she's an old soul and like old houses and old things.
Speaker 2Yeah. Yeah. So like for Denise, she loves going to market, markets on Saturday, the, the vegetable market, the open markets they have and stuff like that, their pop up ones on Saturdays and, maybe make her a card and say, Hey, one, one, one, One free bottle of wine and, we're going to go on a shopping thing together, right? Just a card, right? Just, that's what she loves. Give it, be intentional about it.
Speaker 4Yeah. I
Speaker 2mean, so for me, to me that I had to focus on what she likes. Trust me, I still get grief from my wife and my kids, but they all know mom loves the stuff I give her.
SpeakerThat's awesome. That's awesome.
Speaker 2she's a workout fiend. She did CrossFit for a ton of years. she ran for a ton of years and now she's just into working out and stuff. And, yeah, she always needs new workout stuff. Cause she'll wear the stuff like me, like a guy, right? We'll wear the same shirt, right? That's why I love a logo shirt. Hey, nobody says, is that the same shirt? No, it's my business shirt. They don't know if it's the same shirt or not. It's just us guys. We got three shirts. We got 47, but we like three shirts. That's what we wear.
SpeakerExactly. Michael, let me pivot a little bit, Michael. We had talked before recorded regarding, legacy, what are you, what are we leaving our kids? How are we investing even financially? And that's one of the things on the show you've. Given so much value in the priorities of what you spent your time doing earlier in the episode, you did give us the different career path that you jumped around and had quite a spread, at this stage in your life, 65, what is, what are some things that you can share in regards to how you're investing right now? And even, work wise, are you still working? Is that still like a joy, passion of yours? Yeah, absolutely. and how are we, what stage are you in right now?
Speaker 2so a couple things. not sure if you're gonna be able to see it, but, for 10 years now, basically when Gabby got a phone, I text her every night. Good night, sweet, sweets. Pickled a pear. Love you. She usually sends me something back.
Speaker 4Yeah.
Speaker 2Even during her college days, I text her every night, probably nine or 10 at night. Sometimes you hear back from her, sometimes not, if she's working on a project late, and I do that with my son. I got the same note for my son. Good night, buddy. Love you. Proud of you. You know? so of course, you could set up your phone so you don't get calls except for emergencies for the emergency people. Right?
Speaker 4Yeah.
Speaker 2So he answers me at one o'clock in the morning, he's done studying or whatever down there. And he goes, Hey, thanks, dad. Love you too. And so the phone's going off, but be consistent, be touch your kids. they have devices, just leave them a note every night, every night. So you, so invest that way, right? Not in monetary stuff with people, like that, but, and I think it's really important to invest in that, now when it comes to, what I've been doing all my life is look, everybody tells you put 300 bucks a week away a month, every other week, every week, if you can't, whatever. Just keep putting it away because everybody used to say to me. Hey, Gabby turned 16. You bought her a new car. Yeah. I knew that was coming up, right? She's going to college. It's paid for. Okay. you've got it. You got to be intentional, right? don't think I'll start starting next week or tomorrow, whatever. You got to think like here. you see it, we see it, right? So many older people just don't have a, a dime to live off of other than social security. And they're just struggling. And there's really no need for that. they just need to be what I call boringly consistent. And I got healthy, what I was coined as being healthy paranoia. I got some healthy paranoia on being boringly consistent on the things that are uber important, that are foundational stuff and investing is one of them. I do some investing with a group, a private equity group that, invest in multifamily stuff. That's usually new stuff that they're building and stuff. I think they've, their portfolio is now about 750 mil, and I've got a small investment with that, that I just keep churning over. Things like that. and then of course your typical knucklehead things like the stock market, I've got a good group that manages that, but it's just I just shake my head. I'm like, just a, it's just a crap shoot. but you got to keep doing that. it does benefit stuff. and then my business is, I decided to be a consultant two years, soon as COVID ended and for two years, it's been a bit of a struggle, but it's at the end of the day, I want to serve people. I want to be able to deliver my value and pass on the things I know about a business because most people are, they always say it, working in the business, not on the business, and they don't know how to get their team motivated into the direction they want to go to. They all talk about it. I don't have the right person. you probably don't have the right call. You'd probably don't have them bought in the heart to really do what you want them to do. Cause what is there 33 million small businesses in the U S after year five or eight, they're all out of business. 20, 80 percent of them. There's a reason why it's all the foundational stuff. And that's what I mean about being boringly consistent. it's not uber sexy to, have a good meeting for an hour. and really listen to people for five or 10 minutes on, Hey, what's going on today? And then really getting down to the meat of the meeting and having actual deliverables that could drive the company.
Speaker 4Yeah.
Speaker 2Don't have the same meeting in three weeks saying, Oh, we're, let's review these same things we didn't do last three weeks. Have a system, have a, cause you're, I provide a system that kind of, you know, a SAS solution that really can track that for you. and raise it up to say, Hey, we're not on track. We're not, we're on track, just cause you're off track. Doesn't mean it's super bad. Maybe there's some good reasons for it, but at least, that you're on track or off track of what you decided to do. And most people aren't looking at that, right? Like tomorrow, most dads are waking up going, okay, I'm just handling, I'm handling stuff. I'm the catcher. I'm blocking and tackling, right? Who's coming at me? What's coming at me? and I would just say you got to be a little more forward thinking than that on what you want to do. And the first thing I do is go to men's warehouse and see if they got a couple suits for guys that have, young men. Because, getting that validation when they put on that suit and you put on a suit. Whether it doesn't have to be a tie. It could be just a jacket and some jeans or whatever, and they walk into a restaurant with you and they go, people go, Wow, look at this young man, you'll be shocked what it does for that kid. That's excellent. Yeah. but investing is always a key, right? anymore you're flooded with things and opportunities to do, guys like yourself that are focused on a niche of investing in real estate and things like that to me, if that's a passion for somebody, they need somebody like you with experience that could help guide them. That is not, and manage the risk appropriately for that. So
Speakerthank you. That's
Speaker 2that's what I think for that. So
Speakerthank you, Michael. Michael, I want to give my audience one last bit of how to find you in regards to if they wanted to see more of what you're up to. And then also we had a conversation very briefly about. target audience in, a potential role of a, chief operating officer or some kind give us like a 60 second. And this is what I'm looking for in regards to the type of niched position you'd like to have, through the coaching and consulting, you talked about, and then how we can track you.
Speaker 2Yeah. my clear focus is, driving businesses. My range really is about five to 75 million. and about anywhere from 10 to 200 employees. that's the kind of groups that I find that I can really affect and really move and that really have a good culture to move in a different, in a direction they want to go to. So that's the kind of framework as far as like a profile. People go, do you have a niche? I'm like, Look, I've been in software, SaaS, technology, services, manufacturing, so I've got a wide range and it's all about getting the structure in the organization and being able to start really moving the structure in the organization along with the concepts and having the right tools. And the third thing is, how do I develop that, those disciplines within that organization? To really keep, to make it boringly consistent what they're doing, right? So those are the kind of companies I'm looking forward to work with. And I've got a good kind of program. typically people say, Michael, you're not any, you don't charge any more than a good admin. And I'm you're right. That's what I charge on a yearly basis. You advertise that over 12 months. it's like you're giving this much value. Why don't you charge more? Because I, you look, I want to help five to seven to 12 clients a year. I'm not, I'm doing well, I'm doing fine. but that's what I'm looking to do. and the way to get ahold of me, you could probably post it, but it's LinkedIn, Michael LaManna. you could go to my website, precision180. com. or you could just give me a call.
SpeakerAwesome. And I wanted to also say, Michael, the way we met, I posted something about chess our mutual friend had said something and you jumped in there. And I think from just even the beginning, I could feel very much you wanted to engage. You wanted to help. And even we were talking chess for a few paragraphs back and forth. So thank you for living what been preaching. you've given a lot today and thank you for joining the invested fathers. Michael Lamanna. Thank you for being with us.
Speaker 2Great. Kenny. Thank you. What a blessing.