.png)
Charge Forward Podcast
The Charge Forward Podcast: Dedicated to those who choose to Charge Forward into the Storm when hit with challenges. This is what makes them different and has lead to their success. When in doubt.... Charge Forward!
Charge Forward Podcast
A Year of Charging Forward: Amazing Lessons One Guest at a Time (Part 2)
Thank you for sharing in our journey in the Charge Forward Podcast.
Let me first say that I apologize that we have missed you the past 4 weeks. I took a pause due to the recent loss of my Best Friend, Hero and Mentor, my Dad James M. Cripps. He was a guest 4 times in our first season and I wish he could join us again as he loved the podcast.
To our fans: Thank you for hanging in there with us during this difficult time. Jim
In this second milestone recap, we continue to highlight the people who charged forward in real life. People who rebuilt identity, protected marriages, scaled impact, healed bodies, honored legacy, and stepped into bigger purpose. Twelve months of conversations where real change happened in real time. Featured guests and signature takeaways:
Colby Jubenville, PhD (Professor & TedX Speaker) - Leadership begins with the story you believe about yourself and the talent you develop inside others. Jill and Miles Reidelberger (Crossfit Wild Things & Wild Things Animal Hospital) - Marriage first, business second. Protect connection, schedule intimacy, set boundaries that honor your spouse.
Virgil Herring (Golf Coach & TedX Speaker) - Plans shift, forgiveness frees the next chapter, and mentors show up right on time for those who stay in motion.
Ron Hickland (CTD Bowling) - When rare opportunity disappears, ownership becomes the path. Grit and courage still scale niche dreams.
Janis Lasmanis (Corsair Detail) - Immigrate the right way, do the right thing, and tell clients the truth even if it stings & be a man of honor.
James Cripps and Don Smith: Veteran Claims, Event in service, current diagnosis, nexus letter. Clarity that unlocks life changing VA benefits.
Chris Nevil: Fly Route Nashville - Drone perspective transforms coaching, safety, and decision making in sports.
Quinton Horner (Wagon Wheel Title) - Work Ethic, Health and Great Fathers
Anna DiCarlo (Unseen Harmony & La Belle Naturelle) - From energy healing to clean beauty products, lymphatic drainage and reiki energy therapy.
Steve & Brianna Price (Libertas Cryo & Radiant Roots Coaching) cryotherapy and red light therapy, the mission is simple: reduce inflammation, recover faster, extend healthspan.
El Lagutin (Shares his Dad's legacy) - Hard work, humility, and impact passed forward across generations.
Jessica Quinn (Quintegrity Land design) - Going from employee to finding your way in business for yourself. Relationships are critical with vendors, suppliers and clients.
Jeremy Qualls - (Executive Director of the Williamson County EIC) - Teen Innovators - National championship level entrepreneurship high school program, solving real problems like drink spike detection, proving courage has no age limit.
Brandon Hurst (Manufacturing IT & ERP Director) - Shares his insights on AI and simple use of how everyday people can use it to solve real world problems.
Larry Schmittou kicks us off next week in part 3
👉 New episodes every Thursday.
Subscribe, review, and keep charging forward with us.
📲 Follow & Subscribe to the Charge Forward Podcast:
🌴 Linktree: https://linktr.ee/chargeforwardpodcast
💡 New episodes drop every Thursday!
📣 Special Thanks to Our Sponsors:
💳 Charge Forward Solutions – Merchant Services
📈 Sense Development – Executive & Data Services
📈 Sense-Leads – Wholesale Lead Services
🎥 HitLab Studios – Podcast Production
🌟 Rosemary Salazar – Virtual Assistant Services
This is a look back over the past year. So we've had a year's worth of episodes, and we've had some amazing guests on this show. Without any further ado, I want to dive in. My next guest was Colby Jubenville and his good friend John Hurst. And uh Colby, I was on his podcast. Uh, he and John had the GOAT Consulting Podcast. I won't forget Tyler as well. Um, the GOAT Consulting Podcast was one of the first podcasts that I was on. And uh I remember uh we were introduced actually by Randy Hooth. Randy's a rock star. Uh Randy hasn't been on yet, but I'm sure he will be. And uh yeah, just an absolute coaching legend. But Colby, he's a so one, he's a PhD at MTSU, raising two wonderful kids. Uh Jack, who just graduated MTSU, was on the basketball team there, uh, and MB, who's a uh just an amazing uh part of the dance team there at MTSU, raising great kids. And Colby is a business coach and runs the entrepreneurship program there at MTSU. And he I think one of my my favorite stories is him getting ready for uh giving his TED talk a couple years ago. And I I literally I flew in from Honduras and the next morning uh went to his TED Talk and he and Virgil Herring, who is another guest, uh they just crushed it. They did a great job. Uh, but he is all about the framework of talent development. And if you're in leadership, he is passionate about that is your job, is talent development is the number one thing you should be focused on. So look up Colby. Uh also Colby's a part of uh uh frontline development. Um that's a great group of coaches. I say that kind of biasedly because I'm I'm part of that coaching group as well. But uh check out frontline development.
SPEAKER_00:Still asking her at 52 if I'm if I'm good enough. Brene Brown, what should you talk about? Am I rich enough, strong enough, powerful enough, successful enough? Am I good enough? Talent starts with developing talent starts with understanding the story you tell yourself. It's either written for you or by you. What I would want somebody to do when I sit down, I use Harrison Assessment, and we use something called traits and definitions to uncover their life themes. When I took this assessment, my life themes were warmth, empathy, wants high pay, wants to lead, and influencing. And I'm like, is this thing inside my head? This is the story that I tell myself every day.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So it starts with the story you tell yourself. That's the first rung in talent development. So I'm going to spend the rest of my life doing two things uncovering and developing people's talent and being a trusted advisor to those people.
SPEAKER_04:Uh Miles and Jill Reidelberger were on the next, and I can't even describe to you how thankful I am for them for a host of different reasons. So my son and their son are really good friends. But on top of that, uh Jill is a veterinarian, runs Wild uh Wild Things Veterinary Hospital there in Pleasantview, Tennessee. And Miles made a gigantic leap from uh basically being in chemical manufacturing to owning and opening a CrossFit gym. I personally go to CrossFit Wild Things, so does my son. Every once in a while we talk uh my wife Emily into going. And it's just an amazing group of people that they have put together and that that make up that group. Uh Sylvia is just an amazing coach and you know, just the kind of the heartbeat of that uh of that group. And then we have the Golden Girls. And so the Golden Girls are really uh uh an amazing story. So Miss Uh Miss Pam has Parkinson's, and her doctor told her that if she wanted to kind of push back or uh the effects of Parkinson's, then she should start doing CrossFit. So she started doing CrossFit. Now imagine this. She's 70 years old. Now she's 73. But at 70 years old, she goes into a CrossFit gym. And Miss Pam is just so inspiring. She gets in there three days a week, religiously, she's in there, absolutely sweating and and doing all the exercises. So much so that if you're in that 9 a.m. class, I guarantee you you can't give up. Because if Miss Pam at 73 years old is over here still working that barbell, well, then you've got no excuse. I've got no excuse. And so I love that about that culture. We have what I think is probably the best culture of any CrossFit gym in the entire world. Now I am biased because it's the one I go to. But the Golden Girls are these roughly 10 to 15 women that are say 55, 65, and older, I think 83 is the oldest one, that come in there, do the exercises, and absolutely sweat it out and don't give any excuses. And they're just a fantastic group. Um, and that's not to say there's not other fantastic people, because that 9 a.m. class may be 25 people deep some days. But it's everybody from the super fit to the super unfit. And we're all in there for the same reason, and that is to live longer and to live to get our health span and our lifespan to be closer together. Um, but just a huge shout out to all the ladies there. Uh, Pam, Carol, um, Wanda, uh, Donna, all of them. They're fantastic. And and all of my CrossFit family. I mean, they are I I love you guys. I really do. Um Virgil Herring. Virgil, well, actually, before I I missed it, one key important part. Um Jill and Miles uh talked very openly about how important it was in order to make time for your spouse. And there was a funny clip in there where Jill makes no bones about the fact that they prioritize their sex life uh and how important that is to connecting and and and being a couple and and being in it for the long haul. And uh kudos to Jill for one, uh for being willing to do the podcast, but two for for sharing that openness, being that vulnerable with with our listeners, um, to say the thing out loud. And um many people have brought that up to me and that they're like, I it was inspiring to hear her say that. And and and Miles even said, uh, you know, sometimes she'll be like, hey, we need a date night. We need we need to spend some time together, and you're gonna make time for me. And because he's open about the fact that sometimes he'll put his head down and he's just working. And and I think in every relationship, sometimes we get stuck in that. So kudos to them for sharing that with our audience.
SPEAKER_15:Well, I I just want to point out, I I don't think it's necessarily the success of the businesses, I think it's uh uh led to my happiness. Like if I didn't have the right spouse, I mean I see what some of these uh couples go through. And we even say to each other, like, oh, thank God. I mean, I'm happy, I I hope she's happy, but uh God, entering the dating scene again or something like that.
SPEAKER_11:Well, you know, sex is important and we prioritize that in our lives.
SPEAKER_04:Hey, that's it's part of it, it really is.
SPEAKER_11:And uh, you know, I think that we have two businesses, but making our marriage a priority is something we said at the beginning. We said we said that we didn't want to be in business together if it meant that it was going to compromise our marriage. So we have to we always make it a priority to set time aside for ourselves.
SPEAKER_15:And she's she's better at it than I am, but she'll be like, no, you're spending time with me today. And uh thank God she does, because yeah, that's that's how it works.
SPEAKER_04:Um, Virgil Herring, though. So I met Virgil uh through Colby, and I was on Virgil's uh podcast. He's got an amazing podcast on the verge, and then he also had uh a great podcast with Drew Maddox going along with their book, and uh, much like Colby, he's a uh TED Talk uh veteran, and there's a couple things that I took away from uh Virgil's episode. In fact, it was a two-part episode, it was our first two-part show. But um, some of the things. So when I met Virgil, Virgil was kind of in a in a tough spot, and you know, he was very open about the fact that his his career took off and he was crushing it, and then uh some life things and some career things all just kind of stacked on top of each other, and he was at a low. And um, but he was doing all the right things and he was continuing to push forward and continuing to charge forward, and now Virgil's crushing it. So uh big shout out to Virgil. Virgil's a part of uh a couple different consulting firms, uh, as well as he's one of the top golf coaches in the world. I don't mean locally, he is one of the top golf coaches in the world, and he's an accomplished speaker. Um, but just seeing him be triumphant in this next phase, it's fantastic to see. And one of the things that he talked about was the influence of his mom and how important it is in order to forgive yourself and be able to forgive people. And he said that was his mom's superpower, and that throughout his whole life he's trying to get better at that himself, not only to forgive himself for you know, maybe some missteps, but also to forgive other people so that he can move forward.
SPEAKER_03:Well, I can tell you that the TED talk really flipped the script for me. You know, I I knew going in that I had a mission, I had a very solid game plan of what I wanted to have happen out of it. But, you know, be careful with the plans that you make, right? Because that then led me to having uh a person who really enjoy my message. His name is Dave Meltzer, and Dave Meltzer is uh essentially, you know, Jerry McGuire. Right. And so Dave has taken an interest in me, and he's really helped guide me through the this next version of my life. Uh so between public speaking and doing golf-related business, in which I'm coaching people, you know, so much about the golf swing, but also how golf and life mirror each other.
SPEAKER_04:Our next guest was right there at Black Friday, and that was Mr. Ron Hickland. And I've known Ron about 25 years, and Ron's story is inspiring because, you know, when he was a teenager, he picked one of the hardest jobs in the world to get. He picked a job that only five people in the world had, and that's what he wanted to be. Now you could find a smaller job. You might want to be the shortstop for the New York Yankees, and that's like one or two people, right? Well, Ron wanted to be one of five people, and then he wanted to design bowling balls, and so he went on that mission, and sure enough, he stuck with it and he became a ball designer. And then life hit him sideways, and there was some manufacturer consolidation, and he was let go. And instead of being angry, and I'm sure he walked through that process, but he started his own bowling company, and now he produces everything from balls to uh manufacturing products and supplements for bowlers and has a thriving community and business. So if you're not familiar with uh creating the difference, um, it is a fantastic bowling company. And uh check out Ron Hicklin. Now, to put that in perspective for people, how many people designed bowling balls at that time? Four. So you pick a career where there are four. I mean, really realistically, the only way you could get to a a tighter group, a harder job to have, would be if you said, I want to be the shortstop for the New York Yankees.
SPEAKER_12:Yeah, yeah, basically. But you know, it's just it's the same thing. Like if you whatever you if you really want to do something, right, then you'll do whatever you have to do, and things will kind of work themselves out.
SPEAKER_04:Our next guest, just an amazing friend of mine, um, and he's got so many inst inspiring pieces of his story, uh, Giannis Las Manas of Corsair Detail here in Nashville, Tennessee. So Giannis is from Latvia, and he was in the military, and then he did uh uh consulting work for Facebook as a uh um I don't want to say maybe counter-terrorism or his security. And then he met a girl and he moved to the United States and COVID hit, and it turned his world upside down. Um, and so he talks about doing all the right things in order to uh, you know, come to the United States legally and how difficult that was, uh, especially it happening in the middle of COVID. And uh, but him making sure that he dotted all the I's and crossed the T's and doing things right because he wanted to have a thriving business here. And now he absolutely does. Um but the thing that I love about Giannis is Giannis tells the truth, and one of the things that he said that has made a bit of a bit of a viral uh clip is petting people and kind of solidifying false truths is not helping people, that we should judge people more and we should tell the truth, and you know saving people from having a tough conversation is not usually helping them. So take that to heart. Remember, petting people is not helping them.
SPEAKER_09:They're good people and they they they they build really, really cool cars, they build hot rods and like mud and restoration mods and stuff. Okay, but yeah, um again, I've been fortunate, you know. Say fortunate, you know, I work for everything I have, but uh I've been very fortunate, you know, that to attract the right people, you know. Uh I walked into Titan Motoring. That was the first place literally I worked in, because I didn't know anybody in Tennessee when I started here. Yeah, so I walked in the store talking about something else, and I was like, hey guys, do you do ceramic coatings here? And this guy's like, oh, we used to do it, but the guy that did it for us, he actually moved to Florida, whatever. He's like, he's working out that well. And I was like, Oh, really? I said, Are you the best custom shop in town? And he was like, Yeah. I was like, Well, you just found the best ceramic coater. Ah, there you go. Yeah, like he's like, Oh, really? He's like, when can you start? I was like, yesterday.
SPEAKER_04:Then we had my dad on again, and dad was here with Don Smith, and Don is probably my dad's best friend, and so it's great to see them going to car shows together. And uh Don and his wife Wanda are fantastic people. My my mom and my dad enjoy spending time with them, they play rook together, they go to car shows together, and they're just uh amazing friends. And Don owns a uh upholstery business in Clarksville, Tennessee, and uh just a just a great guy. And the the reason for their story is you know, they came in and we all met at a car show one time. In fact, I met Wanda first and then introduced uh Wanda uh to my parents, and then she introduced Don, and then they've all become friends. But Don um had a claim that I think was like 10 years old and essentially was unwinnable by the way that his uh VSO had put together the claim, and my dad was able to kind of dissect it into pieces and and help him uh win his his VA benefits. And if they hadn't met, if we hadn't all met at that car show that day, um I don't know that they would have ever met. I don't know that they would have become best friends. So it's just absolutely wonderful to see, and I want to say thank you to both Don and Wanda for being such great friends to my my parents. Um you guys are wonderful.
SPEAKER_08:Any claim for service connection, you need three things. You need an event in service that could be an exposure, a disease, or an injury while you were in the military. Second, you need a present-day diagnosis. Third, you need a nexus letter, and a nexus letter is a doctor's letter saying that your present-day diagnosis could have been caused by your event when you were in the military service, and that again could be an exposure.
SPEAKER_04:Our next guest was Chris Neville of Fly Route Nashville. And Chris is a great guy. Uh, he does a great, he has a great company, and one of the things that I love about his story is much like myself, he he's not going to give his kids the easy way out. Uh, he wants to treat that treat them uh in a way that causes them to be resilient, not in a mean way, but in a self-accountability way, and uh pushes them to continually drive to be better versions of themselves. And um, you know, Chris is a great sales leader, uh, does great business uh at his day job, but then his uh growing side job is Fly Route Nashville, where they provide a totally different kind of um it's drone video footage for sports games so that they have a different angle on the footage and can make different decisions uh based on that. And so check them out, Fly Route Nashville, they do fantastic work.
SPEAKER_10:So head coach is is normally our targeted audience, sometimes at athletic directors, too, when it comes to education, when it comes to um elaborating on how and why fly route's different, and then being able to you know create the uh the best partnership as possible and through transparency and and obviously too the education piece is a big part of what we do because there's so much um other operations, other drones and things like that in in this market or in sports in general that do fly. And there's lots of people in the world that that you know film their sports games, which is fine. It's just we choose you know, we're just uh a little bit different market to where you know there's lots of different intricacies that could happen.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, it's it's next level. It's it's for sure. It's making sure that all the I's are dotted and all the T's are crossed to ensure safety and at the same time provide uh award-winning service. Absolutely. I love it. Yep, man, that's awesome. Quentin Horner, uh, my longtime friend, we've been friends for since middle school. And uh growing up, uh you know, we met in middle school and or we met in elementary school and then became great friends in middle school. And then a crazy turn of event, my my dad and his dad ended up meeting and became friends and didn't know that we were friends, which is crazy. Um and they were best friends for for a long time. Uh we lost we lost Harry uh 20 years ago this this month, actually. And um one of the one of the tough things growing up um as a young man, I was um, I don't know, in my twenties when Harry passed away. And I don't know the meaning of it, I don't know why or what or how, but the universe just has a way of doing things, right? And so I was on the cover of the Tennessee and the paper here in Nashville. And on that same day, uh that was the that was the the paper that his obituary was in. So it was very I was conflicted at the time and because I was supposed to be proud of being on the cover knowing knowing that this amazing friend of ours his obituary was in the same episode. And so I was conflicted at the time, and now I look back on it and I think what a gift. What an an amazing gift. For that to happen. But Quentin Oh my gosh. Just an amazing guy. And the the thing that I want you to take away from Quentin's story the number one thing about Quentin is his work ethic. He's the guy that's gonna do the whole job. He's the guy that is going to own it and make sure that it gets across the finish line. And how often today do we we see people that we experience things where people say it's not my job? Or they say, Oh, well, they blame it on somebody else. And it just shouldn't be. Um and you know, Quentin and I have been through it, uh, good, bad, and ugly. And there's been a lot of life, um, as you would expect with a with a with a friend for 35 years. I hope that you guys have friends like that. I really do. I hope you have friends that uh go through all of life with you. Um I know some people do and some people don't. I feel incredibly fortunate for the friend network that I have. Uh I feel incredibly fortunate for the people that I surround myself with, both intentionally and but those that have just shown up along the way. Um It makes life life amazing and it makes the tough it makes the tough parts bearable. I apologize if this is a bit of an emotional episode for me. Because of the things that are going on outside of the studio.
SPEAKER_02:Um you know, that's um kind of how I how I got into law in the first place was um my my father passed when and when I was twenty-seven, and um, you know, unbeknownst to him, things weren't as good an order for his estate as they should have been, and that protracted out from 2005 till 2011. You know, and there were there were a finite number of things, three or four things, and yet it still took you know seven years to get this stuff, almost seven years to get it sorted out. Like that's that's too long. What I deal with is shorter term issues because I like the variety of things. I like being able to get to a resolution conclusion on it and moving on to the next next thing. So um, yeah, the whole drawn-out process that that's um I have more interest in the shorter term things.
SPEAKER_04:My next guest, absolutely fantastic young woman, uh, Miss Anna DeCarlo. She is an expert in Reiki, energy healing, and Unseen Harmony, which actually is the name of her company. She has two companies, LaBelle Naturelle and Unseen Harmony. And she does things like lymphatic drainage, reiki, energy healing, soundbed therapy, uh, as well as LaBelle Naturelle is all natural products, whether that's sunscreen or a tea to make your throat feel better or whatever that is. Um, one of her daughters actually had uh some allergies uh as a as a baby and a toddler. And so she had to go down that path of kind of creating or uh having some more natural products. So there's no uh no preservatives um or anything in in her products. Um and they're just fantastic. And it's great to see her having this thriving business and so many people kind of getting in tune with themselves, their their spirit, and um, and taking better care of themselves.
SPEAKER_06:But if I have a product that doesn't fit you, I research, test, we go through all the things together to see what will work for you. So it's not just a oh, it's sitting on a shelf, let me come in and purchase whatever. You know how that works. Oh, yeah. Um, you actually get a chance to shop either like that or you can have something customizable for you. So it makes it really unique.
SPEAKER_04:It does. And um to me, it's almost like, and I know this sounds crazy, uh, but it's almost like you're mixing potions.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah. Yeah, I guess so. That's the start of the woo-woo, I guess.
SPEAKER_04:It is so um, and we might as well just dive into the the woo-woo part of it. Um, so I came to you because uh I really hadn't I don't think I had any preconceived notions as what as to what Reiki was or energy healing or a sound bed or lymph. I knew a little bit about what lymphatic drainage was. Um but yeah, I don't I don't think I had any kind of in that same breath. Uh we had uh Steve and Brianna Price were on the show, and Steve and Brianna are fantastic. Steve is a former special operator in our military, and then uh Brianna was also um in the military, and so they decided to get out of the military. Uh Steve retired. I I don't remember if Brianna uh retired or not. Um, but they have but they have two different companies. They have uh Libertas Cryo and they have Radiant Roots. And so Libertas Cryo is a fantastic facility in Clarksville. And so Steve and some of his friends, when they were getting later in their career uh in special forces, they started using things like cryotherapy, salt therapy, uh contrast therapy, red light therapy, uh shockwave therapy, all those things in order to heal their bodies and to hurt less. And so when he got out of the military, he decided that he wanted to provide that in a military town. So they have that in Clarksville. And I absolutely am a patron of their services. Uh Brianna helps people um from all over the United States. She does remote coaching, uh, both in nutrition and wellness, works with several doctors that we know in common and that kind of stuff. So check them out. They're absolutely fantastic. Uh, and I'm I'm just uh incredibly grateful to call them friends and um to spend time with them.
SPEAKER_05:Inflammation is the root of almost every single chronic disease we have in our nation. And so in us trying to help people stem the tide of these chronic diseases, we want to help stop the inflammation.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:Um, so we always recommend cold last.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean, almost everybody is trying to deal with some type of inflammation. So almost everybody would benefit from ending on cold. Um, if you're if you're not dealing with anything inflammatory, then you could end on hot. Um, but from for the majority of people, cold is going to be the best way to end it.
SPEAKER_04:Next, we had on the show L Laguten. And so uh L. We didn't know each other for a long time. And then uh in 2015, we started um working together, started riding razors and um raising our our families alongside one another. And um, they're just great people to know. But Elle came in and was really telling the story of his dad. Unfortunately, um Raleigh passed away this this um this past year, and so Dr. Laguten, um he was an inspiration to many people. And he was telling the story of them moving to the United States, and I get that immigration is a hot topic these days. And just kind of solidifying like the steps that his family went through in order to do things the right way, to bring their family here, to live a better life, and to um do that for future generations. And so they moved here from the Philippines. Uh, it was a very tough situation. They even had to move um and then essentially save up and bring their older daughter later, a couple, I think it was about a year or a couple years later. And, you know, he was a doctor in the Philippines, comes here and has to work his way back up, uh go through his medical boards and that kind of stuff. So he's working six and seven days a week, uh, traveling to other cities in order to in order to accomplish all that. But what an amazing legacy that he left for his children. And it's just it's a great story. So please check that one out. Um, it'll pull on your heartstrings, it'll also show you what being tough is all about and doing the right things for your family. But uh again, uh thank you to Elle for sharing that story and just kind of giving us a look behind the curtain of what it is for what it was for the Laguten family to to come to the United States.
SPEAKER_13:And Um when he got here, found out, you know, he he is not a licensed physician in the United States. And so um he just had a s new baby and needed to figure that out. And so his first job was um uh in California. So we when they moved here, um I was born in Oakland, California. Um, and so his first job in the United States was counting baskets coming off ships, um, doing that, and then he shined shoes, um you know, going to from being a doctor in the Philippines, you know, um to coming to the United States and not having anything just to make it in the United States, right?
SPEAKER_04:It's uh I I think that just proves just how powerful that dream was. Yeah, right? You know, because I you know, a lot of doctors and a lot of just people in general, you know, we all have our egos, right? And our ego actually uh I know it's meant to protect us, but then it ends up getting in the way a lot of times because maybe we're not willing to do um that thing that we're gonna have to do in order to survive or in order to get to that goal. And to show that humility for him to come here and say, it's so important for my family to come here to the United States and to flourish. Then we had Miss Jessica Quinn of Quintegrity Landscape Solutions. She was on the show and she told us the story about how she went from working for a nursery, kind of having her world turned upside down, uh working in a different field, and then kind of making the leap and deciding to open her own business. And she's doing great work here in Middle Tennessee, uh, does great work with some of the other professionals that I work with, Jason and uh so Jason Lewis, Josh from On the Grind and Hudson Tree Service, just amazing people doing amazing work. But she really kind of painted the picture for how you go from working in a different field, kind of really understanding what makes it tick, and then starting your own business.
SPEAKER_07:Oh, I would say networking is probably one of the most important aspects to my business for a multitude of reasons. I have landscapers who are like Jason, where they know this is their specialty. Their specialty is planting, it's bringing in the material. Um, their specialty may not be customer service or answering, you know, mundane questions about flower shapes. Um, so those guys are a great asset to me in bringing in clients, um, as well as vendors, you know, networking with my vendors, keeping up on what the latest products are, some of the newest applications, or even getting um text pictures from my vendors going, look at this innovative idea somebody did um that just gives you inspiration to uh be able to present to your homeowners outside the box ideas that make things unique. So across the board, networking is probably one of the most important. I probably network more than I market personally.
SPEAKER_04:Well, really, if you're networking correctly, it takes a lot off your plate when it comes to marketing.
SPEAKER_07:Yes.
SPEAKER_04:Um, plus those referrals are so much more valuable in that, you know, you're not competing on price at that point. Then we had Jeremy Qualls come in. So Jeremy runs the EIC in Williamson County, and that is the Entrepreneur and Innovation Center, and they are crushing it. And when I say crushing it, I mean they're absolutely crushing it. They they literally they've only been a school, I think, for six or seven years, and the last two years, which they just won like maybe a week or two ago, uh, they won the national competition. So uh last year they had the winner. This year they had a young lady uh with the company, she created the company Spiky, and it is a test strip uh that you can use to make sure that your drink is not spiked. And so uh she's already got a contract with some sororities out there and just absolutely making waves. But uh it is amazing what kind of work they're doing there with kind of helping uh high school age kids start their own businesses. And if you're in Middle Tennessee, I would encourage you to get involved with it. If you're in another state somewhere else, if there's one locally, absolutely dive in, maybe become a mentor. If you're a business owner or coach, maybe be a mentor, get get involved with that. But uh Jeremy's got an amazing story and just a great episode to watch, but to see I love his leadership ability and kind of how he looks at um the school systems. We we've been in a challenging school system situation ourselves, uh, where the school system was run more like a uh at least this particular school run more like a prison than it was a school. Uh we've got new leadership, so I'm I'm hopeful. Uh, but Jeremy's been through that. Jeremy took over a school that was run kind of in that same space, and he he really kind of he's great at kind of pulling away the clutter and sticking to just the fundamentals and allowing it to be a situation where where children thrive. And so it's great to see what they're doing down there. They've got a brand new building underway at the EIC. They're gonna be partnering with Thompson Caterpillar, they're gonna be partnering with an aviation company, with a hospitality company, with an AI company. It's just it's great. So check out the Williamson County EIC.
SPEAKER_14:Um, you know, being a coach, I don't know that you could pay me enough money to get back in the coaching profession because nobody's ever right, right. I mean, no coach is ever right. Never. You know, and then uh I followed up my coaching gig after I got into admin with the district athletic director uh of Williamson County, which I was before the EIC. That's right. And, you know, for for for five years, I had to ride herd over 320 coaches and 10,000 student athletes in Williamson County. Let's just say that every job past that's pretty much Sunday school because uh, you know, you got highly ambitious people. Nothing wrong with that. That that that uh uh but comes with the highly uh the high ambition sometimes comes with the the uh the blinders too, sometimes.
SPEAKER_04:And that entitlement that's not entitlement, you know.
SPEAKER_14:Hey, I'm paying$400 a month for my kid to go to this personal trainer. I'm like, you might want to save you money. You know, I'm just gonna be honest with you. And I found that when I had discussions with disgruntled parents over coaching and/or their or playing time or whatever, uh sometimes the more blunt you are, the faster you get to that bluntness to them, the faster that conversation's over. And that's part of that culture that we have internally, but it works. It doesn't necessarily work for everybody because you have to be willing to let go of the reins, and that's tough.
SPEAKER_04:You do, and you have to have the right people that are willing to push back when they know that that's the wrong thing. And that means that you have you've got to have fostered an environment where they can speak up.
SPEAKER_14:It's not the wrong thing, more so than it is what are we here fighting for? Because that wrong thing can be misconstrued as Jim really wants to do this because it's gonna make Jim look good. Right. And that's not what we're doing. That's there's not a decision that's made that's gonna make Jeremy look good, Chris look good, Paula look good. It's to say, what's best for these kids, and that's who we serve.
SPEAKER_04:I love it. That's the mission. That's the mission, and that I mean that's why you're so successful at it. And you guys have you just broke ground on uh some pretty amazing stuff too. If you will kind of give us give us a look under the hood on that. Um we also had Brandon Hearst. So Brandon is an IT guy, he's actually on my bowling team. And Brandon tells a tough story. He was um he worked at a company where there was a uh workplace shooting and his boss was was killed. And kind of just his thought process and how he processed that, how other people processed that, and how they showed back up to work. Um and just gives a unique perspective. And you know, Brandon is for the most part self-taught, and he so he's in manufacturing, but doing just amazing things, a very forward thinker, and how he thinks about manufacturing and his role in IT and how they really kind of come together, and he's the hub. Um, so it's it's just a again, a great story, uh, a challenging story that really makes you think of how you would react and also just great to see him thriving.
SPEAKER_16:AI continues to amaze me every time I try something. You know, I I've told you this story uh, you know, one night of bowling. Uh I I think the true power of AI is going to be that uh it can identify problems that maybe a human would miss. Uh, for instance, uh uh on our house, I noticed I had a gap between the trim and the brick next to the garage door. And uh, you know, I'm a computer guy, I'm not a handy guy, I've got a few tools, but you're not gonna see me with a table saw, right? That's right. So uh I've got an idea of how to fix this, but I want to see what AI says. But not only do I want to see what it says, I want to see if it identifies the problem. So I just took a picture of this gap in the trim, loaded it into uh an AI chat that I had started about home ownership. I think it's important if you're using something like Chat GPT to not mix your conversations, you want to have like a focus of each chat. So I already had a home ownership chat going. I loaded this picture in with no context, and I was floored when it spit out and it said, It appears you have a gap between the brick and the trim here on your garage door. Here's a list of materials that you need to purchase along with instructions on how to fix it. And I was like, whoa. I was like, if we can identify problems with technology, that is like next level stuff.
SPEAKER_04:Um, then we had Larry Smetto on. Larry is I don't know. Team is Jim Cripps here with the Charge Forward Podcast. I just want to tell you, I love you. I appreciate you listening, I appreciate you for subscribing and sharing the Charge Forward Podcast with people you know and you love because that's what we're here for. We are here to share the amazing stories, the things that people have been through, the ways that they were able to improve their life so that you can take little nuggets from theirs and help improve your story and be better tomorrow than you were today. I hope that this is the tool you needed at the right time and that you find value in the amazing guests that we bring each and every week. Thanks so much, and don't forget, new episodes drop every Thursday.