Faith, Family & Business Leadership | Episode 27 ft. Thad Rispone

In this episode of the TLW Podcast, Jonathan Pixley and Dr. Sean Owens sit down with Thad Rispone, President of ISC Constructors, to talk about leadership, legacy, mentorship, family, faith, and what it means to build success the right way.

Thad shares his journey from working in the warehouse of his father’s company to helping lead one of the most respected construction companies in the country. Throughout the conversation, he unpacks the importance of earning trust, staying curious, investing in people, leading with integrity, and keeping faith and family at the center.

This episode is filled with wisdom for leaders, business owners, coaches, parents, and anyone striving to build a life of purpose.

Work With TLW: https://trainleadwin.com/services/

Podcast Produced by JCB Media: https://www.instagram.com/thejcbmedia/

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome to the TLW Podcast. I am Jonathan Pixley here with my co-host and business partner, Dr. Sean Owens. Dr. Owens, welcome back as always. Glad to be here, coach. Glad to have our other partner behind the scenes, Jace Augustus with JCB Media, running the show. Without him, there would be no show. So we are thankful to have him. We also want to thank Kidder Dental, Drs. Dustin and Liz Kidder, for allowing us to use this amazing facility, amazing space to run this podcast. We are certainly blessed to have it. And if you guys need anything done with your teeth, this is the place that you need to come and check these guys out because they do amazing work over here. Today, and as always, we have uh amazing guests, I feel like, with with every every pod that we shoot. But um today uh I want to introduce Thad Responi to our viewers. Uh first of all, Thad, thank you for coming on. We really appreciate you being here. Thanks for having me. I'm humbled. And uh Thad is a Baton Rouge native, uh, grew up here in Baton Rouge, went to Bishop Sullivan, was an outstanding high school basketball player, uh, went on to play at the next level, um, and then has grown up in the business world here in Baton Rouge uh at ISC and uh constructors, where you know he he worked in the warehouse in high school. Um his father was a founder of the business. And then basically you worked your way up through the org chart until uh today you're the executive vice president and and pretty much running the show over there. Uh graduated from LSU, I think, right? I did, yeah. Okay. And then uh you live here in Mountain Rouge, obviously, with uh your wife Brandy and four uh amazing daughters. We were talking about the fact that you have four daughters. God bless you, first of all. Uh I have two, and I I still don't know how they let me live in the house uh anymore. But um, you know, I guess you learn a lot about yourself with daughters, won't you? You certainly do, right? It's crazy. Um very active in the community, uh, have certain you know served on several boards. You also coached middle school basketball um at St. George Catholic School for like 25 years, I think. We've heard close to it. Um, grades fifth through eighth. So uh, you know, you have been super, super active in our community, uh, bring so much um to the Baton Rouge area. I know my brother Chris has benefited from your mentorship as well over the years. So again, can't thank you enough for being here for sure.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

Thank you for having me. And a big compliment when you say that I was a good basketball player. Well, I appreciate that. I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_02 2:38

I don't know about that, but anyhow. Um so let's transition right into it. So, you know, at ISC Constructors, obviously now you're you're the you're a big wig, but um, you started out in the warehouse in a business that your father founded, right? What was it like being involved in a business that that your father was ultimately operating at the time, just to start off with?

SPEAKER_00 3:03

So it's a unique perspective when you're the son of a founder. So he he and his brother started ISC in 1989 with the vision to be the best electrical contractor in the Baton Reach to New Orleans market and pretty much invested in his life savings. He was 39 years old, he had just retired. My father did. Jerry was in his 20s, Jerry's his brother, and they they said that they they wanted to start their own company and they wanted to do it from scratch. So he invested his entire life savings to start ISC. We started in a 16 by 64-foot trailer on property on Highland Road and had folding chairs, and you'd like the banks in and the insurance companies, and he had a big vision, but it's hard to see that vision when they're swatting flies and sitting on folding chairs and and tables. So he uh he and Jerry have done a remarkable job. They've been they've been very good partners for a very long time and have grown the company to several thousand employees and over half a billion in sales, and we're working all over the country right now. He wanted me to learn the business from the ground up. And so when they founded the company, I was 18 years old, and several of my friends started with me. And they were not necessarily in construction management like I was, but they needed to pay for college. So my dad and Jerry put them to work too. So we would cut grass, we would wash trucks, we would clean equipment, we'd uh bend material and so forth. Then in the summers, we would work um in the field sometimes and learn the business. So rode the bus in with everybody, went to the same lunch tents, the porta cans, the whole thing. So I think the biggest thing that I learned, and and I'll get to your answer in your question, was about the people. And business is all about the people. And Jerry has made this comment a few times. Without people, it would just be tools and trucks and buildings just sitting there. It's the people that make everything run. So from the very beginning, they wanted to hire the best people, and they wanted to train those folks and give them the tools that they needed to succeed. Working for a family, well, you call it a family business. Now it's I'm the president of ISC today. It's taken me 30 years to get there, Chris. So I don't know if they ran out of options or or what, but I'm happy to be there and humbled by it. It's um it's personal to me. We're we're competitive by nature, but um, it's personal because it was family that started it from the very beginning.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

You mentioned all the odd jobs that y'all more or less ran for the company when y'all first started out. Coach Pixie alluded to it earlier that you started out in the warehouse. Um you said that you learned that so much of the business is people. Can you talk somewhat about the challenges that it might have uh things that you had to face being you know that you're the son of one of the founders? Was that difficult at any time with being in that position and working with the individuals that you're around day in and day out?

SPEAKER_00 6:01

It is. It you have to I I tried not to put my last name on the my very first hard hat, but they knew they knew who I was and they knew I was coming. So I you have to work harder than everybody else. Or um you have to work harder than what they expect you to work. Yeah, you earn it, yeah. You have you have to really earn it. And and I think that's one reason why dad wanted me to start off in the field.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

As you're moving up the organization's ladder, um you've got these opportunities to evolve into bigger and bigger things. Um, what were some of the tools that you used to achieve the success that you achieved along the way?

SPEAKER_00 6:34

Um curiosity? Oh, I love that. Yeah. Staying curious, always learning. I've gone through stages where I felt like, oh wow, I have this. I really do. And then as soon as you think you have it, you you really don't. So staying curious was was real important, and I've learned that probably I guess 10 to 15 years ago. Most people probably 15 years ago, I told my wife, I want to reach out to someone that's not family that maybe would invest in me. And she says, Okay, tell me more about that. And she's from Homa and uh she has a different perspective than I do. Her dad was a commercial shrimper, smart guy, great family, and and so forth. And she said, So what do you plan to do? I said, Well, I've identified a couple people, I think I'm gonna reach out to them and ask them if they would visit with me every so often, so I could learn I could learn from them. And she said, Okay, let me get this straight. So you you're gonna reach out to a total stranger and you're gonna ask them to visit with you and ask them to be your friend, essentially. And I said, Well, I didn't think about it like that. That that really wasn't my mindset, but yeah, yeah, I guess so. So I did, and it was amazing. The um the gentleman that I reached out to first, I felt had the the faith, the family, the the values and purpose in life that that I was looking for, and a different perspective than just your maybe your father or uncle that you're visiting with every day. And and he said yes, absolutely. And so from that point forward, we would meet every so often, and I'd be able to share things with him and ask him questions. And and so that that was a big help. And what I've learned from that is any type of new idea that I have or new skill that I'm trying to learn, I find people that have that and I reach out to them. And I'll call them my starting five, which I've mentioned to you before, Chris. My girls and my wife, I call them my starting five. I think everything starts there, but I've also done that in business. When I'm when I'm looking to learn something or I'm venturing off in the I'll try and find four or five people and that I could learn from. Love it.

SPEAKER_02 8:43

We at TLW here, whenever we're working with clients, we one of the first things that we do is we try to help them identify, you know, their, I guess, self-perceived strengths and weaknesses, right? What they think they're really good at and what they think that they struggle with. Um, and when we talk about weaknesses, it doesn't have to be anything that's just this incredible downfall, right? It's just something that they feel like I I could probably use a little help in, a little improvement, because it paints a picture for them uh and really creates a path for us to help them holistically with what it is that we're trying to do, whether it be, you know, some type of mindset training, whether it be uh nutrition, whether it be whatever it is, right? Um and so when you and and as you've as you've obviously come up through the ranks and and gotten to where you are today, you know, like I told you, my brother Chris was is somebody who has benefited from your experience, right, and your knowledge, not just in the business world, but probably how to handle people and deal with people as well. And and you know, he views me as a mentor as well, but I'm still big brother, right? Right. And so you're uh a different voice, kind of like what you're talking about when you reached out to people. Um, what did what and maybe maybe you would still view them this way when you were first starting out and and trying to learn the business, what did you view as your biggest strength and your biggest weakness? And then have those things changed today?

SPEAKER_00 10:18

It's a great question. And they have evolved. I think we're always evolving. Right. Biggest strength was I loved people, I was very outgoing, got to know people really, really well. I cared about people, so the people interaction was probably my biggest strength. The technical skill when you're starting off is non-existent, and and still today, I I would say I would say that I depend on a lot of people with that technical skill. So yeah, I don't know if it's changed a whole whole lot. Some are a little bit more pronounced, and living with five women in my house, I've learned a whole lot more about my deficiencies.

SPEAKER_02 10:52

Um whether or not you agree, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

Doesn't necessarily have to agree, it's it's a fact, yeah. Yeah, in their opinion.

SPEAKER_02 11:01

Yeah. Um, what about weaknesses? The weaknesses uh weakness. You know, there's one one thing that you realized as you were coming up, and even today, maybe you're like, I really I still struggle with this, maybe.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

Very I'm an emotional guy. Okay. So I I attack things, so I think trying to have the patience is to let some let things evolve. You know, so when you when you're that way, sometimes you tend to micromanage, and the more and more people that you're working with and around, and maybe for you, you have to learn to put them in the right spot, give them the right, the freedom to be able to see it how they see it, and get to the accomplish accomplishing the goal of um of what the organization is trying to accomplish. So I would say I'll probably start it off more as a micromanager, and some would say maybe I still overcomplicate things. My wife will definitely attest to that. Right. But yeah, that would that would probably have been my my biggest weakness.

SPEAKER_02 11:57

I think you know, I I can relate to that. I I have been accused, and I don't know where this comes from, okay, but I have accused of occasionally being a control freak. And so uh because of that, and you know, two former players here are not allowed to say anything, uh, but um I think that comes from look, oftentimes when I see people who who have to have control, um it's either lack of trust in others or an insecurity about themselves. Okay. I would like to think it's not an insecurity about myself, maybe it is some type of subconscious thing, but I know that I have had a lack of trust in others. It's kind of a well, if you're gonna do something right, you might as well do it yourself, right? Kind of thing, right? Um of that involved in in where you're coming from?

SPEAKER_00 12:46

Yeah, I describe it as the goldfish in the in the bowl. You have to keep you have to make the bowl bigger and the goldfish grows a little bigger. If you keep the bowl the same size, the goldfish stays the same size. And so I have I've had to learn that. I really have. You you have to trust people and and you have to invest in people and you have to give them their freedom to be creative and get to the goal and to the finish line in the way they see fit, as long as it fits into the what the company's trying to accomplish.

SPEAKER_01 13:13

Can you share with us any specific mentors or individuals that have poured into you as you've grown more and more into the leadership position that you're in?

SPEAKER_00 13:20

Uh without a doubt, my father, um, my uncle, Jerry, my mother, she passed away. She was 55 years old. She she was a very good counterbalance of my dad. And I sometimes it's intentional, the the mentorship, and sometimes I just observe. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:37

So uh there's there's been I'll float in and out of people. Chris, your brother's uh uh I would say he's uh inspiration to me and how he carries himself and what he's been through in his life, and the way he continues just to go forward. Life is has such a way of just kicking you. And it's it's really living the vision and not necessarily your circumstances.

SPEAKER_03 13:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:59

And people like Chris lives that vision and he just keeps going forward. So people like that inspire me along the way. I always I'm always looking for people to inspire me.

SPEAKER_02 14:08

Yeah. I think too, when you when you deal with with mentors like, you know, we we play for coaches, right? And and sometimes you play for coaches that that you learned a lot of what to do, and then you play for some coaches that you learned a lot of what not to do, right? Um, sometimes I view the what not to do almost as valuable as the what to do. Um did you have any coaches like that as you were growing up? Like my guy, and he actually came on not uh not too too long ago. He's he's our mayor today, Sid Edwards, um, was my coach that I remember. I would run through a wall for this guy because he showed a level of belief in me that I was forming, but I didn't quite have at the time. And uh by the time he got done with me, I felt like I was, I probably thought I was way better than I really was, but I actually ended up so if if my thought process was I'm here, but you know, I'm really here, well now I'm at least probably here because I at least believed that I was up here, right? And so he made me believe that. Did you play for any coaches like that?

SPEAKER_00 15:20

Hmm. When I went to Nichols, Coach Ricky Brusard, it was his very first year there as well. So I felt like we kind of we didn't have a very good year the the first year. And I remember going up to him afterwards and saying, Coach, we're gonna get there. And so I was kind of helping him help me. He gave me my first opportunity, right? Or an opportunity to play college basketball. He inspired me a lot. He was one of those, do you know Ricky Brusser? He was the second person to offer me a scholarship. There you go. I've known him for years. Yeah at Nichols? At Nichols. Oh wow, sure did. Golly, you'd have been so much better than me. He um he was a positive guy and he always invested in you, made you feel good about yourself. Yep. He would write you letters. He um he was a really, really genuinely good guy. Genuine guy. Yeah, really genuine. And we still talk today. That's awesome. We had lunch uh a few months ago here in Baton Rouge. He came in.

SPEAKER_02 16:16

Yeah, his brother Danny is a super successful coach at St. Thomas More. We're we have a great relationship as well. But I remember uh kind of tangent here, Coach Bruce Ard. Um, we played uh talking about Ricky, we played Nichols in I think I was like a junior in college. We played him in a tournament at Iowa State. I'll never forget this. And uh buddy of mine, Kendrick Franklin, played on that team. He was good, right? Uh some guys that you I played with Reggie Jackson and AAU, like some guys that you know, obviously. Yeah. But uh anyhow, so after the game was over, we we we blew them out. And after the game was over with, I saw them in the hotel, and Coach Brewsar walks up to me and goes, Hey, I really like that motion offense that y'all run. Um, how long did it take to put you to put it in? I said, Coach, I've been here four years because I had a medical red shirt because of a knee. I said, I've been here four years and I'm still trying to figure it out. And so sure enough, I saw Kendrick that summer and he was like, Yeah, Coach Brewsard tried to put the motion in the next week. I was like, didn't work out, did it? He's like, No, it didn't work out. That's funny.

SPEAKER_00 17:21

Interesting. Um, love imitating him in the locker room before the games. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:26

Well, I think I think all players love imitating their coaches. They do. I've always I've often said I would love to see, and I know, I know these guys probably would have great imitations of me, um, but I know there was one guy in particular, uh, one of my best friends in the world, his son, played for me and has is the only person that's ever showed me the invitation, and it did make me laugh. It was, you know, not disrespectful and made me laugh. Um okay, so you transitioning, okay, into coaching, actually. I know you coached middle school basketball at St. George for 25 years. Um, first of all, obviously you you know, you were drawn to the game because you played the game for such a long time. But what kept you coaching it for that long and what was the fulfillment that you got out of that?

SPEAKER_00 18:09

I d I'd have to ask you the same question, but I I bet it's the same, it's the adrenaline of investing in someone else and transferring knowledge to another human being, and they all receive it differently. I I've told many people it's like getting an MBA. It really or maybe better. No doubt. You're having a transfer of this knowledge to another human being, and then at different levels, different skills, and especially in middle school, they all come in different shapes and sizes and skill levels, and then you win in and losing 30 times in a season. And I guess that I just I love the fact that you can uh work and mentor those two those young men and women, I guess, boys and girls. At the beginning of the year, we would always get them to write down their personal and teen goals. Nice handwritten and I I keep them. And through the years, I'll send them back. They might be a high school graduation, college graduation, just got married, maybe their first baby. And it's so funny to see how their goals change.

SPEAKER_02 19:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:15

I just want to be a good big brother, or I want to get a basketball goal at the house, or I just want to get a a C in English or or something, and and now their goals are much bigger than that. So it's interesting. So I use it as a ministry, maybe more than just basketball.

SPEAKER_02 19:32

Love it. Love it. And I think it has to be if you're gonna do it right. Right. Um it's it's interesting you bring that up and you ask me why. And so um when when I stepped away from high school coaching, people asked me, why are you doing that? Why why would you do that? You you've got that on lock, you know, and right, but I I I want to be challenged all the time, right? And so um I wanted to see how well the principles that I learned how to you know give others as a coach, how they would transition into the business world. And I thought that there was some synergy there, but I didn't realize exactly how seamlessly they would. And and it's incredible to see with our clients that you know, at the end of the day, people ask me all the time, like, are you are you uh, you know, do you miss coaching? I'm like, no, because I still am. I'm just not coaching high school basketball, right? And so um as we coach here at TLW, I look at it and go, wow, the same things that I that I I helped, you know, this guy is a young guy with it, and and Jace, who's still a young guy, not that you're not young anymore, but yeah, you're just not as young as he is, right? Um, with I I think they they they translate so easily to the business world, to your personal world, to your spiritual world, to all the things that you're involved with. Um so did you find that coaching, even though it's middle school kids, did you find that it actually helped you in the business world as well? Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 21:04

A better communicator, uh a better leader, I would say a more humble leader because when you just start out, you think that everybody's gonna do it the way you do it. They understand it the way you you're gonna understand it. You're just gonna deliver it. They get it or they don't get it. But when you're coaching, you you can't take that philosophy because you have to win with a team. And in business, you have to win with a team too. It might be a bigger team and there might be more at stake than maybe a first grade, you know, a trophy at the St.

SPEAKER_02 21:35

George tournament, which is to those first graders? Yeah, there's nothing bigger than that, right? That's right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

And so, um, and but there's still the drama that you're gonna have when you get into the big business world as well. So, yeah, I I would definitely agree with you.

SPEAKER_01 21:49

Would you mind giving us a brief idea about what you look at or how you define success and on the heels of that, how you define success now, and if that's something that is. evolved for you over the years.

SPEAKER_00 22:02

I would say there's a lot of books on success. And you could read The Pyramid with Coach Wooden and and I I don't think you ever achieve success. I think you momentarily achieve something that you think is success. But it's always it's evasive. It's all you're always changing. Your competition is always changing. So it has to be internally and you have to have this peace that you have given everything that you have and you have achieved maybe everything that you've wanted to achieve. And then I think you at that point you can only define success by the others that maybe you've impacted in your life. Have they achieved things that maybe they wouldn't have achieved unless y'all were working together. And and so it's an internal kind of thing. I know it's a competitive thing and we're always cheap trying to look for success and but I think you can truly can't define success or say you succeeded until you really impacted others.

SPEAKER_02 23:03

I think um well and we've actually mentioned this before on a podcast so you you mentioned working together and the importance of that um the first state championship we ever won whenever I was coaching um you know there's this build up build up build up and and and we win the game in in kind of crazy fashion at the end and um we're on the bus ride home and when you would think that there would be a lot of celebration right uh you know we're driving back from Lake Charles um it was quiet it was dead quiet and it and it was quiet because for a multitude of reasons but really because it was almost like a sigh of relief like okay we did it you know um and what that let me know that ride home I remember thinking we didn't go about this the right way we we we got it done but we didn't go about it the right way from a from a leadership standpoint because I probably put too much emphasis on the outcome and so when we got to the outcome or we we got to the game to get to the outcome we didn't play well we won the game but we didn't play well and that was because there was so much pressure that we put on ourselves to perform and it was almost like thank God that we didn't blow it as opposed to hey we won the state championship. And uh so the next two I think we dealt with a lot better uh from a celebratory standpoint. So I think I think you hit it on the head right you you can maybe you never achieve I guess what certain people consider success but when you do realize along the way that the journey is the success right I think and I think that's kind of what you're alluding to right who you've impacted and so on and so forth right it's a process for sure. So we're gonna transition here we at here at TLW we we operate everything that we do is based on five pillars okay um I'm gonna list all five for you and I want you all five of them are going to be things that that you have used in your life in your career um to get where you have gotten but I want you to pick one okay that you feel like this is the one probably that stands out to me more than any others. And you're not allowed to choose the first one because it's honor God above all else okay and so that's an obvious one okay um so pick one of the next four uh discipline is diligence value people over self lead through service not self and I'm sorry number three is value people over profit then lead through service not self and then build legacy through integrity which one of those four stands out the most to you they're all important especially number one we I have learned that without integrity you really don't have anything so I would I would probably say leading with integrity is that what build legacy through integrity build legacy through integrity I think that's that's where you're gonna have the biggest impact and so if you talk about your legacy which is still being written right now right when you when when we are done here on this earth what do you hope that your legacy is at least in the eyes of others I hope they see through my children.

SPEAKER_00 26:43

Our children are our legacy people you work with are a legacy and and you can call them family and that's true. I mean working with them and you pick people to to surround yourself with that are very similar to to what you are or maybe better in a lot of ways. Certainly the case with me everybody that I work with is smarter and and more talented than I am but I think at the end of the day you're gonna be judged by a lot of things and if you're looking at legacy it's your children and how how um impactful they are do they live with purpose do they live with faith so I I would I would probably say that that's a good that's a very good question. I haven't thought about that I hope I have a long time left.

SPEAKER_01 27:30

That's right that's right yeah no doubt on on the subject of your family um yeah you obviously have to work I'm sure some long hours over the years as you're at the simultaneously raising your daughters with your wife do you have any pieces of advice for busy young professionals raising families and then talk to us a little bit more about the importance of your starting five and what they mean to you so yeah faith family friends purpose or or foundation and you have to have you have to have that foundation in your life when people tell you that you know the three legs of the stool they use all all these examples and you have to keep them all the same that's it's impossible to do that.

SPEAKER_00 28:08

You're gonna have one that's consuming you a lot more than the others but you do have to have that in your mind that that balance and what's most important to you. I w when I talk to young young people and I'll ask that question quite often you have to pursue everything with just some just unbridled just passion everything. It's whether you're working whether you're it's your physical fitness whether it's your family it's your friends you just have to invest in them like crazy and it's never going to be the same you just can't get them all you can't get it out of whack too too far. Some people give up family they give up everything in pursuit of a passion could be a hobby a golf it could be business and when you look at them they're a train wreck and and other parts of their life the other the ones that I admire are the ones that might work 60 70 80 hours a week but they're always at the the T ball games or the they're they're doing homework with their kids at night or they go on vacation with their family they invest in their in their families and and your faith.

SPEAKER_01 29:17

Yeah. Tied in with that a little bit talk to us about any specific daily habits routines or anything that keeps you grounded spiritually mentally and emotionally good question.

SPEAKER_00 29:33

I work out probably three to four days a week that's at the beginning of the year I write in my constitution what I want it to look like that year. So 2026 it'll be a financial piece what I'm trying to accomplish how am I investing in myself from a financial piece your family how am I investing in my family how am I going to be present with them when I when I need to be and when sometimes those girls don't want you to be either the uh the faith side is is very important so as well and then friends so the in in I call it a constitution but at the beginning of the year I'll write certain minimums that I have to do all of those things either daily or weekly and then I benchmark it throughout the year. How long have you been doing that for probably 10 years. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 30:21

I found it easier to stay on course by doing that I assume huh?

SPEAKER_00 30:24

I do yeah yeah yeah I'll jump into reading a lot about four or five years ago I started reading a good bit and I had goals how many books I wanted to read in a year and it just got to be such a chore that I just gave up keeping count of that and just started just reading for fun very cool. Yeah what caused you to start with the Constitution I know you said about 10 years ago what caused you to start that we were doing it at work and you do it with teams you're coaching but I found I wasn't doing that in my personal life. Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 30:54

So if I'm gonna be that intentional in other parts of my life why why am I not being that way in my personal life and in in intentionality you you know I think we would both agree as girl dads right um that if you are not intentional they're gonna see through you right right out the gate um as a as a father of four daughters which is again twice as many as I have um and I feel overwhelmed you you call them and your wife Brandy you're starting five um which means you're coming off the bench no doubt okay which I agree I'm coming off the bench even though I've only got three I'm used to being on the bench um just talk about what they mean to you and um why you go about things the way you do you know for them so on and so forth just the impact that they have in your life on a daily basis.

SPEAKER_00 31:51

They're reflections of us they are they're very important. Brandy and I we wanted to have children to be active with them and to to raise them and enjoy them and we do. And they mean the world they mean the world to me. So from a basketball I guess since I I started calling my starting five probably 15 or so years ago and it just kind of it helps me zero in and say okay when all else is going around you this is my starting five that's that's where I'm going to get back to and I've taken that same term and used it like we talked about earlier in another skill that I'm trying to learn or or maybe something else I'm involved in I'll create another another starting five. Awesome.

SPEAKER_02 32:34

Okay one more question for you and this is it's like couples therapy right here. I'll do it like this it is kind of I'm trying to think yeah I'm notice I'm buttoned up all the way on the other side I have some questions John wanted me to ask you too part two is coming up shortly two point of I have something to do I don't know where it is but something other thing. So we ask every guest this okay um you are sitting across the table from we'll say 18 year old dad responding um and you know what you know today but he doesn't because he's 18 year old you okay and you can only offer him one piece of advice to help him in any way shape or form moving forward.

SPEAKER_00 33:25

What is that one piece of advice that you offer that's a great one I would say you're gonna have fun in college but you need to make sure you pick the right woman to marry because that's going to dictate a lot of your happiness it's going to dictate a lot of what you would perceive your success and I did I hit a home run. When you say it's gonna dictate a lot go a little further with that if you don't mind well life life can beat you up like we talked about earlier and and you're pursuing your passions and your dreams and and but you're gonna come home at some point and you need to have that rock there. You need to have someone to share it with and talk to and I just think that with with the right partner in life you can battle anything that's gonna come come at you. And so I think that's probably the most important thing that I would I would tell my 18 year old self go have some fun but when it's time to pick the pick someone make sure you're picking someone that is going to be your partner for life.

SPEAKER_02 34:35

Really impactful stuff um all of our guests give this but you you brought a different perspective today we really really appreciate you jumping on with us um and uh can't thank you enough again I know you know your relationship with my brother it means a lot to me because uh I uh first of all he's a handful to deal with we know that but also um is he really the best Pixley athlete not even close no um yeah you're starting something he won't make the mistake of telling you that either uh he's better at a lot of things than I am though for sure um but I will say that uh you know the time we spent with you here today um you know there's an obvious uh a calm that you provide uh when you walk into a room and an even keeledness I don't know if that's really a word but we just made it one um and so I can see unquestionably not only why you're successful professionally but uh why you have the impact on so many people um because your reputation precedes you so again really really appreciate you coming on and wish you nothing but the best forward for same of y'all thank you very much thank you Dad you get a free dental cleaning too we can make that happen we can make that happen thank you so much y'all have been great thank you look forward to watching y'all success as well absolutely and from uh for Dr. Sean Owens uh I am Jonathan Pixley for Jason Augustus we will close here on the TLW podcast as always go get it