From Gator Dreams to Success: How Mac Lomax Built His Business Empire

What happens when you bring together a former SEC quarterback and a healthcare staffing entrepreneur who built a $100 million company from scratch? Pure conversational gold about what it takes to win—whether on the field or in the boardroom.

In this premiere episode of Sports and Suits, host Steven Garcia welcomes Mac Lomax, owner and co-founder of Cell Staff, for a fascinating deep dive into the striking parallels between sports and business success. Mac shares his remarkable journey from California kid obsessed with Florida Gators football to founding a healthcare staffing empire that now operates in 42 states. His story of resilience begins with rejection from his dream school and winds through corporate America before culminating in entrepreneurial triumph.

The heart of this conversation revolves around a transformative insight: culture is everything. Mac reveals how prioritizing people and relationships helped Cell Staff grow from a small startup to a $100 million operation in just eight years, regularly earning "Best Places to Work" recognition. You'll hear candid stories about grinding through 80-hour weeks with his founding team, facing down investors who wanted to pull the plug, and eventually stepping back to let their carefully cultivated leadership team drive continued growth.

Steven and Mac also tackle timely issues affecting both sports and business: the impact of NIL deals on team loyalty, how technology is eroding social skills and communication, and whether AI threatens personal connection in business. Their authentic exchange, punctuated with golf stories and bourbon-fueled insights, delivers a masterclass in leadership that transcends industry boundaries. Whether you're building a team, growing a business, or simply fascinated by what drives successful people, this conversation offers valuable wisdom delivered with refreshing honesty.

Subscribe to Sports and Suits now to join us for more unfiltered conversations at the intersection of athletics and entrepreneurship. We're just getting started!

Chapters

• 0:00 Meeting Mac Lomax
• 7:28 Mac's Journey From California to Florida
• 19:12 College Connections and Opportunities
• 29:33 The Birth of Cell Staff
• 48:15 Culture as the Foundation for Success
• 1:01:15 NIL and College Football's Evolution

Transcript

Stephen Garcia: 0:00

All right, Well cheers.

Mac Lomax: 0:02

Cheers the inaugural episode.

Stephen Garcia: 0:04

I'm fired up to be here, all right. So we got Mac Lomax owner, co-founder of Cellstaff, with us today. Welcome to the freaking show. Man, I'll be damned, thank you.

Mac Lomax: 0:16

I know I'm honored to be here and help kick it off, but before we go any further I kind of want to talk about how I met you, okay, and what an experience that was. A good friend of ours, ryan, I'd been introduced to at the country club and we'd been playing a few rounds of golf together. And he goes hey, I got a buddy. I think you'd really like Mac. His name's Steven. We got to get a foursome. So we get out on the driving range and I see this guy pull up in this really awesome lifted Hummer and American flag hanging out the window and I say, whoever this guy is, I like him.

Mac Lomax: 0:52

Little did I know it was Steven who was in our foursome. So he walks up, we kind of like shake hands, exchange pleasantries and we get to talking about golf and I watch him honestly, peer the ball and I go, this guy is a heck of an athlete. Just based off his swing, I'm a great judge of talent and after watching him swing I said, you know, he's pretty athletic, looking very tall. And I go. And he really swings hard and I go, this guy looks like he played sports in college. So I look at his golf bag and I see that he's South Carolina'd out, got Gamecock cover head. It takes about three or four holes until I hear someone say his last name. Then it was like a light bulb went off and I said this I think is Steven Garcia, the SEC quarterback. He used to play for my favorite coach, steve Spurrier.

Stephen Garcia: 1:45

I know there's some contention there.

Mac Lomax: 1:46

I've watched the show enough to know, um, but uh, needless to say, probably, probably, like whole four or five, I said, you know, let's start gambling and make this more interesting Cause I want to. I want to win some money off this guy, and I don't think it went in my favor that day, um, but that's, that's honestly how I met you, man yeah, no, that was uh.

Stephen Garcia: 2:04

What was that? A cheval? Right, that was a cheval. Yeah, yeah, yeah, man, and then you know, we just started shooting the shit and become friends since then and it's been, uh, it's been, it's been awesome.

Mac Lomax: 2:13

So it really has that. Uh, just recently I had um steven and his wife over um with their little girl to to play with peyton for a kind of like a little pool day and that was a lot of fun because normally when we hang out there's tons of people around but we got to actually spend some good time talking and it's always fun to hear Steven kind of talk about you know what's on his mind that day. And I told him full disclosure.

Mac Lomax: 2:39

I've turned down a handful of podcasts before with people, business-related or just you know friends and with Steven I go. I feel like I got such a great relationship with him. I wanted to come on and uh and support the show and support him, but um well, I mean that's that's why I couldn't think of anybody else.

Stephen Garcia: 2:56

And you know I was talking with Sean and and like look man, I mean I want to do sports, sports and suits. And I mean I can't think of a person that I know better than you that has an affiliation with sports and suits. And I mean I think I appreciate you coming on. Man, this is incredible. So I mean let's kind of just go through just from the beginning, man, like give us your story. All right Well you're a good storyteller, I am a good storyteller.

Mac Lomax: 3:25

Don't be shy man, Let it fucking ride man. A lot of it might be inflated, but the reality is I grew up playing sports my entire life.

Stephen Garcia: 3:30

From San Fran.

Mac Lomax: 3:31

Yeah, I grew up just outside of San Francisco Decent, pretty decent, pretty decent, so great. I grew up 40 miles north of San Francisco in Sonoma County, specifically Santa Rosa, and from day one obsessed with sports. My sister was a huge indoor volleyball player and she was a Division I full-ride scholarship athlete as well.

Mac Lomax: 4:01

And I grew up just constantly obsessing about football, baseball and basketball and truly just love any sport you can play. But as fate would have it, I didn't grow past six feet half inch and I really just didn't see the SEC situation working out for me. So I only had one college in mind, and after high school I knew I'd go to the University of Florida where my mother was runner-up homecoming queen. We always jokingly tell people she was a homecoming queen, but in reality runner-up.

Stephen Garcia: 4:30

Runner-up yeah.

Mac Lomax: 4:30

And my aunt went there, and most of my family, cousins, everybody.

Stephen Garcia: 4:35

So since we were kids we've From California they went to the University of Florida or they grew up in that.

Mac Lomax: 4:45

So to give a little more context, my mom grew up, grew up on a fourth generation cattle ranch just outside of Gainesville.

Stephen Garcia: 4:48

Okay, so that's the ranch that you're always shooting guns.

Mac Lomax: 4:50

That's where I'm always shooting guns, and hunting that and um, that's just a slice of paradise. I want to get you up there, um, but um, my mom grew up on that ranch and they ran a cattle business until the early nineties and then sold it and um, you know, one of the things I want to throw in about the history of that ranch is, uh, my grandfather, uh, glover McDonald. He passed away at an early age of 43. Um, pretty, pretty devastating for for their family. Um, but that ranch continued to run woman owned Um, that's pretty sweet, yep by my grandmother Dooley, and uh, it's just a great story. That is nuts, you don't? You don't see that very often, you don't?

Mac Lomax: 5:29

And so when I go up it is, it is, and when I get there, um, and if I have any new first timers there, I always like to tell them the history of that. It's a fourth generation ranch and that, um, it was run entirely from the early 50s by women.

Stephen Garcia: 5:49

That's pretty cool, that is cool, that's really cool.

Mac Lomax: 5:51

So, as kids, every summer to answer your question we'd fly in from California and I'll back it up just a hair by saying we'd normally come out in the springtime first and watch the Orange and Blue game, and then we'd come in the summer and, you know, out at the ranch we'd ride horses, we'd hang out with a lot of people in the community there and, uh, just small town middle America, I think. Um, the town that they're from is, and it's called Raleigh and I think there's about 200 to 300 people in that town. Oh shit. And the next big town over is Williston, which I'm sure you're familiar with.

Stephen Garcia: 6:28

I just drove through it this past weekend.

Mac Lomax: 6:30

Yep.

Stephen Garcia: 6:31

I'll go ahead into South Carolina.

Mac Lomax: 6:35

That drive. You texted me and said this is a long drive and I said you must be heading to South Carolina, but there's not much going on out there.

Stephen Garcia: 6:41

No, there's not, Except for speed traps.

Mac Lomax: 6:43

Speed traps. And then I would say great people. You know, um, Williston is one of those areas where I've lived in Florida now 11 years, um, since I moved here to start the company when the partners and um the community there has been great to me. I mean, your tractor breaks down, you need anything someone's there to help you. So that's kind of why I always knew I wanted to go to the University of Florida, Best sports programs, huge football fanatic.

Mac Lomax: 7:11

And then, you know, when I was a kid, in our house Steve Spurrier was like a god, and I know this is going to pain you, Steven, but one of the best birthday gifts I ever got was in fifth grade and my aunt got Steve Spurrier and at the time one of their defensive coordinators named Jimmy Ray Stevens, to sign a helmet for me and send it out for my fifth birthday. So to me, I just grew up Gator hats, Gator sweatshirts, everything. So when you ask about my story, I'd only applied to one college and that was University of Florida, and I knew that I would get in and that would be the end of it. Well, as it turns out, I didn't get in and I got put on a summer school wait list, basically, and so my mom and I talked it over I mean Florida is difficult to get into.

Mac Lomax: 7:59

Very difficult. My niece right now, who's exceptional in high school, top student. My niece right now, who's exceptional in high school, top student. Her number one is University of Florida. And she came out and we all went to the campus and even with straight A's and just an unbelievable SAT score, they said it's almost impossible to get in from out of state. That's wild. So for her she's looking at a couple of other schools like Texas SMU. But in reality Florida is just kind of like that unicorn for out-of-state kids. Right, so I could have gone to summer school, I could have gone to a junior college. I believe in Florida they call them something different, right?

Stephen Garcia: 8:39

A community college, community college, yep.

Mac Lomax: 8:40

Yes, in California they call them junior colleges. Yeah, some, california, they call them junior colleges. And at the time a couple of my best buddies had taken scholarships to Arizona State to play football, and they were a year older than me. They reached out to me and said hey, man, we heard that you didn't get into Florida. You should come check out Arizona State. So, leapfrogging a lot of what was going on during that time, I flew down to arizona state's campus, uh, with my mom and dad, and from the minute I landed in tempe to the the second I entered campus, I said this is where I'm going to school your jaw was just on the floor, my jaw dropped um best looking student body I've ever seen.

Mac Lomax: 9:22

The. The girls are outrageous.

Stephen Garcia: 9:23

That's what I've heard.

Mac Lomax: 9:25

And it's just honestly. It's beautiful and I'm a guy that's really even at that age. I like scenery, I like palm trees, green grass, and I said, you know this, this would be the place that I think I need to go. And it ended up being the absolute best decision of my life, because I met some of my closest friends and I created a network that ended up helping me navigate through the business world and a lot of that.

Stephen Garcia: 9:52

And that's a good point you made. So if you would have went to Florida, do you feel like you would have made those same connections, since you kind of knew?

Mac Lomax: 9:59

the.

Stephen Garcia: 9:59

Gainesville area. You knew the community.

Mac Lomax: 10:01

So here you go About making connections. Connections, a lot of, when I thought about what I kind of wanted to convey during this podcast. Um, life is a lot about opportunity, right? So, to answer your question, I think things work out the way that they should and I do think I probably would have made some contacts at florida. I have a lot of family people um, I won't mention names, but there are some really bright and brilliant business people in the Tampa community who are now in their 70s and 80s, who my mom knew really well, who I think could have maybe opened some doors or helped me get that first entry-level introduction to somebody. So I think, if you're motivated and willing to put yourself out there, yeah, you're going to make connections, you'll find a way.

Stephen Garcia: 10:49

Yeah, you're going to make connections. And I think you just hit the nail on the head, man. If you put yourself out there and you know I give these kids that I'm training, and you know, even my own kid, memphis it's like, dude, put yourself out there Like the worst thing that someone's going to say is'm good, man, I don't, I don't have that interest in being friends, I don't want to talk to you. You got to get put yourself out there. Yeah, and kids are afraid of it, man, they just sit there like this on their phones all the time. I'm like, if you guys just look up, there's a big ass world out there for you it is, and that you talk about the phone situation.

Mac Lomax: 11:17

um, recently, being a, you know, first time parent, you know, peyton is now two. Well, it turns two next week. We'll be there. Yeah, by the way, I sent the great picture of them by the pool, which was just. I think in probably 15 years they're going to look back on that and be like With the cell staff. Yeah, yeah, that was pretty funny.

Stephen Garcia: 11:36

That was great.

Mac Lomax: 11:38

But back to our commentary on phones. They're terrible commentary on phones. They're terrible. And you know you walk around our office floor and you see anybody like top salespeople, admin, you know people got their head down on their phone and you know so much of life is like banter and culture and communicating and I, you know, always say I think the worst thing that happened to just our overall communication standard is the development of technology.

Stephen Garcia: 12:07

A hundred percent. Like now you got AIs that are I mean, we'll go through that here in a minute. I got an interesting story about that. But I mean you know, even training with these kids, as soon as you know we'll take a water break or whatever these guys will go, sit down. They don't talk to each other, grab their phone and they go like this and just scroll. So eventually I said you know what Fuck this? Guys Give me your phones and I had a little, a little basket. I said put your phones in here. As soon as you walk in, put your phones in here. You guys start talking to each other. Get each other better, like make friends. I mean you don't know if this, this guy could end up being your boss, this could could be your employee, you don't know. Talk to them, get to know each other. It's a lost art these days.

Mac Lomax: 12:45

It's so funny you say that I didn't start playing golf until a little over two years ago, and maybe once or twice in college I went out and drank a bunch of beers on the golf course. Yeah, that's what you're supposed to do?

Mac Lomax: 12:56

Yeah, smashed the cart around a little bit right yeah 100%, but really, really, I consider myself a pretty good athlete. I was a terrible first-time golfer, but what I picked up on quickly and what made me really love the sport is the social aspect of it and obviously we've become great friends over golf. You know, right now I currently live out in Odessa, which is a I would consider a smaller country-style community. Oh yeah, and I've met so many wonderful people all through the world of golf and you know, as you know, we get invited to private clubs, we go play public horses with friends. I mean, it doesn't matter where you are. If you're on a golf course with your buddies, you're having a good time.

Stephen Garcia: 13:36

A hundred percent. A hundred percent. Drinks are flowing and the shit talking is going to start.

Mac Lomax: 13:42

So much shit talking.

Stephen Garcia: 13:43

A couple of holes go by. It's like all right, this is kind of boring, let's.

Mac Lomax: 13:45

Let's start upping the stakes, let's put some money on it, and what I laugh about is every single time that you and I have gone down to the wire on a match.

Stephen Garcia: 13:54

It's every time.

Mac Lomax: 13:55

Instead of me doubling down on 18,. I never, I never do it and every time I seem to win the 18th hole and you give me the opportunity.

Stephen Garcia: 14:08

So I think I need to start getting a little more. I mean, Mario tells you.

Mac Lomax: 14:10

he's like man, why would you not? You should triple down on this guy. Yeah, I mean Mario. We'll talk about him for a second. He is one of the pros over at Cheval and he actually started a company, fairway Fellas, which is a cultural lifestyle golf company, and he's just been such a great addition to our network of golf and having fun. Because he's a younger guy, who what is his handicap?

Stephen Garcia: 14:35

I don't know. He's a fucking Georgia fan, though, yeah he's pretty bad.

Mac Lomax: 14:38

It is bad, but he's a plus handicap. Oh yeah, he's incredible, Calls golfer and he's. You know he keeps it interesting because he'll gamble with anybody about anything. Yeah, Um so.

Stephen Garcia: 14:51

Well, then you got, then you got Ryan and them. Oh yeah, you want to talk about banter gambling and banter.

Mac Lomax: 14:57

Yeah, for those of you that don't know, ryan Regal he's, he is is somebody that you want on a golf course.

Stephen Garcia: 15:09

So explain the rules. He will be there to banter on every hole.

Mac Lomax: 15:11

We love you Ryan, we do man. He's the man and Ryan's been so great to us with introducing us to people at clubs and he actually owns a really great business out in Odessa called Athlete Retreat and I'm actually rehabbing right now with a fantastic therapist there and my'm actually um rehabbing right now, um with a fantastic therapist there and my boy, clancy, has been helping me put back my flexor tendon and, uh, you know you got athlete retreat and you've got a lot of MLB guys in there working out Pete Alonzo, I mean yeah, and he's, he's built an incredible business there.

Mac Lomax: 15:41

Um so, again, it's all part of that Odessa community. Um.

Stephen Garcia: 15:45

And he puts I mean, you would talk about somebody that puts himself out there, he, he'll go up to anybody to go talk some shit.

Mac Lomax: 15:50

Yeah, oh yeah, ryan will.

Stephen Garcia: 15:51

if he needs to talk to you, he's going to talk to you, he will talk to you and it's, it's the best.

Mac Lomax: 15:56

And I respect the hell out of that. And that's another example of somebody that I see who looks for opportunity and is not afraid to shake hands and talk you know.

Stephen Garcia: 16:06

I'll tell you what man I've known, his wife Lexi, since she was maybe firstborn, so his brother-in-law.

Mac Lomax: 16:14

Jared, I didn't know y'all went back that long. Oh yeah, okay.

Stephen Garcia: 16:16

His brother-in-law, jared Durwart. He's my oldest friend. I've known him since kindergarten. He's the one that helped me build the pole barn and helps me with some other stuff around the house. Um, so when I found out that you know his, his sister was married to ryan, I'm like holy shit, yeah, your sister's married. She's got a kid, like what is going on right now.

Stephen Garcia: 16:35

Yeah, the hell the time yeah it is, it is flying man, it's, it's scary, I mean shit. I remember I was we saw on the refrigerator pay Peyton's second birthday and I'm like didn't they just have a birthday party for him? Like, wasn't that like a couple of weeks?

Mac Lomax: 16:48

ago. It's, it's. I told Nicole, time is flying by at an uncomfortable rate. It is, it truly is To think that both of our children are already two. You just, you know, it just seems like yesterday we went to hospital and you know, and we're right at the same, he has a beautiful daughter, same age, and it's just crazy to think that they're going to be on the quick path to what we've done in the last.

Stephen Garcia: 17:13

I'm telling you, man, it's baffling. Then you got Memphis, who's 17, turns 18 in a few months. He's trying to make it in his own right in football at Jefferson, and Celia turns 11 next month and it's just like where the fuck did time go.

Mac Lomax: 17:31

Well, this will make you laugh. So my high school in the Bay Area of California is Cardinal Newman and it was a private Catholic school and it's centered around sports. I mean that is in third grade. You say, hey Mac, what do you want to do? And you know for your life ago play football, cardinal Newman. I mean that was like so many division one athletes come out of their state champions, all you know, every other year they're in the race to win or second. And I have not seen a high school football game since I graduated.

Stephen Garcia: 18:05

And I can tell you, memphis, he'll be my first one Um my office. I was about to say your office is right there.

Mac Lomax: 18:07

My office is located on West shore, right across from international Plaza, and now that Memphis is there, I'll look out my window and I'll see the guys practice it. I'll see Steven out there throwing with them and it just gets me all fired up, because there's nothing better in the world than Friday night lights.

Stephen Garcia: 18:22

I'm telling you, we're going to do some. We'll do some tailgating.

Mac Lomax: 18:25

Yeah, I mean, it's like you know, college is amazing. Obviously, Steven, you're a legend. I did not play college and I have obviously some of my closest friends in life did, but we'll talk about that real quick.

Stephen Garcia: 18:37

I want to talk about college and I know we've got a couple of minutes left, so I want to wait until the next segment, but I wanted to preface this. I wanted to hear your opinion on where college is at now compared to where it was when we were there.

Mac Lomax: 18:50

As opposed to the loyalty of the players, yeah, it's disappointing, it's very disappointing, yeah, and people give me shit all the time and people say you can't root for the Gators. And I'm like I't root for the Gators. And I'm like, you know, I'm rooting for the Gators, I'm rooting for Arizona State, I love both of them, but the reality is I hate the new transfer portal Everything about it.

Mac Lomax: 19:12

Now do I love that? Players are getting paid? Absolutely, but players have been getting paid. If you're elite, for the longest time Forever. Look at Reggie Bush right. Like everything that went on from the history of the beginning of college football until now, top players are getting paid. So this is an equal platform, but it's gotten out of control and you asked my honest opinion. I do not think you should just be able to transfer immediately if another team whiffs $5 million, $6 million at you. I think there should be a waiting period at minimum, or there should be some type of salary cap to what you can get.

Stephen Garcia: 19:48

There's got to be a salary cap. I just saw Clay Travis post yesterday. University of Texas at this point is supposed to have a $40 million football roster.

Mac Lomax: 20:00

What the fuck? No, that's fucking. I mean, that is outrageous.

Stephen Garcia: 20:03

I mean, I understand, I agree and I think guys should be getting paid. I genuinely do but it is a double-edged sword. You got a kid that's coming out of high school. That's a five-star recruit, never played a snap of college football in his life. I'm the returning starter. You're going to pay this kid $10 million to come here and I'm only getting four or five.

Mac Lomax: 20:25

Like this is that's going to be a problem In the locker room? It is, oh for sure it's going to be a problem. And you look at, you mentioned Texas' quarterback. Is it who just got drafted, man Quinn Ewers.

Stephen Garcia: 20:32

Ewers yeah.

Mac Lomax: 20:33

He could have stayed back Another year and transferred To any other college.

Stephen Garcia: 20:37

They said for a minimum Of like six to eight million, I think it was Notre Dame Was offering him Eight million, offering him $8 million yeah, $8 million, and instead he went to the NFL.

Mac Lomax: 20:43

So I mean, strategically, that's probably maybe not the best move.

Stephen Garcia: 20:46

That's a horrible move.

Mac Lomax: 20:47

Yeah, but who's? You know who are advising these guys?

Stephen Garcia: 20:51

And that's another question.

Mac Lomax: 20:52

Somebody offered me $8 million to stay and let's be honest, like I've talked to you about some of your college stories, I don't think any party gets better than the college party, better than the college party.

Stephen Garcia: 21:01

Yeah, you know, it does not.

Mac Lomax: 21:03

That's what I love sitting around and listening to you talk about. When you were beating Alabama and you were making all the big scores. You know the legendary status that you had on campus. And again I went to Arizona State, but when I was there, terrell Suggs was there. Oh, yeah, and that guy walked around like a freaking, you know God. God Right, you know what I and you just sit there and you're like if you're the Garcia's of the world, the Tebow's, the Cam Newton's I mean you just or the Manning's, can't imagine.

Stephen Garcia: 21:28

Yeah, no, it's a whole different deal and you know I've had I've had, you know, separate conversation. It's like I do think these guys should get paid. I just don't think they should get paid coming out of high school. I think there should be some sort of a pay for play structure. Um, at the same time, it's like you have this much time in your life to make money for playing this sport, why the hell would you not try to make us? I mean, I don't blame the kids one bit not at all and again try to make.

Stephen Garcia: 21:52

Well, yeah, the nico whatever those name is lama, leah or yeah, from tennessee demanding four million like yeah, he ain't worth four million.

Mac Lomax: 22:00

No and he had already had a substantial deal and substantial. Oh, pretty decent, pretty decent.

Stephen Garcia: 22:09

Um, that guy is great by the way, we're gonna have to we you have to plug him on your time because I've been. I was dming him yesterday he he sent me that last one. I was like I gotta message this guy he's one of the funniest people on instagram.

Mac Lomax: 22:19

It's unreal pretty much every day I wake up and I'm either sending Steven this guy's Instagram or Steven sending it to me. But it's decent.

Stephen Garcia: 22:29

Yeah, I love the plug you got for sure.

Mac Lomax: 22:30

Yeah, back to the money exchange. You're not going to walk away from money at that age you can't. Especially to do something you love, like play football. So I think everybody agrees they should get paid. So I think everybody agrees they should get paid, but ultimately nobody has the right answer, and I've heard Saban talk about it.

Stephen Garcia: 22:52

He retired. I know Saban's like. This is going to be uncontrollable.

Mac Lomax: 23:00

Well, that's what I really want to talk to you about later on in the segment is culture. And how do you build a winning culture if every, let's say, employee because that's what they are now is leaving in under a year to get paid slightly more at another college?

Stephen Garcia: 23:12

You can't.

Mac Lomax: 23:13

There is no culture, which is why Saban retired A hundred percent and it's ruining the sport it is.

Stephen Garcia: 23:18

I mean, there's, you know, you saw and he was the first overall pick Cam Ward, sit on the second half of the bowl game. I was with a buddy of mine who's a pretty big Miami booster, sure, and he's like I'm done, I am fucking done, I'm not giving them another dime. We pay this guy how much $4 million and he's going to not play in the second half in a game that's you know. Yeah, I want to win this game. I put money on this game to win, yeah. So he said, fuck it, I'm not going to play.

Mac Lomax: 23:46

And that's like you know. How do you feel about that? I mean, I know you're a savage human being, so you're going to play no matter what. But if you potentially could get top 10 status in a draft and make millions of dollars through endorsements as well, do you think it worth taking that, that snap in a meaningless bowl game? And it's not meaningless in the sense that you don't want your school to win and the fans to be happy, but it is meaningless because you're not competing for a national championship right?

Stephen Garcia: 24:13

um, I that I'm like you said. I'm slightly different if I'm putting a helmet on. I'm fucking playing. I'm playing until they, until they do what they did, and they say hey, steven, you're no longer here.

Mac Lomax: 24:23

everybody loves you man, yeah. Loves you man, yeah, because you get it.

Stephen Garcia: 24:25

Yeah, but you know, if you have an opportunity to make that much money, I mean I kind of get it. So what is that? Are we Just wrap it up, Alright? Well, we're going to go reload and we'll be back. We got a bomb going off here, folks. Holy shit, what's going?

Mac Lomax: 24:42

to happen here.

Stephen Garcia: 24:43

All right, welcome back. Cheers. Second segment. Oh man, yeah, you know we just got done talking about NIL and culture and this and that, and you know, just wanted to kind of talk about what made you start Stealth Staff or Self Staff and how did that come about.

Mac Lomax: 25:03

Okay. So you know a lot of what we've already discussed in the first segment is more or less what led us to starting Cell Staff, and from a very young age, in my early 20s, I got right into the corporate world out of college and it was through one of my Cardinal Newman buddies who I played football with and Kyle, if you happen to catch this segment he said you know, mac, with your personality, you should take a look at nurse recruiting. And he's like, basically you're helping professionals in the nursing industry find jobs all day. And I go. So you know like what does that mean exactly? And he goes you're basically making hundreds of phone calls a day and talking to nurses about opportunities, cold calling, cold calling.

Mac Lomax: 25:51

Yeah, so back then you had like paper lists and you would just dial all day long and say like, hey, look, I see that you're an ER nurse. Are you happy with your position? If you're not, we have thousands of positions all over the country. We could offer you travel jobs. We can offer you local hospital assignments in the San Francisco market. It's. You know, back then the industry was when did you start it? 2005.? Holy shit, yeah, so I've been at it for a while.

Stephen Garcia: 26:18

You guys had to be pretty busy during COVID with the travel nurses.

Mac Lomax: 26:21

Yeah, it was so self-staff actually we don't do a whole lot of travel, surprisingly Okay. So you know a lot of people were like, oh, during COVID, you know, you guys must have been maxed out with travelers. But we actually decided to stick to our core business, which is government services lines. Okay, so we actually do a lot of correctional healthcare, meeting big prisons, both state, federal. We'll help staff them with medical doctors, nurses and mid-level practitioners.

Mac Lomax: 26:54

But during COVID, we actually wanted to help our own community and so we worked with Hillsborough County and you remember the big Raymond James, oh yeah, Like where you could go get testing. Yep, we ran an overwhelming majority of that project, Holy shit. And then, on the port cruises as well, we had a lot of staff dealing with all the cruise ships coming in. So we did screening and, honestly, that was something that we discussed, you know, discussed as an ownership team, and we wanted to do it in our own backyard because we don't do a whole lot of business in Tampa. We're more nationally based and we have staff in probably like 42 states, Holy shit, yeah, so we have a big reach on what we do. But it felt good to, you know, help in our own community. But to answer your question, yeah, COVID was very busy because you know help in our own community. Um, but to answer your question, yeah, COVID was very busy because you know that was just such a scary time for a lot of people.

Stephen Garcia: 27:51

Um, and you know confusing time for a lot of people. Yeah.

Mac Lomax: 27:54

Confusing. And healthcare workers. You know we asked a lot of them, um, and you know I've seen nurses who retired after COVID because of the shifts, the hours and you know what they went through. They didn't want to continue doing that as a career.

Stephen Garcia: 28:12

Yeah, I mean I'm sure, if I believe or you know, disagree with them, that's, it's tough.

Mac Lomax: 28:19

Yeah, it'd be very tough. But to get back to why we started the company, my two business partners and I had worked together for a big billion dollar company for many years and then we got with another group who had just started a company and we kind of helped them get it off the ground in California and open up, you know, a dozen branches throughout the Southwest and West coast, and basically one thing that we all agreed upon was that culture is the end. All be all for business success. And so, uh, my two partners and I basically sat towards the end of 2010 and I presented them with kind of like, uh, we should start our own company, we can do this. There's no reason we can't do this. And both of these guys are people I trust entirely and are exceptional at what they do with building teams, bringing in business. And we decided let's do it.

Stephen Garcia: 29:17

I mean trust has got to be a huge part of that deal.

Mac Lomax: 29:20

Oh it is. And that's how we ended up in Tampa, florida is. We decided that California maybe wouldn't be the best place financially to start a company and, in addition to that, it would be very difficult to navigate through the legal constraints of California's business climate. So our attorneys all thought Florida or Texas would be a good landscape.

Stephen Garcia: 29:44

a good landscape, that's it seems to be the uh yeah, yeah.

Mac Lomax: 29:47

Right, with a lot of businesses now, I guess they weren't wrong 14 years ago, um, so basically we came out and the three of us uh, toured around Tampa I've got some cousins that live here and, um, my other partner has a couple of cousins in St Pete and we drove around. We saw the palm trees, the white sand Of course, I've been here many, many times previously and everybody fell in love with it and it was the best decision we've ever made, because I truly can say I've lived in San Francisco, I've lived in Scottsdale, I've lived in San Diego for many years. Tampa is by far the best city I've ever lived in. Cheers to that man, cheers to Tampa Bay, yes, sir.

Stephen Garcia: 30:27

And Lutz and Odessa specifically.

Mac Lomax: 30:30

I consider them a part of the Bay, but it is very country. But, yeah, honestly, we built the company around culture and we said we want to hire the best people who love where they work and what they do. Yep, and without getting into too much detail, we always participate in best places to work.

Stephen Garcia: 30:50

That's what I was going to say. If, sean, if you could pick, pull that up man and just kind of show the video of so yeah, I mean best place to work. I mean that's.

Mac Lomax: 31:01

And you know, to be fair, this year we did finish, I think, fourth place. Yeah, we finished in fourth place for a large business category and we have won it number one in previous years. So obviously we can improve a little bit on how we're ranked, but the reality is we've been in business 11 years and we've had just some amazing employees come through the door and, um, much of our senior leadership, our executive team, um are people that have been with us now nine years and, um, it's been just an incredible um run of watching people come through the door right out of college and stay with you guys and stay with us, but seize the opportunity Right.

Mac Lomax: 31:48

And I remember specifically one of our vice presidents. I was recruiting him when he was living in Denver, colorado, and I said look, we're a new company, we're very small right now we have like six employees and I go, but eventually, um, you know, we'll be a hundred million dollar company and you need to get on board with what we're doing. Fly back to Tampa where he went to college. He graduated from UT, um, but I remember that conversation like it was yesterday and he's one of our VPs now, then with us nine years, and has just done extremely well. So when we finally broke that milestone of 100 million, it had a lot of meaning for both him and me. But, just like I said, the culture that we have was built because we'd come from companies that were good, had a really good culture, and then we were part of companies that had really bad culture, and so we took all of those learning lessons and said let's create something that we just fucking love, and that's how StyleSouth was born.

Stephen Garcia: 32:50

Honestly, I mean, you're a damn coach. Basically.

Mac Lomax: 32:54

Yeah, honestly.

Stephen Garcia: 32:56

You go to a few different stops and we look at Coach Beamer. We had him on one of our podcasts and it's like I was at South Carolina, I was at you know, virginia tech with my dad, I was at uh oklahoma, I was at uh georgia and all these other you know he took pieces of the culture that you know. He was around, he liked the good, he liked the bad or didn't like the bad, and he's like I'm gonna try to mold what I want to do when I'm a head coach. So I mean, it's, it's all, it's all you know. It all is kind of you know, it all correlates.

Mac Lomax: 33:24

It does and that's why I think I love sports so much and, like you and I talked about doing this like sports and business, but like podcast is, it's all the same shit. Yeah, if you're successful in sports, you can be successful in business, and that's what I think is such an eye-opening situation is shit goes south all the time. You go to throw a touchdown pass and someone sacks you. It didn't work out Right. Then you got to go back and regroup on the play and yell at whoever missed their blocking assignment.

Stephen Garcia: 33:54

That was always my fault with Coach Berger. Maybe it was you right, it was always me. Always my fault.

Mac Lomax: 33:59

With that said, no one is going to be without failure in what they're trying to do.

Stephen Garcia: 34:07

Oh yeah.

Mac Lomax: 34:08

And that's where I think now as a society we've changed a little bit, where people kind of don't like the failure. They're afraid of it, they're afraid of it, and then when it happens, they're like devastated, oh yeah it. And then, when it happens, they're like devastated. And you know, going back to me, not getting into Florida, um, I think about that all the time, or that maybe I could have pushed a little harder and try to play sports in college, play football, I don't know, um, but there are certain things that you know you regret and I will never forget. Um, my senior year we did not win state, and we definitely should have. And at halftime one of our coaches looked at us and he was our defensive coordinator and he said some of you are never going to play football again after this half If you don't pull your heads out to your ass. And we lost to a team that we'd beaten by, I think, like 40 points earlier that year. Oh shit, and we just weren't, we just weren't in it.

Mac Lomax: 35:00

We weren't in it and we just weren't in it, we weren't in it and it's like, honestly, even in our early 40s it still haunts some of the guys on our team. We talk about it and those guys went on to play college football and it's just funny how you remember certain things. And that's where I think the failure process is good, and one of the things that you and I were talking about during our last break is I always knew I wanted to start a company and from the time I was 23, I said I want to own a company and what do I need to do to get there? And when I first got my opportunity in San Francisco, it was with a big billion dollar company. I got the chance to meet the president of the company and I ran over and shook his hand and I remember walking away and saying this guy is awesome. He's the president of a billion dollar company, Just a normal dude.

Mac Lomax: 35:47

Normal guy and I go. There's no reason I can't be there, yeah, and you know that's kind of the attitude that I always had in sports as well, as you know why not me. Why can't I compete Right Right, right, right. So, and that's where I think now Sports is a little different.

Stephen Garcia: 36:01

You got to be, you got to. You kind of have a. You got to have a little bit of a stature.

Mac Lomax: 36:05

You know, yeah, you got to have a little bit of an ego. Yeah, I feel like ego can be very bad obviously.

Stephen Garcia: 36:11

It definitely can.

Mac Lomax: 36:12

Like we saw what happened with Shador Sanders, right, yep, but ego can also be very good, aggravating, and it can force you to step up.

Stephen Garcia: 36:22

I'm glad you mentioned Shadur. He's either going to end up proving everybody wrong and he's just going to be a fucking baller, or he's going to prove everybody right. Either way it's going. One of the other ways it's not. There's no middle ground for him.

Mac Lomax: 36:33

Yeah.

Stephen Garcia: 36:34

And I don't, I don't foresee his ego ever changing.

Mac Lomax: 36:36

Yeah, do you think like, let's talk about your ego. When you were in college, did you think your ego was tad high or do you think it was just right for being a big SEC player?

Stephen Garcia: 36:44

It was it honestly wasn't shit not to think about it. You know you got your boy, coach Spurrier, constantly in the meeting rooms. You know I voted a team captain three years in a row and we're sitting in the captain's meetings and coach Spurs is ripping my ass every single chance you can. I'm like what the fuck did I do to this guy? Like I'm genuinely curious, like what the fuck did I do? Yeah, and I was just. You know, I still am extremely hardheaded and you know he didn't like the beard, he didn't like the long hair, and I was like I'm not fucking cutting it, I'm not doing it. And I was wrong.

Mac Lomax: 37:19

I'm not doing it and I was wrong. Everybody has a beard.

Stephen Garcia: 37:21

Yeah, everyone, everyone, every single person. So yeah, I mean to be honest, I carry myself with a big ego, but I remember like when he would chew my ass out and I didn't care if he did it, like in a one-on-one setting. But when he's talking shit to me in front of, like, the team, I'm like, okay, I feel like the biggest piece of shit, like I just feel so small and you know it sucked. It's definitely a hit to your ego, but a couple of tequilas will help kind of fix that.

Mac Lomax: 37:47

Yeah yeah, alcohol's great Neutralizer. I remember as a kid watching the Simpsons, there was an episode where it ends with Homer Simpson saying cheers to alcohol, the problem and solution to all life's issues, or something like that. It was actually pretty funny, but it's spot on. But when you look at the ego side of things, I always look. When I did the majority of the hiring for self-staff, for internal I don't do it anymore we have a fantastic hiring team that brings them all in. That's them and many layers of decision making. Before you get an opportunity there, I looked for people that could respond and rise to criticism, because if you want to get strong, you need people to be able to tell you what you're doing wrong.

Stephen Garcia: 38:37

A hundred percent.

Mac Lomax: 38:38

Yeah, and like I won't lie, I do have a pretty good size ego when it comes to things.

Stephen Garcia: 38:42

But do you tell people they're wrong, even when they're not? Like just try to motivate them. That's I mean, that was Spurrier's thing. I was like dude, I'm doing like what you're asking me to do and it's still not enough. Yeah, it's like ah, damn, and he's like. You know, danny Warfel responded to me just chewing his ass out over and over and over again. I was like I'm not fucking Danny dude, I'm not Steven.

Mac Lomax: 39:11

I'm glad you said that. Because of all my years of management and hiring, I can tell you that every person is different, a hundred percent, and I think that's what I love so much about my business partners is that they understood that and still do is people respond differently because they're different. Right, you know what I mean and you have to figure it out. And that's what I think makes great leadership, whether it's sports or business is how are my linemen going to respond to me? Yep, how are my receivers going to respond to me? How are the coachingemen going to respond to me? How are my receivers going to respond to me? How are the coaching staff going to respond to me? And it's no different.

Mac Lomax: 39:45

And then the business world is. You know, we talk to administrative people. They're a lot different than salespeople, um, account, um, coordinators, managers. They're a lot different than um recruiters. You know what I mean there. You know what I mean. Yeah, everybody's got their own personality and agenda, but a great leader always knows how to get on someone's level. And you know, earlier we were laughing because the producer back there goes. Man Mac, you weren't lying, you don't stop talking. The reality is I think that's what's helped me a lot. Over my career is, no matter who you are, I feel like I can have a conversation with you 100%, at any level. Yeah, over my career is, no matter who you are, I feel like I can have a conversation with you.

Mac Lomax: 40:21

A hundred percent and I think At any level, and you know, and it's like, treat people well and don't let your ego get in the fucking way.

Stephen Garcia: 40:29

But yeah, it's like you know, you could talk to the president of a billion dollar company, or you could talk to the waiter at Cheval yeah, the waitress at Cheval. You still show the same way.

Mac Lomax: 40:44

We treat people well, and a lot of our friends that we golf with and in the business world. They're all the same, you know, and it's like there's nothing worse than seeing people who achieve whatever the goal is that they want it to achieve. Whether that's money, status in the company doesn't matter.

Stephen Garcia: 41:03

And then they change um.

Mac Lomax: 41:04

It's terrible oh, it's I, I've seen it. I'm sure you've seen it as well.

Stephen Garcia: 41:05

I've seen, I've seen it terribly like going out to dinner. It's like, did you just like scream at the wait like what? Yeah, I gotta get the fuck out of here, man. It's, this is uncomfortable.

Mac Lomax: 41:14

I don't want my food getting shit on it is, and I think people get uncomfortable with success, and I remember when I was, you know, my dad had a very you know poor upbringing, to say the least. And then, you know, when he got older he became successful. He's a retired physician now, but a very humble guy and you know he and I talk a lot about some of the people we grew up with in Sonoma County that really had a lot of money and some of the guys families.

Stephen Garcia: 41:44

Imagine there's a lot of money. Oh yeah.

Mac Lomax: 41:45

I mean some of the guys, some of the families, tremendous, like exactly what we're talking about. Take their shirt off your back, help you. And then other families who had money just treated people like shit. Oh yeah, and you go. You know, um, where's the disconnect here? And you find out that some people can't handle the success. Some people can't be the best in football and handle it. They get into the pros and they lose their way with the people, right?

Stephen Garcia: 42:09

And they don't last very long.

Mac Lomax: 42:11

Yeah, and I remember there's a lot of athletes that I wasn't very fond of and, I'll be honest, I'm a huge San Francisco Giant fan. Grew up going to games all the time Candlestick. In my opinion, the worst thing to ever happen in the NFL was for the Niners to move out of San Francisco. Very upset about that. Not happy with Jed York. I'm glad they kind of silenced him. Um, but in reality Barry Bonds treated people like shit when he was playing there.

Stephen Garcia: 42:34

No shit.

Mac Lomax: 42:35

Yeah and uh. I watched him in Scottsdale not sign autographs.

Stephen Garcia: 42:38

Aren not sign autographs. Aren't you pretty angry when you're on steroids?

Mac Lomax: 42:40

yeah, I would think so, but hey, he, he played the game clean man, um, but it's just one of those you know, and I've heard that he's come around and he's more relaxed now.

Stephen Garcia: 42:51

But I'm sure, yeah, if you're taking all that shit and the stress I'm not professional athlete I'm sure if you go somewhere and you have thousands of people asking you, it gets old but but I'll be honest, man, that I'm glad you mentioned that, that you know it was just up in columbia, you know, this past weekend, and you know people are like, hey, can I get a picture, can I get an autograph? I'm like fucking 37 years old dude, absolutely. And people are like, oh, thank you so much.

Stephen Garcia: 43:14

Like you know, I'll ask so and so for an autograph and they just kind of yeah I'm like, well, that's, that's insane yeah that's you want my autograph or you want a picture of me? I'll do it all day long.

Mac Lomax: 43:23

Yeah, absolutely, and that's you know. And even when we're on the golf course, like everybody knows you, like you are a celebrity, whether you like it or not, but it's cool to see how you treat people that come up to you, because you're everything that we're talking about, just being a good example of hey steven's, a guy that you could ask for an autograph and he's gonna stop what he's doing, even though it's probably a pain in the ass, and sign an autograph for a kid but it's not.

Stephen Garcia: 43:50

You gotta think about the pain in the ass. That's not a pain. Yes, scribbling your name down, yeah, that ain't a pain in the ass, sure, uh, but yeah, I mean it is. It is what it is. I wanted to ask you, man. So how long did it take for you guys to get to a hundred million?

Mac Lomax: 44:04

Um, we did that, I think, by our eighth year. How?

Stephen Garcia: 44:09

was that? Was that just an absolute grind? I mean, yeah, just kind of walk through, cause I mean I'm not a business owner. I mean I am, but not to that damn level. I mean, how do you, how do you go from starting something to 100 million? What are the hours, what are the days, what is the family life like? Kind of just explain.

Mac Lomax: 44:34

I always like to tell my wife I don't think we would have worked out if we met in the first three years of starting the company Every 90 days internally, the two owners and myself, the three of us sit with our hiring class and we give them the story of how it started and it's about a two hour conversation, not scripted, totally open, and we just kind of talk and the story never really changes that much. But we, you know, we add some things. But the three of us came down with our first employee and Grant if you're listening, I love you, buddy. He's been with us since our previous companies and he moved down from San Diego and he was with us six, seven days a week, grinding Saturdays, sundays. And the thing I always tell people look at where you work.

Mac Lomax: 45:23

Our ownership team, we've done every job at that company. We've done payroll compliance, billing, you know, shuffled legal paper for the attorneys. We did it all because we didn't have the money to do anything else and so our first three years was very hard and there were multiple times where some of our investors wanted to shut us down and those were really serious conversations because we'd moved our entire lives out here, started fresh, didn't know anybody and we said we need to band together and do this. So basically those are eye-opening segments. So you ask how do you get to that number? And that does. That number means nothing, that's just a landmark number that we really wanted to get to you know, that's a pretty good landmark but it's a, it's a number that was built on hiring and training correctly.

Mac Lomax: 46:17

Culture, culture and our workforce out in the field is everything. So every nurse that we have, every mid-level doctor, nursing assistant, you name it um, you know, was created by a relationship from a recruiter well, you will hear the term I want to.

Stephen Garcia: 46:36

I would run through a wall, a brick wall, for that coach, I mean.

Mac Lomax: 46:38

I feel like that's kind of similar to yeah, and that's how we tried to build the culture of do you want to work here and have fun? Um, just last week actually, we sent all of our top producers to the Bahamas with the plus ones and um, you know, for years the owners would go on that trip and now we just let them go and have fun. Um, but it's you know why is that? It's, you know, just to be able to not have us watching them?

Mac Lomax: 47:01

You're right you know what I mean. But the reality is we try to give as much back to our employees, but both internally and externally. And on the internal front we have about 100 employees here in Tampa that do sales, recruitment, accounting, billing, all of it. And then externally we have around 1 that are, you know, nursing medical professionals. But the reality is they're just as important to the process as anything, because everybody there has a relationship.

Mac Lomax: 47:34

And you know I used to love I'm an account guy, I don't stop talking so I used to love getting in front of our clients and to me that was just so important. And now I read you know our reviews and you know we have 500 five-star reviews on Google from nurses that work for us that just say you know our teams are the best. And the reality is it's the culture. So I touched on earlier and now the owners were way removed. You know we are there in a capacity to help, but we're no longer driving that business. And it's the executives, it's the middle management, it's the delegate, yeah, and it's because they bought into the process they ran through the wall and now they're building those teams below them the same way.

Mac Lomax: 48:17

So it's really. It's exciting, to be honest, and every time I walk into the office we've got a great space right there, literally right across the street, and it's a reminder every day of what's gone on the last 11 years to get to where we are. But you know, there's a lot of companies bigger than us and I always enjoy talking to people about their story, because you know the idea of getting to a billion dollar company um, it's insane.

Mac Lomax: 48:46

I mean but people do it all the time. It happens overnight sometimes, I know. And then if you do get there, how do you maintain it? How do you not fall below that number? And uh, you know, honestly, I'll tell you, it's through having the right people internally and adapting to.

Stephen Garcia: 49:01

You. Have to change.

Mac Lomax: 49:03

Yeah, you have to you have to change and, believe me, we've had a lot of failure over the years.

Stephen Garcia: 49:07

But that's all I was going to ask you. We're about to wrap this up. I wanted to go lead it in the next segment. What's your ai conversation? Very?

Mac Lomax: 49:16

scary um, but yes, I can, I can, I'll have some comments.

Stephen Garcia: 49:20

Welcome back. Yeah, welcome back.

Mac Lomax: 49:21

We're taking a group of our uh top producers for the quarter. Um, but, yes, I can, I can. I'll have some comments on that for sure, welcome back. Yeah, welcome back. We're taking a group of our uh top producers for the quarter to a little lunch at Del Frisco's, and that's something that we like to do. Um, we're we're interactive owners, but, like I said, we're not really in the weeds anymore driving, but we listened to employee feedback because we think it's like the most important thing.

Mac Lomax: 49:39

Yeah, because we think it's like the most important thing, and a lot of our employees requested a little more face-to-face time with ownership, not just a one 90-day meeting and like a Christmas party, year-end kickoff or something. So we started now doing quarterly goals where if you're the top producer and you have the biggest gains for whatever category you're in, you either get a lunch with us every quarter and then there's a big like dinner out at, like a charlie's or something like that. Um, on other contests. So you know it keeps us like getting to know a lot of people and people that are kicking butt and like I mean that's pretty cool that they they wanted.

Stephen Garcia: 50:13

I mean that says a lot about you and you know, your, your partners, that they actually want to face to face with you yeah, and you know that's.

Mac Lomax: 50:21

We get asked quite a bit why. You know we don't go on the annual trips anymore and things like that. But the reality is it is good to have a little bit of separation, because you got to let people continue to run the operation.

Stephen Garcia: 50:38

Right, you know what I mean. And so, without having to look over their shoulder, and go shit to look over their shoulder.

Mac Lomax: 50:42

You have an owner in the background going. Hey, you know, like funny enough, look at some of the the greatest nfl franchises in history and look at the turmoil that's gone on between ownership and then the people that are actually running the teams. You know, I mean not, it's not the best.

Stephen Garcia: 50:56

So we do. You have in mind I mean right off the bat jerry jones?

Mac Lomax: 51:00

oh yeah, jerry. I mean, jerry jones, is you could write a textbook, the? The cowboys should have won multiple more championships with the money that they've had, the talent that they've had, but jerry couldn't get out of his own way speaking of the cowboys, congratulations to jp.

Stephen Garcia: 51:15

Just got traded to him, so it's big time, george pickens. Cheers to jp. Yeah, that's big time right there now, how much?

Mac Lomax: 51:23

how much interaction do you have with your crew guys? Is anybody still in the league that you play with in South Carolina?

Stephen Garcia: 51:31

Because you have such a talented team. I think Clowney's the only one.

Mac Lomax: 51:34

Okay, Clowney's savage.

Stephen Garcia: 51:38

Is he still on the team, though?

Mac Lomax: 51:40

Last I heard of him was two years ago. He was still playing, I don't know.

Stephen Garcia: 51:43

Last I heard of him was two years ago he was still playing. I don't know, I don't know. I mean, he's the NFL guy. He would know. Is Conner still playing? No, no, stephon Gilmore, he's still playing.

Mac Lomax: 51:51

I don't know Okay.

Stephen Garcia: 51:52

You don't know who Stephon Gilmore is being an NFL guy? That's kind of wild. He's a Bucks guy. I'm off camera, bro. I'm not on camera. Yeah, no, that's a good part though, just shooting the shit. But yeah, man, getting it. Like you know, I talked to Melvin Ingram. He was a first round pick. He made a shit ton of money, talked to him through you know a lot of different avenues, but I mean it's. These guys are still just absolute savages yeah, what are they doing now?

Stephen Garcia: 52:23

they retired, they got their money melvin's trying to rap, he's well, he's not trying, he is rapping okay, all right he's got a penthouse in uh in miami and just living the rapper's life right, all right all right. Uh, he's like yeah, man, you need to come. You need to come to miami, man, I'll fly you down. I was like send the plane, man, I'll come down there.

Mac Lomax: 52:39

He was hurt you. He was like I'm always down with you yeah, are you kidding me?

Stephen Garcia: 52:43

but yeah, I mean a lot of those guys. That's. The best part is that we all still get very, you know, along with each other and I think that's a testament to you know I don't want to say Coach Spurrier, because he didn't really, he did not want to be kind of associated with the players, as opposed to you know, you see Lane Kiffin that's picking up these five-star recruits in a Lamborghini and driving around through Ole Miss. So you know there's different ways to manage people and Spur had his, his way of doing things and I had my way of doing things and as the manager of the team and it just we clashed heads a little bit. Sure, have you? Have you had to deal with any of that? Just?

Mac Lomax: 53:34

yeah.

Mac Lomax: 53:34

I mean, I'm sure you have you're always going to have to deal with it. I mean, and that's what? One of the things that I think is actually pretty rewarding is the, the team that we have in place now that more or less runs the company. You know, we have our executive meetings and you know a lot of these guys have their own ideas and their own experiences now and and they want to challenge some of the you know things that we say are paramount that, like this, is how it has to be, and we've realized that do?

Stephen Garcia: 54:03

I mean, do some of them have some good ideas to where, like holy shit like this is?

Mac Lomax: 54:06

absolutely, and that's what, like I think, is the eye opener, is just because you laid the foundation and it is more or less, I guess, your baby, your company, right, um, people will come up and rise to the occasion and you know, we've seen growth, tremendous growth, after we got out of the way, yeah, and it doesn't mean that we still I mean, you know my personality, like I am.

Stephen Garcia: 54:29

You want to be yeah, you want to be hands on.

Mac Lomax: 54:31

Yeah, I'm like it is painful to me to not be able to just go and walk and talk to everybody. But again, you go walk around a hundred employees, you can't talk to everybody, and then, if you, you know, stop and socialize for three or four minutes at a couple of different areas. Then people were like you know why? You know why is one of the owners not talking to me?

Stephen Garcia: 54:49

How can we yeah, you know, am I in the shit, yeah, yeah.

Mac Lomax: 54:52

You know, and in reality it's just office. You know what I mean Just to talk to the person I need to talk to. But it shows you that we have so many great employees that for me, any chance I get for a company outing, I can't wait to go to it because the hiring is exceptional and we have new talent coming through the door all the time and I always shake the hand of somebody and I go. Is this the next president of the company? Is this the next CEO of the company? You know who knows what they're going to do for us. This, the next president of the company, is this?

Mac Lomax: 55:24

the next CEO of the company who knows what they're going to do for us in the next 10 years or do for themselves. And that's where earlier today, when you were talking about opportunity is people are so afraid of failure. Like if I was an employee which I've already said I've done at any company and I had a chance to go talk to the owner, I would be all over, I'd be telling them who I am and I remember one time I got made fun of for introducing myself to somebody and they're like they don't care who you are and I go. That's not the point. The point is I care who I am and I want them to know who I am and I feel like we need a little more of that mentality, just in the country in general 100% and that's and that's you know.

Stephen Garcia: 56:02

I wanted to re re ask this question about the AI and your thought process behind you know. Is that going to affect your business in a positive way? Do you lose employees with AI? Do you not need to push? I mean, I watch CNBC every single morning and what the hell is his name? Peter Peter Tudor. He was just talking about what the hell is his name Peter Peter. Tudor he was just talking about. He's like AI is the. It's the end. All be all, like humanity is going to be done.

Mac Lomax: 56:26

So let me ask you something, Steven. I don't disagree with anything you just said. Would you like look, I realize how charming I am. I understand this. Okay, Would you want to sit here and listen to me, go back and forth with you or a robot in that chair.

Stephen Garcia: 56:42

It's not even comparable.

Mac Lomax: 56:44

Yeah, right, and that's how I feel about it is. Let's say, ai does take over, and I've gone down to big staffing conferences for North America where it's like the biggest and the best companies. Do you guys use AI? We do to some degree. Do you use AI Every day? Yeah, we use it to Every day.

Stephen Garcia: 57:01

Yeah, we use it to create this.

Mac Lomax: 57:03

Yeah, well, I will say, what's incredible is the chat, gpt and all that. That's what's really getting outrageous. And you know, it's funny to me I've had this conversation with, like some of our legal people is I'm getting emails from people now and I go I know you can't write an email that well. Oh yeah, I know you can't write an email that well. Oh yeah, I know you can't and I didn't. This was happening about two years ago and I'm like why? Why all the extra? And I'm like there's not a single typo in this. I go what's going on here? And I started realizing people are using tools like Gemini and all these.

Mac Lomax: 57:37

You know, I mean everything but I will say it's really. It is in my opinion. I grew up Catholic school, raised where grammar was everything. Yep, you know, if you didn't structure a sentence right, like with the diagrams and all that, you were held after and you had to sit there and figure it out, yep.

Mac Lomax: 57:54

And I my opinion of how people A speak and write is very poor now. So these are tools that I think really help, because nothing can kill a deal faster than somebody writing a sloppy email, misspelling a word. Those are things that are, in my opinion, unacceptable.

Stephen Garcia: 58:13

I mean I almost well to your point. I almost rather send a sloppy email to get your attention.

Mac Lomax: 58:17

Yeah.

Stephen Garcia: 58:18

If you're writing a perfectly balanced email, it's like, okay, I get 100 of these.

Mac Lomax: 58:23

If it's too good, yeah, but for me I mean it. I bring it up frequently. I don't like when people send me AI emails, because I fully understand that it's not coming from somebody else, right, Like a human. Now, with that said, I've watched some of these robotic AI bot recruit nurses and they're pretty freaking good man. I mean it's scary, it's only going to get better.

Mac Lomax: 58:51

Yeah, and years ago I had a buddy who owned. It's kind of funny. I had a buddy who owned like 10 McDonald's in the Scottsdale area and he was talking about AI kitchen bots 20 years ago and now there are McDonald's in our country that have no employees, no employees yeah. And it is scary right, like I dude, I'm an 80s 90s kid, like Terminator is real to me.

Mac Lomax: 59:17

A hundred percent, yeah, you know Skyline goes live, like all these things, so it's interesting. But for our industry I do embrace technology, I do and I think that for every robot that comes along to replace that recruiter call or compliance email or something like that, there's going to be another area for human interaction, meaning that maybe your layers of management get even deeper, because then you're going to have to have people in your company. You know cause. I'm sorry, I don't think a robot is going to be going face to face and doing sales and and they'll first goes.

Mac Lomax: 59:50

Yeah, doing, doing, drinking a freaking bourbon.

Stephen Garcia: 59:52

Yeah, it's just not. It's not going to happen.

Mac Lomax: 59:54

So um, but I do think we need to chill out on that a little bit.

Mac Lomax: 1:00:06

And if, and if you've listened to some sort of regulation there's got to be. It's like the nil. You got to have some sort of regulation. You gotta, you gotta bring it back in because it is. It's scary as shit, man. Yeah, you listen to some of the podcasts about what's going on and basically all the ai, according to many, many people who've been in these companies, is it's getting out of control and there's not really any policing of what, of what is.

Stephen Garcia: 1:00:19

How do you it, it's a fucking it's in the cloud, it's. I mean, I don't know. He knows a hell of a lot more of it, more of it than I do, but I've seen, you know, my son, memphis, is literally on his phone. I'll go into his room and he's like this asking chat to be hey, what's, what's so and so for, uh, you know whatever, just math homework. I'm like do you use that for everything? He's like yeah, I'm like that's great that's fantastic like what the fuck man?

Stephen Garcia: 1:00:45

what are we? What are we teaching these guys?

Mac Lomax: 1:00:47

it's killing critical thinking and you know my, like, my sister, um, she's a couple years older than me and she has, like I mentioned my niece earlier who's 17, and then she's got two, um, a 13 year old and like a, I think he's 10 or 11. Where I'm going with this is she comments a lot on you know how unsocial a lot of their friends are and those, my nieces and nephews very social right, and I think a lot of that has to do with how our family is, because we're loud, you know we talk, you know we bullshit a lot, um, but most kids are really starting to be anti-social 100 and you start to read um.

Mac Lomax: 1:01:27

You know the statistics on that, like, for instance, alcohol consumption from like kids are like 21 to 30 now way down like 800 down what our sponsors from our freaking other other podcasts they like yeah, we'd love to do it, but nobody's drinking.

Stephen Garcia: 1:01:41

We're not. We're not making any money off what y'all are saying and what's. You know for your own what the fuck is going on.

Mac Lomax: 1:01:46

Yeah, for your own health, that's great right when you look at the grand scheme I don't think so of of socializing. That's not great because that's making people more and more introverted and like not wanting to go out to a bar and like have fun and all that. So I don't know, and I'm not saying you can't not drink and have fun, but let's be serious Drinking is a social activity.

Stephen Garcia: 1:02:04

It is, it is, and. But I mean, you see, now you know, talking with some of these sponsors, are saying that you know, now the THC infused canned cocktails or you know mocktails or as they call them. They're making a huge run and it's like that just doesn't seem fun to me, just sitting there drinking and just literally just melting and getting lower and lower, like that's pretty antisocial.

Mac Lomax: 1:02:25

So my wife Nicole, she is a diehard Seminole which makes for an interesting dynamic for us. But you know Nicole very well and she went to Forest State in the heyday and loves to have a good time. So she and I got invited to one of my very close family friends 21st birthdays. And so we're we're going in with the expectation that this is going to be a blowout 21st, like out of control, right. So I walk into the bar and I tell everybody, drinks on me, this is your 21st. Like, let's go hard. And it was like. Out of the 20 kids that were there, adults 21 year olds, majority of them said well, we don't really drink, we're just more like into edibles. And I'm just like what the hell is going on with this like, just because, like I for that, like the world of weed and all that stuff that just never really spoke my language. I'm like I like to drink and you know I like to shoot the shit.

Mac Lomax: 1:03:21

I don't need to sit on a couch. But for a lot of my friends they've gone California sober and I have. I can name 20 friends right now that no longer drink alcohol and just take like microdosing edibles California sober.

Stephen Garcia: 1:03:32

I've never heard of that. That's a yeah, California. It's a new, it's an interesting it's a new.

Mac Lomax: 1:03:36

It's a new trend and not new in the sense that it's probably been going on forever, um, but a lot of people now use that term and it's like you read in the like wall street journal and that there are non-alcoholic bars opening up at a rapid rate all the time doing very well.

Stephen Garcia: 1:03:50

Yeah, so which is it pisses me off to no end? Yeah, because it is a social deal.

Mac Lomax: 1:03:57

Yeah.

Stephen Garcia: 1:03:58

So you have a few bourbons or a couple of beers Like you. You're not going to be afraid to go talk to the president of the of the billion dollar company. No, you know.

Mac Lomax: 1:04:06

And that's what you know getting into like an even deeper conversation. You know I've had a lot of friends have gotten older, really like suffer from anxiety and it's like dude, my heart literally breaks for them because you can see it Like I've seen people like get up and leave restaurants because it's too loud, they can't take it, and I go what the hell has gone on since, you know, I graduated high school in 2001. And I go, that was not like you never heard of the term anxiety, right, and now it's like debilitating for people.

Stephen Garcia: 1:04:36

Oh, yeah, and now.

Mac Lomax: 1:04:36

It's like debilitating for people. Oh yeah, and you know, the problem with every study now is some people say, you know, like taking cannabis or whatever you know, thc any of that stuff is a neutralizer for that. Then you read other studies that say it's the worst thing you could do. It increases anxiety. So I just don't know what's going on with everybody right now and that we're just living in a society where everything's politically charged. Yeah, yeah, people are like I feel like on the verge of breakdown all the time at the moment's moment.

Stephen Garcia: 1:05:08

Uh, no, uh notice too.

Mac Lomax: 1:05:10

It's like yeah, and I go how, and I think a lot of that has to do with technology and the instagrams and all that stuff. But it's like I feel like I'm definitely getting older because I I look back to my childhood in the late 80s, 90s, of how easy it was to be a kid.

Mac Lomax: 1:05:27

Oh, yeah and now it's like, you know, you see, like some kids 16 year old birthday parties and you're like what the hell is? Parents drop like 50 grand on a party. I mean, um, it's outrageous. So I don't know, I think we're.

Stephen Garcia: 1:05:38

I do you see a light at the end of the tunnel?

Mac Lomax: 1:05:43

I hope so. I hope so, but I think sports like I mean educate me for a second. Like, what's our enrollment now for? Like football, like, is it going down? Is it up? Like is C, has CTE scared everybody? I?

Stephen Garcia: 1:05:55

think CTE definitely scared people when Vontaze Perfect knocked the shit out of Antonio Brown, arizona State, arizona State yeah, I think that was a huge deal. I feel like people don't really give a shit about that anymore. We talk about it all the time, sean and I, with the attention span of people that are watching these podcasts, that are watching Instagram, facebook, twitter, tiktok reels, the attention span of people is 15 seconds, 15 minutes for a podcast 15 minutes and I see stuff you know from my Facebook.

Stephen Garcia: 1:06:31

It's like, oh yeah, your, your reels are, you know, 1300% more likely to be washed if they're under 15 seconds and it's just like I don't really give a shit about that information. I don't like people. My point is people just don't have the attention span anymore no, and that's like you know, every you know.

Mac Lomax: 1:06:50

I love to be on instagram, like you know, pretty decent all that story all that. I love it. Like it. I I'm a person that needs to laugh. Like part of like who I am is I have to laugh.

Stephen Garcia: 1:06:59

And there's creative people out there and they're making money.

Mac Lomax: 1:07:02

Yeah, and I love everything from a lot of the Florida man stuff, just anything. I don't care if you're making fun of politics or whatever. It's funny and as humans you need to laugh, and I feel like a lot of people just aren't laughing anymore.

Stephen Garcia: 1:07:15

No, they're not.

Mac Lomax: 1:07:16

I feel like a lot of people just aren't laughing anymore. And you know people are pissed off and I understand there's a lot of reasons to be pissed off, but I think it's all part of the plan to piss people off and divide people and yeah. Oh yeah, there's a lot to distract everybody. There's a lot to be said for that. But one of the things that, like I've as I've gotten older, I used to never care about you know anything that I ate?

Mac Lomax: 1:07:39

unless it was like protein, to like lift weights and all that stuff right. And now it's like I try to eat as clean as I can. Like obviously love to drink, but I try to eat as clean as I can because it makes me feel better, like if you wake up every day and you eat lucky charms and then for lunch you have like chips and a soda and then for dinner, you know you have some other terrible fast food meal or some shit dude, you're gonna feel going to feel like, shit Like when we go on hunting trips.

Mac Lomax: 1:07:59

If, like you don't have much to eat other than processed stuff, you feel like shit, yeah. But when you're like cooking grass fed steaks or like having nice wine you know nice meals with wine like you feel much better and I go. I feel like a lot of society's problems is diet, and you walk around and you see what's going on with the appearance of a lot of society's problems is diet and you walk around and you see what's going on with the appearance of a lot of people. Um, we need to get back to the basics and get people working out and like eating right, and I feel like just that combination alone. The most successful people I know work out five days a week and they don't miss. And it's like my business partner it doesn't matter what's going on in his life, he's in the gym every day. Well, both of them, actually both of them work out five days a week and do not miss.

Stephen Garcia: 1:08:45

And they could be out till two in the morning. They're up, it's five, but I mean, it's there, but it's, it's a thing. And I tell my dad this all the time it's like go start walking, you don't have to lift, I don't need you to squat 225 pounds, just go walk, do some lunges, do some body weight squats, do some stretches, do something. And it's just. You know, he's like fuck it, I don't yeah, for what it's tough I'm like, well, yeah, you have uh like 17 grandchildren maybe.

Stephen Garcia: 1:09:13

Maybe that's a good reason to get your ass up and move around.

Mac Lomax: 1:09:16

well, that's what's scary is watching how old is your dad?

Stephen Garcia: 1:09:20

He is exactly 35 years older than me, so he's 72.

Mac Lomax: 1:09:23

Yeah, so my dad's 75. And you watch that guy lift a weight six days a week for his entire life and now he's starting to feel the effects of just getting tired, like your dad. He's just tired, and I get it.

Stephen Garcia: 1:09:39

You know you work your whole life when you're tired? Yeah, you're fucking tired.

Mac Lomax: 1:09:42

Provide for your family. Yeah, and like you know, my dad was on call for 40 years and you know it, shit wears on you, so I get it.

Stephen Garcia: 1:09:53

So maybe we're 75. Well, my dad says the same thing he's like, yeah, you know. Then you get to this stage and you know you have your fucking kids and your grandkids telling you to get off the couch and start walking around. You don't want to do that.

Mac Lomax: 1:10:03

No, you don't.

Stephen Garcia: 1:10:05

You rather sit and have a nice glass of freaking cab and just chill, yeah, and just sit on the balcony.

Mac Lomax: 1:10:10

Yeah, I was giving my dad. I was like you know what that makes.

Stephen Garcia: 1:10:12

That sounds fair. I kind of want to do that.

Mac Lomax: 1:10:14

Just this weekend we were over in Ana Maria, which we were talking about, and the sun was getting ready to go down. So I told everybody, I said, all right, let's go down to the beach and take our sunset photos, and my dad's like no-transcript he's like this ain't my first sunset, our sunset exactly so.

Mac Lomax: 1:10:49

that's why you know you get older and you know I think as a, as a child to your own parent, you have to look at where terror and understand that Like, yeah, let me see how I feel at 75 before I start bitching at you about why you're not walking and lifting weights anymore.

Stephen Garcia: 1:11:05

A hundred percent, a hundred percent.

Mac Lomax: 1:11:07

And I you know what. That leads me to another point of I feel like we'd be in a better place just overall If people, just for a quick second, try to put themselves in somebody else's shoes, and I think that would go a long way with where we are just currently is. Try to think about what the other person might be thinking before you decide like scorched earth on this human being.

Stephen Garcia: 1:11:30

You know what I mean. It's hard to think like that, you know, because the society doesn't, you know, make you think that way. No, society now is it's all about me, me, me, me, me, me, me, and what can I do? What can I do, what can I do for myself? And it's, it's a yeah it's quite the conundrum.

Mac Lomax: 1:11:45

It really is. And again, not to blame Instagram, but when I watched my niece scroll through her social media in general yeah, you go like you watch the Kardashians. You see all these billionaire girls that you know. You see all this stuff and you're like you know we weren't exposed to shit like that, like you knew as a kid that people had money, but you didn't know that people were getting on their you know G5 airplane every night and flying to France to go get donuts. You know what I mean.

Stephen Garcia: 1:12:08

And then are going to tell you about global warming and you're not, you shouldn't drive a car, you should drive electric and should drive electric, and then tell you that it's private equity back. Yeah, pretty decent, substantial, pretty substantial, no, but it's uh, the whole thing is just, it's. It's weird, man, especially you know, having kids and, like you know what, what is their future going to look?

Mac Lomax: 1:12:29

like yeah you know, it's we talk it's scary my wife and I talk about that all the time is what is the world going to look like in 15 years? And it's, you know, you hope amazing, right, but the way that it is right now, I don't feel like it's been that great. The last, I don't know. I would say the last 10 years has been. We've had a lot going on Tumultuous.

Mac Lomax: 1:12:53

Yeah, I mean imagine like, and we're going way off topic now, but imagine, that's fine. I mean imagine like and we're going way off topic now, but imagine most of my friends in California.

Mac Lomax: 1:13:00

Their kids couldn't leave the house during COVID. The state parks like here in Tampa, like Odessa, people could go out, like we went out on the lake, people would go walk the park. You know you could get out of the house, california, they couldn't get out of the house and that probably has a psychological impact. You think they couldn't get out of the house and that probably has a psychological impact. You know I'm not a psychologist, but if you couldn't leave the house at the peak of your and we're in the land of the free yeah, and you can't leave your house.

Mac Lomax: 1:13:28

It's kind of crazy, right? It's kind of crazy batshit crazy but you look at that shit and you just say I feel for our youth now, because there is a definite polarization of what it is to be perfect and nobody can reach that. You know what I mean? Nobody can be perfect, I'm sorry you can't do it. And you could get all the money in the world, you could have all the plastic surgery, but you can't be perfect.

Stephen Garcia: 1:13:56

Yeah, why would you want to anyway?

Mac Lomax: 1:13:59

No.

Stephen Garcia: 1:14:00

Imperfections are the best thing about the whole humanity. You know being yeah, so it helps you overcome. Yeah, absolutely. Well, shit man, this was awesome.

Mac Lomax: 1:14:12

Hey, well, I look forward to my invite back, but cheers.

Stephen Garcia: 1:14:16

Absolutely To sell stuff.

Mac Lomax: 1:14:22

How do we feel? Was that a good transitional?

Stephen Garcia: 1:14:24

way or what dude.

Mac Lomax: 1:14:25

I mean I was kind of hoping. Hey, check out Sports and Suits on all podcasts.

Stephen Garcia: 1:14:30

Okay, could you hit record again and then dub it back?

Mac Lomax: 1:14:33

Oh, it's still recording actually, so we can just X that out here.

Stephen Garcia: 1:14:38

Hold on one second On Facebook, instagram, spotify, but are any of those up? All that's going to be live, bro. Oh, it is A hundred fucking percent.

Mac Lomax: 1:14:47

But you said you could edit that, like what we're doing right now. Yeah, I'll edit this part out. So then I mean, just act like you guys, just finished and just talk about it.

Stephen Garcia: 1:14:55

I'll do one more little cheers to that.

Mac Lomax: 1:14:57

Okay. So he's going to say all the shit you need to say right, yeah, yeah, okay.

Stephen Garcia: 1:15:02

All right Pleasure.

Mac Lomax: 1:15:03

Thank you for having me as a guest. Awesome podcast the inaugural man, that's unbelievable.

Stephen Garcia: 1:15:08

Well, like, share, subscribe, the whole shit that y'all do with social media. Follow us Sports and Suits. Follow us Sports and Suits. Follow Cell Staff. Get to know Mac, you know if you're looking for some jobs, if you're a nurse, come on.

Mac Lomax: 1:15:23

If you guys are hiring Steven. Thank you, Exceptional podcast and we appreciate you, man.

Stephen Garcia: 1:15:28

Let's go man.