"I Doubled Down When I Should Have Shut My Mouth" w/Stuart Deming

Stuart Deming — co-founder of XPLR.NASH, serial entrepreneur, and content creator with sixty jobs since age six — joins Dr. Matt Paden on the Bad Days Leadership podcast. Stewart shares the story of getting physically abused by a football coach for underperforming, only to find out he had a disease that required a back brace for two years. He talks about walking into a pitch meeting, misreading every signal, and doubling down on a proposal when he should have stopped talking — a mistake that permanently damaged the relationship. He gets raw about the loneliness of entrepreneurship, having $100K in contracts cancelled in a single month while $60K in invoices went unpaid, and the pastor who taught him "the sharpest knives are in the friendliest hands" before putting one in his back. Plus — the six-month prayer that reshaped how he thinks about fame, success, and wealth.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Every leader has bad days. Most pretend they don't. This is the show where leaders stop pretending and start learning. Welcome to the Bad Days Leadership Podcast, where leaders pull back the curtain on decisions they cringe about, runes they misread, and the failures that shaped everything after. Real leaders, real mistakes, real lessons. Because you can't become a great leader without a few bad days. Hey everybody, welcome back to Bad Days Leadership, the show where we learn lessons from those days that we uh sometimes regret, sometimes we cringe about, sometimes we wish had never happened, but uh those are the lessons that teach us the most. And I'm excited that you are here with us today because we've got an outstanding show ahead. I am eager to introduce uh you. Uh really no introduction needed for those who pay attention to things going on in Nashville, but my friend Stuart Demming, co-founder of Explore Nash, is here with us today to talk about all things uh leadership and maybe share a few examples of some of those bad days. If you are uh if you've been hiding under maybe a rock for a while and you don't quite know what Explore Nash is, uh this team, Stuart and his team have done such a tremendous job of highlighting through actionable storytelling uh so many of the good things going on in Nashville and in Tennessee and beyond. And they are moving, uh moving in many, many ways right now to uh build this company, this media company, and I'm just super excited that Stuart is here with us. Stuart, thanks for being with us. Welcome to uh Bad Days Leadership.

SPEAKER_02 1:40

Matt, thanks for having me. Uh it's funny, I was I was actually talking to my mom right before this, and I said, Oh yeah, I've known Matt for like eight years now, and I'm like, time just flies.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

It does fly.

SPEAKER_02 1:50

We like it's I was reading, I was reading Psalms the other day, and it was just a good reminder that life is fleeting. Yeah, it's you're here for a moment and you're a vapor and you're gone.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

I love yeah, it is, and you're so you're you're so accurate in that, and I'm feeling it at home, I feel it at work. I know everybody does, but man, I'm looking forward to being able to slow down for a few minutes and just talk. Yeah, yeah. Uh great conversations. I always enjoy our conversations, and I am uh really grateful for you and your work for a lot of reasons. We've been talking about it before we you know push record, but you have sent my family on some wonderful uh food road trips, some road trips to places in Tennessee that we had not visited. Uh, anytime we go anywhere, we look to see if you guys have highlighted something in that area. Uh man, just and we'll talk some more about what you guys are doing here at the end, but uh man, just really appreciate what you're doing and the way you're bringing about uh and growing community and people around uh so many of these fun things like that I like to do too, like find good food and find good places to go and find uh kind of hole in the wall things to go see and do. And so you guys are doing some awesome work. Just really grateful for what you're doing, grateful for you to be here. And uh I'm ready to jump in. You let's do it, let's do it. All right, my friend. Well, you have had a a a life as a professional before Explore Nash. And even in the last few years that you guys have been uh getting this company up and running and and moving in in some so many different ways, you have um seen some things, you've lived some lived some life as a leader, and I just wonder if there are uh maybe maybe some give a little context to your career and some of the leadership, maybe opportunities you've had, uh, some of just the different things that people may not know about you, Stuart.

SPEAKER_02 3:46

Yeah, uh as of this recording, I'm 36. Yeah, uh, I have worked 60 different jobs since the age of six. And uh some of those jobs have included uh DJing for Mary Kay makeup events or detailing cars or running a landscaping company at the age of 15 and having four other guys work for me, and I'll just pay them like maybe like $40 a day and free food for like two weeks. Yeah. Um and uh my background, uh I became a Christian at the age of 16, and I felt the Lord was calling me into ministry, but I didn't know that ministry could have been making businesses and creating wealth through business. And um, so I thought I was gonna go into ministry, uh, but before that, before the age of 16, I was dead set on becoming like a SWAT team member, gonna go do drug bust and like bust people in the skull type situation. And uh got involved in ministry, uh, got got saved uh at the age of 16 and uh immediately got plugged into uh the church that I was at. They they built an entire discipleship program. And so I got involved in that leadership side of things, building out an entire discipleship curriculum uh at a church in Pennsylvania, and that that church now has had 600 people go through that discipleship curriculum, and now it's a worldwide curriculum, and so like churches in Africa are using it as their discipleship course. And so that was a really cool uh aspect of learning leadership because I was with my youth youth pastor and like different youth leaders, and we built discipleship one, two, and three and and built this whole curriculum. That was before I even went to college for ministry. Wow, and so um that was always an avenue of leadership uh where I really learned like systemize things. And then um I I've always loved making content. I've been making content for almost 30 years. Uh before it was cool. Before it was cool, yeah. Yeah, before everyone was like, oh, I'm gonna go do this. Yeah, I've always had a vision, an idea that I I wanted a camera in my hand. I wanted to capture the moments. And somehow I convinced my teachers in high school to allow me to make movies instead of write papers.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 6:05

And so for majority of my high school career, I made movies instead of writing papers. And so I had to lead teams there. And there were six other students, and they're like, hey, if your movie fails, you still have to write the paper. And so somehow I convinced them and we made movies. And so like I had to lead a team through making movies in high school and like coming up with an end goal and then casting vision for them to create this piece. And guess what? We had hundreds on every single one of our projects. Yeah. And so, like, because the teachers are like, oh, you guys put in 95 more hours than you did for writing the paper. And then in college, same thing. Like, I I just have this niche of like casting vision, and the Lord has allowed me to do that. And somehow people tag along. I'm still learning that experience. But in college, I did the same thing, and I uh graduated in two and a half years of a four-year degree just because I hated school. I hated the the process of that organized schooling because I I know from a leadership standpoint, I'm like, okay, I understand these things, I see this, let me go execute. Yeah. Uh, and I still made movies in college. And I wrote a couple more papers in college than I did in high school, but gathering people and gathering a team and gathering in and then after college, getting deeply involved in ministry, moving to Franklin, Tennessee to be involved in ministry, becoming a church planner. Like I was a home church planner here in Nashville, and so it's for somehow the Lord has put me in a position to gather people and then lead them. And that's been my life. That's so my entire life. And so before I was a Christian, like I I was the house that people came to to hang out. And we I I grew up in a trailer park, and so we would have 15 boys inside of a trailer playing video games, and somehow I was able to lead this group. I don't know, it's just very fascinating times.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

What a great um man, what a great testimony to uh your faithfulness, to the call, to playing your role to the fullest, how how you were created. We talk about great days around here. I know this is the bad days podcast, but this is you know our company's great days leadership. We talk about uh understanding that there's two great days the day you're born with all your talents, gifts, strengths, and abilities, and then understanding day two, uh, how to put those into practice and towards a sense of calling, vocation, purpose. And you, my friend, have done that really, really well. You you have been a storyteller, an entrepreneur, a minister, uh, a leader, a founder of a company, multiple companies, uh, 60 jobs uh since age six. That's incredible. Yeah, it's um I need uh we need to share that with uh some people that uh you can work when you're young, maybe. I don't know, but uh let's jump into some things really specific to some of the lessons you've learned along the way. So let's talk, maybe even this is a question we ask a lot of times on this show. Uh, what are some, or maybe one in particular, uh, memories you have that when you think about the way maybe you handled yourself as a leader, or maybe you observed a leader that you just still kind of cringe about.

SPEAKER_02 9:24

There's uh a few examples. Um so at my college, uh it was Baptist Bible College in Clarkson, in Pennsylvania, uh, then turned into Summit University they closed recently. Um I was part of the work government program where I paid for student loan, whatever that's called. I can't remember what it's called. Work study. Um and so I was a sous-chef cooking for 500 people every so five nights a week. And I would like make pasta dishes and eggs, and we would be like line cooking meals in 30 seconds. Wow. Or 50 seconds, like it we had it flip fast. Um the manager was just a jack wagon, he treated people really terribly, but the assistant manager treated people really well and um she was really engaging, she like just treated people really well, but no one would talk to the actual manager because like they would get chewed out if we made a mistake. Like there was one time I was I was washing dishes and um somebody bumped into me, and then all of a sudden the rack fell over and $500 of dishes were just broken. Wow. It just people get in the way. And like he just reamed me a new one, and it's it was embarrassing for him, but it was embarrassing for me because I'm like, oh, I've made this mistake. Should I should I have yelled, hey, I'm coming out? But should have the person also walking said, Hey, I'm passing by. So it's like uh I've I've I've I've learned from that. And then um another situation I was in, uh, I think this is just gonna be a fun story for your audience.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

Yeah, please.

SPEAKER_02 11:09

Uh I've had my beard for 13 years. It's it's it's been on my face for a long time. Um, but when I moved here, uh and I was working for a church here in the area in Franklin, um we ate Mexican and I had a line of queso down my beard for five hours, and no one told me about it. I was and I had meetings with the executive pastor and all this stuff, and it was just this white strip of queso in my beard. Now I have gray hair, so it like it looks more appropriate. But um the thing I learned I learned about that from leadership is you have to have the uncomfortable conversations. And like I went into the bathroom and it was like the full six hours afterwards, and I realized there was this queso in my beard. And I I realized then I have this different perception of the South because I'm from the North. Uh in the North, you're really aggressive, and you you tell how it is, and that's how I grew up. Yeah, but like down here, it's oh, bless your heart, there's this facade. And but then I I realized out of that situation, me as a leader, I have to be willing to have the uncomfortable conversations. Hey, you have this going on with you. And like just from a queso, I have to be willing as a leader to my team to have the uncomfortable conversations. So that's uh it I hopefully that answers.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

Yeah, that's so good. So perspective on situations teaches the lessons, you know, allows you to learn the lessons that are being taught in those moments. And so when you think about um those kinds of moments that you experienced, how has that informed how you want to lead uh your teams? I mean, you have a team of people uh helping produce all the content and all the programs and all the activities you you and your team are involved with, and so you're leading a team. I don't know how many are on your team, but I know it's plenty. Uh right now it feels like a lot. Yeah. But how did those lessons help shape and inform how you lead your teams today?

SPEAKER_02 13:13

Um I think part of it is the the attitude of Jesus. No leader needs to serve.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:22

Uh and I've been I've been on this this wagon for uh for the last couple weeks. It's just and we're having this discussion at church, and it's um leadership, good leadership is service. So the things I've learned from these people or from those situations, um being in those high stress situations, how can I serve my team? How can I make sure that they're being taken care of, that they're accommodated to, but then also getting the task at hand done. And that's hard, that's a very hard balance. There's a I worked at Ruby Tuesdays and I was the line cook on the not on the stove, but on the other side. And um it was an 18-hour day. I went in at four o'clock in the morning to prep. And uh there were short staff, and so I was like, hey, you have to stay on. And we were in Scranton, Pennsylvania, that's where the minor league for the Yankees is, and the game got out at midnight, and then all of a sudden there was 34 orders on the screen. And the manager was stressed, very, very high stress, and I was extraordinarily stressed. Like it was that was that was one of the moments in my life where I was most stressed that I've ever experienced. And and I worked 18 hours at this point. And by the time I I actually had to walk away from that job, and so like I walked out and I said, I can't do this any longer. But like, if if if at that time, if the manager called in other associates from other Ruby Tuesdays and served me in a way that would have eased my stress, I wouldn't have walked off. And so, like, they didn't see that. Everyone was stressed to the gills, and like it was it was it was a very high stress environment. Kitchens are very high stress environment. And um but a a good leader should say, Hey, let me come alongside you and serve you, let me help you catch up, let me do these things, and that would then happen.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

Yeah, I love that. You know, we today as we're recording this is book launch day for us. Yeah, congratulations. Thank you very much. It's uh it's been a lot of fun. But uh it's my first book. First book. First book, yeah. And uh one of the core principles we talk about in the core, the very first one we talk about, is that leadership is working for the good of the people. Yep, it's not about self, it's not about position, it's not about power, it's not about your skills. Uh the tools in your toolkit, those are all important things and they all have a place, but leadership at its heart, or as we say, at the core, is working for the good of other people, which is biblical. It comes from an Esther, the story of Esther. We don't have to get into all of it here, but I think what you just described is a perfect example of how if our mindset is on service, serving others, that is what I do as a leader. Um, it can absolutely make a difference for the people that are experiencing uh whether it's high stress situations like in food service or anywhere else, right? And so what you just described is really important. So how do you hold yourself accountable uh to that?

SPEAKER_02 16:41

Um I I I every day I go through the conversations in my head. Um could I've done this better, could I have approached this conversation better? Um I'm systemizing it now. So even now I'm using an AI tracker, and so like it's on recording this conversation, and so I'm systemizing things now, and then I'll listen back occasionally to these conversations ultimately to make me not this like oh look at me, I'm amazing, but like to systemize the conversations to make sure that okay, hey, we did talk about this, maybe I forgot that we talked about this. Okay, I have it, I have, I have this now in notes. I have it transcribed, these conversations, especially with my team. Okay, we did say this at this point, now we need to do this. And so it's that accountability, it's having checks and balances with my mentors, um, and making sure that I'm surrounded by people who have gone before me and have created businesses. And may they they may not be the same scope of business of what we do because what we do is really rare. Yeah. But um, they've created businesses, they understand employees, they understand letting go of employees, and so it's uh I just had a situation where I had to let go of an employee and um we we were having a cash flow issue. We had $100,000 in count contracts cancel in one month. Wow, and we had basically $60,000 in outstanding invoices that weren't getting paid. It was a cash flow issue. But when I brought him on, I initially brought him on for like a sales role slash designer website type guy, tech guy. And he didn't fulfill on the sales side of things, and so like I'm like, okay, like I'm frustrated with you because I hired you for this reason, but I'm also like I I I I operate in the like that grace world of like, okay, hey, I'm gonna give you another chance within my company to do this, and it just the cash flow thing ended up I had to let him go because of the cash flow situation. But now with the systemized things that I've built in AI, everything that he did has been replaced with major systemized things that I have been working on over the last few months. Wow, and so it's that's also leadership too. It's like I I have to protect the bottom line of my vision. Right. Um, and Aaron, like my business partner, I have to protect us, I have to protect our families, and that is part of leadership of knowing, hey, it's time to have that uncomfortable conversation.

SPEAKER_00 19:24

Yeah. Um some of the hardest days for leaders are those when you have to, and I say this pretty regularly to people that I coach and work with. You know, we talk a lot working for the good of the people, but what happens when you have to make decisions that impact those people?

SPEAKER_01 19:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:39

And the reality is that's part of leadership. That's why we say often, or experience even, and others uh have have shared this as well. Leadership is often lonely. Well, it's extremely lonely. And it's super complicated and it's it's unbelievably messy sometimes. And those bad days, um, man, they can weigh you down. But on the other side, we learn lessons. You're learning how to utilize new, new tools, new tricks, new new uh technologies to help supplement the work, keep the work going, right? We're we're learning how to do some things differently. Uh I think everybody's learning how to do some things differently, but it is uh it is complicated.

SPEAKER_02 20:21

It's even even having a business partner is very lonely because he's in a different lane within the business. I handle the finances of the business, and you're like, oh, I just had $35,000 go out and I've made $14,000 this month.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

Woohoo.

SPEAKER_02 20:40

Um and that's reality, like that's happened to us in the last few months, and it's even that's lonely. Like even having a business partner, I'm extremely grateful for Aaron. Um, but still, it's still it's still lonely. Yeah, like because I you have to hold it together for your team and your family, and then you're just like, oh wow, I don't have time to actually process this. And so, like in those moments, um, you guys, how I keep myself accountable. I I talk to Jesus quite often, yeah, quite a bit.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

So uh we need to uh lean into faith, we lean into a sense of purpose and calling, we lean into friends and colleagues and mentors and and coaches and others that uh help us navigate all the things. And so um one of the things that you have demonstrated, even in your um responses, even to these early questions here, is just an understanding and a sense of awareness to, you know, there's multiple things going on all around you all the time. You are walking into a variety of different types of organizations, um, food service, uh high end hole in the wall. Uh you're walking into chambers of commerce and talking about things, you're going into entire communities and just representing or having having them represent who they are. In visual storytelling formats. I mean, you're doing all these different things with all these different people, and you've been exposed to a variety of different leaders through your own career, but also uh just as you uh are navigating all your clients and all the things that go with it these days. Awareness is such a big deal, but it's also not a given. Uh sometimes uh we walk into a room and we misread the room. Can you uh tell us a little bit maybe about a time where you or someone you observed maybe completely misread the room and uh maybe you or this other person they just kept going. Uh maybe maybe they made it even more awkward by uh piling on when it was obvious that they didn't read the room very well.

SPEAKER_02 22:52

I'll probably tell a personal story. Okay. So I I think it's um because of what I get to do and the businesses I get to highlight, um a lot of people just like they want my time, they want my energy, they want my team to they they want to be featured by us. They've heard the stories of how businesses have seen a four percent 400% increase in revenue. Um but there's times where it's like okay, I go into these rooms and people want my time and they want these things, but sometimes I'm under the assumption that they're willing to spend money. Yeah. And a lot of the time, most people aren't willing to spend money. Their budgets are too tight. Restaurants are notorious for closing within three years. 80% of restaurants will close within three years after they open. Um it's a very high-risk industry, and their margins are extremely tight. And so, like, even and I think it's just like there's times where like I've talked to people and um we thought the conversation was really, really good. And um we literally walked away with a plan of work, like a scope of work, and it's a massive corporation in this city multiple times, multiple times. And um, I think I just I don't know if I oversold ourselves. That could be a mistake I made.

SPEAKER_01 24:28

Um, we fulfilled on our work with some of the clients I'm thinking of, but like I think it's I I think okay, I say all this, I've had to defend myself a lot.

SPEAKER_02 24:44

And that's overdoing it. And I I think of a situation we were in. Um, it's with a local uh metropolitan town, and we give them a proposal of a lot of work for a layer very, very low price. And um it would it would have been 24 videos on our platform for like 30 grand if that were to happen. Now it's a couple hundred thousand dollars. No one's taking us up on that. If you're interested, contact me at uh steward explorer.com. Um but uh they they kept questioning and they kept questioning, and I I and I should have read the room better in this situation because if they keep asking questions, they're not interested. They're trying to find a scapegoat, they're trying to blame me for offering something that's not valuable. And so I doubled down, I kept doubling down. I said, I'm gonna double it. I'm gonna give you 48 videos for this value because I believed in myself so much. And I should have just shut my mouth. And now the relationship is mediocre. We're never going to work with him.

SPEAKER_00 25:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:56

And even when we see each other in public, uh, if you're watching this, you know who you are. Even when we see each other in public, it's that cordial, oh, hey, how you doing? How you doing? It's absolute garbage. We will never be buddy buddy. You were looking for a scapegoat out of this. And I doubled down by trying to defend my work, but my work should speak for itself.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

Yeah. Wow. That's thanks for telling such a uh a real and raw story. Um this one, this question's always a little complicated. Okay, well, I'm gonna take a sip of water. Do it, do it. And it's complicated because I think with all uh leadership opportunities to observe leadership, there are lessons to be learned. Okay, so sometimes the people that come into our lives as leaders, whether it's positional leaders, you know, bosses, colleagues, or you know, employers, clients, whatever it may look like, just people we're exposed to that have some kind of influence over us. And sometimes it's power because of uh or chart structure, but sometimes it's just they're they're involved in in our lives, right? Uh, and not all of them are great. Not all of them are people we want to be like. Uh some of them are really challenging and complicated. And uh, but I also think that if we're honest with ourselves, there are lessons to be learned that are maybe from the examples that they have um shown us that there are some good things. Uh, there may be some hard things or bad things that uh we learn from them. There may be some ugly things that we learn from them, but there are lessons in the good, the bad, and the ugly. And so as you think about maybe uh someone or or some example of someone, a leader in your experience who made uh your life really messy, really uh miserable, even maybe. What are some lessons that you look back on now and say, you know what, that wasn't fun, I wouldn't want to do it again, but I learned something. You have any stories for us about that?

SPEAKER_02 28:10

Uh I have a couple, but the first thing that comes to mind, um I had a football coach that was like very abusive in the sense of like physically like kicking me because I wasn't doing the work well enough. Um and that was just an interesting situation, and then what ended up happening is I got injured at a football game and they realized I had a disease, I was putting a bag brace for two years. And um and that's the reason I couldn't squat or do the things that other people could do. Right. And so like he was just a very aggressive man, in the sense of like he physically abusing me, yeah, uh because I couldn't perform the way that he wanted to. Um, so I think like that's definitely impacted the leadership. I don't I'm hopeful that I'm not abusing my employees in that sense. I'm not I'm not physically touching them. It's sure. But it's like, hey, am I requiring too much? Do they have do they have the passion and the expertise to match my expectations? Most of them don't. And and that's the thing I'm learning right now is like, and I I literally right before this, we uh we met with a videographer that we've worked with in the past. And he's now in town full-time. And I um I like him as a friend, and but like he's he's too conceited, and he doesn't fit the culture of who we are within the explore ecosystem. And so like I haven't even told Aaron this, but like he can't be on the team. Wow. Because I've had to get rid of mediocre people on my team. And um, but like I think like that all ties in because like I was abused from the top from the coach. Yeah, am I making sure that like my team is not they're they're they're getting paid what they're actually worth, and like I do I I'm still processing this, like as you can tell. So it's like because it's it's live happening right now in the head, and so it's like um so I think that, and then could you repeat the request just one more time?

SPEAKER_00 30:37

So with the leaders who we've experienced, the good, bad, and the ugly moments or things we've seen, what are some things that we uh learned from those moments? And maybe it's that we don't want to uh repeat some of those things, but we learned so we will be so we in turn we are different because of what we learned from those bad, good, bad, and ugly experiences from those people who kind of led us in a way that made us feel miserable.

SPEAKER_02 31:07

Um I had a pastor in my life. Uh he he he would say this quote all the time the sharpest knives are in the friendliest hands. And um there's a move uh a moment when I moved here. I was I I worked for a church here for one year, I had a contract with them for one year, and that church was then going to my home church was going to hire a youth pastor. And they then call me to even see if I was interested. And it felt like that quote that he said, the sharpest knives are in the friendliest hands, it felt like he put the knife in my back and slid it down. Wow. Um, and so now I think I what I learned from that, especially with my team, is like, can I make sure that if I if I'm letting somebody go on my team, I'm connecting them to another company or organization, I'm handing them off well because I want people to leave well. I want people to leave with integrity. And there's a situation where I had to fire a guy and that didn't happen. But like, um, just culturally, he wasn't there. Yeah. And culturally, I can't hand him off in good faith to people. Right. And but like, I think that that quote of the sharpest knife is in the friendliest hands, it's reality. Yeah. And uh that knife hurts. And so I'm trying to, and that's leadership. It's like, okay, how can how can I hand off people well who who have worked well with my team fit in culturally, but and so like I hopefully that gives you clarity.

SPEAKER_00 32:53

No, it's good. Yeah, that's really good. So as you think about the role you play right now, uh running a media brand, uh, leading uh creatives and creative work, working with partners, working with communities. It's a really unique role that you're sitting in in a unique company. As you mentioned, there's not a lot of groups that do what you do. You're kind of out in the front of the line, leading the way in some of this. And so you have to lead and lead uniquely and differently. There aren't many models in your direct industry. There is not. And uh there was maybe I would have a better time. No, it's okay. It's okay. So, you know, and we would say even if there's models, it doesn't mean you go and copy them, right? You have to be authentic to yourself. One of the things you just said uh struck me. Um, you are the one who sets the expectations. Are you and Aaron, your business partner, I'm sure, is involved in some of that too, but you set the expectations for your team. Um, tell us a little bit about how you set expectations. And is that based on some other experiences you've had, or is that just something you've found your way um, you know, to uh on this journey that you've been on?

SPEAKER_02 34:13

I think with expectations, um, there's a clear biblical standard. We need to do things with excellence, we need to do things that involve faith and and and questioning God. Um we need to ponder like that moment with him. Um but also like our expectations for us. Like we our mission statement is to create actionable content to allow people to experience their local communities. And for five years, I think I've told you this, Matt. Um for five years by accident we became a production company. Yeah. And we produced for Lipscomb University, we produced for roofing companies and a bunch of other entities here in Nashville, and that wasn't the goal. That wasn't the expectation. Did it pay the bills? Yeah, it helped. Yeah, sure. Um did it allow us to keep our team and build a team? Yeah, that that that helped. But our expectation was oh, we have to juggle all of these balls, we have to meet client expectations, which we're still doing, but we had to learn through that process of like, oh, this is what client management is like, but now it we're producing our own content to promote them instead of producing content for them. Yeah. And so um we unfortunately right now where we are, we have to we have to meet these expectations of our partners. We have to meet these expectations of of the people that are paying us to highlight them. And so it's it's a very interesting model. And so like we have to uh we have we have seven different pillars uh within the organization. And um don't ask me to quote them because they're they're in down somewhere. Uh but uh basically our expectations uh does it honor God? Is it family friendly? Um does it create action? Does it bring value? And so we we try to everything we do goes through those four lenses. And so does a meme bring value to somebody? Yeah, it could bring somebody a laugh for a moment. Is is small business being impacted because we do a video on them? Yes. Uh does our content or gone? That's first and foremost. And if it doesn't, then we don't do it. Um, does it meet our mission statement? And so like we have to ask that for every piece of content we produce, and we're producing content way more than most people. We release five videos a day, and so it's like, how do you filter this? You have to have the high expectation, but then there also has to be like the grace and the expectation, because it's not a standard of perfection, but it's a standard of excellence, and if we're not being excellent, we're failing ourselves. But so you have to have grace with like myself and my team because I'm like, okay, I can get this done, and then my wife calls and is like, Hey, uh, I you have two young babies at home, you need to come take care of me. Yeah. And then four hours of my day, and this is nothing on her, just four hours of my day is gone to go serve her. But she's the one who needs to be served in that moment.

SPEAKER_01 37:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:29

And so um it's having the expectations, hopefully meeting that standard every day. But there's days you just have to give yourself and your team grace.

SPEAKER_00 37:38

Yeah, I love the four lenses you described. That's really good and helpful, and and uh it but it is something you have to commit to every every day. Every day. Because it just takes a day to slide, to slip, right? And uh that's that's a great lesson for all those listening or watching this. Uh because of your work and your being a very visible uh person in this community and on social media and just throughout in all the ways, uh, you have a following. Uh and I don't know that you set out to have a following necessarily. Maybe it was a strategy, but you have one, and so you have a lot of influence. So, and also knowing who will uh the demographics, some of the demographics uh that I suspect uh are connecting to you and your work uh with Explore Nash, um, there's probably some young leaders that are finding you and finding what you're doing really interesting and how you're doing it very interesting. Think back to those days. You're still a young leader. You just told us your age, and uh I've got you by a few years, not too many, but a few years. Uh, but we do a lot of work with young leaders or early career or uh new managers, new you know, people who've made the jump. I was on the team and now I'm leading the team. Uh we call it, uh we have a whole program called Level Up, where we just walk people through that jump. Uh you are on your way, but we got to equip you. Think about that audience for just a second, and that part of your audience that you care about. I know you care about your audience. Uh, you want to send them to the best places to have the best moments to build family uh memories and just have great Saturdays and all the things that you've told me about. What are some things that you would tell a young leader? Uh, you know, who's just getting started in life and in business and organizational life, entrepreneurship, maybe? What would you tell a new leader? But especially what would you tell a new leader about failure? I just dumped a real heavy question on you, though. But uh failure. What can we learn from it? What should we all learn from failure?

SPEAKER_02 40:02

Uh I fail every day of my life. I am extraordinarily sinful. And that that's how uh that's how failure is defined for me as my sin. That could be an outburst of anger, that can be lust, that can be anything, right? And I I have to remind myself every day that there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Our flesh wants to condemn us, Satan wants to condemn us, the world wants to condemn us, but if you're with Jesus, there's no condemnation. But that's not for everybody. There's a lot of people that are not with Jesus. That's right. And so I think understanding and defining what failure is for them, failure for me is being disobedient. And um figuring out what failure is for you as an individual is going to put the parameters and definitions of everything that you do. And then what I would say is fail forward. Fail forward, yeah. When you fail, pick yourself up. Or you have people that love you deep enough that will help you pick up. Because in those moments you need those people.

SPEAKER_00 41:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:31

Let them help you pick you up. But at the end of the day, you have to make the decision to get up. Uh I read the other places you go. That's a book I read to my sons. Yeah. Uh like three or four times a week. Yeah. I used to do the same. And when you find yourself in the lurch, you have to pick yourself up and get out. Same thing with the Lorax. He had to pick himself up to get out of that situation. Right. And so it's yes, you could you can play the victim game. It's not gonna get you anywhere. Yeah. You have to you have to own your mistakes, you have to own your failures, pick yourself up and go after it. Whatever that is. For me, it's I want to create a family legacy. First off, I want my children to know Jesus. Secondly, I want them, if they're interested, to possibly take this company and run with it. Yeah. But if not, hopefully I create them a sense of imagination so that they can tell stories. Because no matter what happens, with AI, story is going to be the most important thing.

SPEAKER_00 42:36

Yeah. I I fully understand what you're saying. Stories are what move us, it what helps us make sense of the world. There's so much truth in what you just said. In a world that it there is so much unknown, especially when you think about some of the technologies that are not just coming but here. You know, what's real, what's not. But the stories and the humanity and how we tell the stories of humanity, I think are that's something that's never going to change. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:02

And we've been telling stories for thousands of years. Yeah. And that's not going to change. Yeah. I don't care what type of technology there is, AI will never be able to replicate a human heart. Yeah. Ever. But I I would say that's unbiblical. Yeah. I'm with you on that. And and so, like, but like it can have this fake sense of consciousness, but it doesn't have a story. It doesn't have a moment where I was kicked by my coach. Yeah. It doesn't have that. It doesn't have that type of archival. Yeah. Not data. It can, yeah, it can archive archival data, but it doesn't have that moment.

unknown 43:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:40

It doesn't have the moment where I woke up a fair in a concussion and have a in a hospital and you're like, oh, what's happening? Like it they don't have those moments. And it's so like when you fail, fail forward. Yeah. Um, but before I finish my the thought, for years speak you said I I do have a following, which I I do. Um And I'm grateful for it. Yes, I did set out to do it. Um that was part of the goal. But um for years I really struggled with I wan I want to be famous, I want to be successful, and I want to be wealthy. And I prayed for six months and the Holy Spirit gave me this. Stuart, you're famous because I see you. Stuart, you're wealthy because you're in relationship with me. Stuart, you're only successful if you're obedient. And I think that's the best biblical prayer that I can have is everything relies on God the Father and Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_00 44:36

That's so good. That's such a good word. That is uh that's a great word to uh move towards uh conclusion here. Uh Stuart, you've you've just uh done a really great job with these questions today and just been such a great guest to have. Um if people want to follow your work, tell us a little bit about where they can find you and tell us a little bit about what you got going on. You've got a lot coming at you and your team, and it's exciting for me who's watched you kind of build this, and uh it's exciting for me to hear about it. So tell us what you want to tell us about, what's next for uh Explore Nash and uh where you guys are headed.

SPEAKER_02 45:14

Yeah, so uh Explore Nash, you can follow us. It's XPLR.nash. Um we have a massive website that's coming out soon. We have a series called the Explore Series that's launching soon, and it's taking influential people around Nashville, and I'm gonna curate a day for them. Uh we have an app called Explore Guide coming out very soon. So all the places we've ever featured will be featured on our app, and it's going to be the killer of Yelp and TripAdvisor, Google and Apple Maps, and Michelin. Wow. Um, literally, my my developer, and I developed the entire thing through AI, and I'm handing it to a human team because I want the human touch. Yeah. And my my the human team is literally writing every single line of code with AI help. But uh when I was on the phone call with my head developer, he said, uh Stuart, you just officially killed Michelin. Wow. And that's that's not a compliment I take lightly because that's like how much I've invested into this. Absolutely. But we're launching that. And then uh on the personal side, you can follow me, Stuart S-T-U-A-R T, uh, deming DM I-N-G. Um, I'm actually going to be launching on my personal page uh hospitality tourism leadership like advice and like on things. So uh we have a lot we're working on and couldn't do it without my team. So thank you, Explorer Nash team. Um we have some other things that are in the pipeline too, live events and like food gatherings that are gonna be absolutely insane.

SPEAKER_00 46:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 46:47

Um you have never led me wrong, so uh I look forward to uh I'm gonna with you on that. We're gonna smoke animals that I guarantee you've never had.

SPEAKER_00 46:58

Well, now I'm excited and hungry, so uh that's awesome, man. I uh I love what you guys do. I love the spirit behind what you do, and I appreciate your friendship, appreciate your perspective on life and work and business. And uh man, just thanks for being here today. And thanks to each of you for listening and watching. Uh, this has been a wonderful conversation. Uh, Stuart is a man of many talents and gifts, and uh, but he's also uh one who's very real. And I think you heard that today and sharing some of those things that uh don't go on his uh robust social media feed, but those are the things that help shape who he is today. And so if this uh episode has resonated with you, we would love it if you would uh like it, share it, subscribe to the bad days leadership podcast, rate this episode, all the things uh that you know to do. Uh until next time, uh we look forward to seeing you again on the Bad Days Leadership podcast. Uh, and we hope that you have a great day.