The Leadership Lessons My Son Learned

What does it take to become a leader?

In this special episode of the We Attitude Podcast, David sits down with his son Dylan for a conversation that goes far beyond hockey, college, and career success.

From winning a state championship to giving his high school commencement speech, serving as fraternity president, managing a multi-million-dollar renovation project, and working his way from cleaning floors to becoming a general manager, Dylan shares the lessons he's learned about leadership, responsibility, teamwork, and personal growth.

Along the way, David and Dylan discuss the importance of embracing difficult challenges, getting comfortable outside your comfort zone, building meaningful relationships, and understanding that success is rarely about individual achievement. It's about the people around you and the impact you have on them.

This episode is a powerful reminder that leadership isn't a title. It's a mindset. The best leaders understand that no role is too small, no challenge is beneath them, and no one succeeds alone.

Whether you're a student, business owner, entrepreneur, parent, or someone trying to take the next step in your life, this conversation will challenge you to think differently about success, influence, and what it means to be a great teammate.

In This Episode:

✔ Leadership lessons from sports and college
 ✔ Why every role on a team matters
 ✔ The value of getting uncomfortable
 ✔ How to build influence and earn trust
 ✔ Learning to delegate and develop others
 ✔ The mindset required for long-term success
 ✔ Why great teammates become great leaders

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe and share it with someone who could benefit from the message.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Welcome back to the We Attitude Podcast. This is David, your host, and uh I'm extremely nervous, but thankfully this is a recording, so we can always kill it. Uh, but I've taken upon myself to ask uh my son to join me this morning.

SPEAKER_02 0:20

It's early, I know buddy, but I appreciate it. Uh to join me on this podcast and um and just kind of have a conversation and uh so give you some background about the kid. He's gonna be 22 in a few uh weeks. Uh is uh well, I'll let you talk about yourself. You good about that? Why don't you why don't you tell about yourself, like a little bit of your journey, old you are, where you go to school, and all this stuff.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Uh my name is Dylan Brosso. Uh I'll be 22 in two weeks. I'm uh I'll be a senior at KU, but obviously from St. Louis. Uh went to Ledou all through grade school and high school. Uh played hockey, had a great experience at Ledue. Uh I wanted to kind of get out of the St. Louis bubble, so I went to KU. Uh about it. Go Jayhawks, Rock Jock, R the Tigers. Um, but no, I've had a great experience at KU. Um, I'm in a fraternity there. I'll talk about that a little bit, I'm sure. But happy to be here.

SPEAKER_02 1:21

So, so the the whole the whole concept of this podcast is right the we attitude, right? Like you've heard me talk about this unfortunately longer than most, but um, you know, like if we just go back to like when I coached you in varsity, right? Like, um how valuable was it for you to kind of grasp the value of teammates and and and and working together? Like how how much of it do you remember? How much how helpful was it? Where did you learn from it during those four years? And and and how does it kind of show up now?

SPEAKER_00 1:57

I'd say the first taste of it I got was I don't know. Yeah. The first taste of it I got was probably when our captain, when Tagus' dad died. Yeah. Um right right before the season started. That was your freshman year, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Um Zosia capital at the time, so it was surreal. And him and Tagus and I were really close, like drove me to school, drove me to practice, drove me everywhere, gave me workouts.

SPEAKER_02 2:28

Um It was kind of mentoring you, like it's kind of cool. He kind of took you under his wing that year, and yeah, that was a tough, that was a unfortunate situation.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

Um, I when we all went to the showed up like all in the wake in our jerseys and ties at the odds thought that was really cool. I kind of noticed like this is especially like even with like it's different than club hockey was or yeah, anything like that. So I think that was probably the first taste of it.

SPEAKER_02 2:52

Yeah, yeah. I mean, God, there's so many examples. I think it's interesting that's the one that comes up, but that's that's true. I mean, I remember going through it, and and we sure showed up and and supported him and all this stuff. So, so fast forward, you you got the privilege, you won a state championship. So um I want to talk about sometimes. I'm sure you've experienced this already, but sometimes like people like, you know, everybody wants to be captain, everybody wants to be a first pick, everybody wants to be at the top, and all this stuff. So um, you know, you won, you were a sophomore, I think. Well, we won it. All right. So as a sophomore, like you weren't you weren't, you know, on our top line, like we have we obviously had a really good team. Um how challenging was it for you to kind of accept, like, hey, I may not be uh I may I may not have the same high steim that I get in club, like I'm gonna have to adjust my role. And like how was it challenging to grow to kind of understanding all this, or did you see value in in in learning this, or how did I show up?

SPEAKER_00 3:50

I think once we started making our playoff run, I saw value. Okay. Value was the hardest part for me, it was going back and forth from club, like having different roles. Oh, okay. Yeah. Um club obviously I was more involved, like in the offense, special teams, like all that, but I think just of how much depth we had on that on that that uh sophomore year team was unreal. Yeah. Um so I mean it was it me, Lucky, and Ryan. Acre. Oh yeah, that's right. Yeah. So I mean, going from for top six guy to fourth line guy every other game was just very It's an adjustment. An adjustment that never ended.

SPEAKER_02 4:32

Yeah. But how how would you say, but but did you see do you feel like there was value in in in being in that role with the varsity team? Because you because I mean you got the benefit to win a state championship.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

So I mean I I think it showed me like you need a guy like Stern, but you like the bottom guys are also very important.

SPEAKER_02 4:49

Yeah. So everybody ends up piece of the puzzle, right? Love it. Um you also uh you also were chosen to to give the commencement speech at your uh graduation, right? Yeah. So tell me about what doing the reading. Tell me about that. Tell me about that, tell me about what you've learned, tell me, tell me what that meant to you to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

That was something, I don't know, it's different, Alec in high school. I was never necessarily that. I was always like, I I hate to say that, I was always like naturally smart. Um, so like I didn't actually feel like I never really I never tried that hard.

SPEAKER_02 5:28

That is awesome.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

Good for you. I you know, I'm still trying, so good good for you, but I never tried that hard.

SPEAKER_02 5:34

Yeah, wasn't much of a studier. I'm well aware. Um, grades are fine. Yeah, fine is a good way to put it. We both crushed this C student uh stereotype. So I I I said 3-7.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

Um I that was something I can't remember who, some faculty like in the office asked me if I was interested in it, and I and I I remember I texted you and mom, was approached about it. There was a whole application process, and you basically submit the speech you were gonna write, or at least a rough draft of it. Um and I had never given a speech before anywhere, besides like presentations in class, which for you off a note cart. Um but there's a couple of thousand people in the building, probably. Yeah, yeah. Well, I submitted the speech, and then I heard back like probably two weeks later. The way it worked was with a panel of students and a panel of faculty, and mine got chosen.

SPEAKER_02 6:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:29

And I heard back a few weeks later, and I was like, oh, like now I have to do this. Now you gotta do it. Um but I we get to chafe it, and um I didn't even hear the first like ten minutes, what everybody was like our superintendent, all those guys were saying, and they had like a speech for me, and then I was up. And I remember like walking up the stage, like shaking. Yeah. Um, I don't think you could tell. I was nervous. No, you did good, it was good, it was really good. But I mean, you were there, we were curse the crap out of it. Yeah, I remember we practiced it quite a bit. Yeah, yeah. I had it pretty much down to memory.

SPEAKER_02 7:08

Yeah. Um, what what did you learn from that experience? I mean, obviously, I know, I mean, I'm 50 now, and I know a lot of people I work with that can't stand public speaking and will hide if I call them. Um, they'll say, I'm sick, I can't come in today, my kids are sick, you know, whatever. So here you are at 17 standing in front of a couple thousand people. Like, what would what what did that teach you? Like, what did you learn from that?

SPEAKER_00 7:34

I think it was one of the first times, especially in high school, how comfortable I was and like how social I was. That was one of the first times, at least in those two, like last two years for sure, that I kind of was out of my comfort zone again. Yeah. That felt weird, but obviously, like I never would have like I wouldn't take that back for the world to say I gave that speech.

SPEAKER_02 7:52

I feel like we've talked about this. It's not a bad thing to be out of your comfort zone, right? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

Um one thing I've succeeded at for sure. Um, no, but it was it was awesome. It's still it's still at the bottom of my resume, like graduation commencement speaker. Yeah, that's awesome. But I I had a great time, really enjoyed it. Yeah, there was another girl who gave a speech after me. We were really good friends, and we were talking about the whole time, like walking on the stage. Like, I'm nervous we were, but it was it was fun.

SPEAKER_02 8:15

Yeah. Um, it was I'll give you kudos. You it was you did a really good job. So um, all right, so fast forward to college. I'll I'll just I'll just state the fact that you're crushing it, like you're crushing it socially. You got a pretty much full-time job, you you you were president of your fraternity. So and and like you said at the beginning, you you intentionally went away, like you walked there, you didn't know anybody, yeah, pretty much, right? Like we we we didn't really have anybody, any connections. Um so walking there, brand new fraternity, all everything that comes with that, like what what tell me some some of the things you you've experienced and and that you learn, I guess. Like, what did that what have been to you?

SPEAKER_00 9:00

For the fraternity itself, the experience was different because I think it's really unique that we live in freshman year. Yeah, like all my buddies, like they lived in dorms. Yeah. Um I just dreamed out for the last time. That was sad. Yeah. Um, but I remember moving, I was so nervous. Uh I was freshman through juniors, so there's some guys that I thought were so old, and now I'm older than those guys. Yeah. Um I remember like walking into the house, like you said, I didn't know it was souls, all mostly Ken City kids, and then like by 10 or 11 other out of state kids in my pledge class. Um, I don't know, you just gotta figure it out. I was I got you placed in a random room in the house. Yeah. Um I was at six other roommates for till fall break.

SPEAKER_02 9:38

None of them, you know, right? It just like all right, we're roommates. Two of them were already so comfortable, their dads were in the house. Oh, yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

You you do you don't get that privilege.

SPEAKER_02 9:48

Your dad didn't go to college.

SPEAKER_00 9:49

So um I don't know. Like, obviously, no one was there. I mean, people obviously there are people to help and guide you with classes and all that stuff at the same time. Like, I was four hours away from home. It's like yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:01

Um far enough to figure it out, close enough to come home if you needed to. Right. And to your credit, you figure it out. Like, you didn't, I mean I you know, yeah. No, I know. If you if you if you if you didn't have to, you wouldn't. Like if you could have spent Christmas there, you would. Um what well let me I'm gonna ask you some specific. Let's go year by year. So so freshman is what it is. There's you know, we won't go, we won't get specifics, but you know, there's hazing, there's all this stuff, and you can't believe, you know, and and there's there's uh there's there's fun stuff, but but ultimately there's a brotherhood that gets developed, right? Yeah. Okay. So so what did that mean to you to to to go through this, number one and number two, what um at what point did you start understanding like the the influence of the alums and how they show up and the support and all this stuff? Well, for one, I'd say hazing is a very strong word. I don't I that's such a uh welcoming about uh uh uh welcoming events that you guys go through. Uh call it that way.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

I I think like we always talk about this, like it was like the way it worked was like our freshman, we had like freshmen sleeping dorms, they're with each other every night until however late we wanted. Yeah. And like it was kind of it's kind of a rule in the house, like you don't go in the freshman or acts. Like okay. Um, so like we like I remember after like that first semester was over, we're like, damn, like we're never all gonna be up and talking in the same room, like probably ever again. Like all 32 because then you get you get rooms that assigned after. Yeah, yeah. So I think as far as like I mean, that first semester was a lot balancing the house as well as school, and I think that's what kind of taught me a lot. But then I'd say how close you get everybody's pretty unbelievable considering you're sleeping two feet away, and yeah, and you're with Chill every day, you're giving rides class to guys, you're eating together, you guys get a full like shower, commercial kitchen, and all this stuff.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

I mean, yeah. Yeah. Um so your second year you get to to uh run for something or get a roll of sort, right? Like your your sophomore year. So what would you what was your role?

SPEAKER_00 12:12

April, my freshman year, I got elected uh for recruitment. Um which was that's hilarious. What? Well, I feel like I recruited my whole life, so it's kind of funny that you ended up with that.

SPEAKER_02 12:24

Um was the only thing I ran for, it was the only thing I wanted. Why why did you want that? Like what why what did you see in that opportunity that you wanted to be part of it?

SPEAKER_00 12:33

Oh, I had no floor I wanted to be president at that time, nor did I want to be necessarily at that time. But I saw I remember how much of an impact like the rush chairs made on me whenever I visited versus like another house I did. Oh and like how important it was. So I was like, like I want to be that guy to welcome the new guy in and make sure like I do everything in my power if we like him to he comes here and not another house. To attract him. I want I want to be like like I want I want to be like in control of it, I guess. Love it. Um so it's me, Clark, and uh another guy, Ryan. Arizona Clark? Yeah, okay. And we essentially reached out to about 300 kids or 300 kids reached out to us and some we reached out to them. We signed about 30. Um so I mean, I was on three or four dinners a week. We'd have guys spend the night. Uh we did a rush event here, we did a rush event in Arizona, we did a rush event in Kansas City. Uh that would tell me a lot. Like that was the first time I guess my mind's operated in like an operational business sense. Yeah. Because whatever, you get a $15,000 budget. I think we ended at 14,998. You're in budget. Uh it's awesome. Um, but and then just kind of having to like having like whatever, we basically had a CRM, like a spreadsheet. Yeah. Um probably nothing as fancy as some of the agents have, but it worked for us. Um we just like you know, the best CRM is the one that works for you.

SPEAKER_02 14:07

Yeah. It doesn't matter how fancy it is. Yeah. Some people have really fancy one and they don't use them, so it doesn't really matter.

SPEAKER_00 14:13

But it was it was hard. Like we so we get we get tons and tons of like legacy referrals, and we probably rejected like 10 of them. Was that usual or is that I'd say it's usual. I mean, if it like like we have two alumni who oversee us, like kind of help us out and like give us guidance and stuff. And they're like, if you don't like the kid, don't bid them. Like yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:32

So then going to Austin, you say Colorado? Where where did you guys have your we went Kans City, St. Louis, Arizona? Arizona. Okay. So uh was that also a common thing that you guys did? That was the first time we ever did it. First time you guys did that. So why, why, how what caused you guys to go outside of the the norm?

SPEAKER_00 14:51

The the premise was we weren't necessarily worried about we knew we had some type of pipeline from obviously Kans City, but then like all three places. We have like five or six Arizona kids in our house now.

SPEAKER_02 15:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:02

And then obviously like six St. Louis or five St. Louis kids now.

SPEAKER_02 15:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:05

Uh with the incoming kids. Um, so we knew there was some kind of pipeline. The premise of it was to set up the next guys to like if they wanted to go to Minnesota, which is a massive pipeline to KU or um Colorado, like Denver area, that kind of stuff. We basically wanted to create a blueprint for them to do it at any spot in the country. Yeah. So like all the places we did the rush events were like national um like promotional. Yeah, yeah. Like like I did top golf here. Um, Ryan did like some pickleball place in Kansas City. Uh, I think Sam ended up doing his dad's restaurant in Arizona, but uh so basically we created like a whole blueprint for them, and I think this past year they went they went back to KC because like that's kind of yeah, that's your hub. Yeah, I mean it's easy, yeah. I get it. Um and then they went they went to Colorado and then they went to Tulsa, okay, which is our big pipeline for our house. Yeah. So then they basically copied the same thing, they just changed the location.

SPEAKER_02 16:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:02

Um Tulsa, we had an alum donate like a country club thing.

SPEAKER_02 16:06

Yes, but so how how does having people from different parts of the country, different walks of life impact the culture of the house? Oh, a lot.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

So is that is that a I'm assuming that's a we want to. You're never gonna get more out of state kids or 50-50 than Kids City. It's just not possible. But like we go for one, like I bet one third of our house out of state.

SPEAKER_02 16:27

And I bet that that occurred while you've been there, right? Like that that shifted while you were there?

SPEAKER_00 16:31

Yes, and no, I definitely put we put definitely put more of an emphasis on it. Yeah. Um, but I think it kind of always naturally happens. And do you think that could kind of broaden the culture of the house? Like just having people from Yeah, I remember Clark showed up like first day with like cave high converses and like baggy pants. I'm like, who the hell is this person? I need like bleach blonde hair. I was like, who the hell is this kid? Um and you guys are best buddies. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:59

Awesome. Yeah, my best friends now. Yeah. Um, but that's the beauty of building from the outside. Yeah. Would you agree? Yeah. Yeah. So so you you said something that's that hit me. Like you had about 300 meetings, yeah. And you've you you offer or accepted or recruit about 30, 35 of those 300, signed 30. Give out more bids than 30, but some bids went differently. Some yeah, yeah, I get it. But you you closed 30, so 10% of the people you met with. Interesting. I I need I mean this is fascinating. But um I I'm like, this is awesome. I didn't know that part actually, that you've met 300 people to get 30. What a concept. I mean, that is fascinating. I've been trying to teach that for roughly 15 years, and people still don't believe me. So good for you. So proud of you right now. Um, all right. So let's fast forward. So you kind of crushed it, your your sophomore year. Um, well, actually, let me go back since I'm I'm in a bit of an associate. Uh, the the 300 people, yeah. Like, how how did you find them? Like, people call you, do you call them? Like, do you get referrals? Like, how does it work?

SPEAKER_00 18:09

Combination of all everything. I'd say at the beginning of the year, the way it works is like the freshman class that comes in, we make a group chat with them in the summer with like three rush shares, and like, hey, all you guys need to send us three names, phone numbers, um, emails, like all these kids, high school. I'm not that are you serious right now? Seriously, this is how you guys do it? Like art.

SPEAKER_02 18:28

Yeah, so you ask people in-house to give you names of people they would like for yeah. So if I'm a if I'm a freshman, if I'm a incoming freshman, is that what it is? Yeah. So then you so you're a sophomore, I'm an incoming freshman. So once I get in, you're like, hey, who else do you know that you want?

SPEAKER_00 18:45

Well, we'll do it in the summer. Like the whole the whole pledge class is signed. Okay. So like they're like, who do you know in the grade under you? Right. Well, like we need three names from each of you. So that's 90 names off the bat. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 18:56

I'm not I this is awesome, right? Because this is it's like you stole my playbook. It's just that your people listen to you. This is awesome. So keep going.

SPEAKER_03 19:03

This is great.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

You do nine days off the bat, and then once a year sturts gets rolling, I'd say around October-ish, late October, is when like a flood of texts we get come in. Like, if you looked at my phone right now, like every every like we split up the communication pretty evenly, yeah. It's seeing three of us, but like every kid I've texted has like rush next to his name, and it's just okay. Yeah. Um, and then that's when kids start texting us, because like, especially it's only Kansas City kids really at that point. Yeah. Who are like, oh, I want to go to KU. And then they also the only kids who know about that, how the rush process works.

SPEAKER_02 19:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:39

Um, and then we all we don't usually sign about under, we always shoot for like 13 to 14 by Christmas break. And then maybe one over winter break because there's like a straggler that has a bit. Sure. But we never try to go over half because then second semester, it's even worse. Yeah. Like because everyone likes their decision by like mid-section. Sure. Sure.

SPEAKER_02 20:00

Um, so how do you find the ones that are not referred to you? Like you guys like they're like uh they come to you guys? And what makes them come to you, you think? I think success for our house. Success. So the fact that you guys are one of the best house in the country attracts people, is that what I'm hearing?

SPEAKER_00 20:17

But the year I was rushing every one chapter of the year, a KU means nationally, there are these awards called Rock Chapters, giving out the best like 10 chapters by bi-annually, so every two years. And we won the most in the country. So performance matters.

SPEAKER_02 20:33

Yeah. Huh. Yeah, I thought you were just drinking booze there. This is fascinating. All right, so so fast forward, so you kind of crushed it your second year. Um, and then what made you decide to run for president?

SPEAKER_00 20:47

I don't think I decided until I think it was probably around winter break. I probably like kind of idea popped in my head. Yeah. Well, why did you want to do that? Because I liked how much control, not control, I liked how much influence I had over with Rush. Much better word. Yeah. Yeah. I liked how much influence I had with Rush. Yeah. And I wanted to have a broader uh effect on things.

SPEAKER_02 21:09

Love it. So what you ended up winning, it's called a spade to spade, right? You became president. And kind of like the other experience, you're like, holy shit, now I gotta, it's kind of like the speech, right? Like, I won now I have to deliver a speech. Now you're president, like, holy cow, I gotta do this. Yeah. So what what was that a bigger holy cow when it started? Because you you had a busy summer last year.

SPEAKER_00 21:31

Yeah, I'd say like, and so I took over technically the April to end of the year is supposed to be like a turnover period. Yeah. Charlie didn't really help me out too much. Charlie was done. Yeah. I was done too. So um, but I uh yeah, I mean I probably got two hundred emails like two a week after I was elected. Yeah. Um just from alums, donors, all this stuff. In the midst of my term, we went through uh Four and a half million dollar innovation. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:02

Um so do you become responsible for this, or how how does that work from a responsibility perspective? In terms of I mean, yeah, like I had to not necessarily raising the money, no. No, but I mean who's who's running the project, who's responsible for the alumni are probably heavily involved.

SPEAKER_00 22:20

85% of that. All right. So I mean that, but I still like was on calls every week for it, making decisions of what goes where, when, like basically being a liaison be like, hey, can guys live in the house through this date if you guys are gonna meet doing stuff, like yeah, um, so it's a lot to figure out, and no one's ever done it before. Right. So I was like lost. Oh, you dad there's no blueprint, no one had gone through renovation renovation before, yeah. Um and then in right as we were wrapping that up, right when we came back from winter break, uh right before winter break, it got announced that another donor was this gonna donate 12 million and they're they're gonna start another renovation like late this summer, I think, or addition. And so all of a sudden it's like somebody yeah, but at least there's a blueprint for it now, right? Yeah, I kind of laid it out for Potter, the new president, but yeah, it was a lot. I mean, I mean you talked about my summer, like I was seven hours, I was in Florence or Italy all summer, and I was seven hours ahead on calls at like yeah, two in the morning. Just to clarify why we're in Italy. I was studying.

SPEAKER_02 23:21

Okay, just to make sure.

unknown 23:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 23:23

Um I was on calls like two in the morning. Yeah, because it was a time zone. Yeah, I was like, it was like five o'clock there, whatever it is. Yeah. Um like I there were times where like there were kids that didn't make grades that I had to call and kick out of the house. Uh and I was like, hey, what can you call? And he's like, How's 8 30 at night sound? I'm like, awful, but like I'm not gonna.

SPEAKER_02 23:42

So that's like that was a three in the morning.

SPEAKER_00 23:44

Is it seven hour swinging visas? Yeah. I'm like, sure, because I'm worried about the giving bad news and I'm not gonna be like, you're gonna operate on my time for this call. So it's tough decisions. Housing contract season was brutal. Um why is that? Because no one listens.

SPEAKER_02 24:04

So you so just give me an overview, a quick overview of how housing contract works. Like, what's your role? What's your role in that world? What's your role? To get them to fill it out. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 24:13

And how how are they supposed to fill who's supposed to fill it out? And and the kid, and then their parents get an email and they they basically like sign as a guarantor. Okay. And it I did on my phone like whatever, two weeks ago for my live out contract in like probably three minutes.

SPEAKER_02 24:29

And are you are you suggesting people don't read emails and therefore like your chasing? They'll read it and be like, I'll do it later. Okay, gotcha. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:41

Yeah. Right. I had to text kids like I would originally I was just blowing up group chats, and then it got to a point where I was like, I'm just gonna start texting kids individually, start calling kids. Yeah. I was like, he's like, I'll do it, like, do it right now. Yeah, I'm I'm waiting. I'll wait for you. I'll I'll see you coming through. Yeah, that's right. That's right. But that was tough. I think just like that time, obviously I was so thankful to be in Italy all summer, just time my lives with 13 of my best friends, like, but that time difference dealing with all that was tough. Yeah. Um, and school started, like before this is all before school started. Yeah. Um, so you get to school and it's like you come in August, kind of same thing. Renovations are under swing, like houses basically construction zone. Yeah. Um but you become the go-to guy for every kid that's got a problem and frustrated. Kids come to me, like, can you look at cameras? Somebody stole my charger. I'm like no. It's funny, like my VP is like technical role was like in-house stuff and I'm out of house stuff. Like, yeah. And whenever someone was like, Can I look at cameras like text Joey? Yeah, nice. Nice, I like it. That was one of the things I struggled with the most. So like that sounds stupid, like it's one of the things I struggle with the most is delegation. Oh, yeah? Why is that? Even a rush, like there were three of us, and I would like there were some nights where I was like, I'm doing everything because I know it'd get done right. And like being president, especially by myself, like I like there was work that alums would give me, and I'm like, this isn't even like this is like this is like a rush chair job or yeah, self-shared job. Like, oh, why am I doing this? Right. Um, so did you get better at it? Uh a lot better. Okay. Yeah. Save me a lot of stress. It was hard, it was hard at first. That was like the one thing my chapter advisor told me. He's like, You're like, you're the same as me, like you're gonna want to do everything yourself. Yeah. And he's like, I was like, no, I I can. And he was like, No, you can't.

SPEAKER_02 26:31

No, no, you can't. It's not possible. And if you want to grow, yeah, right. You gotta stay, you gotta own, own and develop your own lane, and then empower the others to to own their stuff, right? Yeah, it's kind of like think about go back to when you play hockey, right? Like if you're a forward, you can you can do it all. You can't can do forward and defense, right? Like you get responsibility, yeah, but you can't do it all, right? So you gotta trust the team you have around you, so you gotta empower to rush there, do hey, you do you do this, I'm gonna do my part, and then together we'll we'll we'll we'll win, kind of thing, right? But if you don't, can't do that.

SPEAKER_00 27:03

And then in the midst of this whole president thing, uh, I think December 24 is when our bar opened. Um I got offered a job there right when it opened. And originally I was like, oh, like something nice, like some extra fun. Cash. Sure. And then I just worked and worked and worked and worked. Started as a door guy. Yeah. Like just slums, mopping every night, yeah, cleaning up like crap off the bathroom, throw up and wheel it. Yeah. Um worked and worked, eventually got road to whatever, bar back in uh sometime in April or March. Um and then went through, finished the year there, came back, and then I think it was October, it was right after you guys left for family again. It was October 28th or something. I got a call asking to be manager um with one other kid. And the way there's the way it works, like there's probably there's gonna be 10 of us by the end of the year right now. There's five of us. Um so we promote kids kind of throughout the year, especially like around fall break when all the seniors go to Vegas and guys graduating and all this stuff. Yeah. So I got I got that call and I was like, yeah, let's do it. And I was excited, uh, with more money. I was working by honestly less than I was as a door guy bar badge. Um because there were weeks where I'd be there as a door guy, like every hour the bar was open. Yeah. Uh, which was an absurd looking. I don't think I could do that again. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:35

And now next year you're going in as what? General manager. So you went from mopping the floor cleaning toilet to general manager in three years? Oh. Job, buddy. It's awesome. Um, not all opportunities are created equally, right? You can't get to the top if you don't enjoy or experience, you may not enjoy it, but if you don't experience mopping the floor, it's hard to get to the top. Yeah, don't ever forget that part. Yeah, most people want to skip all of that and say, hey, I'm I'm really good. I need an opportunity. I said, well, like mob the floor and then see how good you are. Yeah. See how clean your floors are, right? And then it works.

SPEAKER_00 29:07

And uh I don't like between the house and that, like, I don't know if I'll see or manage that much money for a long time. Yeah, yeah. What was your budget for the house? 1.25. Nice, nice. What did that what did you learn from managing that? I didn't know what to do with a lot of it. Um, yeah, like the way it works, like some of it goes to like in-house stuff, like exec budgets like rush, social. Yeah. Um but you had to learn all that, right? Like you had to you had to the rest like a lot of it, which alum's alum so help me with that stuff. They help me with like they help they support me, but they're like, like instead of helping like that's your money, like figure it out. Figure it out. Yeah. And and then this uh all the out-house stuff's like water bill, electric, yeah, um like one K, like all that stuff. Yeah, like maintenance for the house and all this stuff, like everything. Yeah, um, so I think in-house, I don't remember exactly, but like I don't know, I I have to look at it, but it all overall is about 1.25. Yeah, they got more say in the out-of-house stuff than I did. Sure. Uh, because all of it was mostly fixed, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:14

Um, so but it's still a lot of money to manage and and to be accountable for, right? So that's awesome. Yeah. So as we're kind of closing this up, I'll tell you this, because I think you need to know this, because I share this with a lot of people. I think I want you to understand that you you played a big role as my teammate in my journey, and hopefully I'm I'm being a good teammate to you, but but you did because I wasn't able to be at all the games, I wasn't able to be at all the tournaments, I wasn't able, right? Because I back in 2017 or so I started traveling quite a bit. And and I remember, like we talked about it, right? Like I said, hey, I'm I'm gonna start going to Canada, I'm gonna have to start traveling for work, I'm getting opportunities and all this stuff, so I'm gonna miss stuff, like I miss practices, I miss games. Um I don't think I missed tournaments because those were on the weekends, but I might have. Um But I want you to know that your willingness to support my journey is is a great like a great showing of you being my teammate. You know what I mean? So so when you when you when you as you move forward and you keep thinking, and hopefully this is something you embrace, like thinking from being a teammate and kind of having a wee attitude, like like you already have it. Like you've done it for me, and I know you've done it for your fraternity, and I know you do it at the bar as a general manager. So don't don't don't don't minimize how good of a teammate you are, because um, I mean you certainly want you've certainly been one of my best one and allow me to do this, and I think hopefully in return it it helped you, right? So um uh but it's it's a it's uh it's a real thing, and I think it's cool that that you're experiencing all this. I know you're leaving town going to Austin next week for your your your internship and just fun to fun to watch you, brother. So anything else you want to offer, ask? Anything you wish you knew? Anything I wish I knew? A lot of things I wish I knew before I go to my real job. Um I think my advice to you would be two things. One, don't uh don't underestimate how hard it's gonna be. Um and if you choose to not underestimate it, when it does get hard, then embrace how hard it is. Yeah, like don't get pissed off about it. Wow. Like like if you want to climb in your world the way you did through your fraternity, the way you became a captain in hockey, the way you became a general manager from like you're gonna have to mop floors again. Yeah, you know what I mean? Maybe not literally, but like keep that mentality. And when it gets hard, just run into it and then brace the hell out of it. Yeah. And if it gets easy, pause and ask yourself why it's easy. Because it should. It can be easier, there's a difference. It could be easier, but if it's easy, you're you're you're either in the wrong room or you're cheating yourself.

SPEAKER_00 33:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:29

You know what I mean? Yeah. So um I didn't really I didn't fully understand all of this when I started. Um so my my my biggest thing would be yeah, embrace embrace what you've done already and understand that like do like I think as you move forward, like do it consciously. Like when it's hard, just understand that, yeah, it's supposed to be hard. And you haven't experienced or met a ton of assholes yet, and just know like one could argue that we're outnumbered. So when when you when you run into it, don't don't get upset about it. Just just stay the path, stay the course, keep doing your thing, and you're gonna be just fine. And then and then the last thing is embrace being a good teammate. Like a lot of people don't understand the value of it, like hopefully we I think we do. And I'm surrounded by great people that do also, like, like be a good teammate. Yeah, right. They say, I saw this the other day, like um it's it's it's easy to find friends, it's hard to find good friends. And and it's harder to keep good friends because the good friend is the one that doesn't judge you that you call at three in the morning and say, Hey, I messed up, I need your help. Yeah, that's that's that's the guy, that's that's the people you want around you. Yeah, but but you can't have the people around you like this if you're not that to them. Right. Which means you gotta live, you gotta live in being curious and not being in judgment. Right? Yeah. Because they remember, every time you choose to judge someone's situation, you're next one on the list. Somebody will judge you. So don't don't don't ever get caught in that. It doesn't matter, you're either a teammate or you're not. Yeah, you know what I mean? So so when somebody falls down, it's not about what happened or why they fall down, it's about how am I gonna help you get up. Yeah. And I think if you stick to that, you're gonna kick ass, man. I love you.