From the Water to the Community | Tim Askew | Below The Surface Podcast #2

Tim Eskew grew up poor in King's Crossroads, NC — and didn't even know it. Now he's a pastor, founder of Eastern Carolina Inshore Club (ECIC), and a man whose name has become synonymous with community, purpose, and giving back.

In this episode of Below the Surface, Tim opens up about the moments that shaped him: realizing at 13 that he wanted more out of life, learning that failure is the only real teacher, battling depression most of his life, and what it really costs to carry a community on your back.

This one goes deep.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Good morning. Welcome to the Below to Service Podcast. I'm Jarrett Shepherd. This is where we talk about what winning really looks like. I have an awesome guest today. Haven't met him personally until this morning. But uh we've talked back and forth, got a lot of things in common, so I'm really excited about this conversation. Um, Tim Eskew, welcome.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Hey, how are you doing this morning?

SPEAKER_03 0:26

Good, man.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

Great to finally get to the face-to-face.

SPEAKER_03 0:29

Right. I feel like we've uh already did the podcast before the podcast even started.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Yeah, we had some great conversations already.

SPEAKER_03 0:38

For sure. But for sure. I got a lot I want to go into this morning. Okay. I think that you have really cool stories. Even talking to you for the last 45 minutes, getting to know you a little bit more really shows me that there's a lot there that I want to go into. And the whole purpose of this podcast is to get to know people like you that has success in their life, but also has that what I call below the surface stuff that nobody has seen to get where you're at. Right. You know, the life that you live now, how you got there. Because people see the flashy, people see the cool stuff you're doing, they see the fish that you're catching, they see the life that you're living, but they don't see the long road. The long road that it took to get there. Um, and that's every successful person. They've had that long road. And people, you know, and that's the purpose of this podcast is talk about that. Um, so before fishing, uh, before we get into all that, I really want to know who's who was Tim before anybody knew your name.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

Well, I, you know, old country boy grew up in uh place called King's Crossroads, North Carolina. It's right outside of Falkland. You may know. I I grew up there. Um we were poor, but I didn't know it. Right. Because, you know, uh my grandparents and uh my mother uh raised me. Mama always was there, but my grandparents, I lived with them. Mama worked two jobs. Granddaddy farmed and built houses, and so, you know, we were poor, but I had no clue that we were poor because I had a great home life and plenty, plenty of food to eat and clothes to wear and and uh you know basketball to play in the yard. So, you know, it's it's right came from there. Uh and then as you, you know, as you get older, you realize there's more, there's more out there to go get. Correct. And so it's up to you to go get it. Correct.

SPEAKER_03 2:39

It's funny you say that because I I grew up a lot the same way. Um grew up in trailer parks, all that stuff. But I never knew any different. Um, just because, like we talked about earlier, uh, we were provided for. That's true. Yeah. I found out years ago that um my mom would put water in the milk to have it. Make it go for all the yeah. I didn't know any difference. You know, now it's just skim milk, right? You know, it's two percent, you know. Um but going through, and you said something very interesting is how you grow up and then you realize there's more out there. Uh, what shaped that mindset early? Where where do you see that shift?

SPEAKER_00 3:22

I think it was it was pro you know, I probably 12, 13 years old. Uh realized that there was um more. Because I went I went to Farmer Central High School, and you know, some of the kids lived in town and and they had the nicer clothes. Uh, and you go spend a weekend with them, play ball with them, and you realize that wait a minute, there's there's other opportunities. There's things out there that that that are appealing. Uh, and then you start trying to figure out, well, what do I need to do to have that? So you I think it was a very early age that you started realizing that you do more to life. You do.

SPEAKER_03 4:03

Um, I always say there's three different types of people. Um, there's the person that walks by the Lamborghini and just says, nice car. There's a type of person that walks by and says, How do I get that? Right. Then there's a person who walks by and says, That's just a dream, that's not in my calling. Um, and I always tell people, if that's your what you want, it's and you can do it. Um, so I always say there's three different people, so that's where shifts me, my mindset was my dad always built muscle cars growing up. Um, didn't have a lot of money, so it wasn't no crazy muscle car, but he would always have some kind of cool car around. Um, so I I would turn into a car person. I love cars. Um, and that's what really started shifting my mindset of all right, there's more out there. The the the cars that people drive, because my dad would take us to car shows and stuff like that. I'm like, okay. That's what really made me shift. You know, there's things out there that people are making money, like, how are we doing this and how can I get there? So I think, like you said, I think it's a mind shift very early. And the same thing with me with playing ball, it's being around those other kids that that you know have parents with money or whatever. Um were you always wired to lead?

SPEAKER_00 5:24

I think so. Um even in high school, uh different organizations that I was involved in and sports and and even the group of guys I hung around, it seemed it seemed like that I may I I didn't realize it, but it seemed like I was always the leader. I was always the one that, hey, let's go do this, let's go do that, um, let's do it this way. Um So I think it was just born in me to do. And and my brain never shuts down. I think it was 20, yeah, 25 years ago, maybe 30 years ago, I went to UNC Chapel Hill and did a study. Um, and they say I never sleep. That even though I sleep and I get my rest, I'm com I I comprehend everything that's going on. You could walk into a room and have a conversation, and when I woke up, I tell you your conversation. Amen. And and I'm thinking today, I'm doing this podcast with you, but I've got other things that I'm thinking about that's end of the month, the big tournament we got, you know, it's my brain just shuts down.

SPEAKER_03 6:32

Yep. It never stops at, you know. Um, and the people that aren't like that do not understand that. No. Um, my wife's type of person, you know, I can ask her what she's thinking, she say nothing. And I'm like, that's not possible. I like to have 10 minutes it's possible with my wife. She's not thinking nothing. I'm like, can I just get like 10 minutes of that, please? Um what did life teach you the hard way?

SPEAKER_00 6:58

What did it teach me the hard way? Um first of all, and I'm gonna kind of do the spiritual side a second. Amen. Um I realized early on that that I couldn't do anything without God. I tried it and I failed. It wasn't fun, wasn't it? It wasn't fun. Uh I tried it and I failed. Um thankfully his grace uh allowed me to get picked up. Um and then that's when my mindset changed. Um, okay, I've I've done all the wrong things. Um I've I've squandered my money, I've spent foolishly. Um I've done what I wanted to do instead of what was needed to be done. Um so then I I kind of changed in that mindset. But I I mean I've worked all my life. I mean, got right out of high school, went to work. Um back this was, I'm not gonna tell the year because then everybody knows how how ancient I am. But cable TV was getting started. Right. You know, it it's only a few people in towns had it, but it was starting to branch out, and so I got in got involved with that. Uh, and then I learned that if you want to make money, you really gotta work. You gotta work hard. So that was, you know, you're talking early 80s, uh, doing that. But it taught me that if you want something, you got to go get it, and it's never easy. Correct. It's never easy. You you gotta hustle, you you gotta try to outthink the next person uh because there's somebody out there that wants what you've got. You know, everybody's jealous, everybody wants what you have. Um so you gotta think uh ahead of everybody else. You do. So I think life has its own lessons if you'll pay attention. That's the secret, you gotta pay attention to them. Exactly. You gotta pay attention. Uh and when you fall down, get up. You know, it's not the end of the world. It's not. Get up. Don't get discouraged. Don't, you know, oh well, like you said a while ago about the Labor Gates, the the ones that say, oh, that's just a dream. Well, if you have dreams can become reality. Correct. Oh, that's like the Bell Haven uh festival that we started, this will be our fourth year. Um at the beginning it was a dream, but that first year it turned into a reality. But if it's not gonna be a reality if all you do is dream about it. It's not you gotta work for it, too. You gotta work for it.

SPEAKER_03 9:35

So I and I think a lot of deep thought and visioning things, people don't understand the power of that. Like vision boards. Um, I was very big into vision boards when I was first getting started and what I'm doing. And I would have moments of just deep thought of things on my vision board. Like things on my vision board, most of them, I got a new one now, but most of my old ones are crossed off. But I would literally think deeply about the those moments when I got it. The house that we're building, walking the hallways, touching the door, opening the door, the car I have, the cars I have, getting in the car, starting it up. Like I could deeply vision the sound, the feel, the smell for over years. And eventually it just becomes reality. Right. Because you've just put it in I forget what they call it. It's like if you're about to go buy a four truck, Ford Raptor, say you want a Ford Raptor, right? You finally buy it. Now all you see is four raptors, right? Mm-hmm. It's just one after another. Well, you've never seen one before. Yeah. Now all of a sudden you see them because like it's just it's what you've been thinking about. And I I think a lot of people overlook the power of deep thought and you know, really dreaming, but you also gotta put the work behind it too.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

Absolutely. Um you gotta have goals. Yeah, absolutely. You know, um, I I meet a lot of of you know, young people with with all the different things I do. That you talk to them, they have absolutely no goals. But they don't even know. No, they just live life day to day, but they can't see the future because they don't think about the future. Right. You know, I I think early on in life, well, I know I did, you know, growing up, um I would fantasize about different things. You know, you know, I I'd fantasize about being the best baseball player. You know, I I'd fantasize about catching the biggest fish that at the pond, you know, there on the farm or down the road. Um it was imagination, it was a goal, it was things that inside of me, there was just something inside of me that wanted more. Correct. Um, I was satisfied with what I had, but I knew that there was more to be had. Right. And so that imagination, that desire, that that dream, um to have all I can have and do all I can do.

SPEAKER_03 12:17

And I think that's what creates successful people. And I think a lot of we talked about this before with other guests, is a lot of successful people don't do very well in school. I've noticed that. And I was one of them. And most people that you talk to, they struggle in school because school just didn't align with what they were wanting out of life. They couldn't go from this algebra is not going to get me what I want. Um, and like you said, they have this crazy mind just going non-stop. So they've kind of already come up with the ideas and stuff that it's gonna take to get to where they want to go. And I'm just in school and I'm wasting all my time. I'm just ready to get out.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

Yeah, when you're in school, you're thinking about getting out because you have other things to go do.

SPEAKER_03 13:05

And I'm not knocking school at all. Like I've always said if you want to be a doctor, lawyer, surgeon, whatever, that that's what you need to do. Um, but you don't have to do it to be successful at all. Um you talked about your faith a little bit earlier, uh being a pastor and all that good stuff. So a pastor title comes with pressure. People expect perfection, right? Out of their pasture.

SPEAKER_00 13:27

Oh, yeah. They uh there's there's two misconceptions. One is people look at a pastor and think, well, he's holier than thou, or he doesn't do anything wrong. Right. You know, and then when you do stumble, it's oh my God, you know. He's human. We're human, you know. I tell people all the time, being a pastor, uh, I I'm no different than anybody else. I'm a human being. I have faults, I sin every day. Um, so I'm just the one that gets to preach the message, that gets to lead the flock. But I'm no different than the flock, other than I get, I guess, you know, God put me in charge of them, and what I teach them, I'm held accountable for. Um that's that's kind of that. And then they think, well, a pastor only works three hours a week, you know, Sunday morning an hour, Sunday night, an hour, and Wednesday. Okay, come go with me when you get up at two o'clock in the morning or eleven o'clock or nine o'clock at night or whatever it may be, or during the day, you've got to schedule a hospital visit because somebody's dying. Or somebody's or do a funeral. Yeah, funeral. I mean, I got one to do this Saturday.

SPEAKER_03 14:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

You know, I had other things that in my mind I was gonna do Saturday. Uh then yesterday I found out, you know, I was asked to do do a service Saturday. You work more, you know, I probably put more hours in. If you take studying and prayer time, uh visits, uh, you know, pastoring the church. Um sermon. Sermon, you know, uh, you you put more time into that than I do my job.

SPEAKER_02 14:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

Um because it's it never ends. It's a 24-7 job. So, you know, people that's on the outside looking in say, oh, you only work three hours a week. Well, how about um I'm up till midnight praying and studying um for Sunday's message? Correct. You know, they don't see all of that.

SPEAKER_03 15:19

But I guess that answers that answered my next question was do people misunderstand what being a pastor costs? Pretty much, I think you just answer that.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

Yeah. I mean it's it's it's it's it's your life. It's 24. It's it's a calling that um never ends. And and there's there's pressures there. You know, you you take when I go up to the hospital, um, I get a call to go visit a child that's dying. Uh they may be out of state, you know, the family don't, the pastor can't get here, or they don't have one. Um, and you go in and you see a five, six-year-old child, and I try not to choke up on it, uh, that's hooked up to all of these tubes. And and, you know, they're any day now, you go to bless them, you know, you go to lift their spirits, but you leave being lifted up. Right. Because when that child looks at you and goes, takes you by the hand and says, Don't cry for me. You know, I'm going home to be with the Lord. I'm I'm fine. You know, it's it's very humbling. You know, I I many times I I'll get out in the parking lot and and sit in my truck and ball. And, you know, your heart's in your throat. You know, I c I can't drive. I'm I'm shaking. I'm just you know, um that's the things people don't see that pastors do. Unfortunately, today with a lot of the younger pastors that's coming out of the seminaries and stuff, that they don't take that job seriously. You know, they they they expect everybody else to do what they're supposed to be doing. And they do want to work just three hours a week. Right. But there's a a true pastor, there's a preacher and then there's a pastor. Yep. Anybody can preach a message. Absolutely. But being a pastor is somebody that genuinely. I grew up kind of, like I said, you know, my grandparents raised me. Um granddaddy never showed any emotions. So I I grew up, men didn't cry, we didn't show emotions, we didn't say I love you, um, none of those things. But when I became a pastor, the Lord changed who I am and all that, you know, uh tenderness comes, compassion, um, understanding how somebody else feels, or trying to understand uh how somebody else feels when they're hurting. Right.

SPEAKER_03 17:49

And God works that way in everybody. Most people just fight it. They fight what God's trying to do. Why do you want me to do that? Well, that's don't ask why. That's right. There's a purpose, then just do it. Um my mother-in-law is a pastor, so uh my grandfather was a pastor, so I've been around that my whole life, that that environment. Uh so one question I always like to ask pastors is who carries you with and lifts you up when you're lifting everybody else up.

SPEAKER_00 18:26

Well, I have a few pastor friends, and and when I say a few, you have to be careful who you put your trust in. And I have a few of them that I know that I could call right now and say, hey, I'm in New Bern. I need what's the address? No questions asked. Uh, hey, brother, I I'm down today. I need, you know, I just need to talk a few minutes. I need prayer. I'm there. Um my congregation. I know that they genuinely love me and pray for me every day. That lifts me up. Um, but I also believe that there's something inside of me that God has given me from birth that I'm capable to lift myself with the Holy Spirit. Not by myself. But you know what I'm saying? I have the willpower to do that. I battled depression most of my life. Um many years ago, I think I was in my mid-20s. Uh doctors want to put me on medication. I'm like, no, I'm not doing that. And and I have bioles. A couple weeks ago, I I was really low. No particular reason, just you know, it happens. Um, two or three days, four days, whatever it was. One day I woke up, I'm like, this doesn't make any sense. You know, I got it, you know, and that's when prayer and faith comes in. You know, maybe I wasn't praying enough over the last few weeks. So God allowed me to have my battle of depression because he wanted to talk to me. Right. You know, and through that I got a message. Right. Uh, you know, for a sermon. So God uses all of that. Uh, and he'll only let you go so far before he pulls you back up.

SPEAKER_03 20:13

Right. And I'm glad you brought up depression and anxiety and all that stuff because I deal with it too. And I think most men do. Um, and that's one of the purposes of this whole podcast is to really bring men together too, because I think men need to talk more about those certain things and be more open about it too, because I think we all deal with it. Oh, yeah. It's just most of us were raised to hide it. Hide it. Don't no, can't no weakness, don't show it.

SPEAKER_00 20:40

Um showing your weaknesses, Jared, um, actually shows you strength. It does. And that's something I had to learn. It's like crying. Um I used to never would shed a tear. And then I realized that's part of my depression. You know, that's that's part of what makes me angry. Get out of how gets my temper going, whatever. And then you realize it actually shows strength that you're a real man when you can show your emotions. I used to never tell anybody I loved them. Um, you know, all my buddies, you know, that that are real I'm really close with and and and we talk, you know, hey brother, I love you. You know, um, all of those things, and when you say and do, and your your attitude changes to all of that, all of a sudden you realize, you know, you feel that weight lifted off. You're not being fake anymore. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 21:39

You're being you. Yeah, being you, absolutely. You're being the man that God created you to be. That's right. And we're supposed to love everybody. Absolutely. Um let's get into ECIC. Yeah. Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 21:50

Um, where did where did that start from? I guess we're going in fifth, sixth year. Uh we have I I've fished bass tournaments for many years, helped run some tournaments. So I had a lot of knowledge. And the guy that was running a tournament trail around the Bell Haven area all of a sudden just quit. Oh. He uh he just said, you know, this is not gonna be a trout trail. They had four species, and you know, they cut them out of flounder. He said, until we can do all of that, I'm not having another tournament. So anyway, some of the guys that were fishing that trail started coming to me. Tim, man, we know you can do it. You know, this is what you've been doing. Uh, start a trail. And so I just thought about it. And I went, a good friend of mine in Tarborough, North Carolina, Ronnie Butler, um, owns a metal working business. I went, I was in his office one morning and I said, Man, I think I'm gonna do a couple of trout tournaments and see how things go. Uh, we'll throw a pop-up tent, you know, we'll and uh he said, No, we're not gonna do that. I said, Why, you don't think it's a good idea? He said, if we're gonna go, we're gonna go all the way. So we bought a trailer, we bought the tournament pro scales, we we started planning. I called my best friend Lambert that that same day. I said, Man, I got this idea. Um, I said, What do you think, Lambert? He said, Let's do it. So Lambert Garrison, myself, uh, and Ronnie are the three founding members of ECIC. Um, and then Chris Ivey came, you know, he's our president, he's he's uh awesome guy. He's he's the brains, as I say, behind because he thinks. Where I'm I'm a when a problem comes up, I'm better if it comes right now and I have to handle it. He analyzes and thinks, and and it so we make a good and Lambert, he he's uh he's an analyzer. Uh he'll he'll think about things for a day or two before we make a decision, and I'm a right now guy. Right. So we you know we we compliment, but we got started with that, and then within a within two months, I think the first two tournaments, we realized we needed a purpose. So then we started the uh Randy Lee Vanderford Jr., he was the guy that fished with us, passed away with cancer, loved kids. So we started the foundation to raise money. So ECIC started out as an idea, let's just have some tournaments, to very quickly becoming a uh a trail with a purpose. And so um now this is what fifth or sixth year. I think we're probably one of the most popular and successful tournament trails, inshore trails out there, and it's growing. Um it's it's this is our pivotal year this year in in sponsorship and growth and what we can I think it was 110 kids that we provided Christmas for this this past December. And I'm not talking one gift, I'm talking full-fledged Christmas. That's awesome. And that's not counting what we do all year long. Right. So uh that's what drives ECIC. It's not about having a tournament and saying, you know, let's let's just have a tournament. Right. Last year when the when the stun came and we didn't and they cut the trout out until July, I didn't hear from the guys about, man, we can't have a tournament, win no money. All the guys that called me and Lambert and Ivy were um, how we're gonna raise money for the kids. It wasn't about what, because most of them give the money back anyway. Right. You know, or a portion of it.

SPEAKER_02 25:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:33

Um, it wasn't about that. It was about how how we're gonna help families? How are we gonna help kids this year if we can't have tournaments? So that's when I called Chris Ivy and I said, man, we gotta do something. So he jumped on it and and, you know, got the app going, and uh, we never missed a beat. Never. Same thing this year. Yep, same thing this year.

SPEAKER_03 25:55

Um Did you think it would become as respected as it is?

SPEAKER_00 26:00

Didn't think about that. Yeah. You know, at the time it was we thought about let's um let's have some tournaments, and then like I said, quickly it became in with a purpose. And we were just looking at a general local community type thing where, okay, if we can help four or five people this year, then we've done something. Right. Didn't know that it was going to branch out to be what it is uh now. And then when Hugh Sutton came to me uh about four years ago about doing a festival in Bellhaven, uh, because he'd been watching us. He saw what we were doing, how we ran things, and he came to me and said, Look, you know, I've got this idea, and uh there's kids out there that want to go to school, but they can't, they can't afford it. Let's what can we do to give them tools to go? You know, learn HVAC, boat building, uh, nursing program, whatever it may be. So that's when we started the Bellhaven Trout Tournament Festival. And like I said, uh this past uh October, uh$100,000 in three years in scholarships. That's insane. So congratulations.

SPEAKER_03 27:12

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 27:13

Yeah, so you know, we get letters all the time from young people that's like, thank you so much. You know, we could not have gone to boat building class if if it wasn't for you. And uh I'm like, no, it ain't me. It's ECIC in general, because I'm the I may be the front man, but I'm no better than the people that are around me. And they're the ones that make it happen. Right. You know, I'm the one like doing the podcast for you today. I'm the one on the radio, I'm the one um uh on TV something. I'm I'm the one that that everybody sees. But there's people behind the scenes like Lambert and and uh Chris Ivey and Chad Wood, and I could, you know, Hugh Sutton, and I could go on and on with the names that make me look good. You know, um, but somebody's gotta be it. Somebody's got to be the person. The person. Right.

SPEAKER_03 28:12

And you said two things there purpose and then your people. That's a a business. That's what people don't understand. You can build a business all day, but if there's no true purpose there, a God-given purpose. You know, just like what we do, we fix things for a living, but the whole purpose of what we built with me and my wife was to give people good careers and abilities to grow and make good money and be treated like family and not a number. Right. That was our purpose. So our business is our ministry. That's why we've been able to be successful. If I if I would have gone into it and just said, hey, I want to fix things and make all the money I want to make, I wouldn't be successful.

SPEAKER_00 29:00

No, I you know, you you may have survived.

SPEAKER_03 29:03

Survived, yes. But I wouldn't be where we are today and what it's turned into. And then the second thing was the people. Like you said, I'm I'm the face. Everybody sees me. I started it, I created it, but we have 55 employees now. All 55 have built what we've built. Um, it ain't me. Right. And there's a handful of like you do. You have your handful of people that have done it just as much as I've done. Just in different ways. And that's another thing people miss in businesses is you have to we talked about this yesterday, is you have to loosen up and let other people take control of things.

SPEAKER_00 29:47

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 29:48

And as a leader, your job is to find out what that person's good at and put him in position for them to be successful. Um I've I've moved people's positions before and they look at me like I'm crazy. That's not what I want to do. Like I I get it. Just like football. How many, but how many coaches have moved somebody's positions from high school in college and then they make it pro at that new position? Right. They would have never made it pro. How many quarterbacks out of high school didn't come into the college and now they're a diff defensive back?

SPEAKER_01 30:27

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 30:28

Well, you would have never made it as a quarterback. That's right. Now you're going to the league as defensive back. Now it's all because of the leader that you had. Sure. And a lot of people would just miss that. And I think that's what creates uh a small business to a major business, is understanding and loosening up and putting those people in position and being okay for them to fail. No, you know, it's no different than raising kids. That's what I always say. It's no different than raising kids. Like your kid is not going to be successful and be all they be if you don't let them fail and let them do things on their own.

SPEAKER_00 31:02

Well, failing is when you learn.

SPEAKER_03 31:04

Absolutely. That's the only thing I've that's the only reason I've learned everything in my life.

SPEAKER_00 31:09

Back, this was uh, I forgot you what year it was, maybe the early 2000s, 2001, something like that. Um bass tournament bass fishing became very popular in our colleges. And uh John Ballard, uh JB Custom Rods, he of course he passed away a few years ago, but he jumped on board with that and he called, he said, you know, will you go speak, will you you help the kids, will you take some of them out? Absolutely. Um and I would tell them I've never learned anything from a tournament that I won. But I learned a tremendous amount from every tournament that I lost. And so when you fail, um you learn. Oh, you're kidding. Uh when you when you fail, you learn something. When you win, everything's going along fine. So you you're not learning anything because it's clicking, it's falling into place. But when you fail, you or you should think, why did I fail? Right. What happened? What piece of the puzzle there that came unhinged that I I need to fix? And so that's what life's about. It is. You know, your failures um bring forth victory. That's like some of my sermons. Some sometimes I'll preach one on Sunday morning and I go, man, that's the worst sermon I've ever preached in my life. You know, I can't believe I just, Lord, I failed you today. Uh, and then on the way home after after morning service, somebody'll call me or text me and say, brother, I really need to hear that today. Uh it changed me. And I'm like, okay. Well, what I may think sometimes also a failure may not be an absolute failure. Right. So you got to remember that. Right.

SPEAKER_03 33:08

And I've had to learn that the hard way is, you know, there's stuff God puts on me that I need to say. And a lot of times I I'm bad about it, and I'm like, I'm not saying that. I'm not doing that. Um, people will think I'm crazy or think I'm silly or whatever. But you go to do it, and then you get these messages, thank you. I needed to hear that today, just like you said. You changed my day. That's right. And even if that's just one person, that's all that matters. That's all it matters. It changed what you you got to change one person.

SPEAKER_00 33:37

Um And that's what that's one of the things that I'm so proud of with with Eastern Carolina Inshore Club, is there's been a lot of kids, because we we're real bit real big on our kids, um that instead of doing something they shouldn't be doing, they're fishing and and they're learning and they tell you they really appreciate it. Um and and and then it's all the things on the back side of that that that we're able to do through ECIC to help kids, you know, if we can keep them off of drugs or or in trouble, whether it be fishing or something else, but just give them some encouragement. And and that's what very quickly ECIC became our purpose, what we wanted to do. Um and I'm always amazed at the outreach that we have. I I you know, I thought it was just gonna be around Beaufort County, and now we stretch out to a lot of counties and do a lot. And I'm always amazed at what God can do with it and and what our guys and girls do. I mean, we we've uh we've got some ladies that don't fish a bit, but there's compassionate about ECIC is the guys that fish. Right. Uh that work behind the scenes all year long um to make things happen. Right. So uh very proud of it. And and without the people around me, I just And that goes back to purpose too, though.

SPEAKER_03 35:08

Everybody has to have the same purpose and be aligned on the same purpose. Right? Absolutely. I mean, if they're not aligned on the same purpose, then it just doesn't, it's not going to click.

SPEAKER_00 35:18

Is there anything new going on with ECIC this year that you want to bring up? Well, yeah, we you know, this is our our our pivotal year, I think, in in growth. Uh we've got some great sponsors, and and I don't I I'd like to plug Brian Harris at Park Boat Company. Uh he came on last year, uh I guess around September. Um and that he has worked extremely hard to bring sponsorship. We're doing a two-day end of the year, um, I mean end of the end of this month, uh, our first tournament of the year, which was supposed to have been in February. But we're uh it's Friday and Saturday, 27th, 28th of March, two-day park boat company, Grady White tournament.$5,000 guaranteed first place. Uh that's unheard of in the trout world. Right. You know, um, and that's because of what Brian has done. Uh he saw the vision the ECIC has of helping kids, and he reached out last year. He said, look, we you know, we may not ever sell a boat, and that's fine. We believe in what you're doing, and we want to be a part of it. Right. Um, so uh it quickly became a great friendship, and he works just as hard as I do, I think, behind behind the scenes trying to get us new sponsorship, trying to make things happen. And uh again, people that's around me that makes me look good. And then we got Bay Rider uh came on board with us in I think June, because of this year's the stun things had to move around a little bit. Uh June, we're gonna have uh the Bay Rider tournament down in Swan Quarter. So uh it's gonna be a fun one. Yeah, so you know that's it's it's we're gonna do because of using the app, we we're we we can do anything we want to. So we're gonna have a flounder tournament in August. Okay. Uh we did it last year. It was a great big hit. So we got all of that going on. ECIC's taking a bigger role with the Bellhaven Trout Tournament and Festival uh as a whole. The the first three years it was it was pretty much Hugh Sutton and myself on the BTTF uh committee, uh, different ones on that, and plus Lambert and Ivy. Uh, but now it's ECIC as a whole. Uh we're taking a bigger role in that. So it's gonna be a bigger and better festival this year. Um, hopefully we can raise more money for scholarships. Right. So that's it's a lot going on, and I'm sure by the time the day's over, there'll be some more changes for ECIC. Uh I'm sure.

SPEAKER_03 37:51

And no, it's exciting. I think you're you're doing some really good stuff, and we're we're we're proud to be part of it too, in any little way that we can.

SPEAKER_00 37:58

Um Yeah, and we appreciate uh you know you what you've done this year for our points for the kids. Yeah, I think that's gonna be really cool. It's gonna be fun to watch. This is the first year for that. Yeah. And and we we thought about it last, I think last year when when the championship was over. We need to we need to have a points championship next year for the kids. We need to do something to highlight them because that's why we're doing what we do. Right. It's for the kids. Um, and so we started spinning wheels, and then you reached out to me. Um, and we talked a couple times and then had a couple other guys reach out and said, you know, hey, we'll we'll do this, we'll do that. Um so now this year is gonna be great. Uh I think the kids are really excited about uh what's going on. So it's just a great partnership. I appreciate you know you coming on with ProServe and you know, um, we'll uh we'll see what we can do to help and what we can do to get these kids more excited instead of having five or six every tournament. You know, I'd like to have 15 or 20.

SPEAKER_03 39:04

Yeah. Let's have a whole kid tournament.

SPEAKER_00 39:06

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 39:07

I'm all for that. Yeah, that's that'd be fun. You know, kind of um highlight the what they call the wounded warrior fishing tournament that they have. You can do something like that with just kids. I think that'd be fun. Absolutely. Um, let's go into the fishing world a little bit. Okay. You know, ECIC's fishing, but just go into fishing. Uh, what has changed in fishing? I know there's a lot going on, especially with trout, with politics and all that stuff. Yeah, don't don't get my blood boiling. What has changed in fishing that concerns you?

SPEAKER_00 39:41

Management. It's it's a simple solution. Okay, it it really is. It's it's it doesn't take a rocket scientist to to manage our fishery. But the politics get involved, money gets involved, one side favored over the other, and I don't I don't really want to get into all of that too much, but there's people that make the decisions that really don't have a clue. Right. Instead of listening to the actual people that actually do it. You know, I tell people they've done a good job at it at pitting the recreational fishermen against the commercial fishermen. You know, you know, the politics in it has has done that. Um I have nothing in the world against commercial fishermen because I like to go out and eat too. They have a right to make a living. Um and they're doing what they're allowed to do. Right. Can't blame them. Um is there a way to fix it to make it better? Absolutely. If if the ones in power would listen. Right. Um is it an overnight fix? No, it's not. Um, this stun's probably because although I saw yesterday where a couple of the guys really had a great day catching fish. It's it's coming back to life. Yeah. It is. It's slowly. I mean, it's coming back. I think the bigger ones, when we have a stun like this, uh, you know, maybe a year or two before you see a bunch of 30-inch fish, but uh, there's still plenty. I mean, they come out in the ocean. God has a way of checks and balances.

SPEAKER_03 41:17

It's just all part of Mother Nature. It's it's been happening for forever, for years. Oh, yeah. It just some of this cold just started happening here recently. But like I've talked to guys as say 30 years ago and stuff, it did this cold stuff was every year.

SPEAKER_00 41:31

I I remember I think the worst one until this year was uh winter of 89. Was really bad. Yep. And and we caught trout two or three weeks afterwards uh when it started warming back up, but it's not not as many. No. But we caught trout. But the next fall it rolled around, it was like nothing ever happened. No.

SPEAKER_03 41:53

And the biggest thing that just changes the transition of them a little bit. Right. And that's the biggest thing. And and I think people the people that start catching fish quicker understand that, and they factor in what happened and how that's going to factor in the transition of the fish and how they're transitioning back out to the sounds and stuff like that. Um, because it did slow down that process a little bit. Water's getting hot though. I mean, I was out on Saturday and it was it was 69 degrees. Really? Alright? Yes. Well, that's been what two weeks now?

SPEAKER_00 42:27

Been hot.

SPEAKER_03 42:28

What you're gonna have two days of cold, but then it gets warm again. Um still talking about fishing. Um, I want to get into something that kind of bugs me a little bit. Social media pressure. Has fishing become more of an image or skill?

SPEAKER_00 42:46

Well, I'm gonna say an image. A lot of people sit back, and I don't say a lot, but but quite a few. They set back and watch Facebook, and then when they see that everybody's catching them, then they run out. Um, it's kind of like in the bass fishing world. The live scope, and don't don't get me wrong, if I was still tournament fishing and it was it was and it was presented and it would give me an edge, would I buy one to do it? Absolutely. But I think that the technology, I think social media, I think things of that has taken the skill away from fishing. You know, and uh I I remember we didn't have anything but a paper graph on a boat. And you had to learn how to read that that paper graph and go through a lot of paper. Um just to find structure, find, you know, where the bait fish were. Usually on the paper graph, by the time you saw it, they were gone. They had already moved. You know, so yeah, you know, technology changed. So it it takes away the skill and the knowledge of finding the fish. I agree. You know, as people sat back, like I said, they sat back, um, they watch Facebook at nine o'clock in the morning, somebody's posted that they call their lens. Next thing you know, here comes everybody. Um instead of going out doing their own work.

SPEAKER_03 44:08

Yeah, and that's one thing that irks me is people post things too much. Like that's not every like let's let's leave it alone. Like that let's not blow up spots. Like, you know, people work hard and a lot of people make a living. Sure. These guides and stuff make a living off of this stuff, and if you're out there blowing up their spot, it could cost them some some dollars.

SPEAKER_00 44:31

I mean, that's that's how they make their living. Uh you know, I I don't know what most of them charge, but it's probably not enough. Time you put your gas and your insurance and you got a boat and all the you know equipment and everything. Um, and if somebody goes out there and and beats the fish to death the day before and they got a charter tomorrow, right, and they've got a struggle, doesn't look good. Those people may not come back, even though there's nothing they could have done about it, may not charter them again. So yeah, you know, it's a cycle. Um that's like if you see me post something on my Facebook page, I probably caught it last year.

unknown 45:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:11

Or that backdrop has changed. Yeah, yeah. I mean, uh, I very seldom post anything when it comes to that. I don't either. And it's not that I'm trying to be secretive, but yes, I I guess I am because I don't. I mean, this social media, it's not like I give you a call and say, Jerry, hey man, I'm at So-and-So Creek and we're catching a few, and you're a mile down the creek from me, you know, I'll be there in a minute. Now you're giving it to an unlimited amount of people. And next thing you know, you got 87 boats around you, you know. So it's it's as we talked about earlier, technology has its usage and it can be good, but it also can be bad. Yep. So it's it's 50-50 split on maybe.

SPEAKER_03 45:58

Yeah. And I have a certain people that I tell I talk to because I mean I just I've just realized how hard it is and how much work you have to put into it to get even decent at it at catching fish. So like, I'm not gonna just tell everybody like you need to work for it too. Because I've fished for years and wouldn't catch anything. So I'm gonna just tell you exactly where all these spots are that I've spent time and hour after hour just searching to find it. I'm not gonna just give it to you.

SPEAKER_00 46:28

Well, it's it's an investment. It is. It's it's like you with your company. You're not gonna go out and make$100 a day and um all of a sudden somebody comes up and says, Man, I've laid around on my porch all day, but I sure would like to have that hundred. Well, you give it to them. You know, you went out and work for it. Fishing is the same way. You go out and you work to to really fine-tune your skills, learn the habits of the fish, you know, all of these things, and just give that away to somebody that's sitting on the couch because they don't want to put the time in. Right. Uh no, I'm not gonna do it. Right. So if I know that you're out there all the time and you're fishing and you're trying and trying to get better and you ask me something, absolutely. But I expect you to share with me too. So, you know, make each other better. Um, you got to put the time in with anything. Work, life, marriage, you know, church, anything you do, you you gotta put investment. You gotta invest in it. Right. Invest in yourself, invest in whatever you're doing. Right.

SPEAKER_03 47:33

And talking about investment a little bit, like a little business side. Um, you know, you like you just said, it takes a lot of investment to get where you want to get. But with that comes with a lot of lessons.

SPEAKER_01 47:46

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 47:47

Hard lessons. Um, what is what is the lesson that costs you the most trust?

SPEAKER_00 47:55

What is the lesson that cost me the most trust? Putting your faith in people that you shouldn't have put your faith in. Right.

SPEAKER_03 48:06

Get you in trouble.

SPEAKER_00 48:06

Yeah. You you you know, most of the time, Jerry, when when we meet somebody or get to know somebody, you have something inside of you that says, don't let them go butt so far. Correct. But we're human, we want to help people, we we we want people to to love to love us. Um, we want to make it work. So a lot of times we we go that extra mile for somebody knowing it was gonna bite you. Whether it be in work, you know, you could hire somebody for your business tomorrow that you know you have that gut feeling that it ain't gonna work out. You know, you you can you just get that feeling well I'm gonna give them an opportunity. Right. Then it comes back to bite you. Sometimes it costs you more money than it was worth. Oh, yeah, absolutely. You know, so it's it's that's what life teaches you, but that's part of life. Right. You know, um, burn me once, okay, but it ain't gonna happen twice.

SPEAKER_03 49:11

It's not not. Um as we close up a little bit, you know, the the whole podcast is below the surface. Um, and that's the like we talked earlier, all the stuff that people don't see to get where you are. Um what has life cost you that people would never know from the outside? Stress.

SPEAKER_00 49:34

That's two people in a row. Yeah, yeah. Um there's everybody has stress. But people that, as we talked about earlier, that want to be successful, people that that want to do good, be good, I think their stress level comes at a higher rate than than most people because no matter how much you do for people, you won't you want to do more. No matter how successful you get, because you're using your success to help others, you want to be more successful. Then there's people that come to you that you can't help. Right. You know, there's nothing you can do for them and you feel bad about that. So I think the stress level of that, you know, that's why depression, that's why um all of those things come come along that you have to pull yourself.

unknown 50:35

Right.

SPEAKER_00 50:35

You have to pull yourself back up.

SPEAKER_03 50:36

You have to.

SPEAKER_00 50:37

My dad always said, pull yourself up by your bootstraps every morning. Every morning. So no matter what. Yep. But look, I'm I'm you know, I'm I'm a blessed guy. Right. Um, you know, been fortunate that I won some, I've lost some. Right. And um I I do think that um most people like me. At least I hope they do. Uh and people call on me that uh that maybe when they don't have somebody else to call. If it's just, you know, pray for me, talk to me for a few minutes, whatever it may be, um, laugh with me. Um so I I think that's a good quality maybe to have that that people know they can depend on you. Oh, it is. Um, but on the flip side of that, it's uh stressful. It's stressful. But then as you asked me earlier, who do you call on? You know, who do you call on when you you're having who do I call on uh when we're at that point? You know, unfortunately we do That's the game changer.

SPEAKER_03 51:47

If you don't have that, you're not gonna last very long. That's right. Because the people will drain you. Not on purpose, they just need your help. But you you you're you're constantly just pouring out your cup.

SPEAKER_02 52:00

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 52:00

And you're never getting refilled. You gotta be refilled. You've done a lot of cool things, man, and uh and and helped a lot of people. So I think you're you have a really cool legacy that you're gonna leave behind. So, with that, when people hear your name years from now, what do you hope they say?

SPEAKER_00 52:18

Well, the the first thing I hope when when people, when I'm dead and gone, can say he was a godly man. He loved the Lord. Um and he was somebody that anybody could go to.

SPEAKER_02 52:32

Right.

SPEAKER_00 52:33

My granddaddy said when I was uh early teenage years, he said, the only thing that you leave behind is your name. So when you do leave this world, um if people can talk about you and say, I never met him, but because of some of the things that he did is why I have the scholarships with both community college, the kids that we help at families out the year with ECIC. You know, hopefully down the road, 20 years from now, whatever, when I'm gone, somebody can look back and say, never met him. Don't know who this guy is, I just know his name. But because he was a part of this, now I can have this. What more can you leave behind? You can't.

SPEAKER_03 53:22

It's all that's what legacy is all about. And I I think you're a very good, you know, person to represent that.

SPEAKER_00 53:32

Well, I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_03 53:33

Um I make mistakes, but uh Well, behind every respect name is pressure. Yeah. You know, there's sacrifice, doubt, unseen seasons. Uh real, you know, but those people are making real impacts. Um and it comes from staying consistent to their purpose, I think. That's the biggest thing. Everybody has a purpose. A lot of people find it, but then they don't stay consistent to their purpose. Right. And that's another thing. You gotta you gotta stay consistent to what God's purpose is for you. Sometimes that changes, but again, that's being consistent to what he wants you to do if you're listening. Um, and also continue to get up like you said before when nobody's clapping for you. Absolutely. Um, and you know, and I think that's you know, one of our slogans is depth over image, and I think that what that means. Right. You know, it's you know, what's below is what really matters. It's not what the image of what you think of me, it's what I'm doing that you don't see.

SPEAKER_00 54:33

But it's hard to live up to an image. Absolutely. You know, it's it's you can't. You can't everybody has their thoughts of who you are, and everybody's perception of you is different. So to live up to an image, you know, and I I I heard Elvis say that many, many years ago, you know, uh, it's hard to live up to an image. Correct. All you can do is live up to what your purpose in life is and do the best you can. If people can't accept you for who you are and what you're doing, maybe they're not the people you need are in your life. Maybe you need to distance yourself from those individuals because they're obviously looking to pull you down anyway.

SPEAKER_03 55:22

And I think that's what number that's number one fault for most people is letting go of those people. Um But it's been a pleasure having you. Yeah, man, I appreciate it. Talking to you. Is there any last words you would like to say to anybody out there?

SPEAKER_00 55:36

Or No, I just I appreciate all our sponsors. I appreciate you know you, what you've done. Um come out and fish with us. Absolutely. You know, Eastern Carolina Inshore Clubs on Facebook. Um, you can see our schedule and everything that we do. Uh, the more people we have, the more money we can raise and the more people we can help. Um, so you know, come out, be a part of that. Um, support our sponsors. Support, you know, what you do for us, support, you know, Parkbook Company and Grady White and New Vision, and I could go on. I can't even remember all the Bay Rider. Yeah, you know, you sit here in my head. But, you know, support the sponsors because if nothing else, stop by and tell them, look, I appreciate you, you know, send them a message, appreciate you sponsoring ECIC because we know what what's going on. Those things make a huge difference. Um you never know who's in need, you never know who's waiting there to help those in need. Correct. And all of it can come together if we all continue to work together uh to help the community.

SPEAKER_03 56:45

Yeah. And I just want to close with that. Yeah, come fish with us. Um, but if if you don't even fish, come and hang out. Um, come see what it's all about. Yeah. Um, spend time um come help, you know, out and help the kids, help the community. And um, I hope to see everybody out there. And again, it's uh been a pleasure, Tim.

SPEAKER_00 57:06

Yeah, I appreciate it. Uh the invite. I've had a great time and think you got another guest coming up here shortly, don't you?

SPEAKER_03 57:12

Yeah, we have we have, yeah, one of the one of your guys in the tournament, uh uh, you know, uh uh a trout legend around here. Um so that that that's gonna be fun. It's gonna be fun. So we look forward to it. But again, I mean, I hope you have a blessed rest of your day, and uh we'll we'll talk later.

SPEAKER_00 57:31

Yes, sir. All right, uh thank you.