The Quarterback DadCast
I’m Casey Jacox, the host of the Quarterback Dadcast. As fathers, we want to help prepare our kids—not only to enter the professional world but to thrive in each stage of their lives. Guests of this show include teachers, coaches, professional athletes, consultants, business owners, authors—and stay-at-home dads. Just like you! They share openly about failure, success, laughter, and even sadness so that we can all learn from each other—as we strive to become the best leaders of our homes! You will learn each week, and I am confident you will leave each episode with actionable tasks that you can apply to your life to become that ultimate Quarterback and leader of your household. Together, we will learn from the successes and failures of dads who are doing their best every day. So, sit back, relax and subscribe now to receive each episode weekly on The Quarterback Dadcast.
The Quarterback DadCast
Balancing Fatherhood and Leadership: Insights from Don Goldberg - Founder, ConsultNet
I am grateful to a former fantastic guest (Justin Priest) for the kind intro that made today's episode possible.
Join us as we sit down with Don Goldberg, the executive director and founder of ConsultNet, who shares his inspiring journey of balancing fatherhood with his professional ambitions. From heartwarming tales of family life to the adrenaline-pumping moments of watching his son ski at 100mph, Don opens up about the vital role of communication in maintaining strong family ties.
Travel back in time with us to a small town near Boston, where community spirit and the simplicity of life painted a vivid backdrop for childhood memories. Don shares stories of roaming freely in a close-knit neighborhood, working alongside his industrious father in the vending machine business, and learning valuable lessons of hard work and structure. With a mother who balanced artistic flair with nurturing care, the foundation was set for a life of independence and community engagement. This nostalgic journey offers insights into how these formative years shaped both personal growth and business acumen.
We also explore the challenges and rewards of navigating work-life balance as a parent. Reflecting on his own experiences, Don discusses the strategy of being present for his son while pursuing professional success, inspired by leaders like Bill Gates.
From the emotional journey of raising a two-time Olympian to facing the intense physical challenges of competitive skiing, Don highlights the resilience and dedication required in both parenting and leadership. Tune in to gain valuable perspectives on fostering open communication, maintaining consistency, and empowering the next generation through a supportive and balanced approach.
Please don't forget to leave us a review wherever you consume your podcasts! Please help us get more dads to listen weekly and become the ultimate leader of their homes!
Hi, I'm Riley and I'm Ryder, and this is my dad's show.
Speaker 3:Hey everybody, this is Casey Jaycox and welcome to season five. I'm very excited for this episode. I'm also very excited to announce we have a brand new sponsor to the podcast our friends Lauren Jones and Rob Mann over at Leap Advisory Partners. I could not be more excited and thrilled that you're going to be sponsoring this for the next 13 weeks. Let's hear a little bit more about what you guys are doing from Lauren.
Speaker 2:Leap Advisory Partners is proud to sponsor the Quarterback Dadcast. Our first core value is empathy, always, and that's why we're proud to sponsor the Quarterback Dadcast for the most authentic discussions around failure, success, leadership, empathy, leading with empathy. If you're not familiar with Leap Advisory Partners, we are your technology partners to help you build with excellence, change your process and adopt your most important investment. Now let's get to today's episode with Casey Jaycox.
Speaker 3:Well, hey, everybody, it's Casey Jaycox with the Quarterback Dadcast. We are getting towards the tail end of season five and if those of you are watching on video, welcome. We're on YouTube now, which is fun to actually have a video podcast. You get to see what this crazy ball dude in Seattle looks like. I'm not talking about my guests, I'm talking about me but ball dude in Seattle looks like. I'm not talking about my guests, I'm talking about me. But I'm very excited for today's episode because most guests everybody come through referral and today's another example of that.
Speaker 3:One of our former guests, the one and only Justin JP Priest, out of the Midwest, joined this fantastic company called ConsultNet and he said and I heard him interview our next guest, which is Don Goldberg, who's the executive director and founder of ConsultNet. And he said, and I heard him interview our next guest, which is Don Goldberg, who's the executive director and founder of ConsultNet. I heard his story. I was like man, what a cool story. And I heard from him being on the East Coast and it triggered me to think about Cuddy Hunk and I really liked his story about how his son was a skier. So I'm going to stop and teach you there. But not only is our next guest a Plymouth State Panther, but he's also a staffing veteran and a guy that really loves the words integrity, professionalism and leadership. But more importantly, we're going to talk to Don today, about Don the Dad and how Don's working hard to become the ultimate quarterback or leader of his home. So further ado, Mr Goldberg, welcome to the Quarterback Dadcast. Thank you, Casey.
Speaker 4:I'm really excited to be here.
Speaker 3:Cool. Well, we always start out each episode with gratitude, so tell me, what are you most grateful for as a dad today?
Speaker 4:Just having a healthy family, that we communicate well and we do as much as we can that our schedule is allowed to do together. So that's where my gratitude comes from and where everybody's so busy today you almost have to schedule things in order to get together, and that's what we do, well.
Speaker 3:Very good and sometimes that's an answer that I think people say but I love that you actually I can feel it, that you meant it and I think, if you find yourself a home dads, when you hear me talk about gratitude, like slow down to really think about what, what, why you're, you're grateful. And so like I do gratitude work every morning done where I and usually I start with God, thanks for waking me up today and it really brings a smile to my face because I'm I got a chance to do something today. I have a chance to talk to you, I have a chance to I'm flying to Nashville later tonight for a conference this week, so I just it gets me like in the right mind, um. But what I'm grateful for is a couple of things. One, um, uh, my son's going through it's a great growth time of life. The little teeny bit adversity I mean first world adversity, I would say just about. He's a college athlete, so he's he's going through um just navigating. It's been so fun um having conversations with him at a different level. He's a freshman in college, so I'm grateful for that.
Speaker 3:And I'm grateful for my daughter who had homecoming this past weekend. She was exhausted and she had two basketball games yesterday, but she freaking shot the lights out, don. She had five three-pointers in her game yesterday, which was like oh so fun, and I just I'm a big girl, dad, I love watching her compete and it just every time I watch her compete it just jacks me up. So that's what I'm grateful for today. Good, do you get nervous?
Speaker 4:when she's stuck.
Speaker 3:No, I get, it's funny. I get more nervous watching my son play golf. Okay, because I at least I can, you know, I can cheer at the golf course. You can't really scream up and down and jump up and down you can. I guess you could, but I just know how hard golf is. Uh, and basketball it's like, let's say, for example, you, you're not shooting it well like an sq, and uh, stewie, last night the wmba championship, they didn't shoot the ball well, but you could play defense, you can pass the ball well. There's so much more ways to impact a basketball game, so I think that's why I don't get as nervous. But golf, you're by yourself, yeah, there'll be shot counts, yeah, and if you blow one left out of bounds, you can walk back to the tee by yourself. You know it's a lonely game when, when in the golf gods I swear they love to pick on you when you're not hitting it. Well, I can, I can see that that makes sense.
Speaker 3:Thanks for sharing that well, bring me inside the uh, the goldberg huddle if you can. I'd love to learn um, I know your, your son's, out of the house now, but but I'd love to learn like talk about him and then share a little bit how you and your wife met.
Speaker 4:Okay, let me start off with the wife meeting, I guess, is a good way to start off. I had graduated from college and moved to Boston and where I started my career. That's my second company. I didn't start it, but I was working for a staffing company for the first time, and that's a whole nother whole story how I got involved with that, because there's no university of staffing. So I graduated with a marketing degree from Plymouth State University and didn't play football there but played track and some other other things, swim team and I was on the martial arts team there, which was fun. So when I came down I was trying to figure out what I was going to do.
Speaker 4:Next. I happened to be at a, at a beach party and near Cape Cod, massachusetts, and I heard these people talking about renting a house in Killington, vermont, for the winter. Skiing was a big passion of mine. It had been since I was about 11 years old, and so I packed my stuff up. We found a house up there and we rented it for the winter and I couldn't just ski and just hang out all the time.
Speaker 4:I had been a ski instructor for many years during college, which was a great way to pay my way and meet and socialize and get better in the sport.
Speaker 4:So I became a part-time ski instructor for Killington up there and I had a pre-meeting time at Thanksgiving where we all get together and we hear about all the new rules and what we're going to be doing and how we're going to be doing it.
Speaker 4:And I did that for a couple of years and then the third year we had the same meeting and you know now I'm a veteran of the third year and there was a woman that came in with chestnut brown hair, she looked like a Vermonter and she had brown boots on and a vest and a plaid shirt and she looked very, very attractive to me. And I looked at a friend of mine, michael, who since has passed and so I like to think about him often, and I said that's a woman I want to get to know. And that weekend I had the opportunity to talk to her on the social situations and over the next three or four months I finally got a date with her. It took a while. She was in a relationship or coming out of a relationship and we met as part time scheme structures and for the next several years that was our community and our family, with all the people that we met, and I would work all week.
Speaker 4:And then, friday afternoons, I jump in my car and spend the weekends with her and all our great friends, and that's how it started.
Speaker 3:Wow, I love how. I mean. That was some years ago, but you remembered to the outfit, which I love, and I think if your wife listens to this, she's going to appreciate that. You know it still sparks a flame in there for you, which is awesome.
Speaker 4:And the only confusion I had was through most of the meetings she had her head down on the desk and she was I believe she was sleeping. It turns out that she had kind of tidal went on the night before and I said there's even better reason to get in the car.
Speaker 3:Love it, love it, um, and then tell us about your son. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Um, we, um, uh. My son is 33 years old. He is a professional ski racer by profession and a two-time Olympian, and he's on the Alpine ski race team for the United States. So he's been representing the United States for 11 years. He went through the whole scenario where we were at Killington, vermont, the first year when he was two and a half years old and we had a little bamboo stick between the two of us. I have the picture somewhere in my office and you know, he just, he just loved the sport from day one. He had an incredible amount of passion for it. We couldn't get him off off the slopes during that transitional period for him, uh, just learning. Uh.
Speaker 4:We moved to, um, to Salt Lake City, utah, where I started, um, a new company. So, uh, the weekends were spent, um, going up to, uh, to Snowbird, utah, skiing in Snowbird winter and summer resort. And uh, my wife was a nurse, uh, at the clinic there, emergency room nurse, and I was actually the first winter I took off before I started that company and he came up every day with us and we just couldn't get him off the trails. You know whether it was, you know, just skiing. And he took up snowboarding when he was like five and he just loved the snow. He just couldn't get off and and he would just say I would say, you know, jared, it's time to leave and say, well, the lifts are still running. And I had to explain to him that that was a lift that took people up to the hotel at night, you know, and so I had to uh sometimes negotiate that with hot chocolate, french fries and that kind of thing. But yeah, he went through the whole uh process.
Speaker 4:Um, uh, he was on the ski team at Snowbird when he was seven years old, probably one of the youngest kids on there. He didn't really mean anything other than, you know, he could find his way to where the coaches met. But he had a pretty good career through his childhood and, you know, his whole friendship base was around sports-based, around skiing, around mountain biking, around anything that had to do with climbing, like technical rock climbing. Because the director of the program was an incredible outdoorsman. He's just been put in the Intermountain Hall of Fame. That's how important this guy is in this area and Jared got to be mentored by him. Wow, jared got to be mentored by him.
Speaker 3:Wow. So how much of that is was in him versus, just like the environment. That like like ignited that passion, Do you think?
Speaker 4:I would say the passion was was always there.
Speaker 4:However, the the environment was incredible.
Speaker 4:The snowboard, ski and sports education Foundation, which he was part of, was involved in just helping people learn the lifelong love of skiing or snowboarding or whatever they were doing on the snow. So you know it was just always fun for him Couldn't wait most of the time and I have a story for you later but you know he couldn't wait to get up to the ski area we have the best snow on earth. He had an incredible, you know rat pack of kids where you know they were going so crazy and fast they would take their ski coats and then put them inside out so that the ski patrol couldn't see them going so fast. I mean, they were out of control but you know they never wanted to get caught by the ski patrol and that was kind of a joke between the ski patrol and them. As we found out later, they knew exactly who these kids were because they were the best skiers on the mountain. So you know a little of both. But the passion was ignited by the enthusiasm that was that surrounded him.
Speaker 3:Wow, Well, I want to get into that, for sure, but I want to rewind the tape and I want to learn more about you, dom, and so I'd love to, if you can, take me back to what was life like growing up for you? Okay, and I'd love to just learn about. Learn about that, and specifically the the impact your parents had on you.
Speaker 4:Now that your father Good, great great questions, great great stuff to reflect on it's. We grew up in a very, very small town of 20 miles out of Boston. Um, I think that when we, when we lived there, there was like 20,000 people there. Um, my father used the GI bill for $500 and got a loan for $11,400, uh to buy a house on a street that was basically um, somewhat swampy.
Speaker 4:Um, duringy during, I was the third child, but they finally did a water table reduction in the town and it was literally cranes and backhoes all over the town, which was fun because we had all these things to play on and everything, but they were lowering the water table because, basically, the town when it first started, god knows how they got a permit to build houses, but everything was a little bit. You know, there was reeds everywhere and you know, and all sorts of crazy burned wildflower. You know, everything was crazy. So we grew up in a very small town, in a very small block with, and everybody was young, it was the perfect scenario. I wish that I could have found that with my son growing up, but we kind of moved around a little too much, but I, you know, basically what happened is and I think this happened for a lot of people is your mom would say go outside, come back for dinner?
Speaker 1:You know, come back when it's dark.
Speaker 4:And that's basically what happened. You know, there wasn't any problems of, you know, pedophiles or whatever around the neighborhood or anything, it was just just kids running around playing sports. We moved to another part of the town when I got a little older and then it was, you know, field hockey, you know stickball, pretty much street hockey, it was baseball. Every day I was riding our bicycles any place we wanted to go and the same thing was. Come back after dark and let me know where you are. You know, call on the five-digit phone number. You know it was 4-3154. I mean, that's what you called. It was crazy, it was that small. And you know, in fact, when I was really little, I remember that we had a party line, that's. You know that was the beginning of the telephones and you know, uh, there's a lot of things from there.
Speaker 4:So, you know, I went, I got uh, to high school and I took all the sports that I did and I, I, um, I was a three letterman in high school. Um, you know it wasn't, uh wasn't a big high school, it was 215 graduating students, you know. So, uh, it was, uh, we were lean, we were kind of, uh, southern football when we played football. So the coach was great, he understood the size that we were and we were playing against a lot of good teams. So, um, you know, he just said we had to be lean and mean and uh and be smart and uh.
Speaker 4:That's something that I've really taken through my whole cat, my whole life, um, through through my own childhood all the way up to the way we run my business today. So I went from there, I played, I was on the swim team, I was a track and field person. That was just a lot of fun because I found as myself the way that I was wired, that if I the more busy I was, the better student that I was, because I knew I had to plan my days around how I was going to do things and get them done. But if I had any idle time you know they say it's a double-tand or whatever. That was me I just got lost. So as long as I had a structure in place and again, that's one of my lifelong learnings for myself- Now tell me, what did mom and dad do?
Speaker 4:myself. Now tell me, what did mom and dad do? Yeah, okay, so my my dad, um, worked for a vending machine company. He was a part owner. Um, they did um, cigarettes and jukeboxes and pinball machines and anything that had to do with coin operated. Uh, you know coffee machines and that kind of thing. Uh, and you know, on the weekends, uh, you know he, he wasn't one of those guys that punched the clock from nine to five. He was probably at five o'clock every morning and I usually could hear him cursing if the newspaper wasn't there on time. That's how that was my alarm clock in the morning when I was growing up, and you know he had to have his newspaper at breakfast.
Speaker 4:And a lot of weekends, casey, I would go to work with him and we'd go around and we'd go to these you know these bowling alleys and arcades and amusement parks and very, very seedy bars, and that was the first time I really saw that there was this craziness of these dark smoke filled, you know, beer smelling bars that you see on TV, that actually exist and I live in those and we go there and we would count quarters. That you see on TV, that actually exists and I live in those and we'd go there and we would count quarters and the thing that my job was to find all the silver that was in those vending machines. So my father would collect silver coins and he had a huge collection of coins from that. He used to moonlight, you know. So he would again, he was working extra hours to make extra money for our family. You know, back then, I think, I found out that he was making, you know, so he would again he was working extra hours to make extra money for our family. You know, back then I think, I found out that he was making, you know, like twenty thousand dollars or something. You think about that. You think about what the dollar has changed. And we were just, you know, lower to middle class people and you know the, the family, you know my uncles and aunts and everything. We did everything ourselves.
Speaker 4:So one of the jobs that he had was one of my favorite. He worked at this place in Nantasket Beach called Paragon Park, which is now, of course, is a condominium complex. But back in the day he would open up all the arcades for the amusement park for the springtime and when he did that he would put on like 10 games on a game and then move to the next one. So he was mechanically oriented, obviously. So he was, you know, changing out resistors and bulbs and everything. And I helped him do that in class and everything. So I became, um, quite a good pinball player.
Speaker 4:And then, you know, then when he got busy and he was done doing certain things, he handed me these, these uh passes that he'd get from somebody you know one of the higher up people at the at the park, and then he would send me on the way and he'd say, come back at, you know, four o'clock in the afternoon. So here is this kid, 11 years old pretty much. I remember when I was 11, I couldn't get on the roller coaster yet because I wasn't tall enough, but I remember just running around and just running on rides by myself. You know it was a different time. Can you imagine sending your 11-year-old kid to an amusement park with thousands of people and expecting them with no problem to come back?
Speaker 4:So that was my relationship with my father. His dad died when he was like 12 years old. So I think that had to do with his relationship with me a lot, because he wasn't a very stoic guy. We didn't talk about a lot of stuff. It just he just kind of let me live my life, and it was. I have two siblings that are older than me. I was the baby and you know, I think it was pretty much is. They would guide us, listen to what we had to say, but there wasn't a lot of a lot of feedback, although one just came to my, to my attention, coming back to that newspaper. In the morning I came back from college and I was sitting there having breakfast my mother was the artist and I'll get to her in a second, totally different brains and he's reading his newspaper and having his coffee and not talking to us and I think the TV's on in the background. I said to my mother, I said geez.
Speaker 4:I joined a fraternity you know, went through the pledging thing and I think we're all going to get tattoos and my father took down the newspaper and went if you do that, I'm cutting you off from college and put the newspaper back up. So he was a man of very, very few words, but very, very impactful. That's what I can say about that.
Speaker 3:What was the tattoo Going to be like? A big eagle on your back.
Speaker 4:Well, I never got a tattoo because he was funding my college at the time.
Speaker 3:But if you did, what was it going to be? I was going to do something on my hip.
Speaker 4:It was going to be like, you know, lambda Chi Alpha. It was going to be a very small something that I would probably show the girls. You know. There you go. I'm really glad I never did that. You know, as Jewish heritage it's not the best thing to have a tattoo on your body, because you can't be actually buried in a Jewish cemetery if you have a tattoo, unless it's. You know what they had originally. So I didn't do that that day, but I found out a few days later and that was my excuse to my Lambda Chi brothers, so that worked.
Speaker 3:Good reason not to.
Speaker 4:Right. So you know I spent a lot of time with my father. He was amazing as far around sports, as far as you know, taking us to. You know he belonged to these societies. He was a Mason. He belonged to a thing called the Nice Epipheus and it was men's groups and there was a woman part of that too, but they had a lot of activities. It was all around family. But they had a lot of activities, it was all around family.
Speaker 4:So we were always going someplace and always going to a pool and always, you know, diving and running around and doing, you know, sack races in the town. Again, you know it was out of a Norman Walkwell picture. You know we had, you know, july 4th type stuff. We had a lake, that I was a lifeguard in high school and college, that we did everything. So everything was incredibly family-oriented. It was, you know, like I said, I wish we could have done that more in my son. We did different things, obviously, but it wasn't as everything was. You just did it because it was just there, it was just done. You know we moved when he was seven years, you know, when he was three and a half years old, and you know I didn't even realize that I had to get him in some type of like school. You know, I had to figure that out. It wasn't a family, you know, huge family thing that says, oh so where's Jared going to go to school? You know, we had to figure that out on our own.
Speaker 4:So so my mother, on the other hand, was the probably the glue that held us all together. She was an artist by trade. She worked a very, very small stint as an office manager, but pretty much she was a stay-at-home mom but really had her own hobbies, and one of them was, as I said, is art. And she was 50 years old when she graduated from the Boston University for Art yeah, I think it's called, I forget the name exactly, but I used to go with her and again, you know, talking about being making us independent she would drop me off at the well, she went to the Mass College of Art and she used to drop me off at the art museum when she went to her class.
Speaker 4:So I would go in there, I'd pay, you know, 50 cents or whatever it was, and I would run around the art museum for two hours and she would say meet me out in front at whatever time. So again, you know, just I can think I'm thinking about this independence, that that that we have, that I don't think children have today Very, very thoughtful woman she was the one that was, you know, touchy, feely, uh, like to take walks, like to ask questions, um, you know, like to kind of know what was going on, um, more so than my father. So I had that balance from both sides.
Speaker 3:Um, where do you think your dad's ability to be handy came from?
Speaker 4:I think, it was, you know he, he had to be, um, you know he had to be, you know he was. Basically he was brought up by his, by his, by his grandmother. Well, his, it was his, his, his mother and his father wasn't there my grandmother and he had to be the man in the house. I think at a very, very young age, you know, he went to school.
Speaker 4:He went to somewhat of a trade school, but never graduated college. So, you know it was, it wasn't a thing whether or not I was going to go to college and not graduate, you know, because he just didn't have the money and he had to stop early. So I think it was a school of hard knocks. You know, when he got this job I'm not even sure how he got this job with this vending machine company, but he had to learn how to do things. I mean, he was always changing out light fixtures and, you know, doing plumbing, and him and my uncle, you know, would be digging up the front lawn and planting trees, and you know they were painting their houses and at one point they played a lot of bridge.
Speaker 2:growing up I never got into that game but that was a big thing and, like I said, we were in a small.
Speaker 4:Basically it was like five houses, almost like next to each other. So what they did is they figured out how to put an intercom system on, buy wires through the telephone poles to everybody's houses so they could hear if the kids were up or not, so they could put us to bed. And I'll go to one person's house, you know, and cocktail and play bridge. So it was nuts. Think about them putting wires on the wires. You know wires and how illegal that is today.
Speaker 3:That's so good, Very very industrious.
Speaker 4:All of them were.
Speaker 3:I love the visual of that. I can just see like get the kids to bed, sit down and play cards. Who's pouring drinks, exactly? Can you hear them?
Speaker 4:That kind of thing. Yeah, that was like growing up for me.
Speaker 3:As you think about, I mean independence. I love that you have that skill that was taught early and I'm sure that that provided so many benefits throughout your life. But if you think about a couple of core values that were instilled in you early, tell me what comes to mind and maybe a story to kind of further share with us.
Speaker 4:Yeah, interesting question. You know, I think that it wasn't a leader at that point in my life. I still don't see myself as a leader. I see myself as a middle of a pack kind of person. You know, I have a dog now and you know, we kind of identify he's a puppy and we're identifying where he is and I kind of look at him and I see how he acts and how he reacts to people.
Speaker 4:And you know, I love to support people, I love to be behind the scenes, you know, and make things happen. You know, I was in high school, I was part of the student council and one of the things we did is we put on events for, you know, the whole school. And one of the things we had is this really fantastic community center that was run by a fabulous couple of people that would allow us to have bands in there. And I think that what I want to do is my group was. My idea was to have groups and gatherings and try to figure out how to do that.
Speaker 4:I just like to be part of the cog in the wheel. I would enlist my friends who are still friends today and I'd say you know, ron, you need to do this and, tim, you do this and I'm going to do this and let's just put it together. You know, together, and I didn't have to be, it didn't have to be dawn who's doing this, it had to be everything you know and, uh, you know, just just being part of, you know, varsity club and and just saying, hey, you know, we really need to get new coats. I would be part of that, but we put it together. I don't know if those are good examples, but just trying to be, I guess I was the person that tried to engage other people and try to come up with thoughtful ideas that would really engage a lot of people and to just enhance other people's lives.
Speaker 3:Do you think that was taught from your parents, though?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think so. You know my dad being part of these organizations. You know, at one point he did a stint, you know, as the Grand Pool Bar, you know, probably with the horns on, and everyone did that. But I remember you know him sitting in his car and me helping him learn, like you know, everything that he had to learn. It was very, very you know knights of of the round table kind of stuff and, um, you know I could see that he would, you know, step out of his comfort zone and um, you know, and I think the independence came from him, he was not, you know, he was not the guy.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I just saw him always doing things individually. You know, with his work, uh, it was. And you know, with these organizations, he just, you know, he just he was, he was. I always saw him as his own individual person. You know, if anything that I wish he did more of and it wasn't a big deal to me now that I come back and it's like, you know, I was playing, you know, pop water, football or baseball, and I just I wish my dad would come more, you know, and, um, he just didn't have the time because he was, he was working sometimes seven hours a week, and it didn't hurt me inside, but you know, I'd see oh, this guy, you know, this dad is here and this dad is here, my dad's not here, so every once in a while he'd show up.
Speaker 4:But you know I find that I would. I would. I would find other people like I had this coach Adams. That was a good mentor to me. Other people Like I had this coach Adams. That was a good mentor to me. So I found what maybe I was lacking through other people and you know, he gave me some great advice. I had an uncle that was like my other father, so I found ways to find what I couldn't find with my father. So I think the independence came from. Listen, you know, no one's going to give this to me. No one's going to you know, you know. You know, give me direction without me asking. In fact, you know if, if, if, um, what, what came to mind? And back to my son. I know we're going to get to. This is, um, I thought very closely or very hard about, you know, how do I interact with my son. Is it okay to transition into that a little, or is it too early to do that?
Speaker 3:No, I'm going to get there in a second, but keep, I got a question for you. It'll be a great lead into that.
Speaker 4:Okay. So you know, I said. You know. I thought to myself how do I interact with my son? I had a mom that was like, how are you doing, what's going on, how are you feeling? And I had a dad that would never ask any questions like that. We just answer questions. I asked and I thought about me being an independent person where I had to always seek out and find what I needed. Nobody would come to me, I wasn't the guy that had the silver spoon and people would just say, oh Don, come on, I want you to meet these people, these guys will help you out.
Speaker 4:So the way that I interact with my son is I'm very patient with him and I found this to be very, very helpful growing up, because I would hear about other friends and I was talking to a friend last night that's having a problem with his son and I said, well, how do you interact with him? And she said, well, I'm trying to ask him questions, trying to help him, trying to do this, and I would just do the opposite. I would just sit back and wait for him to come to me and it was so difficult to me because I really knew the answer for him to come to me and how it was so difficult to me because I really knew the answer. I knew what I wanted to do. I knew how I wanted to help him, but I would. I would wait for him and be patient. Sometimes it would be weeks or months before you'd come to me.
Speaker 4:So that that's how I think I was. I was programmed or wired um to to cause. My dad never did that. My dad was always there and I didn't like it. But now I know why he probably did it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's a lot of, there's a lot of gold there and a lot, a lot of me and I and this. This could be like a six hour long podcast, but I I gotta make sure I condense it into an hour for us. Um, what's interesting, though, as you said, um, you know, you're, you're you, you know well the sports, and it was a different time. I totally get that, you know, and I I am. My dad's dad passed away when he was six and my, then my dad passed away 2021, december 29th. Rest in peace, pops.
Speaker 3:We dedicated entire season three to him, but my dad on the other side, don, was. He was the dad that didn't miss anything, like to the point like he he'd almost bankrupt himself going to my college football games, like these random shithole towns, and, like you know, he'd be there even when I wasn't playing. But for you, do you find that and maybe this is a good transition, cause I know that when you, when you, when you, you got into business and leadership and you and then you're, you're thinking you probably saw your son had a gift, and then this is where you guys really kind of like kind of went in all in on your I'd say your dad game and helping shape kind of who he was? Do you feel like because during the time it was that your dad wasn't there for every single thing that you went through that you wanted to do the opposite? Do you think? Yeah?
Speaker 4:Yeah, but I, yeah, but I. But I thought about it very thoughtfully and I said I don't want to be, you know, I didn't want to be all over him helicopter parent, whatever you want to call it um, I wanted him to find his own way and find his own um, you know, uh, passions, uh, he just happened to find it because, I mean, he was just, you know I, you know my friend always jokes and he says you know, there's a couple different would just, you know I, you know my, my friend always jokes and he says you know, there's a couple of different types of parents. You know, there's the parents that you know they have kids and they just go ahead and keep doing what they're doing. You know there's the parents that, um, you know, inject their kid from time to time but, you know, don't keep, you know, keep your arms length.
Speaker 4:And that's what I was, and so I figured I had to put the holes on. He was the same way and he's got an amazing family and I still I'd like to see how he handles his family. So I think it's important to put the governor on at the right time. So I would call it another strategy in business how to deal with a child. I only have one, so you know. So that was really important to me, that I would strategically inject myself and also I would kind of use my same kind of like backdoor approach I wouldn't call it backdoor approach, but middle of the pack approach where I would be a suggestion rather than be a. This is what you have to do, even though I felt I knew the answer, like us parents always do, right.
Speaker 3:Right. So one of the things that I that's that made me really want to have you on the show was when you were when, when you guys had your fantastic podcast the consultant that does that, that the JP helps interview folks. I remember you told a story when your son was young that you started to kind of change your work schedule. Yeah, yeah, and that spoke to me, because I did the same thing when my son was about 18 months old. I'd love for you to share that story if you could with her, because I'm hopeful there's a dad listening that maybe he's the busy dad he thinks he's. You know that he's so needed, he's so important. Then the world if I don't, if I'm not there, that means the world's going to end, which is false. It won't. And I think your story is a good one because it empowered business being on, but also empowered you know you want to be a present dad.
Speaker 4:Yes, I did, and well, first, when I thought about having a flexible schedule, I did think about what that was going to mean to my employees. I was very lucky and fortunate that I had a company that I had started and that I had this potential flexibility with lots of guilt, I guess, because I understand that you don't put 100% into something, you're not going to get close to 100% back. So I had to figure out how to do that, and I happened to come across this article, microsoft Bill Gates, and found out what his work schedule was, and I had a deep you know this is. You know it was internet, but there wasn't Wikipedia at that point. So I dug and I found some articles and what he would do is he would start his day early, he would have breakfast with his family, he would work until sometime in the mid-afternoon and then have time with his children, and then all the emails started flying at nighttime when the kids went to bed. And I didn't do exactly that, but I said, okay, so here's a guy that's that's immensely successful, and he, early on, figured out a thing that would work with him and his family. So mine was a little different. I wasn't really pushed into it.
Speaker 4:However, my, my wife, was very, very active at that point. She had a schedule as a nurse, but she also was a passionate golfer and so you know, when you're on a golf course, it's ours, you know, it's it's, you know, and she would. She would say, can you pick up Jared most of the time during the week? So I can, you know, get everything in the day to day. I mean, she was taking care of the house. You know she was an amazing you and working a job, not full-time, but still doing that and providing for us. So I said, yeah, I'll do that.
Speaker 4:So I got a gift from a client or customer once and it was this wind-up clock and every morning, when I came into the office and I'd come in between early 7, 730, whatever, because people would be coming in and I my day, and that was after dropping him off at school, unless I was dropping off the bus or whatever. So I was free. You know, um got in the office, get this. I still have it on my desk. It's this red clock clock. I'd wind it up and I put it 3, 15 and it was a. You know those were before cell phones. You know it was before, you know was before we had radio alarm clocks. So this thing someplace. I'd leave it in my office and somebody inevitably would say Don, your alarm's going off right now, it's time for you to go. So it became a culture in my office that I would leave at 3.15. People would keep an eye on that clock and listen to it, and then I'd be oh no, and I'd grab my stuff and I'd run out and pick him up and wait in the parent line and pick him up, bring him home, and he would have his little desk in my office and I would have my desk and we would work. And that's how it worked.
Speaker 4:And you know, I don't know, I mean this probably resonated with a lot of parents, but for some reason, when the phone rings, kids turn into like monsters. You know, they just want your attention, they just go wait. Does that resonate for you? Oh yeah, I have this chest where I keep a lot of his old relics and I happened to find in one of my draws one day when we were moving, a little note that he had typed. It was all spelled, all wrong, and it said Dad, I apologize for being such a bad boy when the phone rings. I know that that's how you make your money. That's so funny Reflected, but that was the. That was the thing, so he understood that that my phone you know it's this little thing, right Was the way that I interacted with people and you know it's it's been. It's been really funny to see how he has become interacting with with adults and donors and everything as as as his uh career continues.
Speaker 3:So, wow, what was, as you reflect back on that that day, when you had to like um, you know you're running the company, but you also want to be present, like what was? Tell me what were some of the hardest ways to get that habit to stick.
Speaker 4:Um, it wasn't hard at all. Um, that's, that's the whole thing is. I was committed to it, um, you know I, I needed to be. You know I mean it's it's like you know you, you call it a um. You know there's the um. It's a village right? You know it's my team huddle. We have a lot, we have a big team. You know he had, he had a babysitter that worked. You know, part-time we, we tried the au pair model for a very, very short time and and I never seen two little people fight, fight as much as my son in this au pair.
Speaker 4:So I figured that wasn't the way that was going to work for him. So you know we had people come in during the day to help out. So you know we had, we had, we had a village. You know we had people that were responsible most of the time. So so you know I was just committed to that and it was hard. But you know, now you know, with, with the flexible, you know work enablement, that has come actually from you know, a really very, very bad time. You know, in our lifetime, covid, it's really made it easier, I think people, it's more accepted how to do that and I am more accepting of my people and my employees because I was, you know, we were, you know, in at this time out, at this time, you know work a couple of nights till so-and-so, you know, and I've become more flexible and you know it's mostly about the philosophy, the passion and key metrics that run companies even better in our lives.
Speaker 1:Hi, this is Kathy Orton. I'm the director of talent management at CoWorks Staffing Services. Coworks is one of the largest staffing firms in the United States, with operations in all 50 states, over 60,000 temporary field talent. We are devoted to the success and growth of our employees and our clients. We are celebrating our 50th anniversary this year and are proud to have a legacy of treating people the right way, doing the right thing, supporting our communities and putting field talent first. Our team places candidates in administrative light, industrial, call center, distribution, third-party logistic positions with additional opportunities through our executive search, creative staffing and luxury, beauty and fragrance divisions.
Speaker 1:We had the pleasure of having Casey Jaycox deliver a keynote presentation and training workshop to our sales team this year and I have to tell you it was exceptional. Casey is funny, he is engaging and he is approachable. What sets Casey apart is that he really walks the walk. He lives what he teaches. He spent time with us outside of the workshop, really taking the time to get to know our people. He shared information about his personal life, about his family, creating the foundation for authentic relationships, one of the core elements of the strategy he teaches. Casey left our teams feeling motivated, energized and armed with the actionable tools to transform their sales performance. I cannot recommend Casey enough to any or any organization looking to grow and unlock their full potential. If you want to learn more about Cowork Staffing, please visit our website at co-workstaffingcom. Now let's get back to the podcast.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I love that, don. It's funny when, when you, when you told your story and I heard it the first time, I heard it on the second time, uh, it, it, just it hit me and actually I don't know if you, if you think back, um, but like for me, when I made that choice to um to leave, I left every day at four and it was really really hard, cause I remember this was early in my, my staffing consulting days where I was um, you know the company loved Casey, cause I was making a ton of money, I was, things were rolling, but I was deep down, I was miserable because I was. I was getting in the office at seven so I didn't get to see my son Ryder before I went to school and then I'd get home at like 645 and he'd go to bed at seven. I'm like, well, this sucks, this is what isn't what being a dad's about. And I remember going to my boss at the time shout out to Angela Ronican.
Speaker 3:I know I've told the story before in the podcast, but I'll tell it again because I want to give her love and I said I said I, you know I'm, I'm miserable, and she goes well, what do you mean and we talked through it. She goes. Well, I got an answer We'll leave it for I go. I can't leave it for her. She goes. Why not? You don't trust us? I said no, I trust you, but it's. I made the sarcastic joke. I said it's not when we don't still get ahold of you, and the world's not going to end if you don't. You're not here until five, so you leave a four. We got your back. And once I made that switch that literally from like and I retrained my team. I retrained my clients, like hey, you might try to reach me between five and seven. I'm probably not gonna be available because that's my family time, but I will always get back to that night, like. Once I did that consistently mid habit. That's where my career really fricking took off. Good, good. Did that similar thing happen to you? Absolutely.
Speaker 4:You know it gave gave me the flexibility so that I could focus when I was focusing, and you know. And then I had that time with him to focus on him, knowing, you know, that the culture you know for me had switched. And you know again, you know there's this, there's this, you know, work-life balance guilt. I cut, you know, but there's a guilt that you know. As far as you know, I would be the guy you know back in the day, when I was even single, that, if you know, I was running a pretty large company at the time and if it was 4, 15 and I was 40 minutes away from my office, I would drive home back. I'm sorry, I would drive to the office before I would go home.
Speaker 4:Just to prove, you know, just to show people that you know it was one or two things that I needed to get done, even if they weren't even things I had to get done. I just wanted to show them that you can't leave the office at three o'clock, have a meeting at four and just call it a day. That's how you're going to be successful and I don't think in any business. You know, and that's just that's how I was hardwired, as you know, seeing my dad working, seeing, all you know, my uncles working and my and my aunts, and, uh, you know, one of my aunts worked at a lobster company until she was 78 years old. I was booking, you know, and that's I was.
Speaker 3:I was, I grew up in Los Angeles but, uh, you know, she, she, that was her thing every day 's, what she did wow, how often do you reflect when, even like to this day, at the stage your, your life, like, how often do you reflect on those, even as we're talking, maybe like stories of you, of seeing your family, your dad, your uncles, your aunts, the hard work, the independence? Uh, when you're having a tough day, uh, do you, how often you reflect on those stories?
Speaker 4:um, yeah, that's interesting. You know I had an uncle, like I said, who was a mentor to me and he excuse me choking up just thinking about it but you know, everybody took things very, very lightly in my company, in my family Sorry, I'll come back in a minute they loved to laugh, they didn't take anything serious and I think that's something that was part of my childhood, that I could see people, you know whether they had you know a tough day, or you know they were traveling to Japan or whatever. They would always have an upbeat, you know type of disposition. And you know I think that I think about my family often. I think about all the little family parties that we have on weekends where, you know, somebody was designated to go pick up my grandparents, you know about 30 minutes away, and he had that opportunity. I was too young I didn't have that, but I still hear stories today about driving back from you know Brookline to Sharon and then coming back for, you know, a family thing on Sunday.
Speaker 4:So it's this thing when I think about my family, I don't think about anybody being depressed, full of anxiety. You know, short with anybody, you know everybody. Just they, just they just loved life and they just dealt with them, because you know a lot of them live through depression and in some really, really hard times. So I think you know the way that, you know I think about all the five types of cycles that I've been with in the staffing business and in our, in our economy. You know you just you get, you get.
Speaker 4:You know one one one boss referred to it as scarring. You know it just doesn't bother you as much anymore. So I think you know you become more even. You go from like this, like highs and lows, to more of more of this. And maybe it's not great, you know, cause the passion isn't high, but it's really important that you just you know we're actors and actresses. So you know I'm not, I'm not gonna, you know I'm not gonna show up when I walk into the office or I walk into my family. You know I'm not. I do my best not to wear, you know, emotions on my sleeve. I guess is the best way to put it.
Speaker 4:Instinctually, you know.
Speaker 3:I guess, is the best way to put it. Instinctually yeah, okay, I, I get it's funny. So when you talked about optimal, I, I, I heard optimism, I heard fun, I heard, and there's no reason to it's no, no surprise to me why you've had, then I mean, this makes sense Everything that you've learned from the independence, the hard work, the grit, the, the you know, the toughness, the hard knocks, then the laughing, the fun, like, like you are in the perfect role for you in life. To me it's like now I'm getting to know you a little bit better here and it makes sense.
Speaker 3:Um, before we go into a few things, I do want to ask like what, tell me what? What was the hardest part about being a ski parent? Seeing your son just be an absolute beast on the mountains, like going 7 000 miles an hour, and like just oh my god, please don't, please don't break your back, please don't break your face. Like how scary was that.
Speaker 4:As a dad, well, it's still scary, um, but if people ask me that question all the time and uh, you know they, I would say that it's been um, a process, um, you know, since he's been a young kid, so we've seen him race, we've seen him go up the ranks, and some people say, what's it like? And I guess it's pretty impressive to have a two-time Olympian as a son. To me it was a natural transition for him through his sport, like getting into an, getting to an NFL or, you know, the NBA or something like that, not, not, not paid, as well as an MLB, mlb player or even college athlete these days. But yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's it's again putting something in a box and just watching him be a technician on the hill and, you know, watching his turns and watching it very, very closely.
Speaker 4:I was part of a master ski race program for about three years, um, a few years ago, cause I want to really understand more of what he was doing. Um, you know, I just want his head to be in the game, I want him to be ready to race. You know, he, he's um, you know, emotionally it's probably one of the hardest sports out there. Out there, just to correct you, not 7,000 miles an hour, but he was clocked at 99.6 miles an hour, 99. 99.6 miles an hour. And one of the you know they have a, you know a gun that goes off, you know, like the radar gun.
Speaker 3:I just felt nerves in my belly when you said that.
Speaker 4:Right, and he is basically going down in his underwear I mean, he's in a very, very thin thing with a few pads but nothing more with a helmet. I trust him. You know. I know that. You know, growing up with him in his sport, that he understands where his limits are more than a lot of people. And you know, I trust, that he's going to make the right decision at the right time. You know there's times to pick up speed in the course. You know there's time to. You know to give it the little sideways click. But it is tough. I'm not going to say I'm not human. I see him come down and what we call it is when he comes over the finish line. The bottom of the ski is called the P-TEX. We always say we're very happy when he comes down with the P-TEX, whether he's first or last. You know so. But so it is a tough two, sometimes two and a half minutes for me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, how do you, how do you think you evolved that trust? Like that seems like a tough thing to do, like how did you come to that realization?
Speaker 4:Yeah, you know, it's just, it's just again. You know we're talking. If he's seven, 33 now, he's been doing this for for a multiple of years and you know we we've had a lot of. You know we've had a lot of talks, mostly in the disappointment when he does, well, I don't hear from him, um, but you know when he's going, I, you know he he's going to you know he'll call a talk and get off the ledge or whatever. You know he'll be at a race and he'll have a really bad day and he'll say, dad, can you go for a walk? And I'd like I'd just go. Hallelujah, I love these walks, you know. I just that's my time. I just get the chills to think about it. I don't get a lot of those, but it's time where I thinking about and then I can, you know, take what he's thinking and understand how he's applying it to his trick and, uh, that's, that's how I know he's, he's, he's where he should be and what he's doing, you know is correct. You know my wife, um, um, I, I, I did, uh, my wife wanted him to be a golfer. Um, because that's a lot easier on his body.
Speaker 4:Sure, you know you talked about he's had accidents. You know he's crashed. He crashed so hard one day. He's built like a hockey player. He hit the. It's called the B fence. There's A fence which is this high stuff you see it in the races and there's B fence. They have like sometimes three or four of those and it's basically fish netting and they go through. That slows them down. He's had gone so fast hitting those that he actually had melted plastic on his helmet. You know. You know he's been injured. You know not bad he's had some things.
Speaker 4:I was telling a friend that when he was doing the North American series his ski came off the first day and his skis are so sharp that it cut his calf like very, very deep, like very, very deep, almost to the bone. You have doctors that follow him around. You don't have that in all sports. So the doctor basically stitched him back up that day. And if you look at his Instagram, it's Jared Goldberg's gear. There's a picture of him holding up a red sock and uh, he, they, they sit. They stitched him up that night. You know they had a. They had a orthopedic surgeon there and he says, jared, I can fix this for you right now. And then Jared says, can I ski tomorrow If I do this? Well, let's just, let's take one step at a time. So he stitched him up, stitched him up I think it was four layers of muscle and things they had to put back together. They taped him up.
Speaker 4:He raced the next day and won the race Jesus was the Super G race and I was like because I was like calling me said, is he gonna race today? To the coach and they're up in Canada he says, yeah, I think he's gonna race. And then I saw the live timing and he came in first. So you know, he really he kind of needed that finish, uh, because he was uh leading in the standings to the whole overall for that year and ended up becoming the overall skier for that lower level. It's, it's down a few levels, um, but you know, a very, very important stepheng stone to his career and got on world cup starts. So, uh, you know, I don't know he just he's just one of those kids that you know if he felt he felt he could do it, he would do it, but if he felt he couldn't, but he always had that passion to say I'm just going to help this, do it, you know if I can Wow.
Speaker 3:I love. Well, he had the passion, but I would think some way you and your, your lovely bride, helped unleash it and you, you, then you just in the right environment. One of the things that stood out of that story is not the first time he got first, or the battle and the injury. What stood out to me about the story that I think every dad dreams about is hey, dad can go for a walk. Yeah, and the fact that you've done, I think, a fantastic job, you and your wife, that to create these moments where your child does want to come talk to you. I mean, that's something I have a freshman in college and 16 year old. I love, I'm I'm.
Speaker 1:I am like a curiosity psycho.
Speaker 3:Don. I believe that it's a life superpower that none of us talk about enough and I think when, to your point earlier, when you would wait till your son came to you early I think that's helped draw that out where you're you met on his terms versus you, the one you know, which is, you know, your good friend, the introduce me to Todd Francis. Like, if we're coming to always in, like the leader, executive down to the employee, they're going to resist you and they're going to get defensive. But if you patience, let them kind of foster these environments where they you're helping them find their passion, find what they want to do, create environments where they can be vulnerable enough to share. Hey man, I had a tough day, like did you see something, dad? Or just to be able to have that moment, I mean that's what a blessing.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I totally agree with that from my heart. Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know, and well, thank you for sharing. Oh, I could keep talking to you, but I want to. I want to make sure before in a second I'm going to ask you to talk about consultant, because I, I, I've, I actually learned about consultant way back in the 2004 when I once competed against your, your lovely seattle office. They were. They were quite a, quite, quite a, quite a beast back in the day, annoying at times because I hated finding out I lost a consultant, but but I'm over it, don, I'm over it. I'm not going to bring back those war wounds. But if you were to summarize part of our conversation that that dads just can take from the things that you learned growing up, the things that you and your wife applied to help, you know, raise a two-time Olympian, which is freaking, unbelievable to hear on, it's so cool. Um, into like two or three like themes like what tell me what? What comes to mind that dads can take from our conversation?
Speaker 4:you know it's, um, the hardest thing for me and I've been thinking about this a lot lately is, you know, kind of like you know where I, where I fit in in this whole picture, is this three of us? Obviously he has lots of friends and relatives and stuff, but, um, you know, kind of like you know where I fit in in this whole picture is this three of us? Obviously he has lots of friends and relatives and stuff, but you know it's the mom and the dad sometimes, sometimes have to be against the kid because you know the kid is like the monster this you know growing being that's, you know, shoots sparks out from everywhere and you know we've had, you know, a few of these incidents. Why he was just crazy. I mean, I don't know what your son was like when he was 11 or 12, or your daughter, but when they're growing, their hormones are changing, they're becoming men or women and they're just like off the wall.
Speaker 4:Earlier, my wife came home one day and she goes would you, there's something in the back of the truck, the car, would you put it up downstairs? And she's. You know she was a phys ed major and I put a punching bag up in our basement and I brought him downstairs and I said, when you feel you're out of control, either we're going to send you down or you're going to get out on your own. It's about 11 or 12 years old and we've had situations where he'd be at dinner and just be crazy and I do it just go. You know, keep it clean, but get downstairs right now 10 minutes.
Speaker 4:You know not. You know he'd look at me and go. He knew he had to and you'd hear, you know. And then you come back up all sweaty. Here would be a mess. He goes, I'm good and he'd sit down and we'd have dinner, you know. So you know it was it was.
Speaker 4:It was classic that my wife came up with that idea. You know, and they and they, and you know, in the Japanese workplace they actually have swords and they have a room where people can go in there because it's so frustrating. So, you know, the one point is is that, collectively, the mom and the dad have to be a united front. Once you break that bond, it is, it's, it's it's, you're in for a hell of a ride, as they say. You know, it's just, they see the, you know the chink in the arm and, believe me, it was what I started off.
Speaker 4:This is the hardest thing for me to do, because I love this kid. I mean, it's unconditional love, both ways, you know, and I don't want to upset him, I don't, but I, you know, sometimes, you know, my wife was, she was probably more of the man sometimes in the relationship, which was great, you know, that's great, that's great. Um, so we'd have to sit down and we had this conversation one day and we were saying, okay, this is how it's going to have to be. And it was one of these days where he just came up from hitting the punching bag and we sat at this table and we said you don't talk back to your mom. You don't talk back to me. You listen to all adults. You know things like. You know typical things. You don't talk back when we say you're at a friend's house and we call you up. And you call up and I say come back at seven. You say no, I'm coming back at nine. You know that's embarrassing for us. You know I explained it.
Speaker 4:I went down this whole list of things and you know he screamed, he kind of hollered and Annette and I were sitting there going what is this thing sitting across from us? And eventually he hit his head basically on the glass table. I remember him doing that because it was pretty close, because he was small and he looked up and he goes. He looked at both of us, he goes. I got it. And it was like such an important thing, a learning experience for him and I think that's really important that a family can do that. And I don't care if you are, you know, divorced, not together, separated or ever, but you got to make sure you're on the same page all the time. And you, you, if you, if you don't know.
Speaker 1:You're on the same page. You're going to go. You know what I'm?
Speaker 4:going to get back to you on that. I want to tell a little story because it's really important if we have a few more minutes. It's about this consistency that I think that I came up with from thinking about talking to you. And this is again. Jared was it's all about him today? For sure it usually is. Anyway, we were. It was January, it was dark, it was 6 o'clock in the morning. My alarm goes off and the house is quiet. The lights were on in the back. To some reason, I think I left them on, but I can see flurries, and it was dark, I mean you all cold. It was outside.
Speaker 4:Well, jared had committed to doing early morning training for a ski program that year and he was one of the youngest kids I think he was maybe 10 years old and my wife said again she says, if you, if you commit to this and she was great about this, I think it's just from her, all her PE background she said you have to do it for the whole year. And of course I'm nodding my head. So I go in his room and I go Jared, it's time to get up. And from this little, cute little voice I hear Dad, you know, you've been off skiing all week. I'm so tired. I just want to sleep. This morning I'm still waiting for some pains. That's okay, I need to go back to bed. We'll go to the second session. I get back in the bed and getting all comfortable again, all of a sudden Annette bounces up and she goes you guys are late.
Speaker 4:What's going on? What are you doing? I said Jared's dead. You get him out of bed. He's going to do this. She's not a shrill but she's committed. He said he's going to do this. You need to go. And I walk in the other room and I said, jerry, I'll be up in a few minutes.
Speaker 4:And you know, the important part of that whole thing was again the consistency, part of commitment. And again it's the chink in the armor. If you know, what I said before is if you show that there's a chink between you and your wife or your husband, whatever it is, and he knows he can exploit it, he's going to exploit it. If he knew that that day was a day that he could sleep in and I took him up later, that might have been the end of his ski career right then and there, because he didn't have the commitment to get done what he had to do and the hard things. There's nothing better than being at that mountain for sunrise, but to get out of bed is one of the hardest things. So you know commitment's important. You know, don't negotiate with your kids. You know things like that. You know the philosophy is it's cataclysmic If you let them, you know, start guiding how you're going to be thinking about.
Speaker 4:What you know is so important and I think you know for the most part, you know is so important and I think you know for the most part I think we've kept that line going and you know we've both supported each other to do that. But it's, it's so hard when you love this little thing and you just want to. It's not hard to be your pal, you know, and it's you know, but it's hard to do and you know he's 33 now and we were very, very close and you know, and we have great communication, you know. So there's a lot of things that have been good and I have so many more stories I could tell you about things I've done behind the scenes to help him, you know, in his career. But we can leave that for another time.
Speaker 3:United front. As parents, gold Help, instill commitment. Gold. Never negotiate with your kids gold. The only time I let my kids negotiate with me down when they were younger, I said peas or carrots, you get a pick. Yeah good.
Speaker 3:I like that, I'm winning, but they get a pick and I, you know it's funny, like I. Sometimes people say don't sweat the small things. Yeah, I disagree. I think sometimes you do sweat the small things because that's a massive flashpoint moment in his life. I mean you, you remembered it like this and I've told my kids. I said, the one thing you'll never regret is exercise. When you do a workout, you're never going to regret doing it. You feel better when you get done and so, like we're a very active family, exercise is important to us, active family exercise important to us um and uh.
Speaker 3:It's fun to see like my kids embrace, like hard work and choice, and I remind them often, like dad's got no eligibility left, I, I am washed up and done. I can no longer play college sports if that's what you want to do. If that's not what I want to do, you I'm gonna help you unlock what you want to do, but I'll teach you, like the things that I did to get me that level. But if you don't want to do it, I'm not going to go do it for you. You know, and I love the fact that you guys, when your wife as warm as that bed was, cozy as those blankets were, she said oh hell, no, get your ass up. And you guys are, we're going to fix this thing.
Speaker 3:And so I love that story because I could see it. I visually see it, I visually saw it In the spirit of time. I now want to hear about ConsultNet, because so much has changed since I first ran into you guys back in 2004, I think, 2006, something like that. But the involvement, the growth, the acquisitions, the investments. You guys are doing some really, really cool stuff. For people that don't know who ConsultNet is and the other brands that are associated with this, tell us a little bit more about what you guys are doing.
Speaker 4:Well, you know, I mean back to the whole, you know family type scenario. You know we're a family of technology-based companies basically dedicated to providing human capital to our customers. So what I mean by that is whether know whether our customers need, you know, direct or permanent employees. You know in their company a near short team of technologists or a certain expertise to get a product or product completed. You know we strategize with our clients to customize a tailored solution for their needs. I mean, you know people can have a product or project in the company but if they don't have human capital or people to do it, it's not going to get done, as we've been talking about today. So we do have a state-of-the-art facility in Guadalajara, mexico, that supports many of our customers in the United States and we have the onshore managed services to take care of everything in the United States. Any solution is customized around your needs or the needs of our customers. You know any solution is customized around your needs or the needs of our customers.
Speaker 4:Our verticals are endless and we draw from our in-house expertise. You know extensive network through our recruiting teams around the country. You know we are experts at recruiting people. That's what we do and you know the major breadwinner people of our families. You know our clients range from Fortune 100 companies to I call them well-funded startups and everything in between. You know, and, as you said, you know we've morphed into many, many different things along the way and our company has changed immensely and I have, you know, a really melded new executive staff and I've never worked with a more experienced team member I've done right now, it's amazing.
Speaker 4:So, anybody needs any type of human capital, whether it be one person or a team of people you know within. We have the expertise of doing this for a long, long time.
Speaker 3:So good. Well, I've been grateful. I'm lucky enough to have met two of your executives I met. Well, I've not met JP in person, even though I feel like I've known him forever, but I've also met Alicia. She and I met for the first time in Dallas and she actually worked with a former colleague I'm actually a really good friend of mine and but I was there for a speaking engagement. She was there for a big conference and it just kind of worked out and JP was like, hey, you should try to meet Alicia. So I was like, oh, and it worked out perfectly and we had a great time and she's a fantastic leader. And, um, uh, you, you, you keep doing what you're doing, man Cause it's. It's really been cool to to learn more about you guys and see the impact you're having, um, in the industry, as definitely you guys are an industry leader for sure. So Great.
Speaker 4:We're really, really working on being a better company. Um, you know, 50% of our executives are women and men, so it's an amazing team of strategists that all we want to do is, you know, provide, you know, good human capital to our customers, and that's what we do every day. So Wow.
Speaker 3:Well, if people want to learn more about ConsultNet or Don the dad or Jared the skier, are you a social media guy? Can I send people there?
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, you know I'm on LinkedIn, of course. Yeah, donald J Goldberg, I believe. Okay, instagram D Goldberg 711.
Speaker 3:D Goldberg 711.
Speaker 4:That's like seven number, yeah, d goldberg, 711, that's like seven number, yeah, but you can find me through, uh, you know, consultnetcom and all our, our family of companies, um, that work together and you know we have a thing called five by one selling that you get into later or you'll see that on our, on our, um, our website, because we I found over the years and you know being in this business for over 40 years now, which is crazy to think that companies need different things and we've morphed into the companies so that we can have this technology alternative in the near shore, because India is really tough right now. Our facility is central time zone, so we save so much man working hours. If there's any mistakes that are going on, it's just. Communication is great and you know we have offices all over the country and you'll see that from the website stuff and I'd love to share with anybody that wants to talk to me directly, love it, talk about how I can help.
Speaker 3:We will make sure this is all linked in the show notes. If you're a consultant, do you want to learn more about the opportunities they have? You're a. If you're a company looking to hire great talent, make sure you check consultant that out. We'll make sure that's tagged in the show notes, don. It's now time to wrap up where I take you through the lightning round. I'm sure you might. You sure you might you might have if you listen to an episode before you know what's coming. I don't, because I'm going to show you the negative hits of taking too many hits in college not bong hits, but football hits. Yeah, yeah, and my job is to ask these questions quickly. Uh, your job is to answer them quickly, but, but my biggest job is to get a good giggle out of you. Okay, okay, are you ready? Yes, okay, true or false? Um, your wife hits the ball farther than you. False More accurately.
Speaker 4:Okay.
Speaker 3:I giggled at my own joke first, which does not count. I lose already. Okay, true or false, you once were a two-time Olympian ski jumper. False, false, okay. If I was to go back to the small town 20 miles outside of Boston, what would be the one word that would describe Don Goldberg as a kid?
Speaker 4:Donnie Goldberg. Everyone called me Donnie and I still do today.
Speaker 3:Okay, there we go. If I was to come to your house for dinner tonight, what would we have?
Speaker 4:Probably lamb chops. That sounds good, lamb chops with a nice something on the side. She's really good at making quick shoulder to cook.
Speaker 3:She's great love it um favorite movie of all time is oh god, favorite movie of all time.
Speaker 4:Uh, I'm gonna say animal house. I'm going to say Animal House Fantastic.
Speaker 3:I could quote that for days with you Cooked it, Sliced Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through college. Yes, we have not had an Animal House call out on the podcast, which was, I think, a very, very. You should win something. Tell me the last book you read.
Speaker 4:Last book I read or reading. I'm reading a very, very good book right now. It's called Win the Relationship, Not the Deal.
Speaker 3:I did not know that was coming everybody. That is not a shameless plug, but thank you for that.
Speaker 4:Guess who wrote this Casey, and I love it, by the way. It's really some really good common sense stuff. I love it.
Speaker 3:Wow, you're very kind. I did not know that was coming.
Speaker 4:I'm going to make the host blush here, right, I would say that adventure stories I listen to, I watch or, I'm sorry, I read Wilbur Smith. He's a South African author. He's historical fiction and I read a lot of his books. I've probably read them all.
Speaker 3:Very fiction and it's um, I read a lot of his books. I've probably read them all, so Very cool. Um, if there was to be a book written about your life, tell me the title.
Speaker 4:Book written about my life. Um gone in many directions but seems to get stuff done.
Speaker 3:Okay, I like that. Now, donnie, if I can call you Donnie, you are the casting director of this new movie that they want to make because every book is selling out and now Netflix and Apple TV are fighting over this book. They've gone to you and they said hey, don or Donnie, you are the casting director. I need to know who is going to be cast as you in this critically acclaimed, hit new movie that's just going to crush it and win a Golden Globe.
Speaker 4:Oh man, that's a tough one. I go from the Rock to Jack Black because I like tough, but I also like funny.
Speaker 3:So the Rock to Jack Black, that is outstanding. What a genre and a mix. That is, what a good visual. Yeah, okay, and then last question Tell me two words that describe your wife.
Speaker 4:Incredible and driven.
Speaker 3:Boom, lightning round's complete. We both laughed. I actually laughed more at my own jokes, which means I lose. You get the dub. Congratulations. It's been such a blast getting to know you.
Speaker 3:I appreciate your trust in coming on the podcast and telling your story and I think hopefully there's all the employees and consultants that learn more about their boss and what a driven down-to-earth guy he is. It's been fun. I have one for me. I got a page and a half of notes here. I want to thank our sponsors for continuing to support. I want to thank everybody that's watched us on YouTube. Thanks for coming to us weekly, if you're in your car, if you're in the gym, wherever you're consuming these episodes. Thanks for committing to being the best quarterback or leader of your home you can be in in finding ways to become better, cause that's really the goal I.
Speaker 3:Why I started this, nearly going on six years now, is because it's we all got gaps and doesn't matter if, if you know, you as an executive or me as a at a great run staffing to do what I'm doing now. My kids, our kids, don't care. What they care about is are we present, are we listening, are we helping them, are we helping them, unlock their gifts and treasures and talents and, in the end, stay grounded. Everybody, be humble, be vulnerable, be curious. Those are superpowers that I've learned in life, that I continue to find ways to sharpen each and every day. But, don again, thank you so much for your time today and I can't wait to meet you in person one of these days soon.
Speaker 4:I look forward to it. Thanks again for your time. This is awesome, thank you.