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
Connecting Generations: Embracing Fatherhood and Legacy with Colin Rocker
Thanks to Justin Priest for introducing me to our next guest, Colin Rocker.
Colin Rocker (@careercolin) is a content creator, speaker, and consultant based in New York City. With a strong social media presence of 385k+ across platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn, his content resonates widely due to his authenticity and focus on providing tools and strategies for career growth, especially for the unique workplace challenges faced by first-gen professionals. In addition to his content, he is a keynote speaker and collaborator with brands in B2B influencer marketing and early career success.
On the latest episode of the Quarterback Dadcast, Colin—a dynamic young father and marketing guru—joins us to share stories about the small yet powerful ways he connects with his family. From expressing gratitude for his wife to unveiling their unique family huddle traditions, Colin paints an inspiring picture of modern fatherhood. Meanwhile, I open up about surprising connections with my college-aged son, all thanks to embracing new technology.
Colin and I discuss the life lessons from our fathers and how they shaped our personal growth and character. I recount my father’s journey—from a small-town boy to a Vietnam War veteran—and the timeless values of humility and curiosity he instilled in me. We explore the art of working smarter through my childhood lawn mowing business, a testament to adapting strategies for success. Our chat navigates through Colin’s unexpected career path in consulting and the balance of career aspirations with family life in the hustle of New York City, offering insights into making crucial decisions like hiring a nanny.
Our dialogue digs deeper into the themes of presence and legacy, touching on the poignant experience of attending a father’s funeral. We reflect on the impact of relationships and the importance of being there for our children, weaving in imagery of military cemeteries that underscore enduring connections. Colin and I aim to inspire you to embrace the responsibilities and joys of fatherhood, prioritize family, and thoughtfully consider the legacy you wish to leave for your own loved ones.
Join us for an episode that’s sure to resonate with anyone striving to be the best parent they can be.
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. Well, hey, everybody, it's Casey Jaycox with the quarterback, dad cast. I want to say thank you to everyone who continues to listen. I also want to let you know that we will be having a few new sponsors as we get ready to head into 2025 and season six, which feels so cool.
Speaker 1:To say everybody, I sometimes it's still a pinch me moment that you know a project started nearly five years ago was just going to be for fun. And here we go we're still. We're still going hard and we're still going strong, and I don't see us stopping because it's so fun. It's fun for me as the host, learning about myself and trying to get better as a dad each and every week, and I hope you guys do feel the same. A huge favor I'd love to ask is if you've not taken time yet to leave us a review on Apple or Spotify, or even on YouTube, which we now have video. Please go ahead and do that. It'd be a great. Uh, I'd appreciate it. As the host, I know that our listeners would appreciate it, because that's how we're going to impact more dads who are striving to be that ultimate quarterback or leader of their home. So with that, I want to say thank you again for listening and let's get right to today's episode on the Quarterback Dadcast.
Speaker 1:Well, hey, everybody, it's Casey Jaycox with the Quarterback Dadcast. We're getting towards this tail end of Season 5, and it's been a fantastic season of fantastic year of just some amazing dads. And our next gentleman is a younger dad, which I'm excited to sharpen my dad skills from this gentleman because I think he's going to bring a lot of wisdom, he's going to bring a lot of experience, and this absolutely happens by the fantastic JP Justin Priest from ConsultNet. He made this introduction former podcast. I'm a former podcast dad cast guest himself. But our guest today is Colin Rocker, and he's an influencer, he's a speaker, he's a coach, he's a marketing extraordinaire, he's got consulting experience. He's a Georgia Bulldog.
Speaker 2:That's right, all you.
Speaker 1:Bulldogs out there. He goes by Career Colin. We're going to learn all about that. But, more importantly, we're here to talk to Colin, the Dad, and we're going to learn how Colin's's going to be fun. Well, we always start out each episode gratitude. So tell me, what are you most grateful for as a dad?
Speaker 2:today, today and every day, I'm most grateful for my wife. I would say she's definitely. You know I was. I heard this quote by Jim Gaffigan, the comedian, and he says that like being a dad is kind of like being like the backup quarterback, right. Like you're, you're on the team, but when they put you in the game there's a little bit of hesitation. Right, you know you're good for a couple plays, but no, she's, she's really kind, she's really patient, just loved her whole approach to things. She older side, I was the third kid of his two, of three marriages and so I definitely noticed, compared to obviously the other dads, right, there's a level of just physical capacity there, right, that I think I'll be able to definitely provide for my son that maybe I didn't get when I was a kid. So definitely grateful for that.
Speaker 1:There we go. Well, I am grateful for I'm actually I was joking with this before we started recording, but I'm going to be I'm going to be grateful for this. I'm grateful for Snapchat because everybody, when, when someone, when I got, when I got asked to get on Snapchat, I'm like, come on, what? I'm like 48 years old, I don't get on Snapchat for him to go for that stuff. But my, with a son in college, I now have, I think, what I say, 57 straight days, 57 straight days of a snap, a snap streak. I think what the kids are calling it, calling absolutely 57 days in a row, and I mean I would have never done this.
Speaker 1:But I met my son where he's at and now my son responds to me and he actually sends me pictures. You know he'll send me something each day. Hey, on way to school, boom, and it's just now. That's how I communicate with him and I guess I'm quote unquote a cool dad now with him, but I just love that A I opened my mind to try something new, but I'm grateful for it. It allows me to kind of stay connected with my son, who's in college as a freshman, which was a really, really hard thing to go through, but so I'm grateful for that. I'm grateful for my son teaching me how to use Snapchat.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. I'd love to see a picture of you with the dog filter. Like some of that, I'm sure they're crazy now. When I was using it, it was the dog filter that was all the rage, but I'm sure the filters are pretty crazy these days.
Speaker 1:Well, there's one that was like a French artist and so I did a video and it sent to my buddy, who's like a couple years older than me, on the East coast, and I was like, uh, what'd I say? I was like, bonjour, do you have any French bread? And we did this like we were just like laughing and being complete idiots. But anyway, I digress All right. Enough of the shenanigans with Snapchat. Colin, bring me inside the the rocker huddle and tell me who is on the squad, and tell me who's inside your family huddle.
Speaker 2:I love that. So, yeah, we're a small and mighty team. These days, obviously, it's me and my wife. We're in Manhattan, we both moved there, we're both born and raised in Georgia. I met in college, moved to New York City to of to start our careers and start, you know, a family together, unknowing to us, and then you know we've got our baby boy, isaiah Rocker, isaiah Clark Rocker. Actually, the middle name Clark is a funny story because we chose that, because we met in Athens, clark County that's where you know UGA is based and so we chose that as sort of the meeting point of us and sort of the beginning of what would become, obviously, you know the family that he was welcomed into. And then he's four months old and then we've got we recently brought a nanny onto the squad, I guess you can say, which is really really nice because we definitely needed it to help, you know, give us some time to sort of get back into the swing of our careers and such.
Speaker 1:Love it as a new dad. When you left the hospital, they didn't give you the manual, At least they didn't give me a manual when I left, not at all no.
Speaker 2:Tell me what's been the hardest part so far, I mean the hardest part has been kind of changing my view of fatherhood, especially in the context of, like a big city, with the age I'm at right, I'm living in Manhattan, I'm 28 years old, right. I found out I was having the baby when I was 27. In New York City, that's essentially a teen pregnancy, right. And so like I was trying to figure out how do I even fit this into my life when all of my friends are, you know very much like they're, they're going out, they're going to events, they're not home, a lot Like there's just a very different way of living life here at this age, typically Right.
Speaker 2:And so I kind of had to challenge some of those patterns until I obviously clearly like the priority here is I need to create time to be a dad and create time to put energy into fatherhood as well as my marriage to make it successful. And so that would probably be the toughest thing. And I'll be honest with you, it's hard now to not get a little jealous, because there's clearly a favorite that Isaiah has and it is not me. So I'm probably a near third after the nanny, to be honest with you. So sort of getting over that. But he's starting to recognize who I am give me a side eye a little less often here and there. So that's been good. But those are probably the two struggles for now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the ebbs and flows. It's like when I was, and that's going to continue to ebb and flow. Um, my man, I got, like I mentioned I got a freshman college and a junior high school. My daughter, when I was, my daughter was younger daddy's girl, like talked all the time but and then when the teen years hit, I was like, wait, a minute, I'm, I'm still kind of cool, like when I rebound for her in basketball.
Speaker 1:I get, I get some good time, but sometimes it's it's tough getting her to open up. And I use I use a curiosity framework that I learned in business. It's called TED. It stands for tell me, explain, describe. So I teach. I teach that like to sales teams, but I also use it myself when I'm trying to pull information out of my daughter to get her to talk and open up, and so it's a which actually I look at it as good practice. But yeah, it's like, um, but deep down, uh, he'll, he loves you and he'll, but that's that one smile you get or that one interaction that it's like. It's kind of like in golf you hit five out of bounds but that one good shot it brings you back.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's everything 100%.
Speaker 1:Okay, so so, living the city life with a four month old. You got the nanny. Your career's rocking a lot of exciting times, but I want to, before we dive into what you're doing career wise, I want to go all the way back to what was life like growing up for Cullen and talk about the impact your parents had on you and what values were taught and most important to you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I was born and raised just outside of Atlanta. So for the most part of my life the two-parent household my parents ended up divorcing when I was around 13 or 14, which was pretty tough. But yeah, my dad was a plumber, my mom was a school teacher. So definitely like traditional kind of those blue collar values, just like working hard, putting your mind to something and going out and doing it. My dad taught me really a lot about like communication skills because he had his own plumbing business he commercial residential plumbing and so we would be, you know, for one part of the day in like the south side of atlanta, like helping this you know old woman fix her water heater and she couldn't pay my dad and so he would take a deposit and he'd come back later and like seeing the, the warmth and the empathy in that moment. And then we go to midtown, atlanta and I'd see my dad, you know pitch or try to get this huge contract to do the plumbing for this. You know enormous new mixed use complex they're building or this you know housing development they're doing, and sort of seeing both sides of that and sort of the different swaths of people he interacted with in his job. I've definitely taken that forward for me professionally.
Speaker 2:And then my mom was a teacher, but she was always a student and so I think, learning from her, like I'm, I love to read, I love I just have a natural curiosity about things and I know that's something that she definitely like honed to this day. She's always sending me, you know, articles and clippings and you know Bible verses and just a bunch of stuff that just you know, just to engage that inner student that I think is in all of us. But yeah, I no-transcript some of his own struggles and so that actually passed when I was 25. And so it's one thing that would have been nice, I think, for him to see me get married and start my family and all this stuff. But yeah, that was kind of what life was like growing up.
Speaker 1:You say your dad passed when you were 25? Yeah, a couple of years ago. Yeah, my dad passed away 20, december 21st um 2021, sorry, december 29th 2021. Yeah, so I know what it's like to lose a dad. It's not fun, um, but uh, and I was actually there with my dad's last breath, which is even more surreal, oh, my goodness, um, but, but I'm grateful I was there, grateful.
Speaker 1:I was there Challenging for sure, but um, so your dad's a plumber, mom's a teacher. I love the theme of curiosity. It is a superpower that many people leave unlocked, so I hope that you carry on mom's wishes and never lose that curiosity Absolutely.
Speaker 3:Never.
Speaker 1:What, what, where do you think? So, like, when I think of a plumber, I think that the snap judgment sometimes can be as like well, blue collar, you know, fix it, fix it. But I'd love to hear that, like I love that you said you pulled some of your communication skills and the ability and the way your dad could be a chameleon almost to like different audiences, which I think in like in business, is like, really, really important. Um, do you remember, like, like, how, maybe how he got taught that or or conversations of, of, of when, when that really stood out to you, when it made impact?
Speaker 2:That's a really good question. I haven't thought about that a lot. I mean, my dad's story is definitely like he's learned everything he learned. He learned on the job, in the arena, if you will, on the field, just like as raw as it can get. I mean, my dad grew up in rural Mississippi, had a high school education, then he was drafted to fight in the Vietnam War, which definitely ages him a little bit.
Speaker 2:You can kind of get an idea of you know it was a bit more up there in age, but like he came back and he had you know he was, he was a mechanic, he had a fish truck, he got into plumbing and so he was always doing something a little bit different. And I think it was just the constant exposure, with maybe some like early gifts of kind of charisma and communication that you know I think have been hopefully passed down a little bit into me, that have enabled me to do what I do. But yeah, no, I think he was just, he was never afraid of a tough conversation and he kind of he, he, he had that mindset of, like you, you speak to the guy washing the floor, the same you speak to the person who owns the building, right.
Speaker 2:And so he was never too too big or too great, you know, for for anyone, but he also wasn't, you know, too too scared or thought too low of himself to talk to everyone, Right, and so I think like having that humility, confidence kind of hybrid, like I saw that really early on, and I think that definitely, you know, kind of helped me. But yeah, I don't know if I know of an exact moment in which you know I could say that that he himself developed that it's a good question your family's hitting me in the heart, my man.
Speaker 1:Okay, humility, curiosity are the two things I focus on a lot. The other one's vulnerability.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Vulnerability, I think, is something I teach my kids a lot about. Like you're never too smart to ask a question. You're never too smart to ask for help. You're never too smart, I mean, you're never too. Yeah, go first. Be the first person to try the new play, to try the new golf shot, to try the. You know someone's going to mess up and we all are, but might as well go first. And but I so back to growing up, is it? Was there a story that you can think of, that taught you that you reflect on often, maybe, like when you learn the power of hard work or treating people the right way, like your parents taught you, or being curious? Is there a story that you can maybe reflect on that that stands out as a that you maybe will teach Isaiah?
Speaker 2:yeah, oh, I'm sure, yeah, I, um, when I was younger, I, you know, I always had a bit of a entrepreneurial tick right, like I didn't have quite have a lemonade stand.
Speaker 2:But I remember distinctly when I was younger I wanted to start like a like a lawn mowing business, because I had a lawnmower and I had neighbors right, give you like 20 bucks or whatever. And I get out there and I'm cutting their lawn and they, you know, they needed the help, we'll say, and so their, their backyard was very much like, uh, you know, you could almost get lost in the grass back there. And so I start cutting it and then, very like, soon into this journey, like the, the blade like catches right, because I hadn't, I hadn't raised the blades up on the lawn more like early enough, right. And so I'm out there for probably like 10 to 20 minutes just trying to like get through it, and like push and push and push, and just like it'll get through, it'll get through, right, um, and then my, my dad gets home later and he's like well, you didn't like what?
Speaker 1:are you doing?
Speaker 2:Like you're an idiot, like just just raise the blades up and clean them off, and like you'll be good to go Right, and so I think that's definitely, like you know, probably a lesson like working smarter versus working harder and, just like you know, taking the time to assess the situation, like what can I do differently here? Yeah, that's probably a good, a good hard work story. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:How did you? How did you know you wanted to get into into consulting? You're Georgia. Obviously you have a path of a teacher and a plumber, but how did you know that consulting was something you wanted to do?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I mean. The short answer is I kind of didn't. I just knew, I guess Ryan Serhant, a big real estate broker here in New York City. He has this quote of, like he moved to New York and he wanted to be an actor but he ended up being like a real estate agent and he's become very successful. And he has this quote of saying that like he chose success first, career second.
Speaker 2:And so when I got to college, I knew that I wanted to be successful, whatever that meant for myself, whatever dollar amount or you know lifestyle I had in my head at the time. But I wasn't necessarily too picky in terms of you know where I was going, right. But I wanted to do something that was a good mixture of, like, some skills that I thought I had at the time, right, and I remember I had lied to get into this like upperclassmen networking event. I was a freshman and I said, yeah, I'm a, you know, I'm a junior, I'm a senior, right. And I grabbed a name tag before anybody could check my student ID and I just saw this guy, this alumni, that it was a connection event between alumni and current students, and there was one alumni in the back corner of the room and he was, you know, dressed in a nice suit, he was very well-spoken and he was just holding court, like he was surrounded by all these students and they were just kind of like eating up whatever he was, you know, putting out there and he was telling all these stories but all these travels he was doing and you know, all these cool businesses he had done, and all this this personal travel he could do because of the work he was doing. And, you know, I get up there and I ask some stupid question because I don't know anything.
Speaker 2:Right, my, my only job at that point was I was working, you know, in the kitchen at Chick-fil-A, right, I didn't know anything about consulting, let alone business, but I I followed up with him on on LinkedIn and he had come back to the university a couple of times to do speaking.
Speaker 2:We connected, you know, a couple, a couple moments and I figured out, you know, he was a consultant and so I was like, okay, like I, you know, I think I look pretty good in a suit, like I think I can tell a story or I can learn how to tell a story.
Speaker 2:Right, I'm taking the stats and the, you know the math classes or whatever to figure out how to do. You know the more technical parts of the job and that was that was kind of reverse engineered the paths of some people ahead of me that had done it and I kind of got my start that way. And so I think that you know, consulting is a great career. I feel like for people like that that maybe you don't know exactly what you want to do, but you know it was a good start for me, got a lot of experience, but yeah, didn't definitely didn't have a grand master plan getting into that, but it was like hey, like I think this is a good jumping off point for you know, what you know has been a pretty, pretty awesome career.
Speaker 1:Nice Well, I love. I love that you're not afraid to say I, I lied to get into the thing. I love the honesty Absolutely.
Speaker 2:You know it was a harmless lot, you know it didn't didn't hurt.
Speaker 1:No one got hurt. No one got hurt. And sometimes you got to take a risk and you took a risk and obviously paid off for a new relationship you developed.
Speaker 2:When did you think New York was in the plans? Like when did you and your wife say let's do this, yeah, so that's the timeline there is a little different. So I've known my wife for, I think, seven years. I hope that's right. But we actually we met. We were just friends because we were dating different people and essentially I was in a long distance relationship with someone who was in Chicago and she was going to move to New York after school and she literally told me you know, if you don't get like a consulting job offer and move to New York city with me, we won't be able to be together.
Speaker 2:I was like oh my God, like I gotta, you know, get this job. And so when I got that offer figured out like the next month, she called me. I guess she thought I wouldn't be able to do it. She said, hey, I'm actually like I'm going to break up anyways. So I ended up going to New York to follow someone else. That ended up.
Speaker 2:You know, that relationship didn't work out, but I was still very well connected to the university, so I would come back to the UGA a couple of times, and my wife had done a fifth year to tack on a second bachelor's degree. We were the same age, though, and so we kind of struck up you know conversations, and we went on like she calls them dates. I didn't know we were dating at the time. I literally came back to the university and I thought I was recruiting her to work at, you know, the consulting company I was at, and it's like no stupid, like I, like I want to date you. You know you interested in that, and so that's kind of how our relationship started. And then she moved to New York, probably a year after she graduated. So, yeah, that's how that started.
Speaker 1:And now so you moved to New York. You're both Iraq, and now Isaiah comes along. Um, how hard is it like for maybe, a younger dad that's that's listening, that, um, maybe hasn't gone down the nanny path? Um, and they're. They're maybe thinking about pros and cons like, hey, how did you do it? And and maybe talk about some of the challenges or the successes that has come from, from going to having a nanny to help you out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think you know to to set some context. You're like we, the plan was never to having a nanny to help you out. Yeah, I think you know to set some context here. Like we, the plan was never to have a kid in New York city. We, we moved there for our, for our careers, for our life enjoyment. You know, just being like young and in this space, like we wanted to be in that, in that area, to have that experience right With the end goal of being okay, when we're ready, like we'll come down to Georgia, we'll buy a house, we'll have a kid, everything will be great.
Speaker 2:And then, for our first year wedding anniversary, we ended up in Bali to celebrate a friend of ours who was getting married and we ended up conceiving in Bali, and so it was like, okay, well, I guess we're having a kid in New York city. And so I guess, like I think it's important to note that, like you know, it wasn't necessarily like a date on the calendar that we knew we wanted to have this experience, but obviously we knew we wanted to have children, right, and so it's definitely been. I say that to say it's definitely been a process and like, how do we make this work in the way that works best for us, not necessarily like, okay, let's just go to the plan and go to the calendar, right, like we've. It's been a lot of figuring it out, just because she grew up, you know, basically in rural Georgia.
Speaker 2:I grew up in the suburbs and we've had to sort of navigate this and so, um, but honestly, the first step between, I guess, like daycare versus, you know, one of us staying at home versus, you know, uh, having a nanny, is it was primarily financial, no-transcript, and I, you know, the nanny, or, yeah, the nanny we have comes four days a week and so I'm watching the kid on Fridays, and so, with that in mind, we thought the nanny would be one more familiar for him because he gets to have an experience with one individual that's in our house, that's, you know, day in and day out, who we can form a bond with, and we definitely saw it as inviting this person into our family.
Speaker 2:And so we, you know, vetted or interviewed probably 10 different people, you know, virtually and in person, just over the course of like a month, to figure out who we really wanted to, you know, hold that role and obviously, who, you know, who Isaiah liked. But yeah, I would say that's. That's mainly just a good mix of flexibility, cost and just something that we felt would be best for him in terms of who he can start to bond with and have a relationship with that we also obviously trust.
Speaker 1:Now have you found as a dad that, like knowing there's more support at home, you can kind of still focus on what you want to do and get to do and and still kind of have that career mindset of of of growth and pushing yourself?
Speaker 2:it's, it's it's been, I mean it's been a journey. I'll say I mean those first three months, you know when, when, when my wife was still on her maternity leave, like it was, like there was no balance, like everything was blended right and we were just like reacting to everything every, you know, every piece of acne he got. Every time he broke out, every time, you know, he coughed a little bit right. We were just freaking out and calling the pediatrician. They were telling us to relax, like it's fine, you know, and so, um, I think now I would say, you know, there, there are all these stats there around like parents becoming like more productive once they have kids. And I would say that's definitely true, because I I know that, like when I'm, when I'm, I'm, when I'm at work, I really, really need to be working, because when I'm home, I don't want to really be thinking about work and I want to be as present as I possibly can.
Speaker 2:For you know, my, my family, you know, and so I've, I've definitely tried to adopt that mindset. Um, you know, uh the phone still stays pretty close to me. I've got a. I'm trying to get better at that, but yeah. I would say, especially now that I'm going into an office, my wife's at work and we're both sort of, you know, linking up and syncing up. At the end of the day, I'm trying to have, you know, very hard gates on that in terms of this is family time, but you know this is work time as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I asked that question, colin, because I almost ripped my microphone out of the thing. I asked that because when my when I was a younger dad and my son Ryder was we'll call it, we'll call them like 18 months ish, I remember I was at a corporate job. Um, I had, I was on this run, I was. I had probably more success in this job than I thought I would ever have in my life and that was fun. But what? But what came with that was like a lot of hours pressure. Uh, gotta be on do all these things.
Speaker 1:But the hard part was I'd get home at like 645. My son would be going to bed at seven. I'm like this sucks. And I remember talking to my boss and I said hey, I know that you guys love the Casey that you get at work because I'm producing A, b and C for you and you guys like those benefits. But at home I'm miserable.
Speaker 1:She's like, why, what's going on? She's like is your marriage okay, mom? My marriage is great, but I'm struggling as a dad. And she's like well, I go. I just it sucks, I get 15 minutes with him a day. She's like, well, let's fix something. I go, ang, I can't, I can't leave at four, cause I worked in the staffing and consulting industry for 20 years and I'm like that's, we're not a bank. I can't leave at five and just we shut the bank down.
Speaker 1:It's like stuff kept going. He's like she's like, do you not trust us? I go no, I trust you. She's like then leave at four, reach you. There's this crazy technology called a cell phone. We'll call you and get home by five. And it's funny, I was so scared doing it. So I was like telling the story to younger dads, because sometimes we love to be the victim or hero of our own story and produce these thoughts that never become things. It just creates more anxiety. So, but once I did that column, I would get you know from call it five to seven every night, great dinner time, great bath time, great kid time. Yeah, from seven, seven, 37, eight, I'd spend time with my wife, maybe till nine, and then maybe from nine to 10, I'd clean up my email, I documented my CRM, I'd get the next day planned and it was just like robotic and rinse and repeat.
Speaker 2:But once I did that, my career went to the roof. Really, yep. What do you think that was? Do you think you were more effective in those, in those hours you were there, or you just felt better.
Speaker 1:I guess you said present, which is I was present. I was present at work, I was present at home, and at about age two or three I think this is also part of the story that helped my wife decided to hang up the cleats and be a stay at home mom, and so that's why I asked you a question about the nanny, like knowing that there's someone that, like Ryder and Riley, were cared for and, like I said, the nanny, he's cared for, he's good, and I don't even worry about health because he's there, someone I trust is taking care of him. And so for me, knowing that I didn't have to worry about like, okay, if he's sick, if Riley's sick, who's going to stay home? Today that pressure went away, see.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I think, once I got through that, but I think just the biggest thing was being present, like I was all in because you know, just like people say I'm a great multitasker, no, you're not. I don't think anybody's a great multitasker. That means you're a half-assed listener. Is what you're telling yourself.
Speaker 2:Correct. I used to say that, and then I had a kid. Now I don't say that.
Speaker 1:So, no, there's. No, we're not. I think that the biggest gift we can give is our partner, our, your workers, your co, anybody, and so I love the that you're already thinking about being present as a younger dad. And, in the end, no matter if you got 380,000 followers on Instagram, whether you got one, isaiah does not care Right, and I always say I was right guy, right time, right place. I was a number one seller of a publicly traded company for 10 straight years. My kids didn't know they could give two shits.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:All they cared about was hey, can we get Dairy Queen tonight? They got sale on blizzards. Hey, can we go watch the Mariners? Hey, can we, um, can we spend time at this at this? Hey, can we go to the park? Yeah, and so, like part of the journey of this podcast, colin, that that that is free therapy for me. Every time I talk to a dad is reminding me that we're not as important as we think. Yeah, um, but the most important job we have is being a present dad and and teaching through stories, lessons of how, where we struggled, and meeting our kids where they are, and not living vicariously through our kids and helping them unlock their gifts, unlock what makes them special and unique, because each, I believe I mean it might be a little naive, but I believe each person has a side of it.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely, yeah, I mean he's already started to, you know, at least get more expressive, right, and I definitely see sort of parts of him emerging out of this. You know this, this, this baby, this, this, you know this thing that my wife and I created. But something you said, actually I've been thinking about stories, you know, for the last couple of months we've been talking, and I guess the it really hit me, I guess, when you were talking about like where you should be spending your time and what matters and where all this kind of leads to. Because I guess you know, when I, a couple of years ago, when I, you know, when I lost my father and it was time to you know plan the service and all that stuff, lost my father and it was time to you know plan the service and all that stuff, I mean I, I just I distinctly remember flying down to Georgia with you know, my, my, my, then fiance, yeah, then fiance, and then you know my like going to his service and just seeing who was in that room. I mean he probably had, maybe my dad probably had maybe 20 people in that room. I mean my, my mother wasn't there, my sister wasn't there, um, I had to invite some of my close friends there just so I could have someone there besides my, my fiance, just to, you know, kind of have like to share that experience with and to lean on honestly, um, and it just made me like I don't know.
Speaker 2:It kind of reflected on, like, like 74, 77 years, right has had gone by, you know, in this, in this person's life, and based on, I guess, the, the decisions he made or didn't make, the impact he had or didn't have, right, um, kind of resulted in who was in that room, and I guess I think about that a lot as someone who's 28, you know, like, like I want, I want my kids in that room, you know I want my spouse, I mean, at the very least, you know, in that room. You know I want my spouse, I mean, at the very least, you know, in that room, right, and so I it. That's what I think about a lot, and so I'm trying you know I haven't hit the mix of presence yet I'm still, you know, hitting that right balance. I know it's only gonna get more complexes, you know, but as it gets older and he adds things onto his plate, right, um, but yeah, I don't know, I think about that a lot because that's that's the culmination. Like there's no, you know game, game's over you, you hang up your cleats for real right, and then it's, it's who's in that room, and um, uh, and then after that you know he was my dad, was in the air force, and so you go to this, you know a military cemetery and if you've ever been like to arlington or whatever, it's like all the headstones or you know they're the exact same height and they're the exact same distance from one another, so it almost looks like a grid, right.
Speaker 2:And so you go there and I, you know I don't live in Georgia, so I only go there really on holidays, like Veterans Day or Memorial Day, and you, you look out and you see like, like who's got who's got flowers on top of their gravestone, who's got coins or who's got some other cultural or familial, like token or ritual, like who's who's showing up for you, even when you're not there, to say that I'm, I'm thinking about you, I miss you, you had an impact on my life, right, and you know, not every headstone has that Right, and so like I don't know, I don't mean to get us talking about death, but I guess those are like that's what I'm. I guess that's what I'm, that's what I think about a lot as a dad, because I, like I've seen that you know with I guess you know the journey of my own, my own dad, like where said my dad passed in 2021, but we never had a funeral for him.
Speaker 1:It was, it was. It was right in the middle of COVID and, um, my dad at age when I was 23,. He had, he went down kind of a bad stretch of health and mental health and, uh, just so pretty much like taking care of my dad physically, emotionally, financially, from 23 to 45 in and out of assisted living facilities, um, in and out of psych wards at the heart of my career. So I got young kids I got. Now I'm taking care of an older kid and you think about till death, do us part that, those vows. Like my wife back, she walked the walk on those vows, um, and I, I almost got at one point during that stretch, the most stressful time when he was really going through a tough time. I Googled caregiver burnout it's a thing. I had nine of the 10 symptoms. We were taking care of my dad by myself.
Speaker 1:And but it's funny, through this podcast, shout out to coach Tony Davis. I was talking to him about this and somehow got brought on the podcast and he goes, he's in there. I'm like what do you mean? I go, your dad's still in there, go find him and it hit me right in the face and the heart and like just like, oh, gut punch. And I remember like, cause COVID was almost like a excuse, like I couldn't like take a break, like, oh, I can't go see him because they won't let me in, right, if I'm being honest. And then, but the last six weeks of his life I saw him every day. Wow, it was awesome and and my mindset switched from I don't have to see him, I get to see him.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And uh, my S, and it was great Like my son, psalm, and his dementia almost kind of went away at the end of his life. Where he he started, he called, he thought writer was me for a little bit, but he was just kind of there. He'd um, you know, we would just do these funny stories. He couldn't read, but I would like, I mean he couldn't live here, but he could read a note on a phone. So I would like one time, like I, he could read a note on a phone. So I would like one time, like I'm not like the most, I'd say, religious person from a church perspective, but I'm very spiritual. I mean I look at Bible scripture every morning, I do gratitude work, I believe in higher power, I just you know. And so I remember I wrote down on my phone says God loves you. And I turned it and face it at him and then at one point I said are you ready to go meet God? And he looks at me. He goes, not yet, but close. It's eerie, dude, eerie, oh my goodness. So and sometimes I fight. I fought like I felt guilty at first. Like God, I can't.
Speaker 1:We didn't have a funeral for my dad. Well, my dad lost a ton of friends because he was in a assisted living facility for like 10 years. No offense to my sis, she wasn't really there. My mom they got divorced so she wasn't really there. Um, my mom they got divorced, so she wasn't there. Yeah, uh it. You know a couple of brothers, my cousin of all things. She was fantastic, helped. But this journey, though, was challenging. But so, like we, he was cremated and he wanted to have his ashes, and and I, so we've done half of them on one spot. I'm still waiting to do the other half, um, but season three, when he passed, every episode was dedicated to him, and so that was like peace for me. That was his funeral. It was 52 week funeral.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes yeah.
Speaker 1:So, but I think it's, I think it's good, as you're thinking about that as a young dad and I hope there's younger dads are listening that be like you know, start thinking about these things. Don't stretch yourself out, but get them in your subconscious. You know, start thinking about these things, don't stretch yourself out, but get them in your subconscious.
Speaker 2:And, yeah, it's very easy to get caught up in in the day of okay, do you? Especially now when he's so dependent on the actions of me and my wife. It's like is his diaper changed or his clothes clean? You know, oh, we spit up on that. Oh, we got to start solid foods. Do we have sweet potatoes? It's like you get. You can get caught up in all the things you're doing. But, yeah, I think, like for me, like I'm constantly thinking about, like okay, like what does this look like 10, 20, 30 years out? Because I guess I've, like you've seen, because of the, the age of my dad and just some other family experiences I've been able to observe, like you, just, you can tell where certain decisions lead right and you want to make sure you're making, or doing your best, you know, to make like the right ones, I guess.
Speaker 3:Yeah, hi, I'm Leslie Vickery, the CEO and founder of ClearEdge, a company dedicated to transforming the business of talent. Through our three lines of business ClearEdge, marketing, recruiting and Rising that help organizations across the recruitment and HR tech sectors grow their brands and market share while building their teams with excellence and equity. I believe we were one of Casey's very first clients. He helped our sales and account teams really those people on the front lines of building and developing client relationships in so many ways. Here are a few. He helped us unlock the power of curiosity. For me it was a game changer. I was personally learning all about TED-based that's, tell, explain, describe, questioning and that really resonated with me. We also learned about unlocking the power of humility and unlocking the power of vulnerability. Casey taught us to be a team player, to embrace change, to stay positive. He is one of the most positive people I know. He believes that optimism, resilience and a sense of humor can go a long way in helping people achieve their goals and overcome obstacles.
Speaker 3:And I agree Casey's book Win the Relationship, not the Deal. It is a must read. Listen. Whether you're looking for coaching and training or a powerful speaker or keynote, casey is one of the people I recommend, when talking to companies, the end result for us, at least as one of Casey's clients our own clients would literally commend our approach over all other companies, from the way we were prepared in advance of a call, to how we drove meetings, to how we follow up. It sounds really basic, I know, but let me tell you it is a standout approach that led to stronger relationships. I encourage you to learn more by going to CaseyJCoxcom. You have nothing to lose by having a conversation and a lot to gain. Now let's get back to Casey's podcast, the quarterback dad cast.
Speaker 1:As you and your wife think about core values in your home that are going to be most impactful for Isaiah, tell me a couple that come to mind on the heart.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And tell me why.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, this is um, this is something actually we've. We've made a plan to think about a lot, which is a weird thing to say, but it's like, uh, I think of a family in a lot of ways, like, uh, I would love us to have. We need to do this work. We're actually planning to do it. And then we got pregnant but, like, I want to have like a crest, I want to have a mission statement, I want to have values, I want to have things I can point to in my life and in my family and in our household where it's like, if you're not living up to these things, you know we need to have a serious conversation, because this is what we believe in, and so I guess some of those remember them are, I think.
Speaker 2:I think trust and honesty are kind of like. They're kind of sisters and they kind of go hand in hand, because I think you definitely need one to have the other, and I think that's something where you know it's always going to be important for Isaiah to observe my wife and I being honest with each other, but also to kind of demand, right, ask that of him, because that's the standard we hold in our house. So that's definitely one of them, because I see that I don't know, I can never imagine a world in which I'm untruthful or like trying to hide things from my wife, and so I definitely don't want to get into a point where, you know, I've got secrets that me and Isaiah are keeping from her, that me and her keeping from him. It's like, you know, I don't want to live in that kind of household. I think there's definitely an element of I don't know whether it's whether it's like appreciation or humility or like humbleness, but just the the understanding that, like the odds are, the life that Isaiah will live will be so much more beautiful, great and abundant than the lives that I had or my wife had. Right, you know, we don't come from terribly depressed economic situations, but it's like I, you know, odds are. You know, I'm doing pretty well, kaylee's doing pretty well. I think Isaiah is going to make it out All right, material, wise, and so I think it's important for us to do the work or have the experiences, just so he is appreciative of that and also has some desire to some appreciation, to like contribute in some way, right, and so what does that look like?
Speaker 2:I think, whatever I would act out by dad. Would like he would like. This just sounds terrible, but like he would. He would drive me intentionally through like some of the rougher parts of town, like when I was younger, just to get an understanding of like. Like this is. You know the environment that your mother came up from. My mom was raised she was the youngest of 12 raised in in Atlanta One of the first to get into the integrated schools. The kids used to throw like black erasers at her head Like she was dealing with a lot, right?
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so like he would sort of put that up in front of my face, right, and so like it's not the suburbs, like this is what your life could be.
Speaker 2:And I think you know there are ways to do that with Isaiah as well, just to make him appreciative of, you know, the life that you know it's his parents in this community have been able to provide for him, and I just think a level kind of on that note is like resourcefulness.
Speaker 2:I think there's a key component of like I want to have resilient kids with Isaiah and future kids that my wife and I plan to have, just so they know that mom and dad may not have all the answers to all your questions, right, but it's like you can like getting the figure it out muscle kind of well-trained, you know, I'm sure you know, you know what I'm talking about here, but it's like that level of resilience and if I, even if you don't know how, you can at least figure out how to know how right, and so I think that's also for me like those are probably like the top three that I'd like to imbue uh, you know, in in him as he, as he gets a little older. But now we're working on solids, so once we get solid food down, you know we'll. We'll get to some of those other ones.
Speaker 1:Well, a couple of things. You hit said that I want to hit on one um, uh, figuring, getting your kids to help figure things out the hardest part about that. And I was guilty of this, and I see parents doing it as we do too much for our kids. Yeah, cause you want to fix it, you want to help them, you want to like prevent. We don't want to see them cry and that's why I think about the COVID journey was a blessing for us because we had you know, you couldn't do anything, I wasn't, you know, and so like it slowed me down. I'm like, holy shit, I'm, I'm. My kid can make his own meals. I'm not saying he needs to go out and freaking cook a five like the dude can put his own egg goes in. He should know how to do an egg. He should put a learn how to do his own laundry.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like. And so we use that time to like hey, you need this done. We taught him. And so there's a great book. Guy interviewed um named Swen Nader Okay, this is like in season one or two and he wrote a book called uh, you have not taught until they have learned. Ooh, it is powerful, it is a really good book, um, and this dude played basketball for the great uh, john Wooden.
Speaker 2:Okay, amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, great story played with Bill Walton. Rest in peace, bill. Um and um. Yeah, so it's like that's, that's the thing that's really really hard to do. Um, but you think about, like, the person that shaped colon is probably the tough times, the adversity you went through. You know the, the, the, the, the failure you had, not like how great colon was. It's like the challenges and so, like we have as parents, it's our job to let our kids struggle a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know it's going to it's hard to say that it's like why would I do that? But like yeah, okay, that's. And you say that it's like, why would I do that? But like yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:That's you know it's hard too. Yeah, another thing you said I'd love to talk on Cause. I think when we talked we first met. I told you we have a shared connection in my man, dale favors.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And Dale impacted me and still impacts me and I don't talk to him. I don't get to talk to him often but when I do, I pick up right where I left off and I just thinking about, like the word perspective, which Dale taught me so much about. We talked about diversity a ton as dads and I think I shared with you before. I interviewed Dale at the height of Black Lives Matter movement as a height of social unrest, and I said and I said I want to dive in and just try to make an impact. I'm never going to solve racism, but if I can put a dent in it and be a little bit more curious, have a little bit more empathy, yeah.
Speaker 1:Like my mom didn't grow up in, uh, with getting racist on her head. Yeah, my mom didn't have, um, you know, integrated schools. Like yeah, I mean she, I mean that they there wasn't like blacks in here and whites here. Like sure, the fact I mean that's I'll never know what that feels like right. And so I think, when we slow down as dads, whether we're having these conversations with your friends or family, like be a little curious, have a little empathy about what other people's journeys have been, because that's how our that, that's our perspectives create our, our habits, our outcome, our mindset. And if you're not open-minded to try new things or listen to new things, like and Dale did so much of that for me- yeah, I, um, it's something.
Speaker 2:obviously is four months, like we haven't had an experience on it, but I guess it's um, my wife is Caucasian so we have a mixed race. I guess it's um, my wife is caucasian so we have a, you know, mixed race, son, and it's I guess. I haven't thought about this literally until this conversation. So you're about to get some raw and unfiltered stuff but like I guess, like I, I haven't really considered the fact of like.
Speaker 2:How could I ever explain to him that because of like the color of your grandmother's skin, they threw like shoe polish and black like chalkboard erasers at her, when he is literally the product of the union of these? You know two, uh, you know racial identities, right, um, that's going to be strange, right, and I feel like it's going to be hard for him to like, because he's going to love his dad, hopefully. He's going to love his mom, hopefully, right, and so he's going to see what that love can do. But I guess you know that's hokey, like, maybe that therein lies the answer. But like I, yeah, it's, it's definitely going to be interesting.
Speaker 2:It's another thing that I guess in some ways would be nice about raising him for part of his life in an environment like New York City that just has less tension. There are certainly still, you know, feelings, ideals, you know communities right here that aren't, you know it's not so so black and white that you know the the. You know New York is not fixed racism either, you know, but I think it's like there's certainly just more flavors here, um, that I feel it could be good to surround him with for a period of his life. Um, but yeah, that's it's going to be. It's going to be tough, cause I would say on on both sides just getting I mean engaged, married, pregnant, having the kid I mean in in in my community and in my wife's community, I mean there are definitely people with opinions about that. So yeah, it's something we've already had to navigate, as in our marriage, but definitely as he gets older, you know it'll be something we'll have to navigate in our family.
Speaker 1:But definitely as he gets older, you know it'll be something we'll have to navigate in our family. Yeah, I think, I think. I think the biggest thing is I love bringing this up and talking about topics that you know, like five years ago, six years ago, I would have never wanted to talk about race with people, not because I didn't, just because it didn't wasn't natural.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And now I like I look for those opportunities to do so because I think it's growth and, um, I think it's a great lesson we can, like I teach my kids is, um, you know, everybody comes from different backgrounds and the more that you can learn about people and ask questions, that's how I think relationships are formed. Um, and I think about, you know, dale influenced me to interview. He didn't ask me to do it, just by meeting him. I interviewed five of my teammates in college, from Hawaiian to Samoan to African-American, and I just part of the interview was just like man, hey, I'm sorry I didn't get to know you better in college. You were my teammate in locker room and we were boys.
Speaker 1:But I never asked you like, hey, what was life like growing up for you? How are your parents? Did you ever deal with you know, racism when you're growing up? Like never asked him those questions and I'm like, if they're my friend, why wouldn't I do that? And so, like, dale has given me the strength to like think about that and I've shared those stories with my kids and actually, when I interviewed Dale, I had my kids watch. That's awesome. It was awesome. I had my mom watch my stepdad former teammates. So I think, if it, if you don't know who Dale favors is, everybody reach out to him, cause he is the man and I love the guy so Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Even even in my own life I mean, I wasn't, you know, obviously I wasn't raised during the height of, you know, civil rights, right but like uh, I distinctly remember, even in in high school I had a, I had a crush on this um girl who was, uh, korean and I asked her out, uh, we both used to, uh, we both used to volunteer at this elementary school locally and so I had some of the elementary school kids line up with poster board around the corner of the hallway and said you know, will you go to prom with? And then I was holding the sign that said me write some flowers, chocolates, early, you know, early, romantic gesture there. She was excited, you know, we were excited posted it on Facebook at the time and literally that was Friday, and on Sunday she calls me, crying, saying that her, someone in her family that she was really close to uh, saw the photos up on Facebook and they literally said you can't go to, you can't go to prom with this person. You know we would. And they were literally uh, now I'm just talking too much, but like they were literally talking about taking away some of the support that they had laid out for her to go to college, if she was going to go to prom with me.
Speaker 2:Mind you, casey, I was prom king. I was captain of the track team. I graduated most likely to succeed with honors, partial scholarship to go to the university of georgia, right, and so it's like you know, I've got those experiences and so, um, you know, it's just a. It's an interesting world we live in, I guess was it all because color your skin?
Speaker 2:yeah, pretty much. Yeah, wow, it was, it was the look of it, it was the fact that we posted that photo of us on social media where members of her family could see it and sort of have this association, um, that sort of caused that to happen. But yeah, that was kind of an early experience for me. I was like, wow, this is, uh, you know, not all sunshine and rainbows.
Speaker 1:So See, that's again, that's, that's, that's, that's perspective. And I think about the word privilege like I've never had to experience that. Dale taught me that too and sorry I had to go through that. But I think about the word privilege of teaching like my kids when I learned about, because I used to be one of these white people throw myself under the bus here.
Speaker 2:I love that. That's the best start of a sentence I think I've ever heard.
Speaker 1:Casey, I love that I was one of these white people that when I heard the word privilege I was like I work my ass off, I'm not privileged talking about.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I didn't get it. I didn't get it and so, like, dale helped me understand, like he's, like Kate, when's the last? I was like, oh, that's never happened, that's privilege. When's the last time you're walked down the street and um, and you see someone come at you and they move their purse from the left shoulder to the right shoulder? When's the last time you, when, when Ryder learned how to drive, you said hey, bud, 10 and two. If you get pulled over, 10 and two. Do not leave your hands on the steering wheel.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:I never had to do that and so I don't want to feel guilty for it. But it's perspective, it's empathy, it's curiosity, it's learning about these types of things, because I think we can put our guard down and talk about this stuff. I think that's how relationships get stronger and that's why I don't mean this to be like a Dale Love Fest, but it's turning into one. That's a great guy.
Speaker 1:But these are things that I think we, as dads, can slow down to like make time to talk to our kids about, absolutely so, as we think about wrapping up before we get into career colon, which you learn all about, that like if you had to summarize kind of what we've talked about, which has been everything all over the board, a lot of, a lot of good, important topics, I think, themes that dads can take from our conversation today to, like what I always say, be that ultimate quarterback or leader of their home. Tell me a couple of key things that you feel we've discussed that dads can take to implement in their own lives.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I guess the first one is one that I've had to learn that hopefully I've spoken to throughout our conversation. But, like you, don't have to know all the answers to lead, you just have to be committed to finding them Right. That's something that I, like that was an early lesson I had because I, to be honest with you, used to hide behind the fact that you know, oh, like I, you know, I don't think I had a model dad in my household or I'm, you know, doing this at 27 in New York City. Like I'm not supposed to. I don't have to know all these things, right, but I think one thing I've learned is that you can assume that role and again, it's that figure it out muscle, right. It's like if you're committed to playing the part and being the best you can be in that role, you will sort of figure it out.
Speaker 2:So that's something I've had to learn, definitely as a lot on the result and where certain decisions can lead and where you know just the impact on a father good, bad or indifferent is something that I think about a lot.
Speaker 2:Talking about around like the, you know, my family, nor Kaylee's family can prepare the two of us for the conversations that we're going to have to have and the journey we're going to have to walk as a family just being mixed race in America, right, so that will be a net new experience for everyone. And so that's the thing of like, even if you but even in your life I can imagine there are situations that have come up right, when, like, there is no playbook, right, and you can't just refer to, you know, your Uncle Dave or your friend Jimmy, you know, like you've got to figure it out. And so I think that's another one, too, where I'm like, even the people that maybe had the model parent in the home or the model experience in the home, you're going to walk into an experience and you're like it's going to be new and you're going to have to know how to react, or at least how to start to figure out, like what's what's going on there.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, Love it, love it. That's gold man. Hopefully, everybody's taking notes. I got a page of notes here in front of me. Um, so you, you, you got some folks on Instagram that listen to you.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And you're doing some influencer work. Your tag is career colon. Talk about where did this passion come from and what are you looking to help influence out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I would say, to set some context, I throughout like college, high school, early career, I think in my group of friends I was always kind of a career guy. When someone had a tough interview coming up, or when someone didn't know what to wear into the office, or when someone had a tough conversation with their boss that they didn't necessarily know how to move forward with, I was always getting that call or that text and so I was sort of in my group of friends, the person or the resource that people would come to. And so I think, and then on my own side, like I, you know, I consider myself and I call myself a first generation professional in corporate right. I was in situations that my parents were not professionally, and so whether that was sitting down with, you know, a client at a fancy dinner, whether that was just going through an interview process, whether that was managing a team for the first time in an office type of environment, like definitely school of hard knocks for all of those lessons, and so you know, like you, covid was in some ways a great experience for me because it took out a lot of noise in my life and I was sort of able to figure out, okay, like, what do I want to do? How do I want to leave an impact on the world? And so I just started putting out videos on TikTok, just kind of as a creative outlet, you know, of sorts, and, through no really means of my own, started to grow a real audience there, and so that's now expanded into like Instagram and LinkedIn and all these other things. It's landed me speaking opportunities and consulting opportunities, and so it's definitely been an organic journey.
Speaker 2:I didn't sort of set out to be an influencer one day, but at some point it became just a very good opportunity that I'm like I would kind of be not doing right by my family and future me if I didn't sort of see what I could do, if I sort of took the 50, 60 plus hours I was putting into my nine to five and put that in here instead. And so I've been doing that for the last couple of months and the results have been extraordinary, just to put it, you know shortly. And so I'm really, really excited to do that and sort of my goal is kind of to equip and inspire. And so what that means is you know, I'm not. You know I've never been a CEO, I've never led a large, large team right.
Speaker 2:I've never started a business that had employees, right, but I see myself as someone who can teach the people that follow me something as I'm learning it, and so I'm more so a guide versus a guru, and so I'm kind of in the seat with my audience and I feel like that level of relatability and closeness to their actual lived experience is what's allowed me to grow a following. Even though I'm not, you know, on the Mount Rushmore of you know, professional white collar work right, I think I'm a very relatable person in that space and I've got a unique journey right I, you know, in terms of how I got into this professional zone that I was in, in terms of how I grew up. A lot of people aren't on social media with those experiences, or at least they're not sharing them, and so I feel like that, that uniqueness in my space is good too. So that's kind of the the goal there and how that came to be.
Speaker 1:Love it. Um, if, if someone's like, yeah, I want, I want to follow you, Like what? What would be like the the one, one or two things that you've heard from your, your followers? That says, man, Colin, I'm so glad you did this video on X, because it really helped me out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I've got a couple of series that I've done that have been really helpful. I've got one called kind of like white collar versus blue collar, and so I talk about just how different economic situations when you're growing up can sort of frame how you approach work in general in terms of how you use leverage, how you manage teams, how you think about hard work right, the concept of networking, right. Like there's growing up in my household, right, there was the old adages of you know, just put your head down, get the work done. You know, don't spend time talking to people just like do your work, do your work, and like the work will shine through. In a lot of cases, especially in large organizations, that's not really true and you've got to be good at what you do. But you've also got to know how to advocate for yourself or how to get on high performing teams or how to align yourself with people in your organization that you know are going somewhere, and that's not intuitive for a lot of people, especially if you come from a situation where I came from. So that's the kind of stuff where I can talk about.
Speaker 2:I've also got this fun series where I just compare salaries, and so it's, like you know, you may be a CPA in Indiana making 90,000. Well, guess what? You know? A plumber way to make a big financial difference in their family, which you know. For me that was the case, but it's like for everyone else, that may not be where your area or zone of genius is right, and so maybe it is chasing a path as an electrician or as a plumber, as you know, some of these skilled trades that we need anyways and that are, you know, in short supply almost everywhere in the country. Stuff like that is good. I always get people in the comments fighting for their professional choice that they've made, which is always fun.
Speaker 2:Very cool it's at career colon that's right Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, all the places.
Speaker 1:Awesome. We will make sure this is tagged well in the show notes. We'll make sure you hopefully you get some more followers from our conversation today.
Speaker 2:And I'm going to follow you on Snapchat.
Speaker 1:Hey, do it, I'll send you my. We'll get a streak going.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Let's get a streak and we'll play some filters. Yeah, all right, it's now time to go in what I call the lightning round, where I show you the negative hits of taking too many hits in college not bong hits, but football hits. Okay, your job is to answer these questions as quickly as you can. Okay, my job is to try to get a giggle out of you. Okay, I have not prepared any of these things. This is just going to show you why a quarterback has a screw loose Are you ready?
Speaker 2:This will be fun.
Speaker 1:I has a screw loose. Are you ready? I'm born ready. Yeah, okay, um, when? True or false? When you left the university of Georgia, you went to the Olympics and won the a hundred meter dash.
Speaker 2:That is false.
Speaker 1:Okay, uh, true or false? You once were the bulldog mascot at a football game.
Speaker 2:That is also false.
Speaker 1:Okay, um, if I was to come to your house tonight with the nanny, with Kaylee, with Isaiah, what would we have for dinner?
Speaker 2:Well, the nanny would go home and have her own dinner and we would probably do like a steak stir fry. I like little meals. You can put together a couple of ingredients, a lot of prep. We've got a Manhattan kitchen Casey, so lower your expectations. But we can get some steak strips and some frozen veggies we'll put on the grill for you.
Speaker 1:That sounds good. I'm getting a little hungry here. Early on a Thursday morning, tell me your favorite movie of all time.
Speaker 2:Of all time. Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. Okay, so the two that came to mind are I love the Incredibles. I feel like it's just such a well-capsuled movie and it's got a real deep family story in there too, in terms of the journey of all those characters. Really, I think it's really well done and it's also really visual.
Speaker 2:I saw it a lot when I was a kid. I saw it a lot when I was a kid and I really like, I really like what's the football movie with Denzel Washington? He's got the high school team. Remember the Titans, titans. I love that movie. Which fun fact. That was filmed at my high school, sprayberry High School in Marietta, georgia. So that was a fun field they play on. Yeah, it's that field and I just, yeah, just a good sports movie. Denzel's amazing and like just the seeing the struggles that some of those players go through, um, and it's a good time capsule. I mean to be honest with you, like by watching out someone like my mom, I mean she can relate to. You know a lot of the tension you know of of that movie. So, yeah, two of my favorites.
Speaker 1:Wow, tell me the last book you read.
Speaker 2:The last book I read was the Algebra of Wealth by Scott Galloway. So again, definitely personal finance and investing is another item on the self-education list for me, and so I'm always trying to absorb new knowledge and set my family hopefully up for success there.
Speaker 1:There we go. If you were to go on vacation right now, just you and Kaylee. Sorry, isaiah, you're staying home with the nanny. Tell me where we're going.
Speaker 2:We would go to Greece because we were going to go there this year, but then we went to Bali last year and conceived a wonderful child, so that trip was postponed.
Speaker 1:There we go. Greece would be fun. That's on the list. That'd be cool to tell you back there, okay.
Speaker 2:If there was to be a book written about your life, tell me the title.
Speaker 2:Well, some news for you, Casey has actually just recently signed a book deal, so I've got that in the works. We don't we don't have a title yet, but I would. I would love to probably title it like first gen professional, just based off of the brand that I'm sort of building on social media, where I love this idea of kind of tongue in cheek, calling it like most likely to succeed, since I it's the award I won in high school, but it's like I've I've defined a lot of things to to get that title and also what I've done since. So it's kind of like a like a flipping of it. You know, um, but I don't know. I'm kind of between those two.
Speaker 1:Okay. So whatever title you choose, just note that it's selling out of every bookstore, every airport, every Barnes Noble. We can't keep this book on the shelves. And now, believe it or not, netflix and Hulu and Apple TV they're fighting for this book, to get the script to make a movie. And now you are the casting director. I need to know who's going to star the career in this critically acclaimed, hit new movie. And now you are the casting director. I need to know who's going to star the career colon in this critically acclaimed, hit new movie.
Speaker 2:Oh, I love this. Okay, well, first let's manifest this conversation. I want to be able to come back to this in two to five years and say you know, casey said it, but I so I've been told in some of my videos that I look like this guy who's on. I don't know if you've ever seen or heard of Industry. It's a show on HBO about these young investment bankers in London and there's this guy named Augustus, I think, that plays a character named Gus, so he's a really good African-American actor. He has a British accent, so we'd have to tamper that down a little bit, do a little Tom Holland just to make that non-British. But yeah, I'd probably choose that guy.
Speaker 1:There you go. I love the word manifest. Thoughts become things, Colin, and you got to throw it out there and I'm a big visualization guy. So, um, okay, and then last question tell me two words that would describe Kaylee.
Speaker 2:Kind and patient.
Speaker 1:Boom, lightning round's over. We both giggled. You made it through unscathed. Uh, it's been so fun talking to you. Uh, hard to believe how fast the hour went by.
Speaker 1:Again, no script, just a little curiosity, a little listening and everybody at home, dads, you don't need a microphone and a podcast to have conversations like these. What we need is a little little effort, little curiosity, a little and just watch what happens. Watch what happens to the people you meet and you learn from. And if there's something that you took from our conversation today, go teach your kids, go tell a story, go talk about, maybe, where you weren't the best and and create that level of vulnerability with your, with your children, that perfect does not exist, but if we can all learn and grow together, we're going to create a better, better place to live. We're going to create a better, stronger huddle in our family and you're going to continue to improve those leadership skills. I want to thank our sponsors for continuing to support us and if this episode has impacted you, please text it and share it with a friend. That would be the biggest gift, colin. Thank you so much, brother. It's great spending time with you and I can't wait to meet you in person soon.
Speaker 2:Likewise. Thank you so much, you bet.