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
Soccer, Staffing, and Raising Four Kids Under 10 - Kyle Rampy
What shapes us as fathers? For Kyle Rampy, Vice President, Central Region, at Tier 4 Group and father of four children under ten, the answer lies in embracing the light and shadow of his past.
In this heartfelt conversation, Kyle takes us through his journey from a childhood fractured by divorce at age four to building a stable, values-driven home for his family. With remarkable vulnerability, he shares how moving between his mother in Kansas and father in Texas shaped his understanding of family dynamics, including a pivotal moment in third grade when missing over a month of school led to a custody change that would alter the trajectory of his life.
Rather than glossing over difficult topics, Kyle dives deep into how his mother's struggles with depression impacted him, and his ongoing work toward forgiveness while she battles cancer today. "There's forgiveness there, even though there's been hurt," Kyle reflects, showing how breaking generational patterns often begins with healing our own wounds first.
The conversation shifts to Kyle's parenting philosophy, built around three core values: leading with love, maintaining strong faith, and demonstrating unwavering integrity. His practical approach to emotional regulation stands out—instead of escalating tension when his children become upset, he's learned to get down on their level and ask curious questions. "What's causing you to have this reaction or emotion?" This simple shift has created not only a more peaceful home but also deeper connections with his children.
We also explore Kyle's professional journey in staffing, his work at Tier 4, and his passion for supporting Women in Technology initiatives. His values inform his leadership style, you will see firsthand during this episode. The episode concludes with a lightning round revealing everything from his favorite comedy movies (Billy Madison or Happy Gilmore) to who would play him in a movie (Ryan Reynolds).
Whether you're navigating a complicated family history or simply wanting to lead your home with greater purpose, Kyle's story reminds us that our greatest parenting challenges often become our greatest gifts—if we're willing to do the inner work first. Subscribe now and join our community of dads committed to breaking cycles and building stronger families.
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!
Well, hey everybody, it's Casey Jaycox with the Quarterback Dadcast. We're in season six and these guests just keep on ramping up. Y'all, that's my accent. The tease, for our next guest, who sits in Texas and he was a client of mine, still is a client of mine. He's become a friend of mine.
Speaker 1:His name is Kyle Rampey. He is the vice president of the central region of a fantastic company called Tier 4. Is the vice president of the central region of a fantastic company called Tier 4. It's a company I got introduced to by the one and only Robert Bouchard, who I worked with for years at K-Force, and then he introduced me to the one and only Betsy Robinson, who is a fantastic CEO. And I met Kyle, and Kyle is known as the, I'd say, the tattoo or the Pele of staffing. He's a Hardin-Simmons, hardened Simmons cowboy, a soccer machine. But that's not why we're having Kyle on today. We're gonna have all Kyle on to how, so we can learn how he's working hard to become that ultimate quarterback or leader of his household. So, without further ado, mr Rampey, welcome to the quarterback dad cast thank you, mr Jaycox.
Speaker 2:I'm happy to be here. I'll be, honest. You've had professional athletes on the on. You've had titans of industry. What am I doing here?
Speaker 1:Well, I lost my contact for Hookup on Caps and I'm hoping that this episode really gets me that discount I always wanted back. Love it, love it. No. Joking aside, everybody, we're already off to a great start. Kyle everybody is someone I really enjoyed getting to know. I think from a values perspective. One of the things we talk about in this podcast is humility, vulnerability and curiosity, and I think Kyle leads with those, at least the Kyle that I know, which I think it's the Kyle that everybody else knows. But before we dive in too far brother, tell me what are you most grateful for as a dad today?
Speaker 2:Lots of things, lots of little things, not to be too cliche but just thankful to wake up and have breath in my lungs this morning. Number one grateful to God that I have this life that I've been given with my wonderful wife and our family, four beautiful children that we've been blessed with and get to do life with great friends and family around us as well. So those are the main things I'm grateful for today especially on a good Friday.
Speaker 1:A hundred percent, I don't. I don't think it's cliche at all. I think it's why I always like starting out episodes of gratitude is to to slow people down, to remember these little things Like you're not guaranteed the breath tomorrow, you're not guaranteed our health, and so I think when we sit in gratitude to start meetings or start the day, it's amazing what it does to your mindset and it changes the way you're kind of your outlook, and so I would encourage people, if you're not starting with gratitude, do it. See what happens. And I've been doing gratitude work in my journal for four years now and I literally have retrained my brain. I can't start the day without doing it and I'm addicted to it now. But what I'm grateful for today is I'm going to give a shout out to both my kids. One I've had to continue just to. Seeing my son's growth as a freshman in college has been blowing my mind every day. I feel like there's just another level of maturity I'm seeing. So I'm grateful for that and those conversations. And I'm grateful, then, for my daughter Riley.
Speaker 1:Um, uh, just uh, she got. I got home yesterday. I was at a work event and I got home and she was studying for a test. And sometimes you know the teenage daughter you can go in. Your dad's dad jumps in hey, right, I. Sometimes you get the face of like hey, beat it, nerd. Uh, but luckily I, she was like hey dad, what's up? How was golf? You know what? What'd you shoot? What did you have fun? And uh, just I'm grateful for those little moments that, like, you get to spend with your kid when and if they, if they give you a little, just like in sales, like ask more questions and watch what happens. And the next thing, though, we I was studying for a big chemistry test, but it was at least 15 minutes that I'm grateful for that. Like, soon she'll be out of the house too, and I know I'm just trying to really enjoy those moments because they're they're going too fast, brother.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you are. You're on the opposite end of the spectrum than I am, my, my, my days are longer than the years are shorter right now, you know, we have four that are 10 and under at this point. It is going by fast. It seems like the time speeds up on us as we go, but yeah, enjoying every moment and got a few years left on the runway. But I know it's going to go quick. I've been told that by numerous people.
Speaker 1:So true? Well, you teased us with a few members of the squad, and so the theme of playing quarterback bring us into the rampy huddle and tell us how you and your wife met, and then tell us about each member of the squad.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my wife and I met during my time out in the big metropolis known as Abilene, texas, which, if you know anything about West Texas, it is not a big metropolis, there's barely anything out there. But yeah, we met while I was out there my sophomore year at Hardin-Simmons. We actually were not dating at the time, we were just friends. We were each dating other people at the time, ironically, but we stayed in touch and years later, when we had both moved back to the Dallas area, about five years later, after I graduated, we we met back up and the rest, as they say, is history. We met back up. I actually had an alumni event that I attended for for our soccer program. Some of the old soccer buddies got together and she ended up showing up with my old college co-captain and, uh, I guess it was. It was written in the stars because, uh, or at least somebody was watching over us, because, uh, very, very random, random meetup back then.
Speaker 2:But uh, yeah, we enjoy telling people that story because, uh, it's a little little off kilter. But yeah, I think uh, it was, it was there was definitely a plan there.
Speaker 1:Serendipity.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely Uh. Great restaurant in New York. By the way, I actually saw Kobe Bryant there one time.
Speaker 1:If you can believe it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll tell. We'll tell that story for another day. Um, but we, uh, we ended up getting married in December of 2012. So we're going on 13 years now, 12 and a half years, and in that time had four beautiful kids Landon is my oldest, at 10 years old. Tenley is our eight-year-old. Got Micah, who's my six-year-old and is a ball full of energy. And Quinn, who rules the roost around here. She's our four-year-old and is a ball full of energy. And, uh, and quinn who, who rules the roost around here, she's our four-year-old okay and uh, you being a soccer beast?
Speaker 1:um, he's wearing shin guards right now. Everybody, um, but being a soccer beast, are all the kids into soccer?
Speaker 2:uh, two of them are. My two boys are big into it For their age groups. They're both at a competitive level already and obviously that warms my heart and love to see it. I've never pushed the sport on them. I introduced it to them, but I always want them to do what they love and what they're passionate about and you know what. They were introduced to it and they've just taken it on with gusto and they've done really well. I'm proud of them. They're my source of constant entertainment both on the field and off the field. But extremely proud of them and my daughters. My oldest just got into volleyball and does some tumbling on the side, some gymnastics. Then we introduced our four-year-old to gymnastics as well. They were actually watching a little bit of the NCAA championships going on this weekend here in Fort Worth on the TV last night.
Speaker 1:There you go. The on the tv last night. There you go. I'd say, man, when my daughter was in gymnastics as a young, it was the most stressful thing watching gymnastics, specifically when they have them climb the rope for the first time. Oh, yeah I'm like is is it me or is there a lack of common sense with this rope idea? It's like, hey, let's have a five-year-old climb a rope 30 feet in the air with no net. Like what are we doing?
Speaker 2:but in this little, in this little, you know little little girl that's gonna be down there catching them right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm like maybe, maybe I'm the idiot here everybody, but maybe there's a gymnastics people out there you can help me, like, learn what my what? I might be off on that one, but thankfully my daughter got into basketball, successful. Okay, it's time to flex capacitor, turn back the you know, the back of the future. I want you to go back in time there, mr Rampey, and I want to learn about what was life like growing up for you and talk about the impact that your parents had on you.
Speaker 2:Now that you're a dad, oh man, I don't know if we have enough time on this show to go through everything. Uh, so I was born in uh in Fort Worth here in Texas. Uh spent my my early childhood years here in the kind of the mid cities area over in uh, hearst and and Colleyville. Over in that area and my mother, whose name is Cassie, and my father, troy, were married for a few years before I was born and actually my dad was able to adopt my older brother and older sister, who were from another marriage that my mother had previously, who were from another marriage that my mother had previously, and so we all were living together in Colleyville during my early years and they ended up divorcing around. I was between four and five years old at that time and ended up moving with my mother up to Kansas and that's why you don't hear the Southern drawl so much.
Speaker 2:Got a lot of Midwestern roots in my family. My dad's from Kansas't hear the Southern drawl so much. Got a lot of Midwestern roots in my family. My dad's from Kansas. I have a lot of extended family from that area and from Missouri Lake, of the Ozarks area, and my mother's from Kansas as well, so I spent a couple of years up there, and then my dad was able to gain custody of us kids a couple of years later and transitioned us back to the back to the DFW area, and that's where I spent the majority of my youth. Growing up was in the DFW area.
Speaker 1:Okay, so curiosity alarms are going off here, sir, so we share that in common. My parents got divorced when I was in college. It wasn't easy to go through. My dad passed away now, in December 29th 2021. But I see I definitely saw the impact of it having. I think it was harder on my sister than me, but I end up. I don't think I don't know if I shared with you, but me and my wife ended up taking care of my dad later in life before he passed away. But as you think about that, the divorce impact for you at a young age, was it something you remember at all? Was it a challenging time?
Speaker 2:That's a great question. You know, there are bits and pieces of my childhood that I remember, and some that I don't remember, I think subconsciously, maybe, block some things out. To be honest with you, I don't remember my biological parents being together that much, just because I was so young. I do remember some of the strife afterwards and the transition to my dad getting remarried and have a great relationship with my stepmom, who I call my mom to this day. Her name is Sherry and um, and we had a great upbringing and uh but yeah it doesn't come without its challenges.
Speaker 2:There are. There are generational ripple effects to divorce. And that is something that my wife and I have have talked about even before we got married that the uh, the D word it that the D word, it's not an option, you know, not an option in our house, and we're looking to break generational curses and to create new habits and create, you know, not have the same habits and hangups and hurts that have gotten us to this point.
Speaker 1:I love it, dude. My wife and I said the same thing. We just had 26 years, congratulations. Yeah, hard to believe, dude. My wife and I said the same thing we just had 26 years, congratulations. Yeah, hard to believe, dude. I mean it's not hard to believe, but sometimes it's like, wow, um, but as I, because I come close to the ripe old age of 50, when I can't wait for the AARP discount and if you're looking for, okay, so mom, so dad remarried, our mom and dad still with mom, or biological mom, stepmom and dad still with us.
Speaker 2:Still all with us.
Speaker 1:Yes, Okay, and what did? What did everybody do for a job, out of curiosity?
Speaker 2:That's a great question. Mother bounced around and different things throughout her career in customer service and retail and even working in some restaurants and diners and those things. And then my father was actually in the mortgage business for gosh more than 40 years, started off in banking and then got into mortgage banking and working in the mortgage insurance industry with a couple of different companies, but ended up retiring a few years ago and had a very, very successful career. He ended up being a regional vice president for a large mortgage company mortgage insurance company here in the US.
Speaker 1:Solid. Do we have brothers and sisters?
Speaker 2:We do. Yes, I've got none of them are full blooded all half brothers and sisters and one adopted brother. Don't don't see them that way, I see them as just brother and sister. But just to give you a little bit of background, I've got an older brother and Jason, older sister and Amy, younger brother and Tyler, and another younger adopted brother and Tanner.
Speaker 1:And are they all in Texas area? They're not.
Speaker 2:No Oldest brother is in Kansas. Amy is here in Texas out in Lubbock, Go Texas Tech Guns up and my younger brother, Tyler I actually don't know where he's at these days. I believe he's still up in the Midwest somewhere. And then my youngest brother, Tanner, is here in the DFW area.
Speaker 1:Very cool when you were growing up? Did you ever stop and think it was different than any other of your buddies? Or was it something like you know, this is our family and this is our, our, our normal. We're going to make it normal, or was that ever a challenge?
Speaker 2:Yeah, a little bit of both, uh, just because I did travel back and forth to see my mother from Texas to Kansas and back quite a bit, um. And then obviously, uh, my stepmother uh came into the marriage with my father with no children, and so you know that had a little bit of a different dynamic. And then obviously we adopted my younger brother, tanner at birth, brought him home at the age of 12. So yeah, there was a unquote, as you would imagine, but it didn't come without its challenges.
Speaker 1:What were some of the hardest parts.
Speaker 2:If you feel comfortable sharing, yeah, I think for me, the transition from my mother and father being married to divorced and then transitioning from Kansas to Texas, that was an interesting transition and we can delve more into my time in Kansas during that time period, maybe a little bit, which will help set the stage. But yeah, my older brother and sister were adopted by my father. They have no blood relation to my father, to be honest with you, but took on his last name. He ended up gaining full custody of them and there were some roadblocks that we had to navigate when my father and my stepmother got married and they did the best that they could at that time you know they were my older brother and older sister were navigating their feelings about what was going on with my mom at the time and in the new marriage between my dad and our stepmom. And and, uh, and and that and all of that.
Speaker 2:And then, um, I was, I was kind of the middle child or the youngest child at that point uh, just taking it all in and watching how things were playing out. Um, so that I think that shaped who I am a little bit. It shaped the leader that I am today. And and, uh, how I try to be a lead with, with empathy and understanding, uh, rather than, you know, being a heavy handed dad or a heavy handed leader and um, so, yeah it it. It had its road, its road bumps, uh, throughout that time, but uh, but ultimately I think it shaped the man I am today and helped me be a little bit more understanding of of different situations and different ways that people grow up.
Speaker 1:That's great man. It's good to reflect and sometimes you know, a lot of times the guests I've had Kyle, they don't some reflect more often than not, some don't reflect more often than not, and so sometimes we have these conversations. It's like, wow, I haven't thought about this in a while. You mentioned, you know, some of the challenges that might shed some more light. Maybe I'd love to go into that for what you feel comfortable sharing, like about the time in Kansas and living with mom and as you reflect back as a dad and then moving back to Dallas, like maybe talk about maybe some stories that really shaped you as a young guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know that time period.
Speaker 2:You know, as I stated, I kind of go in and out of different memories here and there, but one thing that really has stuck with me during that time is my mother was going through some really tough times in depression, navigated that.
Speaker 2:It was very difficult for her having to move back home and to transition into a new way of life and actually during that time period it was about my third grade year I didn't go to school for probably more than a month, had a, had a tough time getting me to school and uh, that that kind of kicked things off to where, uh, you know, custody battle started to ensue from that point and uh, and was able to transition back to Texas where I had a very caring teacher uh, mrs Mrs Carleen King If she ever hears this she's uh, she made a huge impact on my life at that time and uh, still connected to her to this day. She's like another mom to me. But, yeah, that was a difficult time Not being able to see my mother go through that struggle and then transitioning back to quote unquote some more of a normal life during that time, moving back to Texas. So how?
Speaker 1:how did your dad and stepmom become aware that, hey, kyle's living the life?
Speaker 2:he's watching Price is Right and Different Strokes, and this third grade year is the best ever. Yeah, I think you know, they traveled up to Kansas every so often and there's one where I was living at the time and I show up to the game and again, I'm about 10 years old at this time, riding my bike to the game by myself, and they said where's your mother? I said, well, she's at home. She's not here. I said you rode your bike all the way to the game on your own. I said, yeah, and so I played the game. They were there. It was great.
Speaker 2:I remember them being there and then, from that point forward, I think it moved pretty quickly to where the custody process got kicked off and then started to play out. And so, yeah, you know, through through that instance, but also just through conversations that I think my dad had with me at the time about what's going on, you know how's how's school going and being. Even though he wasn't there physically, he was still present and having those conversations with me at that time and, yeah, it was just that that was, uh, that was a God thing that they had come up from Texas to come see me play that day, uh, and noticed that that I was at the game by myself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my dad, um, when he was alive, he struggled with depression for years and so I learned a lot about it and it was one of the hardest parts for me to you know, I was a mid twenties. The hardest part about understanding depression was I didn't understand it. I was more of a hey, let's go snap out of it, like, and I learned a lot about empathy about that. Wow, you know, I'm very grateful that I I I'm so far have not had to deal with depression. I mean, I've downed asia, like, just like anybody.
Speaker 1:But when my dad would go down, he would go down, and I mean, I had to take him to psychiatric wards and you want to talk about some scary environments, um, and just his confidence was just done like rocked, and then he'd come out of it, um, so, uh, you know, at the end of his life, before he passed away, it was like it was, you know, the dementia kicked in, but it was a freaking brutal journey, but like, but I don't know. I just share that with you because I, I I've had experience going through a parent with dementia, I mean, sorry, with depression. And, um, is mom better now? Is she still facing some of these challenges, or is she?
Speaker 2:It's a good. It's a good question. You know I you're you're hitting on a nerve right now and you're you're good at that, casey. Um, yeah, I have. You know I talked about hurts and hangups and habits.
Speaker 2:Um, I have a lot of hangups and hurts with, with mom, and those are things that I'm actually working through right now is, I think there's a little bit of underlying anger with, you know, lack of mom being there for the majority of my life, and those are things that I'm having to work through. She's going through cancer treatment currently and not being there for that is a little unsettling. But yeah, uh, but yeah, she's still with us. Uh, those are, those are things that are on my agenda and, uh, I will I'm not going to use a swear word I will uh be getting, you know, be getting with her to talk through some of those things, especially, you know, god forbid she, she passes, you know, in the in the near future. I would hate to leave things unsaid and let her know that there's forgiveness there, even though there's been hurt. There's forgiveness there and.
Speaker 1:I know that I need that as well, Wow dude, I did not know that and I appreciate you sharing. A couple of things came to mind Stories as you said that I read a book on forgiveness by a guy named Rich Case that was introduced to me by one of my former executives I think it's by Rich Case in my late 30s and I learned that forgiveness takes me, reconciliation takes you and me.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:And it was a really powerful lesson I learned for me. I'm not saying it's going to be for everybody, but um, uh, you know, and I, and then I think about when, my when I was really, really frustrated with my dad and the dementia, and I mean my dad accused me of stealing all of his money to build my house at one point. Well, you know, and that did not never happened to everybody, it was a dementia talking, but like having to like forgive and realize that that this is the disease that has taken him, not my dad. And I remember there's a guy named tony davis who I interviewed. Um, he's a coach locally in our community. His mom had dementia too.
Speaker 1:I remember one day he challenged me he goes, he's in there somewhere and it was just like a punch in the face. I was like, god dang it, why did you say that? And I felt guilty. And then I was like, but he's right. And so then I I went from for me, changing my perspective and mindset. I'm that I don't, I don't have to go see my dad, I go, I get to see my dad.
Speaker 1:And that's like the last, like I'd say, six weeks of his life. I saw him probably five days a week. Um, this was like during the height of covid. So, like you know, it'll different, different times because like we're masks and craziness and all this crap, but, um, it's, it's, it was what I needed to do. But I think, like if I didn't go through the challenges before, I wouldn't have been where I'm at now with him. That's right, you know. And so I think, like everything, like she pointed god's plan god does have a plan. I totally believe that you know. It's the journey you're on. So I'm, I'll pray for you guys, that I hope that you can. You can get to that forgiveness spot and your mom can get to the spot and hopefully she can forgive herself.
Speaker 2:And I appreciate that not to get too religious on the show, but you know, I believe in a God who is forgiving and you know, who am I not to be forgiving of the person who gave me life, and so, yeah, it's something that is a personal battle and a struggle, but it's part of who I am. It's it shaped how I parent and and actually the type of spouse that I am as well, and I'm thankful for it, I'm grateful for it, I'm grateful for her. But, yeah, there's there's some things on my on to-do list for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, um, and I, yeah, don't, don't sweat, I would say this show we've got spiritual more than religious. I don't want to open a Pandora's box, but I think I'm definitely a spiritual guy than an organized religion. Actually. And not to get too off track, and this is going to put the other way. Have you seen the righteous gemstones? And not to get too off track, and this is going to put the other way. Have you seen the righteous gemstones? I have not. Have you heard about it? I have. It is fricking hilarious. And so there's.
Speaker 1:I probably just offended half of my audience by saying this, but you have a little bit of. You have a common like, have a little bit of sense of humor, it's. It definitely is kind of push the envelope on some things, but it is. It is. I don't know. I'm like laughing my ass off. My wife and I are like laughing. Now it doesn't impact my relationship with God or spirituality I have. I still pray every morning, I still do Bible scripture every morning, I still sometimes I don't know what the hell they mean, but sometimes I do, and but anyway, I digress.
Speaker 1:Okay, wow, that was a lot, dude. So I'd love to to go, I'd love to understand. Like you know you are from what I've got to know you, you're very hands-on dad, um, uh, obviously, solid marriage, um, good communicator, uh. But you went through some rocky times. Like, have you ever thought back like, wow, where where did that come from? Is there a story? Or like the values maybe your mom and stepdad or dad and stepdad mom taught you that you can think of that rally. When I was growing up, I really learned that boom. These three things that impacted me now as a dad.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I uh, you know, came, came to know the Lord when I was uh eight and and that was actually something that was driven by not only my dad but really my stepmom was to get our family into church and I'm grateful to both of them and specifically to her for that, for introducing that into our family, into our life. And you know, that was a turning point in my life at that time and you know, obviously you have your ups and downs even from that point.
Speaker 2:But yeah, that was the, that was the turning point was was when my, when my dad and my stepmom gained full custody and and kind of provided a little bit more normalcy and stability in my life, and you know that that helped shape a lot of who I am today and and how I parent. Um, there are always things that that need to be improved upon. Uh, you know, I, I would say I'm a decent communicator, but uh, my, my wife will be the first to tell you that there are things that need to be brushed up on, for sure. Um, but yeah, it's, it's, it's been quite the journey it's. But yeah, when I, when I transitioned to move in with my dad and my and my step-mom, that that was kind of the turning point in my life and and I don't I don't want to say it and put me on the complete straight and narrow but it's, it's shaped a lot of who I am today.
Speaker 1:So, besides faith being a value and obviously something that really impacted you, what, what were other some core values that dad taught you and step mom and maybe mom taught you that that were like hey, in the rampy household. These are the must haves You're going to be good at A and B.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Well. Number one is you know, you, you let your yes be yes and your no be no, and there's no, there's no in between. If you say you're going to do something, you do it and you lead with with integrity. You, you follow through. And what your commitments are, uh, no matter what. And um and you and you and you show your true character. Um and uh, my dad worked really hard, traveled a lot, um and uh, my dad worked really hard, traveled a lot, um, but you know, when he was, when he was present, he was, he was the greatest dad I could have asked for. Uh, same goes for my mom. She, she, uh, put a lot of work into our household. Uh, the laundry was always kept up with, the house was always clean, um, but you know, she instilled a lot of hard work in us as well. And you know my dad always led by example.
Speaker 2:And that was another big key trait that he always said was don't just lead by your words, lead by example and let people know who you are by the way that you act, by the way that you treat them, and and not just by words.
Speaker 1:Can you think of a story of how he did that?
Speaker 2:Oh gosh, um, you know I don't know that I have a specific one that comes off the top of my head right now, but just seeing the amount of work that my dad put in, not only you know, to his, to his job, but just, you know, traveling back in from from business trips to get back to my ball games and and to be a, to be a coach, to be involved on a daily and weekly basis, to consistently get us to church every week and just the day in, day out, investment of being the leader of the household, was the example that I remember and there are plenty of times that I can remember that my dad was just there.
Speaker 2:I mean, he just you know. I think back to my senior year in high school. Uh, when we were we were fighting for a state championship in in soccer and uh, you know, my dad was there for the last game and uh, actually came down on the field when we lost. I was actually one of the penalty takers that missed that day and I was gutted and my dad came out of the stands and came out onto the field and just put his arms around me and said I'm proud of you and walked off the field with me, and those are the types of things that I remember just being being present and making sure that he knows that you know that he's proud of me, no matter what, and that's the type of type of dad that I that I seek to be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's cool, that's you know. There's the episode that came out this week. It's like his dad reminded me Tim, glennie, shout out to Tim. He's like your parent, your kids are always watching. And I mean, the one thing that we as dads have in common is we're all flawed, we're so far from perfect. But I think just like being present to know, like when you do mess up, you own it or there's things you want to get better at, you ask for help, but there's the vulnerability, but just sometimes showing up is is half the battle, and just knowing that you're there and even if you don't know what to say, say I love you, give him a hug.
Speaker 2:That's one thing that I've been trying to uh to implement as a dad here recently is instead of uh you know, not to be a pun intended here but instead of ramping up the uh, the energy and the and the um you know, if my kids get upset, then I'm getting upset and my wife's getting upset instead of, instead of ramping up that energy, getting down on their level and instead of coming down on them, asking them and being curious and saying, well, what's going on? You know what. What's going on, what's causing you to have this reaction or to have this emotion? I've really been trying to focus on that lately. Both my wife and I have been doing that, and it's created a more peaceful home, but it's also allowed us to get to know our kids on a more of an emotional level about what they're dealing with, and I think that's super key.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's the great Will Ferrell in the movie Old School, when he's in his tighty-whities in the locker room banging his locker and he's yelling. I'm going to keep our composure Like that usually does not bring peace for people right, as much as it's funny and gets a giggle out of us. And you know my, my wife, is a lot more calm at times than I am. Same and you know, being the competitive and sometimes impatient person which I think, interviewing over 300 dads and I think actually you're going to be episode 300.
Speaker 2:Oh my goodness, wow, I feel so privileged.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you get a free t-shirt and a bowl of soup. I'll make sure that's sent to you. I'll hold you to it. I will hold you to it. I know you will, um, but it's, it's, uh, it's, it's a reminder. I tell a lot of people who I interview with, like you don't need a podcast to have these conversations, you just need a little bit of time and call a buddy, call their dad, saying hey, dude, if you're you're struggling with this, or how did you deal when you did this? And and realize that none of us have it figured out? And, uh, what, we're trying to get better, we're trying to be a best version of ourselves, and if you're freaking, have a bad day, then don't let one bad day lead to two bad days, and two bad days lead to a bad week.
Speaker 2:It's funny you say that Cause you know we, you know this, but we recently went through the book what's it Like to Be on the Other Side of Me, from Ryan Leak Asking those questions of your spouse and even of your kids and of your close friends what's it like to be my son? What's it like to be my wife? You'll be surprised at the answers that you, that you get and when you truly hold up a mirror to who you are as a dad and as a friend and as a spouse. It's. I think it's a good practice to go through. It keeps you humble, keeps you honest.
Speaker 1:If you feel comfortable sharing. What was the biggest thing that surprised you about what your kids said and then what your wife said.
Speaker 2:Oh gosh, my kids said that that I was a fun dad and that I'm always there, and that's obviously what I want to hear. I'd love to hear that. My wife said that sometimes it's difficult to be on the other side of me because of, maybe, some lack of communication. I'm a, I'm a big guy. We went through disc profiles yesterday. I don't know if you're familiar with this, but I'm a. I'm a heavy on the D side. Obviously, being, uh, being in a leadership role, uh, as well as an eye and uh, you know, communicating is comes, comes difficult to me sometimes, just because I'm I'm the type of person that's thinking ahead in a conversation. I want somebody to get to the point faster, and I do that with my wife a lot and she notices that. So she brought that up and that's something that I'm working on.
Speaker 1:So very interesting. Yeah, Actually I saw Professor Paul Yep. Professor Paul Paul and I used to work together at K-Force.
Speaker 1:He said that yeah, please tell him hi. He's such a good dude, he's such a good guy. I think it's important. So what Kyle's talking about, though, we saw a speaker at a I think it was TechServe event. Ryan Leak spoke, fantastic speaker.
Speaker 1:He has a book called what's it like to be on the other side of me. Is that the book? It's called yep, yeah, and just a question to ask. It's like we really want to know hey, how are we being? Are we going to check our ego? Are we going to ask, um, our, maybe our parents, our friends, our employees, our kids, our wife, and sometimes that the truth. We might not want to hear it, but it's sometimes you do want to hear it If you really want to work on yourself and be a better version of yourself and be a better dad and better husband and better um.
Speaker 1:You know, actually a story I don't know if I've shared you this, kyle like when I first got into this coaching speaking podcast journey, you know, I think I didn't realize, like I'd never, I don't think my identity was so tied to my time at k-force. Um, I tried to be remove myself from that, but like when I, when I left and then I wrote the book started the podcast that became my new identity. I was so excited about, I was so excited to tell people about it and it was so fun to interview with people and I was so excited to like, oh, you guys, you know, sharing episodes and. And then when I the coaching journey found me and I didn't mean to get into this journey and I truly believe it's a calling um, yeah it, 100 it is.
Speaker 1:And I remember one time I started like coaching my wife and my kids without knowing it, and uh, I, I. At times I remember like some of my friends were like almost like not treating me differently, but I could saw like it just seemed off. And I remember talking to my wife and she's like can I give you some feedback? And I'm like sure, I said I know that you're excited about what you're doing, but we want Casey back. And I was like, wait what? And she's like we don't want to be coached, we want you to be our dad, our husband, our friend. And I'm like, oh, I didn't realize I was doing it.
Speaker 2:You know, like my wife and I have had those same discussions. You know, hey, I'm, I'm not your employee. I might you know our kids are not your employees. Like we need, we need dad, we need, we need. You know, I need my husband and I need you to be supportive and to be loving and and all of those things.
Speaker 1:And yeah, yeah, I've had those discussions too I think that's why I like if I'm going to be, you know, encouraging people to be vulnerable, encouraging people to be humble, and that's like I. I always like the opportunity when I get a lead by example and air myself out and say like listen, just because I'm the host doesn't mean I got. I got issues too, you know, and I'm very grateful that my wife had the you know courage to tell me that. And there's times I've done the same thing to her. But, like it's just, I would remind dads when we go through those times.
Speaker 1:It's not always easy to hear because sometimes that hits our ego. But keep that thing checked. It's amazing the growth you can have when you keep that thing checked. Okay, what you can have when you keep that thing checked, okay. So, as we think about your busy life with soccer and gymnastics and tumbling and work and all this crazy stuff, like good stuff, but as you and your wife think about for you, you guys, as you're raising these kids, what are the values that are like, if we had to think about that, you know that when people think of the ramp is they're going to think of these, these three things that come to really mind.
Speaker 2:Uh, great question. So for me it's, it's leading. Everything that we do should be done in love. You know that that our actions and our words, um, come from a loving place. Uh, even Even in times of disagreement, even in times where we may not see eye to eye, you know that person that's on the other side of that conversation still knows that you love them, that you're coming from a good place. And that's number one. Number two obviously you know faith is big for us, spirituality is big for us. Number two obviously faith is big for us, spirituality is big for us. You know that's.
Speaker 2:That's obviously what I want people to remember me, for is someone that that loved God, loved his family and seek to be a servant rather than to be served. And the third is, like I said earlier, leading with integrity, doing what we're saying we're going to do, we're going to follow through on our commitments and we're going to be the people that other people are curious about. What's different about Kyle, what's different about Danielle, what's different about Nanden and Timley and Micah and Quinn? There's something unique about them. That's what I want for our family.
Speaker 1:Love it. Those are solid dude, solid to think about, solid to lead with, and you do those three things well. It's going to be positive cultures, no matter where they end up. So how does someone get into the wide world of staffing?
Speaker 2:I think I've asked that question a hundred times throughout my career and I've been asked that question. That's a good question. I got into the mortgage business after I got out of school in the early 2000s. 2005 was when I got my undergraduate degree and my dad was in the mortgage business for a long time. So I said I think I'll try that out. And I tried that out for a few years. It was great.
Speaker 2:I worked for a regional mortgage bank down here in Texas by the name of Cornerstone, which is now Cornerstone Home Lending Great people, and then spent some time on the wholesale side with Chase selling to broker customers in Colorado and California, which, in 2008, was a great time to be in that business, but was actually one of our top salespeople but ended up getting caught in a reduction of force at that time due to the market and I had a friend that was was in the business and said hey, you need, you need to come over here and check out this, this staffing thing. I was like staffing, what? What do you? What do you mean? He said, well, you know, we're, I'm working for a company called Technisource, technisource.
Speaker 2:Okay, and I ended up getting introduced to my main man, justin Thomason, who brought me into the industry, spent many years with him at Matrix actually, which is no longer Matrix but got into the world of IT staffing back in 2008, october of 2008, and ended up performing well in our national recruiting center here in Dallas, which, technosaurus, ended up becoming Ronstad which if you know anything about staffing, it's one of the big gorillas on the block and from there went and had a great 12-year run at Matrix as a recruiter and account exec and moved into recruiting management and then leading a fairly large team of staff and professionals for our central region there at Matrix for a few years and then now here in 2024, landed at Tier 4 Group.
Speaker 2:Similar to you, you know relationship with Robert Bouchard, who's our COO. I worked together for quite a few years at Matrix and introduced me to the great Betsy Robinson and you know it's been a great ride over the last gosh almost nine months here Just getting again ramped up and getting to know people here and our clients and the landscape of things here in the Midwest and the Southwest for us.
Speaker 1:So for people who've never heard of Tier four, they're like connect for like video, like the game, like no, no, not connect for tier four. So if, if people want to learn more about tier four, they want to learn more about Kyle or the team like share, share with our audience. I mean, I know what you guys do, but I want to hear you say it Like tell, tell us a little bit about Tier 4. How can people learn more about ways to support you, whether you're a candidate looking for a job or a client looking to bring on great talent?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can visit us at tier4groupcom. Read up on us there. We have a very big and growing presence out there on LinkedIn as well. We're big on the social selling aspect and being out in front of our clients, but also volunteering in the community. We're big on the social selling aspect and being out in front of our clients, but also volunteering in the community. We're big on that. We're big on women and diversity and tech, which is a big platform for us. Obviously, betsy is board president for WIT there in Atlanta and, yeah, those are the two main platforms that you can find us. Me personally, you can reach me at kylerampy, at tier4groupcom, and I love the team that I get the privilege to lock arms with every single day. Just a great group of people. They're relationship focused, focused on doing the right things, treating people the right way and and ultimately, you know, chasing chasing relationships and not deals, as as Casey would say. So you know we're we're more of a boutique firm, but we're growing and we've got big growth plans over the next few years.
Speaker 1:Love it Real quick, just cause I want to make sure you said I love the work you guys do from a community perspective, which is spot on. If people don't know what WIT is in Atlanta, tell us a little bit about WIT.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's Women in Technology. So, as you may or may not know, women are an underserved community in tech still even to this day, and so a big focus for us is to get more women into technology roles, into technology leadership roles, serving on more boards. That's a big gap in our industry, and something we're really committed to and focused on is the diversity piece in tech, so it's a big platform for us.
Speaker 1:Love it. I'm going to make sure women in technology is tagged when this comes out so that we give them some love and hopefully more people can go specifically dads or daughters or if dads have you know spouse out there that wants to get back into technology and encourage them to learn more about that organization. I know I know Betsy's, I think, on the board of WIT. That's right. She's a lead by example. Besides LinkedIn being a spot you are very active on, is there another social platform that if anybody wants to connect with you, you might be, or is LinkedIn the best one?
Speaker 2:Yeah, linkedin would be the best one. I know you're a big proponent of connecting all platforms and I'm moving in that direction, but I'm out there on Instagram. You can find me at KGR9, I believe is my tag out there, and you'll see a lot more personal than business out there. But most of what I put out there is tied to our kids and what they're involved in.
Speaker 1:So cool, All right. Well, my man, it's now time to go into the lightning round, where I go random Again, like I share with all my guests. This is where I show you the negative hits. I've taken too many hits in college not bong hits, but football hits. It's your job to answer these questions as quickly as you can. It's my job to try to get a giggle out of you and me.
Speaker 2:All right.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm ready, true or false. You were the only Harden Simmons soccer player to score on a bicycle kick from midfield. Completely false. Okay, true or false. You're the only Harden Simmons player to score seven goals in a game and then streak after celebration. How did you hear about that?
Speaker 2:No, just kidding, Completely false. I was on the record books for being one of the top assist men of all time. I don't know if I'm still on that list or not, but I was at one point within the last six to eight years or so.
Speaker 1:So you're the John Stockton of soccer.
Speaker 2:That's right. That's a great reference.
Speaker 1:If we went into your phone right now, what would be the one genre of music that would completely surprise your team? You listen to.
Speaker 2:I don't know if it would surprise them, but we're real big on Forrest Frank around here. He's a Christian kind of R&B rapper rapper artist and we're taking the kids to go see him for the second time next month here in Fort Worth, so we're looking forward to that.
Speaker 1:There we go. Tell me the last book you read.
Speaker 2:There we go. Tell me the last book you read. Last book I read. Well, I delve in and out of yours quite a bit when the relationship not the deal. So I was reading that on the plane a couple of weeks ago. I think the last book that I that I read before that was was the Ryan Leak book, and then another great leadership book that I've read is Turn the Ship Around.
Speaker 1:David Marquette. Yep, David Marquette. I have his second book I'm going to read here Once I finish. I'm reading a book by John Feinstein. Rest in peace, John Feinstein, Great and a former guest on the podcast. But if I came to your house for dinner tonight, what would we have?
Speaker 2:Probably leftovers. We just finished up pork chops and we've got some leftover spaghetti. I've got in-laws coming in town tonight so we I don't know we might be ordering in or something.
Speaker 1:Sounds good, favorite comedy movie.
Speaker 2:It's got to be either Billy Madison or Happy Gilmore.
Speaker 1:Okay, you and your wife are taking a vacation right now. No kids, where are we going?
Speaker 2:My wife would want to go back to New York. She's a big fan of New York City. I can take about 48 hours of it. If it were up to me, I'd be going to the mountains.
Speaker 1:Okay, blue Ridge Mountains, west Virginia.
Speaker 2:No, we'd be going to Colorado. We'd probably be going to Vail or Breckenridge something like that Sunshine State.
Speaker 1:Okay, now, if there was to be a book written about your life, tell me the title.
Speaker 2:Work in progress.
Speaker 1:Okay, I've actually other people have said that, which I love. Okay, now, kyle. Work in progress. Amazon can't print enough copies. Barnes and Noble sold out, airports are sold out. This fricking thing's fricking selling like hotcakes. Everybody wants to read. Work in progress. So now Netflix is going to make a movie, but so my HBO, so my paramount, they're all fighting for it. You're the casting director. Who's going to star the one? And only Kyle Rampey Can't be you. But who's going to start using this critically acclaimed, hit new movie? It's going to rock Ryan.
Speaker 2:Reynolds minus the curse words.
Speaker 1:Okay, ryan.
Speaker 2:Reynolds.
Speaker 1:Okay, and then last, the most important question Tell me two words that would describe your wife.
Speaker 2:Oh, beautiful inside and out and true servant.
Speaker 1:We're going to call those hyphenated words. That was five words, but we're going to give you a pass.
Speaker 1:Lightning round is over. We both giggled. We'll call it a tie, but maybe I'll give you the nod because I laughed first in my own joke. Brother, it's been awesome getting to know you. I always tell everybody that the script is blank and, as you can see, we have a full page of notes. It's been really, really, really fun learning about you. I'm I'll be thinking positive thoughts for you and and your mom as she battles um cancer and and I and I hope that you guys both can do can get to a spot of forgiveness and um wish you nothing but the best. I'm grateful our paths have crossed and I think you and your team at tier four have something special building and I know you guys will continue to build. But, um, it's really been really fun getting you know as a dad and just talking life as a dad, and I know that I hope that your episode will positively impact many other dads out there just working hard to become the ultimate quarterback or leader of their home.
Speaker 2:So buddy same here, brother. I appreciate the opportunity to be on here and to to share some of my story and and I look forward to future conversations with you awesome dude.
Speaker 1:Have a great weekend all right.