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
The fullback who became a quarterback in life's most important game - Connor Cardew
What does it mean to be truly present for your children?
For Connor Cardew, VP of Digital Prospectors and a former college fullback at Bryant University, the answer lies in five simple but powerful words passed down from his father: family, love, trust, respect, and responsibility.
Connor's journey through fatherhood beautifully illustrates how our own upbringing shapes the parents we become. Raised as the middle child between two brothers, Connor grew up with parents who prioritized involvement in every aspect of their children's lives – from coaching youth sports to creating memorable experiences like having the parents play soccer against the kids while dressed in costumes. These foundations now guide Connor and his wife, as they navigate parenthood with his three children.
The honest conversation explores one of modern parenting's greatest challenges – balancing career demands with family life. Connor candidly shares his evolution from missing bedtimes due to long work hours to finding a more flexible arrangement that allows him to be present for the moments that matter. His biggest ongoing work? Learning to leave professional frustrations at the door when entering family time, something many parents struggle with daily.
What makes this conversation particularly valuable is Connor's willingness to examine his own shortcomings. He acknowledges his work on patience and shares practical wisdom about letting go of rigid expectations when parenting young children. Rather than becoming frustrated when plans inevitably derail, he's learned to pivot and create meaningful moments within the chaos.
Connor's reflection reminds us that fatherhood isn't about perfection – it's about presence. Children don't care about your title or achievements; they simply want you there, engaged and available. By prioritizing relationships over schedules and connection over performance, we create the foundation for our most important legacy.
Have you found yourself struggling with patience in parenting or leaving work stress at the door? Connect with us to share your experiences and learn from other dads working to become better quarterbacks of their homes.
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 show. Hey everybody, it's Casey Jaycox with the quarterback dad cast. Welcome to season six, and I could not be more excited to have you join me for another year of fantastic episodes and conversations really unscripted and raw and authentic conversations with dads. If you're new to this podcast, really it's simple. It's a podcast where we interview dads, we learn about how they were raised, we learn about the life lessons that were important to them, we learn about the values that are important to them and really we learn about how we can work hard to become a better quarterback or leader of our home. So let's sit back, relax and listen to today's episode on the Quarterback Dadcast. Well, hey, everybody, it's Casey Jaycox with the Quarterback Dadcast.
Speaker 2:We are in season six towards we'll call it late Q3 of season six, and our next guest is a gentleman I met in my travels to Boston when I went back to see the talented Mark Agostinelli and Chris Mader, two former podcast guests and then we were playing golf where this gentleman took me to the woodshed and stole all the money in my wallet and just freaking beat me like a rag doll. But he's a really nice guy. His name is Connor Cardew. He's the vice president of digital prospectors. I think I had that right. He spent some time at Aerotech and Signature, where he also knows a couple of former other guests one and only Mark Nussbaum and Brad Rosen. But with all that said, that's not why we're having Conor on. We're having Conor on to learn about Conor the dad and how he's working hard to become the ultimate quarterback or leader of his household.
Speaker 1:So, without further ado, mr Cardew, welcome to the Quarterback Dadcast. Thank you for having me, sir.
Speaker 2:It was good to be your partner as well. We had some fun and the high handicap definitely paid off that day. Your best was against me, but you definitely came and helped me in the end not lose more money to Mark, but, joking aside, hell of a day. Thanks to Mater for having us out All right. Connor, we always start out each episode with gratitude, so tell me, what are you most grateful for as a dad today?
Speaker 1:Oh gosh. Well, I mean we're recording this a day after Father's Day, so just getting to spend time with the family and spend time with the kids I'm lucky where I got little ones so just enjoying the carefree nature and I'm really not having to care in the world, just, you know, getting to getting to spend some time with them and have some fun outside.
Speaker 2:So Love it A lot to a lot. We as adults can learn from kids and how they live their lives. I was in, I was well before I, well before. I tell my gratitude I was. You made me think of a story I was getting. Me and my son were getting smoothies yesterday in between, like doing some chores. And then before the what the open and there was a girl dancing in the smoothie shop and then this other little girl, her same age, she was starting to dancing and they just went up a massive dance party. They don't know each other but they just like became best friends, like stepbrothers.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right, and I mean, why couldn't we just start doing that? You know what I'm grateful for. Like you said, it's day after father's day Uh, my son's home from college and I'm grateful for the time I got to spend with him yesterday. My daughter had hoop basketball weekend and so we did the divide and conquer yesterday, and my son and I I got the chainsaw. We're talking about feeling like an American man get out the chainsaw and go to one town. Oh, it was so fun, so I did that. We watched three cars. We uh went and uh picked up some dog food and then watched the mariners sweepy the guardians and then we uh watched some golf. I watched freaking spawn drop the 70 footer out of nowhere. What?
Speaker 1:a putt that was unbelievable.
Speaker 2:My son called it. We can't talk baseball right now.
Speaker 1:I'm upset with the Red Sox just dropping the bomb on us. Devers gone.
Speaker 2:Feels like Mookie all over again. So I'm glad we're talking this. So, ironically, our Seattle Mariners, my Seattle Mariners and your boss Red Sox, are playing tonight.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Seattle.
Speaker 2:America, your Boston Red Sox are playing tonight.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'm going to the game tomorrow night, oh nice.
Speaker 2:So this is not a sports podcast, but I got to hear about the trade. What the hell Was it out of the left field?
Speaker 1:Traded him for a ham sandwich and a used washing machine. It feels like I don't get it, man. It's tough, that's for sure.
Speaker 1:Was everybody surprised. Yeah, I actually saw some things online today people videoing reactions and a bunch of dads thought that it was one of those TikTok trends of like you know somebody famous dying and it didn't happen. And then you see all of them see the ESPN notification and they all lose it. Um, it's. I mean, it's been ugly since spring training, but it's one of the best bats in the league. Like that's just, it's tough and to not know the plan behind it. I saw one of the guys they picked up already got sent to the minor. So we'll see. We've got some young talent coming up, though, you know so the next generation, hopefully, is here, so we'll see what they do.
Speaker 2:Well, the timing of it didn't make a lot of sense too, because you guys just swept the Yankees.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right.
Speaker 2:So interesting. Well, let's change the subject, because I don't want you losing it and getting all sad, okay, well, bring me inside the Cardew huddle and talk a little bit about each member of the squad and how you and your wife met?
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely so. My wife and I have been together for about 12 years, married for eight. This July we actually met in the wonderful world of staffing. She was on kind of the HR apparel side of the house and worked in the same office, different business units, and you know, you know how staffing is. Everybody hangs out together and one thing led to another and she left shortly after that and she's, you know, made an unbelievable career for herself in HR and the biotech space. Here we're fortunate, obviously, being in the greater Boston area, to have the Cambridge Hub right here. But yeah, she's a rock star.
Speaker 1:And rounding out the lineup is our three children. So we've got Liliana, who will be seven this summer, heading into second grade. She is, you know, almost seven. What feels like going on 18. There's a whole lot of sass and attitude, but she's awesome. She plays just about everything under the sun Kind of joke. She's like Icebox from Little Giants. She did cheerleading and she played for me in flag football, so it was a ton of fun we both both my wife and he loves to do, but he's been big into flag football, soccer, t-ball and his new love is WWE. So we actually we went to Monday Night Raw this winter. I'll send you a picture. After Got him a luchador mask, the kids hooked, he loves it. And then our little guy. He's a wild card. It's Bodie, he's two. He is like the ultimate sideline sibling. He is just out with uh, wherever big sis and big brother have games, he's on the sideline with a snack in his hand just running around. You know having having some fun.
Speaker 2:So have we showed Charlie the main event. Like back in the eighties, cage match stuff.
Speaker 1:Yet he hasn't not not all of them, like back in the eighties, cage match stuff. Yet he hasn't not not all of them. But I made the unfortunate mistake of showing him Rikishi Um and now he thinks his finishing move is the funniest thing in the world. But he's uh, he's got a bunch of the action figures and I'm making sure that we get you know, stone cold the undertaker some of the guys from the 90s into the fold.
Speaker 2:You know I want 80s.
Speaker 1:I want Rick Flair. Oh yeah, bring back Flair. Rowdy Rowdy, piper Hulkster obviously I love that. Yeah, I was showing him. He told me one the other day. He's like, oh yeah, signature moves the spear and I was like Goldberg pioneered the spear. He's like who's'm like youtube, let's go bud. So he's loving it.
Speaker 2:Well, speaking of football, I how did I forget to give love to the bryant bulldogs in your introduction? So we got to make sure we give love to the bryant bulldogs. And you are a former fullback, if my memory's correct. I am a former fullback, that's correct. Yeah, opening up holes, protecting a qb when we need to pick up a little inside pressure. Appreciate that the pullback should not be a dying position. They should bring it back.
Speaker 1:They should. I joke with people I'm vertically challenged. I tell people I should be over six feet, but when you lead with your face in your hands for a number of years the spine compacts a little bit, but it's fun, man. I tell people we were an offensive lineman with a headstart and they'd occasionally throw us the football to keep us happy.
Speaker 2:So Were you six, three in the program.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you and your, your, your lovely bride, ben Garrett, 12, married for eight. You got three kids. Obviously it's it's right in the busyness of life. I can remember those days Well. Um, obviously it's it's right in the busyness of life. I can remember those days Well. Um. I always like, though, transition on Connor to um, to what was life like growing up for you and um talk about the impact mom and dad had on you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, growing up was incredible. Um, I had just have two unbelievably supportive parents. I'm middle of three boys. We just had an unbelievable childhood, grew up in what we thought was a very boring town up on the seacoast of Massachusetts, in Ipswich. Now, looking back at it, I'm like you're a fool. People vacation here. This place is unbelievable, um, but when you're you know, 14 to 18 years old, you're like this is boring, there's nothing to do.
Speaker 1:Um, but you know, super close with both my siblings, my parents were both heavily involved, whether it was coaching or with school. I mean, my dad and mom probably ran every youth sport in the town for a number of years. We're notorious for making fun games, whether it was, you know, the T-ball and baseball parade, little league, changing that up, getting involved with football, soccer, um, just great, great memories of. You know different practices and you know, in soccer it was in the fall. So it was. We'd always have a? Um a practice where we played against the parents, but they'd all come in costume. You know, in football, my dad was a football guy growing up. Uh, in northern new jersey. He's gonna play in college and then ended up playing rugby. Um, complete psychopath move, but he brought rugby to football. So you know, if we were playing well, we'd always have a practice. We had a a full on rugby match, but in in full pads, which was an absolute riot, um, but it was, uh, it was a ton of fun. You know, my parents were were relatively strict and I was laughing as I was kind of thinking back on this of just at the time. It was embarrassing. It's like, oh, my mom's going to call here to make sure someone's home and my kids aren't there yet. But I'm like, nah, this, this actually makes sense. This start, this is starting to check out. They were, uh, they were just doing their job, um, but you know, it was great.
Speaker 1:Academics were always very, very important to both of them, but we were, we were a sports households, um, played everything under the sun, um, like I said, they were involved in everything. And then, when I was getting to end of middle school, we have a really good um Catholic preparatory school right down the road from us and my older brother tested and got in and my parents gave him the decision hey, do you want to go? Do you not want to go? He didn't go, um, and after they got a taste of what the school in town was. They said, hey, you don't have a choice, you're going to go, at least for a year.
Speaker 1:But I knew I really wanted to play football and wanted to play at a high level. And they're a powerhouse in the state which? Powerhouse in the state of Massachusetts? That's a very relative term, but in every sport I mean, they literally just won the lacrosse state championship for the fifth year in a row this past weekend. Baseball does well, hockey, soccer, you name it, track, um. So I ended up going there and my little brother followed in my footsteps and it was great. It was, uh, you know, it was really, really cool. Um, going in as a freshman definitely got, you know, very wide eyed of oh, this is what you know, real, real football is and settled in, ended up making the varsity and starting my sophomore year and never looked back and ended up being a, you know, a captain three-year starter. All you know, all the accolades that go along with it and, you know, parlayed that into you know, going to get to play in college and small division one double A.
Speaker 2:So Very cool. Tell me what mom and dad did for work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so growing up until about third grade my mom was home, so she had a career in Boston. When they, you know, started having kids, she ended up staying home. About third grade she started to just help substitute teach at the school and fell in love with it and they loved her. So she started to get, instead of a couple of days a week, she would get a maternity leave and she'd have a whole semester. And after a couple of years of that the principal just came to her and was like hey, you should go get your master's. Like why aren't you doing this full time? Um, and she's still doing it. She's got about one year left.
Speaker 1:I think next year will be her last year and then she'll she'll finally ride off into the sunset, um, but she's done everything from you know the substitute teaching to, uh, the one-on-one special needs. And now she's, you know, the PE phys ed teacher for one of the elementary schools and is heavily, heavily involved with the school at a high level as well. And just everything from you know the fundraising to you know the general day to day. I mean when we were little it was helping fundraise to build a playground and I think she's probably done three or four since then. So it was really cool and my dad was always in sales.
Speaker 1:He was in technology sales forever and then I want to say, probably middle school, high school I just remember him being home and not really knowing that he wasn't working and he just was not happy at all and ultimately decided I'm going to go back to school. Um, and ended up going back and getting a uh like a film and media production degree. Um, and ended up starting his own business. He does sports photography now and he's probably never been happier, which is which is really cool to see and, um, you know, proud of him and and absolutely love that he's finally getting to do something that he's passionate about.
Speaker 3:So he's been lucky with it too.
Speaker 1:He's, you know, went to Northeastern for it, got in with, you know, a couple of folks that have shot for SI. So he's gotten to go down and, you know, shoot down at Tennessee's shot at Neyland. He, you know, shot at Bryant-Denny Stadium. So he's, it's, he's pretty damn good. I'm, I'm, I'm pretty impressed with what he does. So, yeah, it's cool to see. Growing up probably didn't realize it much about any potential struggle or anything like that, but looking back on it I'm like shit. At one point you probably had three kids in college or a combination of college and prep school, and you were going back to school and mom was a substitute teacher. Like how the hell did you guys do this? Because we never needed for anything, you never felt anything. They just did such a good job of managing it. It was impressive as hell.
Speaker 2:So did you ever ask him?
Speaker 1:I haven't. I, you know, I was thinking about it when I was kind of putting some thought into today. I'm like I probably should have that conversation with him at some point. Um, but it was homework he and I, he and I got uh, we got so much windshield time with the college recruitment process so it was uh, it was a ton of fun. I mean, if he was working a full-time job, that probably wouldn't have happened.
Speaker 3:Um but.
Speaker 1:I don't even know how many thousands of miles we logged just driving all over God's creation in the Northeast, going to little. You know podunk colleges and you know upstate New York and Massachusetts and Connecticut and Rhode Island all over. Um, it was special. Definitely won't take that for granted ever so no, that's awesome man.
Speaker 2:Um, you mentioned your brother, your siblings. Those are brothers.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So my older brother, uh, uh, lives in Massachusetts. Um, he is, uh, he is a soon-to-be dad, um, for the first time. So very excited for him. Um, he and his wife bought in probably about 45 minutes from us a couple years back.
Speaker 1:Um, he was a, you know, really good, you know, growing up track and lacrosse, um, and then went to college up in New Hampshire and big snowboarder still is to this day, um, and he is in graphic design. So he is a heck of a lot more creative than I am. Um, we're, we're wildly different, but at the same time, um, you know, we're we're brothers. So there's just kind of that you pick up right where you left off, type thing and definitely wish you got to see him more. But with managing three kids, schedules and work and his work and all that it's, it's definitely tough.
Speaker 1:And then my little brother is out in California. So he played college football as well. But college football and college lacrosse was great at both. Didn't really know which one to give up and ended up doing a PG year after high school Got recruited Division I for both and didn't know what to do. So he decided I'm going to go Division III and play both. So he went to Bowdoin up in Maine, nescac you know they're essentially like little Ivy League schools, so he's done extremely well for himself.
Speaker 1:Got into the construction management trade, um in project management and all that. Um started in Boston, wanted to move to the West coast. He said, hey, we don't have that, but we have Miami. And he's like all right, whatever. So picked up and moved to Miami for a couple of years and then something out in California opened up and took it and you know he ended up leaving that organization after probably close to a decade. He's at a new place now but he is. He's married with, you know, one one little one at home, baby Sloan, and we get to see them a couple of times a year when they come out and we try to make it out there when we can, but it's tough.
Speaker 2:Wow, I love when people are slowed down to think about impact of a mom and dad. As you think about, like your mom, you know, staying home and going back to work and doing her thing, and then pops just falling on his heart doing her thing and then pops just falling his heart. Um, what, what, what? Tell me what would be like lessons that you have learned that you maybe apply to your own personal life, professional life or dad life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think you know, just looking at how involved they were, um, like I want that, I absolutely. It's like non-negotiable for me, Like it, that has to be paramount. Um, and it's cool, I mean, between my dad and his brothers. It's funny. I was talking to my uncle when I, when my oldest, was only a couple of years old and she was just getting into the age of being able to do kind of like the daddy and me, mommy and me stuff, and he was like you're going to coach, right? I was like, yeah, absolutely. He's like well, you know, you got to remember this. But he's like we coach because we want to, but we also coach because we need to take a spot away from an a-hole. You know, you don't want the coach who's going to be out there thinking that you know, the kid's going to the Olympics and they're four or five years old.
Speaker 1:So he's like you got to go teach him you know how to do it the right way and you got to teach him to have fun and to be a good teammate. So you know my dad and his brothers are all very, very similar with that. So I think just you know, seeing how involved all of them have been, whether it's shooting out of the city to get home for a game or working from home or not working, but you know making it fun for the kids Like I have so many stories to look back on from. You know, little league. My dad would literally bring a phone and put it in the dugout and when he would go to change pitchers he would make it like he was making a call to the bullpen. Um, so it's just like little cheeky things like that, and it was like gosh. That was when I was probably like 10 years old, that's so good.
Speaker 1:But just stuff like that. Where?
Speaker 2:you're around and you're present.
Speaker 1:You're having fun.
Speaker 2:I don't think I've ever heard of that and I played baseball growing up. That would have been fantastic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so good, he's got a lot. I mean, I've got a lot. He broke his nose at soccer practice one time my older brother's soccer. He was teaching the kids how to do diving headers and insisting that they scream to give them more oomph behind it. And he decided to show them what to do and he dove right into the goalpost, broke his nose, fought everywhere.
Speaker 2:So he's an animal. Wow, you mentioned he played football. What position did he play?
Speaker 1:He was a fullback and a linebacker.
Speaker 2:God, Apple didn't. Far from the tree.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean in high school I was offensive and defensive line but, like we talked about before, I'm vertically challenged, so that wasn't happening at the next level. I went down to Bryant for a camp and was going through all the O&D line drills and I, frankly, was beating up on pretty much everybody there and the coach grabbed me. He's like hey, you're great, but you're not big enough to play division one offensive line. Can you catch a football? And I said, yeah, absolutely. He's like you know bullshit. I was like all right, well, what do you want me to do? He's like go over with a quarterback. They had me run 10 routes, caught 10 footballs, and he was like all right, cool.
Speaker 2:Sounds good to me. That's pretty cool, yeah, as you think about you know, you got three boys, which I'm sure there's a lot of wrestling, a lot of WWF moves. Two boys, one girl, okay, sorry, Two boys one girl. But I mean, like for you growing up oh yeah, yeah, that's what I mean. So like I'm sure that your parents had to deal with a lot of straight shenanigans.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, you know, um what. What were like the core values though that that that the Cardew house said this is these are the top. You know three things that when, when people think about my boys, this is what they think of.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So my dad kind of had his own little credo. Then he was like, hey, it's the five most important words to live by, and he was like it's family, love, trust, respect and responsibility. And that was hammered into us at a very, very, very young age.
Speaker 1:You know, so it was looking somebody in the eye when you're shaking their hand, firm handshake, you know, hold the door very much kind of the old school chivalry of you know. Know doing the right thing even when no one's looking, making sure you're sitting at the front of the class, you're being a good teammate. You know um, which came out with the brothers, but there was also you know the, the wrestling and fighting and shenanigans behind the scenes and you know needing to pin the little brother down until he cooled off and was not in psycho mode anymore and all that fun stuff. But yeah, that was that was drilled into us at a young age and you know whether it was out in the boat fishing, it was in the classroom, it was, you know, on the practice fields that was at the forefront, Like he was. He was a lot of fun, but he was also very, very stern and the dad voice was uh, made, made you tremble real, real early.
Speaker 2:So at least if I got you said family, love, trust, responsibility and respect and respect. Okay, yeah, um, is there a story that you can think of where you had to learn one of those lessons the hard way?
Speaker 1:Um, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2:I was you know for the most part was actually your brother's kid.
Speaker 1:Yeah, one of my brothers might have a couple examples of that. He might have gotten it. He got it tattooed on himself, which, looking back on it, hindsight's 2020. But maybe he could have gotten it earlier. Would have would have potentially helped a little bit right um, but no, I mean, it was just again.
Speaker 1:It was with it, really just such a young age, like as far back as I can remember, and it was, you know. I feel like it's stuff that came down from his dad and how he was raised and just the coaching that he received and it was just something that we learned early and you didn't really step out with Tim. Tim ran a tight ship.
Speaker 3: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 Dadcast.
Speaker 2:When? So I'm guessing your dad's creative side with photography. Your brother, the graphic designer, took after him. Is there a creative side to you at all?
Speaker 1:um, a little bit. I would say nowhere near what my brother is, um, you know, but I I mean I can, I, I can draw, um, no, I I mean kind of using it in business a little bit and using it with coaching, but nowhere near what you know what he's able to do, it's, it's pretty incredible he's. He's a photographer and graphic designer and does both extremely well and he loves what he does, which is really cool to see, because he was a chef for a number of years, not using his degree, and then, oddly, through staffing, I had a client have a temp graphic designer job, open entry level, and I was able to get him in, which was really, really cool, and he's turned it into an unbelievable career sense.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's cool. So family, love, trust, respect, responsibility. I want to spend some time with these a little bit because those are big ones. You gave some examples of you know chivalry, which I think is you know. I still love when I see guys hold the door open for their, for their spouse, or give them, give her their, your coat on a cold night. Um, you know, family is like it's, it's we're. We're at the age of parenting where I'm experiencing like all the hard work we did early. I think we're seeing that. We're seeing the you know, the what's the fruits of your labor, a little bit like my son he was. He's been gone all day at the golf course practicing. He's plays. He plays in college, but he's he wants to hang out with us tonight to watch the marion game with me that's so cool you know, it's like college.
Speaker 2:He could easily be saying he beat it out and he's he was with his buddies all day. He's like, yeah, I'm going to see my girlfriend tomorrow, I just want to hang the night, watch the M's and we'll, we'll hang out and shoot the you know what and um. So it's like you only get one family and my family is. You know, I have great memories of like these huge, like family reunions we go to and. But it's like I don't know if it's just maybe society's changed, maybe just my family, but we don't have those anymore. You know I miss. I miss those Like just you see, cousins you haven't seen since once a year, and just this, just huge shit show.
Speaker 1:You get together but you already make it work. Yeah, it's, uh, I mean that one for us has been we're lucky, I mean we're. You know, I've got cousins on both sides, um, but my dad's side of the family, for whatever reason, it's just they did a good job when we were younger, um, and it just kind of stuck Um, so he's, he is one of five Um, he's got an older brother, a younger sister and twin younger brothers, um, every one of his siblings has, you know, between two and six kids. So there's a lot of cousins, um, and we'd always do Christmas together, and now that everyone's getting older it's definitely more challenging. But what's been fun is always do Christmas together. And now that everyone's getting older it's definitely more challenging. But what's been fun is we do Christmas together. Every year. The week before Christmas we do a big Christmas party at my uncle's house, and now even the youngest cousin is 21. So it's a ton of fun. And then in the summer we get together too. So we used to do We'd go to the Cape for a week to two weeks every summer with my dad's side of the family, to the Cape for a week to two weeks every summer with my dad's side of the family, rent a bunch of little like cottage, cabin type things, um, and just have fun.
Speaker 1:And it was the older cousins would watch the younger ones. And you know parents would, you know, do their own thing, go out or, you know, grill out and then hang out and play cards and drink. And now all the cousins are involved in that. And now that we've introduced, you know, my three kids and a couple of my cousins have kids. You know, the cousins are now watching our kids and it's it's just, it's so cool to see it come full circle. But you know, my wife is traveling for work a couple of weeks ago in New York and she went out and grabbed dinner with my cousin. So I mean we see them, text them, talk to them all the time. It's like having more brothers and sisters, it's it's really really cool.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. I love how much you have gratitude and you appreciate that Cause I think that's very uncommon to have families like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, um, and to have that, uh, just the, the stories and the memories and, um, you know, and now you're passing it on to your kids and have you ever asked your parents about, like, do they remember like this stage of life for you, where you're at, and just kind of the full circle for them to see, right?
Speaker 1:now A little bit. My mom gets really nostalgic about it so she will unprovoked bring it up. But it's really cool to sit down and chat with them about it. I definitely want to spend more time with them. I'm jotting down a note of like all right, you got to ask your dad about this period and you got to ask mom about this. Um, but it's fun, it's. You know, I got the, the nice text from my mom yesterday for father's day and it was. You know how proud she is and all that. And we're lucky because they're my parents are like 20, 25 minutes away and Amanda's parents are also 25 minutes away. So we've got. You know, my kids have two full sets of grandparents that are both super, super present. You know, to the point where sometimes, if they show up, my youngest cries because he knows it means mom and dad are leaving. But it's so cool to have them around all the time.
Speaker 1:I don't think my kids realize how lucky they are, because I had my grandparents growing up but they were either in Florida or New Jersey and it was like you had to go plan a trip to go see them and it was once or twice a year and that was pretty much it, and they get to see memes and granddad a couple of times a month.
Speaker 1:In the summer they're seeing them all the time and then throughout the year you know they make it a point to go to the games or come over. I'll text my mom and say, hey, I have a babysitting opportunity for you and she loves that. So it's, we're, we're very, very fortunate to have them.
Speaker 2:So that's so cool. Now are your? Are your grandparents still around?
Speaker 1:They're not. So both of both my mom and my dad's parents both got remarried. My dad's dad passed away a couple of years ago His, his wife. So my step grandmother is still alive, still in touch with you know some of the kids um, the grandkids through that, but not as much Um. And then my mom's parents same thing. She, her mom, got remarried, um, and she passed away probably close to a decade ago at this point, um. So yeah, they're. They're unfortunately both gone, but my grandfather got to see we went down when Charlie was really really little Um, so it was cool to have you know him, have some time with the great grandparents, get some pictures with them and and get to enjoy that. We had one of the last memories with him, which was really cool. It was one of my cousins got married um down in South Carolina and we had the whole family there and they actually did the?
Speaker 1:oh gosh, what did they do? The? Um, like the rehearsal dinner at um in Greenville, at the little minor league ballpark there. Um, we had the whole family there. Grandfather was there. There may have been, you know, a couple of funnels there and some other things, and he did one of them and one of my cousins started chanting the King of the North and everybody started doing a picture of him with all of his grandkids, his great grandkids, his kids.
Speaker 2:Your great grandfather beer bonged.
Speaker 1:Professionally done and everybody signed it, so it's pretty cool.
Speaker 2:Let me hear it, let me make sure I heard that. Right, your great granddad beer bonged.
Speaker 1:My, my, my grand Let me make sure I heard that right your great-granddad beer-bonged.
Speaker 2:My granddad, my kid's great-granddad, yep, so good, that's an elite move right there. Yeah, that is an elite move. I love again how present you're in the moment because I'll tell you, I grew when I was growing up. My, I never met my dad's dad. Um, my, my, my dad's mom hate to like get into religion. My mom's was a jehovah's witness and the one thing I learned about your witness was they don't celebrate like that. I never got a birthday card as a kid. I'm like what the hell like talking about getting gypped as a kid. Oh, that's tough. Grandma couldn't send me a birthday card. And then my other, my mom's side, awesome grandma. And then my grandpa, who I kind of knew, but not really. But my grandma was the best and so like. But you mentioned great grandparents, so like Grammy lane, but she passed away. She got it. She got to meet Ryder and Riley, my kids, before she passed. But then my wife, carrie, her, her grandma was like, almost was like adopted me as a grandkid yeah, that's so cool oh, the best, um and then.
Speaker 2:But that it is pretty unique and uncommon that when your kids get to meet their great-grandparents you know, so I definitely have happiness about that yeah, it's like a.
Speaker 1:It's like a pinch yourself moment of like. You don't really think about it. You're like, oh, I'm gonna go see Gramps. It's like a pinch yourself moment of like you don't really think about it. You're like, oh, I'm going to go see Gramps. Then it's like oh no, this is, you know, four generations in one room. This is, this is special.
Speaker 2:That does not happen often, so tell me the best piece of advice that your dad shared with you, that you that you apply to your life as a dad.
Speaker 1:Oh gosh, best piece of advice. You know, I think it's kind of going back to you know, to the five words there, but again, I'm just going to harp on the family piece of it and just being present. It's, you know, work and everything else will come and go, but you really only get one, you know one go around this thing. So, being present, you want your kids to have a good memory of you. You don't want them to be remembering you for never being there and you know, hey, you might financially support them, but kids don't care, they don't know what's going on, they just want to see you.
Speaker 1:So I think you know, and looking at the example that he set of just making sure that you know I'm here for them, I am not just, you know, here in the sense that I'm in the same room, but playing with them, spending time with them, helping them be creative and make games up, and getting outside in the backyard and pitching with them, spending the one-on-one time with both of them, time with both of them. My wife and I are constantly talking about needing to do a better job with that. I'm just like, hey, little day dates, even if it's, you know, something small, like she's going to take one of them to target and go out and grab lunch after, or, you know, at this point in the year, and I absolutely love it, my daughter's like when are we going to go hit?
Speaker 1:golf balls and drive around in the golf cart. I was like sweetheart. Whenever you want. Talking dad's language right now. But no, I just think it's that being present in the moment and just really embracing it and loving every second of it, because you're not guaranteed anything in this life.
Speaker 2:And it goes fast, man. Like I said, I have 19 and almost 17. I feel like that was yesterday. I can't remember if I told you the story. I told this story before on the podcast. So, people, if you're hearing this story again, you're going to hear it again.
Speaker 2:But I always like sharing with like dads with younger kids, because so when I was in staffing for 20 years or so, I remember early in my right when I was first so, halkinion was the company I was with K-Force bought us in June of 2004. And right now I was first so Hall Kenyon was the company I was with K-Force bought us in June of 2004 and right now I was starting to kind of have some success. I remember I was just like so stressed out, my son was young, my daughter was. I think my daughter Riley was not born yet but my son was and I remember just being like getting home at like seven o'clock, uh, leaving before they got up really, and then getting home late. I had like 15 minutes a night and I'm like this sucks, this is not now. My company was happy. You know, financially we were doing great, but I was miserable.
Speaker 2:And I remember thinking to myself like, and I remember going to my boss at the time, shout out to Angela Veronica and I'd love giving her credit for this because she made a huge impact and I remember going to her and like, hey, I'm, I'm struggling. And she's like, like what's going on? I said I just I freaking feel like I'm letting my family down because I'm barely seeing them. I know you guys love me here because it's financially we're doing great. But like, I'm just not the dad I want to be. And she's like well, leave it for you. Got an hour drive, just be available. I'm like, angie, I can't, it's not a bank, I can't leave it for we like it's, we got to be around.
Speaker 2:She's like, do you not trust your team? I go no, I trust them. She's like then, freaking, leave, just be really, really clear, set expectations, get ahead of everything and if we need you, we'll call you home and then, when you get home, just be with your family and I trust you. I know that you're a documentation psycho. You'll get online when the kids go down, you spend time to carry. But like, like and literally when they once I did that and committed, weird, my team started stepping up. Weird, my, my anger went up. My not anger, my like frustration went away. Yeah, and I, I it just opened up so many more doors. So I was like I think, as you said, that it like reminded me of that and I was one of the best decisions I know I ever made as a dad, because I always was around yeah, it's uh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's funny. When I had my daughter, it was pre-COVID, so it was the staffing rigmarole of in the office at 7.30 and probably there until 6 or 7 o'clock at night, and then if people were traveling into town, you got to put the dog and pony show on. So a lot of times it was getting home after bedtime and I would take her to daycare a couple of times a week, but it was literally, you know, 15 minutes in the car, put her in the, you know, put her in daycare and drive to work, and then my wife would do the rest and it just it killed me. Um, you know. So when I was, when I was leaving there, one of the things that I was absolutely looking for was to make sure that I had the flexibility because I just I wanted to be around more. I was, you know, no pressure from my wife at all, it was me just similar to what you were saying, like it was eating me alive, like I just I wanted to be there and I didn't want to just be there on the weekend, you know, and I got the opportunity to, you know, be a little bit more present there, and then COVID hit and just changed everything and you know, now I work three days a week, remote and pick my kids up and drop them off, and you know I get to go to games and get to go to practices, and having the flexibility is so nice.
Speaker 1:I think one of the things that I probably struggle with the most and would love your, your, your advice on, is just that separation between church and state, with with work and at home. It's staffing is such a stressful world. Um, you know, as any, as any career and any sales career is. But just that frustration of you know, hey, don't, once you walk through the door, it's, it's your dad. You're not VP of sales, you're not salesperson, it's not.
Speaker 1:You know, somebody chewed you out on the other end of the phone, it's the kids. Just want to be with you. I think that's the biggest thing that I'm working on right now is just how you can have a really bad day at work or a really bad month or a quarter or whatever it is. It's not your kid's fault and they don't really care, you know. So just kind of being able to hit that off, switch and and hang up the professional hat, especially when you're working at home and just literally, you know, going into the other room and the kids being there, it's like all right just being being more present with them in the moment and and not letting kind of the frustrations of of work spill over.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I mean, I think some well, I would say, no job defines somebody Everyone's has. We have to remind ourselves of that. Second thing give yourself grace. I would say that you're not alone in that journey, something you know, little things I've heard people do. They literally will go outside and then walk back in to make them feel like they're entering.
Speaker 2:I like that you know, I, when I well, I don't want to say, I don't mean to self plug here, but when I, when I wrote my book and, and I and my son, when he was seven years, lily's age writer said hey dad, what, what do you do for your job? And I couldn't say, oh, I provide staff augmentation, professional services. And he'd be like what the hell does that mean? So I told him I made friends for a living and my buddies were like dude, you can't tell your kid he makes friends, so he's going to be asking for 50s at the freaking recess. I said, no, he's not an idiot. But to your point, they don't care.
Speaker 2:And that was one of the biggest drivers around this podcast. I want to start as, whether you're a VP of sales, pro athlete, the announcer for the Kraken, a former linebacker for the Seahawks, your kids, you might, as a dad, think it's cool. Your kids could get two shits to your point. And I think, if, if you're, if you don't believe me, you're at your ego speaking brothers, and I think the sooner that, like I believe the superpowers of life and relationship building. Leadership is being humble, vulnerable and curious. When those three skills are present, I just think it changes cultures for the just I mean just changes so many things for the positive, you know, and we as dads can lean in that. Hey, it's not about us sometimes. And hey, let's ask more questions.
Speaker 2:And I remember interviewing a dad that he was like he didn't want to do. He wanted to go play golf but his kid didn't want to play golf. So he had to say, well, maybe I need to put clubs in sideline for a couple years and learn about mountain biking or learn about kitchen or learn about cooking or doing something, and like, weird, his relationship with his kids got better. Yeah, it's easy to be the dad that says, well, go play xbox for six hours, we'll see you, see you next week. But do you want to be that guy dad's? You know, probably not. So, um, the good thing, you got going for your corner, you got. You got two great parents that set a hell of an example and you're, you got your. Obviously you got your head on straight and even as a fullback. But, uh, you know, just being present and being around and being involved, like your uncle said, is so true. And I mean I, I end up running two youth organizations. I didn't want to, but like those things, leaders, they find you.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Whether you want to do it, they're going to find you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's, we're both already starting to see it and I'm like you know what, now that we're getting involved, I'm like, well, if you want to complain, get involved 100%. You, you know what, now that?
Speaker 2:we're getting involved. I'm like, well, if you want to complain, get involved, you know. So you mentioned um, you, you kind of alluded, but I always like asking this question a bit more concrete. So I always like to ask dads an area, your dad game, that maybe you don't quite like, that might speak to another dad at home, but at least you're going to admit it and we're going to work, so at least we know where. Hey, I know like for me, over the six years, my patience has improved dramatically because this podcast tell me what's your gap that you're working on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean it's definitely patience. I kind of touched on it a little bit before but just being in the high stress environment, I think you've got to not you I've got to probably a pretty quick trigger at times. And you know, kudos to you and the podcast and your book and just you know the network of people that I've been able to surround myself with. Like I've been very conscious of it and making an effort to be better about it and you can see it in just the day with the kids and even when they go to bed.
Speaker 1:it's like I feel less frantic, like I don't feel guilt because I you know, I raised my voice or I got frustrated.
Speaker 1:It's like no, you just, you know, handle it as it came. And they didn't have a meltdown after and they didn't say dad's yelling at me, it was. I might not love what they did, you know, but we got through it and in hindsight, looking back, I realized that really wasn't that big of a deal. So you don't need to stress out about it, don't? You know? The stresses of the day can't compound. And then when your kid does something small, it's like snap and it's like that's just, it's not fair to them. So no not perfect.
Speaker 1:I've got a long, long way to go with it, but, uh, definitely something that I've probably, over the last two to three months, have been a lot more conscious of and making an effort to, you know, kind of stop myself in the moment. Like you, you don't need to react that way.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, well, I think I'll tell you, man for me, when I earlier in my dad game, I actually told my wife to coach me, but do it in a way that's not going to make me even more fired up at you, cause, like, sometimes your wife comes at you and you're like no, and you almost you feel like an idiot. So now you're getting double coaching. You're mad at yourself. Now your wife's calling you out, but I said, honey, like, I need to like, kind of like a safe word or some kind of like safe way to like. If you see me losing my patience, just come at me calm and just say case, are you open for some feedback?
Speaker 2:I'm like oh shit, that means that, like, and I think I was something like that and I remember and like, one of the ones that I used to struggle with was when the kids were young. I'd had these expectations of like okay, we're going to have the nap time, we're going to do this, we're going to be home, I'll be home for this time for that beer and watching sports and and fricking. Not a chance in shit. Was that going to happen? Yeah, cause they're kids and that's like. You gotta be flexible right now. We were strict with like nap times and that helped get better kids Like for in terms of like on schedules and stuff, without the behavior stuff. But dude, once I like, I didn't have expectations for the day, my dad, my dad's patience went up. It got better, Because I was setting myself up for failure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think we both did that. It's funny because my wife is like the ultimate planner. I genuinely don't know if we'd get anywhere without her. Um, but I think, for for her that's, that's tough and for me it's like, well, I know what we're supposed to do and it's this, but it's like, well, you know, one of them's inevitably going to wake up at four, 35 o'clock in the morning, and now your plan is already cooked and now you're going to be frustrated and it's like you know what. If that's the case, I'll just, I'm going to get up and we're just going to go out, and we're just going to go grab breakfast and bring it back and hang out.
Speaker 3:We're going to do something, we're going to color, we'll go for a walk, whatever it might be, and it's like you know throw a movie on early, like just something to be like.
Speaker 1:It's. In the grand scheme of things, it's not that big of a deal. No, Like it's. They had no idea what we were going to do, so no one's missing anything.
Speaker 2:No, I love it. Okay, before we wrap up here, I want to transition to learn about your role at Digital.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:How did you? How did and what I always love asking people and stuff how the hell did you get involved in staffing?
Speaker 1:yeah, I mean, like most of us, I stumbled into it. So you know, college athlete for four years, spring semester was going to be the greatest thing in the world because I no longer had spring football. I had another year of eligibility but ultimately decided hey, you are five foot 10 and you're relatively athletic, but not enough to play beyond this. So it's time to hang them up. And I ended up getting an internship my senior year, my spring semester, and was supposed to be sports marketing and show up day one and it is door to door sales. So it worked out well for me interviewing after, but, needless to say, I graduated without a job because I did not want to take that full time, came home and went back to painting houses with buddies working out, just kind of enjoying myself. And one day I came downstairs and my dad just looked at me. He's like, buddy, figure it out, it's time to go. Just looked at me. He's like buddy, figure it out, it's it's time to go. Um, and I was like, yeah, you're probably right.
Speaker 1:So you know, at that point I started to look and I ended up going down to New York. Um, you know, just through a lot of family connections and friends. A lot of my football buddies were either Boston or New York based. Um, so I ended up going down and doing some interviewing and some networking and really thought I wanted to be in advertising or sports marketing. Um, you know, met with informally with a handful of people and ultimately realized that you know it's crazy, crazy hours just to get a name on your resume for 12 to 18 months. Then you move to the next one. You're not going to get paid, well, for the first five to ten years and I was like well, you know, the hard work's not a problem for me, but if I'm going to work my tail off like I want to be compensated for it and I ended up, just after a day of just getting my teeth kicked in, grabbed a beer with my cousin and he said hey, have you ever thought about staffing, recruiting?
Speaker 3:I was like I have no idea what that is he's like.
Speaker 1:Well, my best man for my wedding is in it. He was with one of the big companies, just went out on his own. Let me call him and see if I'll meet with you tomorrow. So I ended up going in and meeting with that guy, kind of learning what the industry is at a 30,000 foot level, and I was like all right, this is interesting to me, I'm interested in sales and this is all people and relationship building and I think there's a lot of parallels from playing sports competitively my whole life. And I ended up getting an interview with one of the big companies, one of the big staffing companies down there, and while I was there I ended up coming out of it, turning my cell phone back on and I had a voicemail from Aerotech. I listened to it, ended up getting a text from a friend from college and she said hey, I just started here, You'll love it, Come in and interview.
Speaker 1:So drove home, ended up interviewing with Aerotech in Woburn, Massachusetts, and in Unicorn Park the most magical place in the world, you know, about 10 miles outside of Boston and just fell in love with it, Loved the people, loved the hustle and the grind about it and there, got into recruiting and then into sales, and then sales and leadership and ultimately started to look and say I think I want to go smaller. This company is incredible. It's afforded me so many opportunities. The training and development program there was so well done, but everything strategic, everything creative, everything new was already done. So I wanted to kind of go dig my own holes. I ended up going to Signature, which was still massive but significantly smaller, and really just love the people, and through an M&A they were back over a billion dollars and I started to look and think, ah, this kind of feels like 2.0, the last situation.
Speaker 1:And I ended up getting in touch with one of the founders of Digital Prospectors and just his story resonated with me. They were a lifestyle company for a number of years and realized we've got some pretty incredible clients and we've got this really unique value prop in our service offering just doing things slightly differently and treating consultants well and having this very strong benefit package. We're onto something, but we don't know. We don't know we're bringing in strong leaders from the outside to help us take that next step. And that was almost three years ago and it's lived up to everything I wanted it to be, which is pretty incredible. So we're a recruiting firm based out of New Hampshire, Seacoast. We're a national firm. We specialize in government services and federal work, engineering, technology and life sciences.
Speaker 2:So we've got two offices here, but we've got consultants and clients in about 35 states at this point. Wow, very cool, I'd say. The one thing that I've learned on this podcasting journey is when you're going to be now one of 300 and something dads I've talked to and uh, there's so many fricking cool people in the staffing industry, there's so many talented people in the staffing industry and there's what 20, like 23,000 firms, I think. I heard many talented people in the staffing industry and there's what 20 like 23 000 firms. I think. I heard um, which means there's so much business for everybody out there.
Speaker 2:Um and uh, I just think it's, I think it's so cool and I love learning. I'm like obsessed with the word curiosity and so I love learning about people and their story and and yours is freaking just as good as they all. I mean, I've been inspired by your, your, your family and um, just the connections, and I think, hopefully, if there's a dad, a homeless and that you don't have that, we'll go create it, don't wait for it, go create it and um, okay.
Speaker 2:So if we were to summarize everything we've talked about, connor, that dads maybe could take from our conversation today, that maybe they can apply with your some of your advice, some of your life lessons, some of the things that we've talked about where they could apply these, maybe you know two or three actionable themes to become a better ultimate quarterback or leader of their home. Tell me what comes to mind.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I think that the two words that come to mind is patience and presence.
Speaker 1:You know the patience we touched on quite a bit, but just you know, to what you had said, it's don't set these unrealistic expectations and timelines and grand plans. It's just be present and have fun. You know the kids don't know any different, so what you know, what they see is how they're going to react. So if you're calm, cool and collected and you're ready to have fun and go with the flow and you know, play with them and help create a game and be on the sideline and encourage them. And you're not talking to them about a strikeout, you're talking about their attitude, their effort. They ran off the field, they helped the teammate. You know they were a good teammate on the sideline, whatever it might be, um, you know that stuff's so much more important than the. You know, did you score a touchdown? Did you score a goal? Did you do this, did you do that? So I think it's that patience, presence and just being a being a good role model.
Speaker 2:Goal dude. That's. That is wise advice that I think I could not agree with more, more, uh, emphatically so well said. Um, if people want to learn about you, if they want to learn about digital prospectors, tell me what's the best way people can find you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, uh, reach out to me on LinkedIn. It's uh, connor Gardu and digital prospectors is also on on LinkedIn. Give us a follow, give us a like. Um, you know we're, we're constantly posting on social media there, between that and Instagram. Definitely more on the LinkedIn front, but I'm on there every day, multiple times a day. I would be happy to make as many connections as possible.
Speaker 2:I will make sure that both are tagged in the show notes. When this comes out here, this will be probably out here sometime in the summer. When this comes out here, this will be probably out here sometime in the summer. But, connor, it's now time to show you. Take you into the lightning round, which is where I show you the negative hits of taking too many hits in college not bong hits, but football hits your job is to answer this.
Speaker 1:I'm right there with you brother?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you have more hits than I did. I just got hit, but anyway. So your job is to answer these questions as quickly as you can. These are not prescripted. I'm going to show you just how much of a nut job I am. My goal is to get you to laugh, though.
Speaker 1:All right.
Speaker 2:Okay, um, true or false? When you went to Brian, you initially turned down a gymnastics scholarship. False, if you were to do gymnastics, you would have done the pommel horse. Oh, absolutely true. I was the rings still holding from old school.
Speaker 1:I was going to say with the, with the smoke in your mouth too.
Speaker 2:It's fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:If I went to all your employees at digital prospection, said and tell me what would be the one genre of music that might surprise them.
Speaker 1:That I listened to. Uh well, I mean, having a seven-year-old girl at home definitely messes up the Spotify quite a bit, but we've had Pink Pony Club by Chapel Roan pretty much on repeat over here for the last month and I'm embarrassed to say, but starting to really enjoy the song If it makes you feel better. I more of a benson boone fan now oh, that's I was gonna say benson, chaperone, taylor, swift, they're.
Speaker 1:They're all on a very steady rotation mixed in with some of the little kid stuff of you know, blippy and all that good stuff.
Speaker 2:So there we go um. If their favorite comedy movie all time is caddysyshack, solid, solid choice. You get a pool. Yeah, we get a pond.
Speaker 1:Pond's probably better for you, natural spring.
Speaker 2:If I came to your house tomorrow, tell me what we'd have for dinner. Ooh, brisket, it sounds really good If there was to be your dream foursome golf.
Speaker 1:Who's going? Oh uh, tiger mj uh, and we'll stick with the caddy shack.
Speaker 2:We'll go bill murray oh god, what a, what a group. Yeah, that would be a good group. Um, if there was a to be a book written about your life, tell me the title.
Speaker 1:I'm going to go, based off my dad, the five most important words.
Speaker 2:Okay, the five most important words in a family love, trust, respect and responsibility is crushing it. Every bookstore cannot keep these in store. Every airport sold out. So now Hollywood decided to make a movie about this, connor, and I need to know you've been cast as the casting director and we need to know who's going to star in this critically acclaimed, hit new movie. Starring you, who's it?
Speaker 1:going to be Well. When I was a little bit larger, I drew a lot of James Corden comparisons.
Speaker 2:Okay, the carpool karaoke guy. Yeah, I can see that.
Speaker 1:Probably got to go with James Corden.
Speaker 2:So that's his first appearance. I think it's a good choice If you were to go on vacation right now, you and your wife no kids, where are you?
Speaker 1:going Portugal. My wife is a first generation. Her parents moved here from the Azores when they were like 20 years old, so we're itching to get over there. Do both the Azores and the mainland hit up Lisbon and all that.
Speaker 2:Okay, and then last and most important question tell me two words that would describe your wife Gosh got a million.
Speaker 1:I would say amazing and stoic.
Speaker 2:Boom Lighting round's complete. I think we both giggled. I took a soft script. I think I proved I do have a screw loose. We did get a giggle out of you, but I'm still going to give you the win. Congratulations, conor. This has been fantastic. I appreciate your humility, your vulnerability of wanting to come on and accepting the agreement to come on Everybody. I did put a little pressure on him when we were playing golf. I said you're the only guy in this group to not come on the podcast and he immediately just fixed it. So, joke aside, I really appreciate you spending time. It's late where you are. I learned a ton. I got a full page full of notes. We'll make sure this is tagged so everybody can learn more about you, digital Prospectors, and I just really really enjoyed spending time with you, man. Thanks so much and I hope. I'm glad our paths have crossed and I hope we can meet up again on the golf course sometime soon.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much. And just so you know, your book is now on the rotation for my training program with my sales team. I've read it Absolutely, loved it. Love the podcast. Thank you for the opportunity to be on the platform.
Speaker 2:Awesome.