Charge Forward Podcast
The Charge Forward Podcast: Dedicated to those who choose to Charge Forward into the Storm when hit with challenges. This is what makes them different and has lead to their success. When in doubt.... Charge Forward!
Charge Forward Podcast
The Fixer: Problem-Solving, Career Growth, & Embracing Change with Quinton Horner
Ever wonder how an engineer could seamlessly transition into the world of law? Meet "The Fixer" Quinton Horner, my best friend of 35 years, who did just that and joins us on the Charge Forward podcast to share his captivating journey. Quinton's unique story begins with the poignant loss of his father, driving him to pursue a career where truth and accuracy reign supreme. Discover how Quinton's analytical engineering mindset gives him an edge in practicing real property law, where he prefers concrete solutions over persuasive arguments, providing a refreshing perspective on professional adaptability and growth.
In our conversation, we dive into the art of problem-solving and adaptability across personal and professional landscapes. Highlighting anecdotes from Quinton and other remarkable individuals like Mike Chafe, we explore how these skills are indispensable for thriving amidst unexpected challenges. From building homes to health transformations, our stories illustrate the profound growth that emerges when we push our limits and embrace change. Whether discussing the dedication required to meet tight deadlines or the discipline needed for a successful health journey, this episode is brimming with insights on resilience and commitment.
Lastly, we reflect on the importance of maintaining a stellar reputation and expertise in specialized fields such as law and construction. Quinton shares valuable lessons from his father’s legacy and his legal education, emphasizing the wisdom in knowing one’s boundaries and strengths. We discuss the significance of aligning career paths with personal goals and how clear communication can forge successful employer-employee relationships. As the episode unfolds, we touch on themes of self-discovery, career growth, and the joy of harnessing one’s unique skills. Join us for a heartfelt, thought-provoking conversation, enriched by decades of friendship, personal revelations, and a touch of humor.
🚗 Tune in to hear how Quinton Horner became "The Fixer" and what it means to see some of the most difficult situations through to the end.
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– Jim Cripps
You are the cap for whatever goes on in your store, in your company, in your district, in your household, however excited you are, what you believe is possible, whatever that threshold is. Hey team, jim Cripps here from the Charge Forward podcast, coming to you from HitLab Studios here in Nashville, tennessee. Now I have a special guest for you today, and I don't just mean special in a general kind of way. I mean this is my best friend on the planet. I've known him for 35 years. He is a fixer, he's an engineer, he is a lawyer, he's a proud husband and proud father. Please welcome to the Charge Forward podcast, mr Quentin Horner.
Speaker 2:Thanks a lot, jim. I appreciate it and I actually was going to say that I was quite surprised with the offer and you hit me up. You're like hey, man, you need to be on my podcast and I kind of got my mind thinking about like whoa, what could I possibly bring to Jim's podcast? And you got me thinking about a lot of things I'm glad to share today and hopefully we'll talk about some good things that resonate with some people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man. Well, you know there's very few people on this planet that I go further back with, but we've known each other since fifth grade, I believe.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Fifth grade. I just moved to Ashland City and you were among the first people I met.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man. Well, and you know I put quite a bit in into your list of accomplishments or things, and most people wouldn't assume that a lawyer was also an engineer and you know. So I think I think that's probably going to throw some questions out there. So let's just let's dive into that one Like how did that come to?
Speaker 2:play. It wasn't by design. From the beginning you, out of high school, I was kind of like most people. I did what my dad did. I didn't know that there was an option for doing anything else. My dad was an engineer. I grew up watching bulldozers and playing in the dirt and that was just the consistent thing. It's like, okay, I'm going to go be an engineer and that's what I did. I finished up at Alabama and did engineering for a decade and then you know a change in life I guess decided I would go back to law school. You know was single at the time, so my decisions were kind of incumbent upon me to live with. And you know it's it's been a good change. So I spent about a decade in engineering and I've been in law for a little over a decade. So it's, it's uh, it's been an interesting path, but the two are, the two are similar in how they relate, you know, um, so it's been enjoyable. I'm glad I did it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, and you know, I think, between both of those. The only thing I think that would also kind of tie into that is if you became a doctor too. The reason I say that is there are places where you don't want frills, that you don't want guesses. You need somebody that tells the truth or does the full job, because lives are on the line or the future is on the line, and you know. So was that an easy transition? Or? I mean, what do you? What do you find that is similar and what do you find that is drastically?
Speaker 2:different. So people have, of course, varying opinions of lawyers, the butts of jokes and different things else. But you know, I like to say I'm not. I'm not a, I'm not an attorney who likes to go to court, the formalism and everything like that. That's for some people, it's not for me. But the thing that I didn't like about that is the persuasive argument, nature of it, where you have a series of factors and two factors may outweigh six factors and that stuff. The thing I like to argue is two plus two equals four. That's proven, I can get behind that. The thing I like to argue is two plus two equals four. All right, that's proven, I can get behind that. I can put that argument forward and I like that.
Speaker 2:So with engineering, you know you're dealing with finite things. You've still got to have the real world applicability of it all you know to understand how it relates to the real world. But this is your set of rules. Let's use that. Let's get to a product In law, at least as I practice it now, which we'll get into more so which is like with real property.
Speaker 2:It's the same thing. You're dealing with finite stuff and you're working to get to a finite answer. So that's interesting. You said that with being a doctor, you know, okay, something is broke or we want to make something better, let's take what we have, do what's known and proven, we hope, and get to that result. So I haven't really thought about that. But that's what I like about the type law that I practice is you know, there's not a lot of variables. You know I don't have to have a persuasive argument with the same set of facts and because I have a persuasive argument, my side wins. I don't, I don't like that game, but there's a lot of people that do and I'm happy for them.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, I think that type of law or in that arena, it's more of a sales game. How can I package up the facts to sell my side of the story, Whereas yours is more black and white and it it really kind of just boils down to who did the full job to get to the actual answer.
Speaker 2:You know I like getting to the actual answer. You know, that's um, kind of how I, how I got into law in the first place was my father passed when I was 27. Unbeknownst to him, things weren't as good an order for his estate as they should have been. That protracted out from 2005 until 2011. 2011, you know, and there were, there was a finite number of things three or four things and yet it still took, you know, seven years to get this stuff, almost seven years to get it sorted out. Like that's, that's too long. What I deal with is shorter term issues, because I like the variety of things, because I like the variety of things, I like being able to get to a resolution conclusion on it and moving on to the next next thing. So, um, yeah, the whole drawn out process. That that's, um, I have more interest in the shorter term things.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, you know, the other thing that I said about you is that you're a fixer, and people can take that to mean a whole lot of different things, but for me, what that means specifically in regard to you is you do the whole job and you get to the actual answer and it's resolved. And the reason I can speak to that with some authority there is not only have we been best friends for a long time, but in addition to that, you also worked with me at a company. And then you know, even even when you were in law school and you working with me, your work ethic stood out beyond really kind of anybody that I know. And on top of that, you're also the guy that if, if, shit the proverbial shit hits the fan at 3am, you're the guy I call because I don't have to worry. I don't have to worry about the explanation I'm going to have to give.
Speaker 1:You know, if the phone rings at 3 am and it's me, I'm not calling to say what's up, bud, I'm calling because there's a, there's a real reason, and you know what you were working on, uh, there during that time, while you were in law school. This was not something that you needed to show up early for and stay late for it wasn't that kind of job. I didn't pay you that kind of money. I mean, let's just be real. And but you were the guy that you were the first one in the office every morning, and if it wasn't me, it was you that was the last one to leave.
Speaker 2:Well, the and you're, you're right about that, and that's the thing that I, that I like is it's not just check a box, you know, and that's a lot of people are hired to to do specific finite things, um, but I like looking at the bigger picture of what. What are we trying to accomplish here? All right, because there may be a couple of different ways we can go about it. But now, first, let's back up to a fixer. That doesn't mean that I don't make mistakes, but if I make a mistake and I've handled it, I like to fix it.
Speaker 2:You know, I've kind of said that people ask what would be your ideal job, and I think my ideal job might be just for somebody who's got a lot of wealth. Like you said, I'm their, their fixer. Um, you know, because I think being able to fix something is more of a skillset and a talent personally than it is like an, an acquired or trade of some sorts. You know, it's just your mindset. Things aren't always going to happen, especially in today's world, as connected as we are. Things are not always going to happen from 8 to 5. All right, we don't like it when it happens in the middle of the night or on the weekend or anything else, but it's still part of the bigger picture and oftentimes it takes working that timeframe on that problem to get it to the finish line, and that's what matters.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's that ability to operate both micro and macro in order to get it solved, regardless of like what that specific knowledge or that specific area is. And some people will go well, that's not my thing. And not to say that there's not places that you should. You should be in that space where you're like no, I'm not good at that, but you're the guy that sees it through. And I think, no matter what industry, no matter what business like you have to have people with that kind of skillset. What industry, no matter what business like you have to have people with that kind of skill set.
Speaker 1:You know, for years, at the former company I worked at, you know, I had Mike Chafe. Now I look at Mike Chafe like a more tactical version of you. Like Mike's like a Swiss army knife. I mean, yeah, he's got a military background, but you know he'll figure it out. And yeah, he's got a military background, but you know he'll, he'll figure it out. And I feel like, especially on the legal side, the more technical, the more complicated issues Well, that's Quentin.
Speaker 2:Well, and that's something too as an employer that I'm just thinking about it from the employer side of things. That's a hard thing to to hire. You know somebody, somebody sees a job posting on there. They see, okay, these are my tasks that I'm going to be expected to do as an employee. And you know, I know Mike, I know what you're saying about Mike, having worked with him that time. We worked together for that period. But, like you, can't, as an employer, basically just say I need somebody who's going to handle stuff. Yeah Well, what do you mean stuff? Well, it depends on what type of stuff needs to be handled. All right, can you, can you be a chameleon? And is that something you can handle or not? So I haven't really thought about it from the employer side. I haven't really been on that side of things. But you know how, how do you? That's the person you want, I think, is the person that adapts themselves to help get to what your end goal is.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, I kind of look at it this way. If, let's just say, the world starts to collapse and everybody's got to grab their go bag, I know that I have seven minutes to call Mike Chafe or Mike Chafe's gone, have seven minutes to call Mike chafe or Mike chafe's gone, and I can tell you at the end it went like when it gets down to that kind of level, I want Mike chafe on my team. On the flip side of that, if I'm running a mega organization or I hit the lottery, well you're the guy I'm calling like dude. I don't know what I'm up against. Let's figure it out. And that's not a guy or a girl that you hire based off of a resume, like you've got to see those people in action, or you've got to know people that have seen them in action.
Speaker 2:So, basically, what Jim is trying to say is you have to make a lot of mistakes and learn from those mistakes in life? Is you have to make a lot of mistakes and learn from those mistakes in life, and that Quentin has made those and come out on the other end?
Speaker 1:Well, you gotta, you gotta, get more right than you get wrong in order to come out the other end. Very true, there you go.
Speaker 2:So, uh, you know you're you're one of those guys I wouldn't want to bet against. Plain and simple Well, and that's you know like it is Plain and simple. Well, and that's you know like it is. It is experience. You know that is a huge factor. There's um, let's put it this way, you know, coming out of coming out of engineering school at Alabama, they were the people that made the good grades. All right, they were who they were, that's what they did. They always made good grades and out of school they got good job offers, but they didn't always pan out, because it's not just the book knowledge, all right.
Speaker 2:If you don't know what you're doing, how that relates to the real world, especially in the engineering world. You can put a lot of stuff on paper, but you can't take that and apply it to field conditions. I mean it can't be done. You're like I used to do um civil site design, right In AutoCAD. I can design stuff down to a finite hundredth of an inch level, but that does not mean a guy whose coffee machine broke in the morning and is working without coffee on top of a D8 bulldozer can grade it to that. So there there is that. There is that differentiation between a, a book, smart learned skillset, which you have to have. You know and you know understanding how what you have learned applies to a real world situation.
Speaker 1:Well, I wasn't planning on going this route, but you gave me the perfect segue to this. You and I both know that, firsthand, because we were crazy enough in the past five years to decide to build our own homes. And I say crazy enough and you may be crazier than I am, and the reason I say that is you saw what I went through and then you signed up for the same thing and you know, um, I think about my dad. You know, the first thing he ever built was a dog house and the next thing you built was the home they live in today. You and I skipped the dog house.
Speaker 1:You know, if I look at other people who decide to build their own homes, they start with, you know, the starter home, the 1100 square foot three and two, and they get through that. Then they go up to the next one, go up to the next one, and you and I, we did not do any of those things. We went straight from we've never built our own home before to we both built million dollar plus properties and, uh, it took both of us roughly two years to start to finish. Um, you know, I remember I think it was, uh, the 9th or 19th of January 2019 is when I put a bulldozer blade in the ground and, like I was so so I can do this myself that I went out and bought the bulldozer instead of paying somebody to do it, and so a lot of that. You know, having the head knowledge versus actually putting in a practice and building it. We both went through that process and you know I can tell you I'm glad I did it. At the same time, I don't think I'll ever do it again.
Speaker 2:Well, you must think, now that I've been done for like a year and a half, that you can't take me back with like PTSD stuff here. I mean this was, yes, well now, granted too, I had a lot more of the COVID thrown in in the middle of mine than you did, but but still it's um, yeah, that was quite the the process and undertaking on things. Um, but once again, it's a systematic process on things. This foundations come before, you know, walls come before, flooring come before. I mean it all has. And yeah, we had never done that before. But, like a lot of things in life, you know, we self-educated, oh yeah, educated, oh yeah, we learn. You know hard lessons to do and not to do and how to deal with people. And you know, it's funny you started out people like I knew I'd be low man on the totem pole as far as priority, but man, the bottom of the totem pole is low, yeah it is.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, I know we both ran into this, just that kind of attitude of, oh well, nobody's going to work with you because you're an individual, and there was some of that, um. But at the same time I also feel like you treat people right and all of a sudden you start getting a reputation of treating people right and then more people will work with you.
Speaker 2:Well, in the flip side of that too, kind of relating over our conversation, there were a lot of things that we entrusted people to do and and had or did pay good money for them to do that didn't get done. Yeah, then what? Well, then you know, quinn gets home from work, has supper, puts his daughter down to bed and goes and works until two o'clock in the morning. Once again, the larger picture is get this done, so you do what you have to. Did I, did I want to, did I want to paint the whole interior of the house myself? Nope, I mean I like to paint, but not to that scale. And he ended up doing a lot of things and self-educating to get to that final thing, which kind of leapfrogs what we're talking about. You know, the the fixer is when, when you say something about like a fixer I mean it's so broad in scope it really narrows down to let's identify what we're trying to accomplish and do what it takes to get there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that simple, absolutely. Now, my most fun thing that I I don't know if I've told anybody about this, but my most fun moment at you building a house is the day we painted the um ceilings downstairs, because I had brought you a sprayer about three months before that and you had not used it until that day, and I think there was a little bit of a well, maybe I should have opened this before today.
Speaker 2:Yes, enough said.
Speaker 1:Enough said. Well, man, you know that the spirit of the Charge Forward podcast is really that of people that default to charging forward, getting it done when other people give up. And you know I'm sure there's somebody out there that has just been sunshine and rainbows their entire life. But you know, I think back on it and you know one of the most challenging things is I see you go to Alabama, which is rock star. You wanted to go to Alabama as a school. You get down there and am I thinking right that this is your junior or senior year and have to have brain?
Speaker 2:surgery. Oh yeah, my senior year. Let's kind of talk about something that comes out of the blue Right Before I. Before I went back from my senior year, my dad, who had had an aneurysm, said, well, why don't you just go get a precautionary MRI? And I did in August and they found something about the size of a P? Um no symptoms, no headaches, no, nothing. So I got another one when I was home for Thanksgiving that that year and it was the size of a golf ball. Still no side effects, no symptoms, no nothing. So they knew what it was and that I would have surgery over Christmas. So that was an interesting Christmas break. On December 23rd at what? 22 years old, to have brain surgery right before Christmas. But yeah, that was a story to tell for sure.
Speaker 1:Well, and one of the things that sticks out in my head is what it was for 24, 48 hours, you really could only say three words, and we don't want to use them here on the air, but there were three of the cuss words and that was about it for the first two days.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's interesting and everybody kind of knew that's what it was, I guess the swelling of your brain when oxygen hits it. But yeah, I started with yep, nope and shit Yep.
Speaker 1:And built everything back up from there. So there was my foundation moved back to Nashville and, um, I mean just a series of interesting things Like even the even the U-Haul truck broke down on the way back from moving you from Alabama.
Speaker 2:Your memory. Your memory is better than my, better than mine, but yeah, that does stand out now.
Speaker 1:I mean, I remember sleeping in the front cab of uh, of that U-Haul truck and we almost made it all the way back. I mean, we made it to Franklin, so the Franklin exit, um, but you know, get back and you go into, go into engineering, Like you said, it's just, that's just the direction you were going to go, um, and you know you, you get a couple you had a good job in in Atlanta, um, and then, uh, you move, move up here and still in the engineering space and you're kind of known as Harry's boy. You know how did that kind of play into, you know, being in engineering, deciding to leave engineering. You know what did that look like?
Speaker 2:So, you know, after I graduated in Alabama, I was back in Nashville for just a little bit and then did find myself with a civil engineering firm outside of Atlanta civil site design and in 2004, my dad got diagnosed with cancer and kind of knowing what the outcome of that was going to be is what brought me back to the Nashville area in 2005, working with an engineering firm.
Speaker 2:But, you know, because my dad had been in, as you say, in that space for a long time and had a good reputation, um, that's how a lot of people knew me. You know, obviously I don't have the track record yet of of anything. A lot of these people I grew up around, you know, on various trips and different things and, uh, you know, that's kind of you're right, that's kind of you're right, that's kind of what people knew me as was Harry's son and which is a good way to know you, which which is, yeah, I mean, that's I'm glad my, my dad, you know, was thought of in that way, but you know he, he passed ultimately, um, in July of 2005, and I was 27. You know, at 27, you think that you're an adult and you have the answers and you're going to step into the shoes of your dad and you're going to carry on. It's going to be great. And that is not it. I mean, if anybody's lost a parent, I describe it as losing like a big safety net. You know now, whether it's financial or advice or whatever, if you know that you can call and talk to a parent, that that's a comfort, that that you have. And when that's when that's gone, it takes some adapting, All right, You're, you know you make those mistakes. There's not necessarily somebody there to tell you it's all right, Listen, I've made those mistakes. It's going to be fine. If you get hard up for money and you don't have a, you know you need a dollar to get out of a pinch. You can usually call a parent and so you know.
Speaker 2:But ultimately, I think what made me transition in hindsight from engineering to law were two things. I didn't know how to deal with being known as Harry's boy. I mean, that's simply it, Especially after the fact, After he had passed, I didn't know what to do with that. Um, you know, I just I didn't know what to do with that. So, and you know, a combination of that and then dealing and paying attorneys for seven years after he died on things and being really involved with it. I mean, it's this was the outcome was going to directly affect me. And if I went back and talked to my attorneys then they'd probably say that I was too involved, but I did too involved, but I did the research. I mean I would send the emails that said what about this? Can we ask for this?
Speaker 2:So the combination of those two things, and then with the downturn in the economy in 2008, with all that went on, especially with the housing industry and that's who I mainly worked with were home developers and site developers, but all that just dried up. I was already enrolled in Nashville school of law, so that's kind of the transition over to law. Um, on that was, you know, trying to find a direction. That was me, Um, and just I knew that I liked the space of engineering, I liked two plus two, always being four, but I was still searching and looking for something else that would kind of be my identity, and not necessarily, you know, A shared identity, A shared identity.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, and I'll say the thing that maybe I think you're being a little bit too nice about here is you got into law because you had two lawyers that were abusing their client or their fiduciary agreement, I mean, or their responsibility, in my opinion. You know, there were a couple of things that happened. Your dad's employers were trying to get over on his estate because he was no longer with us and you were having to fight them. But with two lawyers that it's kind of like they. They had they tied your hands behind your back and we're like all right, sit here and watch us halfway fight this, um, and it drug out forever and just things that that went on shouldn't have't have gone on if they were doing right by you. And I can remember you saying I can do better than what they're doing. And it wasn't long before you said I'm going to do better than what they're doing and you signed up and started going to Nashville School of Law.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was actually halfway through law school by the time that everything actually wrapped up in 2011. Actually, I was three years into their four-year program and, to not totally discount what you said, but also I mean their law practice, like a lot of other professions, and everything it's set up. I mean it's it's volume. To an extent, all right, I had a little bit more of a personal knowledge, a lot more of a personal knowledge about the things that they were trying, the arguments that they were trying to make, the facts that they needed, and you're right, it was me trying to impress upon them that, hey, if I was you, I would use this, I would use this. But then you know and we can talk about this more in a little bit it's still the, the volume game, all right, and that's great for some businesses and you have to have that to be in business. You have to have that to make money for your employer. If you own a company to make money, that's great, but it isn't always the best tact.
Speaker 1:Well, some things are not necessarily scalable 100%.
Speaker 1:And you know, a lot of times and I don't know that everybody pays attention to this, and so if you're a business owner out there and you've got a fixer, uh, your fixer in order to fix things, uh, there is a finite amount of things that they can fix and, um, you know, I think that's important out there, because I've played my fair share of fixer and I've had fixers Um, and it is a balance, it is. It is um, you want to make sure that you haven't burnt them out and that they are there when you need them. Um, what do you think? Am I on the right? Am I, am I in?
Speaker 2:the right place, and that made me think of this as an example, as of of a parallel Babe Ruth I can. I can hit home runs, I can pitch, I can do it all. You're not going to scale Babe Ruth. You can sit in the same clubhouse with him and he can tell you how he hits home runs. He can tell you how he pitched the ball. Hell, he could probably tell you a lot of stories about his lifestyle, but that doesn't mean that that's through some sort of osmosis, going to rub off, rub off on you. So that's what we mean by.
Speaker 2:Some things are not scalable, because some people just have a talent set that, um, they do what they do. They're not to discount anything or anybody around them, but they are the talent in that area, all right. So, um, you know hiring another employee, or you know, trying to get a game plan. Well, this is what makes you good at what you do. Let's find out what that is, and then we'll hire somebody else and we'll teach them how to do it. Well, that works.
Speaker 2:That may work in 85% of things, but that's still a space that it won't. So that that's a hard thing, I think, to kind of wrap your mind around because you, you know, I do subscribe to the theory that nobody is indispensable, right, everybody can be replaced. We all, we all agree with that. But I think that when you're dealing with somebody who does serve in that purpose for you, that is a Mike chafe, that that can fix and does fix and does produce, that they're kind of outside of the normal scope that you know you want to. You want to handle things a little bit different.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. Um, you know, along the way you've had some pretty awesome achievements. Uh, what, what do you? What do you say? You hang your hat on, uh, kind of through that process.
Speaker 2:Um, for me, honestly, I think the best achievement for me has been my, the work ethic that I've come into uh of things so that you know people like well yourself, your achievement I mean you bowled 300 backwards and got it on video of all things right. That's a, that's a big achievement. Um, you know I don't have many moments like like that, but the achievement of getting to the space that I'm in now with the, the skillset and the work ethic and thing that, that that's I like that about me. It didn't come easy. You know I went to National School of Law non-traditional program. So I worked for four years while going to law school from 445 to 10 o'clock, three nights a week, most of most of the time, and I single guy then my time of the time and I, yeah, single guy, then my time was my time. So extra kudos to the people that did that with a family and with kids. I mean I had an easier route through there. But you know I had quite the academic track record. We'll leave it at that. At Alabama it seems like I either made A's or F's. So you know, the acumen to go to kind of change both my work ethic, change how I approached academics Learning how to learn.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there is a method. It's not just ah, they're smarter, ah, they read the book. I mean, you have to develop your own method and where it works for you, for learning. So, when it came down to taking the bar exam, when it came down to taking the patent exam, I prepared for it and then, overall, the tests were easy. I mean, it's like anything in life If you prepare the way that you should, and especially if you are judged against your peers in a test, you're going to do all right. You put in the time, you're going to get the rewards.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, um, you know you go through that and you touched on this just a little bit. It was the work ethic. You know, if anytime I describe you and fact I described, described you to Dale earlier and you know, yes, I said fixer but also talked about your work ethic, and you know, you say it was developed I think maybe the word is probably more honed because you've always had this work ethic of I'm going to show up and I'm going to do the whole job and you know you don't let yourself off the hook that way. You hold yourself accountable even when others around you are not held accountable or don't hold themselves accountable. And I think that is just one of the traits that you know whether it was instilled, you know at an early age, you know by your dad or what, but I do think that that is a huge part of who you are and to once again, you've kind of sugarcoated a little of this and I think you'll agree a big part of that is being hard-headed.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, all right, just flat-out stubborn.
Speaker 2:I remember in engineering in Atlanta we'd submitted our final plats for approval to the city and you could only do that. It had to be done by Tuesday morning, I think, at 10 o'clock, and if you didn't meet that deadline it didn't get reviewed until the next cycle. So I had a developer on Friday say hey, quentin, you think you can get this final plat put together and submitted to me for you know by next Tuesday. You know just kind of like, yeah, you think you could pull this off for me. I was like, well, maybe. And he's like well, if you do it, I will pay you twice what they pay you, and if you can get it done by Tuesday, I'll go ahead and make us a tee time at Atlanta athletic club where my dad's a member, and we'll go play golf there. Well, okay, I rise to the challenge. So I went in Sunday night, started working on this final plat and left Tuesday morning and turned it in with the county. But I got it done.
Speaker 2:I mean, engineers don't go to work and pull all-nighters all that often, but a lot of that is kind of what you know and it's not all positive doing that, but a lot of that is what helped, kind of the work ethic and like okay, well, you know, sometimes you do have to make sacrifices to get things done, and for this particular developer it was a big deal. I mean, he's paying interest-only money on, you know, a 30 or 40-lot subdivision. A week's worth of time means a lot to him. Yeah, you know, yeah, I made a sacrifice too, but you know, we, we got it, we got it done and that's kind of. That may have been the first example of what it takes to get something done to achieve in a goal that somebody is trying to achieve.
Speaker 1:Well, I think, especially early on, because at that point you're what, 22, 23, somewhere around in there yeah, and especially in your teens and early twenties, like you, got to figure out what you're capable of. You know, like, what can I do if I just decide to? And I think that's part of the process, and, you know, I I don't want to say unfortunately, cause that's not the right word Um, I think we're fortunate and that we've kind of put that ourselves to the test to figure that out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you gotta know your. You got to know your limits and you and I, um, through 35 years, have tested our limits on a lot of things. And I'm going to say the first that one of the first times I tested my limits is, um, you know, we've always been heavier set guys. And I go to college and I'm like, oh my gosh, I can eat whatever I want, do whatever I want. And I did for the first year and you know, at the end of my first year I was 238 pounds. Yeah, all right.
Speaker 2:So that summer I decided this sucks, I'm tired. Well, I took engineering classes, so I was done by 11. I'd go play golf after that, I'd go to the gym after that and then I'd go running in the subdivision I lived in, but three mailboxes further, every night, and did it every night and I kept up. I wrote down with what I ate every night and I'd allow myself chicken wings every other Saturday and that was my routine for three and a half months. When people came back after being gone all summer, I had gone from 238 to 158 pounds in three and a half months.
Speaker 2:So not that I'm ever going to do that again, but there's a good example, of knowing what you can do if you want to do it on things, and that's good to know. About yourself, I think there's a lot of um. You know the military and a lot of different things they do. Like I need you to know what you're capable of, so you you can better um perform in the space that you need to, so you you find that gear, so that you can you know that you can you know that you have it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean you. You just don't just say, no, I can't get that done, no, I can't get that final plat done for you, because that would mean that I'd have to come in here and stay all night.
Speaker 1:Well, bless your heart. Oh, I know it. Well, you know it was a study. I forget where I saw this, but just in the last week or so it was. How many I think it's Gen Z that is entering the workspace now and how over 50% of them say they're overwhelmed.
Speaker 1:And this is working like 30 hour jobs. And I don't know what your threshold was, but I know a couple of times I've put in at work, not not talking about when we were at work and then building homes, but at work 90 plus hours. And you know, was it fun? No, but I call it work for a reason and I needed to get that done. So that meant that I was, I was the guy to do it, and I know you've put, you've've been in that same space too, and so you know you need to push those limits sometimes to to figure out what you, what you've got in reserve. It's kind of like, uh, I don't, I don't recommend it all the time, but you know, if you've got to run, run the tank all the way to empty, well, how far does it go past when it says zero? You know, um, there may be a lot left in the tank.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's true, you got to. On the tank analogy, you got to know what your empty is and what your full is. I mean you've, listen, work's tough, life's tough, all right. And if operationally you're, you're between two parallels that are a foot apart, when your potential is two parallels that are five feet apart, you need to know that, all right, you need that range in life. So, however you get there, maybe you just have a natural instinct of of what your highs and lows are. But a lot of people, including myself, I mean, you've got to, you've got to make mistakes and you've got to have some hardheaded successes to truly know what you're capable of.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, hardheaded successes to truly know what you're capable of. Yeah, you know. Uh, we've talked about this too. You know, I think one of the things where people get themselves in trouble and you know, I think sometimes it leads to people giving up, sometimes the thing that leads to just people being miserable is over committing.
Speaker 2:That, to me personally, is one of the most sickening feelings that I can have, and it's tough. I've had it way too much and it's just been the last year that I've started to digest how that affects me. All right, I want to help people. You know, in the in the area of space that I'm in, the engineering, the law, the real property, the different things I mean I get called on quite a bit. I jokingly say you want to know enough to be indisposable at work, but not so much that people think you have the right answer for everything. So you know, I do get reached out to a lot for people that want help with things and I want to help if I can and then I find myself over committing.
Speaker 1:Well, I think I think they reach out to you because you do the total job, meaning you get them to the finish line, not part of the way, not whatever, like if it whatever's in your scope of work. You get that done. And then you know everybody wants a guy or everybody wants a girl, meaning I want to, I want that person that. Get that done. And then you know everybody wants a guy or everybody wants a girl, meaning I want to, I want that person that I can call and I know that they get me where I'm trying to go. Um, and when you do that for enough people, you become their go-to and because you feel a duty to them, you have trouble saying no. But the reality is, in order to help people, you have to say no to some people, right? Your?
Speaker 2:your bucket can be full, and that's totally understandable. It's not a negative thing, all right. So I've gotten in the space now where, like I will tell you, yes, I can help you with this, but it may be next week. Or yes, I can help you with this, but it's got to turn in. Um, I'm in the title business now, so I do construction loans, real property stuff not just buying and selling of houses that type thing, but more complex type things. So I have a lot of people that will send me contracts to review questions they have about different things on the front end.
Speaker 1:Uh, these are not small numbers either. I mean just to paint their correct picture here. I mean these are complicated a lot of times, complicated contracts that are big money, yeah, and with big consequences and the off chance that something does happen.
Speaker 2:But um on that. But this is, I mean, I'm in the title business, all right. When you think of somebody that's in the title business, you think of the person that sits across you from a development that's going to have an HOA all right, drafting condo documents or, you know, splitting it up for that type of development, easement related issues overall. Just hey, do you think that this is a good deal? What have you seen? So I mean those are all things that are I'm happy to do those. Those are all ancillary to like what my actual job is, but sometimes it can be overwhelming.
Speaker 2:I've got somebody that sends me a $7 million contract for a really urban development and it's thick and it has a lot of big words and I want to do it justice. And they want to know if I can have it done by tomorrow, because that's when they've got to. You know, sign it Well, crap, but you know it gets, it gets, it gets done. So those are the type scenarios to where I don't really mind doing it, but it's the things that I like take on myself. On top of that, you know, somebody's like, hey, can you? You're an attorney. You know everything about all aspects of law. Can you help me with this? You know it's those obligations that get me in trouble.
Speaker 1:Well, and you know, I've heard you say this before and you'll correct me it's basically you got advice when you were early on in your legal career may even been in law school and it was know what you know and also know what you don't know and stay out of what you don't know.
Speaker 2:Actually it was a law school professor, eddie Davidson, sharp cat, uh, since retired, but it was. Yeah, know what you know and know what you don't know, and stay the hell away from what you don't know. You and I self-educate on there. I don't like not knowing. You know you probably get the same thing I do all the time. Well, especially through building a house. Well, how did you know how to do that? Well, how do you know about this? How do you know about this? Because I self-educate, so you.
Speaker 2:So somebody asked me to do something. If I wanted to, I could do it, but I would have to have a certain level of self-educating to be able to do it, and even that's taxing. So that's kind of like the small-town general practitioner attorney. Come one, come all. I've hung a shingle. I'll do your divorce. I'll bail your cousin out of jail Not his drugs. I'll close on your house deal. I'll write your will so mom and them can get everything If something happened to you. That in and of itself is a skill set for anybody that can do that.
Speaker 2:That's not me All right, I've seen you there and you were miserable miserable, because so much of that time is self-educating, right, if I'm going to charge somebody, especially if I'm going to hold myself out as being a person that can help you with your problems or something that you want like, I've got to feel that I'm capable of doing that on things. So you're right, it was. It was a miserable period, um, and now, with what I'm doing, very rarely does something come across that I actually um, have got to do some research on. And I mean you're, you're a better, um, more specialized, right?
Speaker 2:You talk about things differently when you have an adequate knowledge about them. There's no hemming and hawing. So now you know as busy as things are. If somebody calls up and says, hey, I have a question about X, y or Z, if it's in my wheelhouse, I good, I can have an answer for you, yes or no. That that quick, and that's what it takes. You know when you really get in the busy season of things, okay, well, the answer was no. That's not what I was expecting, but you sound pretty definitive. You know why? Because I am definitive about it.
Speaker 1:The answer is no that people specialize in things. Not that there's not a space for a jack of all trades, but think about a general practitioner. Do you want a general practitioner doing brain surgery on you? Absolutely not. All the more reason, like even in what you do now, if you're doing a $7, $10, $12, $15 million deal. Do you want somebody that was handling a divorce case morning working on your $12 million deal? Absolutely not.
Speaker 2:Well, as long as nothing comes up, that's of consequence. You never know. Well, it could be easy.
Speaker 1:It could be. It could be. Everything was. You know, all the I's were were already dotted and T's crossed. But you know you're, you are on the front end.
Speaker 2:You can solve so many problems because you just don't let them come up, because because the contract is right, right, that's right, that is one side of the coin, but life happens and that's why there's a second side of the coin, and that's that. You know, problems do come up, problems do arise. You advise somebody of something on the front end. They didn't do it. Now how? How are we going to? How are we going to deal with what's going on after that? Um so yeah, I agree, I abdicate 100%. This is what I do, this is what I know, and if it's outside of the scope of things I'm comfortable with, I will find you somebody who's more specialized and can give you a better answer.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, and to take it back to the home reference, this was a very real one for me, as we say that after we talked about how we are not home builders and built our own home that our family and small children live in.
Speaker 2:You may continue.
Speaker 1:But I think we can both agree your engineering background and my just willingness to overbuild. We probably have the safest homes anywhere around, Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Whenever I'd get to the stage. So Jim was about two years ahead of me on everything. So I'd ask Jim, what'd you do for this? It's like, oh, I used 24 by 24 inch beams and seven of them and I'm like, okay, well, not going to do that, Um, but, yeah, definitely overcompensation. It's um, uh, it's not going anywhere. Your house is not.
Speaker 1:No, definitely not, Um, but you know a real world example of how, um, one simple mistake costs an insane amount of time and and potentially, money. So you know my concrete, I love my, I love the concrete work that was done on the property. It's fantastic, it's. You know, it's stamped, it's. You know all the things they did, crazy things that they thought I was crazy about asking for.
Speaker 1:Uh, but one of the things that they forgot is I had a piece of pipe laying there that was supposed to go right underneath it so that I would have wiring for my two front porch lights, and when they started doing the steps, they forgot to put that piece of pipe in there. And so, four years later, shout out to Jason Lewis. Jason Lewis and his team dug up underneath and put the pipe underneath one side and because they couldn't go all the way across cause the pad is so long right there had to go around the front of the porch to get to the other side. So now, four years later, we finally connected with that one already paid for $2 piece of pipe would have taken care of. And the same is true in a contract. If you forget to put in a clause or something of that nature. It can cause a lot of heartache, time, effort, hurt feelings, all kinds of things down the road.
Speaker 2:Right, and you know, contracts are always they can say anything. I mean, it's kind of like, where you get into trouble is if somebody wants to enforce what they say, yeah. So I mean, and that happens, people make mistakes. Once again I'm going back to I make plenty of them, um, and then just look, look for solutions on how to fix them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Now the next part, um, I think you and I see eye to eye on almost down down to the letter, is protecting your reputation. You know, um, I think I've I've always for you know, whatever 30 years been known as somebody who's trustworthy, and I would say the same exact thing, exact same thing about you, um, but how important is reputation to you?
Speaker 2:It. It is the hallmark thing. You know, we all grew up and our parents were like well, your reputation is going to speak for you and, of course, me, coming after my dad, you know, who had a good reputation on doing things. Um, it's something that you really need to protect. Um, I subscribe to the theory of like. If, if doubt ever enters into my mind about anything, then then my mindset about that is kind of never the same. You don't want to give somebody reason for doubt. Um, and I'm happy to say that I won't say on all things, but most all things that matter, I have never compromised. Here's an example Engineering in Atlanta there's a property that was in the floodplain and this is back when we'd scale in the, scan in and overlay flood maps.
Speaker 2:Took a piece of paper, scanned it in, overlaid it on AutoCAD. This is where the flood line is and you had to stay out of that. Well, I was working with the developer and he's like were you sure that floodplain line is where it is? Because if it was back just a little bit, I could get another lot in there. And at the time, you know 2004, that's $85,000. That's another lot I can get. Are you sure you drew it in right. I'm positive, all right. Well, this was the same developer that took me to play golf, right, but that's where it is. And throughout the professional world, you are going to have the opportunity to move off of center and put your reputation at stake frequently. Yeah, You're going to have the opportunity to make money. That seems too easy.
Speaker 1:For those reasons, and you're also going to see other people do it and prosper or even you know short term, make those gains which doesn't make it any easier to walk the straight and narrow, but that is, that's one of the things that that I think about me.
Speaker 2:That's one of the things that I think people think about me and I like that All right. If, if I say I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it, things come up. They always do with people and you'll understand it. You know, if I was supposed to have you something by tomorrow night and it turns out that, um, you know, I had to have a surgery, I mean, there's reasons that I can't get that done, you're fine with that. Get that done, you're fine with that. Um, you know. And so it means it means a lot People will come back to you for your advice If they know you have their best interest in mind, um, and they don't have any reason to reason to doubt you. So, yeah, don't compromise. The one takeaway for anybody is don't compromise in what is your reputation. You can't do it, especially. I mean you can't undo it either.
Speaker 2:I'm 46, made it this far. Why do I want to screw it up now? Yeah, got another. Never had a Mountain Dew. People are like, well, why don't you have a Mountain Dew? I'm like, well, 46, never had a Mountain Dew. It's a good story for me. I'm not going to have one, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 1:Um, so what's next for you? I mean, you know, I know this about you, and the only thing that I know about you is you've got to constantly be moving forward, and I know that because I have to too, and when I get most frustrated is when I don't feel like I'm moving forward. And so you know you, didn't you come into title a couple of years ago? Um, I don't want to say you've mastered it, but you know, I would say, with as many zeros as I could put on a contract, I would absolutely trust you to be the guy to make sure that nothing was, was, was out of line. Um, you know what? What's the next thing?
Speaker 2:you know, especially since you you have gotten into the arena that you're in All right. You know, I've, I've followed Jim, like you said, ever since, um jams, right, since we were, since we were young and, truth be known, jim's academic record was not stellar. No, no absolutely not.
Speaker 1:At a couple of different places, that's right. But I I am the only person you know that has failed calculus four times. Jim did you? Yes, how'd you not get kicked out? Then I got an attorney at UT. You fail calculus three times they.
Speaker 2:They don't ask you to leave they well try failing it three times and being in engineering school. So I was not. But. But you know the business acumen, you know you've had it, but you applied it to the business that you were working for. Now that you're out doing what you're doing and you're actually talking about it, it has it's gotten me thinking a lot about.
Speaker 2:Um, you know, what is it that makes me me, what is going to challenge me? And I've got a reputation of you know I'll do something for three, four or five years, and then I say I get bored with it. And then I change and do something else, and not that I get bored with the task at hand. I think what I'm starting to discover is I have got to have something that moves me forward personally or professionally, and that's it and that's it. Um, we all need money. Money's good, money's great. I'm proud to say that I have never asked for a raise. Um, I've always been in the that hardheaded mindset that listen, I mean, I'm not in charge of that. I've almost all the time had an employer. All right, they can offer me what they want to offer me, and I'll either work for them or I won't. But it's always, it's always worked out good, um, but I've got to have something that that challenges me, um, and that's a hard thing. The hard thing too, because, um, you know, I think one of the bigger skill sets is tact. All right, we talked a little bit about that. It's not how you solve the problem, but it's how you go about it. Oh yeah, there's some people that are just inherently Abrasive Assholes. There you go, and hey, there are people too. They've got business that needs to be transacted. If I want to, I think I can pretty much deal with anybody for a certain period of time. So, you know, that's one of the things that is, in and of itself, a skill set. I know law, I know engineering, I know title, but also engineering, I know title, but also, like no people, you don't have to like everybody you deal with, but that doesn't I mean they still have something that needs to get accomplished Right, irrespective of their personality traits, um, and if you choose to sign up and work for them, well, take that into account the type person that you're dealing with to help get the job done. So that's an example of things that I'm kind of discovering about me that go into my overall skill set that you ask about.
Speaker 2:Well, what's next Is developing that? You know what? Am I selling to somebody? Am I selling to somebody that I can? I can close your transaction. I can get you title insurance, I can sit across from a table from it. I'll even put on a tie for some people or am am I selling to you know my employer and the product is whole? Yeah, I'll get you there, but I'm also going to make sure it's a good experience, this whole. Yeah, I'll get you there, but I'm also going to make sure it's a good experience. I'm also going to give you good advice, and I do do that.
Speaker 2:The people that I'm closest with and advise I'll be like well, this is what it says, and if I was in your shoes, this is what I would do. And these are people that I've known now for and does done business with for upwards to a decade, and I think they put a lot of stock in that. Sure, you know a lot of them have a lot of money and they realize the difference. You know that, hey, if I was in your shoes, I would do this. I can't personally, but this is why I think you should do this. Um, so you know, uh, that honing in on things, you know, that's that three to five years I'm bored type of thing figuring out like the next step from that um, just because you solve a problem, because you walk through shit once, doesn't mean you want to do it daily, all right. Um, so figuring things out like that, how do I make myself a better employee with my skillset? Right, you know how. How do you take something like we spoke about earlier.
Speaker 2:That's not necessarily scalable and you know what's the next step for that? Because you know, as an employee, I'm a big believer that you need to have open communication with your employer, two way street, all right, you're not indebted to them. You're there to help make them money and they pay you accordingly. Right, but you, it's also good to know where do they want to be as a company? Yeah, well, I want to be a $20 million a year company. I'm in a five year million dollar company now. Well, how do you want to do that? Well, I just want to make more money. I need 10 more Quintins, yes, you know. But also, what's your next step as an? I mean, what do they see as your next step as an employee? Because it doesn't have to be listen.
Speaker 2:Long gone are the times where our parents what did you start doing once you got into the work world? Well, I worked for Nissan and I did it for 40 years, and now it's time to retire. I was a teacher for 40 years. Applause to those people. Tremendous accomplishment and longevity. But the world, for the most part, is not like that anymore. It moves fast. Technology is changing, business is changing, so there's nothing wrong with being an interim employee for somebody If it's a two-way street. What can you help me learn? But to do that you've got to have good community, good communication, to know what it is you're trying to accomplish, what they have to offer you and vice versa, what you're offering them. Mostly, mostly, you see a job posting. It says can you do this? You say hey.
Speaker 2:I can do that, yes, I'm your guy, and that's the extent of knowledge that that they have is. They said they could do what's on this paper. Well, what are they doing for you, besides giving you a paycheck and the more you know about what like? How do you achieve a goal if you don't even talk about what the goal is?
Speaker 1:Well, you don't. I mean that's just in the inherent start of a goal. Right is when it's got to be written down and then you've got to have steps towards it. There's a process to it and I do think people lose sight of that and I know we've talked about this analogy before. But it's really kind of how I saw hiring and I've made every mistake. You can well not every, but I mean I've made a lot of the mistakes you can possibly make in hiring and interviewing people.
Speaker 1:And you know, after hiring roughly 2000 people over the last 20 years, um, somewhere along the way I figured out it was. It was kind of like the hitchhiker that has agreed to pay for gas, almost like ride share, but we didn't have ride share. When, when, when was kind of like the hitchhiker that has agreed to pay for gas, almost like rideshare, but we didn't have rideshare, when we kind of started talking about this. But employment is that way. So imagine that we're in Barstow, california, we're at almost the beginning of I-40. And I'm interviewing somebody, so they're the hitchhiker, and I don't mean this derogatory, but it's to paint the picture. So it could just be that it was unseasonably cold and that's why they want to get in a car, you know. So it could be that they just need money, like if you're an employee and you just need a job, well, but for most people that's not enough, because we may be trying to get to two different places. And so if I truly figure out where it is that you're trying to go and you're trying to go to Texas and I'm headed to Tennessee well then it makes sense for us to ride together for a certain period of time.
Speaker 1:But if you hold back and you really want to go to Alaska and I'm headed to Tennessee, well, this employee-employer relationship is going to get more and more tense every mile that I drive. There's only a very short period of time that you're going to be thankful that you're not out in the cold or in the rain anymore, meaning that you're getting a paycheck. And the further we go, the further you're getting away from where you're trying to go. So you become less hospitable, you become more aggravated. I start to wonder why you're not being grateful. And so we become adversarial, whereas we just shouldn't have been in the car with each other to start with, like I shouldn't have hired that person.
Speaker 1:Also, if you're headed to Texas, there's clearly a jumping off point where that you said interim, but it could be a year, it could be five years, who knows. But as long as we're both getting closer to our goals, that makes sense. But I also know as an employer that somewhere in Texas it's going to make sense for you to get out of the car and if we've had that conversation up front and we've had check-ins along the way, I'm cheering you on, I'm excited about you getting to your destination and I have no false pretenses that you're riding with me all the way to the end. But I think so many times people don't do enough work in the interview in order to figure that out.
Speaker 2:Right, it's kind of figure that out, right it's kind of like a relationship yeah Right, you date a lot of people. You don't marry them all, that's right, all right. So throughout the vetting process, you know, if you say you don't want kids on the third date, your companion says I want three kids. You know that that's not headed down the same path, which is good. Kids. You know that that's not headed down the same path, which is good. And I think, a lot of times you know the interview process, which totally not my thing, your thing, not mine is. The art to it is to try to figure out as much as you can the employee, potential employees, coming in there saying I can do all of this, I'll work hard, I'll work real hard. Matter of fact, the more you pay me, the harder I'll work. But lost in that is the dialogue of okay, I'm going to work hard, I'm going to do this, I'm going to master this skill. Then what is that? Is that? It Is the cycle I keep doing it and doing it.
Speaker 2:That's fine, that's a lot of different jobs and some people are geared for that and some people are not, and some people are not, and I think that I am not, because real life example a while back I had an opportunity to go to potentially work for a company that five years ago would have been my okay I want to do this, would have been my okay I want to do this. And it kind of caught me off guard and um got to talking about things and, you know it, it got to the point of, after a week or so, they wanted to start talking about money. And that's when I just said, listen, I'm, I'm happy where I'm at, I'm liking what I'm doing, I'm headed down this path. And, uh, I think I'm just going to stay where I'm at, because I didn't want the money to be a factor in that, yeah, and that I mean, like I said, I like money as much as the next person, wish I had more of it, um, on that, but I didn't want that to be what influenced me ultimately. And the same thing when I said about personal and professional growth All right, yes, I'm not naive to think that money isn't a part of that, but I don't want it to be. Yeah, all right, I'm a, I'm a self educator on things that I, that I don't know. All right, we all need somebody to help us.
Speaker 2:I was in a great situation going to Wagon Wheel Title, where I'm at now, where somebody that was there knew long-term that's not what they wanted to do. But they were there for an interim period of over a year and I sat right beside them and I sucked that up Every question I had Eric, eric, eric, it was great. It helped me get my feet under me a whole lot quicker. Um, so it's not always a bad thing to to say Jim, I'm going to join your company and from what it sounds like and what the steps are for advancement, I got three years with your company. I'm going to give you hard work for three years, but then, after that three years is up, I don't know what's next. But I think we both agree that you're not going to sell me your company, right? So how can you help me three years from now, once I have, hopefully, your company's in a better place? I've worked hard, we've both learned, but you know it'd be great if you could work that out on the front end, if you had enough dialogue through the interview or knew enough.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's not ideal. It usually takes a while to learn both sides before you can have that conversation. But you know a defined or a you know, less than 30 year career and employer is the is the norm. Why does it? It doesn't have to always end bad but, like you said, like your car ride example, too many people who are going to Alaska don't really say what's on their mind until they get in Arkansas and they're like well, hell, man, I'm trying to get to Alaska, why am I in Arkansas? I don't know, man, I just offered you a ride. I said I'm going to Tennessee and you're still in my car, right, and then it turns bad for everybody. So you know, what's next for me is trying to learn more about me and the skillset that I have, the way I can fulfill that personal and or professional growth and move things forward.
Speaker 1:I love it, man. I love it. Let's talk about. Let's talk about health for a minute. We touched on it a little earlier. Let's talk about health for a minute. We touched on it a little earlier. Now, back up to June 22nd of this year you and I both were heavier than we are now. Yes, and we got that way on accident, meaning we chose not to make better choices and we let work and family and being busy and all kinds of things be excuses, and chicken wings and Mexican and bourbon, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1:Definitely tortilla chips. And uh, man, we started talking uh, this would have been kind of early or mid June. And I said, man, why don't you do this animal based diet with me? And uh, let's knock it out. And you jumped all full on board and uh, any idea how much weight you've lost, uh, maybe, maybe 30 pounds, something like that.
Speaker 2:But that that's my MO. Okay, I can't half anything. No, no, all in. It's like listen. If to run a marathon, let's like run the, run the marathon. Yeah, why, why take two?
Speaker 1:weeks to do something when you can do it in one week. Yeah, it's like things I don't want to practice it, I just go do it. That's it, yeah. So, uh, what's now?
Speaker 2:what's next on the health thing, health side, um well, I'm still doing it and I like it, the variety of it and you know, like you said, it's mainly um. I guess it's kind of like a keto thing. Try to eat under 25 carbs a day and 200 grams of protein, which is work. It is work, man, it's work. It's laborious at times. What's been your highest protein day? Probably like 250 or something like that, but that's when I just have like a bunch of leftover meat and I'm like it's going to spoil. I'll just eat this bag of meat for dinner. You know it's depressing. It's not much for family meals. You know you don't sit out at the table and you know they're having like lasagna and I'm having a bag of bowl of meat over here.
Speaker 1:But it is high quality meat it is.
Speaker 2:Now it is grass-fed grass-finished, jim and I took our relationship to a new level. We bought a cow. Yes, we did the same cow.
Speaker 1:Went to the middle of nowhere Kentucky to pick it up Right.
Speaker 2:So you know a funny thing too. I haven't told you this. But Jim's also like hey, man, you need to be taking these vitamins. I'm like dad gum man, like send me a list. He's like, I'll do better than that, I'll put it in your amazon cart. So he puts it in my amazon card, he like creates this page and all he's like all you got to do is click accept or whatever.
Speaker 2:So I did, and I take these 13 pills. Meanwhile I've got a five-year-old daughter and a six-month-old son now and they're in daycare and with that comes germs and sickness regularly. So, kelly, my wife is taking this vitamin. You know it's like immuno, but it's like three pills. Yeah, she's like Quentin, you got to take these pills, right Cause I started getting sick, and it's just like it's a little. Jimmy tells you take 13 pills and you take 13 pills. I'm your wife telling you to take three and you won't take them. What kind of pull does Jim have over you? So that's the current battle in our house is why I don't take her three pills compared to your 13. And I'm just like, babe, I'm a creature of habit, all right, I do the same thing to Emily.
Speaker 1:I'm like here's your new vitamins. And she's like, oh, okay.
Speaker 2:So there I am. I'm just like counting them out in my closet every morning 13 little pills, oh yeah. Otherwise, the pill bottles are sitting right there she wants me to take. I don't know there you go, but I'm enjoying it. I feel better. Yeah, it's a little bit hard to tell how much better I feel because at the same time I came off cholesterol medicine yes, which is the devil. It is awful. So had a CT calcium scan. Everything's great, scored zero. Not the only thing I've scored zero on, but one I'm excited about scoring a zero on. So yeah, I feel I feel better. I mean, it's not I need to get back into the exercise and things like like you do. But um, yeah, it just. It's a world of difference. And now I've got, you know, before this, I tell my daughter she's like, get out on the floor and play Elsa with me. All right, I'll get down the floor, but when I get up I'm not getting back down, that type of thing.
Speaker 1:Um, so yeah, now you can do both, now you can get up and get down.
Speaker 2:I don't have yeah, I don't have a choice with a six month old as well, but uh, yeah, I feel I feel a lot better than I have in the last decade.
Speaker 1:I love it man, I love it. Um, I'm so proud of you too, I mean, and I know you're not a halfway guy, like I know you were going to go all in and I'm just glad that it's helped you. I'm glad that you're feeling better. You look, I mean you look literally like 10 years younger. Um, because you know, back up to June you look sick man and and I felt bad cause I felt bad Cause I was like, oh my gosh, like how do I, how do I talk him into it? And thank goodness, like you were like I'm ready, I'm yeah.
Speaker 2:I had been ready. And you know, hey, life's like I said, it's not easy. You get busy. Yeah, all right. I give my day everything I have. I probably, honestly, I probably peak around one 30. I get started in the mornings, wake up at five. You know the days I don't drop off at daycare. I'm in the office between six, six, 30. I hit it hard, no fluff. I don't go to lunch, because if I go to lunch for an hour that's an hour more work I got to have. But when I get home I'm just, I'm ready to tap out. That's it. I've given everything I had to give and some days it's not fair to my family. But, um, yeah, I was. You know, the last thing I wanted to do was come home or go to a gym or something like that.
Speaker 1:But I'm learning a new routine and it's, it's good, good man, how's uh? How's, how's Miss Bailey and Felix? They're great yeah they're great.
Speaker 2:They're two weeks sickness and you know, the Santa came by the house and that was all exciting and, um, it's, it's great. You know a six-month-old at 46 can be. It's interesting. Yeah, it's interesting. You know, I won't name names, but we had a friend when we were in high school. It's like his dad is so old. How do you think his dad is? His dad was 60 when we graduated high school 60. That's why we don't ever go over to his house and play. His dad was ancient. That's why. And then I'm like, oh okay, 46 plus 18. Woo, yeah, this will be fun.
Speaker 1:Well, this is going to help you get there, and help you get there in better shape and be able to enjoy it along the way yeah, and and you, you pushed me there because I would still be on that miserable path of um.
Speaker 2:You know, it's just, it's been, it's been a marketable change, it's's been great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well, good deal, man. I'm proud of you. You know one of the things that we did as part of a group years ago, and so a big shout out to Larry Roberts at Pinnacle Bank. So Larry puts on a mastermind group every I guess it's like every eight to 12 weeks, and we both joined that and went through the e-myth and that kind of thing. And I know, I know the e-myth was a big deal for you. It was, I think that was probably.
Speaker 2:You know, when somebody at a bank they're like, hey, you want to join our mastermind class, I'm like got no idea what it is, but I sure do. Um. So we met and we went through this book and that's probably the first professional development book that I read and I think it was great for this reason, because it outlined identifying what type of person you are from a work sense. Are you a task-oriented person? Are you a managerial-oriented person? Are you an entrepreneur? All right, and I've worked with some entrepreneurial minded people and I am not them. I thought they were crazy, but what I was thinking about they were thinking about years ago and had since moved on and that's why we didn't have that connect.
Speaker 2:And managerial I am not, I'm right, I like to do things, I like to be in control. If it's assigned to me, I don't care. If you assign other people to me, I'm still going to do it. So I'm a worker bee, I'm task oriented, all right. And which lends itself to being a fixer, which is which is huge for me to first start to identify what.
Speaker 1:I am.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right, and I'm not going to change to be one of these other people Like I'm, embracing this, all right. And I feel a lot of people say, well, man, I've got management written all over me. Look at me, I went to college, I went to law school, like people like me. Why can't I be a manager? Well, that's just not your skillset and that's fine. Don't try to be something you're not. So that was a huge.
Speaker 2:First step for me is to identify what am I? Yeah, what is my skills skillset? And my skillset is doing, all right, I have control issues, all right. If you know, I delegate something and somebody makes a mistake. Well, it's harder for me to apologize for their mistake than if it is my own Right, it's just the way. I am not going to change nothing wrong with it. So that was a. That was a big, big help for me. Um, cause I never thought about it? Yeah, you know, you think you know I'm a. I'm a professional. I need people to manage and that's how you scale and I need to start my own business and that's how you make lots of money and all these things. That's great for the people that can do it, but don't try to be something you're not. Celebrate what you are and make the most of that.
Speaker 1:I love it All right, changing gears. Just a little bit. What would you say is your most fun moment in your life to date?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, there's people that have kids. Having a kid is kind of like a big deal. You're like I'm responsible for other beings. Now that's great. I mean it's the big. Did you say the most fun? Yeah, most fun.
Speaker 1:Oh, man, and and I want to I want to give you a an opportunity to be off the hook to some degree on this one, because, uh, as, as somebody that has an 11 year old, they get much more fun than like. You know, there's this, there's this innocence phase and and there's a moment when that goes away and the innocence is kind of you don't really know the day or the minute that it happened, but there's a moment where that innocence that is over your child's face and it's just part of their psyche. There's a there's a moment where that's just gone, and I remember the week that that happened with Castle, but it's traded for the new version and they're more fun, and so, you know, as Castle gets older, we get to do more things together, and so I say that, to say it may or may not involve kids, because they're five and six months old.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's the. I still have those fun things. Now, you know, the innocent, the innocent fun. I mean Santa Claus knocked on our door and came in our house last Sunday. That was kind of a big deal. That's like we know the man I mean he think there's a lot of people in the world he singled us out came to our house, so that that's a big deal and the reactions that that came with that.
Speaker 2:So, um, you know, just, it's more experiences, the fun of the fun of things. I mean it's not individual accomplishments or anything, individual accomplishments or anything. So, um, you know, and it's it's a little bit hard to say this because it's like I need more experiences in life. That's one of the downsides of having a good work ethic is you can't, you can't shut it off. Yeah, you almost need like a handler, all right, and it needs to be your employer. Yeah, they know, they need to realize that this is what you are, and the more that they assign to you, you're going to get it done, but it's also going to be taken away from you and your family and then, when you realize that it creates resentment and everything else. So I need more experiences.
Speaker 2:You know, I'm going to try to have more experiences this next year. You know I'm going to try to have more experiences this next year. You know, a family trip somewhere, this, that and other. I'm going with a couple of guys over to Scotland to do that. So you know there've been. It's, it's all experiences. I think for anybody that's been been fun. I mean, you go to the university of Alabama for five years and four summers to get one degree. You've you've had your level of fun on things. But that's what it's about. It's just. For me it's going to be the fun of experiences with family and the ones going forward.
Speaker 1:For sure, man, I look forward to it. That's good stuff. Um, all right, so this is a random one, but because I'm a bowler and you've known me throughout this whole situation, um, you know, I can. I can remember you and your dad and miss Jenny stopping by my house when I lived in Clarksville and your dad just being like and you bowl backwards, why? And I mean, obviously I didn't have a good response, but nevertheless still at it Um, but, if we were going to put on a celebrity or charity event around bowling and you had to pick a team and these, these people could be celebrities, they could be people you've known, they could be living or not living, anybody throughout history who would you have on your team?
Speaker 2:Wow, no clue. If they're bowlers Doesn't matter. Tiger Woods Just an intriguing individual to me.
Speaker 1:He was on Virgil's, by the way.
Speaker 2:Shocker, let's do Frank Sinatra, nate Borgazzi, because I got to have somebody to be like comedically stupid with and he's got my same sort of personality of dry satire, but with great timing. Yeah, all right, and bigger eyes.
Speaker 1:And so all right, so that's who you're going to bowl with. You get to pick a commentator.
Speaker 2:You know what I like? The guy who was on Holy Moly, who's also the sportscaster guy I forget his name. He's called a few Titans games. Anyway, he's an NFL sportscaster guy. He's on, he did Holy Moly and he is just quick witted. Yeah, quick witted and um, just the comedic side of things. That's who I'd have it. His voice and inflections in his voice they're spot on, all right.
Speaker 1:I love it, man. All right, last thing. So, um, if you had one bit of advice out there to give to somebody that's watching this podcast right now and they are, they're feeling stuck, or they're feeling maybe that they picked the wrong career path, or maybe that, you know, they don't have control over how their life is going, or their happiness level, or maybe their health, what is, what's the advice you give to them right now?
Speaker 2:First of all, if you're in a job that you're not happy with, talk to your employer. I mean, they're people, right, they want what's best for you, because what's best for you is best for them. So it's good to have that open line of communication. Maybe they have an idea of something else you can do. Maybe they, you know, will encourage you to go do something else. If they know you're miserable, they're not going to want you to hang around Not good for office morale. But there's other reasons, you know. And the other thing is, really do some thinking about what it is that is your skill set. I mean, before you asked me two months ago if I wanted to be on your podcast, you know I had kind of thought about it, but just kind of like a business plan or anything else. You know, I hadn't really written it down. I could kind of talk about it.
Speaker 2:But everybody has a skill set and it's not knowledge all the time, it's not book smarts, it may be how you go about doing something, it may be the compassion that you have or show something. That's still a skill set, what makes you valuable in what you do. So, you know, always tell people too that listen when I'm. When I'm disgruntled on things. I mean I like to verbalize I don't want to call it I'm bitching, just a bitch but you know it's good to hear yourself say it sometimes. But I encourage people that aren't happy, like before you go into a review and you just complain how do you solve it? I mean, what's your solution? You should know you better than anybody else. You know better than your employer, better than your spouse. You should know you, and if you can't tell somebody how to make better use of you, how are they supposed to do that? Yeah, so, and that is not something like flipping a light switch You're not just going to say you know what, after dinner tonight I'm going to sit down and I'm going to think about me and then tomorrow I'm going to march right in there and we'll make things happen.
Speaker 2:Doesn't work that way. So spend time on yourself is to what? What is it that makes you a value add to somebody else? You know it's not like now I've been literally within the last two weeks I'm discovering that mine is not engineering or law or anything else, that anybody else can pick up a book and pass the test and read. All right, it's. It's bigger than that it's.
Speaker 2:People want to work with me because they've had a good experience, because of the way I've treated them, because of the way I've responded to an email or the way that I have advised them, or because they were used to having the volume based experience. And then they got a different experience with me, somebody that actually took an interest in what they were trying to accomplish. So none of those things are academic, they're all just personality. All right, and you may be a stick in the mud on the personality, but you may be smart as a whip. Focus on that, you know, but do that If you're stuck in a rut. You haven't always been in that rut, whatever it is. Addiction, job, forward thinking. Just put some effort into thinking about what makes me me, what makes me valuable, and go from there.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, you know, um I don't know if you saw the um, the episode with Giannis Lasmanis, um, and he's from Latvia, so you know long way, long way from home here in Nashville these days and, uh, he said it's all going to be all right in the end. So if it's not all right right now, it's not the end. And I was like, wow, that's good, I got to write that down. But we get to tell our own story and I think we have to own our mistakes, be accountable to where we're at today. And by being accountable to where we're at today, it gives us the power to change it. And because if you say it's oh well, life happened to me and this happened to me and I didn't have any control over it, well, it also insinuates that you don't have control to change it. But you do, and you have to make up that your mind. You have to decide that it's worth changing, and a lot of that is through self-discovery and knowing who you are and what you want in life. Uh, at least in some direction.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a big thing now too, that you caught on is like it's okay to make mistakes but like if you make a mistake don't make an excuse. Yep, I did it. Why? Well, I mean, I don't know why, sometimes things just happen. But here's what I'm going to do to fix it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that makes you a person that separates you from the herd, and the fact that you're approachable. You know, the person that you're working with probably didn't make that same mistake. They might have, but they have made mistakes. And you know, no matter how hard I try and precise, as I try to be, I make mistakes, but I'm always the first one to say I'm sorry and apologize for it.
Speaker 2:It's kind of funny at my, my last job, I had to deal with a lot more people in public on some things, and you know I actually I wrote I think it was five I'm sorry cards, boss, that they got calls after people had interacted with me and they're like you know, we've got your back on all this stuff and we understand, but still, you don't like people are vulnerable, just inherently, like there's nothing wrong with showing that side of things. You know, I like to think that I can fix just about any problem. There you have it, but I'm going to make some mistakes as I'm doing it. We're not perfect and I'll be apologetic for it and I'll try not to make it again. But be wary of people that say that they don't make mistakes.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, well, they're not make mistakes, oh yeah, no, well, they don't. They're not being truthful in that moment. Plain and simple.
Speaker 2:Back to the trust and all the other things we talked about. That will follow you.
Speaker 1:That's right and reputation absolutely does. Well, quentin, I appreciate you coming in, I appreciate you stepping out of, maybe, the norm a little bit and joining me on the podcast and you know, as always, I mean again, best friend for 30, 35 years. You know I look forward to great things that you're going to do. I look forward to the other great things that we'll experience in life together and seeing you as a dad man. You know it's hard to tell somebody how awesome it is to be to be a dad until they are, and you know I love seeing you in that, in that, in that space, and the fact that we get to raise our kids together and and all those things. Um, how does somebody get ahold of you?
Speaker 2:Well, I'm with wagon wheel title is where I've've been at. I've been there for going on four years. We're in East Nashville, green Hills. My mugshot's up on their website if you want to reach out to me and contact me that way. We do, like I said, we do closings, we do title work and you know I think we've got a great product for the size. You know a lot of title companies may have like an attorney owner and everybody else that handles things is a processor and I'm sure you know, proficient at stuff. But we really do kind of fill a niche. We've got eight or nine attorneys in-house at our firm, so we're big enough that we can do some of the ancillary legal things and keep it all under kind of one roof. So it's good to get a good group of owners, a good group of employees and I'm enjoying it.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, man. Well, until next time, everybody, I hope that you enjoyed this time with my good buddy, quentin Horner attorney, engineer, proud dad, husband and just a rock star that I've known for a very long time. Until next time, I hope that you can take some nuggets from this and other episodes and improve your life and be excited about the future. We'll see you next time. Bye-bye, hey, team Jim Cripps, here with the Charge Forward Podcast. I just wanted to tell you. Hey, team Jim Cripps, here with the Charge Forward Podcast. I just wanted to tell you thank you.
Speaker 1:It is the holiday season and I can't tell you how much I appreciate everyone in my life, even those that I've never met. They're out there listening to this podcast. I've been so fortunate to have amazing people come in here in the studio with me and share their life story, and then all the people that are in my life that got me to this point. You know who you are and I just wanted to tell you thank you. My life has been incredible.
Speaker 1:It's not that there haven't been lows and it's not like there haven't been highs, but the reality is my life has been improved and shaped and molded by so many people been improved and shaped and molded by so many people. That's why I tell people all the time I do not agree with anybody saying that they are an island or they're self-made, because so many people, both good and bad, help us shape the life that we lead. So please take a few extra moments and just appreciate and be grateful for all the wonderful people that make up your world, and just know that I am thankful for each and every one of you. From everybody here at the Charge Forward podcast and HitLab Studios, I just want to say thank you, happy holidays and enjoy your family. We'll see you later.