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 Real Secret to Success? The Partner You Choose and the Mentor Who Guides You”
What’s the one decision that could make or break your success? According to this collection of powerful stories from top performers and entrepreneurs—it’s your choice of mentor and spouse.
In this powerful episode of the Charge Forward Podcast, host Jim Cripps sits down with a variety of inspiring guests—Chris Neville, Nick Hiter, Virgil Herring, Jason Lewis, Colby Jubenville, El Lagutin, Carissa Oakey, Jeremy Qualls, Bob Learn Jr., Miles & Jill Reidelberger , Amber Wotring, Jordan Grubbs, Jamie Steelman, Steve & Bre Price, and more—to explore the deep impact that personal and professional partnerships have on long-term success.
You'll hear real stories of:
- Mentors who instilled unshakable belief and discipline
- Spouses who refused to let their partners settle or give up
- Complementary personalities that created unstoppable teams
- What “don’t self-select” really means—and how to stop playing small
- Why shared values, support, and challenge create the ultimate advantage
Whether you’re a business owner, leader, athlete, or anyone chasing big goals—this episode will remind you that who you surround yourself with can change your life.
✅ Tune in now and discover the underestimated superpowers of mentorship and marriage.
🎧 Listen. Learn. Charge Forward.
Want to connect with the Charge Forward Podcast?
🌐 Website: https://www.chargeforwardsolutions.com/podcast
📱 Instagram: @ChargeForwardPodcast
📱 TikTok: @ChargeForwardPodcast
📱 Facebook: Charge Forward Podcast
🐦 X (formerly Twitter): @ChargeForwardX
🎥 YouTube: Charge Forward Podcast Channel
New episodes drop every Thursday. Subscribe, rate, and share if this episode resonates with you.
Special Thanks to Our Sponsors:
💳 Charge Forward Solutions – Merchant Services: Charge Forward Solutions
📈 Sense Development – Executive & Data Services: Sense Custom
🌟 Rosemary Salazar – Virtual Assistant Services: Find A Way with Rose
🎥 HitLab Studios – Podcast Studio: HitLab Studio
#ChargeForward #MentorshipMatters #Entrepreneurship #MarriageAndBusiness #LeadershipDevelopment #SpouseSupport #SuccessMindset #PersonalGrowth #AuthenticityWins #PodcastRecommendations #RelationshipGoals #GrowthMindset #BusinessSuccess #Teamwork #HighPerformanceHabits
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 this is a question that we have not talked about, but it comes up in almost every episode, especially when it's couples or entrepreneurs is how much would you say your success has been tied to the fact that you found the right spouse?
Speaker 2:I mean, I think that it's absolutely imperative that you're finding the right spouse to support you right, that it's absolutely imperative that you finding the right spouse to support you right and creating a creating life and creating a family is important to be able to, to have a solid foundation to build upon Right. And I think, and I can, I can't commend my spouse, kayla, enough to be able to support me and my crazy ideas and my crazy. You know my high energy and high, high, you know mental capacity. We'll call it and and you know I never, never, never, thought we'd be where we're at and I'm fortunate that we are and I can't. Yeah, it's 100%. We wouldn't be able to build anything without that foundation.
Speaker 1:Well, I think we're both lucky in that regard, because my wife will tell you I'm too much and mine is. Emily is just steady and I think Kayla is very much the same for you. Absolutely, and it's that balance right.
Speaker 2:Yep, she's cool, calm and collected. I'm the highly motivated move, move, move, go, go go ask questions later, make it happen.
Speaker 1:I think too and, like we talked about, this comes up in almost every episode you had backing from your spouse in that you were supporting him making a big change, and also when you were growing a clinic, he was supporting you, and so you guys are supporting each other. Definitely reciprocated yeah. And so in your opinion, you know you guys have been together.
Speaker 6:What 20 years right, Just celebrate our 20th 20th anniversary. Well, congratulations.
Speaker 1:That's fantastic and you've got two great kids, Thank you. You know we uh, branch and castle, hang out all the time. Um, how impactful to your life, or how much of your success do you think is attributed to the fact that you you got the right spouse, that you you picked correctly and you were supporting each other? Do you want to answer this?
Speaker 6:Well, I just want to point out I don't think it's necessarily the success of the businesses. I think it's uh led to my happiness, like if I didn't have the right spouse. I mean, I see what some of these uh couples go through and we even say to each other like, oh, thank god, I'm happy, I, I hope she's happy, but uh entering the dating scene again, or something like that Well you know, sex is important and we prioritize that in our life.
Speaker 5:It's part of it really, and you know, I think that we have two businesses, but making our marriage a priority is something we said at the beginning. We said that we didn't want to be in business together if it meant that it was going to compromise our marriage. So we have to. We always make it a priority to set time aside for ourselves.
Speaker 6:And she's.
Speaker 1:She's better than I am, but she'll be like no, you're spending time with me today and thank God she does Cause that's, that's how it to have the right partner, to have the right spouse that supports you, that you live this life with all the way.
Speaker 8:I mean, it's everything for me. I can speak on that. Going back to what I said was a difficult answer was to talk about some of the thoughts that I was dealt, you know, growing up and the fact that it's not for us, you know, it's not going to happen. You know, and in kind of pigeonholing, thinking Well, my sister worked in a salon and I came home for a free haircut and there was this new girl in the salon and I asked my sister who this new girl was and and if you could ask her if she was busy, because I think I want to meet her and see if she'll cut my hair for me. And and I met this girl named stacy and, uh, we went on a date the next night and, well, changed my life.
Speaker 8:Um, she's been such a great support. She. The first thing she said to me is like um, you throw this ball amazing, and why haven't you done more in a sport? And I'm like, wait, what no one had ever quite said it to me like that and her belief in me in all things sense, and following whatever path I was taken in, believing and supporting that has been amazing, and it's not easy to find someone like that. She has supported me from day one.
Speaker 8:The other is she gave me purpose. We had a family, and that never, let me say, I quit Right, because it was having that whole package that you needed to drive you, because you couldn't give up. You had to keep going. You had to keep going and work harder.
Speaker 8:But she always supported that and she in fact would be like what are you doing? Today? I'm like well, I thought I'd take the kids. Well, don't you have to practice? You know like no, go, practice first, we'll be okay, we'll wait to get back. And you know I had a pretty strong regimen as far as how much time I put into it and she didn't want that to change. Even when I became comfortable on tour and made quite a bit more money, she's like no, that's what got you there. You can't now just kick back go. I made it because you're going to fall right back. So she saw that and she made me work harder than, uh, you know I wanted to, simply because I want to be with my family more, and she understood that. But she said, no, you're doing this for us, you're going out there and you're doing this for us, so you are taking care of your family.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and again, I think it goes right back to kind of the. The mission of the charge for podcasts is people who don't give up, like I think you said it perfectly. You said you, you, you couldn't imagine giving up, but you also don't know how to win, you know, and I think that's just that's a a wonderful spirit and thing to have, and so many people just default to giving up, like, oh, they, they. It's like they're looking for the signs to tell them that they're supposed to give up, instead of looking for that, that one thread that says no, no, no, hang on, you're, you're, you're going to get there.
Speaker 9:Yeah, I, I, I like to call that the self-fulfilling prophecy. You have already decided that it's going to be a reality. So anything you can think of, or any excuse that you see and you're like oh, that's it, that's the reason why I have to give up, um, so I being aware of that's kind of important. And then, not that I want to give Steve an even bigger head than he has, but, um, there was plenty, plenty of times early on in my life that I was not a charge forward person. Um, I didn't. I, I had the drive, but the fear of failure was just too much to to persevere. Um, and if I didn't know how to get there, I would just be like I can't do it, I gotta quit. Um. And then, steve, what's your favorite saying?
Speaker 11:Don't self-select.
Speaker 9:Don't self-select. There was. I wanted to go to Pathfinder school. Um, that way it was an option for me, not an option for many women and not an option with medical service officers. Very often it's applicable, but it's a big deal. In the Army it's a big deal. Pathfinders are very cool, and I wanted to do it and I was feeling really nervous and like I couldn't do it and I just couldn't keep up. I couldn't with the image that I had created of people that had made that.
Speaker 9:And Steve was like don't self-select, you're, you're going to fail if you don't do it. And as soon as he said that, like, again, there's a few light switch moments in my life, and that was one. Um, and since then, anytime I start feeling discouraged or feeling like I need to, um, take a step back or I can't just keep pushing, I'm like well, of course, if I give up, I'm going to fail, and that's enough to be like you might win, though, and that's more powerful than the fear of failure, because what happens if you succeed? What does that look like? I mean our life now. Our life is there's hard things, but our life is amazing, and we have worked so hard for where we are. We have foregone a lot for where we are, but if I had given up like, how dark would it have been?
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, I needed to know that you gave up. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 9:Yeah, and how many more times would I quit on myself Like that's not, that's not worth it?
Speaker 1:Surrounding yourself with people who think that same way. Absolutely Cut proximity is everything, man, especially at home. Now you've got one heck of a support system. Tell me a little bit about the family.
Speaker 12:Um, my wife's the true superstar. You know, um, I'm a. The joke is, but it's the truth. You know, my, my mom and grandmothers did a great job of raising me, but they got me to a certain two kids with her is the gift of a lifetime. It's the by far the greatest thing that God ever gave us besides Jesus was was our kids. And um, my wife is, um, she's that, you know, growing up the the most beautiful women.
Speaker 12:A lot of times they came with some baggage. Maybe they're they thought too much of themselves or they weren't, they just didn't that kind big sweetheart baggage. Maybe they're they thought too much of themselves or they weren't, they just didn't that kind big sweet heart, or at least they didn't put that out there, you know, and um, I think about that movie, the mean girls. You know, um, my wife's the exact opposite of that. She's just an absolute knockout. But she has the big heart and is the exact opposite of of, like the mean girl syndrome. You know what I mean.
Speaker 12:So, um, raising kids with her, and our son is a exact replica of her, our daughter's exact replica of of me, and um, just teaching them, you know, it's so hard not to want to do everything for them, when actually your job is to, as a parent, is to prepare them for life, and you can't prepare them by anything by doing it for them, you know. So, on one hand you want to do nice things for them and give them everything, but the really, the really, the thing you should give them is the knowledge so that they can get hit less when light, when they grow up on their own and they're out, and, and you know so, that way life's going to knock you down. But, man, if you're prepared for that punch and you can brace for it, um, it doesn't have, it doesn't knock you back as far, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. Well, I love it. So, and to kind of paint the picture for everybody out here, so you started as as a coach, a football team, football team, and then you've progressed in your career, but also we added some family along the way. Absolutely, you got two rockstar kids.
Speaker 13:Well, thank you.
Speaker 1:We got. We got Jack on the MTSU basketball team basketball team. And then we've got MB is on the danceTSU basketball team Basketball team. Yep, and then we got MB is on the dance team.
Speaker 13:I love that you know these things, man. It gives me chills, man. I mean, yeah, little MB, man, she's you got to watch out for her. Man, she's the one that she'll slap you. Just, I mean, if you come across her the wrong way, man, she is coming at you.
Speaker 13:Both those kids I told Jack from a very early age I said I am going to treat you like an adult and along the way we're probably going to have a relationship that most fathers and sons wouldn't have. But I promise you, when I hand the baton off to you, you will be able to run the race in ways that nobody else can. And as I sit here before you, uh in the hit lab at 52, and Jack is 22, and watched what he's done, uh at at MTSU, and I would have never, I would have never guessed in a million years that both my kids would have gone to MTSU. It just was not the story that I was telling myself. And what's so cool is I get to go out to your point. I get to go out and I get to watch my son be part of a team, learn how to use adversity to accelerate growth, get specialized coaching.
Speaker 13:What's rule number one of talent development. Get around people better than you. What's rule number two become better than them in the ways that you're uniquely gifted. What's rule number three make the pie bigger. What's rule number four make the pie so begging, start the bakery. And I see that happening for them and I love it. It's. It's what I saw for them from a very early age, for both of them. And MB has found this little home and dance and she's out there on the field and uh, I know we're going to talk about health and she's part of that story as well, but they're thriving. Man Jack's getting a degree in finance which good, good Lord, I know I couldn't even pass the first class in finance and MB is doing social media, electronic media, and they're thriving and they're happy and and I get them here with me during this stage of life- and it is exactly what you wish for them right, for them to be happy, for them to be thriving, yes, and so hats off to both of them.
Speaker 1:As parents, it's our job to build the foundation, but it's up to them what they do with it Well, and both of you have expressed just how supportive your spouses are, and so I think that's a big piece to this people. You know this was not by design, but most people that end up sitting in this podcast studio and coming on the show will agree that who you pick as your partner in this world, in this life, your spouse is probably and I say probably because I really want to say is, but we'll leave a little bit out there for some people as the biggest decision that you will make, the most important decision you will make on the trajectory of your life.
Speaker 10:I mean having done it wrong the first time. I can tell you that when you're with the wrong person, it makes life a lot harder. And then, when you're with someone that's supportive and kind and wonderful, it makes life so much easier. And I wouldn't be able to do it without the support of my husband, my family, my sister. I wouldn't have ever taken that leap. And your spouse has to be 100% with you because when you start a business, you're giving it everything, Absolutely your finances, your house, yourself, everything that you own, and your time. You're putting it into this business. It's taking 100% to get it off the ground and to get it going. So if you don't have your spouse supporting you in doing that, I really don't see how it's going to work.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, and I think for entrepreneurs, there's a natural point where you've kind of reached the pinnacle of what you're going to do for somebody else and now it's time to do it for yourself. Yep, and you know, I'm just happy that y'all reached that.
Speaker 10:Us too, actually, we got pushed into it and then we accepted it.
Speaker 1:Well, there's plenty of people that would have a self-doubt or a mindset that would keep them from doing that, and so I don't think that's by accident. I think it's partly because you have so many years of experience so you know what you're capable of. And then I think we talked once and you said something to the effect of I was asking people to take a chance on me, but I wasn't willing to take a chance on me, and I think that is incredibly profound.
Speaker 10:My motto is take a chance on yourself.
Speaker 1:There you go, but it hasn't always been that way it has not.
Speaker 10:That's great, that's great.
Speaker 1:So I think it just continues to prove that we are constantly working to become the person we are supposed to be, and that takes effort, yep, and that takes getting uncomfortable and it takes being accountable, and a lot of people will try not to be any of those things.
Speaker 1:They want somebody else to blame for it. They do not want to be, they don't want to blame themselves and they are in this rut. They don't want to take that action. Um, but you know, that's, that's everybody's individual choice, right? I think it's. It's one of those things where I really like to operate, whether we're talking about personally or in business or any of those things I like to operate in this zone that I call selfish and selfless at the same time. Yeah, and so, if you think about it, the most selfish thing you could possibly do is root for your teammate and the most selfless thing that you could possibly do at the same time is root for your teammate. So I mean it's win-win. Like there is never a reason why you would ever, you know, wish a negative thing on your partner in this life. You're right, I mean again.
Speaker 15:Life's too short right.
Speaker 1:Or, in this case, what we're talking about is painting them in a light that's unfavorable, you know, and I think we're both incredibly fortunate, and this actually comes up in almost every episode, but it wasn't by design. But when we think about people who charge forward and people who default to leaning in, when other people would give up a lot of times it's because they have a supportive spouse yeah, people would give up Um, a lot of times it's because they have a supportive spouse. Yeah. And so for you and Jen, what do you? What do you think? Like how important has the fact that you found each other been to your lives?
Speaker 15:You know, if it wasn't for Jen I will tell you this, I wouldn't be in the seat that I am today. I wouldn't have the life that I've got today, Right? So, um, you know me, I'm, I'm very, um, I like to take chances or I like to take risks. Um, sometimes they're not good, sometimes they're great. Um, but if it wasn't for Jen to kind of keep me anchored down at times, um, I, I, I definitely wouldn't be where I am today. But if it wasn't for Jen, I also wouldn't be as successful as I am today. Right, because there's different challenges that we face, that she's like we need to take this opportunity and run with it, like moving back to Chattanooga, or you're not happy in doing this day-to-day stuff. Let's look at other options.
Speaker 15:Um, you know, I, I, I wouldn't have the education that I've got today without Jennifer, and so, and I think our kids aren't who they are if it wasn't for both of us. So, you know, I think, choosing a spouse or me choosing Jennifer, I don't ever want to say it that way Because, luckily she chose me, I didn't get to choose her way. Um, because, luckily she chose me, I didn't get to choose her. Um, it was by luck that we, we met um and we, you know, she picked me, uh, out of everybody, and so to me that means more than anything, um at all, cause I don't want to say that I picked her cause that's definitely not the choice. You know the answer to that.
Speaker 1:I know you touched on this with some of the podcasts that you listen to and those types of things. As you've been growing up this business what podcasts, who's been a part of it, who's mentored you just all the things who can you give a nod to. That's absolutely been either game-changing or a part of your growth.
Speaker 14:Well, I'll have to say, Jockaco, like he's got a great podcast and like you know, it seems nowadays like you touched on before, people don't want to work, like that's a whole big thing, like I don't, I don't want to do this. I mean, I don't know that. Your average high schooler boy knows how to change a tire, knows how to check his oil or even knows how, like if the batter is dead, I don't know what to him calling somebody. I mean, dude, when I, when it was, when I was young, you've got to figure it out. Yeah, and I go back to Jacques, because his story is he wanted to be a special ops type guy, a commando.
Speaker 14:Well, the Navy SEALs, they don't give those tridents out. You've got one week of hell first, you know, in the very beginning, and that weeds out everybody. Because I mean, but it's, it's just that the thing like, do the work, there's no, get your shit, get you, get up. I try to get up every day at five. I think it's like 502. I'm just weird, but I try to get every day like 502, even sunday, like, try to keep that schedule. And you know, even if I just get up and piddle around, or but when you work for yourself, you have kind of a small business, you know you're, you're always thinking about it. You know what do I need to do and it doesn't have to be much, but every day you're kind of, I guess, um, keeping your finger on the pulse maybe, and uh, and Jocko's, like all the dudes he interviews, are like dudes that have, like, some are fighter pilots, some were like in Vietnam, some were POWs, but like that generation up to well, up to the cell phone, and you know, like you know the smartphone, well up to the cell phone, and you know, like you know, the smartphone, there there was no easy anything.
Speaker 14:Now you've got like influencers and all that stuff and they just make videos but that, uh, what you see in the video or the clip or whatever they show you, that's just their. That's a happy moment and a lot of people compare that to their inner feelings of how they're feeling and that's not an equal thing. But like I guess I keep going back to like you got to get up, put your shoes on, let's go. Yeah, I mean you can't. I mean people, even adults, are like if they have a few minutes, they're on their phone, just scrolling, just looking, and you know I like to look to it, don't get me wrong, but like I got to go to work too, yeah, fun, and you know, it just kind of goes to show that you know we can't do it on our own.
Speaker 1:We need people. We need. We need people that inspire us. We need mentors, we need tours, we need. We need the bad people too, to show us what we don't want. That's exactly right. And they all shape us, they all get us to where we're at. You know, I think even um, because you, you shoot your podcast out of the same studio that's right in in a roundabout way. So colby introduced, introduced you, and I I was on your podcast. Then I was on nick's podcast and we were talking and he said I heard you were on virgil's podcast and I said, yeah, and he goes. Well, can you introduce me to Virgil? And I said, absolutely. In fact, I told Virgil he needs to be doing video and he goes. Well, I'll have that conversation with him.
Speaker 3:And, of course, now, here we are, here we are. Oh, and that's another thing is like that to me, like the, the abundant mindset and the, the. When you have a great community of people around you and you can introduce other like minded people and join communities together, it creates a level of power, because the more people you know that are like minded have positive vibes, the more, the more you can help others. Oh, yeah, right. So another huge impact on my life is Nick Heider. Nick has been nothing but awesome for me on so many different levels. One, because he's a great baseball player and coach.
Speaker 3:I'm on golf, but I played a lot of baseball, so we have a lot of commonalities. He's a baseball player who loves golf. I'm a golfer who loves baseball, you know. And then we have the similar growth mindset. We have a similar belief in pushing all bounds to how great we can be, and he's no different Like hey, I'm just Nick Heider, minor league baseball player, but that dude is such a great entrepreneur, yeah, and he makes anybody believe that if I can do it, you can do it, and we need more people like that. So Nick is one of the greatest additives to my life recently, for sure.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Selfishly. I love the energy, just like you. I love the energy that gets created. Nothing gets taken away. It's not taken away, it just adds to that Absolutely, Because there are definitely people that take from you. It's not taken away, it just adds to that Absolutely. Um cause there, there are definitely people that take from you. There's takers in this world. There's people that are neutral. There's people that that inspire you to be better or that you're better with you know, Um, and the more more great people, more great attitudes you can put around you.
Speaker 1:Just, I think it's like rocket fuel for your your existence.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's contagious, and the more contagion we can have in greatness, yep it, it, it's. It's one of those things like even the smallest pebble thrown into the ocean creates a ripple. So even if you well, I can't make as big of an impact as Michael Jordan can, it doesn't make as big of an impact as Michael Jordan can it doesn't make a difference that if you're a feel like you're a little pebble, you're still going to make a ripple in the ocean. And if you can make a positive change in just one person's life, you change the world. And most people don't recognize that until they do it. And then, whether I've impacted one or a hundred or a thousand or 10,000, is it completely irrelevant to me Because it only took one?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:It only took one to change my life.
Speaker 1:And you bring up another good point there. I love this conversation is you know, so much today has been watered down by us not keeping score, by us not talking about somebody won and somebody lost and what you need to do, what you need to fix. So that's one reason why I love the coaching aspect, the sports aspect, those types of things, but it plays right into your career.
Speaker 4:Like it, it does. And you know anything you do outside of bowling golf. Even then there's a team concept at some point in time. Uh, for me it was basketball. So I mean, you can't hide. When there's five people on the floor it's hard to hide. And if you're not any good and they have to hide you, you're not going to play. That's right. So you have to continually fight for a spot, which is something I love. And then when you get into the real world, it's like you said people like if they haven't done it, you can't.
Speaker 4:It's hard to learn older, right? You have to go through that trial by fire. You have to understand you have to lose. You have to go 5 and 21 in your first year to say, hmm, what's the problem? And then I went 6 and 20. Hey, I improved a game. And then I went 7 wins the third year and I thought, okay, this is insanity, I haven't changed anything. I keep thinking that the players are going to change, they're going to change the outcome. But it was the coach the whole time, it was me. Until I learned that valuable lesson, I wouldn't be sitting here with you today. Yeah, yeah, and that's all because of failure. So the first thing that we teach at DSE is fail often and fail forward. If you're not learning through your failures, it's insanity. You're doing the same thing over and over.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely Well, and again, I think that's. That's one of those things that's lost in a lot of households and I'm going to put this back on the parents is they're so quick to remove pain from the situation that the kid never learns how to deal with it, and so then that's where we end up with, you know, 20 year olds that can't hold a job or can't make it through school because they can't handle somebody holding them accountable.
Speaker 4:I think about this all the time, as a father of three, I have failed miserably. I'm hoping by the third, the third one, by the time he gets old enough that he can, maybe I have learned my lesson. Like coaching, right it's it's. Nothing gets you ready for fatherhood. My father told me all the way through one day, son, you'll understand. One day, son, you'll understand. I'm like whatever. And now I'm like he's. So right, here we are and and I try to raise our children. Yeah, with failure in mind. Yeah, hey, it's okay to fail. Okay, what'd we do wrong? Now, as we go back, when you approach this scenario again and we have helicopter parents this day that just at all costs comfort them and shield them from failures and the teachable moments of that. It's not fun. Nobody wants to do it Specifically with athletics, with your own children. Yeah, do you live vicariously through your children or do you back up and say they're their own person? Either they got to want it themselves and if they fail, or don't make the team. There's lessons involved in that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Don't complain about your playing time. What have you done to change it?
Speaker 1:That's right. Well, so along those same lines, who would you say other than your mom has been a great mentor along the way?
Speaker 7:Oh my gosh, my granddad, keith English. He might just be my favorite person in the world. It's the person I look up to most. He went through a lot of hardships when he was younger, but he's an entrepreneur. He's very much into self-help, like he met Zig Ziglar and he does right, is that not so cool?
Speaker 7:Um, and he does his morning affirmations and he's probably like the most generous and kind and hardworking person I know and he, oh my gosh he loves our family so much. That's my mom's dad and I don't know. He just sets a great example for what I want to be in life and he gave me his collection of self-help books, which there's six of us grandkids and we all, like about half of us, own our own businesses.
Speaker 16:Okay.
Speaker 7:And it's just all him. He's the one who inspired us to do that, and he's so awesome who inspired us to do that. And um, he's, he's so awesome, I look up to him a lot. He's also the busiest busy body you've ever met like he's 80, I think. For his 70 or 75th birthday he took a video of him like jumping from the floor onto a three-foot stool. We're like, um, that's cool that you can do that, but please don't. But he's's awesome. He never wants to sit down. He's still. He's still doing his thing and um, yeah, I look up to him so much.
Speaker 1:That's fantastic. Uh, I think one of the things that that we always try to do here is we try to have an action item, something that somebody could take you know that you have kind of fine tuned through your 30 years of doing mortgages a best practice or something that almost anybody could take that nugget and plug it into their life and make their life better. What do you think something that you would classify as that would be?
Speaker 11:yeah, I think it goes back to a little bit what we were talking about with kids, because I think it applies to anyone. I think just you know, reaching out I think it's particular into mortgages I tell people all the time just have the conversation, you know, and kind of all the aspects of my life lead back to just having the conversation. You know, if I need to talk to somebody about how I'm struggling, what I'm going through in life, it's really hard to solve it by yourself. I mean, you can spend time, you can, you can reflect, you can have, you know, inner thoughts and you can, you know, talk to yourself and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 11:But I think reaching out to somebody and just having a conversation whether it's you're going through a rough time or there's something you want to do in life, you know I I'm really big and I've told my kids a thousand times too there's something you want to do in life, Find somebody that's done it, Talk to them. Or, you know, call somebody that's expert in that field. When it comes to mortgages, if you want to buy a home, you don't have to go buy it tomorrow, but talk to somebody and see how to get on track to get there, I think. I just think communication is so huge and through the years I've learned more and more. The only way to find out about anything is to ask somebody about it. I mean, you've just you've got to ask somebody and if you can, you know. Like I said, if you know somebody, that's where you want to go, that's the best place to start.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cause they've been through it.
Speaker 11:Yeah, and they're going to have the best advice to tell you how to get started and help you learn it. So you know, from the smallest thing to the largest thing, I think the best thing you can do is just reach out and be open-minded about it. If that's really where you want to go or what you need help with, you can find it. You've just got to be willing to be open-minded and be open to it.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, they can't help you if you don't ask for the help. Absolutely, they're not mind readers, yeah.
Speaker 11:I've got so many things because I'm in my 50s now, so many things that I go. I wish I would have asked somebody sooner. So that's why I think that's the first step is you know it it? I learned a whole lot of that process through our grief and through losing Ryan. Um was how much you need other people.
Speaker 11:I was, you know, through through high school, um, college age, all that kind of stuff. I was very quiet, didn't talk to a lot of people and and really just didn't share hardly any thoughts. I was really bad about keeping everything inside and I learned through Stacy, through what we went through with Ryan, about how much just being open and talking to people. I mean, you know, I kind of fell into sales almost 30 years ago, into mortgages, and people that I went to high school are like dude. I can't believe when I see a video of you talking like you barely, you know, said a word in high school, like you just did your thing, didn't really talk to anybody, and it's such, a, such a more healthy, enjoyable experience in life sharing it with other people. So, just, you know, opening your mind and being able to reach out and talk to people has been huge for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, yeah, absolutely. When you started out, obviously Mr Harris had a depth being an attorney, being a professor, all those things so obviously he helped you in this world of becoming a CPA. But what else like what other mentors have you had in your life?
Speaker 17:So I've had several mentors in my life. Tom Harris was one of those. He was a brilliant man, knew all about taxes. Now he mentored me in a way that I don't think he realized, and that was in work-life balance, because he had none. His goal was to die with his hand on a calculator, leaned over a tax return. That is not my goal.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 17:And so I saw that in him my father has been a huge part of mentoring me because, like I said, I grew up in the family of entrepreneurs, and so my mother and father, when we sat around the dinner table at night, we talked about issues, or they talked about and we listened issues with employees, issues with bankers, how to get financing, how to promote this product, and so, as young girls, me and my sisters were learning more than we really realized we were doing, which has served us so well. And then, you know, your dad is probably your biggest cheerleader or at least mine was, and he made me feel like Tiger Woods on the golf course which mediocre at best would be the way to describe that. But he always helped, instill confidence in me, but was able to critique me and to help me be better in business, and one of the things that he told me when I became a CPA and was opening my own firm. I said Daddy, what should I do Like? What, as a business owner, would you want your accountant to do?
Speaker 17:And he said we know you're smart, you've got CPA after your name, you've gone to college, you passed that test, which is very, very hard to pass, so you don't need to talk down to me, you don't need to talk over my head.
Speaker 17:You need to talk to me in ways I can understand my business and help me be better. And so that was a huge thing that he instilled in me is speak to your client in terms that they can understand, because they need to walk away from your office, from that tax return, from that meeting, and understand why they owe the IRS, why they're getting a refund, why their quarter was down or up this year or this season. So I think that is a huge part of it. And then I've also had several business owners in my community and in Middle Tennessee bankers as well just kind of take me under their wing and help me find financing for clients or help me find other strategies to be in business, and I'm grateful for all the people that have poured into me, and that's why I think it is so important for me to do likewise.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. Anybody can say I want to go do something.
Speaker 16:Yeah, and we hope you do. Our goal is to get women into the outdoors safely and have the knowledge and then a friend group that'll do it. So if you're brand new to, say, paddle boarding, you can post in there hey, I'm thinking about getting a paddle board, what do y'all think? And you'll have 15 people that'll tell you hey, this is what worked for me as a lady. This one's lighter to carry or easier to manage or you know whatever they're looking for. So it's been cool to watch that kind of mentorship happen organically.
Speaker 1:Right, and they're really just. They're trying to help somebody and let's be real, I mean, we all like to talk about ourselves, for sure. Yeah, and so them. Sharing their experience is making them more connected to the group which is also helping somebody else out.
Speaker 16:For sure.
Speaker 1:And they don't feel like, oh I'm, I'm this weird person that wants to do this. Nobody else does it. Just because nobody in your subdivision or in your circle does it doesn't mean it doesn't happen.
Speaker 16:Yes, and something unique kind of about our events is there's not, um, an age demographic. We have everyone that you know is coming out of high school, all the way to ladies that are retired and have to coordinate their babysitting of their grandchildren's schedule to come play with us, and we're all shooting the big guns. It doesn't matter and you don't have to have any knowledge. We won't speak gun at you, we don't expect you to know anything. You come in and then we'll walk you through what you need to know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, really one of those environments where you meet them, where they are.
Speaker 16:For sure, for sure, and you meet them where they are For sure, for sure. So, and we try to demystify this stuff. You know, hunting has been kind of a club for a long time, and if you're not in it, you ain't in it. So we try to demystify and we have great partners, the TWRA, the Tennessee Wildlife Federation, so many guys across the board that'll help us out and help us learn, cause I don't know either. I'm not the expert.
Speaker 1:I'm not the expert, I'm not a turkey hunter, I don't know. I'm right there learning with them. So it's been cool. We've learned a lot. Team is Jim Cripps here with the Charge Forward podcast. I just want to tell you I love you, I appreciate you listening, I appreciate you for subscribing and sharing the Charge Forward podcast with people you know and you love, because that's what we're here for. We are here to share the amazing stories, the things that people have been through, the ways that they were able to improve their life, so that you can take little nuggets from theirs and help improve your story and be better tomorrow than you were today. I hope that this is the tool you needed at the right time and that you find value in the amazing guests that we bring each and every week. Thanks so much and don't forget new episodes drop every Thursday.