January 4, 2025 • 56 mins
#BeAGoodFriend and check out episode #122 of #FeeneyTalksWithFriends featuring Stephen Espinal.
It was great to talk with my #friend and neighbor, Stephen!
Stephen is an Account Executive for Telecommunications at Universal Connectivity.
We talked about:
Telecommunications (minute 1)
Past episodes and podcast sponsors (minute 3)
4 Keys (sponsored by West Hartford Lock) to being an Account Executive (minute 4)
The West Hartford Chamber of Commerce (minute 5)
Mechanical Engineer degree from CCSU (minute 7.30)
Work days: First, Last, Best, Worst (minute 9)
Podcast guest #98, Tom Pincince (minute 11)
Stephen’s favorite teachers (minute 14)
Conard’s Mock Trial Team (minute 19)
Coaching Travel Soccer (minute 24)
West Hartford Girls Softball Team sponsored by Friends of Feeney (minute 25)
Feeney’s daughters love to read! (minute 28)
Recommendations (minute 31)
Feeney playing Madden vs his nephew, Nick (minute 35)
European Soccer (minute 38)
Pick up soccer and basketball at Wolcott Park (minute 43)
Rinku from South Main Wine and Spirits (minute 45)
What’s next for Friends of Feeney? (minute 48)
Join us at The Hartford Wolf Pack game on February 28th (minute 50)
WeHa Whiskey Fest (minute 53)
Stephen won the “Podcast Guest Appearance” in a raffle (minute 54)
What makes @JumpsByChi a good #friend? (minute 55)
Closing remarks (minute 56)
Podcast Sponsors:
Donut Crazy - www.donutcrazy.com
The Fix IV - www.thefixivtherapy.com
West Hartford Lock - www.westhartfordlock.com
Keating Agency Insurance - www.keatingagency.com
Goff Law Group - www.gofflawgroup.net
Parkville Management - www.parkvillemanagement.com
Luna Pizza - www.lunapizzawh.com/lunas-menu
PeoplesBank - www.bankatpeoples.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
All right, all right.
Feeney talks with friends.
Episode 122.
This is great. I'm with a good friend,Stephen. What's up buddy?
What's going on? How are you?
Stephen Aspinall, accountexecutive for universal Connectivity.
Makes right.
What is that?Talk to me like I'm a third grader.
What is telecommunications?
(00:20):
It's a great question. It's a loaded one.
It has to do with everything.
With your network and phones.
I like to tell peopleTesla means distance and communications.
Obviously means to communicate.
So it's taking information back and forthbetween different interfaces
or softwares.
So email computer.
It integrates texting 365 email
(00:42):
your phone's internet and a new product
we just launched was the emergencynotification system for schools.
Okay. Security cameras or.
No security cameras. Yep.
Again, I teach third grade, so.
But we're here with Stephen.
All right.
I'm Eric Feeney, founderand president of Friends of Feeney.
Our mission is to helpchildren and families
in need assistanceafter heartbreak or tragedy.
(01:03):
And I use this podcast.
Feeney talks with friends,and I talk to a wonderful people
in the communitythat are doing great things.
And Stephen,I'm really excited to talk to you.
I've known you quite some time.
That's right. Go way back.
That's right.
House grew up on the same street.
Yeah, not grew up, but.
You grew up on that street? Yes.
I just moved in when you were about ten.
Yeah. 27. 27.
(01:26):
So I think you were 12 then.
I was done 16 years ago.
Do the math. 11.
You were 11.
I known you for 16 years.
Soccer player in a while. Yeah.
How's the soccer game going?
Soccer.
It inexistent right now.
Currently, I took my skill setand brought it over to coaching,
so I'm currently playing or currentlycoaching for West Hartford Travel.
(01:47):
So I've been doing thatfor close to a decade now actually.
Yeah, yeah.
Awesome. Awesome. No, you're a good guy.
I'm very excited.
Again, like I said, this is episode 122.
Go back and check out 121 with Joey Bats.
That he does hip hop for the homeless.
Nice to have you spit some bars.
You want to rap a little bit?
I cannot rap.
(02:10):
How about Tracy Carter?
Go back and check out.
Tracy Carteris the executive director of Anchor Camps.
He played basketballat University of Hartford.
How's your hoop game?
It's getting there.
What's better,your rap game or your hoop game?
Probably my hoop game, for sure.
Do you play pick up hoop?
I used to a little bit here and there,but it was a few times
during the summer with a couple friends,but nothing to, rigorous.
(02:34):
Do you play pickup soccer?
I used to in my family, but nice.
Like I said, not.Not really too much anymore.
It's me who's. A better soccer player.You or your dad.
Or me, for sure.
That's not a question.
At. Is that a challenge?
So back
to, we have sponsors, we're hereat Maximum Beverage.
Come out and check out this wonderfulselection of beverages.
(02:55):
Thank you for hosting us.
And thank you, Direct Line Media.
Stephania and Dave,
this would not be possiblewithout Stephania and Dave and some other,
podcast sponsors The Fix
IV, Luna Pizza, Parkville Management,Golf Law, people's
Bank, float 41 and KeatingAgency and West Hartford Lock.
So with West Hartford Lock being said,what are three keys
(03:16):
that make you an a great accountexecutive for universal connectivity?
What are three keysthat make you good at your job?
That's a great question as well.
There's actually four thingsthat we pride ourselves in, okay.
Universal connectivity.
So when you
go through the interviewing process you'resupposed to help these four key areas.
For the company.
One is human touch.
(03:37):
So how involved are you with the customer?
And engaged in the community.
Two is pragmatic creativity.
So how creative can we bewith our solution
to cater towards our customer's needs?
Three is thoroughness.
So how thorough are wewith our documentation processes?
And making sure that our clientsare taken care of.
(03:58):
And four is being happy, you know,are we going to present ourselves
properly and, you know, actslike we do what we love. So.
All right. Very nice. Thank you.
I think that translates to a lot of jobsI could as a teacher,
you know, building that rapportand relationships is very important
where your studentsand your coworkers happiness.
I always come in with a positive attitude.
(04:19):
No one wants to learn from or workwith someone that's miserable, right?
Thoroughness.
You want to do your jobto the best of your ability.
And what was pragmatic?
Pragmatic, pragmatic creativity?
Pragmatic creativity?
Yes. I try to bring in engaging in funlessons and,
and make sure my,my students are having a good time.
(04:41):
Yeah. All right.
Very cool.
That was our I asked for three.
Steven your go getter. You gave us four.
There you go, man.How long you been at the job?
I'm going on six months now. Nice.
Yeah. So,
still gaining my own accounts, you know,
learning about the industry,the ins and outs of everything.
But I came from a previous sales role.
(05:01):
So I have experience in that respect.
Very nice, very nice.
And where are you located?
We're right in West Hartford Center.
So right below the Bank of America,which is next to the Chamber of Commerce,
West Hartford Chamber of Commerce, WestHartford Chamber.
Are you guys a member?
We are nice friends, a Feeney's a member.
What's how how was your interactionswith the chamber?
(05:21):
Oh, I love it.
Yeah, I love it.
It's there's no betterlocal networking and,
you know, support that you can get from,you know, a business chamber.
It's the largest in the state, largest nonsingle town in the state.
Yeah. 119 oh yeah.
You were thereChris Conway Abby Rappaport Smith.
Hooray! Castro.
We're our guests for a hot wing challenge.
You stopped in. You had the the bomb.
(05:43):
How was that experience?Oh, that was pleasure.
Really miserable.
Yeah.
It's good to get on the podcast.
Under those circumstances.
It didn't really sitwell on my stomach, but that's all good.
Yeah, we
could feel it twice, you know.
Oh, it was. It was. Landing.
Burn out. Burn. Oh.
The bomb.
(06:03):
The bomb is no joke.
I would go back and watch 119Chris Conway great.
Guest, great episode to.
Conway, alsothe executive director of the chamber.
And he mentioned during the podcastthat you are parking lot buddies.
So that's we. Are I see him all the. Time.
I see him all the time.
Chris Conway good, good guy.
So telecommunications,
(06:24):
not like I think a teleporting
tell a telecommunications tell youbecause you, you broke it down.
Teller and communications.
Well done. Like I if I was a third grader.
I think you did a great jobexplaining that.
Thanks.
Yeah.
So one example to give actually,just a little sidebar.
The earliest formof telecommunications was back
when tribes would have to communicatefrom a large distance.
(06:47):
So one tribe or one location, of troops.
Would you put out a smoke signaland the other group would send
like, a drumming in response to itso that they know they're coordinated?
So that's the very earliest,most primitive tale of telecommunication.
Has got a little history lesson here.
Yeah. I'm a lifelong learner.Say it all the time.
(07:07):
Try to learn something new every day.
Thank you. Stephen,you just taught me something.
Yeah. You want to learn?
Make that connection.
And so they communicate.
They one didn't do smokeand the other one did smoke.
One did sound, one did smoke. Correct?
Yep. Nice.
Do you know what tribe or where or justyou just know I just.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I just knowthat they used to do that back in the.
(07:28):
Where did you get all your degrees?
So I spent some timeat Western New England,
and then some time over at central,doing mechanical engineering,
which kind of bridged the gap
from the aerospace industryover to the sales engineering industry,
where I was working with robotics partsand sourcing them,
from different companies to variouscompanies were essentially a brokerage,
(07:50):
that brought me full fledged into salesbecause I enjoyed the sales industry
so much.
And then, you know,got picked up by universal connectivity,
8 to 12 months later.
Very cool.
Now, what if someone wanted to connectwith you and reach out to you?
Do you have an email or phone numberyou like to share for our listeners
to connect with you if they want to workwith universal connectivity?
(08:11):
Yeah, sure. So, universe connectivity.com.
My email is S Aspinall at Universalconnectivity.com
SSP pinnacleat Universal connectivity.com.
You heard it here for you.
Go get you some sales.
Do you get commission.
Yes I do yeah.
Should I say I don't know. Maybe maybe.
(08:33):
I don't know.
I when I had a financial advisor onI can't ask about the stock market.
Yeah. They can't talk stocks. Right.
But I'm guessing you it's your job.
You work. So how are your accounts?
Oh, let's play a game.
Sure.
Your your day at work, your accountsor your activities or your events.
(08:54):
It's first, last, best or worst,your first day of work,
your most recent last day of work.
Ooh, your best day at workand your worst day at work.
Okay.
How do they go?
How do they go? You can any orderyou want.
Okay, I guess I'll start with first,and then I'll go last.
And then I'll do best.
And then worst. Worst.
Okay. At least. Favorite.
(09:14):
Wow. That's a loaded question becausethere's not too many bad days at work.
My first day at work started very,you know, slow
as you do in any job, I guess.
Doing a lot of trainings, a lot of,
you know, grassroots stuff where you'rejust learning about the products,
the industry that you're in, the company,you know, values learning.
Everybody's face at work.
(09:37):
My most recent day was today.
It was a busy day.
I had a couple meetings
doing a lot of emails back and forthall over the phone or through email.
And yeah, we're actually working on asolution for a specific client currently.
So we're kind of working in the weedswith that.
That's something, you know,that's our pragmatic
creativity approach.
(10:01):
The best day at workand the worst day work,
best day at work was closing the deal.
I guess.
Worst day at. Work?
You want to elaboratea little more on the deal?
Well, it's still in process,so I can't really go into specifics,
but it was a it was a it was a good deal.
Well, congratulations.Thank you, thank you.
First deal.
(10:21):
That was more of my largest, I guess.
Yeah.
My worst day at work.
So that's the thing.
I don't really havetoo many bad days at work, but.
Good answer.
Yeah, yeah, you should ask me.
A lot of my days are terrible.
Not just kidding.
No, that was a game.
So that's a fun game.You can do it any time.
(10:42):
First, last, best or worst,you know, vacations, friends, teachers,
whatever you want.
Activities, soccer events. So central.
Do you know Tom pin?
It's pencils.
Yes I. Do.
He went to central. He.
No he didn't went tohe didn't. He didn't go to central.
He currently is the athletic director.
(11:02):
Yeah. Central.And you had him on your podcast. Yeah.
Of course I know him.And we both know why.
Oh. He's in the neighborhood.
That's all
that I don't know, I saw weeks ago.
He's probably.
90. Foley's number 94, Tom Pindus, Pences.
I always jack up his name.
I checked it up on the podcast.
And he was number 94,and he made a reference
(11:22):
to a basketball playerduring that episode.
Yep. Right.
94. You do so many of these, maybe it's,
And then Eric Bergen was the central guy.
DJ Joey Oh was a central guy.
Have you ever been to Elmer's? Of course.
Way back in the day.
We could.
We could play our first, first, last,best worth.
Elmer's ready? Go. No. I'm kidding.
Oh, yeah.
(11:44):
What? D.J., Joey. Oh, was a D.J. Elmer's.
He went to central.
So, you know, Bergen had 100 views.
Tom had 200 views. Joey oh, had 200 views.
How are we looking for views?What would you promise to me here?
I think we're going to get to a thousand.
Nice. Yeah, nice. Okay, okay.
And then how is thatengineering degree at central?
(12:06):
Car challenging.
What made you choose that path?
Yeah. I mean, from a very early age,I was.
I loved problem solving,I loved mathematics, I love science.
So going into a field related tothat was difficult to gauge
as to which oneI wanted to actually pursue.
Whether it was computerscience, engineering,
(12:28):
mathematics, physics,whatever it may have been.
So I kind of stumbled upon mechanicaljust because it was a blend of all of them
together.
You got some,you know, courses with coding,
got some courses with math, physics,everything in between.
And then, you know, obviously
with the higher upyou go, the more complex it becomes.
But yeah, I mean, it'sa challenging degree nonetheless.
(12:49):
But you come out of itand as a more resilient
learner,I guess that's a good way of putting it.
No joke.
Do you use some of the thingsthat you learned at central
in your engineering class, currentlyin your role as the, account executive?
In my current role, no.
But in adjacent roles to me,yes, absolutely.
(13:10):
Obviously the engineers over atthe business do work
very hands on with,you know, low voltage equipment.
So having that physics backgroundor electricity or,
electrical background definitely is helpswith the knowledge piece.
It's nice. Yeah.
So me being a teacher 21 years,we're talking education.
(13:32):
Do you have a favorite teacher that standsout or favorite moment with a teacher?
I knew this question would come up.
Did you do your homework?
I did 90% of the time.
The other 10% may have been at lunch, the,the period before.
But it's still got done nonetheless. And,
(13:52):
I have a couple favorite teachers,specifically Connor.
Connor is a great staff, by the way.
I don't know how hands on
you are with Connor stuffif you have, you know, district's
get togethers or whatnot.I know a few of them.
They're they're phenomenal.
Specifically, if I want to give some shoutouts to some of my old Connor teachers.
Miss Zango, who is now Miss Brian,who recently got married.
(14:14):
Not recently actually.
Now, it'sprobably been close to a decade as well.
Miss Brian, miss Peretti,
and Mister Noel Wells are my.
Those are my top three.So two English teachers and Mr..
There was a math teacher.
So I don't know if I've ever heardthose names
there.
Any feedback you get on them.
(14:35):
They're strict but fairand they're fun when they need to be.
It's like the perfect, most ideal highschool teacher you could really ask for.
Yep. Fair and stern.
But you can also crack some jokes onoccasion.
Yeah, yeah.
Outside of class.
Of course. Mr.
Noel's, What's he look like?
Mustache?
Maybe for reading. But no glasses. Really?
(14:58):
Bald guy?
He's been there for years.
I'd say over 20 years.
Yes, I think I know him. Yeah.
I think I just saw him at the bestat the football game.
He's out a lot at the activities.
Yeah.
All right.
Brian. Noel. Yes. Good guy. Brian.
Noel I'm going to look him upreal quick though.
Yes, I know exactly who that is.
(15:19):
I know everybody. Loves gray hair.
Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, sure. Yeah.
Good guy. Really good guy.
All my friends,when we were in high school, senior year,
I think when we were taking calculus,we all loved him.
We all. Nobody hated him.
So really, really good guy.
We had group group collaboration sessionswith, like, little five of us.
(15:39):
We got into our pods.
And this time we'll send it to.
What minute are we, Stefania?
See? 16 16th minute.
Brian. Oh, well, shout out Connor.
Let's see if this is him.
I believe his first name was Brian.
(16:01):
No, no, no,
that's, That's me.
That's Tor Fisk.
Yeah.
Kind of in math.
Yeah,
it's kind of incognito.
He's.
But I think I.
I think it's the person I was thinking of.
(16:21):
Yeah, I.
Know for a fact I very. Confident.
I do know he goes to a lot of,
basketball games or whatever.
Yeah.
We had a couple other Conard grads,
Gavin, Sherry
and Callum Sherry, they were twins.
They were Gatoraderunners of the year, really.
And they got a free rideand they're running at Stanford now.
(16:42):
So great podcast. That for that.
That's awesome. 45.
That's like 500 views.
Wow Riley Fox played who just graduated.
That's episode 93.
He's at Yale now okay.
And he is up like he's like 600 views.
Wow. Connor. Connor. Guys coming through?Yeah.
Between your CCU poll and your Connorpool, we're looking at like, 2000 views.
(17:07):
Okay, I'm here for it I can't wait.
It's going to be great.
Great.
Well, thank you for shouting outteachers is really cool to hear.
You're appreciative.
You're a teacher.
Us former students appreciate you.
So yeah, I've shared multiple times
when someone mentionedtheir favorite teacher out.
(17:29):
You know, is that person still alive?
Can we share it with them?
So it's good to hear.
So, Brian.
Well, we'll be happy to hear that.
And who were the other two, Mrs. Bryant?
Mrs.. Brian.
Brian,I don't know how, because I never had her
when she was Miss Brian, but I know sheher maiden name is Zango Z
and glue and Peretti PR it pretty.
(17:50):
Teach English.
Yeah.
Very cool.
And all kinds a great school.
My daughters go there.
How are they doing, by the way?
Yeah.
Juniors. Juniors. Wow.
Student council are busy.
They just did black box theater.
One is in mock trial. Okay. With,
Mr. Islam and Miss Esposito.
(18:11):
Okay. Two wonderful teachersdoing a great thing.
Mock trial.
Next week, they're going to presentand and go through out the trial.
They it's a competition.
You you go against a low schoollike an athletic event.
And it's really cool.
It's something I've never knewtoo much about.
But last year they did it throughNew Britain Superior Courts.
Next week they're going to be at HartfordSuperior Courts.
(18:32):
So wonderful problemsolving, public speaking,
thinking on the spot.
Calling out someone for,
what is it? Convention.
It was like objection.
Convention of languageor convention of time.
Just I pick them up on Sundaysand Tuesdays
and they just come in like,oh, you know, it's like a head
(18:54):
to head competition of wordsand just trying to catch someone out.
So, so interesting. You know, I grew up,
didn't have that opportunityor didn't know about mock trial.
So to see my daughters doing it,it's very exciting, very proud of them.
They're doing a great job.
Student council is another thing.
They planthe pep rallies, the homecomings,
(19:16):
pep rallies, model U.N.
so they go to UConn every year
and they represent their countrylike the United Nations.
Neela Hummel brag won best delegate.
So she came home with a gavel.
You know, it had engraved on it.
Best delegate.So it was really cool. Certificate.
I thought of her.
(19:37):
That's awesome.Yeah. No, it's a great school.
I'm very excited.
Bridgette.
Softball. She's catching.
So she's got. We just went.
She was just went hitting the other dayto get ready for the season.
Yeah, getting ready for golf.
Just a wonderful program.
Great. Like you said,the staff is wonderful.
Yeah.
From the administration downto all the teachers, counselors?
(20:00):
Yeah. You can't mess with West Hartford.
Yeah, yeah.
That's why we moved here.
So, yeah, 16 years ago,we my girls are 16.
So you figure out why we moved here?
My wife was pregnant.
We lived in New Haven, I was goingI was working in Waterbury.
Shoot. My wife was working in Milford.
My, I know were pregnant.
We had to go to a good educations,school system.
(20:22):
My family, my wife's,my mother, and lived in Waterbury.
Her mother and dad lived in East Granby.
So West Hartford was right in the middle.
We settled, we saw Wolcott Park,we saw that
we can go, you know, towards the malland towards Dora.
And little Dora wasn't there.
But like with.
Blockbuster at the time,maybe blockbuster.
Yeah, it. Was a blockbuster. And the.
(20:44):
And the mail slot, it's still there.
Devdas is still there. Yup, yup.
I saw blockbuster.
I remember being a blockbusterand I remember laser hair
removal was like a Chinese restaurant.
And next to the, American Eagle. Yes.
Yeah, American Eagleand was one big Chinese restaurant.
But then they they knocked it downand made it a bank and a hair removal.
(21:07):
And then Bombay olive.
What was Bombay olive?
Well, that old
it was something.
It was an Ihop.
Very good. Like 30 years ago.
Yeah. Yeah.Before way before I moved here.
But I remember driving to the mall once,
getting lost, taking a wrong turnand seeing that Ihop.
Yeah.
Because the bamboo was still looks like.
Yeah, the Ihop shape. It's funny. Yeah.
(21:31):
And then the place,
the Hartford Health Care buildingacross the street right on the corner
next to the cat.
Yeah. Cats, cats, cats unlimited.
That used to be a restaurant.
To be a pretty famous local one. Yeah.
Do you know the name?I forget the name. Like an.
Were you born in that house?
Yes. I was. Nice. Yeah.
(21:51):
Very cool.
No. Great neighborhood.
Yeah.So you went to walk it. And to walk. It.
Did you go to Sedgwick?
Went to Sedgwick. Conard? Yeah.
Very good. Nice.
And how about doctor K?
I never got a chance to work for doctor K,but obviously, you know,
I'm from the neighborhood.
I moved in and Kathy said, hey,that's the principal at walk at school.
(22:13):
Maybe you should talk to him. Yeah, go.
Hey, doctor K, I'm a I've been a teacherfor eight years in Waterbury.
You know, I'd be interestedto to go to a walk in, I joked.
I was like, hey, I'll paint your house,I'll mow your lawn.
He's like, I got someone for that.
That was me.
Yeah. Probably.
And then like five years later,
(22:34):
I'm still driving to Waterbury.
The commute was 35 minutes traffic.
It was awful.
And he was like, hey, I got good news.
Bad news.Good news is I can get you an interview.
Bad news is I'm retiring.
So I said, I'll take it.
Yeah. And, I got the job.
Doctor Singh came in, jazz
Singh came in, and doctorK moved to Washington state.
(22:57):
Yeah. So hopefully if you get this, well,maybe you'll send this to on me.
And my doctor said, well, Plato,you're the man.
I'm still in contact with themthrough Facebook and Instagram, so.
Okay. Yeah.
Thank you for everything. Plato.
And then my daughters babysit his cats,and he's a great guy.
He wrote in, like, Greek letters.
Yeah, we've seen his handwriting. Yeah.
(23:17):
So weirdthat that whole family is is brilliant.
Very artistic, articulate.
Just smart individuals.
Are you run the same age as the twins?
They're two years above me. Above?
Yeah. Acha Chloe and Lexi.
Very cool. Yeah.
So we grew up next to each other.
We played outside together,
and then they moved.
(23:38):
Was a little sadbecause they were my neighbors, you know?
Yeah.
And then you got.
Well, Tom's in there now.
Tom's in there now. Yep.
Who you had 94 podcast, 90.
Four cast, 94 or 98. He's 98, 98.
Okay. Well, maybe I do.
We mentioned Jesse Armstead,maybe then 98 or basketball
(23:58):
and basketball playersusually aren't big numbers like 98.
Maybe he's a football player.
Forget I forget who it was.
But so how's the coaching soccer.
So ten yearscoaching at the West Hartford?
Boys or girls or both.
It's been flip flopping year to year.
Currently I have the boys, so I havethe second graders and the fourth graders.
(24:21):
So is it travel?
It is travel.
You always coach.
Travel always goes travel nice.
And where do you travel? To
various places.
It depends on who wants to play us.
So we're entered into a leaguethat's in the Greater Hartford district.
So you got your Glastonbury's.
Manchester'sall the way to, you know, your Newington
(24:41):
or Simsbury is your grand bees.
You could even play someone like summers.
That's 40 minutes away.
But, you know, onceyou get to that certain age point
where you're traveling all over the state,you could be traveling
to Greenwich one dayand then you know, mystic the next.
So it really depends on who you play.
What, what tournament bracket you're in,what what league
(25:04):
you enter in and stuff like that.
So you got.
Second grader driving 40 minutes to play.
So that particular example driving tosummers was with the fourth graders.
So still same kind of thing.They're still very young. Wow.
Oh that's good.
Well,I mean it's called travel for a reason.
You do. Travel. Hence the name.
Very cool.
No, I've never sponsored a soccer team,but friends have finally
(25:27):
brought this to me last year,so maybe it's a good opportunity to share.
We sponsor.
This is our minors. Friends of Feeney.This is ours.
Oh, nice.
Very nice.
Got the corporate color screen.
There's our. Coach.
So really excited to be the West Hartfordgirls softball league.
They made a nice little friendly.That's really nice.
What are you coach?
(25:48):
You should coach.
I did coach, so you did for soccer.
I was the. Best. Hands down.
Bar none.
The best kindergarten.
The first grade soccer coach ever. Nice.
Once it got to second or third gradewhen you had the no positions
and where to go and build strategy,I lost it.
What about softball?You know baseball, right.
(26:09):
So I coached my girls and everything.
Okay. T-ball,
softball, soccer.
What else did they do?
Basketball.
Well, then then my
then my wife took over the basketballhead coaching made me assistant coach.
Oh, I didn't know that.
And said, if I, you know,if I continue to yell, what are you doing?
Where's your. Player?
(26:31):
She's going to I'mgoing to sit in the car.
She's like
yelling, what are you doing?
Is not helpful.
Well, you know, but,
no, it was great coaching.
But then after a while,it's like you try to be coaching.
Your children are definitely a challengingbecause they see you all day long.
(26:52):
Yeah,sometimes they may not agree with you and
they'll tell you that, you know.
So I know that too. Well.
Did your dad coach you?
He tried to give me pointers hereand there.
We would walk over to Wall Parkand it always ended.
I was maybe 5 or 6 years old at the time,but it always ended in a in
a crying argument. So
(27:13):
those are those are some of the memoriesI cherish though.
Of course. Yeah.
So the funniest thing ever is likeI taught third grade at walk at school,
my daughters were in thirdgrade at walk at school.
Yeah.
They brought home the third grade homeworkthat I collaborated with my colleagues
and made, and they said, no, dad,we don't do it this way in school.
(27:35):
And I was like, are you kidding me?
I just sat in a meeting with your teacher,so I couldn't imagine not.
I had inside source like I was in the mix.
Yeah.
So I couldn't imagine a parent
like, I hear that a lot.
Oh, Mr. Feeney, we don't teach math.
I never I didn't learn math this way.
Mr. Feeney.
The new math. Mr.
(27:56):
Feeney, you common core math.
You know, so a parent
like I don't want
to say a civilian parent or,
hands off parent or someonethat's not in the school system.
Parent. Yeah, I. Couldn'timagine what the students are saying.
Like, no, dad, we do it this way.
I have my own daughters.
Tell me, when they were in third grade,it was hilarious.
I was like,
(28:17):
fine.
Well, I remember when I used toI dogs at Berkeley
or Dog one time and when you guys were.
No, this is actually the different time
I was actually setting up a tentin your backyard.
Do you remember that
for a gathering that you had one summer?
Okay.
But anyways, I was setting up the tentand I just see your two daughters
(28:37):
just sitting there reading for hours,and that's all they did.
So if you can imagine if they read theirentire childhood how smart they would be.
So maybe, maybe they did knowsomething that you didn't.
Oh no, they're smarter than me for sure.
They've said words like ad hoc, adherent,and ad hoc.
It just the otherday I should make a list.
(29:02):
A camp met
a a camp met like, I don't know.
There's so many words. I'm like, what?
It's a new vocab word.Like it's a new word.
They still have,but they drop them like it's nothing.
You know? It's like.
But no, my girls, like you said, I.
I don't want to take credit.
But when my wife was pregnant,I read to the belly,
(29:22):
my wife's belly, read a book every dayand I just read.
And then when I came out,I read to them every day.
Yeah.
Picture books.
Because I'm really goodat reading picture books.
But then again, being great kindergartenfirst grade soccer
coach, I'm a really good kindergartenfirst grade reader.
And then when they got into HarryPotter and stuff,
(29:43):
I read the first chapter, Harry Potter.
And I was it's like,what are these names or what's going on.
You know.
So but Harry Potter was they readHarry Potter like second grade really.
Or maybe even
I want to say second or third grade to me.
To me, those books are dauntingbecause as a fifth grader,
even if you're looking at thoseand those are like 300 pages long.
(30:04):
Yeah, 500, 500. Some of them. Yeah.
And my sister once waited at Barnesand Noble to get the book.
When she got the book, she went homeand read it throughout the night.
Oh, and read the whole book.
Wow. So maybe they get the reading for my.
Which one was that?Was that Deathly Hallows?
I think it might have been the first oneor the second one.
(30:25):
I don't know,
but that's funny that you saymy daughters were reading.
They still love reading.
That's all they did. Yeah.
They're really good. Readers.
So that's what, that's what happenswhen their father's a teacher, you know?
No, I think, yeah, it's still.
Those good habits. Reading is.
Reading is important.
Reading is fun.Reading will take you places. Absolutely.
(30:48):
It's high courage that I encourageall my listeners.
And, that's that's a good recommendation.
Read.
You have any recommended books, podcasts,
movies, TV shows we recommendare on the recommendation for.
I don't have any books that you knowyour viewers would like.
They're more so like business books and,and, telecommunications books. But,
(31:08):
yeah,I mean, I'd love the Harry Potter series.
I read the first book of Game of Thrones.
So as far as novelsgo, that's what I've read, really,
but it's typically business related books.
I suggested reading Who Moved My Cheeselast podcast.
I gave it a copy to Joey Bats who movemy cheese the Inner Game of Tennis.
(31:30):
Another great book.
It's about achieving a goal, andit could be the inner game of anything.
Inner game of interviewing, inner game of,
I wrote my my Neil a does rivalry
and so rivalry.
Yeah like shooting. Yeah.
Really like the mental
(31:50):
portion of that.
It's like very physicaldraining and mentally.
Yeah.
You have to squeeze the triggerthe same time you have to hold your breath
and pause at the same time every time.
It's challenging.
Speaking of which, you see that Olympianthat did the the one arm pistol?
Oh, yeah. The turkey barrel.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was funny.
(32:11):
I someone dressed as him as Halloweenor Brian's.
Brian had a party.
Your other neighbor.
Oh yeah.
And someone rolled in a couple rolled inis the Australian breakdancer
and the Turkish shooter,and they pulled it off.
It was so good.Yeah, it was. Really cool to see.
Yeah.
So recommendation.
(32:32):
So I recommend recommended Yellowstone.
You ever watch Yellowstone.
Bits and pieces here or there.
But I haven't sat down and actually.
You know, you ever play JohnMadden football growing up
John Madden, the football game.
Oh, mad John yeah, yeah.
Met my dad when he said John MaddenI was like, okay,
(32:53):
I thought that's you meant,but you just pull. Them out.
A little bit, a little bit here.
There's a as a FIFA guy though.
Oh yeah. There's a documentary on Madden.
On Amazon.
Okay. Oh, I loved it.
Like Madden raised me.
Like I think it was 89.
The first one came out for Sega had itand I had them all.
I think I stopped playing around like
(33:15):
2008 or 2010, who knows?
But it was a great documentary.
So yeah. Yeah.
So funny.
People, kidsdon't even realize that he's a person.
They just think Madden as like aa concept or a game.
But like a FIFA or like an NHL or whatevervideo game.
Yeah.
I remember the first time I played FIFAfreshman year, Southern Connecticut State,
(33:36):
my buddy JeffCraig's room, I think it was Nintendo 64.
Inc diagonal screen.
You know,you could kick it up to yourself.
Corner kicks.
What's a diagonal screen.
Didn't run.
Didn't it run this wayor did you go side to side
to go left to right.
Or did it go like on an angle.What do you mean like.
(33:58):
The the gameplay, the flow?
I don't know what you mean,but the, you know.
Like Matt and you go up and down,you're going north.
Oh. Oh, that's what you mean.
Okay.
You're kind of going.
Yeah. You're going, you're going up.
If you're on offense, you go up.
But if you're playing someone, if.
Then they're facing down. You sure?
(34:20):
I thought so, at least the newer ones.
When I maybe.
Was new,maybe they, they maybe they rotated it.
But back in the day,I swear I could be wrong.
Now you're making me question myself.
Almost like,
what was the game, NBA live?
What kind of went on an angle, really?
FIFA, I thought, started on an angle.
I could be wrong. Up and down.
(34:42):
So I haven't played them in
close to like 5 or 6 yearsnow, but FIFA one side to side.
I think Madden went up and down.
The same with two guy NBA two K.
Went up and down. Went up and down.
And then it like once you lost possessionit would flip flop.
And then the other personfrom the bottom up okay.
(35:02):
Yeah that'll get you dizzy though.
It does. It's a couple turnovers in a row.
I remember that actually.
He was like oop then.
Well it has like a little pause.
Yeah like a.
Little a little do a freeze frameand then it'll rotate the screen.
And then you'll have the ball after
technology man
these games are getting more sophisticatedand new added
(35:25):
My little nephew Nick,I played last Christmas,
so you don't even have to buy the gameanymore. You pay for it.
They send it right to your box.
I'm probably telling you something,you know?
Wait, what do you.What do you mean? They send it.
Like you just send it to your sister.
Oh, you download the file. Download it?Yeah.
My bad.
Yeah, yeah, yeah,that's how the loop I am.
Download the file.
(35:46):
They send it to your box, you know.You know what I'm talking about.
But I used to have to wait in lineat GameStop.
Pay in advance.
Oh, I still remember those days.
I used to go to Funko landand put a $50 deposit down,
wait in line to get the Madden.
Yeah, go. Home and play with my buddy BG.
I mean, Madden wasthere was a line, but now no line.
No wait you just againdownload it. My bad.
(36:08):
Send it to your back and then.
But so I haven't played in a while.
This is a Madden store I now for you guysgoing to be interested but
and the first time I playedit was last Christmas, my nephew Nick,
he would kick off, come down, pummel me,I would fumble, he'd get it.
He laugh at me,he score, I throw an interception.
(36:29):
He run it back. He'd run around.
And you know, I was still tryingto figure out the buttons.
It's been a while.
He beat me like 35 six.
Then I was like,all right, let's keep playing.
Got it down to like 2814.
Finally I learned the buttonsand I got Derrick Henry
and I grind it out, pound in groundlike ran the ball first down,
(36:52):
waste some time, pound the ballfirst time.
Wasted all the clock.
I beat him.
It was like 14 to 12or 14 to 13 or something.
Somehow. So I kicked a field goal.
I don't know what it was, but I beat them.
And I
kind of said, hey, you know,I beat you or whatever.
Maybe I teased him a little bit.
(37:13):
He starts crying, oh, boy.
And then everyone's mad at me.
I'm like,he didn't tell you the first five times.
He's laughing at me,mocking me, beat me by 50 points,
and then finally, when I winand I say something, I'm the bad guy.
But funny Nick story on Christmas.
Madden.
Nick's every yearhe's going to be a guest.
(37:33):
I'm like, come on Nick.
He likes fantasy sports.
So I'm like, In Augustwe'll do a fantasy football preview.
Like, hey, who we drafted.
What are we going to draftNick for three summers?
Oh uncle EA, I got, I got sports,I got to go to school.
We're going on vacation.
So Nick I mean, here'syour chance, buddy. Let's go.
(37:55):
Should he do it?
How's your. Fantasy game?Do you play fantasy football?
I don't my my dad, actually,surprisingly enough,
just entered in the fantasy soccer League,though for players.
Surprise me.
You get players, Or teams.
It's a weird. Yeah.
I think it's teams.I don't really know how it works.
He sent me the file and says,hey, enter in this.
But it's like it's too late.
But I think it's like, you bet each weekon a certain team to win.
(38:18):
And then at the end of the seasonyou accumulate all the points.
Very cool.
So I don'tI don't know exactly how that works, but.
So what are the two license plates?
Your dad has two football license plates,I think. One.
Oh on the car. Yeah, yeah.
One is Barcelona.
Yep. Do you know the other one.
Manchester United. No.
Real Madrid?
No, it's another EPL team.
(38:39):
Do you know your EPL teams? No.
Maybe you have to break that downLiverpool.
Oh yeah. So that that's his team.
So he loves Barcelonalike the style that they play.
And so he really enjoyswatching Barcelona.
He's he's a good fanbut he's really truly a Liverpool fan.
So that's histhat's his right or die team.
And and Liverpool'smajor rival is Everton.
(39:02):
Everton not Manchester not match.
Oh they're all really. In differentleagues.
They're in the same league.
So the way that European socceris different
than American sports in general isthey have what's called a relegation zone.
So if you're in the top bottom
or in the bottom two teamsin the top league, then you move down
and the top two teams from the B leaguemove up to the A-League. So,
(39:27):
I don't know where I will.
I don't know where I was goingwith this, but.
I've heard that and I looked intoa little bit because that's Ted Lasso.
Oh, Ted Lasso in the season
like they win to go up orand then Deadpool.
Ryan Reynolds owns a team. For real.
Yes. And his team finally made it up
Ryan or. Yes.
Yeah.
(39:47):
They they were allowed to like beregulated.
Regulated is called
relegated. Relegated. When you go down.
Oh I don't know promoted. Okay.
What did I think.
And that constantly happens every.
Year every single. Season.
So that's goodbecause I think NFL should do that
because you got teams like the Giants. I'ma Giants fan.
As of maybe
(40:09):
two more daysbecause I might be done with them.
But but they should. Get donelike a relegated fan.
They should get relegated to downto play with like lower level
and then a motivatethe last place teams to get better.
Right.
Because it's not just hey,you made the playoffs.
You're good.
Well the bad teams have some motivationto not be so bad right?
(40:30):
That's it. It works. In the.
NFL. Teams try to get last playso they get first pick, right? Yes.
Isn't that a thing.And how does that work for soccer?
Do they get first paid or it's all paidright.
It's all paid.
So once you're eligible to play,you could be eligible at 14 years old
if you want to.
Although there's some nowsome legal issues with hiring kids.
(40:52):
Like, this is one kidnamed Calvin Sullivan, who's
I think in Pennsylvania or something.
I forget where exactly he's American.
But he was purchased by Manchester City,another EPL team.
So that when he becomes of age 18, he's
going to transferover to their academy program.
Yeah, Freddie Adu did that.
(41:12):
FreddieBeckham started a little younger, right?
There's Landon Donovan. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
TaylorTolman, maybe may maybe one of them.
There's a couple others for sure. Yeah.
Everyone's saying, like soccer will nevermake in America because of commercials.
What's your take on that?
True or false.
Because we need. False on that point.
(41:33):
But it eventually will for TV wise.
I mean, yeah,
Oh, that's a loaded question.
I can go down a whole rabbit hole.
But long story short, the reasonwhy soccer argument keep going both ways.
I think that it well,
but there's an argument that's saying thatit won't because it doesn't
have that drive from a youth standpointthat other countries do.
(41:56):
So if you look at any inner citybasketball court, they're all filled
with kids just shooting hoops all dayright after school.
They go from 2 to 8, six hours.
They're just shooting hoopsor over and over and over again.
So the love for the gameis there for soccer.
It's all fueled by money.
So the more money you have,
the better teamthat you can get on from an early stage.
So there's a conflict of interestwith money.
(42:18):
And you know your cultural upbringingand there's a whole lot of different
factors that go into it.
Where you could create the argumentthat soccer won't be as big
as it is in Europe or South Americaor whatever other country.
Yeah.
Because, well, my take was for to play,
I guess it's bad argument,but to play basketball,
(42:39):
you just need sneakers and a balland you go to a park
because people will be gatheringat this park like, say, walk in park
every time I walk my dog.Sunday nights is jam.
Yeah, there's at least when I moved in16 years ago, I went to play there.
I was like,they call me old man or the custodian
because I cleaned up the glass.
(43:01):
It was up.Make me self-proclaimed nickname.
But I was cleaning up and I'm like,no one wanted to pick me.
And then at the end,I played a couple games
and I swear, this isthis is build my confidence.
I was ready to leave and some guy goes,hey old man, you.
Want to play?
And I was like, whoa,he could asked anyone?
Yeah. Yes. Asked me. Yeah. I was honored.
(43:21):
Yo, is he that experienced player Park.
You know, like he saw that I was grabbingrebounds, playing hard.
But that playing on pavement hurts.
I'm too old for that now.
It's bad on your back and your knees.
Yeah, but again, back to soccer when you.
If you were to bring a soccer ball to walkpark per se
(43:42):
there's not other kidslike maybe occasionally.
Occasionally there's pickup.
I play pickup actually.
Soccer with your dad,I bought cleats. Did you really? Yeah.
All his buddies.
They're all Peruvian dudes, right?
Yeah, actually,I think I do remember that.
And then you had the goalie really close.
They're really close goals. Yeah.
Like not why goals like that? Like.
(44:03):
Well, probably about.
Yeah. That's. Yeah. Yeah.I play with your dad. Yeah.
Now he schooled me.
That he. I like.
Well we both kick the ballat the same time.
And I thought I broke my toe on my ankleand he just like powered through.
Oh boy. He's used to kicking.
Yeah.
My kicking. Like, it was almost likeit wasn't really a kick.
It was like a reach outand call me in an awkward position
(44:23):
where he was like in a kicking position,like he got a lot of force behind it.
And I kind of just put my toe out there.
Lesson learned. Yeah.
Then I was a toe kicker, and.
But I was good exercise.
Yeah.
And wearing cleats for the first timehurt my feet.
And it was just. Oh, it was great.
I want to play again. Let's do it.
Let's get some pickup. Run going. Yeah.
(44:44):
Come springtime, springtime into summer,I'm sure we'll be.
I think he had family members there.
Maybe cousins or unclesthat lived in Newington.
Probably. Yeah. Sounding right.
Yep, yep. Alex? Tony?
Yeah. Louis,I. Wish you were. There. Hello.
Maybe you were. There.
I may I might have been younger.
I might have been in like middle school.Yeah, that was a while ago.
This is like my girls were young.
(45:05):
Yeah, yeah, I think I do remember thatit was over at Wolcott.
Yeah. And then,
some,
Who else?
My buddy Rinku plays over there.Oh, you know, Rinku.
That's what I was going to say.Back to the, the pickup.
There's a big Nepalese culture.
Yeah, community. And and West Hartford.
Yeah.
(45:25):
Rinku is obviously one of them, but he.
Was playing his plays there.
Now he.
I wave and I go, hey, let me play.
He's like, come on, any time. Feeney.
And I was like, oh, I had my dog with me.
Yeah, was my excuse. But yeah.
So all of his, all of his nieces andnephews and friends, daughters and sons,
they all go over there and play and like,I think like weekly if not a few days.
(45:45):
So there's. The pickup.
There's themy argument defeated that pickup.
Soccer doesn't exist but it does.
But that was more organized.
Like, hey, I'm going to call my friendsand get them to the park, right?
Yeah. Okay.
You can show upsolo, get on a team with random strangers.
Yeah, from all different backgrounds,cultures, upbringings.
I mean, it's a great sport to just,
(46:09):
you know, to play and
you're just trying to best the players.
I mean, but
no one passes out walk it.
That was another thing.
I was like, that's why I was like,that's why
I grab so many rebounds because I'm like,these guys are not passing at all.
Yeah, let me just rebound.
So I grabbed them.
I just got channeled my inner DennisRodman and grabbed a lot of balls.
(46:33):
There you go.
That's why they called me the custodian,because I was cleaning up the garbage.
Yeah. The custodian.
Like I said, you always needone of those in every sport.
Yeah, whether it's soccer and soccer.
Garbage cleanup.
Dennis Rodman type.
We defender like a tough defender.
Or what do we someone.
It could.
Be anybody.
(46:54):
There's a lot of more slide tackles. Yeah.
Our equivalent of itwould be the garbage goal getter.
So any rebound that you could just tapa foot on where you could just push
the ball on the back of the net. Gotcha.
So my coach growing up, he was,he was an Englishman.
His name is Steve.
And, he used to say all the time,I love garbage goals.
(47:14):
Those are the goals you have to fight for.
So it's the
it's the it's the point in your gamewhere you can show the most passion.
Yeah.
It's like knowingwhere to be in the right place.
Yeah. Putting some extraheart into it. Yeah. Hustle
the want the drive.
Yeah. Yeah I like that.
I remember this one time I was,this is, I was 12 maybe, so I was U13
(47:35):
I was around that agebut there was this kid that I played
with who played at central.
Actually, his name was Danny,and he missed a goal scoring opportunity
at our opponents on and then sprintedas soon as the other guy got the ball,
he kicked the ball from their boxto our box.
And this kid literallyjust chase the ball.
As soon as they got a shot on goal,he did a bicycle kick off the line
(47:56):
and our coach pointed to thatand was like, that's who you need to be.
I was like, crap, I got to do that.
Yeah, yeah.
I'll hustle all heart. Yeah.
Nice.
Anything you want to add?
I know we talked your job.
Universal connectivity, account executive.
(48:16):
We talk neighborhood, we talk soccer.
Anything that you want to bring,any questions for me?
Any things you want to bring up?
Well, I'd love to know what's nextfor friends of any.
Yeah. What's next? You did the parade.
You're doing the podcasts.
You're doing all these othercharitable events for.
Yeah, we just had a toy drive.
You at Luna's Pizza, right, Luna?
(48:37):
Pizza hut one, two, four.
It was pretty cold,but I think we got maybe ten,
ten garbage bags.
Oh, wow. Maybe more.
At least five huge boxes.
Heavy boxes.
And those are going to the walkat Caring Schools Committee.
Well, welcoming schools committee, coats,maybe even ten coats.
(48:58):
That's going to the Chrysalis Center.
And wear those toys and coats.
Where do they go to likewhere specifically?
Like, yes, Hartford or.
The Hartford is it'scalled a Chrysalis Center.
And they help, people trying to
get back into society based on either
that experience homelessnessor some sort of
(49:21):
issues,you know, with their life or employment.
So they were going to have coats there
and then families at schoolwalk at school.
Okay. Yeah.
May or may not be able to affordsome toys.
Toys R it's really localhelping our community.
But we have pond house tomorrow.
(49:42):
This is.
Well, this is going to air next week,so this will already pass.
But, let's grab lunch.
I like to thank everybodyfrom the let's Grab Lunch group.
They're doing,
their Christmas party, and
they picked friendsif you need to be their beneficiary.
Honored for that.
So thank you so much for that.
What else do we got?
We're going to take the chamber partythat we talked about at a villa.
(50:06):
We'll also be collecting toysfor Friends of Fini, so please come.
I think it's,
it's going to be next Thursday the 19th.
Again. We're going to miss this,but thank you for everyone at the chamber.
Thank you. Chris and Katie.
We have a wolf pack.
Here we go to hockey Wolf pack.
Yeah. February. This is good.
More than enough time becausethis will air and have time to purchase.
(50:28):
February 28th.
Huge group outing, friends.
A Feeney night at the yard.
The wolf pack. So please come if you can.
We're trying to get Frankto tank from Barstool Sports to join us.
Oh, really?I just sent Jenks a text today.
He hasn't gotten back to me yet,but let's.
But we'll see who's jinx. Jinx or jinx?
Jinx is,
(50:49):
Matt?
Jinx is Frank the tanks right hand man.
You know who Frank tank is? Yeah.
We had him at Parkville Market.
Doing the hot dog count.
The best he. Was rated. Them out. Yeah.
They were hitting home runsor they were striking out.
Then he signed autographsand took pictures.
He's a wonderful person. Frank de tank.
We're huge friends of Frank.
(51:10):
He's a, you know, caresa lot about friends.
A Feeney is a very helpful and thoughtful.
We're trying to get him to come back againand set up
inside of the wolf pack.
Not it's not happening yet, so.
But we'll see.
To get a booth, maybe a little table.
We got friends of Frank t shirts.
We got these little things he could sign,so we'll see.
(51:33):
That's awesome. It's February 28th.
Not confirmed yet, though.
The the wolf packs definitely happening.
Okay, Frank to Frank.Thanks. The parents. Gotcha.
If not, definitely not.
Not happening yet.
Yeah. Keyword. Yeah.
Anything else I got my man Matt.
Board of directors.You know Matt. Of course I know Matt.
(51:54):
That's a great guy.
I see you, Matt.
Matt, did I miss any dates?
It's golf tournament.
Golf tournament? More than enough time.
Oh that's September.
So connectivity should be a sponsor.
Yeah. September 13th, 2025.
I think this yearI was a little late to the, the deadline.
Yeah. I wanted to sign up.
(52:15):
What was the day before?
It was, I think to golf to to golf. Yeah.
I was ready because the chamber eventwas the chamber golf
event at, yeah,it was Wampanoag was a day or week before.
Yeah.
Did you play in that one?
I did. Oh, nice.
That was a really good event, too.
So didn't win.
But Brooke Golfsaid she's going to be a big time sponsor.
(52:36):
She told me this yesterday or Saturday.
But golf is going to be a sponsor.
Amazon will always be our technologysponsor.
King of dings will be our lunch sponsor.
And t flag pin flag sponsors.
Maximum beverage does a whiskey hole.
So after your golfing you got to,you know, get some some liquid
all in one juice.
(52:57):
So speaking of which, that's already met.
That's why I'm on this podcast, right?
Oh, did we do we tell the viewershow I got on, tell them.
The whiskey fest. Let's go whiskey fest.
I won the raffle,so that was awesome. Yeah.
Thank you. Maximum beverage.
I think the fourth year
now we've we've been the beneficiaryof their whiskey event.
(53:19):
200 vendors,some wonderful whiskeys Litchfield whiskey
coffee, whiskey, banana whiskey,you name it, it's there.
It was at the,
shoot.
Where was. That? FarmingtonGardens. Farmington gardens.
It was at the Hartford Golf Clubfor years,
but Farmington Gardens,it was a great time.
And we put out a raffle.
(53:40):
We have a wonderful raffleraised up close to $2,000 on our raffle.
And the first time everwe said, let's put Feeney Talks of Friends
podcast guest to be,
you win this raffle,you get to be a guest.
And guess who was our first winner ever?
There we go. Hi, guys. Stephen Aspinall.
Well, there's only like,a couple in there, so I was like 100.
(54:04):
Well, well, at first, after I,after I started
giving it all the attentionthat everyone else started putting theirs.
And so I was very fortunate to win themall. Yes.
I mean, you had good odds. Yeah.
Yeah, pretty good odds. Yeah.
But you're here. You won your buddy too.
Who were you with that night?
Cheater Bay?
Actually, can I shout on my fourthcheater bay jump spy key?
(54:27):
He has an Instagram page.
He's a social media influencer.
He does a lot of jumping.
He ran track and fieldthat Eastern Connecticut State University,
now does a lot of dunkingcompetitions over
with certain camps,or does a lot of other, trade shows.
I actually just came back from onewhere they were demoing a,
what is it like a test your reach thingwhere you can ring a bell at the top
(54:48):
and sort of the different heights,and it's like, how.
How can he how high can he jump?
Does he do exercises?
Can he teach me how to jump?He can. Absolutely.
I can barely. Touch the net.
He has a jump program
that you can actually get, or I'm surehe'll just be willing to help you out.
So we got to get him on to be a guest.
He put in for that.
He did that first.
You were talking to Come Together collab.
We could have.We know we'll. Have a man. Yeah.
(55:12):
What's his name?
She cheated by cheat eBay.
His nickname is Chey.
I don't know if he can tellwhat his name is.
He's Nigerian.
So, you know the name?
The name means something. You know?
So that'll be your first questionto listen.
Be a good friend.Our motto is be a good friend.
Hold the door for someone.
Be charitable, give compliments.
(55:34):
What makes G a good friend?
He's loyal, he's honest, and he's.
I don't know, he's just.
He's just a good friend. Loyal.Nice of them since kindergarten.
So you can't get better than thatas you. Walk at school.
He is. No way. Yeah.
All right.
Great way to end on being a good friend.
Good friends rule.Do you have the sticker?
(55:55):
It's a new sticker.
I think I got that one last time.
You had those at the Hot Oneschallenge, right?
Oh, yeah. Hot ones. Yeah.
Be a good friend again.
This was the Feeney Talkswith Friends podcast.
Thank you. Direct Line Media.
Thank you.
Maximum beverage.
Thank you to my guy Steve Raffle winner.
You heard it here first.
We're raffling off guestspots on the Feeney Talks with friends.
(56:16):
Go ahead and like and subscribeon YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
and all your other, streaming platforms.
Again, this is episode 122.
We had a great time talking with you.
Any closing remarks?
Be a good friend.
I don't think it's better than that.
That's a great closer. Beautiful.
Well said. Simple. Well said.
(56:38):
Well on three we're going to say it again.
So we'll say be a good friend on threebecause that's how we end. 123.
Be a good friend.
All right, all right.
Feeney talks with friends.
Episode 122.
This is great. I'm with a good friend,Stephen. What's up buddy?
What's going on? How are you?
Stephen Aspinall, accountexecutive for universal Connectivity.
Makes right.
What is that?Talk to me like I'm a third grader.
What is telecommunications?
(00:20):
It's a great question. It's a loaded one.
It has to do with everything.
With your network and phones.
I like to tell peopleTesla means distance and communications.
Obviously means to communicate.
So it's taking information back and forthbetween different interfaces
or softwares.
So email computer.
It integrates texting 365 email
(00:42):
your phone's internet and a new product
we just launched was the emergencynotification system for schools.
Okay. Security cameras or.
No security cameras. Yep.
Again, I teach third grade, so.
But we're here with Stephen.
All right.
I'm Eric Feeney, founderand president of Friends of Feeney.
Our mission is to helpchildren and families
in need assistanceafter heartbreak or tragedy.
(01:03):
And I use this podcast.
Feeney talks with friends,and I talk to a wonderful people
in the communitythat are doing great things.
And Stephen,I'm really excited to talk to you.
I've known you quite some time.
That's right. Go way back.
That's right.
House grew up on the same street.
Yeah, not grew up, but.
You grew up on that street? Yes.
I just moved in when you were about ten.
Yeah. 27. 27.
(01:26):
So I think you were 12 then.
I was done 16 years ago.
Do the math. 11.
You were 11.
I known you for 16 years.
Soccer player in a while. Yeah.
How's the soccer game going?
Soccer.
It inexistent right now.
Currently, I took my skill setand brought it over to coaching,
so I'm currently playing or currentlycoaching for West Hartford Travel.
(01:47):
So I've been doing thatfor close to a decade now actually.
Yeah, yeah.
Awesome. Awesome. No, you're a good guy.
I'm very excited.
Again, like I said, this is episode 122.
Go back and check out 121 with Joey Bats.
That he does hip hop for the homeless.
Nice to have you spit some bars.
You want to rap a little bit?
I cannot rap.
(02:10):
How about Tracy Carter?
Go back and check out.
Tracy Carteris the executive director of Anchor Camps.
He played basketballat University of Hartford.
How's your hoop game?
It's getting there.
What's better,your rap game or your hoop game?
Probably my hoop game, for sure.
Do you play pick up hoop?
I used to a little bit here and there,but it was a few times
during the summer with a couple friends,but nothing to, rigorous.
(02:34):
Do you play pickup soccer?
I used to in my family, but nice.
Like I said, not.Not really too much anymore.
It's me who's. A better soccer player.You or your dad.
Or me, for sure.
That's not a question.
At. Is that a challenge?
So back
to, we have sponsors, we're hereat Maximum Beverage.
Come out and check out this wonderfulselection of beverages.
(02:55):
Thank you for hosting us.
And thank you, Direct Line Media.
Stephania and Dave,
this would not be possiblewithout Stephania and Dave and some other,
podcast sponsors The Fix
IV, Luna Pizza, Parkville Management,Golf Law, people's
Bank, float 41 and KeatingAgency and West Hartford Lock.
So with West Hartford Lock being said,what are three keys
(03:16):
that make you an a great accountexecutive for universal connectivity?
What are three keysthat make you good at your job?
That's a great question as well.
There's actually four thingsthat we pride ourselves in, okay.
Universal connectivity.
So when you
go through the interviewing process you'resupposed to help these four key areas.
For the company.
One is human touch.
(03:37):
So how involved are you with the customer?
And engaged in the community.
Two is pragmatic creativity.
So how creative can we bewith our solution
to cater towards our customer's needs?
Three is thoroughness.
So how thorough are wewith our documentation processes?
And making sure that our clientsare taken care of.
(03:58):
And four is being happy, you know,are we going to present ourselves
properly and, you know, actslike we do what we love. So.
All right. Very nice. Thank you.
I think that translates to a lot of jobsI could as a teacher,
you know, building that rapportand relationships is very important
where your studentsand your coworkers happiness.
I always come in with a positive attitude.
(04:19):
No one wants to learn from or workwith someone that's miserable, right?
Thoroughness.
You want to do your jobto the best of your ability.
And what was pragmatic?
Pragmatic, pragmatic creativity?
Pragmatic creativity?
Yes. I try to bring in engaging in funlessons and,
and make sure my,my students are having a good time.
(04:41):
Yeah. All right.
Very cool.
That was our I asked for three.
Steven your go getter. You gave us four.
There you go, man.How long you been at the job?
I'm going on six months now. Nice.
Yeah. So,
still gaining my own accounts, you know,
learning about the industry,the ins and outs of everything.
But I came from a previous sales role.
(05:01):
So I have experience in that respect.
Very nice, very nice.
And where are you located?
We're right in West Hartford Center.
So right below the Bank of America,which is next to the Chamber of Commerce,
West Hartford Chamber of Commerce, WestHartford Chamber.
Are you guys a member?
We are nice friends, a Feeney's a member.
What's how how was your interactionswith the chamber?
(05:21):
Oh, I love it.
Yeah, I love it.
It's there's no betterlocal networking and,
you know, support that you can get from,you know, a business chamber.
It's the largest in the state, largest nonsingle town in the state.
Yeah. 119 oh yeah.
You were thereChris Conway Abby Rappaport Smith.
Hooray! Castro.
We're our guests for a hot wing challenge.
You stopped in. You had the the bomb.
(05:43):
How was that experience?Oh, that was pleasure.
Really miserable.
Yeah.
It's good to get on the podcast.
Under those circumstances.
It didn't really sitwell on my stomach, but that's all good.
Yeah, we
could feel it twice, you know.
Oh, it was. It was. Landing.
Burn out. Burn. Oh.
The bomb.
(06:03):
The bomb is no joke.
I would go back and watch 119Chris Conway great.
Guest, great episode to.
Conway, alsothe executive director of the chamber.
And he mentioned during the podcastthat you are parking lot buddies.
So that's we. Are I see him all the. Time.
I see him all the time.
Chris Conway good, good guy.
So telecommunications,
(06:24):
not like I think a teleporting
tell a telecommunications tell youbecause you, you broke it down.
Teller and communications.
Well done. Like I if I was a third grader.
I think you did a great jobexplaining that.
Thanks.
Yeah.
So one example to give actually,just a little sidebar.
The earliest formof telecommunications was back
when tribes would have to communicatefrom a large distance.
(06:47):
So one tribe or one location, of troops.
Would you put out a smoke signaland the other group would send
like, a drumming in response to itso that they know they're coordinated?
So that's the very earliest,most primitive tale of telecommunication.
Has got a little history lesson here.
Yeah. I'm a lifelong learner.Say it all the time.
(07:07):
Try to learn something new every day.
Thank you. Stephen,you just taught me something.
Yeah. You want to learn?
Make that connection.
And so they communicate.
They one didn't do smokeand the other one did smoke.
One did sound, one did smoke. Correct?
Yep. Nice.
Do you know what tribe or where or justyou just know I just.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I just knowthat they used to do that back in the.
(07:28):
Where did you get all your degrees?
So I spent some timeat Western New England,
and then some time over at central,doing mechanical engineering,
which kind of bridged the gap
from the aerospace industryover to the sales engineering industry,
where I was working with robotics partsand sourcing them,
from different companies to variouscompanies were essentially a brokerage,
(07:50):
that brought me full fledged into salesbecause I enjoyed the sales industry
so much.
And then, you know,got picked up by universal connectivity,
8 to 12 months later.
Very cool.
Now, what if someone wanted to connectwith you and reach out to you?
Do you have an email or phone numberyou like to share for our listeners
to connect with you if they want to workwith universal connectivity?
(08:11):
Yeah, sure. So, universe connectivity.com.
My email is S Aspinall at Universalconnectivity.com
SSP pinnacleat Universal connectivity.com.
You heard it here for you.
Go get you some sales.
Do you get commission.
Yes I do yeah.
Should I say I don't know. Maybe maybe.
(08:33):
I don't know.
I when I had a financial advisor onI can't ask about the stock market.
Yeah. They can't talk stocks. Right.
But I'm guessing you it's your job.
You work. So how are your accounts?
Oh, let's play a game.
Sure.
Your your day at work, your accountsor your activities or your events.
(08:54):
It's first, last, best or worst,your first day of work,
your most recent last day of work.
Ooh, your best day at workand your worst day at work.
Okay.
How do they go?
How do they go? You can any orderyou want.
Okay, I guess I'll start with first,and then I'll go last.
And then I'll do best.
And then worst. Worst.
Okay. At least. Favorite.
(09:14):
Wow. That's a loaded question becausethere's not too many bad days at work.
My first day at work started very,you know, slow
as you do in any job, I guess.
Doing a lot of trainings, a lot of,
you know, grassroots stuff where you'rejust learning about the products,
the industry that you're in, the company,you know, values learning.
Everybody's face at work.
(09:37):
My most recent day was today.
It was a busy day.
I had a couple meetings
doing a lot of emails back and forthall over the phone or through email.
And yeah, we're actually working on asolution for a specific client currently.
So we're kind of working in the weedswith that.
That's something, you know,that's our pragmatic
creativity approach.
(10:01):
The best day at workand the worst day work,
best day at work was closing the deal.
I guess.
Worst day at. Work?
You want to elaboratea little more on the deal?
Well, it's still in process,so I can't really go into specifics,
but it was a it was a it was a good deal.
Well, congratulations.Thank you, thank you.
First deal.
(10:21):
That was more of my largest, I guess.
Yeah.
My worst day at work.
So that's the thing.
I don't really havetoo many bad days at work, but.
Good answer.
Yeah, yeah, you should ask me.
A lot of my days are terrible.
Not just kidding.
No, that was a game.
So that's a fun game.You can do it any time.
(10:42):
First, last, best or worst,you know, vacations, friends, teachers,
whatever you want.
Activities, soccer events. So central.
Do you know Tom pin?
It's pencils.
Yes I. Do.
He went to central. He.
No he didn't went tohe didn't. He didn't go to central.
He currently is the athletic director.
(11:02):
Yeah. Central.And you had him on your podcast. Yeah.
Of course I know him.And we both know why.
Oh. He's in the neighborhood.
That's all
that I don't know, I saw weeks ago.
He's probably.
90. Foley's number 94, Tom Pindus, Pences.
I always jack up his name.
I checked it up on the podcast.
And he was number 94,and he made a reference
(11:22):
to a basketball playerduring that episode.
Yep. Right.
94. You do so many of these, maybe it's,
And then Eric Bergen was the central guy.
DJ Joey Oh was a central guy.
Have you ever been to Elmer's? Of course.
Way back in the day.
We could.
We could play our first, first, last,best worth.
Elmer's ready? Go. No. I'm kidding.
Oh, yeah.
(11:44):
What? D.J., Joey. Oh, was a D.J. Elmer's.
He went to central.
So, you know, Bergen had 100 views.
Tom had 200 views. Joey oh, had 200 views.
How are we looking for views?What would you promise to me here?
I think we're going to get to a thousand.
Nice. Yeah, nice. Okay, okay.
And then how is thatengineering degree at central?
(12:06):
Car challenging.
What made you choose that path?
Yeah. I mean, from a very early age,I was.
I loved problem solving,I loved mathematics, I love science.
So going into a field related tothat was difficult to gauge
as to which oneI wanted to actually pursue.
Whether it was computerscience, engineering,
(12:28):
mathematics, physics,whatever it may have been.
So I kind of stumbled upon mechanicaljust because it was a blend of all of them
together.
You got some,you know, courses with coding,
got some courses with math, physics,everything in between.
And then, you know, obviously
with the higher upyou go, the more complex it becomes.
But yeah, I mean, it'sa challenging degree nonetheless.
(12:49):
But you come out of itand as a more resilient
learner,I guess that's a good way of putting it.
No joke.
Do you use some of the thingsthat you learned at central
in your engineering class, currentlyin your role as the, account executive?
In my current role, no.
But in adjacent roles to me,yes, absolutely.
(13:10):
Obviously the engineers over atthe business do work
very hands on with,you know, low voltage equipment.
So having that physics backgroundor electricity or,
electrical background definitely is helpswith the knowledge piece.
It's nice. Yeah.
So me being a teacher 21 years,we're talking education.
(13:32):
Do you have a favorite teacher that standsout or favorite moment with a teacher?
I knew this question would come up.
Did you do your homework?
I did 90% of the time.
The other 10% may have been at lunch, the,the period before.
But it's still got done nonetheless. And,
(13:52):
I have a couple favorite teachers,specifically Connor.
Connor is a great staff, by the way.
I don't know how hands on
you are with Connor stuffif you have, you know, district's
get togethers or whatnot.I know a few of them.
They're they're phenomenal.
Specifically, if I want to give some shoutouts to some of my old Connor teachers.
Miss Zango, who is now Miss Brian,who recently got married.
(14:14):
Not recently actually.
Now, it'sprobably been close to a decade as well.
Miss Brian, miss Peretti,
and Mister Noel Wells are my.
Those are my top three.So two English teachers and Mr..
There was a math teacher.
So I don't know if I've ever heardthose names
there.
Any feedback you get on them.
(14:35):
They're strict but fairand they're fun when they need to be.
It's like the perfect, most ideal highschool teacher you could really ask for.
Yep. Fair and stern.
But you can also crack some jokes onoccasion.
Yeah, yeah.
Outside of class.
Of course. Mr.
Noel's, What's he look like?
Mustache?
Maybe for reading. But no glasses. Really?
(14:58):
Bald guy?
He's been there for years.
I'd say over 20 years.
Yes, I think I know him. Yeah.
I think I just saw him at the bestat the football game.
He's out a lot at the activities.
Yeah.
All right.
Brian. Noel. Yes. Good guy. Brian.
Noel I'm going to look him upreal quick though.
Yes, I know exactly who that is.
(15:19):
I know everybody. Loves gray hair.
Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, sure. Yeah.
Good guy. Really good guy.
All my friends,when we were in high school, senior year,
I think when we were taking calculus,we all loved him.
We all. Nobody hated him.
So really, really good guy.
We had group group collaboration sessionswith, like, little five of us.
(15:39):
We got into our pods.
And this time we'll send it to.
What minute are we, Stefania?
See? 16 16th minute.
Brian. Oh, well, shout out Connor.
Let's see if this is him.
I believe his first name was Brian.
(16:01):
No, no, no,
that's, That's me.
That's Tor Fisk.
Yeah.
Kind of in math.
Yeah,
it's kind of incognito.
He's.
But I think I.
I think it's the person I was thinking of.
(16:21):
Yeah, I.
Know for a fact I very. Confident.
I do know he goes to a lot of,
basketball games or whatever.
Yeah.
We had a couple other Conard grads,
Gavin, Sherry
and Callum Sherry, they were twins.
They were Gatoraderunners of the year, really.
And they got a free rideand they're running at Stanford now.
(16:42):
So great podcast. That for that.
That's awesome. 45.
That's like 500 views.
Wow Riley Fox played who just graduated.
That's episode 93.
He's at Yale now okay.
And he is up like he's like 600 views.
Wow. Connor. Connor. Guys coming through?Yeah.
Between your CCU poll and your Connorpool, we're looking at like, 2000 views.
(17:07):
Okay, I'm here for it I can't wait.
It's going to be great.
Great.
Well, thank you for shouting outteachers is really cool to hear.
You're appreciative.
You're a teacher.
Us former students appreciate you.
So yeah, I've shared multiple times
when someone mentionedtheir favorite teacher out.
(17:29):
You know, is that person still alive?
Can we share it with them?
So it's good to hear.
So, Brian.
Well, we'll be happy to hear that.
And who were the other two, Mrs. Bryant?
Mrs.. Brian.
Brian,I don't know how, because I never had her
when she was Miss Brian, but I know sheher maiden name is Zango Z
and glue and Peretti PR it pretty.
(17:50):
Teach English.
Yeah.
Very cool.
And all kinds a great school.
My daughters go there.
How are they doing, by the way?
Yeah.
Juniors. Juniors. Wow.
Student council are busy.
They just did black box theater.
One is in mock trial. Okay. With,
Mr. Islam and Miss Esposito.
(18:11):
Okay. Two wonderful teachersdoing a great thing.
Mock trial.
Next week, they're going to presentand and go through out the trial.
They it's a competition.
You you go against a low schoollike an athletic event.
And it's really cool.
It's something I've never knewtoo much about.
But last year they did it throughNew Britain Superior Courts.
Next week they're going to be at HartfordSuperior Courts.
(18:32):
So wonderful problemsolving, public speaking,
thinking on the spot.
Calling out someone for,
what is it? Convention.
It was like objection.
Convention of languageor convention of time.
Just I pick them up on Sundaysand Tuesdays
and they just come in like,oh, you know, it's like a head
(18:54):
to head competition of wordsand just trying to catch someone out.
So, so interesting. You know, I grew up,
didn't have that opportunityor didn't know about mock trial.
So to see my daughters doing it,it's very exciting, very proud of them.
They're doing a great job.
Student council is another thing.
They planthe pep rallies, the homecomings,
(19:16):
pep rallies, model U.N.
so they go to UConn every year
and they represent their countrylike the United Nations.
Neela Hummel brag won best delegate.
So she came home with a gavel.
You know, it had engraved on it.
Best delegate.So it was really cool. Certificate.
I thought of her.
(19:37):
That's awesome.Yeah. No, it's a great school.
I'm very excited.
Bridgette.
Softball. She's catching.
So she's got. We just went.
She was just went hitting the other dayto get ready for the season.
Yeah, getting ready for golf.
Just a wonderful program.
Great. Like you said,the staff is wonderful.
Yeah.
From the administration downto all the teachers, counselors?
(20:00):
Yeah. You can't mess with West Hartford.
Yeah, yeah.
That's why we moved here.
So, yeah, 16 years ago,we my girls are 16.
So you figure out why we moved here?
My wife was pregnant.
We lived in New Haven, I was goingI was working in Waterbury.
Shoot. My wife was working in Milford.
My, I know were pregnant.
We had to go to a good educations,school system.
(20:22):
My family, my wife's,my mother, and lived in Waterbury.
Her mother and dad lived in East Granby.
So West Hartford was right in the middle.
We settled, we saw Wolcott Park,we saw that
we can go, you know, towards the malland towards Dora.
And little Dora wasn't there.
But like with.
Blockbuster at the time,maybe blockbuster.
Yeah, it. Was a blockbuster. And the.
(20:44):
And the mail slot, it's still there.
Devdas is still there. Yup, yup.
I saw blockbuster.
I remember being a blockbusterand I remember laser hair
removal was like a Chinese restaurant.
And next to the, American Eagle. Yes.
Yeah, American Eagleand was one big Chinese restaurant.
But then they they knocked it downand made it a bank and a hair removal.
(21:07):
And then Bombay olive.
What was Bombay olive?
Well, that old
it was something.
It was an Ihop.
Very good. Like 30 years ago.
Yeah. Yeah.Before way before I moved here.
But I remember driving to the mall once,
getting lost, taking a wrong turnand seeing that Ihop.
Yeah.
Because the bamboo was still looks like.
Yeah, the Ihop shape. It's funny. Yeah.
(21:31):
And then the place,
the Hartford Health Care buildingacross the street right on the corner
next to the cat.
Yeah. Cats, cats, cats unlimited.
That used to be a restaurant.
To be a pretty famous local one. Yeah.
Do you know the name?I forget the name. Like an.
Were you born in that house?
Yes. I was. Nice. Yeah.
(21:51):
Very cool.
No. Great neighborhood.
Yeah.So you went to walk it. And to walk. It.
Did you go to Sedgwick?
Went to Sedgwick. Conard? Yeah.
Very good. Nice.
And how about doctor K?
I never got a chance to work for doctor K,but obviously, you know,
I'm from the neighborhood.
I moved in and Kathy said, hey,that's the principal at walk at school.
(22:13):
Maybe you should talk to him. Yeah, go.
Hey, doctor K, I'm a I've been a teacherfor eight years in Waterbury.
You know, I'd be interestedto to go to a walk in, I joked.
I was like, hey, I'll paint your house,I'll mow your lawn.
He's like, I got someone for that.
That was me.
Yeah. Probably.
And then like five years later,
(22:34):
I'm still driving to Waterbury.
The commute was 35 minutes traffic.
It was awful.
And he was like, hey, I got good news.
Bad news.Good news is I can get you an interview.
Bad news is I'm retiring.
So I said, I'll take it.
Yeah. And, I got the job.
Doctor Singh came in, jazz
Singh came in, and doctorK moved to Washington state.
(22:57):
Yeah. So hopefully if you get this, well,maybe you'll send this to on me.
And my doctor said, well, Plato,you're the man.
I'm still in contact with themthrough Facebook and Instagram, so.
Okay. Yeah.
Thank you for everything. Plato.
And then my daughters babysit his cats,and he's a great guy.
He wrote in, like, Greek letters.
Yeah, we've seen his handwriting. Yeah.
(23:17):
So weirdthat that whole family is is brilliant.
Very artistic, articulate.
Just smart individuals.
Are you run the same age as the twins?
They're two years above me. Above?
Yeah. Acha Chloe and Lexi.
Very cool. Yeah.
So we grew up next to each other.
We played outside together,
and then they moved.
(23:38):
Was a little sadbecause they were my neighbors, you know?
Yeah.
And then you got.
Well, Tom's in there now.
Tom's in there now. Yep.
Who you had 94 podcast, 90.
Four cast, 94 or 98. He's 98, 98.
Okay. Well, maybe I do.
We mentioned Jesse Armstead,maybe then 98 or basketball
(23:58):
and basketball playersusually aren't big numbers like 98.
Maybe he's a football player.
Forget I forget who it was.
But so how's the coaching soccer.
So ten yearscoaching at the West Hartford?
Boys or girls or both.
It's been flip flopping year to year.
Currently I have the boys, so I havethe second graders and the fourth graders.
(24:21):
So is it travel?
It is travel.
You always coach.
Travel always goes travel nice.
And where do you travel? To
various places.
It depends on who wants to play us.
So we're entered into a leaguethat's in the Greater Hartford district.
So you got your Glastonbury's.
Manchester'sall the way to, you know, your Newington
(24:41):
or Simsbury is your grand bees.
You could even play someone like summers.
That's 40 minutes away.
But, you know, onceyou get to that certain age point
where you're traveling all over the state,you could be traveling
to Greenwich one dayand then you know, mystic the next.
So it really depends on who you play.
What, what tournament bracket you're in,what what league
(25:04):
you enter in and stuff like that.
So you got.
Second grader driving 40 minutes to play.
So that particular example driving tosummers was with the fourth graders.
So still same kind of thing.They're still very young. Wow.
Oh that's good.
Well,I mean it's called travel for a reason.
You do. Travel. Hence the name.
Very cool.
No, I've never sponsored a soccer team,but friends have finally
(25:27):
brought this to me last year,so maybe it's a good opportunity to share.
We sponsor.
This is our minors. Friends of Feeney.This is ours.
Oh, nice.
Very nice.
Got the corporate color screen.
There's our. Coach.
So really excited to be the West Hartfordgirls softball league.
They made a nice little friendly.That's really nice.
What are you coach?
(25:48):
You should coach.
I did coach, so you did for soccer.
I was the. Best. Hands down.
Bar none.
The best kindergarten.
The first grade soccer coach ever. Nice.
Once it got to second or third gradewhen you had the no positions
and where to go and build strategy,I lost it.
What about softball?You know baseball, right.
(26:09):
So I coached my girls and everything.
Okay. T-ball,
softball, soccer.
What else did they do?
Basketball.
Well, then then my
then my wife took over the basketballhead coaching made me assistant coach.
Oh, I didn't know that.
And said, if I, you know,if I continue to yell, what are you doing?
Where's your. Player?
(26:31):
She's going to I'mgoing to sit in the car.
She's like
yelling, what are you doing?
Is not helpful.
Well, you know, but,
no, it was great coaching.
But then after a while,it's like you try to be coaching.
Your children are definitely a challengingbecause they see you all day long.
(26:52):
Yeah,sometimes they may not agree with you and
they'll tell you that, you know.
So I know that too. Well.
Did your dad coach you?
He tried to give me pointers hereand there.
We would walk over to Wall Parkand it always ended.
I was maybe 5 or 6 years old at the time,but it always ended in a in
a crying argument. So
(27:13):
those are those are some of the memoriesI cherish though.
Of course. Yeah.
So the funniest thing ever is likeI taught third grade at walk at school,
my daughters were in thirdgrade at walk at school.
Yeah.
They brought home the third grade homeworkthat I collaborated with my colleagues
and made, and they said, no, dad,we don't do it this way in school.
(27:35):
And I was like, are you kidding me?
I just sat in a meeting with your teacher,so I couldn't imagine not.
I had inside source like I was in the mix.
Yeah.
So I couldn't imagine a parent
like, I hear that a lot.
Oh, Mr. Feeney, we don't teach math.
I never I didn't learn math this way.
Mr. Feeney.
The new math. Mr.
(27:56):
Feeney, you common core math.
You know, so a parent
like I don't want
to say a civilian parent or,
hands off parent or someonethat's not in the school system.
Parent. Yeah, I. Couldn'timagine what the students are saying.
Like, no, dad, we do it this way.
I have my own daughters.
Tell me, when they were in third grade,it was hilarious.
I was like,
(28:17):
fine.
Well, I remember when I used toI dogs at Berkeley
or Dog one time and when you guys were.
No, this is actually the different time
I was actually setting up a tentin your backyard.
Do you remember that
for a gathering that you had one summer?
Okay.
But anyways, I was setting up the tentand I just see your two daughters
(28:37):
just sitting there reading for hours,and that's all they did.
So if you can imagine if they read theirentire childhood how smart they would be.
So maybe, maybe they did knowsomething that you didn't.
Oh no, they're smarter than me for sure.
They've said words like ad hoc, adherent,and ad hoc.
It just the otherday I should make a list.
(29:02):
A camp met
a a camp met like, I don't know.
There's so many words. I'm like, what?
It's a new vocab word.Like it's a new word.
They still have,but they drop them like it's nothing.
You know? It's like.
But no, my girls, like you said, I.
I don't want to take credit.
But when my wife was pregnant,I read to the belly,
(29:22):
my wife's belly, read a book every dayand I just read.
And then when I came out,I read to them every day.
Yeah.
Picture books.
Because I'm really goodat reading picture books.
But then again, being great kindergartenfirst grade soccer
coach, I'm a really good kindergartenfirst grade reader.
And then when they got into HarryPotter and stuff,
(29:43):
I read the first chapter, Harry Potter.
And I was it's like,what are these names or what's going on.
You know.
So but Harry Potter was they readHarry Potter like second grade really.
Or maybe even
I want to say second or third grade to me.
To me, those books are dauntingbecause as a fifth grader,
even if you're looking at thoseand those are like 300 pages long.
(30:04):
Yeah, 500, 500. Some of them. Yeah.
And my sister once waited at Barnesand Noble to get the book.
When she got the book, she went homeand read it throughout the night.
Oh, and read the whole book.
Wow. So maybe they get the reading for my.
Which one was that?Was that Deathly Hallows?
I think it might have been the first oneor the second one.
(30:25):
I don't know,
but that's funny that you saymy daughters were reading.
They still love reading.
That's all they did. Yeah.
They're really good. Readers.
So that's what, that's what happenswhen their father's a teacher, you know?
No, I think, yeah, it's still.
Those good habits. Reading is.
Reading is important.
Reading is fun.Reading will take you places. Absolutely.
(30:48):
It's high courage that I encourageall my listeners.
And, that's that's a good recommendation.
Read.
You have any recommended books, podcasts,
movies, TV shows we recommendare on the recommendation for.
I don't have any books that you knowyour viewers would like.
They're more so like business books and,and, telecommunications books. But,
(31:08):
yeah,I mean, I'd love the Harry Potter series.
I read the first book of Game of Thrones.
So as far as novelsgo, that's what I've read, really,
but it's typically business related books.
I suggested reading Who Moved My Cheeselast podcast.
I gave it a copy to Joey Bats who movemy cheese the Inner Game of Tennis.
(31:30):
Another great book.
It's about achieving a goal, andit could be the inner game of anything.
Inner game of interviewing, inner game of,
I wrote my my Neil a does rivalry
and so rivalry.
Yeah like shooting. Yeah.
Really like the mental
(31:50):
portion of that.
It's like very physicaldraining and mentally.
Yeah.
You have to squeeze the triggerthe same time you have to hold your breath
and pause at the same time every time.
It's challenging.
Speaking of which, you see that Olympianthat did the the one arm pistol?
Oh, yeah. The turkey barrel.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was funny.
(32:11):
I someone dressed as him as Halloweenor Brian's.
Brian had a party.
Your other neighbor.
Oh yeah.
And someone rolled in a couple rolled inis the Australian breakdancer
and the Turkish shooter,and they pulled it off.
It was so good.Yeah, it was. Really cool to see.
Yeah.
So recommendation.
(32:32):
So I recommend recommended Yellowstone.
You ever watch Yellowstone.
Bits and pieces here or there.
But I haven't sat down and actually.
You know, you ever play JohnMadden football growing up
John Madden, the football game.
Oh, mad John yeah, yeah.
Met my dad when he said John MaddenI was like, okay,
(32:53):
I thought that's you meant,but you just pull. Them out.
A little bit, a little bit here.
There's a as a FIFA guy though.
Oh yeah. There's a documentary on Madden.
On Amazon.
Okay. Oh, I loved it.
Like Madden raised me.
Like I think it was 89.
The first one came out for Sega had itand I had them all.
I think I stopped playing around like
(33:15):
2008 or 2010, who knows?
But it was a great documentary.
So yeah. Yeah.
So funny.
People, kidsdon't even realize that he's a person.
They just think Madden as like aa concept or a game.
But like a FIFA or like an NHL or whatevervideo game.
Yeah.
I remember the first time I played FIFAfreshman year, Southern Connecticut State,
(33:36):
my buddy JeffCraig's room, I think it was Nintendo 64.
Inc diagonal screen.
You know,you could kick it up to yourself.
Corner kicks.
What's a diagonal screen.
Didn't run.
Didn't it run this wayor did you go side to side
to go left to right.
Or did it go like on an angle.What do you mean like.
(33:58):
The the gameplay, the flow?
I don't know what you mean,but the, you know.
Like Matt and you go up and down,you're going north.
Oh. Oh, that's what you mean.
Okay.
You're kind of going.
Yeah. You're going, you're going up.
If you're on offense, you go up.
But if you're playing someone, if.
Then they're facing down. You sure?
(34:20):
I thought so, at least the newer ones.
When I maybe.
Was new,maybe they, they maybe they rotated it.
But back in the day,I swear I could be wrong.
Now you're making me question myself.
Almost like,
what was the game, NBA live?
What kind of went on an angle, really?
FIFA, I thought, started on an angle.
I could be wrong. Up and down.
(34:42):
So I haven't played them in
close to like 5 or 6 yearsnow, but FIFA one side to side.
I think Madden went up and down.
The same with two guy NBA two K.
Went up and down. Went up and down.
And then it like once you lost possessionit would flip flop.
And then the other personfrom the bottom up okay.
(35:02):
Yeah that'll get you dizzy though.
It does. It's a couple turnovers in a row.
I remember that actually.
He was like oop then.
Well it has like a little pause.
Yeah like a.
Little a little do a freeze frameand then it'll rotate the screen.
And then you'll have the ball after
technology man
these games are getting more sophisticatedand new added
(35:25):
My little nephew Nick,I played last Christmas,
so you don't even have to buy the gameanymore. You pay for it.
They send it right to your box.
I'm probably telling you something,you know?
Wait, what do you.What do you mean? They send it.
Like you just send it to your sister.
Oh, you download the file. Download it?Yeah.
My bad.
Yeah, yeah, yeah,that's how the loop I am.
Download the file.
(35:46):
They send it to your box, you know.You know what I'm talking about.
But I used to have to wait in lineat GameStop.
Pay in advance.
Oh, I still remember those days.
I used to go to Funko landand put a $50 deposit down,
wait in line to get the Madden.
Yeah, go. Home and play with my buddy BG.
I mean, Madden wasthere was a line, but now no line.
No wait you just againdownload it. My bad.
(36:08):
Send it to your back and then.
But so I haven't played in a while.
This is a Madden store I now for you guysgoing to be interested but
and the first time I playedit was last Christmas, my nephew Nick,
he would kick off, come down, pummel me,I would fumble, he'd get it.
He laugh at me,he score, I throw an interception.
(36:29):
He run it back. He'd run around.
And you know, I was still tryingto figure out the buttons.
It's been a while.
He beat me like 35 six.
Then I was like,all right, let's keep playing.
Got it down to like 2814.
Finally I learned the buttonsand I got Derrick Henry
and I grind it out, pound in groundlike ran the ball first down,
(36:52):
waste some time, pound the ballfirst time.
Wasted all the clock.
I beat him.
It was like 14 to 12or 14 to 13 or something.
Somehow. So I kicked a field goal.
I don't know what it was, but I beat them.
And I
kind of said, hey, you know,I beat you or whatever.
Maybe I teased him a little bit.
(37:13):
He starts crying, oh, boy.
And then everyone's mad at me.
I'm like,he didn't tell you the first five times.
He's laughing at me,mocking me, beat me by 50 points,
and then finally, when I winand I say something, I'm the bad guy.
But funny Nick story on Christmas.
Madden.
Nick's every yearhe's going to be a guest.
(37:33):
I'm like, come on Nick.
He likes fantasy sports.
So I'm like, In Augustwe'll do a fantasy football preview.
Like, hey, who we drafted.
What are we going to draftNick for three summers?
Oh uncle EA, I got, I got sports,I got to go to school.
We're going on vacation.
So Nick I mean, here'syour chance, buddy. Let's go.
(37:55):
Should he do it?
How's your. Fantasy game?Do you play fantasy football?
I don't my my dad, actually,surprisingly enough,
just entered in the fantasy soccer League,though for players.
Surprise me.
You get players, Or teams.
It's a weird. Yeah.
I think it's teams.I don't really know how it works.
He sent me the file and says,hey, enter in this.
But it's like it's too late.
But I think it's like, you bet each weekon a certain team to win.
(38:18):
And then at the end of the seasonyou accumulate all the points.
Very cool.
So I don'tI don't know exactly how that works, but.
So what are the two license plates?
Your dad has two football license plates,I think. One.
Oh on the car. Yeah, yeah.
One is Barcelona.
Yep. Do you know the other one.
Manchester United. No.
Real Madrid?
No, it's another EPL team.
(38:39):
Do you know your EPL teams? No.
Maybe you have to break that downLiverpool.
Oh yeah. So that that's his team.
So he loves Barcelonalike the style that they play.
And so he really enjoyswatching Barcelona.
He's he's a good fanbut he's really truly a Liverpool fan.
So that's histhat's his right or die team.
And and Liverpool'smajor rival is Everton.
(39:02):
Everton not Manchester not match.
Oh they're all really. In differentleagues.
They're in the same league.
So the way that European socceris different
than American sports in general isthey have what's called a relegation zone.
So if you're in the top bottom
or in the bottom two teamsin the top league, then you move down
and the top two teams from the B leaguemove up to the A-League. So,
(39:27):
I don't know where I will.
I don't know where I was goingwith this, but.
I've heard that and I looked intoa little bit because that's Ted Lasso.
Oh, Ted Lasso in the season
like they win to go up orand then Deadpool.
Ryan Reynolds owns a team. For real.
Yes. And his team finally made it up
Ryan or. Yes.
Yeah.
(39:47):
They they were allowed to like beregulated.
Regulated is called
relegated. Relegated. When you go down.
Oh I don't know promoted. Okay.
What did I think.
And that constantly happens every.
Year every single. Season.
So that's goodbecause I think NFL should do that
because you got teams like the Giants. I'ma Giants fan.
As of maybe
(40:09):
two more daysbecause I might be done with them.
But but they should. Get donelike a relegated fan.
They should get relegated to downto play with like lower level
and then a motivatethe last place teams to get better.
Right.
Because it's not just hey,you made the playoffs.
You're good.
Well the bad teams have some motivationto not be so bad right?
(40:30):
That's it. It works. In the.
NFL. Teams try to get last playso they get first pick, right? Yes.
Isn't that a thing.And how does that work for soccer?
Do they get first paid or it's all paidright.
It's all paid.
So once you're eligible to play,you could be eligible at 14 years old
if you want to.
Although there's some nowsome legal issues with hiring kids.
(40:52):
Like, this is one kidnamed Calvin Sullivan, who's
I think in Pennsylvania or something.
I forget where exactly he's American.
But he was purchased by Manchester City,another EPL team.
So that when he becomes of age 18, he's
going to transferover to their academy program.
Yeah, Freddie Adu did that.
(41:12):
FreddieBeckham started a little younger, right?
There's Landon Donovan. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
TaylorTolman, maybe may maybe one of them.
There's a couple others for sure. Yeah.
Everyone's saying, like soccer will nevermake in America because of commercials.
What's your take on that?
True or false.
Because we need. False on that point.
(41:33):
But it eventually will for TV wise.
I mean, yeah,
Oh, that's a loaded question.
I can go down a whole rabbit hole.
But long story short, the reasonwhy soccer argument keep going both ways.
I think that it well,
but there's an argument that's saying thatit won't because it doesn't
have that drive from a youth standpointthat other countries do.
(41:56):
So if you look at any inner citybasketball court, they're all filled
with kids just shooting hoops all dayright after school.
They go from 2 to 8, six hours.
They're just shooting hoopsor over and over and over again.
So the love for the gameis there for soccer.
It's all fueled by money.
So the more money you have,
the better teamthat you can get on from an early stage.
So there's a conflict of interestwith money.
(42:18):
And you know your cultural upbringingand there's a whole lot of different
factors that go into it.
Where you could create the argumentthat soccer won't be as big
as it is in Europe or South Americaor whatever other country.
Yeah.
Because, well, my take was for to play,
I guess it's bad argument,but to play basketball,
(42:39):
you just need sneakers and a balland you go to a park
because people will be gatheringat this park like, say, walk in park
every time I walk my dog.Sunday nights is jam.
Yeah, there's at least when I moved in16 years ago, I went to play there.
I was like,they call me old man or the custodian
because I cleaned up the glass.
(43:01):
It was up.Make me self-proclaimed nickname.
But I was cleaning up and I'm like,no one wanted to pick me.
And then at the end,I played a couple games
and I swear, this isthis is build my confidence.
I was ready to leave and some guy goes,hey old man, you.
Want to play?
And I was like, whoa,he could asked anyone?
Yeah. Yes. Asked me. Yeah. I was honored.
(43:21):
Yo, is he that experienced player Park.
You know, like he saw that I was grabbingrebounds, playing hard.
But that playing on pavement hurts.
I'm too old for that now.
It's bad on your back and your knees.
Yeah, but again, back to soccer when you.
If you were to bring a soccer ball to walkpark per se
(43:42):
there's not other kidslike maybe occasionally.
Occasionally there's pickup.
I play pickup actually.
Soccer with your dad,I bought cleats. Did you really? Yeah.
All his buddies.
They're all Peruvian dudes, right?
Yeah, actually,I think I do remember that.
And then you had the goalie really close.
They're really close goals. Yeah.
Like not why goals like that? Like.
(44:03):
Well, probably about.
Yeah. That's. Yeah. Yeah.I play with your dad. Yeah.
Now he schooled me.
That he. I like.
Well we both kick the ballat the same time.
And I thought I broke my toe on my ankleand he just like powered through.
Oh boy. He's used to kicking.
Yeah.
My kicking. Like, it was almost likeit wasn't really a kick.
It was like a reach outand call me in an awkward position
(44:23):
where he was like in a kicking position,like he got a lot of force behind it.
And I kind of just put my toe out there.
Lesson learned. Yeah.
Then I was a toe kicker, and.
But I was good exercise.
Yeah.
And wearing cleats for the first timehurt my feet.
And it was just. Oh, it was great.
I want to play again. Let's do it.
Let's get some pickup. Run going. Yeah.
(44:44):
Come springtime, springtime into summer,I'm sure we'll be.
I think he had family members there.
Maybe cousins or unclesthat lived in Newington.
Probably. Yeah. Sounding right.
Yep, yep. Alex? Tony?
Yeah. Louis,I. Wish you were. There. Hello.
Maybe you were. There.
I may I might have been younger.
I might have been in like middle school.Yeah, that was a while ago.
This is like my girls were young.
(45:05):
Yeah, yeah, I think I do remember thatit was over at Wolcott.
Yeah. And then,
some,
Who else?
My buddy Rinku plays over there.Oh, you know, Rinku.
That's what I was going to say.Back to the, the pickup.
There's a big Nepalese culture.
Yeah, community. And and West Hartford.
Yeah.
(45:25):
Rinku is obviously one of them, but he.
Was playing his plays there.
Now he.
I wave and I go, hey, let me play.
He's like, come on, any time. Feeney.
And I was like, oh, I had my dog with me.
Yeah, was my excuse. But yeah.
So all of his, all of his nieces andnephews and friends, daughters and sons,
they all go over there and play and like,I think like weekly if not a few days.
(45:45):
So there's. The pickup.
There's themy argument defeated that pickup.
Soccer doesn't exist but it does.
But that was more organized.
Like, hey, I'm going to call my friendsand get them to the park, right?
Yeah. Okay.
You can show upsolo, get on a team with random strangers.
Yeah, from all different backgrounds,cultures, upbringings.
I mean, it's a great sport to just,
(46:09):
you know, to play and
you're just trying to best the players.
I mean, but
no one passes out walk it.
That was another thing.
I was like, that's why I was like,that's why
I grab so many rebounds because I'm like,these guys are not passing at all.
Yeah, let me just rebound.
So I grabbed them.
I just got channeled my inner DennisRodman and grabbed a lot of balls.
(46:33):
There you go.
That's why they called me the custodian,because I was cleaning up the garbage.
Yeah. The custodian.
Like I said, you always needone of those in every sport.
Yeah, whether it's soccer and soccer.
Garbage cleanup.
Dennis Rodman type.
We defender like a tough defender.
Or what do we someone.
It could.
Be anybody.
(46:54):
There's a lot of more slide tackles. Yeah.
Our equivalent of itwould be the garbage goal getter.
So any rebound that you could just tapa foot on where you could just push
the ball on the back of the net. Gotcha.
So my coach growing up, he was,he was an Englishman.
His name is Steve.
And, he used to say all the time,I love garbage goals.
(47:14):
Those are the goals you have to fight for.
So it's the
it's the it's the point in your gamewhere you can show the most passion.
Yeah.
It's like knowingwhere to be in the right place.
Yeah. Putting some extraheart into it. Yeah. Hustle
the want the drive.
Yeah. Yeah I like that.
I remember this one time I was,this is, I was 12 maybe, so I was U13
(47:35):
I was around that agebut there was this kid that I played
with who played at central.
Actually, his name was Danny,and he missed a goal scoring opportunity
at our opponents on and then sprintedas soon as the other guy got the ball,
he kicked the ball from their boxto our box.
And this kid literallyjust chase the ball.
As soon as they got a shot on goal,he did a bicycle kick off the line
(47:56):
and our coach pointed to thatand was like, that's who you need to be.
I was like, crap, I got to do that.
Yeah, yeah.
I'll hustle all heart. Yeah.
Nice.
Anything you want to add?
I know we talked your job.
Universal connectivity, account executive.
(48:16):
We talk neighborhood, we talk soccer.
Anything that you want to bring,any questions for me?
Any things you want to bring up?
Well, I'd love to know what's nextfor friends of any.
Yeah. What's next? You did the parade.
You're doing the podcasts.
You're doing all these othercharitable events for.
Yeah, we just had a toy drive.
You at Luna's Pizza, right, Luna?
(48:37):
Pizza hut one, two, four.
It was pretty cold,but I think we got maybe ten,
ten garbage bags.
Oh, wow. Maybe more.
At least five huge boxes.
Heavy boxes.
And those are going to the walkat Caring Schools Committee.
Well, welcoming schools committee, coats,maybe even ten coats.
(48:58):
That's going to the Chrysalis Center.
And wear those toys and coats.
Where do they go to likewhere specifically?
Like, yes, Hartford or.
The Hartford is it'scalled a Chrysalis Center.
And they help, people trying to
get back into society based on either
that experience homelessnessor some sort of
(49:21):
issues,you know, with their life or employment.
So they were going to have coats there
and then families at schoolwalk at school.
Okay. Yeah.
May or may not be able to affordsome toys.
Toys R it's really localhelping our community.
But we have pond house tomorrow.
(49:42):
This is.
Well, this is going to air next week,so this will already pass.
But, let's grab lunch.
I like to thank everybodyfrom the let's Grab Lunch group.
They're doing,
their Christmas party, and
they picked friendsif you need to be their beneficiary.
Honored for that.
So thank you so much for that.
What else do we got?
We're going to take the chamber partythat we talked about at a villa.
(50:06):
We'll also be collecting toysfor Friends of Fini, so please come.
I think it's,
it's going to be next Thursday the 19th.
Again. We're going to miss this,but thank you for everyone at the chamber.
Thank you. Chris and Katie.
We have a wolf pack.
Here we go to hockey Wolf pack.
Yeah. February. This is good.
More than enough time becausethis will air and have time to purchase.
(50:28):
February 28th.
Huge group outing, friends.
A Feeney night at the yard.
The wolf pack. So please come if you can.
We're trying to get Frankto tank from Barstool Sports to join us.
Oh, really?I just sent Jenks a text today.
He hasn't gotten back to me yet,but let's.
But we'll see who's jinx. Jinx or jinx?
Jinx is,
(50:49):
Matt?
Jinx is Frank the tanks right hand man.
You know who Frank tank is? Yeah.
We had him at Parkville Market.
Doing the hot dog count.
The best he. Was rated. Them out. Yeah.
They were hitting home runsor they were striking out.
Then he signed autographsand took pictures.
He's a wonderful person. Frank de tank.
We're huge friends of Frank.
(51:10):
He's a, you know, caresa lot about friends.
A Feeney is a very helpful and thoughtful.
We're trying to get him to come back againand set up
inside of the wolf pack.
Not it's not happening yet, so.
But we'll see.
To get a booth, maybe a little table.
We got friends of Frank t shirts.
We got these little things he could sign,so we'll see.
(51:33):
That's awesome. It's February 28th.
Not confirmed yet, though.
The the wolf packs definitely happening.
Okay, Frank to Frank.Thanks. The parents. Gotcha.
If not, definitely not.
Not happening yet.
Yeah. Keyword. Yeah.
Anything else I got my man Matt.
Board of directors.You know Matt. Of course I know Matt.
(51:54):
That's a great guy.
I see you, Matt.
Matt, did I miss any dates?
It's golf tournament.
Golf tournament? More than enough time.
Oh that's September.
So connectivity should be a sponsor.
Yeah. September 13th, 2025.
I think this yearI was a little late to the, the deadline.
Yeah. I wanted to sign up.
(52:15):
What was the day before?
It was, I think to golf to to golf. Yeah.
I was ready because the chamber eventwas the chamber golf
event at, yeah,it was Wampanoag was a day or week before.
Yeah.
Did you play in that one?
I did. Oh, nice.
That was a really good event, too.
So didn't win.
But Brooke Golfsaid she's going to be a big time sponsor.
(52:36):
She told me this yesterday or Saturday.
But golf is going to be a sponsor.
Amazon will always be our technologysponsor.
King of dings will be our lunch sponsor.
And t flag pin flag sponsors.
Maximum beverage does a whiskey hole.
So after your golfing you got to,you know, get some some liquid
all in one juice.
(52:57):
So speaking of which, that's already met.
That's why I'm on this podcast, right?
Oh, did we do we tell the viewershow I got on, tell them.
The whiskey fest. Let's go whiskey fest.
I won the raffle,so that was awesome. Yeah.
Thank you. Maximum beverage.
I think the fourth year
now we've we've been the beneficiaryof their whiskey event.
(53:19):
200 vendors,some wonderful whiskeys Litchfield whiskey
coffee, whiskey, banana whiskey,you name it, it's there.
It was at the,
shoot.
Where was. That? FarmingtonGardens. Farmington gardens.
It was at the Hartford Golf Clubfor years,
but Farmington Gardens,it was a great time.
And we put out a raffle.
(53:40):
We have a wonderful raffleraised up close to $2,000 on our raffle.
And the first time everwe said, let's put Feeney Talks of Friends
podcast guest to be,
you win this raffle,you get to be a guest.
And guess who was our first winner ever?
There we go. Hi, guys. Stephen Aspinall.
Well, there's only like,a couple in there, so I was like 100.
(54:04):
Well, well, at first, after I,after I started
giving it all the attentionthat everyone else started putting theirs.
And so I was very fortunate to win themall. Yes.
I mean, you had good odds. Yeah.
Yeah, pretty good odds. Yeah.
But you're here. You won your buddy too.
Who were you with that night?
Cheater Bay?
Actually, can I shout on my fourthcheater bay jump spy key?
(54:27):
He has an Instagram page.
He's a social media influencer.
He does a lot of jumping.
He ran track and fieldthat Eastern Connecticut State University,
now does a lot of dunkingcompetitions over
with certain camps,or does a lot of other, trade shows.
I actually just came back from onewhere they were demoing a,
what is it like a test your reach thingwhere you can ring a bell at the top
(54:48):
and sort of the different heights,and it's like, how.
How can he how high can he jump?
Does he do exercises?
Can he teach me how to jump?He can. Absolutely.
I can barely. Touch the net.
He has a jump program
that you can actually get, or I'm surehe'll just be willing to help you out.
So we got to get him on to be a guest.
He put in for that.
He did that first.
You were talking to Come Together collab.
We could have.We know we'll. Have a man. Yeah.
(55:12):
What's his name?
She cheated by cheat eBay.
His nickname is Chey.
I don't know if he can tellwhat his name is.
He's Nigerian.
So, you know the name?
The name means something. You know?
So that'll be your first questionto listen.
Be a good friend.Our motto is be a good friend.
Hold the door for someone.
Be charitable, give compliments.
(55:34):
What makes G a good friend?
He's loyal, he's honest, and he's.
I don't know, he's just.
He's just a good friend. Loyal.Nice of them since kindergarten.
So you can't get better than thatas you. Walk at school.
He is. No way. Yeah.
All right.
Great way to end on being a good friend.
Good friends rule.Do you have the sticker?
(55:55):
It's a new sticker.
I think I got that one last time.
You had those at the Hot Oneschallenge, right?
Oh, yeah. Hot ones. Yeah.
Be a good friend again.
This was the Feeney Talkswith Friends podcast.
Thank you. Direct Line Media.
Thank you.
Maximum beverage.
Thank you to my guy Steve Raffle winner.
You heard it here first.
We're raffling off guestspots on the Feeney Talks with friends.
(56:16):
Go ahead and like and subscribeon YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
and all your other, streaming platforms.
Again, this is episode 122.
We had a great time talking with you.
Any closing remarks?
Be a good friend.
I don't think it's better than that.
That's a great closer. Beautiful.
Well said. Simple. Well said.
(56:38):
Well on three we're going to say it again.
So we'll say be a good friend on threebecause that's how we end. 123.
Be a good friend.
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