February 19, 2025 • 39 mins
Michael LaManna shares his rich life journey—from growing up in an Italian family in the Bronx, struggling through school, and playing competitive soccer, to finding success in Silicon Valley and balancing family life.
As a business leader, Michael has helped companies grow from $125 million to $750 million, worked with industry giants like Cisco and General Dynamics, and built businesses with lasting impact. But his biggest lessons didn’t come from boardrooms—they came from fatherhood.
Michael opens up about the importance of prioritizing marriage, maintaining faith, and never saying no to spending time with kids. He discusses his career transitions from tire service management to consulting and how he finds joy in helping businesses thrive.
Additionally, Michael highlights valuable lessons learned as a parent, emphasizing the importance of being consistently present and intentional. Tune in for an inspiring take on resilience, family values, and professional success.
Michael LaManna - LinkedIn Profile
00:00 Introduction and Valentine's Day Plans
01:17 Early Life and Family Background
04:15 Career Beginnings and Moving to Colorado
06:26 Journey to Silicon Valley
10:37 Family Life and Parenting Insights
20:10 Building Connections with Kids
21:42 Never Say No: The Power of Being Present
23:36 The Influence of a Strong Relationship with God
24:57 Creating Special Moments with Your Children
26:49 The Importance of Consistency and Intentionality
27:02 Reflections on Life and Parenting
29:03 Investing in Your Children's Future
29:45 Balancing Marriage and Parenting
33:22 Financial Investments and Business Insights
38:34 Final Thoughts and Contact Information
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I remember to the day when my dad told me, no, I don't
want to throw the ball.
I don't know whether it was 14,15, but I remember, no, I don't
want to throw the ball, crushedme.
So when Luke had come home fromkarate when he was 17 or
whatever, drive it home, at 11o'clock at night saying, Hey, he
gets home.
He goes, Hey dad, you want to goto In N Out?
I'm in bed.
I'm like, yep, let's go.
(00:22):
So I would encourage you neversay no.
Hey dad, let's go out and play.
Go.
They want to go.
they don't have anything but a tshirt on and 20 degree.
Their body temperature is like.
it'll melt snow, their bodytemperature, right?
What are we worried about?
We were the same way, right?
We didn't care, we didn't need ashirt or a hat or we're out
there playing, it doesn'tmatter.
Did we come in frozen?
(00:43):
Yeah.
it's just Never say no if theywant to play cars, let's play
cars.
Let's It's like they want to doit, right?
Gabby when she was dancing whenwe gave her a car at 16 her
dance studio moved away about 10miles away.
So when I got off work, at 5:30,I would just drive over there 10
(01:08):
miles just to walk in and say,Hey, Gabs, give her a quick hug.
Stay a minute and leave.
Just put in the time.
That she still remembers that.
But you got to put in the time.
you got to be intentional aboutwhat you're doing and how you're
doing it.
Speaker (02:02):
Michael Lamana in the house on the invested fathers.
Good morning.
How are you?
Good, Kenny.
How you doing today?
You look great, man.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I feel okay.
it's valentine's day while we'rerecording right now.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah.
So Valentine's Day startedgreat.
I got up early, got some flowerstwo days ago.
they're out and about in thehouse.
So my wife's, came out, we madesome coffee.
We chatted a little bit thismorning, just snuggled on the
couch for a few minutes.
And, that was great.
So it started out awesome.
Speaker (02:32):
Excellent.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
We got some good plans for tonight going over
some friends house becauserestaurants to us are just
They're tough on Valentine's Dayanyway, and, we're more about,
these days, being married almost32 years, how do we want it to
be?
Not what it should be or whatpeople say it should
Speaker (02:47):
be.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I
Speaker (02:47):
love that.
Yes.
There's, I feel like there'sexpectations, early marriage of
what everyone else is doing andgoing out or doing whatever it
is.
And then we did that as
Speaker 2 (02:57):
well.
Right.
Then we started seeing theprices on Valentine's Day.
We're like, what?
Wait a minute here.
Speaker (03:03):
Yes, indeed.
It took us
Speaker 2 (03:04):
about five years to figure it out.
we really don't need to do this.
You know, it wasn't, we saw it,we didn't act.
It was like, okay, let's stop.
Yes.
We felt much better.
It was awesome.
Speaker (03:18):
Michael.
in the brief conversations we'vehad, we met through LinkedIn,
mutual friends, you've given mesome of your journey on
California.
I think he said even SiliconValley.
different heads of positionsand, different things.
I'm not even going to try, do usa favor.
Give us your bio.
tell us a little about yourcareer journey and what you're
doing today.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Yeah, sure.
So I'll just start at, 17 yearsold.
I was born in the Bronx, livedin Brooklyn, Queens, and then we
finally moved outside the city alittle bit.
But, to us people, it wasupstate.
but I spent all my summers inthe city.
I got them all.
Uncle Vinny, he was mygodfather.
Uncle Vinny, Bobby, Johnny,Frankie, Pauly, Louis, Jake,
Lester.
It was an Italian show to, everySaturday night, every Sunday at
(04:01):
two o'clock, dinner down inQueens with my grandma and
grandpa from Italy.
it was just the greatest times.
Saturday nights always became,dice on the kitchen floor.
my uncle's smoking cigars,throwing dice, throwing dollar
bills, you know, all that sortof stuff.
And, just a bit drinking toomuch.
that's why Sunday meal wasalways nice.
Cause it was quieter.
so that was great stuff, but atseven, I went through high
(04:22):
school and, I struggled quite abit because I was really good in
class.
I was really good interactingand engaging.
But, homework and test scoreswere just abominable.
just, I was like, I got straightflatline D's, and I think the
teachers just gave me D's justto get through.
But, there's two things I'velearned is, I really believe
when you have a son, you shouldredshirt him till they're seven
(04:45):
before they go intokindergarten.
and there's a couple reasonswhy, for that.
you go to any high school andyou see your son, usually
they're either like, they couldbe whatever, you know, kind of
on the dorky side, on theathletic side, whatever.
And you see them and they'relike, they all look great,
right?
But they're just a little emptyin the head, right?
(05:06):
And then you look at the youngladies in high school and they
look like junior senators andyou're like, There's a clear
mismatch here.
So me graduating at 17, what Irealized was my mom stuck me in
school when I was four becauseshe needed time.
She needed time.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
I was the
Speaker 2 (05:25):
second of four.
my dad, was, deformed and bornin 36, had a small arm, just
three fingers.
And my mom was left on theguardian angel steps at one
years old, never legallyadopted.
So we had foster kids growing upthe whole time.
We had, four of us and two tothree foster kids in and out
rotating and everybody goes,well, was it, was it crazy?
(05:48):
I'm like, no, it was normal forme.
it was just, it was, yeah, we,the foster care system is up
their game so much these daysthat, but my mom really had a
heart for that.
That was uber important to us,and it was really, really cool,
but, my dad struggled beingdeformed in that.
Period.
It's just you're a little bit ofa freakish guy and people took
you on your arm because theywere, they felt sorry for you
(06:09):
more than you can do things.
but he ended up with a longcareer working for Xerox and all
that kind of stuff.
And it's like, wow.
You know, that, that, that wasawesome.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
So fast forward.
I at 17, I decide, I graduatehigh school early and I'm like,
okay, mom, love, you got to go.
She goes, don't you want tomarry Anna Maria?
I'm like, mom.
Look at your daughters.
No, I'm not.
I'm not doing that.
I'm moving.
So I moved to Colorado, startedplaying soccer competitively,
played for a German club calledthe Kickers in Colorado.
They still out on a club.
(06:38):
It was a feeder system toGermany.
and I, and I changed tires.
I was, I worked at a Goodyearstore changing tires and I was
just everything I did.
I worked hard at, so I wasreally good at that, became the
service manager.
then the guy that owned it said,Hey, I got six stores.
Can you help me out manage allthese other stores?
And I did.
So I came be part, became partof the business.
(07:00):
what I realized was being a 19year old at that time going,
okay, what am I going to do?
he goes, be part of thebusiness.
And I was getting paid, afraction of what he was getting
paid.
In hindsight good reason, right?
I'm a 19 year old kind of youngknucklehead, he owns the
businesses, right?
So we got into it about pay alittle bit and I just bolted
(07:20):
instead of really saying, okayHow do we really build this
right?
I don't deserve what you'regetting.
But how do I build to that?
How do I what's the path?
I didn't really understand thatso I decided to leave and at
that point it was a tire andservice centers.
in Colorado and, they used tohave corporate cars back then.
So general dynamics folks wouldalways come in and they said,
Hey, Michael, we heard you'releaving.
(07:41):
I said, yeah, they go, Hey, howabout working for us?
Oh, what do you guys do?
we're in communications.
Oh, call my dad that night.
there was no mobile phones and Iwas like, dad, what's
communication?
He goes.
What do I know?
I do copiers.
I have no clue whatcommunications is.
So I ended up working forGeneral Dynamics, working at
Martin Marietta when the spaceshuttle went up.
I was one of the service techsthat would handle the
(08:04):
communications aspect of that,and it was great.
You worked for US West,University Health Science Center
running that, worked on aplatform like a central office.
That's, folks from Japan comeover NEC, try to fix their
system and six days into it, thedirector looks at me, go, what's
going on?
And I pulled two buses and Isaid, here are your problems
fixed.
Here's where the two problemsare.
(08:25):
I don't know how to fix that,but I know where they are.
Next thing I know, I getoffered, to be a sales engineer
in Silicon Valley for NEC.
I know this is crazy, right?
so what do I do?
Hey dad, what's a salesengineer?
He says, I don't know what thatis.
Oh, here I go busting out theSilicon Valley, right?
(08:47):
I heard about Silicon Valleylike in elementary school, but I
never really knew what it was.
So I was a sales engineer,everybody confused me with a guy
from 30 something cause my namewas Michael.
I wore suspenders, a white shirtand, I drove the, Mercedes
starter set, the E 190.
I was living large, man.
it was just like, holy cow, I'mfrom the Bronx and I'm doing all
this stuff.
This is great.
(09:09):
then, so working for NEC, in 90,I decided I'm going to take,
cause in Silicon Valley you takesabbatical.
So I said, Hey, I need six and ahalf weeks off.
And they go, no, we don't dothat.
We're a Japanese company.
I'm like, okay, then I'm goingto quit.
I gotta go.
So I went to Italy for six and ahalf weeks and watched the World
Cup.
I speak a little Italian.
but I saw 17 games just trainingaround.
(09:31):
it was just fabulous to me.
Super, super, uber fabulous.
I came back from that, went to ajoint function in San Diego with
the NEC folks from the Dallasarea.
and I met my wife, Denise.
I leave Silicon Valley, go withmy best buddy Dieter over to,
the Grand Canyon, my firstoutback, five day outback, we're
sleeping on top on, the firstnight, next thing we wake up, a
(09:53):
foot and a half of snow.
so we hiked down and I'm aboutthird day into this and he goes,
he called me McKellie.
He goes, McKellie, what's goingon?
I said, I'm going to marry thatgirl.
I had a lunch with her, 35minute lunch, and I said, good
thing there was no phone.
She would have thought I was acomplete stalker, right?
So we did the long distancething and I moved down here, got
married and we had Gabrielle andabout three months after having
(10:15):
Gabrielle, our daughter.
I got offered a job by Cisco,the internet guys, cause I sold
SAS.
I sold network managementsoftware to Nortel, MCI and all
these kinds of companies, with acompany called OSI.
I said, Hey, we got a great.
Opportunity to go back and I wasglad because it was like I
didn't realize in Dallas.
your summer season was yourindoor season it was uber hot,
(10:37):
right?
we moved back there We gotpregnant with Luke and we came
right back because I realizedthen I'm traveling too much
Keeping her away from herfamily, friends, and the church.
I said, let's get back down toDallas.
We wanna help her brother, who'sbeen in a wheelchair from
motocross for 40 years.
we want to make sure we'rearound for him and their parents
And Denise's parents.
her dad's now has had dementiafor nine years, so it's been
(10:58):
really good.
We've been back and I've lovedit the second time coming down
here.
we just love our life.
I know, there's big talk about alot of people moving down to
Texas, but we've been back 24years and we just love it down
here.
So after my Cisco, tenure, Iwent to work for a manufacturing
company and we took him from, Iwas head of sales.
We took him from about 125 to750 million.
(11:20):
But I really didn't like theindustry.
It just wasn't in my heart.
So after COVID I left there andnow I'm, a business facilitator.
So I really go intoorganizations and really help
people understand the concepttools and disciplines.
Needed to run a good businessand to get some of the
foundational stuff going.
and then I usually work with,their operations and try to
really help them along on wherethey really need to focus just
(11:41):
to make that two to 3 percentchange, three to 5 percent
change.
Because that'll direct them on atotally different path than just
bumping along, right?
Running into the same problems,not knowing how to organize
themselves and things like that.
So that's what I do these days,and I love it.
I usually have five to sevenclients on a yearly basis that
are coming in and out and I'mloving life.
(12:01):
It's super good.
my wife married 32 years.
she's a rock star.
She's been in, real estate, for15 years.
She just got the award.
Top producer for DFW for 2024.
So super successful.
now she's transitioning over thelast two years as well into
senior living because she's seenwhat her parents had gone
through and she's really got aheart for that.
(12:22):
She's on dementia, friendlyboards and all that sort of
stuff.
It's a small boutique firm, butthey do fabulous.
It's great.
And it's all referrals.
There's no marketing, there's noLinkedIn.
It's just all referral stuff.
So it's super good.
And that allows me to do.
Focus really on my business andwhat I'm doing.
So it's really good.
So got two kids.
I remember when Gabrielle wasborn, we drove out of the nurses
(12:44):
said, Hey, you guys can go homenow.
And I was like, we're not ready.
We need a couple more days ofthe hospital.
I go, no.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
You're ready.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
You're going the funniest thing happened.
So I get in my, the FordExplorer.
It was back in the day, realizedGabrielle's 26.
Now we get in the Explorer andI'm driving down the road and
people are just flying by me.
Probably like I did every day,right?
Just normal drive.
And I'm like, these guys arecrazy.
I just was like, I was panicked,right?
(13:13):
Because they didn't know I hadmy baby in the car.
I'm like, Oh my God, what an eyeopener.
Gabrielle is now 26 graduatedfrom Oklahoma university.
she's been in the business worldto almost three years.
She does what they call interiordesign, which I thought was like
curtains and stuff, but she's anarchitect.
So she architects everything,but the four walls outside four
(13:33):
walls and the foundation and theroof.
She does every, all the facades,stairways, electrical, and she
loves it.
that's her wheelhouse for sure.
she was in dance forever.
I can remember, going to danceevents forever, uh, doing that.
So people know that, that have,their child in something, it's a
full time sport and it costs alot of money, right?
(13:55):
that was great to be a part ofthat with her.
And then my son is a coupleyears younger.
He's going to be 24 in March.
he's a super good kid.
he is, he went and got his, Ithink his, Eagle Scout, when he
was 16.
we still go visit the bench,which is three quarters away
from my house on the lake,Grapevine Lake here in Texas,
and fix it up.
Twice a year to make sure it'sworking and all that kind of
(14:16):
stuff.
So that's been, that was anawesome journey.
I think I taught a hundreddifferent merit badges to the
group, to our troop.
I was pretty engaged there,doing all that sort of stuff.
So that was over fun, when hewas, seven, going into second
grade, they realized they testedhim for dyslexia.
And I was like, what's dyslexia.
I couldn't even spell it.
I was like, what's dyslexia.
(14:36):
Let me look this up.
come to find out afterunderstanding what dyslexia is.
I had to raise my hand, said,Oh, great.
I gave him that gene.
This is why I struggle becauseall the things they were talking
about, I just coped with andstruggled with.
So they gave him a lot of toolsto do this.
fast forward at, 16 became histhe first time he came a world
(14:57):
champion in Taekwondo.
We went to Korea.
he beat all the Koreans.
he beat people all over theworld.
and then he got it again at 17,a second world championship.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
And everybody says, Michael, your son can probably
kick your tail.
And I'm like, yeah, but I'm fromthe Bronx.
I told him never go to sleep.
I still got a little bit of thatBronx in me.
I'm like, oh my gosh.
And now he's at, Texas A& M.
He graduated last year.
and then now, and soon as theday he graduated, he went right
from the graduation ceremony,into his master's class.
(15:28):
So he's got three semesters toget his master's degree.
And he's focused on finance,economics, and land development.
it was really good, but wedidn't realize how good,
taekwondo or karate could be fordyslexia kids.
it's really about patterns andreally developing yourself in
that way.
So I think that really helpedout.
he graduates this coming summer.
So that's awesome.
but I'll tell you, there's a lotof things I learned, being a
(15:50):
parent for sure.
Number one, and most importantfor us is our faith without
question.
our faith really helps drive us,centers us.
And I think that's what's goingto be important and guides us on
where we need to go and where weneed to be.
So that's been an awesome thingfor us.
The second thing I'll tell youis that, you got to focus on
your marriage.
(16:11):
Kids aside, if you're notfocused on your marriage we
don't think we'd be assuccessful as we could be with
our kids.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
And
Speaker 2 (16:18):
I traveled the world for Cisco, right?
the internet, guys, back when,25 years ago, we were flying all
over the world.
Not a badge of honor.
I got 5.7 million miles just onAmerican, right?
We were flying all over theworld.
when I was home, I had to makesure I paid attention, right?
and Everybody a lot of folks askme all the time, you know when I
meet him they go, you know Howare you so successful in your
(16:41):
marriage?
I'm like three things wake upcommitted during the day be
conscious about being committedand when you put your head on
the pillow be committed Youknow, you can let all the noise,
all the distraction run aroundand all the things that my
buddies have done and what it'slike, are you guys kidding?
You're killing me, right?
You got to just stay focused onwhat you're doing.
(17:03):
And I think that's really had abaseline for not only us, but
really how we handle our kids.
So there's a lot of things Ilearned.
I think I'm up to 57 qualifiedline items on what I.
learned with my kids the firstthing I think I learned other
than realizing people weren'ttrying to kill me going down the
road when I had my daughter inthe car was Trust your instincts
(17:25):
what I mean by that was the onlypoint that denise and I were
starting to have a littlefriction with a newborn is When
she felt like it was time topick gabrielle up She had an
innate sense.
Hey, I think I need to pick herup, whatever.
And then, at times, I would havethat innate sense.
She'd go, Oh, no, no, no, no.
She's fine.
Leave her be, whatever.
We finally figured out where theattention was coming from, and
(17:48):
we really learned to beconscious of our own instincts.
And look, picking up the kid isnot gonna damage the kid, right?
It's just not, right?
it's helping me be a betterparent, right?
Because I think I'm taking care,right?
Holding it.
If I feel an innate sense, thatinnate sense in Denise, I
wouldn't try to change.
I'd say, do we really need topick her up?
(18:08):
Absolutely.
So we figured out that we had tolet each other kind of grow in
that and really drive eachother's, need for that instinct,
to pick up.
And that really helped us out alot.
because there wasn't frictionthat there was like, okay, you
need to pick, whatever, you justburp Gabrielle, she's doing
fine, all that kind of stuff.
It's, it was really an instinctthing.
So my encouragement to everybodyis really follow your instincts,
(18:31):
what you're doing there, youknow,
Speaker (18:32):
um.
just to give the audience someclarification on this.
Have you been keeping a list ofthe 54 things to know as a
parent that like, and you'vekept track of that even now?
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker (18:47):
We got to see this list sometime, buddy.
This is amazing.
you got to write a book on this.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
When did you,
Speaker (18:51):
when did you start it?
Speaker 2 (18:52):
I think when I started it was, right when
Gabrielle was an infant because,at the end of the day, when I
figured out it was just aninstinct, a need for me, whether
it was from the good Lord,whether it was just me feeling
that if I picked her up, I wouldbe a better parent.
I don't know, but it was then iswhen I started it.
(19:14):
And I think frankly, I think,yeah.
54, 57, somewhere up there.
I gotta go look at the list.
I don't have the list in frontof me, but yeah.
That's awesome.
So I just started jotting thesethings down and, some of the
things I've learned through theyears is, number one, we lived
in a house in Texas.
And, having a 9-year-oldbirthday party for Gabrielle.
and I had a bigger house and abig pool and we're having a pool
(19:34):
party and stuff and I come in toget some things and you know you
have posters.
Happy Birthday Gabi, you knowall that stuff, My buddy Kyle
comes in behind me, he goes,Hey, Michael, how old's Gabi and
I'm like I said, It says it allover the posters.
He goes, yeah, quit talking toher.
Like she's five.
(19:56):
Wow.
So that struck me.
I learned I had to grow with herand not treat her like she was
five.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
So I've
Speaker 2 (20:09):
really learned, to grow with them, to talk to them.
Like adults,
Speaker 4 (20:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
mean, I didn't know how to talk to her, and I just
talked to her.
So I figured that out.
For somebody that was close tome, point out, quit talking to
her like she's five.
And I just was like, yeah,whatever.
And then I thought about it.
I came up to him later.
I was like, okay, we need to gohave a glass of wine or a beer
or something and talk about thisa little bit.
it was a great moment, being adad and somebody influenced me
(20:34):
with an observation that Itrusted.
So that was, have your trustedfriends around you.
one of the other things Ilearned was, lead from behind.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
When Luke was in second grade, Denise would go,
I'm having a real hard time withLuke doing homework.
He didn't want to do it.
He's, crabby's, yadda, yadda.
He just wants to play it,whatever.
And I said, okay, let me go backto the teacher because I took
him in the next day.
The interesting thing was, Italked to the teacher, I said,
yeah, do you see, is Luke doingwell, and she goes, yeah, and I
(21:03):
said, he's really giving Denisea hard time about, homework, she
goes, give me three days, andabout four days later, he comes
home and says, mom, you know howimportant homework is?
So it taught us to lead frombehind with trusted people
around us, right?
Have people influence your kidthat you can trust to really
(21:23):
drive what we were doing and howwe were doing.
So I always call it leading frombehind.
Cause why?
Cause us dads.
We're the hammer, right?
we're always the hammer, right?
And it's really hard to take abreath and just listen.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
Right.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Oh, I've really worked on that on myself for a
long time and still do,
Speaker 4 (21:42):
yeah,
Speaker 2 (21:43):
they still call me dad.
I don't want an answer.
I just want to tell yousomething
Speaker (21:48):
Well, just in case you forgot that I
Speaker 2 (21:50):
either scarred them or I'm just not good at it yet
or probably a combination,right?
but I think you really need to,really lead from behind in some
ways, and get your trustedpeople around them and get
observation from people aroundyou.
So I think super, important, forkids.
Speaker (22:05):
Michael, let me go a little deeper there.
First off, how old was he when,that situation happened with him
studying and the teacher helping
Speaker 2 (22:12):
whatever grade, second grade
Speaker (22:14):
Okay, so pretty young.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Yeah,
Speaker (22:15):
and I've heard that before in the show that the idea
of, build the campfire kind ofdeal where it's just, it's an
open space.
They come and sit down, can talkand you're not necessarily,
lecturing right away.
It's listening.
what are some other ways?
cause I feel like I'm the athome and my son's eight and
there's times where he justwants to talk about superheroes
(22:39):
and his toys and whatnot.
And I'm here telling him like,this is how you help society.
And this is how you get a joband all these things that he's
not maybe ready for.
what are some other things thatmaybe happened that helped you
and are still helping you inthat leading from behind?
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Yeah.
So a couple of things that youbring, that spurs me into what
you're talking about.
number one, most importantly,I've learned, I was dedicated
because of my, the way I wasbrought up, in a kind of a
dysfunctional alcoholic family,all that sort of stuff.
My dad being deformed, megetting a lot of grief about
that with, the people around me,and things like that, Is really,
(23:19):
the thing that came to me wasnever say no.
I remember to the day when mydad told me, no, I don't want to
throw the ball.
I don't know whether it was 14,15, but I remember, no, I don't
want to throw the ball, crushedme.
So when Luke had come home fromkarate when he was 17 or
whatever, drive it home, at 11o'clock at night saying, Hey, he
gets home.
He goes, Hey dad, you want to goto In N Out?
(23:41):
I'm in bed.
I'm like, yep, let's go.
So I would encourage you neversay no.
Hey dad, let's go out and play.
Go.
They want to go.
they don't have anything but a tshirt on and 20 degree.
Their body temperature is like.
it'll melt snow, their bodytemperature, right?
What are we worried about?
We were the same way, right?
We didn't care, we didn't need ashirt or a hat or we're out
(24:03):
there playing, it doesn'tmatter.
Did we come in frozen?
Yeah.
it's just Never say no if theywant to play cars, let's play
cars.
Let's It's like they want to doit, right?
Gabby when she was dancing whenwe gave her a car at 16 her
dance studio moved away about 10miles away.
(24:25):
So when I got off work, she'd bethere from 3.
30 to 7 or 8.
when I got off work at 5:30 Iwould just drive over there 10
miles just to walk in and say,Hey, Gabs, give her a quick hug.
Stay a minute and leave.
Just put in the time.
That she still remembers that.
I was probably the only fromthis area that drove over there
10 miles just to have, I didn'tbring anything.
(24:47):
it was just, whatever.
But you got to put in the time.
you got to be intentional aboutwhat you're doing and how you're
doing it.
Speaker (24:54):
let me go deeper there too, because you've talked about
your background, the dad,alcoholic, dysfunction, not
playing with you, in thatpivotal moment.
Is that, was there so much, Idon't mean to put it in a
horrible way here, but like ascarring that you were just
like, you know what?
The pendulum's going to swinghard with me.
(25:15):
I'm going to make sure I'm withmy kids.
I'm going to like, how are youso wired to do?
I feel like I talked to dads onhere and they're like, I don't
know what I was doing.
I'm just running blind here as adad, it feels like you've
really, with this list, the 57things and the stories with,
dyslexia, your son and theinvolvement, how are you this
(25:35):
way?
Speaker 2 (25:37):
that's a great question.
probably because of the goodLord.
And I can tell you this growingup a Catholic kid, being down
here in Texas, they go, are youa Christian?
I'm like, yeah, as Catholics,we're a Christian anyway.
I go to non denominational foryears now, but it's just always
a funny conversation.
But I always felt like I had agood, relationship with the
Lord.
Just my personal relationship,even as a young kid, because
(25:59):
you'd go through all thistrauma.
Who did I have to lean on?
I always say, God, just help me.
what do I need to do?
Help me.
How do I help my dad?
How do I help my family?
Help me.
And then when I went to Coloradoat 17, I can tell you for 10
years, at least I was alwayslooking, even this business guy
that I was with, I was alwayslooking for a mentor.
(26:20):
And then one day I realizedpeople are asking me to help
them.
And I was like, okay, I don'twant to get cocky here, but
people are asking me.
but I didn't have that voidfilled based on, wanting to
really connect with somebody tohelp me along on my journey.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
always still looking for that.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
how did I end up the way I was?
And, I just think it's focus,it's clarity, it's focus and
commitment.
it's not hard.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
It's so busy around the world, worldly thing.
Listen, at the end of the day,they're home, they're in your
house, right?
Your son's what, eight yearsold?
Speaker 4 (26:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Yeah.
Matter of fact, one thing I didwith my son was I went to men's
warehouse when he was probablyseven or eight.
and they used to sell two suitsfor 99.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
They give you a, it'd be like a, a suit and then, a
white shirt and, clip on tie.
They'd give you two sets ofthose.
And what I would do is I wouldbuy one his size.
And when the size up because I'mthinking I'm, he's going to grow
into it and he's going to use ittwo or three times.
So we'd roll it up, staple it.
So we wouldn't have to keepdoing whatever.
(27:30):
And at that point I was doing alot of nonprofit stuff.
So I was on the board, thehero's board for the women's
Genesis shelter, domesticviolence.
I was on the board of the boysand girls club.
I helped negotiate kids out ofthe gangs.
I did a lot of different stuff,and I would always bring him
along, and he was always, whenhe put that, and then, with the
suits, I had, and I encourageevery dad, once a month create a
(27:54):
dinner deal and he loved havingsteaks So we'd go to a nice
steakhouse and he'd be dressedin the suit and Response he got
from the waiters and the serversand the concierge You know the
maitre d and all that you couldjust tell lifted him.
He wanted to be like that He satup better, right?
He ate better.
You got to have that outsideinfluence To really help you but
(28:16):
when you go to dinner you justOkay.
Where are we going to go?
Okay.
You want to go down to Dallas toNick and Sam's?
Let's go.
It's going to cost me 150 bucksor 100 bucks, but let's go.
Yeah.
And same thing with Gabby.
you just, she didn't wantdinners.
She just wanted to go out and,have a little lunch or
something.
And that was all great.
But with Sons specifically, I'dsay, I don't know if Men's
(28:37):
Warehouse still does it, butthey used to sell two suits for
99 bucks.
I'm sure it's more expensivenow, but, I could, send you some
pictures you could post on whathe looked like, what him and I
look like, next to each otherwith our suit on before we went.
And I think that's, you got toput that in the calendar.
It's got to be a priority.
Speaker (28:52):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
be a priority.
Speaker (28:53):
please send those to me.
I think that would be very cool.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
No,
Speaker (28:56):
This is exactly what I want the show to be.
it's memoirs, how old are youtoday, Michael?
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Yeah, I'm 65 today.
Speaker (29:04):
So that's probably one of my most important questions
is, you're 65, you've lived afull life.
You're not dead by any means.
You still have more years to gohere, but through the 65 years,
those twenties, thirties,forties, fifties, what stands
out to you and what ended upmattering?
what were the priorities thatyou did and everything you're
saying?
It feels like such a life of nonregret with everything.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Yeah.
Listen, I've made mistakes, butI don't really have regrets per
se.
specifically, to your question,when people meet me, they see
somebody that they always tellme, man, are you always up?
And I'm like, yeah, every dayyou're, and I just think the
good Lord sprinkled some dust onme and said, this is you, this
(29:52):
is the way you're going to feedinto people.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
Right.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
And I don't go overly, try to be like when I'm
down, whatever, ha, and I dohave some down periods, like I'm
pretty gregarious in a lot ofways.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
But trust me, at, six o'clock at night, man, I want to
hunker down, be calm, be quiet.
Be so gregarious,
Speaker 4 (30:11):
Right.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
like even for parties, people always give me a
hard time.
I always show up late and Ialways leave early.
Because I just think I engageand it's like, Denise knows I
look over and she goes, okay,we're going.
Speaker (30:27):
Michael's done.
We got to go.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
We got to go.
Speaker (30:30):
I get that.
I would consider myselfoptimistic and try to add value
through.
Asking people how they're doingand really trying to understand
people, remember the names, andthen when, if I ever get sick or
if I'm not feeling great, I feellike it bothers me because
people are like, why are you,what, where's the old Kenny?
And it's I'm just acting normal.
this is what, this is howeveryone else acts.
(30:51):
no, you're not being your normalself.
You're usually like the life ofthe party here, like smiling and
making sure everyone's okay.
So I don't know if you'veexperienced that too.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Yeah, maybe I was blinded to it, but I'm sure it's
happened before.
Um, but yeah, I'm just generallyusually pretty up, and, getting
back to your son at eight.
Look what he's doing today.
Look.
If he's not having trouble inthe pool and needs your dad,
whatever he's doing is going tobe okay, right?
If he drops a glass,
Speaker 4 (31:22):
I
Speaker 2 (31:24):
mean, why get on the kid?
he just drops a glass, you pickit up.
If he does it 30 times, justsay, hey, maybe we ought to
change this a little bit, Andit's hard, right?
It's hard, right?
Not to react, right?
the whole reaction thing, right?
They can tell your bodylanguage.
They're watching.
These kids are watchingeverything, right?
And then when they go to school,they see kids with older kids.
So their kids are doing morethan your kid.
(31:45):
And yeah, no, it's a lot tomanage.
But fundamentally, look, ifyou're married, you got to make
sure you're focused on yourmarriage.
That's the way your kids aregoing to be.
you're going to make your kidssuccessful in my eyes.
it's going to help you buildthose blocks to make your kids
successful and your marriagesuccessful in your life
successful,
Speaker (32:03):
did you give us a quick story on that?
Cause I, we, we had a scufflethis morning, my wife and I
expectations of Valentine's dayand, me just not hitting it as I
needed to, any stories, memoriesof.
Rather something that you didreally well or something that
you just failed on in light ofkeeping the marriage, where it
needed to be.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
Absolutely.
So this whole gift giving thing,whether it's Christmas,
Valentine's Day.
Birthdays, whatever.
So I used to try to be like,wow, I'm gonna get Denise a nice
shirt.
when you see that same shirtwith the tag on it, 12 years
later in the closet, that's notthe right gift.
I bought a gray jewelry when Ilived in, we went out to visit
(32:45):
after I left Silicon Valley.
I used to go to this.
I knew this jewelry guy, so wewent there and I bought some
stuff for her and it's probablystill in the box
Speaker 4 (32:52):
right?
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Okay.
So everybody gives me a hardtime because, even my kids, they
go, what color running shoe didyou buy mom this time?
Did you go to now it's Lulu,right?
It's Lulu, or, Aldo, whateverthey are.
I, it's and my wife always says,I don't need shoes.
Okay.
I get her shoes anyway, becausein a week or the next day she's
wearing them and she's she'sgetting compliments because I
(33:15):
know what style and it's don'tfight city hall.
It's almost don't do too muchand, but find out what she loves
and just cater to that.
Now on your deal today forValentine's day, how long have
you been married?
Speaker (33:28):
11 years.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Okay, so you're, my, my thought for you is to make a
list, what's worked, what didn'twork.
Because look, I'm not sayingyou're going to hit it out of
the park every day, but what isyour wife like?
Speaker (33:42):
it happened all of a sudden, but she does like
thrifting.
she loves yard sales.
She loves walking around storesand just looking at antique
things that, I don't know.
Does she buy them sometimes?
I feel like, I think today shedid buy a basket.
I think we have 17 baskets inour house, but, that's what
makes her happy is just goingout and doing this like thrifty
and stuff.
(34:03):
So that's what she did thismorning.
Then she came back.
I would say happy, but, yeah,she's an old soul and like old
houses and old things.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So like for Denise, she lovesgoing to market, markets on
Saturday, the, the vegetablemarket, the open markets they
have and stuff like that, theirpop up ones on Saturdays and,
maybe make her a card and say,Hey, one, one, one, One free
bottle of wine and, we're goingto go on a shopping thing
together, right?
Just a card, right?
Just, that's what she loves.
(34:31):
Give it, be intentional aboutit.
Speaker 4 (34:32):
Yeah.
I
Speaker 2 (34:32):
mean, so for me, to me that I had to focus on what
she likes.
Trust me, I still get grief frommy wife and my kids, but they
all know mom loves the stuff Igive her.
Speaker (34:45):
That's awesome.
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
she's a workout fiend.
She did CrossFit for a ton ofyears.
she ran for a ton of years andnow she's just into working out
and stuff.
And, yeah, she always needs newworkout stuff.
Cause she'll wear the stuff likeme, like a guy, right?
We'll wear the same shirt,right?
That's why I love a logo shirt.
Hey, nobody says, is that thesame shirt?
No, it's my business shirt.
They don't know if it's the sameshirt or not.
It's just us guys.
We got three shirts.
(35:09):
We got 47, but we like threeshirts.
That's what we wear.
Speaker (35:11):
Exactly.
Michael, let me pivot a littlebit, Michael.
We had talked before recordedregarding, legacy, what are you,
what are we leaving our kids?
How are we investing evenfinancially?
And that's one of the things onthe show you've.
Given so much value in thepriorities of what you spent
your time doing earlier in theepisode, you did give us the
different career path that youjumped around and had quite a
(35:34):
spread, at this stage in yourlife, 65, what is, what are some
things that you can share inregards to how you're investing
right now?
And even, work wise, are youstill working?
Is that still like a joy,passion of yours?
Yeah, absolutely.
and how are we, what stage areyou in right now?
Speaker 2 (35:51):
so a couple things.
not sure if you're gonna be ableto see it, but, for 10 years
now, basically when Gabby got aphone, I text her every night.
Good night, sweet, sweets.
Pickled a pear.
Love you.
She usually sends me somethingback.
Speaker 4 (36:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
Even during her college days, I text her every
night, probably nine or 10 atnight.
Sometimes you hear back fromher, sometimes not, if she's
working on a project late, and Ido that with my son.
I got the same note for my son.
Good night, buddy.
Love you.
Proud of you.
You know?
so of course, you could set upyour phone so you don't get
calls except for emergencies forthe emergency people.
(36:28):
Right?
Speaker 4 (36:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
So he answers me at one o'clock in the morning, he's
done studying or whatever downthere.
And he goes, Hey, thanks, dad.
Love you too.
And so the phone's going off,but be consistent, be touch your
kids.
they have devices, just leavethem a note every night, every
night.
So you, so invest that way,right?
Not in monetary stuff withpeople, like that, but, and I
think it's really important toinvest in that, now when it
(36:49):
comes to, what I've been doingall my life is look, everybody
tells you put 300 bucks a weekaway a month, every other week,
every week, if you can't,whatever.
Just keep putting it awaybecause everybody used to say to
me.
Hey, Gabby turned 16.
You bought her a new car.
Yeah.
I knew that was coming up,right?
She's going to college.
(37:10):
It's paid for.
Okay.
you've got it.
You got to be intentional,right?
don't think I'll start startingnext week or tomorrow, whatever.
You got to think like here.
you see it, we see it, right?
So many older people just don'thave a, a dime to live off of
other than social security.
And they're just struggling.
And there's really no need forthat.
they just need to be what I callboringly consistent.
(37:32):
And I got healthy, what I wascoined as being healthy
paranoia.
I got some healthy paranoia onbeing boringly consistent on the
things that are uber important,that are foundational stuff and
investing is one of them.
I do some investing with agroup, a private equity group
that, invest in multifamilystuff.
That's usually new stuff thatthey're building and stuff.
(37:53):
I think they've, their portfoliois now about 750 mil, and I've
got a small investment withthat, that I just keep churning
over.
Things like that.
and then of course your typicalknucklehead things like the
stock market, I've got a goodgroup that manages that, but
it's just I just shake my head.
I'm like, just a, it's just acrap shoot.
but you got to keep doing that.
it does benefit stuff.
and then my business is, Idecided to be a consultant two
(38:14):
years, soon as COVID ended andfor two years, it's been a bit
of a struggle, but it's at theend of the day, I want to serve
people.
I want to be able to deliver myvalue and pass on the things I
know about a business becausemost people are, they always say
it, working in the business, noton the business, and they don't
know how to get their teammotivated into the direction
they want to go to.
They all talk about it.
(38:34):
I don't have the right person.
you probably don't have theright call.
You'd probably don't have thembought in the heart to really do
what you want them to do.
Cause what is there 33 millionsmall businesses in the U S
after year five or eight,they're all out of business.
20, 80 percent of them.
There's a reason why it's allthe foundational stuff.
And that's what I mean aboutbeing boringly consistent.
it's not uber sexy to, have agood meeting for an hour.
(38:56):
and really listen to people forfive or 10 minutes on, Hey,
what's going on today?
And then really getting down tothe meat of the meeting and
having actual deliverables thatcould drive the company.
Speaker 4 (39:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
Don't have the same meeting in three weeks saying,
Oh, we're, let's review thesesame things we didn't do last
three weeks.
Have a system, have a, causeyou're, I provide a system that
kind of, you know, a SASsolution that really can track
that for you.
and raise it up to say, Hey,we're not on track.
We're not, we're on track, justcause you're off track.
Doesn't mean it's super bad.
Maybe there's some good reasonsfor it, but at least, that
(39:29):
you're on track or off track ofwhat you decided to do.
And most people aren't lookingat that, right?
Like tomorrow, most dads arewaking up going, okay, I'm just
handling, I'm handling stuff.
I'm the catcher.
I'm blocking and tackling,right?
Who's coming at me?
What's coming at me?
and I would just say you got tobe a little more forward
thinking than that on what youwant to do.
(39:49):
And the first thing I do is goto men's warehouse and see if
they got a couple suits for guysthat have, young men.
Because, getting that validationwhen they put on that suit and
you put on a suit.
Whether it doesn't have to be atie.
It could be just a jacket andsome jeans or whatever, and they
walk into a restaurant with youand they go, people go, Wow,
look at this young man, you'llbe shocked what it does for that
(40:09):
kid.
That's excellent.
Yeah.
but investing is always a key,right?
anymore you're flooded withthings and opportunities to do,
guys like yourself that arefocused on a niche of investing
in real estate and things likethat to me, if that's a passion
for somebody, they need somebodylike you with experience that
could help guide them.
That is not, and manage the riskappropriately for that.
(40:31):
So
Speaker (40:33):
thank you.
That's
Speaker 2 (40:34):
that's what I think for that.
So
Speaker (40:35):
thank you, Michael.
Michael, I want to give myaudience one last bit of how to
find you in regards to if theywanted to see more of what
you're up to.
And then also we had aconversation very briefly about.
target audience in, a potentialrole of a, chief operating
officer or some kind give uslike a 60 second.
And this is what I'm looking forin regards to the type of niched
(40:59):
position you'd like to have,through the coaching and
consulting, you talked about,and then how we can track you.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
Yeah.
my clear focus is, drivingbusinesses.
My range really is about five to75 million.
and about anywhere from 10 to200 employees.
that's the kind of groups that Ifind that I can really affect
and really move and that reallyhave a good culture to move in a
different, in a direction theywant to go to.
So that's the kind of frameworkas far as like a profile.
(41:28):
People go, do you have a niche?
I'm like, Look, I've been insoftware, SaaS, technology,
services, manufacturing, so I'vegot a wide range and it's all
about getting the structure inthe organization and being able
to start really moving thestructure in the organization
along with the concepts andhaving the right tools.
And the third thing is, how do Idevelop that, those disciplines
(41:50):
within that organization?
To really keep, to make itboringly consistent what they're
doing, right?
So those are the kind ofcompanies I'm looking forward to
work with.
And I've got a good kind ofprogram.
typically people say, Michael,you're not any, you don't charge
any more than a good admin.
And I'm you're right.
That's what I charge on a yearlybasis.
You advertise that over 12months.
it's like you're giving thismuch value.
(42:10):
Why don't you charge more?
Because I, you look, I want tohelp five to seven to 12 clients
a year.
I'm not, I'm doing well, I'mdoing fine.
but that's what I'm looking todo.
and the way to get ahold of me,you could probably post it, but
it's LinkedIn, Michael LaManna.
you could go to my website,precision180.
com.
or you could just give me acall.
Speaker (42:28):
Awesome.
And I wanted to also say,Michael, the way we met, I
posted something about chess ourmutual friend had said something
and you jumped in there.
And I think from just even thebeginning, I could feel very
much you wanted to engage.
You wanted to help.
And even we were talking chessfor a few paragraphs back and
forth.
(42:48):
So thank you for living whatbeen preaching.
you've given a lot today andthank you for joining the
invested fathers.
Michael Lamanna.
Thank you for being with us.
Speaker 2 (42:57):
Great.
Kenny.
Thank you.
What a blessing.
I remember to the day when my dad told me, no, I don't
want to throw the ball.
I don't know whether it was 14,15, but I remember, no, I don't
want to throw the ball, crushedme.
So when Luke had come home fromkarate when he was 17 or
whatever, drive it home, at 11o'clock at night saying, Hey, he
gets home.
He goes, Hey dad, you want to goto In N Out?
I'm in bed.
I'm like, yep, let's go.
(00:22):
So I would encourage you neversay no.
Hey dad, let's go out and play.
Go.
They want to go.
they don't have anything but a tshirt on and 20 degree.
Their body temperature is like.
it'll melt snow, their bodytemperature, right?
What are we worried about?
We were the same way, right?
We didn't care, we didn't need ashirt or a hat or we're out
there playing, it doesn'tmatter.
Did we come in frozen?
(00:43):
Yeah.
it's just Never say no if theywant to play cars, let's play
cars.
Let's It's like they want to doit, right?
Gabby when she was dancing whenwe gave her a car at 16 her
dance studio moved away about 10miles away.
So when I got off work, at 5:30,I would just drive over there 10
(01:08):
miles just to walk in and say,Hey, Gabs, give her a quick hug.
Stay a minute and leave.
Just put in the time.
That she still remembers that.
But you got to put in the time.
you got to be intentional aboutwhat you're doing and how you're
doing it.
Speaker (02:02):
Michael Lamana in the house on the invested fathers.
Good morning.
How are you?
Good, Kenny.
How you doing today?
You look great, man.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I feel okay.
it's valentine's day while we'rerecording right now.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah.
So Valentine's Day startedgreat.
I got up early, got some flowerstwo days ago.
they're out and about in thehouse.
So my wife's, came out, we madesome coffee.
We chatted a little bit thismorning, just snuggled on the
couch for a few minutes.
And, that was great.
So it started out awesome.
Speaker (02:32):
Excellent.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
We got some good plans for tonight going over
some friends house becauserestaurants to us are just
They're tough on Valentine's Dayanyway, and, we're more about,
these days, being married almost32 years, how do we want it to
be?
Not what it should be or whatpeople say it should
Speaker (02:47):
be.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I
Speaker (02:47):
love that.
Yes.
There's, I feel like there'sexpectations, early marriage of
what everyone else is doing andgoing out or doing whatever it
is.
And then we did that as
Speaker 2 (02:57):
well.
Right.
Then we started seeing theprices on Valentine's Day.
We're like, what?
Wait a minute here.
Speaker (03:03):
Yes, indeed.
It took us
Speaker 2 (03:04):
about five years to figure it out.
we really don't need to do this.
You know, it wasn't, we saw it,we didn't act.
It was like, okay, let's stop.
Yes.
We felt much better.
It was awesome.
Speaker (03:18):
Michael.
in the brief conversations we'vehad, we met through LinkedIn,
mutual friends, you've given mesome of your journey on
California.
I think he said even SiliconValley.
different heads of positionsand, different things.
I'm not even going to try, do usa favor.
Give us your bio.
tell us a little about yourcareer journey and what you're
doing today.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Yeah, sure.
So I'll just start at, 17 yearsold.
I was born in the Bronx, livedin Brooklyn, Queens, and then we
finally moved outside the city alittle bit.
But, to us people, it wasupstate.
but I spent all my summers inthe city.
I got them all.
Uncle Vinny, he was mygodfather.
Uncle Vinny, Bobby, Johnny,Frankie, Pauly, Louis, Jake,
Lester.
It was an Italian show to, everySaturday night, every Sunday at
(04:01):
two o'clock, dinner down inQueens with my grandma and
grandpa from Italy.
it was just the greatest times.
Saturday nights always became,dice on the kitchen floor.
my uncle's smoking cigars,throwing dice, throwing dollar
bills, you know, all that sortof stuff.
And, just a bit drinking toomuch.
that's why Sunday meal wasalways nice.
Cause it was quieter.
so that was great stuff, but atseven, I went through high
(04:22):
school and, I struggled quite abit because I was really good in
class.
I was really good interactingand engaging.
But, homework and test scoreswere just abominable.
just, I was like, I got straightflatline D's, and I think the
teachers just gave me D's justto get through.
But, there's two things I'velearned is, I really believe
when you have a son, you shouldredshirt him till they're seven
(04:45):
before they go intokindergarten.
and there's a couple reasonswhy, for that.
you go to any high school andyou see your son, usually
they're either like, they couldbe whatever, you know, kind of
on the dorky side, on theathletic side, whatever.
And you see them and they'relike, they all look great,
right?
But they're just a little emptyin the head, right?
(05:06):
And then you look at the youngladies in high school and they
look like junior senators andyou're like, There's a clear
mismatch here.
So me graduating at 17, what Irealized was my mom stuck me in
school when I was four becauseshe needed time.
She needed time.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
I was the
Speaker 2 (05:25):
second of four.
my dad, was, deformed and bornin 36, had a small arm, just
three fingers.
And my mom was left on theguardian angel steps at one
years old, never legallyadopted.
So we had foster kids growing upthe whole time.
We had, four of us and two tothree foster kids in and out
rotating and everybody goes,well, was it, was it crazy?
(05:48):
I'm like, no, it was normal forme.
it was just, it was, yeah, we,the foster care system is up
their game so much these daysthat, but my mom really had a
heart for that.
That was uber important to us,and it was really, really cool,
but, my dad struggled beingdeformed in that.
Period.
It's just you're a little bit ofa freakish guy and people took
you on your arm because theywere, they felt sorry for you
(06:09):
more than you can do things.
but he ended up with a longcareer working for Xerox and all
that kind of stuff.
And it's like, wow.
You know, that, that, that wasawesome.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
So fast forward.
I at 17, I decide, I graduatehigh school early and I'm like,
okay, mom, love, you got to go.
She goes, don't you want tomarry Anna Maria?
I'm like, mom.
Look at your daughters.
No, I'm not.
I'm not doing that.
I'm moving.
So I moved to Colorado, startedplaying soccer competitively,
played for a German club calledthe Kickers in Colorado.
They still out on a club.
(06:38):
It was a feeder system toGermany.
and I, and I changed tires.
I was, I worked at a Goodyearstore changing tires and I was
just everything I did.
I worked hard at, so I wasreally good at that, became the
service manager.
then the guy that owned it said,Hey, I got six stores.
Can you help me out manage allthese other stores?
And I did.
So I came be part, became partof the business.
(07:00):
what I realized was being a 19year old at that time going,
okay, what am I going to do?
he goes, be part of thebusiness.
And I was getting paid, afraction of what he was getting
paid.
In hindsight good reason, right?
I'm a 19 year old kind of youngknucklehead, he owns the
businesses, right?
So we got into it about pay alittle bit and I just bolted
(07:20):
instead of really saying, okayHow do we really build this
right?
I don't deserve what you'regetting.
But how do I build to that?
How do I what's the path?
I didn't really understand thatso I decided to leave and at
that point it was a tire andservice centers.
in Colorado and, they used tohave corporate cars back then.
So general dynamics folks wouldalways come in and they said,
Hey, Michael, we heard you'releaving.
(07:41):
I said, yeah, they go, Hey, howabout working for us?
Oh, what do you guys do?
we're in communications.
Oh, call my dad that night.
there was no mobile phones and Iwas like, dad, what's
communication?
He goes.
What do I know?
I do copiers.
I have no clue whatcommunications is.
So I ended up working forGeneral Dynamics, working at
Martin Marietta when the spaceshuttle went up.
I was one of the service techsthat would handle the
(08:04):
communications aspect of that,and it was great.
You worked for US West,University Health Science Center
running that, worked on aplatform like a central office.
That's, folks from Japan comeover NEC, try to fix their
system and six days into it, thedirector looks at me, go, what's
going on?
And I pulled two buses and Isaid, here are your problems
fixed.
Here's where the two problemsare.
(08:25):
I don't know how to fix that,but I know where they are.
Next thing I know, I getoffered, to be a sales engineer
in Silicon Valley for NEC.
I know this is crazy, right?
so what do I do?
Hey dad, what's a salesengineer?
He says, I don't know what thatis.
Oh, here I go busting out theSilicon Valley, right?
(08:47):
I heard about Silicon Valleylike in elementary school, but I
never really knew what it was.
So I was a sales engineer,everybody confused me with a guy
from 30 something cause my namewas Michael.
I wore suspenders, a white shirtand, I drove the, Mercedes
starter set, the E 190.
I was living large, man.
it was just like, holy cow, I'mfrom the Bronx and I'm doing all
this stuff.
This is great.
(09:09):
then, so working for NEC, in 90,I decided I'm going to take,
cause in Silicon Valley you takesabbatical.
So I said, Hey, I need six and ahalf weeks off.
And they go, no, we don't dothat.
We're a Japanese company.
I'm like, okay, then I'm goingto quit.
I gotta go.
So I went to Italy for six and ahalf weeks and watched the World
Cup.
I speak a little Italian.
but I saw 17 games just trainingaround.
(09:31):
it was just fabulous to me.
Super, super, uber fabulous.
I came back from that, went to ajoint function in San Diego with
the NEC folks from the Dallasarea.
and I met my wife, Denise.
I leave Silicon Valley, go withmy best buddy Dieter over to,
the Grand Canyon, my firstoutback, five day outback, we're
sleeping on top on, the firstnight, next thing we wake up, a
(09:53):
foot and a half of snow.
so we hiked down and I'm aboutthird day into this and he goes,
he called me McKellie.
He goes, McKellie, what's goingon?
I said, I'm going to marry thatgirl.
I had a lunch with her, 35minute lunch, and I said, good
thing there was no phone.
She would have thought I was acomplete stalker, right?
So we did the long distancething and I moved down here, got
married and we had Gabrielle andabout three months after having
(10:15):
Gabrielle, our daughter.
I got offered a job by Cisco,the internet guys, cause I sold
SAS.
I sold network managementsoftware to Nortel, MCI and all
these kinds of companies, with acompany called OSI.
I said, Hey, we got a great.
Opportunity to go back and I wasglad because it was like I
didn't realize in Dallas.
your summer season was yourindoor season it was uber hot,
(10:37):
right?
we moved back there We gotpregnant with Luke and we came
right back because I realizedthen I'm traveling too much
Keeping her away from herfamily, friends, and the church.
I said, let's get back down toDallas.
We wanna help her brother, who'sbeen in a wheelchair from
motocross for 40 years.
we want to make sure we'rearound for him and their parents
And Denise's parents.
her dad's now has had dementiafor nine years, so it's been
(10:58):
really good.
We've been back and I've lovedit the second time coming down
here.
we just love our life.
I know, there's big talk about alot of people moving down to
Texas, but we've been back 24years and we just love it down
here.
So after my Cisco, tenure, Iwent to work for a manufacturing
company and we took him from, Iwas head of sales.
We took him from about 125 to750 million.
(11:20):
But I really didn't like theindustry.
It just wasn't in my heart.
So after COVID I left there andnow I'm, a business facilitator.
So I really go intoorganizations and really help
people understand the concepttools and disciplines.
Needed to run a good businessand to get some of the
foundational stuff going.
and then I usually work with,their operations and try to
really help them along on wherethey really need to focus just
(11:41):
to make that two to 3 percentchange, three to 5 percent
change.
Because that'll direct them on atotally different path than just
bumping along, right?
Running into the same problems,not knowing how to organize
themselves and things like that.
So that's what I do these days,and I love it.
I usually have five to sevenclients on a yearly basis that
are coming in and out and I'mloving life.
(12:01):
It's super good.
my wife married 32 years.
she's a rock star.
She's been in, real estate, for15 years.
She just got the award.
Top producer for DFW for 2024.
So super successful.
now she's transitioning over thelast two years as well into
senior living because she's seenwhat her parents had gone
through and she's really got aheart for that.
(12:22):
She's on dementia, friendlyboards and all that sort of
stuff.
It's a small boutique firm, butthey do fabulous.
It's great.
And it's all referrals.
There's no marketing, there's noLinkedIn.
It's just all referral stuff.
So it's super good.
And that allows me to do.
Focus really on my business andwhat I'm doing.
So it's really good.
So got two kids.
I remember when Gabrielle wasborn, we drove out of the nurses
(12:44):
said, Hey, you guys can go homenow.
And I was like, we're not ready.
We need a couple more days ofthe hospital.
I go, no.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
You're ready.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
You're going the funniest thing happened.
So I get in my, the FordExplorer.
It was back in the day, realizedGabrielle's 26.
Now we get in the Explorer andI'm driving down the road and
people are just flying by me.
Probably like I did every day,right?
Just normal drive.
And I'm like, these guys arecrazy.
I just was like, I was panicked,right?
(13:13):
Because they didn't know I hadmy baby in the car.
I'm like, Oh my God, what an eyeopener.
Gabrielle is now 26 graduatedfrom Oklahoma university.
she's been in the business worldto almost three years.
She does what they call interiordesign, which I thought was like
curtains and stuff, but she's anarchitect.
So she architects everything,but the four walls outside four
(13:33):
walls and the foundation and theroof.
She does every, all the facades,stairways, electrical, and she
loves it.
that's her wheelhouse for sure.
she was in dance forever.
I can remember, going to danceevents forever, uh, doing that.
So people know that, that have,their child in something, it's a
full time sport and it costs alot of money, right?
(13:55):
that was great to be a part ofthat with her.
And then my son is a coupleyears younger.
He's going to be 24 in March.
he's a super good kid.
he is, he went and got his, Ithink his, Eagle Scout, when he
was 16.
we still go visit the bench,which is three quarters away
from my house on the lake,Grapevine Lake here in Texas,
and fix it up.
Twice a year to make sure it'sworking and all that kind of
(14:16):
stuff.
So that's been, that was anawesome journey.
I think I taught a hundreddifferent merit badges to the
group, to our troop.
I was pretty engaged there,doing all that sort of stuff.
So that was over fun, when hewas, seven, going into second
grade, they realized they testedhim for dyslexia.
And I was like, what's dyslexia.
I couldn't even spell it.
I was like, what's dyslexia.
(14:36):
Let me look this up.
come to find out afterunderstanding what dyslexia is.
I had to raise my hand, said,Oh, great.
I gave him that gene.
This is why I struggle becauseall the things they were talking
about, I just coped with andstruggled with.
So they gave him a lot of toolsto do this.
fast forward at, 16 became histhe first time he came a world
(14:57):
champion in Taekwondo.
We went to Korea.
he beat all the Koreans.
he beat people all over theworld.
and then he got it again at 17,a second world championship.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
And everybody says, Michael, your son can probably
kick your tail.
And I'm like, yeah, but I'm fromthe Bronx.
I told him never go to sleep.
I still got a little bit of thatBronx in me.
I'm like, oh my gosh.
And now he's at, Texas A& M.
He graduated last year.
and then now, and soon as theday he graduated, he went right
from the graduation ceremony,into his master's class.
(15:28):
So he's got three semesters toget his master's degree.
And he's focused on finance,economics, and land development.
it was really good, but wedidn't realize how good,
taekwondo or karate could be fordyslexia kids.
it's really about patterns andreally developing yourself in
that way.
So I think that really helpedout.
he graduates this coming summer.
So that's awesome.
but I'll tell you, there's a lotof things I learned, being a
(15:50):
parent for sure.
Number one, and most importantfor us is our faith without
question.
our faith really helps drive us,centers us.
And I think that's what's goingto be important and guides us on
where we need to go and where weneed to be.
So that's been an awesome thingfor us.
The second thing I'll tell youis that, you got to focus on
your marriage.
(16:11):
Kids aside, if you're notfocused on your marriage we
don't think we'd be assuccessful as we could be with
our kids.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
And
Speaker 2 (16:18):
I traveled the world for Cisco, right?
the internet, guys, back when,25 years ago, we were flying all
over the world.
Not a badge of honor.
I got 5.7 million miles just onAmerican, right?
We were flying all over theworld.
when I was home, I had to makesure I paid attention, right?
and Everybody a lot of folks askme all the time, you know when I
meet him they go, you know Howare you so successful in your
(16:41):
marriage?
I'm like three things wake upcommitted during the day be
conscious about being committedand when you put your head on
the pillow be committed Youknow, you can let all the noise,
all the distraction run aroundand all the things that my
buddies have done and what it'slike, are you guys kidding?
You're killing me, right?
You got to just stay focused onwhat you're doing.
(17:03):
And I think that's really had abaseline for not only us, but
really how we handle our kids.
So there's a lot of things Ilearned.
I think I'm up to 57 qualifiedline items on what I.
learned with my kids the firstthing I think I learned other
than realizing people weren'ttrying to kill me going down the
road when I had my daughter inthe car was Trust your instincts
(17:25):
what I mean by that was the onlypoint that denise and I were
starting to have a littlefriction with a newborn is When
she felt like it was time topick gabrielle up She had an
innate sense.
Hey, I think I need to pick herup, whatever.
And then, at times, I would havethat innate sense.
She'd go, Oh, no, no, no, no.
She's fine.
Leave her be, whatever.
We finally figured out where theattention was coming from, and
(17:48):
we really learned to beconscious of our own instincts.
And look, picking up the kid isnot gonna damage the kid, right?
It's just not, right?
it's helping me be a betterparent, right?
Because I think I'm taking care,right?
Holding it.
If I feel an innate sense, thatinnate sense in Denise, I
wouldn't try to change.
I'd say, do we really need topick her up?
(18:08):
Absolutely.
So we figured out that we had tolet each other kind of grow in
that and really drive eachother's, need for that instinct,
to pick up.
And that really helped us out alot.
because there wasn't frictionthat there was like, okay, you
need to pick, whatever, you justburp Gabrielle, she's doing
fine, all that kind of stuff.
It's, it was really an instinctthing.
So my encouragement to everybodyis really follow your instincts,
(18:31):
what you're doing there, youknow,
Speaker (18:32):
um.
just to give the audience someclarification on this.
Have you been keeping a list ofthe 54 things to know as a
parent that like, and you'vekept track of that even now?
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker (18:47):
We got to see this list sometime, buddy.
This is amazing.
you got to write a book on this.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
When did you,
Speaker (18:51):
when did you start it?
Speaker 2 (18:52):
I think when I started it was, right when
Gabrielle was an infant because,at the end of the day, when I
figured out it was just aninstinct, a need for me, whether
it was from the good Lord,whether it was just me feeling
that if I picked her up, I wouldbe a better parent.
I don't know, but it was then iswhen I started it.
(19:14):
And I think frankly, I think,yeah.
54, 57, somewhere up there.
I gotta go look at the list.
I don't have the list in frontof me, but yeah.
That's awesome.
So I just started jotting thesethings down and, some of the
things I've learned through theyears is, number one, we lived
in a house in Texas.
And, having a 9-year-oldbirthday party for Gabrielle.
and I had a bigger house and abig pool and we're having a pool
(19:34):
party and stuff and I come in toget some things and you know you
have posters.
Happy Birthday Gabi, you knowall that stuff, My buddy Kyle
comes in behind me, he goes,Hey, Michael, how old's Gabi and
I'm like I said, It says it allover the posters.
He goes, yeah, quit talking toher.
Like she's five.
(19:56):
Wow.
So that struck me.
I learned I had to grow with herand not treat her like she was
five.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
So I've
Speaker 2 (20:09):
really learned, to grow with them, to talk to them.
Like adults,
Speaker 4 (20:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
mean, I didn't know how to talk to her, and I just
talked to her.
So I figured that out.
For somebody that was close tome, point out, quit talking to
her like she's five.
And I just was like, yeah,whatever.
And then I thought about it.
I came up to him later.
I was like, okay, we need to gohave a glass of wine or a beer
or something and talk about thisa little bit.
it was a great moment, being adad and somebody influenced me
(20:34):
with an observation that Itrusted.
So that was, have your trustedfriends around you.
one of the other things Ilearned was, lead from behind.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
When Luke was in second grade, Denise would go,
I'm having a real hard time withLuke doing homework.
He didn't want to do it.
He's, crabby's, yadda, yadda.
He just wants to play it,whatever.
And I said, okay, let me go backto the teacher because I took
him in the next day.
The interesting thing was, Italked to the teacher, I said,
yeah, do you see, is Luke doingwell, and she goes, yeah, and I
(21:03):
said, he's really giving Denisea hard time about, homework, she
goes, give me three days, andabout four days later, he comes
home and says, mom, you know howimportant homework is?
So it taught us to lead frombehind with trusted people
around us, right?
Have people influence your kidthat you can trust to really
(21:23):
drive what we were doing and howwe were doing.
So I always call it leading frombehind.
Cause why?
Cause us dads.
We're the hammer, right?
we're always the hammer, right?
And it's really hard to take abreath and just listen.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
Right.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Oh, I've really worked on that on myself for a
long time and still do,
Speaker 4 (21:42):
yeah,
Speaker 2 (21:43):
they still call me dad.
I don't want an answer.
I just want to tell yousomething
Speaker (21:48):
Well, just in case you forgot that I
Speaker 2 (21:50):
either scarred them or I'm just not good at it yet
or probably a combination,right?
but I think you really need to,really lead from behind in some
ways, and get your trustedpeople around them and get
observation from people aroundyou.
So I think super, important, forkids.
Speaker (22:05):
Michael, let me go a little deeper there.
First off, how old was he when,that situation happened with him
studying and the teacher helping
Speaker 2 (22:12):
whatever grade, second grade
Speaker (22:14):
Okay, so pretty young.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Yeah,
Speaker (22:15):
and I've heard that before in the show that the idea
of, build the campfire kind ofdeal where it's just, it's an
open space.
They come and sit down, can talkand you're not necessarily,
lecturing right away.
It's listening.
what are some other ways?
cause I feel like I'm the athome and my son's eight and
there's times where he justwants to talk about superheroes
(22:39):
and his toys and whatnot.
And I'm here telling him like,this is how you help society.
And this is how you get a joband all these things that he's
not maybe ready for.
what are some other things thatmaybe happened that helped you
and are still helping you inthat leading from behind?
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Yeah.
So a couple of things that youbring, that spurs me into what
you're talking about.
number one, most importantly,I've learned, I was dedicated
because of my, the way I wasbrought up, in a kind of a
dysfunctional alcoholic family,all that sort of stuff.
My dad being deformed, megetting a lot of grief about
that with, the people around me,and things like that, Is really,
(23:19):
the thing that came to me wasnever say no.
I remember to the day when mydad told me, no, I don't want to
throw the ball.
I don't know whether it was 14,15, but I remember, no, I don't
want to throw the ball, crushedme.
So when Luke had come home fromkarate when he was 17 or
whatever, drive it home, at 11o'clock at night saying, Hey, he
gets home.
He goes, Hey dad, you want to goto In N Out?
(23:41):
I'm in bed.
I'm like, yep, let's go.
So I would encourage you neversay no.
Hey dad, let's go out and play.
Go.
They want to go.
they don't have anything but a tshirt on and 20 degree.
Their body temperature is like.
it'll melt snow, their bodytemperature, right?
What are we worried about?
We were the same way, right?
We didn't care, we didn't need ashirt or a hat or we're out
(24:03):
there playing, it doesn'tmatter.
Did we come in frozen?
Yeah.
it's just Never say no if theywant to play cars, let's play
cars.
Let's It's like they want to doit, right?
Gabby when she was dancing whenwe gave her a car at 16 her
dance studio moved away about 10miles away.
(24:25):
So when I got off work, she'd bethere from 3.
30 to 7 or 8.
when I got off work at 5:30 Iwould just drive over there 10
miles just to walk in and say,Hey, Gabs, give her a quick hug.
Stay a minute and leave.
Just put in the time.
That she still remembers that.
I was probably the only fromthis area that drove over there
10 miles just to have, I didn'tbring anything.
(24:47):
it was just, whatever.
But you got to put in the time.
you got to be intentional aboutwhat you're doing and how you're
doing it.
Speaker (24:54):
let me go deeper there too, because you've talked about
your background, the dad,alcoholic, dysfunction, not
playing with you, in thatpivotal moment.
Is that, was there so much, Idon't mean to put it in a
horrible way here, but like ascarring that you were just
like, you know what?
The pendulum's going to swinghard with me.
(25:15):
I'm going to make sure I'm withmy kids.
I'm going to like, how are youso wired to do?
I feel like I talked to dads onhere and they're like, I don't
know what I was doing.
I'm just running blind here as adad, it feels like you've
really, with this list, the 57things and the stories with,
dyslexia, your son and theinvolvement, how are you this
(25:35):
way?
Speaker 2 (25:37):
that's a great question.
probably because of the goodLord.
And I can tell you this growingup a Catholic kid, being down
here in Texas, they go, are youa Christian?
I'm like, yeah, as Catholics,we're a Christian anyway.
I go to non denominational foryears now, but it's just always
a funny conversation.
But I always felt like I had agood, relationship with the
Lord.
Just my personal relationship,even as a young kid, because
(25:59):
you'd go through all thistrauma.
Who did I have to lean on?
I always say, God, just help me.
what do I need to do?
Help me.
How do I help my dad?
How do I help my family?
Help me.
And then when I went to Coloradoat 17, I can tell you for 10
years, at least I was alwayslooking, even this business guy
that I was with, I was alwayslooking for a mentor.
(26:20):
And then one day I realizedpeople are asking me to help
them.
And I was like, okay, I don'twant to get cocky here, but
people are asking me.
but I didn't have that voidfilled based on, wanting to
really connect with somebody tohelp me along on my journey.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
always still looking for that.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
how did I end up the way I was?
And, I just think it's focus,it's clarity, it's focus and
commitment.
it's not hard.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
It's so busy around the world, worldly thing.
Listen, at the end of the day,they're home, they're in your
house, right?
Your son's what, eight yearsold?
Speaker 4 (26:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Yeah.
Matter of fact, one thing I didwith my son was I went to men's
warehouse when he was probablyseven or eight.
and they used to sell two suitsfor 99.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
They give you a, it'd be like a, a suit and then, a
white shirt and, clip on tie.
They'd give you two sets ofthose.
And what I would do is I wouldbuy one his size.
And when the size up because I'mthinking I'm, he's going to grow
into it and he's going to use ittwo or three times.
So we'd roll it up, staple it.
So we wouldn't have to keepdoing whatever.
(27:30):
And at that point I was doing alot of nonprofit stuff.
So I was on the board, thehero's board for the women's
Genesis shelter, domesticviolence.
I was on the board of the boysand girls club.
I helped negotiate kids out ofthe gangs.
I did a lot of different stuff,and I would always bring him
along, and he was always, whenhe put that, and then, with the
suits, I had, and I encourageevery dad, once a month create a
(27:54):
dinner deal and he loved havingsteaks So we'd go to a nice
steakhouse and he'd be dressedin the suit and Response he got
from the waiters and the serversand the concierge You know the
maitre d and all that you couldjust tell lifted him.
He wanted to be like that He satup better, right?
He ate better.
You got to have that outsideinfluence To really help you but
(28:16):
when you go to dinner you justOkay.
Where are we going to go?
Okay.
You want to go down to Dallas toNick and Sam's?
Let's go.
It's going to cost me 150 bucksor 100 bucks, but let's go.
Yeah.
And same thing with Gabby.
you just, she didn't wantdinners.
She just wanted to go out and,have a little lunch or
something.
And that was all great.
But with Sons specifically, I'dsay, I don't know if Men's
(28:37):
Warehouse still does it, butthey used to sell two suits for
99 bucks.
I'm sure it's more expensivenow, but, I could, send you some
pictures you could post on whathe looked like, what him and I
look like, next to each otherwith our suit on before we went.
And I think that's, you got toput that in the calendar.
It's got to be a priority.
Speaker (28:52):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
be a priority.
Speaker (28:53):
please send those to me.
I think that would be very cool.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
No,
Speaker (28:56):
This is exactly what I want the show to be.
it's memoirs, how old are youtoday, Michael?
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Yeah, I'm 65 today.
Speaker (29:04):
So that's probably one of my most important questions
is, you're 65, you've lived afull life.
You're not dead by any means.
You still have more years to gohere, but through the 65 years,
those twenties, thirties,forties, fifties, what stands
out to you and what ended upmattering?
what were the priorities thatyou did and everything you're
saying?
It feels like such a life of nonregret with everything.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Yeah.
Listen, I've made mistakes, butI don't really have regrets per
se.
specifically, to your question,when people meet me, they see
somebody that they always tellme, man, are you always up?
And I'm like, yeah, every dayyou're, and I just think the
good Lord sprinkled some dust onme and said, this is you, this
(29:52):
is the way you're going to feedinto people.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
Right.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
And I don't go overly, try to be like when I'm
down, whatever, ha, and I dohave some down periods, like I'm
pretty gregarious in a lot ofways.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
But trust me, at, six o'clock at night, man, I want to
hunker down, be calm, be quiet.
Be so gregarious,
Speaker 4 (30:11):
Right.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
like even for parties, people always give me a
hard time.
I always show up late and Ialways leave early.
Because I just think I engageand it's like, Denise knows I
look over and she goes, okay,we're going.
Speaker (30:27):
Michael's done.
We got to go.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
We got to go.
Speaker (30:30):
I get that.
I would consider myselfoptimistic and try to add value
through.
Asking people how they're doingand really trying to understand
people, remember the names, andthen when, if I ever get sick or
if I'm not feeling great, I feellike it bothers me because
people are like, why are you,what, where's the old Kenny?
And it's I'm just acting normal.
this is what, this is howeveryone else acts.
(30:51):
no, you're not being your normalself.
You're usually like the life ofthe party here, like smiling and
making sure everyone's okay.
So I don't know if you'veexperienced that too.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Yeah, maybe I was blinded to it, but I'm sure it's
happened before.
Um, but yeah, I'm just generallyusually pretty up, and, getting
back to your son at eight.
Look what he's doing today.
Look.
If he's not having trouble inthe pool and needs your dad,
whatever he's doing is going tobe okay, right?
If he drops a glass,
Speaker 4 (31:22):
I
Speaker 2 (31:24):
mean, why get on the kid?
he just drops a glass, you pickit up.
If he does it 30 times, justsay, hey, maybe we ought to
change this a little bit, Andit's hard, right?
It's hard, right?
Not to react, right?
the whole reaction thing, right?
They can tell your bodylanguage.
They're watching.
These kids are watchingeverything, right?
And then when they go to school,they see kids with older kids.
So their kids are doing morethan your kid.
(31:45):
And yeah, no, it's a lot tomanage.
But fundamentally, look, ifyou're married, you got to make
sure you're focused on yourmarriage.
That's the way your kids aregoing to be.
you're going to make your kidssuccessful in my eyes.
it's going to help you buildthose blocks to make your kids
successful and your marriagesuccessful in your life
successful,
Speaker (32:03):
did you give us a quick story on that?
Cause I, we, we had a scufflethis morning, my wife and I
expectations of Valentine's dayand, me just not hitting it as I
needed to, any stories, memoriesof.
Rather something that you didreally well or something that
you just failed on in light ofkeeping the marriage, where it
needed to be.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
Absolutely.
So this whole gift giving thing,whether it's Christmas,
Valentine's Day.
Birthdays, whatever.
So I used to try to be like,wow, I'm gonna get Denise a nice
shirt.
when you see that same shirtwith the tag on it, 12 years
later in the closet, that's notthe right gift.
I bought a gray jewelry when Ilived in, we went out to visit
(32:45):
after I left Silicon Valley.
I used to go to this.
I knew this jewelry guy, so wewent there and I bought some
stuff for her and it's probablystill in the box
Speaker 4 (32:52):
right?
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Okay.
So everybody gives me a hardtime because, even my kids, they
go, what color running shoe didyou buy mom this time?
Did you go to now it's Lulu,right?
It's Lulu, or, Aldo, whateverthey are.
I, it's and my wife always says,I don't need shoes.
Okay.
I get her shoes anyway, becausein a week or the next day she's
wearing them and she's she'sgetting compliments because I
(33:15):
know what style and it's don'tfight city hall.
It's almost don't do too muchand, but find out what she loves
and just cater to that.
Now on your deal today forValentine's day, how long have
you been married?
Speaker (33:28):
11 years.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Okay, so you're, my, my thought for you is to make a
list, what's worked, what didn'twork.
Because look, I'm not sayingyou're going to hit it out of
the park every day, but what isyour wife like?
Speaker (33:42):
it happened all of a sudden, but she does like
thrifting.
she loves yard sales.
She loves walking around storesand just looking at antique
things that, I don't know.
Does she buy them sometimes?
I feel like, I think today shedid buy a basket.
I think we have 17 baskets inour house, but, that's what
makes her happy is just goingout and doing this like thrifty
and stuff.
(34:03):
So that's what she did thismorning.
Then she came back.
I would say happy, but, yeah,she's an old soul and like old
houses and old things.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So like for Denise, she lovesgoing to market, markets on
Saturday, the, the vegetablemarket, the open markets they
have and stuff like that, theirpop up ones on Saturdays and,
maybe make her a card and say,Hey, one, one, one, One free
bottle of wine and, we're goingto go on a shopping thing
together, right?
Just a card, right?
Just, that's what she loves.
(34:31):
Give it, be intentional aboutit.
Speaker 4 (34:32):
Yeah.
I
Speaker 2 (34:32):
mean, so for me, to me that I had to focus on what
she likes.
Trust me, I still get grief frommy wife and my kids, but they
all know mom loves the stuff Igive her.
Speaker (34:45):
That's awesome.
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
she's a workout fiend.
She did CrossFit for a ton ofyears.
she ran for a ton of years andnow she's just into working out
and stuff.
And, yeah, she always needs newworkout stuff.
Cause she'll wear the stuff likeme, like a guy, right?
We'll wear the same shirt,right?
That's why I love a logo shirt.
Hey, nobody says, is that thesame shirt?
No, it's my business shirt.
They don't know if it's the sameshirt or not.
It's just us guys.
We got three shirts.
(35:09):
We got 47, but we like threeshirts.
That's what we wear.
Speaker (35:11):
Exactly.
Michael, let me pivot a littlebit, Michael.
We had talked before recordedregarding, legacy, what are you,
what are we leaving our kids?
How are we investing evenfinancially?
And that's one of the things onthe show you've.
Given so much value in thepriorities of what you spent
your time doing earlier in theepisode, you did give us the
different career path that youjumped around and had quite a
(35:34):
spread, at this stage in yourlife, 65, what is, what are some
things that you can share inregards to how you're investing
right now?
And even, work wise, are youstill working?
Is that still like a joy,passion of yours?
Yeah, absolutely.
and how are we, what stage areyou in right now?
Speaker 2 (35:51):
so a couple things.
not sure if you're gonna be ableto see it, but, for 10 years
now, basically when Gabby got aphone, I text her every night.
Good night, sweet, sweets.
Pickled a pear.
Love you.
She usually sends me somethingback.
Speaker 4 (36:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
Even during her college days, I text her every
night, probably nine or 10 atnight.
Sometimes you hear back fromher, sometimes not, if she's
working on a project late, and Ido that with my son.
I got the same note for my son.
Good night, buddy.
Love you.
Proud of you.
You know?
so of course, you could set upyour phone so you don't get
calls except for emergencies forthe emergency people.
(36:28):
Right?
Speaker 4 (36:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
So he answers me at one o'clock in the morning, he's
done studying or whatever downthere.
And he goes, Hey, thanks, dad.
Love you too.
And so the phone's going off,but be consistent, be touch your
kids.
they have devices, just leavethem a note every night, every
night.
So you, so invest that way,right?
Not in monetary stuff withpeople, like that, but, and I
think it's really important toinvest in that, now when it
(36:49):
comes to, what I've been doingall my life is look, everybody
tells you put 300 bucks a weekaway a month, every other week,
every week, if you can't,whatever.
Just keep putting it awaybecause everybody used to say to
me.
Hey, Gabby turned 16.
You bought her a new car.
Yeah.
I knew that was coming up,right?
She's going to college.
(37:10):
It's paid for.
Okay.
you've got it.
You got to be intentional,right?
don't think I'll start startingnext week or tomorrow, whatever.
You got to think like here.
you see it, we see it, right?
So many older people just don'thave a, a dime to live off of
other than social security.
And they're just struggling.
And there's really no need forthat.
they just need to be what I callboringly consistent.
(37:32):
And I got healthy, what I wascoined as being healthy
paranoia.
I got some healthy paranoia onbeing boringly consistent on the
things that are uber important,that are foundational stuff and
investing is one of them.
I do some investing with agroup, a private equity group
that, invest in multifamilystuff.
That's usually new stuff thatthey're building and stuff.
(37:53):
I think they've, their portfoliois now about 750 mil, and I've
got a small investment withthat, that I just keep churning
over.
Things like that.
and then of course your typicalknucklehead things like the
stock market, I've got a goodgroup that manages that, but
it's just I just shake my head.
I'm like, just a, it's just acrap shoot.
but you got to keep doing that.
it does benefit stuff.
and then my business is, Idecided to be a consultant two
(38:14):
years, soon as COVID ended andfor two years, it's been a bit
of a struggle, but it's at theend of the day, I want to serve
people.
I want to be able to deliver myvalue and pass on the things I
know about a business becausemost people are, they always say
it, working in the business, noton the business, and they don't
know how to get their teammotivated into the direction
they want to go to.
They all talk about it.
(38:34):
I don't have the right person.
you probably don't have theright call.
You'd probably don't have thembought in the heart to really do
what you want them to do.
Cause what is there 33 millionsmall businesses in the U S
after year five or eight,they're all out of business.
20, 80 percent of them.
There's a reason why it's allthe foundational stuff.
And that's what I mean aboutbeing boringly consistent.
it's not uber sexy to, have agood meeting for an hour.
(38:56):
and really listen to people forfive or 10 minutes on, Hey,
what's going on today?
And then really getting down tothe meat of the meeting and
having actual deliverables thatcould drive the company.
Speaker 4 (39:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
Don't have the same meeting in three weeks saying,
Oh, we're, let's review thesesame things we didn't do last
three weeks.
Have a system, have a, causeyou're, I provide a system that
kind of, you know, a SASsolution that really can track
that for you.
and raise it up to say, Hey,we're not on track.
We're not, we're on track, justcause you're off track.
Doesn't mean it's super bad.
Maybe there's some good reasonsfor it, but at least, that
(39:29):
you're on track or off track ofwhat you decided to do.
And most people aren't lookingat that, right?
Like tomorrow, most dads arewaking up going, okay, I'm just
handling, I'm handling stuff.
I'm the catcher.
I'm blocking and tackling,right?
Who's coming at me?
What's coming at me?
and I would just say you got tobe a little more forward
thinking than that on what youwant to do.
(39:49):
And the first thing I do is goto men's warehouse and see if
they got a couple suits for guysthat have, young men.
Because, getting that validationwhen they put on that suit and
you put on a suit.
Whether it doesn't have to be atie.
It could be just a jacket andsome jeans or whatever, and they
walk into a restaurant with youand they go, people go, Wow,
look at this young man, you'llbe shocked what it does for that
(40:09):
kid.
That's excellent.
Yeah.
but investing is always a key,right?
anymore you're flooded withthings and opportunities to do,
guys like yourself that arefocused on a niche of investing
in real estate and things likethat to me, if that's a passion
for somebody, they need somebodylike you with experience that
could help guide them.
That is not, and manage the riskappropriately for that.
(40:31):
So
Speaker (40:33):
thank you.
That's
Speaker 2 (40:34):
that's what I think for that.
So
Speaker (40:35):
thank you, Michael.
Michael, I want to give myaudience one last bit of how to
find you in regards to if theywanted to see more of what
you're up to.
And then also we had aconversation very briefly about.
target audience in, a potentialrole of a, chief operating
officer or some kind give uslike a 60 second.
And this is what I'm looking forin regards to the type of niched
(40:59):
position you'd like to have,through the coaching and
consulting, you talked about,and then how we can track you.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
Yeah.
my clear focus is, drivingbusinesses.
My range really is about five to75 million.
and about anywhere from 10 to200 employees.
that's the kind of groups that Ifind that I can really affect
and really move and that reallyhave a good culture to move in a
different, in a direction theywant to go to.
So that's the kind of frameworkas far as like a profile.
(41:28):
People go, do you have a niche?
I'm like, Look, I've been insoftware, SaaS, technology,
services, manufacturing, so I'vegot a wide range and it's all
about getting the structure inthe organization and being able
to start really moving thestructure in the organization
along with the concepts andhaving the right tools.
And the third thing is, how do Idevelop that, those disciplines
(41:50):
within that organization?
To really keep, to make itboringly consistent what they're
doing, right?
So those are the kind ofcompanies I'm looking forward to
work with.
And I've got a good kind ofprogram.
typically people say, Michael,you're not any, you don't charge
any more than a good admin.
And I'm you're right.
That's what I charge on a yearlybasis.
You advertise that over 12months.
it's like you're giving thismuch value.
(42:10):
Why don't you charge more?
Because I, you look, I want tohelp five to seven to 12 clients
a year.
I'm not, I'm doing well, I'mdoing fine.
but that's what I'm looking todo.
and the way to get ahold of me,you could probably post it, but
it's LinkedIn, Michael LaManna.
you could go to my website,precision180.
com.
or you could just give me acall.
Speaker (42:28):
Awesome.
And I wanted to also say,Michael, the way we met, I
posted something about chess ourmutual friend had said something
and you jumped in there.
And I think from just even thebeginning, I could feel very
much you wanted to engage.
You wanted to help.
And even we were talking chessfor a few paragraphs back and
forth.
(42:48):
So thank you for living whatbeen preaching.
you've given a lot today andthank you for joining the
invested fathers.
Michael Lamanna.
Thank you for being with us.
Speaker 2 (42:57):
Great.
Kenny.
Thank you.
What a blessing.
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