From Struggle to Strength: One Dad's Journey - Casey Wagonfield

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The moment Casey Wagonfield's now-wife and her six-month-old son entered his life, everything changed. After years of job-hopping and questionable decisions, he suddenly faced a profound realization: "Now I've got responsibilities and a little human to take care of." This awakening marks the beginning of a remarkable fatherhood journey shared in this heartfelt conversation.

With raw honesty, Casey opens up about adopting his oldest son at age eight, revealing the beautiful truth that fatherhood transcends biology. "I'm his, he's mine," Casey affirms, describing how he's the only father his son has ever known. This chosen relationship forms the foundation of a blended family that now includes three children. Listeners will connect with Casey's candid admission about the differences in parenting boys versus his daughter: "You can't talk to her like you talk to the boys" – a learning curve many fathers experience.

The conversation explores how Casey's own upbringing shaped his parenting philosophy. Raised by parents who emphasized honesty and accountability, these values became cornerstones in his own household alongside faith, which grew central to their family through his wife's influence. A particularly touching moment comes when Casey shares his pride in his son's spiritual journey and requests to be rebaptized – a decision made entirely on his own.

Working parents will find Casey's struggle with work-life balance deeply relatable. After spending six months working in North Carolina while only coming home on weekends early in his career, he recognized the need for change as his children grew. This balancing act between professional ambition and family presence represents one of modern fatherhood's greatest challenges, as does teaching children to remain humble despite material comfort.

Casey leaves us with three powerful pieces of advice: spend more time with your kids, talk to them (and encourage them to talk to you), and keep them humble. These principles form the foundation of intentional fatherhood, creating a lasting impact. Whether you're a new dad finding your way or an experienced father looking to strengthen your connection with your children, this conversation offers both inspiration and practical wisdom for the journey.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hi, I'm Riley and I'm Ryder, and this is my dad show.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hey everybody, it's Casey Jaycox with the
quarterback dad cast.
Welcome to season six, and Icould not be more excited to
have you join me for anotheryear of fantastic episodes and
conversations, really unscriptedand raw and authentic
conversations with dads.
If you're new to this podcast,really it's simple.
It's a podcast where weinterview dads, we learn about
how they were raised, we learnabout the life lessons that were

(00:34):
important to them, we learnabout the values that are
important to them and really welearn about how we can work hard
to become a better quarterbackor leader of our home.
So let's sit back, relax andlisten to today's episode on the
Quarterback Dadcast.
Well, hey everybody, welcome tothe Quarterback Dadcast, casey
Jaycox, your host.
Here we are in season six.
We are rolling along.
We have interviewed, like youknow, probably over 300, now

(00:56):
it's like 315 dads or so, whichjust still blows my mind.
I'm on the quest to get to athousand.
So if you're a dad out therewith a story, reach out to me.
I want to hear it, I want toshare it, I want to celebrate it
.
But today's guest I actually meta few years ago when he was at
the wide world of Bellflex andmy good, dear friend, leslie

(01:16):
Vickery, introduced us, but itwasn't the right time.
And then my good man, roy Fazioat the AS group, had me out to
speak and I'm on the golf courseand I ended up meeting this,
this gentleman, his name's.
He's got a great name.
His name's Casey Wagonfieldlove his first name better than
his last name and uh, but we, we, we got a chance to connect and

(01:37):
learn, learn more about whathe's up to.
And uh, play some golf, havesome fun.
Um, he is now now at, uh,simple vms.
He is also the host of thestaffing made simple podcast,
which is something you want tocheck out.
He's a red hawk, uh, but moreimportantly, he's a dad, and
casey's we're going to learntoday how how casey's working
hard to become that ultimateleader or quarterback of his

(01:59):
household.
So, without further ado, mrwagonfield, welcome to the
quarterback.
Dad cast, my fellow casey man,thanks for having me.
You bet I always love when Iget to talk to another Casey,
just because it's truly an elitename, as we all know it is.
All right, joking aside, wealways start out each episode
gratitude.
So tell me, what are you mostgrateful for as a dad today?

Speaker 1 (02:21):
I would say you know my kids still want to hang out
with me.
Um, and you know my daughter,you know she's at that age where
she's nine years old and she'sstill got me wrapped around her
finger.
My sons are 17 and 16 and stillwant to hang out and ask, ask
to go do things with me.
So I feel grateful and a lot ofgratitude towards the fact that

(02:42):
you know I haven't experiencedthat where they don't want to
talk to me yet, right, or youknow that phase yet.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
Yeah, it's, I went through with my daughter and I
and I, how I got her back wasjust sarcasm and but yeah it's,
it's kind of a lonely world whenthat happens, man, to be honest
with you, cause it's likeyou're, you're the, you know the
hero, and all of a suddenyou're like dad, you're such a
douche.
I'm like wait a minute.
No, I'm not.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
And I know there's probably going to come a day
where that does happen.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
So I'm just loving it right now until it does.
No, I love it.
Well, what I'm grateful for isI got, I got both.
He'll be off to a sophomoreyear and my daughter's preparing
for her senior year in highschool.
Um, again, I'm grateful forjust spending time with them and

(03:31):
really seeing, like, forexample, today I took my, my dog
, for a walk in between meetingsand I came back and our workout
room light was on.
My daughter's got her headphoneson and she's working out by
herself.
I didn't ask her, didn't say,hey, you should work out.
Mean, I love that.
She's has the habit of exercise.
You know whether it's trying tobe the best basketball player

(03:53):
she can be now, but moreimportantly, just life skills,
and so I love that, grateful forthat.
Both kids have embracedexercise and health and, um, you
know, whatever you do in lifeand you can always exercise your
mind.
So I'm very grateful, gratefulfor that.
Yeah, and you don't have toforce them to do it.
No, exactly, all right.
Well, bring me inside the wagonfield huddle.
You're the quarterback.
I'm guessing your wife's the GM, but he's the president.

(04:14):
Talk about how you and yourwife met and then tell me a
little bit about each eachmember of the team.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Sure.
So funny story.
My wife and I actually hadworked at a company called
Bahama Breeze.
It's a restaurant oh yeah, I'vebeen there Northern restaurant
right In Cincinnati and she hadworked there and she left and I
became a server there two weekslater.
So we almost had crossed pathsfive years before I ever met her
.
So we had met actually at acompany.
It was like a door-to-doorbusiness-to-business sales
company and was like a door todoor business to business sales
company and they did like shewas actually on the makeup side,

(04:49):
she would sell makeup door todoor business to business and I
would sell certifications theywould partner with like the
Cincinnati Reds and spas andgolf courses.
And we met there.
And she's going to hate thatI'm saying this, but so I
remember the first time we wouldget to work at 6 am, right, and
they'd have the music plannedand you know, get everybody
pumped up for the day.

(05:10):
And this girl would just havebe so bubbly like and it almost
annoyed me, like why is she sohappy at 6 am in the morning?
And you know, we we startedtalking a little bit.

(05:36):
She had a son who was my oldestson.
Jonathan, who was six months atthe time, does not know has
never met his biological father.
And I would say, know, I made alot of bad decisions leading up
to that point.
I had a lot of jobs.
I would job hop Right, and Ithink when she came into my life
and Johnny came into my life,that's when it was like, oh shit
, now I've got responsibilitiesand I've got little human to

(06:01):
take care of.
And so that's how I met my wife, my oldest son, johnny.
I actually adopted him when hewas eight years old.
So you know, we wanted to do itsooner but you know, times were
tight and we just couldn't makeit happen at the time.
So when he was eight, I adoptedhim legally and you know I'm
the only dad he's ever knownanyways, and if I have anything

(06:21):
to do with the only one he willever know.
But you know, and I've eventold him like, if he ever wanted
to speak with his, you know,find him, I would help him, and
you know, but he knows who hisdad is.
So that's how I met my wife andmy oldest son, johnny, and my
middle son, cameron.
He is the mini me.

(06:42):
Sometimes it drives me crazybecause I can see myself in him,
like I know where he got thatfrom.
But he's, he's the mini me.
But I don't know why this kidhas like a 12 pack and he eats
skyline chili and like man.
I wish I could have looked likethat when I was your age, buddy
.

(07:03):
Wow and then my daughter.
She's nine, her name's Adelineand you know I think I was
blessed to have two boys firstand then a daughter.
It's so much different, right?
My wife's like you know earlyon, you know you talk to your
daughter and they just cry.
She's like you can't talk toher like you talk to the boys.

(07:23):
I'm like, okay, that was alearning curve.
So now you know, the way Iconversate with her sometimes is
different than with the boys.
But I had to adapt to that, Iguess.
But she's got me wrapped aroundher finger.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
Love it and what keeps the kids busy?
What activities do they like todo?

Speaker 1 (07:39):
So Adeline's doing dance three, four nights a week.
She does competitive dance ondance three, four nights a week.
She does competitive dance.
My middle son, he is in trackand field so he does.
He's in a summer camp right nowlike track outside of the
school season.
And my oldest son you know I'ma little bit bummed because he
was playing football all the wayup until 11th grade and his

(08:00):
senior year.
He's going into a senior yearand decided he didn't want to
play this year, so.
But he's got other things on theagenda though, so I told him
you're not just going to sitaround and play Madden, you're
going to find something else todo, but there's always something
every single night of the week.
It seems like Picking up,dropping off.
Luckily, I've got one driverand one with a temp license, so

(08:25):
it's eased up a little bit.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
I got a little bit of help there, so yeah, that's
weird when I mean, I've beenthrough that when both kids have
their license and you don't,you kind of feel like, well,
shoot, I'm running out of dutieshere and you don't need,
they're not relying on you asmuch.
But it's also cool to see seehim kind of grow up and that's
our job.
Our job is to.
We don't want them relying onus, we want them.

(08:48):
We want them to go out and beable to go and and productive.

Speaker 1 (08:52):
Yeah, I'm going to set them up for success you know
where they don't, they're notgoing to have to need.
I don't say need me, but youknow, rely on me, I guess.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
Yeah, it's funny when you say I, um, I was one of
those.
I've mentioned this before onthe podcast.
I don't know if I shared withyou, but I was one of those
parents.
Me and my wife were one ofthose parents.
We didn't realize we were doingtoo much for our kids before it
was like it was happening.
And in COVID, when we goteverything shut down, we we kind
of realized like wait a minute,no, you can do this.
And I read this book by a guynamed Swen Nader who I was able
to interview.
Really good dude, he actuallyplayed for John Wooden, great

(09:25):
story.
People want to look thatepisode up.
But he, uh, he wrote a bookcalled you have not taught until
they have learned.
And it really made me thinkabout like I was like damn.
And so then back then my kidswould be like hey, dad, can you
make me lunch?
No, make it yourself.
Right, I went like cold Turkeythe other way.
And now, listen, now we got, Igot short order cooks.
I got they got the air fryerout waffle machine making me egg

(09:49):
sandwiches.
They're doing their laundry,doing dishes.
I'm like this is, and you know,shame on me, I didn't, we were
doing too much, but now it's,you know, I mean because it's
like you want to be needed, butit's the exact opposite.
Parenting is the exact opposite.
You want them not to need youas much, so that they become
self-sufficient.
So you're a, you're a.

(10:12):
Are you a diehard Red Hawk?

Speaker 1 (10:15):
Not really.
I'm actually you can't see iton my shirt but North Carolina
diehard Tar Heel.
We go to Chapel Hill every year.
We'd make the trip.
Last year we went to Louisvillebecause they were closer.
But we're big North CarolinaTar Heel fans.
Don't ask me why it's just beenlike that for 20 years.
I've just always followed them.
We actually took the kids tothe Final Four game in Louisiana

(10:42):
against Duke Carolina versusDuke.
That was a bucket list gamethat I remember taking out Duke,
the number one seed.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
A little little little teaser here on the
podcast.
Do you know the name?
Seth Davis, who played for Duke.
So he does ESPN.
Yeah, so he is going to be afuture guest in the podcast.

Speaker 1 (11:01):
Nice, nice, very cool .

Speaker 2 (11:04):
I.
I got to him and I'm like, oh,this is gonna be crazy.
So I'm excited to uh shout outto Emmanuel, if you're listening
, she, uh, she introduced me tohim, so I'm uh, I'm excited to
talk to him.
Um, anyway, so I always likenow learning about the guests or
you as what, take me back towhat was life like growing up
and talk about the.

(11:25):
You know the, the impact momand dad on you, mom and dad had
on you.
Now that you're that you're adad.

Speaker 1 (11:30):
Yeah, so I owe everything to my parents.
You know my mom actually justretired from 45 years.
In education she was aprincipal.
My dad actually worked for acompany called Belcan, which was
a spinoff of the first agency.
That, or the first agency Iworked with, was a spinoff of
that.
But I had a great upbringing,like you know, and I would say I

(11:51):
probably put my parents throughhell as a kid.
You know I made a lot of badchoices as a kid and then
throughout high school and evenafter high school, but I was
always felt like I was grounded,you know, not grounded in
trouble, but like groundedbecause of I knew where I came
from, I knew I was making baddecisions, right, but I did it

(12:13):
anyways.
And obviously when I told you Imet my wife, that's when I
turned my life around truly.
But I had a great upbringing, tobe honest, with loving parents
and grandparents.
I had a great upbringing, to behonest, with loving parents and
grandparents and you know, Ithink that's just helped me
become who I am today my mom.
I'm literally I'm anotherversion of my mom.

(12:34):
We are almost identical.
But yeah, great, great.
You know, I give everything allpraise to my parents and even
now, like like my daughter'swith my mom today, she was with
her all day yesterday.
They're just so involved.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
That it's just awesome.
So mom was a principal and dadwas in staffing.
Did I hear that right?

Speaker 1 (13:03):
No, he worked for Belkin Engineering no-transcript

(13:25):
.

Speaker 2 (13:25):
dad, did they ever, uh, were you like the karma baby
for them, like they made baddecisions and now they're paying
for it?

Speaker 1 (13:31):
And then it was funny because my kids, will you know,
stir something up or saysomething and my dad just laughs
.
He's like yep, you got that.
You have that coming.
That was you 30 years ago.
Now do you have siblings?
I do, you have that coming.
That was you 30 years ago.

Speaker 2 (13:46):
Now do you have siblings?

Speaker 1 (13:47):
I do.
I have one brother.
He's a pastor in Dayton Ohio.
Okay, yeah, four years older.

Speaker 2 (13:55):
Okay, so growing up, and maybe you can think of a
story that might align with thisnext question but even though
he made some mistakes which,guess what?
We all make mistakes, we're allflawed human beings.
That's one thing.
We haven't come and you alsosaid something second, Casey,
that, like you said, your dadworked for Belcan for 45 years.
I had no idea what he did.
One of the biggest reasons Istarted this podcast was the

(14:19):
three words that I'm superpassionate about around
leadership and family ishumility, vulnerability and
curiosity.
I think when and the goal, oneof my goals when I started this
podcast six years ago wasfiguring out ways to like have
dads become more humble,vulnerable, to share where they
suck or they messed up and thenjust helping instill more

(14:40):
curiosity.
So, um, uh, you know, whetheryou're a stay at home dad,
whether you're an executive,whether you won the lottery,
whether you are pro athlete,whether you're your kids, I
always say your kids don't givetwo shits.
They really don't.
Your male ego says they do, butyour proof like you had no idea
what your dad did, All youcared about was hey, dad, can I

(15:08):
get?

Speaker 1 (15:08):
can you give?
Take me an ice cream.
Hey, can I spend my johnny'shouse?
Yep, well, it's like your book.
I remember you talked aboutthat when your dad, your kids,
were asking what you do, like Imake friends for a living.

Speaker 2 (15:12):
I love that my buddies actually made fun of me
when I said that, because, likedude jay cox, you can't say that
writer's gonna be asking for50s at recess, like no, he's not
.
But that's what we do, we.
When a friend needs help, yousay yeah, I can help you.
And if they you can't help them, you say hey, I'm not the right
friend, but I'll find you a newfriend.
Um, but as you, relating backto you, like from a values

(15:35):
perspective, if you can thinkback, like tell me what was like
the top two or three, like mostimportant things that that mom
and dad tried to instill in you,that maybe you'll learn quickly
or maybe took you took a whilefor you to learn.

Speaker 1 (15:49):
That they instilled in me.
I would say honesty, they werebig on that accountability.
Those would probably be the twobiggest that stuck with me.
And you know I never I wasalways embarrassed if I got in
trouble, like because it waslike here I've got these two
good parents.
And you know I never I wasalways embarrassed if I got in
trouble, like because it waslike here I've got these two
good parents, like you knowthey're.
People are probably thinkinglike what the hell's wrong with

(16:10):
this kid, like you know, camefrom a great family and no,
don't get me wrong, I was not acriminal or anything.
I wasn't getting arrested, butjust making dumb mistakes,
hanging out with the wrongcrowds.
You know, in high school and uh, and it took me a while to
figure that out and my mom wasalways.
My mom always had my back Rightand uh and uh, even when I made

(16:31):
those dumb mistakes, she wouldalways be there for me and talk
me through it and teach me alesson, uh, but I'd say those
are probably the biggest thingsthat I feel like they instilled
in me.
Uh, and just being like Iwouldn't be the parent I am
today if I hadn't had them.
As a parent, right, I mean,I've learned so much from them
raising me and my brother that Itry to do those same things for

(16:53):
my kids now too.

Speaker 2 (16:55):
Now was your mom a principal where you went to
school.

Speaker 1 (16:58):
She was a teacher in fourth grade at the elementary I
went to.
Okay, I think she was at thatelementary for like two years
before she came out and became aprincipal.
And then I wasn't in her schoolanymore.
No, I remember some guy.
I remember one of my teachersin high school was like well,
you think you can just get awaywith anything because your mom's
a principal?
Like what?
Yeah, my mom doesn't even workhere.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
Relax, bro, right, get off me.
So honesty and accountabilityobviously two big, great ones,
and a lot of times when I askpeople these questions I mean
those are just words, but until,just like a book, a book
becomes wisdom when you applythem.
These words and lessons becomelessons or values when you apply
them and you reinstill them andthen you inspect them, or

(17:45):
values when you apply them andyou reinstill them and then you
inspect them.
So, um, is there a story youcan think of where honesty or
accountability was reallyinstilled in you that your
parents were?
Just either you had to learnthe hard way or you really
learned.
Um, the.
The true value of that mightspeak to a dad at home.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
Uh, man, probably a lot of them.
Um, I, to be honest with you,is just learning.
You know, my mom always taughtme, you know was the first
person to tell me that you knowyou are who you hang around with
, Right, you are an average ofyour five closest friends,
essentially, Right, and I thinkthat's why I was who I was,

(18:21):
because the people I wasn'thanging around and it took me
years to realize that you know.
You know, when you're right outof high school and you know,
the only thing you're lookingyou're thinking about is how
you're going to spend yourpaycheck, Right, and no, it's
not very few responsibilitiesstill living at home.
It took me a long time torealize that, but I'm super

(18:42):
grateful that, even though itdid take me a long time that you
know, I changed who was aroundme, uh, and it just made me a
better person in general.

Speaker 2 (18:53):
Um, now, when you grew up, were you playing?

Speaker 1 (18:56):
sports.
Oh yeah, I was a big baseballguy until high school.
Up into high school.
Um, that was really my onlysport in baseball.
I was a diehard baseball guy.

Speaker 2 (19:04):
Okay, now did you think, did you learn the power
of either honesty andaccountability?
School, that was really my onlysport in baseball.
I was a diehard baseball guy.

Speaker 1 (19:11):
Okay, now did you think, did you learn the power
of either honesty andaccountability through through
baseball?
Oh, a hundred percent.
A hundred percent Now.
And I coached my kids allthrough their baseball little
leagues, all of their flagfootball teams.
You know, that's something thatI've just.
That's one of my favoritethings like being able to be the
coach of my kids' team andteach them and the other kids it
kind of sucks now that I'm notthe coach anymore.

(19:32):
They're getting older.
Those are things that when Iwas playing baseball, I learned
from past coaches that I had.
That made an impact in my lifeand try to do the same for those
kids.

Speaker 2 (19:46):
Have you, um, as you, as you can tell her, I'm trying
to lean in on stories Like Idon't.
I don't know if you've I'veshared the story before, um, but
I I'll share it now and see ifit might resonate with you.
So when I I learned, when yousaid baseball and I heard
honesty and accountability, youactually brought me back to when
I was 11, when I first got intolike overhand fast pitch and I

(20:07):
remember the first pitcher Iever faced.
He swore he looked like randyjohnson and for those who don't
know randy johnson, everybodyhe's six foot 11, lefty from the
mariners, you know hall offamer and oh yeah this dude
through.
and so the first guy I everfaced he was a tall right hand
guy, you know tall.
Back then he was probably like5'5", he looked like 7'4" and he

(20:28):
could not hit water.
If he fell out of a boat he wasfreaking throwing.
It was almost the balls, almostgoing over the backstop.
This is like my first.
Behind you oh yeah, and I wasscared, shitless At first.
At that I'm like, oh God, all Iwas thinking just don't die, I
don't want to die, this is nothow I want to lose my life.
And somehow I get a walk andjust thankful to be at first
base.
Now I'm on first base.

(20:50):
I'm like there's not a chancein hell.
I'm going back in there.
So like I got in the dugoutlike, okay, how can I get out of
this?
Next, at bat, ooh, stomachache.
I'm out.
So I fake a stomachache and uh,and I'm like, oh sweet, I have
to face this guy and I, on thecar ride home, my mom's like,
hey, you feeling better?
And I'm like, what are youtalking about?
She's like, well, you told meyou have something.

(21:10):
I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah, mystomach hurts.
She's like does your stomachreally hurt?
Like, well, no, I go.
Well, then, why did you lie?
I go because I was scared toface that kid.
And she's like, okay, well,we're gonna talk when you get
home.
I'm like, oh, and her, my dad,talked, and then they both came
up and said so here's yourchoices.
Um, and you only have one.

(21:32):
You're gonna call your coachright now and you're gonna tell
him what you did.
I'm like, wait, what?
No, yeah, you're gonna tell himwhat you did.
And then, um, uh, if you dothat, then you won't be grounded
, but you're going to.
So I'd literally get on thephone, call my coach and he was
just like what he's like?
Well, I'm, I'm proud of you.
You called me.
I was 11 years old.
Right, I'm 49.

(21:54):
I can still see myself doingthis.
Then he goes all, right, case.
Well, so we have practiceTuesday night.
Be ready, I'm going to have youtell the team.
And so I had to tell the team.
At 11 years old, I'd eat crowtwice.
And I mean, those are thestories that, like I still have

(22:14):
ground.
You said that we're grounded.
You know, think humble, like Ijust realized, wow, I'm not.
And so I think I learned thelesson of like being a great
teammate, going to, you know,fighting hard for everybody.
And I learned, like the look inthese guys' faces when I told
Matt, but they, they welcomed mein because I was honest and I
only never made that mistakeagain.

Speaker 1 (22:34):
they were all probably like man.

Speaker 2 (22:35):
We should have said art cemetery right, great idea
yeah, but like I mean throughsports and um, so some of these
stories, I like I don't know ifyou agree or disagree this, but
like I like sharing these things.
Like obviously I'm airingmyself out on a podcast right
now if it helps unlock someoneelse's vulnerability, if it
helps unlock someone else's beable to tell story, because the

(22:57):
one thing all of us dads have incommon is we're all flawed.
No one's perfect.
We all can get better.
We all can find ways to be abetter version of each week,
each day.
Um, so do you got any?
You got any?
You got anything?
Uh painful like that you hadyou had to go through?
That might be worth sharing onthe podcast.
Or, dad, that might help themlead better at home.

Speaker 1 (23:17):
Like as a kid like growing up or yeah.
Oh man, there's probably a lotof those.
Uh, I don't know.
Off the top of my head, though,uh, a good one.
Give me a second, we'll comeback to that it's okay, that's
all good.

Speaker 2 (23:32):
Um, so honesty, accountability, were the things
in your, in your house?
Um, do you ever find out fromyour wife, like, what were her
parents, what were the bigthemes that she, she, was taught
?
And then, as you guys kind ofcome together as one now that
like, hey, these are the thingsthat are gonna be most important
when we're raising the wagonfilled boys and girls.
These are the things that aregoing to be most important when
we're raising the wagon filledboys and girls.
These are the things that arereally going to be important to

(23:52):
us and our family.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
Yeah, faith, that's huge in our family and that's
something that both my parentsand her parents instilled in her
.
Her parents were divorced whenshe was about six or seven years
old.
She had a different upbringing,but I would say faith is the
common thing for us.
Like that's where it all startsfor us.

(24:14):
And I wasn't that.
To be honest with you, I wasn'treally a faithful guy.
I wasn't, I shouldn't sayfaithful, but a godly person
until I met my wife, even though, you know, went to church.
My whole life.
But you know, it was almost likejust going through the motions.
But that's something that nowthat we really lean into and is

(24:35):
important to us both sides ofthe family.

Speaker 3 (24:39):
Intention, integrity.
It recruitment.
We are McCann Partners and I amMegan McCann, the CEO and
founder.
Mccann Partners is aChicago-based IT recruitment
firm.
We support a growing portfolioof innovative organizations,
from Chicago-based startups tocompanies with a global
footprint.
We are dedicated to creating amore equitable and diverse

(25:02):
workforce and are proud thatmore than 70% of our talent
placements since 2020 have beendiverse hires.
Since 2020 have been diversehires.
We take pride in our work andinvest time to hone our skills.
Case in point, our work withCasey Casey helped me and my
team learn new habits of successand unlock the skills we

(25:23):
already have been using thesuperpowers of humility,
vulnerability and curiosity.
If you, the listener, arecurious about our experience
with Casey and his impact on theteam and our business, please
reach out to me via LinkedIn.

Speaker 2 (25:40):
That's cool.
I went to church a little bitgrowing up.
I don't go to church now, notbecause I don't want to, I'm
more of a spiritual guy, fair.
So every morning I look at aBible scripture.
Sometimes I have no idea whatit means, sometimes like Ooh,
that spoke to me, right.
But um, I do gratitude workevery morning and one of the
very first things I love writingin my gratitude journal is God,
thanks for waking me up today,right, a hundred percent starts

(26:04):
me off, and I literally findmyself subconsciously smiling
when I write that.
Yep.

Speaker 1 (26:09):
You know, life is so short and to your point.
you don't know if you're goingto wake up tomorrow, right.
You don't know if you're goingto make it home from the store
tonight, right.
And we just got back fromAviante's connect and they lost
their CEO last week at 55 yearsold.
Like out of nowhere, just kindof happened.
Um, it was kind of eye openingfor me.
I'm Like, wow, you know, I'mlooking forward to hearing his

(26:31):
keynote and he's always anawesome guy to talk with and
just kind of an eye-opener.
Like you just never know whenit's going to be your time.
So take advantage of your lifenow.
Love your kids, spend time withthem.
At the end of the day, whenwe're gone, you know, matter of
time before we're forgottenabout, right.
People have to go on with theirlives.

(26:52):
So make everything you can outof it now.
And that's my goal in life isjust, we're taking them to a
concert tonight, just creatingmemories with them.

Speaker 2 (27:01):
You guys going to go see ZZ Top.

Speaker 1 (27:03):
Yeah, I wish That'd be cool.
We're actually they're doingthis thing up the road from my
house.
It's a country super fest andtonight's Darius Rucker.
We're going to go see him.
I love that.

Speaker 2 (27:13):
Yeah, true or false, I can play wagon wheel on the
guitar.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
True, I can yeah, yeah, so random, of course you
can.
Yeah, actually, my kids, that'sour theme song.
He says is wagon wheel, wagonfield?

Speaker 2 (27:29):
Yeah, oh there we go yeah, didn't even put that two
together, unintended.

Speaker 1 (27:38):
Um.
So how do you, how would, howwould one teach faith?
One teach faith.
I think it's just all aboutyou're loving everybody, right?
Like finding the good in people, helping people.
Um, that's how I see faith.
Um is just being a kind personand helping others that that are
in need.

Speaker 2 (27:58):
Um, yeah, being nice will never go out of style.

Speaker 1 (28:01):
Right, right, I know that's something that you talk
about a lot in your book.
Right, it's like treat peoplehow you want to be treated or
how they want to be treated.
Right, like, um, I would say Iwould say that's probably my
definition of of how I viewfaith.
Um, and you know, obviouslywant to instill that in my kids
and something that we talk aboutall the time.

(28:21):
And my son, like he startedtaking his Bible to school and
him and some buddies would justsit around in the morning before
school and read Bible verseswith each other.
Like that's pretty cool.
Like you know what I meanThere'd be a lot of kids would
be embarrassed to do that.
Right, like he's got his WWJDbracelet on and he goes.
He just came back from younglife camp.
He was like that was the bestweek of my life.

(28:41):
Uh, he's like they took ourphone for a week and we just got
to be us.
Like that's that just makes mefeel like I must have done
something.
Right, yeah.
You know he could have been.
He could be a troublemaker.
Don't get me wrong.
They've all had their issues.
Like we said, we all get introuble sometimes.
Right, just how, how you goabout not doing it again, right

(29:02):
how you act after that.

Speaker 2 (29:05):
But yeah, Do you know , john Ruffini I?
do yeah, so John's former gueston the podcast Great dude, I'm
sure you know.
Uh, john raffini, I do.
Yeah, so, john's former guestin the podcast great dude, I'm
sure you know.
Like, he's got three adoptedkids.
Okay, I didn't know that.
Okay, she wrote a book aboutthat journey.
It's called a quest for alex.
So you and him have somethingin common now.
Um, it's actually a reallyreally uh powerful story of how

(29:30):
he went about him and his wifewent about doing it.
They didn't mean they're fromdifferent kids from different
country that travel out and justuh, I think him using his
curiosity and the and the um,obviously staffing, recruiting
experience, but it was reallyit's a really, really cool story
.
And, um, so, adopting a childversus, and so your middle and
your youngest is you, you knowyour blood, how was it ever

(29:54):
challenging ever for you, likefrom a mindset perspective?
Were you just like no, he'sJohnny's, mine.

Speaker 1 (30:01):
He's mine.
I mean I love all my kids thesame.
It doesn't matter if he sharesmy blood or not.
Like that's my boy and we'vehad those conversations before.
But yeah, I mean there's nohesitation at all, I'm his, he's
mine.
Like yeah, there's nothing, nocontention with his brother and

(30:21):
sister or anything.
I mean they're brothers andsisters, just like he was my
blood, so blessed for that forsure.

Speaker 2 (30:30):
A hundred percent Now .
When they grew up and when youfirst shared that Johnny was
adopted, did the siblings reallyconfused?
Did they understand?

Speaker 1 (30:38):
Um, I don't even know if my daughter is still, uh,
how much she really even knowsthat nine years old, right, uh,
but Cameron knows, and, uh, Ithink it took him, we had to
kind of explain it to him, buthe was just like, whatever,
that's my brother, right, like,um, I don't, I don't think he
understood it when it happened,cause, you know, at that time

(30:59):
Johnny was eight or nine, soCameron was probably six or
seven, uh, so they just knewthey were we're going to a
courthouse and dad and Johnnywere married, you know, doing
the adoption.
So, and I had I had so much,you know my old boss, uh, at
Bellflex, he was adopted himself, uh, and he was a mentee, he's
been a mentor of mine and helpedme be a better person, just in

(31:21):
general and in life, and, uh, hewas there to support me too.
So he came to the courthouse,uh, when I got my son adopted,
or I adopted my son, and Ithought that was really cool.

Speaker 2 (31:35):
That's awesome.
So one of the other goals ofwhen I started this podcast six
years ago and obviously so muchhas changed and this is the
thing.
That's kind of a mind of itsown now, and it's selfishly case
.
I get free therapy out of everyepisode too, which is fun,
Keeps me grounded, keeps youjust constantly learning.
I think what I've found is thateven in the world of executive

(31:58):
coaching I do and performancework, sometimes we as parents we
get going so fast, we let theday dictate us versus us
dictating the day.
Sometimes we don't slow down torealize, okay, if I'm a better
dad, if I'm a better groundedhusband, friend in my church,
whoever it may be wow, if I'm abetter dad, I'm a better
grounded husband, friend and mychurch, whoever it may be Wow,
that really translates into mywork world.
Now I can be a better versionof myself there.
So, as I kind of share thatwith you, have you sat back to

(32:23):
think about how your faithjourney or how just focusing on
fatherhood has helped you in thebusiness world?

Speaker 1 (32:31):
Yeah, I mean, I want to be an example to my kids.
At the end of the day, right, Iwant them to see me and say,
wow, I want to be like my dadwhen I grow up, or I want to do
this, or I want to do that and Iwant to.
You know, that's my biggestgoal and I think you know just
business and you know, being instaffing for the past 15 years
and trying to make a name formyself and grow within companies
like they motivated me to dothat.

(32:51):
Right, they're my, my, what dothey call it?
My, why?
Right, so I would say they'rethe reason I am who I am today,
because I'm trying to be animpression on them to say, hey,
you know, would dad do that ornot?
I want to make good decisions.
I think I answered yourquestion.
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (33:14):
What's the hardest part of being a dad for you?

Speaker 1 (33:16):
I would say just not.
I mean traveling.
I've been gone for four daysthis week.
You're going to be gone forthree days next week.
That's the hardest part for meis just not being here and, you
know, leaving everything to mywife to do.

Speaker 2 (33:29):
So that's the hardest part for me is when I'm not
around when you, when you'regone and then you come back.
Have you had to learn how tokind of reinsert yourself when
dad's gone versus just coming tothe door, like you know,
bowling a china shop?

Speaker 1 (33:49):
No, I mean shoot.
My daughter's there waiting forme.
She jumps up into my arms.
My sons I do got to go to theirroom and tell them I'm home,
but uh, but yeah, the days ofeverybody running up miss and
dad are gone.
But you know, I feel it like Iwant to be here with them, I
want to hang out with them, Iwant to spend time with them.
We go out back and playcornhole all the time, right.
We go shoot hoops out front allthe time and you know I'm not

(34:11):
here.
It kind of stinks.
But that's the hardest part forme is just when I'm not around.
And you know, early on I did alot of traveling.
Like there was a time where Ispent six months in North
Carolina and only came home onthe weekends.
This business called and I putup fires or whatever it was.
And you know, as my kids gotolder and they're in diapers at

(34:33):
that point, but as they gotolder, that's when I had to have
that conversation at work like,hey, you know, I'm going to
start coaching my kids teams.
My kids are getting older.
You know, they're not justcrapping in diapers and not
talking anymore.
Like I want to be around a lotmore.
So that's when I, you know, Iasked that I didn't travel as
much at that point and wanted tobe here and make sure that I

(34:56):
was around.
And and I'm grateful that theywere able to work with me on
that, and not that I didn'ttravel, but just wanted to be
around more, you know, as theygot older, and coaching their
teams and things like that.

Speaker 2 (35:07):
Yeah, you know one.
One question that I like to askdads too is like an area your
the dad, your dad game, thatmight not be where you want it,
or you realize it's a gap and ifyou're honest yourself, like
what, tell me what would be anarea of your dad game that, like
you realize this?
This is a spot that I know Ican become better.

Speaker 1 (35:28):
I would say, sometimes just being chippy with
them, you know, like you knowthey do something and rather
than being calm about it, youjust kind of like flip the
script on them real quick, likehey, well, you know, uh, that
cause I always look back thenafter that like was that
necessary?
Did I need to do that?
Right, like that's I feel likewhere I could be better.

(35:48):
It's like stay, step back, takea breath and think about it
first before you just, you know,yell or do something.
You know, and you know, becausethe last thing I want my kids
to feel is like they can't talkto me and they can't, you know,
so that I would say that'sprobably where I could is just
kind of taking a step back,right, and not just yelling for

(36:10):
something stupid.

Speaker 2 (36:13):
Would you characterize that as patience or
something different?

Speaker 1 (36:15):
Oh, a hundred percent , yeah.
Yeah, there's times that I dohave a little patience, and I
think I could work on that,especially from the kid's
perspective too.

Speaker 2 (36:28):
I swear this podcast has helped me become more
patient, right, I think as acompetitive person, that's
usually the, the counterbalances.
You're super competitive,you're super patient.
You want to now time you knowthe time kills all deals,
mindset, and but you still gotto meet people where they are.
You got to meet your salesfolks, your recruiting folks,
your clients where they are.
You got to meet your kids wherethey are and if they're.
That's why I think curiosity issuch a superpower when you ask

(36:51):
questions and help them come tothe answer, versus you always
telling them the answer.
Yep, um, that, and I think it's,and I always tell dads too.
It's like you don't need apodcast to have these types of
conversations.
You could meet a couple buddiesfor a coffee once a week, grab
a beer once a week, do what yougot to do.
But if you really want tochallenge yourself, to be in
growth mode, I mean, whywouldn't we want to be a better

(37:13):
version of ourselves?
Why wouldn't we want to be abetter dad?
Yep, you know, not always funto admit what we suck at, but
the thing is we all suck atthings.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
Well, you know, your kids are, you know, almost out
of the house.
Mine are not far from it, my,my oldest too.
So you know it's, it's gonna bedifferent then too.
It's like, yeah, you're still adad, but you know, they're gone
, like, and just living everyminute that I can while they're
here.
And I mean shoot, nowadays, Imean they might be living at
home a little longer after highschool.

(37:44):
Uh, with how hard it is to touh just get going to the real
world right now.
But, yeah, just living every dayto the fullest and uh and uh,
embracing all the challenges too, um, that come with it.

Speaker 2 (38:02):
What's the, if you think about your, your most
challenging moment as a dad?
Um, that maybe gives youstrength to that.
You got through this moment.
Um, tell me what comes to mind.

Speaker 1 (38:14):
Um, that's a great question.
I mean, that could go so manydifferent directions.
Um, I mean, I would sayprobably something with my, my
oldest son.
Like you know, when we wereearly on dating you know it was
was times were tough and we'reliving paycheck to paycheck and
you know we were actually wewere getting money for child

(38:37):
support at that time and I feltbad that we're getting money
from this guy and it felt like Iwas a loser and I couldn't
support my family, and so thatwas a motivation for me to be
better.
And when I got to a point where, okay, now I can support my
family and I don't need thisguy's a hundred dollars a month

(38:59):
or whatever it was, I was likewe need to make this, this move,
and that was challenging for me, like, early on like feeling
like I was worthless, like andthat was it was.
It was.
I don't know when that happened.
It was like I felt so greatthat was like all right, well,
finally, this guy has noopportunity today to ever come
back in his life now Like hesigned away his rights.

(39:20):
I don't want any of his moneyever again, don't ever want to
hear his name.
But those years leading up tothat were challenging, like
cause.
I felt like I wasn't being thebest version of me, right?
Um, and you know, it startedwhen I met her and I met Johnny
and a year later Cameron camealong.
Um, uh, just happened reallyquick and growing up was had to

(39:47):
happen, right, I mean at the endof the day, yeah, that's,
that's I love.

Speaker 2 (39:52):
I love vulnerability shared there, because I know
there's, I know there's a dadout there that's probably going
to this exact same thing.
Right, and, and sometimesadmitting that is hard, that's
we got to put our ego aside andrealize it.
Um, but you know, I mean, I canthink of very, you know,
challenging times, whether it'sthrough my own sports world or

(40:12):
through parenting or throughbusiness, and I think I find
that people would rather hearabout where people suck or
struggle than life's rainbowsand ponies.
And man, look at him, he'salways doing, he's always went.
No, you got to work your assoff for these things and go
through these tough times, whichshapes us.
To your point about earlier.
You know, you know mistakes youmade gave your parents probably

(40:35):
a heart attack, but it shapedyou, yep.
You know, made you eitherstronger, learn, reinforce
what's right versus wrong, notthat your parents didn't do a
good job, but you said we haveto go through that pain ourself,
yep.

Speaker 1 (41:04):
And that was like you know, my goal now is like make
sure they don't make thosemistakes right, my kids don't
make those mistakes.
So now I got to make sure I'mstaying ahead of it to make sure
and have those conversationsand sometimes I'll tell them
stories about the dumb shit Idid when, where I am now.
If Life 360 was available backthen or iPhones had cameras back
, you know we weren't usingNokia brick phones.
You know I probably might notbe here today.
And that's one thing that Itell my kids is you know
everything's recorded nowadaysand you know up till 18, you

(41:27):
know you've got everythinghanded to you, but 40 for the
next 40 years after that, themistakes you make up to 18 can
affect that.
Um, so make those good decisionsnow.
Um, you know it's not aboutbeing cool in school.
You're not going to remember 95of these people or talk to
these people after you leavehigh school.
Right, you're gonna.
You're gonna stick with yourbest friends.
Um, so make the good decisionsnow, because it's only going to

(41:51):
lead to a better life.
You know when you have to getinto the real world and work for
45 years.

Speaker 2 (41:56):
Right, yep, exactly as what's been um your most
proud moment as a dad.

Speaker 1 (42:07):
Proud moment, oh man.
Uh, hell out of proud momentsas a dad.
Um, you know, I, my sonactually, uh, probably maybe not
my most proud, but the mostrecent.
He asked me if he could getrebaptized.
He wants to be rebaptized.
So he said, found another, youknow his journey with God and I

(42:28):
was just I thought that wasreally mature of him and just
just super proud that that he.
You know I didn't ask him if hewanted to be rebaptized, but
he's just something that he'spassionate about and it's
changed his life, going to younglife and in that church.
So I mean, that's the mostrecent, probably, thing that I

(42:48):
could say, like that's cool.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
Do you know why he wanted to do it?
Get re-baptized.

Speaker 1 (42:55):
He's just been on this journey with God over this
past year when he started goingto Young Life, hanging out with
those kids, and this past year,like, he's just been a lot more
spiritual and you know, it justkind of came out of nowhere.
He's like, and I was like, dude, I'll 100% support you, Like
we'll get that set up.
We go to a camp every year.

(43:16):
We were going to do it thisyear up in Lake Erie, but I
think we're going to do it herelocally now.
But I don't know that just kindof made me a little emotional,
Like that's cool man.

Speaker 2 (43:26):
Yeah, Well that it says it gets a credit to mom and
dad.
You're raising good kids If,like they, they see that stuff
at a young age.
And, um, you know, I think I, II'm of the belief, I like, I
like spirituality and havingconversations.
And then, you know, you knownot to get too far off the
tracks here, but, like, how dowe know what religion is the

(43:48):
best religion and what's rightfor you?
It doesn't make it right forthem.
And, um, I've met somefantastic people that are all
different types of religions.
Like who am I to judge what'sright or wrong?

Speaker 1 (43:58):
And so, um, I mean, I'm the type of person I'm just
going to judge you by yourcharacter, like you know, and
you got bad character.
You're probably not religious,right?
I mean, to your point, you know, whatever religion you are, you
believe in, it usually comesout in your character, right?
Or if you're not religious andnot say you can't be a good

(44:21):
person and have good characterand not be religious, but that's
my personal opinion yeah, Ithink more like be the, the
servant leader.

Speaker 2 (44:30):
Yeah, he's someone who's just always looking out
for others, which is greatskills we can teach for our kids
.
And you know, sometimeseverything doesn't always have
to be a teaching moment, but I Isometimes believe, why not?
Why not if you can reinforcethe story, either through our
own struggle or through doingsomething the right way?
Or, you know, one phrase thatcame to me through this
entrepreneurial journey was youknow, the difference between

(44:51):
recognition and appreciation, Ithink, is time.
Recognition sometimes takes usto give.
You know, give people money oran award, or take Johnny to ice
cream.
Or appreciation, just asslowing down and say, hey,
thanks for unloading thedishwasher you didn't need to do
it, but saw it.
Or thanks for doing laundry,thank you.
You know, these are the thingsI'm talking about right around

(45:13):
where you go out of your way tohelp.

Speaker 1 (45:13):
You know?
Um, yeah, it's funny, is it's?
Anytime we go somewhere, likein downtown cincinnati, right,
there's a homeless population,cameron like will start giving
them all money and like I'm nottalking about here's, here's a
dollar.
He'll be like just unloading hiswallet, like giving this guy
$20.
And and you know, and it's oneof those things I'd talk to him
like hey, that's awesome, dude,I'm so proud of you, but let's

(45:35):
save some money for inside.
Like nobody asked him to dothat, and he just felt bad and
was like I would like to givethis guy some money and like to
think that I instilled some ofthat in him, that just being a

(45:55):
caring kid and wanting to seepeople do better.
You know, one of my biggeststruggles too, I think to go
back to that is just making surethat they stay humble too Like,
cause sometimes I think I dotoo much for them, you know, and
just keeping them humble tooLike sometimes I have to remind
them, like you know not everykid has a PlayStation 5 in the
room, a TV on the wall, virtualreality, an iPhone, access to
anything that they want.

(46:18):
scooters, electric scooters youguys have the world at your
fingertips here, but I want tomake sure you stay humble.
So that is something that Ihave struggled with, that I need
to get better at.
And but I do think that theyare humble kids.
But just keeping that mentalitytoo, that not everything's
going to be given and given toyou and you're going to have to

(46:39):
work for it.

Speaker 2 (46:40):
Yeah, humility is, and I think there's there's
there's people who say they'rehumble and what they're not.
And humility is it's back toyour point about character it's
it's going out of your way.
You know my football coach incollege.
I've showed this before and Ilove sharing it because it just
re-humbles me.
It's like he goes Casey, if youever have to tell me how good
you are, you're not that goodwhen you're great, I'll tell you
you don't.

(47:10):
And so I um again, like I thinkI think stories of struggle can
keep people humble.
Um, whether it's whatever Imean for me, playing position, a
quarterback, that helped mestay humble, because it was
always.
I was.
Yeah, I got the limelight, butI was with 10 other guys and do
their job.
I was gonna suck and so I wasso great.
Same thing in sales.
That's why I was my back officefolks, my ap folks, my you know
, your consultant care people,your recruiting team, like

(47:31):
they're you're.
If they don't do their job, I'mnothing right.

Speaker 1 (47:35):
Gotta have right people in the right place to
seats.

Speaker 2 (47:38):
Yeah and I think about maybe transition to
business a little bit likethat's one thing in the staffing
industry.
It's I still see it in the workI do Like it's amazing people's
ego and how they think they'reunreplaceable.
And I always say listen, guys,I was a number one rep for 10
years and when I left theydidn't go out of business.
Right, miracle guy, when youdial 911, my phone doesn't ring,

(48:01):
right, I'm not that important,well, aware of it, right?
So yet some people get in theirown way and they think they are
.
And I think those are thethings that, if you're, when I
say that you're like uh, shoot,is he talking to me?
If you kind of had that feelingin your stomach and you're
listening at home like maybe itis and maybe.
But what a gift if you giveyourself that thing to slow down

(48:22):
, you get her away.
Maybe ask for help, ask yourwife, ask your friend.
Hey, is my ego in the wayEverybody see what they say.

Speaker 1 (48:28):
You know, yeah, and I've always tried to be that
person that that doesn't havethat ego Right, Like um cause
that that's always been a petpeeve of mine, Like the
egotistical, the person thatcomes in that's cocky and I
don't know.
I guess that says a lot abouttheir character, right?

Speaker 2 (48:46):
I agree.
Yeah, they'll be ready to hearhow good you are when the time's
right, but let them ask first.
Right, let them ask first.
So tell me a little bit aboutso you're now working for a
company called SimpleVMS forpeople who have never heard
about it.
Or tell me what you guys are upto and how can people learn

(49:08):
more about what you guys aredoing.

Speaker 1 (49:10):
Yeah, so SimpleVMS is a vendor management system
primarily in contingentworkforce.
So we centralize our clients'contingent workforce, so every
aspect of their contingentworkforce, from job requisitions
to invoicing, to time andattendance, to reporting and

(49:32):
metrics and dashboards.
So when companies are using 10different agencies and 20
different sites and 10 differentinvoices and sending job
requisitions out through emailand not knowing who's sending
who, just central to one portalthat them and their clients can
use to give them peace of mindand have a visibility of their

(49:53):
contingent workforce.

Speaker 2 (49:54):
Essentially, and your podcast talk about that and how
can people find it?

Speaker 1 (50:01):
Yeah, so Staffing Made Simple.
It is not about simple DMS,it's truly just a it's.
We're bringing on experts inthe staffing industry, staffing
professionals, buyers that runcontingent workforce, contingent
workforces and it's really justto be a tool for staffing
professionals to grow right.

(50:21):
So anything from we've hadlegal episodes two buyers on
that talk about about here'swhat gets me to respond to a
staffing email, here's what getsthem to the table, here's what
keeps them around.
You're going to be talkingabout winning the relationship
here in a few episodes.
We're really pumped to have youon.
So it's really just to be anasset to the industry where they

(50:43):
can come for tips,knowledgeable, actionable
takeaways that they can, youknow, put into their business.
And the last thing we wanted todo is make it a pitch for
SimpleVMS Figured.
You know it's a good way tobuild some credibility and you
know agencies want to partnerwith us and we want to give them
more tools to succeed.

Speaker 2 (51:01):
Love it.
That's so cool.
We'll make sure that's linkedin the show notes so people can
find out more about that andlearn and grow through some of
these episodes you've alreadyhad and continue to have things
that you know what wisdom youshared, stories you shared,
maybe stories I've shared thatdads could take, maybe call it

(51:32):
two or three actionable thingsto be thinking about, where they
can kind of look at themselvesin the mirror and say, hey,
these are things that I canmaybe do differently or better
to become that ultimate orquarterback leader of their home
.
Tell me what's two or threethings that come to mind that
they can take from our episodetoday three things that come to
mind that they can take from ourepisode today.

Speaker 1 (51:49):
I'd say you know, spend more time with your kids.
Um, talk to your kids, um, askthem to talk to you.
Uh, that's one thing with myson that just, really just
recently, you know, felt like Icouldn't talk to him about some
things and um, but I kept beingpersistent and talking, and now
he opens up to me and tells methings that he would have never
told me again.
So, talk to your kids, knowwhat they're up to.

(52:12):
That's huge, in my opinion.
Make sure you're around andkeep them humble.

Speaker 2 (52:23):
Yep, yeah, that's a good one.
I mean I think it's cool to see, I mean you where you came from
.
You mentioned paycheck topaycheck.
Obviously you're not paycheckto paycheck anymore.
You've had a nice successfulrun, but you haven't forgot
where you came from, right, andI think that keeps you humble.
And so, you know, I always tellmy kids too, like I don't ever
want you to feel guilty for thethings we have, but I want you
to remember that this wasn'tjust given to me, right?

(52:44):
And you know I don't know ifyou heard Mark Cuban his kids
one day asked us hey, dad, arewe rich?
He goes no, I'm rich, you'renot.
I love that.
Right, you know I mean, talkabout humbling your kids, like
whoa yeah right.
That one's done a little bit.

Speaker 1 (53:08):
That one's done a little bit and you know my wife
pushes me.
Like you know, she's asuccessful career at GE
Aerospace and she's been therefor working there for 15 years,
has made a name for herself, hasgrown there and you know that
drives me like you know, she wasa.
She ran a business out of ourbasement while she worked at GE.
She was working 80 hours a weekearly on while her kids were
really young, just to make surethat we're have the things that
we need.
So she motivates me to to bebetter, um, and just to keep up

(53:32):
with her really love it?

Speaker 2 (53:35):
Um, okay, it's now time to go into the lightning
round, where I ask you, uh,random questions that make
really no sense.
I'm going to show you thenegative hits of taking too many
hits in college not bong hits,but football hits and my job is
to ask you these questions,hopefully as quickly as I can,
and also to try to get thegiggle out of you All right.

(53:57):
But I don't know what I'm goingto ask you, but are you ready,
let's go?
Okay, true or false, I playedcollege football with John Kitna
.
True, it is true.

Speaker 1 (54:07):
John Kitna.
He came in when Casey or CarsonPalmer went down in 2003.

Speaker 2 (54:12):
I was at that game.
He was a central WashingtonWildcat.

Speaker 1 (54:17):
And he's a coach in Cincinnati, I think now high
school football coach.

Speaker 2 (54:19):
He was there.
He was in Dallas.
I've not talked to John in afew years so I don't know where
he's at now, but yeah, he's.
He's um, he's a man of faithtoo Big time.
Yeah, I always liked him.
Yeah, he's really.
You want to talk competitivepeople?
One of the most competitivepeople I've ever met.
Oh yeah, um, what would be onegenre of music that your, your

(54:41):
friends at Simple VMS, would beshocked that you listen to, wow.

Speaker 1 (54:45):
They would be shocked that I listen to Probably I
don't know classic rock.
Maybe they all think I'mlistening to Warren G and Nate
Dogg because that's my go-tokaraoke song, so probably
classic rock They'll get in andhear, like you mentioned, zz Top
earlier.
I love getting in and jammingto some 70s rock.

Speaker 2 (55:05):
You're hooking a left on 2-1 and Lewis.

Speaker 1 (55:07):
Exactly.
Just inside the LBC.
It's funny because that was my.
When I did my presentation atAvionte Connect, my fun fact was
Warren G Nate Dog Regulate ismy karaoke closer?
Yes, I know all the words.
No, I won't sing it right now,unless you ask.

Speaker 2 (55:28):
Oh, there we go.
That's a cut, that's a greatcut.
Tell me your favorite comedymovie of all time.

Speaker 1 (55:35):
Oh Happy, gilmore hands down have you seen Happy
Gilmore 2?
.
I have.
I liked it.
I liked it.
I don't know why people arehating on it.
I thought it was funny.
It's more of a slapstick, but Imean, how can you not With all
the 75 different cameos andUncle John Bailey?
It was great.

Speaker 2 (55:53):
And most second edition of the movie suck.
A hundred percent I thought itwas really good it was.

Speaker 1 (56:05):
It was, but they had to kill his wife off, though.

Speaker 3 (56:06):
You can't have a happily married happy.

Speaker 2 (56:08):
Gilmore, it just doesn't work.
Yeah, that was pretty funny.

Speaker 1 (56:13):
Tell me the last book you read, winning the.

Speaker 2 (56:16):
Relationship.
Did not know that that was nota shameless self-plug everybody.

Speaker 1 (56:25):
To be fair, I actually downloaded it on
Audible, so but I'm going tocall that reading the book.

Speaker 2 (56:28):
There you go.
That's like me reading abedtime story to you.

Speaker 1 (56:30):
Right, you read it to me.

Speaker 2 (56:34):
What if you and your wife are going to go on vacation
right now?
No kids, where are we going?
Aruba, okay, it's my favoritespot.
Okay, if there was to be a bookwritten about your life, tell
me the title.
Uh, if there was to be a bookwritten about your life.

Speaker 1 (56:48):
Tell me the title.
Oh, that's a good one, dang,put me on the spot here.
Um, the light switch that youknow, that, that light bulb
moment that helps you grow rightlike, and all the different
stupid shit that I did, that Iknew I was never going to do
again.

Speaker 2 (57:07):
How about we call it?
I finally turned the lightswitch on.

Speaker 1 (57:11):
I like that.
I like that.

Speaker 2 (57:13):
Okay.
So, I finally turned the lightswitch on, believe it or not, in
case.
Every airport the thing soldout.
No one can get enough copies ofthis thing.
Amazon can't print faster.
Barnes and Noble is pissedbecause all the copies are gone.
So now Hollywood's found out.
You are now the castingdirector and I need to know who
is going to star CaseyWagonfield in this movie.

Speaker 1 (57:36):
Chris Farley.

Speaker 2 (57:40):
Dale Fole.
What's it?
What's it?
What's his Foley, matt Foley?

Speaker 1 (57:43):
Matt Foley living in a van down by a river.

Speaker 2 (57:46):
I'm a motivational speaker.
Okay, last question, the mostimportant one Tell me two words
that would describe your wife.

Speaker 1 (57:57):
Intelligent and beautiful.

Speaker 2 (57:59):
Here we go.
Lightning round is over.
We both giggled, we both hadfun.
We've learned a lot about Casey, the dad where he came from.
Learned about power of faith,the power of adoption, the power
of growth, power of honesty,power of accountability and much
more.
We also learned about SimpleVMSand his new podcast, which we
will make sure that's linked inthe show notes.

(58:19):
Casey, grateful for your timetoday.
It's been fun getting to knowyou better.
The hour flew by and I'mgrateful for our paths across.
Thank you, roy and the team ofthe AS group for creating that
platform for us to meet.
But I wish you and your teamthe best this year.
I wish you and your family thebest and again, thank you so
much for spending time with metoday.
Appreciate you, man.

(58:39):
We won't be strangers.
Here we go.